OUTNUMBERED volume 4: A Zombie Apocalypse Series by Robert Schobernd Read Free Book Online

the door to Paige's room. With my pants and shoes on, I took Kira's hand and walked her into the hall and toward the elevator. Paige was right behind us in her nightgown grinning from ear to ear. "I'll go get Ira and Marcie," she said as she raced past us. It was Friday August 25th. Ira had anticipated the births for the last three days. For weeks, I'd hovered around Kira trying to help. Finally, she good naturedly ran me off. Paige cackled with laughter at my clumsy, feeble, attempts to be useful. For the last three weeks, I'd feared Kira would single handedly decimate the supply of canned dill pickles we'd put up for the winter. But finally the day was here and I'd get to meet my children.
    Two hours later, Kira and I had a new son and daughter, and Paige had siblings.

CHAPTER THREE
     
    T he summer and fall harvest went well but caused a shortage of personnel to can the massive amounts of food we required. The entire population worked twelve hour days, seven days a week for almost two months. In early September, Elsie mentioned that it was Labor Day. I snorted, "Hell, every day is labor day. Does that mean we can quit five minutes early tonight?"
    The original slow zombie attacks became less frequent and were dealt with as part of the normal routine. One other incursion by the two naked zombies was thwarted before they'd advanced fifty feet from the woods. I was alarmed at the level of skillful evasion they exhibited in evading all attempts to hit them. We'd learned to keep several dogs near the crews working in the fields during the hot sunny days. They were a great first line of defense when they barked and howled incessantly as the zombie's approached. Finally and thankfully, at the middle of October, the work schedules reverted to more relaxed routines. Canned goods overflowed the storage space and we were able to sample the products of our labor. We went around patting each other on the back for the great job we amateurs had done.
    Once again, we could send crews to gather materials and equipment befitting our future dim prospects. Several of our foragers had located flocks of sheep that we gathered and hauled to newly erected sheds with adjoining pens to hold them. Others looked for spinning wheels and looms to make use of the wool thread we anticipated harvesting. Grace asked one day how we would tell time when the batteries for watches and clocks were gone. That instigated a search at antique shops for old fashioned clocks with mechanical movements.
    Several of the Amish settlements raised sheep, so we had concentrated our efforts there and were rewarded with a few shearing tools. But we only found two weaving looms and wanted several more. On Tuesday the tenth of October a three person crew left Deliverance to find more sheep shearing tools, spinning wheels and weaving looms. Marilyn Deutsch, Frances Halcom and Josh Garner left early that morning and expected to return late in the evening. We grew concerned the next morning when they still hadn't shown up.
    The truck they'd left in was pulling a sixteen foot, duel wheeled open trailer to haul any looms and spinning wheels they may have located. I checked with Elsie and learned their trip itinerary routed them thru Omaha, and on to Fremont, Columbus and Norfolk, Nebraska,
    At the next dawn, we loaded three Expeditions with four people in each and headed out to search for them. At Omaha we spent half a day searching for their white Ford truck and four wheeled trailer. Twice we stopped to shoot zombies with a vengeance. The plight of our missing friends weighed heavily on us, and shooting undead monsters was a good way to relieve our building apprehension. When we were satisfied they weren't in Omaha, we convoyed on to Fremont. In two hours we'd crisscrossed the entire town without success.
    Before dark settled around us, we arrived at the city limits of Columbus. We parked close together and spent the night on the east side of town. We slept uneasily sitting