by Deb Rotuno
I walked to the windows, nodding that the zeaks still seemed drawn to the ringing bell next door, when my eyes landed on a building across the street.
“Joel,” I called softly, waving him forward. “What are the chances that anything’s left?”
He studied the police outpost, not to mention the hunting store next to it that was sealed up tight with roll-down metal doors. He wiped his sweat- and rain-covered face on the sleeve of his shirt, sighing wearily. “I don’t know. If shit went to hell this quickly, we may find a few things.”
Nodding, I gauged the odds of making it across the street, through the crowd of zeaks still wandering the main strip, and getting inside safely. Going in the front was out, simply because we couldn’t break into the metal security doors, so the alleyway next to it was our only shot. My eyes landed on our saving grace: fire escape.
I spun in front of them. “Listen, we’re gonna move and move fucking fast. We’re not going in the front. You aim straight for the alley and up those stairs. Take out only the zeaks in your way, only those that pose an immediate threat. There’s no stopping all of them. Got me?”
The girls nodded, and Joel watched the street as he slowly and silently turned the lock on the front door of the gift shop.
He shot a glance back. “I’ll go first. Jack, take our six. On three…Three, two, one…” He yanked open the door, sword at the ready as he took out three zeaks before he even stepped off the sidewalk. Lexie was next, and she was so damn fast and small that she was able to duck and weave through a few, only shooting twice. Ruby was next, and she cleared her way with four shots, and I followed right behind her, opting for my .45 instead of my compound bow, simply because I couldn’t afford to leave arrows behind.
The metal steps of the fire escape squeaked and rattled under protest of our weight, but they held until we reached the rooftop.
The sound of a shotgun being engaged caused all of us to snap to attention. Ruby’s .45, along with my own and Lexie’s rifle, all aimed on instinct, cocked and at the ready. One gun versus three, not to mention a really large man with a long sword raised to remove the hands that held the gun, meant the odds were in our favor.
The shotgun lowered, and my adrenaline calmed just enough that I could see its owner for what he really was.
“Jesus Christ, he’s just a kid,” I breathed, lowering my weapon just a little, though the girls didn’t budge.
“Fuck, dude, you almost got your head chopped off,” Joel snapped, shaking his head, though I noticed he didn’t lower the sword.
The boy couldn’t have been more than eighteen, if he was a day. He had dark hair and blueish-green eyes that were wide with fear. He was just as soaked as the rest of us as we stood out in that pouring rain. But his eyes fell to Joel’s chest and then mine.
“Military? Are there more of you?”
I glanced down, seeing my dog tags through my wet T-shirt, but shook my head. “There is no more military, kid. Trust me,” I told him, watching what little hope he’d built up fade away like smoke in the wind. “Are you alone?”
He shifted, his eyes glancing around.
“Dude, dude, dude…We’re not here to fuck with you,” Joel soothed, finally dropping the sword to his side. “We just needed some supplies before we…” He rolled his eyes my way, wearing a smirk. “Before we got the hell out of Dodge.”
The kid snorted, and the girls merely looked at Joel with wry, blank stares.
“Really?” I asked, narrowing my eyes on him. “You’ve been waiting to use that since we decided to come here, haven’t you?”
Joel grinned, shrugging a shoulder.
“For fuck’s sake…” I sighed, shaking my head and turning back to the boy. “We’re not here to hurt anyone…”
“There’s no one to hurt,” he countered, wearing a dark expression. “I mean, there’s a group of people using the zoo as a safe place, due to the fences and shit, but…” He shook his head. “They’re pretty fucked up. I saw some women get assaulted, they’ve hoarded most of the booze, and they’re armed to the fucking teeth. I couldn’t stay there. You go near there, and they’ll take everything you’ve got.” He pointed to the rooftop before wiping away the rain from his face. “I offered to come here for more ammo a few days ago, but I didn’t go back. Let them think I got turned or something.”
Ruby’s face softened, and she looked to me before asking, “What’s your name?”
“Raymond Quincy, but everyone calls me Quinn.”
“’Kay, Quinn,” Ruby greeted, telling the kid our names. “Is there anything left downstairs?”
He nodded, waving us on. “Yeah, and you can have it. The less those assholes have, the better. I’m not sure what’s worse: the dead or the idiots in the damn zoo.” He led us through the roof door and down into the store. “There’s nothing in the police station. I busted a vending machine in order to eat the last few days. The hunting store…That’s a different story. There’s plenty of shit in here.”
Stepping into the room was an ammo fucking dream, and I huffed a laugh to myself as I gazed around. “How in the fuck did this go untouched?”
Quinn smiled, pointing to the windows. “Those roll-down doors, man. The owner closed this place up tighter than a frog’s pussy…and that’s water tight.” He grinned at the girls’ laughter but went on. “Anyway, he was like one of the first people to get…”
“Outta Dodge…See? That shit works here,” Joel added, glancing up from the glass case.
“And already old,” Lexie sang, shaking her head.
“Whatever,” Quinn said with a chuckle. “That street out there was a clusterfuck when everything truly went crazy, which happened to be at rush hour on a Friday afternoon. Most of these stores are untouched because those dead assholes tend to crowd the street…like you so obviously found out. And you’ll have a bitch of a time getting back the way you came.”
“I know,” I muttered, taking as many boxes of bullets I could get.
We raided the place, and Quinn stayed quiet, content to watch us. I was able to grab not only a bag of loose popcorn and oil that I’d promised Ava but a couple of bags of dog food. We took everything, from canteens to more arrows for the compound bow. Knives, guns, and flares also made it into bags. Even the girls were able to stock up on toilet paper and the feminine shit they needed, which caused Joel to run away and me to roll my eyes at his idiocy. We’d have a bitch of a time carrying it, but we needed all of it.
“How many of you are there?” he asked once we’d set the bags down.
“Seven total,” Joel answered, turning a small propane tank over in his hands, only to reach for a bottle of kerosene on the shelf. He turned to me. “We could use these…” He pointed to the shelf of insulated bottles and then a rack of shirts. “Bombs. Small ones. Toss them at the zeaks to clear the way.”
“I’ve got something that’ll help you,” Quinn told us, waving us toward a back storage room, only…that wasn’t the case when he opened the door. “These bad boys could get you out.”
Stepping inside the door, I grinned at the small showroom of ATVs—four-wheelers, three-wheelers, and small trailers that could be pulled by the former. Fuel would have been my next question, but Quinn yanked up a tarp.
“Oh my fucking hell…” I turned to Joel. “Fuel up the two four-wheelers, only take one trailer for all our shit, including those gas cans. Then we need to put together a few bombs to use out in the street. Let’s go.”
We all broke to get to work, but Quinn’s voice brought us up short.
“You’ll need someone to guide you out of here.” When we only stared at him, his true age came through—a nervous, scared kid. “My…family is gone. I…I don’t want to go back to the zoo…and I’m…I can hunt and fish. I’ll pull my weight, I swear. But…just don’t…”
“Whoa…slow down, kid,” Joel said, smirking my way. “What’cha think, Jacky?”
I sighed, running a hand through my still-damp hair. “It’s another
mouth to feed but another gun too.”
The human being, the father in me knew I couldn’t leave the kid behind, and the soldier knew that the more numbers we had, the safer we’d be, but we’d be taking responsibility for this kid. I also knew that his being a local meant he could skirt us around the zeak swarm outside.
“You got any shit to bring?” I asked him, and he nodded fervently. “Go get it. Move your ass because I want those doors up and open in two minutes. We’re gonna haul ass out of here.” Before he could leave the room, I stopped him. “And Quinn, you’ll listen to us when we tell you something. I won’t be responsible for you getting yourself killed. Got me?”
He swallowed nervously but nodded again. “Yeah, yeah…got it.”
Once he was out of the room, Ruby mumbled, “Can’t leave him.” She shrugged, helping Lexie pour kerosene into bottles and stuff soaked rags into the tops. “Wouldn’t be right.”
“You mean like how we didn’t leave you behind,” I teased her, ducking the empty bottle she tossed my way as Joel and I attached a small trailer to the back of the four-wheeler.
“Why, yes, jackass. That’s exactly what I meant.”
Lexie chuckled, then sobered. “It’s a new world now. You’d think we’d be better than what he’s describing at that zoo, but…apparently, this has still split us. Good humans versus bad humans.”
“I guess that makes us the good guys,” I grunted as I filled the trailer with all our bags and supplies.
No one said anything, but Quinn reappeared with a backpack and a guitar case, not to mention a garbage bag full of shit he’d pulled from the vending machine he’d mentioned earlier. He tossed it all in the trailer, getting in on top.
“I’ll light those,” he said, pointing to the bottles. “You just drive and turn when I tell you.”
“All right,” I agreed, straddling the seat and starting it up.
Ruby started the other one, and Lexie climbed in with Quinn. Both readied themselves with a bottle. Joel stepped to the garage door, reaching down to lift it up. We were lucky that the back alley was empty, and as soon as Joel straddled the seat behind Ruby, we pulled out.
We were clear until we needed to cross Wyatt Earp Boulevard. Quinn called out right and left, guiding us through the back streets, but that main drag was a walking, stalking nightmare. Hundreds of zeaks turned on us, feral and wild as the rain soaked us to the bone.
“Light ’em up!” I called over my shoulder, and two bottles flew over my head, smashing into the street. It caused a temporary wall of fire that blocked the zeaks’ way, not to mention that it set several on fire. “Fucking perfect,” I murmured to myself as I watched the kerosene essentially stick to them and create a chain reaction of fire.
Quinn called more directions out, and I could finally breathe again when the rail yard loomed closer.
Turning to Ruby, I yelled, “Fuck the car. Leave it. We’ll stay on these back to camp. It’s only a few miles anyway.”
She nodded, grinning my way. “Race you.”
With a laugh, I let her take the lead. I had too much weight holding me back, with the trailer and an extra passenger, though Joel probably weighed what Quinn and Lexie did combined…and then some. We skirted the edge of the highway in order to avoid the traffic jams, and I could see Ruby’s RV in the distance as the rain started to let up. We’d taken refuge in the parking lot of a rundown roadside diner. It didn’t have shit in it, but it was shelter for a bit. Hopefully it had kept my parents, Ava, and Sasha safe while we’d been gone. When all of the above stepped out the doors, I sighed a breath of relief, mentally calculating just how much farther we had to go—four or five more states, several hundred miles…and who knew what we’d run into along the way. At the rate we were going, we were looking at another month on the road…at least.
The only thing I knew for sure was that I wasn’t stopping until I got to Clear Lake. The end of the damn world, the endless zeaks, and the long drive…none of it was worrying me as much as finding my family.
Chapter 7
SARA
Clear Lake, Oregon
3 Months & 3 Weeks after
Hurricane Beatrice
“THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ’BOUT!” Derek praised, and I glanced up from the fish I was cleaning to watch him across the small lake with Freddie, who was beaming proudly. “Do it again,” he told him, helping him steady the small-caliber rifle.
My boy followed every one of Derek’s instructions, from how to stand and aim, to the final shot. They were shooting at tin cans and bottles Derek had set up on the wooden posts of the partially built fence he was working on when he could find the supplies. The pop of the gun rattled around the lake, as did the sound of glass breaking. Again, Freddie reminded me so much of Jack, with the fierce look of determination on his face, to the proud, crooked smile he gave Derek when he’d done well, to the cracking of his knuckles as he prepared for another shot—he was his father made over.
The noise was dangerous but necessary. Derek had put off teaching them until they drove him crazy. At least the rifles were only .22s, so the sound wasn’t too bad. Plus, Derek wasn’t taking chances, keeping his compound bow within reach.
I smiled again when Freddie stepped back to allow Janie a turn at it, which made the woman next to me groan.
Chuckling, I glanced over at Tina. “You can say no.”
“Hell no, I can’t,” she sighed, rolling her eyes at my laugh. “First of all, she’s determined to learn. Second, as much as I hate to say this…she needs to know.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “God, I hate it, but the world has changed.” Her nose wrinkled. “Her father would never have allowed it, but he’s not here, and I want her to be strong, able to defend herself. Jerry had some antiquated ideas about women. It had started to become an issue between us. I wanted more for Janie than what I’d done.”
Frowning over at her, I said, “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a wife and mother. Not everyone works.”
She snorted and nodded, finishing the fish in front of her before looking my way again. “No, there’s not, and I’m very glad I got all that time with Janie, but there were times…”
I nodded in understanding. “Times when you wanted more?” I asked, and she nodded. “Jack never cared. He was a pretty big cheerleader when I was in college. In fact, he urged me to take more classes, if that’s what I wanted. He always told me that even though he was too stubborn to go, it didn’t mean he couldn’t support me.”
Tina grinned. “Stubborn?”
“On some things, yeah. As long as we were safe, happy, and healthy, Jack was content. If those things were threatened, then he’d break his neck to simply…fix it.” My eyes fell on Brody walking across the camp. “And don’t even get me started on his feelings concerning Brody.”
Tina laughed lightly. “Well, Jack and I would get along just fine, then.”
I snorted into a giggle that I couldn’t stop, leaning into her. “Jesus, please don’t judge me on my past boyfriend.”
“Never!” she called out in hysterics.
Still laughing lightly, we went back to work. Leo had taken the kids fishing that morning, so there were plenty to clean, which meant everyone would eat well tonight.
Carol joined us, setting a bowl down. “Look what I found!” she claimed cheerfully. “Cornmeal. I mixed in some spices, so it should taste good once we bread these guys.”
We worked together, chatting about nothing in particular. Freddie’s and Janie’s laughter made us smile. Derek’s patience seemed endless, but I was pretty sure that ran in their family. Jack’s parents, Rich and Dottie, had always been calm and easygoing, and so was Jack. None of them seemed to panic in the heat of the moment.
My dad’s cabin door opened, and Leo rolled out in his wheelchair, with Brody pushing him. Josh followed close behind, and they all made their way to the table.
I smiled over at Leo once he situated himself at the table, leaning into his kiss to my che
ek and ignoring his son.
“Sara,” Brody said, and I looked up at him. “Josh and I are going to check the traps we put out yesterday. If we’ve caught anything, we’ll need to get it in so those infected bastards don’t get it. Plus, we caught sight of a few cabins on the ridge, so we’re going to scope those out.”
“You’re not taking Josh,” Millie called out from the lake. “He’s got schoolwork to do before Martin’s next session. The world may have gone crazy, but he still needs math.”
Josh looked like he was about to argue, but Martin stepped up with a smile. He reminded me so much of Rich. He was mellow and smart, determined to keep some sort of civility in the camp. He was always talking about books he’d read, his favorite eras in history, and possible solutions for how things had changed.
“I’ll go with you, Brody,” he offered, shouldering his shotgun. “Besides, Josh seriously needs to work on his algebra.”
Josh grumbled under his breath but sat down on the other side of Carol, who said, “I don’t know, Martin. It’s getting late in the day…”
“We’ll be fine, sweetheart.”
“Well, I want you back before dark. I’m not kidding, mister,” she told him, and he agreed before kissing her cheek.
“Are you sure you should go now? You’ll be leaving us down two people,” I pointed out.
“It’ll be fine,” Brody assured, pointing toward Derek. “Besides, Grizzly Adams is teaching the offspring how to shoot. Soon, he’ll be killing these dead bastards like the rest of us. Won’t Daddy be proud?”
I bit my tongue, but Leo didn’t.
“Brody, if I could walk, I’d punt your ass into that lake over yonder. You truly need to let the past go, which means Freddie and Derek. Sarah’s right; you’re leaving us weak should a pack come through.”
“We could go first thing in the morning, Brody,” Martin offered.