“Boys, we have a ton of supplies in the truck outside. Can you go unload it? Leave some but bring in most of it. I’d hate to lose everything if I have to ditch the truck,” Max said.
“No problem, Dad,” Damon said as he and Joey headed for the door.
“Where’s Vince?” Frank asked with trepidation.
“He didn’t make it. We ran into a bunch of zombies last night, and three of them came through the windshield,” Max said sadly without giving further details. None were needed.
“Damn,” Junior said softly. He’d really liked Vince.
Frank nodded and looked away. He was tired of losing people.
“You must be Emily,” Max offered his hand to the twenty-something blonde standing near the sink.
“Hi Max, it’s good to finally meet you,” Emily said.
“Everyone, this is Maggie,” Max said as everyone introduced themselves.
“Great, everyone knows everyone now,” Anna was growing impatient with all of the introductions and wanted to get back on the road. “We need to get going.”
Max had a plan, but he didn’t think Anna was going to go along with it, which was why he wanted to talk with everyone all at once.
“Anna, I would feel better if you stayed home, at least for a while,” Max started. “I can put all of my focus into searching for Camille if I’m not worried about you being out there in harm’s way.” Before he could say another word, Anna cut in.
“There’s no way in hell I’m going to stay at home while my daughter’s out there,” Anna said firmly, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that she was going to go back out there.
“Then let’s go together,” Max said. “You and I can search for her together.”
“Max, we can cover twice as much ground if we go separately,” Anna said. “We’re already wasting enough time as it is standing around here talking.”
“We can help,” Frank offered. “Junior and I would be happy to join the search.”
“What, and leave the boys here alone with another mess? Leave them to protect everyone on their own?” Anna demanded. Seeing Max’s confused expression, she continued. “Damon and Joey took on seventy zombies all by themselves last night. We’re lucky they weren’t killed. Your new friends here let them go out on their own when they should have been out there helping them.” She glared at Frank and Junior.
Damon and Joey had just entered the kitchen laden down with supplies from the truck outside. “Mom, we told you, it wasn’t like that,” Damon said with a sigh. He turned to his dad. “The yard behind us was full of zombies. We thought it was just a few, or we would never have gone over the fence. We didn’t get hurt. Frank and Junior have taken over the perimeter checks since then, and they wouldn’t let us go again if we wanted to,” Damon explained.
Max considered what was said for a moment. He knew Anna was slow to trust new people, and she was worried sick about Camille. It made sense that she would be angry with the two men even though they hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Alright, Anna, what if one of them helps with the search? The other can stay here to help protect the house,” Max said.
“How the hell are they going to help? They don’t know Camille. They don’t know what she looks like,” Anna said. “If Camille saw them, she’d probably hide from them.” Her temper was starting to rise.
“Okay,” Max decided to try a different tactic. “How about you take one of the guys with you? At least consider that. I’d feel much better knowing that one of them was with you in case things get bad out there.”
“I’ve already been through the bad, and I don’t know them,” Anna said. “I know Emily. We’ve been through plenty together, and I trust her.” Earning Anna’s trust wasn’t easy, and Max knew it. He was going to lose this argument because his wife was stubborn, but that was part of her nature and one of the things he loved about her.
“Max, we need to get going. Every minute we waste talking about this is another minute my baby is out there missing,” Anna said.
Max nodded in agreement because he knew that Anna wasn’t going to change her mind. “You take my radio. If you get into trouble, you can call the house for help. I’m not budging on this,” Max said firmly as he read her expression. “We’re going to drive east to Crocker. You search half a mile north, and I’ll search half a mile south, and then we can meet up at Bradley to check-in. That’s gotta be it, Anna. It’s the safest way to do things, and we can keep track of each other.”
Anna hated nothing more than being told what to do, but she knew Max meant well and that his plan was solid, so she nodded. She grabbed his hand and led him to the other room.
“Are you okay? I’m so sorry about Jesse,” Anna said as tears filled her eyes.
Max’s whole expression darkened. “I’m as okay as I’m going to be. I just don’t know how to go on living life without him. It’s always been us, then the four of us, the kids…” he trailed off. “I’ll get through it.”
“I love you so much, Max,” she said. “Be safe out there. I can’t lose you.”
“I love you too, Anna. We’re going to find our girl,” Max hugged her. “If we somehow lose track of each other out there, let’s check back in at the house around midnight.”
“Okay,” Anna said. “It’s time to go.”
As they went back to the kitchen to grab Anna and Emily’s restocked backpacks, Max quickly told the guys that he would be fine on his own.
“It’s better if you’re here to protect the kids and the house,” Max said.
Frank and Junior agreed to stay, but Maggie spoke up. “I’m going with you, Max. I’m not needed here. You shouldn’t go alone, and I’m a second set of eyes,” she said. He didn’t argue. It was time to get moving, he didn’t mind the company, and it was always safer to travel in pairs.
Chapter 18
Day 4
Max drove to his search grid while hoping desperately that Anna would stick to hers. It was difficult trying to go street by street and impossible to hit every single one. He hoped they would be able to meet up as planned but knew that realistically it was unlikely. Very few things had gone according to plan since the zombies made their first appearance. He liked having Maggie along for the ride. She seemed to know when he was in the mood to talk and when he needed silence. She was very easy to get along with, and he felt he could trust her to be a reliable second set of eyes.
The fires in the distance didn’t seem to have spread any further. With any luck, they would start to burn themselves out. They hadn’t jumped north over the highway or moved further west. Finally, there was one less thing to worry about. That was the first time he’d had that thought since the zombie apocalypse had started.
There were some large shopping centers in their current search area. A huge outdoor mall set up like a little village with countless high-end stores, restaurants, outdoor vendors, salons, a movie theater, and parking garages were mixed in with a few luxury apartment buildings. The area was so large that it had little streets of its own and traffic lights at some of the mini intersections. Max decided to pull in and drive past all of the storefronts on each little street to see if anything was surrounded by zombies. There was no way or reason to search each store, but he figured that if anyone was alive in there, a crowd of zombies would let him know. There were more zombies in the shopping center than he expected. By their manner of dress and the bags still mindlessly held in their hands, he assumed most of them had been shoppers and had been in the area since day one. He slowly cruised down the first street, seeing nothing to indicate that anyone was alive there. He turned left at the first light and immediately wished that he hadn’t. There was a long, wide grassy strip in the middle between the rows of buildings on either side of the street. The grassy area held a playground and splash pads for children to play in the heat. Dozens of young children in summer clothes, swimsuits, and even diapers were now slowly staggering around like zombies. He’d seen plenty since that first day downtown in
Public Square, and he’d seen dead children walking but nothing like this. It was a devastating sight that brought tears to his eyes. They bore vicious wounds just as all of the other zombies had. Thinking of the agony all of those innocent children had suffered was almost more than he could take. He wished there was some way he could put all of them out of their misery.
“Just look away, Max,” Maggie said gently, interrupting his thoughts. He was so caught up in the tragedy before him that he’d forgotten that she was in the truck with him.
He had no words, and he didn’t trust himself to speak, so he nodded and tried to look straight ahead and avoid the horrors to his right. The images were forever burned into his mind, though; he knew that without a doubt. It was truly the stuff of nightmares. He tried to push the thoughts from his head so he could concentrate on his search.
Max continued driving ahead then made the turn to the next little street within the shopping center. About halfway down, a storefront was hidden from view by the dozens of zombies that were pressed up against it. He sighed, wondering what to do. There were so many zombies spread around throughout the whole shopping area that he wasn’t sure he could lead them off without becoming surrounded by others. Someone had to be alive in there, so he couldn’t let it go. The sound and movement of the truck had been drawing in zombies since they’d arrived, but they couldn’t keep up with him as he drove down the little streets and made turns. He decided to press his luck and hit the horn. Nearly every zombie gathered at the storefront turned its head at the noise, and then their bodies followed suit. He hit the horn a couple more times to make sure that they followed him then made the next turn. He would go around the block of stores and come back around to see if anyone needed help or came out of the store.
Two turns later, he came upon several dozen zombies wandering in the street. They homed in on his truck but he was able to speed up and veer to the side to avoid most of them. A few of them flew over the truck as it struck them, but he cleared most of them. Without fail, every single zombie followed him as he passed, but like all of the others, they were slow as hell. He made the final turn to come back up by the block of shops and found that all of the dead had left the storefront that had held their interest just twenty minutes ago. He pulled up alongside the door to see if anyone was there but couldn’t tell from inside his vehicle.
Max turned to Maggie. “I’m going to have to make a quick run inside. Someone is or was in there or the dead wouldn’t have been so interested,” he said. “You stay here. If too many zombies get dangerously close to the truck, hit the horn. Backward thinking, I know. But I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to use my gun anyway when I come back out. There are just too many scattered around here. If I hear the horn, I’ll come back out here faster.”
“Be careful,” Maggie said as Max opened his door and got out. He had plenty of firepower on him if he needed it; he just didn’t use it in most situations because the dead were also drawn by the noise.
Max quickly killed a lone zombie standing in front of the store then walked toward the door. The windows of the store weren’t tinted, but the display items sitting in each one obstructed his view. He tried to open the door but found it was locked. He debated for a moment whether he should break the door open. If someone was set up inside and intended to stay there, he could be threatening their safety by destroying the lock. He looked intently through the glass as he was coming to a decision when a zombie shuffled by inside about ten feet away from the door. A woman with a bandage on her forearm appeared otherwise unmarred until he looked at her dead eyes. There was no visible blood on her body or face, but the bandage, the eyes, and the shambling gait told Max all he needed to know. The woman had gone inside to treat a bite wound, locked the door behind her, and then turned into a zombie. The dead that had surrounded the store had seen a live person go inside and must have been there since day one because their minds couldn’t comprehend anything else. They stayed until they were distracted by Max and his truck. There was nothing for him to do here, so he turned back to the truck. Several zombies were within a few feet of him, but he was able to dodge a couple of them and shove another, then got into the truck.
“There was a zombie inside,” Max said upon seeing Maggie’s expectant expression. “The dead are too dumb to tell the difference. They saw a living person go in there a few days ago and stayed until I distracted them.”
He put the truck in gear and drove down another little street of shops. There were dozens of zombies, but they were spread out all around the area. He continued and passed a parking garage. Upon seeing the garage, Jesse and their initial escape from the dead downtown crossed his mind. Max pushed the thought aside so he could focus on what he was doing. Up ahead, the luxury apartment buildings appeared to be surrounded. The front façade of the building was mostly made of glass. There had to be several hundred zombies in front of the building and countless others on the sides and presumably the rear. The buildings had high security in place, so no one could enter unless they lived there. Max thought it was highly unlikely that Camille had found her way into one of them. Someone would have had to let her in, and he doubted that she would have run through the entire zombie-filled shopping center and into one of them. Still, the zombies surrounding the buildings meant that there were probably people alive inside.
Seeing Max’s expression as he studied the apartments, Maggie said, “You can’t save everyone, Max. I know how much you want to, but we don’t know who or what is inside. For all we know, some people could be using the place for safety.”
“Yeah, it looks like a pretty secure place to hole up since the glass front doesn’t start until the second floor. If anyone’s in there, they’re surrounded by places to scavenge whatever supplies they need,” Max agreed. “But maybe I should try to draw the zombies away, just in case. We could be someone’s only hope.”
“Well, you can always hit the horn again and try to get them to follow us. If anyone in there is waiting for an opening, that ought to do it,” Maggie said.
With that, Max decided to create a distraction and try to draw the dead away. He hit his horn a few times until it looked like most of the dead were at least turning their heads his way. He laid on the horn for a few seconds, then slowly pulled forward away from the apartments. He quickly gained hundreds of followers both from the buildings and from the shopping area. Zombies started popping up in every direction he looked. If they weren’t slow as hell, he would be in some serious trouble. As it was, he’d put himself and Maggie at risk. He hadn’t expected so many of the dead to be drawn in and had to find a way to maneuver around them and out of the shopping center complex. He sped up to put some distance between him and the zombies from the apartments, but there were easily another two hundred coming toward the truck from other areas.
“Hold on tight,” Max said as he shot forward and mowed down half a dozen zombies. The oversized truck’s snowplow took the hits well without any apparent damage. He weaved around as many as he could but had no choice but to hit some of them. He plowed through another dozen or so zombies as he sped up, and most of them were flung over the truck or fell to either side. One lone zombie landed on the hood with a loud thud. Maggie jumped at the intrusion and let out a little yelp. Max slammed on the brakes, and the zombie went flying. He’d had too much experience with zombies coming through the windshield to take any chances, so slamming the brakes felt like his best option. He was grateful it worked and looked ahead to try to find his best way through the crowd. The streets were narrow, with many cars parked alongside the curbs. It didn’t leave him much room to maneuver. With barely a yard to spare between him and a row of parked cars, he took the next right and found his opening. He passed a high-end grocery store and another parking garage before finding himself at the rear of the complex. There were large open areas and loading docks for semi-trucks to make their deliveries, and most shoppers never ventured to the area. It looked like very few zombies had made their way back there either. He
saw a handful here and there, but nothing compared to what he had just escaped. He breathed a sigh of relief, seeing what looked to be essentially a safe area.
“Holy shit,” Max said. “That was pretty close back there.”
“You’re telling me,” Maggie started. “That was the scariest situation I’ve been in since this whole thing started. Nice driving, Max.”
“I’m just glad I found this truck at the dealership. Almost any other vehicle, and we wouldn’t have made it,” Max said. He followed the roads that delivery drivers used behind the shopping center, making his way toward an exit on Detroit Road. Once he got to the main road, he was able to turn left to head toward Bradley to finish his search area before meeting up with Anna. There weren’t any residential areas to check; it was all small business buildings, a few restaurants, and a small shopping strip. Time seemed to drag and fly by at the same time as he drove around. Without even realizing it, they’d been at the luxury shopping village for hours. It was almost time to meet Anna. He desperately hoped that he’d find her there when he arrived.
Chapter 19
Day 4
Camille started to grow tired as the hours passed. All of the driving was fraying her nerves. The darkening sky had slowed her down. There weren’t enough streetlamps, and she had never driven at night before. She drove so slowly that she thought even a zombie might be able to keep up with her. She didn’t dare speed up for fear that she would hit something. She had eventually driven around six blocks or so before she headed back to Bradley and found herself about half a block south of the huge car accident and group of zombies that she had originally taken the detour to get around. The drive had been grueling but had been worth it as the zombies were now behind her. If she could just get to her next turn, she’d feel like she was on her way home.
SUBURBAN JUNGLE: A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Survival Thriller (Chronicles of the Undead: Book 2) Page 14
