“Doc Scofield wanted to go as well,” said Hemp, snapping Flex out of his deep thoughts. “But I convinced him to stay here and handle the transference procedure with the red-eye’s vapor and our volunteers. That can’t wait, because we don’t know how long we’ll be gone.”
Flex felt the change within him. If he thought about his son he knew he would cry again, but there was nothing anyone could do about that. Trina and Taylor, not to mention Max and Isis, were out there, and whether they knew it or not, they were getting backup.
“I need to go wake Gem,” he said.
“It’s dark out, Flex,” said Charlie. “And you know I’d never suggest it ordinarily, but Max and Isis are not your typical kids. They will be okay, and they’ll take care of Trini and Tay.”
“What she’s saying is maybe we should wait until daylight,” said Hemp. “We know approximately where they’re going anyway.”
Flex shook his head. “Here’s the deal,” he said. “We saw that it only takes a split second for something to go really wrong. The reason we’re not leaving tomorrow is because our mission, as I see it, is to get to where Max and Isis are a split second before they need us rather than a split second after it’s too late.”
“Fair enough,’ said Charlie.
Flex wasn’t done. “The minute I tell Gem about this, she’s going on a rampage, and you know I’m not guessing when I tell you that. You’re lucky the car’s packed, because she’s going to be in it and her foot to the floor the minute she knows, and I won’t blame her.”
“I’ll leave it to you, then, said Hemp. “I’ll radio Punch and tell him to be ready to roll.”
Flex nodded. He took a deep breath. What he was about to do was the second worst thing he would do all day.
*****
Gem sat in the passenger seat of the Crown Victoria, staring through the window. Flex drove, which was the first sign that everything was topsy-turvy.
Gem never let anyone else drive her baby if she was inside.
Flex eased the Crown Vic through the gate and watched in his rear view as Punch guided his purple GTO through and the men closed it behind them. He looked over at his wife.
Her eyes were dry and clear. She had her Uzi across her lap and a bottle of water between her legs, but she had not taken a drink. She couldn’t be far from dehydration after her hours of crying.
“Drink that, babe,” said Flex.
She looked at Flex, her face expressionless now, and then down at the bottle. She pulled it out, unscrewed the cap, and tilted it up to her lips.
She drained the bottle and threw it on the floor.
Flex nodded, satisfied, and said nothing.
He drove slowly enough to be careful, but not so slowly that Gem would freak out and insist on driving herself. He had a vague idea of where to go. Max and Isis had told him which direction they were being pulled, and not by mere pointing. They specifically stated that it was due northwest of Kingman.
How far was the part of the equation to which they were not privy. As the two had grown older and more powerful, they could feel the presence of the other zombies for months before their siren call would pull them to Kingman and into the pit. They could be a hundred miles or a thousand miles away.
Grass had begun to grow through the cracks in almost all the highways over the last decade and a half. That made it more difficult to see obstructions in the roadway, but this early section of the highway was frequented by many from Kingman, so was not as bad. The farther away they drove, the more intense the challenge would be not to crash into some unseen obstacle.
Flex eased off the gas slightly and drove on through the night.
*****
“Stop the car,” said Gem, leaning forward in her seat.
Flex looked out the window and saw nothing. “What’s up?”
“Stop the car!” she shouted. “Flex! Now!”
Flex hit the brake hard, and Gem flung the door open, grabbed her Uzi and jumped out, immediately breaking into a run.
Punch’s GTO slid up and stopped about ten yards behind them.
“What the fuck?” asked Flex, reaching down for his Daewoo and flying out of the car.
Nelson called, “Dude, where’s she going?”
“I don’t know what she saw,” said Flex. “Gem!” he screamed, scanning the packed, Kia car dealership parking lot.
“Where the hell did she go?” he asked. “By the time I got out I lost her. Did she run into the lot?”
“She did!” shouted Dave, scooping up his weapon from the GTO.
Machine gun fire erupted and they all charged toward the parking lot.
“Gem!” Flex shouted again, but she did not come and she did not answer. The lot was packed full and Gem had disappeared among the small SUVs. Flex scanned each row as he ran along and did not see her.
“You guys break off to the left!” he shouted to Dave, Punch and Nelson. “Hemp, Charlie! Work these aisles!”
“This sucks!” shouted Charlie. “We’re not even on WAT-5!”
“Let’s all keep that in mind,” said Hemp. “Charlie, keep your distance if you see any.”
“Gem saw some biters or she wouldn’t have done this,” said Charlie, hefting her crossbow and cutting down an aisle between the Sorrentos and the Sportages, both taller cars behind which anything could hide.
“Everyone, be vocal so we keep track of one another!” shouted Hemp.
Gunfire sounded again and Flex saw sparks flying off a car about a hundred yards ahead. He broke into a full run and soon heard other footfalls behind him as Hemp and Charlie pursued.
Off to his left he caught sight of the other three men, zigzagging through the lot in the same general direction as them, but closer to the front of the large, glass showroom.
When they drew to within fifty yards of the showroom, Flex saw Gem standing there, her Uzi on the ground beside her and her 9mm in her hand, firing on an empty chamber.
The creatures moved toward her. There must have been a sales meeting inside that dealership showroom back on that fateful Sunday in 2011, for around twelve of the most business casual zombies Flex had ever seen were closing in on her, shambling over the shattered glass of the showroom window, their faint, pink eyes focused on their prey.
“Gem! Run!” shouted Flex, unable to run any faster. He would not get to her before the infecteds did.
Gem did not acknowledge his call; she just held her expended Glock out, pulling the trigger over and over, the moans and snarls of the creatures drowning out the useless clicking of her empty firearm.
Two rotters were within five feet of Gem – and closing. Flex raised his Daewoo, but an arrow pierced the eye of a man in a red Fucillo Kia shirt, dropping him in a heap.
Gem stared at the thing blankly. Flex finally reached her and grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her backward. Gem fell to the ground and he immediately felt bad, but there was more to worry about.
Another explosion sounded off to their left, and out of the corner of his eye, Flex saw the entire front wall of the showroom explode, raining down flat-square chunks of tempered glass like crystalline hail, shimmering under the moonlight like a million egg-laying grunion on a southern California beach.
They saw Punch, Nelson and Dave charge inside, their weapons blazing, thinning the predators at their source.
Hemp and Charlie had now reached the horde that had already left the building and focused on Gem, and Charlie fired several perfectly aimed bolts, taking another four down. Flex sprayed his K-7 along the crowd, blasting crowns off brittle skulls, tossing several of them back toward the showroom.
Hemp did his part, too, using the Heckler & Koch for all it was worth before lowering it and scanning the lot.
It appeared that the Kia Super Sunday Sale Event was over and there was no more staff left to handle any new patrons.
Flex turned and held his breath. Gem was on her knees, straddling one of the creatures lying on its back with an arrow protruding from its cheek. Her
arm raised and lowered over and over, stabbing the flesh-eating humanoid in the chest, face and neck.
Just behind Gem a large male with half a leg crawled toward her, and he was directly between Charlie and Flex. If he fired, he could kill Charlie and vice-versa.
“Charlie, down! Now!”
Charlie dropped flat on the ground and Flex swung the Daewoo around and opened up the chamber.
The rounds were not enough to push the creature backward, but as it collapsed onto Gem, shocking her out of her stupor, its bullet-riddled body was of no danger to his distraught wife.
As it landed on Gem’s back, she was smashed down onto the dead rotter she had been punishing, their faces practically cheek to cheek. Flex ran over, dropped his gun and reached down to pull the now lifeless corpse off her and roll it aside.
To his surprise, Gem sat up, gripped the knife sticking out of the dead zombie’s head beneath her, and stabbed him again … and again … and again.
Flex moved toward her and caught her wrist, mid plunge. With his other hand, he peeled the knife from her fingers and threw it aside. He grunted as he dropped down beside her and gripped her hands in his, trying to make eye contact.
“Gemina Cardoza Sheridan,” he said. “Are you in there, sweetheart?”
Hemp and Charlie stood nearby, breathing hard. Flex saw they scanned the parking lot, so he knew he had cover and time, both of which he needed right now to reach his wife.
“Babe,” he said, pulling her to him and putting his arms around her. “We got ‘em. All of ‘em.”
“We cleared out the showroom, Gem,” said Nelson, appearing between Punch and Dave. “They’re all dead – and I mean really dead – now.”
Her breathing was steady, but deep. When she released her breath, it came out in a shudder. Her face was soaked with tears of grief.
Flex saw that pain and it bubbled up in him again, and this time he pulled her so tight to him it felt like he might break her. In his heart, Flex knew Gem was already broken, just as he was.
“Oh, Flex!” she cried, looking up at him, her face smeared with chunks of gore and blood. “I miss him so much! I can’t believe we’ll never see him again!”
Hearing the truth spoken aloud by the woman and mother he loved more than he had ever loved anyone before, shattered him all over again. Flex fell into her and broke into heaving sobs.
Flex wasn’t sure how long the others let them stay there like that, but to his surprise, it was Gem who finally called an end to it.
Her arms slid off Flex and she took a deep breath, looking up at the sky. The moon was bright and had served as their lighting to take on this horde of living dead, and its brightness washed out the stars.
“Charlie,” she said. “Help me up, would you?”
“Sure,” said Charlie. She slung her crossbow over her shoulder and held her hands out. Gem reached over, grabbed the empty 9mm and tucked it into the back of her pants, then reached out and took Charlie’s hands.
Charlie pulled her up and then put her arms around Gem, holding her. They embraced for a long time.
Dave came to give Flex a hand up, and he stood. Gem and Charlie held one another until Flex touched Charlie on the shoulder and they both pulled apart and looked at him.
Flex nodded at Gem, and she gave him a weak smile. “Thank you,” she said, looking at Punch, Nelson, Dave and Hemp. “I know we’ve had a credo for a long time, but I’d like to reinforce it right here. Right now.”
“What’s that, Gem?” asked Punch.
“None of them alive,” she said. “Not a single one. From here on out, if we see them – I don’t give a shit if they’re half a mile away – we go get them and rid the world of them.”
“Fair enough,” said Punch. “It’s how any war should be fought.”
“Yep,” said Flex. “And this is a war, Gem, but we can start that later. Right now, let’s go get our kids.”
Gem did not move. Instead, she stared at Flex and said, “By doing what we said we’d do over a decade ago, we make sure that when we find our kids, the world is a few dead fucks safer.”
Flex nodded and held a hand out to her. Gem nodded at him and took it. They walked back to the car.
*****
“Looks like due northwest will take us straight to either Great Bend, Kansas, or Casper, Wyoming,” said Charlie, the map open on her lap. “I sure hope they’re headed to Great Bend, ‘cause even though Casper is more dead-on northwest, it’s also almost 800 miles away.”
“They don’t sleep,” said Gem.
“What?” asked Hemp.
“We can’t stop because Isis and Max don’t sleep, and they’ll drive straight through,” said Gem, her voice flat. “We can’t stop.”
“We can switch off driving, but if we get there and we’re exhausted, it’s not going to help us help them,” said Hemp. “I suggest we drive until we find a place to rest, then stop for the night.”
“Just so long as that place to rest is Great Bend, I’m cool with that,” said Gem. “That way if they’re not there, we know we have to go on to Wyoming.”
“If they’re even in a larger city,” said Flex. “We might be making assumptions. Which means we could miss them entirely, because we can’t drive there as the crow flies.”
“Let’s get to Great Bend and take it from there,” said Hemp. “I’ll get on the radio and let the guys know.”
“God, I pray they’re in Great Bend,” said Gem. “I feel like I’m in a movie where every scene is a cliffhanger.”
“Somebody yell cut, please,” said Charlie. “End scene. That would be nice.”
Flex thought about that. It could happen. He could wake up any moment and just marvel at the realism of the nightmare he’d just had, and he could decide whether or not to share it with Gem before it was whisked away, obliterated by time.
He blinked his eyes, coating them with fluid, and drove. The moon fell behind clouds as he passed a sign that said: GREAT BEND 62 mi.
*****
Even when America was bustling, Flex could tell Highway 281 wasn’t a major travel route. The traffic between Kingman and Great Bend was pretty much exclusive, and it did not appear that anyone from Kingman was fleeing toward Great Bend or vice-versa at the onset of the highly anticipated but never expected zombie apocalypse.
Sure, there were broken down cars here and there, but nothing was so jammed up that they couldn’t snake through. They only had to use the winch once.
Gem finally told Flex to pull over about ten miles outside of Great Bend. He did, and she said she would drive. Flex didn’t argue the point. If it helped her feel more normal and helped her work her way back to Gem, that was cool.
He wasn’t fooling himself; Flex Sheridan knew that neither he nor Gem would ever be the same again. Their son was gone forever, and it was a hole in their lives they would simply have to get used to.
As Flex sat there, the tears came again. This time he looked out the window, trying to blink them away. Of course Gem knew he was sad, but there was no reason for him to rub that in over and over, especially when it was only her sheer willpower that prevented her from breaking down.
“Looks like we’re getting real close,” said Dave on the radio. “Start looking for a place to hole up for the night.”
Flex pulled the binoculars from the glove box and looked down the dark highway. Nothing. A world without lights was something they’d gotten used to, but it was still a bizarre experience. Especially since they’d gotten Kingman pretty lit up compared to most parts of the country.
“I think up here on the right,” said Gem, putting on her high beams. She turned the steering wheel and drove into a long driveway and stopped. The GTO followed behind.
“Hard to see them because of the tall grass, but it looks like there are two decent sized houses there,” said Gem.
“They’ll do,” said Flex,” scanning the area around the brick houses for movement.
“I’ve been looking,” said Hemp. “Noth
ing out there so far.”
“Everyone got their headlamps on?” asked Charlie. “Punch can do his thing and we can get this place cleared. Then we can get settled and run the radio around all the channels to see if Max did what I told him and kept his ears on.”
“Charlie,” said Hemp. “How did you learn to talk like a truck driver?”
“First off, it’s trucker, and fuckin’-A, Mr. Chatsworth, you know I’ve talked like a trucker since I came out of the closet.”
“In all fairness, your first sentence you spoke out of the closet did not contain any swear words,” said Hemp. “I’ve heard the story.”
“Yeah, but they don’t know what I was thinkin’.”
She opened her door and everyone else followed suit. Dave, Punch and Nelson walked up to the door.
Nelson still hadn’t cut his hair, though he had gotten rid of the dreadlocks. It was now down to his ass. When he and Dave were together, they looked like part of early REO Speedwagon.
Punch was a former United States Marine and he had his ways of approaching things. He liked to lead and nobody got in his way. He had a pair of night vision goggles that he carried everywhere, and he put them on now. It wasn’t pitch black, but Punch would be clearing the rooms, so Flex was glad he had them.
He was also glad he’d found Punch on that anti-toxin run so many years ago. Punch had been a hell of an asset since that day, particularly in the clearing and taming of Kingman, Kansas.
“This house looks a little bigger,” said Punch. “So I’ll clear it first in case it’s enough for all of us. “You guys work the outside of both and check some windows with your headlamps. Hemp, help me get inside, would you?”
“I’m right behind you guys,” said Nelson. “Dude, this stuff is still exciting even after all this time. Kinda makes me realize what a bunch of nothing I did before this all happened.”
Dead Hunger VII_The Reign of Isis Page 7
