The Fall (Book 2): Dead Will Rise

by Guess, Joshua

  There was no accusation in her voice, but Kell still felt like he should have had a plan. “I don't suppose you've got any ideas on how to change that, do you?”

  Andrea grinned. “As a matter of fact, I thought of something while we were running. Something I should have remembered from the start.”

  They stayed in the empty garage for two days, long enough for some of the undead to wander away out of disinterest. Long enough for Kell to kill a few more and use their entrails and flesh to cover the scent of the group. Eventually there were only a few New Breed left, victims of Kell and Andrea when the numbers were small enough to allow them to go outside.

  Though the previous two days had been a lot of work and stress, Kell looked back on them as a pleasant vacation compared to the frozen hell he lay in.

  The hardest part was staying still. Every instinct drove him to stand and run, but for Andrea's plan to be successful he had to remain where he was, laying amid a sprawl of dead zombies off the side of the highway. It had taken he and Andrea hours to haul the bodies here and stage them, hours more to push the nearest car they could find up to the tree they'd cut down to fall across the road. The spot was perfect; the tree lay across the highway at a choke point where any incoming vehicles had no way to go around. The northbound lane was useless, clogged with debris already.

  Cold gnawed at him as he waited, just a part in the tableau. If Andrea was right, the hour they'd already waited would be worth it in the end. Anyone driving from the south would see a car stopped at a downed tree in a narrow choke point. The doors stood open, a woman slumped in the front seat while a man lay dead among the zombies he heroically stood against after exiting the car.

  There was no way to make it look like anything but a trap, but Andrea was brilliant in ways Kell was just coming to appreciate. The trick, she had explained, was making look like a trap that had already been sprung.

  It was complicated in the setup and execution, but the idea was simple at heart. Anyone coming from the south would have to stop, and their first impression of the scene would be that of any survivor, which would hopefully keep them from thinking too hard about what they were seeing before getting out of their vehicle. There was no shortage of potential problems in the plan, but it was better than anything he'd come up with.

  And right on time, the low rumble of a large engine could be heard in the distance.

  Kell again resisted the urge to move, to get away from the incoming enemy. At least, he hoped the approaching vehicle was an enemy, though given Andrea's explanation of how the pickup for the Hunters worked, it could hardly be anyone else.

  Laying prone with his head to the side, he had a perfect view of the road. The bodies were carefully placed to let Kell peer through a cap between two of them without being obvious. It was just as Andrea said, a bright yellow speck moving steadily toward them. If her previous observations held, there would be a driver and a passenger, both heavily armed.

  His nerves screamed for action as the thick tires ground to a halt less than ten feet away. The engine cut off and for an agonizing thirty seconds nothing happened. The tick and ping of the cooling motor was the only sound. Kell was keenly aware of how exposed he was. If one of them noticed his breathing, shallow as it was, he would never see the bullet coming.

  Doors opened, boots scuffed the asphalt.

  “Look in the car,” one said, a woman. “Make sure the body in there isn't going to get up and start moving.”

  “All right,” the other voice said, this one male.

  Kell lay motionless as he held his breath, waiting for the signal. His eyes were closed, and if the woman approaching so close he could hear the dead grass crunch beneath her feet decided to look at him very hard, she would see that he was clearly not dead.

  To the south a burst of gunfire rang out. Without looking, on pure trust, Kell turned his head and lashed out with a kick. There was only a split-second to see the position of the woman's gun as she whipped to face the sound, no time to aim carefully. All he could do was take in that snapshot in time and react.

  Fortune was with him, his boot connecting solidly with the stock of the assault rifle. Springing to his feet as the weapon went on a wild curve around her body, still held to her by the strap, Kell lunged. Rational Kell meekly piped in that he was leaving another enemy at his back, but he paid the voice no mind. If he didn't trust Andrea to do her part, he couldn't do his.

  His flying tackle took her in the midsection, his massive frame slamming into her like an iceberg meeting the Titanic. Her frame was slight enough that momentum carried them back against the dusty yellow side of the huge SUV. A whoosh of escaping breath rushed out in a rasping cough as he knocked the wind out of the stunned woman, then threw her to the ground.

  She fought like a wildcat, but Kell used his size and weight to his advantage, finally pinning one arm with his knee.

  “Stop fighting!” he growled at her. “Let me take that gun away and I won't break your arm.” For incentive he put a little more of his weight on her humerus, eliciting an airy scream. There was no fear on her face, only rage and pain, but after a few seconds she relented.

  “Take it, Jesus, just get off my arm!” she spat.

  After slipping a pair of cable ties around her wrists—an item so lightweight and useful he considered it a crime to be without—and looping them together, Kell finally checked on Andrea. The lack of rifle bullets passing through him was a good sign all systems were green, but he marched his prisoner over to the car anyway.

  Andrea stood with her attacker's rifle pointed casually at the man, who was himself bound by cable ties to the car's inner door handle. It couldn't have been more than a minute, but the man already had a bruise forming on the side of his face and it looked like a couple fingers were broken. Blood poured down his face from the malformed lump that had been a nose a few minutes before. Andrea herself was relaxed, barely ruffled.

  “I'll stay with them if you want to go get the—others,” he said, catching himself, nearly saying 'the kids'. “Take the truck, it'll be faster.”

  Andrea knelt before the captured man, far enough to avoid him had he tried to attack. “If I come back in ten minutes and my friend is hurt, I'll shoot both of you in the head. If you're anywhere but right where I left you, I'll still shoot you. Are we clear?”

  Both of the captives nodded. “Good,” Andrea said. Turning to Kell, she jerked an elbow at the driver side of the car. “Go ahead and put her in there. I'll be back.”

  “Is it weird that I immediately imagined you as the Terminator when you said that?” Kell quipped.

  Andrea winked and took the truck to pick up the kids. After she turned around and headed south, Kell tied the woman's makeshift cuffs to the steering wheel and stood back.

  “I have some questions for you,” he said with every ounce of ice he could put into his voice. “And you should sincerely hope I believe your answers.”

  “Texas! We came from Texas!” the woman said as Kell pointed the rifle at her face. The man was too miserable to care that an armed giant was threatening him, and the first time Kell asked the woman where they came from she'd spit on him.

  Now there was fear in her eyes, and it made him want to vomit. Unless they broke free and managed to present a serious threat, Kell had no intention to harm either of them further. With the adrenaline wearing off, his rational voice told him what a piece of shit he was for attacking a woman. It wasn't overpowering, but having to prey on her fear made his stomach roll in protest.

  “That's a long drive,” Kell said. “Elaborate.”

  The woman swallowed, steeling herself. “We aren't from there originally. There's a...group, a big one, there. We're part of it. They needed people to move around the country to gather supplies. Mostly food. We only joined up there a few months ago. We've been making this run since about a week after.”

  Kell lowered the gun. “You drive all the way from Texas? That's insane. How—”

  Shaking her head, t
he woman interrupted. “No, we only do about three hundred miles a couple times a week. There's a whole relay system set up to carry anything we find back home.”

  For a moment he lost himself in a stream of mental calculations. “That's not possible,” he said. “You'd need an enormous supply of fresh fuel, a huge population...”

  The woman's hands tensed on the steering wheel. She nodded. “I don't know the details. Like I said, we joined up and had a week of staying in a camp a few miles from the main settlement. I don't know what the place is called or even looks like. Our town wasn't the only satellite to the larger one, and there were at least five hundred people there.”

  Anger filled her eyes, aimed not at Kell this time but at her own memories. “They didn't tell us anything, really. Kept us in the dark. There's always gas, always vehicles, always enough clothing and supplies, but never enough food. So Kevin and I,” she said, jerking her head at the bleeding man, “volunteered to stay out here for months to do this run. We get extra food this way, and we're not kept in those damn camps, treated like leeches while the people in charge ignore us.”

  Kell could identify; he'd done as much living in North Jackson. Crouching, he let the rifle hang on its strap. “Listen, because I don't have much time until she comes back.”

  His tone caught the attention of both prisoners. Kell pointed north. “If you don't give us trouble, we won't have any reason to hurt you, and we'll leave you alive when we take your truck.” The woman grimaced.

  “Yes, I know it's unfair. I don't feel great about taking it from you, but the men you've been picking up food from are not good people. They're maybe not as bad as marauders, but they aren't saints. Once we leave, you could go to them and take your chances. I'd advise against it. The man in charge isn't completely stable. The other choice is to run off on your own and try to find a community to join. Or anything other than back where you came from since you don't seem to like it much. I don't care either way.”

  The man laughed, blood spatter dusting the dashboard in front of him. “You don't have to shoot us to kill us,” he said in a wet voice. “Leave us tied up and those things will do it for you.”

  In the distance, the SUV rolled into view, the distant thrum of its engine echoing down the lonely highway. The prisoners looked at him, one with defiance and the other in defeat. He stared at them hard for a few seconds before putting his hand back on the grip of the rifle and leaning forward.

  The woman tensed her body, ready to attack, but Kell's hand darted in to press the trunk release before she could manage it. Kell released the magazine before clearing the round in the chamber, then threw the loose bullet and the gun itself into the trunk. One by one he shucked every round from the magazine, leaving them scattered in the trunk.

  When Andrea pulled up a few seconds later, he waved for her to stop. “Pop the hatch,” he said loudly enough to be heard through the closed window. She gave him a questioning look, but released the tailgate. In the back of the SUV Kell saw the extended fuel tank someone had added, giving the vehicle a hugely expanded range. He opened the cap and saw gas gleaming inside. There were also several red plastic cans, all with clear stripes running their height to show how much gas was in them. Every one was full. Kell grabbed one of the five-gallon cans and added it to the trunk of the car. At his request, Michelle handed him the packs she'd found in the back of the vehicle, and after depositing them in the trunk he shut the lid.

  Crouching next to the woman's open door, Kell held up a pocket knife. “I'm going to give you this,” he said. “You have a weapon and thirty rounds of ammunition. You have the supplies you brought with you. Assuming this car will start, you have five gallons of gasoline.”

  Both of them gazed at him in open disbelief. “Why?” the woman asked.

  “Because you're people. Living people who did nothing to us. I won't take you with us, that's not my call. But I won't leave you here with nothing.” He handed the knife to the woman and turned to leave.

  Over his shoulder, he said, “But if I see either of you outside of this car while we're driving away, we'll assume you're going for the rifle in the trunk and are coming after us. If that happens, you'll die. Stay in here until we're out of sight and you can go start a new life somewhere else.”

  He climbed into the back seat with Michelle, who admonished him to put on his seat belt, and they drove south. Kell was turned in his seat, watching, until the old car holding the prisoners faded into the background and was gone.

  Fourteen

  Andrea didn't say a word to Kell about giving the prisoners weapons and supplies. The idea had come to him as naturally as breathing, as had the potential ramifications. There had been times since The Fall began when he'd left people alive when it would have been smarter to kill, but this felt different. He'd never gone out of his way to give more to those people than their lives. As the SUV trundled south, slow and steady, Kell felt a curious lack of guilt.

  They had a good chance rather than simply being alive.

  As before, the drive was slow. Andrea didn't do much more than cruise along at idle speed, only touching the gas to go up hills or move past dangerous areas perfect for traps. Kell chatted with her off and on for a while, then fell into playing games with Michelle. Evan watched in endless fascination at the world moving past them, occasionally naming an interesting thing he saw through the glass.

  “Two archeologists discover the bodies of Adam and Eve in a cave. They're perfectly preserved, and look like they just went to sleep. How do the scientists know it's Adam and Eve?”

  Michelle screwed her face up in thought. The girl had a sharp mind, and asking riddles was a game he'd played on car trips with his parents as a child. “Is it because they have fig leaves?”

  “No, but that's a good guess,” Kell said. “I said the same thing the first time I heard this riddle. They're completely naked, but the scientists knew they were Adam and Eve at first glance.”

  The little girl chewed her lip absently as she worked out the problem out loud. “The only thing they have is their bodies. What would be different about them? Could it—oh! Belly buttons! They don't have belly buttons, right?”

  Kell held out a hand. “High five! You got it.”

  Michelle pumped a fist in triumph. From the front seat, Andrea chimed in. “No belly buttons? How do you figure?”

  “Mom, they weren't born. They were made! Babies have belly buttons because they came from mommies. Adam and Eve came from clay.” The little girl said it in the same tone others might have used on her a hundred times, explaining things to a kid.

  “It's one of those riddles kids get a lot easier than adults,” Kell said. “That's what my parents told me, anyway. Said it has to do with kids being able to make larger logical jumps than an adult.”

  Andrea looked back at them, smiling. “Okay, I've got one for you guys. It goes like this: hold me tight, I'll slip away. Keep me gently and I will stay. What am I?”

  Kell went through a lifetime of possible answers all at once. Was it literal, something to do with relationships? Was it a solid object you could grasp, maybe a reference to a hot kettle or maybe something electrified? Could it be more abstract, like shadows or sunlight? Maybe—

  “It's sand!” Michelle said, smiling like a maniac. “I used to grab sand in my sandbox back home.”

  “Correct,” Andrea said. “I'm driving. Please accept a high-five from Kell instead.”

  Hearing his name sent a jolt of fear through him, and a pleasant sensation of normality. “Not to change the subject,” he said, “but you guys need to remember not to call me that when we're around other people. Kate and Laura are okay, but no one else knows who I am.”

  There was general grumble of agreement from the car, even Evan joined in.

  “Still kind of nice to be called by name,” he said. “I've been hiding for so long.”

  “Maybe you should tell the people in your convoy, at least. Sounds to me like most of them put themselves on the lin
e to help you out. Don't you think they deserve a little trust?”

  Kell caught her eyes in the rear-view. “Maybe,” he said. “I've thought about it. It's just that if the wrong person finds out and decides to put me on trial or just kill me because of who I am, I might never get to work out a cure.”

  Andrea snorted. “Please, you said yourself you've become more reckless. We all saw it for ourselves. Seems to me dying isn't really what's scaring you. I think you're just afraid of being known as the man whose work made this wonderful new world possible.”

  He chewed on that for a long time, staying silent until they made camp for the night. Andrea was probably right, of course. She usually was.

  What bothered him was how completely he had blinded himself to the obvious things she saw.

  Just after noon the following day, Cincinnati managed to sneak up on him. They'd moved with greater speed through long stretches of highway too wide and clear to be trapped. Part of the reason for their decision to pick up speed had come the night before. As the four of them huddled together in the garage of a huge abandoned home, the sound of vehicles moving down the highway filtered through the door to reach them.

  Kell had risen from the mattresses and piles of blankets hauled into the garage and placed next to the SUV to get a look through the grimy little window. Several large vehicles crawled across the bridge, sweeping the sides of the highway with search lights. They'd been smart to hide the truck indoors, apparently. It couldn't be coincidence.

  Leaving in great haste the next morning brought them here. Back to where it all began.

  Andrea stopped the truck a mile outside the city, on a hill that theoretically overlooked Cincinnati but in practice only showed the taller buildings and flashes of urban landscape through the trees. His old cabin wasn't far, and the thought brought back every memory in a crushing wave.