by Mark Clodi
“Did Ramey get any information before he killed them?”
Aubrey shook her head and said, “He has only killed the girl, she died fighting him to the end. The other one was easier to dominate, but his mind is elusive, he is not one of your children. Ramey can give it orders to a point, but not dominate it so much that he can get it to tell him what it knows.” Zombies from different bloodlines could not control other zombies nearly so well as they could control their own children and descendants. This was something Aubrey and Harry had already spoken about at length, the both feared a world where the zombie lines would war with each other after the living had been destroyed. This would be especially true if their own maker, scientist Thomas Sentry were ever killed. He had the ultimate power right now, after all, every zombie owed its existence to him.
“He didn't get anything?” asked Harry disappointed.
“Just a few things, he thinks the guy interfering with our plans was Neil's second in command. And he confirmed that Neil was dead for good.”
“Well that is something. That leaves everything between Las Vegas and Chicago open to us. Now that we have grounded the helicopters and other aircraft we should be able to do what we spoke about.” Harry had resurrected many military men and manned the air defenses around Chicago. He waited until he had soldiers scattered about the city then gave the word for them to shoot down all the helicopters and jets in the area. Only two of the dozen military aircraft had gotten away and no more teams had been inserted in the two days since. The missile and artillery attacks had been rendered much less effective without forward observers in the city to give out coordinates to the remaining military. There were still a few teams of observers in the city, but Harry was rooting them out one at a time.
“It isn't anything west of here that I am worried about.” said Aubrey.
“I know, it is the east that concerns me too. I think we can mop up the Iowans in a week or two and then decide what to do. What do you think?”
At this moment Ella stumbled into the room, her face was flushed and eyes gazed without focus looking around the room until they locked onto Harry. She had pulled her blouse open and her shirt hung loosely exposing her bare breasts as she moved towards the zombie leader, the lust in her eyes leaving nothing to the imagination.
“I will let you take care of this. We'll talk later.” said Aubrey with a small smile on her face.
Ella grabbed Harry and started kissing his neck and ear while running her hands though his hair. “It is the price of serving the people I am afraid. This is the most extreme I have seen her. Each time it gets worse when it is one of the living.”
Ella rubbed her crotch up against Harry's leg and brought one hand down to pull her pants down, revealing a shockingly white posterior.
“Jeezus, like an animal.”
“Be careful, she won't forget anything, she is perfectly aware of her situation!” warned Harry.
“I am not too worried. Have fun. And Harry?”
“Yes?” asked the man being smothered with kisses.
“We better not make any more humans like her.”
He nodded as Ella aggressively kissed the man and shoved him towards the meeting room table.
Chapter 28
Paddling a canoe was serious work, for the first time in a week Max felt his skin pull tightly around his wound where the bullet had grazed him. The effort was nerve wracking as well, it seemed that every thirty seconds the side of the riverbank they were heading towards lit up briefly with the tell tale sparks of gunfire. Nothing came their way and they allowed themselves to drift down river a ways, there was supposed to be a boat ramp on the other side, just past the airport. Max couldn't see the airport or a boat ramp, in fact he couldn't see shit, it was overcast and dark.
“Stewart, do you see anything?”
“The back of your head.” She paused and then said, “No, I don't see shit. I don't think we've come far enough yet.”
“I don't want to miss it.”
“Like I do? I will steer us closer to shore.” Stewart was in the back, she had some experience canoeing so Max was just paddling labor on this trip.
“Okay.” Max answered picking up his paddle and quietly starting to move the canoe across the river.
The river bend slowly straightened out and they saw a break in the trees, there was a parking area with lights over the empty lot. Looking closer Max saw the lot was not quite empty. “Look! Your car!”
“I see it, I see it! Keep your voice down!”
There was a lone, dim light over the boat launch ramp and the two paddled the aluminum canoe up onto the concrete with aloud scraping sound. Max lifted his leg over the side and stepped out of the canoe, then lifted the front of it and pulled it up further onto land so Stewart could get out.
“Where is Bill?” asked Stewart.
“Dunno, let's go check the car.” The two of them cautiously climbed up away from the river until the car came into sight, it was not parked near any of the utility lights, but was not so far away that it couldn't be seen either. As Max and Stewart went towards it, Stewart suddenly grabbed Max and stopped him.
“Max! Zombies!” Stewart said, point to just beyond the car.
Max looked at the car and then concentrated to bring his second sight up, “Oh no! Oh no! Bill!” He pulled his arm away from Stewart and ran towards the car.
“Max!” Stewart whispered loudly after him, “Stop! Think for a minute....”
But her call was in vain as Max ran forward to see if Bill was okay. Jogging up to the car Max saw two zombies standing about fifteen feet away from it. The first one was a man in overalls with a baseball style cap on his head, he had to tip the scales at three hundred pounds and boasted a full beard, one of his arms ended in a skeletal hand that twitched chaotically as he turned to face Max. The other zombie was a young girl, she looked like she was in better shape than the man, but her waist length hair was wet and matted down, as if she had been swimming. Her skin was a pale alabaster and her lips were visibly blue even in the dim light. She did not appear to be wounded in any way and Max, even while rushing in, knew what that meant.
“Kill him dad!” the girl screamed as she flung herself around the back of the car away from Max's rush. She must not have seen Stewart right away because when she did she tried to stop and her feet skidded out from under her on the parking lot gravel, dumping her on her posterior.
“Freeze kid!” Stewart said, “I can put a bullet into your brain from here, don't you doubt it.” Stewart was holding the shotgun and kept it trained on her while the other zombie shambled towards Max.
Max had his pistol out and was getting ready to fire when Stewart's voice stopped him, “Max, don't.” They had both agreed to stay as quiet as possible, in an attempt to go unnoticed by the authorities on this side of the river.
The zombie kept moving towards him at a slow and lumbering pace, Max backed away, moving towards Stewart, while he did so he cast his mind's eye out to see if anyone else was nearby. With a gasp of relief he finally noticed Bill's life force coming from inside the car, the man was laying down across the front seat, sleeping!
“Shhhh!” cautioned Stewart, then to the girl she said, “Stop the other zombie or we'll kill you both.”
“You'll kill us anyway!”
“No. Maybe. But we could do that now.”
“You don't want to make any noise! Stop dad!” the fat man ground to a halt, eying Max evilly from where he stood.
“Fuck, but you're a big boy.” said Max quietly looking at the guy.
“What do we do Max?”
“Me? You're the one who stopped me! What were you planning to do?”
“I don't know, I was just making it up as I went along!”
“Let us go!” pleaded the girl.
Stewart shook her head, “We can't do that honey. How many more would you kill?”
“Just enough to get my dad back. Then we would stop. I just want someone...I couldn't find my mom or
brother, I just need someone.”
“Handcuff them to one of the light poles?” suggested Max.
“She is probably strong enough to break a set of cuffs. We know what they can do.”
“Well what the hell Stewart? Should we send them back across the river?” to the girl he said, “My buddy there, the one you were going to eat, he says the military is all over on this side of the river, how long do you think you could last here before they found you?” as if to punctuate his point a long stream of automatic gunfire rang out to the north of them.
The girl started crying, “I don't have anyone. I just want him back. I know...I know he will get smarter if he just....”
“Eats someone. Yeah, we know.” Stewart seemed to reach a decision then, a cold look came into her eyes, “Okay, get up, we'll send you back across the river.”
“Stewart? Are you sure?” asked Max, with some hesitation in his voice.
“You want me to take care of it or not? I've decided, you check on Bill. Honey get your dad over here and get in front of me, I will walk you back to our canoe, at least you won't have to swim across again.”
Max watched as Stewart marched the two in front of her, shotgun held at her shoulder and aimed at the girl. He shook his head, not believing what he was seeing, then approached the car. Bill was sound asleep in the driver's seat. Knocking on the window startled the man, who reached for his rifle before seeing it was Max.
“Sleeping?” Max asked as his friend rolled down the window, which also released a wonderful smell of cooked food.
“Well I figured you guys would be awhile, where is Jane?” A shotgun blast sounded from the boat ramp, followed by another shot a split second later. Max didn't answer his friend, but took off running for the ramp. Bill started the car and drove it down to the boat launch, where the headlights illuminated Stewart. Max had arrived before Bill had pulled the car around and was talking with Stewart. Bill saw two bodies down by the canoe, both of them looked dead, killed by shotgun blasts at short range.. He could hear Stewart talking to Max, her face was set in a firm, uncompromising line.
“It had to be done.”
“But you told them...you told her you wouldn't!”
“You wanted me to let them go?”
“No! I....fuck. It wasn't her fault she was like that.”
“I shot her first, she didn't even know what happened, her old man barely turned around to get his. I couldn't let them go and kill someone else Max. I did what had to be done. It could be me, but it just wasn't that hard of a decision. Hey, Bill! Cut the lights man, you're blinding us down here!”
Bill turned the headlights off, leaving the running lights on, he put the car into reverse and backed up until he could turn sideways to drive out of the park. Max and Stewart came up and she stood by the driver's door expectantly. Through the open window Bill said, “Let me drive, I know where we are going.”
“Okay, pop the back door so Max can get in. I am at least riding shotgun.” Stewart pulled a couple of shells out of her pocket and reloaded her gun.
After getting into the car Max and Stewart were quiet, the silence was starting to grow when Bill finally asked, “Do I want to know what that was about?”
“No.” Max and Stewart answered together.
“Oh-kay then.” Bill drawled slowly, “So how was the crossing? You have any other trouble?”
“No, we made it okay, there was a lot of gunfire, but no one shot at us.” answered Max.
“You two okay?”
“Max is being a pansy, but yeah, I think we will be fine. You're okay aren't you Max?” asked Stewart.
Max let out a long sigh and said, “You know, yeah, I am okay. It is a new world out here, that means new rules. I guess I am not thinking clearly is all.”
“Probably buddy, you've run ragged all the way from Colorado I can see having a hard time adjusting to things, nothing to be worried about.”
“Yeah too much has happened too quickly. I will get there, don't you worry. Stewart?”
“Yeah?”
“I am okay, it just took me by surprise is all. I can see it. In fact, I wish I were as strong as you. Like I said, I will get there.”
“Good, I am glad you two buried the hatchet, we got a couple hours on the road to get to Osceola and fighting the whole way would be bad.”
“You think the kids will still be there?” asked Max
“Probably, I mean you gotta figure the train didn't just run past all those other towns on the way there, they probably stopped at every po-dunk station along the way to load up more people. We might even beat it to the station. Even if we don't we can find out where they took the kids.” said Bill.
"What about John? Did you find him?"
"No." The curt reply was all Max needed to hear to make him drop the subject.
They settled down for the long drive, with Bill offering them some food he had picked up along the way. They wanted to decline, but then found out the smell in the car was from a bucket of fried chicken the military guys had given him after he made the river crossing. While they were eating he got them up to speed on what he had been through.
“Getting across the bridge was a piece of cake, the military had it cleared. There were bodies by the hundreds on the sides of the road, but the soldiers had a snowplow and whenever the road had filled with bodies they just plowed them off to the sides. The road was pock marked with bullet holes from the cannon on the helicopter, but it wasn't so bad. It smelled like death and rotted bodies, but you know, I am used to that. No one recognized me when I passed through and I didn't know any of them. They gave me directions on where to go to park the car for the night, but after I made it through the physical inspection I just headed south of the airport like we agreed. I found the park and boat ramp that we talked about this afternoon and pretty much just waited until you got there. I think I ate as much chicken as I left you two, so don't save any for me.”
Max and Stewart finished the chicken off in record time, having something other than candy or granola bars was a treat for them. Less than an hour later they came to the main east-west highway that ran through Iowa, interstate eighty. There was a check point set up there, manned by a couple young, nervous looking soldiers. Bill rolled down his window as they drove up.
“Evening. Is the road clear through to Des Moines?” he asked one of the youths.
“Uh, yeah, but you aren't supposed to be driving at night. What are you doing out here?”
“Oh some soldier guy, I don't know the ranks too well, a Lieutenant maybe? He told me to come this way to get to Des Moines. I am supposed to get there tonight. He told me I might get stopped and to let you guys look us over if you wanted to.”
The young man nervously looked at his friend, there was not an officer or superior in sight. He took out a flashlight and looked each of them over. They did not offer to get out of the car, but sat there waiting. Finally the young man said, “You're supposed to go to Des Moines?”
“Yeah tonight.”
“And a lieutenant told you to?”
“I guess; He seemed like someone important anyway. He said we have to go to a processing center or something that got set up there for refugees.”
“You guys see any zombies?”
“Not since Sioux City, no. We came over the bridge there. They cleared us to get into Iowa, told us to go to the processing center in Des Moines. What will they do with us there? The officer wasn't too clear on that.”
“Uh, I don't know. Not sure. I was just told no one should be on the road tonight, except the military.”
“Whoa, you think they will put us into the military there?”
“I don't know, I...uh..”
“Christ! I knew it Jim! They are just going to draft us up there, put us in units instead of just letting us keep killing zombies on our own!” Max nodded and scowled, playing the role of 'Jim'.
“I didn't say that.”
“What about her? Is my woman going to be drafted too
?”
“I don't know...”
“Well shit that just takes all, we were perfectly content to fight from here, right now. We don't need any special training to kill zombies! You hear me? Are there other soldiers down this way?”
“If you follow the road into Council Bluffs, yes sir. But I don't know what is out east.”
“Well I better just go see those guys in Council Bluffs then, we don't need to go all the way to Des Moines for processing, no matter what some captain said.”
The boy nodded and swallowed. “Maybe you should just do what you were told, just to be safe?”
“You sure? I don't think we need training.”
“Well there is other stuff involved, how to use the equipment, and the guns are bigger too. They pack quite a punch.”
“Shotguns? Or rifles?” Bill asked.
“Rifles mostly, some of them are old M-16s, but they work and the bullets take down the zombies real good.”
“If you are sure....”
“Yeah, yes sir, they work very good.”
“Well alright I guess we will do it your way then. But I better get a good rifle out of it. What is your name sir?” Bill asked.
“Clay Berber. That is Jake over there.”
“Okay I will tell them I want to be hooked up with you guys when I see them, 'cause you had the sense to keep me on the right path. Thanks Mister Berber!”
“No problem, have a good trip Sir!”
“I will and I will be back!”
With that Bill drove passed the two boys and took the highway east towards Des Moines.
“That was....I don't know. I mean I don't know what to say.” said Max.
“They were young, scared and used to people telling them what to do. Kids do what you want about ninety seven percent of the time if you make them think they came up with the idea to begin with.”
“Still, I am impressed too. What will you do if you meet an old veteran?” asked Stewart.
“Tell him...well hell if I know. We'll deal with that if we get to it.”