SurvivorZ: In Cold Blood

32

DANIELLE

Danielle rode with the rest of the convoy across the blindingly sunlit snow covering route 1 into Ogunquit. They knew passing through town with a fleet of snowmobiles and makeshift cargo sleds was a gamble, but there wasn't much choice. After leaving behind everything but the essentials in New Hampshire, they needed supplies. The interstate, though probably safer, lacked the foraging opportunities they'd find around the coastal townships.

At the top of their list of priorities this morning was the worrisome issue of Laurie's worsening condition. Both doctors in their party were under the impression that if they couldn't obtain her medication soon, the damage to her internal organs might prove fatal. Solving that problem was thus far proving easier said than done.

Complicating things further, the noise from their engines had begun to attract the remnants of the local population. Partially frozen zombies waded knee-deep through the snow, making little progress as they struggled to intercept the passing sleds. Those who were already in their path could only watch helplessly as the riders simply blew past them in frosty clouds.

While powering by a snarling dead man who was buried up to his hips in deep snow, Danielle reflected on the early days of the outbreak. Back then, her escape from hordes of zombies in Amherst and Northampton had always seemed uncertain. The winter frost might have complicated their survival, but it also had an upside. It was a heck of a lot easier to outrun the dead with the snow and ice impeding their progress.

Stan took the lead, setting an easy pace for the rest of them. Danielle rode in the middle, between her mother and Mike. This was only her third time on a sled. She still found it hard to enjoy herself over constantly shifting her focus between throttling, braking, balance, and steering. Her admiration of the lovely winter trail spread out before them came in rare glimpses, between regular checks of the spacing between her and her mother's Arctic Cat.

Shortly into their trip, they passed an ornamented sign welcoming them to Ogunquit. She imagined she wasn't the only member of the group to tense up at the prospect of entering the town limits.

A deserted parking lot outside the Ogunquit Playhouse passed by on their right. A silent, fenced-in switching station flew by on their left. Up ahead, Danielle spotted a handful of zombies stumbling through the snow from the parking lots of the Seafarer Inn on one side and the Ogunquit Chamber of Commerce on the other.

The group blew past them without stopping. They were on a mission. They needed to push through to their next scavenging site and find a safe place to bed down before they lost daylight. There wasn't any time to waste.

Like many of the other coastal towns along the seaboard, Ogunquit was a vacation spot whose many resorts were likely brimming with tourists during peak season. The world ending in October meant the threat to their safety was far more manageable as they ventured through town. With the exception of a few roaming zombies, both the Meadowmere Resort and the Admiral's Inn appeared to be deserted. Only a few parked cars buried in the snow implied otherwise.

From the sled directly ahead of her, her mother's helmeted head turned left and right, probably in search of a pharmacy. All they found on Main Street were a collection of empty homes, abandoned banks, and closed restaurants.

The road they were on opened up, branching in other directions to the north, northeast, and southeast. A dead man pounded on the cracked windshield of his partially crushed vehicle, a black Jaguar that now looked like the beef patty in a five-vehicle hamburger. They drove past the snowed-in crash site without stopping to ask for directions.

The sign to North 1 pointed straight ahead, past the snow-covered remnants of an outdoor market. They almost sailed past it in their search for a potential goldmine. At the head of the pack, Stan suddenly whistled and held up his hand. He pulled over to the left and stopped. Everyone else did the same.