The Reanimates (Book 2): The Highway

by Rudolph, J.

  He stepped forward with his jaw set and eyes serious. We followed behind him. The smell of death hung heavy in the still air of the room. Flashlights clicked on and the beams crossed over each other in the living room. Tables had been knocked over in what looked like a struggle. There was a very large bloodstain on the sand colored carpet. A bloody hand print was smeared on the wall. A thumping sound echoed down the hall and we spun to face the noise. All the doors were closed but one noticeably moved with each thud. We were not alone in this house. Lucas had his sword ready. I loaded the crossbow as Tyreese slipped down the hall.

  When Tyreese pushed the door open a very thin and hungry female zombie stumbled out. She had a major wound where her neck met her shoulder that was likely the source of where all the blood in the living room was from though with the amount of bites taken out of her it was hard to tell. It was cold in the house and that seemed to slow it up significantly. It was followed by a male who was equally slow and emaciated, though he had significantly less wounds on him, which told me that he brought home the zombie bug then fed on her. They seemed to be easily distracted by the three live bodies in front of them and we used that to our advantage. I made a lot of movement to attract their attention while Lucas and Tyreese snuck up on them.

  With the zombies taken care of, we started checking out the house for supplies. At first glance we were not impressed. All the work we had just done to kill those two zombies was just for a handful of condensed soup cans. From the back door window I saw that there was a detached garage and a shed. I hoped maybe we would at least find a can of gas.

  We walked outside and went to the shed first. Assorted yard tools were hung neatly on pegs and a shiny lawn mower with a small gas can sitting next to it. I picked it up and found it half full. This was so not worth the effort.

  Lucas walked around the garage to see if there was a window or something to see what was inside. The only indication that there might be something inside was the lock on the door. It was like the kind you found on self storage units. Lucas had brought along bolt cutters for just this sort of thing.

  Before the end of the world there was a semi popular show on TV that was all about preparing for some scenario that would bring on the apocalypse. This garage could have been featured on it. I wondered how a house that was so prepared for a super disaster could have had the occupants fall victim to the zombies. I guess it goes to show that zombies were truly the last thing anyone thought could happen.

  There was so much food and water in this place alone that Mercedes and the kids could easily last for a few years. There were gas and wind generators for power, tanks of propane, medical supplies, and weapons with appropriate ammunition. If we secured everything for her I could see them comfortably surviving. "Well, guys," I said, "let's tell Mercedes what we found." Even though I still didn't want her to go I was so much more comfortable in knowing she had all this to work with.

  We found her in the mud room doing a load of laundry when we got back. We told her about everything we found. She nodded soberly and said, "Well, I do believe God gave an answer. I'm going to have a talk with the kids." I gave her a reassured smile.

  "Let us know how that goes. We're here for you for what ever you need." I said with more of a brave tone than I felt.

  That night at dinner Mercedes broke the news of her plan to everyone. She explained that she discussed the idea of staying with the kids and they were on board. She told everyone that she had talked with a couple of us about how if there were enough resources in the last block she would be able to keep them. She told the group that the supplies discovered could easily cover a family of three for at least a year, and that she planned on a reassessment whether or not to stay if things looked like they were going to go bad. A chorus of objections rang out, some more vocal than others. Some of the group saw Mercedes right to choose as a good thing, which spawned arguments. After a few minutes of the arguing Jody leaned into me and whispered, "Cali, you need to do something. You need to say something for her."

  I knew I did. I stood up and started to get the attention of everyone. My voice was drowned out in the mix of voices. Finally I yelled out, "Stop. Now!" Everyone looked at me with irritation for interrupting their argument. I rolled my eyes at them. "Damn, you all sound like you're trying to have a flame war in a chat room. Just stop. How would you all feel if we forced you to go to someplace you didn't want to be, or ripped you out of your comfort zone? What if you were taken someplace against your will? We don't behave that way. I will not be party to holding someone hostage. Mercedes comes to her family about the prospect of staying behind, and her family responds like this? With snitty arguments? We are going to respect her wishes. We are going to do everything in our power to make this a safe place for her and we are going to put these opinions on the shelf for her sake."

  Slowly everyone came around to the logical side of the situation letting go of the emotional side.

  "We need to brainstorm ideas to keep Mercedes and the kids safe. The floor is open to suggestions." Trent said; which opened the doors for people to get past their issues.

  Tyreese offered the first suggestion, which got the ball of creativity rolling. I think that the example he displayed since the beginning of all this was calming to me and everyone else as well. "We probably need to start with securing the house. I want to board up the windows, but I don't want to make it so she is blind to a hit. If we set it up so she has a view slot in every room window where she could line up a rifle or whatever then she can take a shot without opening up anything."

  There were some nods. Jody asked, "Where will she be storing her supplies? There is no way to keep everything someone needs for a year in the house." Trent suggested that one of the rooms be turned into some supply storage but explained that ultimately the rest would have to be in the barn. "Well, maybe then we need to create a walk-way that keeps out weather and zombies." Jody suggested. Trent loved this idea and I could see him already building the place in his head.

  "Know what we should do?" Lucas asked. "We should set up a search and destroy while the zombies are frozen. We know the houses are clear now, so we need to check the churches and any businesses. We need to check the streets and kill them now while they can't overrun us. Make sense?" I loved this. It was a proactive way to help the safety levels. Obviously we were not going to be able to kill them all, but any dent we could make had to help.

  DaWayne had been quietly taking in the discussion. "She needs a bug out plan. You know, just in case things get bad. Not saying it will, but that was a scary lesson we had to learn back home. Maybe we should put the car in the barn, pointed in the right direction so all she has to do is go forward to go. Her trunk should be fully packed with stuff." Tyreese walked over to where DaWayne was and put his hand on DaWayne's good shoulder. He stood by his son with pride beaming on his face.

  I smiled. "These are great ideas. I think we should get started on them in the morning. They are likely to take some time to get them all done, but we've proven we can work together and get things going."

  We finished eating our dinner together, pleased to have a plan in motion. People talked about the project they wanted to be a part of., and as we went to bed, people thought about the plans they wanted to see in motion.

  The next morning people went to work on their plans with a buzz of activity. Pencils and pens scratched across paper as they drafted their plans. Tyreese wanted to get started on making sure the barn was totally secured from the outside world. He plotted how to make the big doors on the barn secure, yet easily opened from the inside, in case she needed to run. He was taking her mobility under serious consideration. He didn't want it to be so secure that she couldn't work the latches but not simple enough that just anyone could walk in.

  Matt and Trent were drafting plans on the walkway. They talked about how the top part should be steeply angled so snow wouldn't collect on it, but more importantly, so a person couldn't walk on it without a struggle. Trent was also workin
g on the snow plow project so he was going in between projects. The boys wanted to be a part of this project as well so Matt directed them into the areas that they could help like nailing wood panels together to forms walls of the walk-way.

  Trisha and Tanya took the reins on the house security measures. They had Mercedes go up to each window and set the low board to just below her line of sight. They placed heavy curtains at the windows to block out any light from coming through at night showing that this place was occupied. No attention was the best attention these days.

  Lucas and I were on zombie patrol. There was no other team that I wanted to be on more than that one. If my world was going to be crazy and unmanageable then I was going to find my zen somewhere, and beating the crap out of zombies sounded right up my alley.

  After the plans were drafted, everyone was busy gathering materials and setting up their part of the project. Tyreese and Matt went to the neighbors houses and ransacked the workshops and garages for tools and building materials. Life in Scipio must have been dull because woodworking seemed to be the sole source of entertainment for the men. When we were scavenging for goods I noticed almost every house had some sort of sewing room for the women, furnished by home-made sewing tables probably made by their husbands. The sewing rooms were the women's workshop to keep them occupied. Gender roles were set here.

  While the others were setting up their projects, Lucas and I were getting ready to go on our macabre Easter egg hunt. I took my hand gun and one of the rifles, as well as my newly crafted machete. I kind of wanted to see if it worked as well as I thought it should. I was bundled up in a few layers to keep me from freezing while we were on our hunt. Layers were handy because you could peel a few off if you got too warm. I handed Lucas one of the probes that I built and we set off down the road. I felt like we were going on a quest to find a needle in a haystack. For a while we walked in silence, mostly because we didn't know each other well. I didn't know what to say to him, and he didn't know what to say to me. We tried to make small talk but each little burst was short lived. We poked and prodded at the silvery sparkling snow. It seemed weird to want to find zombies, rather than our usual avoidance tactic. We learned something doing this; zombies tended to travel in packs. It was rare to find only one by itself. I wondered what that meant; was it coincidence that they were found in clusters, just several responding to the same noise, or did the virus that turned them into a member of the living dead prefer company?

  My machete worked well. It sliced through the skull easily enough. For the first couple of zombies that we found, I watched them as I pulled out the weapon. They had no recognition of any potential danger that they were in. Their eyes were searching for food, not self-preservation. Right until the blade penetrated their brain matter, even frozen in place like they were, they were hunting with the never ending snapping of their jaws.

  Lucas seemed to be taking this job with a heavy heart. He looked like he was working hard at reconciling each sword strike with himself. I wondered what was going through his head, what could possibly be giving him so much pause. It hit me finally. "Who did you lose?" I asked softly.

  "My parents. We were all at their house when this first started. We thought that this would blow over, that things were going to get better. We figured that the military would sweep through and all of these things would go away. One day my mom was standing in front of the window watching the chaos of the neighbors as they ran up and down the street with the dead chasing them. The zombies don't move very fast but, they never get tired so they can chase forever. So, anyway, my mom sees our neighbor trying to run away. She was this little 80 year old lady who could barely get out of her own way. My mom opened the door to have her hide with us, not having a clue that there was a bite on the lady's leg. She was wearing dark pants so we didn't see any blood. A while later she did the fever thing and had a seizure. My mom thought she was helping when she started giving CPR to her. I was trying to convince her to just let her go when those eyes popped open and were filled with a sort of blood lust. While she was giving a rescue breath, the lady latched on to my mom's lips and tore her face off. She was screaming, I was screaming. My dad came in the room and saw what was happening. Mom was bleeding all over the place. The old lady looked up at my dad with blood dripping off her face as he was trying to get to my mom and she grabbed hold of his leg, taking a huge chunk out of him. While she was occupied trying to eat them both, being distracted by all the movement of potential food, I slipped out of the room, went to the kitchen, and located a cleaver. I buried it in that old lady's head. Heh. I never thought myself capable of doing something like that. I felt like I was a murderer. That's when my mom reanimated. I pulled the knife out of the neighbor's head and put my mom down. I was shaking like a leaf and felt like vomiting. Then my dad turned. I had never killed anyone in my life before. In that moment I felt like a monster, especially when Matt came through the door and saw what happened. I didn't have to explain anything to him, the scene told him everything. I thought that he would be mad at me but he wasn't. Matt reminded me that they were already dead, and said that I was releasing them from being trapped like that. It didn't make me feel any better, really, but now when I kill one off I try to repeat that mantra; I'm releasing them from being trapped."

  Lucas kicked some gore off his shoes before continuing. "Lacey and Raine heard what had happened from the other room. They were hiding when they heard screams. I had to tell my daughter why she didn't have a grandma or grandpa any more. Raine is so quiet all the time that it didn't surprise me when she didn't say anything right off. She didn't speak for a couple days. She slept in short bursts, always waking up with a nightmare that she wouldn't talk about. She started coming around later but I don't think she had slept the whole night through until we fell in with your group. As for me? Every time I kill off one of these things I can't help but to think of them. I see my parents faces on every one of these things. I take night watch happily because I don't sleep for long either. It was the hardest thing I have ever been through."

  I nodded quietly, taking in everything Lucas had said. I hadn't lost anyone I was close to in a zombie related death. My experience with zombie deaths were people I just knew. Those that I had developed a friendship with were murder victims. I couldn't fathom losing them twice.

  Matt called us from the house. We worked our way back there to find out what was going on. Trent had finished the plow blade and was ready for testing. Lucas volunteered the Hummer to do the plowing. When Trent said he was ready for testing Lucas lit up. I think Lucas was just thrilled to have a distraction from the discussion we had been having.

  Trent had been working hard on the project that would get us out of Scipio. The blade was made of two pieces of metal arranged at a point, resembling a cow catcher on a train. It was set to ride close to the ground. It was as wide as the semi and the idea was that it would catch the snow and push it to the side creating a path. Trent was hooking it on to the Hummer as we walked up.

  "I figure it's as good time as any to run a test on this." Trent said, pride in his voice. "We can run it up this street as a test."

  "Oh, good idea, hon!" I called out. "It'll make our zombie-sicle hunt easier if they get flipped out of the snow. If you leave the back door open for me I can cut them up as we drive by."

  "Hey now, I hadn't thought of that." Lucas responded with a smile. "Hey Matt, want my sword to take the other side with?"

  Matt took the blade. "Man, with how you baby this thing I never believed you'd let anyone even hold it, much less use it."

  "Yeah, well, just make sure you don't ding the blade." Lucas cautioned, his face lined with seriousness. He took his sword very seriously. "You don't have to swing it like a bat, it's sharp enough to do the job with light pressure."

  "You don't have to swing it. Wah wah wah." Matt mocked. I giggled.

  Trent called out, "So are we going to do this, or are we just going to stand here?" Lucas gave one last long look at his sword and
climbed into the drivers seat while Trent piled into the passenger seat. When the engine turned, I noticed that the rest of the group had come out of the house to see the first-ever test of the plow. Lucas took off down the street slowly and the plow caught the snow like a charm. Indeed it did flip a few of the dead up. Matt and I took them out quickly. We were all excited that this worked as well as it did.

  Now that the plow was done all attention was turned on the house-to-barn connecting corridor. Everyone had a hammer and a pouch of nails and worked at putting the project together. When it was finally built, all that was left was to transfer the contents of that garage to Mercedes barn. We took the plow out again and cleared the road so we could drive the cache of goods back. Trent took Jody's van, Tyreese took his, and Matt brought up the rear in his SUV. It still took several trips to transfer all the goods back. When we had unloaded the last of the find into the barn we stood back, admiring our work. She was set. I turned in a slow circle looking over everything with a nagging thought that we had forgotten something.

  Tom. I had forgotten all about the fact that we had stashed his body. The note that I had put up wasn't on the door anymore. Oh, crap. I did not want Mercedes finding a dead dude or his suicide note. Everyone knew about it but I still didn't want her to see it.

  Trent slid up next to me silently. "We took care of it." Trent whispered. I yelped as I jumped back, startled. I hadn't heard him come up. He laughed at me. I guessed that he could tell by the way I was staring at the barn, that I had that realization.