Well we made it back. Ill try to recount the event of the past few days as best i can. its been a flurry of action and writing in my journal has been the last thing on my mind.

FRIDAY

We pulled out early in the morning about the time the sun was coming up. Jay was driving and i manned the 30 cal in the top turret. the boys watched us from the barricade as we pulled out. Matt blocked the gate back up as we left. The boys could handle themselves. We headed east up old highway 12 twoards the river road and our blast crater road block. Heavy rains and runoff in the last few weeks had turned it into a lake. we headed south down the ditch and up past the old cell phone towers. It was all Jay could do to keep death metal on its wheels. the drop off ws just ahead."Hang on tight!" he yelled as we dropped over the precipice. it was about a eight foot drop at an 80 degree angle. wicked rough. I banged my head hard on teh butt of the 30 cal and saw stars for a moment. "now i know why tankers wore helmets." i thought ruefully. Jay wrestled the wheel and worked the pedals like a pro as we skittered down the backside of the greasy hill. It finnaly leveled out by the old Simms place and we got back on the highway. Glenham was just ahead.Glenham appeared to have burnt to the ground not long after the dead heads took over. mostly just crumbling foundations and the occasional solitary chimney stood. Hoagies bar was still partially standing but looked long abandoned. Jay asked if i wanted to stop. i told him no, to keep going. Selby was another 18 miles ahead.


Selby was in much the same condition as Glenham. mostly burned ruins. the courthouse was the lone exception. The windows had been fortifed and it appeared to have been a stronghold. the walls were scarred with smoke trails and dismembered deadheads were in a shallow ring around it. I yelled to Jay to stop so we could scope it out. We shut off the engine and only silence greeted us. Jay said he would go out if i covered him with the 30 cal. I cranked the turret around, handed him one of the handheld GMRS radios and gave him the go sign. Jay popped out with his FPW ready and advanced on the courthouse. I cranked the turret around while keeping a sharp eye out teh back viewport. He did a fast 360 around the building and called the all clear. I grabbed my FPW and pulled the keys. I exited the rear hatch and closed it. Jay covered my six as i quick stepped to the Door.

"Its empty by all signs. No noise, no movement. If they're playing possum. they're pretty good at it." We made out way to the fortifid front door. Unsurprisingly it was solid as a rock. We worked our way around the outside and found a broken window to the jail visitor room. Jay looked at me with knowing eyes. We crawled inside and lit it up with out flashlights. Old scenes of carnage greeted us. Blood dried black splattered the walls and rotting skeletons littered the floor. the door to the main hall stood ajar at the far end of the room. Jay covered me while i cut the pie and called clear. We ented the main hallway and swept
the room with our lights. more carnage, bullet holes, spent shell casings, and empty M16 magazines litered the floor. several of the skeletons were wearing the rotted remains of desert camo. One of them wore the tarnished bars of a captain. I flipped it over to check the weapon underneath and the name was still legible. Andserson. Didnt ring any bells. His jacket had mostly protected his M16 so i slung it and helped myself to teh four remaining magzines in his web gear. Jat had policed up a pair of beretta M9s in serviceable condidtion and a handful of mags. A fast search of the rest of the remains yeilded another half dozen magazines of 5.56 but no more serviceable weapons. Most of the corspes here were civilians.

Through the scattered light of the boarded up first floor windows and our lights we cleared to the front staircase and healed for the second floor. the stairs were heavily carpeted with spent 5.56 cases an empty M16 mags. jay policed them up. he had scrounged up a semi clean duffel somewhere and was piling our finds into it. the second floor yeilded more corpses, more carnage and more scattered supplies. Jay scored a mint M203 that was propped in a corner and i found a case of well preserved MREs and canned peaches. Most of the bodies here were soldiers with dead head scattered amongst them. there was very little ammo left here. jay picked up around two dozen mags of various stripe. the office doors hung ajar and all were empty save the last office before the third floor stairs. It was packed with bodies, and one semi rotted dead head. Jay shredded him with his FPW. the office was a charnel house. blood splatter and body parts lay in a jumble. the occupants had apprantly been cut off from the stairs and died there. the third floor was much cleaner than the first two. most of those still alive had been killed by this point in the fight it seemed. A string of 40 S&W cases led across the hallway to the roof door. several dead soldiers were by the front window, all having died by thier own hnads it seemed. One still had a rusted M9 between his jaws. We follwed the trial of 40 S&W cases onto teh roof where we found a lone corpse under the overhang of the A/C condesors. It still wore the tattered leather jacket and tarnished star of the our county sheriff. at least 30 dead heads littered the roof, surrounded by spent 40 caliber shell cases and empty magazines. There was an empty Glock in each of his hands, slides locked back, magazines empty. He had died hard. Duane was an old fart when we had elected him but he still had plenty of guts when the chips were down. He had a bullet wound in his sternum and a broken thigh bone. He had fought like alion to the end, succumbing only when all of the dead heads were vanquished. Jay walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Theres a shovel in the back of death metal. I think he deserves better than rotting on a roof."

After buying the sheriff Jay found a heavy piece of plastic fencing to use as a grave marker. We set it deep and i wired his glock pistols and his badge to it. I found his name plate in his office a wired it on as well. We rocked his grave over well and went on our way. I hesitated before i got into death metal and Jay looked at me questioningly. I turned and gave the sheriff a sharp salute. The way a warrior honors his comrades. Hed bought his chair at the table in valhalla.


There wasnt anything else we deemed worthy of searching in Selby so we headed south out of town. the railroad overpass had been blown so we rocked over the track crossing on the south edge of town. We got back on the highway and headed south to the interesction. The road was in terrible condition. We could manage maybe 30 MPH at best. Most of the bildings were burned or falling down at the few farms we passed. We hit the roadblock just before the turn to Hoven.

It was situated in a valley in between two steep hills. we topped the hill and spotted it. Jay yelled a warnign but bullets were already pinging into the front armor. I snugged the M-60 into my shoulder and held the trigger back. A stream of 30 caliber projectiles tore into the cars used to block the road. Jay yelled to hang on and i felt him floor the gas. i continued to spray the shooters with lead. When we got close i cranked the turret around backwards and waited the for the impact. Jay rammed one of the cars right in rear quater panel and flipped it out of the way like a toy. As soon as we passed i liad a stream of fire into the now exposed shooters. They danced like marionettes as the heavy FMj ammo tore them to bits. Jay topped the next hill and i called clear and told him to keep his foot on the gas. I popped open the cover of the M-60 and loaded a fresh belt. i then linked it into the old one fro the ammo bin and was ready to go. i cranked the turret aroudn front and dropped down. jay had dropped back down to 30 MPH. His foot beat a tattoo on teh floor from adrenalin shakes. "you good?" i yelled. he nodded and waved me back to the turret.

The road was getting better the closer we got to Gettysburg and Jay had picked up the pace a bit. The interestion to highway 212 was just ahead. Jay slowed to turn onto it and the left front tire blew. Jay got it stopped and we got out to asses the damage. Jay jacked up the truck and changed the tire while I covered him from the front glacis. We had one more spare and I hoped we didn’t need it. I didn’t relish driving on rims. Jay got back behind the wheel and we resumed our journey.

Gettysburg had a large billboard just outside of town proclaiming: “GETTYSBURG Where the battle wasn’t”. Someone had scrubbed out the “wasn’t” and painted on “ rages on” in bright red spray paint. I nudged Jay with my foot and pointed. He nodded. I looked over the town carefully with binoculars and didn’t see any oblvious threat. There were several burned out cars scattered around the visible streets and some houses were damged by fire but otherwise the town was in good shape. I spotted a flurry of movement on one side street and called out “BOGIES two o’clock!” Jay backpedaled the truck into the parking lot of a hardware store and sought cover behind a rolled over semi trailer. We were bulletprrof to most small arms but there was enough anti-armor gear floating around I didn’t want to be in the open with unknowns out there.

Jay eased the nose out until he could spot the figures. “dead heads” he pronounced. “You wanna take em or leave me be?’

I grinned ferally. “take em”

Jay roared out from behind cover and I readied the M-60 We left black marks across the pavement as Jay swung death metal through turns. The dead heads loomed in front as he made the last turn and I let them hae a stream of 30 caliber. Jay let out a rebel yell and rammed into the throng of zombies. I was firing point blank into a mass of bodies as they crunched under our wheels. Jay had a grim-reaper grin on his face and As the bodies thinned out I stopped firing to let the barrel cool as Jay turned around.

Two men had come out of a building and were firing pump shotguns into the much thinned mass of deadheads. They were exposing themselves way too much and the dead heads had the jump on them soon enough. I let loose a stream of rounds and cut them down before they could reach the frantically reloading men. They had taken cover behind a stack of used tires and were pumping rounds into the mass fast and furious. The zombies were getting thin by now and we mopped up from the safety of death metal.

The two men warily kept their shotguns pointed in our general direction as we rolled to a stop. Jay poked his head out as I covered them with the 30 cal.

“Well that was a corker eh?”

The two men looked at each other and busted out laughing. Jay grinned and I crawled out the back hatch. They came up ans shook my hand. Their names were Ed and Mark. They thanked me for getting them out of the tight spot they were in. The dead head throng had gathered arounda tree where family of squirrells had nested. The noise was like a magnet the men said. Unfortuantly their house was right in the same yard as the tree. They had been trapped for nearly a week.

When asked about the remainder of the town they shook their heads.

“right after the outbreak FEMA came In here and evacuated everyone to a camp in Kansas. It wasn’t a neat and tidy evacuation either. They just shoved people in the back of trucks and semis and pulled out. If you couldn’t carry it, you left it behind.”

They said that they had hid in the basement of the grocery store under stacks of pallets while the soldiers searched. When they left they painted signs on the doors marking how many live, how many dead head and if the home had salvageable goods. Jay nodded. The two men looked uncomfortable at each other and asked if we had any other weapons. Jay warily asked why. The men said FEMA stripped the town of every weapon they could find before leaving. They had found their shotguns behind the seat of wrecked pickup that was locked in the body shop. They were short of ammo and supplies.

Me and Jay had a short confab behind death metal and deicded to give them the M16s and M9s we found in Selby. Jay got the duffel with the weapons and supplies and gave it to them. When asked what we wanted in return, They were astounded when we said not to worry about it. They hungrily slurped up a can of peaches each as we watched and I showed them how to strip and clean the M16s and pistols. There wasn’t a lot of ammo but we gave them what we found a few extra spare mags.

Jay asked about his family and the men shook their heads. They didn’t know them and supposed they were hustled away with the rest of the evacuees. They had heard they were going to pierre to get flights down south somewhere but niether knew the route they were taking nor the final destiantion of the planes. Jay noddd his thanks and we were on our way.

My hands are tired from writing. More tomorrow.