by Derek Slaton
Ace hit the starter, and Dante jumped onto the back, wrapping an arm around his waist. The redneck chuckled and hit the throttle, speeding them out of town.
Both men seemed afraid to let out sighs of relief, but as they left their harrowing day in the dust, they felt lighter and lighter. There was just the hope that QXR wouldn’t come knocking. At least if they did, they’d find them here, and not right on top of Ace’s house and the little community they’d begun to build for themselves.
The redneck went straight to Maddox’s and punched in the code for the gate.
“Where is everyone?” Dante asked, getting off of the back of the bike, brow furrowed. There were no signs of struggle, but it unsettled him how quiet it was.
Ace hit the kickstand and wandered up to the trailer, finding a little yellow sticky note attached to the door. “Gone to the farm,” he read out loud, and shook his head. “You okay riding bitch a little bit longer?”
Dante laughed, shaking his head. “You mean I get the pleasure of hugging you for another leg of the trip?” he pretended to flip imaginary hair over his shoulder. “Sign me up!”
CHAPTER NINE
As the bike rumbled up towards the abandoned school, Lily emerged from the gymnasium door, flanked by Cam and Bailey. She put her hands on her hips, giving the men a stern look like an angry mom.
“About time you boys got back,” she scolded, but couldn’t keep the smile out of her voice.
Ace rolled his eyes. “Don’t even pretend like you missed me, Lil,” he drawled.
“I didn’t miss you at all,” she teased, and then her gaze softened when she noticed how rough around the edges Dante looked. “What happened?”
He stepped up to her and brushed some stray hair back from her face, gazing down at her with a smile. “Lots. But I’m fine.”
“Well I can see that, you big oaf,” she shot back, but her voice lacked any venom as she grinned goofily up at him.
Cam gaped at them, and then turned to Ace, eyes wide.
“About time, right?” the redneck drawled, and clapped the younger man on the back, leading him back inside.
Bailey blushed crimson and trotted after them, brushing past Cam to be first back into the gym.
Dante looped an arm around Lily’s shoulders, pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head as they headed inside.
“Fine, but needs his woman to hold him up, I see how it is,” she joked as she slid her arm around his waist, and he pretended to lean on her. She poked him in the side and he laughed, easing up on her shoulders.
“I could clean up,” he said, looking around.
The gym wasn’t exactly a hive of activity, given their low population, but work had definitely been done. There were raised garden beds everywhere, with neat little rows. Henry and Tate sat on the far end at a set of desks someone had pulled together, sharing a giant bong as they leaned over some papers.
“Over here,” Lily said, waving for him to come to the right.
There was a long hose coming out of one of the change rooms, and it hung over the side of a large plastic tub. The nozzle attached to it had varying sprays, and there was a stack of towels stacked neatly next to it.
“Need a shower?” she asked with a sly wink, squeezing the handle and spraying in a sprinkler pattern.
He chuckled low in his throat. “Maybe later,” he replied, heat blooming in his belly at her insinuation. He stuck his hands in the tub and let her spray him down and then wet a towel to wipe the blood from his face.
“There he is,” Lily said as he dried himself off. “Want the grand tour?”
He raised his eyebrow. “Is there more?”
“No,” she said and trilled a laugh. “This is it.”
“I’m glad you all made it out okay,” he said, lowering his head. “Did you run into any trouble at all?”
She shook her head. “No, we had a clean getaway.” She crossed her arms. “Now, tell me what happened to you, mister.”
“No fucking way!” Maddox exclaimed, his laugh booming across the space as he doubled over.
“I think Ace is already regaling everyone with our tale,” Dante said with a chuckle, and took her hand, leading her over to the others clustered near Tate and Henry.
Ace wiped pretend tears from his eyes. “Yes, way!” he said, shaking his head. “He was such a fucking dick, and then he tried to sell me out, so we left his ass.”
“That’s amazing!” Maddox guffawed, and slapped Francis on the back as the large man walked by, carrying a bucket of soil from outside. “Did you hear that? They left Brandt in the middle of a zombie-infested town!”
“That’s not even the best part,” Dante cut in with a smirk.
Ace grinned. “He caught up to us later, all zombified.”
“No!” Maddox declared, raising his hands. “Tell me you shot that fucker in the face!”
At Ace’s nod, the other redneck whooped, doing a little jig. Lily rolled her eyes, glancing over at Abigail and her daughters, who were off to the side, thankfully occupied.
“What were you doing back at the prison, anyway?” Tate piped up, turning towards them with bright red eyes.
Ace shook his head. “We needed wheels, and this guy thought it would be a bright idea to snag a cop car,” he said, jerking a thumb at Dante. “Which we weren’t even able to get, anyway. We also needed some gear to fight the QXR, but of course the supply room had a keypad with a number code.”
“Ugh, of course,” Maddox moaned.
“Also thanks for tossing the keys to his cell in the toilet, asshole,” Ace added, staring at Maddox with disdain. “I lost rock paper scissors and had to fish ‘em out.”
“Ew!” Tate cried, wrinkling his nose.
“Thankfully there was no shit in there,” Ace said, but still glared at Maddox.
“Y’all are disgusting,” Lily quipped, shaking her head. “Anyway, did you take out all of those QXR guys, or are we going to have problems?”
Dante shrugged. “By our count, we’re pretty sure we got them all,” he said. “And we slashed all of their tires, so even if there are any left, they won’t be going anywhere by car. But we left a lot of hungry zombies downtown, so it doesn’t look good for any survivors.”
“What if somebody comes looking for their friends?” Henry asked, his words slow and sluggish. “I mean, won’t somebody come looking for them?”
Dante shrugged again. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he admitted. “They don’t seem like the type of guys to really care if they lose anyone. But they might come investigating to see if there’s resistance out here other than zombies.”
“Not out here though,” Tate said. “We’re out of the way, and this place doesn’t look like anything.”
Ace shook his head. “Probably best to set up a watch, anyway,” he suggested. “Just to be on the safe side.”
“You two get to sleep tonight,” Lily said firmly. “After the exciting day you’ve had.”
Her cousin stretched his arms above his head, cracking his back and shoulders. “And you are right about that, cousin dear,” he drawled. “I could use some eats and a nap.”
Bailey jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “We’ve got some stew going in the kitchen,” she said. “Come on.”
Lily hooked her arm through Dante’s, and they followed the young woman down the hallway to the cafeteria.
“You guys got set up nice in here,” he said, noting some of the classrooms cleared out with some sleeping bags and amenities set up. “For having to leave so fast.”
“Well, we weren’t sure how long we were going to have to stay, and we wanted to make sure it was comfortable for the little ones,” Lily said. “It’s pretty good what we managed to find in here, even with the building so old. I was amazed there was power, at least for the time being. Grabbing some camp stoves or something would be a good idea for the long term.”
Dante nodded. “A generator would be ideal,” he said, “but I don’t know if it would be a good idea
to make that much noise. We don’t want to attract a whole pile of those things.”
“Speaking of, we’re going to have to talk about defense,” Ace piped up. “It’s all well and good to have doors that close, but if a bunch of zombies end up surrounding the building, that’s just a pain in the ass.”
Lily nodded. “Yes,” she agreed, “but first, we eat.”
Bailey grabbed the pot from the kitchen and tipped it, pouring the thick stew into some disposable paper bowls. “There’s no washable stuff in here,” she said. “I found a couple of mugs, but we figured we might as well use these up first.”
Dante smiled at her as he took his bowl and grabbed a few plastic spoons from the condiments table. They were in plastic packaging, so thankfully not as covered in dust as the rest of the stuff kicking around the area. The quartet sat down at one of the picnic table style benches, and Dante tossed Ace a spoon.
They dug into their stew like animals, and the girls shared a playfully disgusted look at their vigor. Once their bowls were clean, they smacked their lips in satisfaction.
“Hey, didn’t you say you had a chocolate-covered granola bar?” Dante asked, raising his eyebrow.
Ace crossed his arms. “Hey, just because you wasted yours on an asshole cop that died five seconds later, doesn’t mean you’re entitled to mine,” he said with playful haughtiness.
“But mine wasn’t chocolate-covered,” Dante shot back. “It wasn’t even one with little marshmallows in it.”
“The humanity!” Bailey exclaimed, and the four of them shared a laugh at her sarcastic outburst.
Ace rolled his eyes and then pulled out the granola bar in question, tearing into it and breaking it in half. He offered the smaller half to Dante, who took it with a smile.
They got up and headed back to the gym where everyone had filtered off to do their own thing. Abigail waved Bailey over, and she offered the others a smile before heading to spend time with her family.
Dante stared out over the beginnings of their little farm, but his thoughts were elsewhere. He thought of his sister, trapped with those QXR assholes. What were they doing to her? Or making her do? He clenched his jaw.
He knew that he couldn’t have done anything differently. He knew that he couldn’t have saved her at the time, that she was too far away from him. He even had overcome his guilt in not staying with her, because he’d managed to get Bailey out. Had he stuck around, she would have been captured as well, and that would have been just one more person he couldn’t save.
“Hey,” Lily said quietly, and he looked down at her, snapping out of his trance. “You okay?” she asked.
Dante looked to his left and realized that Ace had wandered off to talk to Francis, who was finally relaxing in the corner instead of hauling dirt.
“Just worried about Grace,” he said, running a hand over his hair. “I can’t stop thinking about what could be happening to her right now.”
She squeezed his hand gently. “That’s a dangerous path,” she said. “You’ll just drive yourself crazy with that thought process. Best to think about a plan of action.”
He nodded, smiling down at her. “You’re right.”
“Shit, you’re built like a brick house and you admit I’m right?” she said, putting a hand to her chest. “I hit the jackpot.”
He laughed, and it felt good. They headed for the planning table, surrounded by their companions that grew stronger by the day.
At least for now, Dante could have hope.
END
Coming Soon: The survivors in the Lowcountry face new threats as they continue to rebuild after the zombie apocalypse.
Up Next: The Second Month begins in the main Dead America series as a zombie horde a million strong marches towards El Paso in “Dead America: Creeping Death”.
The main Dead America Series can be found here. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RWMXVNJ
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