Prologue
Oakley Bradshaw was your ordinary country girl in every aspect. She was never one to wear dresses or heals, jeans with t-shirts and boots was all she'd wear. She had long blonde hair that was always tied back in one way or another. She loved to fish, hunt, get dirty and work with her hands.
At eighteen she never had any plans of leaving home, why would she when everything she loved surrounded her.
Guys her age had never been much of an interest since they were all so immature and found it easier to go after the girls that were easy to get into bed.
They always complained about her being too stubborn and opinionated for them, not that she cared, she was one of a kind and figured it would take one hell of a man to sweep her off her feet and be able to put up with her anyhow.
Besides, there was never time for a man anyways. The ranch always needed her time and attention. If she was ever going to run it one day she would need to know the ins and outs of everything and how to fix anything that went wrong unexpectedly.
The alarm clock started to go off at 5 a.m. waking Oakley with a groan. "If only ranch time started a little later, well duty calls." With a yawn and a good stretch Oakley rose up out of bed and dressed herself before throwing her hair up and running to the restroom.
After relieving herself and brushing her teeth she headed down stairs to eat breakfast with her parents before going to care for the animals.
Her parents would always watch the news in the mornings while they drank their coffee but today when she went downstairs her parents hovered in front of the t.v. with worry etched all over their faces.
"What do we do Tom?" Her mother asked. "We aren't prepared for this. Do you think we can get everything prepared before it makes it to the U.S.?"
"I dont know dear," said her father, "but we will have to try. I would hate for us to be unprepared and I refuse to think about what could happen if it does."
This can not be good was the only thought that ran through her head as she slowly approached her parents. "What's going on?" she asked once she was right by her parents side.
Once she was in view of the t.v. she gasped. The sight she saw before her was horrifying to watch. People were running and screaming as what looked like a crazed person was ripping into another persons gut and eating what it had pulled out before being shot in the head.
Just as she thought the problem had been fixed the camera turned to show more of the same thing happening down the narrow street. What scared her the most was watching more crazed like people covered in blood with pieces missing from their bodies walking to help feast on the bodies of the victims that layed dead on the ground.
"The dead are coming back to life, it seems that once bitten by the crazed, people are dying then coming back to life and then hunt people to eat. Its spreading faster than they can eradicate the problem. They fear that it will be in the U.S. within a month." Her father said trying his best to sound calm. "If we are going to survive this and have everything ready we need to combine forces with the surrounding ranches and make a plan and put into action immediately."
"I will start making calls and let everyone know we are going to hold an emergency meeting tonight at 6:00, we should start this immediately if we want to be ready. The two of you better hurry and eat and start working if we want to be ready in time for the meeting."
With that being said her mother then headed to the office to start making phone calls.
"What are we going to do daddy? What if we aren't ready in time?"
Oakley could feel her fear of the unknown swelling inside her chest and her strong exterior diminishing. "I'm scared daddy."
"We will worry about that when the time comes but for now we have a lot to get done before the meeting tonight. It will be ok baby girl but you best eat and get to work for now. Stay strong. Im headed out to go check fences and i will be back in a couple of hours. Have the hands help you with the animals and let them know about the meeting, they will have to decide what they want to do once the meeting is over." Once he was done talking he walked out the door, started the four wheeler and left.
Her dad was never one for comfort but he always seemed to tell her what she needed to hear to put her back on track.
"You dont have time to dwell Oakley, dad is right and you have work to do." Squaring her shoulders and taking a deap breath she was able to pull herself back together. No longer hungry she decided to head to work.
Today was going to be a long hard day but would hopefully answer some of the questions she had. She had to have faith in her parents and in the fellow ranchers to come up with a solid plan.
Grabbing her jacket, she headed out to the barn to talk to the hands. She had grown up with these men and hoped that whatever happened they decided to be a part of it. They were like her family and they always treated her as such.
The men were waiting in the barn talking about the weather and drinking their coffee when she walked up. They always reminded her of the older people that met at the cafe to talk and drink coffee every Saturday morning with their every day ritual.
"Mornin' guys. I hope you slept well because we have a lot to get done in a short amount of time." she stated as she walked up to them. "We have an emergency meeting tonight at 6:00 that we need to be present for."
"Emergency meeting?" Asked Red.
Red had worked for her parents since she was born. He was an older man of about fifty-six but he could hold his own and put a lot of younger guys to shame when it came to hard work.
None of these guys ever watched the news so she knew she would have to fill them in.
"There is an outbreak over seas that will eventually be in the U.S. and we need to prepare for it. The undead will eventually take over."
"Undead? Like zombies in the movies?" asked Casey, our newest and youngest hand.
Casey had only been here six months and was around twenty-five. He had no family, no place and nothing to his name when he had bumped into her dad in town. He was looking for a job after drifting into town so my dad offered him a position with us. He had been with them ever since.
"Yes, like the movies." Was all she could say. She couldn't dwell on what was happening yet, there was too much to do.
"Lets hurry and take care of the animals and then we can talk about this more at the meeting after everything is done."
With Oakleys final words spoken, the men all nodded in agreement and then went straight to work.
The day had been dragging on and it seemed as if everything that could go wrong did. One of the bulls tried squeezing between the gate and the fence post and got his head stuck, a tractor broke down, one of the yearlings was found with a deep gash that needed cleaned and treated, then found that five cows were missing when they did a head count. Oakley had to saddle up her horse to go find and herd them back while the men found where they got out and fixed it. The day felt as if they would never get finished.
By the time they were all done with work the time shown it was 5:45 p.m. The neighboring ranchers were showing up for the meeting.
It was finally time to get some answers and hear the fellow ranchers opinions and ideas.
Oakley was making her way to the barn that everyone was gathering in when an unfamiliar truck pulled in with the Broken R ranch emblem on the side.
Once she got closer and the man stepped out of his truck she felt all the air leave her body as she took in the sight of the sexiest man she had ever seen in her life.
Before she knew what was happening she was no longer moving, she had stopped dead in her tracks and was eyeing him up and down admiring his tall and muscular build when he looked up and locked eyes with her. The man then smirked at her and nodded his head hello before turning around and walking into the barn. Not realizing she was staring with her mouth wide open made her blush. She must have looked like an idiot. She didnt even want to know what her appearance looked like. This was going to be awkward.
When she walked in everyone was sitting on some fold up chairs that her mom must have brought out during the day. There were worried looks on the familiar faces as they talked about the events happening over seas with the undead. She could see everyone but the man she had seen earlier. He was no where to be seen. Scanning the room as she walked in she didn't realize him come up from behind.
"Who might you be?" The man asked.
"Holy shit!" Oakley said as she jumped and grabbed her chest. Turning fast on her heels.
"Didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry. My name is Corey, I just wanted to introduce myself."
"It's ok, I'm good. Um, Oakley, my name is Oakley." Was all she seemed to say. Her chest felt tight and her knees felt like they were shaking.
Why was she reacting to him this way and why did she want to jump on him, wrap her arms and legs around him and kiss him with all the need she felt coursing through her veins.
A sexy smirk appeared on Coreys face. "Nice to meet you, maybe i will see you around sometime." With that he walked around her and headed toward one of the chairs no one had taken.
She was confused by her body's reaction and her loss for words. She had never been at a loss for words and she definitely had never felt her body react to anyone like that before.
"Why now? The world is ending, i don't have time to crush on someone. There are too many more important things to worry about." She thought to herself.
Oakley walked up to the front to join her parents for the meeting while resisting the urge to look over at Corey.
"Thank you everyone for showing up." Said her father. The room then fell silent. "Its time we talk about what we should do to prepare for what's coming."
"I know that to survive this it would be easier if we teamed together. If we make a plan and put it into action, tomorrow we should hopefully be ready by the time the undead reach the U.S." As her father finished speaking, the room began to beam with questions from all corners of the barn.
"How do we know it will even reach here?" One man yelled.
"Where would we even start? We don't know how to go against this kind of thing." yelled another.
Oakley could only understand the first two questions as the yelling all seemed to mix together as everyone was trying to yell over one another.
She had never seen these people behave this way before and it took her by surprise. She couldn't take it anymore as she threw her hands to her mouth and whistled with everything she had.
"Enough! We aren't going to get anywhere with everyone acting like children! We don't have very long to get everything done and in order if we want this to work, if you want to be part of this awesome, if not, you don't you have to stay here and discuss it. Either way we need to stay calm and get the ball rolling!"
Everyone looked at Oakley as if she had two heads and were surprised by her outburst.
"She is right. Everyone needs to decide what they want to do now and work together to get this figured out." Corey said breaking the silence.
Oakley never thought he would be the one to back her up but he just did. With a nod of thank you in his direction she then went on to say what she needed to.
"I've given it a lot of thought today and i honestly think it to be best for all of us to stay on one ranch. Ours to be exact. We have the cliffs at the end of our property that no one could get up. We have the river and ponds that are through out our whole property. There are several houses spread across our land that could house everyone and we have wells hooked to every one. Last but not least we have everything hooked up and ran off of solar power so we would be able to live comfortably. I know this is a lot to take in but its something we must think of."
"I believe that could work, especially if we build walls around the rest of the property to help protect us, keep livestock in and keep the undead and others out. Some survivors are going to be just as dangerous as the undead and I'd rather stay protected. I know that with all of our bows, guns and ammunition combined we could all stay well protected." Tom, her father, pointed out.
"I'm in." Corey then said. "It makes the most sense. When do we start?"
