Dead Life (Book 4)

by Schleicher, D Harrison

  “Don't get your bowels in an uproar. He's a big boy now Mildred. You need to let our boy be a grown-up.”

  Gina and Cindy howled with laughter. Can't say I blamed them. Al did have a way with words.

  “Actually I thought he'd be back here by now. The way he took off I was sure he'd beat me back.”

  Then I could hear him coming. I don't know which was louder. The squealing tires or the sound of the muffler. He came flying around the corner in a purple Dodge Challenger. I'm not much of a car buff but this baby was a classic. As he approached us he slammed on the brakes then eased it up over the curb. Then he stomped on the gas and did several donuts around us. I stood staring in disbelief.

  “Could you have found anything louder?”

  “I tried but this was the only thing I could find,” Al said.

  Rick stopped and got out of the car. “I love this car.” He started to walk over.

  “You may as well get back in. We can't stay here,” Gina said.

  “Every zombie in the area is probably headed here right now,” Cindy said.

  “We may as well get this show on the road. Go back to the hill over looking the motel,” Al said. “Rick, try to drive like you have a little common sense.”

  It was funny to watch the smile disappear from Rick's face. Kind of looked like somebody letting the air out of a balloon. For a second I thought he was going to cry. Then he just turned around, got back in the car, and drove away.

  We looked out at the highway. It seemed all the noise Rick had made with his antics hadn't done a thing to trim down the crowd of zombies surrounding the motel. Al scanned the area with binoculars. When he was satisfied he had found a good shooting spot for Rick he took them away from his face and pointed to a building about a quarter of a mile from the tanker truck.

  “Drive down there to that car dealership. There's plenty of room to turn around down there so get your car facing back this way before you start shooting. When that truck blows, if it's full, there's going to be one hell of an explosion. Even if it's not full it should still blow pretty good. Get your ass back here as fast as you can.”

  “That's a long ways off. You think I can hit the tuck from there?”

  “Jesus Christ Rick you'll have Steve's 30-06. Can you do this or should we send one of the girls?”

  “I can. It's just a long shot, sorry.”

  “No, I'm sorry. Just keep shooting till you hit it. After you rupture the tanker you'll most likely need to shoot again to spark an explosion. Cindy and I will be on the other side of the motel blowing those cars. Wait until you hear three explosions before you start shooting.”

  “Al sometimes cars don't explode when you set them on fire. They just burn. Don't they?” I said.

  “That's why I'll be taking some grenades with me,” Al said with a smile.

  How could I have been so stupid. Of course Al would take this opportunity to throw some of his beloved grenades.

  “Steve you two stay up here and watch us with the binoculars. Radio silence unless you see something sneaking up on us. One of you watch Rick. The other keep a look-out for Cindy and me.”

  “What if this location is compromised?” Gina asked.

  “Well aren't you the little special forces operative,” Al smirked at Gina when he said this.

  Gina gave Al a dirty look and I could see she was getting ready for a lengthy retort when Al held up both hands. He was learning. Sometimes surrender was the best course of action.

  “That's a good point. If this location is compromised,” he said in a slightly mocking tone. “Rally point the park. Omega, delta, one niner.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” I asked.

  “Whatever you want it to,” Al said and walked away. “Sounded good.”

  “Rick, that was my dad's rifle. Make sure I get it back,” I said.

  “I'll be really careful with it.”

  Cindy and Al took the hummer and Rick pulled away slowly in his new Challenger. The damn thing was still loud as hell and Gina and I would have to keep an eye out for zombies because of all the noise the exhaust system made. I could never understand the thrill people got from a loud car. Before all this happened I drove a Ford Mustang convertible it had a five liter engine and was fast as hell. But it was quiet. No glass pack muffler or anything like that. I didn't need people to hear me coming, just watch me fly on by.

  Cindy and Al were arguing about something when they got in the Hummer. We could see her giving him hell about something and Gina had to find out what was going on.

  “What's the problem Cindy,” Gina said into the radio.

  “Nothing, everything's fine,” Cindy answered.

  “If something's wrong we should be aware.”

  “You really want to know I'll tell you,” Cindy said. “This asshole won't let me throw any of the grenades.”

  “Al that's not nice. You need to learn to play well with others. Didn't your parents teach you about sharing?”

  “Fine, she can do one. That's all,” Al said. “Radio silence. Over.”

  Gina and I got our binoculars and started watching. She took Rick and I watched Cindy and Al. They made it to a spot close to the highway and got out and made their way to the road. Al tore a rag up and started putting the strips into gas tanks while Cindy watched his back. I looked at Gina and she had her binoculars trained on the motel.

  “You're supposed to be watching Rick,” I said.

  “He's fine. I'm trying to see if I can spot any activity in the motel. It looks like the stairway to the second floor is blocked off. They must be up there.”

  I trained my binoculars on Rick to see how he was doing. His car was parked next to the car dealership. He had turned it around, like he'd been told to, and had it facing back towards us for a fast get away. Rick was crouched down behind the building holding his rifle in front of him waiting for the fun to start. I started to scan back to the motel when I spotted movement on the side of the car dealership. Four zombies were stumbling down the side of the building. In a minute they were going to be right on top of Rick.

  “Honey get your rifle. Rick's got trouble.”

  We each had one of Al's sniper rifles. Not that it would do us any good. Rick was at least a mile away and neither one of us had ever made a shot that far before. Gina and I should have been down on the highway. Al should have been up here. He would have been able to take all four of them out without a problem.

  “I just looked away. I swear,” Gina said.

  “No time for that now. Hand me the radio.”

  “Rick, put your rifle down and get your pistol out,” I said as quietly as I could into the radio. “You have four coming up behind you. After we shoot come around the side of the building and finish them off.”

  “I can't shoot that far,” Gina said.

  “Neither can I. Take the one in front. I'll try to hit the second one. You shoot first.”

  I watched Rick through my scope as he placed his rifle on the ground and got his pistol out. He stood with his back against the wall and looked up at us and nodded his head.

  “As soon as you're ready.”

  I placed my cross hairs on the head of the second zombie and waited for Gina to shoot. When I heard the report from her rifle I took a deep breath and fired. As soon as I got my shot off I could hear Rick open fire. I watched through my scope as Rick finished them off. I missed his first shot but watched him take down the next three. The man actually looked like he knew what he was doing. He walked calmly at them and fired only four times, all head shots.

  “Did we even hit anything?”

  “Yeah, the side of the building,” Gina said.

  “Is he okay?” Al's voice came over the radio.

  “Yeah dad, I'm fine,” Rick answered. “Did you see that Steve?”

  “That was some good shooting buddy.”

  “Yeah, I said to myself Rick it's time to man up, and I did. I said Rick, what would Al do? And that's what I did. Blew those fucke
rs away!”

  “Alright kids, calm down. Time to get back to work. We're going to light these up now. Rick get ready.”

  “You got it boss,” Rick said.

  Cindy stood back while Al went from car to car lighting the rags he had stuffed down the gas caps. He went to her and they both stood back waiting for something to happen. After a few minutes one of the cars caught fire. Nothing happened with the others and I watched as the two of them started arguing. Finally Cindy got on the radio and called us.

  “Looks like they're all out of gas. We're going to try the grenades.”

  Al pulled the pin on a grenade and threw it down the highway. It exploded and the two cars next to it started to burn. Some of the zombies surrounding the motel peeled off from the crowd and made their way towards the fire. He threw another grenade and got the same result. More of the zombies started their way. I could see Cindy getting ready to throw a grenade. She and Al were arguing when she pulled the pin and threw her grenade. It only went about twenty feet. Al tackled Cindy and covered her with his body seconds before it exploded. They both got to their feet, still arguing, and Cindy slapped him.

  “Should I shoot now?” Rick asked.

  “Did you hear three explosions?” Al hollered back over the radio.

  “Yes.”

  “Then shoot the fucking tanker.”

  I watched Rick through the scope of the sniper rifle as he took aim and fired. The resulting explosion threw him back onto the trunk of the Challenger. A huge ball of fire rose into the air and I could feel the temperature around me rising. Even though it was daytime the sky brightened drastically and for a few seconds I cast two shadows; one from the sun and the other from the fireball that now rose slowly into the sky until it finally dissipated.

  The Tanker truck was gone. In it's place was a huge crater. Fires from the abandoned cars that had been flung around by the explosion burned everywhere. A mass exodus was occurring. All the zombies, even the ones that had originally headed towards Al and Cindy, moved to the fires.

  “Rick that was one hell of a shot,” I said over the radio. I waited for a reply. “Rick, are you okay? Rick, come back.”

  Gina was scanning the area using her scope and brought the rifle down and looked at me. “I don't see him. The explosion knocked him back onto his car but I haven't seen him since.”

  “Al, Rick's not answering.”

  “Stay there,” Al said. “We'll go check on him.”

  “What should we do?”

  “I guess we wait. I'll watch for Rick. You watch the horde and keep an eye on your dad's motel. Keep me posted. I'm not taking my eye off of where Rick was.”

  “Is that a dig?”

  “No, I'm just worried about him. All the zombies are headed that way. Hopefully they stay up by the highway.”

  We watched and waited. I didn't see any movement from Rick and Gina didn't see anything from the motel. The only thing that was happening was that the zombies were moving in mass. The only zombies left were the ones that were closest to the motel. Once Al and Cindy got back with Rick we would have to find a way to deal with the few hundred that were left. Finally I saw the Hummer pull up to the car dealership Rick was at.

  “Do you see him?”

  “Yeah, he's on the ground behind the car. Give me a minute to check on him,” Al said.

  Cindy and Al got out of the Hummer and went to the back of the Challenger. They both disappeared from view then Cindy stood and gave me a thumbs up. I saw Al help Rick to his feet and lead him to the Hummer. Then Rick struggled with Al and tried to get back to the car. I could tell they were arguing about something but Rick finally relented and got into the Hummer. Cindy went to the back of the Challenger, picked up my fathers rifle, and then joined Rick. Al went to the car, tossed something in the window, and ran to the Hummer. He jumped in the door and drove away quickly. I knew what was coming next; the Challenger exploded.

  “Why'd you do that?” I asked.

  I could hear Rick and Cindy, over the radio, yelling at Al in the background. “If I left it there Rick would probably go back and try to get the damn thing.”

  While we waited for the rest of our group to join us Gina watched the motel and I watched the horde as it moved off. The fires on and around the highway continued to rage, building in intensity. The zombies continued walking headlong into the fires. Once they caught fire they would continue stumbling around until, I assumed, the intensity of the flames consumed their brains. Unfortunately the prevailing winds were still blowing our way and the smell of rotting flesh was being replaced by the smell of rotten burnt flesh. I tried pulling my shirt up to cover my nose and mouth in the hope of filtering out some of the stench to no avail. Nothing short of a gas mask was going to be of any help.

  “I just saw one of the drapes pull back,” Gina said. “Dad's still down there.”

  “Let's hope so,” I said. “Now all we have to do is figure out a way through the few hundred that are left milling around down there.”

  “I know. We can't shoot our way through. That would just draw the rest of the horde back down on us. Do you think there are too many to try getting through with swords?”

  “After what happened back in the park with Cindy I wouldn't want to try. It comes down to how many of us do we risk losing trying to get to your dad.”

  “You're right. What about drawing them off in the Hummer? One of us leads the main body away, then the rest go in with swords.”

  “That might work,” I said. “The problem with that is Cindy isn't ready to face that big a group and Al's not going to let her drive off in the Hummer by herself.”

  “Send Rick with her. Al, you, and I can handle the zombies.”

  “Well they're back. We'll run it by Al.”

  “We'll run it by Al,” Gina said in a sing song voice. “Who died and made him king?”

  “He might have a better plan, I don't know.” I honestly didn't like the idea of any of us getting out in the middle of that mess with only swords to rely on. If we had to use our guns that entire horde would be on us in a matter of minutes. On top of that I knew Al didn't want either of the girls going in there.

  Cindy got out of the Hummer and helped Rick down. He was still visibly shaken from being knocked unconscious when the tanker blew. Al went around and tried to help but Rick pushed him away.

  “There was no reason for that. You didn't need to blow that car up,” Rick said as he stumbled away.

  “Did you really think you were going to keep it?”

  “No, somebody else might have found it though,” Rick said. “That car was a classic.”

  Cindy came over and handed me the 30-06. “I want you to talk to Al about those fucking grenades of his. He could have killed us all, throwing one in that car like that.”

  “You're still shook up from your close call down on the highway. Al knows what he's doing,” I said.

  Cindy glared at me. I could swear I saw smoke coming from her flaring nostrils.

  “I'll talk to him.”

  “So, are you guys mad at me too?” Al said as he walked over.

  “No, even though I agree with Rick,” Gina said. “There was no reason for blowing up that car.”

  “See, I told you,” Rick said, as he walked over.

  “Let's forget about the damn car for a minute. Gina and I have a plan for getting through the rest of those zombies. Do you have any ideas Al?” I wanted to give him a chance to come up with something that didn't involve taking the girls down there before telling him about Gina's plan.

  “At first I was hoping to have the girls hold back and the three of us go down there and clear out the rest of the zombies. Rick's hurt and if we wait for him to get better what's left of that horde is just going to make their way back to the motel. Do you feel up to going down there Gina?”

  “The sooner the better.”

  “I thought you'd like that. Cindy will you take Rick in the Hummer and try to draw some of them away from there. No gun
fire, no horn honking, no squealing tires, if you're too loud you'll bring the rest of them back down on us. Just get their attention and lead some of them away from the motel. Then Gina, Steve, and I will take care of the rest of them. After that we'll see if her dad is still in the motel.”

  “Somebody's down there. I saw the drapes moving earlier.”

  “Good then this won't all be for nothing. Do you mind driving the Hummer down there babe?”

  “I'll do it, if Rick goes with me.”

  “I'll go.”

  “If anything goes wrong and you have to use your guns to get out of trouble don't hesitate, use them. We don't even know if Gina's dad is still alive. I don't want anybody dying down there. Steve let me see those binoculars.”

  I took the binoculars from around my neck and handed them to Al. He scanned the area around the motel and laid out our plan. Cindy and Rick were going to drive straight to the motel parking lot. The lot was a large one so they were going to circle around a few times, get the remaining zombies to follow them, then head out in the opposite direction of the tanker truck. There was a tire company two streets across from the motel. We were going to take the U-Haul down to that parking lot and after they left the area in the Hummer head over on foot. After that it was a crap shoot. The idea was to kill the remaining zombies, get to the motel, find Gina's dad and whatever other survivors there were, get back to the truck, and meet Cindy and Rick back here. Nothing to it.

  Al and Cindy said their good-byes and we started down to the motel. I parked the truck and we watched for the Hummer. Al stayed in communication with Rick while we waited. Finally they pulled onto the lot and started their first lap. Cindy reminded me of Al as she drove the Hummer around the motel. Every chance she got to run over a zombie she took. Moving at a crawl she was able to slowly swerve side to side and smash the even slower zombies. It wasn't like they actually tried to get out of the way anyway. As usual they just stood in front of the Hummer waiting to be run over. After doing three laps around the parking lot Al told Cindy to go ahead and move out.

  “That ought to do it hon. Drive away slowly for about a half a mile or so then turn around and head back. Make a big loop, don't drive back through them.”