“OK, you had a weird dream, you’re all healed up, and now your body looks like something out of a men's health magazine. So, you knew this fight was coming. Big deal. That's great, for you, and us I guess, but what does that have to do with going south? We aren't fucking geese and every moving thing on earth seems to be trying to kill us all the goddamn time. Pardon me if I'm not ready to pack a bag just yet.”
“The woman, or whatever she is, in my dreams — the one that healed me and warned me about all this — she's waiting for me, for all of us. She’s down in San Diego.”
Jesse watched as Blake cocked his head and stared at him for a long moment without a word. Jesse glanced over at Nathan. He stood stern and unflinching. Jesse looked over at Danielle, who busied herself with the vegetables.
“I found something for the axe,” Tim said. “Here.”
Tim handed Jesse some leather laces to tie the axe to his belt.
“What's going on?” asked Tim, detecting the tension in the air.
“So, let me get this straight,” Blake said. “We are going to go all the way down to San Diego to meet a woman, or whatever she is, because this stranger had some visions. We don't know you from Adam, or what is between here and there, and we don't even know who she is, or what she might do to us. And you expect us to just pick up everything and go on some insane journey that will get us all killed, all because you've got a hunch?”
“It's not a hunch,” Jesse said.
“It's not a hunch,” Blake repeated.
“No, you saw what happened. You saw what's changed and you are trying to fight that truth. I know it'll be hard, but....”
“It'll be impossible! Not hard, not fucking hard, impossible! We'll die, you asshole.”
“We'll die anyways.”
“What the fuck does that mean? Is that a threat?”
“What difference does it make when and where we die?”
“Exactly, so, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather die right here with some comforts.”
“You'd die a coward behind a wall,” said Jesse, using the mysterious woman’s words. “You're better than that.”
“Hey, fuck you, man, I fought hard today.”
“Yes, you did. But, if you stay here, they'll starve you out. Eventually, even if you change your mind, you won't be able to lift your weapon or shield. You'll die like most people died when it all went to shit. You'll die waiting for a solution that never comes. This is it. I'm your last, best hope for a future. Humanity’s future depends on our actions.”
"Humanity's future? Wake up, man," Blake said. He threw his hands in the air and scoffed.
“Enough,” said Nathan. “He's right about us needing to go. So let's go.”
“Great!” said Blake. “Am I the only one who thinks this is bat shit crazy?”
“It's all crazy!” Danielle yelled. They all turned toward her. She threw down her canvas bag and closed in on Blake. As soon as she neared him, she pushed him hard.
“Look outside, you moron,” she said, and she pointed to the gate with one hand and grabbed Blake's throat with the other.
“Go ahead! Take a look! There're about a thousand dead people walking around out there. The dead are walking! I mean, what isn't crazy about what's going on? Huh? Is that more or less crazy than a miracle man with a lady that talks to him in his dreams? I don't fucking know anymore, but I know sure as shit that you don't have any idea either. So why don't you shut the fuck up for a change and listen? This place is over. It's done. We're going, and you can stay here and die if you want, or you can come with us and take a chance. Frankly, I want to see if Jesse is a nutjob or not. At best, we get to sit on the beach with some dream lady, and at worse we get eaten, which is exactly the same thing that would happen if we stay here. It doesn't take a genius to figure this one out, Blake.”
Danielle released her grip. Blake said nothing. She waited for him to speak, but when he did not she turned around, picked up the bag, and went back to picking vegetables. Nathan waved Tim over and they walked into the keep. Blake stood across from Jesse. Jesse put his shirt and armor back on. He began to tie his axe to his belt with the leather straps.
“You're doing it wrong,” said Blake. He walked over to Jesse and grabbed the loose ends of the laces. He tied them tight. Jesse moved the axe handle around to check the strength of the knot.
“I hope you know what you're doing,” said Blake. “It's not just your life that's on the line now.”
Jesse nodded. Blake went into the keep to collect his things.
After a few minutes, they were all ready to leave. Each had a large backpack and Danielle had a sack of vegetables. Everyone formed a circle.
“So,” Nathan said, “I think the obvious question is 'How do we get there?'”
“I wouldn't recommend kayaking,” said Jesse.
“No shit,” said Blake.
“Any bright ideas?” asked Nathan. “I'd rather not walk the whole way there.”
“We could bike,” said Tim.
“That would speed things up a bit,” said Danielle.
“It would mean we'd have to stick to the coastal roads though,” said Jesse, “and we'd have to find a way around San Francisco.”
“Why not take I-5?” asked Tim.
“You've never been south have you?” asked Jesse.
“No,” said Tim.
“Before we reach LA is The Grapevine. It's a windy pass through the mountains. We'd be going up them at a crawl and we'd be burning out our brakes on the way down. Not to mention the weather will be harsh and food would be scarce. I'd like to stay away from the coast too, but it seems the better of the two options.”
“So,” Nathan said. “What do we need? Some bikes, some spare tubes, and a bike pump right?”
“Yep,” said Tim.
“How are we going to slip out of here, get the bikes and get them back here before those things surround us?” asked Danielle.
“We can use a diversion,” said Jesse. “These things aren't smart and they typically go for the easy meat, so three of us stay here while the others get the bikes.”
“Wait a sec,” said Tim. “I've got it, man. We could use one of those things from the Kinetic Grand Championship?”
“We can't ride one of those things all the way down to San Diego,” said Blake. “Get serious.”
“That's not what I'm talking about,” said Tim.
“What's the Kinetic Championship?” asked Jesse.
“It's this weird competition in town every spring,” said Blake. “People make these moving pieces of art and then race each other. It's like four-wheel cycles with a bunch of crazy shit on top of them. Some of them are pretty cool though.”
“I don't see how this helps us, Tim,” said Nathan.
“My cousin raced every year,” said Tim. “He even placed once.”
“And?” Blake said.
“His house is like a bicycle graveyard,” said Tim. “I'm sure we can find a ton of stuff there.”
“All right,” said Jesse. “How do we get there?”
“He lives,” Tim said, he paused for a moment, “lived, on the southeast side of town. It's not that far. We can get out of here and hoof it through the woods. The things will follow us, but I think we can outrun them, and then we can take the bikes out of town on the road. That way they'll never catch us.”
Tim lifted his hands up and waited for approval. Nathan and Jesse looked at each other and shrugged.
“Any objections?” Nathan asked.
“I've heard worse ideas out of Tim,” said Blake.
“I do love a long bike ride,” said Danielle.
“Let's hope a sore ass is all we end up with,” said Blake. “You know, from the bike seats.”
“Idiot,” said Danielle.
Ten
Off To See A woman About The End Of The World
Jesse and Tim landed on the grass opposite the disrupted army of reanimates. The five living occupants in the section of green ear
th called Eureka had managed to kill, scatter, and flatten enough of the creatures to render the army temporarily useless. The few on the periphery of the ranks ambled around, but most were trapped, unable to navigate through the twice-dead corpses. Jesse and Tim kept low and sneaked around the army in a wide half circle. Blake had stitched Tim's gashes with fishing line and closed the smaller cuts with fast-bonding glue. After the stitching was finished, Blake had covered Tim's head and neck in gauze to prevent infection. Tim was so lanky that Jesse thought he resembled a cotton swab.
“You wait here while I get their attention,” said Jesse.
“I'm fine, really,” said Tim.
“I know, but if something happens to me, then you all can still get out of here. If you get killed, then no one knows how to get to your cousin's house.”
“I'm not going to die.”
“We're all going to die, and soon, but I'd rather not die today if it is all the same to you.”
“That's a dark way to look at things, not exactly motivating.”
“That’s not the first time I’ve heard that. I just try to keep things in perspective. Stay here, until I give the signal.”
“What's the signal?”
“You'll know when you hear it.”
“All right.”
With that, Jesse crept away from Tim. A small group of reanimates straggled from the horde. They were making slow, deliberate progress toward the wall, but their bodies were so decayed and frail that they moved like cold molasses. Jesse stood up and slid his axe out of the leather loop on his belt. One of creatures turned and faced him. Its jaw fell open like a loose cabinet door. It plodded forward, its cloudy, uncaring eyes fixed on Jesse. Two more turned and acted in kind. Jesse closed in and pushed the leading creature hard in the chest. It stumbled and fell backwards, knocking over another in the process. The two fallen reanimates writhed on the dewy grass. Jesse swung his axe at the third one's neck. A sharp, dry crack reported a successful blow. Jesse yanked hard on the axe’s handle, but the axe blade was stuck in the bone. The creature collapsed carrying his axe with it. Jesse put one foot on its neck and pulled the axe free. The other two flailed their limbs uselessly like upended turtles.
“Hey!” he yelled over to the horde. “I've got your friends over here. If you don't give me what I want, then I'm going to kill them.”
Tim cocked his head to the side like a confused dog.
“You saw what I did this morning, so you know I'm serious. You'll need to be following me now, and if you follow really well, then maybe I'll let you eat me. Does that excite you? Does that sound like a good time? Who doesn’t love a hot meal?”
They shifted, turned, and glared with those white eyes. Heads rose from the floor of interlaced bodies. The ground was alive and churning: a bumper crop of undead creatures that no one wanted. All the dead eyes were on Jesse. They started toward him. Jesse met the endless gaze of a creature that was still alive but flat on its back. Its mouth opened and it had the strangest look in its eyes. There was no hatred or malice just the sadness that a homeless person has in their eyes: a sense of loss. Jesse held eye contact with that reanimate for a while.
Jesse looked over at Tim.
“Let's go!” Jesse yelled.
They bolted away from the creatures. The two crossed the grassy field with a handful of reanimates pursuing them. A few hundred yards ahead of them was a thin tree line that bordered a narrow river. Atop a small bridge, were dozens of cars all smashed and twisted. Rear ends and roofs of cars and trucks stuck out of the water of the small river like metallic buoys. A poorly planned escape from Eureka had turned into an even worse plan to bypass the bridge.
“We can cross on top of those cars,” said Tim.
Jesse nodded and gestured for Tim to go first. Tim bounded to the edge of the river and put his foot on the front bumper of an SUV that was stuck in the deep muck of the small canal.
“Almost made it,” said Tim. He pushed the bumper a few times with his foot to make sure it was stable. Satisfied, he climbed on the hood and walked across the roof of the car. He jumped the remaining few feet to the other side. Jesse followed. When he landed on the other side of the canal, he looked back to see if the reanimates were still following. They were, but all he could see was their faint outlines. On the rear of the half-submerged car was a faded series of small stickers. It was a stick person rendition of the family that once rode in the vehicle. The white outline of a man, a woman, three kids, and two dogs were above a blue and white sticker that read, “God Bless America.”
Jesse stared at it until Tim tapped him on the shoulder.
Ahead of them was the tree line and innumerable berry brambles snaking their way through the underbrush.
“Fuck, those berry bushes are going to slow us down,” said Tim.
“We've got time. I don't think we have to worry about our friends back there,” said Jesse. “We seem to have outpaced them.”
“Yeah, no big problem. Just a pain in the ass.”
They set to work on cutting a path through the thick brambles. Their armor and gloves protected them from the thorns. After what seemed like an hour, Tim and Jesse made it through the tree line to the end of Noe Avenue. The neighborhood was quaint. Single-story ranch-style homes populated the town with yards overgrown with bushes and weeds. The residents had succumbed to starvation, sickness, or violence long ago. One motor home sat outside a light-blue house.
“That's surprising,” said Jesse.
“Not really. Those things get bad gas mileage. You wouldn't make it far. Plus they maneuver for shit.”
“Yeah, I guess. You think they would have tried to get out.”
“The mayor told us to sit tight,” said Tim as they navigated the narrow roads leading to his cousin's house, “It's this way.”
“So, what happened after that?”
“Well, the electricity went out. That sucked. I'm sure you can tell that I was a geek. You know, I did what most guys like me did. I stayed home and gamed. It's not like there was much else to do in this town. Anyways, the mayor told us that the power wasn't going to come back on either. Anything that needed to be refrigerated went bad. Pretty soon, the food shipments stopped, and, apparently, it wasn't harvest season so people ran out of food fast. The military was busy, but for a while people were pretty helpful. The churches pitched in for the whole town, but after a week there was no more charity. No one was even selling. Then, the pets started disappearing. There wasn't much violence. People aren't as bad as you'd think, but there was a little bit. All in all most folks didn't last long.”
Tim stopped for a second. He asked, “What about your town? Same stuff?”
“No, there was no word for a long time and then they just started to come from everywhere. The whole ordeal was over in a day — day and a half, which was lucky in a way because there was a lot of stuff lying around to use. Plenty of non-perishable food to eat. It's funny, the power actually cut off several days after the town fell. I think whatever town had the power plant we were running off of, or whatever, got swarmed after us. It’s weird to think that people were dying under streetlights. Several of the churches had these LED displays that were probably running the whole time. I kept picturing some poor sap running for his life and seeing some catchy church slogan right before getting disemboweled. My friend had a morbid sense of humor. We were searching the town one day and there was one of those signs with the removable letters. It said ‘Pray for the Dead’ so he switched the ‘a’ to an ‘e’.”
Tim chuckled, “That’s pretty dark.”
They walked in silence to his cousin's house. Just as Tim had said, his cousin's place was a graveyard for wayward bicycles and self-powered machines. There were wheels, spokes, and frames everywhere.
“Start looking for whole bicycles, and anything that looks close to finished. I'll grab his tools,” said Tim.
Tim went into his cousin's garage and emerged a few minutes later with a leather bag full of wrenches, screwdr
ivers, and other tools.
“I had a cat. I wasn't going to eat her. I loved that cat. But she was starving, so I, you know. It was at the point where we were eating dog food, canned anything, and even eating raw grains. That sucked. Then there was some looting. A couple guys got shot when they tried to steal from our neighbor's garden. They were unarmed and starving. There was a big town hall meeting about what to do about that, but the guy that shot the two thieves wouldn't leave his house and mayor didn't really do anything about it. After that, I figured it was pretty much over. No one was going to save us, and the mayor was useless. He declared martial law, but all the reservists had been called up already and all the cops had abandoned their post to be with their families. I think most people just starved or left. I didn't go out much after the martial law thing, only when I had to. When the things came here, their job was already mostly finished. They had nothin' to eat, just like us.”
Jesse nodded as he listened to Tim’s story. He brought some frames and some wheels that were in good shape over to Tim. Tim was searching under a blue tarp that covered one of cousin's creations.
“Some of these are pretty wild, but they'd never make it very far,” said Tim. “It'd be a hell of a sight though. Bunch of Ren Faire kids rolling down the highway on a six-seat bicycle. Well, I guess it would be a quad-cycle or something. I don't know what to call 'em.”
“If there were anyone else to see it, then I'd have to agree.”
“Yeah.”
“So, how did you meet up with Nathan, Blake, and Danielle?”
“Oh man, it's hard to believe. Nathan just knocked on my door one day. I knew him from SCA, I guess he was bored or lookin’ for supplies or whatever, and he was just knockin' on doors. He was lookin’ for anyone he knew and trusted. I barely recognized him because he had lost like a hundred pounds. His armor was just hanging off of him. It's funny. They all used to be pretty fat. I mean I was the only skinny one. Danielle used to have the biggest — you know I shouldn't talk like that. I mean, she's kind of our wife now.”
“Don't worry, I won’t tell her. How does that all work anyways?”
The Lost Gods Page 15
