Roads Less Traveled | Book 5 | End of the Road

by Dulaney, C.

  Brad and Adams exchanged a look and nodded. Brad walked to the barn door and opened it. Adams saddled up and followed Mort outside. Brad hurried through the rest of the barn and opened the doors to all the stalls. He didn’t want the remaining horses to starve to death because no one was left to feed them. Once he was sure they were free to leave whenever they realized they were loose, he mounted up and steered his horse out to where Mort and Adams waited for him.

  Fires burned in fifty-five-gallon drums scattered throughout the main courtyard of the Fort and lit up the area well enough for them to see their way to the front gate. Brad wished he couldn’t see at all. The gabs left behind nothing recognizable of their friends. Only red mud and piles of meat and bone here and there. And since the gabs were finished with their work, they stood gathered in a large group over by the far wall. Brad watched as, one by one, they climbed on top of each other and formed a ladder. The gabs underneath climbed up them and over the top of the timbers. They trickled up this way until only the human ladder was left, then the ones at the top pulled the rest up.

  It scared the shit out of Brad. If they were smart enough to come up with that, what else could they do?

  ✽✽✽

  Over in West Virginia…

  “Marlo, you still have that radio in the back?” Michael asked. He, Kasey, and Caleb had barged into Marlo’s store only a moment before, not even giving the big man time to ask what the hell was going on.

  From his side of the counter, Marlo said, “Uh, yeah? Why?”

  “Good,” Michael said. He jumped the half-door at the end of the counter and went into the backroom.

  “Wait! Hey!” Then Marlo turned on Kasey. “You wanna tell me just what in the hell is going on here? He can’t be going back there!”

  “Take it easy.” Kasey patted his concerns away with a hand, and snapped her fingers at her dog with the other. Gus ran to her and sat at her feet. Caleb watched the street from the window. “Michael needs to get in touch with the people living outside town here. And that’s assuming their radios even still work and are turned on.”

  Marlo huffed and puffed a little, then came around the counter to where Kasey stood. “We got trouble comin’?”

  “Yeah. A lot of it.”

  “Son of a… I need to let the town know.”

  Kasey nodded. “Sound the bell. Making noise doesn’t matter now.”

  Marlo gave her a questioning look, but knew better than to waste time asking. He puffed up his chest and went outside. He crossed the street to the church and disappeared inside. It wasn’t long before the church bells started. Folks ignored the first dong, but when they continued, heads popped out of doorways and faces appeared in windows. The ringing of the bells had only happened once since the dead started falling prey to the terminators, and that had been the time a band of raiders swept through the area. Kasey’s gang had taken care of that mess, and the “emergency alert system” had proved to work quite well.

  One by one, the townsfolk came outside and gathered in front of Marlo’s store. The Suburban and car were parked about half a block away, and Jonah stood on the sidewalk next to the SUV, having a smoke. Kasey and her dad stepped out on the store’s front stoop, and Gus slipped past her legs and ran across the road to the Roberts’ kids. There weren’t a lot of people who lived in Gibson, but it was a large number by post-zombie standards. By the time Marlo joined the crowd, there were around eighty people waiting to be told what was going on.

  Kasey kept it simple. “The terminators have turned on us. They’re attacking people now, and they’re headed this way. I don’t know when they’ll get here, but you need to get ready for them. Load up on weapons, and pick your spots. Those of you who can’t fight, hide. Remember, they’re just people, they’re not dead. So you can take them down same as you would a regular man.” Then she nodded and went back into the store. Her dad stayed behind and elaborated on her instructions. He didn’t need to keep them calm. They’d been through too much, had seen too much, to let panic take them over now.

  Michael came out of the back room. “Well, I was able to raise some, but not all. I couldn’t get Bill. His archers would definitely help.” He ran a hand over his hair. “Now what? How do we warn the ones I couldn’t reach? Send riders?”

  “No,” Kasey said, her voice low.

  Michael’s head moved like he’d walked into a wall of stink. “What?”

  “We’re not sending riders.” Kasey looked out the window. Her dad talked with a few of the townsfolk, and Jonah had joined him. He glanced over his shoulder and held her eye until Kasey turned her back on him. “We need everyone here. We don’t know how far behind us the terminators are, but they will show up. And when they do, we can’t have people out there.”

  Michael pulled his hand down over his face. “But we’ve already got people out there, and I can’t warn them if they won’t answer the radio. We have to get the word out.”

  “If we send out riders, we’ll lose them, too. No. We need to keep everyone here and inside. It’s the right call, and you know it.”

  “We’re leaving people out there to die.”

  “And? They’re gonna die one way or the other.” She turned back to the window. “The zombies didn’t kill us, but these terminators will. It’s just a matter of time. Folks will fight until they can’t anymore, and you know as well as I do that holding out against the dead is totally different than dealing with these terminators. Jonah might try to keep them away for a while, ‘cause for whatever weirdass reason they don’t seem to notice him. But he’s only one man, that might’ve been a one-time freak thing, and the next time he tries it, they tear him to pieces. So, what do we do? What about everyone else? What happens when we run out of ammo, cause we don’t have time to load more? Or food, cause we’re sure as shit not gonna have time to tend the fields. We need backup, and there just isn’t any. We can’t be everywhere, so why try…” She trailed off, caught suddenly by a thought that, if voiced, would’ve drawn serious concerns for her sanity.

  Michael said nothing. Kasey turned and walked behind the counter. She pulled a few boxes of ammo off the shelf and started for the door.

  “Kasey, don’t.”

  She spun around. “I have an idea, but I need you to trust me.”

  Michael took a breath to argue, but Jonah interrupted.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Jonah said. He eased the door shut behind him but didn’t move any closer to the pair.

  “Says she has an idea.” Michael crossed his arms and frowned. “Says to trust her.”

  Kasey tipped her face to the ceiling, then walked around Jonah to the door. She gripped the doorknob and he smacked his hand down over hers.

  “Think about what you’re doin’. I mean really think.” He drew closer to her and said, “And then look me in the eye and tell me I can trust ya.”

  Kasey squeezed the knob tighter. Her face felt hot and she closed her eyes to slow her breathing. Finally, her eyes met his and her voice was firm. “You can trust me.”

  Jonah worked his jaw but nodded and opened the door.

  She pulled her hand out of his, strode down the sidewalk, and hollered for her dog. “C’mon, Gus!”

  He had two of the Roberts’ kids down on the ground, tail thumping and jumping all over them while they squealed and laughed. The third little Roberts kept trying to grab him but wasn’t quite quick enough. The beagle’s head snapped around and he ran after Kasey.

  Jonah started after her, as well.

  “Don’t,” Michael said. Jonah turned around. “I know her judgment’s been questionable lately. But we’re going to have to start trusting her again sometime. Now’s as good a time as any.”

  Jonah said, “Not the point.”

  “I know.” Michael joined the cowboy outside the doorway and watched Kasey march toward the Suburban. “But she said she had an idea, and you know her track record. We can help the people that are here, right now. So let’s do that.”

  Jonah c
hewed it over. “Yeah. Alright.”

  ✽✽✽

  “Get in.” Kasey pointed to the passenger side. Jake stared at her from where he leaned against the bumper.

  “What are we doin’?” he asked.

  “I’ve got an idea and I need your help.” She pointed toward the door again. “Get in.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Jake climbed in the passenger side and whistled to her when he noticed Caleb on his way toward them. Kasey mumbled under her breath and hurried around to the driver’s side. Caleb grabbed the door before she could slam it shut.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Just have to go do something real quick. We’ll be back.”

  Neither said anything for a long time. They just stared at each other.

  “Don’t do anything stupid.” His hand slid off the door.

  “Yeah.” Kasey pulled the door shut. “I’ll be back.”

  Caleb nodded. “Alright.” He opened up the back door, Gus leapt inside, and he shut it behind him.

  Kasey faced forward and started the SUV. Caleb stepped back so she could pull out, and watched until she turned a corner and disappeared. Then he wiped his face dry and walked up the street to the store.

  The Suburban circled the block and hit the main road, and when Kasey turned south instead of east, towards home, Jake scratched his chin.

  “What about Mia?” he asked.

  Kasey glanced in the rearview mirror. “It’ll have to wait.”

  “Yeah…okay…” Jake looked around, scratched his chin again, and finally shook his head. “So, what the hell are we doin’?”

  “Do you think the terminators are still going after the dead now?”

  “Beats me. Been too busy runnin’ from the damn things. Why?”

  “Well, what if they’re not? Like, at all.” She chewed on her bottom lip, thinking. Then she said, “Remember all those zombies in Riverton? That horde of terminators passed right through there and didn’t kill any of them. Just ignored them.”

  Jake considered this. “Yeah. That was weird.”

  “Well, there’s only one way to find out for sure.” Kasey smiled. “And we need backup.”

  Jake shook his head. “Oh, nuh-uh, nope.”

  “Yes.”

  “No way, not doin’ it.”

  “Yes, we are.”

  “You’re fuckin’ crazy.”

  “Sometimes, yeah.”

  Jake laughed. “Shit. Alright. Like I’ve always said, I’m with ya.”

  “Good. Cause I’m gonna need bait.”

  ✽✽✽

  The trip back to Riverton took much less time than it had before, since they traveled in a vehicle instead of on horseback. Everyone had been worried about the surprising number of dead, in a town that was way too close to home. But at the time, they’d been on their way to find the scouts, and they’d run instead of taking the time to put them down.

  Now she was glad they hadn’t.

  Kasey glanced down and checked the fuel gauge. “We’re gonna be cutting it close, I think.” She eased off the gas and slowed down. During their last trip through this place, Jake, Jonah, and Mia had split the dead up and led them away, losing them throughout the neighborhoods. Kasey had no idea if, during the time that had elapsed since then, the dead had congregated again, or if they were still scattered and wandering the side streets.

  Or, if after catching the scent of food, they’d moved on and migrated their dead asses right on out of town.

  Kasey pulled up and stopped at the main intersection on Main Street. What she could see in every direction was nothing. No movement.

  “Shit. Where do you suppose they are?” she said.

  Jake leaned forward against the dash and looked around. “Not here.”

  Kasey grunted.

  “Just lay on the horn,” Jake said. “If they’re around, they’ll come runnin’.”

  Kasey’s mouth flattened into a line and she stared out her side window, then she glanced upward and said, “Alright. You better get on the roof, then.”

  “The what?”

  “The roof.”

  “You want me to get on the roof.”

  “That’s what I said, wasn’t it?”

  Jake stared at her.

  “Just get on the roof and hold on to the luggage rack. You’ll know what to do if they come running.”

  Jake continued staring.

  “Don’t make me put you up there.”

  Jake rolled down his window and Bo Duke’d his ass up onto the roof.

  Once the thumping above her head stopped, Kasey hit the horn. It was very startling, that much sudden noise in a place that was so quiet. She kept her hand pressed to the wheel and the horn kept blaring.

  Surprisingly, it only took a few moments before the first torn-up runner came tripping around the corner of a house about a block and a half away. Two thumps sounded on the roof above her head. She thumped back once to acknowledge. Gus snorted in the seat behind her.

  “Stay back there and be quiet.”

  Gus snorted again, but stayed where he was and went still.

  The runner had seen better days, though it wasn’t so far gone that it couldn’t scream and jog. For a brief moment, Kasey considered renaming them, but two more thumps above her head disrupted her train of thought.

  Six more runners had joined the first.

  “Not enough,” she mumbled. She hit the roof once, pulled the SUV into drive, and eased into the gas. She glanced up into the rear view mirror and didn’t see Jake fall off the backend, so she assumed he was holding on to the luggage rack and accelerated.

  She circled around several blocks, laying on the horn the whole way. Runners came out of the woodwork. From between houses, out of open sheds or garages, alleyways, and side streets they poured. Many had finally gotten close enough to beat against the side of the SUV, but they weren’t a danger. Kasey made sure to drive carefully; she didn’t want to run over any because she was going to need as many as possible.

  A runner came out of nowhere and slammed itself against her window.

  Kasey was so startled she actually yelped, though hers was hard to discern from the screams coming from the runners outside the vehicle. She jerked the wheel, heard a thump above her head, and for a moment she panicked. Her eyes went to the rear view mirror again, just knowing that Jake had fallen off and she’d see him being torn apart.

  And on the tail end of her own swearing, Kasey heard Jake pick it up with his own. It was muffled, but she could make out enough to know he wasn’t just cussing her and his ass was still on the roof. He was getting the runners worked up into a frenzy.

  She steered the SUV around and headed back toward the spot where they’d started.

  By this time, a sizeable herd had formed up behind the SUV. They moved at a pretty good pace, too. Kasey was able to speed up to almost twenty-five and still keep the zombies within fifty yards. She rolled down her window.

  “Okay, come back in if you want,” she yelled up.

  Jake’s upside-down face appeared next to her. For the second time in the past half an hour she squealed.

  Jake grinned. “I’m good. I’ll stay up here and keep ‘em worked up.”

  “Don’t fall off.”

  “Yes, mom.”

  He disappeared and, a moment later, started singing.

  “Least he’s not in here doing that,” Kasey said to Gus, and began the drive back to Gibson.

  ✽✽✽

  The bright side, Jonah decided, was that the entire horde of terminators that had left the CC hadn’t shown up in Gibson. Instead, they only had to deal with a hundred or so. Jonah realized that this meant the remainder of the terminator army had scattered, and were probably sweeping through the other survivor camps and settlements in the area. There was still a chance, though, that they’d gone in another direction entirely, and the other people out there were safe.

  A hell of a slim chance, but Jonah had bet on worse odds before.

 
The townsfolk were scattered across the rooftops with what food and water they’d been able to gather before the siege. Their ammo was limited because, as Marlo had very loudly reminded them, he’d traded off whatever powder he’d had left to “Kasey and her goddamn pals,” and hadn’t been able to load up an extra supply of ammunition for the town.

  The terminators split up into smaller groups and harassed only the buildings with people on top. They beat the windows on ground level, jerked and pulled on the doors, and screeched into the night sky. A few had even tried to climb up the sides of a building. It wouldn’t be long until they broke through the windows of any given building, and then things would unravel pretty quickly from there.

  The townsfolk took potshots at the terminators from time to time, but for the most part held their fire. To survive this they needed to be smart with the ammunition they had, and it was nighttime. No sense in wasting shots in the dark.

  Jonah could see better than anyone out there. As he moved his eyes from one terminator to the next, a soft yellow glow illuminated them, allowing him to see their movements, and he could tell from only a short time of observation that the terminators really couldn’t see in the dark any better than his friends. They fumbled around a good bit and moved more by feel rather than by sight. He was pretty sure that was why they hadn’t broken into the buildings yet. They didn’t seem as bloodthirsty as before, not as determined or intent. They were just a little more cautious, and Jonah didn’t like that.

  He grunted and pulled a cigarette from his shirt pocket. The flare of light from his lighter blinded him to everything beyond for a few seconds, long enough for Michael to move up next to him. He took a long drag and stared down into the street.

  “Always hated my kind,” Jonah said.

  Michael pulled a face and almost laughed. “What kind would that be? The dusty cowboy type?”

  “Weirdoes.” Another long drag and an orange glow lit up his face. He wasn’t afraid of much, but the thought of telling Michael, or anyone, what he was, made his stomach climb up into his throat. He lowered his voice and added, “Freaks.”