It All Comes Down To Zombies: Sarah

by Rayne Millaray

  “I always figured you were too scared to kill me.”

  Sarah started laughing. She laughed until big, fat tears rolled down her cheeks. When she looked up at Jimmy, something dark danced just behind her irises. “I was never scared of killing you.”

  Sarah finished packing her duffle and slung it over her shoulder with one of the AKs. She grabbed the .44 off of the seat where Jimmy had left it, made sure it was ready to fire, and looked up the road.

  “Okay, see that overpass? We’re gonna have to be careful around there. It’s really dark under there, and they like to congregate in dark places.”

  “I still say this is a bad idea.”

  “Jimmy, nut the fuck up. We’ve done worse. Or have you forgotten that night in Philly?”

  Jimmy grinned. “That was a good night.”

  “For you, maybe,” Sarah retorted. “It’ll be fine. Just keep your eyes open, be quiet, and stay close to me.”

  Sarah started toward the overpass at a brisk pace. Jimmy almost had to run to keep up. He looked like her little brother, tagging along behind, struggling to keep pace. She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

  “This is so weird, isn’t it?” Jimmy asked, suddenly sounding a lot like Sarah’s baby brother.

  “Monsters killing everyone? Society crumbling in under two weeks? Me sharing air with you again? Yeah…pretty weird.”

  Jimmy shot Sarah a look. “No, I mean, usually, it’s me taking the lead, being the strong one. Here you are, barking orders, providing weapons, making smart decisions.”

  “Shut up, Jimmy. You’re going to attract attention.”

  “I’m just saying…”

  Sarah stopped abruptly and turned to face Jimmy. “We’ve got less than a tenth of a mile to that overpass,” she hissed. “Under it, there are either monsters of the undead variety…”

  “Zombies,” Jimmy said gleefully.

  Sarah groaned. “Or there are humans of the dick bag variety.”

  “Maybe there’s just empty cars.”

  “In all the jams we’ve gone around, has there ever been just empty cars?”

  Jimmy made a face. “No.”

  “Then let’s pretend like we know there’s something in there that wants to kill us, and go in prepared to defend ourselves. That means shut up!”

  “Fine.”

  “God damn right, it’s fine.”

  Sarah took the lead again, feeling satisfied. She didn’t know why Jimmy was deferring to her. Maybe he just didn’t want the responsibility. Whatever the reason, it was nice not to have to deal with the insults and constant second guessing that littered their past.

  She weaved in and out of the cars, climbing over hoods and trunks as necessary. Just for fun, she checked the gas gauge of a few. She cursed under her breath when she found a ’66 Mustang all gassed up and ready to go, but completely tangled up with a VW Bug.

  “Wow. Ain’t that your favorite year?” Jimmy asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

  “Yeah,” Sarah whispered back. “And she was beautiful before this happened.”

  “Yeah, she was. Too bad.”

  They continued on, Sarah on the left, and Jimmy on the right. Sarah caught some movement out of the corner of her eye, but she didn’t see what it was. She motioned for Jimmy to stop, crouched down behind a car, and aimed her gun over the hood in the direction of the movement.

  At first, nothing happened. Then, as they watched, a scruffy blonde head bounced through the cars. When it disappeared, Sarah stood up and climbed over the car she’d been hiding behind.

  “Where are you going?” Jimmy’s voice shook.

  “It’s a kid, Jimmy. I’m gonna go see if it’s alone.”

  “It’s not alone. You know it’s not alone. Let’s go back to the truck, turn around and find another way.”

  “No. I’m tired of finding another way. I want to be there already. I want to see that son of a bitch’s face when he realizes I’m still alive.”

  “You have to be alive to do that.”

  “Jimmy, it’s just a kid!”

  Sarah spoke a little louder than she meant to. She covered her mouth and looked toward the kid, but she was too late. He’d heard her, and took off back the way he came.

  “See? Not alone. He’s probably going to get his army of gun-toting prepubescent zombie slayers, and they’re going to force us to drive them around on their hunt for zombies.”

  Sarah laughed. “As if things are ever that easy. Okay, Jimmy. You win. Back to the truck.”

  Sarah heard laughter coming from behind the car next to her. A voice she’d never heard before said, “As if things are ever that easy.”

  A bunch of adult gun-toting zombie slayers appeared from behind the cars in a circle around Sarah and Jimmy. As the pair watched, heads continued to pop up between them and the overpass.

  “You should probably hand over those guns, now,” the woman closest to Sarah said.

  Jimmy started to follow the woman’s request. Sarah held up her hand to stop him.

  “You can pry our guns out of our cold, dead fingers.”

  The woman laughed. “You’re lucky Max isn’t out here. He’d be happy to oblige. Alas, he decided to hang back, today, so you get to live…for now. Come with me.”

  When he heard Max’s name, Jimmy stiffened and glanced at Sarah. When she didn’t flinch, he slung the Kalashnikov back over his shoulder and crossed his arms. “I’d rather just get back in my truck, if it’s all the same to you.”

  “Sorry. Too late for that. Head on up that hill, like a good boy, or my friends here will give you a hand. You probably won’t like their help.”

  “Come on, Jimmy. Can’t find our people if we’re dead.”

  “See? Your girlfriend’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend. I’m married. To someone else.”

  “Oh? Good for you. Move.”

  Sarah started picking her way through the cars and up the hill. Jimmy hurried to catch up, and fell into step with her. He looked around to check on their captors. Deciding they were a sufficient distance away, he whispered, “Do you think their Max is your Max?”

  Sarah looked around at the people herding them toward their camp. She watched the woman in charge for a moment.

  “No.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “I can’t, obviously.”

  “Well, then, why do you think it’s not him?”

  “Because it sounds like their Max is some sort of leader. Max can’t lead a group of people during the zombie apocalypse. Max couldn’t even handle a management position at his firm. He was demoted because having that much power freaked him out too much, and he started dropping the ball. We fought about it a lot. But besides that, Max wouldn’t be in charge of a group that held strangers against their will for no other reason than they’re strangers.”

  “Things are different now,” Jimmy said. “People are different.”

  “You say that as if you know from experience.”

  “Yeah. Maybe I do.”

  Sarah scoffed. “Whatever. Let’s just see what they want. From there, we’ll figure out what to do.”

  When they reached the top of the hill, Sarah could hardly believe her eyes.

  In a week and a half, give or take a few days, this group had ripped down fencing from all over the town and installed it around at least ten blocks they were using as a base. The streetlights were on, and there were roadwork spotlights installed all over the place. There were a few buildings in various states of disrepair within their fence border, but most appeared to be in almost pristine condition. A few people were scavenging through the wreckage of the unlivable places Sarah could see to find materials for repairs.

  The only people not working on something were the children and a group seated in a circle of chairs in front of what appeared to be City Hall. Everyone else was rushing around carrying things, or hammering away at building repairs, or cooking dinner over big oil
drum grills, or doing laundry in large metal tubs over fires. There were a few tents between the houses, but it looked like most people lived inside.

  Two guards opened the gate, nodding to the woman in charge as they passed.

  “Anything good happen while I was away, Kareem?”

  “Max found another kid. So scared it won’t talk. No idea how it survived this long.”

  “It?”

  “Yeah, it’s hard to tell if it’s a boy or a girl.”

  “Huh. Okay, I’ll peek in on the nursery later, and see if I can’t fix that. Anything else?”

  “Nope.”

  “Wow, no zombies, even?”

  “Not for two days now.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Scary, if you ask me,” the other guard chimed in.

  “Oh? Why’s that, Steve?”

  “Well, you don’t think this thing just winked out, do you?”

  “What’s Max say?”

  “What Max always says. ‘Maintain vigilance and optimism.’”

  Sarah felt as though she’d been punched in the gut. That was something her Max always said.

  Jimmy leaned close and whispered, “What? What happened?”

  Sarah shook her head and looked pointedly at the woman in charge, who was suddenly taking an interest in her captives’ conversation. Jimmy took the hint and bent down as if tying his shoe.

  The woman laughed. “Oh, Max.” She glanced at her watch. “Your shift’s up soon. Who’s covering?”

  “Dottie and Abel.”

  “Harvey’s still trying to get those two together, huh?”

  The one called Kareem laughed. “Yeah. Dottie’s gonna kill Abel one of these days, and claim she thought he was a zombie. That’ll teach Harvey.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Do me a favor and make sure Bryce gets his little tail back in here. I lost track of him while we were climbing the hill. He might just be at the end of the line.”

  “I’ll watch out for him and send out a party if he’s not with you.”

  “Thanks, kid. Let’s go, lady and gent. Time to meet our fearless leader.”

  The woman led Jimmy and Sarah to City Hall. As they got closer, Sarah caught snippets of the conversation being had out front.

  “They sound like the planning committee,” Sarah noted aloud. “What’re you guys planning?”

  The woman looked at Sarah and laughed. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  Sarah raised a brow. “That is why I asked.”

  “Smart ass. Get inside. I’ll let Max know you’re here, and you can explain to him what you were doing skulking around the overpass.”

  “Seriously? We were just trying to find a way around,” Jimmy called after her as he closed the front door.

  The woman ignored Jimmy and entered a room at the top of the stairs, closing the door behind her.

  “Planning committee?” Jimmy hissed.

  “Yeah. They were planning something. It sounded like they’re going to attack another camp.”

  Jimmy’s jaw dropped. “Boy, did we step in it.”

  A man’s voice replied from the top of the stairs, “You have no idea.”

  Sarah and Jimmy looked up. Sarah’s fist clenched around the .44 in its holster. This time, it was her jaw that dropped.

  “Max?”

  “Hi, Sarah.”

  Jimmy turned to Sarah, disbelief clear on his face. “It is your Max.”

  “Her Max?” asked the woman who had brought them there. “What’s he talking about?”

  “This is my wife. Sarah, meet Isabelle. And consider the fact that I thought you were dead.”

  Jimmy canted his head. “What does that mean? You thought she was dead, so…what? Are you fucking that woman? Jesus, Max, she doesn’t even hold a candle to your wife.”

  Isabelle lunged forward as if she were going to leap down the stairs. Max held her back.

  “You’re one to talk,” Max said with a smirk.

  Jimmy started laughing.

  Sarah stared at Jimmy, narrowing her eyes. Before long, she was laughing, too.

  During three years of tumultuous marriage that follow three years of high school dating, a couple tends to form their own language. They have to when they find themselves in the types of situations into which Jimmy always dragged Sarah.

  When Jimmy slipped his AK off his shoulder as if he were going to put it down, Sarah’s instincts kicked in. She yanked the .44 from the holster and aimed it squarely at Max’s head without taking her eyes off Jimmy’s.

  “It’s been two days, Max. Two days.”

  Sarah pulled the trigger just as Jimmy opened fire on the guards. Max fell from the balcony as the other bodies hit the floor.