Welcome To Strange: Ironwood.

 

I retrieved my set of bolt cutters from the truck and went back in to cut the locks. When I swung open the door there was a fully stocked tool box, I grabbed whatever we could use, in the corner sat four bright red plastic 5 gallon gas cans, two were full, one was over half, one was empty, I checked to see what kind of fuel was in them, paydirt, again. in regard to us collecting gasoline, we had been very lucky so far. Such would not always be the case, but for now, we were able to keep the wheels moving toward Cold Springs, Idaho. I nodded to the office door to Ashley, She and Henry went inside while I loaded the tools and gas into the back of the truck, and secured them to the bed with lock down ties. Moments later she appeared in the doorway with the biggest smile I'd ever seen, she walked up and handed me a pistol that she'd found in the office desk drawer with four boxes of Ammo, two extra magazines, and a holster.

"Crash? is this what I think it is?" She asked.

"It's a .45 Colt 1911, this will be a good side piece for you Ash, just remember it fires different and has more recoil than the Glock."  I cautioned her. "We'll have to find some time for you to learn how to shoot it. but it's a great gun."    

I watched her confidently replace her Glock holster with the 1911 on her belt, a sly smile slowly spread across her face as she loaded a full magazine and slid the 1911 into it's holster, on her belt. I wasn't sure whether I was concerned or proud of how quickly Ashley and Henry had grown into their roles as zombie, and sometimes people killers. They had both gotten quite comfortable with the firearms that they had been using up to that point, comfortable and efficient. I had no doubt in my mind that Ashley would not only adapt to the 1911, but she would become quite proficient in its use. We loaded up and were back on the road twenty minutes later. The rain began to subside, but the wind persisted and grew slightly stronger. Just before noon, we found a tightly grouped grove of trees on top of a hillside overlooking the tiny town of Grotto, New Mexico. The trees provided us with a bit of a wind break, so we got out to take a look at Grotto. About 150 yards away below us, there was a group of men surrounding another smaller group of people on their knees with their hands clasped behind their heads. In the middle of a circle of seven people or so, there was someone lying on the ground being savagely beaten and kicked.

 I looked at Ashley, and she gave me an annoyed look, as did Henry. We all recognized bullies when we'd seen them, The people on their knees were clearly unarmed and couldn't defend themselves. There were no zombies around to speak of, these were just regular people, doing evil shit. We secured the truck and collected some weapons, and all three of us began walking down the side of the hill, they didn't even notice us until we closed within 75 yards. then the leader sounded the alarm, and right away the group began firing on our position, we hid behind some junk cars and returned fire, I had the S&W slung over my shoulder but was returning fire with one of the AR-15s. Ashley had her Winchester and Henry his Mossberg. apparently they never experienced someone shooting back at them before, and they fell back to a couple of SUVs, we pressed the attack, Henry and Ashley moving around their right flank keeping up the pressure, while I moved to the left switching to the S&W auto, with which I began blowing massive holes in the sides of the SUV's. 

The one whom I was guessing was their leader tried to return fire on me, but I shot him through a part of the SUV and took off the side of his head, I returned to the AR-15 and fired on the remainder of the group and then, down to three left, they tried to run while firing, we took them down clean. I took a round that barely caught the side of my abdomen and Henry got nicked in his right thigh, but we pretty much got away with it. We walked over to the people who were being held up, and introduced ourselves. There were seven of them total. four men and three women. They said that they were just a family in a mini bus trying to get to the other side of Provo Utah where their family had a farm. I explained to them that before the radios went dead we'd heard that Provo and Salt Lake City had both fallen to the virus six months ago, and that both of those places were now crawling with stiffs, weapons still drawn we walked over to one of their dead, they were all dressed in military attire, but they weren't organized enough to actually be military. The father of the mini bus group appeared at my side. 

"Any idea who they were?" I asked him. 

He told me that they called themselves the Zeros, and they were a militant group, from an encampment called Hells Flat about 8 miles from there. they were going to take them there and force them to work farming vegetables and other tasks. I told him that he needed to get his group to gather up their weapons and as much ammo as they could find, clubs and knives would only get them so far, and where ever they were going, one thing was for certain there were going to be zombies. They rounded up the weapons and ammo, and then went through the SUV's and striped them of all the supplies they could carry. Ashley, Henry and I returned to the truck, Henry and I briefly treated our wounds and got in the truck and drove it down the hill to where the mini bus was. They were low on gas, so I gave them one full can and the half, they asked if they could follow behind us and we agreed tentatively. I referenced my map and the next town on the way was a little burg called Ironwood.

He said his name was Grendel and his wife's name was Merci they were living in the heart of Oklahoma when the world went to shit, they watched as their whole town descended straight into hell in a matter of hours, they helplessly watched as their friends and families were all swarmed under by an army of stiffs. Merci watched as her own mother and 12-year-old daughter turned on and attacked her, they barely made it out of Shawnee with their lives intact, three days later in Norman, they lost their youngest son when a group of road agents killed him and stole their motor coach along with everything they owned. they were on foot until they came upon the mini bus, the keys were in it, it started right up, and they had a half a tank of gas, and a hard shell cooler full of snacks, it was enough supplies to get them out of the immediate area, they scrounged for gas and had been moving ever since. We got the mini bus to almost a full tank of gas, and we were 125 miles from Santa Rosa, when we finally hit the road. As it turned out, that little burg called Ironwood just 7 miles down highway 40 would prove to be quite helpful to our new little family. we rolled into the Valero station at about 2:30 in the afternoon, the gas pumps, as usual, were not working, but there were a few cars around to check for fuel, and the best part? there were no signs of any stiffs. 

Henry and Ashley as usual armed to the teeth began to search the area, minutes later an excited Henry came around the side of the building and began to wave his arms at Grendel and me. He motioned toward the back of the building, we both quickly moved around the side to see an unexpected site, it was a newer model military style van, a little shorter than the mini bus, but it sat up higher for ground clearance, and it was 4-wheel drive, and had metal grating over the windows and a front bumper wench, below the hood, it looked like a Land Rover only longer. I opened the door and looked inside, and it was almost like new and had more than enough room for Grendel's whole crew, plus their supplies. I jumped up into the driver's seat and began to look for the keys, they were above the driver side visor, I put the key in the ignition and turned it, the gauges all lit up, and it showed that it had just over a quarter of a tank of gas I turned the engine over and after 3 tries it fired up, Grendel's eyes lit up as I pulled it out into the parking lot.

Finding a better vehicle was always a good thing, but now we had to transfer the gas from the mini bus into the Land Rover, and Grendel's crew wasted no time in transferring their supplies to the new vehicle. Meanwhile, Ashley and Henry watched and waited for anything to move. My little soldiers, Grendel and I finished draining the tanks of the mini bus and transferred it, I popped the hood and checked the oil, and it was full. Just as everyone got inside, Ashley came running over to inform me that there were a large group of stiffs headed right for us, right down the block I yelled at Grendel, don't slow down and don't stop. We all jumped in the truck and tore out of the Valero station, with the Land Rover fast behind us. The swarm of zombies behind us was much larger than we realized, but once again we narrowly escaped, as we turned onto highway 40 we quickly left Ironwood behind us.

~Scratch. A.B.T. Copyright © 2025~