Dead, But Not For Long (Book 2): Pestilence and Promise

by Kinney, Matthew

  Hixson held his breath when the dead began to emerge from the vineyard. The first one almost looked alive, and Dan guessed that it was a fresh kill. The blood on the man’s overalls still looked red and wet. He had the look of a farmer about him, and Dan wondered if the horde had caught him while working the fields. Then again, maybe they’d found his home and forced their way inside.

  Others emerged from the vineyard to stumble into the ditch then crawl back up the other side. They seemed to have a goal in mind, and Hixson hoped they’d stay on their path, ignoring the culvert.

  Dan felt Rayburn slapping at his foot, and he turned his head enough to see glimpses of clothing on Rayburn’s side of the tunnel. Suddenly their shelter was beginning to look more like a deathtrap to Hixson, but he was still certain that their odds outside wouldn’t have been any better. He knew that they could have probably avoided the horde by running up the road, but the soldiers in the helicopter would have quickly cut them off.

  Dan ducked a little farther behind the backpack when one of the infected stumbled into the ditch and landed hard on the ground, just inches from the edge of the culvert. The woman started to reach for the other side of the ditch to pull herself up, but she stopped suddenly. Slowly, her head swiveled toward the metal pipe where the two men lay hidden. As her milky eyes looked their way, she shifted her body, turning to crawl toward them, her long, filthy hair dragging in the dirt. A low moan escaped her lips, and Hixson reached down to pull his knife, knowing he needed to shut her up before she drew others their way.

  She grabbed the edge of the corrugated metal, breaking one dirty nail off in the process. Her prey in sight, she let out a low growl and lunged forward, reaching over the pack for Dan with her free hand.

  ~*^*~

  ~34~

  Yucca Compound, Southern California

  “They lost the trail,” Madec said, setting down the radio he’d been using. “The dogs were able to track them to a convenience store, but the trail disappeared a couple of miles down the road. Apparently, the dogs didn’t work out as well as we’d hoped.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they make a lot of noise and draw the infected to them,” Madec sighed. “It sounds like it took a large team of men to keep the dogs safe, and they had to keep them on leashes.”

  “But it worked?”

  “It took a lot more time than expected. At the rate the dog handlers are going, they’ll never be able to catch up as long as Hixson and Rayburn keep moving.”

  “I’ll bet they’ll stop once they find a safe place.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping,” Madec said. “Then maybe the dogs will be useful. The trail just ended in the middle of a road, so I would guess that they found a vehicle.”

  “So we need to watch the roads,” Bob said.

  “We are. We also sent the helicopters to the west, since we know they were heading that way. There’s no point in wasting time here.”

  “I was sure Rayburn would slow Hixson down,” Bob said. “I thought we’d have them both by now.”

  “They’ll slip up eventually, and we have people watching for them now,” Madec said. “It’s just a matter of time.”

  ~*~

  St. Mary’s Hospital, Lansing

  Eric’s face was chiseled with determination, his whole being consumed with the mission at hand. Although those around him were being obliterated, retreat was not an option. With a fearless resolve, he arrived at the checkpoint, eying his target. Smiling, he squeezed the trigger, only to feel the sting of death from behind.

  “Damn it!” Eric shouted, throwing the controller across the room. “The L button is broken on this one. If I had a controller that worked, I’d have beaten this level an hour ago.”

  “It worked fine for me,” Marie said. “Besides, you’re not allowed to cuss in front of us, remember?”

  “Sorry,” Eric said, “bad habit I learned in the Special Forces. Did I tell you about the time I was in Iraq surrounded by the Taliban?”

  “I’m hungry,” Jon said, ignoring Eric. “Isn’t it lunch time?”

  The thought of food quickly made Eric forget about his story.

  “I think you’re right,” Eric said. “Hey, I’ve got an idea.”

  Jon and Marie both looked worried.

  “What if we bring some food up to your Mom? She’s got to be hungry, too. Maybe we could even bring the Xbox up to her room. It might cheer her up to watch something other than a bunch of empty walls.”

  “You know you’re not allowed to go in Mommy’s room,” Jon said, crossing his arms.

  “Yeah,” Marie added, “just because we’re kids doesn’t mean we’re stupid.”

  “Fine.” Eric stood and stomped toward the door. “You can get your own lunch.”

  “What a dork,” Marie said under her breath.

  Jon nodded in agreement.

  ~*~

  Snake’s group worked as quickly as possible to get the gate installed. Moose started on the pilasters at dawn, knowing he’d want at least 24 hours for the grout to cure. Gunner and Carmen started doing their modifications on the gate around the same time, working around the clock until the job was done. Others had gone out to find a truck with a flatbed trailer and had used it to transport the I-beams to the hospital. They’d also made another trip to the rental store where Billy had worked, bringing back a forklift with a telescoping boom. They’d picked up a tow truck along the way, as well. Once the beams had been lifted into place, Moose finished the job, making sure the supports were sturdy. With Claire’s help, he was able to get the cables installed in a way that would allow them to lift the gate with the use of the tow truck’s winch. Most of Snake’s group had stayed outside to help during this time, and it had been a couple of long, hard days for all of them as they’d fought to keep the dead from climbing over or under the two vehicles that were serving as a temporary gate. Twice, the dead had managed to push one of the vehicles far enough to make a gap, and it had taken some effort to kill off the ones that had gotten through and to get the vehicles back into place.

  After quarantine, Snake was ready for a hot meal. Before he and Wolf could sit down at their table, Jack showed up and let him know that Doune wanted to talk to him.

  “As long as I can eat my dinner while we talk, I’m fine with that,” Snake said.

  Lindsey, Doune, and Autumn joined them a few minutes later.

  When everyone was seated, Doune said, “We may have a problem.”

  “Go ahead,” Jack said.

  “I think you all know that I spoke with Dr. Rayburn, Autumn’s doctor in Los Angeles,” Doune began.

  “Right,” Jack said.

  “Autumn said something later that made me start to wonder about the call. I called back and let her listen in. She said it wasn’t Rayburn’s voice.”

  “You sure about this?” Snake asked.

  “Positive,” Autumn said. “This guy sounded younger than Dr. Rayburn. He’s pretty old.”

  “How old?”

  “You know, like a grandfather. Maybe sixty?”

  Snake raised an eyebrow at the comment, and Jack said. “Hey, watch it.”

  “I mean . . . what do they call it, middle-aged?” Autumn asked, having forgotten that both men were over sixty.

  “Good save,” Lindsey said.

  “Well, besides that, the guy on the phone had a deep voice, and Dr. Rayburn doesn’t. Dr. Rayburn also talks all the time and this guy wasn’t like that. It wasn’t him,” Autumn said.

  “So someone passing himself off as Rayburn knows that we have an immune person here?” Snake asked, after making sure nobody else was within hearing range.

  “Exactly,” Doune said. “And they want her there, desperately.”

  “I’ll bet they do,” Snake said. “Do they know who it is?”

  “No. I was very careful about that.”

  “They’re in California, so we may have nothing to worry about,” Jack pointed out.

  “If they were wil
ling to fly out and pick her up, I would guess they have some resources at hand. I’m very concerned, personally,” Doune said.

  “So we may have someone come knocking on our door,” Snake replied.

  “It wouldn’t surprise me,” Doune said, sipping his coffee.

  “What are we going to do about it?” Lindsey asked.

  “I think we need to seriously consider getting Autumn to Montana,” Doune said.

  “What makes you think she’d be better off there than in California?” Lindsey asked.

  “I’ve spoken to the people in Montana several times,” Doune said. “I’m convinced that they’re legitimate, and I’ve been in contact with some of the doctors who are studying the parasite there. They know that I want to be involved, and they understand that I will get a final say on anything pertaining to Autumn. They also intend to offer the vaccine to everybody. The man who owns the property in Montana has insisted on it, and I looked up everything I could about him. He has money, but he’s been generous with this wealth. Trust me on this - he’s not someone that we need to worry about. I’ll print up what I have on him if you want to read it.”

  “I’d like to check it out,” Snake said. “I think we need a lot more information before making a decision.”

  “I agree,” Jack said.

  “Maybe the place in California would be just as good,” Lindsey said. “And they’d have Autumn’s medical records.”

  “I don’t like the idea that they lied to me,” Doune said. “Why not admit that it wasn’t Rayburn on the phone? It made me uncomfortable, but if you’d like, we could possibly set up meetings with this man and with the Montana group then make a decision.”

  Snake shook his head. “I wouldn’t mind talking to the Montana people before we make a decision, but I agree with you on this guy from LA. If he started out with a lie, I’m not interested in talking to him. We’d never know where the truth ends and the BS begins.”

  “That’s a good point,” Lindsey admitted.

  Jack nodded his agreement.

  “If you decide to go, you might need to leave soon if you don’t want to risk getting stuck somewhere over the winter,” Snake said.

  “It’s not even September yet,” Doune pointed out. “We have lots of time to make plans and leave before winter.”

  “The snow comes early in the mountains,” Lindsey reminded him. “Since we have no idea what the roads will be like, I think we’d be taking a big chance to leave this time of year.”

  “She’s right,” Snake said. “It can take hours to make it a mile down the road at times. You could try to bypass the cities, but who knows what the other roads are like?”

  “It’s too bad you can’t take a plane,” Wolf said. “You could be there in a day.”

  “I wish Lee could help, but I’d be nervous about that,” Lindsey said.

  “For sure,” Snake said. “It sounds like the dude’s changed, and we probably don’t want to tell him what’s going on.”

  “I think we need to wait until spring, unless we figure out a way to fly. That would give us several months to put together a plan,” Lindsey said. “And I don’t want Autumn going anywhere without knowing that she’ll be safe.”

  “What if someone comes looking for her?” Jack asked.

  “Only a few people here know about her immunity, and we’ll just be sure to keep it that way,” Doune said.

  “Who knows besides us?” Snake asked.

  “Ernie was there when she was bitten,” Doune said.

  “I’ll talk to him,” Snake offered.

  “Wombat,” Lindsey said. “He helped when we were keeping an eye on her.”

  “He won’t say anything,” Snake said, pulling on his beard, “but maybe you should talk to him and let him know, just in case.”

  “All right. I think Keith knows something is up,” Lindsey admitted. “He does most of the blood testing at the quarantine room, so he was in and out of the lab a lot. He never asked what was going on, but I could tell he was curious.”

  “Can he keep a secret?” Snake asked.

  “Absolutely,” Doune said. “He and Amelia are the two nurses that I always trust with confidential information.”

  “Then why don’t you talk to him and tell him what the story is,” Snake suggested. “I think it’s safer if he knows what’s going on, in case someone shows up asking questions. Better to keep him in the loop.”

  “I agree,” Doune said. “And then we need to start working on a plan to get Autumn to Montana in the spring. If someone does show up looking for her, we may need to leave on short notice, so I’d rather not put off the planning until the last minute.”

  “I agree,” Snake said. “I’m sure some of my guys might be willing to help escort her there. We’d all go, but I think we’re still needed here.”

  “A smaller group may have an easier time avoiding detection anyway,” Lindsey said.

  “We can all do some thinking about it and meet up again in a couple days if anybody comes up with an idea,” Jack suggested.

  ~*~

  Near Oxnard, California

  Hixson thrust his knife into the eye of the dead woman and gave it a hard twist. The body dropped silently in place, and Dan gave himself a moment before reaching over to retrieve his knife. From behind his pack, he could see the dead still spilling into the drainage ditch. Some actually made it down the slope without falling, though most did not, and they began to pile up, putting them in direct sight of the tunnel. He slowly turned his head to look behind him, and he saw that things weren’t any better on Rayburn’s side. Taking a deep breath, he tried to clear his head enough to make a decision. It was possible that he and Rayburn would avoid detection and that the dead would pass by. Many of them seemed to be looking up into the air, grasping for the helicopter that lured them on. If their attention turned toward the culvert, Dan could easily envision the grisly death that would follow. The dead would fight each other to get into the tunnel from both ends, wedging the two men in tightly. He and Rayburn would die there, either from the teeth of the dead or from suffocation as the bodies packed the tunnel to reach their prey. Dan decided that he wouldn’t allow himself to die that way, even if it meant taking his chances with the humans in the chopper.

  He closed his eyes, asking himself if he was about to do something stupid that would get them both killed. The darkness helped to calm his nerves, and he tried to think logically. The dead woman in front of him was going to have to be moved before he could get out, and that couldn’t be done without attracting attention. He knew there was a good possibility that by the time he moved the body and crawled out of the tunnel, he’d be overwhelmed. His other option was to have Rayburn go out first, but that plan wasn’t any better. Even if he was able to communicate the instructions to the other man, Rayburn would have to crawl out and stay alive long enough for Dan to back all the way out the other side of the culvert. Unless something changed, their best option was probably to stay where they were and take their chances. He closed his eyes and waited.

  Gradually, Hixson became aware that the helicopter was slowly moving away. While that news was welcomed, the downside of it was that the dead that had been piling up in the ditch began to lose interest in the aircraft once it was out of sight. Dan could see them beginning to look around, and he knew that the tunnel was very apt to become a tomb. He gave Rayburn a light kick to get his attention then Dan began to push his pack forward against the corpse that shared his end of the tunnel.

  “Get ready to move,” he whispered to Rayburn.

  “Move? Where?” Rayburn asked. He sounded close to panic.

  Hixson didn’t reply. Instead, he pushed the body the rest of the way out of the tunnel and tumbled out after it with the backpack. He quickly got to his feet and grabbed the pack, only taking a moment to check on the helicopter’s progress as he ran up the side of the ditch. The ground was still wet, causing his feet to slip, but he was able to gain traction and reach the road in a matter of s
econds. Rushing over to the other side, he saw that Rayburn was in trouble. One of the walking corpses had noticed George trying to get out, and the creature was crawling into the tunnel after him. Hixson could hear Rayburn’s shouts, which echoed in the metal culvert. The sound was drawing those on the other side to investigate as well.

  Hixson dropped his pack and jumped down into the ditch, grabbing the zombie by the feet and yanking it out. Others were moving toward him, and he had to turn to fight.

  “Get the hell out, now!” he told Rayburn, turning to thrust his knife into the ear of a dead man who had come too close. A few others were still spilling into the ditch, but more worrisome was the fact that some of the ghouls that had already crossed the road were also turning around to come back.

  Hixson’s attention was fixed on the creatures that were beginning to surround him, though he could still hear Rayburn struggling to get out of the tunnel.

  “It’s got my foot! Help!”

  “Kick it!” Hixson said, pausing to finish off two more of the dead with his knife. “Slam it against the wall or use your bat. Hurry up or you’re not getting out!”

  He heard the thud that followed, and so did every zombie within hearing range, Hixson was sure.

  Moments later, Rayburn pushed his pack out then followed it, muttering some choice words for Dan.

  “It’s not like I had a lot of room to swing a bat. . .” The words died on his lips when he saw the horde that was closing in. “Oh, my God.”

  “Get up. Get up!” Hixson said, taking a moment to kick one of the ghouls back into the crowd that was still steadily advancing.

  Rayburn scrambled to his feet, flinging his pack over his shoulder as he stared at the sight before him.

  “Get up the hill!” Dan yelled, though he could see that the road was filling with the dead.