“Check the back exit,” Kat told the boys. They both got up – Robby downed his shot and then the rest of Justin’s – and headed out of the dining room into the kitchen.
Kat walked up to the glass with baby Bowen.
“Hush little baby don’t say a word,” she sang as she peered into the eyes of the dead hipster with his long trimmed beard and man-bun with Clark Kent glasses. Now he was exactly like everyone else and belonged to a group as he had so desperately sought in life. “Momma’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.”
Kat leaned right up to the glass and exhaled. Her fog breathing a wide circle that blocked out part of the zombie’s face. She put her fingertip on the window and pushed in two dots and drew a smiley face.
“If that mockingbird won’t sing – ” Just beyond the group of zombies trying to eat her, past the tourist traps that offered maps of Boston, the boats in the harbor continued to burn. Especially the larger ones. She remembered when she had gotten out of the water how hot it had been from the fires and that they were lucky because all the zombies were gone.
Gone.
They were gone.
“Momma’s gonna buy you a Molotov cocktail.” Kat whirled on her feet and almost ran into the boys.
“The back is packed with them in the alley,” Robby told her.
“It’s fine. I have a plan. Grab all the booze and dry rags you can find.”
Everyone did as they were told and through the commotion Kat hadn’t seen Fletcher pull on a tee shirt from the pile of scavenged clothes.
“There’s too many of them, I don’t have enough bullets.”
“We won’t need them,” Kat reassured him.
She and Bowen went back into the kitchen and grabbed the broken brooms that had been wrapped in strips of clothes or rags and doused in oil. Justin was finishing filling the bottles of liquor with oil soaked rags that would light immediately.
The two boys followed her to the door and Fletcher was standing by as well.
“Here’s the plan. Justin makes a run for it and when those bastards start chasing him we come out and cover them in fire. I saw how they reacted to the attack and how safe we were on the wharf with the fires burning. Now we take fire with us and we burn them where they stand.”
Kat looked at Justin who had one hand on the door – the tables and chairs they had used as a cheap barricade were tossed aside – holding his Molotov cocktail in one hand and a bright green lighter in the other.
“Just get far enough away that they cluster together and we can use these to take them out. You can do this. You got this,” Kat said.
“Oh yeah. I’m ready!”
“Justin?” he turned – pumped and ready for the fight – and Robby grabbed his face and pulled it to him and kissed him as if this were the last time he would ever see him again. “You fucking run. Do you understand me?”
“Yeah, baby,” Justin kissed the top of Robby’s head and pushed open the doors running and dodging his way through the crowd of dead. He was screaming curses at them and taunting them until the whole group turned on him.
“Light it,” Kat ordered Robby. Fletcher had his gun leveled just behind her. Robby lit the fabric and watched as it flowered in flames and he threw it with all his might at the horde of zombies.
The glass bottle exploded off the head of one of the zombies and sprayed the flaming alcohol across the dead. Their bodies engulfed in flames as they pursued Justin. The ones on fire continued to burn and followed Justin but the ones that were safe from the heat of the fire broke off, scattering like scared animals.
“It’s working,” Fletcher said disbelieving.
“Yes, it is,” Kat said and pushed her way out the door. She yelled to Justin, “Turn back. We’re getting out of here.”
“Ok!” he yelled back to her with a bright, triumphant smile. He never saw the group of four zombies that came out of the aquarium parking garage.
“No!” Robby sprinted for Justin.
Fletcher lifted his rifle and started firing at the zombies. He took one in the head and it fell to the ground. The other he hit only in the shoulder. He was running up toward them now trying to line his shots, but his vision was weak and blurred from the pain stinging in his side.
Justin was pushing away at the zombies faces when Robby tackled two of them and drove them away from Justin. He punched them uselessly in the face, but kicked out one of their knees and saw it drop to the ground, unable to get its composure. Justin was desperately trying to fight off the last zombie when he tripped and went down to the ground, the zombie falling on top of him. He had only his forearm between his face and the zombies drooling dead mouth. With each passing moment he could feel the strength weaning out of him.
“Robby,” he whispered as the weight of the zombie broke his strength and his arm fell, the zombie falling toward his neck with hungry teeth.
Kat grabbed the zombie on top of Justin and lifted its head by the eye sockets sinking the French knife deep into the flesh of its neck. She sawed back and forth until she pulled the head free in a tangle of blood and spinal fluid and threw it into the street. With the knife in one hand she held out a hand to Justin and helped him to his feet.
“Help, Robby,” she ordered him, “I need to find a vehicle.”
Justin stared at her as she ran away from him and thought that if he wasn’t gay he might have just fallen in love.
Chapter 20
Kat opened the door to the operator’s booth inside the parking garage. She found the metal cabinet – locked – that had all the keys for the valet cars. Kat rummaged through the small confines of the booth and found a screwdriver and slammed it into the small lock and pried it with both hands until the lock snapped. She fumbled through the keys. Ignoring the BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, and Audi. She found a key for a Jeep, clasped it in her hand and pushed out of the booth.
A zombie lunged for her. She slashed it across the face and kicked it hard knocking it to the ground. Kat pushed on the unlock mechanism on the key fob while running up deeper into the parking garage.
By the time she found the flickering lights of the Jeep there were at least seven or eight zombies on her tail. She leapt over a concrete wall and climbed into the bright yellow Jeep. She started the engine and slammed the stick into reverse, peeling out of the parking spot. The Jeep slammed into the back of a Mercedes and Kat cut the wheel and took off. There were three zombies in front of her and she pushed down heavy on the gas and barely felt it when the Jeep struck them. The tires crushed their bodies to the parking garage floor.
Kat came barreling out of the aquarium parking garage and flashed her lights at Robby and Justin who were stomping on some zombies. She pulled up to Fletcher and left the Jeep running as she got out and helped him into the passenger seat. He held tight to baby Bowen. Justin and Robby got to the Jeep and in the backseat by the time Kat got in.
“Where we headed?” Fletcher asked.
“North. We’ll just keep driving north. Maybe all the way to Canada, I don’t really know.” Kat put her hand on baby Bowen and rubbed his back as she pointed the Jeep north and drove.
Chapter 21
The Hobo King found a parchment of earth under a highway overpass and he lay down on Christine’s naked stomach and stroked her thigh. The other zombies were wandering about. There were a few roads that split off from there and all of them had residential housing. If they were to find anyone living, he would sense it and be able to go to where the living were but for now he was tired. After a day of killing, all he wanted was to catch a good night’s sleep.
From under the overpass he could see a hotel sitting on a hill in front of a large gas station. The Hobo King thought of all those empty rooms with their freshly made beds just sitting there empty. It would be so simple for him just to go in there now.
He could.
If he wanted.
Be like one of them.
What a simple thought. But he couldn’t do it. He had lived far too many years on the
street to feel safe anywhere but where he was. Maybe tomorrow he could pretend to be normal when his thoughts weren’t so fuzzy and confused.
The Hobo King laid his scepter across his chest and closed his eyes. Underneath him Christine lay obediently still, an arm crossed over her breasts and the other stretched out on the pavement. Adam sat just a few steps away. He was as obediently still as Christine, his eyes watching over the flock while the Hobo King slept, his pinky finger laced over Christine’s pinky finger.
To be continued………
Acknowledgments
First and foremost I could not have gotten through this book without the love and support of my family. Thank you Elissa for always having an ear to listen, even if I’m just rambling about ideas and you have no idea what I am talking about. During the course of this book my third daughter was born healthy and wide-eyed. I had to take many breaks to change your dirty diaper, feed you, or help your mother or siblings so your mother could care for you. Braeya, I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. To my other girls, you may be too young to read what daddy writes but I always have time to read an ‘appropriate’ story to you. Ones not written by me. Thank you, Talia and Rags, for being the laughter and imagination that grown-ups seem to lose.
I have to give a special thanks to Brett Parker, Chris Proulx and Scott Proulx at Double Midnight Comics. I cannot express my gratitude enough for taking a chance on me and putting my work in your amazing store.
My dear sweet firefighter, Brittney. How could I have gotten through the technical parts of the fire truck without your help? You are such an incredible person that works hard and is always there for everyone. Thank you for being there for me when my questions started rolling.
As always any mistakes about locations or events – such as the fire truck – are my mistakes and mine alone. Sometimes reality doesn’t want to play along with the dreams in one’s head.
Coming Soon
Beyond Dead: The Island
December 23rd, 2014 to March 30, 2017
Beyond Dead | Book 3 | On The Road Page 6
