“You’re okay now.”
“No I’m not. I’ve had it with all this. Our lives have turned into a shitty horror movie. One scare leads right into the next. I want to wake up from this nightmare.”
I leaned back and we looked into each other’s eyes. For a half a second I thought we were going to kiss. Then the moment passed. “One day this will all be over. It might be a hundred years from now but I promise you things will get better. They have to.”
She buried her face in my chest and we stood there like that. I heard the sound of an engine and looked up. The front of a battered pick-up truck came into view as it went past the U-Haul. Al was driving and Gina was next to him in the seat. Both of them sat looking at us. Cindy pushed away from me and turned to face them, her shirt falling open. I looked down and shook my head.
“I’m guessing we got back just in time,” Al said, the hint of a scowl on his face.
Chapter 9
General Simmons didn’t even ask me about the missing soldiers he’d sent to search for Dr. Parks. There was definitely something wrong here. I understood that all he cared about was getting hold of Parks but it seemed to me that if his men had any information to add he would be more than anxious to find out what had happened to them. But he didn’t bother asking about them at all. One thing was certain, he didn’t buy the Springfield ruse. He went along with what I was saying well enough but I got the distinct impression he knew exactly where Parks was headed.
John tried to go back to sleep but was unable to relax. We all felt the tension. Being alive in what felt like the end of times was bad enough. The fight every day just to survive was draining the life from all of us. Now we had the added distraction of knowing General Simmons had God knows what in store for us. We spent most of the day trying to guess what awaited us in Fort Leonard Wood. Whatever it was I had a pretty good idea it wasn’t going to be very pleasant.
“I think you two should stop worrying about what General Simmons does and doesn’t know. We should put all our efforts into getting to Fort Leonard Wood,” Lily said, breaking the uneasy silence we’d been traveling under.
“Once we pass Springfield he’ll know exactly where we’re headed,” John said.
“What difference does it make? Don’t kid yourselves he already knows. I’ll never understand why men feel the necessity to play these kinds of games with each other. This is why the world ended up in the crapper like it did. Men.”
“You sound like a man hater to me,” I said.
“You know better than that,” Lily said. “It just bothers me. All these bullshit games you and General Simmons keep playing with each other. Women wouldn’t be like this. If you ask me I think you should tell him we know he’s full of shit and tell him we want to know exactly what the hell is going on.”
“That sounds good. Let me ask you this. Do you think he’ll tell us what we want to know?”
I was trying to watch the road while carrying on this conversation but could feel the pain from Lily’s glare boring into the side of my skull. I drove on in silence, not daring a look in her direction. When I finally risked a glance her way I saw she was no longer staring at me but watching the road in front of us. I started to say something when her eyes went wide and I instinctually looked forward and pumped the brakes at the same time. A tractor trailer lay on its side blocking the road in front of us. Since I only pumped the brake and didn’t push it through the floorboard there was no way we could avoid a collision. John must have either been awake or was awakened when I hit the brakes because his screams joined Lily’s and mine as we hurtled toward the trailer. I cut the wheel hard to the left just before impact, trying to avoid the inevitable, and the SUV tilted over on two wheels. Thankfully we didn’t flip over. Slamming into trailer “saved” us.
“What the fuck?” John shouted from the back. “How fast were you going?”
“Why does that matter,” I shouted back.
“There’s obstacles everywhere. This isn’t the god dammed Indianapolis Speedway!”
“It’s my fault John,” Lily said. “We were arguing and I guess we weren’t paying attention.”
“Oh you were both driving,” he said.
“He’s right Lily. It was my fault.”
I restarted the SUV and tried to pull away. John said something else but I couldn’t hear him over the sound of the rending of metal. We had hit the top of the trailer, as it was lying on its side, and had dented it in at least a foot. Pulling forward wasn’t doing us any good so I cut the wheel hard and backed further into the trailer. This only took us back a foot or so and when I pulled forward I could tell we weren’t wedged into the trailer as tightly any longer. I put the SUV in drive and stepped a little too heavily on the gas. As I pulled forward the top of the trailer started ripping off and was being drug along with us. John and Lily were screaming for me to stop when I looked over my shoulder into the now gaping open trailer. I saw movement from within and realized I was releasing the hundreds of zombies that had been jam packed into the overturned trailer. At about the same time I finally stopped I heard the front drivers side tire burst.
“Don’t stop now!” John shouted.
“You need to make up your damn mind.”
More of the top of the trailer tore off as we slowly moved forward. Not only was our front tire flat but we were becoming hopelessly entangled in the corrugated steel sheeting that was ripping away from the trailer at an increasing rate. The rear tire blew out and all forward progress stopped. Undead bodies struggled to get at us through the gaping whole I’d torn in the trailer. Two things slowed the onslaught, the jagged razor sharp steel from the wreckage pulled at them tearing them to shreds, and they just couldn’t avoid tripping over one another as they fought their way toward us. Somebody needed to have a talk with these guys about exiting in an orderly fashion.
The passenger side of the SUV was clear of the wreckage so we hurriedly gathered together what gear we could and made our escape on foot. Using our guns would have only drawn more zombies to us so we armed ourselves with our roofing hammers. Lily’s skill with the hammers was amazing. It seemed like her favorite move was hamstringing one of the poor bastards with the hammer in her left hand. Then she’d either crush their skull with the blunt nailing end of the hammer or use the shingle chopping end to cleave the head. Keeping up with her was impossible. I hadn’t perfected her skill with the two handed killing method and John didn’t possess her dexterity. In the time it took her to kill six John and I had only dispatched four between the two of us.
After our path was clear and we could get away from them I had to stop her from making her way back towards the overturned trailer. “We’re clear. Let’s go!” I shouted, grabbing her by the shoulder.
Lily turned and drew back her hammer. For a second I thought she was going to hit me. Then she recognized me and checked her swing. “You nearly got yourself killed Tim.”
“I see that.”
John was backing away, “Come on you two.”
He was headed back the way we’d come. “This way!” I shouted, giving the truck and the zombies spilling out of it as wide a berth as possible. “We have to keep moving forward. I’m not backtracking.”
John was probably right, it would have been safer to go back the way we had come. There was no telling what waited on the other side of the truck, but I wanted to press on. If we would have gone back the way we came to find a vehicle the road would most likely have been blocked by the hundreds of zombies that still fought to free themselves from the trailer. Hopefully the risk of what waited around the corner was less than the threat that loomed behind us.
There was nothing so dramatic awaiting us on the other side of the overturned tractor trailer. The road on the other side was clear and we ran as fast as we could from the gathering horde that now pursued us. The amount of damage a zombie could take still amazed me. The first few that rounded the trailer were torn to shreds. They must have been packed in like sardines when the trailer cr
ashed. I’m sure the wreck tore them up badly enough. Then they had to crawl out over each other through the jagged hole I’d torn in the roof of the trailer. Still they pressed on after us. Thank god they were as slow as hell.
I slowed my pace. John seemed to be having trouble keeping up with Lily and I. Something was definitely wrong with him. Before I was the one lagging behind. “John. Are you okay?” I called back to him.
“I’m fine. Keep going,” John said, waving us on.
“He’s not fine,” Lily said to me. “You know John is a better runner than you. I slowed down so you could keep up with me. He can’t even run as fast as you.”
It was kind of emasculating but true. Even though I had gotten in better shape over the past few days, I hadn’t improved that much.
“I just twisted my ankle when you wrecked our ride. I’ll keep up.”
The sat phone was ringing as I ran. General Simmons had good timing. I had to give him credit for that. I wanted to throw the phone as far away from me as I could but I believed the son of a bitch would do just what he said, send someone to kill my dad. I was stuck with him. I answered the phone. I would have to talk as I ran.
“Can’t talk now general. Call you back.” Before I had the phone back in my pocket it was ringing again.
“Turn the damn ringer off,” Lily said, grabbing the phone out of my hand.
“That was rude and uncalled for.”
John had stopped and taken care of the only runner that had come out of the trailer so far. After that we had put a lot of distance between us and the horde. There were several cars on the side of the road up ahead. Hopefully one of them had a set of keys, a full tank, some food, water, and all that good survival shit one needed when running from the undead. What little extra gear we had, other than the absolute essentials, was still back in the SUV. On TV there was always somebody in a group like ours that could hot wire a car. I was still waiting for us to find that person.
We stopped and John and I checked the vehicles while Lily stood guard. Of the five cars parked along the road only one had any keys. Unfortunately the owner of the car sat in the driver’s seat. He wasn’t in too bad of shape. Only one large chunk bitten out of his arm. I had to break out the window to get the door open. After I drug him out of the car I put him out of his misery with a few blows to the head with my trusty roofing hammer. The interior of the car smelled awful, baked zombie with a touch of rotten corpse. I manned-up though. After all Lily was watching. I jumped in and almost slid down to the floorboard. I had used the back of my shirt and pants to clean the zombie death slime from the seat. I tried the key only to find the battery was dead. The ignition had been on the whole time.
“Get in. We’ll try and pop the clutch.” John and Lily got in and I got behind the car to push. We only had a few minutes until the horde would be on top of us.
The car sat on a level patch of road. Not too far from where we were though the road started down an incline. I hoped to make it that far before the horde caught us. My plan was once we got that far I would jump in the car, we would role a little further downhill, John would pop the clutch, and away we would go. Wishful thinking. Reminded me of something my mom said to me when I was a kid. “Wish in one hand, shit in the other. See which one fills up faster.” Good old mom.
I told John to not try starting the car until after I was in. He said something about driving off without me and we put our plan into action. I got the car going with a little time to spare, about fifty yards worth. It didn’t take long to match the speed at which the zombies were coming at us. They had closed the distance by about half by the time I made it to the downhill stretch of road. Lily threw the rear passenger side door open. She was hanging out of her window in the front seat shouting something at me. I couldn’t hear a word she said. I ran up the side of the car, grabbed the door frame, and jumped in. Looking out the back window I could see we were putting some distance between us and the horde.
I leaned over the front seat. “Wait ‘til we’re almost to the bottom of the hill,” I shouted to Tim.
It looked like we were going to make it. I pounded the back of the seat and looked at Lily expecting her to share in my joy. Instead she had the phone to her ear and she looked pissed.
“General this is Corporal Flowers. Captain Downs is busy at the moment. Stop right there sir, I’m talking. When Captain Downs tells you he’ll call you back when he can that’s what he means. The games are over. We’ll do what you ASK but you have to accept the fact that you have no idea what it’s like out here.” John was looking at me in the rearview mirror. We were both smiling. The poor bastard. He had unleashed the wrath of Lily.
“You want to fight zombies? You come fight zombies. Otherwise you leave us the fuck alone and let us do our job. We’ll track down that sick fucking bastard for you. But I swear if you can’t get with the program we’re done. I don’t know the Captains dad and I don’t give a shit about your threats.” Lily reached out and took my hand when she said this. “I’ll tell you this. If one of us gets killed because you can’t stay off of this phone. I will find you and kill you myself sir.” With that Lily disconnected the call.
John reached over and braced Lily’s shoulder. “Hang on.” He popped the clutch.
The engine caught then nothing. The car was out of gas.
Chapter 10
We loaded most of the rest of the gear from the back of the U-Haul into our “new” truck. Al and I did this while the girls took turns shooting the steadily increasing number of zombies that had been drawn to all the noise we were making. The transfer was more difficult than it should have been since we were unable to get down on the ground to load the truck. Cindy moved the Ford away from the back bumper then climbed into the bed of the other truck. Then Al backed up against the back of the U-Haul. When this was done the four of us had a somewhat uncomfortable reunion. After rubbing it in for a while and doing their best to make us feel bad Al and Gina finally laid off. I had seen firsthand, when Gina and I had first started dating, that she could be a bit jealous at times. After some quick explaining as to what had actually happened though she calmed down. Al actually seemed madder that I was going to leave half of his grenades behind than he was that when they found us I was hugging his half naked girl-friend.
There was a heated argument between Al and me about who was going to go down into all that zombie goo and remove the wooden bumper from the U-Haul; then put it on the front of our new vehicle. Al argued that I was younger and in better shape than he was. What a crock of shit that was. I reasoned that he was older than me and most likely not nearly as tasty as I would be. Therefore not as appealing to the undead and less likely to be attacked by something coming up out of the zombie sludge that surrounded us. We finally agreed it would be best to find a hardware store or a lumber yard and make a new one. The only things we had left behind were the propane powered generator and a few of the spare tanks for it. Al insisted on bringing most of the propane tanks with us. I was pretty sure he had an idea that he could use them as some sort of half assed bomb at some point in the future. Good old Al.
As we drove away from the U-Haul Al’s voice came over the radio, “Did you buy the extra insurance on that thing?”
“No. Why would I?”
“There’s going to be a hell of a charge on your final bill. They expect you to bring those things back you know.” Then we heard the roar of his laughter over the radio.
“That’s just stupid,” we heard Cindy say in the background. “You’re the only one that thinks you’re funny.”
“Steve, you thought that was funny, didn’t you?”
Gina looked at me. A questioning look on her face. “That would be a no Al.” Now it was my turn to laugh.
“Give me that,” Gina said, taking the radio from me. “There’s a small town about twenty miles west of here. Let’s try to make it at least that far before it gets dark.”
“Sounds good,” Cindy replied. The girls had taken over control of t
he radio.
Al had chosen to drive the rusted old pick up. I think it was a Chevy. I could see that he felt comfortable in the older truck and had to admit that he looked at home behind the wheel of the rusted piece of shit. Until we were able to get a new wooden bumper installed on it Al would have to give up his second favorite pastime. Running over zombies. We made it to the small town Gina had us going to, Sedalia, in less than twenty minutes. So we decided to press on. Going to Boonville had taken us too far to the west and now we had to go back to the east. Jefferson City was the next major city we would come to. These back roads were killing our time. Missouri had several major highways crisscrossing the state. It was just that none of them were in this area. Right now we were on highway 50, highway my ass. When we got to Jefferson City we would be able to make a straight shot down highway 63 to Fort Leonard Wood. That’s if we got lucky and all the roads between here and there were drivable.
The next town we came to was gone. There had been a fire in the small city of Tipton and everything had burned to the ground. The roads were still passable so we kept going. I had never been to California but had always wanted to and now was my chance. California, Missouri population 4,278 not exactly the California I was hoping to see but if I could find a safe place to sleep I’d take it.
On the outskirts of town we came to a lumberyard. The entire compound was surrounded by a ten foot chain link fence topped with barbed wire. The gate was chained shut and pad locked. The lock was inside the fencing, suggesting that someone had locked themselves in. We parked outside of the gate and watched for movement inside.
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