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

by catt dahman

  In her heart, she felt her husband, Carl, would be stricken with horror if she

  didn’t find all of the children. He might blame her and think she wasn’t a loving mother.

  Her mind whirled dizzily.

  Rita, in tremendous pain and bleeding, couldn’t stand to hear the mother’s despair, and she slid down the aisle of the bus and hit the water.

  “I’m looking.” A man slid down to help, reached down, then submerged himself fully to feel around.

  Doc had one arm usable; the other one was almost amputated at the elbow. He tried to do CPR on Maria’s baby.

  His attention was pulled away as one of the guards at the front began to scream, too injured already by the crash to fight the zombie that crawled inside the bus and began to feed.

  Doc wasn’t able to do much with only one arm to help a man who screamed in pain as zombies climbed into the bus to feed. If someone were to get the bleeding under control and someone were to kill the zombies at the door of the bus, Doc might be able to do CPR, but the wreck killed and injured almost everyone.

  The vehicle lay on its side with the door open, so the ghouls could climb in while the frenzied river tried to swallow the bus whole, but settling instead for taking it inch by inch.

  Johnny, outside the bus, waded into the water, climbed up onto the bus, and kicked out one of the windows half way down the bus while Conner kept the zombies off her. She could hear the guard screaming as he was eaten alive, and she thought Maria was also screaming.

  Johnny was just small and thin enough to slide into the bus and drop down inside; she noticed that as the bus was filling up with river water, it was sliding in deeper and deeper into the river.

  Panic gripped Johnny, and her stomach cramped. To one side, she saw the zombie feeding on still screaming people. If she shot her gun, the noise would deafen her and everyone else. She would lose her senses so that was not an option.

  As Johnny looked to the other side, she saw that Maria was frantically reaching into the water while two other people splashed and tried to search deeper.

  One of the blood-drenched people looked like Rita, but the woman’s hair was red with gore, and her face was drawn into a mask of horror.

  Right in front of Johnny, Doc slumped over one of the little ones, but it wasn’t

  Johnny’s daughter. She knew it had to be Maria’s youngest.

  “Doc?” she asked as she pulled at his arm, but his eyes rolled back in his head, and she saw he had bled out.

  Johnny spared one split second to feel a wave of grief over losing the doctor who had been with them ten years and had delivered their children. He had been a big-mouthed, grumpy old man, who was, also, loving and dedicated to his profession; his death was a big loss.

  She called out, “Roxy? Roxy Beth? It’s Mama.”

  In the water, Rita and the man found another man’s arm and let it go with a splash.

  Johnny told the three to go to the back and get out of the bus if they could fit. Maria was small enough. But none of them moved as they watched the action at the front of the bus. Johnny knew her voice sounded small and not very capable of issuing orders.

  Gabe, silent as always, reached down into the doorway and snatched up the zombie at the front of the bus. He crushed its skull with his bare hands and tossed the body and brains off into the water with a groan. Even for a big man, that still was a big, powerful feat.

  They could hear the rest of the survivors closer to the bus and joined the fight

  as they shouted and shot guns.

  They might be able to clear the road and the bank of the river of the creatures, but it would be too late for those still in the bus.

  As close as help was, Johnny could feel the seconds ticking away too quickly. If only the water would stop sucking the bus in deeper, they would have a chance.

  “Roxy Beth?” Johnny threw pillows, blankets, and boxes over her shoulders, telling the rest to get out before she hit them with something. Food, gear, and broken bodies tangled together in crumpled heaps on the seats and below them.

  Johnny tried to pull along in the bus, but she found her hands slipping on the slimy blood.

  Rita shrieked as Maria allowed herself to tumble back into the water with a sob.

  Maria raised her head and looked blankly at the water, realizing how deep it was.She wondered how anyone could find the children now as plastic and trash bobbed

  and spun on the surface, and almost a third of the vehicle was underwater. Rita and

  the man both treaded water tiredly, slipping under at times.

  Maria was too tired. She didn’t know how she would tell Carl she let the children all drown and couldn’t find the bodies of two. How could they be buried properly?

  Her head kept going under, and she gulped and coughed. With one leg useless, Maria carefully slid one foot onto a box that leaned and shifted under her and was about to topple over, but it was all she needed.

  Maria drew her revolver and fired into her head, without further consideration. Brains flew against the walls of the bus and all over Rita and the man, splattering their faces.

  Rita gulped filthy water as she cried out and began to panic, beating at the rising water, but too injured to tread water anymore and in too much of a panic to float.

  Johnny almost went back, but she saw Rita grab the man, and both fought to

  keep from drowning. They had seconds to live, and Johnny needed those same seconds to find her daughter.

  With difficulty, guilt clenching her chest, Johnny climbed, throwing more trash back into the water as she searched for Roxy.

  In one seat, a woman lay in a bloody, boneless mess, but Johnny didn’t stop to see if she were alive; she fought her way to the front, looking to each side.

  Gabe used a branch to club zombies to death, slammed their heads together,

  and ripped away their arms as he fought his way to the bus, knowing little children

  were in there.

  He lowered himself into the bus, tossed a ripped-open body to the side, and reached into a seat to move away a box. As he did this, Johnny and he heard faint whimpering, “It’s Roxy Beth, Gabe.”

  The big man roughly pushed Johnny past him, lifting her over the seats, so he

  almost threw her.

  Before Johnny could think, Gabe reached back to dig into a pile of rubbish. He took one second to smile as Roxy batted at him, his big grin lighting his face. He gently pulled out the small child, hugged her briefly as if memorizing her scent, and tossed

  her at Johnny even as he went into a crouching position and rushed them.

  The bus lurched deeper into the water, and everything slid down the steep incline; one more sweep of the water and the bus was going to be submerged fully

  and taken away by the river.

  Johnny held Roxy with all her strength as Gabe knocked her to the front of the bus while it slipped farther down the mud into the raging river.

  Johnny gasped with pain as she struck something, but then she and her child went spinning out of the door, sliding on wet metal and fell into a few feet of swirling water.

  She didn’t stop but clawed at the mud with one hand, pulling herself along. “Hang on to me, and don’t let go,” she ordered Roxy. Using both hands to scramble, she pulled both to the side.

  Behind her, the big yellow bus shuddered into the swirling water and flipped over as the current caught it.

  Johnny tried to cry out but was only able to roll over and sob as she drew Roxy closer and looked around to find a way to safety. She breathed a quick prayer of thanks to God and to Gabe. She was exhausted and emotionally wiped out, but she imagined Kim and Beth were beside her.

  She imagined DeVon taking Roxy and heading up the steep bank. There seemed to be a lot of crying and yelling. She heard a few gunshots.

  She tried to tell them about Gabe and how he found her baby, but her words were confused. Each time she asked Kimball to save Doc, Rita, Gabe, and the rest, he nodded but
didn’t move from her side.

  “Johnny, come on; we need to go with Roxy and get you dry and safe; it isn’t safe here.”

  “Let’s move, Kimball,” Len yelled from far away.

  More shots.

  “She’s okay?” Johnny asked.

  “Honey, Roxy is fine; she’s yelling and pissed off, but that’s a good sign. She’s fine, but we gotta go.” Kim covered them while Beth helped Johnny walk.

  At the SUVs, Kim motioned Len and the rest to load up and said he would get in the SUV with Beth and the other woman a while. Misty held Roxy now, snuggling her face against the little girl’s face.

  The creatures were cleared out in the time Johnny was down at the bus, but it wasn’t easy.

  “Way to bust ass, DeFoxyVon,” Len quipped and patted her back, “you are the reason they made it.”

  “Don’t butter my bread, Len. I didn’t do good enough to save the rest.”

  DeVon watched the river for a second, wondering where the bus would wind up

  and if people would find it one day and wonder what had happened. Her heart ached furiously.

  “Maybe not. Okay. But yanno what? You saved the little girl, and her mama might have died in bus if you and the rest hadn’t moved so fast.

  You wanna tell me that doesn’t count? They’d be dead now. You can’t save everyone, but girl, you saved that baby, and it matters.” Len had to hold her for a few seconds while DeVon cried against his shoulder. Since Z day, she never cried like this, but ten years of pain poured out.

  “Conner?” Johnny looked around, “where’s Conner?”

  “Johnny, come on, Honey; let’s get you in the SUV with Roxy,” Kim said, refusing to meet her eyes.

  Johnny, her short hair dripping with water, looked bewildered. “Where is he, Kim? Is he hurt?”

  Beth grabbed Johnny against her and held her tightly.

  “Awe, no, no, not Conner, not Roxy’s daddy…no. Beth? No….” Johnny began to scream.

  Len already had his pack out, and when his hands shook too hard, DeVon took the syringe and loaded it, according to Len’s instructions. She hoped he remembered the correct dosage.

  Kim saw Len’s hands shaking and Devon’s confused glance; he took the alcohol wipe and swished it across Johnny’s arm, and before she could begin a protest, he slid the needle into her vein and injected enough Demerol to knock Johnny out fast.

  He scooped her into his arms and set her into the SUV with a blanket. Little Roxy curled up against her mother at once and sucking her thumb, fell asleep.

  Johnny would have run back to the muddy bank to see her husband. Kim couldn’t let her see his remains; she would never get over the sight.

  Len pounded the top of the SUV. “Let’s move. We’re gonna scare people when they don’t see this bus.”

  They pulled out, the trucks of supplies behind them.

  “Who was it, Beth?”

  She knew what Kim was asking. “Bernie and his wife, Ann. And Doc…that’s two medical people.” She sniffled as she said the names. Doc had been with them since almost the first day, and she would miss the grumpy old man.

  “Inez.” She was the daughter of one of the men back at the island. “Sweet, sweet Inez.”

  “Rita,” Misty said, “Beth…remember...it was you and me, Kim, Mark, Warren, Len, Rita, and some others when all this happened? We all got our stuff. It was all of us at

  the beginning, wasn’t it?”

  “And it’s still us, Mis. Don’t let go of that,” Beth said, meaning Misty needed to forgive Mark.

  “Len took us around the city. He taught us how to shoot and bitched about our needing more than one shot when we had just learned…he was tough…and Rita was with us. She tried, too,” Misty said, “I thought Mark was so heroic.”

  “He still is.”

  “Hey, can you two stop ignoring how heroic I was…am?” Kim tried to lighten the mood although his hands still shook.

  Beth, ignoring his attempt, listed more people from the bus. “Oh my, God. Kim, pull the SUV over…now.”

  He did, puzzled.

  Beth finally stopped throwing up and nodded to her husband to go on, now that her stomach was empty. She took several sips of water to clear her mouth of the bad taste and cried into her hands.

  Kim and Misty waited until she could speak again, but Beth was only able to talk between sobs. “Maria. She was on the bus.”She was Carl’s wife, the Carl who was very close to Beth and Kim and who was driving the cattle.

  Misty slapped a hand to her mouth and wheezed with despair.

  Kim rubbed his hand across his eyes.

  “All four of Carl and Maria’s kids. Eight, seven, six, and three in ages,” Beth said.

  Misty turned to the side and cried softly, curling up in a ball.

  “We have to tell Carl he lost his whole family. Damn, Beth. What have we done?”

  “We have lived. And life ends in death.” Beth felt bitter. “It could have been our kids.” She moved over to lean against Kim as he drove, not caring he needed his hands free; she needed him close.

  “I dread telling him. I dread it for him and me,” Kim told her. He saw a distant rainbow and angrily flipped it an obscene gesture. “I feel sick over this.”

  “Conner…did you?” she asked in a whisper.

  “I did it.”

  Kim saw his friend on the muddy bank of the river, fighting three zombies and

  keeping them from getting to the school bus and to Johnny, his wife. Because he had

  lost a hand in Z year one, Conner fought one-handed, but his determination after an arm

  was chewed to the bone, after his guts were pulled out, and after his scalp was torn off,

  his determination continued to be strong, and he didn’t let anyone of the three get to

  those he loved. Kim shot the ghouls, and then with a nod from Conner, Kim put a bullet

  into his friend’s skull.

  He would never tell Johnny anything but that Conner kept three zombies off her and Roxy, and he was infected; he would never let the woman know the pain her husband suffered.

  Ivory Joe sobbed as he learned his son and daughter-in-law, Bernie and Ann, died aboard the bus that went off the road.

  After Kim, Andromeda, and Mark had escaped the brutal captors of the Reconstruction Army, they had stayed with Ivory Joe and his wife, Velma, an older black couple who had saved their lives. Ivory Joe had lost his grandson, Ricky, some time back when the young man traveled with Hannah.

  The loss of Conner, Maria, the children, and Gabe was difficult for the rest to accept. Len named all who died and came up with twenty people.

  “I can’t talk like George did. I ain’t a speaker, but I can say things I feel in my heart,” said Len.

  “ I didn’t ask to lead the group, and sometimes, I thought about running away or giving up, but someone had to do it, and I knew, although I’d make mistakes, I did know how to survive. I recall every loss in the last ten years, and I have grieved more times than anyone knows. I lost my own woman and a child a long time ago.”

  Off the top of his head, he listed people who had been a part of the group, who had died in the last ten years.

  “May they rest in peace,” Mark said softly.

  “Nothing is worse than our losing friends, family…those children…in the bus accident. It makes me want to give up and just quit trying. Seems the dead are the only ones who find any peace now,” Len went on.

  “But then, in my head, I hear George. He would tell us to grieve hard and then get up and move on because there isn’t another option. George always said he would be damned if a bunch of stupid zombies were going to win. As long as one of us is here, then those bastards haven’t won.” He sat down.

  “I am really not one for talkin’. But all I wanna say is that I watched Conner give his life against three of them today so his wife and child could survive.

  We will go on because people like Conner and Juan and so many others have
<
br />   died fighting for people to survive. I say we owe them to keep living and going on.”

  “Amen,” Ivory Joe said, “Amen. Our precious children and grandchildren died,

  but they had a goal: for children to survive and return this world to its place.”

  Johnny rode with Roxy on the bus with Ivory Joe the next day. Misty and Beth rode with DeVon on point.

  “I’m pregnant,” Misty said.

  Beth took a deep breath. “Wow.”

  DeVon stayed quiet, a little amazed that she was welcomed into the tight friendship between Johnny, Misty, Beth, and Julia.

  “I haven’t told Mark yet. I will once we’re at Port A, and I can think again.” She had five children, and two more were lost to miscarriages; she was only twenty-six.

  “I’m excited for you,” Beth told her. It was nice to hear about new life even as the images of the bus going off the road and then into the river haunted them. She did not know before how easy a life people had.

  They had complained, but until the plague, life was simple. The world was dead now, but zombies just weren’t in the grave yet. Those creatures, plus the survivors, were just putting off what loomed ahead.

  Chapter 35

  We Had a Problem. This Was a Serious Issue

  When they reached the safe area where a team guarded the cattle, they first had to meet the three new survivors Teeg and the rest found who wanted to join them. They seemed like good people. Len welcomed them and sent them to meet the rest of the people.

  Beth and Misty went with Len, Mark, and Kim to talk to Carl. When they drew him aside, Carl was smiling like he always did, and he asked how Maria and the children did on the long trip.

  Mark spoke softly, beginning with the fact that the bus had an accident.

  Carl looked to the buses and did a quick count, looking flummoxed. Mark said that Johnny reported how hard Maria had tried to save the children in the school bus, not caring about self but bravely attempting a rescue. He added that Doc tried as well, and several others helped. Carl’s face was still puzzled.

  Gently, Mark said the bus was swept away and with it, everyone on board except for Roxy, whom Johnny managed to get out. Carl’s smile faded, and he cocked his head.