We all knew that today was going to be a hard day. After yesterday’s chance meeting with Holly and the incredible story that she told us, we knew that we couldn’t just drive away. As much as we might have liked to have turned a blind eye to what was going on, we all knew that if were us in those cages that we would want someone to attempt to help us.

It took some convincing but eventually Holly conceded to take us back to the farm. She really was the only person that knew of its location or its layout and we wanted to have her close at hand in case we needed her. She wouldn’t have to do anything except give us intelligence information on the off-chance that we needed it. And it turned out that what she provided us was information saved our lives.

We left the morning after finding Holly. Our group consisted of Ben, Harvey, Lt. Lafferty and I along with Holly as a guide of sorts. The farm itself was set back off of the road and surrounded by rolling hills and a lot of trees. It was relatively easy to sneak up and take a look around without being noticed. At first we were a little hesitant on getting too close, believing that the group of men had rigged the perimeter with some sort of alarm or monitoring system. Holly dissuaded us of that idea, reminding us that she had gotten away without them really knowing.

It was interesting actually that she had managed to get away. You would have thought that the man who had essentially let her walk away would have done his best to try to recapture her. Especially after she had injured him prior to him being able to rape her. Perhaps he had decided that letting her go was better than having to admit that she had gotten away from him. Some men can be funny that way; they would rather not admit that a woman had gotten the best of them.

The closer that we got, the worse the smell became. Having the Undead so close at hand, all crammed together into a pen would have accentuated the smell of decomposition. It must be hell for the survivors forced to live alongside them; no respite from the overwhelming stench coupled with the knowledge that at any point you could be sacrificed to them in order to keep them fed.

We found our vantage point and scouted out the area. The farm was large and had most likely been a horse farm in more recent times. The horses were long gone and in their place were two large corrals of people: one Undead and the other living. There was an assortment of vehicles parked at different angles to the outbuildings. It looked like things were still running at the farm, making us believe that they had a generator.

It was a great setup if you subtracted the Undead and the captives from the equation. The boundary of the farm could be easily secured and with power, it would have been quite the haven for a group of survivors to knuckle down in.

Within a few minutes we got our first look at the captors. All 10 of them came out of the house one after another and headed towards the corrals. They were talking about who they were going to choose to feed to the Undead today. Their voices were quite loud and equally brash, probably meant to instill fear and terror to the group of survivors.

All of the survivors crowded to the back of their corral. You could feel the tension in the air, the fear. Looking at the group that was composed of all ages and races your heart immediately fell. None of us came here to be a witness to murder, especially at the hands of other survivors. We knew that we needed to do something but our timing had to be just right.

Formulating a plan was easy. Take out all of the a$$holes that were perpetrating the violence. It was just putting that plan into action that was going to be a little bit more difficult. We did have the element of surprise on our side as they had no reason to expect us.

We decided it was best to come at them from multiple angles. And we were going to shoot to kill. These men did carry guns but they didn’t walk around with them drawn or even at the ready. We hoped that it would be easy for the 4 of us to down them all without taking too much fire in return.

We separated and took positions all around the farm. From where we had set ourselves up, we had line of sight on each and every one of the sick bastards that had chosen to do the wrong thing. We also made sure that if any of our shots missed the intended target, that none of the survivors would be injured as a result. It was a risky but we had to do it.

The plan was to wait a few minutes and then I would fire first, signalling the others to fire as well. We each had our targets; it was just a matter of time before they would hopefully all be dead. And the great thing was that the men actually cooperated with us without even knowing it; they kept themselves in a relatively tight grouping, in the middle of the barnyard. It was almost too easy.

I lined up my first shot and I took it, almost experiencing a feeling of relief in pulling the trigger and watching him go down. With the first shot out there in the still of the morning air, the other shots began to ring out. The survivors screamed in terror and hunkered down as best they could as each of their captives fell. It was a bittersweet moment. The ordeal for some was over but it gave rise to the thought that there could be more people out there like this.

Once all of the men were down, we waited to see if there were any more that might make an appearance. After 10 minutes there was no movement side from the Undead reaching their arms out of their corral in the hopes of grabbing at the flesh just a few feet away from them. Deciding that there was no longer a threat, we came out of our hiding places and into the barnyard, still somewhat wary of what might be hidden from our view.

The only thing that came out to greet us was a badly abused dog who must have realized that we were friend and not foe.

We quickly let the survivors out of the captivity and did what we could to deflect their gratitude. In our minds, what we did was just and you’d never get us to believe otherwise. Of the 30 some people who had been held captive, we knew that there was no way that we could fit them onto our little bus. The great thing was that the men had managed to keep some vehicles serviceable. The survivors all piled into the vehicles, desperate to get away from the farm.

We offered to let them come with us to Seattle but they all had other plans. Some wanted to go and see about loved ones and others just wanted to put as much distance between the farm and themselves as possible. Holly elected to come with us. She said that she didn’t want any reminders of the hell that she had once lived. It was understandable in a way and we were happy enough to have her along. The more the merrier in our minds. Plus we now had a dog attached to us. Wherever we went, she had made up her mind that she was coming with us.

Making our way back to the bus and the rest of our group felt good. We had saved people today and it gave us hope that there could be a way for us to all connect again. Today our victory felt good, it felt decent and it was something that we would likely do again if faced with a similar situation. If you had the choice, what would you have done?

The Next Day