Indeadpendence Day
Page 10
“Miss,” Jacobs said, “We can offer you and your group shelter. We have a place set up a few towns away.”
I nodded. I wasn’t eager to go with them, but Gabe needed help.
We got into their truck while one of the soldiers drove ours.
Their headquarters was a high school. It was surrounded by a chain link fence covered in razor wire.
We were led into the gymnasium which was filled with cots. There was over a hundred people gathered in it. Other survivors.
Jacobs offered us a cot. Lynn settled Cady on it.
“Where’s Gabe?” I asked.
“He’s being checked over. Are you two related?” Jacobs asked.
“He’s my husband,” I said.
Jacobs looked surprised, “Oh. Well I’ll take you to him.”
Gabe was awake when we arrived at their sick bay. I hurried over to him and punched him in the shoulder.
“You son of a bitch, you could have gotten yourself killed,” I snapped.
The doctor stepped between us, “Wow, calm down. He’s in enough pain already.”
I backed off.
“I was trying to save you,” Gabe said.
“Well stop it,” I said. “I don’t need you getting killed too.”
“I hate to get in the way of a domestic, but we’re going to need to know where you came from,” Jacobs said.
Gabe sat up, “And we’ll tell you, but first I want to know what your view is on zombies.”
“My view?” he said, “It’s pretty simple. I see a zombie, I shoot it. One less zombie.”
Gabe nodded, “What’s it like in the rest of the country? How bad?”
“The infection spread throughout the east side of the country. We were deployed to contain and destroy. It got hairy for a while, but we’re winning.”
“Winning?” I asked, sure I misheard him.
Jacobs nodded, “I’m not saying there wasn’t heavy casualties or that this will be over any time soon, but we are beating them back. We’ve cordoned off sections of the country and teams are being deployed into infected zones to rescue survivors.”
I looked at Gabe. This could be over one day? I didn’t dare believe it.
“How?” Gabe asked.
Jacobs chuckled, “Hard work, a lot of bullets and in case you haven’t noticed, zombies are kind of dumb. I’ll give you two a few minutes then you can fill me in on your stories.”
I dropped onto the bunk beside Gabe, “I don’t believe it.”
“A world without zombies. That could be kind of nice,” he joked.
“Why didn’t we know this? I know we didn’t have a TV or anything, but surely there had to be some signs?”
“I don’t know, but this is incredible. We could have normal lives again.” He glanced at me, “You wouldn’t have to stay married to me anymore.”
“I don’t mind being married to you,” I whispered.
I kissed him, his arms went around my waist, pulling me against him.
“I’m sorry for what I said.”
“Forget about it,” he said.
“We should go and speak to Jacobs. Do we tell him about Cady?”
“That’s your decision. But no, I don’t think we should. At least not yet.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Not until we know we can trust him.”
I stood up and helped Gabe to his feet, “Adam is gone, right?”
He nodded, “Yes. We don’t have to worry about him anymore. We just have to worry about the regular zombies instead.”
I took his hand and we made our way to Jacobs’s office.
Epilogue
The sun rose in the sky, as a flock of birds descended on the dead soldiers and started pecking at their flesh.
Suddenly a hand shot out from the pile of bodies and grabbed one of them around the throat. It let out a frightened squawk as it tried to free itself.
Cortez chomped down on its head and ripped it free from its body. He chewed noisily, greedily, on the bird.
When he finished his meal, he freed himself from the dead limbs of his fallen comrades and stood up.
His head turned back and forth as the scanned the area around him.
“What happened?” he muttered.
He glanced down at his left arm, which hung limply at his side. It was covered in bite marks.
“No,” he whispered.
Around him, several more soldiers began to stir. One by one they got up too.