by Brown, TW
He stood there for an indeterminate length of time, unable to look away as he saw the expressions of joy etched on both his daughters’ faces. While he was certain that they would find even more in Anchorage, it was not necessarily quantity that mattered.
Anchorage had been Mackenzie’s dream. He would never feel any peace there without her. Perhaps this could be their new home.
***
The next several days had no shortage of tense moments. First, they had to actually scour London for any of the few stragglers amongst the undead that had not fallen in with that massive herd that Dolph and his people had amassed. While that was going on, those not out on the hunt were helping to convert the remains of what had once been known as the Shell Centre into a makeshift fortress.
Teams spent the first days tearing out anything that remained on the bottom floor and tossing it into the street. It took a while to get used to the idea of trying to hide noise since they would actually welcome the occasional wandering zombie that might stumble up. They converted a massive tank over in what had once been the London Aquarium into a holding cell for the zombies.
Paddy went to work with Seamus and a few of those who professed to have once been part of the tech community in a large room where everybody was kept away from so as to not disturb those busy trying to come up with Paddy’s own noisemaking device. Vix managed to stick her head in once, but the diminutive man spied her and hurried her out the door.
“No fair peeking,” the man had chuckled.
“Why the big secret?” Vix asked as he put a shoulder into her backside and nudged her out the door.
“Because, we are seeing much more failure than success. We don’t need anybody looking over our shoulders right now. Pressure is on if this is going to have any chance of working.”
“You do realize that you are helping me win my bet,” Vix reminded.
“Oh, lassie, you already lost.”
Vix spun on the man and folded her arms across her chest. “How do you figure that to be true?”
“We aren’t in Buckingham. That was part of your plan. So you already lost. Now I am just trying to be sure that we survive long enough for you to pay up properly.”
The door shut leaving Vix in the hallway with a scowl on her face. She fixed the door with a death stare that she hoped made it through enough to make the hairs on the back of Paddy’s neck stand up before she stomped off. Her mind was replaying the wager.
As she made her way downstairs to the operations room where the patrols and work details were being assigned, she began trying to remember the words to the anthem that she would now be forced to sing. She felt stupid for making her side of the bet include so many parts. Paddy had been lucky…he only needed one thing to happen for him to lose.
Of course, that one thing involved the lot of them dying, but still, it hardly seemed fair that so many conditions needed meeting for her to win. Oh well, no sense crying over it. What was done was done.
“Vix,” a voice whispered.
Vix turned to see Randi step out from the shadows. The woman had taken to wearing a head wrap that Chaaya had shown her how to apply. It hid a lot of her disfigurement. When it had just been their little band, nobody had minded at all. Yet, as they gathered more people, it was often clear that her scars made folks nervous. Also, more than one child had broken into tears at the sight of her.
“You gave me a fright,” Vix gasped.
She instantly regretted her choice of words and began to stammer and sputter an apology. The woman waved her off with a sniff. “Don’t be silly, I know what you meant.”
Vix breathed an audible sigh of relief, but still felt a bit foolish. She could feel her ears tingle and knew that her face was red from embarrassment.
“Now that we have gotten over this silliness, I need you to come with me right this instant,” Randi said with a scowl.
“But—” Vix began.
Randi spun and cut her off. “Just come with me. I have something that I want you to see.”
Since the woman was not exactly prone to over-exaggerating or anything else of the sort, Vix shut her mouth and followed as she was asked.
The two women left the busy and noisy Shell Centre and made their way to the old Waterloo complex. In its day, it had been a massive rail hub. Over the years, the roof of the complex had caved in in several spots. That was the only reason Vix would dare enter such a place now. These days, large facilities were nothing more than enormous tombs.
As they entered, both women instinctively lit torches. Vix spied several heaps and piles of bones. She imagined the animals had done a lot of it, but some of the piles appeared to have patterns. She could not precisely make them out, but the stacking was too…organized. That was the best word she could think of.
“You see it, don’t you?” Randi asked.
“You are talking about the bones?”
“What else would I drag you here for? We certainly won’t be stopping in for a pint at The Hole in the Wall, now will we?”
Vix took a few cautious steps toward one of the piles of bones. It wasn’t until she got to within a few yards that she noticed the smell. She froze and let her eyes drift around the area. She knew the smell of cats—more accurately, their acrid urine.
Almost instantly, she began to spy the green glow of feline eyes peering back at her from the dark pools of shadow. She knew from a few past experiences that, for whatever reason, cats did not turn like the dogs. However, they could actually carry the zombie contagion and pass it on through a bite or scratch.
“Cats!” Vix hissed as she started to take a few slow steps back and toward the door they had entered.
“That is only the half of it,” Randi replied, not even bothering to whisper.
Vix bumped into the woman and let out a little yelp. She regained her composure and calmed herself enough to follow where the woman was pointing. Her eyes found an archway on the unsteady looking upper level walkway. Most of the safety barricade had crumbled in that spot, allowing an unobstructed view. What Vix saw made the discovery of the cats seem like nothing.
“Children,” Vix breathed.
She had to look closely, because she had a hard time making herself believe that so many zombie children could be amassed in one place. They were huddled close, and none of them seemed to be making any moves towards their direction.
“How many you figure there to be?” Randi asked, taking a step forward that Vix had to simply assume was due out of curiosity over anything else. In her mind, there could be no other reason to approach what had to be a few hundred zombie children.
At first, Vix had thought the number to be much less. However, after a few moments, the children began to file out of the darkness of several of the upper level shops and line the rails. Still, they made no move to come down; they actually seemed to be curious.
“There are so many,” Vix said through a throat that had grown tight with fear.
“And every last one of them is a child,” Randi pointed out the obvious. “Not a single adult in the bunch. I would guess the oldest to be around ten or so. That wee one over there can’t be more than two or three. Poor bugger can barely walk.”
Vix looked over to where Randi was now pointing. She didn’t actually need to since she’d already seen more than a couple that had to be barely past the stage where they had learned to walk. She started when she realized that she had actually taken a few steps forward to join Randi.
“This is madness,” Vix finally said. “But can I ask what made you think to venture inside a place like this? I thought we were supposed to remain near the Centre and assist with the work on the defenses.”
“I was just looking for supplies. I thought that maybe I could find some stuff to help shore up the barrier in a place like this. Never know unless you look.”
“But, can I guess by the fact that you have brought me here, that you came alone and made this discovery?”
“Okay, you have me there,” Randi agreed wi
th a nod of the head. “But still, have you ever seen that many zombie children gathered in one place? Not a single adult up there. And then there are the cats.”
Vix shuddered. Yes, this was an odd pairing, but then, when she returned her gaze back to the children, she noticed the swishing tails of perhaps hundreds of felines weaving in and around the legs of all the zombie children. There was a ripple in the crowd and a single child stepped forward.
“What…” Vix started.
“…the bloody hell,” Randi finished.
“Is this what you wanted to show me?” Vix whispered.
“Well, not exactly. I was simply going to show you those little bone structures. I swear I had no idea about this madness.” Randi took a step back towards the exit, her hand reaching out and taking hold of Vix’s elbow to guide her around what looked like most of a rib cage, pelvic bone, and upper thigh.
“You think they did this?” Vix gave a nod to the children still filing out of more of the dark archways of long empty shops and stores.
“That seems as likely as anything.”
“So, what do we do about it?”
Randi eyed the one child that had come forward from the group. It had been a boy. He looked to have been seven or eight. Any shred of clothing he or any of them had owned had long since deteriorated or been scuffed away over the years. This one still wore what looked like one hiking boot on the left foot. Maybe that was what had set this one apart and made it some sort of King of the Zombie Children. Randi had no idea, but she did recognize a leader when she saw it on any level. The other zombie children actually made way for this one to come out front. Now, as she and Vix backed up for the exit, it watched with its rheumy eyes like it was waiting for them to do something.
Vix reached behind them for the shell of what was left of the door that they had pushed aside just enough for them to enter. There were actual doorways that had been ripped open with nothing remaining, but that meant deviating from their course which, at the moment, was the straight line that was the shortest distance between two points.
At last, they squeezed out. Vix went first; that allowed Randi the chance to get one more look. The children had not moved. Their leader still stood at a break in the upper guardrail where a section had fallen or been torn away. His arms hanging loose at his sides, his head tilted as he seemed to be regarding them and waiting for something.
The two women turned and ran across what had been York Road and followed the train tracks until they reached the street that took them back to the Shell Centre and their friends. It dawned on them both almost instantly that they had been able to hear the sounds of the fortification being built all the way over at the Waterloo complex. That meant that the zombie children could more than likely hear them as well.
“Why haven’t they come for us?” Vix asked.
“I have no idea, but I don’t want to count on our luck holding. We need to tell the others.”
“Then what?”
“I have no idea,” Randi muttered as they continued running home to share this news.
***
“The dome is basically a wash,” Siggy wiped his face with the towel Ronni handed him. It was difficult to tell if the streaks that were carved through the soot on his face were from sweat, tears, or both.
“At least some of you made it,” Ronni said after taking a drink from the canteen.
“You are gonna have to forgive me if I am not quite up to speed on just accepting the death of so many people that I was close to.” Siggy turned and walked over to a group of survivors rescued from the dome complex.
“Don’t let him bother you,” Henry said coming to stand beside Ronni and Chad. “I am sure he appreciates all that you people did to help us.”
“I just can’t get over the fact that this place was within just a couple of miles of our little resort,” Mark said with a shake of his head.
There was a pause in the conversation. Chad let it go on for a few minutes before he finally spoke up. He turned to Mark and cleared his throat to get the man’s attention. “So, how much trouble are we in?”
“Oh crap,” the big man groaned, rubbing his face with his hands in a scrubbing motion that only smeared the dark smudges of soot and made him look even more haggard. “Can we just forget that one? I think you made up for it.”
“But we violated some major rules,” Chad insisted.
“Jeez, Dad!” Ronni snapped. “He is cutting us some slack.”
“Tell ya what,” Mark pushed away from the tree that he had been leaning against and walked over to Chad, “let me see your hands.”
Chad extended his hands and Mark struck fast, slapping them with a loud smack that caused a few heads to turn. He yanked his hands back, sucking in a gasp between his teeth.
“What the—” Chad exclaimed.
“Feel properly chastised now?” The security chief turned to Ronni. “Do you need chastising as well?”
“No!” Ronni shoved both her hands behind her back and even took a few steps away from the man.
“How about you two get back to your vacation?” Mark suggested.
“I still can’t get over the fact that you have carved out quasi-resorts for people to go to in the fu—” Henry started, but his teeth clicked shut and he flushed a bit as his eyes darted to Ronni. “Umm…I mean the freaking zombie apocalypse.”
“The weather looks like it is turning,” Mark said after giving Chad a pat on the shoulder. “I would guess there is going to be some nice powder by morning. Why not go up to the lodge and tell them I sent you and said that you two should be given one of the rooms. Have them set you up with your gear tonight and hit the slopes first thing in the morning. We just got in some really decent snowboards from a trader that came through. He found them up in Oregon. There were the ruins of some sort of community that apparently tried to make their home in the mountains of all places. Even better, I guess it was the old lodge where they filmed that movie, The Shining. From the looks, they went under less than a year ago. Anyways, I guess there was a shitload of old skiing and snowboarding gear. The trader remembered us and brought a bunch back.”
“Can we, Dad?” Ronni spun to Chad, her face beaming with excitement.
“I guess so,” Chad shrugged.
“Try not to sound too excited,” Henry laughed. “Look, you guys know what you did, and under any other circumstance, yeah, it would be your asses, but I think we can let it slide this time. Now, go have fun.”
With that, Mark headed for the closest group of dome refugees with Henry. Once he was gone, Chad turned to Ronni who was almost hopping up and down she was so excited.
“What?” Chad asked, an eyebrow raised quizzically.
“I have always wanted to snowboard since I was little,” she gushed.
The pair returned to their cabin and gathered their gear. While he was sort of looking forward to the peace and quiet that the cabin would have provided, he could not deny his daughter this little luxury of a room in the lodge.
When they arrived at the lodge, the place was abuzz with news of the dome. Most people were incredulous that something of that nature could be so close without anybody realizing it. To Chad, that was not such a big deal. After all, it wasn’t like people were out scouring the area these days. And if the government had wanted to keep it hidden from the techno-crazed society that had existed before the zombie event, how less likely was it that it be discovered with things being as they were these days.
Once they were checked into their room, the father and daughter decided to come down to the dining room and join in the community meal. They had barely sat down when the first of the dome refugees arrived looking shell-shocked and confused. That meal turned into a bit of a welcome-and-indoctrination party for the new arrivals. Chad soon found himself working the floor with his daughter as they served hot soup and fresh bread.
When a few of the refugees recognized Chad and Ronni, they became a magnet as the former dome residents flocked to the pair i
n order to express their thanks. By the time everything settled down, Chad was exhausted. Ronni seemed fine and had even arranged the checkout of all the gear they would need for the next day.
It was no surprise to Chad that he woke to his daughter nudging him in the ribs. “Time to get moving, old man!” She laughed and danced back nimbly from his half-hearted swipe.
“That looks…” Chad rubbed his eyes and squinted.
“Yellow?” Ronni gave her Tweety Bird hat a tug, pulling the flaps down over her ears.
“At least I won’t have any problem finding you when you wipe out. That thing can probably be seen from space.”
Chad grabbed his bag and ducked into the bathroom to get suited up. The way his body felt, he probably could have slept another several hours. Leaning forward to be closer to the mirror, he hefted the candle and inspected his face. According to the doctor, the cancer would probably come on fast. He had likened it to a wildfire. Right now, it was smoldering coals, but when it caught, it would be swift and brutal.
He could not help but chuckle at the irony of his situation. He had survived a zombie apocalypse and a myriad of horrible things over the past several years only to fall prey to prostate cancer.
“Hurry up!” Ronni urged, giving the door a solid thump.
“Maybe I will fall and break my neck,” Chad mumbled. “At least then I would never have to tell her.”
Twenty minutes later, the two of them were in the lobby of the mountain resort. Looking out the window, a light snow was falling. The light from the lanterns mounted along the walkway that led to the slopes and cross-country trails were flickering as the large flakes swirled around them.
After some oatmeal, toast with wild mountain blackberry jam, and a hot, sweet rice drink, the father and daughter headed outside. Dawn was just breaking, and they actually had the slopes to themselves for the first couple of hours. Chad showed his daughter some of the snowboarding basics on a gentle slope. She was not thrilled with his insistence that she stay at the bottom of the slope as he made her practice stopping on her heels over and over.
