"We shouldn't shoot him," Sara said. "The sound of the gun might bring more in."
"No. You're right. Let's just see what he does."
He kept looking at us, then down at the ground, then back at us. He just stood there.
"We have other things to do," I sighed. "I'll go take care of him."
I pulled up my mask and grabbed the pry bar. The driveway was close to 100 yards long. I started walking. He didn't move except to look around. One of the horses nickered, and he looked toward the sound.
"Be careful," Sara said from behind me.
Halfway there he became fixated on me. His mouth hung open, and he kept pushing his tongue in and out. He took one step toward me, but that was all.
"So you're going to make me do all the walking," I said.
He moaned when he heard my voice.
I was going to have to hit him in the head. Brenda said shooting them in the head killed them sometimes. I needed to make sure he wasn't coming back. I wasn't looking forward to it.
He hissed at me.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I have to do it."
He took another step. He was standing next to the big white mailbox that said LASSITER on the side. I was close. He hissed again.
Just do it.
I closed the remaining space in a jog. He started to reach for me, and I slammed the claw of that pry bar into his skull. He smelled like road kill.
He kept reaching for me, but I held him away from me by keeping the pry bar extended.
"Come on, man," I said. "Die."
I couldn't get the claw out. I worked it, but I couldn't pull it loose. His brains had to have been scrambled to mush as much as I moved that pry bar, yet he kept on reaching.
The claw had gone in just above the forehead. Maybe it was the lizard brain that needed to be destroyed. It had been a long time since I'd taken biology, but I thought I remembered that being near where the brain attached to the spinal cord. Was it the basal ganglia or the cerebellum or something else?
"I don't suppose you would know, would you?" I said.
He made a sound in his throat that I can't quite describe.
"I'm sorry," I said.
I pushed the pry bar away. He stumbled backward and fell on his butt. The bar now hung down in front of his face. He grabbed for it, but couldn't grasp it. I could hear Sara walking up behind me.
"I haven't been able to kill him," I said.
She came up beside me. We both stood there staring down at the poor man.
"Here," she said, offering her hammer. "I have the twenty-two on me, too."
"Shit," I said. "Give me the gun.”
I took the revolver from her then walked behind the man. He kept sitting there in the road. I kicked him in the back of the head, and he fell over. Then I rolled him onto his face with my boot. He didn't move much. I put the gun against the base of his skull.
"I'm sorry," I said again.
Then I put two bullets in his head. The gun didn't sound as loud as I thought it would.
"I'll stay with him," I said. "Go back to the barn and get one of those trucks. We'll leave him at the church with the dead horse."
CHAPTER 38
We loaded the corpse into the back of one of the trucks and drove down to the church. My plan was to unload the body into the horse trailer, and lock it in there. That way if it did come back to life--as they were prone to do--it would be trapped in the trailer.
But surprisingly, the truck and horse trailer were gone.
"Are you sure it was this church?" Sara asked. "It was dark, and there are so many churches in Grace County--"
"Yes," I said. "This was the one. Too bad--I was going to try to unhitch the trailer. That was a nice truck, and it had a full tank of gas."
"There are lots of trucks," she said. "What you ought to be thinking about is where it went and who took it."
"Let's get him out of the back," I said. "We have more things to do before you go."
By 1 p.m. I was watching Sara pack a bag of things she wanted to take with her.
"Stay," I said again. "It won't be weird. It never happened."
"I know it never happened," she said. "That's part of the problem."
"We've spent all morning together, and aside from the man at the end of the road, it wasn't bad at all. I really need you here. Jen and I both need you. I think you need us, too."
"I really tried to be friends with Jen," she said, looking through some of the new clothes we got from Wal-Mart. "I know we can live under the same roof--we've been doing that--but I don't want to make a home somewhere and feel unwelcome in it. There are so many other places I could live. One of the few good things now is that we can all live however and wherever we want."
"Why don't we convert one of the barns? Maybe the one with the office--turn it into a house? We have free building materials."
"Seems like a lot of trouble when there are already so many houses out there."
"But--"
"No. Okay? I have everything packed. Let's go out to Tractor Supply and get the chicken food. Then we can go check on Jen. Then you can drive me to the Somervilles."
Tractor Supply didn't have skylights like Wal-Mart. We had to use flashlights. It hadn't been hit as hard by looters as Wal-Mart had, but they had been there. I was happy to find a lot of the animal food left, including three 40-pound bags of whole kernel feed corn. I could feed that to the chickens, but in a pinch, we might be able to eat it, too.
We took that and the rest of the feed--some for horses, some for poultry, and some for goats and sheep. We even got all the birdseed. We wound up with twelve 40-pound bags and ten 20-pound bags.
We also got rope, chain, work gloves, boots, different manual hand tools, and some books on different livestock. I also grabbed some of the large dog carriers to put the chickens in so we could move them to the new place. Chicken wire would be needed, too, so I got that.
On our last sweep of the store, my flashlight shined on a little wood-burning stove. There were several stoves with it of different sizes, but this one attracted me because it was small enough that I thought Sara and I might be able to lift it into the truck.
"Do you think we can manage it?" I said.
"What for? Winter is almost over."
"I don't know," I said. "Maybe I'll go ahead and convert one of those barns in case you change your mind."
"That's very sweet of you, but--"
"Or, in the summer we're going to need a place to cook our food without heating up the whole house."
"You could use a grill...but...sure, let's try it," she said.
It was heavy, but we got it on the truck. I went back in and got stove pipe, too. I saw some other supplies related to woodstoves. I didn't know what I should get, so I just took it all.
It was almost 3 p.m. by the time we finished up there, and I was very happy with our haul.
"It's getting late," Sara said. "Let's go check on Jen."
When we got to the maintenance building, we could see a man on the roof. He looked like he was holding a military rifle. He made a call on his cell phone when he saw us coming up the drive, and four men came outside into the little courtyard between the building and the chain link fence. I stopped the truck. I was starting to wish we had parked our truck somewhere else and driven a different vehicle. I'd hate to lose what we collected.
"I'm going to talk with them," I said. "Same rules as Lowes. If something happens, get the hell away from here. Find the Somervilles later, okay?"
I started to get out, and she grabbed my hand. When I looked over at her, she kissed me. It was just a peck, but it was on the lips and it addled me for a second.
"Um...I'm....I'm going to leave the engine running. When I get out, slide into the driver's seat."
I had the Lassiters' .22 revolver in my coat. I got out and walked to the fence.
Nathan, Jack, and two of the other men were standing at the gate.
"I've come to visit Jen," I said.
"S
he's sleeping," Nathan said.
"Wake her up," I said.
"Nah, the doctor says she needs her rest.
"Let me talk to the doctor, then."
"He's busy."
"Come on, man," I said. "There is no need for this. We're all that's left. We need to help each other."
He just stared at me.
"Doctor Barr!" I yelled. "Doctor Barr! Come out here!"
"I told you," Nathan said. "He's busy."
The front door opened and Brenda came outside.
"Nathan, you open that gate!"
"Get back inside like I told you!" he shouted over his shoulder.
"Oh," I said. "I see how it is. You're a little Hitler."
"Shut up, ass wipe," he said. "I talked to Jen last night, and she wants to stay here with us. She likes what we have to offer here."
"Okay," I said. "Let me hear it from her."
"Nathan! Open that gate or so help me--"
"Brenda, get your ass back in that building! Now!"
"Brenda," I said. "Is Doctor Barr in there? Send him out. Is Jen okay?"
"Brenda! Inside now!"
Nathan stepped up to the gate.
"Leave," he said. "Jen is with us now."
My fear made me lightheaded, but my anger gave me courage. I stepped up, too, so that we were nose to nose. It didn't even feel like me doing it.
"Are you sure you want to fuck with me like this?"
Did I actually say that?
He laughed.
"I know who you are. Some of the others told me. You're that pansy ass museum guy. You ain't going to do jack shit. I suggest you get in your truck and leave before that little blonde you came with decides she wants to stay with us, too."
I kept standing there, unsure what to do. I felt like I did when I was a kid getting harassed by bullies. I was helpless back then, and I felt helpless now. They had me outnumbered and outgunned.
I hated feeling helpless. It made me angry and ashamed.
"Don't make me shoot you," he said. "That wouldn't help any of us. You'd be dead, and we'd have those things breathing down our necks. Now go."
Then it became perfectly clear what I had to do. I turned and walked away, back to the truck.
"Don't come back," he called out to me. "She'll get everything she needs right here."
I kept walking. When I got to the truck, I opened the door.
"Scoot over," I said to Sara.
"What's going on?"
"They won't let me see her."
"What?"
I climbed in and put the truck in reverse.
"Are you coming back later?" she asked.
I backed down the winding drive past the school. There were still people in the school--mostly teenagers--pressing themselves against the windows trying to get to us. It must have been a real horrorfest in there. When I got to the football stadium, I stopped the truck.
"Hop out," I said. "Take the shotgun, and hide in there until I get back. If I don't come back, you have the Somervilles' address."
"What are you doing?"
"Get out."
"But--"
"Get out!"
She looked afraid, but she obeyed. I opened the glove compartment and pulled out a box of 12 gauge shells.
"Here," I said. "Go hide."
She took the box.
"Don't do something stupid," Sara said. "There are innocent people in there."
"They've had plenty of time to do the right thing. There's only one person in that building I care about. Shut the door."
I put the truck in drive and put the gas on the floor. Those bigger trucks are a little slow getting started, but I had enough space to build up some speed. The men at the gate saw me coming and turned their guns on me. I leaned over behind the dashboard and put my hand on the horn.
Making some noise.
I hit the fence hard. It had some give to it, but the impact still threw me into the dashboard and down to the floor. The man on the roof opened up with his weapon. It was firing in bursts and chewing up the windshield.
Where did they get a gun like that?
I sank down into the floorboard, shielding my head with my hands as the stuffing from the truck seat filled the air around me like snow. There was screaming outside. The gunfire ceased.
I groped above me and found the steering wheel then the gear shift. I shifted it then pushed the gas pedal with my hand before they could open the door and get me. It didn't move. I shifted it again. The truck creaked back over the fence posts and chain link, tires squealing. It rocked, and then finally rolled.
I was moving backwards. I let my hand off the gas, and took a peek over the dash. The fence was pushed in. There was no hole, but it was down like a ramp, and could be walked over. It had collapsed over the front entrance of the building, and two of the men were trapped beneath it.
I stopped the truck and grabbed the .30-06. I stuck it out the now open space where the windshield had been. I put it to my shoulder, and put the crosshairs of the scope on the man on the roof. I didn't even think; I just squeezed it off and dropped him.
I laid on the horn again, and put the truck in drive.
The infected would be on their way.
CHAPTER 39
I didn't hit the fence again. Instead, I hung a right and headed toward the school buses. I wouldn't be able to go in the front after all. Nathan was corralled in the far side of the courtyard with no exit. With the entrance to the building blocked, and the fence leaning, he was caged in. He took a shot at me with his pistol, but he missed. As I circled around the back of the buses, I saw him leap on the fence, trying to climb, but because of the angle, he couldn't hang on.
The springs from the seat were sticking out, and I had windshield glass down my collar. That gun had to have been illegal. I wondered where they got it.
I parked the truck behind the buses, so I could have some shielding. I left it running.
The rear of the building had an exit, too; it let out into the fenced-in area near the door to the generator building. I knew there were a couple of windows back there that I could get in if the door was locked, and it probably was. There was a large gate on this side for the buses to access the garage and the diesel pump.
I didn't think anyone would come out. For one thing, people were shooting outside. Plus, they knew as well as I did that the creatures would be coming, drawn to the noise. They were safe so long as they didn't open the doors to the building.
Now that Nathan and at least three of the other men were either fully or partially out-of-commission, I wasn't as willing to put the rest in jeopardy as I was before. That was the first moment since getting in Nathan's face at the gate that I'd had a rational thought. Up to that point, it was like I was outside of myself. My fear and rage had me all messed up.
What the hell was I doing? Did I really just put all those people in danger because one man humiliated me?
I was too far into it by this time to be having second thoughts. I slung the rifle on my shoulder and ran to the fence. I tried the bus gate. As expected, it was locked with a padlock. I ejected the spent casing from the .30-06 and put the muzzled up to the lock and fired. The lock, now a jagged wad of medal, spun around on the latch. I pulled it loose and opened the gate.
As I ran around the back of the building I could hear people yelling inside. They had to know why I was there, but they probably didn't know what to expect from me. I anticipated some fear-fueled resistance. I slung the rifle back on my shoulder, pulled the revolver from my coat and tried the door. It was locked.
"If you can hear me in there, let me in!"
No answer.
"I am going to shut off your generators! I'm going to break your windows! I'm going to drive my truck through your door! I'm going to get Jen, and I'm going to leave you all to die!"
I was bluffing. I was already starting to feel guilty about shooting the guy on the roof.
No answer.
"You made your choice!"
"Please stop," she said.
"Where's Jen?"
Connie stepped past Brenda and came outside. She looked at me but didn't say anything. I pushed past Brenda into the garage. Dr. Barr was wheeling Jen toward me in an office chair. She was still wearing that dress.
"Jesus," Jen said. "What the hell were you doing out there?"
"They wouldn't let me in to see you," I said. I felt embarrassed.
"Take her," the doctor said. "I have to go out and check on the others."
I pushed Jen to the door.
"Help me over the threshold," I said to Brenda.
Jen stood on her good leg.
"I can hop," she said.
I looked at Connie.
"Coming or staying?"
She looked at Brenda then at Jen.
"She's coming," Jen said. "We've already discussed it. Connie, go get your stuff."
Connie shook her head.
"I've changed my mind," she said.
"We don't have a lot of time," I said.
"I have to go help Travis," Connie said, running back into the garage.
"Brenda," I said, feeling the need to explain myself. "I would have never hurt anyone in here, but Nathan wouldn't let me in, and--"
"Take her and go," Brenda said, looking at the ground.
That pissed me off, too, but for different reasons. I wanted her to absolve me, or at least validate my actions. I needed to hear her agree with me about Nathan. On some level, I even wanted her to thank me for freeing her from tyranny. I'd just done her a huge favor.
Maybe if I explained it a little more...
"Brenda, I--"
"Just go."
She stepped back into the building and the door shut behind her.
I put the revolver in my coat pocket and picked up Jen.
"I told you I can hop--"
"Shut up,' I said.
Jen was lean and fit. I had noticed that about her at Brian Davies' house when she was only wearing the towel. She looked good in a pair of jeans, too, but that was really all I had seen of her, because she was usually hidden under a lot of bulky winter clothes. We had not talked about it, but I had pegged her to be a runner or gym member. Bodies like hers do not just happen. I say all of that because lifting her wasn't that big of a deal for me. She wasn't that heavy...at first. But, I wasn't carrying her over the threshold, if you know what I mean. I had to lug her from the back door of the building all the way out to behind the buses where our ride waited.
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