by Mark Clodi
“But Dora is human, the whole council had to test a few days ago, to prove we were all human, I looked at her blood myself, it was living blood.”
“I am not afraid of her, whatever she is, she’s on our side, but I know what I saw. I can keep my mouth shut...for now. We have more important things going on.”
“Fair enough, we’ll look into this more once we all get to where we are going, okay? You have my promise on that Nina.” Steve put out his hand and Nina shook it before she turned and went back into her house, leaving the two of them alone with Tim's body. Dora leaned over and pulled the sleeping bag back over the corpse, hiding it from view.
“Dora, you said you weren't the only one. I didn't forget that. I don't remember if Nina caught it or not. Who else was moving so fast?”
Dora looked up at Steve, a small smile came to her lips, “Willy. Of course it was Willy. How else could he survive out there on his own. It makes me wonder how many of our children are afflicted with this? It makes me wonder for the future and what our babies will be like.” She patted her belly without thinking about it. Steve looked at the gesture she was making and Dora awkwardly patted her thigh before raising her hand to her brush the hair back from her face.
“Thank God we don't have to worry about that yet! I don't know what I would do if any of the women came down with a nine month parasite right now. As much as everyone seems to be fucking anything that moves it is a wonder we don't have a maternity ward set up yet.”
Softy Dora agreed, “Yeah thank God for that, Steve.”
“What?” Steve looked at her closely and asked, “What?” again. Slowly he seemed to realized what he had said, “Oh my fucking God! You’re pregnant! It all makes sense now, you throwing up all the time, being extra bitchy and tired! Why didn't you tell anyone?”
“Fuck. Keep your voice down! I don't want anyone to know, okay? We got bigger things to worry about and this is one of them that can wait until we get to Iowa, or po-dunk-ville or where ever the hell Jake is leading us.”
“Jake...you should never have come with us to get the buses. Never; it was too much of a risk, there are not a whole fucking lot of people left Dora and we have to protect anyone who is going to expand the human race.”
“See? This is why I didn't tell anyone. I don't need special treatment and I need to do my job, you can't handle me with kid gloves on account of my condition.”
“Why the fuck not? Forget what I said, I am thrilled that you are knocked up, I love it the idea that you will be having a baby it is an incredible boost to my morale and everyone else will love the idea too. I wish all the women were pregnant then we would have a reason to fight again. Fighter harder I mean.”
“Steve, listen, this is important. If you so much as tell anyone I will kick you in the nutsack so hard you will never have kids of your own.”
Steve stood up more straight and shifted around on his legs until they were slightly apart, then gestured with one hand at his crotch, “Take your best shot lady, I am telling them. This will help us through the next day or two.”
Seeing the determination in his eyes Dora said, “Fuck. I really do not want people to know yet. I don't want them acting all weird trying to protect me when I am more than capable of taking care of myself. You would treat me differently, you said so yourself; you would not have brought me to get the buses yesterday.”
Steve nodded and Dora continued. “Well then you have to ask yourself Steve, would people knowing this, and liking it, according to your belief, outweigh the changes they will make in our fight to leave here? Are people going to make better or worse decisions in combat because they know I am pregnant?”
“I don't...I don't really know Dora.”
“Well you were in the military right? Do you change plans at the last minute?”
“You have to get as up to the date intelligence as you can before you go on any mission. This news could make people fight harder.”
“Steve, Steve, Steve.” said Dora shaking her head, “They are already going to be fighting for their lives, I don't think fighting for mine even enters the equation. I think they’ll do fine. When we get to Iowa we can tell everyone and use it to soften the blow that comes from our losses.”
“If we make it, Iowa it’s going to change everything.”
“So you’ll wait then?”
With a bit of a frown Steve nodded his agreement, “But only until we get there, once we’re safe again I’m telling everyone.”
“Fair enough. Now let’s get going, I still have to talk to Willy before we head out. Why don't you have him ride with me? And throw that tween Beth in my suburban too, would you?”
“You are on point, I was going to try and have another adult in your car...”
“Who? We 'adults' are spread pretty thin, Willy has a good track record of surviving and with his little girlfriend in the car he won't be tempted to head out on his own.”
“Fine. Any other changes to my plans that you want me to make?”
“Now, Steve don't be that way! You know us civilian leaders have to mess with the military plans all the time for political reasons.”
“No shit.” Steve slid open the patio door to Dora's house and they headed into her kitchen. “Are you going to miss this place?”
“Depends on where I end up, ask me in a year, if we’re still around.”
“Oh you’ll end up on your feet, I don't doubt that.” said Steve as he helped himself to a huge plate of eggs and cup of coffee. Dora frowned at him and put another pot on to make more. Steve tried to duck out before Dora made a snide comment about coffee guzzling jar heads, but he didn't quite make it. After she had poured herself a fresh cup she approached Mary and Willy in her living room. Willy was much cleaner than he had been and was getting dressed while Mary packed away bits and pieces of her medical gear into bags on the examining table.
“You need help Mary?”
“Yeah, you busy?”
“I just want to talk with Willy for a minute, want me to get you a cup of coffee?”
“Sure, put it in one of those travel mugs will you? Oh and Alex said he had come back to tell you that he couldn't get in touch with Jake.”
“Dammit. We should have left him a walkie-talkie.”
“I am sure we’ll contact him when we leave. Now go take your minute, it better be a fast one, we need to get moving here.”
“C'mon Willy.” said Dora dragging the boy with her as she went back over to the kitchen.
He finished dressing by the counter as Dora pushed another bowl of eggs over at him. “Coffee?”
“Is there any cream and sugar?”
“You know it.” said Dora pouring him a cup then passing over a bottle of powdered cream and a bowl of sugar. Willy doctored his coffee up until it resembled a creamy white sludge then started in on his eggs.
“You’re riding with me today. Up front on point, Beth will be in the car too. That okay with you?” he responded by nodding and grunting his assent. “So what did you mean when you said I could do it too? When we were out there with Tim?”
The young man shrugged and said, “Some of us are faster, like they are. Especially anyone who got real close up to them to kill them. Jeff was about as fast as I have seen, before I saw you this morning. You are way faster. Like car to bicycle faster.”
“Why in the hell didn't anyone mention this before?”
“We thought you knew. I saw you fight before, I mean you were faster than normal, you were always where you needed to be, always killing the really bad people who needed killing. I was sure you already noticed or that someone else had talked to you about it.”
“No one ever mentioned it. How fast are you?”
“I could outdraw Jeff.” Willy reached up and touched the bandage above his ear, “But I’m not fast enough.”
“Is there anything else that goes along with this?”
Willy rolled his eyes and sighed, then answered, “How would I know? You’re faster, I’m fa
ster, I don't get so tired anymore, I think we get better sooner or don't get hurt as much as we should.” he paused, shoveled in another spoonful of eggs, then said, “Oh, wait, stronger too. Much stronger. You can jump farther. That’s about it, just try things and see what you can do.”
“Good advice, too bad I don't have time. Does it ever go away?”
Willy shrugged, “Not yet, maybe when we stop killing them.”
“Which will be never. I get it. Fine. Finish up then come help me with Mary and getting the hurt people into the bus.” Dora poured the last of the fresh pot of coffee into a travel mug, then fixed it up the way she knew Mary liked to drink it before heading over to help the other woman finish packing.
Chapter 39
The vehicles were lined up and ready to move out, the group was waiting for the last of the pickets to withdraw from the fence line. Steve had designated a point at the inner fence for everyone to meet and the watchers had finally all trickled in to that gate. Once the last of them were gathered there Steve covered the young men and women as they made their way to the buses. The buses were lined up in front of Dora's house with a vehicle between each one, two pickups brought up the rear and out in front were the two motorcycles with Becka and Seth, followed by Dora's suburban and Bob's pickup truck. All of the pickups had several teenagers riding in the back, most armed with shotguns sporting looks of grim determination.
When Steve reached his truck, the second to last one, he radioed for everyone to move out and the vehicles all started forward slowly through the main gates at the end of Dora's street. The gated community funneled all of the streets to one common exit and it was in sight of this final gate that the motorcyclist pulled up to a halt, frantically Seth's voice came over the line, “Dora, do you see them? At the front gate?”
Dora was driving her suburban and she could indeed see what Seth was talking about, the two motorcycles had not roamed far ahead of her yet, they would not do so until the group was out of familiar territory. Ahead was the military truck so often driven to Doraville by Sam Waller or Jim Tiller, looking closer Dora could only see one person standing beside the truck. Grabbing her radio she called out, “Approach cautiously, that is Jake there beside the truck, not Tiller or one of the others.”
Jake stood beside the military truck and waved when they approached. Dora pulled up alongside him and rolled down her window. “Got yourself a new ride Jake? I thought you would tag along with one of us?”
“This seemed like a better idea. I stole their truck. Now they don't have it and we do.”
“I am good with that, how are things out here this morning?”
“Stirred up. Like someone poked a stick into an ant hill, stealing their truck didn't make it any better. I got in a bit of a tussle with one of them when I took it. I made my move when I saw them shifting their slow moving zombies around to this side early before sunrise. Did they figure out your plans?”
“Yeah. We had a leak.”
Jake nodded, “Too bad, we better get moving while they are still all riled up and disorganized.”
“Oh, Jake, wait a second, we brought you something, a down payment.” Dora reached over and pulled out a small lunch pail style cooler, inside were two pints of blood, their donors names written on them carefully by Mary, there was also a walkie-talkie. The blood was sitting on top of a chemical hand warmer and before Dora had grabbed it Beth had been rocking it back and forth in her hands as Mary had instructed her to do. “I hope you like red.”
Jake caught the cooler with one hand and unzipped the lid, when he looked inside Dora saw a change come over his face, like he was seeing God, he pulled his eyes away and nodded curtly to Dora, “My favorite color.”
“So it isn't spoiled?”
Softly he answered, “Oh no, it isn't spoiled.” then louder, “Okay let’s get out of here before they find new vehicles, if we can get a mile away we will leave all of the shamblers behind. I am going to get in line behind the first bus, okay?”
“Sounds good, the walkie-talkie is on the channel we are using and has a two mile range, if we get further away than that we area probably all fucked anyway.”
Dora radioed the others that Jake was moving behind the first bus and then told Seth and Becka to move out. The previous night Steve had outlined the rout he wanted to take and gone over it with the two teens until they had it memorized. However looking at a map and driving along the route were two different things. Steve wanted to go about a mile towards the heart of Kansas City, then head north, sticking to main roads where possible, but driving around major wrecks using side streets. One unfortunate change in plans had been the tow truck, there just hadn’t been time to run down a wrecker and get it back to join the caravan. Steve was confident they could push any minor wrecks out of the way, if they ran into bumper to bumper gridlock, they would just have to find another way around.
The first goal was to get over the Missouri river, something that could only be done at a few key points. Steve's first choice was at highway six thirty five, it was the closest bridge to cross the river and with any luck they could head north to highway one fifty two and then east to highway thirty five. After that it was just a matter of sticking to the road until they got to Bethany, or wherever the National Guard was fighting these days.
The two motorcycles would start ranging ahead to find the best roads once they crossed the river, they had strict instructions to stop whenever things looked bad ahead. Both Seth and Becka had shotguns and fifty shells to fend off anything they might run into. Alex had rigged up a swivel mount on each of their handlebars to hold the guns more or less in place, so if they had to fire on the move it would be a simple matter of pointing the motorcycle at the target and pulling the trigger. The main drawback with his system was the guns required about thirty seconds worth of untying to get them free, which is why both carried hunting knives and back up revolvers as well.
The other vehicles had a few adults spread among them, the group was relying on teens to fire out the windows and drive off any zombie hordes that they ran into, a strategy no one was sure would work. Dora had three passengers in her point vehicle, Willy, his friend Beth and another twenty year old named Cliff. The buses were pretty much unchanged, other than having a few seats removed from the tail end of each of them. Into that space went everyone's belongings, a single pack for each person and extra fuel, ammunition, spare tires and food.
The motorcycles led the way towards the bridge, they had used it before and knew it should be clear, the streets were eerily silent as they crept along at fifteen miles an hour. Getting over the bridge was no problem, both lanes were open, though they were separated with a guardrail. Dora called to the cyclists to let her catch up a little then they all proceeded onto the bridge. When they were about halfway over Dora caught some sign of movement on the far side, at the same time Becka slid sideways on her motorcycle, skidding to a ragged halt along the cement rail that kept traffic from rolling into the river. Seth flipped up his shotgun and took a shot at the zombies that appeared from the sides of the road at the far end of the bridge.
Dora yelled “Ambush!” into her walkie-talkie and slowed the suburban to a halt next to Becka, who was writhing around on the ground. “Beth, get her in here!”
The girl climbed out and offered Becka a hand up to pull her into the vehicle. There was some sort of an arrow sticking out of Becka's leg. Even with the injury the young woman maintained enough piece of mind to draw her buck knife and slash at the binding on the shotgun, after retrieving it and the backpack with the extra ammo off of the bike she allowed Beth to help her inside.
“How bad is it?” Dora asked as Seth's shotgun rang out again in front of them.
“It is okay, really, just a scratch. It hit the gas tank first and bounced into my leg, the padding slowed it down. I am bleeding but it isn't stuck in me or anything.”
“Can you ride or are you staying with us?” asked Cliff, his black skin was very pale as he looked at the girl pu
lling at the shaft of the arrow.
Dora kept her eyes ahead of them, some of the zombies had guns and as she watched they aimed them at Seth and fired. The boy was living a charmed life, at least he appeared to be, he didn't fall off of his motorcycle, but kept heading more or less towards the mob, as Dora watched he straightened up for a moment and took another shot with his shotgun which knocked a zombie back into the mob.
“They are behind us, they've moved in behind us mostly with super zombies.” Came Steve's voice.
“Fuck! Jake you didn't sense this?”
It took a moment then Jake's voice came over the radio, “It was too far to sense the shamblers ahead of us and I can't sense the supers at all. I am coming up to try and move them out of the way.” In her side view mirror she saw the military truck swerve out of line and pull up alongside of her. Bullets were starting to pepper the area around the suburban, one hit the upper left corner of the windshield, putting a network of stars into the safety glass, but not injuring anyone. Dora rolled down her window, Jake's passenger window as already down.
“Can you move them?” Dora asked, watching as the mob crept forward, behind them at the base of the bridge she saw a couple of old cars drive into place across the bridge.
Jake concentrated and the zombies ahead ground to a halt, but only for a moment, then they started moving again.
“Dora! We gotta get moving the supers are almost to us!” yelled Steve.
“Jake!” Dora yelled.
He shook his head, “They got supers blocking me. I guess we do it the old fashioned way.” Jake shifted the truck into gear and started forward. Ahead of them Seth took one last shot at the mob then turned his bike around and started back toward them. Dora saw his face clearly when he was shot. A surprised 'oh' took over his mouth and he struggled to control the motorcycle, he lost that battle and veered into the cement rail. Seth had been accelerating as he came back and was going a lot faster than when Becka was hit, the bike twisted sideways into the railing and Seth was airborne, he toppled onto the top of the rail, made a frantic grab for it with one hand and then tumbled out of sight off of the bridge.
