Reno shook his head. “You’ve got an overactive imagination.”
“It’s not natural to be this quiet.”
“The ghouls were probably here before and wiped everybody out.”
“Maybe,” said Parnell, not convinced.
“There’s no other explanation,” Reno scoffed.
Halverson clambered onto the dock. “Let’s take our chances now.” He paused. “We may not get another.”
He spotted a corpse with its head, arms, and legs torn off. Blood stained the jetty’s thick weathered floorboards underneath the torso. Something had ripped the internal organs out of the corpse’s bloody, broken rib cage.
“Are things that bad?” said Parnell.
“No,” said Reno. “Of course not. Today’s just another walk in the park.”
“I don’t know how I could get out of bed every morning if I was as cynical as you.”
Reno sniggered. “That’s what my ex used to tell me.”
“I couldn’t live that way. Don’t you have any hope?”
“I hope you shut up. That’s what I hope.”
“Have you considered a therapist?”
“I didn’t come here to get psychoanalyzed. You’re the one who needs a shrink if you think this is just another day.”
“We’ve got enough problems without you guys chewing each other out,” put in Victoria.
“Parnell’s the one who’s picking a fight,” said Reno. “I’m not. I’m with Halverson. Let’s go ashore and get this over with.”
Reno scampered onto the wharf beside Halverson.
“One of us should probably stay with the boat,” said Halverson.
“I think not,” said Reno.
“A stranger might come by and rip it off while we’re gone.”
“I think not,” Reno repeated.
“Why?”
“You know why.” Reno nodded in the direction of the moneybags. “Whoever we leave here might decide to take off without us.”
“Why would they do that?” asked Parnell. “I have no problem with guarding the boat while you’re gone.”
“Well, I sure as hell do.”
“You act like you think everybody’s a crook.”
Reno just looked at him, his face expressionless.
“We need to come to a decision on this,” said Victoria.
“Either we all go or nobody goes,” said Reno.
“Even if it means a stranger might come by and jack our boat?”
“Take a look around. There’s nobody here.”
“For now, anyway.”
“That dwarf dinosaur will guard the boat. Nobody’s gonna come onboard with that escapee from Jurassic Park crawling on deck.”
Victoria mulled it over. “What if we split up into teams of two?”
“No dice—unless I’m one of the two that stay aboard.”
“Fine with me.”
“That doesn’t give us a whole lot of manpower onshore,” noted Halverson.
“Why do you need a lot of manpower?” asked Victoria.
“We need to bring back as many supplies as possible. There’s no telling how long it’ll be before we can get more food.”
“Don’t forget weapons,” said Reno. “We need protection from the infected.”
“A vaccine is the best protection against the disease,” said Parnell.
“A vaccine ain’t gonna stop ghouls’ teeth from tearing apart our flesh. We need to kill those things before they kill us.”
“I thought you said it was hopeless. Then why should we fight them?”
“It is hopeless, but I’m hungry.”
“But why bother with guns?”
“Are you stupid?” Reno turned on Parnell. “Because those things are gonna try and kill us when we look for food. Why do you think?”
“Two people aren’t gonna be able to carry a lot of food and weapons,” said Halverson.
“Grab a car,” said Reno. “There’s plenty of them out there.”
“That’s the problem. There are too many of them. They’re blocking the streets.”
“That does it. I’m tired of arguing. Let’s all go.”
Chapter 11
Against Halverson’s better judgment, the four of them left Newton the iguana guarding the sailboat. Halverson would have preferred it had somebody stayed onboard. But since nobody trusted anybody else, they all had to stick together.
“What kind of a doctor are you?” Reno asked Parnell as they made their way toward the street that ran perpendicular to the wharf. “A GP?”
“How did you guess?” said Parnell.
“Why did you want to become a doctor?”
“My mother died of cancer when I was a child. I decided I wanted to do something about that when I grew up.”
“It’s not good to lose your parents when you’re young,” said Victoria, who was walking beside them. She thought of her own experience. “Or lose your child when you’re young,” she added under her breath, recalling her seven-year-old daughter Shawna, who had succumbed to the plague.
“No. You have to learn to grow up fast.”
“Too fast.”
“Besides that, I saw a grand design in life, in human beings—how intricate and beautiful human beings are in their construct.”
“In all this madness,” said Reno incredulously, “you see a grand design?”
“Yes. Though I admit it’s harder to see it now what with these infected victims running amok across the earth.”
“It’s total madness and chaos. The construct is nihilism. There is no construct.”
“I’m convinced we’ll find the cure for this pestilence.”
“I hope so,” said Victoria. “It’s either that or the human race becomes extinct.”
Parnell turned to Reno. “Why did you become a journalist?”
Without hesitation Reno answered, “Because I wanted to get the goods on the human race—like Emile Zola.”
“You’re sort of like a detective, then,” said Victoria.
“I suppose.”
“You’re motivated by a desire to find the truth.”
Reno yawned. He swung his head around toward Halverson. “What about you? Why did you decide to become a writer?”
Halverson wasn’t prepared for Reno’s question. Halverson now knew it would have been better for him if he had used a cover story other than that of a journalist for this assignment, but he hadn’t expected to bump into a genuine reporter.
Halverson had to watch his words, which might reveal him as an impostor to a bona fide journalist like Reno.
“I sort of backed into it,” said Halverson.
“Backed into it?” Reno thought about it. “Yeah, maybe that’s how I got into it, too. Nothing else interested me.”
“There’s a supermarket across the street,” said Halverson, changing the subject.
The fire had wreaked minimal damage to the grocery store, Halverson could see. There should be plenty of food intact inside.
“Let’s load up on food,” said Reno. “Everybody, grab a cart.”
He broke into a run toward the store.
“Now where do we get some guns?” said Halverson, canvassing the street as he angled toward the supermarket with Reno in the lead.
“What about you, Victoria?” asked Parnell. “What do you do for a living?”
“I have my own dress shop,” answered Victoria.
“I guess you must like dresses.”
Victoria nodded. “I like designing them, too.”
“What’s keeping you guys?” Reno called out from the front entrance to the supermarket.
Halverson, Victoria, and Parnell started jogging toward Reno.
In the parking lot they all grabbed shopping carts and plowed into the store.
“Where do they keep the beef jerky?” said Reno and marched away with his cart, inspecting the signs over the aisles.
“In and out,” said Halverson. “We need to get back to the boat ASAP.�
��
“Where are the dry goods?” asked Parnell.
Victoria pointed him in the right direction.
“We meet back at the entrance in five minutes!” said Halverson loud enough for everyone to hear.
Halverson headed to the canned goods aisle and stocked up on any cans he could find then trundled his cart to the cereal aisle and loaded up on enough cereal to fill his cart.
He was the second one back to the front entrance. Victoria was already standing there with her loaded shopping cart waiting for the others.
Halverson checked his National Clandestine Service digital wristwatch. Eight minutes had passed since they had started collecting groceries.
“Time to go!” he announced.
Parnell shoved his half-loaded grocery cart into view. “I didn’t get a chance to fill my cart up.”
“That’s OK. We need to get back and check on the boat.”
“My wife always does the shopping. I’m sure she’d be done by now if she was doing this.” He paused, thinking about her, a worried expression on his face. “I hope she’s all right.”
“It just goes to show you that women will inherit the earth,” said Victoria. “We’re the better providers.”
“Did you see Reno?” asked Halverson.
“No,” answered Parnell.
“Reno!” Victoria hollered.
Halverson shushed her. “Some of those things might be lurking around here. We don’t want to attract them with loud noises.”
Parnell shook his head. “I don’t like it. It’s just too quiet.”
“I’ll check outside in the parking lot. Maybe he got back here before the rest of us.”
“He wasn’t here when I got here,” said Victoria.
Halverson strode out into the parking lot.
He didn’t see anyone. There were several parked cars with corpses in them. Coagulated blood slathered the car windows from the inside. Everything was stock-still. He listened intently.
A seagull soared by overhead, crying out, startling him.
He cursed his nerves that were stretched taut on account of his concentration. He told himself to relax.
No sign of Reno in the parking lot.
Then Halverson heard a noise.
It sounded like footfalls. He froze and tried to ascertain their direction. They seemed to be coming from his right. Hopefully, they were Reno’s.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a figure approaching him. The figure was dragging his feet.
Not a good sign, decided Halverson. The walking dead dragged their feet.
As the figure trudged around a battered white van, Halverson could make out its face. It wasn’t Reno’s.
Hollow eyes stared out of a head that looked like it belonged in a coffin. Where half the flesh had rotted off the face the skull now stood exposed.
The twentysomething male, dressed in a ragged blue button-down shirt and a disheveled red paisley tie, shambled toward Halverson.
Halverson bucketed back into the supermarket. “We got company. Where the hell’s Reno?”
Chapter 12
Victoria looked around the store.
As if on cue, Reno rounded the corner of an aisle and made a beeline toward them.
“Those things are headed this way,” said Halverson.
“How many?” asked Reno.
“I just saw one. But where there’s one, there are usually more. They travel in herds.”
“Let’s split.”
They rolled their loaded carts into the parking lot.
The twentysomething ghoul lumbered after them stiffly.
“I don’t see any others,” said Victoria.
Parnell balked with his cart.
Behind him Victoria rolled her cart into the backs of Parnell’s heels.
“Ow,” said Parnell.
“Sorry,” said Victoria. “I didn’t expect you to stop. What’s up?”
Stroking his chin Parnell studied the creature. “Let’s capture it.”
“Are you crazy?” said Reno. “What good would that do?”
“We could study it and see if we can find a cure for its disease.”
“Yeah. Like you’ve got the lab equipment to do all that by yourself.”
“We’ve got to start somewhere. This plague will continue to spread until we find a cure for it.”
“Hauling that thing along with us will only slow us down.”
“He’s got a point, Doc,” said Halverson.
“But we need to study these creatures. Don’t you see that?”
“We also need guns to kill them,” said Reno. “We can’t return to the boat till we’ve got some kind of self-protection. Otherwise, we’re sitting ducks for these creatures.”
“Isn’t that a snake store over there?” said Halverson, pointing to a store adjacent to the supermarket.
“What’s a snake store? And what’s that got to do with anything?”
“It’s a store where they sell snakes and reptiles.”
“So what?”
“I have an idea. Let’s go there.”
Halverson shoved his cart toward the snake store.
“But what about weapons?” said Reno.
“Maybe we can find some weapons there.”
“Our friend is following us,” said Victoria as she rolled her cart after Halverson.
“Good.”
The ghoul lurched after them.
Halverson left his cart outside the snake store.
Once he entered the store, it didn’t take him long to see evidence of a massacre. Bloody human arms and legs lay scattered on the floor throughout the store. Several of the plate-glass snake terrariums were shattered. The caged snakes had escaped and were slithering through the aisles.
Victoria, Reno, and Parnell followed Halverson into the store.
“I hope those things aren’t poisonous,” said Reno, stopping dead in his tracks at the sight of the squirming snakes.
“I doubt it,” said Victoria. “Why would anyone want to buy a poisonous snake for a pet?”
“People buy all sorts of creatures for pets. I know one guy at work who owns a pet rattlesnake. He says he likes listening to it shake its rattles.”
Victoria pulled a face.
“Let’s just keep our distance from them and maybe they’ll do the same with us,” said Halverson, shying away from a black snake coiled on the floor three feet ahead of him.
“I have a better idea,” said Reno. “Let’s just get the hell out of here.”
“I’m with you,” said Victoria. “I hate snakes.” She shivered. “They give me the willies.” She sniffed the air and screwed up her face. “It smells in here, too.”
“Probably the dead rodents they use to feed the snakes,” said Halverson.
“Wonderful.”
“Let’s just concentrate on what we’re doing here.”
“What exactly are we doing here?” asked Reno.
A brown and green snake shot through the air missing Reno’s chest by less than a foot. Reno’s eyes popped out of his head.
“I’m gonna concentrate on staying alive,” he said in answer to his own question.
“Does anybody see a snake pole or weapons we can use?” asked Halverson.
As he spoke, Halverson picked up on a rack with vertical snake poles attached to it in one corner of the snake store.
“I don’t get it,” said Reno. “What good’s a snake pole as a weapon against ghouls?”
Wary of escaped snakes writhing on the floor and on the shelves, Halverson stole toward the rack. He reached for a snake pole, pulled it off the rack, and inspected it, trying to figure out how it worked.
Once he got the hang of it, he turned toward the others. “OK, let’s go. I don’t see any weapons.”
“Look who’s here,” said Reno.
The ghoul they had met in the supermarket’s parking lot was entering the snake store.
“Perfect,” said Halverson.
Re
no jacked his eyebrows. He stopped chewing on his stick of gum that was losing its flavor. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Avoiding glass shards scattered on the floor, Halverson padded through the snake store toward the ghoul. He held the snake pole out in front of him toward the ghoul’s head.
The ghoul opened its mouth, revealing its green fangs. Sulfurous-looking saliva dripped from the corners of the creature’s wizened lips.
Halverson manipulated the snake pole, extending the braided wire loop at the end of it. He placed the pole over the ghoul’s head so that the loop was situated directly over the ghoul’s scalp then lowered the loop over the ghoul’s head.
The ghoul swiped awkwardly at the pole with its scrawny arms.
Halverson tightened the loop around the ghoul’s neck and shoved the creature away from him with the pole.
“He’s all yours, Doc,” he said and towed the ghoul toward Parnell.
Parnell didn’t know what to make of it. “What do you mean?”
Halverson handed the butt end of the pole to Parnell. “You wanted a ghoul. Now you got one.”
“This wasn’t what I had in mind.”
The twentyish ghoul flailed away harmlessly at the end of the snake pole.
Halverson pressed the pole’s handle into Parnell’s reluctant hand. “Now you can study the thing to your heart’s content.”
“That’ll teach you,” said Reno. “Be careful what you wish for. Now let’s beat it.”
Reno made tracks out of the snake store.
Halverson, Victoria, and Parnell followed suit. Tagging along in the rear, manhandling the snake pole, Parnell struggled to shepherd the ghoul in front of him.
In the small washboard parking lot, Reno stood next to a concrete chock and pointed across the street. “That looks like a sporting goods store over there.”
“Let’s check it out for weapons before our ghoul’s buddies show up,” said Halverson.
Chapter 13
Halverson, Victoria, Reno, and Parnell pushed their loaded shopping carts through the parking lot to the main artery that was clogged with abandoned cars.
In Parnell’s case it was a difficult task. Not only did he have to push his shopping cart, he had to shove the ghoul at the end of the snake pole ahead of him as well.
“Just how did I get elected to haul this infected guy around?” he said, straining to steer the ghoul and the cart in a straight line toward the road.
Zombie Apocalypse: The Chad Halverson Series Page 59
