The End of the Road: Z is for Zombie Book 8 (Z is for Zombie: Book)

by catt dahman

canned foods would feed them a long time.

  “Drink this,” he ordered Hannah.

  “What have we done?”

  “Calm down. Everything is fine, Hannah. Who was that black woman?”

  “Andromeda. Andie. She’s always hated me…since we went to Hopetown anyway…always accused me of things.”

  “Things you didn’t do?”

  “Things I did,” Hannah said, “I have done enough in my lifetime, so no one has

  to make shit up.

  “She was going to kill us. “That’s why I shot her.”

  Hannah stared at him dully, still in shock. “You shot my mother!” Tears ran

  down her dusty face. “My mother. Did you shoot her?”

  He stroked Hannah’s back. “I didn’t mean that; you know I didn’t, but she

  got between me and that crazy woman. It happened so fast.

  Hannah, I would never just shoot her, but we had to get out, and they were

  about to kill us.”

  “She stepped in to protect me from Andie. Did you hit her, or did Andie?”

  “I hit Andie. I think she did. I didn’t have a reason to shoot your mother.”

  “I hope Andie is dead,” Hannah said, “I hope my mom is okay. Do you

  think she is?” Her mind was spinning. Adam, over the last few weeks, was

  more prone to anger and violent reactions, but he never hurt Hannah.

  “I hope she is.”

  “Do you know what this means?” Hannah asked.

  Adam grimaced and asked, “That you hate me?”

  “I don’t hate you. I’m pissed off. I hate Andie for causing this mess and

  probably being the one who hit my mother.” She leaned back in the kitchen chair

  and ate a mandarin orange from a can they opened.

  “We could have gone; I just wanted our stuff.”

  “Our stuff included those stupid inoculations which were given people

  against their will and were untested and dangerous. That’s why my mother ordered them destroyed,” Hannah snapped.

  “That stupid inoculation we found is the only reason I’m here right now.”

  Hannah digested that. Did Adam mean that because he took the inoculation,

  he was now immune to the infection and can be with her since she had the same inoculation? Or did he mean that if he had not had the inoculation, he wouldn’t be

  with her because he would have other options? “Well, that’s interesting.”

  “I mean if I hadn’t taken it and been immune, I would have died several times over when fighting with those bastards,” said Adam as he roughly shoved a sleeve

  to his elbow to show her scars she knew well.

  Hannah yanked her own sleeve up and glared at Adam. “You had a choice

  that I didn’t have. That is what pisses me off. You got to decide. I don’t think anyone should ever be able to decide to be like us. It’s throwing humanity away. I’d rather

  we all fail and die as a species than to give in.”

  “You got that from your mother?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Okay. I’m just glad I did have a choice. If I hadn’t made that choice, you wouldn’t be mine now.”

  It was a sweet sentiment, but his words chilled her. She belonged to no one.

  She told him, “But you don’t know all of them like I do. I know them; I know

  my father, Kimball Decker, and he will not be satisfied until he and a few of the others come after us. I don’t know what they’d do to me. Maybe because of how it happened and if mom makes it, I might be forgiven. But if she dies, no matter what, Kim Dad is going to hunt you down.”

  “I didn’t shoot her.”

  Hannah almost laughed. Did he think that would stop her father?

  Hannah sighed. She had lived with those people ten years, almost half her life, and she knew how they thought and how they acted, and she also knew how she would think in their places.

  “It doesn’t matter. I know how he thinks. He’ll be coming as soon as he knows how Mom is, and, Adam, he will never stop until either you or he is dead.”

  “And how do you feel about that? Would you defend me like I would you? Would you defend me against your father?”

  “I don’t know what I would do.”

  Adam shrugged. “Then, that’s how we’ll leave it. Let’s open a can of peaches.”

  Chapter 6

  Strangest Things You’ll Ever See

  After they finished their drinks, they made plans. While they talked, Bella handed DeVon the bag she brought from the house. Inside were a big, long-sleeved shirt, a pair of sneakers, and two pairs of socks.

  “You gotta be kidding me,” said DeVon as he slipped the shirt on, rolling the sleeves. It hung below her shorts and was a plaid of red and blue. The sneakers were

  a little big, but DeVon used both pairs of socks to get a better fit.

  “I look like a dork. You expect me to cover up like this?”

  “Better than being bitten.”

  “This shirt won’t help much,” DeVon complained.

  “You look a little more prepared,” said Lucy Ann as she nodded, “you can walk

  or run better in those.” She showed off her tennis shoes.

  “You can say thank you,” Bella said.

  “Whatever. Thank you,” DeVon replied and narrowed her eyes, “I bet Bella

  isn’t your real name anyway.”

  “It is now.”

  “You look lovely, little Miss DeVon.” Wheeler smiled at her.

  He was astonished to see her lip quivering. When he cocked his head, she shrugged a little. “Before…before today, it was all about my taking off my clothing. Today, it’s about my putting more clothing on.”

  “Ahhh.”

  “It does my head in, Wheeler. It isn’t just that…it’s the….”

  “The idea that everything is topsy-turvy? Bass-ackwards?”

  “That’s it, exactly. I didn’t have anyone, but as I watched television, I knew if I

  had a family, I would have killed myself.

  Then, once I figured because I didn’t have family, it meant I had to live. What a rip-off. But I wasn’t sure I meant it…not really…plenty of ways to check out with guns and pills, so I wasn’t committed to living. Then I met you all.”

  “That was a good thing, wasn’t it?”

  DeVon looked sad. “Yes, this is the only time I’ve ever had a real family.”

  “So you have a damned good reason for living now,” commented Wheeler.

  “And more to lose. But I intend to keep living as long as I have family….”

  “That’s my girl,” Wheeler replied, “uh-oh, company.”

  Wheeler calmly got up and picked up a bat. Kevin and Cory joined him, and as

  a corpse came into view, they heard it moaned, a female with bites torn out of her arms and fairly freshly turned. And hungry.

  Cory slammed a bat at her legs, and Kevin knocked her head back with the pipe, cracking her head open as she fell to the ground. Kevin finished hitting her, and they looked around. It was clear so far.

  “Now that was some team work,” Wheeler praised them.

  “We need a place to call headquarters so we can gather supplies and relax a

  little. Houses here are too close together, makes me nervous.”

  “Isn’t that little camping and canoe place near here?” Lucy Ann asked. “When I was a young girl, I used to camp at Albert Pike, a little campground in Langley, Arkansas, along the Little Missouri River.”

  “That way about…a mile maybe,” said Robert as he pointed, “it’s tin and rock…should be pretty defensible.”

  With a grin and a shrug, Cory belted his pants tighter as they started out and made sure Wheeler saw him do it and winking at the man.

  Robert endured teasing about his kitty backpack from his group, threatening to spank Bella if she didn’t stop calling it a cat-pack and smirking. She dared h
im to try.

  They heard an odd sound and darted behind a dumpster in an alleyway and watched as a girl and boy raced by on motorcycles. The two colored their hair and dressed in strangely painted leathers of red and blue. The group looked at one another

  bewildered by the sight.

  “What was that?”

  “A boy and girl painted up like super heroes and riding motorcycles,” Bella said.

  “Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Robert said back. He and Bella chuckled. “That almost beats ‘strangest things you’ll ever see’, but I guess zombies still hold the top

  spot on the list.”

  Following the sounds of the motorbikes, a group of five zombies shuffled down the street; unfortunately, one glanced at the dumpster, saw movement, and began moaning.

  Once they began moaning and calling for others, they would continue the noise until they either fed on a victim or were distracted.

  If one went to the back of a mass and heard the moaning, the creatures would begin moaning. The one in front of the mass might be distracted and stop moaning,

  but when it heard those at the back, it would be cued to begin the sound again.

  It was perpetual.

  Not wanting to be caught in the alley, the survivors ran towards the ghouls so Kevin could hit the first one. He and Bella began pounding its head and arms. Robert aimed at a fat creature and blew away its jaw; it kept moving.

  “Get the head,” Wheeler yelled. He and Lucy Ann hit a woman’s legs.She went down, crawled at them, and pulled herself along, despite her nails ripping away and fingers shredding on the asphalt of the street.

  Cory took aim, and one of his three shots caused a man’s head to pop open

  as he fell to the ground. Turning, he aimed at another, a young female, and fired into

  her head.

  Robert finished the one he was after and shot the creature as Bella beat at it.

  It was dead, and its brains leaked, yet Bella grimaced while she continued to beat at the skull.

  Kevin pulled her away so she could catch her breath. Wheeler and Lucy Ann destroyed the crawling woman, horrified that she still drooled and snapped her teeth

  as she crawled and dragged her broken legs behind her.

  “Her fingers,” Lucy Ann said and shivered. She looked at the peeled fingers and imagined the pain for anyone who wasn’t a zombie. One nail was painted a reddish orange, a sunny color; she had cared for her nails, maybe had manicures often, but

  her nails were tattered and torn away, dirty and forgotten.

  Chapter 7

  Seven Survivors Plus Two

  The seven survivors ducked to the other side of the street and moved faster, watching the street behind them. A wreck caused them to move over and around crashed vehicles.

  One by one, they crawled across a trunk of a car, through a patch of blood and torn flesh, between an SUV and a truck, and then over a final car trunk.

  Wheeler easily got across; Cory gave him a hand as he did all the rest. If Wheeler knew he needed more help than most of the others, he didn’t say, yet he met Cory’s eyes for a split second of thanks.

  Robert and Kevin had to help Lucy Ann over the trunks, and she fluttered and waved her hands dramatically as she let them raise her up and then let her down.

  She groaned quietly when she bent her knees, and Robert noticed that she hadn’t complained or held back during the fight, but her hands were drawn up. When she thought no one was looking, she brought her hands to her chest and sighed with pain.

  DeVon did a little dance on the trunk and flipped off the street behind her as she hummed an old disco tune to herself. Despite her show, she was the one who called

  for a quick rest and helped Lucy Ann take some medication with water.

  Robert found that peculiar. He and his family lived an almost sheltered life, avoiding any ‘undesirables’, but now he was right in the middle of them.

  DeVon was a topless dancer, or she had been, and the kind of woman Robert never would have crossed paths with. Even if she were a show-off, overly sexy, and

  a type of woman that men lusted after but didn’t respect and that other women hated immediately, she had intelligent eyes beneath the thick mascara, and she was kind to

  the older people in their crew.

  He found himself respecting her.

  Cory was always rapping under his breath, spoke in ghetto patois, and let his pants hang below his butt; he looked and acted like a modern gangsta and a tough

  guy, but he was attentive, brave, and always had a smile for everyone. If Cory had a

  bad side, it was only that he tried very hard to be something he wasn’t; he was a

  smart young man.

  Bella, who probably had a different name, used pale make-up, and dressed in black, showed a bored, non-concerned persona, but she was a detailed-kind-of

  woman, serious about everything she did and always alert.

  Robert knew the books Bella took her new name from and her idea for make-up, but she wasn’t just a crazy, silly, Gothic girl. She was full of life and enjoyed hard work.

  Kevin spoke openly about being gay and didn’t seem concerned if anyone

  thought ill of him because of that; he was muscular, strong, and the best fighter of the crew. Robert would have, before, been a little uncomfortable with an admitted gay man, but now, he felt Kevin was like a bad-assed super hero. Robert found himself learning from Kevin.

  Lucy Ann, a victim of rheumatoid arthritis, was always in pain and looked frail,

  but she was determined to survive and play silly, as she tried to build up everyone

  around her, and she just plain cared about people.

  Wheeler was the leader, an old wrinkled black man who dressed like a country bumpkin, but was brilliant, calm, and the jokester.He always let people know he

  believed in their abilities.

  How Robert fit into this group was a big question in his mind. He didn’t

  know how they viewed him, but he hoped he was thought of as dependable and

  steady. He tried to be that. He wanted to be strong for his new friends. “Let’s move;

  we need to get to a safe place and get some food.”

  Walking right up to the three zombies close to the shop, the crew hit them

  hard and beat them until their brains ran free.

  They found the door locked and blocked, so they began to make a new plan,

  but to their surprise, the door bolt slid back, and they were invited in.

  Wheeler looked flummoxed by this new development. He sniffed around,

  turned to Cory, and then followed the younger man inside since Cory was a good

  judge of situations and was okay with going inside the building.

  “Terry, my wife, Lorie is here with me. You need a place to rest?”

  They introduced themselves and wondered why Terry would let them into his store and offer whatever they needed. They found out quickly. Lori was lying on a pad and a sleeping bag and had a dirty bandage on her hand.

  “I’d want someone to help me or Lorie if we were in your place. Do any of you know about doctoring?”

  “When did she get bitten?” Robert asked.

  “A few hours ago. Can you help her? I don’t know a thing about medical stuff,

  and I get awful queasy.”

  Everyone looked at Robert, and he knew this was his expected position: medical. Why him? Then, he wondered why it wouldn’t be. He was filing a need. He might

  not be a medical-type person, but he had a strong stomach and was compassionate.

  He could do this, he thought.

  “Let’s have a look, I’ll be gentle, but it may hurt a little.” Robert took the big

  first aid kit Terry handed him and looked over all the things.

  What would he begin with? Gloves. When he unwrapped the woman’s bandage, the smell of sour milk, rot, and something else filled the room, but Robert tried

  to ke
ep his face neutral. He wore gloves for protection and tossed the dirty bandages into a filthy paper bag. The bite was small; perfect teeth prints showed in the swollen, feverish skin. Mottled bruises covered her from the bite up to her shoulder; she

  said her entire arm ached.

  It was the first time he had seen a bite from a zombie, and he was sure it

  wouldn’t be the last time. He wanted to learn all he could.

  Gritting his teeth, Robert used some gauze to gently press the flesh and watched yellow pus pour out of the wound. He thought this was a huge amount of pus to accumulate in just a little while.

  When it finally finished draining, he used a scalpel to carefully open the bite further. “I know that hurt, but we want the wound open and draining.”

  He guessed that was correct.

  Lori nodded, her face pale. Terry handed her a shot of rum that she tossed

  back at once. “It hurts, but it does feel a little better now.”

  “Good.”

  She whined with pain as Robert cleaned her hand with alcohol and packed

  gauze into the wound, but Robert spoke in soothing tones, promising her it was necessary and would be over soon.

  Bella leaned over his shoulder. “While you worked, I found something in my

  pack that I got from a yard sale; this is gonna sound freaky….”

  “I can understand freaky,” Robert said.

  “I used to read about weird shit…prions and mad cow disease…just weird

  shit all the time. I like stuff about the brain and how it works.”

  Anyway, there was an article I read, and during all this, no one mentioned

  the article, so maybe scientists tried, and nothing worked, but the article was

  about how people…scientist people…had kind of looked into lichens,” explained Bella.

  “Lichens? Huh?” Robert asked.

  “Snails?” Lori shuddered.

  “Moss,” Bella said.

  “Moss?” Robert asked.

  “Look, back in the old days, people used things without understanding them,

  and people used moss from forests to put on wounds. My grandpa had Alzheimer’s, okay? I read about it but didn’t know how to get moss into his head or what kind to use…but why not try?” asked Bella.

  Robert thought. She studied moss?How strange was this? But from reports,