Zombies! (Book 4): Nowhere To Hide

by Merritt, R. S.

  Kelly got out of the van with Randy’s pistol in her hand and shot the three Zombies center of mass like Tony had shown them. Thinking of Tony, she got the door shut on the passenger side for Myriah and Randy then jogged to the back of the van where a very frazzled looking Caitlyn was pointing an M-16 at a pissed off twenty something with a shaved head dressed in camouflage. Tony was lying on the side of the van still and she could see his chest rising and falling so he was still alive. She was taking all that in when she was hit hard in the chest by an exuberantly flying young child.

  “Mommy!” Doreen yelled excitedly. Zoey and Ali were both breaking out into worried smiles too. Kelly gave them all quick hugs and kisses. She knew they needed to hurry before more Zombies, or the Brotherhood showed up.

  “Your dad managed to take the van. It’s him who’s been driving us. He’s hurt so we need to find somewhere with some more medical supplies.”

  “What was the shooting we just heard?” Caitlyn asked while keeping her eye on the shoelace tied up guard. His hands looked like they may be turning purple, but Kelly had a hard time caring.

  “A couple of Zombies showed up. More are probably on the way, not to mention more morons like the one we got tied up back here. I’m going to try and find an exit with one of those hospital signs on it. Hey, remember when you had to sew your own girl scout patches on because when I did it, they kept falling off. You are way better at sewing than I am right?” Caitlyn raised her eyebrows at her before carefully answering the question.

  “I’m not sewing up dad. That’s totally your job.”

  “We’ll see. Now if baldy here gives you any issues go ahead and shoot him. Be careful not to hit anyone else. I love you girls. Take care of Tony. I’ll get us somewhere safe as soon as I can.”

  “What about me?” the guard asked.

  “Shut up. You say another word I’ll drag you out of the van shoot both your legs and leave you for the Zombies. That includes when I’m not here. Nod your head if you understand.”

  “I get it I’m just saying if you –“ Kelly climbed in the van and kicked the man in the back of his head. She kicked him hard enough that his face bounced off the hard metal floor. He spit out some blood but got the message and shut his mouth. Kelly jumped back down and closed the doors to the van. Walking around to the front she shot another Zombie who’d shown up looking to see what all the commotion was about. With all the noise they were making this place was going to be a Zombiepalooza in the next fifteen minutes.

  Kelly got in the driver’s seat and got them moving. She was shaking as bad as Myriah had been earlier. The thing bothering her the most was that she’d just kicked the guards face into the floor in front of her daughters. It’d struck her the kind of world she was bringing them up in. A world where it was necessary for them to take prisoners and beat information out of them. A world where a mom could threaten things like shooting someone in the legs and leaving them to be eaten alive. Her girls used to be loud and rambunctious. They’d been normal, giggly, loud, lovingly annoying, normal healthy girls.

  What were they going to turn into now? Was she raising them to treat human life like a cheap commodity? She’d been deadly serious about dragging the guard onto the road and shooting him. She’d have probably just done one bullet to the head though. No need to leave him there wounded in case the Brotherhood showed up before the Zombies did. She wasn’t leaving the man alive out of any pity or compassion for him. Those weak emotions had been scorched out of her by the driving need to protect her family. The guard was lying in the van right now so she could torture him when they had time and figure out what he knew about the Brotherhood. They needed to know where they were concentrated at so they could avoid them. Once she had that info, she’d been casually thinking they’d kill him.

  Like there weren’t enough dead bodies lying in ditches already. Her shakes died down as she decided they’d have a conversation about their moral compasses once they made it out of Brotherhood territory alive. Until then she was going to keep herself in an ‘ends justify the means’ kind of mindset. Hopefully, one day in the not too distant future they’d have the luxury of acting like decent people again. She promised herself to work on containing the violence in front of the children. Maybe she could spare them a little bit of the scarring. Not that it probably mattered too much at this point.

  Chapter 9: Hurry Up and Wait

  Kyler winced at the bright light leaking in around the curtains in the living room of the musty cabin he’d been given. He’d never seen light travel that fast and hit that hard. He shut his eyes and rolled over to bury his face in his pillow. The couch was spinning, and he felt like he was going to toss his cookies at any second. His mouth tasted like he’d gargled with piss and garlic before passing out the night before.

  Something was beeping. He needed whatever it was to go away. He realized after looking around that it was his phone alarm. The phone was set on the top of the combo TV stand dresser on the other side of the room. It was an impossibly distant object for him to retrieve. He felt around for his pistol and had it pulled out and aimed at the dresser before thinking better of it. It was a new phone he’d been given to use for things like picture taking and the map app. Even without cellular data and networks the phones were still useful devices. He wished he still had his from the beginning. It would’ve been nice to have some pictures of his mom and friends to carry with him. He supposed all of that was still backed up in the cloud, but who the hell knew where that cloud had drifted off to.

  He sat up straight as he belatedly realized the alarm was going off because he was supposed to be somewhere. His hazed-up brain tried to remember exactly where that was but just kept spinning around a vague recollection of being told he had to be somewhere in the morning. Which would explain why someone had set the alarm on his phone to go off at this ridiculous hour after the ridiculous amount of booze they’d had the night before. The man who’d been like a father to him, Mike, had been a hard-core alcoholic. That’d kept Kyler from ever wanting to touch anything stronger than the occasional red solo cup at high school parties. He saw no reason to risk addiction having seen what it could do to people.

  As of right now he couldn’t foresee ever drinking anything alcoholic ever again. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and try to sleep for a few more hours. He was thinking if he did that, he may wake up feeling less like a marching band had ripped his head open and marched right in. He was also hoping a nap may give the couch time to get bored of levitating and spinning in the air with him on it. His OCD about being on time kicked in though, and he forced himself off the couch. He staggered into the bathroom and brushed his teeth. The taste of the toothpaste triggered something in him. Five minutes later he was leaning against the wall of the bathroom amazed at the amount of vomit he’d been able to produce. He supposed he couldn’t count the last couple of minutes of his pukefest because it’d been mostly dry heaves.

  His head was still killing him. He crawled out of the bathroom, careful to avoid the puddle of steaming stomach stew he’d pumped out of his mouth onto the cool tile floor. He looked around desperately for his stash of bottled water. He forced himself to drink two of the bottles. He took breaks between every swallow of water to make sure he wasn’t going to hurl it back up. When he’d finished both bottled waters, he leaned back against the couch feeling ridiculously proud of himself for not puking up the water. He opened up an MRE and found the crackers in it. They tasted like cardboard which was exactly what he’d been going for. He’d been afraid anything that tasted like actual food would set his hair trigger gag response off again.

  The sound of the door being flung open startled him out of contemplating the cracker wrapper he’d been fixated on. Looking up he saw one of the men he remembered from the ceremony the night before. In spite of the large amount of booze he’d seen the man slamming at the party he looked annoyingly refreshed in the sun-drenched entryway to the cabin. The man sauntered cheerfully past Kyler to look into the ba
throom.

  “I was wondering if you puked all over yourself or if you got some of it in the toilet. Looks like you missed the toilet altogether then used your own body to try and clean it up. If you’re going to stroll around with a Brotherhood brand on your back, you’re going to have to work on your tolerance level. We have to do things and go places that you’re going to want to drink right out of your memory later. You think you’re going to survive? Maybe next time we can get a keg of Zima for you?” The man squatted down and grinned at Kyler. Kyler considered shooting him but the thought of how loud the shot would be chased the idea away.

  “I’ll survive. I just need some more water and crackers. Did you come here to get me for wherever I’m supposed to be this morning?” Kyler mumbled.

  “I’m Jeff by the way. After what I just saw in the bathroom and since you’re a brother now I feel like we should be on a first name basis. As to where you’re going this morning. That’s above my paygrade. I was just told to collect you in the morning and make sure you were able to haul your sorry hungover ass to the admin center for orders. So, find a clean set of clothes and let’s go. Might want to brush your teeth and wash off a little to. I’ve seen corpses that look healthier than you do. I’d hate to have someone take a shot at you because they thought a Zombie wandered in. They might miss you and hit me.”

  Kyler took off his shirt and used the bucket of water on the porch to wash off. He changed into a set of less dirty clothes. He made a mental note to raid the next clothing store he passed to stock up on underwear and socks. The stuff he had with him was getting pretty ripe and doing laundry was super low on his list of priorities. Why should he when there were more clothes sitting around waiting for the taking than would possibly be used up in his lifetime. When he was ready, he nodded at Jeff. Jeff was sitting at the small table in the kitchenette eating the extra food items from the MRE Kyler had snagged the crackers out of.

  “Alright then. Thanks for the overly processed breakfast. You might as well grab all your gear. I kind of got the impression you might not be coming back. Maybe you want to gargle it up a bit. I saw one of those little testers of mouthwash sitting in the basket in the bathroom.”

  Kyle ignored the mouthwash comment. He’d picked up on something else Jeff had said.

  “What gave you the impression I might not be coming back?” He asked curiously. He didn’t really expect a straight answer to that. He shoved the rest of his accumulated gear in his pack then made sure his weapons were all strapped on and accessible. Done with that, he stared at Jeff waiting to see if he got an answer.

  “Road crew’s coming in today. Also, the commander told me to tell you to get your gear together because you’d be shipping out. It’s less of an impression and more like I know you’re going to be rolling out. I’m now completely out of useful information so can we please head over to the administrative building. I want to drop you off and get back to my comic books, beer and the beanbag chair I’ve now dragged halfway across Georgia.

  When Kyler caught himself on the cusp of asking about the beanbag chair, he realized he was stalling. It wasn’t the hangover slowing him down. The hangover wasn’t helping him any but the real thing bothering him was the fear of going back on the road again so soon. He still had issues walking. His skin was going through some crazy transformations with all the burnt patches deciding if they wanted to scar or peel. He was bruised, battered and felt like he was physically around fifty percent of peak. He needed to hole up somewhere and recuperate. He had no desire to leave his cabin let alone the outpost given everything he’d just suffered through to make it there.

  At the administrative building Jeff left him sitting in an empty office and took off. Kyler put his pack on the floor and amused himself by making sure that all of his magazines were filled with bullets. Then he dug through his pack and separated out anything that was garbage, so he wasn’t carrying it around with him. Completely out of things to do to pass the time he got up and went out in the hallway. A small group of soldiers were coming down the hallway talking among themselves. They nodded at Kyler as they passed. He recognized the one in the back who took the time to slap him on the back. The jerk grinned at the expression of pain crossing Kyler’s face. There was one in every group Kyler thought.

  In spite of the pain Kyler noticed the other men in the group look at him slightly differently. Some looked at him with respect while a couple seemed to regard him with fear. The whole exchange only took a couple of seconds, but it was enough to convince Kyler to head back into the little office he’d been given to wait in. If getting slapped on the back was the price of being seen he was now happy to spend his day staring at the wall in the little room. He sat back down to wait for the promised meeting to happen.

  His stomach was growling at him and he was considering heading out of his little cubby to find food when the doorknob turned and a tall man in camouflage walked in.

  “Are you Kyler?” The man asked. He was well over six feet tall with dark hair and an athletic build. He had weapons hanging all over him and looked and smelled like he’d been on the road for a while. He also looked like he’d recently been in a fight. He was covered in dirt and his sleeves had that congealed, dried blood covered look Kyler was all too familiar with.

  “That’s me sir.” The man had lieutenant bars on his lapels. Kyler hadn’t really mastered the way the command structure was setup here yet. He supposed it didn’t matter too much as long as he knew who his boss was supposed to be. He’d been around the military long enough to pick up naturally on the difference between officers and enlisted people. He knew the traditional ranks for the different branches, but the post war bastardized version made for a confusing medley that he hadn’t really bothered trying to sort out yet.

  “Ok. Anyone bothered telling you your orders yet?” The lieutenant asked. The man had an easy way about him like he’d be comfortable in pretty much any situation. He was also obviously a killer. He may look comfortable in any situation, but it would be because he had a knife tucked into his sleeve and he was ready to stab you the second you let your guard down. This was a man to watch.

  “No sir.” Kyler decided to leave out the rumors Jeff had thrown his way about the road crew and him leaving the base.

  “Well, for the same reasons they made you Brotherhood they’re giving you an assignment that should get you closer to checking on your family. The commander put in for you to get down to Florida. You’re still looking to get there right?” The sharp-eyed lieutenant must’ve noticed the confusion that’d momentarily clouded Kyler’s eyes. The confusion disappearing as Kyler remembered his cover story included him trying to get to Florida to check in on his family and make sure they were ok.

  “Absolutely sir. How soon could I get there?” Kyler asked. He was trying to act like he actually cared about checking on his fictional family. Ever since deciding that the whole spying idea had been a waste of his time his goals had shifted. He didn’t feel like he owed the people to the north anything. The people down here weren’t evil . They weren’t up to anything nefarious as far as he could tell. Nothing more than anyone else would do to stay alive. If you needed to send a bunch of Zombies back where they came from then that’s what you had to do. Too bad if you sent them right back at the people to the north. Now that he had a big brand on his back marking him as one of their upper-class warriors, he was even more hesitant to head north.

  “We’ll be leaving in a few hours. I just came by to check in with the commander and make sure all was well here. I’ll be taking you and another soldier to fill in for some of the men we lost this patrol. Go ahead and grab some chow then come back and we’ll pick you up here when we’re headed out.” Without waiting to see if Kyler had any questions the tall lieutenant strode out the door.

  Kyler went to the mess hall and enjoyed a bowl of beans with some sort of meat in it mixed up with a bunch of old canned vegetables. It was a good meal considering the food he normally ate. It tasted like the cooks had
even bothered to put some spices in it. He was on his second bowl of it when Jeff came in and sat down beside him.

  “Enjoy that bowl of slop. It’s about twenty times better than what we’ll be eating on the road.” Jeff said sitting down on the other side of the small table from Kyler.

  “You’re coming to?” Kyler asked surprised. Jeff had made it seem like he was going to spend the day getting toasted while reading about Spiderman from the comfort of his bean bag chair.

  “I am. I guess they had some KIA. Me and you are the lucky ones who get to fill the holes. I for one am looking forward to the raw terror of being exposed on the road while eating crap out of a can for every meal. Hopefully, we get to march a ton as well, so the Zombies don’t follow the sounds of our engines back to any of the camps.” Jeff was launching into the typical sarcasm of a soldier. Anyone who’s ever been in the military knows the dark humor people spout when faced with going out on a mission. As if belittling the experience will somehow make it easier to survive. Warriors wear their nonchalance like armor.