The Dead Series (Book 3): Dead Weight

by Jon Schafer

  Sean averted his eyes from Steve, looking down at the jug of water and MRE pack in his hand, and said, “I’m going to eat now, but this discussion isn’t over.”

  “It is as far as I’m concerned,” Steve told him.

  ***

  The last dead body was pulled into the water with a splash as Tick-Tock said, “That’s all of them.”

  Denise maneuvered the pontoon boat next to the dock as Tick-Tock readied the ropes to tie them up. Seeing this, she tossed him a ball of twine and said, “Use this. It’ll hold the boat, but it’ll break if we need to make a quick getaway.”

  Again, his respect for her rose, and he said, “I take it you’ve done this before.”

  “This isn’t my first rodeo, cowboy,” she said with a smile.

  As they climbed up onto the dock, Tick-Tock looked at the back of the building and asked, “How well have you checked this place out?”

  “Not very,” Denise replied. “I get in, grab what I need and get out as fast as I can.”

  Tick-Tock considered this, before saying, “I’d like to take a good look around. There might be some good shit in there.”

  “The building’s secure,” she told him. Pointing to where a window had been smashed out on the second floor, she added, “That’s how I get in and out. The problem’s always been that if I stayed here too long, the dead were all over me. I don’t know if they could smell me or sense me, but if I’m here for more than a few minutes, they start showing up. The first time I came here, I thought it was safe. The building was locked up tight and has shatterproof glass all around the first floor. I managed to break in through that office window upstairs and spent about an hour inside. When I got everything I needed and started coming out though, there were about thirty uglies waiting for me.”

  “What did you do?” Tick-Tock asked.

  “Went out to the front,” she answered. “That’s when I saw the gate was open and there were a whole bunch of dead right outside it. There’s a warehouse across the street and the uglies were all bunched up in front of it. That told me there was someone alive inside, but I was so busy trying to figure out how to save my own ass that I didn’t try to contact them. It would have been nearly impossible anyway without bringing the uglies down on me. I dumped all the stuff I’d grabbed and made it out through a bathroom window on the side of the building. The dead were clustered at the back, so I ran past them to the boat. When I came by here the next day, I noticed that the same dead were hanging around.”

  “The same dead?” Tick-Tock asked.

  “This was near the beginning, so they were all wearing clothes,” Denise told him. “I recognized them because a couple were wearing uniforms. They were firefighters. The ones you yoked into the water today were probably the same ones who came out last time I was here.”

  “Think we might have a chance at closing the gate?” Tick-Tock asked.

  Looking at the M-4 he carried, she asked, “You any good with that thing?”

  “I’m still alive,” he replied with a laugh.

  “I didn’t try it before because I was alone, but it might work with two of us,” Denise told him. “It’s about fifty yards to the gate across a wide open parking lot, but we could probably sneak around the inside perimeter of the fence. It’s overgrown with all kinds of ivy and crap so we might not be spotted right away, but it’s like some of these things can smell you. I think that’s why I always get a few of them showing up when I’m here. If we move fast though, we can probably get to the gate and close it.” Holding up the M1, she added, “Another thing that stopped me before was that I’ve got ammunition, but I only have one clip. Fifteen rounds might not be enough considering how many of those things could get in.”

  Tick-Tock stood at the rear entrance of Cabela’s and said, “So what do you think? Can we do it?”

  With a raised eyebrow and a mischievous smile, she said, “There’s a chain and lock hanging from the gate. I checked it out once when I was thinking about doing what we’re thinking about doing. We need to close and lock it, and then take care of whatever gets in. The hard part is that we’ll be heading right toward where the dead will be coming in. We’re going to have to do some ducking and dodging because if we fire a shot before the gate’s closed, we’re screwed. The uglies out in the street will be on us in a heartbeat.”

  “Soooo,” Tick-Tock asked with a big grin on his face, “do you want to go for it?”

  “What the hell,” Denise said. “No one lives forever. And besides, I’d like to be able to take my time for once. Let’s give it a shot.”

  Heading along the back of the building, she stopped and took a quick look around the corner.

  “It’s clear,” she said as she tied her hair back with a scrunchie. When she was done, she took a deep breath and said abruptly, “Let’s go,” before taking off at a run.

  Tick-Tock followed her across the open space between the building and the fence, scanning the area to his left as he tried to keep up. The parking lot hadn’t been completely finished, so foliage grew in clumps everywhere. He saw the gate standing ajar, and beyond it could make out the milling, mass of dead in the street in front of a two story warehouse. He stopped behind Denise, crouched at the fence, grateful to have a moment to catch his breath.

  Have to quit smoking, he thought.

  “You going to make it?” She asked with a quiet laugh at his labored breathing.

  “You run pretty fast,” he replied.

  With another quiet laugh, she replied, “You have to nowadays.”

  Looking at the area in front of them, she said, “I don’t see any uglies yet, so we’re good. We have to move quick and quiet along the fence. As soon as the first uglies come through, we haul ass straight at them. I run faster than you, so I’ll go for the gate.” She pointed to the folded wire stock on her M1, adding, “I can’t bash them in the head with this, so I’ll duck and dodge around them. You’ll have to keep them busy until I get it shut, and then we can take them out. If everything goes to hell, head for the boat.”

  Tick-Tock nodded and said, “Okay, let’s do it.”

  Denise locked eyes with him and he felt an almost electric jolt pass between them. She broke contact by giving him a smile, turning, and starting off at a half jog along the fence. At this slower pace he could keep up, but he could see from her form that she had been a runner long before the dead came back to life.

  No wonder she was so fast.

  They had covered half the distance to the gate when the first zombie came through.

  Dressed in tattered rags that hung from its torso, which couldn’t disguise the fact that its chest and stomach had been ripped open and most of its insides taken out. With its abdominal muscles gone, it leaned forward as it shuffled through the gate. Its sunken eyes flicked back and forth as searched for what had attracted it. Spotting Tick-Tock and Denise, it let out a low whine and changed direction.

  They changed direction too, heading straight toward it.

  Denise sped up, quickly leaving Tick-Tock behind. He watched as she ran directly at the Z. It sped up too and was fixated on her, so he knew he had to do something which would distract it. He couldn’t make too much noise since it would attract more of the dead, so he refrained from calling out. Instead, an idea came to him, and he let out a low whine that mimicked the noise they made.

  The thing immediately looked at him, its bluish-gray face covered in fury and its chin covered with black saliva. Its attention switched back to Denise, so Tick-Tock let out another whine as three more of the dead came through the gate. All of them turned their attention to him.

  Denise reached the first of the Z’s. She was almost within arm’s reach before swerving to the right. The dead thing grabbed at her but missed by an easy two feet. Tick-Tock let out another whine and it twisted to focus on him.

  Denise easily dodged the other three and raced for the gate. Sliding to a stop that raised dust, she grabbed the upright and pulled.

  Nothing happe
ned.

  Looking down, Denise saw that a heavy growth of weeds had twisted themselves through the bottom of the chain link. Pulling again, the gate moved a few inches with a loud creaking noise and a rattle. With all of her strength, she wrenched at it until it broke loose, making even more noise in the process. She glanced across the street and saw that the noise had attracted a lot of attention. At least half the dead that had been clustered in front of the warehouse were now coming toward her.

  After pushing the gate shut, she grabbed the chain, quickly looping it twice through the uprights. She felt a jolt of fear when she reached for the lock and saw it was already closed. Behind her, she heard four quick shots. Knowing she had to buy them time to get away since it looked like their plan wasn’t going to work, she undid one of the loops and tied the ends in a knot. Denise only had enough time to take a step back as the first of the dead hit the fence with a loud bang. Turning to run, she saw Tick-Tock standing with his rifle at the ready. The bodies of four dead uglies lie between them, one of them only a few feet from her. She saw that its arms were stretched toward her as it lay sprawled face first in the dirt.

  “Get to the boat!” She screamed.

  He didn’t move, which made her hesitate. Behind her, she heard the loud whine of the dead and was torn between fear of them and wondering why Tick-Tock wasn’t running for the water. Starting and stopping, she stutter stepped a few feet.

  “We’re good,” Tick-Tock called out.

  Turning back, Denise could see that the gate had held, and while the chain link fencing bulged, it didn’t look like it was going to break loose of its ties.

  From behind her, she heard Tick-Tock say, “Damn good job. That was easier than I thought.”

  “But it’s not locked. I only tied the chain,” Denise told him. “Eventually they’ll get through.”

  Shaking his head, he replied, “We’re good. They can figure out simple things, but I don’t think they can figure out how to undo the chain. Besides, there’s no way they can reach through and untie it.”

  She looked at the gate again and saw he was right. The dead clawed at the fence trying get at them, but the tight weave of the mesh made it impossible for them to reach through and undo the chain. The dirty, long nailed fingers that poked through weren’t able to do anything except wiggle at them.

  “So we did it?” She asked.

  “Looks like it,” Tick-Tock said, “unless there’s another way to get in.”

  Denise glanced at the fence, overgrown with weeds and ivy, before saying, “Might be a good idea to check it out. I don’t want any surprises. I’ve had about enough of this shit for one day.”

  Tick-Tock, heading toward the fence, said, “I thought you did this all the time.”

  “Not like this,” Denise replied. “I usually get in and out as fast as I possibly can. I’ve got a two-minute rule and stick to it. I find a house near the water where there aren’t too many uglies around, pull up to the dock and bust in the door. That’s why I keep a sledgehammer on the boat. The kitchen is almost always near the back, so I grab what I can and get out. Before I go in, I set my watch for two minutes. When the alarm goes off, no matter what I have or don’t have, I haul ass. The only reason I thought we could get away with this is because I figured you knew what you were doing.”

  Tick-Tock stopped, “I thought you knew what you were doing. From the way you were talking, I thought you’d done this before.”

  They looked at each other for a second before bursting into laughter.

  When she recovered, Denise said, “When I came up with the idea, I thought you were going to tell me if I was doing something wrong.”

  “You sounded so sure of yourself that I just went along with it,” Tick-Tock told her.

  They studied each other seriously for a moment again before Denise said, “We need to tighten up our game a little bit.”

  Looking at the dead bunched up against the gate, Tick-Tock replied, “I think you’re right. I don’t want to end up like them.”

  “Where did you learn to make noises like those things?” She asked as they walked toward the fence.

  Tick-Tock shrugged and replied, “I’ve always been good at mimicking things, that’s probably why I got into radio.”

  “Well, you must have been saying something pretty interesting because they were all focused on you,” Denise told him.

  “I was saying…eat at Luigi’s,” he said in an Italian accent.

  With a renewed purpose, they walked the perimeter of the fence but couldn’t find another way in. Heading to the back of the building, they decided to go in through the huge sliding glass doors at the rear since they now had control of the area. Denise retrieved her sledgehammer from the pontoon boat and Tick-Tock busted the lock.

  Before entering, he asked, “You’ve been in here before?”

  “Three times,” she replied. “If there were any uglies, they would have shown themselves by now.”

  Trusting her, but not the world they lived in, Tick-Tock held his rifle at the ready as he went through the door.

  The inside of the building was well lit, due to the huge windows at the front and the back. Facing west, the afternoon light beamed in through the wood framed glass that started ten feet up and ended by following the cathedral ceiling.

  The area in front of him was a wide-open space lined with shelves and racks. The store was huge and Tick-Tock didn’t know where to begin since they had so much to get. Denise took the lead as she pulled a list from her pocket, “Grab a shopping cart. We can get the stuff we need first and then take a look around.” Pointing, she told him, “We have to go over there first.”

  She led him through a maze of shelves, and then stopped at a corner with racks of boots and shoes in all different styles. Looking at her list, she said, “I’ve been getting clothes for everyone, so I have their sizes written down. I need three pair of boots size eight, four pair size nine and one pair size ten and a half.”

  As they checked the boxes, Tick-Tock said, “It may be none of my business, but why did you stay with Sean and his crew? They seem pretty useless.”

  Denise picked up a pair of Timberland boots and studied them before replying, “Because, besides the pirates, they’re the only living thing on the river. I lived alone before all this, but I’m not a hermit or anything. They may sound lame and act lame, but they’re human beings. Besides, I don’t take any shit from them. They do what I tell them, with the exception of going out on trips or carrying a gun.”

  Throwing a shoebox into the cart, Tick-Tock was overwhelmed by the urge to ask if she was seeing any of them but stopped himself. He was attracted to her, but it was too soon after Susan’s death.

  Instead he asked, “Why didn’t you just grab a couple of the least useless and head up river.”

  Her answer caused him to break out in laughter.

  “Because they’re all equally useless,” she told him.

  They gathered the boots and backpacks as they talked about their previous lives. When Tick-Tock mentioned he’d been in the Marine Corp, she surprised him by saying, “Me too.”

  “I was in for four years,” she said. “I decided to get out after I met my husband.”

  “I thought you said you lived alone.”

  “The Corps lasted longer than the marriage,” she said with a laugh.

  After loading the shoes, they headed over to the backpacks. As they passed through the main display area by the front doors, Tick-Tock could see that it was getting dimmer inside the store. They still had a few hours until the sun set, but they would have less light as its angle changed. He was about to suggest that they keep their search near the lit up spaces when he stopped in his tracks at what he saw in one of the displays. Looking at the sign near the front door, he saw it read, ‘Sporting Throughout The Ages.’

  Tick-Tock turned fully around, taking in all the mannequins scattered throughout the area dressed in period costumes and posed in mock-ups of different types of sporti
ng events. The one that caught his eye though, was the medieval joust. There was a knight in armor, holding a lance, but that wasn’t what had attracted his attention. It was the one preparing for the sword competition.

  His squires were dressing him in chainmail.

  “Now that’s what I need,” he said to Denise.

  “I don’t want them getting close enough to me for it to do any good,” she replied.

  Watching as he started to undress the mannequin, she said, “While you’re being a pervert and molesting the mannequins, I’m going to grab the backpacks.”

  Fascinated with his find, Tick-Tock only nodded. He was too busy considering the protection it would give him as he ran its interlocking steel links through his hands. He forgot all about Denise until she screamed.

  He dropped the chainmail grabbed his M4 and took off in the direction the noise came from. Moving forward without caution, he raced up the main aisle, slowing only briefly to check each intersecting walkway. When Denise came running around the corner of the last one at the back of the store, they almost ran into each other.

  “What is it?” Tick-Tock asked.

  Denise was breathing heavily and took a moment to answer, “I was digging through some packs when it jumped out at me.”

  Looking around wildly for the Z, Tick-Tock barely heard what she said next. When it finally registered, he asked, “You saw a what?”

  “A rat,” she said with fear. “It was a great big fucking rat that jumped out at me.”

  With a laugh, Tick-Tock said, “You’re shitting me.”

  “No! It was huge,” she declared.

  Lowering his rifle while trying to stifle his laugh, he said, “You sneak in and out of places like this every day, with thousands of Z’s around, and you got scared by a rat?”

  Her mood quickly turning from fear to anger, she yelled, “It was big!” Then, stomping her foot down on the floor, she spun around and stalked off toward the back door.

  Well, I managed to piss her off really well by laughing, Tick-Tock thought. Walking down the aisle to where he could see the backpacks, he wondered what he could do to smooth things over.