Dead America The Second Week (Book 10): Dead America: Portland, Part 2

by Slaton, Derek

  “Got it,” Shawn replied, and trotted down the hallway towards the other door. He opened it and called, “Hey, ladies, got your downward dog over here!”

  Zion wrinkled his nose, shaking his head, and put his hand on the doorknob as the zombies made a beeline for the other door. He threw it open as soon as they were clear and caught the rear one in the back of the head. He untangled the crowbar from her ponytail and then reached out to grab another, but as he took a fistful of her hair it just came away, scalp peeling back from the skull.

  He threw the hunk of flesh to the ground and bonked her on the head, dropping her quickly enough that he could stab her in the forehead. Shawn closed his door, but continued to knock and bang on it to keep their attention, and Zion moved along the back of the group, taking out the corpses one by one. When the final one fell, he gave Shawn a thumbs-up and looked around at his handiwork.

  “You’re a beast, man,” Shawn said as he shoved the door open, sliding a dead ghoul in the process. “We’re really lucky to have you on the front lines.”

  Zion shrugged. “Make sure to keep me happy, and I’ll keep workin’ for you.”

  “I’ll make sure to get you some free passes to our new yoga studio,” Shawn joked, and clapped his companion on the shoulder as they left.

  When the duo emerged from the building, Jeremy gave them a salute from the sidewalk.

  “How’s it lookin’?” Zion asked as they approached.

  “Doesn’t look like we attracted anything,” came the reply.

  They headed back to the wall, and Zion shielded his eyes as he looked up at Calvin. “Anything coming?”

  The sniper shook his head, giving them a thumbs up. “Good job, guys!”

  The trio strolled around the wall with a renewed sense of vigor as the gates opened and community members rushed out carrying rolls of fencing and toolboxes.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Thanks,” Wendy said. “This is going to be really helpful.”

  The guys recovered from their skirmish, wolfing down a few sandwiches and chugging water.

  Zion nodded. “Of course. We have to help each other, right?”

  “I don’t wanna watch next time,” Monique joked, ruffling his hair. “That was terrifying.”

  Calvin puffed out his chest. “Oh, they were never in any real danger with me covering them.”

  “That’s right, thank you man,” Jeremy said around a mouthful of peanut butter and jelly. He swallowed quickly. “I would have been boned if it weren’t for you.”

  The sniper patted him on the shoulder. “No problem.”

  “Adam told me that the 205 bridge over Government Island has a lane clear now,” Wendy said. “He was able to get a tow truck in there a few days ago and make it accessible.”

  Zion nodded. “That’s good news. We’re going to head over there now.” He stood up, brushing the crumbs off of his pants. “Thanks for the PB and J.”

  “They’re making as much bread as they can while the flour is still good,” Monique said. “Maybe someday we’ll be able to grow wheat and make our own.”

  Shawn raised his hand. “I officially volunteer myself to help Zion on runs every day instead of milling wheat with rocks.”

  Monique laughed. “It was just a thought. Probably not a super viable one for what it would yield.”

  “Fresh bread is fucking amazing, though,” Calvin said as he finished off his sandwich. “I didn’t even eat this good before the apocalypse.”

  “Mac and cheese and pizza and beer?” Jeremy teased as they headed for the door.

  Calvin held up a finger. “And only the finest ketchup. Mac and cheese is garbage without ketchup.”

  “You’re disgusting, man.” Jeremy laughed.

  Zion gave his sister a kiss on the cheek and she gave his shoulder an affectionate squeeze as they parted.

  “Be safe,” she said. “And take care of that idiot.” She inclined her head towards Calvin, who was regaling Jeremy with tales of his bachelor recipes.

  Zion laughed. “We take care of each other.”

  The quartet loaded up into the truck once again and fired it up, driving around the block to see the fence coming up nicely on their way out.

  Calvin finished a victory joint with Jeremy just as Zion pulled up close to Adam’s place.

  “Fuck,” Jeremy breathed as they gazed at the sea of zombies clustered around the outside of the building.

  Adam waved at them from the roof, and then spread his arms and shrugged as if to say hey, what can you do?

  Zion shook his head and drove forward, plowing over corpses so that the truck was right beside the building. Calvin opened the hatch behind him to get into the back of the truck, and the quartet slithered through it one at a time. They pulled down the ladder that Adam had installed for them and opened yet another top hatch that he’d outfitted so they could transport goods this way if they had to.

  Zion popped out of the door holding a crate of canned goods.

  “Hello there,” Adam greeted with a smile. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  “Didn’t know we’d be crushin’ an ocean of bodies to do it,” Zion shot back, but there was no venom in his voice. He hopped across to the roof to stand with him. They shook hands, and then he leaned over to take a crate from Calvin as the guys created a chain of unloading.

  “Yeah, we accidentally drew this crowd back on our last outing,” Adam said, scratching the back of his head. “We’ve been waiting for them to disperse.”

  “Or just waitin’ for us to come take care of them for you,” Zion teased.

  Adam had the decency to blush a little. It wasn’t like his group was completely incapable, but they were definitely older in years and not as equipped to pull off large-scale zombie culling operations.

  But this was why it was important to foster inter-community relations. Adam’s group was the handy group, especially with his machine shop. Zion was happy to provide them with supplies and help so they could continue to benefit from the skills.

  At some point, they’d have to rebuild civilized society, and as much as Zion wasn’t sure he thought of himself as civilized, it was important to cultivate these kinds of relationships. Bring people together, and all that.

  “I’m more concerned about the people in that building,” Adam admitted.

  Zion nodded as he took another crate and plonked it next to him. “Cheryl gave me an idea of where it is. What did you see exactly?”

  “It’s ten blocks south and four blocks east of here,” Adam replied, extending his hand to mime out the movement. “It’s an office building, about six or seven stories tall. Right close to downtown. Not a good place to be caught, you know.”

  A few guys climbed out of the roof hatch for the building and exchanged nods with Zion as they started to haul the goods inside. Calvin brought up the hydraulic jack and handed it to his companion before extending his hand to shake Adam’s.

  “Definitely not a good place to be caught,” Zion agreed, and crossed his arms. “So all you saw was a flashing light? Nothing else?”

  Adam shook his head. “Couldn’t see much else from where we were,” he admitted. “It was just clearly a light, flashing at us on purpose. I don’t know how many are in there, but regardless, it would be a good idea to check, right?”

  “Yeah,” Zion said, pursing his lips for a moment. “It’s always a good idea to get more people into the fold.”

  “Definitely,” Adam agreed. “Once we know what’s going on in there, we can figure out where they’d best be suited.”

  Calvin grinned. “Trying to beef up your numbers?”

  “I’m just saying I could use an extra pair of machining hands around here,” the older man replied with a lopsided grin.

  “Speaking of machining hands,” Zion said. “We’ve got a shit ton of iron fencing in that truck, and we want to set it up in the drainage tunnels beneath the city to make a path for the zombies to get out.”

  Adam raised an eyebrow. �
�That’s… that’s a good idea.”

  Calvin laughed. “You’re the first person who hasn’t called us insane.”

  “Innovators are always told they’re insane.” Adam shrugged. “So you want to block off the smaller tunnels, and then draw them all out of the city to the woods?”

  Zion nodded. “We should have enough fencing to block the small tunnels, but we’re not one hundred percent sure on the best way to make sure they’ll stay in place. We originally wanted to just run the fencing all the way along it, but it would have taken so much it wasn’t worth it. So we’re just going to block each tunnel.”

  “Well you can’t weld iron to concrete,” Adam replied, sarcasm in his tone.

  Calvin clucked his tongue. “Obviously.”

  “But we need a reliable way to do it that is quick, efficient, and won’t be knocked over by a shitload of zombies brushing up against it,” Zion said.

  Adam shrugged. “I mean, as long as you have a good hammer drill you can just drill into the concrete, really. I’ve got a couple down in the shop, with carbide bits. You can borrow them if you promise to bring ‘em back.”

  “Power tools!” Calvin exclaimed. “Hammer drill sounds manly, right?”

  Zion rolled his eyes. “Thanks,” he said to Adam. “Do we need special bolts?”

  “I’ve got some concrete fasteners probably kicking around,” he replied. “You can really just use regular screws, as long as you’re not bolting the fencing off of the ground. It’ll hold them against the tunnel walls, but I wouldn’t want to hang them depending on how heavy they are.”

  “It’ll be flush with the floor,” Zion said. “I wouldn’t want any zombies sneaking underneath.”

  “Fair enough,” Adam replied. “Give me a minute, and I’ll bring up some supplies for you.” He disappeared into his own roof hatch.

  “Do I get to use the fancy drill?” Calvin asked.

  Zion crossed his arms. “As long as you don’t parade it around in front of my sister, tryin’ to look all macho.”

  “I don’t need to look macho,” his companion protested, a blush creeping up his cheeks. “She likes me just the way I am. Did you see her hug me?”

  “Buddy, Monique would chew you up and spit you out,” Zion said, shaking his head with a smile on his face.

  Calvin snorted. “You guys are the weirdest siblings ever. Aren’t you supposed to like threaten me for looking at her?”

  “Hell no, if I did that she’d kick my ass for trying to control her,” his friend replied, putting up his hands. “I know better than to cross her.”

  “It’s concerning that you, the badass destroyer of the apocalypse, is afraid of his sister,” Calvin said.

  Zion barked a laugh. “Still like her?”

  His friend opened his mouth to reply, still blushing, but Adam emerged with a box of tools. One of his younger companions appeared after him, carrying another box, and set it down next to Zion.

  “Okay, so there are two drills with five battery packs, all fully charged,” Adam said, pointing to the various items in the crates. “There’s a plastic box full of different fasteners and screws, all will work for what you’re using it for but I didn’t know how many you need. Erring on the side of too many is always better, because I want you to be able to finish the job.”

  “Thank you,” Zion said.

  “You’re welcome,” Adam replied. “It’ll be a lot easier to get around with less of these things clogging up the roadways.”

  “For sure,” Calvin agreed. He stacked the crates and brought them back to the truck, passing them down through the hole.

  “So, send me some helping hands when you get your new recruits,” Adam joked.

  Zion clapped him on the back. “No worries, we’ll figure it out once we find out what’s going on with those people you found.” He hopped back over to the truck as Calvin waved and descended back through the hole.

  “Even if it’s just one person,” Adam said, all trace of amusement gone from his face. “We have to do everything we can.”

  Zion nodded and then disappeared into the truck, making his way back up into the driver’s seat to join his team.

  They pulled away, making a nice flat cobble-zombie road as they went.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Jesus it’s clogged down here,” Shawn muttered as Zion plowed through thick zombie congestion close to downtown.

  The white office building stuck out like a sore thumb, and they had no doubt that it was the one they were looking for.

  “No wonder people are trapped down here,” Jeremy added as he gazed out at the sea of corpses squashed and kicked aside by the truck. “It would be impossible to get out.”

  “I’m amazed they’ve lasted this long,” Zion admitted, and slowed down a bit so he could survey how he wanted to play this. “We could probably get in on the second floor.”

  Calvin nodded, and leaned around the back of his seat, pointing. “If you pull up along that walkway, there’s a row of windows we could smash out.”

  “Good call,” Zion agreed, and drove up what probably used to be a pretty garden and lunch area for the office building. They left a trail of bodies and blood behind, and he came to a stop next to the building.

  They climbed out of the roof hatch one at a time, and Zion and Calvin cupped their hands around their faces, peering in through the glass into the dark.

  “I think we’re clear,” Calvin said, confirming there was no movement inside.

  Zion reared back with his crowbar, and brought it into the window, shattering it instantly. He froze for a moment, hand on his knife holster, to make sure that there weren’t any hiding zombies waiting to come out to surprise them from the noise.

  After a few tense moments, he used the hooked metal to knock off the jagged glass on the bottom of the window frame to make sure nobody would hurt themselves getting inside.

  “And that’s how we do that,” Calvin said brightly, and hopped inside. Jeremy and Shawn followed, with Zion bringing up the rear, sparing a glance over his shoulder at the corpses now clustering even harder around them due to the noise.

  “Spread out, but not too far apart,” he instructed, and they began to move through the large space.

  It was completely ransacked, desks and chairs overturned, cubicles shredded, lights hanging by thin busted wires.

  “It’s bad in here,” Jeremy breathed. “I guess when the outbreak happened, things went to hell in a hand basket pretty fast in places where people were packed in like sardines.”

  Shawn shook his head. “This is more than just the outbreak,” he mused. “This looks like people have been through here, maybe fought some zombies, but picked it clean.” He motioned to a break area, where a little bar fridge and a vending machine were both busted open and empty.

  They moved across the main floor and slowed down to peer into a row of offices along the far wall. Calvin turned to say something, and all of a sudden the window next to him exploded.

  “Down!” Zion cried.

  They all hit the floor, but Jeremy grunted as a bullet punched into his shoulder. He pressed himself against the back of a desk, gasping and holding his wound.

  “Fuck fuck fuck,” Shawn babbled as he scurried over to his friend. Eyes wide, he tore off his shirt and quickly wrapped it around Jeremy’s shoulder, tying it around his armpit. “Are you okay?”

  The ex-bartender couldn’t help but let out an exasperated laugh. “You never swear, man.”

  As a few more bullets fired into the wall above them, Zion surmised that it was only a single shooter. He waved at Calvin to draw the fire the other direction, and his friend nodded, heading back the way they’d come.

  Zion stayed low to the ground, and silently moved around the perimeter of the floor, concealing himself behind cubicles and debris. When he got to the end of the corridor, he peered around it. There was a wiry man trying to follow Calvin’s movement, his back turned.

  Zion sprinted forward and curled his arm aroun
d the guy’s neck, putting him in an easy chokehold.

  “Please, okay!” the guy cried, and dropped his gun immediately, holding his arms up in surrender.

  Zion’s eyes widened, and he let go of the guy when he realized it was just a kid that looked no more than fifteen or sixteen.

  “What the fuck are you doing shooting at us?” he demanded, and reached down to grab the gun from the floor as the kid backed up into the wall, face white as a sheet.

  Calvin’s head popped up from the other side of the debris. “We good, Z?”

  “Yeah, we good,” Zion called. “You okay, Jeremy?”

  “Peachy,” Jeremy groaned as Shawn helped him up and they headed around to their location.

  “Oh god, did I hit you?” the kid asked, hands coming up to his cheeks. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to, I was just trying to scare you guys away, honest, please don’t kill me.”

  Zion furrowed his brow. “We’re not here to fuckin’ kill you, relax. Our friends saw someone flashing a light from in here, so we came to see if anyone needed rescuin’. What do you think?”

  “Yes, yes I need help!” the kid gushed. “I have a group of kids like me that I’ve been taking care of, but I messed up my ankle fighting a zombie on the stairs and we got separated.”

  Calvin came around the other side and cocked his head to check out the kid’s very swollen ankle. “Jeez, kid, that is a messed up ankle. Could be broken.”

  “It hurts a lot,” came the shaky reply as Jeremy and Shawn joined them.

  “So does this,” the former declared, pointing to his shoulder.

  The kid shook his head, extending his hands, palms out. “I’m so sorry, so sorry.”

  Zion pursed his lips for a moment as he sized him up. “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Theo,” the kid said. “Please. I need help. I’m sorry.”