Lucy’s and Buster’s shrill barks threatened to burst Chalice’s eardrums. Mychal and Eddy yelled as the dogs bounded from one side of the Hummer to the other.
“Get us out of here before the dogs kill me,” Mychal yelled. “Their nails are gouging my legs.”
“I’m trying,” Colton called back. “We can’t go fast unless we don’t want to move at all.”
Chalice cringed at each bump, thud, or scratch. She knew with her eyes and her head these were no longer people, but her heart told her something different. The woman who tripped under the wheels of the transport ahead of them was somebody’s wife, mother, sister. That kid was somebody’s child, and they had no alternative but to be as steady and unrelenting in their forward motion as the zombies had been while knocking over the fence.
A cold sweat broke out on Chalice’s forehead. Her blood pounded at her temples. She couldn’t decide whether to watch the transport full of supplies and children that drove in front of them or keep an eye on Sarah in Bill’s truck or the others in the bus.
The transport pulled free of the yard, breaking out of the mass of zombies. It pulled a few yards away and honked. A few of the undead shuffled toward it, the transport backing up a bit each time, keeping a few feet ahead of them. But, it wasn’t enough. Non-breathers still clogged the way to freedom.
“There’s too many.” Chalice pulled her knife from her belt. “What if we start slashing?”
“No.” Colton increased their speed. “It’s too risky.” The Hummer bounced over the fence, finally clearing the last section. He drove them beside the transport.
Chalice watched behind them as the tires to Bill’s truck got stuck in a section of fence. The tires spun uselessly as zombies swarmed the vehicle. “She isn’t going to make it!”
“She has to.” Colton laid on the Hummer’s horn. “The bus can’t get out unless she does.”
“Grandma.” Mychal cracked open his window. “Come on, you flesh eating assholes! Smell me? Come on!”
Colton continued honking as a few more zombies were attracted to them. “Crack all the windows a little. Between us and the kids in the transport, maybe the smell of food will pull them away from Sarah.”
“It would help more if they actually had someone to chase.” Chalice put a hand on the door handle. “If you pulled away from the throng and let me out—”
“Absolutely not.” He frowned. “Are you crazy?”
“But if I got on the roof, and you drove real slow so they could see me…”
“No.”
Chalice watched helplessly as the truck lifted onto two tires, then back to four. They couldn’t stand back while Sarah or Rhonda was killed. By this time, the horde around the Hummer had also intensified. The smell of death drifted though the barely open windows. Chalice pulled the neckline of her shirt over her nose.
Somebody screamed. Chalice glanced back to see Rhonda pulled through the passenger side window of the truck. Zombies tore at her flesh, pulling her intestines from her like wet ribbon. Sarah started shooting, but a zombie still tried climbing through the broken window.
George moved the school bus forward, bumping the truck off the fence and onto the sturdier asphalt of the road. The zombie hitchhiker fell to the ground. Soon, all four vehicles were clear of the zombie horde and moving down the highway.
Tears ran unchecked down Chalice’s cheeks. To be torn apart. Ripped through a broken window. Rhonda hadn’t stood a chance once the glass broke. “If I see those guys in the big truck again, I’m running my sword through their gut.”
Colton chuckled. “Harsh.”
“No harsher than them setting us up for an eight course meal for zombies.”
“I say we try to find them,” Eddy said. “Maybe we should take what they have.”
“It makes more sense to find a place to settle.” Colton rolled the windows down farther.
Chalice took a breath of air only slightly tainted by zombies. What they needed was a good rain to wash everything clean.
The highway stretched before them. The moon shined off discarded automobiles, partially masking the horrors inside some of them. Once or twice, she spotted movement in the trees lining the road. “It would have been nice to somehow have trapped the zombies inside the fence. A couple hundred less to wander the world.”
“Yeah, that’s what the world needs.” Colton laid an arm across the back of the seat and played with the small hairs at the nape of her neck. “A zombie concentration camp.”
*
“That way, we put all the zombies in one place.” Colton shook his head. “Then, if they escape or some wise ass lets them free, they won’t be in sporadic herds. No, they’ll be in one tsunami, devouring every living thing they come across.”
“It was just a thought.” Chalice pulled away and hung her arm out the window. “Nothing makes sense anymore.”
He didn’t like making fun of her suggestion. If anything, he understood, but instead of putting the undead all in one place, he’d prefer some type of chemical agent that would eradicate them. Something that wouldn’t harm the living, but would tell the shufflers’ brains to realize they were dead.
“Where we headed?” Bill’s voice came over the walkie-talkie.
What Colton wanted, he wasn’t sure existed anymore. “Someplace with fresh water, fish, and a way of setting up a safe perimeter. Any ideas?”
“The middle of nowhere?”
“Preferably.”
“There’s a ranch up in the Ozarks used to be owned by a rich man. Most likely he skipped out at the first sign of trouble. It’s a long road to get there, but I know the way. Has a creek, a pond, animals.”
“Then what makes you think it hasn’t been taken over yet?”
“Because the place belonged to my brother, and I know for a fact he’s dead. Saw him killed with my own eyes when we were searching for my nephew. The only reason I didn’t say anything before is because it’s going to be hard to get to. Once we do, well, we’ll be set.”
“Let’s go.” Colton clicked off the radio. A mountain ranch in the Ozarks. It would take two to three days to get there. Maybe they could use those days to stock up on seeds and tools. Other things they would need to be self-sufficient.
Bill pulled the transport truck off to the side of the road, stepped out, and approached the Hummer. “I think there’s a truck stop up ahead. Maybe we stop there, post a couple of guards for the night, and come up with a better plan on reaching my brother’s land when we wake up.”
“Sounds good to me.” Colton’s eyes ached from the long night. Since Eddy and Mychal had been sleeping from the moment they pulled free of the zombie horde, they could take first watch.
He followed Bill into a rest stop and aimed the Hummer lights at the buildings. There didn’t appear to be anyone milling around, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He nudged Chalice awake and stepped from the Hummer. Bill and Sarah moved beside them and the four of them, swords at the ready, advanced on the restrooms.
“If anyone’s here, they’re inside,” Sarah stated. “Once we clear out these two buildings, we ought to be all right for the next few hours at least.” Her hands shook and rubbed her left one down the thigh of her pants. “Guess I’m still a little shook up about getting stuck on the fence and watching what happened to Rhonda. She was a good woman. We wouldn’t have the transport if not for her.”
“That would shake anyone up,” Bill told her. “Let’s you and me check the men’s room and they can take the women’s.”
The four separated. Colton kept his grip tight on the handle of his sword and slowly pushed open the door to the women’s restroom. Not hearing anything, he waved Chalice forward, then followed her inside.
A scuffle from the rear stall caused him to freeze. He strained his ears to listen. There. Again, the sound of a footfall. He held up a hand to stop Chalice, then squatted and peered underneath the stalls. A foot in a dirty Keds shoe lifted out of sight.
“All right, we know
you’re in there. Come on out.” Colton slowly sheathed his sword and pulled his pistol. Noisy or not he wasn’t going to chance that the person inside had a gun.
“Don’t shoot me.” The door opened and a very pregnant young woman stepped out. “Please tell me you didn’t kill my husband.”
“Are you infected?” Colton aimed his gun at her head.
“No.” Her face paled. “Neither of us are.”
“Where’s your husband?”
“The men’s restroom.”
Colton met Chalice’s gaze. Amazing how some people would split up in order to stick to habits that didn’t matter anymore. “Chalice, you watch her while I go make sure Bill and Sarah don’t shoot first and ask questions later.”
Sure enough, Bill and Sarah had a young man, hands on his head, in front of the men’s room. Looks like the group grew by two and a half. Fine with him. A pregnant woman was hope for the future. If Bill’s ranch idea worked out, they’d have a regular little town soon.
“What’s your name?” Colton asked.
“Adam Wilson. My wife is Lacey.” He pointed to a red minivan. “That’s our car. It ain’t much, but it contains all we have.”
Colton waited until Chalice and the man’s wife joined them. “We’re headed to find a place of our own. We’re happy to have healthy, strong adults join us. We’ve men, women, and children in our caravan. One of the women is a nurse.”
The Wilsons glanced at each and Lacey gave a small nod. “The baby is due in a month, Adam. It’d be nice to have help.”
“You have any weapons?” Bill asked.
“A .22 rifle.” Adam’s shoulders slumped. “I’m not a very good shot. I was in college studying to be in business before all this went down. Met Lacey a few months after the plague, we found a preacher to marry us, and we’ve been traveling the back roads ever since.”
“Chalice?” Colton noticed her expressionless face. “You okay with them coming along?”
She sighed. “The woman is useful, being pregnant, but a man that can’t help us defend what’s ours…I’m not sure.”
“I can plant a garden, hammer a nail, whatever you need.” Adam stepped forward, his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “I can learn to shoot. You can’t leave us out here. All we do is move around. We hide from the zombies, and we hide from the survivors. What kind of life will that be for our baby?”
Chalice watched him for a moment, then nodded. “It’s the humane thing to do. Pull in front of the bus when we leave in the morning.”
After the others left, Colton hugged Chalice. “I’m proud of you. Letting them stay is the right thing to do.”
She nodded. “Especially since you’re trying to build a new world.” She tilted her face and smiled. “Am I right? All that talk about healthy people and babies.”
“You’re exactly right.” He kissed her, ignoring the fact that Marianne stood with crossed arms beside the school bus. Colton had been kissing Chalice for months and didn’t intend to stop just because her mother showed up.
9
They stopped their caravan the next morning in the parking lot of a home improvement warehouse. Two zombies in bright orange vests shuffled across the lot toward them. Chalice watched impassively as Mychal let two arrows loose, both hitting their targets.
Colton climbed from the Hummer and ordered everyone else to stay in their vehicles except for Sarah and Bill. Unfortunately, they’d have to leave Bill’s pride and joy. It was too dangerous for someone to drive it with a broken window.
“All right by me,” Bill stated. “I’ve got my eye on the Ford over there with the King cab and oversized tires. It’ll be too hard for folks to be yanked out a window if the window can’t be reached from the ground.”
“You’re going to search the body for the keys?” Chalice shuddered.
“Yep, and clean up the inside best I can. So, if y’all could grab some plastic sheeting while you’re searching for seeds, I’d be much obliged. I don’t relish sitting in someone’s spoiled guts.” Bill opened the door to the Ford and yanked out the body. The back of the man’s head had been blown off. “Looks like this poor bugger didn’t want to take his chances and offed himself.” Bill stuffed the man’s pistol in his waistband. “Sarah, can you drive this?”
“I can drive anything.” She hopped up and pulled the passenger door open. “Especially if it keeps me one step ahead of those things.”
Together with Mychal and Eddy, Chalice and Colton headed for the wide open door of the loading bay. Each of them clutched their swords like warriors, choosing to remain silent for as long as possible. The sounds of scuffing feet alerted them to the presence of zombies. The only question was how many were waiting in the dark recesses of the building.
Colton headed for a rack that once held flashlights. Two small ones, the type to fit on a keychain were all that were left. “Check behind the counters,” he whispered.
They all ducked, scavenging for what they could find. Chalice almost shouted when she came across a box of lights that hooked around people’s heads. She stood and snapped her fingers, tossing each of the others one of the lights.
“Once you turn on that light, you’ve alerted the non-breathers that you’re here.” Colton hooked his on. “Don’t use unless you absolutely can’t see.”
Chalice took a deep breath and fastened her own. She hooked the extra pair to her belt. “Mychal, come with me. Eddy, go with Colton. No one goes anywhere alone. Got it?”
“I’ll head to the garden department.” Colton grabbed a shopping cart and motioned for Eddy to do the same. “You guys head to hammers, nails, and building stuff. Get all you can push.”
After moving down several aisles, Chalice discovered a lot of the shelves were empty. She glanced to where lamp oil should have been. They’d already filled one cart with four hammers and every box of nails they could find, a couple of saws, another axe, but items were limited due to so many things using electricity. She sighed and stacked the one remaining lamp on the pile.
“Maybe there’s some in the back,” Mychal suggested. “If they’d got a shipment in before everything went down, it’s possible no one found it.”
Chalice eyed the closed double doors with a sign that said “Employees Only”. She shrugged. “It’s worth a try. Stay close.”
With a deep breath, she turned on her forehead light and slowly pushed open the door. The rank smell of death assaulted her nose. It was possible no zombies lurked in the shadows, but she doubted it. Someone had definitely died in the loading dock. They needed to find out whether that person still walked around and whether he had friends.
Mychal tapped her on the shoulder.
She turned. A thin man stood pinned between a forklift and the wall. While he groaned and stretched his arms toward them, he wasn’t a threat. “Keep looking. We need to find that oil. Lanterns, too.”
They searched through stacks of boxes, finding two more lanterns and a case of oil. Chalice and Mychal gave each other a silent high five. Chalice grabbed another shopping cart and set the stuff inside. “We should go find Colton now. We’ve been gone for quite a while.”
Mychal propped a rake in the basket. “I’m surprised we haven’t seen that many zombies in here. Wouldn’t you think there’d be more?”
She shrugged. “Somebody drove the forklift into that guy. Maybe they cleaned the place out before leaving.” Anything was possible. She’d given up months ago trying to figure out why things were the way they were. Instead, they drove from place to place scavenging like pirates. Who knew a year ago she’d get excited over a pile of garden tools?
“Come on.” She grabbed Mychal’s arm.
“Wait. I heard something.” He pointed toward an unmarked door. “I think whoever it is, is alive.”
“Not zombie?”
He shook his head. “The movement was more…stealthy. Zombies don’t know how to be sneaky.” He pulled his bow from around his shoulder.
Chalice unsheathed her sword. “Le
t’s just leave. They aren’t bothering us. We need to get to Colton and Eddy.” They backed toward the swinging dock doors. Chalice kept her gaze glued to the door, waiting for a flicker of life. Any sign of a threat.
For once, she didn’t feel the need to go to someone’s aide. Instead, the hair on her arms stood at attention. She was going with her instinct this time. One hand on her sword, the other pulling the cart, she led the way back to the main part of the store and combined the latest items with the others. Once back where the afternoon light cut through dirty skylights, she breathed easier and almost ran toward the garden department.
*
Colton stared at boxes of unpacked organic seeds and wanted to cry. Here was the means to sustain them for a long time to come. Once they settled, hopefully on Bill’s ranch, they’d have seeds to plant, food to grow, and seeds to harvest. Come springtime, one huge burden would lift from his shoulders.
“I think you should come see this,” Eddy called from the other side of the garden.
Colton tossed all the seed boxes into a cart then joined the younger boy. Oh, snap.
Line after line after line of vegetables plants grew in border boxes. “Somebody lives here.” He searched the area. A bucket of water sat to the side. Fruit trees were lined against the far wall waiting for the sun to warm them. Bags of fertilizer were stacked near the garden. “Where’s the person who planted all this?” Why haven’t they come forward to stop Colton from taking the rest of the seeds?
He tapped Eddy on the shoulder. “Let’s go. I’ve got the seeds. This doesn’t feel right.”
Why wasn’t there some type of safeguard against intruders? If Colton had planted a garden, he’d have done something to insure no one would come and take what he’d worked hard for. It didn’t make sense. He swallowed against the mountain in his throat and stared at two steel doors leading to the outside. He moved toward them.
“What are you doing?” Eddy grabbed at his arm.
The Zombie Awakening (Complete 6 Volume Series, plus prologue) Page 20