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

by Slaton, Derek

  “Okay, stop fuckin’ apologizin’,” Zion snapped. “We’ll help you find your group.” His eyes darkened, and he took a step forward. “But if this is a trap… I don’t care how young you are, I have no problems throwing you off the roof into that horde out there.”

  Theo nodded profusely, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. “Y-yes, sir.”

  “Good,” Zion replied, straightening up. “Do you know where your people are?”

  He nodded again, like a bobblehead. “Yeah, our apartment building, it’s just a few blocks away. I don’t know how to get there with those things everywhere.”

  “Well it’s your lucky day,” Calvin said brightly. “We’ve got wheels!” As he hooked an arm under the kid’s armpits, Zion turned to Jeremy.

  “You gonna make it?” he asked.

  The ex-bartender made an a-ok sign with his hand. “Punched right through, and must have not hit anything important because I can still move my arm. Hurts like a whore, though.”

  “I bet,” Zion replied. “Been shot enough times myself to know it ain’t fun.”

  “There’s gauze in the truck,” Shawn said. “We’ll get you wrapped up, and then you’re staying in there until we get back.”

  Jeremy saluted with his good arm. “Not gonna argue that.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Oh my god, oh my god,” Theo babbled, practically climbing over Zion’s shoulder to gape at the front door of the apartment building. “Oh my god, how are we going to get inside?”

  The front door was buckled in, and zombies flooded over it, clambering around each other to get inside.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll get ‘em out,” Zion assured him, and slowed down to get up over the curb.

  Theo shook his head, eyes wide. “But, what if they’re-”

  “We got this,” Calvin said, clapping him on the shoulder and pulling him back into the seat. “Why don’t you give us a lay of the land in there?”

  The kid chewed on his thumbnail, curling his legs up onto the seat under him. “There’s eight of us… at least there was. I hope there still is. Mostly teens, but the youngest is eight.”

  “Who would be in charge?” Zion asked as he pulled right up to the building, beneath a second-floor window.

  “My boyfriend, Alvin,” Theo replied. “He’s the oldest, at nineteen.”

  Calvin raised an eyebrow. “You are a little young to be dating a nineteen-year-old?”

  “I’m eighteen.” The kid bristled. “I’m only a couple of months younger.”

  Jeremy groaned. “I got shot by a teenager. Wendy’s never gonna let me live this down.”

  “At least he’s old enough to buy porn,” Calvin replied.

  Zion unrolled his window so that he could climb up onto the roof, and Shawn did the same. Theo moved to get into the front to follow them, but the leader put up a hand.

  “No, you’re staying here,” Zion said.

  The kid shook his head. “But-”

  “Stay here. I’ll get them out,” he promised. “Alvin is in charge, you said?”

  Theo nodded, and Calvin patted his shoulder as the duo climbed out of the windows. He produced a joint from his pocket and grinned.

  “You partake?” he asked.

  Before Theo could answer, Jeremy moaned. “Please, god yes.”

  Calvin lit up, and handed it over to the wounded man. “Don’t sweat it, kid, you barely got in here with that fucked-up ankle. How did you think you’d get back out again?”

  “Let alone that you’d just be in Zion’s way,” Jeremy added as he exhaled, smoke billowing around his head. “That guy is hardcore.”

  “He’s big,” Theo agreed.

  Calvin took the joint back and puffed on it. “Not only that, he’s fearless. He’ll get through whatever is up there and get those kids out without even breaking a sweat.” He held out the weed to the kid.

  Theo looked at it and then gingerly took it between his thumb and forefinger, puffing gently. “I didn’t think I’d ever get to smoke this stuff again.”

  “Ah, you a veteran?” Calvin waggled his eyebrows.

  The kid shook his head. “No,” he replied, passing it off to Jeremy. “Alvin is, though. When we started dating I started smoking it every now and again. Really nice for stress relief.”

  “And pain relief.” Jeremy sighed happily.

  “I’m really sorry,” Theo repeated.

  Jeremy closed his eyes. “Your constant apologies are far more annoying than this bullet wound,” he joked, and Calvin barked a laugh.

  “Agreed,” he said as he took his joint back. “Just chill, kid. It’s the apocalypse. Not the first nor the last time somebody will be accidentally shot.”

  Theo groaned. “I don’t know if that’s comforting or not.”

  Zion peered through the window, seeing no movement in the apartment they’d pulled up to. “Let’s go in through the sliding door,” he suggested. “It’ll be quieter.”

  Shawn nodded and they headed along the back of the truck, hopping over the balcony railing. There were vertical blinds inside the sliding door, but they were open and unmoving, showing no signs of corpses within.

  Zion yanked on the handle, and it was thankfully unlocked. He stepped through, the blinds clack-clacking behind him. He held his crowbar and his knife at the ready as he swept the space, but the bedrooms were all empty.

  When they got to the front door, he listened for a moment, and then inched it open. A zombie immediately smacked into it, slamming it back shut, cutting off Zion’s view.

  “They’re heading for the other end of the hall,” he whispered. “That’s gotta be where the kids are.”

  “Should we drive around, try to find the right apartment?” Shawn asked.

  Zion shook his head. “The trees are thick back there, the truck wouldn’t fit,” he replied, and lifted his weapons. “You ready to play whack-a-ghoul?”

  His companion nodded, and raised his hands, blade in one hand, tire iron in the other. Zion threw the door open and clotheslined a zombie immediately, leaving it on the floor behind him for Shawn to brain as he turned to the two corpses lunging for his face.

  He was a monster, stabbing and smashing his way down the hall towards the cluster of zombies at the door in question. Shawn held his own, taking out the few behind the apartment they’d come in. He pulled the stairwell door shut as much as he could, trying to stifle the flow of new zombies. There were too many caught in the door, and he stabbed wildly at the reaching hands but to no avail. He finally managed to jam the tire iron into the handle and keep it from behind opened any wider for the time being.

  Zion jumped into the back of the cluster, and they began to notice him. He kicked a zombie in the stomach and stabbed it in the head, using it to bludgeon the other zombies out of the way. Shawn rejoined him at that point, taking down any that managed to wriggle past his partner.

  Soon it was just cleanup duty, making sure the dead were dead in the pile, and Zion kicked the apartment door in. A shot rang out, hitting high.

  “Hey!” Zion barked. “Cut that shit out! We’re here to help!”

  A terrified angular face popped up from behind a couch.

  “We found Theo in the office building, come on, he’s waiting for you,” Zion said, waving the kid forward.

  “You found Theo?!” a little girl cried in excitement, and ran forward.

  The kid with the gun, presumably Alvin, lunged forward and grabbed her wrist. “Rhea, don’t!”

  Shawn watched the stairwell door, rotting arms flailing through it, trying to squeeze through the small space. He didn’t like how the tire iron was shifting in its place.

  “We need to hurry this up,” Shawn called, and sprinted back down the hallway.

  Alvin took in the pile of bodies at the door. “How did you-”

  “Save it for when we’re not on the dinner menu,” Zion snapped. “All you kids need to get to that open apartment down there so we can get out of here.”

&
nbsp; “Come on, Alvin, they found Theo!” Rhea jumped up and down, tugging at his arm.

  The older boy nodded, and waved to the bedroom, where a stream of kids hurried out, glancing up at their savior with terrified faces as they passed. Alvin brought up the rear, Rhea in tow, and looked like he was about to say something, but Zion shoved him past and ushered the kids down the hall.

  “Go go go, get to the balcony there’s a truck there,” he instructed.

  Shawn cried out as the tire iron gave way, and he planted a foot on the doorframe so he could keep a hold of the stairwell door. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up!”

  Zion all but threw Alvin into the apartment, and turned to his companion, running full tilt for the door. “Get out of the way!” he screamed, and Shawn let go and flattened himself against the wall at the last second. Zion slammed into the door at full force, knocking the entire horde back down the stairs.

  He flexed his arms and spat down onto the writhing mass of rotting flesh, and stalked back into the hallway, closing and latching the door behind him. He swiped his hands back and forth off of each other, and Shawn couldn’t help but laugh at him, shaking his head.

  “I don’t know how you still manage to surprise me,” the older man said, letting out a deep whoosh of breath.

  Zion clapped him on the back as they headed for the apartment door. “Gotta keep things interestin’, right?”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Calvin helped Alvin in through the roof hatch, and then peered in through the balcony door as Zion and Shawn sauntered over as casually as ever.

  “It’s getting pretty dense out here,” he called, and shut the hatch before sliding down to carefully clamber back into the cab.

  Theo was half in the door to the back, presumably greeting everyone, and when he pulled back, his face was flushed. Alvin appeared in the hole, still gripping his boyfriend’s hand.

  “Thank you,” Theo gushed as Zion and Shawn slid into their seats from above. “Thank you, thank you so much.”

  “Don’t thank us yet,” Calvin replied brightly. “We still have to get home.”

  The corpses surrounding the truck were so thick that it took the truck a moment to get moving. Once Zion started to pick up speed, it was okay, but the sheer amount of the dead was concerning.

  “I don’t like how many of these bastards are congregating here,” he muttered.

  Shawn sighed. “We should probably take an alternate route so we’re not leading them anywhere that our people are.”

  “Anywhere?” Alvin asked through the hole. “Do you guys have multiple safe places?”

  “As safe as they can be,” Shawn replied.

  Calvin leaned back against the side of the cab to face the teenagers. “Zion and I live at an apartment complex outside of town. It’s manned by some really awesome people, and we’ve got a good thing going there. Shawn and Jeremy are from a place in the city that’s now a whole fenced-off block. Their leader is this badass chick named Wendy that I’m pretty sure could crush my entire skull with just her pinky finger.”

  “Spoiler alert,” Jeremy added, “she could.”

  “And then there’s Adam, our machinist,” Calvin continued. “His people are at a shop in town, and he builds all kinds of awesome shit. He outfitted this truck for us, and we bring him food.”

  “That’s amazing,” Alvin replied, shaking his head in awe. “Not only that you have a thriving community, but trade with other communities? It really feels like there’s hope even with all of… this.” He waved his hand at the sea of zombies parting for Zion’s aggressive driving.

  “How many of you are in there?” Jeremy asked, wincing as he tried to crane his neck to look in the back.

  “Seven,” Alvin replied, and then laughed as a tiny pair of arms wrapped around his neck. “Sorry, six and a half.”

  “Hey!” Rhea pouted. “I’m more than half your size. I’m tall for my age!”

  “Oh, sweetie, I missed you,” Theo said, reaching in to give her arm a gentle squeeze. “Did Alvin take good care of you while I was gone?”

  “Alvin is way nicer than you,” she replied primly. “He let me eat two cookies instead of one and we got to play board games until after dark, and he brushed pony’s hair for me.” She stuck out her tongue and laughter rippled throughout the cab.

  “I can see who the pushover is in this relationship,” Calvin teased.

  Alvin wrinkled his nose. “How do you say no to that face? Look at her big eyes! She’s too damn cute!”

  “You’re a weak man,” Theo replied gravely, shaking his head.

  “It’s about to get a little bumpy,” Zion warned, and revved the engine. The wheels went bump bump as he drove over a particularly thick portion of corpses, and then finally hit a street where the zombies were thinner.

  “What’s with all the metal back here?” one of the kids asked. “Not the most comfortable to sit on.”

  “Shh, Dinah,” Alvin scolded. “Beggars can’t be choosers. We could be in a lot worse places right now.”

  “It’s fencing,” Calvin replied, “sorry about that. We weren’t anticipating having a truckload of kids today. Otherwise I would have set up a couch and some video games.”

  Another kid groaned in lament. “Ugh, that would be so nice. To just kick back and eat Cheetos and play some FPS.” He made some gun noises with his mouth, and a few of the girls squealed their distaste.

  “If you like shooting stuff, you should learn how to shoot zombies,” Calvin said, and Shawn stared at him, wide-eyed. “What? It’s the apocalypse, kid’s gotta learn sometime. Right, Z?”

  Zion shrugged. “I knew how to fire a gun by the time I was ten.”

  “Jesus, really?” Shawn blurted. “Where the hell did you grow up?”

  “Compton,” he replied, and didn’t need to say any more.

  “That aside,” Calvin continued, “It’s probably a good idea to at least teach them how to use the damn things, just in case of an emergency. I’m not saying we send ten-year-olds out on raids, but at least if something happens they can defend themselves.”

  “Yes, please, somebody teach the teenagers how to properly handle a gun,” Jeremy moaned, rolling his eyes.

  “Hey, I’m not a teenager anymore,” Alvin replied with a grin.

  “I meant your boy here,” Jeremy pointed a finger at Theo.

  Calvin cupped a hand around his mouth and whispered loudly, “He shot Jeremy!”

  “What?” Alvin’s eyes widened.

  “I was just trying to scare them away!” Theo wailed, covering his face. “I’m never going to live this down.”

  “No, I’m never going to live it down,” Jeremy replied. “I think I’m just going to live with you guys, now. I can’t ever go back and face Wendy.”

  “I can’t wait to tell her,” Calvin said with a lopsided grin.

  Jeremy glared at him.

  “Also, why are you so high and mighty, mister?” Shawn raised an eyebrow as he glanced back at Alvin. “You shot at Zion when he came through the door.”

  The kid put up his hands. “Self defense!”

  “Exactly!” Theo added, nodding his head emphatically.

  “And this is why it’s important to learn how to use guns properly,” Calvin said matter-of-factly. “Because if you’re firing in self defense, you should hit your target in a strategic place, and not be shooting wildly in a panic.”

  “Are you saying he should have shot me somewhere else?” Jeremy asked. “Or that Alvin should have hit Zion?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Calvin replied. “What if we had been there for nefarious intentions? You can’t be too careful.”

  “You’re a weird dude,” Alvin said, shaking his head.

  Shawn barked a laugh and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I like this kid.”

  “You guys are all meatheads,” a young girl from the back said. “Guns are only useful if they have ammunition.”

  Zion grinned. “A
nd what’s your name?”

  “Lily Barton, sir.” A round face appeared in the hatch, and a tiny hand reached up to push her thick horn-rimmed glasses up on her nose. “I don’t mean any offense, but if you are going to be teaching us how to defend ourselves, then I’d much rather learn how to use a weapon that doesn’t run out of bullets.”

  “Well, smart lady, no offense taken,” Zion replied.

  Calvin rolled his eyes. “Z is our resident gun-hater around here. I think if we’d let him, he’d crush the zombies with his bare hands.”

  “Let me?” Zion replied, raising an eyebrow.

  Shawn shook his head. “I’m not under any illusions that we impede you from doing whatever you want. And really, you go ahead and do it. Shoving an entire horde of zombies down the stairs was insane but it saved my life, so power to you.”

  “You shoved a horde down the stairs?” Jeremy blurted. “Living at the apartments is sounding better and better.”

  “So you’re an enthusiast for melee weapons, then?” Lily asked, pushing her glasses up her nose again. “In Dungeons and Dragons, I play DPS, and-”

  There was a chorus of groans from the back of the truck, likely the video gamers of the group.

  Lily cleared her throat and continued, “While I feel that long range weapons and magic have their place tactically in a group, it isn’t efficient to rely solely on those efforts. The same applies here, although of course we don’t have mages.”

  “I’m your mage,” Calvin replied, raising his hand. “Long range sniper, ready to cover melee fighters in the field.”

  She grinned at him. “Cool.”

  “So what do you call giant badasses that just jump in and draw all the zombies to them?” Jeremy asked, discreetly motioning towards Zion.

  “That would be a tank,” Lily explained. “The strongest of fighters with all the hit points, they go out and draw the enemies so that the fast aggressive fighters can pick them off while their backs are turned.”

  “Mister Tank!” Jeremy grinned, patting Zion on the shoulder and then wincing as he jostled his shoulder too much.

  “If that’s the only criteria, then Shawn is the tank,” Zion replied, jerking his thumb in his companion’s direction. “He’s the one that distracted all the yoga zombies so I could pick them off at the back.”