The Dead (a Lot) Trilogy (Book 1): Wicked Dead

by Odentz, Howard

She spread the map out in front of us. “We’re here,” she said and pointed at Swifty’s, which, not surprisingly, was featured on the map with a picture of a tiny fishing bear. “And here’s gate 29.” There was a little drawing of a gate and a squiggle surrounded by two pine trees. It was the path where the cellar holes were—the final resting place of Ross Esi Allan III. “And here’s Black Point Fort,” she said. “See the road?” I didn’t quite get what she meant at first. There was a tiny square on the map where the fort was, then a dark line that stretched away from it and about a third of the way up the reservoir, all the way to another gate called Gate 1. “Look at the legend,” she said and pointed to the little scale on the bottom that measured out fractions of inches as miles on the map. “That black line is the road that we saw leading away from Black Point Fort. It must be at least fifteen miles long.”

  Now I got it—crystal clear. “Oh,” I murmured as I traced my finger along the map and around the reservoir to where we were. “And fifteen miles back. It doesn’t take long to drive thirty miles.”

  “We have to go,” she said. “Right now.”

  The door opened and my dad came out with my mom, followed by Aunt Ella, Trudy, and Dorcas. Everyone else was already outside.

  Dorcas stopped and lit a cigarette. Her pockets were bulging with boxes of whatever brand she could get her hands on. I didn’t begrudge her the smokes at all. If I was eighty-two, I would be eating chocolate morning, noon, and night.

  I pulled her aside.

  “Look at this,” I whispered to her. I didn’t want the others to hear. Sure, they were scared, but I knew Dorcas was tough enough to take it. Prianka and I showed her the map and told her about the fort and the helicopter people and the sticky trees.

  “Damn,” she whispered under her breath. She took a heavy drag on her cigarette and looked out over the parking lot and the smoke rising in the sky. Her eyes fell upon the road toward Gate 29. “What’s that way?” she said.

  Prianka ruffled the map. “After Hollowton is a nothing place called Cotton Corner, then Apple. Then it goes to Waring, and back around to Bellingsfield.”

  “Bellingsfield?” I said. “That’s near Littleham.” We drove through Bellingsfield that first day on our way to save Jimmy James in Amherst. That was a little over a week ago, I think. The days were starting to run together. It didn’t matter anymore if today was Friday or Saturday, or one of those weird days off from school when all the teachers got together and had meetings—probably complaining about how rotten we all were.

  I looked at Uncle Don’s watch. It was smudged with dirt. I scraped the filth away with my fingernail. It was a little after 1:00 in the afternoon.

  Dorcas flicked her cigarette. “All you have is food in the bus,” she said. “You can get more.”

  “Huh?”

  “Get everyone into the van and the ambulance,” she said, then stomped down the stairs and over to Aunt Ella. Dorcas said something to her and Aunt Ella reached into her pocket and handed over the bus keys to her without question.

  “What’s she doing?” I whispered to Prianka.

  Prianka’s eyes grew wide. “She is not,” she whispered under her breath as we watched Dorcas trudge over to the bus, push the accordion door open, climb in and start it up.

  “‘She is not’, what?”

  Just then, the siren abruptly stopped. It had been blaring for almost an hour—more than enough time for anyone at Black Point Fort to drive up to Gate 1 and loop around the Reservoir to where we were.

  “She is,” said Prianka as she watched Dorcas pull the bus out of the parking lot and turn back the way we had originally come. “She’s going to block the road.”

  Prianka was right. Dorcas pulled down about a hundred feet and maneuvered the big yellow monster sideways so it stretched from one side of the road to the other. The woods were thick there and the bus completely blocked the tar. Not even a jeep could get by.

  “She’s my hero,” I said to Prianka as we trotted over to the adults and began hustling them into the ambulance. Sure it was going to be a tight squeeze, especially with Trudy, but I figured they would have to make do until we found another vehicle. The bus was a wash. It served its final purpose and now we’d have to find a different way for all of us to get around. For now, the adults would just have to deal with tight quarters.

  As I was shouting for Dad, Mom, and everyone to get into the ambulance while Prianka got Jimmy, Trina and the others back into the van, I heard something. At first I thought it was the roar of the fire getting closer, but no, this was different. Crap, I thought when I realized it was the hum of a motor, coming from down the road, past where Dorcas had parked the bus.

  She was still in there, gathering up a few bags of supplies, making sure that we didn’t leave anything vital behind.

  I cupped my hands. “Dorcas,” I yelled out to her, but she didn’t hear me.

  “What is it?” said my dad.

  “Get in the ambulance,” I screamed at him. “Just drive. They’re coming.”

  “But—”

  “Do it, Dad. Go to Apple. It’s just down the road.” I grabbed the map from Prianka and shoved it into his hands. “We’ll be right behind you.” I turned to the bus and screamed out for Dorcas again.

  This time, she didn’t need me to tell her that someone was coming. I saw her standing in the middle of the bus with her back to me. She was looking at something down the road. All of a sudden, she dashed to the front of the bus, pulled open the accordion door and tossed something into the woods.

  I’ve played the scene over a hundred times in my head. Dorcas was smart. She wasn’t Sanjay smart or Poopy Puppy smart, but she was crafty. She threw the keys into the woods. That way no one could move the bus—not until they found them.

  Dorcas closed the door and stood with her back to me. I heard the screech of tires against the road, and I heard voices. They were far enough away that I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but someone was barking at Dorcas and Dorcas opened up one of the bus windows and was hollering back at whoever it was.

  I did hear one thing. It was faint, but I heard it and I’ll never forget it.

  “No one over sixty, my ass,” Dorcas screamed. “Up yours.”

  Seconds later, there was a single explosion. It’s not like I wasn’t used to the noise. I had heard it dozens and dozens of times over the past week. It was a gun shot.

  The window behind Dorcas Duke splattered red and Prianka screamed.

  Just like that, Dorcas was gone.

  46

  MY FACE WAS STONE. I didn’t have any room for tears. Somewhere, far away, I heard Prianka softly crying. She held my hand as I sped down the road in the minivan.

  I heard Jimmy say something. He put his hand on my shoulder. Trina did too, but it wasn’t a hand—it was a bandaged mitt covering burnt skin.

  They did that to her—the murderers.

  Bullseye didn’t say anything and Sanjay mumbled to himself. Everyone else’s words were a million miles away, but Sanjay’s I somehow heard. “Take her now, take her now, for she faces the end of this life. By the earth and wind and the fire and rain, she’s on her way, remember her. Take her now, back to the earth from which she sprang and then returns. Help her cross over for now it is her turn. She is not afraid. Remember her.”

  How many times was I going to hear him say that? How many freaking times?

  My face was marble and my heart was granite and that’s all there was to it. Dorcas Duke was born, she lived, and she died, and hopefully I would remember her all of my days, however many were left.

  The worst part was, she wasn’t even killed by a poxer. She was killed by a human being. She was murdered in cold blood. I pressed my foot to the floor and the minivan lurched forward.

  “You have to slow down,” whispered Pri
anka.

  “Yeah, dude,” said Jimmy in that smoother-than-silk voice of his. “There’s nothing you could have done. But what you can do is make sure the rest of us make it to Apple in one piece.”

  What a stupid name—Apple. I had heard of it before—Apple, Massachusetts. Before Trina and I were born, my dad and mom almost moved there—that is, until they saw the place. It was a mill town, in the middle of the woods. I remember my dad saying something about an apple a day keeping the doctor away, and the town of Apple being bad enough to keep any doctor worth his salt away permanently.

  Apple couldn’t be worse than Guilford, that’s for sure. Maybe it had a few extra tattoo parlors or a Mickey Ds, but it was still in the butthole of the state. I saw a poster once that had a picture of Massachusetts divided into four separate parts. There was Boston and everything around it—that was called the East Coast. Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard were known as Florida. Then there was Worcester out to Springfield—that’s where Lilttleham was. They called that the West Coast. Anything up north or to the left of that simply said, ‘There be dragons’—and that’s where we were. We were in the land of dragons and poxers, and poxers with tattoos and piercings on their bodies in places no one should ever have a piercing.

  There be dragons, alright. Dorcas was killed by one.

  A tear spilled out of the corner of my eye and trailed down my face. Okay, I gave one tear away for Dorcas Duke. Hell, she was awesome. If it weren’t for her, I would be poxer food for a monster that used to be named Millie Ludlow, being kept dead in the basement of Jolly’s Pharmacy. If not for Dorcas, maybe the helicopter people would have found me in the woods near the covered bridge, hiding with dead leaves and snakes.

  If it weren’t for Dorcas blocking the road with the bus, we might all have been captured by now—or worse.

  I looked in the rearview mirror, making sure that no one was following, and caught a glimpse of Sanjay with Andrew on his shoulder. Did I really think that Diana or any of her people would deem Sanjay as worthy to live? What about Jimmy or Trudy Aiken? He was crippled and she was ginormous. What about Randy Stephens or Eddie? Not so long ago, people like them got beat to death and hung on fence posts along backwater roads lined with corn fields.

  Dorcas saved us all.

  Up ahead I saw the ambulance’s rear lights turn red. I think my father or Aunt Ella was driving. I’m not sure which one. I was really proud of all of them—Mom, Dad, and Aunt Ella. Uncle Don was gone and I’m sure that my aunt was dying inside, but she was putting up a brave front. I couldn’t even fathom how hard that was for her. As for my parents—they had grown so much in the past couple of days. A little over a week ago I wasn’t even allowed to drive a car. Now, here I was driving a bunch of kids at breakneck speeds through a road in the woods that twisted and turned and went up and down like a roller coaster—and they didn’t bat an eye.

  A week ago I was a kid.

  Trina and I weren’t kids anymore. My parents didn’t have any allusions about that now.

  I’m not even sure that Bullseye could be called a kid, and Sanjay, all things being equal, was smarter than all of us put together.

  Krystal was a kid. I just didn’t know for how much longer. We were in a new and cruel world and if you didn’t grow up fast you didn’t grow up at all.

  I hoped Krystal would have a chance to grow up.

  The ambulance slowed to a stop in front of us. I pulled the van up behind it, opened my window, and craned my head out as far as it would go, but I couldn’t see anything.

  “Can someone take the wheel?” I grumbled as I opened the door and stepped out of the car.

  “No can do,” said Jimmy. “Unless you don’t care about the gas pedal.”

  Gimp jokes. Hardy har har.

  “I got it,” said Trina and reached for the door handle with a bandaged hand.

  “NO YOU DON’T,” I screamed, almost taking her head off. “You’ve done enough.” I left the door open and walked away. I knew the only other person in the car who could drive was Prianka. I heard her say something to Trina, then my sister sucked in a ragged breath. She was holding in tears.

  Who cares? It was Trina who started the fire. If it weren’t for her, maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe Dorcas would still be alive.

  Immediately, I mentally slapped myself upside the head. I was so, so wrong. No one planned on a poxer in the woods at Gate 29. No one planned on there being a site at Black Point Fort. No one planned on a helicopter or the fire.

  Trina sure as hell didn’t plan on burning her hands.

  I only took a few steps before I turned around and went back to the minivan. Prianka was maneuvering herself into the driver’s seat. I bent down and stuck my head in the window. She stopped and looked at me with wet eyes, but it wasn’t her eyes I wanted at the moment. It was my sister’s.

  “I’m an ass,” I said to Trina. “Can we just leave it at that?”

  Jimmy had his arm around my sister and she had her head on his shoulder. He nodded at me as if to say it was all good.

  “You’re a big ass,” Trina murmured, not looking at me.

  “Gaping,” said Prianka.

  “Huge,” agreed Jimmy.

  Bullseye didn’t say anything. He just took his arms and stretched them out as far as they could go. Then Sanjay said, “Equus africanus asinus is a domesticated member of the horse family. You’re not a horse.”

  “No,” said Trina. “Just a horse’s ass.”

  “Huge horse’s ass,” I said. “Like a Clydesdale’s.”

  “Let’s go with that,” she said.

  I smiled and gave her two thumbs up. Then I clomped away, stifling an urge to whinny.

  47

  THE ROAD SIGN IN front of us said ‘Apple—3 miles. Apple Business District—2 miles’. My dad sat in the driver’s seat of the ambulance with the window down, his hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel. Aunt Ella was in the passenger’s seat with Krystal on her lap. A seat belt wrapped around both of them. My aunt looked scared. Krystal looked like she was having the time of her life.

  “I’m riding in an ambulance,” she said to me with eyes wide.

  “Cool,” I said. “Isn’t it awesome?”

  From somewhere in the back I heard either Freaky Big Bird or Nedra Stein say, “No, it’s not AWESOME at all.” Someone else was sobbing. I think it was Trudy Aiken. The same voice said, “Shut up, you cow. Dorcas is dead. Be thankful you’re not.”

  My dad ignored them all. He turned to me. “Are you guys okay?”

  “No,” I said. “It doesn’t matter. We have to keep going.”

  He looked at the sign ahead of us. “We have to go through the Apple business district,” he grimaced. “There are going to be a lot of . . . a lot of . . .”

  “I know,” I said. “But if that’s what we have to do, then that’s what we have to do.”

  “Maybe we’ll find a couple of side streets.”

  “Maybe.”

  Aunt Ella combed her hands through Krystal’s curly mop of hair. “Apple’s like Greenfield,” she said. “I think it’s big enough to have a Walmart.”

  I’m not sure what qualified a town as being big enough to have a Walmart, but big enough to have a Walmart meant big enough to have Walmart shoppers. I couldn’t even imagine what kind of carnage was inside that place. What about the stench? Suddenly Ross Esi Allan III’s cellar hole was starting to smell like one of my mom’s scented candles.

  “Is that where we’re going?” I asked. “To Walmart?” I bit at my lip. “There’re going to be poxers there.”

  “Then we’ll handle them,” said my aunt. “As long as we’re off the roads.”

  She was right. Given a choice between helicopter people and soldiers in jeeps or a bunch of poxers, I think I�
��d take the poxers any day. I’d even roast marshmallows over them as they burned.

  My dad looked scared. I hated seeing him like that. He was always the strong one, the one who was there to fix everything. He stared at the sign in front of us with fear in his eyes. I knew what that looked like. I had a lot of experience with fear over the past week. Too much.

  I decided to throw him a bone. “Dad, we’re going to go ahead of you. Follow us, okay?”

  His whole body tensed. “No. Why?”

  I stared at his worried face for a long moment. “I have more practice driving through poxer-populated areas than you do,” I said. “There are going to be car wrecks all over the place, and yeah, there’s going to be a lot of dead people. Why don’t you keep your eyes on my bumper and just do what I do.”

  “No,” he said automatically, but he stared into my eyes and I knew what he really meant was ‘yes’. I smiled and he nodded as if to say thanks, and without a word we agreed that I would take the minivan first and he would follow in the ambulance.

  My mother stuck her head out from between the seats. Her skin still looked a little sallow, but I could see she was definitely better—almost back to normal.

  “You be careful, Tripp,” she said.

  “Me? Careful? Why, Molly—careful’s my middle name.”

  My mom gave me a look that was freakishly like one that Trina would give me. “My name’s Mom, not Molly,” she said with deadpan seriousness. I just smiled, saluted, and went back to the minivan.

  Prianka scooted over when I opened the door. “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “We’re near Apple. Aunt Ella says it’s like Greenfield so there are going to be a lot of poxers there. I think we’re heading for a Walmart.”

  Jimmy gulped. “A Walmart? A week ago any store like that would have been hopping on a Friday night. Do you know how many dead things are going to be in there?”

  “A lot,” I said. “And we’ll deal with them.”