by MJ Ware
Chapter 15 – Sodium Bicarbonate Discharge Device
No one said anything. All three of us just stared at the car in disbelief.
Finally, Misty spoke softly, "Umm, Nate, what the heck happened?"
"Did you get the manuals?" I asked.
"I have them here," Kali replied, looking down at the floor. His arms full of a mess of notebooks and papers.
"I think I've got the keys," Misty squeaked and held out a big key ring.
"There's a pair in the truck."
I grabbed a stack of papers out of Kali's hands and threw them into the back.
"We locked three of those automatons in the kitchen, but I'm not sure how long the door will hold," Misty said.
"Come on. Let's go."
Kali looked over the tanker and said, "I'll sit on top of the truck. There is a seat up there."
"Kali, I think you better sit inside with us," Misty said as I disconnected the hose from the truck.
"I can operate the automatic door controls from that location, and if we encounter resistance, I believe I can operate the main nozzle. It will not neutralize the zombies, but the force of the spray would certainly incapacitate them for a brief period of time."
"Sounds fine to me," I said glancing over at Misty to see if she was going to argue. She clenched her hands as if she were ready to punch something, but didn't say a word.
"Think we better swap guns." I hesitated a second before taking off my backpack Super Soaker and exchanged it for Kali's smaller rifle.
The controls for the garage hung from the ceiling via a long thick cable. On the end was a big yellow box with large round buttons. Kali took it on top of the truck with him.
Once inside the cab, the engine started right up with a turn of the key. I stared at all the buttons and gauges, hoping I could drive it.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Misty wasn't sure either.
"Nope, but no better time to learn," I said, then hollered up to Kali and the garage door opened.
Driving a fire truck really wasn’t hard. They're even automatic, which meant I couldn't stall or burn out the clutch.
I drove over a couple curbs, but in such a big truck and squashing so many zombies, we hardly noticed.
By the time we drove back to Walmart, I could handle the truck pretty well. It wasn’t like there were any other cars driving around.
As we pulled up, I wondered how'd we get the garage door open the rest of the way (it was only opened enough for the Mustang, may she rest in peace), when the radio squealed.
"This is Kali, do you read me, over?" The sound crackled over the truck's speakers.
"Hey, he's got a radio up there," Misty said. She found a headset and put it on. "Loud and clear, good buddy." I chuckled to myself. Misty didn't exactly fit the image of a trucker.
"Please proceed as close as possible to the garage door and I will push it open. Then I will close it immediately behind us."
"Sometimes it's not so bad having a pint-sized genius around," I said.
The zombies in the parking lot seemed very interested in what we were doing, but Misty and Kali shot any that got close enough to climb on board.
Kali opened the door as we pulled up. Five zombies walked around inside the garage, but he shot them with my Super Soaker before we'd even pulled in.
We hadn't thought to move enough pallets for the fire truck to squeeze through. So I ran over one, dog food spilling everywhere, rolling across the floor like a million marbles.
As soon as the back of the truck was in, Kali radioed for us to stop. He closed the door before more undead could get in. The door made a loud thud as it slammed closed. I looked at Misty. Neither of us smiled, but I could see the relief in her eyes.
Using the pallet jack, we moved the corpses outside. Opening the garage door just enough to slide them out.
"If we stay here much longer, we're going to have to start using masks," I said. "The stench is getting pretty strong." The sticky-sweet smell, like aged baby diapers and rotting meat, was strong enough to seep into the building.
"We will be vacating the area before that becomes necessary," Kali said. I closed the side door to the auto center, hoping to block out most of the sounds and smells of the undead.
That night, Misty and I locked ourselves in the vision center. Kali couldn't sleep and wanted to hang out in the store and read the emergency manuals. Misty thought it was a bad idea, but he insisted.
He had a set of keys, so I didn't see what the big deal was. But after our argument earlier in the day, I didn't want to get involved. Eventually, Kali got Misty to reluctantly agree that he could sit right outside the gate and read.
Even with the lights out, it took me a few minutes to work up the courage to speak to her. The last thing I wanted to do was make things between us worse, but for the sake of our friendship, I had to say something.
"Hey, Misty? I'm really sorry about this afternoon," I whispered. Figuring if she was still too mad to talk, she could pretend to be asleep.
"You don't even know what you did, do you?" she whispered back, sounding a thousand miles way.
"Ummm..." Should I go with belching or hitting her in the face with meat?
"Don't worry about it, Nate. I just miss the way things used to be. Simpler, like in grade school."
"That's exactly how I feel." My voice rose, not believing she felt the same. Though I couldn't understand, it was her changing things.
"I guess we have to grow up sometime, huh?"
I didn't know what to say. "Misty, I am sorry if I've been ticking you off. But I haven't been doing it on purpose—at least not most of the time. I don't even know what I've been doing." I stared blankly up into the darkness as I spoke.
"Boys. I suppose it's my fault." I could hear her sigh.
"No, I'm pretty sure it's mine. This isn't the first time I've messed things up without knowing how I was doing it."
"Tell you what; I'll try to do a better job communicating my needs, okay?"
Communicating needs? I was hosed. I still had no idea what she was talking about. "Yeah...okay"
"Don't forget to say your prayers." The rustling of sheets told me she'd rolled over.
I'd done more praying in the last two days than I had in all my life. I think there's a saying, there are no atheists in a zombie invasion—except maybe the zombies.
Misty crashed like my dad when he conks out in front of the TV. She even had that low, almost inaudible snore. Every muscle in my body ached; I was wiped out, but just couldn't rest. I kept rolling around under my covers. After a couple hours wrestling with my sheets, my stomach started complaining more than my muscles. I turned my flashlight on, got up, and quietly dug through a snack rack we'd rolled in by the front of the vision center. I whispered to Kali to see if he wanted something. He didn't reply. I shined my flashlight on his seat over by the gate.
He was gone.
Maybe he was out doing some late night shopping. I turned my flashlight on high and slowly panned across the store. I couldn't see any sign of him.
I looked over at Misty. She'd pushed all her sheets off and a big pool of drool was collecting on her pillow. I wasn't about to wake her.
Taking a deep breath, I grabbed a gun and unlocked the door. I locked Misty in the vision center, but left the key hanging next to the lock, so we could unlock it from either side. If zombies were smart enough to figure out how to use a key, we wouldn't stand a chance, anyway.
I was a little worried about Kali, but figured he was bright enough to watch out for himself. I really just wanted to know what he was up to. Why was he sneaking off in the middle of the night? I held my fingers over the flashlight; just enough reddish light escaped so I could walk without bumping into anything.
It took all the nerve I had to walk around in the dark. I figured there weren't any more zombies left hiding out in the store, but I couldn't be sure none had managed to find a way in. I kept imagining a big pair of white eyes glowing in the darkness, w
atching me as I walked by.
I started with the auto center. Even checking under the fire truck, then moved to the store. I put off the men's clothing section until last. I didn't have fond memories of the last time I went tromping around it in the dark.
Before I got there, I heard something from beyond the two swinging doors that led to the warehouse. I couldn't figure out what it was.
I flipped the flashlight off and saw an orange glow shining through the windows in the doors. I was only ten feet away, but it took forever to walk up to those doors. I'm not sure if I was trying to be stealthy, or if I was just scared.
Inch by inch, I moved my head so I could peer through the window. I had no idea what I was looking at. Two pairs of utility lights were set up. You know, those really bright portable ones. They flanked either side of a big aboveground pool.
And there was something in it, thrashing and splashing around. For a split second, I thought, zombie shark. But even before I realized how dumb that sounded, I saw a hand reaching up. It was Kali.
I dashed in and jumped up the side of the pool. Reaching down, I grabbed an arm and lifted him up.
"Dude, are you all right? Were you drowning?"
"No, it's only three point five feet deep." He jerked his arm out of my hand. "I was swimming."
"Swimming? More like floundering."
I looked down at him. He looked so small; naked except for trunks. His wet hair plastered to his head. He wiped the water from his face. "I was practicing."
"Don't think so. You can't swim." I jumped down.
"Can too." His voice shook. He looked down and added, "I just require a little more practice to achieve proficiency."
"You must really want to learn to swim," I said, looking over the pool and lights he'd secretly set up in the middle of the night.
"If our attempt to eradicate the zombie infestation fails, we may have to flee via Bear River."
"We could just take Highway 70 west. It’s a long hike, but I bet we could make it back to civilization."
"I am concerned that the anomaly that is re-animating the dead might spread to other species. Making travel through the mountains ill-advised"
"You mean like zombie squirrels and bears?"
"It is a possibility. Without knowing for sure, our final option has to be crossing Bear River."
"Hmm, I never thought of that," I said, still looking at the pool with amazement.
"If you do not mind, I would like to get back to my practicing."
"Why don't you let me teach you to swim?"
"You would do that?"
"That water's ice cold, but I think I can teach you to dog paddle without getting wet."
I spent the next thirty minutes or so teaching Kali how to dog paddle. He was no athlete, but he sure had heart.
He kept practicing when I left. I wondered what he planned to tell Misty in the morning about the whole pool setup. She'd love the idea of having a swimming pool—least 'till she felt the water.
In the morning, Kali was sitting back outside the vision center; wide-eyed, poring over emergency equipment and procedure manuals. He didn't mention last night. He just kept spitting out totally useless facts about the tanker truck. Did you know our fire truck weighs in excess of twenty-eight thousand pounds when fully loaded? Or the main water cannon can expel all one thousand gallons in less than three minutes? He should have been getting on my nerves, but I think he was starting to grow on me. Or at least I no longer wanted to stuff a dirty sock down his mouth.
Misty and I were supposed to be calculating how much sulfuric acid we needed in order to mix a thousand gallons of zombie juice. We mixed large samples with water and tested the pH. She did most of the work. I tried to stand back; this was some crazy stuff. We had to wear facemasks and gloves to even handle it.
"I believe by properly adjusting the nozzle output, I can induce the cannon to fire a fine mist nearly fifty feet. The tank should last over an hour in this mode," Kali said.
"I'm going to go make some zombie juice balloon bombs. Holler if you guys need me," I said.
"Zombie juice balloon bombs?" Kali looked up.
"Yeah, they're lemonade-filled water balloons."
"I see..." He started to look back down, but then his eyes lit up like two coconuts. "Wait, you just inspired me. I have a brilliant idea for constructing zombie juice bombs."
I was a little annoyed. Hadn't I just said I was going to go make some? Then he told us what he had in mind.
"Have you ever constructed a vinegar and sodium bicarbonate discharge device?"
Misty and I looked at each other blankly. Sometimes it seemed like we didn't understand half the words that came out of his mouth.
"Okay. Do you recall the volcanoes you built in third grade, with the lava spewing out?"
"Oh yeah, I loved that project," I said.
"So imagine you obstructed the flow, so the lava could not discharge. What would happen?"
"Your teacher would give you an F?"
Misty hit me on the arm. "No, stupid, the pressure would cause it to blow up. Like real volcanoes sometimes do."
"Precisely. Now if we recreate this phenomenon, but in say, a two-liter coke bottle, the resulting explosion should be substantial."
"Using baking soda to build the pressure, right?" Misty said. "But wouldn't that neutralize the acid, making it harmless to zombies?"
"Not if we had a strong enough acid and mixed only the minimum amount of baking soda."
"Kali, you're a genius." Misty leaned over and gave him a hug.
"What about me? I've saved both your rears in the last twenty-four hours," I said.
Misty made pouty lips and sounded like she was talking to a baby. "Oh. Poor, poor Natie-poo. Do you need a hug, too?"
"Nate, I'd be glad to provide you with a reassuring hug."
Had Kali made a joke?
"Ha, ha, very funny." Actually, I could have used a hug (but not from Kali). It'd been a long couple of days, and even though we'd had a rough time of it, I was hoping that things would start going better with Misty.
Kali ran off to build his new and improved zombie juice bomb. Which pretty much put the damper on my balloon bombs. So, I stayed and helped Misty mix up some five-gallon water jugs with sulfuric acid. Our goal was to get the pH between two and three—the lowest Kali said wouldn't burn if it got on our skin.
When we were done, I suggested we go to the warehouse where I'd seen some pleather desk chairs that we could roll the water jugs around on.
I couldn't wait to see Misty's reaction to the pool. As we went through the double doors, I turned around so I wouldn't miss the look on her face.
"Nate, watch where you're going." Misty grabbed my arm. "Where are the chairs?"
"Huh?" I turned around and saw—absolutely nothing. No lights, no pool, not even a drop of water. There was no way Kali could have cleaned up all the evidence. I started looking under shelves for signs of water.
"Here's the chairs. Let's go," Misty said.
We put our sample five-gallon bottles on the chairs and rolled them over to where Kali was working.
When we got there, we heard a buzzing sound. Kali was operating on a soda bottle with a small, handheld Dremel.
"What-ya-doing?" Misty asked.
"I am developing a manual compression delivery apparatus."
"Huh?"
"I am attaching a little string so we can break the bag holding the baking soda."
"Oh, cool. How's it coming?"
"I will be able to report results in a moment."
Kali stuffed a bag with white powder into the soda bottle and put the top on.
"Just pull the string." He pulled it, ripping the bag open. The mixture inside started fizzing.
"Now, I will agitate the solution." He started shaking. The bottle began to bulge. "Nate, perhaps you would care to do the honors?"
He handed me the bottle. "Quickly now—Nate." He made a throwing motion with his arm.
&nbs
p; I could tell any second the bottle would burst. I lobbed the thing like a quarterback under pressure. It flew across the store, then hit the ground.
BOOM! A huge spurt of water rose up like a wave, flying a good twenty feet.
It was so loud, we all jumped; no one expected a blast like that.
"I believe we can judge that to be a success," he said.
"Wow, the whole area is soaked."
"Too bad we can't supersize it; we could take out dozens," Misty said. A second later, she started laughing. At first, I thought she was laughing at me. Then I realized—for once—I hadn't said anything stupid. "What's so funny?"
"Perfect shot, Nate. Right into the swimsuit section."
"Oh, crud." I was overdue for a change of trunks.