by catt dahman
“So what are you two supposed to be?” Adam asked Sarah and Jake.
“Well, the leather is harder to bite through, so that is protection, ” Jake said.
“And the color helps how?”
Jake blushed. “We had this image of looking like super heroes while we helped people or went about our business, kind of making ourselves feel better.”
“With nail polish?”
Sarah sighed loudly. “It made me feel stronger. Look, real people don’t do very well against those bastards, but I figured if we thought ourselves to be super heroes, we could have a better chance at least believing in ourselves. The nail polish idea seems crazy, but it made me feel a lot better.”
“I think it’s kind of cool,” Chase said.
“You don’t act much like super heroes.” Adam frowned. He was disappointed to see that the two on the cool motorcycles and with all the weapons were useless in the battle against the zombies.
“That’s true. I guess we have no practice. We don’t know how to be super heroes…just look like them.”
“I guess no one knows how to be one. If you feel safer looking like one, what can it hurt?” Chase asked.
“I think it looks silly,” Adam said.
Jake didn’t say anything, but when he went to the restroom the next time, he removed the colored bandana and snipped off the colored bit of his hair. The leather was still good protection.
Sarah didn’t say much but told him she liked her outfit and color. She didn’t care what anyone else thought about her. If anyone were untouched by all this and still perfectly sane, then he was really the craziest of all. Seeing people rise up, the country over taken, and a person eaten alive, well, it was enough to make anyone a little nuts in the head. “You wanna try my motorcycle?”
Adam looked at Chase, and she started to ask why he was asking her permission, as she wasn’t his mom or his guardian, but she accepted it and shook her head. “No. We don’t need the sounds of those things attracting more zoms.”
Henry agreed. “We need to lie low and be quiet before we go on, and we’ll have to back track probably unless we can get across the bridge.”
“Where are you going?”
“To one of the schools…we’re going to wait for the military to come clean up and get us.”
“That makes sense in most cases, and I would agree, but what military is going to come along?” Chase asked.
“You can’t think they all died?”
Chase thought hard. “Well, I think many went in to handle the problems and were caught in the middle of all the new zombies. I think some caught the Red. I think they were put down before they could come back though. I think some deserted, and I don’t blame them because they just wanted to help their own families and protect them.”
“That still leaves a lot on duty,” Randy said.
“I don’t see it. Some will be attacked and will die, come back, and some…I mean if the entire US is down with this, what would be the orders? A few places might get back on track…larger military bases, but many were deployed; how many were on our soil to begin with?”
“A lot.”
“And I still think many went to be with families. They went civilian and are not part of the larger group. But seriously, I think a lot got sick like everyone else, and I think just like everyone else, the people turned, bit, and over ran places. Just because they were military, doesn’t mean they weren’t human. I think they were in the same mess as we are.”
“No way,” Henry said, “I have to believe that they were together, being led, and mounting rescues.”
“Would you want to be in a Rescue Station?” Adam asked.
“Sure, I would.”
“Not me. No way am I giving up my guns and ability to run in order to start depending on people to make my choices.”
Randy said as he laughed, “I see your side, too. When we agree to disagree, we see…all the options suck, really.”
People murmured agreement to that.
“So, you two are going to remain here forever?” Nikki asked Chase.
“We’ll have to get more food and supplies, but for now, it seems the best choice. And no, we don’t plan to be here forever, but we can sit here and take time to think over all the options and see what possibilities come open for us.”
Rain came down hard that night: it forced some of the radioactive dust to the ground where it made mud and washed the mud and gooey mush of the zombie’s bodies and blood to lower points. But the roving zombies didn’t react at all to the falling rain.
Those low points would be full of bodily wastes, rotting body parts, corpses, and other filth so that they would provide unbelievable stenches or dangerous diseases. That would cause the water all around to become deadly, and animals and humans who drank that water then would catch diseases or be poisoned, and then would die, also.
Protozoa would cause stomach problems that resembled the original Red illness but would just kill the infected after giving them misery. Parasites such as mosquitoes and tapeworms would thrive in the water and cause terrible consequences for anyone drinking the water or even just being around the water. Even bathing in the tainted water or having the skin immersed in it would also cause bacterial infections. Some who walked through the water would pick up the bacteria as their shoes became wet. Botulism, cholera, E coli, dysentery, Legionellosis, salmonella, and typhoid fever would be deadly through skin contact or oral contact. Third world countries’ water would be tame in comparison to much of the ground water in the US.
Over the next few days, the ground dried out. Henry said it was time to go. The ground outside the gate was cleaned of some of the gore and could be driven on without worry. One of the vehicles seemed to run fine.
With many thanks and their cars packed, Henry and his group drove away, leaving behind four people: Jake and Sarah who wished to stay with Chase and Adam a little longer, at least.
Sarah wasn’t fond of Adam’s complaints, but the arguments made to stay there made sense, and she did like Chase Malone a lot.
While Neal worked on the fence to make a better security, a metal shard became embedded in his arm; it was a very deep splinter that he said was painful.
"Are you going to get sick or cry or worse, Chase?” Adam smiled.
"Honey, I never had a chance to make it to the hysterical, over-protective, mothering stage, so I guess I won't get sick. Are you ready, Neal? Should one of us hold your other hand?”
“Nah, I’m fine.”
Chase used a sharp knife and opened the entry wound just a bit. Then, she squeezed the wound: using the tweezers and dragging the metal out. It was a bigger shard than she expected.
She doused and scrubbed the injury with alcohol after it bled out. Then, after coating the wound with antibiotic cream, she applied a Band-Aid, then a thicker bandage, and finally water proof tape. “I think you should keep it very dry by avoiding any water on it; it could have nasty bugs in it or zombie spit or something worse.”
“Zombie spit?” Jake asked, “seriously?”
“It could.”
“No, we’re laughing because that was so non-technical and non-medical sounding.”
“Infected saliva?”
Yuki, or Kee Kee, covered her mouth to laugh more. “Zombie spit was better.”
Her arm was hurt in her leap from the car trunk but felt better.
“It feels better,” Neal said, “not bad for your zero nursing skills.”
“Bet when it happened, it hurt like a mother fucker.”
“Watch your mouth,” Chase warned him.
“You curse way too much,” Sarah told him.
“It’s part of my charm,” he growled at her.
“People at the gate,” Ernie said, “wanna check them?”
They went to the gate to see. A small group of people asked for help, and they spoke a while before Chase opened the gate. Two middle-aged men, a woman with a small child, two younger men, a younger woman, and an old
woman came in.
“What are you supposed to be?” one of the young men asked Sarah.
“A super hero,” she said defiantly.
“Cool. I want something like that, too,” Jamal said.
“Seriously?”
“Can you help me?”
“I don’t have the leathers….”
“Sarah, I have weird nail polish and paint in my workroom, maybe stuff you could use; I always helped with the school theatre productions.”
“Cool. I wanna be Jamaica Man,” one said.
“I need a name, too,” Raul, Jamal’s brother stated.
Adam looked at them as if they were insane, but he didn’t say anything.
The woman, Jenny, handed the little boy to Chase. They found him all alone as they walked across the city, only knew his name was Danny and that Mommy growled a lot, so they assumed she turned, but why she didn’t attack the child was unknown. “I don’t know a thing about mothering, so here, you can have him,” she said as she handed Danny to Chase.
“What? Why me?” Chase asked.
“You are the age for a mother.”
Chase didn’t say a word but saw that Adam suppressed a laugh.
The other men were named Greg and Tommy, and the younger woman was Jeanette. Chase said they were welcomed to spend the night, but if they wanted to stay longer, then they would have to loot the neighbor’s house if he weren’t there. More supplies would be needed if the people stayed.
In the morning, Jamal, Jamaican Man, and Raul, and Gurly Man made their debuts, amid some snickers and good-natured ribbing, but everyone did admit the costumes were original and interesting. Luckily, Raul was slightly built, so the pair of Chase’s boots was just a bit too small for him. She did insist he wear shorts under his new short skirt.
Jamaica Man’s dread locks fit his new image, but Chase wasn’t sure about the safety of his gold teeth Sarah had painted for him with nail polish. His new fake accent was good for laughs.
Jamal, Raul, Greg, and Tommy went to one side, and Ernie, Adam, Neal, Kee Kee, and Jake went the other. Chase, Jeanette, Sarah, Jenny, and Danny stayed at home base.
Despite his outfit, Jamal was aces with his pistol and put the zombie down immediately when he moaned and came towards them.
“Good shot,” Tommy said. They heard more moaning from a bedroom and converged there. “On three….”
The smell was unbelievable, and the group wouldn’t go back to that room again or take anything from there. A woman lay in the bed, the mattress sagged beneath her five hundred pounds and was caked with her bodily filth and blood.
She gnawed off her fingers and hands, and they now lay on the bed, out of her reach, rotting as she moaned and strained to get to her feet. Obviously, she had Red and infected the man in the house. Bottle flies made a droning noise.
Raul took a second to vomit on the floor before his brother shot her in her head; then, they closed the door.
“Disgusting,” Tommy said.
They loaded boxes and bag with supplies and took them out to the car. The guest bath and the kitchen were stripped of everything usable. The man seemed to horde things because the kitchen and laundry were stuffed with food and other necessities.
In the next house in the line, Adam, Jake, Kee Kee, Ernie, and Neal found a family at home. A man was in the kitchen, and Adam and Jake sneaked up on him and bashed him to the ground before he began moaning and calling the rest.
His arms were chewed open to the bone, fingers were bitten off, and his face was ripped away a little. Once the thing was down, they clubbed him until he was still, and then they split open his head like a ripe melon, leaking brains. Next, they pulled him away to the living room out of their way.
In the living room were two small children with their faces partially eaten: It was sickening to hit them, and Kee Kee faltered.
Neal grabbed a fireplace poker and crammed it through one child’s ear and twisted it until the child went down and stopped moving while Ernie stepped forward to bash and hit it with a bat. Finally, as they looked around, a woman from another bedroom knocked Ernie to the floor; Adam used his gun to place a shot in her head.
Curious, he found her mouth, lower face, and chest coated with blood, but she was intact. On one of her arms was a dirty bandage where blood and yellowed pus caked and dried over a bite wound. It smelled terrible. “I guess they escaped Red, but she was bitten; then, when she turned, she got the kids and her husband.”
“They knew she was infected; he was stupid,” Jake said.
“I guess he, like everyone else, had some hope and didn’t want to finish her off; what if she didn’t turn, people think that…what if,” Neal said.
“If I get bitten, shoot me fast,” Adam said.
“Hey, good news, they have a ton of food, and she must have been a nurse because they have awesome supplies for first aid,” Ernie called, “and you won’t believe the soap and cleaning shit.”
“If she were a nurse, then she knew,” Adam grimaced, “do people hang on to life that hard when they know they’re doomed?”
“Sure, no one wants to die,” Neal said.
Adam frowned. “I know. I don’t either, but I guess you never know until it’s you,” he said as he started filling a box with food.
“They had a generator, and I think they were freshly turned, were they?”
“Maybe. They weren’t very beaten up or too smelly.”
“Well, look at this: the deep freeze is on the generator, guys; we have fresh meat we can eat now and then dry or salt, or whatever you do with meat.” Ernie grinned. “These may be the last of the frozen peas, corn, beans, and fruit we’ll have.”
The thought of good food inspired them to work faster and harder.
It had only been weeks, but the steaks and hamburgers cooking made their mouths water. Also, they had a spicy bean soup with several kinds of beans and peas, cabbage that Yuki made a hot sauce for, corn, canned carrots, and a warm potato salad. For dessert, they used tequila to make peach and strawberry margarita/ lemonade that they allowed the younger people to drink a little of before Danny poured the mixture on a sponge cake. After everything was consumed, they played cards after Danny was asleep.
Tipsy, Jamal made a pass at Sarah who kindly told him she wasn’t interested.
Raul made a pass, and Jake was less than polite, telling him that he was straight and to bark up some other tree.
Tommy and Kee Kee made mutual passes at one another after some sexy talk and then went to be alone, sitting on pallets in the workroom, amid some laughter among the rest who watched.
Chase went to sit on her porch swing and look out over her yard, wondering what changes they would all face and curious as to how her life would turn.
Greg brought her another drink and sat in a chair for a while, but when they were alone, he moved to sit with Chase in the swing while they talked. She thought he was a nice looking, smart, and courteous man, who when he spoke, made sense, took charge, and remained calm.
She didn’t mind when he held her hand.
If anything more came of this and if they had feelings or became intimate, it would add a new dynamic to the issues at hand. She already cared for two kids, Danny and Adam, who weren’t hers by birth; caring for a third was a risk with the world this way.
None of them knew sex would be a serious problem this soon.
13
Hannah VS The US Army
Hannah didn’t know that a few days before, several other people were approached by the remains of the army with promises of an inoculation that would protect them from infection, nor did she really care. It was enough for her that she was in her own home in her bed when a doctor and two soldiers were looking on as she groggily awoke to find her arm taped and connected to an IV line next to her.
“Hello, Hannah,” Doctor Anderson said.
“Let me up; I’m gonna rip off your face,” she muttered.
“Yes, she is perfect in all ways.” He motioned s
o she could see why she hadn’t already gotten to her feet to rip at him. Her hands and feet were tied securely.
“Don’t struggle, and the ropes won’t burn or bruise you. I need you quiet and still, Honey, and I promise, you won’t be harmed, but this is for your own good; you will have immunity from the infection.”
“I don’t need immunity. Let me go; this isn’t what I want.”
“You’re young; adults in charge have to make the hard decisions.”
“Pervert.”
“No, you are safe,” the doctor said and turned away to check her heart rate; then, he took her temperature and blood pressure.
“All is on time; you are doing fine.”
Hannah felt greasy with sweat. The arm with the IV hurt some. It felt sore, but there was extra hot in her veins. As she took inventory, the rest of her seemed okay, just tied down, but her stomach cramped, not in a sickly way, really, but like the worst hunger pangs of her life. Her head ached, too.
“How do you feel?”
“Hot. My arm hurts; my head aches; my stomach is hunger-cramping.”
“I have what you need then…just in time.” The doctor smiled. He fed her, and while it crossed her mind that he could poison her, why would he?
She ate what he served her. He began with a few sips of a red, salty broth that tasted very meaty and gamey but settled her stomach within seconds; it tasted bad.
Then, she was offered a few bites of crackers smeared with peanut butter and strawberry jam that tasted good and made her feel better. Then more sips of the bad broth.
Next, he fed her part of an undercooked hamburger, and she was about to tell him she didn’t like raw beef; she preferred it well done, yet it didn’t taste that bad and made her feel even more like herself. Finally, she had more of the broth and a large glass of soda that was delicious.
“And now how do you feel?” He did something to her IV and patted her arm lightly.
My head hurts, and my arm hurts, but the rest is better.”
“The headache is the fever, but it’s perfectly normal and expected and will subside soon. I just gave you something for that and for your arm to relieve the pain. It will make you very sleepy, and you’ll be out a while. Sleep well, Hannah.”
