| Empty Graves Part Nine: The Terrors of Death Jake knew that soon death would be knocking on his door, and after what he heard had happened to one of the ground troops in the last couple of days, the realism of their plight heightened. Jake now had to come up with a plan of escape, but with the barriers all around town it was virtually impossible to get out. So it was clear that if he wanted to get out of Fort Severn with Mary he would have to leave when the dead broke in, and that was risky. Over the period of the dead invasion, which had intensified over the past month, Jake's parents had almost become entirely dependent on the Bible and wouldn't listen to reason. His mother sat there in her rocking chair every day and recited passages from the 'good book' as his father stood and listened as he glared through the gaps in the boards on the windows. Jake was totally removed from his parents. They weren't the same people anymore and he didn't feel an attachment. He hated that fact, but it was harsh and true and the only person he cared about now was the one person who remained as they were throughout the entire thing - Mary. She was a ray of hope each day that he saw her, still venturing out into the cold night, the sound of wailing death everywhere, but when they finally met for those brief moments each day the sound was drowned out. From here on in it was just Mary and himself on their own in this world he thought and therefore he had to come up with a plan, some method of escape. The clearest option was to take his parent's car and stock it up with just enough to last them a couple of days, not wanting to take the supplies all away from his parents. He may not know them now, but they were still the reason for his being. He at least owed them a chance in their biblical fortress. Jake had been studying the maps he had of the area as he listened to reports from the ground troops that patrolled the area daily in all their mock-army uniforms looking like bastardised Rambo clones with their headbands denoting their 'squadron.' His research showed that the dead had moved from the east into the west and they were now heading back again and that the main concentration of this counter-flow was spreading through the immediate expanse of Canada that lay to the west of Fort Severn. Their best bet for escape was to at first drive south past Pickle Lake and then turn towards the east to go for Halifax or possibly Boston. But a seaside town was their best bet as if they could find a boat they could keep just out of reach from the dead and they would be able to sail further south maybe reached Tampa or New Orleans. But what was still apparent is that the dead was consuming the cities like wildfire, so in theory the dead would still be in the big cities. They had to find somewhere more reclusive, possibly up in the hills as a means of escaping the living dead lower down. But as he studied his maps the idea that they'd never find another safe place to be in, they might as well just stay in Fort Severn and risk finally being invaded by the zombies that were waiting to tear every living soul inside the town 'walls' apart. Jake thought to himself that his best hope was to make a run for Halifax or somewhere near and possibly find a big docking yard. They would be concealed by large fences and would almost certainly contain enough deep-frozen produce to last them. They would even be able to eat the dry foodstuffs as well as shipments of water and other such basic commodities as their shelf life was a good year or two. However, this may not be the case and when Jake and Mary reached Halifax they may find it to be just as dead as everywhere else. But if they didn't try, they'd never know. Jake was determined to escape from Fort Severn and he had to do it soon. But whether the dead would break in and let him and Mary out was not a definite possibility as the guys down by the barriers seemed to be containing the groups of zombies quite well. But Jake knew that someday they'd slip up and just like in all the movies he'd seen in his childhood, the zombies would break in, consume everything and move on somewhere else. He just didn't want to be the one testing his heart rate when a crowd of zombies would be coming up behind him. For the sheer sickness of studying the several maps he had laid out on his bedroom floor, Jake shot up from his cross-legged position, the blood rushing to his head. He looked out the window, not seeing Mary in hers, but a troop of ground soldiers were doing their rounds in the usual slack manner. Jake slid his window up and crawled out, leaping off the porch roof as he did so before running over to the three tired, joking men. "Hey guys, how's it going back there? Any idea of how strong the force is trying to get in?" asked Jake. The trio stopped in their tracks and stood in front of Jake. One of them began to speak. "There's still a lot of those dumb bastards back there, but fortunately they were thinned out a couple of days ago by the A-Team." "Any idea if there are any more of them coming from the hills?" "Just look for yourself kid, they're crawling," finished the one man as he pointed to the replenished hills that crawled with the gray corpses. As Jake's jaw dropped the three men went about their business with their guns slung over their shoulders and cheroot cigars stuck in the side of their mouths like they were in some western. The sight of the dead tumbling down the hills in the distance was slightly misted over by the light fog that rolled seductively over everything higher up, the struggling figures of the walking dead a sight for horrified eyes. Maybe Jake's plan would come into affect sooner than he thought, but after seeing the zombies swarming towards his position inch by inch, horror consumed him and suddenly going anywhere but a safe, dark corner seemed foolhardy. "That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" Mark 4:35-41 |