by David Lovato
“I think I’ll take Max into the city,” Ortiz said. “We’ll start tagging buildings, guiding people here.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Max wondered how long this work would go on. The soldiers never rested; they were always gathering supplies, going out to get food, planning what to do next. He couldn’t wait for the day they’d finally finish building the safe zone, though he felt even when it came, their work wouldn’t be done. The soldiers let him rest whenever he wanted to, but he didn’t like feeling useless.
He thought about the girl, wished she had come with them. Their plan to gather as many people as possible was off to a bad start. They couldn’t get her to join them, so why should anyone follow them based on graffiti?
Because they have nowhere else to go.
Max just hoped they weren’t doing it all in vain, especially for the soldiers, with how hard they worked. And also for people like he used to be, out in the world, dazed and confused, alone.
For now, Max was somewhere between the two.
A Dead Man’s Thoughts
The sound of water eventually came to bore Norman. It was, after all, just water. He was instead focusing on something new: He had come to realize he could feel people, and what used to be people, like his mind was a blanket and they were the bugs that crawled around underneath. And, as he sat there preparing himself, he could feel something else, as well.
Something was coming, some force opposite his own. Norman listened to it, fascinated by it. A few days after he discovered it, Norman began to call to it, to beckon it toward him.
And why not? Perhaps it would bring him what he wanted. Perhaps he was the action and this thing somewhere in the world was the equal and opposite reaction, the balance to the equation.
Norman was, after all, still alive. This new thing made him one step better; it gave him a purpose.
Or would, at least, until death finally embraced him.
Part Five
Anno Letum
53
In Washington
Most of the survivors slept as Layne followed the map to Bellevue, Washington. It was still early evening, but they were all tired from the events of the past few days. Layne wasn’t sure who was awake or who was asleep at any given time; only he remained conscious as the others drifted in and out.
“I think we should find a building to sleep in, for tonight,” Dex said.
“It’s dangerous,” Layne replied.
“So is sleeping in the car. And I figure we could all use it, at least once.”
“You make a great argument.” Layne could hardly remember what a warm bed felt like. Even more distant was the feeling of a warm shower.
He tried not to let the smell get to him, but all of the dirt and blood of the last few days was adding up. The only thing close to a bath any of them had had was falling into the river back in Astoria.
“It’ll rain tonight,” Keely said. “I can tell. I’ve lived here long enough. It’ll rain hard.”
“All the more reason to be inside,” Dex said.
“There’s a hotel off the exit up ahead,” Layne said. “We can hopefully find some empty rooms.”
“Do you think they’ll have hot water?” Lacie asked.
“I don’t think they’ll even have electricity. But maybe we’ll get lucky.”
The exit came, and Layne could see the hotel. He checked the rearview to make sure the other car was still behind him, took the exit, and slowly approached the hotel. He stopped in the parking lot. Garrett parked the other car behind him.
There were few zombies around, most were far away. Layne got out of the car and met with Garrett.
“Are we going in there?” Garrett asked.
“We’re going to try,” Layne said.
“It’s risky.”
“What isn’t, anymore?”
Garrett stretched, then reached into the car and grabbed his shotgun. “If we do this, we need to stop somewhere and get more ammo soon. Tomorrow.”
“Good idea,” Layne said.
They woke the others, and everyone got out of the cars. Many of them stretched, all were psychologically preparing themselves to enter the hotel.
“Is this a five star?” Warren asked.
“Anything outside the car is a five star,” Dex replied.
“I think a car is still better than that stadium,” Keely said.
“Was it really that bad in there?” Ralph asked. “I would think it’d be nice.”
Keely tried to avoid looking at him. “It wasn’t. Not at all.” Katie hugged her.
“Well,” Layne said. “I guess there’s no better time than now.”
Rain started to fall very lightly. It was warm rain, and for all they knew, the closest to a warm shower anyone would ever have. Dex stopped walking, and Layne looked at him.
“We may not have any dry clothes for a while, we should get inside before we get soaked.”
“It feels nice,” Dex said. He looked up at the sky, closed his eyes, and opened his mouth.
“You can say that again,” Garrett said.
Kyle ran his fingers through his hair, tried to shake the blood and grime from it.
“Does it always rain like this?” Jessi asked.
“It’s usually warm,” Keely said, “but not like this.” Everyone knew what she meant. None of them had ever felt a rain quite like it, because none of them had ever needed it so badly. Even Kara seemed happy.
The sky opened up, and rain poured out. The survivors had to talk louder to hear each other.
“Hey,” Dex said, “I think they like it, too!” He pointed to a zombie several yards away. It looked up, eyes and mouth wide open, and stared into the sky. It didn’t even blink as the water hit its eyeballs.
“Maybe they’ll be like turkeys, and they’ll all just drown,” Lacie said.
“That’s just a myth,” Kyle said.
“No, it’s true,” Dex said.
“Oh yeah? Says who?”
“Myth Busters.”
“Bullshit,” Kyle said. “You made that up.”
“Yeah? Well, it sounds possible.”
“It’s not raining everywhere at once, guys,” Layne said.
Katie pointed. “Hey, he’s looking at us.” The zombie had turned his head, and now stared at the survivors just as he had stared at the sky.
“Mrh?” the zombie said. It was the least threatening noise any of them had heard a zombie make. Then it returned its attention to the sky.
“Why isn’t it attacking us?” Jessi said. Kara was standing by her side, smiling, pulling Jessi’s shirt to cover herself from the rain.
“Maybe they’re getting smarter,” Warren said. “Maybe it can tell there’s only one of it, and a bunch of us.”
Layne didn’t like the thought of those things getting smarter. Then again, he wondered if one day they could be human again. “Maybe it just needs to wash the blood and dirt off itself. It’s getting heavy out here, let’s go inside.”
The group headed for the building. Layne looked at the zombie. It fell to the ground on its butt and sat there, legs stretched in front of it, staring into the pouring sky.
****
There were a few zombies in the lobby, and Layne and Garrett quickly dispatched them. Layne hopped over the counter and found a board full of marked keys. “I assume if the key is here, the room is empty?”
“It’s worth a shot,” Dex said.
“Try to get a few rooms, close together,” Garrett said. “Ground floor.”
“Why not higher up?” Dex asked. “It’ll be harder for zombies to get to.”
“And harder for us to get out of if zombies do get in.” Dex frowned.
“It’s okay, Dex,” Kyle said. “You don’t need a balcony view to impress her.”
Dex turned red. “I hate you guys.”
“Three rooms, side-by-side,” Layne said. “With a vacant room on each side, so nothing comes through the walls.”
“Sounds
perfect,” Katie said.
Layne grabbed the three keys, hopped back over the counter, and led the group down the hall.
It was dark in the lobby and in the halls, but Layne still hoped the rooms would have power. He didn’t remember seeing any lights from the outside, but he hadn’t really been looking for them.
“All right, here we go.” He aimed down the hall and shot a zombie standing at the end of it. “Rooms 103, 104, and 105. Two beds each.”
“That’s only six beds,” Dex said.
“That’s why we share,” Kyle replied.
“You’re so mean to me. I want a divorce.”
“The rooms all lead into each other, guys,” Layne said. “We can sort everything out once we know it’s safe.” He unlocked the door to 104, opened it, and went inside, gun first.
Nothing moved in the dark room. Lightning flashed, lighting it for a second. Thunder rolled soon after. Layne reached for the light switch and flipped it. The light came on.
“Thank God!” Jessi said. Warren clapped.
“That probably means there’s warm water, too,” Lacie said. Layne went inside the room. It was empty, and very clean. He went to the door at the end of the room, which led to the room next door, and unlocked and opened it.
They checked the rooms as thoroughly as they could, found no zombies or any other threats, and shut and locked the doors to the hallway. They gathered in the middle room to talk.
“All right,” Layne said, “before we make ourselves at home, we should go over a few things.”
Dex moaned. “Hurry up, Dad. We just want to relax.”
“We’re all wet. It won’t do us much good to lay down in the beds and get them wet, will it?”
“What do you suggest we do?” Warren said. “I doubt they sell clothes in the hotel.”
The others exchanged glances.
“I’m going to go out into the hotel, hopefully with a little bit of help,” Layne said. “And I’m going to come back with clothes.” Lacie covered her mouth and winced.
“Wait, let me get this straight,” Kyle said. “Are we talking about robbing the dead?”
“Pardon me for being insincere,” Garrett said, “but I don’t think whoever we’re taking from needs their clothes as badly as we do.”
Katie said, “It isn’t pretty, but it’s something we have to do if we want to live.”
“I can’t believe we’re even talking about this,” Lacie said. “I mean, even besides the indecency of it, any clothes we find will probably be covered in blood!” She looked at Ralph. “You’re with me, right? You aren’t going to support stealing?”
The others looked at Ralph. “If I died, and someone came along who needed my clothes, I’d want them to take them.” Layne was a little surprised.
“Are you serious?” Lacie said.
“It’s the only way things will work, now. Think of it as a sort of… re-written social contract theory. I mean, if I died, and I had a gun, I’d be okay with someone taking my gun. I wouldn’t need it. Why not my clothes? I wouldn’t care. I’d be dead.”
“It’s a hotel,” Layne said. “They have to have washing machines somewhere. I’m not going to bring back anything horrible.”
Lacie sighed.
“Lace,” Dex said, “I’m sorry.”
“No, no, I’m sorry. You guys are right. We have to do what we have to do.”
“All right,” Garrett said.
“It’ll go faster if I have some help,” Layne said. “Garrett, Katie?”
“Why does Katie have to go?” Keely asked. Layne looked at her.
“She… she doesn’t, I guess. She just always has.”
“It’s all right,” Katie said. “I’ll come with you guys.”
“No! We just found each other again. What if something happens?”
Katie looked into Keely’s eyes. “It’ll be fine, I promise. I’ve been through much worse.”
“Then I’m coming, too,” Keely said.
“Fine with me, but if we’re gonna go, let’s go,” Garrett said. He turned to Keely. “Ever use a gun before?”
“Yeah. Once.”
Garrett cocked a handgun and offered it to her, handle-first. “Don’t be afraid to do it again.”
****
They made their way through the dim hallways, trying to be quiet. They started on the ground level, with the hallway zombie Layne had shot earlier.
“He’s a medium shirt,” Layne said. “38/35 pants.”
“Just take whatever you can,” Garrett said. “The time for perfection is long fucking gone.”
Layne stripped the body down to the underwear. He took the former man’s wallet out of the back pocket.
“Can I see that?” Keely said.
Layne handed it to her. “What for, though?”
Keely opened the wallet. “Howard Phillips.” She looked at the body. “Thanks, Mr. Phillips. Rest in peace.”
Layne tried the handle of a door to one of the rooms. It was locked. They found another, and the knob slowly turned. Layne pushed it open and flicked on the light. A zombie that had been devouring a corpse on the other side of the bed stood up and turned to them. Garrett raised his gun.
“Wait!” Layne said. Garrett looked at him. “We should try not to shoot unless we have to. There could be hundreds of zombies in the building, we don’t want to attract them.”
The zombie shambled toward them, growling.
“Well what do you suggest we do? Ask him nicely for his clothes?”
“Grrrraaall!” the zombie said.
“Maybe we should just shut the door and look for some corpses that aren’t walking around,” Keely said. The zombie was getting closer.
“That’ll take forever. Our friends will be growing mushrooms by the time we get back.”
“Rangllle!”
“We won’t have friends to get back to if we attract too many zombies,” Layne said.
The zombie started up again, but Garrett stepped forward and brought the butt of his shotgun down on its head as hard as he could. The zombie fell to the ground, unconscious.
“Well, that solves our issue,” Katie said. They stripped the body, and Keely took the ID card.
“Making a collection?” Layne said.
“It’s so we don’t forget who we owe,” Keely replied.
****
The process took longer than Layne had hoped, but after about an hour and a half, they had gathered enough clothes. The four made their way to the sub-level of the building, where they found several washing machines. The survivors could do little more than stand around and wait for the clothes to finish.
“It’s been a while,” Katie said. “I hope the others are okay.”
“There are more people up there than down here,” Layne said. “I’m sure they’re fine.”
Keely was sitting on top of a dryer. “Where’d you find all of these people, anyway?”
“Most of us came from the plane.”
“Yeah,” Katie said. “It crashed. We got lucky.”
“The rest of us came from the church,” Garrett said.
“How was that?”
“It’s in the past, and I’d like for it to stay there.”
Keely looked down, a little embarrassed. “Is that where you guys found the Jesus freak?”
“Ralph? He’s not so bad,” Layne said. “He can be annoying, but he’s a good guy.”
“So what are we going to do?” Keely asked. “I mean, what’s the objective? Where are you all going?”
“We came out here to find you,” Katie said.
Keely spread her arms. “Here I am.”
“You’re wondering what happens next,” Garrett said. “To be honest, I wonder the same thing.”
“We’ve been through a lot, together,” Layne said.
“So, what then?” Keely said. “We all just wander around aimlessly? One big happy family?”
“The more of us there are, the safer we are.”
“I
don’t know. It’s easier for a small number of people to hide.”
“So what do you want us to do? Split up? Go our separate ways?”
Keely looked down again. “No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“It’s okay,” Katie said. “Look, we’ve all been through a lot. We’ve looked out for each other, we’ve saved each other, and we’ve lost a few along the way.” Keely looked up at her. “But we always have each other. It may not work forever, but it works right now.”
“Okay,” Keely said. “Then I’m with you guys.”
“Good,” Garrett said. “Because someone your size won’t do too well on her own. No offense.”
“None taken, big guy.” Keely hopped off of the dryer. “Our clothes almost done?”
“About ten minutes,” Layne said.
“Awesome.”
“Hey, Layne,” Garrett said. “Maybe we should stay here a day or two instead of leaving in the morning. We could all use the rest, and it’ll give us some time to figure out where we’re going.”
“Maybe. Let’s see how things turn out.”
A few minutes passed, and the last of the dryers rang out to let the group know the clothes were done. The four of them gathered everything and headed back to the rooms.
****
When they got there, everyone was sitting on the ground.
“Took you long enough,” Dex said.
“You don’t get any,” Layne replied. Dex laughed.
They handed out the clothes, and everyone took turns changing in the bathrooms.
“Hang up your wet clothes so they’ll dry,” Layne said. “Did anyone check to see if there’s hot water?”
“The toilets flush,” Dex said.
“Do they flush hot water?”
Dex stood up. “I’ll go check.” Layne raised his eyebrows. “The shower, not the toilet.” He headed for the bathroom.
“Okay, so where is everyone sleeping?”
