He averts his gaze, suddenly absorbed in the blue deodorant stick. He turns it over in his hands, face unreadable. After what seems like forever, he shakes his head and sticks it into his pocket. “Thank you. It’s weird as shit, but I’ll try it.”
“It’s the least I can do. You know, for holding up my non-existent hair while I puked like a high school kid on prom night.”
His eyes soften. “Anytime.” He hesitates before reaching across the short distance that separates us. He cups my hands between both of his, running his thumbs over my palms.
He’s never looked at me the way he’s looking at me now. I’m too hungover to grapple with the emotion squirming around in my chest. All I know is that I want to hang onto his hand. Hell, I want to do more than that. I want to hang onto him.
I don’t do either.
I force myself to my feet, breaking away from him. I swallow against the sudden dryness in my throat.
“We should go check on the others.” Realizing I’m being an asshole, I attempt to soften the abruptness. “None of them had a sober friend looking over them last night.” I give him a soft smile, wishing I didn’t feel like vomiting all over my bare feet.
The skin around his eyes crinkles again. I decide it’s definitely his version of a smile. I’ve never seen Ben smile before today. It looks good on him.
“Let’s go,” he says to me. “We don’t want to leave the little shitheads up to their own devices. No telling what they’ll get up to unsupervised.”
As we exit the room side by side, I lament my obscene intake of alcohol. I’m in no state to deal with whatever is manifesting between me and Ben. Somewhere in the last twenty-four hours, things between us have changed. I make a silent promise to think on it when my head stops hurting.
Right now, I have my kids to think about. I don’t intend to fail them again.
I may have been drunk last night, but that doesn’t mean my brain wasn’t working. At least, it was before my sixth or seventh shot of whatever that brown stuff was.
Our campus was almost overrun yesterday. The appearance of the alpha zombies has changed everything. We have to adapt to our new environment if we want to survive. I won’t risk leaving us vulnerable again.
I have a plan.
28
Fortifications
KATE
Surrounded by the Creekside crew on the rooftop of the dorm, I shade my eyes and survey the campus below. My brain feels like it’s taking an axe to my skull, though I do my best to conceal the ill effects of my hangover.
“Dude.” Beside me, Johnny squints. Based on his grimace, he’s as hungover as the rest of us. “I wish you’d let us use some of that Tylenol.”
“Nope.” I keep my eyes on the ground below. “Resources are finite. Hangovers don’t qualify for medication.”
“Carter, your mom is a hard ass,” Johnny mutters.
“I’m a moment,” Jenna says, who stands on my other side.
“What sort of moment?” Ash asks.
“One of those moments where you fall asleep drunk,” Jenna replies. “Then you wake up and you’re not drunk anymore, but the alcohol is still in your body and everything hurts like hell.”
“I think we all had that moment, babe,” Carter says.
“We are that moment,” Reed adds.
I’m glad the mood is lighter today. Grief isn’t something we can escape, but I hope Ben is right. I hope we’ll scab over with time.
Standing with my Creekside family gives me strength. It’s a good reminder not to let grief get the better of me. Last night was for loss and sadness, but now it’s time to lock that grief away and get on with living. I can’t take care of my living kids if I wallow in the ones I’ve lost.
“There are still a lot out there on campus.” Caleb stands on the corner of the building, binoculars up to his face.
“They’re in clumps of five to ten,” Ben says, also with a pair of binoculars.
It’s better than I had hoped. Even though there are a fair number of zombies on campus, their numbers are spread out. I have a plan to deal with them.
I turn to my companions. “Let’s go back downstairs. I want to gather everyone for a Creekside meeting.”
Once in the main dorm, I lean up against the wall beside the flat screen and Xbox. I take in the faces of all those who have entrusted me with their safekeeping.
Carter and Jenna, holding hands. Eric, looking lost and dazed without Lila. Reed, eyes puffy from missing Jesus. Caleb and Ash, always near one another but never in physical contact. Our newest companion, Susan, with her husband still unconscious in a dorm room.
And Ben. Sometimes I think he should be leading our small group. He knows more and has more experience than I could ever hope to have. Except even I’m not dumb enough to think he could hold our small family together. The kids count on me for that.
“First, we need to clear the university. We’re going to split into two teams and kill every zombie on campus. I’ll lead one team and sweep west. Carter, you lead the second team and sweep east.” My son nods. “If you encounter any alphas, be sure to take them out first. The rest of the zoms will be confused when their alpha goes down. That will give you ample opportunity to take them out. That’s Phase 1.”
“What’s Phase 2?” Jenna asks.
“We can’t continue as we have. Humboldt University isn’t safe.” I sweep my eyes over them. “We have to fortify Creekside. That’s Phase 2.”
They shift and exchange looks. Susan raises a hand.
“Yes, Susan?”
“You don’t expect us to blow up more buildings, do you?”
“Nothing that extreme. But you are right about one thing. Our home needs a wall.”
“Like a Medieval village?” Jenna says.
“Exactly. We’re going to start with Creekside and all the neighboring dorms that share our parking lot. We create a home base that is secure and self-sufficient. We can’t run around blowing up buildings every time a horde comes. The way I see it, there could be a lot more. We don’t know how prevalent this alpha phenomenon is.”
“How do you plan to build the fortifications?” Ben asks.
“We dig up the fencing along the frontage road and bring it here,” I reply. “I saw bags of cement in the maintenance shop a few weeks ago. We erect the fence here in the gaps between the dorm buildings. Then we get some cars. Put them in neutral, roll them in front of our perimeter and pop the tires. We scavenge rebar from the rubble of College Creek and jam them into the hoods and front grills of the cars. These will impale zombies that get too close.” I make eye contact with everyone in the room. “It’s not a sophisticated plan, but it will work with the resources and manpower we have.” I push off from the wall. “We need to get started right away. I’m putting all endurance workouts on hold for a week. All our efforts need to be focused on campus clearance and fortifications.”
“Did you come up with all this while you were drunk last night?” Reed asks.
“Yes?”
“Raise your hand if you think Mama Bear should drink more often.” Reed sticks his arm in the air. His tone is light, but his usual big grin is dull. I can tell he’s trying to rally. A few others also raise their hands, smiles rippling around the room.
“Let’s get to work,” I reply. “We’re burning daylight. We have a home to fortify.”
29
Shark Bait
KATE
I should be excited. After two days of hard clearance, we’ve managed to kill all the large packs of zombies on campus. After another four days of work, we’ve managed to relocate and install fencing between all the dorm buildings. And now, barely a week after we rescued him, Gary is conscious and well enough to meet all of us at Creekside.
And while I am happy about all these things, I’m too exhausted to feel real enthusiasm. Ever since the alpha attack, sleep has been even more elusive than usual.
I crunch on a few stale coffee beans, wishing I for an intravenous injection
of caffeine. A few people watch me critically as I pop the beans, particularly Ben and Carter, but no one says anything.
“Hey look,” Reed says with forced cheer from his seat on the couch. “It’s Shark Bait.”
I look up as Susan and Ash enter the main sitting room. Susan pushes a wheelchair in front of her, which Eric and Reed had found inside of a janitor’s closet a few days ago.
In the wheelchair is Gary. He’s pale and gaunt, but his eyes are alert. From the smell of things, he’s just had his first shower since getting attacked by a great white. His dark brown hair is still wet, sticking up at wild angles.
“Reed.” Jenna frowns at him. “Don’t call him that. Hey, Gary. Welcome to Creekside.”
“Hey, guys.” Gary grins at us, a good-natured smile landing on Reed. “It’s cool. I like Shark Bait better than Shark Food.”
“You’re in an awfully good mood for someone who almost died,” Ben remarks.
Gary is cheerfully unapologetic. “Thanks to all of you, my wife and I are alive. If that’s not enough to put a man in a good mood, I don’t know what is.”
“I like this guy already,” Jenna says.
“Yeah, I’m glad we risked our lives to save him,” Caleb adds.
“I know I can’t do much until my leg heals,” Gary says, “but I want to help. Give me a job to do. Maybe I can cook?”
The sudden silence that descends is like a wet blanket. The good cheer Gary brought to the room is snuffed out. Ben’s face darkens into a scowl.
No one has volunteered to cook since Lila died. Meals consist of someone picking out a bunch of canned goods from our supply room and heating them over the camp stove. My last meal consisted of warmed-up green beans.
Gary, sensing the shift, looks from us to Susan in confusion. “I said something. Whatever it was, I’m sorry.”
It’s not right to take out our collective sorrow on Gary. I throw back a few more coffee beans and cross the room to him.
“I’m Kate.” I shake his hand. “We’re glad you’re finally awake.” I make introductions, going around the room.
“Seriously, I owe you guys,” Gary says. “Thanks for everything. Susan says Ash worked day and night to fight off infection and keep me alive.”
Caleb flashes a proud smile at Ash. “She’s good at what she does. We’re all lucky to have her.”
I can’t tell if Caleb’s compliment has a deeper meaning behind it. I haven’t been able to figure out the extent of their relationship. As far as I can tell, things haven’t changed between them since Jesus died. They share a dorm room, but even when they sleep the door is always open. They’re never far from one another, but I have yet to see them touch.
“We are lucky to have Ash,” I agree. “If you really want to step up and be in charge of the kitchen, the job is yours.” No need to tell him we lost our previous chef to zombies. I don’t think anyone is ready to talk about it, least of all me.
“I’m in,” Gary says. “I was the cook for guests on our charter boat. I’m not a trained chef, but I can put stuff together that tastes good.”
Eric and Reed start coughing. Small smiles pull at the lips of my people. Even Ben shakes his head as though amused by the comment. It’s nice to feel the tension of the past week slacken.
“What did I say?” Gary asks.
“We don’t eat much that tastes great,” I say as diplomatically as I can.
“I’ll do what I can to remedy that. Just show me where the supplies are.”
WE LEAVE GARY WITH several boxes of food stores, placing them on the floor to make it easy for him to sort. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, he eagerly sets about going through them. The rest of us head outside, returning to the fortification of our home.
“For a man who almost died, he’s in good spirits,” I say to Susan as the two of us finish rolling a car into place in front of our fence. I’m so exhausted that all I want to do is sleep. Even Gary’s recovery isn’t enough to give me a boost of energy.
“He’s always like this.” A happy smile spreads across Susan’s face. “It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with him. He always got great tips from people on our boat.” She taps her fingers on the hood of the car. “Do you think we should pop the tires now?”
“Let’s wait until we’re finished getting all the cars in place.” We’re two-thirds of the way finished with this phase of the fortifications. “Come on, let’s go get the silver Mini Coop.”
I plod beside Susan, steps heavy with fatigue. I have a few more coffee beans stashed in my pocket. I crunch on them as we walk a short way down Granite Avenue to the Mini Cooper.
“Are those good?” Susan points to the beans.
“Honestly? No. They’re stale.”
“So you’re eating them because you’re so tired you could fall asleep standing up?”
“Is it that obvious?”
Susan nods. “No one would be upset if you took the afternoon off and napped.”
Like I could nap even if I tried. I shake my head. “My place is out here with everyone else, making sure our home is safe.”
Susan gives me a sidelong look but doesn’t say anything. We reach the Mini Coop. The doors are all locked, something we’ve run into more times than I can count. Susan pulls out a large rock wrapped in a T-shirt, which hangs from her belt; our official tool for our task of breaking into cars. She smashes the window and unlocks the doors.
A few minutes the later, the Mini Coop is in neutral and the two of us are pushing it up the road.
Three hundred yards away, a small pack of zombies stumble into view. Eric, Johnny, Caleb, and Ash stop what they’re doing and fan out to eliminate the dead. From the haphazard resistance the zombies put up, it’s clear none of them are alphas.
After our initial clearance of the campus right after the attack, we haven’t run into too many zoms. It’s nice to know our destruction of the library and dorms wasn’t for nothing.
“We owe you our lives,” Susan says as she watches our people. “I’ve never properly thanked you for what you’ve done for me and Gary.”
“Let’s see,” I say, attempting to make light of the situation. “When we met you, your husband was unconscious from a shark attack. The day after you arrive at Creekside, we’re attacked by alpha zombie hordes and are forced to blow up some buildings.” I make it a point not to mention the wake, or the burial of our friends in the rubble of College Creek. “Then I make everyone relocate fence panels and reinforce them with cars. Oh, and somewhere in between all that, your husband wakes up.” I smile at her through the open car window as we continue to push the Mini Coop. “You’ve had a lot of on your mind.”
Susan shakes her head. “I could say thank you every day for the rest of my life and it still wouldn’t be enough. Can you steer at little to the left?”
I adjust the steering wheel. The Mini Coop slides neatly into place between two cars.
Carter and Jenna roll up a few minutes later, pushing a beat-up Ford Mustang between them. Susan and I guide them into place.
The Mustang completes the section of the wall around the Juniper and Creekside dorm buildings. I survey the barrier, knowing I should feel satisfied. All I feel is exhausted.
“Good work,” I say. “Let’s try and finish this next section of the wall today.” I gesture to the gap between Fern and Laurel dorms. “I saw more cars down in the parking lot of the Jolly.” The Jolly is a big common area that used to be frequented by students.
“So you and Gary ran a commercial fishing boat?” Carter asks as the four of us walk together down the road.
“A charter boat. We took people out for fishing, whale watching, and kayaking. We were on our boat with two tourists from New York when the outbreak hit. One customer started eating his friend. Gary tried to separate them, but couldn’t. At the time, we didn’t know the guy was a zombie. We thought he was just some rich prick who bought some bad drugs.
“Anyway, Gary ended up hitting him in the head with
a fire extinguisher. He only meant to stun him, but accidentally hit him too hard. The other guy, the one who was bitten, bled out on the deck of our boat.
“We were so scared. We thought we were facing manslaughter charges. We threw the bodies overboard. Our plan was to stay in the boat and sail down to Mexico before the authorities caught up to us.” Susan lets out a long sigh. “We hadn’t gone far when we heard about the outbreak on the radio and figured out what was really happening. No one was using the zombie word, but all the news reports talked about people going berserk and eating other people. We decided to stay put and live on the boat until everything blew over. You know how that worked out. And now here we are.”
I try to imagine what it would be like to watch the world end from afar. It occurs to me that Susan and Gary haven’t spent much time in the world of zombies. That makes me appreciate their willingness to help and be a part of our community even more.
I suppose there is some brightness in this fucked-up world.
30
Foot Soldier
KATE
I hike toward the Creekside common room, glancing at my watch. It’s time for a check-in call with Alvarez. We missed the last check-in due to the alpha attack, and he missed the check-in before that. I’m anxious to catch up with my young friend.
Upon reaching the main dorm, I find Carter and Jenna there. They collect their library books to make room for me at the kitchen table with the ham radio. Carter gives me a firm hug, something he’s taken to doing every time he sees me. I hug him back, grateful for my son, then settle down in front of the ham radio.
“Mama Bear to Foot Soldier. Are you there? Over.”
“Mama Bear, this is Foot Soldier. Good to hear your voice. You missed our last scheduled check-in. Over.”
Alvarez. I sigh in relief at the sound of his voice, tossing a few coffee beans into my mouth. “I wasn’t the only one to miss a check-in. You missed the one before that.” I dispense with the official radio jargon.
Undead Ultra (Book 3): Lost Coast Page 16
