“Oh!” Billy gave a little startled jump. His expression showed something past just your average surprised look. Gabe figured, with zombies almost literally lurking around every corner, it made sense.
“I didn’t know anyone was in here.” After a few seconds Billy switched his expression from almost frightened to a big grin. “You guys scared me.” His eyes wandering down to their hands and noticing the way they were leaning on each other. “Did I… Interrupt anything?”
Gabe and Jeannie pulled apart like to middle school kids caught kissing by a teacher.
“No, no.” Gabe answered. “Just, you know.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Talking about life.”
“Okay.” Billy said now suppressing a giggle. “I’m just grabbing some spices for the tomato soup I made.” Billy grabbed a large container of salt and half dozen spices and quickly headed back out of the kitchen. “Don’t let me interrupt your Talk”. He actually made little air quotes even with his hands full.
Gabe and Jeannie both stood there staring after him for a moment before Jeannie spoke up.
“Geez, that’s a lot of spices for a bowl of soup.” They both laughed, the tension broken. Gabe picked up a bottled water, nodded at her and walked out of the Kitchen.
Gabe was still smiling and contemplating what had happened in the kitchen when he walked into the living room. They had agreed to wait until night time to start a fire in the fireplace so the living or the dead couldn't see the smoke. There was a little sliver of a moon out but it was mostly cloudy so there wasn’t much chance that the smoke would show. They had also closed all the blinds and curtains and then hung blankets over the windows to be safe.
“I’m glad you came in here Gabe.” Billy motioned for him to sit down next to him. “I wanted to talk to you while the girls weren’t in here.”
Gabe set down next to Billy, “What’s going on Billy?” Gabe eyed Billy’s soup, thinking about how delicious it probably was with all of those spices in it.
“This has been pretty dangerous. Jorge might never be one hundred percent again, and you’re lucky to be alive.”
“You’re not suggesting we give up are you?”
“No, quite the opposite.” Billy stirred his soup and blew on a spoonful of it before continuing. “I feel responsible for this whole thing. I know I don’t show it or talk about it, but I don’t sleep at night.” Billy took a sip of soup off his spoon before continuing. “I don’t feel right putting all these people in danger. I don’t know if it was zombie Dean that broke that hoard of zombies lose or just bad luck but several people died, you almost died, and it could have been much worse.”
“Okay, what are you suggesting then?”
“The fewer people the better. You and I take the one of the Humvees right at first light and head out while everyone else is asleep. We can ditch the Humvee when we get closer and walk or take bikes or something so we don’t draw attention.”
“I think you’re on to something. I mean look how ineffective we were against the hoard. And I think the closer we get to the city, the more of them there will be.”
“Exactly, we can park the car and take the back yards and run into much less of them than if we try and pull a big convoy right through town.” Billy paused long enough to eat another spoonful of soup.
“I think I know how to stop him, and while you can’t protect a crowd, you little power thing will keep us safe if we do get caught out in the open. So it makes sense for the two of us to go”
Deciding to let the ‘little power’ comment slide Gabe thought for a moment.
“Alright,” Gabe eyed Billy quizzically. “How do you suggest we get up before everyone else?”
Billy put his soup down on the coffee table and reached into his pocket and pulled out something smooth and black.
“A smartphone? I hate to break it to you but we haven’t had service in the better part of a month..”
“Duh.” Billy laughed. “I’m not crazy. I charged it all day today while we were in the Humvee, Kenny was using his for the music he had saved on it.”
Inspiration struck Gabe. “The clock!”
Billy smiled, “Yep, it has an alarm, I’ve already got it set for 5:30 am.”
“That’s perfect.”
“What’s perfect?” Jill asked walking into the living room with Kelly.
“This soup!” Billy said grabbing his bowl and holding it up. “Just needed a little seasoning.”
“Oh yum! Is there any left?”
“Right there.” Billy said, pointing towards a pot that was nuzzled up against the fire grate. “Just get you a bowl and you’re welcome to some.”
When the girls left to get their bowls Gabe spoke in a low voice. “The basement has a man cave with two couches. We’ll take that, then no one upstairs is likely to hear the alarm.”
“Sounds good.”
Gabe got up from his seat and got out of the way as the girls came back in with their bowls. He smiled to see the girls so happy, which just confirmed for him he was doing the right thing.
Gabe decided to head down to the basement and see if he could find some blankets for the couches.
“Gabe, got a minute.”
Gabe looked up and saw Jeannie coming down the hall from the bedrooms carrying a folder with a serious look on her face.
“Sure, just heading downstairs to check out me Billy’s sleeping arrangements.”
“I’ll follow you.” Jeannie said heading down the steps right behind Gabe. When they got to the bottom Gabe turned around and faced her.
“After the talk we had in the kitchen I just felt like I should tell you something.”
Gabe got nervous. He had felt an affection and even an attraction for Jeannie, but he was not ready to start confessing love and talking about commitments. He was very afraid of what she was about to say next.
“I just don’t ever want there to be anything that could hurt our friendship so I think you should know that Jill showed me this.” Jeannie held out what Gabe had thought was a folder, but now realized it was a large envelope.
Gabe took the folder and pulled then contents out of the open end. His face went flush and just stood there stunned.
“Well, I didn’t expect to ever see this here.” He paged through the papers, looking at the tabs where he was supposed to sign and tracing the words ‘Divorce Proceedings’ on the cover letter. After a minute he looked up, “I left this with her before we left camp. I never did ask her how she got these.”
“She said that the first night when this all started she saw them on the island in your kitchen and when you guys had to run, she just took them.”
“Well this is very awkward. I think I understand why she showed them to you, but it is very inappropriate on her part.” Gabe paused, feeling a little angry and a little embarrassed by the whole thing. “I am sorry she did that to you.”
“Don’t be mad at her, I think she had good intentions.” No it was Jeannie’s turn to feel a little embarrassed. “And I really should have stopped looking at them as soon as I realized what it was… I just didn’t want it to ever be something weird between us that I had seen these and you didn’t know.”
Gabe looked up at her and let a soft smile cross his lips. “Thank you. I had planned to deal with this when we got back. I think this might actually give me some of the closure I was looking for. And I’m glad you know the whole story now.”
“Oh thank you Lord. I was afraid you would be mad.”
“What? Come here.” Gabe embraced Jeannie in a big bear hug. He could feel her snuggle into his embrace. Being mindful of keeping their relationship appropriate, he released her from the hug and gently turned her towards the steps. “I’ve got some things to do tonight, but this is really a good thing, I promise.”
As she walked up the stairs she turned around and looked at Gabe. He smiled and nodded for her to continue.
Gabe went into the man cave with its huge television and couches. After looking around he realized t
hat one of the couches opened up into a bed. Opening it he found it was made up with sheets and blankets. He pulled them off and closed the couch back up. He threw one of the blankets on the couch and took the two sheets. Sitting down on the other couch he covered himself with the sheets and pulled out his pocket bible. He opened it to Deuteronomy and was still reading when Billy came down to go to bed much later in the night.
Chapter 26
Gabe woke up in the pitch dark. He experienced a few seconds of uneasiness from being unsure of where he was. Once he remembered where he was the uneasiness changed into a different uneasiness. He laid in the dark and prayed before finally working up the will to get up. He had read his Bible and prayed a lot the night before but now he could feel the spiritual warfare going on around him. Still in the pitch dark he got off the bed and got down on his knees and put his face on the floor and continued to pray for another 15 minutes. When he finally got up he checked Billy’s cell phone which was on the end table right between the two couches. Seeing that the alarm had less than ten more minutes before it went off, he used the light of the phone to find the matches and lighted two of the candles in the room. He put the phone back and took one of the candles with him down the hall to the bathroom and then upstairs. Finding the note pad and pen he had seen attached to the fridge before going to bed he wrote a note he had spent significant time laying out in his head before he fell asleep last night. When he came back to the man cave, Billy’s alarm was going off. He was pleased to see that he really couldn’t hear it even in the hallway outside the room until he had opened the door to the man cave again.
Gabe laughed to himself quietly as he saw that Billy, who had said he felt so bad about things that he couldn’t’ sleep at night, was sleeping right through the alarm. Gabe gently used his foot to shake the cushions of the couch.
“Time to get up sleepy head.”
“What?”
“Get up.” Gabe said in a loud whisper.
Billy moaned and reached over his head and grabbed his phone. He stared at it through blurry eyes for a few seconds before finally swiping it quit. Moaning he finally replied. “Geez, 5:30 comes early.”
Without another word he got up, took the offered candle from Gabe’s hand and headed towards the bathroom.
Within 15 minutes both of them were dressed, had small backpacks on and were standing at the front door. Gabe peered out the peephole. The sunrise was just visible on the horizon, the light slowly creeping into the eastern skyline. He turned around to Billy and shrugged, hoping Billy understood he hadn’t seen anything but to be careful.
The managed to get out the door and locked it behind them without much noise and felt like they had snuck out unnoticed. They were feeling pretty good about themselves as they approached the Humvee that Billy had been driving.
“Morning gentlemen.”
Both of them jumped and aimed their guns in the direction of the voice.
“Dang it! Is that you Brad.” Gabe asked in hushed tones.
“Yep. Don’t shoot.” Brad replied coming around the vehicle where they could see him, his hands up in mock surrender.
“What are you doing out here.” Billy asked, still sounding upset at getting the wits scared out of him.
“Well I figured if it were me, I would want to just take a few people and go finish this.”
“Glad you understand our thinking.” Billy said. “But that still doesn’t explain why you’re out here scaring us at the crack of dawn.
“I’ve been with Gabe since the start of this, and I know I’m not Chris, but with Chris gone, I figured someone needs to go and protect Gabe.”
Billy looked really annoyed now. “Well too bad…”
Before he could finish Gabe interrupted him. “Okay, I think three is a good number. Now let’s go before everyone wakes up and tries to join us.”
Billy walked around to the driver’s side of the car, shaking his head at Brad as he walked by. Gabe put his hand on Brad’s shoulder and squeezed it, flashing him a warm smile. Brad smiled and nodded.
As he opened the door to get in Gabe added something. “Plus there is something I wanted to do, and it will be safer with three of us. But first we need to swing back by Father O’Donnell’s place”
“What?” Billy said with shock while getting in the vehicle. “We just spent yesterday walking here and now you want to drive all the way back, plus a couple miles?”
“From here in this vehicle it is barely 20 minutes, and I have confidence in you that you can drive through that little town with no problems.”
“We need to go end this thing, we need to go where this started and we need to destroy the stuff there and kill this talking zombie.”
“I agree one hundred percent!” Gabe said putting his seat belt on. “And the sooner I take care of this problem the quicker we can do that.”
Chapter: 27
“Where the heck is the salt?” Kelly called out to anyone that would listen.
“What?” Asked Jeannie, coming around the corner into the kitchen yawning.
“I can’t find any salt anywhere, or about any other spice for that matter.”
“Oh,” Jeannie replied wiping the sleep out of her eyes. “Did you check the living room? Billy was using it last night to cook.”
“Okay, thanks.”
As Kelly walked out of the room Jeannie saw a handwritten letter sitting on the counter. Still trying to wake up she casually picked it up and started reading it. After just a few seconds her eyes got wide and she was wide awake.
“I don’t see the salt in here either!” called Kelly.
“They’re… they’re gone!”
“The salts gone?”
“No, This letter says Billy and Gabe snuck away last night to keep us safe.”
“What?”
Jeannie held up the letter and then started to read it.
Dear ladies,
All of you are special to me and so are Brad and the boys. It is for this reason I can’t stand to put you in any more danger. I think we saw today that we could never have enough people with us to take on all the zombies, so Billy and I have decided to go alone. I can keep the zombies away and he knows how to destroy the spell that started all this. So we are going to go end this ourselves. Please don’t follow us, you will only put us in more danger. Go back to the campground and if we are successful we will see you soon.
Love,
Gabe
“I’m going to check downstairs.” Jeannie said.
As she headed down the stairs there was a knock on the front door. Jeannie looked through the peephole and then opened the door to let Omar and Kenny in.
“Morning ladies.” Omar said with a smile.
“Please tell me that those guys went to get something for breakfast and will be back soon.” Kenny said half-jokingly.
“What guys?” Jeannie asked.
“I saw Brad, Billy and what’s his name, the preacher guy, get into one of the Humvees this morning.” Pointing towards Kenny, he added. “We took turns on watch last night.”
“Shoot. Then it is true.” Jeannie said with some defeat in her voice.
“What’s true?” Asked Kenny.
Jeannie handed them the letter and they both read it.
Chapter 28
It was easy to take the back roads from O’Donnell’s to downtown Independence, but once they got there, the number of zombies in the road and the abandoned vehicles went up significantly. But with Billy behind the wheel of the Hummer it cut through the streets of downtown Independence Kentucky like it was preprogrammed to miss the cars other obstacles and when there just wasn't enough room to get by, the Hummer was able to smash through. Coming around a final corner it headed at top speed down a stretch of the road that was straight and wide, surrounded by small mom and pop stores on either side. The car managed to wing several zombies without hitting them straight on, just rolling them down the side of the car, causing them to fall in a heap in the middle of the road.
>
Screeching up to the courthouse Billy executed a perfect 180-degree turn and then, letting it roll several yards, backed over a zombie that never saw it coming. Before the car even came to a complete stop, both the front and rear passenger doors came open. Brad jumped out of the car and immediately descended on a zombie that was on the sidewalk between them and the courthouse. He was already clubbing it to the ground when Gabe came out of the back seat and ran straight to the courthouse door. As he got close, a zombie that had been sitting at the top of the stairs started to stand slowly, but Gabe felled it with a single blow to the skull using the large carpenter's hammer. While Brad dealt with another straggler, Gabe was hammering something to the courthouse door. As soon as he was satisfied that the nail would hold, he turned and ran back to the car, signaling Brad to follow.
As soon as they were back in the car Billy stomped the gas pedal and they squealed away, leaving a growing group of zombies very disappointed.
The zombies in the area had already been heading towards all of the noise and commotion and continued to follow after the Humvee as it pulled away. They ran, jogged, or walked depending on how long they had been zombies or how long it had been since they had partaken of fresh human flesh. As they left, the only movement at the courthouse became the fluttering of papers nailed to the door. Three days later the fluttering attracted the attention of a small group of passing survivors. Approaching they found a stack of papers hammered to the door. All of them were official-looking court documents except for the top one. The top one however was clearly not one of the pieces of legal paper and was manually typed on an old fashioned typewriter. It simply said, "I divorce you for the transgression of adultery and your lack of remorse." Below the typewritten section, there was the signature of a man none of them had ever heard of and below that it had been witnessed by a priest. The rest of it was official court divorce papers, signed at every little arrow as far as anyone in the group could tell.
Dead Faith (Book 1): Dead Faith Page 16