What Zombies Fear 3: The Gathering

by Kirk Allmond

  Maya ate a fish and a half worth, and Renee ate four sticks. Sitting there on the Chinese restaurant kitchen counter, Renee hadn’t forgotten about the zombies, but moments like this were rare. She didn’t want to rush this moment of normalcy for the small girl.

  She rolled the last fish sticks up in the paper towels and said, “Maya, let’s take these back to Holly, but we have to hurry. She’ll be waking up from her nap soon.”

  Renee listened at the steel door in the alley and heard a faint scraping noise from outside. It was almost impossible to hear through the thick door, but any sound at all in the dead city was enough to convince her not to go out that door.

  Renee grabbed Maya’s hand as they walked through the dining room. When they got near the two corpses, Renee pointed towards a cloud in the sky, visible through the front windows of the restaurant. When Maya looked up, Renee sped them past the corpses on the floor.

  “What does that cloud look like?”

  “An elephant!”

  “I think so too! When we get outside, we have to be quiet and fast, okay? We’re going to have to run. Can you run with me?”

  “Yes, Mommy.”

  “All right, let’s go.”

  As quietly as possible, they unlocked and opened the door and took off at a dead run, as fast as the little girl’s legs could carry her. Renee had three large cans of food, the fish sticks, and the huge kitchen knife in her backpack. She ran easily alongside the fast little girl, holding her hand. They had both learned how to travel in the city, stopping at the edge of every building to make sure that the way was clear.

  They were nine city blocks from the parking garage, but they had to make two detours around walkers, each of which added three blocks to their total distance. They covered the fifteen blocks in about thirty minutes without taking a single break, other than a few seconds to peer around each corner.

  “Mymy, you’re such a good runner!”

  “Thanks, Mommy. You too,” Maya replied in a whisper as they walked down the ramp to the parking garage.

  Inside the building, Renee opened the door to the stairs, chained it behind her, and began the arduous task of climbing sixty-two flights of stairs. When they’d reached the top, the two were exhausted. Renee was sure that she burned more calories running and climbing than she brought back to their high-rise apartment every day. Her clothes were falling off her body, but Maya and Holly were both still healthy and didn’t appear to have lost any weight.

  The top floor of the building had been one large office prior to the end. Some banking executive’s personal suite. At the elevators was a receptionist area with a couch and two chairs. Beside the large receptionist desk was a doorway that led into the monstrous office, with uninterrupted panoramic views of three sides of the entire city. On a clear day, they could see for miles in any direction.

  What had Renee most worried was that over the last few days, a large group of zombies had been gathering off to the northeast of the city. One of the reasons the main part of the city was now so easy to move around was because most of the walking corpses were now gathered up at that end of town. The days before, she’d spent hours watching the shambling dead stream out of the city.

  Renee looked across the room at Holly stirring from her nap and laid out the fish sticks she’d made. One more day of gathering fuel and she was leaving this place. She had no idea what she would find when she got to her mother’s house, but it had to be better than this place. She hoped she would dream of Max again. She knew they were just dreams, but in her dreams, he was able to make her feel at ease. He gave her advice, like hiding out in this building, and gave her a sense that in a few days she might find her family alive.

  Chapter 8

  The Journey Begins

  When the brothers and Shelton got back to the farm, everyone welcomed him with open arms. Victor introduced him around the barn as "SFC Corbin Shelton." Leuty, who had been put in charge of the fire teams, seemed slightly worried. Shelton had a significant amount of combat experience.

  Victor sent Marshall to talk to John and Leo about Shelton and used that alone time to pull Leuty aside.

  "Hey, Ken, can you come over to the office with me?" Victor said as Marshall walked off. Shelton was getting his gear unpacked on one of the last cots in the barn loft as Leuty and Tookes walked a short way to the reconfigured barn office. It was a tiny room on the end of the birthing stalls.

  "I just wanted to let you know that you're my guy. You're still in charge of the fire teams, and as far as I'm concerned, you will remain so for as long as you're willing," said Tookes. He was never one to mince words. He had found that working with people was infinitely easier if he was straight with everyone.

  "I was a little worried, but if you think he's more qualified than me, I'd step down. He's just had a ton of combat experience. Hell, he got here from the city mostly on foot," said Leuty. "I don't think I could make it to Culpeper on foot."

  "I trust you, Ken. I know you; I've fought beside you. I don’t know this guy. I actually pulled you in here to ask you to keep an eye on him. Watch him, learn from him, but don't give him the keys to the castle," Vic said, cocking his eyebrow. "We're going to be gone for a few days, and I'm leaving you in charge of the defenses here. How many undead are your patrols seeing every day?"

  "We're killing about two a day. They wander down the river from the gun club. That path is about the only easy way for them to get to the property."

  "Nice work. Keep doing what you're doing, and keep everyone practicing. Learn new things from Shelton, but don't tell him everything about the place." Tookes paused and then added, "That's a fine line to tread, son. We want him to feel welcome. He's welcome to stay here, but I just need to make sure he calls this place home."

  "You got it, sir."

  As Victor turned to walk away, Ken called out to him, "Thank you, and sir. Thank you for your trust."

  Victor stopped short and turned around. "I should be thanking you, Ken," he said. "You're keeping our house safe. You're keeping my mother safe while we're out trying to do some good in this horrible, fucked-up world. I wouldn't be able to do what we do without knowing that you're here keeping this place and these people safe."

  With that, Victor went to pack for the trip. He only owned three sets of clothes and wore most of them all the time. He often wore two or three shirts. All of his worldly possessions fit inside a three-day backpack. My sister is alive. My older brother is with me. I have Leo and John and Max, thought Victor. I have everything I need.

  It was amusing to Victor how his perspective shifted. It was funny to him that it took the end of the world to teach him what was really important. He walked down the stairs singing that old REM song, "It's the end of the world as we know it! It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feeeeeeeeeel fine!"

  Vic set his camouflage backpack and the large black duffle that carried Sammie and his other weapons down at the foot of the steps, next to the one his mother had packed for Max. Seeing that he didn't need to go pack anything for his son, he went back upstairs to the linen closet and pulled down a dozen old blankets. This house had been a bed and breakfast before. It had twelve beds plus two sleeper sofas. There were a lot of blankets. Victor purposely picked those with holes or stains. He was not going to tell his mother, "Oh yes, sorry, Mom. We lost a dozen of your best blankets."

  The next step was the kitchen. There weren't going to be any stops by the drive through on this road trip. There weren't even any roads. He knew if things got really bad, they could scavenge and forage enough food to survive. This was the east coast after all. Max, however, would probably not want to eat acorns and dandelion leaves.

  It took two trips to haul the gear for Max and Victor to the truck.

  "Hey, Daddy, where are we going?"

  "We're going to find Aunt Renee, and we're going to ride a train. Do you want to ride in a train? Uncle Marshall made a special train car just for you."

  "Yay!" Max sung, drawing
the word out. "Can I be the conductor? He's the train driver, Daddy."

  "Yes, sir!"

  Marshall loaded a toolbox into the back of the truck and strapped it down. John and Leo tossed their bags in, and they all loaded up in the truck.

  The drive to the train was completely uneventful. We passed a handful of zombies but went around them. Victor didn't want to expose Max to driving over them.

  The train yard had a couple of random zombies in it. As they pulled up, Victor said, "Hey, Marshall, why don't you take Max to show him where we found Mr. Shelton while we get the train started?" Leo, John, and Tookes hopped out of the truck.

  "Hey, Max, if you promise to sit still, you can ride in the front seat!"

  "I'll be good!" his father heard him say as he scrambled over the seat back.

  When Marshall pulled out of the train yard, the rest of them went to work. There were only seven in the yard, but they cleared the whole place. John was dragging the last body off when the three companions heard the truck approaching. Victor was going through the pre-start checklist for the locomotive.

  Max came bounding up the steps of the train engine and said, "Daddy, can I drive the train? Uncle Marshall said I could drive the train!"

  "Sure you can, buddy. Look at this gauge; does the needle point to the F or the E?"

  "The F!" he said excitedly.

  "That’s good that means our diesel is full. F for full."

  "And E for Empty?"

  "Right! You're so smart! Now we need to start the generator. Can you push this button?"

  Max grinned and pushed the red start button. The huge generator roared to life, eliciting a squeal of happiness from the small boy. The locomotive shook with the torque of the large motor.

  "Now, we have to wait for the generator to warm up. When this needle points to the middle, we can go. It'll take a couple of minutes. Do you want to go back and see the other car?"

  Father and son stepped down out of the locomotive and walked around to the back of the train car. Marshall was just pushing the huge tool chest into place against the back of the car when Victor lifted Max up and into the car.

  The inside of the car was full of light. At some point the day before, Marshall cut skylights in the ceiling and then covered them with lexan. The oriental rugs that lined the floor warmed the interior of the car to an almost livable standard. There was only so much that could be done to a shipping container. To Vic's left, Leo was sitting on the old, dark grey sleeper-sofa, staring at the floor. She had her hands in her lap and seemed to be spacing out, and Victor briefly wondered how long it had been since she really slept. Once Leo realized that someone else was in the room with her, she quickly glanced towards them and smiled lightly.

  "Max, I need you to ride back here for a while. Can you sit back here and play Go Fish with Miss Leo?”

  "Sure, Dad," Max said and ran over to the couch. He put his small hand on her knee and excitedly asked, “Miss Leo! Wanna play Memory instead?"

  Vic watched his son with a small smile. The little boy was happily chattering away as he opened up the box that held the Memory cards and dumped them onto the floor. The brightly colored cards had pictures from the movie Cars on it. Max absolutely adored that movie and proceeded to tell Leo all about Lightning McQueen and Mater as he flipped all of the cards face-down. With a twinge of sadness, Tookes turned around and closed the doors to the car behind him.

  Inside the locomotive again, Tookes released the brakes, engaged the electric motors, and put the large machine in "forward.” The train lurched to a steady roll, using only a small percentage of the throttle as it picked up to about thirty miles per hour. The ride was bumpy but actually much better than Tookes had anticipated. He assumed that with only one light car, the train would be all over the tracks. He was pleased with how well things had been going on their trip so far, and he hoped that their good luck would continue.

  They went around the bend, leaving the truck and the train yard in the background. Within a mile, the tracks had merged down to a single set, and they were on their way through the thick trees. According to Victor's map, they were several miles from the nearest road crossing. Tookes pushed the throttle a little bit and watched the speedometer climb up to fifty miles per hour. As long as they were out in the country, he wasn't too worried about anything else on the tracks. Once we get into towns, I'm going to have to slow down pretty drastically, he thought. For now, it was pretty mindless rolling. It was hard to get used to looking out the side window and not being able to see what was directly in front of him. Only being able to look out of the side window greatly affected his depth perception, and that made him nervous.

  ----

  "Hey Mymy," said Renee. "Do you think you can carry this bag?"

  "Yes, Mommy. It’s very heavy, but I'm strong!"

  "I know. You're such a big girl," Renee said, picking Holly up out of her makeshift crib and setting her on her hip. "Hold on, Holly. We've got a lot of steps to go down!"

  Renee carried Holly down the stairs with her gun in her waistband. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and her dirty clothes smelled pretty badly. Washing clothes was impossible. Holly, who was about eighteen months old, was the only thing that didn't stink in the whole place.

  They trotted down the stairs. Maya stopped at the third stop from the bottom as she always did. Renee slowly and quietly pushed the door open and looked around before closing it and whispering instructions to Maya.

  "When we go, we're going to run straight to the truck and get in. I'm going to go open the gate. When you're in the truck, I need you to talk softly to Holly and keep her quiet, okay? Can you do that, My?"

  "Yes, Mommy. Be fast and come back. Daddy didn't come back."

  "I'll be super fast. I'll be so fast you won't even notice I'm gone."

  Renee pushed the door open fully and waited for Maya to come down the last couple of steps. When she was right behind her, they took off at the familiar pace. It was the pace they'd used traversing the city for the last five months. The truck was only a few yards away. Renee put the kids in their booster seats, buckled them in, and turned around. She saw the look on Maya's face as she turned and knew. Instead of turning straight around, she ducked, and the thing’s hands went over her head. As it stumbled in, she sprung up from her crouch, directly into its chest, and pulled the gun out of her waistband. The creature was knocked flat on its back. Renee jumped onto its chest and drove the barrel of the gun into its forehead as she squeezed the trigger. Blood and gore sprayed out across the parking garage.

  Renee carried the empty gun with her, up to the top of the ramp to the gate that she and Eddie had closed on that first night. She twisted the deadbolt handle on the center of the grate and heaved it upwards. It clattered up into the ceiling, making more noise than she'd heard in the entire five-month period she'd been in the town.

  She sprinted at top speed back to the truck, jumped in the seat, and started the truck. There was no way to get around the corpse she'd left, so she just ran over it. The truck thumped twice, and she was free. Her gas gauge said half a tank. That was enough fuel to get her within a few miles of her mother’s house.

  She pulled out and started singing to with the girls. "The wheels on the truck go round and round." They sang along, and spirits were high as they slowly navigated the deserted streets of Charlotte. Renee had seen the huge gathering of zombies up around the northeast side of the city and didn't want anything to do with going that way. She steered herself towards the highway and instead chose to head up Interstate 77.

  "We're off to see Gramma!"

  "Yay Gramma!" shouted Maya.

  "Yay 'ramma!" echoed Holly.

  Renee made it six miles on Route 77 before hitting a traffic jam. It looked like thousands of cars had just stopped. Most of them had doors open, but a few looked like there were dead bodies inside. The road was absolutely impassible. Renee was forced to turn around and head back towards Interstate 85. That road would take them dangerous
ly close to the huge group but was a more direct route. Moreover, it’d had less traffic on it when all this went down.

  Chapter 9

  Locomotion

  The train steamed down the tracks, speeding up in the long straights and slowing down for the curves or when Victor couldn't see very far ahead. He was paranoid about hitting a car or a tree lying across the tracks. There were many small branches; the train didn't seem to have any trouble with those.

  Twice that first morning, the crew had to stop to drag a tree off the tracks. Marshall could have easily picked them up and tossed them to the side. Victor was worried about drawing unwanted attention with the sound of the locomotive but didn't want to do anything that would give a super zombie any idea what they were doing, so using their abilities was out of the question. Victor wanted Laura to think they were back at the house, not doing anything, just living life as normal. They used a huge logging chain that Marshall brought in his never-ending trunk of stuff. One of them wrapped the chain around the log, and the rest dragged it sideways off the tracks while Marshall played lookout. The second tree was so massive, he had to use branches as levers to roll it a little further away.

  Every single time he traveled any distance since the outbreak, the zombies knew where Victor was going, when he would be there, and how he was moving. He told very few people where he was going this time and even fewer how they were going to be travelling. If there was a spy or someone working for the zombies in their group, he had no idea that they were traveling by train. This mission was as covert as it could be.

  Victor had hours in the locomotive to think. His thoughts were about how lucky he was through all of this. One in a million, maybe one in a hundred million people were immune, and somehow his family was. They’d gone up against zombies, the remnants of the army, and untold horrors and had come out a closer and stronger team for it.