by Josh Vasquez
Jeremy tried to think of something to say that would be comforting, but nothing would come to mind. Josh was right. The idea of having a family right now was terrifying. Jeremy had not really thought about it until now. If his mom were still alive, where would he be right now? They most likely would have stayed at the house, with his rusty machete being the only line of defense. He would have never met Ben, or Tori and Lexx. He would have never met the Padre. Or Josh and his family. If his mother were still alive, how would he have protected her?
Guilt began to creep up within him as he remembered that he didn’t protect her. He stood and watched as the dead pulled her apart on their driveway. He froze in fear then, how would he have reacted any different later?
No. There was nothing I could have done.
He knew it was true and the events that came to pass were the only way they would have played out. He could not keep dwelling on “what-if”. His mother’s death, as painful as it was, it was what drove him to find his father. And in that process, he met good people. People who are now like family to him. He would hate to see something happen to Tori and Lexx. Even Josh and his family. While they weren’t blood-related, they were all alive and that meant that they were all in the same boat.
“What comes next,” Jeremy finally spoke, “is we survive. Together.”
Josh nodded. His smile returned to his somewhat pale face.
“Your family is my family now, and I’ll be damned if I see anything happen to them.”
“Thank you,” Josh said.
Jeremy flashed a smile.
“Now let’s go find more stuff.”
***
After gathering the tools into the truck, they pulled it around into the lumberyard. It was not impressive by any means, but for the most part, it looked untouched. Apparently, no one was planning such a large property renovation as they were.
“Plywood’s over there,” Jeremy said, pointing towards the back of the yard.
Josh parked the truck next to the rack full of plywood.
“I don’t see a forklift anywhere, so it looks like we gotta load it by hand,” Josh said.
“Oh, joy…” Jeremy whined.
They loaded up as much of the wood as they could into the bed of the truck, relocating some of the tools into the cab.
“We’ll have to make a second trip,” Josh said, as he tightened down the straps on the truck.
“Yeah, hopefully it will all still be here when we get back,” Jeremy responded.
“I think it will. It’s been here this long.”
Once the wood was secure, they pulled back out into the street. It had been eerily quiet the entire time they had been in the small town. No movement anywhere, the town was dead.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jeremy saw something move.
His head turned quickly.
“There’s someone out there,” Jeremy said.
Josh slowed down the truck as Jeremy shifted in his seat to get a better look.
“And I don’t think they’re dead.”
Josh stopped the truck.
Jeremy was right. The man and woman didn’t look dead. Rough, but still alive. They both wore ragged looking clothing. The man in a stained white t-shirt and jean cut-off shorts. The woman wore a loose-fitting sundress, its print as faded as her skin. They were both skeletons, barely any meat left on their bones. Perhaps the zombies didn’t think they’d be worth the effort.
They took notice of the truck and held their hands up, trying to wave it down.
“What do we do?”
Josh looked at Jeremy. His jaw seemed set and he shrugged.
“Follow my lead.”
They got out of the truck just as the two strangers reached them.
“Hey there friend!” The man said.
Josh motioned that he keep his voice down.
“Oh, sorry,” he said, his voice obnoxiously above a whisper. “It’s just that we haven’t seen people in a while. Living people, ain’t that right Virginia?”
“Nope. Haven’t seen anybody,” Virginia quipped.
Now that the pair was closer, Jeremy could not help but notice how much older they looked. Their skin was wrinkled and small sores covered their visible flesh. And they smelled like they haven’t bathed in a long time. A mix of musk and cigarette smoke floated around them.
“How long have y’all been out here?” Josh asked.
“Oh, just about since everything started I reckon. We’ve been moving around place to place, trying to avoid the monsters.”
“Have you had to kill any?”
The man looked hesitantly at the woman.
“One,” she said, her eyes down.
“Just one?” Josh pressed.
The man nodded.
“We mostly try to avoid them. But this one stumbled in while we was getting high. Tried to grab Virginia, so I smashed his head in.”
Jeremy watched as Josh squirmed at the word “high”. Virginia nudged the man in the ribs.
“Speaking of getting high,” he said, “y’all wouldn’t happen to have any crystal on ya, would ya?”
Josh slowly shook his head.
“Sorry, but no,” Josh said.
“Ah, that’s too bad. We ran out a couple days ago. We’ve been needing to party real bad since then.”
“Yeah, party,” Virginia added.
Jeremy felt the air get tense. He wasn’t sure if it was just him, or maybe everybody felt it. The two druggies looked at Jeremy and Josh like they were hiding something. He could feel Virginia looking him up and down.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have any drugs… What was your name again?” Josh asked.
“Dennis.”
“Well Dennis, it was nice to meet you. Virginia,” Josh said, nodding his head towards them and turning to leave.
“Wait,” Dennis said, grabbing Josh by the arm.
Jeremy’s fingers touched the hilt of his machete.
Josh slowly turned to look at the man.
“Y’all don’t have anything? Anything would help. Some coke, whisky, hell, I’d even smoke a little grass to take the edge off.”
“I said we don’t have any drugs.”
“Virginia will suck your dick for anything.”
She started to hesitate Dennis’s offer, but the need for relief overcame the small amount of pride left in her. She simply nodded.
“No, thank you,” Josh said, his voice growing agitated with the two junkies.
“C’mon man, we both will,” Dennis pushed.
Josh grabbed the man’s hand from his arm, his grip crumbling in the grasp of a stronger hand. He flung the hand away from him, Dennis looking hurt.
“C’mon man, help us out here. We’re hurting real bad.”
“We don’t have anything to give you.”
Dennis started looking around. Jeremy’s hand slid closer to his blade’s handle.
“Well, shit then,” Dennis said. “You can at least take us to where you’re staying.”
Jeremy flashed his eyes at Josh.
“No, I’m afraid we can’t do that either.”
Josh turned and began walking towards the truck. He motioned that Jeremy follow.
“Fuck you man!”
Josh stopped.
“Yeah, fuck you!” Virginia chimed in, her voice shrill and cracked from excessive smoking.
“You just gonna leave us here asshole? That ain’t very Christian!” Dennis chided.
Josh spun around to face them.
“And neither is offering up your friend like that,” he said.
Dennis was startled by Josh’s response, not expecting one.
“You’re an asshole. Fucking leaving us out here to fucking die.”
“Let’s go Josh.”
Jeremy’s voice pulled Josh back. He felt his anger twitch within him, but a calmness washed over him.
“Goodbye Dennis. Goodbye Virginia. Best of luck to you two.”
With that, Josh climbed back into the
truck and cranked the engine. They drove off leaving the two junkies slowly shrinking in the rear-view mirror.
***
“You okay?”
Josh focused through the cloud of thought to hear Jeremy’s question.
“Yeah.”
“Hey man, you did the right thing,” Jeremy said. “There’s no way we could have brought those meth heads back to the cabin.”
Josh nodded.
“Hey,” Jeremy said louder.
Josh looked over to his friend.
“You did the right thing, okay? You are gonna be great at protecting your wife and little one.”
“Thanks Jer.”
“Do y’all know if it’s gonna be a boy or girl?” Jeremy asked, trying to bring the conversation back to normal.
Josh laughed.
“No, we don’t. We just assume it’ll be a girl. Guess we’ll have to wait and see like the good ol’ days.”
“Good. It’ll give us all something to look forward to,” Jeremy said, as the two made their way back to the house.
Chapter Fourteen
Over the course of the next few weeks, the weather turned from cool to downright freezing. It was unusually cold for the Southeast. Now mid-December and snow had started to stick to the ground. In these parts, you may get some flurries, but it never stayed that way for long. And if it did flurry, school was canceled and people stayed home from work. That’s how rare snow was in the South. The wind had also been stronger and air colder.
The cold slowed progress on the perimeter fence, but it was finally completed. It was nowhere near an architectural masterpiece, but it served its purpose well. Only a few zombies had slipped onto the property before it was completed, but since, none have made it past the fence. The plywood was too slick to climb over and the lack of visual stimuli made the effort of climbing seem less appealing to the dead.
Tori had the idea of adding a small ditch around it, a moat almost, adding a couple more feet of height to the wall. With the two feet deep ditch and the six-foot tall fence, the only way a zombie could see over that was if it died riding on the back of someone’s shoulders who also died at the same time. In other words, not very likely.
On top of the ditch, other additions had been made to property’s defense. Booby-traps, for a lack of a better name, were now placed all throughout the woods. Most were holes with sharp objects placed in the bottom, although one had a bear-trap found on one of Josh and Jeremy’s many runs.
Other traps included a few with a rope harness, designed to disable zombies more than harm them. George, Josh’s father-in-law, had taught CJ how to tie them and how to set them up properly.
The inside fence that surrounded the house and the yard was also built up with the leftover plywood. Cut into half-sheets, it was only three feet tall. It was more of a last barrier, in case anything were ever to get in. To give everyone more time to react to an attack from the dead.
With the defenses well in place, there was really only one obstacle left.
Laura’s pregnancy.
Anne had given Josh a list of things that were needed and on supply runs; he would find what they could. So far, he had most of the basics: clothing, diapers, wipes, blankets, a pack and play, jars of baby food, and few baby creams and lotions. Most raided from nearby neighborhoods, although several books were “borrowed” from a library in a town over. Anne had asked for books on home birthing and one copy of What to Expect When You’re Expecting. She had been reading up on what it would take to have a successful birth at home. Between her and Amy’s experience and Chris’s medical training from the Army, she seemed confident that everything would be okay. Josh tried to share the enthusiasm of his mother-in-law, but was still nervous. He knew it was possible to have a healthy baby without doctor supervision; he just worried because it would be Laura’s first. She normally did not take to pain well.
Knowing this about her daughter as well, Anne pulled Josh aside one day.
***
“There’s a few more things we need for the birth.”
“Like what?” Josh asked.
Anne’s eyes fell for a second, but bounced back just as quickly.
“Well, for starters, we’re going to need medicine.”
Josh nodded. He knew this was coming. It was the one thing that was always missing from the lists she gave him.
“We’ll need antiseptic solutions and other things for clean-up,” she said slowly.
“Stop stalling, what do we really need?” Josh said, the agitation in voice growing.
Anne paused, not bothered by her son-in-law’s attitude, but actually hesitant on answering.
“We’re going to need pain killers. Narcotics to be exact. With this being Laura’s first pregnancy, and her not knowing what to expect, she is going to need those painkillers. Mine and Amy’s labors were both intense, I’m sure Laura will be no different.”
Josh’s heart sunk. He knew they were going to need some kind of medicine; it was a fact he tried to avoid thinking about.
“Okay, Okay,” He said, rubbing his hands over his face. “What’s it called and where do I need to go to get it?”
Anne looked over his shoulder. Down the hallway, Laura waddled by, smiling at her mother as she did.
“It’s called Demerol.”
“Okay. Where do I get it, Anne?”
“The hospital.”
Josh let out a deep breath. The hospital. The nearest hospital was in Statesboro, the one place he was trying to avoid. The largest town in the area, it was also the most populated. Translation: Crawling with dead.
“The hospital? I won’t be able to find it in a pharmacy?”
Anne shook her head.
“No, and we’ll need a few more medical supplies from there as well. A blood pressure monitor, a Doppler sonicaid, oxygen, and…”
“And what?”
“Resuscitation equipment in case of an emergency.”
Anne watched her son-in-law’s face fall. She placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Just in case Josh. We want to be prepared for anything.”
“I know, I know. How long do we have?” He asked.
“She’s somewhere between 36 and 38 weeks. Two, four weeks maybe.”
Josh’s mind raced. Two weeks. Two weeks until he was going to be a father. And that’s only if he can gather up the right equipment first. No pressure.
“Alright,” he finally said. “Can you write that all down for me? And is there anything else?”
“Yes, I can write down. And yes, there is something else.”
She paused again.
“We’ll need resuscitation equipment for both Laura and the baby.”
Josh nodded slowly, turned, and walked away.
***
Jeremy sat on the couch in the living room, flipping through his mother’s Bible. Josh walked in and smiled at the sight of him reading?
“Whatcha reading?” Josh asked.
Jeremy looked up from the book.
“Oh, uh, just looking through all of my mom’s notes really. There’s a lot of them.”
“Did she read it a lot?”
“Yeah. Every morning.”
Josh sat in the reclining chair opposite of Jeremy.
“It’s good you still have a little piece of her,” he said, as he leaned the chair back, popping up the footrest.
Jeremy nodded. He was glad he did take it. And reading it did make him feel better. His mom left many little nuggets for him to ponder. She would write notes on what she read, prayers, and even the occasional doodle. They were his favorite part.
“So, you up for another run?”
Jeremy looked at Josh. His face seemed serious, something rare for Josh, who always seemed to keep the mood light.
“Yeah, sure. This afternoon?” Jeremy asked.
“No, tomorrow. Early.”
“What’s up man? Where we got to go?”
Josh’s mouth twisted, as if he was holding back the words.
“Oh…” Jeremy said.
“Yeah.”
They both sat in silence for a couple minutes.
“For the baby?” Jeremy asked, breaking the quiet.
Josh nodded.
“Okay then. What you thinking?” Jeremy said.
“Well, most of what we need will be at the hospital. So, that will be our main objective. I don’t know how bad it will be, but I’m guessing the place will be crawling with z’s. Plus, with the college nearby, I’m sure there will be more wandering around all over.”
“So, an easy run then?” Jeremy said, a smile appearing around the corners of his lips.
“Yeah, a real cake-walk,” Josh said with a chuckle.
***
“Just you and Jeremy?”
Laura stared her husband down in their bedroom, waiting for him to respond to her question.
“We’ve done alright so far,” he said.
“Yeah, but those were small little po-dunk towns. This is Statesboro we’re talking about.”
Her left hand sat on her hip, the other rubbing her belly. Her eyes narrowed. She was at the point in her pregnancy that she was not willing to put up with much. She had a human growing inside of her. She had enough going on.
“What do you want me to do Laura?” he said with a sigh.
“You’re smarter than you look, Joshua,” she said, taking her hands and placing them on the sides of his face. She ran her fingers through the beard he had taken to growing. He looked up into her eyes and he could see that she was only concerned about him.
“See if Tori and Lexx will go with you. I’d feel better if you took them.”
She pulled in his face and planted a kiss on his lips.
“I need you to come back to me,” she whispered. “I can’t do this without you.”
He kissed her back, their lips locking, saliva exchanging.
“You have my word,” he whispered back.
They kissed again, and it wasn’t long until they were making love.
Chapter Fifteen
Tori was surprisingly on board for the trip to Statesboro. Despite her hesitations about having a baby around, she was all for a healthy delivery. Josh was relived, as he was expecting some pushback from her.
