Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny

by Achord, David

  “You know I’m staying with you, no matter what.” She held up her hand showing the ring. “It’s hell being married to a shithead.” I laughed, even though the joke was at my expense.

  “If you consider us married, I guess I need to start acting like a dutiful husband.” We held hands and watched the morning come to life.

  “It’s going to be a hot one today,” Kelly remarked as we watched the morning dew being converted to shimmering vapors.

  “Let’s go to the school and give them the news. Then we’ll go horseback riding, just the two of us. Janet won’t mind babysitting.”

  “We can fix up a picnic basket and eat lunch under the oak tree,” Kelly suggested. I thought of the last time we did that and reminded myself to bring along some mosquito repellent.

  “Yeah, that sounds wonderful.”

  I waited until Sarah and Rachel rode off, insisting Sammy ride with them. After they passed through the gate, I turned to Janet.

  “Just in case they don’t take the news well and there is a plan-B which includes using force, I want you to load the kids up in the van and disappear for a little while.”

  “You think they may try something?” she asked.

  “I don’t think so, but I don’t want to take any chances.” Janet agreed without argument. She insisted on not one, but two assault rifles and as much ammo as I would give her, which actually seemed prudent. I handed her a map.

  “You’ll be in radio range if you stay in this area,” I said as I pointed. “Once we give them the news and get out of their sight, I’ll give you a call.” She nodded and I looked at my watch.

  “Okay, it’s zer0-eight-hundred. We’re going to ride over there, tell them of our decision, and leave. It shouldn’t take over an hour. Remember the duress password?” She nodded in irritation.

  “And if everything is good on your end, you’re going to use the word fireworks when you call.”

  “Got it. Zach, be careful of Smithson,” Janet warned.

  “Why’s that?”

  “I know you two have become friends, but back at the CDC a couple of idiots said some rude things toward Ruth. He gave them both a pretty vicious beating.”

  “Okay, good to know. We’ll see you in an hour.”

  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go on that horseback ride.

  Chapter 47 – Reversal

  Kelly gasped at about the same time I hit the brakes. There were hundreds of them. A lot were dead, strewn about Concord Road, from the radio tower to the school. But there were still plenty of them alive.

  “See if you can raise them on the radio,” I said as I reached into the glove box for ear plugs. Kelly grabbed the microphone and began calling for them as I rolled down the window, stuck the barrel out of the grating and started picking off stragglers before she yelled at me to stop.

  “I can’t hear anything with you doing that!” I paused in my shooting as I heard Justin speaking on the radio. I took an earplug out.

  “What’d he say?”

  “He asked for us to drive over to the radio tower. They’re out of ammo and there are still zombies around the house.”

  I was glad we were in our Ford Raptor truck. The enhanced ground clearance and four-wheel-drive capability allowed me to drive over the corpses lying in the roadway and down the drive leading to the tower. There were about twenty zombies crowding the small house, trying feebly to get in. When they saw us, they turned and launched themselves at us.

  “Okay, cover your ears,” I warned before shooting again. When the last one dropped, Justin emerged from the front door. He had to push some of the dead bodies out of the way to get out.

  “Those sons of bitches attacked in the middle of the night,” he said. “I didn’t think they could see at night, just goes to show you what I know. We ran out of ammo about an hour ago.” I gestured toward the back.

  “I’ve got a hundred rounds in here, all five-five-six.” The three of them, Justin, Ruth, and True hastily loaded their magazines before inserting them into their rifles.

  “We tried calling you on the radio,” Ruth lamented. I looked at Kelly. She shook her head.

  “We never heard anything,” I said and wondered if someone had turned it off.

  “We’ve had contact with the school. They said they were completely surrounded but were holding them off.” Before I had a chance to respond, Kelly was on the radio. Marc answered after a few tries. He sounded frightened. I motioned for Kelly to hand me the microphone.

  “Have they gotten into the school?”

  “I don’t think so,” Marc responded. “But they’re all around outside. We’ve killed a bunch though.”

  “Alright, tell everyone we’re coming, so don’t shoot toward us. Concentrate on the rear of the school only.”

  “Affirmative,” he replied nervously. I swapped seats with Kelly and let her drive.

  “These are all the rounds I have left, so let’s make ‘em count,” I said with a grin as Kelly maneuvered down the road and into the school’s parking lot.

  There were dozens of them lying around. Most had singular headshots, which was a good sign of shooting discipline, but there were several with additional bullet holes in their torsos.

  “Looks like around thirty or so, do it,” I directed. Kelly began honking the horn, causing several of them to turn toward us. A couple of them even began running. We made short work of them.

  “Did you see how they were acting?” Justin asked. “They were trying to get the doors open, just like they were doing at the radio tower.”

  “Those last few that we killed, they were trying to run away,” True observed. “They still stupid, but not as stupid as they was.” I chuckled at his unique assessment.

  “Well put,” I said and spoke into the microphone. “Alright, Marc, tell everyone to cease fire. We’re going to circle the school and pick off the remaining.” Marc acknowledged, and we found three more attempting to break through the back door.

  “It was a simultaneous attack on both the school and the radio tower,” Justin contended. We were all walking around outside, surveying the damage.

  “What about the church?” I asked. “Were there any issues?” Justin shook his head.

  “We went over there yesterday evening and brought them back. No problems.”

  “We didn’t see any when we were there,” Seth added and then looked embarrassed.

  “I didn’t want anyone to feel threatened by us, so we left all of our weapons in the Stryker. Unfortunately, it backfired. When they attacked, we were trapped inside the school.” We made our way to the guard tower. There were several corpses stacked against the tower. Goober had put up a hell of a fight. We found him inside the tower and it wasn’t a pretty sight. He was literally torn to shreds. A lone zombie, some kind of female in a former life, was straddling his torso, feasting on his intestines. She was so focused on her meal she didn’t even notice us.

  “Oh my God,” Kelly gasped. I didn’t know if Goober had turned or was going to turn, but I took no chances. I took aim and put a bullet in both of their heads.

  “He never gave an alert,” Justin lamented. “True and I split radio duty. Neither one of us fell asleep, I can guarantee that.” He glanced over at Seth.

  “Yeah, they had the school surrounded as well.” He pointed at the corpses. “After we started killing them, the others figured out our kill zones. I guess they were simply going to wait us out.”

  There was one solitary picnic table that was bereft of blood and gore. I sat on top of it, surveying the grounds. The others joined me. Kelly sat close, sobbing quietly.

  “He was a sweet guy,” she said. I nodded silently.

  “How many, do you think?” Justin asked. I shrugged.

  “Two hundred, give or take,” I let out a heavy sigh. “I thought we’d cleared this area out.” We sat there in silence, dejected silence, for several minutes. True had been walking around the area and came jogging up.

  “Them things came up t
he interstate from Nashville,” he said. “They came down the road and then split into three groups. One group went to the church and the other two came this way and split up between the school and the radio tower. Then, the church zombies came down here.” He paused a moment.

  “I don’t mean to speak badly of the dead, but if I were to guess, I’d say they caught Goober while he was sleeping. There ain’t no way they could have snuck up on him otherwise.” He found a clean spot on the ground and sat.

  “Them things are starting to scare me. Are we going to burn them?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I answered. “We’ll use a backhoe and a dump truck.” And it’s going to take a lot of fuel, I thought. Seth cleared his throat.

  “Forgive me for the inappropriateness of changing the subject, but has everyone decided on whether or not they’re going?” I cut my eyes at him. “Sorry to ask, but if everyone is going to go, I say let’s give Goober a Christian burial and not worry about cleaning up the rest of this mess.” He looked around at everyone. Tonya, who had been standing nearby, spoke up.

  “There are a few of us who intend to stay,” she said. “But, I can’t speak for everyone.”

  “What have you decided, Zach?” Raymond asked tentatively. Kelly raised her head off of my shoulder and looked at me. It hurt me to see her sad. I squeezed her hand, didn’t answer, and changed the subject.

  “We’ve got a hell of a mess to clean up, but first we need to bury Goober.”

  I called Janet on the CB, and after having to give her the proper password twice, I convinced her everything was okay, told her to keep the kids away from the school due to all of the stinking corpses and advised we’d be home later in the afternoon.

  “Don’t worry about damaging the bodies,” I told Sheila, who had volunteered to run the backhoe. “Just scoop ‘em up and dump ‘em in the truck. Oh, and if you have any kind of respirator mask, I’d strongly recommend using it.”

  The soldiers provided security while the rest of us hauled off the bodies. We’d done this before, but I don’t think you ever got used to it. The stench was nauseating, and looking at those things and knowing they were humans once made it depressing. We settled on the rock quarry on the side of Nolensville Pike to dump and burn them. Everyone helped out, although there was some grumbling and complaining.

  “I don’t understand why we’re going through all of this trouble to burn them,” Kate finally said in a huff. I glanced at her. She was covered in sweat and looked to be in a foul mood. “Well?” she demanded.

  “Tell her, Sammy.”

  “We’re burning the corpses to prevent the spread of pestilence and disease.” He pointed at the pyre burning. “In order to fully cremate a human body, you have to burn them at a temperature of at least fifteen hundred degrees. Since we have no way of doing that, we use tires, which there are plenty of around here. Tires burn at about seven hundred and fifty degrees, but the smoke is toxic, so you don’t breathe it.” Kate didn’t like the answer.

  “You’re starting to sound just like him,” she quipped.

  “Thanks, Aunt Kate,” Sam replied proudly. I gave him a wink.

  “We really appreciate it,” Ward said as we watched the pyre burn. “If we were left with this mess to clean up, it’d take us a month or more.”

  “You two are really going to stay?” Kelly asked. Ward and Marc nodded in unison.

  “We see no need to relocate,” Ward said.

  “Even after this?” Kelly pressed. They nodded again.

  “It’s our home,” Marc said simply. I understood how he felt.

  “At least we’ll have company,” Kelly said as we lay in bed.

  “Yeah. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but the good news is we’ll have a lot less mouths to feed.”

  “I guess we can do this,” she said. “It won’t be easy, but nothing ever is, I guess.” She snuggled up closer and was asleep within a minute.

  I woke up with a start to the sound of a child’s laughter. Thinking the munchkins had somehow gotten out of their bedroom and were now getting into who knew what, I sleepily wandered into the den. When my brain registered what I was seeing, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up.

  “Hi,” she said quietly, almost a whisper. Julie was sitting on the couch. Little Macie was in her lap and was laughing in the way a small child laughs, without a care in the world.

  “Hi,” I answered.

  “Come sit with us, Zach.” As if in a daze I walked over to the couch and slowly sat, not daring to touch her. She sat there, gently stroking Macie’s hair.

  “She’s so beautiful.”

  “Like her mother,” I answered. Julie turned and looked at me then.

  “What is your destiny, Zach?” Her question befuddled me. She did that frequently, back when she was still alive.

  “I don’t understand.” God how I wanted to hold her, but I was afraid she’d disappear if I tried. She smiled as if she knew what I was thinking and continued stroking Macie’s hair.

  “Your destiny isn’t here.” I tried to touch her now, but I couldn’t move. I felt my eyes growing heavy.

  The sun’s rays shining through the slits of the shutters awakened me and I found myself sitting on the couch. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, my brain became alert. It took a good minute or so to realize it was simply a dream. I started to stand but suddenly realized little Macie was curled up beside me, sleeping soundly. I had no idea how she got there, and yet, I did.

  I was still sitting there when Kelly walked in. She looked at us in puzzlement.

  “What are you two doing?” she whispered. I motioned her to come sit beside us. When she did so, I leaned close and kissed her gently on the cheek.

  “We’re going,” I said. Her eyes widened as I explained.

  Chapter 48 - Preparations

  “You have to be very careful with your knife when cutting it open,” I said as I slowly started making a cut. I glanced over at Sam, who was grimacing while holding his bandanna over his nose.

  “Do you know why?” I asked. He shook his head and I explained.

  “A cow’s intestinal tract contains harsh bile. If any of it gets on the meat, it’ll make it unfit to eat, and it smells awful.” I gestured downward at the plastic tub lying on the ground immediately below the hanging carcass. “We’re going to use that tub to catch the stomachs and intestines. How many stomachs does a cow have?” I asked.

  “Uh, I don’t know, one?” I smiled and worked my blade down from the neck. After a minute or two of careful cutting, I had the interior exposed. I motioned for Sammy to come closer.

  “A cow has four stomachs. These are the first two.” I pointed. “When a cow eats, they bite big mouthfuls of grass or hay and swallow it immediately. It goes into these two stomachs. They’re full of stuff called microbes.”

  “What does microbes do?” He was still holding the bandanna over his nose, but he was curious and not shying away.

  “They start breaking down the food in kind of a fermentation process. That’s why cows fart so much. Now, when these two stomachs are full, cows will find a spot to settle down, like under a shade tree, and then they’ll cough it up and chew it. It’s called cud, that’s where you get the phrase, chewing the cud.” Sammy nodded. “Once they chew it up, then they swallow it again and it goes into one of the two other stomachs. That’s them right there.” I pointed at the omasum and abomasum.

  “Those two stomachs contain enzymes, which digests the cud differently from the other two stomachs. Cow stomachs are also edible, but I’ve never tried it.” I gestured with my knife again.

  “Now I’m going to, as carefully as I can, cut them out without rupturing them. If you think it smells bad now, you won’t believe how bad it’ll smell if I cut one open.” Sammy responded by holding his nose.

  “Normally, we’d keep all of this and use it. The fat can be rendered down for soap, the blood can be used in the compost pile, things like that. But for now, we’re only keeping the me
at for our upcoming travel. I’ll teach you all about it at a later time. So, today we’re only going to harvest the meat.”

  “Oh.” Sammy watched me work and I soon had the entire digestive tract removed from the carcass.

  “By the way, did I tell you why I picked out this particular gal from the rest of the herd?” Sammy shook his head. “She was getting up there in years and I’d noticed she had less muscle mass than she did last year. It was her time. Always take things like that into consideration, right?” He nodded thoughtfully as he took in my lesson.

  “Another thing to consider about the smell.” Sammy wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, you never quite get used to it. So, if this odor gets in the wind, there’s always a possibility any zombies wandering around nearby can smell it too. If they catch a whiff, you better believe they’ll head this way, so you’ve got to be aware of that, right? After all, it’s not going to be too long before you become a full-grown man. You’ll have a lot of responsibilities and will be expected to know things like this, right?”

  “Yeah, I mean, yes sir.”

  “Good. Frederick is still a little young, but when he gets to be your age, I expect you to help me train him as well. You think you can handle it?” Sammy nodded excitedly now. I laughed and nudged him. “I think you can too.”

  “Will we have to train Macie too?” he asked.

  “Oh, absolutely,” I said and looked around, thankful there were no women around who would’ve heard my exclusion of Macie. It’d be yet another reason for them to call me a chauvinist. I nudged him again.

  “Justin and I have been talking about you.” His eyes widened.

  “You have?”

  “Yes, we have. You’re the oldest kid in this group. I don’t know anything about those kids up in Virginia, but you’re going to be taking up a leadership role one day with this group. Being a leader is hard work, but we think you’ve got the potential to do it.”