Chapter 10

Once again, I woke up in an amazing mood. I could feel my body start to relax, the constant vigilance that I felt in my last life slowly leaving me. You never knew how hard on your body always being ready at any second was until you could stop doing it.

I mean, it wasn't instantaneous. It took me a few days to realize that the zombies weren't lurking in the dark alleyways, that they were not waiting for me to let down my guard enough to rush out and grab me.

But on the flip side, as I watched all these people going about their daily business, the smiles on their faces, the complete lack of fear, I almost felt bad about the shock they would be experiencing in a year.

It was a lot to adjust to, knowing that you were no longer the top predator in the world.

So, back to my day. The other reason why I woke up in such a phenomenal mood was that this was the day that I decided to move to the ranch permanently. I would have to grab some food and daily necessities that I had not been able to consider a necessity before… like shampoo, body wash, and a frigging toothbrush!

Ah… the luxuries of a pre-apocalyptic world.

I laughed out loud in the empty apartment and enjoyed the sound echo around me. After getting ready and making sure everything was tucked away in my space, I shut the door behind me and locked it.

This apartment was not mine; I had no emotional attachment to it. I had no idea if the previous body loved it, but it was not for me.

Give me a large patch of land and an open sky any day… and I was heading to the one place in this world that I could say without a doubt… was mine.

I was slowly building my own place again, and this time, I would not allow outsiders in to ruin it.

I spent a few hours shopping for the basics and, of course, I would need a vehicle (or four) to get me to and from the ranch as well as around it.

I found a place that sold 4x4s. I would have called them a Jeep back in Canada, but I found the top-of-the-line 'Jeep Wrangler' or whatever they called it here. I purchased two of them and got each one detailed to my liking. While I am claiming that I did it to my liking, I mean, I got them colored and changed to allow for some type of safety from zombies. It turned out, and you would be surprised at how long it took us humans to figure it out, that sharks did not really see colors, they saw in contrasts. And, since one of the dominant genes in the zombies was a shark, they gained their eyesight.

This meant that the zombies hunted in a similar way to sharks. If you were driving a white car at night, the zombies could spot you from a mile away and ring the dinner bell. The same was with driving a bright-colored car. If the background added too much of a contrast, then you became dinner. Had too much silver or chrome on your car to reflect any type of light…no matter how dim, then yeah, same problem.

So my first car was done in a light blue color that should be able to blend in with the day. I got them to matte any of the visible metals and bought the second one in black for the night. They looked at me like I was crazy, but I was completely fine with that. As far as I was concerned, the majority of these people would become chum in the next year or so, so why worry about their opinion of me?

After driving the blue car out of the shop and having them promise to deliver the black one to the ranch, I went to a second dealership that dealt more with off-roading vehicles than the standard car you would see on the road.

I bought one 'standard' atv, with the four wheels, and completely open… think a motorcycle on four wheels, but that was just for use around the ranch. After much hush hush conversations, secret handshakes, and a meeting with the manager/owner, I was led to the back warehouse where they kept the vehicles that I was looking for.

It's hard to explain exactly what I was looking for… I guess the best way to picture it would be a military amphibious vehicle that would be able to take on the end of the world… and pretend that the world was not actually ending.

Yup, I'm crazy like a fox… muahahaha….

So anyway… the first atv that I was looking at was called a Shaman 8-wheel atv, and, as you would assume, it had eight wheels. The seating area was completely enclosed and could move on both land and water. The body could be reinforced to my specifications and there was an additional rack on the roof, and it also came with two floodlights at the front.

When I thought of apocalyptic vehicles in Canada, this was the image in my mind. Too bad it was slower than molasses going uphill on a cold day. (Canadian way of saying really, really slow). It would be easy for the zombies to catch up, and, given enough time, no matter how reinforced the metal exterior was, they would eventually be able to break through. It would more be like opening canned foods instead of having them out in the open.

I bought it anyway.

The second one that I had my eye on was a Ripsaw EV2. It was military grade, fast, with a dual track, and looked like what would happen if a tank and a sports car had a baby. I needed to have it. In matte black, of course.

Me, being me, I walked into a car dealership to buy a 4x4 to take me from the ranch to the city and back again and ended up buying an additional four vehicles. But don't I get a pat on the back for not buying them all out of stock? I felt like I should be praised for my control.

My bank account was not as happy to see my latest purchases, but when I saw all the zeros still in the account (and I don't mean a balance of $0.00) I still felt like I was in a good position.

Once again, I scheduled delivery for a few months from now. After all, it would take time to outfit the EOW vehicles (end-of-the-world vehicles) to my specifications. I wanted stealth, strength, and security. Not something that screamed I was tuna in a can if they only had the opener.

Storing the cars? I would figure that out later.

I jumped into my sky-blue jeep and took off down the highway, ready to settle into my paradise.

Huh, I would have to come up with a name for my ranch... I can't just keep calling it 'the ranch' inside my head now, can I?