Zombie Road VI: Highway to Heartache

by David A. Simpson

  They raided a boutique grocery store in a small tourist town and Jessie held off the stumbling dead while Scarlet shopped, a basket draped over her arm. She hummed, compared labels and ignored him when he kept yelling for her to hurry up. She’d seen the dead as they drove through. There were only fifty or sixty of them. He’d be just fine. Jessie kept Bob in the car, told him to stay, because he was just too messy when he ripped them apart. Jessie tried to make clean kills, tried to keep the slop and the blood and the stink off of his leathers.

  “Don’t forget coffee!” he yelled in annoyance when he saw her trying to decide between herbal teas, disregarding the sounds of death being dished out.

  He shoved three of them backward and kicked a snapping school aged boy off the porch, sent him sprawling into the street.

  Scarlet took her time, chose her items carefully and acted as if it were an ordinary day and she was just out for a bit of afternoon shopping. She never lost sight of him, though. Just below her studied indifference she saw all through the large plate-glass windows.

  “Behind you.” she said as she sauntered past a rack of recipe magazines and Jessie swung his fist into the face of a gray woman in a shapeless, tattered dress.

  “I saw her.” Jessie said defensively as he swept the feet out from another pair reaching bony fingers for him.

  “Do you like seaweed crackers?” she asked over the sound of breaking bones.

  “Gross. No.” he yelled back, sinking his blade into a mushy skull.

  “I’ll try to find us some rice cakes, then.” she sang back, not a care in the world.

  “Just kidding! I love them. No need to look for something else!”

  The minutes dragged by and he got to slow his killing spree as the undead horde slackened to a trickle.

  “Finished.” Scarlet announced merrily as she came out, the bell above the door rang and her basket was heavy with a lot of food Jessie didn’t recognize.

  She walked daintily around the pools of dark blood and gore then waited patiently for Jessie to open her door.

  Being a gentleman, he did.

  They stopped for lunch at a roadside park a half hour later and Scarlet spooned canned caviar on whole wheat crackers and fed it to him.

  “It would be better if we had creamy cheese but this is good.” Scarlet said and held it until he finally relented and took a bite.

  “It tastes like shit.” Jessie declared, grimaced and grabbed for his Mountain Dew.

  “You have no culture.” Scarlet replied. “Try this.”

  She added a little Foie Gras to one of the crackers and he eyed it dubiously.

  “What is it?” he asked and wrinkled his nose.

  “It is goose liver and it is delicious.” she said “Honestly, Jessie. You cannot eat hamburgers for every meal. We must expand your horizons.”

  “I don’t see you eating any of it.” he said. “I think you’re trying to poison me. Look, even Bob won’t touch it.”

  Jessie held the cracker down to his Shepherd who snorted and turned away.

  “Barbarians.” she sighed dramatically and spooned some liver out for Nefertiti who ate it hungrily.

  Jessie washed the taste out of his mouth with a long drink and reached for the organic peanut butter. At least it would be good and wouldn’t taste like salty gym socks. It was impossible to screw up peanut butter. He watched her as she ate, delicate fingers remembering meal time rituals with foods he’d never heard of. His heart swelled as he looked on. She was perfect in every way. Everything she did was precise, even the way she gave the butter knife a little half twist as she set it down. She had table manners. She was cultured. He knew she would be comfortable in the fanciest of restaurants or at the most lavish dinner affairs. She would know which fork to use and what to do with her napkin. Which glass was for what and probably how to sample wine.

  He’d only seen those things on TV.

  With her father being an important man in his field, one of the leading Egyptian archeologists and a museum curator, she’d probably been to hundreds of fancy parties. Jessie had never been to anything more extravagant than Applebee’s or the Outback steakhouse. He watched, slightly awed at his good fortune, and felt complete. He was happy. He remembered something his dad would say about mom sometimes. Hashtag I married up. It was a dumb dad joke but he meant it. He felt the same about Scarlet. Her blonde and black hair was getting long again from when she’d hacked it off with a butcher knife. When they got to the Tower, he’d trade something and get her an appointment at the hair salon. When they got her on the right meds and the black traces on her face and arms and legs started retreating, they’d go to Lakota. Maybe he’d try to find a ring, maybe ask her to marry him. Maybe Preacher could do the wedding, he’d like that.

  She glanced up, her emerald green eyes catching his staring and she gave him a questioning look.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  Jessie smiled, the scar making it look like a gentle snarl and just shook his head. He couldn’t put it into words. That would cheapen it. He couldn’t tell her he would do anything for her. Give her anything she wanted. Build her anything she desired. Take her anywhere she wanted to go. He couldn’t express those things without it sounding cheesy, like something from a sappy love song, but he felt them. He would do them. Scarlet smiled back and took a bite of the caviar she’d spread on the cracker then instantly spit it out.

  “Blech.” she said and scraped at her tongue. “It’s spoiled!”

  “I told you it tasted like shit.” Jessie laughed.

  “You didn’t say it had gone bad!” she said between spitting and rinsing her mouth with his can of Dew.

  “I thought that was the way it was supposed to taste.” he said, still grinning. “I’ve never had it before. I thought it was an acquired taste for you fancy folk.”

  “Nobody acquires that taste.” she said and they both spun when Bob growled. Shamblers were making their way into the park, coming in off the road.

  “Let’s go.” she said. “I don’t want to fight and get messy.”

  Jessie grabbed the peanut butter, the only thing worth saving, and went to the car to hold her door open.

  “Sure you don’t want your caviar?” he asked as he climbed in on his side and fired it up.

  “Ha ha Mr. funny man.” she said as they pulled out, leaving pate and fish eggs for the moaning dead.

  They made it to the Tower before nightfall and were pleasantly surprised to see a pair of up armored rigs parked near the ferry. Some of the Lakota drivers were inside, probably spending the evening at the mall. A parking lot had been added since his last visit and he pulled in beside the other retriever cars and trucks. He recognized most of them, it would be good to see old friends. He set out food for Bob as Scarlet fussed over her cat and rubbed its belly. The Tower didn’t allow outside animals in the building and they’d be fine by themselves for a night.

  As they waited for the flat boat to cross over to them, he noticed all the new battlements they’d installed. He could see the Tow Missiles set up on the roof, one on every corner and a few bolted down on the long sides. The Bradley was in a new hangar near the boat ramps and he could see where they’d built a sally port so it could get out without letting the undead in. Captain Macon had been busy these past few months but not too busy to greet him warmly when they stepped off the boat. He didn’t have his contingent of well-dressed G-men with him and he was unarmed himself, Jessie noted.

  “Glad to have you with us, ma’am.” he said as he shook Scarlets’ hand.

  “You’ll still have to go through security.” he said unapologetically as he led the way and his eyes kept darting to the black marks creeping away from the scars on her face.

  “How many weapons are you going to try to sneak through this time?” he asked good naturedly as they both unloaded the various guns, blades and batons they were wearing at the counter.

  “Me?” Jessie asked innocently. “None, of course.”

  Maco
n smiled as Scarlett snorted.

  “Jessie is scofflaw.” she said “He is always breaking rules.”

  “I gathered as much.” the captain said as he patted him down and stopped on Jessie’s belt buckle, the one with the carbon fiber blade hidden in it. He held out his hand.

  “Oops. Forgot about that one.” he said and glared at Scarlet.

  She smiled innocently and walked through the metal detector without it sounding then made her way to the examination room.

  Jessie showed Macon the Fabergé egg while they waited on Scarlett, her exam was taking a lot longer than his.

  He whistled softly, nodded appreciatively.

  “Beautiful.” he said. “That’s what you’re trading to Doctor Samed? He’ll be pleased, he’s sent a dozen retrievers after them and you’re the first to bring one back. There are only a few here in the States, most of them are in Russia. Where did you get it?”

  “Salt Lake City.” Jessie said and placed it back in the soft packaging.

  “Ah.” Macon said. “I’d heard stories about that one. A few teams have tried but they couldn’t get past the horde surrounding the building. They said there were thousands. That true or were they exaggerating?”

  “No, all true.” Jessie said without pretense. “We led them away, trapped them in the football stadium then rappelled off the roof to get back down. That part was easy.”

  Macon stared at the boy gently folding the cloth wrappings around the egg. Led a thousand strong horde away then rappelled off the roof of a building. He said it like it was nothing. Like it was as easy as walking across the street to get the mail. The boy had no idea he had done the impossible. Something other men had tried and failed. Not just any men, the best of the best. The strongest, bravest and most resourceful men available in this new world had failed and he’d waltzed in and got it accomplished. By rappelling off the roof of a building. He shook his head and smiled. The kid said that was the easy part. He couldn’t wait to hear the rest of the story.

  Scarlet finally came out of the room and the nurse gave a curt nod to Macon but Jessie noticed the troubled look on her face. She’d recognized the signs of infections and had only let her in when Scarlet explained why they were here. That they had the egg and wanted to meet with Doctor Samed.

  Macon led them into his small office, rang the switchboard operator and asked for the Doctors private number. Business hours were long over. Scarlet slipped something in Jessies hand and just smiled at his look of surprise. It was his carbon fiber knife. He slid it in his back pocket as they waited on Macon to dial the cell phone number. It went to voice mail. He left a message saying a retriever had the egg, left a phone number, hung up and started rummaging through his drawer.

  “Take this.” he said, turning on an iPhone. “That’s the number I gave him. He’ll call as soon as he listens but it may not be until tomorrow. Meanwhile, you kids have any plans for the evening?”

  “Chocolate fudge sundae, maybe ice skating and we’ll grab a room for the night.” Jessie said.

  Macon grinned at them, at their excitement of being able to do things everyone had taken for granted just a year ago.

  “I’d suggest going to the guest quarters first.” he said. “We have plenty of hot water and soap.”

  9

  Jessie + Scarlet

  Jessie had on new pants and a button-up shirt that had been waiting for them in the room. He’d skipped the blazer, it was a bit much. Whoever left the clothes had gotten their sizes right and Scarlet wore form fitting black jeans with a cashmere sweater. Both were scrubbed clean, as clean as they’d been in weeks, and it felt good. Someone had even laid out rouge, lipstick and mascara and Jessie had his first experience of waiting on a girl to get ready. He didn’t mind, there were a hundred different channels on the TV and he couldn’t decide which one to watch so he surfed them all.

  With a pocket full of Lakota Gold and the excitement of teenagers, they took off for the entertainment district to see the lights and hear the sounds of a world that hadn’t been affected by the undead apocalypse.

  “Ice cream first.” Jessie said and took her hand as he guided her through the crowds. The people stared at them, the scarred-up boy and the girl with the two-tone hair, but everyone was polite. Some recognized him from the tales on Radio Lakota and called out greetings. Most of the men stared at Scarlet simply because she was striking. She stood tall, with half of her collar length hair blonde-white, the other six inches still jet black. The light makeup had covered the dark runners and she didn’t try to mask the diagonal slashes on her cheek. They only added to her exotic allure. Pictures were snapped and within minutes the power couple were trending on Twitter and Facebook was aflutter. Lakota may have the most powerful radio station in the world but the Tower still had social media and they were starved for outside news and celebrity.

  Jessie had to try hard to be nice, not to snap at people who kept coming up to their table and asking for pictures but Scarlet handled them with grace. She was used to being the center of attention and this was much more real than the worshippers of Bastet. These people didn’t want anything from her, didn’t expect her to fix all their problems or show them the way. They just wanted her picture or to simply say hello. Jessie looked grumpy and sour in most of the shots and it didn’t take long for them to avoid the scowling kid wanting to be left alone with his double hot fudge sundae. They gravitated to her and her smile. Her willingness to make small talk and pose for photos, to thank them for their kindness and answer questions about the outside world. A group of well-dressed women finally separated them, insisted Javier simply must do something about her split ends and led her off to the salon. Scarlet beamed a goodbye to him and he saluted her with a spoonful of ice cream.

  He was happy she was happy and that he wouldn’t have to hang out in some beauty salon waiting for her. They’d have time for ice skating tomorrow when some of the fuss died down. He thought they might be here for a day or two if the doc had to run a bunch of tests. He’d have to talk to Macon, maybe see if he could bring Bob and Nefertiti over to hang out in the dock area, even though they weren’t allowed in the main building.

  The ladies in the shop had all followed Scarlet over to Javier’s and the men that were left kept looking over at him but none approached. Even without his blood-stained leathers and low-slung guns, he looked a little scary to them as he sat in the corner, back against the wall and finished off his dish.

  “MR. JESSIE!” he heard from across the store and saw Slippery Jim and another kid from Lakota come running in, bumping people aside.

  Jessie rose to greet them, giving hugs to them both. It was good to see old friends from home. The kids were full of excitement and chatter and once they caught up for a few minutes, they dragged him away to the arcade.

  “Tony has high score on the Pacman here!” Jim said “But nobody’s been able to top Scratch’s score on your machine.”

  “Scratch just got lucky.” Jessie said. “I was going to kick his ass before I left but didn’t have time because of the party.”

  “He’s playing music tonight on Radio Lakota.” Jim said. “If you can beat him, I want to call him and rub it in.”

  It was on like Donkey Kong and with his enhanced eyes and liquid fast reflexes, Jessie could have played all night without ever losing a life. He could have easily run through all two hundred and fifty-six screens the machine had before it ran out of memory but he made it exciting for them. He barely beat Scratch’s high score with his last Pacman who almost got eaten a few times before the counter clicked over to eight hundred thousand. Just enough to take away his crown, just enough for the Tower to have the highest scoring Pacman machine on earth. Just enough to have Scratch ranting about it when they called to tease him. A cheer erupted and more pictures were taken of Jessie smiling big with the Lakota Bullet Brigade right there beside him. The crowd parted and got quiet as two dark suited men eased their way through them.

  “Congratulations.” The b
igger of the two said, acting friendly and trying out a smile he hadn’t used in a long time.

  “Mr. Horowitz would like to see you, if you have time.”

  Jessie’s sideways grin fell away fast. He didn’t recognize them and his eyes caught the slight bulges under their jackets. These weren’t the same bodyguards the CEO had before, the ones that had apologized for their leader’s rudeness and then taken him on a tour of the Tower. These men had a harder edge to them, a little meaner stance.

  “Of course.” Jessie said, remembering his duties as an emissary. “I think I’ll be here for a day or two. I can meet him tomorrow.”

  “Mr. Horowitz’s business is quite urgent.” The humorless man said. “He would prefer to meet tonight. He would prefer to meet now.”

  Sorry. I promised my friends we’d play Space Invaders next, was the first thing that popped in his mind but he could already see the outcome of that. He wasn’t in the Wastelands, he was a guest in another man’s home. The gentlemen in the suits would insist then it would probably come down to a fight if he refused. They didn’t look like the kind of guys who would go back to their boss with excuses. The law of the gun wasn’t appropriate when surrounded by well dressed people who smelled of strawberry shampoo and mango skin lotion. These weren’t pissheads sewing zombies together or fang faced raiders looking for someone to cook. This was business. He held out his hand in a lead-the-way gesture to the groans of the boys.