She let a slow smile touch her lips and nodded once. She knew he spoke the truth.
“I have something strange to show you.” she said. “It’s on the other side of the building.”
Jessie followed her out but Bob led the way. He had been smelling it all along and had a low warning growl in his throat.
They went through the broken front door and the Shepherd made a beeline across the parking lot then disappeared down a side street. Jessie started to run but Scarlet stopped him.
“I only saw them for a second but I’m sure they’re both dead.” She said “He’s just curious.”
Jessie prepared himself to see more carnage. There was a trail of boxes and canned goods strewn across the asphalt that lead to the road where Bob had disappeared. Someone had been at the food warehouse when the Anubis cult showed up. There were brass casings scattered across the asphalt and he spotted a blood trail as they neared the entrance to the side street. More than one, and they’d been hit bad. They skirted around a huge crimson puddle and Jessie saw the footprints running away from it. Big animal prints. A bear or something and there were huge splashes that followed the sidewalk around the corner. What ever it was, it was dragging something, there was a solid line of smeared blood, like it had a deer or a pig in its jaws as it ran. Or maybe one of the soldiers.
Scarlet had glimpsed it as she dashed towards the warehouse but now she saw everything and her shoulders fell. Bob was sniffing at the carcass of a polar bear, not sure what to make of it. It was a magnificent beast, a huge male at least eight or nine hundred pounds with a saddle on his back. A smaller female was lying nearby, a homemade saddle and pack with cans spilling out strapped to her also. They had both been shot dozens of times, their white coats drenched in red. A little boy was in the jaws of the male and he’d been shot too, his blood coagulating on the blacktop with the bears. He hadn’t been bitten though, only his jacket was in the teeth, his skin hadn’t been damaged.
“They must be from a zoo.” Jessie said. “And this kid had befriended them somehow.”
Scarlet stared down at the boy then closed her eyes. She forced back the tears. She wouldn’t cry. She forced back the anger. She would feel nothing.
Jessie took in the whole scene and pointed to the shredded hind quarters of the bigger polar bear.
“Most of the bullets hit him in the rear.” he said “From the blood trail, I’d say the kid got shot out in the parking lot, maybe knocked out of the saddle. This bear picked him up and ran with him, trying to save him. They opened up on him as he fled, looks like he got hit twenty or thirty times.”
Scarlet nodded. Be detached. She told herself. Be clinical and professional. Set it all aside and see what there is to see. Learn how to read the scene and be wiser for it. She pulled her eyes away from the boy and looked at the female.
“Most of hers are in the belly and chest.” She said, taking in the battle scene, replaying it in her mind like Jessie was. “She stood over her mate to protect him after he fell and they cut her down.”
“Bastards.” Jessie spat. “There was no need, they were running away and the boy was just trying to get some food.”
Bob was sniffing at the other side of the female, whined a little and Scarlet walked around the fallen animal to see what held his interest. There was a small leg sticking out from under the fur and she motioned Jessie over. They lifted the bear enough to pull a bullet riddled body out. She couldn’t have been more than seven or eight and the saddle had been built for her. The body was still warm to the touch. They were probably less than an hour dead. Jessie couldn’t imagine the fear and confusion that happened in the last few moments of their lives. He hunkered down, soothed Bob and saw the whole senseless massacre in his head. He was glad he killed those men. Scarlet crouched down beside him, had tears threatening to spill over and pulled the little girl tight to her chest.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered over and over as she rocked her and smoothed her hair. “This is my fault. I let this happen.”
Jessie knew a little something about guilt, it had taken months and months for the accusing eyes in the mirror to fade away and he’d been ready to put a gun in his mouth more than once. He’d learned to live with them, though. He’d learned that the more people he saved, the fewer baleful eyes stared back at him. He’d found his forgiveness out on the road, his redemption from his wrongs. Preacher told him he would be redeemed by faith alone, not by doing good works, but that wasn’t enough for him. He couldn’t sit on a pew and say a few words and then feel like everything was fine. He had to balance the scales himself. He had to fix things and right wrongs when he could. He didn’t pray for forgiveness, he prayed for strength in battle. He prayed for courage and bullets. He prayed for his hands to know the ways of war. He prayed to the old testament God of wrath and vengeance. With Him, he could shatter nations and destroy kingdoms.
He put a hand on Scarlets shoulder, wishing he could pull the pain out of her and into him. He would take it all if he could.
“I’ll get the car.” he said after a time. “I’ll find a shovel, we can bury them in that little park we passed. Maybe under one of those big trees.”
She nodded, saying nothing but turned her head and kissed the hand on her shoulder.
71
Jessie
It was full dark when they finished their unhappy task and Scarlet patted the small mound of dirt down with the shovel. Bob had been restless, staring off into the blackness between the buildings for the past few moments, growling occasionally. Nefertiti slunk back to the car and jumped through the bars of the open window. Jessie and Scarlet both were sweating in the humid June heat, both stripped down to leather pants and soaked t-shirts. Her batons were still in their holders and Jessies guns still rode low on his hips, though. They’d both worn their weapons so long, had gotten so used to the weight and the feel of them, they felt uncomfortable without them. Scarlet sniffed the air and Jessie followed suit but he didn’t smell anything but his own funk.
“We’ve got visitors.” Scarlet said. “You should put Bob in the car for now. I think they’ve been watching us for a while.”
Jessie was learning to trust her instincts so he grabbed his Shepherd and hauled him back to the Mercury. He still didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary. Bob didn’t like it and stuck his head between the bars, peering down the alley.
“We mean you no harm.” Scarlet said. “We killed the men who killed your friends. The children are buried here.”
She indicated the mound “But we can’t do anything about the bears.”
There was a faint darkening of the shadows, a whisper of hushed voices, a scuff of a boot on blacktop. Bob growled low in his throat but it was just a warning sound, not his vicious rumbling snarl that meant he was about to attack. That he was about to make you sorry.
“You’re not with those men?” a child’s voice asked and they heard others shushing her.
“But they have a dog and a cat!” they heard a hushed angry reply from a little girl. “They can’t be like them!”
More whispers, louder now in argument, all of them young.
Jessie and Scarlet exchanged a puzzled glance. They could only hear children’s voices; no adults and now they could both pick up the sounds of deep breathing and an occasional snuffle. Jessie cocked an eyebrow in question at her.
“We don’t bite.” she said to the blackness. “Why don’t you come out so we can see who we’re talking to?”
More whispers, a little louder now. Definitely kids.
“Tell him to put his guns away.” An older voice said “and maybe we will.”
Scarlet turned to look at Jessie who shook his head.
“I don’t do that.” he said. “Too many bad guys and zombies. I even wear them when I take a shower.”
More whispers. A giggle. More hushed arguments. The three-quarter moon was high in the night sky and clouds were sparse. The little park where they’d buried the kids was well lit. Their
watchers knew they were alone and finally the older one spoke up.
“Okay. But don’t try anything funny. We have snipers on the rooftops and they’re all sharpshooters.”
Jessie raised his hands shoulder high to show he meant no harm. His eyes darted across the rooflines for profiles, shadows that might be human, even though he was pretty sure he wouldn’t find any.
They came out then and even though he knew they had animals with them, even though he’d seen the polar bears and knew somehow these kids had tamed the creatures from a zoo, his breath still caught in his throat at the sight of them emerging into the moonlight. A lumbering brown bear led the pack with a boy, maybe in his early teens, walking beside him, a hand on his neck to guide and calm him.
Bob’s growl increased and Jessie shushed him sharply.
“Hush.” he said. “He’d have you for a snack if he wanted.”
Jessie wasn’t afraid, exactly. He knew you weren’t supposed to show fear, animals could sense it, but he knew which way to jump and had an escape plan already in mind as they approached. The bear was huge, the teenager walking beside him wasn’t much taller than its shoulder. Coming up behind him were other kids, ranging in age from seven or eight up to the oldest who was apparently their leader. Most of them stayed in the distance and he could only catch glimpses, fleeting images of children and beasts. A panther stood beside a boy in the shadows. It was a blacker shade of black, its eyes glowing yellow, motionless except for a twitching tail. A pack of wolves padded softly beside a girl, surrounding her in a protective circle. A skulk of foxes flitted from shadow to shadow with their two-legged companion. The teenager gently tugged at the bears fur and they both came to a stop. Scarlet stepped forward and extended her hand, palm down, to let the bear sniff her. To show she posed no threat. Satisfied, it sat with a grunt as the boy handed him an apple and stroked his neck. Jessie kept his distance, stayed near the car and told Bob to hush up again.
“I’m Scarlett.” she said and extended her hand to the boy. “and the grumpy one is Jessie.”
They shook and he said his name was Kodiak. Jessie offered a box of snack cakes around and kids came in from the shadows to take them before they disappeared into the darkness again. They stared at his face and he tried not to smile, he knew it only made the scar look worse. Their animals moved with them, some close at hand, others distant but watching. Most slipped over to the grave where the two were buried to place their hands on the dirt for a moment, leave parts of the cakes or a necklace of flowers on the mound.
“Quite a group you have here, Kodiak.” Jessie said when the last of the smaller ones had all silently taken a snack and moved back into the night. “No adults to take care of you?”
“I’m in charge.” He retorted with a little heat. “I can take care of them. I have been since all this started.”
“Ignore him.” Scarlet said, scowling at Jessie. “He needs to work on his people skills. I can see you take care of your group. You are obviously a good leader.”
The boy brushed off her compliment but was having a hard time hiding the pride he felt from her words. She kept him engaged and their story came out, the other children chiming in from time to time. Bob got tired of being in the car, saw there was no danger from these strange creatures and opened the door with the pull handle. Nefertiti chose to remain inside, to observe from the windows. Jessie tried to see how the kids were holding up, if they were eating well and were healthy and saw no signs of malnutrition. The town was zombie free, on the streets anyway. Whatever horde that had been here had long ago chased some car or truck down the road. They had free reign of the food warehouse and there was enough in there to keep a small group going for years. Until the Anubis cult showed up, anyway. They would have stripped it bare.
Kodiak said they’d been on a field trip to the wild animal safari the day the world went crazy. He wouldn’t say exactly where it was but one of the kids said they lived in a haunted house. It wasn’t hard to figure out where they were staying. Scarlet had mentioned the wildlife park from her tour books and they’d wondered what happened to the animals. Mystery solved. Adopted by a handful of kids. Or maybe it was the other way around, the animals were friendly enough but they were protective.
“Today is the first day we’ve seen people since it started.” Kodiak said and Jessie wondered if all the kids took on their animal protectors names. “We were getting supplies like we always do from the warehouse and they just started shooting.”
He broke off and stared at the freshly mounded pile of dirt and sighed.
“We didn’t know there was anyone else.” he said. “We listened to the radio until it went dead and it sounded like everything was lost. Like the whole world was infected.”
“Most of it was.” Jessie said. “But a lot of us made it through and started rebuilding. There are a bunch of small towns that have a lot of survivors. They built walls around them and they’re safe. If you want, you can come to Lakota. It’s in Oklahoma where it doesn’t get so cold in the winter. We have electric and running water and schools even. You guys would be welcome and there’s plenty of room for your four-legged friends. There are hundreds of acres inside the walls that are empty.”
Most of the kids had crept in to hear the conversation and there were excited murmurs.
“Do you have movies there?” someone asked and before Jessie could answer another boy asked if they had PlayStation.
Jessie grinned his crooked grin. “They even have an arcade in the bowling alley.” he said “And at Chucky Cheese.”
“PIZZA!” someone shouted and then the questions came so fast him and Scarlet couldn’t keep up.
Jessie jerked his head at Kodiak, letting him know he wanted a word in private. They stepped away from the hubbub of questions being thrown at Scarlet and Jessie stared the young man in the face, his gnarled scar making him look older and meaner than he was.
“You’ve done a commendable job keeping your people healthy and alive.” Jessie said “but we could really use a good bunch like you in town. Those men in the black uniforms are trying to take over and you’ve seen how they act. We’re already at war with them, all though it’s only been a few battles here and there so far. It’ll escalate soon and you’ll probably have to choose sides. If you want, I can ask Lakota to send a few big rigs out to pick you guys up. We can offer protection and we can use your help.”
Kodiak mulled over the offer, stared into the darkness towards the fallen polar bears and the mound of fresh dirt under an old oak. “We have to.” he said at last. “The savage ones are getting bolder and their packs are bigger. We can’t keep fighting them off. One of these days they’ll win.”
Jessie’s face showed confusion. “You mean they’ve attacked you before?” he asked.
“Not the men,” the boy corrected. “The savage ones. The coyotes and the foxes and even the ‘possums. They’re crazy. They come at us in packs, twenty or thirty at a time sometimes.”
Rabies. Jessie thought. It’s running rampant among the wild life now.
“That’s bad.” he said. “Can you keep your people safe for a week or so? Do you want us to stay until the trucks get here?”
The boy bristled a little at that, he’d been doing fine by himself for nearly a year, he didn’t need a babysitter.
“We can take care of ourselves.” he said coldly “We’ll vote on whether we want to leave, it’s a community choice.”
He walked back to his group and called them aside. Scarlet moved over to stand with Jessie by the car.
“What do you think?” she asked. “Pretty weird, huh? Those animals have been raised around people all their lives. The wild animal safari was more like a petting zoo. The kids had to teach them how to survive and hunt for food. Strange. Those big beasties are gentle as kittens.”
“I bet they wouldn’t be if you raised a hand against one of the kids.” Jessie said
“As it should be.” she replied. “Why would you want to beat a child anyway,
what’s wrong with you?”
“I didn’t say that!” Jessie retorted “I don’t want to hit a kid, quit putting words in my mouth.”
“Fine. Deny it all you want. I know what I heard.” Scarlet said then added under her breath. “Baby beater.”
“Oh, piss off.” Jessie said. “Kodiak said they might have a rabies problem. Packs of coyotes and foxes banding together and attacking them. Could be they’ve just lost their fear of humans, decided we’re easy meals. I had that happen to me once, a house full of cats thought I might be tasty.”
Scarlet frowned, thought about asking him what happened to the poor kitty’s but decided she probably wouldn’t like the answer.
“Think they’ll want to go to Lakota?” Scarlet asked instead. “If they don’t, we really can’t force them.”
They listened to the animated conversation the kids were having and a few words kept popping up. Movies, Xbox, pizza, the savage ones and hot water being the most repeated.
“Yeah, I think they’ll be glad to go.” Jessie said and shooed away a monkey that was trying to reach through the bars for Nefertiti.
72
Gunny
They were tired. Running on empty and exhausted from the constant chase. They’d only had a few hours of down time since the bullet hit the glass and they were worn out. They managed to have a big enough head start getting out of the desert to lose them in Quartzsite. There had been some close calls, a running gun battle for miles with a group of the Raiders that intercepted them on the backside of the mountain. There was the cat and mouse hunt among the thousands of shambling undead in the city as more and more raiders arrived to search for them. They slipped out a back road when Scratch yelled into the radio that he’d found them a few miles from where they actually were. The searchers took off in that direction and they ran, hoping no one would spot them and call it in. The trucks were shot up, glass was shattered and dash lights were lit up but they didn’t have time to find anything else.
Zombie Road: The Second Omnibus | Books 4-6 | Jessie+Scarlet Page 47
