Chasing Colorado: (The Zombie Zovels #2)

by D. K Lake

  “Wow, they did a good job.. it almost looks artistic.” I said, studying the barrier. “How do we get in?”

  Drew didn't hear me and was walking off in the other direction around the barrier.

  I walked around the wall, wondering if we were supposed to squeeze through somewhere... but there were no gaps, and whoever had made this had done a good job. It would definitely hold off a deadbie or two, if a group turned up they might be able to break it down with force but that would have to be a large group. Not unless they figured out how to climb, which they couldn't at present. I looked at the tables and TVs, maybe I could climb up if Drew gave me a boost.

  Through the gaps, I could see the glass doors, but I couldn't see anyone or any kind of patrol.

  I realized Drew had disappeared again.

  “Drew?”

  “'Round here.”

  I walked around the barrier which was in the shape of a semi-circle.

  I found him stood in front of the tall wardrobe with the doors open.

  “What are doing?”

  He peered at me from behind the door.

  “What is it?”

  “Fucking Narnia,” Drew replied.

  “What?” I said, walking around the door to see what he was looking at.

  “Really? I said, looking at the back of the wardrobe that had been cut out so you could just walk straight through to the other side. “That's the way in?”

  “The deadbies wouldn't know to open the door, possibly only a few would figure it out.” Drew said.

  “So do we just go in?”

  Drew scratched the back of his neck, still deciding.

  “If you have any doubts maybe now would be a good time to speak up.” I said.

  Drew looked at me then pointed at a trash can near the entrance, it was full of gardening tools, rakes, pitchforks, and spades.

  “Is that a help-yourself-bucket-bin?”

  “Makes sense to keep a few weapons outside, so you can grab one on the way out.” Drew said, looking past me at the vehicles.

  While Drew and I were still deciding whether to go through the wardrobe or not, someone whistled at us from above.

  We both looked up, squinting and shielding our eyes.

  “Hellooo!” said a teenage boy standing on the roof, holding a rifle over his shoulder.

  “Err... Hi,” I said.

  “I'm Sam,” he said in a friendly voice.

  “Um... Hi, Sam. Is this the place that takes in survivors?” I asked.

  “Yep, you can go straight in, and ask for Dawn once you're inside.” he said, then he pointed at the glass doors on the other side.

  “Right, Dawn,” I looked sideways at Drew.

  Drew hopped through the wardrobe, and I climbed through making sure I pulled the doors shut behind me. We crept closer to the glass doors and peeked inside, but we set the sensors off and the doors automatically opened.

  “They have electric here.” I said surprised.

  Drew was already in front of me with his crossbow pointing at the ground, creeping closer.

  I looked back up at the roof, trying to spot Sam, but he was gone.

  We hesitantly walked into the foyer of the shopping center. It was larger than I thought it would be, I could see escalators in front and to the right there was an elevator and public toilets. I looked around, taking it all in, and saw people wandering all over the place, a group of girls sat in the chairs outside what was once a coffee shop, having a giggle over something. And over by the fountain, I could see a little girl sitting on the side playing with a small kitten. Drew lowered his crossbow, obvious not sensing any danger, and a little boy cycled over to us on a pink girls bike which had streamers hanging from the handlebars.

  He stopped in front of us. His face was full of freckles and when he smiled I noticed he was missing his two front teeth.

  “Hi! I'm Sid, what's your names?”

  We both looked at each other and I looked back at the boy and smiled.

  “Hi, Sid, my name's Alex and this is my friend, Drew.”

  An older lady with short blonde hair walked out from the female toilets, pushing a mop and bucket. She left her mop and quickly approached us.

  I think she was a little wary of us, I would be, too.

  “Hello,” she greeted us.

  “Hello,” I replied. “There was this boy outside, he said his name was Sam,”

  She nodded like she knew who Sam was. “Um, he told us to ask for Dawn.”

  The lady turned to Sid. “Sid would you go and fetch Dawn so she can come and meet our new guests.”

  Sid turned around on his bike and said, “Bye!” before peddling off as fast as his little legs would go.

  “I'm Annie.”

  “Alex, and Drew,” I said, gesturing to us both.

  “You two look worse for wear.” she said, looking at my wrapped hand.

  I was about to open my mouth and say I tripped and grazed it, “She fell out a shoppin' cart.” Drew blurted before I got the chance.

  The woman looked at us like we were a pair of troublesome teenagers, it reminded me of my high school Chemistry teacher, Mrs. Burns, every time she turned her back on the class Eric or one of his friends would flick little bits of paper at her, and she'd turn around and give us all this look, it was the same look Annie was giving us right now... a suspicious, not impressed, scowl.

  “Right, well... if you just wait here Dawn will be along in a minute.” she said, walking back to the toilets and pushing the mop into the male toilets.

  We stood there awkwardly. I suddenly felt like a new kid at school on their first day. People walked past, staring at us, others whispered from behind the glass windows of the coffee shop, and a few peered over the balcony up above.

  “I feel like a circus freak.” I muttered.

  “I can't wait until you show them your encore.”

  “Which is?”

  “The part where you eat em'”

  I glared at him and he shrugged at me.

  “As soon as they know, they're probably going to take me outside and beat me with those garden tools.”

  “Death by hoe.” Drew joked.

  “Drew, it's not funny, if it all goes south, promise me you'll just stick an arrow in my head.”

  I turned to him waiting for him to say something but he was distracted looking over my head at something. I turned around and saw a short, curvy woman, with a bobbed haircut and red, chunky glasses on her nose. She was dressed in clean khakis, wearing pink sandals, and a floral tank top.

  “Hello, new people! Welcome to Argon! My name's Dawn.” she said cheerily.

  We both smiled grimly at her. I was having second thoughts about staying, I didn't want to infect anyone, then I looked sideways at Drew wondering how I had managed to keep my deadbie germs away from him?

  “I'm Alex and this is Drew.”

  “You two traveled far?”

  “From Utah.” Drew answered.

  “You don't sound like you're from Utah?”

  Drew smiled. “Dodge Lake, Louisiana.”

  “Hmm, I thought you were a southern boy.” she said with a flirty smile. She tucked a strand of her blond hair behind her ear and I raised an eyebrow at her.

  I coughed, (louder than necessary).

  “How many of you are there here?” I asked.

  “Sixty-three at present, including myself.”

  “Wow, you've helped a lot of people.”

  “It's in my nature, I used to do free work for the community, and would go wherever I was needed. I spent a lot of time helping troubled teens find something productive to do.”

  Dawn was pointing and talking, I had no idea what she was saying, I completely spaced out for a minute. Drew looked at me then started trying to make conversation with the woman while he kept one eye on me. My tummy was doing somersaults again, maybe I could make it to the bathroom in time. The last thing I needed was for these people to see me puking my guts up on their shiny, clean floor.
The floor started to move and I thought I saw spots.

  Oh, crap!

  I could feel an attack of dizziness overcoming me.

  She waved at us to follow her, but I took one step and my head started to spin like a yo-yo. I reached out to grab anything I could, and found Drew's arm, and he held onto me.

  “Are you okay?” he whispered.

  Dawn had already stopped walking having noticed the holdup, and she walked back to us.

  “She's probably dehydrated.” Dawn said, trying to diagnose me.

  “Have you been walking for a long time?” she asked.

  I started coughing, and soon knew I wouldn't be able to hold it in... and I threw up on the floor.

  It was mainly bile, I hadn't eaten anything all day because my stomach had been too queasy to keep anything down, even water had been coming back up today.

  Dawn went to reach for me but Drew put his hand up to stop her from coming any closer.

  “We're just on our way to the research center.” he said. “Have you heard of it?”

  It finally dawned on Dawn why.

  I felt Drew's grip tighten on me, like he was about to throw me over his shoulder any moment and make a run for it.

  “It's okay we have a quarantine area. This way,” Dawn said, hurrying us and directing us to a different area in the shopping center.

  “Karen, the floor needs cleaning. You'll need the protective clothes and gloves. I'll get the bleach in a minute.” Dawn said to a woman that was walking toward us.

  The woman looked at me and realized I was sick, she just nodded and rushed off.

  “I'm a big believer that bleach kills everything. This way, she'll be safe over here.”

  Drew gave me a sidelong glance, and I shrugged, not knowing whether Dawn was telling the truth or whether she was leading us into a room full of weapons, and she was about to shoot me. I think she liked Drew, I don't think she'd shoot him. But I think he'd be pissed if she did shoot me, he had just spent the last two weeks keeping me safe and caring for me.

  Drew slipped the tote bag off my shoulder.

  “Here, I can carry that,” Dawn said, lifting it out of his hand.

  He hung his crossbow over his shoulder and scooped me up into his arms. I know I was a tiny thing, and I had lost a lot of weight, but Drew wasn't that big himself, but he somehow managed to pick me up and carry me about as though I weighed nothing. Dawn walked past several stores that would have previously been clothes stores, the funny thing was they still had all the clothes hanging on the rails, this place must have been forgotten about when the virus started to break, nothing looked damaged, no store windows had been smashed, no one looted the place. She led us into a store that was previously a beauty salon, with seats all around the side where people could get their nails done.

  “There are beds set up at the back, I think they were used for waxing the clients. It's where we keep anyone that comes in infected. It's actually really nice, Karen and another girl set candles up to make it cozy, you know, for those final days before...”

  “Before I croak.” I finished for her.

  She pretended she hadn't heard me and carried on walking.

  The place looked empty when we went in and I didn't hear anyone else.

  “It's just you, we lost our last one three weeks ago. Her name was Susie,” she said, opening a door for us.

  Drew carried me into a white room with a plush, pale blue carpet. Against the wall, there was a long bench which had been turned into a bed with a pillow, and a blanket neatly folded on top. On the other side of the room, there was a tall cabinet full of candles, and a chair next to it. For a second it brought back memories of the spa, Serene Oaks Spa, Lane and I had found.

  There was a small table beside the bed with even more candles, a box of tissues, and a Sci-Fi novel.

  Drew hesitated by the door with me still in his arms.

  “Don't worry, I've disinfected it since the last one.” Dawn said, placing my tote bag on the chair, then she walked across the room and picked up a bucket and brought it over to the bed.

  Drew walked into the room and carried me over to the bench-turned-death bed, and gently set me down. It was comfier than I thought it would be.

  I started tugging at my hoodie, wanting to take it off, I was starting to cook inside it.

  “Uh...” Drew grunted, not wanting me to take my hoodie off, probably because I looked like I'd just been rolling in a deadbie bloodbath.

  “It's boiling in here.” I complained.

  “Oh, we have some electric fans you can plug in, we got them from the store on the next level.”

  She disappeared out the door and then reappeared trying to carry a fan that was taller than her.

  Drew lifted the fan from her and set it on the floor and went about plugging it into the wall socket.

  Then Dawn left the room again and came back with a cold flannel for my forehead.

  “There are more in the toilet at the end of the corridor, just out there,” she said.

  I carefully lifted my hoodie up and Drew came over and helped me lift it over my head.

  Dawn saw all the dried blood and laid eyes on my glass cuts.

  “I got bit again, just down the road.”

  She shook her head. “We haven't seen any for a whole week.”

  “Well, there were four...no, five... six?” I said, but I couldn't even remember now.

  Dawn had caring eyes, she listened carefully and I could see she was genuine. She turned and casually looked Drew up and down.

  “He's not infected.” I said, knowing why she was trying to inspect him without it being obvious.

  “Okay, well, you have to stay in here now,” she said, looking at me, then she turned to Drew. “You can come and go as you please, but you must disinfect your hands every time you leave, there are products you can use in the toilet room. I'm just going to get my gloves and the First Aid supplies, and then we'll get you all cleaned up.” she said, patting my leg.

  She walked to the door but stopped and looked back at us. “You two must be famished, I'll go see what I can find food wise as well.”

  She was about to leave when I called her back.

  “Dawn!”

  “Yes,” She popped her head back around the door.

  “We had others in our group, don't suppose anyone by the name of Josh or Lane has turned up here recently?”

  “Um..” She thought about it for a moment. “I don't know, I'm terrible with names, we did have one group turn up a few days ago, I think the girl was called Layla.... or Lana?”

  “It's okay, don't worry about it.” I said.

  She smiled apologetically, it wasn't her fault they weren't here. For all I knew Lane was dead, Josh was dead, and Drew's friends were all dead.

  “There are more pillows and blankets in the next room if you need extra. No one will bother you while you're in here, just me and possibly Karen.”

  “Thank you.” I said, turning around to organize the pillow, I desperately wanted to lay down and close my eyes.

  She left us alone, and Drew stayed by the open door with his crossbow in his hand.

  “She seems nice.” I said, pulling a blanket over me.

  The cold air from the fan was cooling me down.

  “Hmm,” was the response I got from him.

  “What, you think she's run off to go and tell someone about me? If she didn't want me here she could have just told us to get out straight away, instead, she offered me a bed, a cold compress, a fan... I don't think she's a bad person.”

  He didn't say anything and leaned against the door-frame.

  Ten minutes later, Drew was still on high alert when Dawn came back dressed in a disposable pinafore and wearing latex gloves. She handed Drew a pre-packed sandwich. He took it and looked at it as though he'd never seen anything like it before.

  “They get proper food next door,” she said, placing another one on the table next to me, then she handed me a water bottle. “Have
you lost your appetite yet?”

  “Nearly.” I replied.

  She opened the First Aid box and organized what she wanted to use.

  She wiggled her finger at me to lift my T-shirt. I crossed my arms and carefully peeled it over my head, exposing the little blue bra I was wearing that had daisy print on it, but some of the deadbie blood and my own blood had soaked through my old T-shirt and stained it pink. I glanced over at Drew, but he turned his head away and pretended he wasn't looking, and instead he walked out into the hallway with his sandwich.

  Dawn did a good job cleaning my shoulder up, there was only one loose piece of flesh hanging down, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. After she had cleaned all the blood off I nearly looked as good as new. She cleaned my hand and re-wrapped it in a proper dressing.

  “Are my signs still up?” she asked.

  “Yeah that's how we found this place, and well... we went to the town, and this guy directed us this way while holding a gun to my head.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “Short, beer belly, he was wearing a black shirt about five sizes too small, oh and he had a weird quiff thing going on.”

  Dawn laughed. “I'm gonna take a guess and say you ran into Joe,” She chuckled again and shook her head.

  “You know him?”

  “Yes, he's my brother.”

  O I mouthed. Good job we didn't kill him. I thought.

  “I didn't agree with the way they turned survivors away, they didn't even offer them a drink, they turned everyone away, and, well... I didn't agree with it, and a few others shared my opinion, that's why we set up this place and stuck up those signs. My brother and his bowling buddies took over the town and decided how things were going to run. The town only has a population of four thousand, and only three hundred of them died from the virus. They've been incredibly lucky. They have a lot of farmland on the inside, and our town was lucky enough to have the factories that manufactured metal and steel, so when the virus started to break and we heard reports of these walking dead-like people the town got together and decided to take a stand against it.”

  “And they don't get over the fencing?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “No, any of the dead-like that make it this far are usually nearly dead as it is. Sam and his men took on more men to guard the perimeter, but I suppose things have got a little lax over the last six months, it's been dead around here.” she joked. “And because the Army and government are still backing the research center and university they make sure they have the power on still, which also includes the town, if it wasn't for the center the power would have gone off a long time ago and no one would have got it going again.”