George nodded in agreement, though he did grab the 9mm ammo from the police cruiser before leaving, as 9mm was one of the more common round he used.

"Let's get those folks we're out here for." As George and Zip headed out.

George and Zip thought they had run into real trouble. Turning up and exit ramp to take highway 75 they came around a long turn to run into a horde of tens of thousands of undead. It was very horrific thing to stumble onto. They panicked. Zip cut lose like crazy with his MP5, wasting a lot of ammo. George wheeled the Jeep around, gunned it, sent the vehicle side slipped down the right of way, narrowly miss a stand of pines, and jumped a small rise to land and skid to a halt on an old single lane dirt track most likely used by the electric power board vehicles to access the lines in the area.

Following the old dirt road turned out to be a shear stroke of luck. An hour and half later they rolled out onto a side road that quickly put them on highway 41 just south of Dalton. And the sun was still up.

Zip looked over at George, almost smiled, and said, "Pull in up here at that gas station. Luck like this deserves a lottery ticket. Who knows, you may be the next powerball winner." He pointed to a sign declaring a 1.1 billion dollar jackpot. "That would make as rich as Trump."

George couldn't help but laugh, that really was funny. "Well I think we have one thing on him, we aren't a zombie, at least yet. We stick together this time, until the building is clear. Then we scrounge anything we can use."

Wheeling the Jeep into the little filling station George was surprised by the number of cars. Then he realized that the cars were haphazardly parked, many had an open door or two, and none of them appeared to have been searched or looted. There were bodies here and there, most were fairly old and all had been significantly consumed. It was gross, it smelled terrible, but the worst was the clouds of flies buzzing around the bodies and the pools of fat maggots in the bodies.

George had seen many things in his career in Law Enforcement and while in the National Guard, this though was one of the worst he ever saw. He gagged, how couldn't he? He walked back to his Jeep and opened the glove compartment, hoping he left some Vick's Vapor Rub in there. He knew putting some under his nose would help with the smell. Rummaging through you could hear him cuss a bit, until he came back out with a smile on his face. "Thank god I kept it in there." The container was about half empty, which wasn't a good thing, but it was necessary for when George went out on scavenging trips. Dabbing some right under his nose, he offered some to Zip. "Trust me, it'll help."

George placed the jar on the seat for Zip to get some. George then took the rag used earlier and tied it around his face like a mask and started to rummage through things, seeing what he could find. George made sure to take his time and be patient, as he didn't want any Zombies to make a surprise entrance on himself or Zip.

The pair rummaged for a moment before Zip thanked George for the fifth time for the vapor rub. George was checking out an older station wagon, it was loaded down with dust covered boxes and milk crates loaded down with food, water, and clothing. He was reaching for a handle when Zip suddenly called out.

"George, wait, back away." Zip was standing near a gas pump and pointing at the ground. "Some wired up a solar bank to power a pump over here. There is a pope that is set up to pump out water too. Probably to help prevent fires caused by gas misting our of the pump's diaphragm. Problem it the panel's wire to the battery back is stripped. Looks like these guys made an electrocution trap by accident. Walk in the wetness then reach for something and you create a current through you. These people were all electrocuted by accident."

George stepped back and then moved a step to the side to see what Zip was talking about. And damn skippy if it wasn't real. Poor bastards, he thought, killed by accident in the middle of this shit.

George looked at Zip and gave him a thumbs up. "There anything you can do to make sure we don't fry our asses?"

"I'm not much of an electrician, but I think if I adjust the flow a little..." Zip said as he lowered the MP5 and cut loose with a burst of 9mm rounds into the power cells the panel was charging.

The power cells hissed, spit acid laden water and steam, and then a shower of sparks popped from the back of the power cell shelving unit as bullets passed through the load accumulator. A fire immediately broke out when gas floating like a film on top of the water ignited.

"Wha...damn." Zip said, he was honestly let down.

George shrugged. “Was worth a try. You think we can not blow ourselves up?” As George motioned at the untold goodies to be found.

"This thing is a trap, the gas is probably recent. But, the power cells are hooked the pump. Try to get gas and boom." Zip said. He suddenly stood upright. "Damn, what if someone is watching us right now."

"Someone could be, and if they wanted us dead, we'd be dead." Let's do a quick perimeter search and scavenge what we can, without killing ourselves, alright?" As George started looking around from a position giving more cover.

The terrain was a jumble of abandoned vehicles, a boxed in service station, several overgrown gardens surrounding several abandoned houses, and pine woods that ran far too close the roadside stop for comfort. Zip picked up the odd tool and found a bottle of Southern Comfort, turning his head to George he nodded to a nearby car.

George looked over and was met by something he never expected; a Sony Go-Pro was staring at him from inside a mailbox that had been strapped to the light bar of an old four wheel drive pick-up. He felt that was odd enough until he saw the lens adjust.

Looking at the Go-Pro, George was initially confused, though that quickly faded. "Well hello. Would you like to meet? Peacefully of course, as there are way too many walkers and not enough living people now a days?" George was hoping whomever was on the other side would like to talk.

"I don't see a mic. Reckon they can hear you?" Zip asked, he was looking around as he spoke.

George did the same, it just a habit that was too deeply ingrained now. It occurred to George that he even did that at home when he knew he was alone in the cabin. He looked at Zip. Same habit; Zip's head traversed like it was on a swivel. George smiled briefly.

Still, there was no sign of anyone watching them. But there were plenty of places for someone to be hidden in. As an afterthought George looked back at the mailbox. There were several wires feeding out of the side and ran down under the car's hood. He spotted the wires again running along the ground. They went on, often disappearing under carefully laid debris, to cross the highway and run down into a ditch where a windowless white service van was off in the ditch at and awkward angle.

George had a feeling if anyone was in there, they would have opened the backdoor already, so he raised his MPX and opened the back door quickly, then stepped back and prepared to shoot.

"Don't shoot, don't shoot!" A woman called out. "They made me do it!"

George wasn't exactly feeling nice about things. "Hands up and get out now, tell me who made you do it, why you did it, are we expecting company soon, how many. You get the gist. Speak up, or I'll leave you for the walkers." George had a point of pointing the carbine at her knee, with his point being very clear.

"I can't get out on my own." She replied. Looking at her closely George saw the chain even as she pointed to it and said. "I'm chained in. Please, just go, they'll be here soon. You have about ten minutes. Just go."

"Dead!" Zip called. His warning was immediately followed by the muffled crack of his submachine gun.

“Fuck” George closes the doors to the van quickly, then turns and looks at the incoming Zs. Raising up his Silenced MPX he rips off a few quick shots, trying to thin out a path towards their vehicle and an escape. George wasn’t exactly happy with leaving the enslaved woman behind, but dying here and now would do no one any good.

Zip worked his way through several magazines as he backed towards George. That the undead were coming from the woods across the road and no where else was a bit mysterious to them. But, George was not above believing people could and would use the undead to kill others. It took more ammunition than they would've chosen to commit to the fight to get to their vehicle and get clear of the congestion on the two lane highway caused by the shambling corpses. George was left to shake his head in disbelief and wonder what that was all about anyway.

George's thoughts on people have started shifting more and more. Cursing under his breath, he knew they would be tunneled towards a trap, well he at least thought they would. George looked for a flaw in the trap, while shooting a few more walkers in the head. He found, what he hoped, would prevent them from being funneled into a trap. "Follow me, I'm not dying here."

Zip nodded, realized George wasn't looking at him and replied, "Got you six."

George starts moving, moving through the path he and Zip have made. George continues to keep firing until his magazine goes empty. George yells "Reloading." As he switches mags he quickly puts the empty in one of the pockets on his cargo pants, then places the new one in the magazine well. He turns to see a Z shambling towards Zip and cracks off a shot and hits it in the head.

"I want the fuckers that set this trap dead, plain and simple. People like that deserve nothing more, nothing less."

The fighting went one for another ten minutes, costing three more mags for George and nearly five for Zip. Then the horde began to thin and became easier to lead into choke points where knife work made the job less costly on their ammunition supply. In the distance, now that the day was quieter they could hear multiple small engines. High pitched and high revving, four wheelers George realized. They sounded almost like his father's old Honda. They were to the east of the roadway, in the woods still. That they could hear them at all meant they were close.

Zip sighed, "They sound close. Maybe six. Probably more. It's been a while since I was out riding."

Looking at Zip. "What do you think? Ambush 'em?" As George looked at the road and then at where he heard the noises coming from. Pointing to a spot that gave good cover. "Wait for them to cross and then light them up. I have no doubt they are the scum that set the trap. I have 3 more magazines on me, plus the one in the MPX." George knew the odds were against them, especially with them being outnumbered. If one thing was for sure, it was that he would give them hell.

"Or do you want to get to the Jeep and grab the M4?" With the Zs thinned out, they should be able to get to the Jeep easily enough.