Val: Prequel to The Zombie Chronicles

by Peebles, Chrissy

  “We can’t put her life in danger just to protect her from being scared, Kyle. We have to do what’s best for her, to help her survive, even if it isn’t the easiest thing.”

  “I know. I just…I wish she didn’t have to go through all this. I wish I could shelter her from all of it.”

  I touched his hand. “You can’t.”

  “She can’t handle it.”

  “She’s stronger than you think. She just needs time.”

  “Time isn’t on our side,” he said. “I thought staying here was a good idea, but now I’m worried that I’ve made a dumb mistake and boxed us in.”

  “There’s always a way out, Kyle, but sometimes things aren’t easy or black and white. We have to look at every possible angle. I know Jenny is having a hard time, and I’m sure all kids are confused and terrified. But the more she fights the truth, the harder it will be to accept it.”

  “How do you do it, Val? You’re taking this so well.”

  “Don’t get me wrong. I’m just as scared as everyone else. My hands won’t stop shaking, but I’ve learned to adapt and overcome fear. When events happen that are beyond my control, I refuse to let fear control me. We can’t be crushed by the circumstances we’re dealt in life.”

  “I agree. We just have to keep pressing through adversity.”

  “Yep, like we’re driving a freaking bulldozer.”

  He chuckled.

  “One thing I’ve learned is that nothing you can say, do, feel, or think can change the past. I could wallow in depression and despair over Travis and my adoptive family. Losing them in such a horrible way was difficult to accept, but I had no choice in the matter, and it happened, whether I liked it or not. Fate just stepped in and dealt the cards. Grieving is normal, but I can’t make it a way of life or let it cripple me.”

  “Are you familiar with Herodotus, the Greek philosopher?”

  “Well, I don’t know him personally or anything, but I know the guy wears a toga. Why?”

  “He said that adversity draws out the strengths and qualities of a man who would have lain dormant in its absence.”

  “Hmm. I’ve found that great strength, courage, determination, perseverance, character and a will to survive emerge from deep within.”

  “What doesn’t kill us does make us stronger, I guess,” he said.

  “I’ve always loved that saying, and it’s so true.”

  Sammy came down the stairs and started clapping. “Well put,” she said.

  “Let’s pack up, just in case we have to make a quick getaway,” I said.

  “I’ll start loading the bottled water and some food,” she said.

  “Don’t go outside without backup.”

  “Yes, Mom. I’m well aware of the rules of the zombie apocalypse.”

  I went into the garage and stared at the EarthRoamer. It was the perfect vehicle for us, and I was completely blown away by the stunningly beautiful piece of equipment. Its name said it all. The beast was meant to roam the Earth, from deserts to back country roads. It was a four-wheel drive motorhome, built tough, a combination truck and camper. I’d never seen one up close before.

  “Whoa!” I said, stepping inside. “This ain’t my daddy’s RV.” I glanced around. It was furnished with a king-sized bed, two leather couches, a bathroom, closets, a pull-out table, a stove, a fridge, and a microwave. The thing had all the luxuries of a five-star hotel room and then some. My favorite part was that there was a direct entrance to the back seat of the truck.

  Kyle came inside and set down a box of supplies. “You like?”

  “I love,” I said with a smile.

  “I’ve got lots of diesel fuel,” he said. “Survivors gobble up the gasoline, but they don’t bother with diesel.”

  “Lucky for us,” I said.

  “Let’s get all packed up and be ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

  “Right. If we see even a small break in the herd, we can plow right through them,” I said.

  We packed up the vehicle and left the keys under the visor, in case we had to leave in a hurry.

  I went upstairs and checked Jenny. She was running a fever again, and I hated to move her before she was fully recovered, but it really was a life-or-death situation.

  When I looked for Kyle, I found him on the roof, looking through the binoculars. I climbed up the ladder and sat next to him.

  “I thought Jenny was getting better,” he said, “but now her fever’s back.”

  “I know. I’m sure she’ll be all right in time.”

  “Time. The one thing we never seem to have enough of nowadays.”

  He handed me the binoculars, and I peered through them. The herd was as strong as ever, probably devouring everyone in the town below. “There must be a food supply down there, or they would have moved on by now,” I said. The thought sickened me. I knew that once all the food ran out at the bottom, they’d find a way to climb up to finish us off. “We can’t stay here,” I said.

  Kyle nodded slowly. He stared out over the landscape, peering through the binoculars.

  “It’s only a matter of time before they storm us,” I said.

  “Yeah. It’s pissing me off, but we’re sitting ducks up here.”

  “There are so many down there. It’s giving me the creeps.”

  “Hey! I see something,” he said, excitement flooding his voice.

  “What?” I asked.

  “The perfect escape route.” He put down his binoculars. “We need to leave right now, this very minute, before they shift again.”

  “If we have an opportunity, I say we go for it.”

  He handed me the binoculars.

  I studied the scene below. “I see it, an opening. If we go right now, there’s a clear path. If we floor it, we could speed right by them.” If we went down the hill and took a sharp left, there was a pretty sizable break in the horde, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long. “Let’s do it!” I said. “At this stage of the game, we have to take risks.”

  We rushed back into the house and told Sammy what was going on.

  Kyle carried Jenny to the EarthRoamer, and I tucked her in bed.

  “Are we leaving?” the sleepy girl mumbled.

  “Yeah, we’re gonna take a little road trip,” I said.

  “Will it be fun?”

  “Sure, honey. Just get some sleep, so you can get better.”

  “Okay. Goodnight, Val. Tell Daddy to wake me up when we get there,” she said, then immediately drifted off to sleep.

  I left the cab and crawled to the passenger seat and buckled up.

  “Let’s go!” Sammy said from the back.

  Kyle squeezed my hand. “You ready for this?”

  I squeezed his hand back. “Ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s do this.”

  Chapter 27

  He pulled out, and we drove down the hill into the unholy army of undead. A few zombies ventured toward us, but we sped right past them, ready to run them over if we had to. We took a hard left, and Kyle pressed the accelerator all the way down. I gazed out the window at the dark, shambling, moaning figures that flanked the vehicle. The EarthRoamer jerked as Kyle ran over a fat one that stood in our path.

  Suddenly, Jenny let out a long scream.

  I glanced over my shoulder and saw her standing in the doorway of the cabin, staring in horrified awe at the zombie’s lips pressed against the glass.

  “Go back to bed!” Kyle said sternly. “I don’t want you to see this.”

  “But I’m scared, Daddy,” Jenny said. “You never drive this fast.”

  Sammy gazed out the window. “Look at them stumbling around out there. You oughtta ticket them for public intoxication, Val.”

  Jenny pushed the dark curls out of her eyes. “Did they have a sip of Grandpa’s special drink?”

  “She’s talking about booze from the liquor cabinet,” Kyle said.

  “No, baby,” I said. “They’re infected, sick. They don’t mean to hurt us, but they just can’t help it.”r />
  “Will they get better?” she asked, her green eyes wide with terror.

  “I’m afraid not,” I said. “The doctor’s don’t know how to…well, there’s no cure.”

  THUMP.

  A zombie flew on top of the hood, looking at me with those cold, white eyes. It had curly hair and green, tattered skin. Black liquid smeared the glass from its gaping head wound, exposing layers of muscles underneath its rotting skin. It pounded on the glass, then licked it with its decaying tongue.

  “Ew! Get it off!” Jenny shouted from behind me.

  It wouldn’t stop looking at me and I wanted to shoot it more than anything. It just kept reaching for me, and then smeared its hands in all the black gore clouding the windshield.

  “Hit the brakes and knock it off,” I said.

  Kyle gripped the steering wheel. “I’m not slowing down.”

  Closing her eyes, Jenny hugged me. “Daddy! It’s too gross! Stop!”

  “We can’t stop!” Sammy said. “Just keep your eyes closed. And didn’t your father tell you to go back to bed?”

  I gazed at the huge herd ambling to the left and right of us in torn, tattered clothes. I wondered if we’d been crazy to take such a risk. If we got a flat tire or the engine stalled, we would be screwed. We’d really had no other option, but those things gawking at us as with bloodlust in their hazy eyes as we drove past them was unsettling. Jenny sat on my lap, and I put my hands over her eyes, then whispered comforting words in her ear.

  The minutes ticked by, and the zombies started to thin out as we drove. I sighed in relief when we were safely past them. When we didn’t see any more of the cursed beings, Kyle stopped. He pulled out his gun, shot the zombie hood ornament, and kicked it off the EarthRoamer. We then sped off.

  “Why did we leave?” Jenny asked. “I liked that house.”

  “It was a death trap,” Sammy retorted, with little patience for the younger girl’s constant whining. “If we’d stayed another night, we’d be history.”

  “Where are we going?” Jenny asked.

  “Ohio, honey,” Kyle said. “I’m getting on the freeway now. We’ll stop and take a break when I find a safe place.”

  “There’s no such thing,” Sammy said.

  “Safer,” he rephrased.

  “Do we even have enough gas?” Sammy asked.

  “This baby takes diesel, and we’ve got plenty.”

  Sammy clutched her heart. “Now that I can breathe, I’m gonna tuck Jenny back in and hang out back.”

  When I eventually gazed over my shoulder, I saw Sammy drawing with some colored pencils she’d found. There was a mini-living room right behind me. Again, I was thankful for such amazing transportation, the best we could have hoped for while the world was crumbling around us.

  After an hour of smooth driving, we stopped on an overpass, a place where zombies couldn’t come at us from the left or right.

  “You promised me some hot soup,” I reminded Kyle, waving around two red and white cans with chubby-cheeked, smiling kids on the label.

  “That I did,” he said with a smile. “Feel free.”

  I opened the cans and poured them into a pan to cook them on the stove. I opened the cabinet and pulled down bowels, then found spoons.

  Kyle pulled out the dining room table, then pulled some cans of soda out of the fridge. “Anybody want a drink?” he asked.

  “Pepsi!” Sammy squealed, as if she’d just won the lottery.

  “Mmm. This is like Heaven,” I said. “A hot meal and a cold drink.”

  “It’s so delicious,” Sammy said, lapping up her Chicken Noodle and chasing it with big gulps of cola.

  Jenny didn’t feel like eating, so after Kyle finished his soup, he sat with her till she drifted back into a fitful slumber. She’d hadn’t slept well during the night, and her little body was exhausted.

  Sammy continued drawing in her sketchbook.

  I peeked over her shoulder. “Nice work,” I said. “I love landscapes, especially waterfalls. You’ve captured the colors perfectly.”

  “Thanks. Moi wishes to be a famous artiste someday,” she said in a French accent. She then looked up at me seriously. “If we ever get our world back, do you think I’ve got a chance?”

  “You can do whatever you set your mind to.”

  She smiled, then looked off, as if she was suddenly a million miles away.

  “What?” I said.

  “I’m sorry I got into so much trouble. I just hooked up with the wrong guy and fell in with the wrong friends. I only started stealing to fit in with them. But you were always there for me, Val. You always believed in me, even when my own mother didn’t.”

  “You just lost your way, but I knew you’d get back on track.”

  “I really wanna put the past behind me and start a new life.”

  “You’ve already done that.”

  “I’m a tougher, stronger person because of you. I promise that I’ll never steal again. You’ve saved my butt more than once, even risked your life to get me out of my apartment. I promise it won’t be in vain. I’m gonna really do something with my life, and I will make you proud.”

  I hugged her. “You already have.”

  “Do you know those thugs in Philly saved our lives in a roundabout way?”

  “How?”

  “If they hadn’t come along. I would’ve been at your birthday party for me. We would’ve had a nice party, then went back to the house with them. We were supposed to help Marcy set up the nursery.”

  My eyes widened. “Yeah, that’s right.”

  “Which means…”

  “We would’ve been over there.”

  “And not one person survived,” she said. “I’m sure we would’ve been dead too.”

  “They couldn’t have been ambushed,” I said. “Because nobody survived and lots of them were awesome zombie fighters. And I didn’t see any zombies I didn’t recognize. I think it was carbon monoxide poisoning from the wood stove. It was burning when I was in there.”

  “But it’s not winter.”

  “They were cold and turned it on. The gas that killed them is odorless, tasteless, and colorless. It’s highly toxic.”

  She cupped her mouth. “Oh my gosh.”

  “We’d be dead right along with them. The only thing that stopped us from going over there was those thugs.”

  “In a way, they saved our lives.”

  “It’s weird how life works,” I said. “We must be alive for a reason.”

  “I feel guilty I didn’t die with them,” she whispered.

  “No, don’t feel guilty that you’re alive. We’re struggling to understand but there’s a purpose to everything.”

  “I just miss them so much,” she said.

  “When we get to the island, we’ll make a memorial for them.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes. “I’d love that.”

  We talked for a little while and chitchatted about everything. Sammy even cracked a few jokes and managed to make me smile. She even made some faces that cracked me up.

  “Hey,” she whispered, “I think Kyle has the hots for you.”

  “Shh! He’s gonna hear you.”

  “I’m whispering.”

  “Anyway, what makes you think that? We barely know him.”

  “I can tell by the way he looks at you.”

  “I’ve got no time for romance, Sammy. I’m too busy trying to keep my heart pumping to worry about it falling in love.”

  “So you’re never gonna give love a shot again?”

  “If I learned anything from my relationship with Travis, it’s that love requires that I discard all sanity and logic. I can’t afford that right now, not for Kyle or anybody. It’s not happening.”

  She laughed and began cleaning up our lunch mess.

  I couldn’t help thinking about what she said though. Kyle had the prettiest green eyes, and I loved his wavy hair. It was impossible not to be attracted to him a little, if not a lot. Still, I refused to do a
nything about it. I wasn’t ready to date yet, and I had to focus on survival, the most important thing. Love would have to take a back burner; we were tangling with zombies and thugs, and for the time being, romantic entanglements were out of the question. My gaze shifted to Kyle as he climbed down the ladder.

  He spread a map out on the table and studied it, then peered over at me. “We should take this route.”

  I glanced down. “It looks like the quickest.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Then let’s get going.”

  “Want me to drive for a while, now that I’ve had a chance to stretch my legs?” I asked.

  “That’d be great. I could use a little snooze.”

  “Yeah. You didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  “I know. I was too busy going out on a zombie-slaying rampage with this drop-dead gorgeous woman I know.”

  I grinned as he handed me the keys. “I hoped she kicked butt.”

  “She was…amazing, as beautiful as she was deadly.”

  I playfully slugged him as he gazed into my eyes, and I couldn’t help watching him as he walked to the back of the vehicle.

  * * *

  The freeway was impassable, with a long line of tangled cars. I hated that the only way out of that traffic jam of abandoned cars was to take an exit and travel the back roads, because it would take us hours out of our way. Dang it, I thought. Every time we make a little progress, we’ve got to backtrack again. This is getting real old real fast.

  When Kyle woke up, I smiled. “Hey, sleepyhead.”

  He grinned. “Where are we?”

  “The route you came up with was a no-go, completely blocked,” I said. “I had to take a different way. It’s a longer one, but it’s the safest route.”

  “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

  “There was no reason to. I could handle it. We’ll be passing Pittsburg soon.”

  “Pittsburg? Cool. That means we’ll be to Ohio in no time,” Sammy said.

  I glanced over my shoulder. “How are you doing, Jenny? Feeling okay?”

  “Yeah. My forehead’s not hot anymore, and my stomach is feeling a lot better.”

  “That’s great to hear.”

  I didn’t know Jenny all that well. I only knew she was a sweet, quiet, naïve girl who hadn’t yet adjusted to the new world she now lived in. Kyle tried to keep her safe and downplay everything, but I knew Sammy was right: He needed to quit coddling her, because no matter how much he loved her, he couldn’t possibly protect her from the living hell that had become our reality. Zombies were no longer just the stuff of childhood nightmares, Hollywood productions, and videogame scripts. They were all too real, and their one desire was to chew on our flesh. That was a simple fact. Jenny was very young and was still quite emotionally upset over her mother’s death. That was understandable, but she still needed to learn how to fight and defend herself, just in case we weren’t around to protect her. She needed to know what to do to survive, something we all had to learn the hard way.