by Mark Clodi
"Let's not find out." Ruben said.
Javier nodded and reached for his third meal pack.
"Better be careful you don't burst your stomach, we wouldn't want you going all comatose for that." Bill said.
"What? I'm starving here, I missed three meals while I was out and I think I need to make up for them. So what do we do now?"
"Well, Max thinks the guy is over on the coast, from what Aubrey told him, the east coast near the north end of Florida. We got a map and plan to scout the area starting later this morning. Max should be able to scan for the guy as we get closer. I think we are about a hundred miles from the coast, so it's not like we are on top of him yet."
Javier kept eating while Ruben and Bill chatted about their plans. Wiping his face after finishing Javier said, "So let me get this straight, we are just going to drive in, find the guy in his Doctor's office and shoot him?"
"It probably won't be that simple." Bill conceded.
"We have the bomb, we might be able to set it close by and just turn tail and run. Nothing ever works out the way it is supposed to, but the simpler the plan the less we have to change when everything goes wrong." said Ruben.
"Not much of a plan." Javier said with a shrug, "I don't have a better one." He walked around the parked trooper cars, as if testing his legs.
"You have any pain?" Ruben asked him as he completed the first circuit.
"It's…stiff. Like all tight and stuff. Were you ever in track Ruben?"
The old man gave a derisive laugh, "When I was young there was no internet, no video games and the television only had three channels, of course I was in track."
"Ah, okay. Well it's like the first time you get outside for the first day, you are all stiff and tight, it takes you a week to get back into things. That's how I feel. Like the first day of track."
"Well, I hope you don't feel like the first night after the first day of track practice."
"All sore? Me either. That would suck. Are you sure my leg was busted?"
"It was busted." Both Bill and Ruben answered together.
Javier kept on walking, leaving Bill and Ruben at the back of the cruiser Stewart was sleeping in. "What does all this mean Ruben?"
"Coming to me for my ancient wisdom? Sorry, I've got nothing. Everything changes. I've lived long enough to know that. I think of this as the next step. You believe in God Bill?"
Bill shook his head, then stopped abruptly, "No, I mean, I'm not a church goer or anything. I just never caught the bug. Max's wife was though, she talked about all the stuff she did with the church. I think she was trying to nudge us into it. It was lost on Max though. Why?"
"Well, I went to church. I mean for years. It goes back to that lack of video games and three channels on the television thing; there wasn't much else to do and church was a good place to meet up with other people." Ruben paused for a moment, then fished around in his pockets and brought out a pack of cigarettes, "Do you mind?"
"You don't smoke. I mean, I've never seen you smoke."
"I gave it up years ago, but the last couple of weeks has given me reason to believe that I might not be dying of cancer any time soon. So, I can light up?"
"Sure."
Ruben tapped out a cigarette and tamped it down on the trunk of the car, he lit it and inhaled a deep breath, "Ah! And the Lord said let there be light! Besides, what if I start? It's not like they are still making cigarettes, even if I live through all of this, I think the cigarettes will only last a few more months before they are too stale to be worth it."
"You'll go through withdrawal again?"
"I'll deal with it. So you don't believe much in God. Like I said, I was a church goer, but Bill when you do something year after year, decade after decade, you can't help but start to see the cracks in the walls. I've been to enough preaching that I've probably heard the bible a dozen times over by now. It is fair to say I was leaning towards agnostic before all this, if not downright atheism."
"What changed?" Bill asked.
"Max. Stewart. You. Javier. Me. We changed. Them. They changed. They eat people and get 'better', if that makes sense. The dead have risen and among them we walk. The more they consume, the more 'alive' they get to be. And here's the funny part of this improbable situation. If we kill them, we get stronger and better too. A heathen would call it magic. A scientist would analyze the living hell out of it until it turns up being….what's that made up shit from Star Wars?"
"Ah…the stuff in the blood…midi-chlorians? Fans hated that."
"Sounds right, I was going for the 'Force' though, I don't know about blood or anything. Well they got it wrong. It's not magic, it's not the force, it's people's souls. The zombies consume a person's soul. We can't do it without them processing it first, but if we are close by we can absorb it from them before it gets free to go to its reward."
"Interesting theory." Bill said.
"It makes sense. It throws all the church leaning into perspective. There is a soul. We have seen it at work. Twisted to Satan's ends, for the most part, but it proves there is a soul. And with a soul, there must be heaven and a hell. It fits."
"It could, but I am still skeptical, where is God in all of this? Why doesn't he just step in and end it all? Send down the golden ladders or whatever and close this chapter of the book."
"Ah, that sounds like a scientist. I don't have all the answers. I am pretty sure about this one and I am scared Bill."
"Scared? Why?"
"Well if it's all true, I haven't been a very good Christen."
Bill snorted, "You and the other eight billion people on the planet. I wouldn't worry about it."
"This is everlasting, unending afterlife we are talking about. If I end up in hell…well as the kids say today, that would suck."
Laughing Bill said, "You're not dead yet, can't you repent?"
"I already have."
"So you should be all set. Are you trying to save me now?"
"No, I sat through enough sermons to know I ain't a preacher. But Bill, I have to tell you something."
"Shoot."
"I prayed a lot over the years and never saw anything come of it, I never got an answer. But lately, Bill, I've been getting answers."
Bill stared at the old man for a minute, "Like, voices in your head answers? Or 'prayers coming true' sort of answers?"
The old man looked out into the night, focusing on something that Bill couldn't see, he cleared his throat before answering, "I'm not crazy, at least I don't think so. At first I ignored them. It's like, well you ever been to a baseball game?"
"I've been to a few I–Cubs games, but never to a major league game."
"It's kind of like that, the crowd just sort of murmurs in the background, making a noise you just overlook to get on with your own talking. But when you are at a game and your own conversation stops, you might pick up on what people nearby are saying. You following me?"
"Yeah, or even at a restaurant."
"Yes, like that. Well if I kind of stop thinking about anything in particular, I can hear people. I thought it was just people like you and Stewart the other day. But it's not just them. It's people I can't see. People I am pretty sure are dead."
"And you think it is God?" asked Bill.
"I know. Crazy. Not all God. But yeah, I think he is using them to talk to me, to give me advice. To tell me things I should otherwise have a way of knowing."
"What kind of things?"
"Where people are, where zombies are, what they are doing. If I can make a difference in any given situation…or not."
"That's how you found Stewart. But how did you get over the fence?"
"There was a hole cut through it by the side of the building, it was hard to see from where we were, but they, the voices, told me it was there. They said Stewart would need my help and I had to go to her." Ruben said.
"They said 'would need', so they told you the future?"
"Sort of, maybe they were guessing. With Stewart that isn't much of a guess, is it?
She's always in the thick of things."
Bill laughed, "Aren't we all?"
Javier finally stopped pacing and asked, "All what?"
"In the thick of things. How's your leg?" Bill asked.
"Good, I think I am okay, but I am still hungry."
"You better wait at least fifteen or twenty minutes, I don't know how much more you can hold."
"The meals aren't that big. How about I wait ten?" said Javier, eyeing the trunk.
"Your call, I won't stand between you and food. We'll have to see what we can pick up locally in the morning to make sure you have enough."
"Okay." Javier set off on another loop around the parking lot.
Ruben finished his cigarette, "So Bill, am I crazy?"
"Near as I can tell, yes. You should have stayed in Iowa old man."
"I couldn't do that, not when people half my age are running around trying to save the world. Not when I could make a difference."
"Ruben, just watch what you are doing, okay? I mean if the voices tell you to do anything crazy just think about it before you act. Don't just give in to them."
Ruben nodded and tapped another cigarette out of the pack. As he smoked he thought about a pop song he had heard so many years before, one that wailed on about good advice you just couldn't take.
Chapter 33 — Katie
"Anything?" Katie asked as she frantically rifled through the office on the ground floor.
"No, this isn't my thing. I was never good with computers." Randy said.
The two stood in the office surrounded by pulled down books and papers spread over every flat surface. They were looking for an address of the clinic the doctor worked at. Both had thought it would just be a matter of finding the location on some stationary or other paperwork, but so far they had found nothing.
"He'll send someone for us. How far do you think it is from here?" Randy asked.
"Now how in the hell would I know that?"
"I dunno, how do you know you are looking for him in the first place? How'd you know this was his house?"
Katie slumped into an overstuffed chair, looking defeated in the near darkness. "Fuck if I know, I just do." She stared up at the portrait hanging behind the desk where Randy was sitting. "Who do you think that is?"
"His father? The founder of modern medicine? His former lover?"
"Thanks, for that last image. I bet he lives about half an hour from where he works. We've spent ten minutes at this, so we should have another ten, then we gotta get out of here."
"Well, I can't get into his computer." Randy was staring at the log in screen in front of him. He was able to type in passwords, but noted, with some amusement, the keys didn't depress when he hit them. So far he had tried a variety of combinations with no luck. The two of them had kept the lights off in the house and the generator was still running in the garage, providing them with power if they needed it. From the bottom desk drawer they had found a notebook scribbled full of numbers and letters and Randy had tried every combination off of the pad as well.
"You know what we haven't found?"
"What?" asked Randy.
"A safe. Move, would you?" Katie stood and walked over behind the desk to the painting. The wall behind the desk was lined with built-in bookshelves. The painting was hanging on a section of wall built out from the shelves. Katie grabbed the bottom corner of the picture and tried to lift it off the wall. It didn't want to move.
"Bingo! There is something here." Katie tugged on the edges of the painting, until the left side pulled free from the wall. The picture acted as a door with a heavy duty magnet keeping it from swinging open. Behind it was a wall safe with two dials. "Gimme the sheet with the numbers." Katie said.
Randy reached for the pad of paper on the desk, but was unable to move it. "Sorry, that seems to be beyond my ability."
Katie whirled and picked up the paper, but paused to lay one hand on Randy's face. He felt solid to her touch. They stared at each other for a moment before Katie turned back to the wall with the pad. She went right to the bottom, skipping the crossed off numbers.
"Fucking idiot. If this works, I mean." Katie said, "See how the numbers are split here, like these four are in a group and then there is a bit of a space to the next group? I bet this is the combo for the two dials."
"Do it."
Katie dialed the numbers on the safe and in a few seconds she heard a click. She pulled the door open and let out a low whistle, "Well, what do you think? Was the guy up to no good or what?" The safe was full cash. Neat stacks of hundred dollar bills wedged tightly into place, to one side of this stack was a manila folder slid in upright. Katie ignored the cash and pulled out the folder.
"Gold! Randy! Check it out! I bet he works here." Katie held up a couple of checks, embossed with a fancy logo and the address of some sort of medical clinic on the front. Katie took out the first check and was moving to put it into the pocket of her shirt when Randy stopped her.
"Hold up. We don't want him to know we know where he is."
Looking around at the mess on the floor Katie turned back to Randy, "I think he might have a clue."
"No, not for sure. He'll know we go in here, but we don't have to be obvious that we got into the safe. Take the last check. Put everything back the way you found it and then stash the note book back in the drawer. Toss it, but make it look like you overlooked it. Then he won't know for sure we found the safe or where the clinic is."
"Good. That's good. I suppose that is why you are the observer and I am the shooter." Katie said referring to their team roles.
"No, you're the shooter 'cause I fucked up on the range and you shot better than me."
"I am a better shot than you."
"I'm not bad."
"But not the best. Admit it. I'll give you that you were the best observer; you always fed me the data I needed to get the shot."
"If it shuts you up, you were the better shooter. But no one can observe like me."
"Standing or lying around was always a strong point for you." Katie teased as they exited the room."
"Earning your pay for one trigger pull seemed to suit you too."
As the two made their way to the back door, headlights flashed onto the front of the house from the street, it looked like more than one vehicle.
Randy looked at Katie, "Go. I'll try to distract them."
Stepping onto the back porch Katie eyed the grill and the propane tanks. "Yeah, you do that partner; catch up with me at the jeep. Be careful."
"I'm dead, I doubt they will even see me."
Katie paused by the grill, it was a luxury model with an electric battery start and came right on when she tapped the button. Hoisting one of the heavy propane tanks onto the burning grill she turned it sideways and brought the grill cover down on top of it. The cover couldn't close all the way with the tank in the way and Katie pulled the whole thing sideways until the half open lid was facing the back fence.
She turned and ran towards the fence, carrying her two guns with her as she went. She had just cleared the fence when she heard the angry shouts behind her. Stopping in the woods she braced herself against a tree and watched as several fast moving figures fanned out in the back yard. Gunfire erupted from inside the house and the figures outside crouched down, making smaller targets in the overgrown grass.
Katie smiled smugly, she could have killed any of them from this range, it wasn't even a hard shot despite the dim light of the moon. She settled the crosshairs on the shadowy head of the figure closest to the back patio. No more gunfire came from within and the zombie she was aiming at pointed at the grill, which was giving off a little flickering light from the open lid. Katie could tell it was a male, and he moved as if he had some sort of training, either police or military, he shied away from the windows of the house, but, of course he wasn't being watched from inside the house.
'That's it, move just a little closer. Stand up a little more, perfect!' Katie slowly squeezed the trigger and the man's head b
urst apart, the bullet lined up perfectly with the propane tank sitting on the hot flames of the grill and the pressurized tank blew open when the bullet struck it. The resulting explosion sent a fireball screaming into the sky and blew down part of the kitchen wall and shattered all of the windows in the house. Katie felt the massive heat wave from the blast from where she was, a good hundred yards away.
The house caught fire and the pile of propane tanks had been scattered all over the patio, with some blown into the kitchen itself. Katie risked waiting a few seconds for the kitchen to really go up, and then took aim at another of the propane tanks. This explosion didn't seem as fierce to Katie as the first, but its effects were far more devastating; it lifted part of the house up off of its foundation, when it crashed back down fully half the house collapsed.
Katie looked for the figures in the grass, they all still seemed to be there, stunned by the force of the explosions. Most of them were still moving, rolling to their stomachs to crawl away from the fire. 'Easy pickings.' She thought, it was tempting to pick a few of them off as they lay in the yard, but she fell back into her role and decided fading away would be a better idea than getting into a firefight.
Moving at a trot she followed her path back to her duffel back, which she picked up and tossed into the jeep. Starting the vehicle she backed onto the beach, which was much smaller now that the tide had come in.
"You happy?" Randy asked.
"It was a great idea."
"I'm not saying it wasn't. But now it just makes you a larger threat. You can't kick the anthill without repercussions."
"Oh, I think there would have been repercussions anyway."
"Well, maybe you would have been a lower level threat. Now you've done pissed him off. I mean you break into his house, kill his woman, ambush his men; twice, and steal his stuff. Then to top it all off you burn the place down."
"Hey!" protested Katie, "He doesn't know I stole his stuff now! I was just covering our tracks."
Randy laughed.
"Let's find another place to hole up and work on finding him in the morning. I could use some Randy time." Katie said.
Smiling at her allusion to what that meant when they were alive, Randy replied, "I'm all yours sweet heart."
