Those Who Remain

Chapter 21

"Where have all the zombies gone?" I asked Ridge as we drove down the deserted street, "It feels really weird that we haven't seen many."

"You're guess is as good as mine," he said in return as he turned his head to look at me, "Last time, they found food, so I'm hoping that is what is happening again. It should keep them occupied for a while."

"Well, they came back right as we were leaving, so let's hope it's longer than last time," I stated then let out a sigh of boredom.

Today, it was just me and Ridge driving around in the truck since there were no places that needed to be checked out. We were scouting to find places that we could find supplies we needed. Lee was able to get his hands on a lot of seeds and gardening supplies, so the gardeners in our community were working on getting it started.

We continued our ride in silence as we made our way up the road until our walkie talkie came to life making us jump at the sound. "Gem, Ridge how's it going? Over." Lee's voice said as I turned the volume down.

"Jesus, Lee," I said back with a light laugh, "You scared the shit out of us. Nothing of consequence yet. Over."

"See if you can find a neighborhood that looks mostly clear," Lee replied after apologizing about scaring us, "We would love to find some spices that are already open. We wanna save all the sealed stuff until we need to use it. It would also be nice to find tools. Over."

"I want some new board games here. All the ones we have are getting old," Ridge and I heard Lily say before the walkie talkie cut out causing us to grin.

"Will do. Over and out," I said clipping it back onto my front pocket. I turned to look at Ridge, "She's not wrong."

"Come on," he replied shaking his head, "Those games aren't that bad."

"I never said bad," I started with a teasing tone, "I think they are just getting a bit old after all this time."

"Whatever," he said laughing, but quickly gasped and swerved narrowly missing the runner that came speeding out from behind the building we were passing. Ridge sped up and turned at the next street hoping to get rid of it before it became a bigger problem for us.

"That was close," I said as soon as I was sure we lost it, "Runners are my least favorite for sure."

"Well," Ridge said slowly, "I don't think that runner is our biggest problem at the moment."

"What?" I said I turned to survey our surroundings with more attention, and at first I didn't see anything that struck me as out of place. However, movement behind a tall picket fence caught my attention, and my eyes widened at the sight.

"Oh my god," I whispered, "Are those all zombies?"

"I think so," Ridge said as he pulled off behind a patch of trees, trying to keep out of sight, "I wish we could take a picture to bring back with us."

"Me too," I said back pulling out the binoculars to take a closer look, "Can you write down the house number and street when I read it to you?"

"Ya hold on," he said, reaching for a pencil and paper, "I really hope this pencil has lead left in it."

"It should," I said half heartedly as I surveyed the house for its number, "I just put new pencils in here after the last supply run."

"I'm ready when you are," he said as I heard him flip over to a new page in the pad of paper he was using.

"Alright," I said, locking onto the number, "It's 3, 7, 8, 2. Do you know what street we're on?"

"Yes, I believe we are on West Markham Street," he replied with the quiet sound of a pencil moving on paper, "Do you wanna call it in or wait until we get back?"