Winchester: Over (Winchester Undead) by Dave Lund Page A

group cache site.
     
    Cache Site near Maypearl, Texas
     
    Jack heard a vehicle out on the main road stop briefly, then continue up the dirt road towards him and his family. Drawing his pistol, he took a concealed position near some brush. Hopefully Sandra had also heard the approaching vehicle and would practice good noise discipline. It was too late to warn her, but Jack was confident she would react correctly. They had discussed situations and tactics like these before, but Jack was never really sure how much of it his wife took seriously. Now that TEOTWAWKI—The End Of The World As We Know It—was here, they needed those skills to stay alive.
    Relief washed over Jack as he saw the old familiar Jeep Wagoneer approach the camp; Bexar had made it to the cache. Not wanting to startle Bexar and risk being shot, Jack stood slowly, holding his hands above his head while moving out from his cover. The Jeep was dark, with the lights off, but the hazard lights flashed once to acknowledge Jack. Leading the way, Jack walked with the Jeep and the Reed family back to the camp.
    After hugs all around , and comments about how each other’s kids were getting so big, Bexar and Jack set out retrieving the Reed family’s items out of the water tank cache.
    “ Dude, am I glad to see you,” said Bexar. “I wasn’t sure if you and Sandra got my text since everything went dark right after that. Was the drive from Arlington hard?”
    “ We just got here a few hours ago, and the drive was surprisingly hard for how close we were,” replied Jack. “We had to overnight it out in the wild. Have you seen them? Have you seen the dead walking?”
    “ Fuck dude, I don’t know what that’s about!” exclaimed Bexar. “I don’t know how it happened, but Dispatch broadcast an alert, and Command wanted everyone to respond back to the station, but it felt wrong, it felt really wrong, so I sent the text and hauled ass back home.”
    “ Good thing you did,” said Jack. “Have you heard from Malachi?”
    “ No, I got no reply from either of you. How about you?”
    “ Nope, nothing. DFW is pretty much on fire; we saw a lot of aircraft that had fallen out of the sky between Love Field and Dallas Fort Worth International; that’s a lot of destruction. Malachi would have had to go through it, but maybe he was able to get around it. What do you think, an EMP event?”
    Bexar grimly nodded his head. “Looks like it, my phone, everything, even my watch died. Did you see those planes go over after everything went dark?”
    “ Yeah, sort of looks like the chemtrail nutters were right on those.”
    Bexar climbed down into the base of the cache site tank and in short order had lifted his family’s gear up to Jack, including a canvas wall tent nearly identical to Jack’s. The tent was erected and positioned such that, along with the vehicles, it would provide a blind for their cooking fire. It was like a family camping trip, but the games and happiness were replaced with worry and dread.
     
    Wilmer, Texas
     
    Malachi was driving as fast as he could without crashing the Scout and trailer. Amber’s breathing had become even more shallow, her skin clammy and pale. She was slowly dying, and Malachi knew it. He had to get to the cache site and hope the others would be able to help him.
    In just a few short hours the world had changed drastically; any emergency help he could have depended on had vanished from existence. Malachi figured if he could keep this pace up, he should arrive at the cache site in about ninety minutes.
    “ Hang on baby, I’m getting us there, I’m getting help, but you’ve got to stay with me.”
    Malachi reached over and patt ed her hand. It felt very cold, but it moved a little, so he knew there was still hope. He continued holding her hand while speeding down the dirt road, thankful there weren’t any disabled cars on this road. Amber moved her hand again, and Malachi looked at his wife. To his shock her eyes were dim and