“There’s the store. Here’s what we’re going to do. Einstein, you and Cue go in and grab as much freeze-dried food as you can. Take both our backpacks and anything else you can carry it in.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll watch your back and the Hummer. You have five minutes. Don’t get distracted, don’t look at anything else. Focus in and get food supplies.” She turned to Cue. “Nothing extraneous. We need food. Lightweight, easy to carry food.”
Einstein and Cue both nodded.
When Dallas stopped in front of the store, she unlocked the doors. “Five minutes.”
As Cue started out, Dallas grabbed his arm. “You come out without that boy, you’re a dead man. You understand me? I’ll shoot you where you stand.”
Cue looked her right in the eye. “Then you better start your timer.”
The store had already been broken into. All the glass cases were smashed and empty, the aisles strewn with crap nobody wanted or found use for.
“Clock is ticking, fellas. Get moving.” Dallas held her rifle against her shoulder and scanned the empty street. Time fell like one grain of sand at a time. Sweat slowly dripped down the sides of her face and spine. She could hear someone rattling around in a garage across the street. She wondered if it was a human or a dead person banging around, trying to get out. It didn’t matter either way. She wasn’t going to check.
As she waited for the longest five minutes in the world to end, she wondered if picking up Cue was a wise move. What were her obligations to other people? Did she collect people along the way, making it harder to move as fast, or did the group just say when enough was enough?
It wasn’t in her make-up to walk away from those in need. She was a firefighter, after all. Helping others was what she did for a living. So, what did she do now? Now that life’s rules were so very different, what was in the best interest of the group? Could they protect each other if they got bigger. Was bigger safer?
So many questions, so few answers.
The sound in the garage stopped. Dallas pivoted to look down the street, and that was when she saw them. A whole cluster of man eaters was walking toward them. She counted ten at the very least. They weren’t stopping to look anywhere else. They were not meandering. They were coming right toward the Hummer.
“Get in the Hummer! Now!” she yelled.
Without hesitation, Cue and Einstein grabbed their backpacks and two duffel bags filled with freeze-dried food and bumped into each other trying to get out the front door.
When Dallas jumped in, they were far enough away that she could get in, Buckle up, and make a U-turn without hitting any of them.
“We need gas,” Dallas said as she looked in the rearview mirror at the man eaters, who were now small in the mirror.
“We don’t wanna go into town for it,” Einstein said, opening his backpack. He withdrew a wand-like device to show Dallas. “Bonus! This is a Steri-Pen. It’s used by campers to sterilize water.”
Dallas shot him a look.
“It’s only a matter of time, Dallas, when getting our hands on filtered, clean water may prove difficult. The only downside is that it runs on batteries, and most were gone. I did manage a pack of lithiums, though.”
“Among other things,” Cue said under his breath.
“Never mind him, Dallas. Everything I grabbed was essential. We got freeze-dried eggs, spaghetti, stroganoff, chicken breasts, risotto, and an assortment of vegetables and beans, so we can spice it up.”
“Excellent job, Einstein.”
“But wait! There’s more.” He pulled out what looked like two keys. “It’s a Swedish Firestart for starting fires. It’s only good in a dry climate, but you can’t get any drier than the desert, right?”
She smiled over at him. “Were you a Boy Scout?”
He made a face. “Too nerdy even for me. No, I’ve read the book How to Survive a Zombie Outbreak and Take Over the World.”
Of course he had.
He opened the big duffel bag at his feet. “A collapsible saw, a can opener, a compass, fishing hooks with reels of line, two canteens, a tarp, and a small tent. The rest is food. Oh, wait...and these.” He held up utensils. “No need to eat like barbarians just because the world is coming to an end.”
Dallas smacked him in the thigh. “Don’t say that!”
Einstein laughed and scooted back to the front.
“You two brother and sister?” Cue asked.
Before Dallas could answer, Einstein barked out, “Yes. Yes we are.”
Cutting her eyes over to him, she remained silent. If that was how he wanted to play it, she would go along. He was a smart enough kid to know what he was doing.
“Where to now?” Cue asked.
“You’ll see. Why? Is there some place you need to go?”
Cue leaned back in his seat. “Nope. Wherever you two are headed works just fine with me.”
As Dallas drove through the deserted streets, she wondered what Roper was doing, what she was thinking, and how she would react when she found out their team had a new member.
“We need to find some place to lay low tonight,” Dallas said, looking down at the gas gauge.
“Already? It’s early.” Cue said.
“I know, but I’m beat, hungry, and we are in desperate need of gas. What do you suggest?”
“A garage.” Einstein ran his hand through his hair.
Dallas frowned.
“You know, a mechanic’s garage. There are multiple ways to get out and they’re single story. It will also be easier and safer to keep the car close by and out of sight.”
Cue leaned forward. “Sounds like you’ve done this before.”
Einstein shrugged his bony shoulders. “I’m a gamer. I’ve also seen a ton of zombie flicks which is why, to be perfectly honest, I don’t really trust you.”
“Einstein!”
This brought a chuckle from Cue. “That’s okay, ma’am. He has a point. You don’t know me. The boy’s smart.”
Dallas said nothing, her mind lingering on the fact that it would be a long wait for Roper and the horses. Should she have tried to talk her out of them? Should they have made a better plan? What, exactly, was the best course of action? How could she keep everyone safe and alive?
“You have a plan, there, Dallas, or are you just driving around in an old military vehicle?”
Dallas gripped the wheel a little tighter. “In fact, we do. We’re meeting more people.”
Cue leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “As long as I’m sitting back here and not being some dead guy’s lunch, I’m good.”
Dallas drove a little ways, allowing her mind to dance across the thoughts of holding Roper so close to her the night before. She had felt so warm…so right laying there in the curve of Dallas’s body. It felt like she belonged there.
She suddenly shook her head. What in the hell was she doing? “Er, uh, what have you seen, Cue? Obviously, Santa Rita was overcome with man eaters. I mean, they were chasing you down the street.”
“I saw more dead than alive there, that’s for sure. This thing…it got away from them fast.”
“Where were you headed?”
“After the breakout? To the coast. I figured I could steal a boat and sail to Hawaii, or some other island.”
Dallas cut her eyes over to Einstein, who raised his eyebrows. “Hawaii, huh?” “They gotta be safer than here, right?”
“I’m thinking anywhere is safer than here.”
As Dallas drove, she considered his words. Maybe an island was a better option than the desert. It was certainly something to think about.
“Troops in Hawaii would have blown your boat to bits before you could get close,” Einstein explained. “Keeping the islands free of the virus might be the only hope we have.”
“Virus? You so sure it’s a virus?”
“I have no idea what it is, but the fact that it hits the bloodstream from a bite and you have virtually minutes before you are one of
them suggests that, yeah, it’s a virus.”
When they arrived in Patterson, Dallas took it slowly. There were a couple of man eaters walking around, but they ignored the Hummer.
“I thought zombies were attracted to noise,” she said.
Einstein tilted his head at her. “Dallas, zombies aren’t real, so any preconceived notions you may have about them…well…is just pure conjecture.”
“But so far, you—”
He shook his head. “That’s just it. I’m guessing. We don’t really know jack about what those things are, but clearly, the sound of the Hummer doesn’t faze them. I’m thinking they are drawn by something other than sight or smell or sound. They seem to be reacting to something other than whatever their dead senses perceive.”
“If you say taste, I am going to puke,” Cue said from the back.
Einstein shook his head once more. “No, not that, either, but there’s something that drives them to us. I just don’t know what that is yet.” He stopped and pointed to garage. “Oh, over there.”
Dallas followed his finger point and looked at a sign that read “Uncle Billie’s Garage and 24 Hour Tow.”
The garage sat at the end of a tiny main street that had recently updated its façade to look more like Spanish Adobe. It was cute in its light orange paint and festive flags but it, too, had been overrun.
“Everyone stay locked and loaded. We don’t want any unwanted surprises to catch us off guard.”
Fifteen minutes later, they’d broken into a car garage and secured the Hummer, checked out the area, and made sure there was no way in but plenty of ways out.
“So we’re staying here until...?”
“Until it’s time to meet up with our people. Until then, we all need to take a break. I’ll take the first watch. You two grab a bite to eat and save your energy.” Grabbing the rifle, Dallas slung it over her shoulder and climbed a nearby ladder. She pulled herself up through the open beams to perch in front of the windows that sat twenty feet above the floor of the two-bay garage.
One of the bays had a red Camaro in it, while the other housed the Hummer. Both doors slid up, so they could get out from either side. Then there was the office door, and windows above gave them more security than any house would. There were also plenty of tools that would make fine weapons.
They would be fine here. Temporarily.
Seemed everything was temporary these days. Was that what Einstein meant about bonding with Roper?
About two hours into her watch, Dallas thought she heard a car. No...two cars, at least.
Einstein heard it, too, and was on his feet in two seconds, his rifle by his side. “Someone’s coming,” he whispered.
By the light of a nearly full moon, Dallas saw a Ford Mustang kicking up dust as it barreled down the road toward the main street, a black Hummer on its tail.
“What do you see?”
“We gonna help?”
Dallas watched as the Mustang careened around the corner, fish-tailing this way and that. “They’ll kill them if we don’t.”
Cue stood next to Einstein. “I can help. I know how to shoot.” He held his hand out as if she should just give him a weapon.
Dallas shook her head. “I’m sure you do, but I’m not comfortable giving you one right now.”
Cue held up his cue stick. “No worries. I’ve got this.”
Dallas looked down at Einstein. “Do you know where that grenade is?”
He pulled it out of his bag. “Right here. What do you want me to do with it?”
Dallas climbed down and took it from him. “Cue, you open the garage door. Einstein, you cover me. Shoot anything that moves. I’ll see if I can take out the Hummer with the grenade. On my go.”
They waited.
“Go!”
When the garage door opened, Dallas held the grenade in her left hand and watched as the Mustang took to the air a few feet before landing, skidding sideways, and smashing into a utility pole. The black Hummer was airborne for a split second, then landed before coming to a halt directly in front of the Mustang, engine revving like some wild beast.
She pulled the pin and waited a moment before chucking the grenade, she watched as it bounced once before stopping near the right front tire of the Hummer.
When both doors of the Hummer opened, one booted leg hit the ground next to the grenade.
That was the last movement the owner of the leg would ever make. When the grenade blew up, it lifted the Hummer into the air, shattered the windshield, blew off one door, and threw pieces of Hummer debris all over the road. There was a horrific sound of metal grinding metal as the Hummer slammed back into the ground. For a long, protracted moment, no one moved.
“Think they’re dead?” Einstein asked.
“Oh, they’re dead all right. It’s the living we need to worry about.” Cue took his pool stick and made his way to the Mustang just as half a dozen man eaters came out of nowhere and converged on the Hummer.
Dallas swung her rifle to cover Cue, who was helping a young man and woman from the car.
“I’ll go help,” Einstein offered, running out to help Cue get the woman into the garage. Dallas picked off a couple more man eaters before backing into the garage, where she quickly closed the bay door.
The younger man was probably in his early twenties and sported a Justin Bieber haircut that swooshed to the side. He was tall and lanky, with hands too large for his slight frame and eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot. The slight odor of alcohol wafted from him when he spoke. “You guys sure saved our bacon.”
“What were you doing out there?” Dallas asked, handing the young woman a bottle of water.
“Those things are eating through whole neighborhoods. Them soldiers told us to stay in our houses and the next thing you know, you’re one a them.” His chest was heaving and his hand shook as he took the water. “We were just trying to get out.” His eyes suddenly saw the Hummer. “What...how the hell did you get that?”
“Long story.” Dallas knelt next to the woman, wishing Butcher was there. Suddenly, she felt very vulnerable that she and Einstein were outnumbered. She needed to rethink her firefighter’s mentality. “I’m Dallas. That’s Cue and Einstein.”
The woman nodded and smiled. A small gash on her forearm bled slightly. “Coco. He’s Tate. Thank you.”
Dallas gently turned Coco’s head to look at a second cut on her forehead. “I think I have just the thing.” Rifling through the tools, she found some super glue and glued the cut together. “Tate, come and hold this closed, but be careful not to get any on your fingers.” Dallas motioned for Tate to tend to his friend. “You’re going to be okay.”
Coco laid her hand on her belly. “The baby.”
Dallas, Einstein, and Cue all whipped around. “You’re pregnant?”
Coco and Tate both nodded.
“Okay. Okay. One of our group is a doctor. We don’t need to assume the worst. Einstein, will you lay a blanket on that couch in the break room? Coco, you can lay down here for a bit. Keep your feet up.”
“Can I go with her?” Tate asked.
“Yes, of course.”
When Tate took Coco’s arm and helped her to the break room, Einstein grabbed his rifle and climbed up to the perch vacated by Dallas, who followed him up there.
“Something on your mind?” she asked him.
Einstein looked out the window at the flaming Hummer and seven or eight man eaters moaning around it. “Moving more than the four of us is going to be really hard. If we keep getting larger, we’re more at risk.”
Dallas looked down and saw Cue asleep in a chair. She could only see Coco’s feet on the couch in the lounge. “I’ve had the same thoughts, but what are you really worried about?”
He turned to Dallas, his eyes somehow wizened overnight. “Dying? Dragging a pregnant woman across the mountains to the desert? Sleeping with one eye open to make sure some guy with a pool stick doesn’t beat us up so he can get the Hummer? Pick one. Any one.” Einste
in turned back to the flaming Hummer. “We can’t keep collecting people, Dallas,” he said softly. “It’s dangerous.”
She stared out at the man eaters gnawing on the bones of the dead soldiers. “I know, and I’m working on that, kid, I really am. But at the end of the day, I’m still a firefighter, Einstein. I don’t know how to turn my back on people who need help.”
“I’m just saying: It’s dangerous. And hard. We had enough food to stretch a week. Now, with three new people, that’s cut in half.” He shrugged. “As food and fresh water becomes scarce, the larger we are, the more difficult it’s going to be.”
“We’ll manage.” Dallas stared out at the man eaters, feeling the weight of his words and knowing how right he was.
They sat in silence for a few minutes just watching the man eaters picking the charred bones clean when Dallas said softly, “Know what I never understood? How come they eat?”
Einstein looked over. “What?”
“The man eaters. Why do they eat? And why don’t they eat each other?”
Einstein thought for a moment. “There’s a thought that it’s a parasitic way to spread the virus, but I really don’t know. I mean, up until now, it was just a dumb Hollywood thing, right? Unreal. Impossible.”
“Did you ever watch The Jetsons?”
“The what?”
Dallas chuckled. “Not important. Anyway, there was this cartoon my dad used to love watching called The Jetsons. They had a robot maid, a microwave, big screen television, and so many other futuristic toys that, at that time, were nothing but fantasy. Now, most of the cool stuff they had has come true.”
“Your point being this is no different?”
“Well, it appears someone was watching those films enough to make a real virus, right? Someone thought that eating Americans was preferable to bombing us or attacking us in conventional warfare, right?”
There was a long, pregnant pause before he replied. “I think we have to face some facts here. It doesn’t really matter who created the virus. What matters is where our government goes from here. The military is clearly losing this battle. If the military can’t stop them—and it’s pretty obvious they can’t—then they’ll have to nuke the hell out of all major infected cities and then work their way outward. Pockets of resistance will crop up all over the place. This hasn’t even begun to get worse, Dallas.”
Riders of the Apocalypse (Book 1): Ride For Tomorrow Page 10
