Encounters by Stewart Felkel Page B

thinking. “I’m not actually sure. More than two years, but less than three. I’ve kinda lost track.”
    “Damn. Alone this whole time?”
    “Yeah. It hasn’t been so bad though. I keep busy.”
    “Doing what” she asked while lifting her spoon to her mouth for another bite of chili.
    “Cleaning house mostly. When I got here the town close by was crawling with zombies. Literally. It took a little time and a lot of bullets, but I’ve got the place zombie free except for the occasional stray. That’s what I was doing when I found you, trying to keep the woods free.”
    “Why go to all that trouble and risk if it’s just you here?”
    He shrugged his shoulders before replying. “I keep hoping that eventually others will find this place. I’m trying to make a kind of sanctuary for if and when they do.”
    She shook her head. “Having a bunch of people in one place is a bad idea. It just draws attention to you.”
    “What do you mean?”
    She put her spoon down clattering in her bowl. “You haven’t asked where I’m from. How I got here.”
    “I figured you’d tell me when you were ready. I didn’t want to pry.”
    “I lived in Texas. On a ranch” she began without any preamble. Her eyes got a vacant look as she started to recount her story.
    “When everything started my father, his workers, and their families hunkered down and tried to survive. We beat back wave after wave of those things. We put up miles of fencing. All kinds. Whatever we could find. Tornado wire. Barbed wire. We even built a stretch of wall from old power poles. We thought that we were safe. Most of them if they run into a wall will just keep pressing against it. It was nothing to run a patrol around the perimeter daily and pick off any that we found. Some of them aren’t like the others though. We found out too late that some of them are smarter than that. Some of them are pretty damn cunning!”
    She broke off with a sob and put a hand to her face. He instinctively moved closer to her and put an arm on her shoulder. She twitched at the touch but didn’t pull away.
    “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to” he said, but she shook her head before continuing.
    “It was late one evening. We had run patrols along the fence all day and there was nothing out of the ordinary. We set guards like usual and were settling in for the evening. My dad pulled out his guitar and was singing some old Waylon Jennings songs. Sam, my sister, and I were sitting on the floor listening when the screaming started. They had snuck in somehow and ambushed our guards. They stormed the house like an army. My dad threw down his guitar and pulled out his pistol. He told us to get upstairs and block the door. We ran upstairs to hide. It wasn’t long before we heard people screaming inside. We heard our dad yelling for us to get out. Before…. Before…. We grabbed our bags, we were told to always keep a bag packed, and went out the window onto the roof. It was like we were in high school again sneaking out to meet boys. We slid down the tree beside the house and ran for our lives. We reached the fence to find that someone, something, had clipped the wire near the bottom to make a hole. One of those things still had the intelligence to use wire cutters! They also climbed up the guard towers and took out our guards. That made the whole thing even more terrifying.”
    After a long pause he asked “what happened to your sister?”
    She looked down and wiped away a tear. “I’m sorry; I haven’t had anyone to tell this to since it happened. My sister didn’t make it. They caught her just outside the fence. I tried to save her but there were just so many. I could hear the screams for a long time. I couldn’t get away from it no matter how fast I ran.”
    “It’s ok. There was nothing you could do. But at least you’re safe now.”
    “I could have gone back! I should have at least tried to save her! If nothing else I could have put a bullet in