Dead America The Second Week (Book 10): Dead America: Portland, Part 2

by Slaton, Derek

  “I know, I know,” Calvin replied, putting up his hands. “I get it. And it’s really a much easier and safer option, bringing them out through a tunnel.”

  “Safer for everyone but those of us doing the leading,” his leader retorted, and they shared a chuckle.

  The smaller man shook his head. “True that.” He leaned back against the wall, looking at his companion. “Y’know, if it weren’t for the apocalypse, I don’t think we ever would have met. At least in all this insanity there’s that, right?”

  “You gettin’ all mushy on me?” Zion teased.

  Calvin laughed. “No, just thinking about how different our lives would be, zombies aside. Like you probably wouldn’t have given me the time of day had we met pre-apocalypse.”

  “No offense bud, but I wouldn’t have even given you a glance,” his friend admitted. “Monique and I were tryin’ to live straight, but I still wasn’t associating with wiry little white bread boys like you.”

  The wiry white bread boy in question rolled his eyes. “Don’t sugar coat it, huh? It’s funny that when people say ‘no offense,’ it’s usually followed by something super offensive.”

  “Hey you started it,” Zion replied, though his expression remained amused. He knew his companion wasn’t really offended.

  A rumbling engine alerted them to an approaching truck. Shawn and Jeremy, two guys from Wendy’s community, sat in the cab and waved as they pulled up to the parking deck. It was an old mattress truck, big enough to store all kinds of supplies, and Adam had been kind enough to reinforce it with multiple layers of rebar and extra bumpers. It made driving over corpses that much easier.

  Jeremy jumped out of the driver’s seat, flashing the guys a thousand-watt smile. Once upon a time, he’d been a bartender, and he still had the charms to prove it.

  “Mornin’, fellas,” he greeted as he moved so Zion could climb up into the driver’s seat. He skirted around the back of the truck so Calvin could heft a few crates inside in case they needed them for Adam. Then they clambered up into the cab behind Shawn.

  A little softer and more reserved, Shawn was older and had a background in accounting and business, though he didn’t like to talk about what kind of business.

  “What’s the plan for today?” Jeremy asked after they all exchanged their pleasantries.

  Calvin pulled a joint from behind his ear and lit it up, taking a deep drag and passing it over to his backseat buddy. “What isn’t the plan for today?” He grinned. “We get to go shopping for Wendy’s greenhouses, drop off some food for Adam, investigate some potential friends stuck in a building, and gear up to do a zombie conga line.”

  Jeremy coughed on his puff and handed the weed back, wheezing on his shock. “Zombie conga line?”

  “That’ll probably be tomorrow,” Zion added.

  Shawn blinked at him. “He wasn’t joking?”

  “We’re hopin’ to clear out the city by rerouting zombies down through the drainage tunnels,” the driver explained.

  Jeremy took a deep breath. “You guys never sit still, huh? Well, it’ll definitely help if there are less dead dudes running around the city. Now what about these potential friends? Did you guys meet someone new?”

  “Adam saw somebody flashing a light from the top of a building near his place,” Zion replied. “We’re not sure what the deal is up there but if they’re doin’ that we figure they must need help.”

  “Fair enough,” Jeremy replied. “Civilization isn’t going to get anywhere if we don’t help each other.”

  Zion entered the city, smacking into a few straggling zombies as he went. The reinforced bumpers took them out easily, and the truck didn’t even flinch running them over. He pulled to a stop in front of the hardware store and they jumped out into an empty street. There were a few stragglers within eyeshot a few blocks down, but nothing to really threaten them.

  “This place is fancy,” Calvin commented as they approached the front doors of the store. “Gotta love these hipsters, boasting their green hardware. You know, because building shit out of wood and gardening isn’t green if it isn't organic and solar powered.”

  “Don’t give a shit about organic, but solar powered is handy when the apocalypse knocks out all the power stations,” Zion said.

  “I guess those granola crunchers came in handy, after all,” Calvin replied.

  Jeremy cocked his head. “It’s funny that a green hippie such as yourself would be making fun of the granola crunchers,” he teased.

  “Hey, hey, there is a big difference between a hippie and a hipster,” Calvin shot back, pointing a finger at him. “On a scale of doobie to man bun, I am definitely at zero.”

  Shawn peered through the glass. “There’s a fair bit of movement in there.”

  Zion held up his crowbar in one hand, and drew a hunting knife with the other. “When we get inside, I’ll take the lead. You two grab the biggest carts you can find, and follow Calvin with the list. Stay behind me and I’ll clear the way through.”

  Jeremy raised an eyebrow, but Shawn just shook his head a little. He’d seen Zion in action, and his compadre hadn’t.

  “Got it?” Zion asked, and the three men nodded. “Good.” With that, he smashed the glass door with his crowbar, and immediately stepped through the jagged hole.

  “Jesus!” Jeremy hissed, but ducked inside quickly as he’d been instructed to do. The carts were just to the left, and they yanked them out, hurrying close behind Calvin as he stared down at the shopping list, as casual as if they were strolling the farmer’s market on a sunny day.

  Zion smashed a zombie in the skull and dropped it, stabbing the next contender through the forehead with his knife.

  “Okay, so aisle three here is where we’ll find our seeds,” Calvin said to nobody in particular.

  Zion planted his foot into the zombie’s chest and wrenched his knife free, spinning into the momentum to take another corpse’s head clean off with the blade.

  “Veggies, veggies are important,” Calvin mused, and stopped in front of the edible garden seeds as his leader pressed ahead, taking out ghouls left and right. He plucked packets of seeds down and tossed handfuls into the carts, whistling as he did so.

  Jeremy watched with wide eyes as Zion hacked and slashed and crushed, his movements somehow matching the jaunty tune that came out of Calvin’s mouth.

  “Fruit, too? You think strawberries are hard to grow?” the younger man asked, turning to the guys.

  “Just put them in the cart, man!” Jeremy hissed.

  Calvin simply shrugged and continued tossing handfuls of seed packets in, until the shelves were devoid of edible plant seeds. “Okay, we’re good, big guy.”

  Zion nodded, pressing forward, arms a flurry as he left bodies in his wake. Calvin continued whistling as he kicked fully-dead zombies to the side of the aisle, giving Jeremy and Shawn room to move their carts through the carnage.

  “Hang a right up here, we should be able to find the solar panels and fencing along the back wall,” Calvin said.

  Zion dropped one final zombie, and then whipped around in the center of a four-way intersection. He looked crazed, a thin sheen of sweat making his forehead glisten, blood spattered all over his clothes. His expression relaxed and he strained his ears, listening for any more moaning or shuffling through the store.

  After a few moments of silence, he gave Calvin a little salute with his knife, and led the way to the back wall.

  Jeremy stared back at the trench of bodies they’d left in the aisle, eyes wide, and then when he turned back to find Shawn disappearing around the corner, he gave his cart a shove and sprinted to catch up.

  “Damn, no jacks anywhere. We’ll have to check out that garage,” Calvin said, shaking his head. He went down his list, pointing out all of the solar panel parts for his teammates to pull down from the shelves. Once everything was securely in the carts, they moved down and stacked as much fencing as they could on top without falling over.

  “We’ll n
eed to come back for more fencing,” Calvin said, and Zion nodded. The two of them helped hold the stacks up as Jeremy and Shawn pushed the carts back to the front of the store. They unlocked and opened the doors proper so they could get them out into the street.

  Snarls filled the air, and Shawn cried out, fumbling with his gun holster.

  Zion grabbed his arm. “No gunshots,” he said, and then had to reach up quickly to steady the wobbling stack of fencing. He kicked at one of the zombies, planting his boot into its chest and sending it back into its brethren, buying them a few seconds.

  Calvin pulled enough panels from his own stack to keep it from falling and making a big clatter, and then rushed forward with one held straight out in front of him. Jeremy immediately joined him, seeing what he was trying to do, and the duo managed to push back the mini-horde of corpses that had come for them in the street.

  Zion and Shawn quickly lowered their extra fencing to the asphalt, the latter approaching with his own panel to try to herd the zombies into an alcove on the end of the building. The corpses tripped over each other but moved backwards, and Zion was able to lash his arm across the fencing to take out zombies with his crowbar, one at a time.

  As each one fell, it became easier for the fence-holders, and soon Calvin was able to drop his and join the foray with his hunting knife.

  Soon, Jeremy and Shawn stood there, holding their panels with heaving chests, staring at the pile of bodies as if it were going to reanimate.

  “Is that it?” Calvin looked up and down the street, but there was no more movement in the vicinity.

  Zion shoved his crowbar back into his belt. “For now. We should get loaded up.”

  The quartet sprung to action, packing the truck full of the supplies, and then going back for more fencing. They were extra careful coming out of the front doors this time, but they weren’t joined by any more zombies, and soon they were safe and sound back in the cab, heading for the tire shop.

  “How exactly does one build a hydraulic press?” Jeremy asked, folding his arms around the back of his head.

  Calvin shrugged. “We don’t know how Adam does a lot of the things he does.”

  “I’d assume the jack is going to act as the hydraulics, and the rest will be heavy duty welded metal,” Shawn suggested.

  Calvin thought for a moment and then nodded. “That sounds legit. The guy is like a machining MacGyver. But I mean, we knew that already with Zion’s claw.”

  “Still haven’t seen that thing in action,” Jeremy said wistfully.

  “Next time we need to teach someone a hard lesson, you will,” Calvin said, holding up his fist and clenching it with vigor.

  Shawn shook his head. “I hope that doesn’t happen to you guys again. Or any of us.”

  “It won’t,” Zion replied firmly, the vision of Holcomb’s lifeless body on display dancing through his head. His reverie broke as the tire shop came into view, along with the zombies staggering around the parking lot. He sighed as if it were more a nuisance than anything, and pulled in, taking a haphazard route around the lot to run down as many corpses as he could.

  “God I love this truck,” Calvin said brightly, bracing himself as they jostled around.

  Jeremy grinned. “Yeah we got to bonk quite a few zombies when we went to get gas,” he said. “Good times.”

  Zion put the truck in park and surveyed the parking lot of bodies, a few of them clambering to their feet or dragging their busted legs across the asphalt. “Okay, let’s get out there and make sure they’re all dead. We don’t want any screechers drawin’ any more attention.”

  The quartet jumped out of the cab and fanned out around the parking lot, using blades and crowbars to take out any movement. Soon the lot was a graveyard, and they met back at the front of the truck. Shawn peered in through the glass door at the lobby of the shop while Calvin tried to see into the small window on the garage bay door.

  “I can’t see shit in here,” he complained. “I don’t think they bothered to clean this even before people started coming back from the dead.”

  “Grease monkeys,” Jeremy added, shaking his head.

  “Hey, if they have what we need, then we shouldn’t make fun of them,” Shawn chastised.

  Calvin snickered. “Yes, dad,” he said, elbowing Jeremy in the arm as he did so.

  Shawn rolled his eyes and turned to Zion, ignoring the two childish men. “The waiting area looks clear, but I can’t see that far in.”

  Zion raised his crowbar to the glass, but then paused and tried to just pull the door open. It wasn’t locked, and he shrugged, pulling it all the way and sticking his head in.

  “Hey!” he bellowed, and nothing came from behind the counter to greet him. There was, however, sounds of movement from the metal door to the garage, and he stepped inside. He walked up to the door and sighed at the window full of zombies, so thick he couldn’t even see into the garage area.

  “Jesus,” Shawn breathed from behind him. “That can’t just be the crew in there.”

  Zion shook his head. “No, I think somebody trapped them in here, maybe to pave a way to escape.”

  “What do we do?” his companion asked.

  “We get ‘em out of the way,” Zion replied. He headed back to the front door. “Hey, do those doors open from the outside?”

  Calvin leaned down and wrapped his hand around the handle at the bottom of the first door, and tested it. “It would, but it’s locked,” he replied with a shrug.

  “Bang on the metal,” Zion instructed, and then disappeared back inside.

  Calvin and Jeremy looked at each other and shrugged, using their crowbars to smack on the metal doors and create a ruckus.

  “What was that about screechers being too loud?” Jeremy asked, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

  Calvin shrugged again. “Whatever, if a horde shows up we’ll just jump back in the truck and let Zion fight his way out.”

  They shared a laugh, but then zipped up as Zion emerged, waving his hands for them to cut it out. “It’s not working, the sound is bouncing around in there and they don’t know where it’s coming from.”

  “How many are in there?” Calvin asked.

  He shook his head. “It’s impossible to tell, they’re packed right against the door.”

  “That’s never a good sign,” Jeremy replied.

  “What about the roof?” Shawn asked as he came back outside. “We can use the truck to get on top and see if there’s a way in from the top. I’d imagine a shop with any kind of machinery needs roof ventilation.”

  Zion nodded. “Good idea.” He headed for the driver’s side door, and soon the quartet was jumping from the top of the truck onto the roof of the tire shop.

  He headed for a cluster of large metal ducts, and felt around the front of one for a seam to dig his nails in. He finally stepped back and stuck his crowbar into the slats, easily popping it off. Moans echoed up to them, the noise bouncing around and out into the air.

  He waved Calvin forward. “Lean in, I’ll hold your legs.”

  “Why don’t you lean in?” his friend shot back, crossing his arms.

  Zion barked a laugh, flexing his considerable muscles. “You think you can hold me?”

  Calvin scratched the back of his head and wrinkled his nose. “Right. Yep.” He leaned into the duct, peering out over the shop.

  Zion took hold of his legs and gave him some more length, and his eyes widened. The entire floor was shoulder-to-shoulder zombies. They looked up at him with milky eyes and slack jawed expressions, groaning their excitement at the fresh meat dangling above.

  “Pull me up,” he called, reaching back to smack Zion’s hand. As he slid out of the duct back onto the roof, he sighed. “Well, there’s a jack in there. On the opposite side of the duct.” He crossed the roof and stood at the other corner, closer to the big bay doors. “Right here, on a shelf. Except the whole fuckin’ place is zombies. Like a mosh pit.”

  Shawn paled and Jeremy scrubbed his hands d
own his face.

  “Do we really need a hydraulic press?” the latter asked, clearing his throat.

  Calvin shrugged. “Z, you know I’m all for getting Adam what he needs, but I wonder if maybe this can wait for another day-”

  “Was there an automatic switch for the bay doors?” Zion asked, cutting him off.

  His companion sighed. He should have known his stubborn friend wouldn’t let it go that easily. “Yeah. Across from the jack, on the same side as the duct.” He crossed the roof to the other side, to show him about where it was. “What are you thinkin’?”

  “If we can get the doors open, we can draw them all outside and then grab the jack,” Zion said.

  Jeremy shook his head. “But then they’ll all be outside. Where we are.”

  “Technically, we’d be fine up here, if we could get in and out from the duct,” Shawn replied. “Then just get back into the truck from up here. The real question is, would it be ethical to release a mini-horde for somebody else to deal with because we want a car jack?”

  “So much shit in the apocalypse is unethical,” Calvin muttered, rubbing his chin.

  Zion shook his head. “If we can draw them out, then we can draw them back in once we get what we need.”

  “I still don’t get how we are going to get the doors open,” Calvin said, raising a hand. “If we can’t get at the jack, how will we get at the door switch?”

  “Is it a switch, or a button?” Zion asked.

  His friend laughed, suddenly realizing what the idea was. “Neither. It’s one of those fancy touch pads.”

  Zion simply grinned, and both Jeremy and Shawn looked at each other, then at the duo.

  “What did we miss?” Jeremy asked, raising a hand.

  Calvin jogged back to the truck and snaked down inside of it, returning with a bright orange plastic gun.