Walking With The Dead (Book 2): Home with the Dead

by Dziekan, PJ

  His eyes widened. With a shaky hand, he reached for the bottle. He fumbled with the cap, losing a few precious drops as he brought the bottle to his mouth. He took a sip, sighing with pleasure after he swallowed. “Thank you,” he breathed before he took another sip.

  Mick smiled. “You’re welcome.” He reached into the pack again and found a granola bar. “Take this.” He handed the bar to Troy.

  “I think you just saved my life.” Troy ripped open the bar and alternated tiny bites of food with sips of water.

  Mick looked over the edge of the roof as Troy ate. The streets were pretty clear, with only a few zombies stumbling aimlessly. In front of the building, however, another crowd had gathered. It was much smaller than the original one, but still a hard number to fight through. He moved to the other side of the building where the fire escape was located. It was clear. “Ready to get out of here?” He asked Troy.

  “What about them?” He gestured to the street.

  “Most of them are gone. Didn’t you hear the Jeep? She – Sarah – led them away.”

  Troy shook his head. “I thought I imagined it. I’ve been imagining all kinds of things. Crazy things.”

  “Nope, it was real.” Mick moved closer to Troy and offered a hand. “I’m real. And I’m ready to get off this roof.” He gave Troy a sheepish smile. “I’m not a fan of heights.”

  Troy grasped Mick’s hand and hauled himself up. He wobbled on his feet and Mick steadied him. “Thanks,” Troy said.

  “Don’t mention it. You good?” Troy nodded. “Anything you want to take?”

  Troy laughed. “Hell, no.”

  “Then let’s go.” Mick walked back to the fire escape, Troy right behind him.

  “How are we getting out of here?” Troy asked as he watched Mick climb onto the fire escape.

  “Just waiting for our ride.” As if on cue, he heard the sound of the Jeep in the distance. “And there it is.” He grinned. “C’mon, let’s get down there. We won’t have much time once she pulls up.”

  “She?” Troy gingerly climbed over the short railing on the roof and stood on the landing next to Mick.

  “Sarah. You’ll love her.” He started climbing down the metal stairs, his bat hitting the side making a loud clang following each step. Troy’s descent was a bit quieter but the zombies still heard. They began to stumble around inside the store, trying to determine the source of the food.

  They climbed all the way down to the final landing. Zombies were starting down the alley, finally catching their scent. There were only a few, spaced far enough apart that they could dodge them. Mick turned to Troy. “You can run, right?”

  Troy swallowed when he saw the formerly blonde zombie still wearing the lingerie she had died in. “I guess I’ll have to.”

  “Then let’s do it.” Mick climbed down the ladder, which still didn’t drop. Cursing to himself, he dropped the last few feet to the ground. Troy followed, dropping into a crouch. Mick grabbed his arm and pulled him up. They jogged up the alley, swerving around the zombies.

  The main street was empty except for a handful of zombies stumbling out of the coffee shop. Sarah was still a few blocks away. Mick pushed Troy behind him as he pulled the gun from behind his back and faced the storefront. “Watch for the Jeep,” he said as he watched the creatures inch closer.

  He didn’t have to use the gun. Sarah sped up the street, slamming on the brakes as she stopped right beside them. The passenger window went down. “Need a lift?” She asked.

  “Oh, you’re funny.” Mick opened the back door and ushered Troy inside. Once he was in, he slammed the door and opened the passenger side, staring at the place where the mirror once was. He closed the door as the first of the zombies reached them. He heard nails scraping along the door as Sarah laid tire as she drove away.

  “Found yourself a stray?” Sarah glanced at Mick.

  “Troy. Troy, this is Sarah and Steven.”

  “Hey, Troy, how you doing?” She asked.

  “Much better now. Thank you so much.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  Mick fastened his seat belt. “Have any trouble?” He asked with a grin.

  “Nah, piece of cake. You?”

  He thought of the child zombie, glad he had spared Sarah that horror. “Nope.”

  “What’s the plan now?” Steven asked.

  “Yeah, we came to town for a truck and ended up with a Troy.” Sarah snickered at her own lame joke.

  Mick shook his head. “Let’s just get back to the house. We’ll load up what we can and come back for the rest.”

  “You’re the boss.” She winked at him.

  ♦

  Due to Sarah’s lead foot and the relatively clear roads, they made it back to the house in just over fifteen minutes. She pulled up in front of the house and shut off the Jeep. “Now what?”

  Mick reached over and pulled the keys from the ignition. “Now I never let you drive again.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Why?” Mick laughed. “We never once went under forty miles per hour, your foot never touched the brake and you missed that truck by a millimeter!”

  She looked at him for a minute then shrugged. “I knew there was a reason I never got my license.”

  Mick shook his head. “Babe.”

  “That was a walk in the park compared to romp through the woods,” Steven said as he opened his door.

  “The woods?”

  Sarah made a disgusted noise. “You guys are wimps.” She undid her seatbelt. “All that driving’s made me hungry. Anyone else?”

  “I could eat,” Troy said softly.

  Sarah smiled. “I’m sure you could, Troy. We’ll get you something. C’mon, Mick.”

  They walked around the house to the front and walked into the living room. Sarah stopped, putting her hand on his arm. “Is he a good guy?”

  “I think so. He thought he was hallucinating me.”

  “You trust him?”

  Mick nodded. “I trust him.”

  “Then I do, too.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “I’ll go down and get the food,” Mick said as they walked into the kitchen. “See if there’s anything useful in here.”

  “OK.” She was happy not to have to go back into the basement. She drifted through the kitchen, opening a drawer here, a cupboard there.

  “Sarah!” She heard Steven yell. She looked out of the kitchen window, but she couldn’t see anything. She’d waste too much time clearing the back door. Shit, where was her pry bar? She unsnapped the strap holding her knife and kept her hand on it as she sprinted through the house to the outside and saw nothing.

  “Where are you?”

  “Around back.”

  Sarah jogged around the side of the house. Steven and Troy were standing in front of a detached garage. Steven was smiling. “There’s a pickup in there,” he said as she reached them. “Big Dodge Ram.”

  “Think it’ll run?” She fastened her knife back into its sheath.

  “Only one way to find out.” Steven walked to the side of the garage and tried the man-sized door. It opened. He swung the door wide and waited. When nothing came out, he stepped inside. He stretched over the hood of the truck to reach the handle that disengaged the door from the electric opener. With a yank, the door was ready to be opened manually. He squeezed between the fender and the wall to the door, which he pulled up, blinking at the bright light.

  “Keys wouldn’t be in it, would they?” She asked.

  Steven poked his head in the open window. “Nope.”

  “We’ll take a look inside. If we can’t find them, Mick can hotwire it.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, why do you need a truck?” Troy asked.

  “To haul back our spoils,” Sarah said with a smile. “Let’s eat first.”

  ♦

  They sat on the patio, enjoying their spaghetti MREs. Troy’s eyes widened when Mick handed him his meal. “I – I don’t know if I can eat all of this,” h
e said.

  “Eat what you can,” Sarah said before she took her first bite of spaghetti and meat sauce.

  “I don’t want to waste it.”

  Her mouth full, she shook her head. “Don’t worry about it,” she mumbled. “Just eat.”

  Troy waited another second before he forked the first bite. He moaned, forcing himself not to gobble the rest in seconds.

  “We have more, Troy,” Mick said with a smile.

  “I’m sure I won’t be able to eat all of this, but thank you for the offer.” He took a bite of the cracker that accompanied the meal.

  They ate silently until Steven asked “How’d you end up on that roof?”

  Troy shook his head. “I was with a group, six of us. We’d been travelling together since almost the beginning.” He loaded his fork with spaghetti, brought it to his mouth, then dropped it back to his plate. His appetite was gone.

  “You don’t have to tell us,” Sarah said softly.

  “No, I do.” He scratched at his scraggly beard. “We were tired, it was a long day. We weren’t paying attention and walked right into a horde.” He looked down at his plate and swallowed hard. “Four of us, gone in a heartbeat. It was just me and Dennis left.”

  Mick put his arm around Sarah and she leaned into him.

  “Dennis watched his daughter get ripped apart right in front of him. He just shut down. He went through the motions of living, but he wasn’t, not really. We came across another group of them and he just walked right up to them. I – I couldn’t save him. I just listened to him scream…” He closed his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Troy.” Mick reached out and touched his arm. “We’re all sorry.”

  Troy nodded. He cleared his throat. “I ran. Some of them followed. I thought I lost them in that shop, but there were some in there, too. I just ran up and got stuck.” He smiled again. “Thanks for rescuing me.”

  “Hey, we need all the help we can get,” Sarah said. “You might regret coming with us.”

  “No, ma’am,” he said. “I’ll always be grateful.”

  “Don’t call me ma’am, Troy.”

  ♦

  Mick found the keys to the truck amid the debris on the kitchen counter. Despite a weak battery, the truck started and Steven drove it from the garage, parking it by the back door. Mick cleared the debris from the front of the door, opening it to let a little light into the kitchen. “We’ll load up both vehicles,” Mick said. “We can probably fit it all in both of them.”

  “Just let me know what I need to do,” Troy said, standing.

  “You need to sit down and get your strength back,” Mick said. “Steven and I can handle it.”

  “What about me?” Sarah asked.

  “Keep Troy company.” He kissed her cheek as he walked into the house, not giving her a chance to protest. With a sigh, she slumped back into the folding chair they had liberated from the garage.

  “It’s surprising to see a couple that made it through this,” Troy remarked. He was picking at the protein bar that came with the MRE.

  “Oh, we weren’t a couple before all this started,” she said. “We met after.”

  “Really?”

  She nodded. She gave him a truncated version. How Ryan saved her from her first zombie. Finding Mick and Becca. Having Elizabeth entrusted to their care. Meeting and losing Gail and Josh. Nearly running over Jack, who led them to Mikey, then settling in at the cabin. Rescuing Dylan, Julianne, April and Dominic from the roof of an elementary school. Finding new people, Bobby and Donna, Steven, Michelle, Lily and Christa. Losing their friends, along with the cabin, and wandering until they found Annie and her people at Thornville. She left out Silver Creek and horrors she and Ryan had experienced there. He didn’t need to know.

  “So, we’re just as much newcomers as you are,” she finished. “We’ve only been there a few days.”

  “I hope no one minds that you’re bringing me back with you.”

  “Too bad if they do,” she said. “Because you’re one of us now.”

  “Thank you, ma’am – uh, Sarah.”

  She smiled. Something about Troy made her trust him immediately. He would be under her protection. Annie and her people would just have to accept it.

  While Mick and Steven hauled items from the basement and Troy dozed in the sunshine, Sarah explored the rest of the house. She knew she shouldn’t do it alone, but it needed to be done and she wasn’t going to ask Troy. She found some first aid supplies and some of the basics, like toilet paper and soap. And a few other items she was sure would be appreciated. She hid those in the back of the truck.

  By the time both vehicles were loaded and the basement emptied, Mick and Steven were dripping sweat. They both collapsed on the lawn. Sarah handed over bottles of water from her pack. “You should have let me help.”

  “You were fine right where you were,” Mick panted. He downed half his bottle of water.

  “Stubborn.” Sarah looked at Steven. “You OK?”

  “I will be.” He dropped back, laying on the grass.

  With a bemused smile on her face, she shook her head. “As soon as the macho men catch their breath, we’ll head back,” she said to Troy.

  “Who’s driving the truck?” Mick asked.

  “I will,” Steven said. “I want the food to get there in one piece.”

  “Fuck you, Steven.” She laughed, throwing a piece of balled up paper at him.

  About ten minutes after they finished, they headed back to town. Mick and Sarah were in the Jeep, which was packed tight. Steven and Troy followed in the truck. The bed was loaded and covered with a tarp they had found in the garage. The back seat of the cab was also loaded, boxes stacked so high Steven could barely see. Not that it mattered. They weren’t exactly bringing back what they went out for, but what they had would sustain their little community for some time.

  Annie was the first to see them. Mick was moving the truck to seal the side road when he saw her walking down the street. “Hey, Annie.”

  “Hello, Mick. What did you bring us that needed an extra truck?”

  Mick grinned. “All kinds of fun stuff.”

  “And is that someone new I see in the truck with Steven?”

  He nodded. “His name is Troy.”

  “I’ll be happy to meet him. Bring him by.” She smiled. “We have a nice surprise for you, too.” She turned and walked down the street.

  Mick pulled the truck into place and shut it off, leaving the key inside as they had agreed. He headed back to the Jeep, got in and closed the door. He looked at Sarah. “Something’s going on.”

  “Like what?” Her mind immediately began to race. Did they miss some zombies? Did someone die? Did Missy go into labor?

  Mick read the worry on her face. “No, babe, it’s a good thing.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He put the Jeep into gear. “I’m sure.”

  They drove slowly through town, noticing that work had been done while they were gone. Some cars had been moved to the sides of the street, making travel much easier. Grant, Missy, Claire and the kids were working in one of the vacant lots, loosening the dirt, prepping for a garden. Mikey waved when they went past. They stopped in front of their apartment building. Annie was waiting out front with a smile.

  Sarah got out and walked over to the older woman. “Any problems?”

  “Not a one,” she said. “I just came back from delivering lunch to the gates.”

  “How are they?”

  “Good.”

  “And everything else?”

  “You’ll have to see,” Annie said with an enigmatic smile.

  “Wait, what –” But Annie had already turned away, heading towards Steven and Troy.

  “What the hell?” Sarah started after Annie, but Mick stopped her.

  “You know everything is fine,” he said. “Let her have her moment.”

  She shook her head. “That woman drives me nuts sometimes.”

  “We all drive you nuts someti
mes. Present company excluded, of course.”

  She grinned at him. “Present company always, you mean.”

  “Hey!”

  She bumped him with her shoulder as she walked to where Annie was speaking with Troy and Steven.

  “Steven was telling me how you rescued Troy,” Annie said as Sarah walked up.

  “Not me, it was Mick.”

  “You led them away. You were just as much a part of the rescue.”

  Sarah shrugged. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

  “I see you brought back a lot of food.” Annie gestured to the bed of the truck. “If we keep adding people, we’ll need it.”

  “Annie…” Sarah was one second away from losing her shit.

  Annie laughed. “You guys can unload the truck without her. Come on, Sarah. We have something great to show you.” She linked her arm in Sarah’s.

  “Steven, that box and the other thing that I put in the back of the truck? Put them in the closet in my apartment. Don’t let anyone see them, OK?” He nodded.

  Annie led her away, walking up the steps to the apartment building. They entered the lobby. “Where are we going?” Sarah asked. She wanted to disengage from Annie, but didn’t know how to without offending the older woman. She smiled. A couple of weeks ago, she would have pulled away without a second thought. Maybe she was maturing.

  They crossed the lobby, past the useless mailboxes and a worn chair. Sarah spotted new debris on the scuffed-up floor. A piece of 2x4, a length of pipe. Annie released Sarah’s arm and they headed up the stairs to the second floor. With a smile, she opened the door and motioned Sarah through. “What’s going on?” Sarah asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  Letting out a sigh, Sarah stepped through the door and waited for Annie. Annie moved down the hall and stopped in front of 2D. Still smiling, she opened the door. Sarah followed her inside. She saw more debris on the floor of the apartment – another length of pipe, some tools. Voices came from the bathroom. She stepped around the dusty sofa and headed to the small room. She opened the door to see Ryan in the tub, connecting a shower head to a plastic pipe jutting from the wall. Bobby was gathering tools and placing them into a black bag.