Zombies! (Book 4): Nowhere To Hide

by Merritt, R. S.

  “It’s all good man. She already used me for sewing practice and I’m still alive.” Randy said cheerfully. He seemed to be recovering pretty well. Or, maybe that was just the Percocet talking. Kelly made a note to watch everyone’s pill intakes before she managed to start their very own opioid crisis.

  Steeling her resolve she had Myriah help her get Tony’s shirt and pants off so they could get easy access to where the bullet wounds were. Caitlyn was over in the corner with the little kids keeping them amused and distracted. She kept glancing over though and was ready to bounce over to help as needed. Kelly decided she needed Caitlyn more than the girls did and sent her drugged up husband to watch the kids instead.

  Kelly started on the leg wound. It looked like the bullet had just punched through his leg muscle and out the other side. She poked around to make sure there was nothing in the hole beyond the dried-up blood. Not finding anything she poured a bunch of the Hydrogen Peroxide all over the wound then left that to dry up a little bit with just some gauze loosely covering it. Next she did the same with the shoulder wound. That one looked like it had chipped off some bone. She had Caitlyn and Myriah both holding Tony down while she worked her finger in and out of the wound trying to get everything out. When she couldn’t feel anything else in the wound she went ahead and cleaned it up.

  Tony had been reduced to randomly whimpering with pain as they held him down. From across the room the closet door shook violently a few times and they all heard the guard yelling at the top of his lungs. Annoyed at being bothered before she’d been able to start sewing Tony up Kelly asked Caitlyn to check out what was going on in the closet. Randy got up and joined her.

  Randy held a flashlight in his hand and opened the door while Caitlyn stood behind him with the M-16 clutched in the hands. Neither of them expected to have to do much since they’d tied up the guard to the point where it was pretty much impossible for him to move. The rats chewing on his body parts had also figured out the guy wasn’t able to move. Randy jumped back from the closet in disgust at the site of the big rats chewing into the guards legs and arms. One was sitting on the man’s chest trying to get at his face. The guard was swinging his head and gnashing his teeth at it to keep it away.

  Randy expected the rats to scatter in the light, but they just kept right on chewing until he actually started kicking them off the man. Then the rats ran into the corner of the closet and disappeared through a hole there. The bleeding guard looked up from the bottom of the closet with his eyes bulging in terror.

  “Please pull me out of here. I know something you should know. Pull me out and I’ll tell you. You’ve made a big mistake. Pull me out. Please don’t shut the door.” The guard was completely terrified. Tears were pouring out of his eyes and his voice was cracking. Randy could empathize. It didn’t get much worse than being tied up and shoved into a closet for rats to feast on you in the dark.

  “What is it?” he asked the shivering, desperate man lying tied up on the floor of the closet. The man sitting in a pool of his own blood from where the rats had been biting into him.

  “You left the van outside. You left it outside. They’ll see it in the drones, and they’ll come for you. Now take me out. I’ll help you move it. Just don’t put me back in the closet.”

  “How are they going to know which van is which out here?” Randy asked the man.

  “They all have a big X spray painted on the top of them for catching people who run away. No one ever really notices that. They’ll have drones up and they’ll probably find you. You have to hide the van or cover up the X or something if you want to have a chance.”

  “Why do they want us so bad?” Randy asked. That’d been bothering him as well. The Brotherhood seemed like they were throwing a ton of resources into catching them. As messed up as this world was, he was wondering how they’d become such a high priority.

  “I don’t know. I’m sorry. I think maybe you guys killed someone important. I don’t know. Please don’t put me back in the closet. I swear I’ll tell you everything I know from now on. I swear it. I’ll do whatever you say.” Randy looked over at Kelly.

  “I’ve got to finish up on Tony. You want to take Cait and work on that van issue?”

  Randy looked over at Zoey whose face was purple and swollen from being punched by the guard. He looked at Ali who had a band aid on her neck from being cut by the guard. His empathy with the guy vanished as quickly as it’d come up. He had Caitlyn help him pull the guard all the way out. Then they wrapped some tape around his arms and legs and mouth for good measure. Randy squatted down beside their immobilized prisoner and whispered in a menacing tone of voice into the man’s face.

  “You so much as squirm around I’ll shove you back in that closet and let the rats finish eating you.” It was obvious he was telling the truth about it. Done giving the man his last warning he stood up. After some quick kisses for his other daughters and his wife him and Caitlyn headed for the main part of the store. He ignored Tony puckering up and batting his eyes at him.

  It was early morning outside. The bright sunlight making them stop and blink. They’d been sitting in the dim office with just their dangling flashlights for the last few hours. Caitlyn clutched the M-16 while Randy carried the keys to the van and a machete. He really hoped he didn’t have to use the machete. He didn’t know if his wife’s stitching technique coupled with the cheap thread she’d found, would hold up to him going hand to hand with a Zombie or two. Unlike Tony he was familiar with the extent of Kelly’s medical and sewing knowledge. Her medical knowledge consisted of some generic TV dramas. Her sewing knowledge consisted of bringing stuff to the dry cleaners or dropping it off at her mom’s house. The last time one of the girls had needed an iron on patch done she’d had Randy do it because she wasn’t good at it.

  Silently marveling at the strength his wife was bringing to the game he shut off the pain switch for his stomach so he could do his part. He and Caitlyn moved towards the broken-out window to see what was going on outside the store. He was hoping the street would be deserted and they’d be able to figure out where to put the van to hide it. If the street outside was empty and there was a nice big shade tree nearby then this whole mission would end pretty anticlimactically. He was hoping for that ending while expecting the worse. It was pretty much like every day of his life now.

  Through the broken window they could see a Zombie was sniffing around the parking lot. Staring hard at the Zombie Randy did a doubletake and looked over at Caitlyn to see if she had noticed what he thought he’d seen. She gave him a return nod with a shocked look on her face. The Zombie wandering the parking lot was a short woman with nappy red hair sticking out from her dirt covered skull. Her face was covered in the normal gore. She was wearing an outfit that made it look like she’d been turned during a bachelorette party. A skintight black dress rode up on her thighs.

  The protruding stomach of the obviously pregnant Zombie was what had caused Caitlyn and Randy to both do their own doubletakes. The evidence in front of them revealed that the Zombie threat may not die out with the current generation of Zombies. Was the baby in the womb of the Zombie already infected or was she carrying around a perfectly normal baby? If it was a perfectly normal baby, then how did they kill the mother without killing the baby? For that matter, how many unborn children had they killed every time they’d fired down on Zombie herds coming after them?

  It didn’t matter. Randy had made his choice long ago. He’d do whatever it took to make sure Kelly and his kids survived. He wasn’t sure how he’d be able to sleep at night after running a machete through a pregnant woman, but he guessed he was going to find out that night. The van needed to be moved and in order to do that they were going to have to kill the pregnant Zombie. He needed to kill her with minimal effort as well since having to tell Kelly he’d pulled out those stitches she’d worked so hard on wasn’t something he wanted to deal with either. Even with the painkillers it had hurt like a son of a bitch.

  Wondering
how much the painkillers were helping him to keep it together right now he signaled Caitlyn to stay inside and cover him. The pregnant Zombie was standing in the parking lot facing away from them. She was staring at the blank wall of the office building on the other side of the parking lot. Randy moved quickly and quietly though the window holding his machete in his hand. He planned on burying the machete into her head from behind then driving the van under cover. There wasn’t a shade tree nearby but there was a little covered courtyard area that he figured he could park the van in until they could get out of there.

  He kept his approach smooth and quiet. He got into position right behind her without the Zombie making any movement indicating it sensed him. He lifted the machete to bring down on her head. She whipped her head around. Randy found himself staring into the insane eyes of the infected pregnant woman. Shrieking out loud in spite of himself he brought the machete down as hard as he could right into her forehead. He either hit her at a weird angle or should have spent more time sharpening the machete. The powerful blow skimmed the skin off her forehead and stuck in her skull at a weird angle.

  The madly screeching Zombie stumbled backwards. Randy’s machete stuck in her forehead like some kind of futuristic mad max hair ornament. The pregnant Zombie with the machete embedded in her forehead lunged forward. She got a solid grip on Randy’s hair with one hand and his shirt with the other. Randy brought his hands up to keep her gnashing mouth away from him. The Zombie twisting it’s head violently around to try and get at him without the machete getting in the way.

  Randy reached out and grabbed the Zombies throat. Her neck was small enough he could wrap his hand all the way around it. He squeezed hard enough to cut off her air supply. The screeching tapered off even as the Zombie frantically kept trying to get at him with her teeth and nails. Randy pulled a knife he’d snagged from a knife shop they’d looted. The knife looked like something Rambo would’ve ignored for being too flashy. The kind of knife you saw at the local flea market. You’d see it displayed in the same case as throwing stars and nun chucks with picture of ninjas on them.

  Overpriced and cheaply made the knife did what Rambo style knives were supposed to do. It slid easily deep into the woman chest. When he pulled it out, he had to pull hard as the serrated edges got caught on the skin and muscle coming out. He swung the blade again burying it back in her stomach. He ripped the blade out again. He was rewarded with the feeling of life leaving the Zombies body. A flood of fluids from the stab wound in her stomach gushed over his pants and shoes. He tried to think of anything other than what that fluid hitting his legs was from.

  Not giving himself time to reflect on the baby he’d just killed he waved for Caitlyn to come out and help him. He didn’t see any other Zombies around, but the screeching was bound to attract them at some point. Even if they were only mildly curious, they’d be wandering this way from the surrounding blocks. He hurried up and opened up the van and put it in neutral. With one hand on the steering wheel he started pushing. A few seconds later he felt the going get a little easier as Caitlyn added her strength to the effort.

  The van was settled within a few minutes once they got the rhythm down for pushing it. Once they’d hidden the van, Caitlyn and Randy sprinted back into the building before any other Zombies had the chance to wander by and see them standing in the parking lot. The dead mother lay on the garbage covered pavement baking in the heat of the Florida sun. Ants and other bugs moving in to eat the fluids leaking out of her. Before too long rats and other carrion feeders would be feasting on the infected meat. Huge flocks of vultures had become common place. Their wings blotting out the sun when they were disturbed.

  Randy hoped Kelly had finished up with Tony and he was in good enough shape to travel. He didn’t see that they could stay here now like they’d planned. They’d gotten the van moved pretty quickly but there was no guarantee it hadn’t been seen before they did. This location just wasn’t safe anymore. He wasn’t looking forward to the conversation he was going to have to have with the family about leaving again with no rest. He took a deep breath and trudged his way back to the office with Caitlyn.

  Chapter 11: Looting by the Numbers

  Kyler stared through the night vision goggles at the activity below. A small-town right off the interstate was getting cleaned out by an army of scavengers quietly ripping it apart. The men and women systematically looting the town were packing away everything they took into the backs of three large tractor trailers parked along the road. Kyler had looked inside the trucks earlier that day when they’d first arrived and noted that they were completely empty. Before the sun came up today it was expected that all three trailers would be completely full and ready to drive out.

  The scale of the looting put the scavenging parties Kyler had been a part of up north to shame. In the weird green world of the night vision goggles the lines of scavengers looked like ants at work. That feeling was reinforced by the eerier silence of the people working. Each of them knew if they made too much noise it’d mean a host of unwanted visitors showing up. Prior to the looting party arriving a clearing party had been sent in. The clearing party had been in charge of clearing out the town to allow for the looting to take place. They did that mainly by luring the existing Zombies away with loud noises and diversions then going building by building to kill the ones that’d remained.

  Kyler had found out being part of a clearing party was considered the first step to entering into the ranks of the guards. Since Kyler was Brotherhood, he’d skipped all the low-level entry jobs and rose straight to being in a road crew. He hadn’t told Jeff yet that he wasn’t destined to be in a road crew for very long. The road crew was just his ride to get him down to Florida so he could check in on his fake relatives. The men and the women in the scavenging parties worked like dogs. Good work was rewarded with food and shelter and the safety of their children. No one had told him how bad work was punished but Kyler was assuming he could guess the answer to that one.

  All three trucks were filled up in under three hours. The scavengers melted back into the forest to go sleep the day away in their camps in the woods. Each of the scavengers would have children or other family they cared about back at one of the main base camps. This further helped to keep them in line and was easy to pitch as a reward for their work. It seemed a bit diabolical to Kyler to separate families like that. Using people’s children as leverage to make them work like dogs in such dangerous conditions was borderline evil. He thought he may finally be seeing why the people up north had thought it was important to check this place out.

  Considering he was branded as one of the Brotherhood and powerless to do anything about it he decided to just look on it as a necessary evil for now. Maybe at some point in the future he’d be in a position to do something about it, but for now the best he could do would be to try and protect the scavengers to the best of his ability. With that in mind he climbed to the top of the tractor trailer and lay down to continue to observe the town. He watched as the last of the scavengers finally disappeared into the woods. When he was fairly certain they were all gone, and he didn’t see any Zombies loping off after them he climbed back down off the roof of the trailer.

  Jeff met him on the ground. They shook their heads at each other to signal they hadn’t seen anything. Jeff headed over to the third truck in line and Kyler jogged to the lead truck. Kyler climbed up to the door and carefully opened it to avoid making any noise. He climbed inside once he had it opened and gently shut the door behind him. He looked around the cab. There was a sleeping section in the back that the driver had been curled up in the last three days since parking the truck here. They had to come in early and then sit around waiting for any Zombies they stirred up to get bored and leave. The windows had all been covered with sections of chain link fence. That way even if the glass was broken the Zombies probably wouldn’t be able to get in. If you were buried under enough of them to break through the glass and the chain link you were probably screwed anyway.
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  Kyler looked over at the leather jacket wearing Hispanic truck driver in the other seat. The man smiled back at him and tapped his wrist with a questioning look on his face.

  “Let’s give it a couple of minutes for everyone to get ready. Once we’re good here we can go ahead and get on the road.” Kyler said quietly. There was no reason to be super quiet in the cab of the truck, but the habit was hard to break.

  “You going to ride shotgun the whole way?” The guy asked him. A heavy accent tipping Kyler of that English was probably not this guy’s first language. Not that any of that really mattered anymore. If it ever really had.

  “Nope. About three miles up the road you’ll pick up an escort and drop me and my buddy off. The escort will take you all the way in.”

  “You know if we’ll get to see our families this trip?” The man asked with just a hint of desperation showing in his voice. Kyler felt sorry for the man, but it wasn’t like there was anything he could do about it. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. He hoped it hadn’t come off as condescending. He really just didn’t know the best way to respond. The man didn’t seem offended. Rather, he looked slightly relieved that Kyler hadn’t responded more aggressively to the question.