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

off playing Frisbee with the
children. She seemed to prefer babysitting to heavy labor. Can’t say that I
blamed her.
    “What
can I do for you?”
    Edwin
sauntered up and gestured for me to join him on a stone bench resting beneath a
nearby tree.
    “Our
team just got back from Fort Sill. They checked out Lawton as well.”
    He’d
said he was sending some people over to take a look, but I hadn’t expected them
to return so soon.
    “And?” I
was very curious as to what had happened at the military base.
    “You
were right not to go in for a closer look, at least not fully prepared for the
worst.”
    “That
bad?”
    “Yep.”
He scratched one bare forearm. His skin was leathery and wrinkled from too many
years in the sun. “Sent three men, all with plenty of weapons, to take a look.
They checked the town first. It was easier to get to. The place is full of the
walkers, wandering about the roads, thousands of them, and it’s not too far
from us.”
    “Were
they heading north toward you?” I specifically did not say us.
    “Some,
but most were just ambling down the streets. When they headed out, our people
went south to draw them that way before going cross country and coming back.”
    Four
wheel drive was extremely useful in this new world.
    “What
about the base itself?”
    He shook
his head. “They made a stand, or tried to. The guys found an area around a
building littered with bodies. There were tons of shell casings everywhere.
Looks like the survivors holed up there. Plenty of cars all over too. The roads
inside the base were more blocked and messed up than those outside. A whole lot
headed there, had to be some from Oklahoma City, the outskirts at least, and
probably Wichita Falls down south of the river. That’s nearby too.”
    I nodded.
“It’s an easy drive from Wichita Falls to Lawton.” I’d passed that way a few
times myself when traveling to the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge. I used to
rock climb there.
    “Didn’t
find anyone to tell us what happened, and my boys aren’t exactly forensic
experts, but their best guess is that people swarmed it before the surviving
military folk could get organized or settled. So you had thousands and
thousands of civilians heading there with who knows how many infected. They
started changing and biting, and the zombies already there hadn’t been dealt
with yet. Bad all around.”
    “Any
sign of the helicopter Briana saw?”
    “None.”
He looked about. “Where is the little gal? She’s usually right next to you.”
    I
smiled. “She’s playing with the kids.”
    “I’d
rather watch the tykes as well, less tiring in this heat. As to the helicopter,
nothing at all. They didn’t stay long or go into any buildings, far too many
zombies for that sort of risk, and there were a lot, mostly in the base proper
but they’d started migrating outward. There were some hangars with open doors
and helicopters inside. None of us have a clue how to use them, even if we
could get to them. Some seemed to be missing, and the motor pool was pretty
much empty. Not a single Humvee there, not where they’re normally parked.”
    “So, you
think the survivors made a run for it?”
    “I do,”
confirmed Edwin. “I think they loaded up whomever and whatever they could and
left. No way to tell how many got away or where they went.”
    “I hope
no one goes there looking for a safe place.”
    “I can’t
see it happening. They would have gotten that same bad feeling you had soon
enough and turned around. If not, they would have seen the zombies, a whole
mess of them. It’s obvious that it’s lost.”
    “Might
be worth putting up some signs,” I suggested, “or spray painting a message on
the sides of a van or truck saying stay out.”
    “Good
point that. I think I’ll have some guys see to it in a day or two. We were
going to try to go back and see if we can recover weapons and ammunition.”
    “I’d get
MRE’s as well, if you can.”
    “I
served in Vietnam, was