FYI - I recommend muting the video and playing it at 2X speed. It really is an engineering marvel but the sound of the warning horn and bells is unbearable.

Chapter 12B

Cautiously, Babs crawled out and crept to the passenger side door. Suddenly, a loud beeping from a small cooking timer sounded from the middle of the road. She knew Theodora had thrown it out there. The old woman had done the same thing as they were leaving another small town in rural New York.

The infected person stumbled toward it as Babs climbed into the passenger side. She closed the door as quietly as possible. She had been keeping track of the destroyed bridges in a notebook so when she saw Theodora peeking at her from the rear window of the camper, Babs wrote in large letters.

Let Me Go First.

Nodding, Theodora pantomimed walking then driving and a motion like running over a speed bump. Knowing what she meant, Babs gave her a thumbs up then she gritted her teeth as she turned the key to warm the glow plug. When the engine turned over, Babs threw the truck into gear and sped out of the gas station ahead of Theodora. She ran over the zombie with a sickening thump and crunch. In the rearview side mirror, she saw the RV filled with cats following.

Glancing back from the corner they needed to turn at, Babs saw the undead person flopping in the road. There was a spray of dark red in the rain then it collapsed. She had never seen one bleed like that. She knew their hearts started beating again irregularly but didn't circulate blood which usually coagulated. They didn't breathe either and therefore made no audible sound beyond their footsteps. Thinking about the red mist, she realized in fear that someone had shot the corpse. Then she remembered the notebook on the fuel drum and knew that someone had also been in the back of the truck. She started shivering as she drove, so she pulled off her wet hoodie and shirt. She cursed that she had not grabbed a dry bra as she redressed. She decided she needed to find a place to get walkie-talkies so she and Theodora could talk while they drove.

The sun began to set as they approached the small town of Niota. A barricade was across the still intact bridge and railroad tracks. The large, lettered sign demanded that all who wished to cross wait until morning. The gates on both were padlocked on the other side. Theodora scowled as she watched Babs walking around, followed by King the cat. The young woman climbed around the barrier and jogged toward the center then returned.

Babs came inside the RV. "There's no way to get through. The bridge is turned sideways across the river, but someone was there recently. There are also lights in the town on the other side of the river. And I could hear cars. I shouted but no one noticed."

"Then we will wait until morning and hope they can be bargained with," Theodora insisted.

While Theodora cooked, Babs refueled the vehicle. She got the notebook, opened it, and looked at the sheet of Theodora's stationary which read, If this vehicle is found without a driver, please take the research information gathered on Pandemic Five to Kitsap Naval Station in Washington and contact Admiral Lansing of the Pacific Fleet. He is on the USS Ford. Or Captain Lansing on the USS Abraham Lincoln. It is vital the Navy doctors get these boxes. Do not eat anything containing Pharoah's Yeast Extract or you will die of fungal zombiism. Dr. T. Thorpe

Someone had written in ballpoint. Good Luck. The stranger looked at the notebook while Babs was getting dry clothes, then let her and Theodora leave. They had also shot the zombie so it wouldn't follow after Babs ran over it.

Babs took the paper inside. "Look at this. Someone was in the truck. I saw the zombie I ran over get shot as we drove away."

Glancing at the two words, Theodora nodded. "Well, it looks like we had a guardian angel... I hope he or she makes it."

They ate dinner and slept, too tired to stay up and talk. Babs knew Theodora wanted to continue her ancient Egyptian language lessons, but she was glad to not do them tonight.

As soon as the sun rose, the sound of a loud bell and metal grinding woke them.

"Sounds like they are turning the bridge," Theodora muttered unnecessarily.

Before the coffee finished, there was a knock on the RV door. Theodora opened it before Babs could stop her. She stepped out with her cane and her cats.

"Hello, young man. I am Dr. Theodora Carnarvon-Thorpe, and this is my assistant, Dr. Babette Bland. We are on our way to the Pacific Fleet Naval Station at Kitsap, Washington with important information about Pandemic Five."

The man in the law enforcement jacket raised an eyebrow then asked a very surprising question. "Are you kin to Lt. Lionel Thorpe on the USS Abraham Lincoln?"

"He is my great-grandson. Have you read the blog I helped him write?"

The sheriff took off his hat. "Ma'am. You saved the lives of almost everyone in our town. Most of us didn't eat that Pharoah's Yeast stuff. But there are a few... do you know how to cure them?"

"Come in and have some coffee, Sheriff." Theodora's fierce expression softened as she served him a cup of coffee, "Who did you lose?"

"A lot of people." Clenching his jaw, the man revealed, "Our local grocery didn't get contaminated shipments until after the pandemic had begun but those who went to the larger cities to shop and for restaurants... Several of the high schoolers including my son... They were sneaking out, driving to Burlington and Peoria on the weekends, and ate contaminated food. They started getting sick just at the beginning of the lockdown."

"Where are they?"

"In the high school. They don't try to leave there, just wander around in the dark like vampires and eat the raw beef we give them in the cafeteria... Is there a way to save them?" He asked again.

Theodora looked away from his desperate hope, so Babs answered, "I am sorry, they are already dead. They don't try to leave because the undead continue the routine they had in life, but if you wish to have a proper funeral and not have to burn the bodies after you remove their heads, then you need to freeze them for a minimum of three weeks. It will kill the organism preserving their tissue and causing the wandering dead syndrome. That's what my boyfriend did. Bill got sick; he shut himself in a deep freeze to die. When the power was shut off and his body started to thaw, he decayed normally. We have seen several of the infected undead with surface blanching and decay due to short term freezing."

"Are you the ones who destroyed all the bridges on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers?" Theodora suddenly demanded.

"Yes, Dr. Thorpe. It was the only way to protect ourselves from the looters and zombies coming out of Chicago," he admitted. "We can swing the bridge to keep anyone from crossing."

"Well, can you swing it back. I need to get to the west coast, I'm over 100 years old and every day we are delayed is a day I am unable to share my knowledge with the good naval doctors." Theodora stood up and tapped her cane. "Babette, get changed out of your pajamas, and make yourself presentable, then take King with you in the truck, and we will follow the good sheriff across the bridge."

To the Sheriff, Theodora insisted, "Dr. Bland and I have boxes of medical and research information in the panel truck, we need to get it to the Navy. Forgive her appearance, her grief has been hard on her."

Confused and a little offended, Babs glanced down at her sweat suit then hurried to her room to put on jeans and a sweater and fix her hair while Theodora continued to talk to the sheriff.

When Babs came out of the bedroom, the sheriff was outside. Theodora murmured, "Don't tell anyone else where we are really going. The sheriff is worried that some of the townsfolk cannot be trusted. If they try to detain us, flee with the information." She handed her a slip of paper. "This is the address of the family cabin outside of Seattle near Snoqualmie Pass. My boys will come for you."

Carrying King and the carrier of her tiny hens, Babette got into the truck and followed the RV. Once they were across the bridge, she realized there would be no fleeing as dozens of people pointed weapons at them.

^-,-^

(moved from 19)

The last month had been hell on everyone in the last surviving branch of the US Armed Forces. Spurred by the horrifying discovery that the undead would eat the living down to the bone, many thousands of people were packed onto ships and islands that had been cleared of infected, but it must miserable in the constant freezing rain. It was a mess that gave Lt. Lionel Thorpe a headache just to think about. Soon people would be sent in vehicle caravans or by aircraft to safe zones above the 40th parallel or flown out of temperate and sub-tropical zones by Navy pilots. The first flights to Mountain Home, Idaho were starting today.

As he stood at the Bremerton Base waiting for his brother Warrant Officer Leo Thorpe to disembark, he saw several sailors getting off the Maine carrying cats that he recognized. One black and white female jumped from a young midshipman's arms and ran to Lionel.

"Molly Moo? Oh, sweetie. Who's a good kitty?" Kneeling, Lionel petted the cat as it climbed into his arms and rubbed its face against his stubble. The tags on the hieroglyph printed collar tinked against each other in his ear as she climb to his shoulders.

"Looks like you're a daddy?" Angela grinned at him as her bunkmate set down a carrier filled with kittens.

"Thanks, Angela." Looking inside, Lionel scolded, "Molly Moo, you hussy, what would Grandmother say?"

"Grandmother would scold her for not coming home to her whistle and getting left behind," Leo revealed with a chuckle.

"Behind?" Lionel facepalmed and almost dislodged the black and white cat perched on his shoulders like a parrot. "Is she trying to drive across country?"

"No." Leo answered, "Not trying, doing. With another one of her cat lady friends. That Dr. Bland from the library." They both waved at Angela as she walked away.

"Dr. Bland doesn't like cats. She's allergic." Lionel picked up the carrier with Molly Moo's kittens. "So where are they? They should have been here by now."

"Maybe they got delayed by weather? The upper Midwest has had one storm after another this month, and she said she was taking Interstate 90." Leo revealed, "You know how she is about staying on course."

"We gotta find her, Admiral and Captain Lansing are driving me crazy," Lionel groaned as he put a cat carrier in the electric car he was driving.

"Short of heading that way, I don't know how, little brother," Leo shook his head. "She'll make it or die trying."

"That's what I am afraid of." Lionel scowled.

Leo waved toward the truck dumping pea gravel around the fences. "What are they doing?"

The fact that the infected undead wanderers were almost completely silent made them a greater threat, so Lionel explained, "Creating a buffer zone around the base to make noise. The guards have literally killed twenty thousand I.U.W.s since you left. The patrol dogs are useless. They know instinctively to flee silently, and the dog handlers are struggling to teach them to overcome those survival instincts to bark a warning at the undead. Even the Malinois and German Shepherds won't bark at them. They run and drag their handler with them."

"Seriously?" Leo was shocked. He'd seen dogs assigned to commandos that would bark on command or alert to the tiniest threat. It shocked him that the war dogs would retreat.

"Sadie's the only one who will even whine at them, but she hides behind her handler. One of the old salts suggested tripwires with improvised bells and clangers rigged around the perimeter too. All personnel are required to take a cat with them if they are going ashore. Also, we are to use only silent electric vehicles because the I.U.W.s have started chasing cars and trucks to get at the people in them."

"What are we going to do?" Leo looked across the water at the greater Seattle metro area. "There were a two million people living here after Pandemic Four."

"A fifth survived and the admiral is moving everyone offshore. They've cleared several islands and the decks of the entire fleet are covered in tents until all bases of Operation 40th Lat have of crunchy pea-gravel around them," Lionel revealed. "Then everyone is going north and inland. Freezing the zombies worked so the survivors are moving to areas that freeze. The flights to a Chair Force base in Idaho started this morning when they finished clearing the airport."

"Gawd, I hate the cold," Leo complained in such a whining tone his twin laughed.

"Guess you and Aries aren't retiring to Tampa after all."

"Fuking zombpocalypse!" Leo cursed, he glared out the window, then looked around, "Why aren't we going to the boat?"

"Because the civilians are sleeping in shifts in our bunks."

Leo licked his teeth. "Take me back to the Maine, I ain't sleeping onshore."

"No can do. The Maine is now on ferry duty. Moving civilians from the Ford to the islands. The whole strike group is heading south."

Driving to the other base, Leo looked around at the roadside. There were hundreds of undecaying bodies just laying there. He shuddered thinking about one of Theodora's stories about fruit and food preserved for thousands of years in a lost city with a well filled with bones and ash. He couldn't imagine how long it would take to cremate all the dead.