Free Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary by Joshua Jared Scott

good idea,” she
teased. “You might try something the minute I close my eyes.”
    “It is
too hot to touch another human being Briana.”
    Beautiful
or not, the weather was about as contrary to romance as one could get. Besides,
I was fairly certain she was kidding.
    “Yeah,
but I can’t sleep like this.”
    “It’ll
cool off. Sun just went down, and it gets colder at night here than back in
Denton, I think.”
    “So not
fair.”
    I hated
the temperature every bit as much as she, but I didn’t think fairness was a
relevant factor. If it didn’t cool off quick however, we might sleep in the
Jeep instead. At least it had air conditioning.
    “What do
you think about this place?” I asked.
    Briana
was quiet for a moment as she thought it over. “The people are nice enough.
Edwin has a pretty good grasp on things. I like his daughter Stephanie as
well.”
    Stephanie
was in charge of the children while their parents, or new guardians in too many
cases, were working. She’d been quite grateful at having us help save them and
even went so far as to make sure we had our own cherry pie, fresh baked,
waiting for us in the house when we turned in for the night. We’d polished it
off, even after having a rather large dinner. Who knew when we’d get another.
    “They
are good people,” I agreed, “but I’m not certain about their long term
sustainability. I need to think about it some more. Let me know if you see
anything interesting, get any ideas or insights.”
    “Sure
thing,” she promised.
     
    *
* *
     
    The next
two days were much like the first. We helped the survivors any way we could and
spoke with as many of them as possible. A great deal of time was also spent
with Edwin. Lacking the strength of youth, or even that of a middle aged man,
and being in questionable health to begin with, the majority of his efforts
were directed at organization and planning. A part of this was to pick our
brains for all the information we had concerning the area to the south.
    I told
him what I knew about the condition of North Texas, which wasn’t much. There
was a band of survivors at Cabela’s on I-35W, north of Fort Worth of unknown
size but probably between fifty and a hundred fifty people, maybe more. We knew
of no other groups, although to be fair, Briana and I hadn’t been looking.
There were people on the roads but not many and only one car had stopped to
speak with us.
    Our
observations of zombies provided Edwin with more practical information. We
could confirm that they wandered about continuously, never stopping. The things
either shambled off in a direction, seemingly without any purpose or goal, or
they milled about an area. This matched up with Edwin’s earlier comments about
having cleared the town only to have more show up. The dead were beginning to
spread out from the population centers.
    As a
result, Edwin established some patrols who checked the roads outside of town.
He didn’t have the manpower for anything more. There were only thirty seven
survivors in Anadarko, thirty nine if we decided to stay, which Edwin seemed
confident would be the case. Briana had been quick to point out that we were
very much undecided on this, but her words didn’t seem to get through. They did
appear to be decent people. There was no violence, no wannabe petty tyrants, no
insanity. A few were prone to complaining, but that was to be expected. Whiners
were never in short supply.
    His
planning was interesting. With a grouping of small, well built houses as the
center of things, Edwin arranged a system where everyone was able to maintain
his privacy. The downside was that being spread out at night made it harder to
react to an emergency, but watches were always kept on some of the roofs which
mitigated this danger somewhat. It wasn’t as safe as a proper compound but
definitely more comfortable.
    A
particular point of interest was learning more of Fort Sill.
    “Jacob.”
    I had
been moving some pallets while Briana was