Earths Survivors The Zombie Killers: Origins

by Dell Sweet

  ~

  The woods ended at a small creek running down the side of a ravine. The woman never heard them until they were nearly on her. The big man had circled and purposely rustled the tall grass behind her. When she turned quickly, Donita leapt, the full weight of her body crashing into the woman before she even knew she was there, and taking her to the ground. Donita took her slim neck in her hands and snapped it before she could react. The power in her own arms still surprised her. The woman's neck broke like a dry stick. Her feet kicked at the ground as the man came from the grass and watched.

  Silver-blue moonlight painted her face as she held the woman until she stopped fighting. A second later it was over, she lay dead. Donita stood briefly and then moved to the man where he stood, his eyes reflecting the same moonlight that had bought so much life to the woman's eyes just a few moments before. He cocked his head sideways and then came to her. His body settled down next to the woman. He seemed to be waiting on Donita. His fingers tented, holding his body weight as he waited.

  There was still warmth in the woman, and it both excited and repulsed Donita as she squatted and her thighs settled on either side of the woman’s ribs. She bent forward and lowered her mouth to her throat, finding the hollow. She tilted her chin with one hand and then turned her neck to the side. Her teeth found the artery below the skin and closed over it. A second later the passion took her and she lost herself. The Man scrambled up onto the woman's body, whining low in his throat as he did.

  Later...

  The moon was bloated and silver bright. The man stood nearby, the last remaining twin was curled into her legs, arms wrapped around them.

  They knew. The people nearby knew. The other dog, the one in the camp, the one she had not been able to get, had been barking most of the night. One of the breathers kept looking over to where they were. He would come. He would not come until morning, but he would come and he would bring others with him too.

  She could take them all easily, but this was not her fight. This is not where her fight would be. This was not what the army was for. They were purposed for something else entirely.

  Her hand fell to the twin. She had taken her and her sister in the south. They had been her favorites. She had lost one not long before, but she had made those that had killed her pay for it. The touch of her hand raised the twin to her feet.

  A few minutes later they were all on the way. Running through the night at a fast lope, running down the moon.

  Billy and Beth

  April 22nd

  Noon found them just outside of Owensboro, Kentucky. Route 60. Billy hoped Route 60 would by-pass most of the moderately sized city. Beth had studied the map, but couldn't tell for sure whether it would. One thing's for sure, Billy thought, it's certainly less traveled.

  They had all noticed, and remarked on the fact that there had been no appreciable stalled traffic at all, and that had seemed good at first, until they had all begun to notice that someone had been at work either towing the cars off the roadway, or pushing them into the ditches along the side, where they still sat.

  “It don't necessarily have to be bad,” Delbert said from the back seat, “could be some good folks.”

  “Yeah,” Beth agreed from the front seat, “could be. But also might not be.”

  They were less than a mile from the city limits when they saw the road block.

  Billy bought the truck to a screeching halt, more than a half mile away at the crest of a slight rise, nearly as soon as it had come into sight. They could see better than a half dozen heavily armed men standing along the sides of two Kentucky State Police cruisers, pulled crosswise nose to nose blocking the road. The men had immediately snapped to attention when they spotted the truck, and were now staring in their direction. One of the men had quickly jumped into one of the patrol cars, and Billy assumed, after seeing him speaking into a hand held microphone, had probably radioed someone about them. Not good at all, he thought.

  “Them's the same bastards we saw the other day,” Delbert said, “see that red pickup off the shoulder?”

  Billy nodded his head.

  “They was driving that truck, I recognize it, Billy. Was only two of 'em then, so I expect they didn't want to mess with us. Looks like they found some like-minded company though and that ain't good at all.”

  Billy forced his heartbeat to slow down so he could think clearly. At first he had been positive that the men would get in the cars and come screaming down the road after them. They hadn't, and in fact seemed to be just watching the Suburban to see what they were going to do. “I'm open to suggestions,” Billy said.

  “First thing,” Beth replied, “is to get the hell off the road, if they did radio someone they're probably on the way. I saw a dirt road that cuts off to the right about a half mile back, might be smart for us to get down it so we can think this thing out, before we're forced to fight it out right here.”

  “That group could kill,” Delbert said, “I saw the way they were looking at us, and especially Peggy, we don't need to let them get the upper hand, and right now we're on their terms. I expect they would just as soon kill us... well most of us, and I hate to think what they'd do to the girls.”

  “This is one girl they don't want to screw with,” Beth said angrily.

  “How far?” Billy said as he punched the gas and squeezed the wheel of the Suburban. He bounced the truck down off the road, and the rear tires threw up rooster tails of dirt and grass as the truck slewed around and came back up onto the road. The tires spun momentarily dislodging the grass and mud, then found their purchase and propelled them back down the road, away from the road block. Behind them they could hear the low pop of rifle fire from the direction of the road block.

  “Half mile, no more,” Beth said.

  They were no more than a hundred feet down the road, when a blue Bronco appeared ahead of them moving toward them. A blonde haired man leaned out the driver’s side window holding what looked to be a sawed off shotgun.

  “Shit,” Billy muttered, “Dell?”

  “Got it,” he heard from the back seat. He heard the wind suddenly rushing into the truck's interior and realized that Delbert had opened the window, just before he heard the loud chattering of one of the machine pistols.

  The blonde haired man fired the shotgun at the same time Delbert began to fire from the back seat. Billy saw the flash from the gun, and heard a rattle from the front of the Suburban that sounded like hundreds of stones hitting the front bumper.

  The machine pistol continued to chatter from the back seat, and Billy watched as dozens of holes appeared in the body of the blue Bronco, almost in a straight line along the driver’s side. The front driver side tire blew out, and the truck veered sharply toward their lane.

  “Hold on!” Billy yelled, as he spun the wheel and they left the road. The truck bounced when it left the road and entered the ditch, but Billy kept the truck under control, and without letting up on the gas angled it back toward the highway just as the Bronco began to flip into the ditch. A line of trees flew by on the passenger side of the Suburban, scant inches from the glass, and then the truck lurched once more, left the ditch and rocketed back up onto the highway. The two trucks missed by only inches, and Billy had found himself looking into the lifeless eyes of the blonde haired man, hanging loosely out of the window, for just an instant before the truck was by him and rolling into the ditch.

  Billy brought the Suburban back up onto the road, and floored it. When he came to the dirt road he almost blew right by it, but managed to slow enough to slide into the entrance somewhat under control. He barreled through the first curve at better than fifty miles an hour. Once he was around it, and hidden from the road, he slowed down. He rounded two more curves before he stopped the truck, and turned around facing back toward the main road. Thick choking dust from the dirt road rafted up into the air. No way are they going to sneak up on me, he thought, as he watched the road and strained his ears to listen. A few seconds later he heard t
he high whine of a vehicle on the highway, but it didn't slow down, and the high pitched whine of the motor dwindled away to silence in a few seconds as it continued onward, apparently, Billy thought, looking for them.

  “Must not have seen the dust we kicked up,” John said.

  “Or pretended not to see it,” Beth said, as she spoke they heard a muffled explosion in the distance.

  “Think that was that Bronco?” Peggy asked.

  “Could've been, probably was in fact,” Delbert said, “hope so anyhow.”

  Beth was studying the map once more. “It's a good thing we didn't break off to the left,” she said.

  “Why?” Billy asked.

  “River,” she stated calmly, “about a mile or so in the opposite direction, we would have been trapped if we'd gone that way. It looks like we got open land ahead here. At least it looks that way, it's hard to tell.”

  Billy looked back along the dirt road. Thick dust still hung above it. “There's no way they missed us,” he said, “unless they're blind. They had to see that dust hanging in the air, and if we keep going we're going to kick up even more, and they'll be able to follow it right to us.”

  “I think you're right, but what the hell else can we do?” Delbert asked.

  “Turn around and go back,” Billy said. He held up his hand to silence the outburst that erupted at the suggestion. “Listen; if we sit here they're going to come back, probably with more men. If we head back to the road block now we have the advantage. I would bet the sound we heard of a passing car was one of the police cruisers. If so that leaves only one, and fewer men to contend with back there, if we wait the odds will only get worse. See?”

  “He's right, I think,” Beth said, “I don't want to die any more than any of us do. Sitting here isn't going to help us at all, going back before they have a chance to regroup might.”

  “Only thing to do,” Delbert sighed from the back seat, “if I gotta die, I'd rather die fighting than get trapped and slaughtered like an animal... There's just no place we can go down here.”

  “So?” Billy asked.

  “We go back,” Peggy said decisively. John grunted a short “Yeah” which they could all tell he was not enthusiastic about.

  Billy dropped the Suburban back into drive and they began to move down the dirt road, gaining momentum as they neared the highway. Billy slowed to turn onto the highway after looking in both directions and seeing nothing. Ahead, approximately where the Bronco had wrecked, they could see greasy black smoke billowing into the hot still air.

  “Could be some of 'em there too,” Delbert said, as he stared toward the greasy smoke in the distance. “If so, I'll be ready for 'em.” Billy nodded his head, and brought the truck up to speed slowly to hide the whine of the motor, which would hopefully allow them to take whoever might be at the Bronco or the road block by surprise.

  As they neared the burning Bronco Billy could see one of the patrol cars off to the side of the road, along with the red pickup that Delbert had pointed out to them. “Looks like it,” Billy said calmly, as he leaned back into the seat to give Beth a clear shot through the driver’s side window.

  The young blonde haired kid from the Bronco was lifeless on the side of the road along with two other crumpled forms that Billy assumed must have also been in the truck. A small group of three men stood over the bodies. They heard the approaching truck and suddenly jumped for cover as Billy roared by. Beth's pistol chattered briefly, directly in front of his face, and the tires of the red pickup exploded with a loud popping noise. Billy pressed the gas pedal as close to the floor as it would go as they passed, and almost simultaneously heard the sound of breaking glass from the rear of the truck, along with a steady, plunk, plunk, plunk, as bullets slammed into the rear of the fleeing Suburban. A sudden cry of pain came from the rear a split second later, as several small crystals of glass flew forward striking the dashboard, and the back of Billy's head.

  “What happened?” he shouted. “You guy's okay?”

  “Got John,” Delbert shouted back. “It don't look good, Billy.”

  “Shit,” Billy muttered, as he tried to press the gas pedal further into the floorboard. “Shit.”

  The intersection, where the road block had been, appeared in front of them a few seconds later. Whatever had gone by them on the highway had not been the second patrol car. It still sat across the road, blocking the right hand lane. The left hand lane was blocked by four men, who were not armed with shotguns, Billy noticed as they neared, but some sort of machine pistols similar to the ones they themselves carried. He was just about to slam on the brakes and try to turn around once more, when a quick glance in the mirror showed the other patrol car coming up behind them. Its blue bubble light pulsing as it came. What the hell, Billy thought these guy's must think they're playing some sort of fucking game with us. Aloud he said. “We're screwed they're in front of us and behind us... To hell with it, we're going through. Hold on.”

  Peggy pushed John aside, and took his place at the rear passenger side window. She leaned out facing back, and began firing at the closing patrol car, as Beth leaned out and began to fire at the four men blocking the left hand side of the road. Delbert was aiming at the four men as well from his side of the truck. Two of the four dropped immediately, but the other two were returning fire even as they ran for the cover of the patrol car, and Billy could feel, as well as hear, the bullets slamming into the Suburban, both front and rear.

  The patrol car behind them suddenly swerved and then flipped, and Peggy let out a scream of triumph as she turned back to the front, knelt on the rear seat, and began to fire over Beth's head at the other patrol car. The side of the car began to take on a chewed-appearance within seconds, as all three machine pistols were trained on it. Still, the men behind it returned fire.

  They were now less than a hundred feet from the car, Billy saw.

  “Sit down!” he suddenly yelled into the truck, “Now!” As he yelled he swung the Suburban toward the cruiser, just close enough so that he could clip the front end of it as they went past. The two men behind the cruiser realized what he intended to do too late.

  The Suburban hit the front of the cruiser harder than Billy expected, so hard in fact that it sent it spinning into the ditch like a toy. The collision ripped the front passenger's fender from the truck, along with most of the passenger door. The heavy bumper of the truck, torn half off in the collision, let go with a shower of sparks and the Suburban bounced over it leaving it behind in the road. Billy kept the gas pedal jammed to the floor boards, even though steam was beginning to pour from the front of the truck, and the motor was starting to wheeze ominously. A heavy vibration ran through the truck, and as the Suburban gained more speed the vibration became a heavy shuddering, that threatened to shake the truck to pieces. Two miles down the road he spotted a Dodge dealership and slid the dying truck to a stop in the wide asphalt parking lot.

  “Out!” he shouted, as he quickly jumped from the truck. The others piled out behind him, and Billy dropped back to help Delbert who was struggling to drag John along. Beth and Peggy reached the glass doors of the showroom, and quickly held them open to allow them to hurry inside with John.

  Billy stared back out at the wide parking lot expecting to see the remaining patrol car come screaming in, he did not know that Peggy had taken care of that problem.

  “The ammo,” Billy said turning toward the doors, “no way should we leave it in the truck, that other car will be along any minute.”

  “I don't think so,” Peggy replied icily, “it flipped. I blew out the front tires, and I'm pretty damn sure the driver was dead at that point.”

  “Okay,” Billy said, he didn't question what she said at all, “Dell, let’s go get the ammo. Beth, can you and Peggy see what you can do for John?” Beth nodded her head, as Billy turned and ran back out of the showroom toward the Suburban, with Delbert right behind him.

  The truck was totaled Billy saw.

  The plastic grill-work
was gone along with the bumper, and he could see now why Beth had jumped through the window when they stopped, instead of opening the door. The door was crushed shut. Along with that both of the front tires were rapidly going flat. Probably from running over the bumper, he thought, a bullet would have blown them out immediately. A huge puddle of oil was spreading from under the truck, and green anti-freeze dripped from what was left of the radiator.

  Billy opened up the rear of the truck, and Delbert held out his arms as Billy piled the first three boxes on them, and then managed to take the remaining three himself. They trotted back to the showroom and Billy mentally wished he had thought to pull the truck out of sight. The wrecked Suburban, with steam still rising in the air from the hood area, would almost serve as a beacon if there were others behind them. There were, he knew, remembering the sound of a vehicle screaming by on the highway when they had been hiding on the dirt road.

  He reached the relative safety of the showroom just behind Delbert, the glass door whooshed shut behind them as they entered and set down the boxes. Beth stood and slowly shook her head as he approached her. She and Peggy had been kneeling beside John on the floor. “He's gone, Billy,” she said.

  He could see she was close to tears, and Peggy was more than close, she was openly weeping. Delbert walked over to John's body and covered it with a carpet runner he had taken from near the front door. The old man seemed close to tears himself, Billy realized. Billy said a quick mental prayer to God, before he spoke.

  “Listen, I don't want to sound hard, or as if I don't care, but we can't fall apart now,” he struggled to keep his voice calm as he spoke. “Right now, unless we want to just give up and die, we need to get ourselves in gear. If it wasn't one of the patrol cars that blew by us while we were on that dirt road, and we also know it wasn't that red pickup... someone is still out there, and once they get their shit together they'll come back for us. I for one don't want to be here, and if we intend to be gone I need help. Crying isn't going to bring John back...”

  “What do you need me to do, Billy?” Delbert asked.

  Billy looked around the showroom. “We need another truck, Dell, and I don't see any here, which means we're going to have to go back outside to find one. Which means,” he looked at Beth and Peggy, “I need you both to keep watch in front. We're going out the back.” He walked over to a small plywood board to one side of the double doors, and began to search through the key-tags that hung from it. “Dell, take a quick look out front and tell me whether you see a light green Durango out there, a new one,” he continued to search through the keys as Delbert looked.

  “Yeah, out next to the road,” he replied.

  “How about a two-tone red and white one?”

  “Nope, not out here anyhow.”

  “Good,” Billy said, as he dropped the remaining keys in a heap by the board. He had kept two sets, apparently there were two two-tone red and white Durango's out back somewhere. “Okay Dell, let’s go find it,” he said, as he turned and walked down a hallway in the direction of the back of the building, he turned back. “Beth?” he asked.

  “Go, we'll be fine,” she told him.

  He nodded, turned, and Delbert followed him down the hallway through a set of double steel doors and into a large garage area. Billy searched the garage quickly with his eyes, but no red and white, two-tone Durango's resided in the shadowy interior. They walked to a set of double steel doors set into the back of the garage, Billy pressed the bar handle, and they walked out into the back lot.

  They found the first Durango directly behind the rear of the garage, Billy checked the stock numbers and after determining which set of keys went to it, he opened the door and got in. A low chiming greeted him as he opened the door. The Durango was one of the upper level models he saw, and it was also not four wheel drive. The tires were not much more than passenger tires, and when he turned on the ignition to check the gas gauge, the needle stopped just above empty.

  “Let's see if we can find the other one,” Billy said, “this one isn't going to do us a hell-of-a-lot-of good, Dell.”

  They found the other truck farther back in the lot. It was a low end model, built more with a hunter, or some other type of sportsman, in mind, and much better suited to their needs. Plain stark vinyl interior and the gas gauge leveled out at half when Billy checked it. Not great, he thought, but a lot better than the other truck, and he felt they didn't have the time to pick and choose.

  “This is her, Dell,” Billy said, “let’s go.” Delbert climbed in as Billy started the truck and drove out of the back lot toward the front of the dealership.

  Billy had been tensed, expecting to hear the chatter of machine pistols while they were out back, and when he drove by the glass encased showroom and saw Beth and Peggy crouched by the side of a car on the showroom floor, he breathed a sigh of relief. He just caught Beth's waving hands out of the corner of his eyes, before two men jumped out from behind one of the trucks in the front row and opened fire.

  Too late, he thought, as he realized he had left the machine pistol lying on the front seat instead of keeping it in his right hand where it should have been. Delbert had held on to his though, and nearly kicked his side door open as he leaped from the truck and opened up on the two men. Billy could hear the sound of machine pistols behind him as well, as Beth and Peggy also opened up. He aimed the Durango at the two men, levered the door-handle and jumped from the truck, just as the windshield, hit by several of the rounds fired by the two men, was blown inward.

  As the truck lumbered toward them, the two men opened up on it in an effort to stop it. Billy rolled, re-gained his feet, and opened up on the two men. They were both dead before the truck rolled over them, dragging one of the men with it, as it crossed the road and crashed into the ditch on the opposite side, a long red smear marked its trail across the road.

  Billy turned to look back for Beth, but she was already stepping through the shattered front windows of the showroom and running toward him with Peggy close behind. He turned to look for Delbert. He had lost track of him after he had jumped from the truck. The old man was walking toward him, limping Billy saw, an alarming amount of blood seeping from one leg, staining that leg of his jeans nearly red. He became aware of a stinging sensation on the side of his cheek, and just as he raised his hand to touch his face, Beth raced up.

  “Let me see,” she said, pushing his hand away from his face, “Damn, Billy, you got hit.”

  He thought at first that it had been the flying glass from the windshield, but Beth quickly crushed that train of thought when she said. “Looks like one of the rounds that took out the windshield got you, Billy. It's gonna scar, but you'll live.” She sounded calm as she spoke, Billy was surprised when she suddenly burst into tears, and threw her arms around him as she spoke. “Billy, it could have killed you, j-just a-a l-l-little b-b-bit...” she broke down and couldn't continue. He held her as Delbert walked up.

  He raised his eyebrows, and said, “Dell, you okay?”

  “Took one in the leg, I think,” he replied.

  Beth let go of Billy and tried to stop the tears as she turned to Delbert. Billy looked over Beth quickly with his eyes, and then moved on to Peggy, finally allowing his eyes to fall on Delbert's leg. Beth and Peggy appeared to have only a couple of minor cuts, probably caused by flying glass, Billy told his questioning mind. Delbert, however, was losing blood at an alarming rate. The entire right pant leg was shredded as well as being soaked with blood, and as Beth carefully pulled the material away from his leg to get a better look, Billy could see the torn flesh beneath. It doesn't look good, he thought. He had Delbert lean on him as they hurriedly headed back toward the showroom.

  The one side, closest to the side lot, was untouched. They entered through the double doors, and Billy helped ease Delbert down onto the floor. He pulled out a small pocket knife, and quickly cut away the remainder of the pants leg.

  The wound was bad, he could see, but thankfully it didn't look life
threatening. With all the blood, he had been convinced he would find that one of the large arteries of the leg had been nicked, or even severed. That wasn't the case however, and the flow of blood was already beginning to slow. Beth folded the pant leg into a small square, and held it over the wound to further slow the bleeding. “Billy,” she said, “I need the first aid kit from the truck.”

  “Going,” he said, as he trotted out the side doors and headed toward the wrecked Suburban. He kept his eyes searching as he went, but he saw nothing, and the only sound was of the Durango which was still running in the ditch across the road. He pulled the first aid kit from the back of the truck, and ran back into the showroom. He handed it to Peggy who was kneeling with Beth beside Delbert.

  “Damn,” Delbert said, “makes a man wish he could get shot everyday so he could have two pretty women fussing over him,” a small smile appeared over the tight set of his teeth.

  Billy smiled back, surprised that he could, but a glance over at the covered form of John's body quickly wiped away the smile. “I'm getting us another truck,” he stated, as he turned and walked over to the small pile of keys. And not from the back either, he told himself. He searched until he found the set of keys to the green Durango that Delbert had said was out in front, and then headed toward the front of the lot. He could still hear the other truck idling in the ditch, but all else was quiet and he saw no one at all.

  This Durango was another stripped down model, with a bare interior, and aggressively tread tires. He thanked God mentally, got in, started it, and pulled over to the wrecked Suburban. Fifteen minutes later the contents of the Suburban were loaded into the rear of the Durango. The Durango was smaller, but he managed to make it all fit, and when he was finished he pulled the truck up next to the side doors, glancing at the gas gauge as he shut it off, which was resting between half and full, at three quarters of a tank. “Thank you God,” he said aloud, as he exited the truck and walked back into the showroom.

  Delbert was sitting up, resting against the bumper of one of the cars in the showroom. “How are you feeling?” Billy asked, as he looked over the bandaged leg.

  “Not bad, and I'm about to feel a lot better,” he said, raising a small pint of whiskey, “Beth found this in one of the managers drawers. I think it'll do the trick just fine.”

  Billy smiled, “Damn, Dell, I had no intention of getting you shot. I'm sorry, Dell, truly I am.”

  “What the hell are you apologizing for?” Delbert asked, his voice serious. “That ain't no way to lead, Billy. You did the best you could, we're all damn lucky to be alive, so don't go beating yourself over the head about it. You ain't got nothin' to apologize for as far as I'm concerned.”

  “Billy, I need to see your face,” Beth said walking up, “now hold still, this is gonna hurt.” He gritted his teeth as she first cleaned and then poured peroxide directly over the wound. When she was done with that, she taped it up as best she could, and kissed him. “Don't leave me, Billy,” she said.

  “Wouldn't, and couldn't,” he replied, “and don't want to either.” He turned to Delbert and helped him to his feet as the four of them walked to the Durango. None of them spoke of leaving John behind. They didn't like it, but they all realized they had no choice.

  Billy turned the truck around and eased up onto the roadway. It was clear in both directions, and his eyes swept over the drying smear of blood in the road, that was now drawing flies, as he turned right and headed out of Owensboro.

  By the time they were under way again, it was late afternoon. The road ahead was clear, and after several miles of checking the rear-view mirror and seeing nothing, Billy began to relax a small amount. The mood in the truck, however, was somber, and no one seemed to be able to strike up any conversation and keep it going for more than a minute or two, before it fizzled.

  Billy and Beth

  April 24th

  Two days of travel bought them to the Ohio river. They crossed into Indiana over the Ohio river at Hawesville, and by nightfall they had followed route 66 into the Hoosier national forest. The two women had somehow managed to overcome the mood, and were talking excitedly about stopping and being able to get out of the truck. Their mood helped to swing Billy's mood around, and Delbert, who had more than a mild buzz from the whiskey, was sleeping with his head in Peggy's lap.

  Billy pulled the Durango into the park, and drove down next to a small stream and parked. Beth and Peggy began to search for wood to build a fire as Billy helped Delbert from the truck.

  “How are you feeling, Dell?” Billy asked.

  “No brain no pain,” Delbert responded, “but I expect I'll have a hangover tomorrow.”

  “Well go ahead and have one,” Billy said, “long as that helps you get through the night,” he said pointing at the bottle. “But make sure it's a small one, Dell, because tomorrow I need you wide eyed and bushy tailed, there's no telling what's ahead.”

  “Yeah, today was sure fun,” he said glumly.

  Billy helped him sit down at an old green picnic table, before he went back to the truck and unloaded the camping gear.

  They had picked up two additional tents, and he debated about whether to set up the third one. Peggy settled it when she walked over by telling him not to bother. “I'd prefer to have Dell next to me,” she said slightly embarrassed, “well, in case he wakes up in the night, or his leg bothers him,” she finished.

  She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that neither Billy nor Beth intended to make any objections.

  Peggy had met Delbert back in Texas the day after the first earthquakes hit, almost at the same time she had met John. She and Delbert had just been drawn to each other, there was no other way to put it, and although their age difference was vast, it didn't bother either one of them. It had bothered John a great deal however. He had been of the opinion that since he had found her first, she belonged to him. It pissed her off, and the tension between them had been growing steadily.

  She was sorry that John had died, and had at first even felt guilty about it, but she didn't now. It could have been any of them, she realized, it could have been Dell.

  She was through making pretensions about how she felt too, she realized. She had been embarrassed, not only because she was afraid Beth and Billy would disapprove, that was only a small part. The big part was John. She had become accustomed to his cutting remarks, and had braced herself for one, before she had realized it wouldn't, and couldn't, come. She walked over and squatted down beside Delbert.

  “How do you feel, Dell?” she asked.

  “I'll live, Peg, you worry too much,” he said smiling. She kissed him quickly, and then straightened up. “I'm going to help Beth with dinner then. If you need me say so, okay?” Delbert nodded his head and smiled once more to reassure her, and she turned and walked away.

  Billy walked over, handed Delbert a cup of coffee, and then sat down next to him.

  “You know much about Indiana?” Billy asked, once he sat down.

  “Not a lot,” Delbert replied, “came through a few years back driving truck, what's on your mind, Billy?”

  “Well, how big are the cities we have to pass through, for starters, and, I guess, what do you think our chances are of getting into Ohio in one piece?”

  “Probably ought to stay away from the cities,” Delbert answered. “Even if it takes longer. I know a couple of ways around, cheat routes I used a couple of times when I knew I was too heavy for the scales. If we're careful, real careful, we should be able to do it, but I ain't about to drop my guard none at all,” he finished.

  “Me either,” Billy said, “me either, not one bit.”

  “How'd that gal of yours learn to shoot that way?” Delbert asked, “I never seen somebody react so fast in my life.”

  Billy cleared his throat. “It's not like that, Dell. She's not my gal... Rough life,” Billy continued, “I imagine she'll tell you someday. I'm damn glad she can though...Looks like Peggy can handle herself pretty damn well too, Dell,�
� he finished.

  “Oh yeah, John was about to find out how well, I think.” He continued with no further explanation. “I think she probably had a pretty damn rough life too, Billy,” he said. “It made her one fine woman though.”

  They sat and sipped quietly at the hot coffee in silence for a few minutes before Billy spoke.

  “Well, all we can do is try our best, Dell, just that, and nothing more... I think it's best we stay put for a while... Maybe a few days, a week or so... Let that leg heal up,” He locked eyes with Dell. He had already spoken about it to Beth, but they were four now, four voices, four votes.

  “I think I don't have much choice.” Dell looked around. “We could do worse,” He looked back up at Billy.

  Billy smiled. “What I was thinking too.” He smiled and outstretched his hand. “How about we go get some food, what do you say?”

  “Smells damn good, don't it?” Delbert asked as Billy helped him to his feet. They both walked off toward the small fire where the two women sat quietly talking.

  May 1st

  New York

  Billy and Beth: The Camp

  They had gotten on the road just a few days later, as soon as Dell had healed enough to travel.

  After everything they had gone through on their flight from L.A., the trip across the top of the country to the East coast had been uneventful. They had stuck to side roads, avoided the major cities. They had had their run ins with the dead more than once, and for the last hundred miles or so toward the end of the trip they had known they were being followed, but they had made the outskirts of New York unmolested.

  The city rose before them, several miles off. Fires burned by night, black smoke hung above it during the day. New York was no refuge. It had seemed to be the end of everything after all they had been through, but a few days of rest and they had begun to see things for what they were. It was not a maybe any longer. Whatever had happened, had happened nationwide... Probably worldwide they had agreed.

  Billy squatted now before one of the fires warming his hands. The horizon to the east glowed with occasional bright flares erupting. Sometimes the sounds of explosions reached them out here as soft pops on the night air. A few times those pops had been much louder though and they had wondered what had blown that could be that big, but they had no answers and no desire to venture into the city by daylight to find out.

  Billy rubbed some heat into his hands. The nights were getting warmer, summer was on the way and he couldn't help but feel they should be somewhere else by then, preparing for the coming winter that would surely follow this first new summer, but it was still cool.

  The fire burned hot, but low, the heat feeling good as the temperature of the air dropped. The fires were many. A small group had been sitting, watching the stars come out, when one by one, nearly all the others had come to sit and watch with them.

  There were well over a hundred people here now. They had driven out of the city in whatever they could find that would drive and was not boxed in or frozen in traffic. Taxi cabs, huge delivery trucks and a few city police cars littered the field they were camped in. The others had come in, some the same day, more as the days passed.

  Out here, twenty five miles from anything, it sometimes seemed lonely, empty, but not as oppressive as the cities. Death did not seem as though it were only waiting for them. There were no dead, zombies, whatever they were, at least so far. Still, he was uneasy. He felt an itch to go. Maybe there were dead here, maybe they just weren't making themselves known yet... Waiting for the right opportunity. There was no protection here, and they needed a warmer climate too. The same reason they had headed south in the first place when they had left L.A., he told himself as he stared out into the darkness.

  Within the first month, two dozen had joined them.

  They had thirty shotguns, better than fifty rifles and dozens of handguns between them. They had banded together and journeyed into the surrounding suburbs, broken into gun shops and pawn shops to get them.

  Jamie, Winston and the others had found them just a few weeks earlier. Scotty had not been with them. None of them wanted to talk about where he was or what had happened to split them up.

  That had solved the mystery of feeling as though they were being followed. Billy and Beth had both wondered how long they might have been following them across the country. But nobody seemed to want to ask or answer those questions. Had they been the ones that had destroyed their truck? He found himself skating up to the edge of asking several times and then failing. It had seemed to be personal though. It bothered him that they may have been the ones who had done it.

  He and Jamie had fallen back together even though he had done his best to discourage it. In truth, he thought now, looking out at the gathering gloom of early evening, he should have tried harder. He didn't love her. Couldn't imagine a life with her, and every day he spent with her made the trip from L.A. with Beth more and more unreal. A fairy tale that never happened.

  He was weak. He had been weak back in L.A. And he was weak now. Jamie had sensed that Beth had said no, or something like no. That a trip halfway across the continent had not been able to change her resolve. Scotty was not with her, so she had picked things up where they had left off. Like it was the natural thing to do, Billy had thought. And who knew, maybe it was the natural thing to do now. Just pretend it didn't matter. Nothing had happened. He had met enough people who were doing that same thing and making it work, he supposed he could to. So he had fallen right back into it too: Said nothing as the relationship picked back up where it had left off.

  Billy stood and watched night come down on the trees. The fires in the city seemed to suddenly burn hotter. Nothing moved anywhere. Jamie came and stood beside him for a moment before she slipped her arm around his waist and managed to capture his attention. He bent slightly and kissed her forehead.

  “Wow. I can't believe you just did that. I'm already getting the forehead kiss,” She told him. She smiled up at him, teasing as she said the words.

  “You know it's not like that.” He kissed her once more, this time fully on the lips, a longer kiss.

  “That was better,” Jamie told him. She looked out over the emptiness. “What are you thinking?” She asked.

  “I'm thinking we can't stay here forever... A few more days, a week or two...” He looked down at her. “But we'll have to leave soon. We need to get south. Summer is coming down. It doesn't seem possible, but it is. It's warmer every day.” He turned to her. “We should be somewhere right now... Planting crops, getting food set for winter.” he turned back to the distant fires. “We can't stay too much longer.” He looked back at the clearing in the middle of the vehicles where the others sat and talked before the fires. There were dozens of kids. Three babies and their mothers.

  He had hoped Beth would lead. She had seemed the logical choice, but she had not taken it directly. It was not a responsibility he was comfortable with. He guessed she must feel the same. Beth was there, in the background, listening, approving or disapproving silently, letting him know with her eyes what she thought, what she would or wouldn't approve of.

  “That it?” Jamie asked from beside him.

  He smiled and shook his head. “No. But who isn't thinking deep thoughts?” His smile faded a little. She answered it with a serious look of her own.

  “Come, eat,” she said at last. She took his hand and pulled him away toward the others.

  “I have to talk to Beth,” Billy told her. She let go of his hand immediately.

  “Beth... It's always Beth, isn't it?” she asked.

  “Jamie,” Billy started.

  “But it is!” Her eyes squirted tears, hot and fast. “Why?”

  “Jamie... We crossed two thousand miles together.”

  “I would have... I would have, Billy.”

  “But you didn't... Why is that, Jamie? Why didn't you? And when did you find us and start to follow us, when? And what happened to Scotty?”

  “I'm not talking
about that, Billy. I'm just not,” Jamie told him. Her eyes were bloodshot and red rimed. She turned her back on him.

  “Oh, for fucks sake!” Billy threw his hands up in frustration and then forced them to his sides.

  She turned back to him, her jaw set in a rigid line. “I didn't mean that,” she said, obviously meaning she did mean it, but wished she hadn't said it. She turned her eyes away. “Go on. It's okay.” She turned back to him, “Come back later on?”

  Like it never even happened, Billy told himself. The new world order. He gathered his temper and thoughts. “Just a few minutes, really. I only need to ask her about staying or leaving,” Billy told her.

  “I'll wait eating... until you come.” She turned and walked away without another word. Billy sighed and then turned and walked off through the campground.

  Quiet conversations passed back and forth between people as he walked, a few murmured greetings he acknowledged with a smile to hide his worries, but it seemed as though there were still too many other things on everyone’s minds, and the conversations began to die down after a short time.

  The dark blue was rapidly bleeding from the bowl of the sky, and the conversations beginning to break up as the people who didn't have the first shift of the watch began to drift away, crawling into their vehicles to sleep. Billy found Beth and dropped to the ground beside her.

  “Bad?” Beth asked. She smiled.

  Billy shook his head.

  “I told you before. That woman is fucking crazy.... That whole little group around her is crazy... That's why they're with her... You need to stop fucking her, Billy. I hate to put it like that, that starkly, but, I mean that's what it is. That what keeps putting the hope in her heart. A lot of this is your own fault.” She cleared her throat, pulled a few grass blades from the ground and fed them into the fire.

  “I know,” Billy said. His voice was muffled, head hanging between his hands. He felt her hand nudge his elbow. He looked up and it was outstretched. He looked puzzled. He took her hand and she pulled him from the ground. They began walking away, out past the circles of firelight.

  “You're my friend, Billy. You're not the one for me. But you're fucking that woman because you think it's the best you can do, like it's what there is for you, what you're supposed to do, and that is bullshit, Billy. Bullshit.”

  “Jesus, Beth.”

  She laughed. “I got a mouth on me, I know, but Billy, tell me I'm wrong... Tell me I got it all wrong.”

  “I can't... I can't.”

  They walked as she talked, the softness of her hand pulling him farther. Within seconds they were beyond the circle of firelight and she stopped, her arms coming around him as she kissed him softly, fully on his lips.

  “Beth,” he breathed.

  “Just come with me... Stop thinking, Billy,” she told him. Her mouth found his again and he stopped thinking.

  Her hands worked at his pants zipper and he found his own hands had already solved that problem as he pushed her jeans down past her knees. His mouth found the hard plane of her stomach a second later, and her hand began to stroke the hair of his head, pulling him closer as he planted little kisses up across her breasts, teasing her nipples, and then back down.

  “Don't you take this the wrong way, Billy Jingo,” she breathed. “Don't you do it,” she whispered as she pulled him down to the ground. “Come down here with me...”