by Brown, TW
From what they had seen from an overlooking hill as they arrived, there was a small town just northwest of where they were currently holding up. It appeared to have suffered from a catastrophic fire and held little promise that there would be anything worth scavenging.
“I had just passed Playboy Mansion…” she referred to one of the residences by the nickname Mel gave it when they had first spotted the expansive abode with its gated entrance, “…and was cutting down between that rock wall and the trees when I heard a popping sound. I think I took a handful of steps before my leg buckled and I felt pain. I had to ditch my pack because I could barely move…much less run.”
“I’m going back there,” Glenn growled and moved for the rope ladder. Kyle grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
“And what do you intend to do? First you have to get past those.” He pointed to the gathered cluster of zombies below. “Then what? We haven’t had bullets for how long?”
Glenn jerked away and moved over to squat next his wife. She leaned into him and patted him on the arm.
“I need the kit,” she announced.
The one thing they had in their favor was the fact that Cynthia was a veterinarian…at least she had been before the dead began to walk. Her medical skills were better than most doctors who worked on humans. One thing she had stressed any chance they got, was the need to gather medical supplies. Sometimes those came at the expense of food.
“We can skip a meal…but if somebody gets an infection, they can die quick,” was her credo anytime they approached civilization.
Mel fetched the black backpack with the hand-painted red cross on it and set it down beside her sister-in-law. She had become one of the first converts to Cynthia’s way of thinking after Xander became horribly ill one day. She watched helplessly as Cynthia hovered over the child, checking him hourly and administering a variety of antibiotics.
Of course, while the women were caring for the child, the men had to fend off countless zombies who were drawn by the noise of Xander’s crying. Mel had found an entirely new version of love for her family that week. Not once had anybody complained. There were a few times when it looked as if they might all die, but nobody flinched. Cynthia continued to stay at Xander’s side and the men fought like fierce animals.
“Okay, Glenn…sweetie, I need you to go be with the baby,” Cynthia said through a wince of pain. He started to protest and she hushed him with a finger over his lips. “I know you could and would help, but this is going to be ugly and it is really gonna hurt. You need to be out of the room.”
With visible reluctance, he stood and ran his hands through his shaggy dark hair. Gone were the days of his clean, close-cropped and perfectly styled hair. She found his new look strangely appealing and had let him know one day when he was contemplating on how he might just try and shave it all off.
Once he had gone inside the treehouse, she looked up at her brother; Kyle was doing his best not to look upset. “I need you to get your knife as hot as possible. Mel, rip something into strips for me that are about an inch or so wide. Also, bring me something that we can use to elevate my leg.”
Once everybody had run off on their assigned tasks, she took another glance down at the pack of thirty or so undead gathered below. She could not accept them for what they were despite the evidence to the contrary. As somebody with medical training, they were simply a biological impossibility. Then she saw the thing that she had even more trouble accepting. Dragging itself along, worming in between the legs of the gathering mob was a Saint Bernard. His fur was missing over most of his body, but there was enough in his appearance for her to identify the breed. One ear was torn away and there was a section of rib exposed, although it was so crusted with filth, you could barely make anything out. The muzzle was what had her transfixed. It was dripping blood…fresh blood.
At last Mel and Kyle returned. Cynthia snatched a few more things from the first aid bag and had Mel make a tourniquet just above mid-thigh. She tore back her pant leg, exposing a nasty, puckered hole.
“Okay, Kyle, I need you to make a slice here,” she indicated with one finger, “and across here. Then grab those needle-nose pliers and get the bullet. But you also need to make sure you get any of the denim from my jeans that might have gone in so it does not lead to infection. For that you will need the alcohol. Pour it in to clean the wound, clean your hands, the tools, and wash away the blood. Use the Maglite to help you see. We can just hope for the best” She looked up at Mel. “I need you to hold me…this is gonna hurt and I will probably kick and thrash around a bit. As soon as you are as sure as you can be, soak one of the strips in alcohol and pack it in the wound. Squeeze a hefty amount of that anti-bacterial ointment on the wound and dress it”
Kyle knelt beside his sister. It was one of those very rare times when he looked unsure. She gave him a nod and put a half inch dowel between her teeth. By the time he finished, Cynthia had passed out. Twice he’d been forced to stop because he could not see through his tears.
Oblivious to the moans and cries below, Kyle scooped his sister into his arms and carried her inside. Mel followed and was just about to shut the door when a scream sounded from close by.
***
“The road forks just ahead. We are supposed to take the left fork.” One of the people who had come along was from the new arrivals who had told Dustin about the place. His name was Gary or Jerry, Chad couldn’t remember which. Quite honestly he didn’t care. The man was an ass.
“I realize that,” Chad said with a nod as he continued to veer to the right.
“Then why are you going the wrong way?” The man darted ahead of Chad and began to walk backward when Chad seemed inclined to ignore the man’s instructions.
“Because, I know this area.”
Chad didn’t feel the need to let them know that there was a prison nearby. If they went right instead of left, they would bypass the prison and be able to hook back and come in from the opposite end. It was not that far out of the way and he just as soon not see that place again.
He had heard some rumors back when he was living at the FEMA camp that the prisons had turned into some of the most horrible war zones. Stories leaked out about inmates seizing the facilities in at least two of the larger prisons in the state. There might not be anybody left, and obviously the group that arrived at the compound had gone right by the place without an issue, but Chad did not believe in tempting the fates.
Gary or Jerry fell back in line with the others, leaving Chad to his thoughts. He wondered, now that he’d been gone a few hours, whether or not Ronni noticed his absence. Even more, he wondered if she cared. He snapped his head back to the here-and-now. This was not the time or the place to be daydreaming.
The group continued down a long, empty stretch of highway. As they walked, occasionally they passed a farm house. A few lone zombies stumbled and staggered along in the fields that bordered the road, but already the landscape was changing; Mother Nature was reclaiming what was hers. The grasses were waist high in most places and by next year, Chad doubted that the fences that ran along the road would be visible. He wondered how long it would take for the roads to disappear.
Eventually, they came to a turnoff that led west. Chad started up the on ramp, passing a few dried out corpses. It was impossible to tell if they were zombies that had been gunned down…or just regular people. Once he was closer, he was able to see that none of the bodies sported any sort of head wound.
In the past year, he had seen some crazy stuff. He was actually a bit disappointed in humanity. It had taken no time for the worst sorts of behavior to come out. If what he had encountered was any indication of what happened to so-called normal people in the absence of law and order, he shuddered to think about what happened in the jails and prisons. That environment was the worst when it came to the strong preying on the weak.
By the time evening arrived, they reached the intersecting highway that they would now double back on to come in and search for tho
se supplies. Chad had noticed that nobody in his group was particularly talkative. It wasn’t that he minded, he enjoyed the quiet, but any time he glanced over his shoulder, he felt like he was leading a funeral procession.
From the overpass, Chad took a few moments to scout the surroundings. If his guess was correct, the truck stop would be five or six miles up the road. He checked the sun again, not that he could actually tell time by it or anything, but he could at least gauge the approximate amount of daylight remaining. He didn’t figure there to be more than a couple of hours. It was very possible that they could reach the truck stop before dark. However, once they arrived, there would be little that they could do until, morning.
“We make camp here,” Chad announced. “Everybody get something to eat. We will set up a watch rotation with somebody at each end of this overpass.”
The sighs of relief at the announcement of camp being made and meals being eaten were quickly replaced with groans over the prospect of standing watch. Chad already decided that he would take the last watch; he wanted to be awake when it came time to get everybody up and on the move. Once the watch order was decided (all by random draw except for Chad taking the final watch) everybody just sort of moved into small groups and enjoyed the evening meal of thick-crusted bread that had baked that morning before they left, some dried meat, and tepid water.
Just before Chad turned in to get some sleep, he had the strangest thought that this was where he belonged. He shook it off as his mind being wacky from fatigue and the emotional drain of the situation between him and his daughter.
***
Jody moved a little to his left. The small pack of walking dead was not that much to get very worked up about. However, he had never seen the likes of what was on the heels of that small mob.
“Are those…?” Selina’s words died on her tongue. She felt her stomach lurch and turn over just a bit.
“Rottweilers,” Jody finished.
From the looks of it, somebody here had owned a dozen or so of the big dogs. They probably roamed the grounds as an added measure of security. At least that was his guess.
The dogs were no more sure-footed than their human counterparts, but their appearance was very disconcerting. Jody found himself praying that these things were as clumsy and slow as the human version. In his mind, there was only one way to know. He stepped in front of Selina and brought his bow off from his shoulder. Nocking an arrow, he sighted in on the closest one and drew back on the string. After a slight readjustment, he let go and the arrow hissed though the air.
“You are a lousy shot,” Selina said with a snicker as she stepped up beside him and repeated the process he’d just done. The only difference, although a big one, was that her arrow plunged into the eye socket of the dog he’d missed by a good two feet. It dropped just as instantly as a human version.
A few seconds later, George and Danny saw the first of the canine zombies limp into view. Both men glanced over at Jody and Selina who nodded and gestured with their bows; although Jody felt sort of silly since he hadn’t actually been the one to confirm that the dog version of the zombie had the same proclivity for dying after suffering a grievous head wound.
It was really no different than putting down the humans, but it still creeped Jody out. When they finished, the two pairs split up. George and Danny vanished into the expansive driveway of the first house on the street and Jody and Selina went into the one across the way and up just a bit.
“They never even put the grass down,” Selina observed as the headed up the driveway.
The house was enormous and Jody was beginning to think that perhaps it would have been smarter to stick together. So far, they had managed to only search a half a dozen homes and it would be dark soon. That meant that they would need to make camp in one of the homes before long.
The front door was a huge double-doored entrance that opened into a massive entry hall with spiral stairs wrapped around both sides. The upstairs was darker which indicated to Jody that the doors were all probably shut. He looked both ways and ventured deeper inside in search of the kitchen.
“Why can’t we just get everybody from Cash and move here?” Selina said wistfully as they passed an enormous sofa that looked like it could hold at least ten people comfortably and without anybody touching the person beside him or her.
“For one,” Jody continued to creep forward as he spoke, “there is no sort of wall or fence around this place. Judging by what we have seen, this development is enormous. At the very least we are talking about a mile per side. Plus, these residences are very spread out.”
“Exactly!” Selina exclaimed. “No more having to bite the pillow at night because there are people on the other side of a wheeled divider wall.”
“Yes,” Jody agreed.
He certainly understood her point. It was difficult at best to get some quality time alone for any sort of intimacy. All the homes in Cash, the few there were, had occupants. The apartments were just now under construction, and they would be Spartan studios at best.
“However, being that spread out would make it difficult for us to be able to help one another in the event of an emergency. Right now, at least in the foreseeable future, we have to rely on strength and safety in numbers.”
“Still…” Selina paused as they passed through the dining room that she was pretty sure had to be larger than her entire two bedroom apartment back in Bald Knob. “It sure would be nice.”
Jody could not argue her point. Privacy was sorely lacking in the post-apocalypse. That was a concern he would have never imagined before when this stuff—this “stuff” being zombies—was just a bunch of cheesy books, movies, and television shows. Being in the Army had almost broken him of any sense of modesty or privacy; and that had worked fine until he met Selina.
“Well, the good news is that we are at the top of the list for first choice when the apartments are built.” Jody walked into the kitchen. It looked like it was going to be another bust. All of the cupboards were open and displaying a lot of empty space.
“Doesn’t look good,” Selina sighed.
She walked over to the pantry door and readied her machete in one hand while placing the other on the door. Jody nodded his approval and she yanked the door open and jumped back. When nothing lurched out, they stepped in to take a better look.
“Not even a stinking can of garbanzo beans,” Jody said as he toed around in the garbage left on the floor.
“Oh my G—” Selina started, but quickly turned and threw up in the conveniently close sink.
Jody knelt and held out his glow stick. In the corner, under one of the shelves, was perhaps the saddest and most grizzly sight he had yet witnessed. A half-eaten child was almost plastered to the wall and floor in the corner. An emaciated and long-since-dead dog was sort of melted into the mess. Jody felt his gorge rise and he had to struggle not to join Selina at the other side of that double sink that she was still bent over. He stepped out of the pantry and shut the door.
“Let’s check out the upstairs,” he suggested after Selina was done being sick.
Together they went up the left staircase in the entry hall. Every single door was shut. That raised a yellow flag of caution in Jody’s mind. He went to the first door and had Selina step back before he slung it open and prepared himself for whatever might be inside.
Sure enough, a dead female body was on the bed. Jody guessed the age to be early teens. There was what had to be a prescription bottle on the night stand and the corpse had a plastic dry cleaning bag over her head.
As they went from room to room, the scene was the same. They found what had to be the child from the pantry’s room. The bed was rumpled but empty. The decorations were all pinks and yellows and the largest doll house either of them had ever seen was on one table.
Jody went over to get a closer look when he realized that it was a replica of the home they were currently searching. It had a hinge and was open slightly. He saw small figures in several of the rooms
—all laid on the toy beds within.
With one exception.
In one of the rooms, instead of a human figure, there was a hideous blue monster. Jody took a moment to get his bearings and realized that it would be a room just around the corner and at the end of the hall.
He held the monster toy up for Selina. “Looks like we might have a zombie in here if my guess is correct.”
He moved past her and headed to the room. He put his hand on the door knob and prepared himself. Just as he was about to throw the door open, the sound of breaking glass came in a discordant crash.
“That’s George and Danny!” Selina breathed.
6
Geek in the Grave
“Wake up, babe, Heather is gone. We gotta go back and get her.”
“She said for you not to worry…she will be back before midday,” Catie’s voice called from her place between the seats.
Kevin hobbled over to where Catie appeared to simply be rolling back over and going back to sleep. He stood over her for a few seconds and waited for her to acknowledge him; when she didn’t, he nudged her with his toe.
“What the hell do you mean ‘she’ll be back’ and for me not to worry?” Kevin finally asked.
“Just what I said,” Catie actually sounded as if she was, in fact, almost back to sleep.
“Why didn’t you say something or try to stop her?”
Catie made an over-exaggerated sigh and sat up. “Because she is a grown woman able to make her own decisions. She told me that she didn’t want you guys woke up because you would probably try to stop her…it seems she nailed it.”
“Look,” Kevin fought to keep his voice even, “I don’t know what you people did back in your little group of soldiers, but in this group, we are a team. We watch out for each other. And if one of us is about to make a stupid decision, we talk that person out of it.”
