by David Rogers
“Just to gather information.” Austin said, returning his attention to Tori. The blonde woman studied him, her expression blank but all the more telling because of it. Jessica thought her body language wasn’t nearly as under control as her face was; Tori looked a little perturbed. “First you know, then you plan, then you can choose how to act.”
“So what are you two, local rescue or something?” Tori asked, looking at Jessica.
“We’re just friends of Byron’s group.” Jessica responded. “We wanted to help.”
“Great.” Tori said, shaking her head.
“Friends can come in handy.” Jessica said, suppressing her mental start as she said more or less the main thing Austin had said while convincing her to come looking for the missing Houseboaters.
“But now you’re stuck in here like the rest of us.”
“You think you’d have a better chance if it was just you and Donita?” Jessica asked lightly. “Or is it maybe more likely this situation can be resolved as a group?”
“I just know I’m not getting eaten, or shot, trying.”
“Tori!” Donita hissed, reaching out and poking the woman in the arm with two fingers that raised a wince of pain on her target’s face. “She’s just stressed out.” Donita continued, addressing the others. “It’s the food, and the close quarters, that’s all. We want the same thing as everyone.”
“Close quarters.” Jessica thought wryly, refusing to glance around. The store was not huge, but it wasn’t a little hole-in-the-wall shop either. Even the several handfuls of people in it had plenty of room to spread out. Only the lack of dividing walls, to offer separate rooms or the like, really counted against it as far as privacy was concerned.
“Sugar and junk food has us all on edge.” Ben said. He’d edged over to join the group. “Though I woulda figured you younger folks wouldn’t be so torn up by it.”
“I—” Tori started to say, but stopped when Donita physically grabbed her arm.
“We’ve been in here the longest.” Donita said quickly. “So we’re just a little ahead of the rest of you on the stress curve. It’s been hard sitting and waiting.”
“Trapped.” Tori said.
“We’re all after the same thing.” Austin said. “Any plan I come up with will be discussed, not rushed. After all, there are hordes of zombies outside and guys with guns. No sense in being overeager.”
“We have talked about things.” Phil said. “The problem is no one’s been able to come up with something that isn’t likely to get some of us killed when we start something.”
“And no one wants to be the sacrifices.” Tori said.
“No one needs to be sacrificed.” Jessica said. “With as many people as we’ve got in here, still armed and capable, I’m sure we can come up with something.”
Tori muttered something that caused Donita to nudge her with a quick shake of the head, something Jessica didn’t catch.
“So far, you and Austin here are the third group to show up and say something like that.” Ben pointed out.
“Wait, only the third?” Austin said.
“Yeah, me and Phil, we figured if the young folks hadn’t figured anything out, with all their energy, it wasn’t likely we could top them.” Ben said with a laugh. “Besides, we brought a deck of cards.”
“So did we.” Jessica pointed out.
“Yeah, but they’ve been sitting around playing Bridge. While you two are determined and eager to put us all into the fray.” Tori said.
“When you’re as old as us, you know when to take it easy.” Ben said, winking at her.
“Hay una puerta aquí.” came from above them in a voice loud enough to carry. Everyone turned to see Jorge in the upstairs doorway, gesturing behind and above him.
“They found a door.” Arcelia said, looking back at Austin and the others. “In the ceiling.”
“Okay, so let’s see what we can see.” he said, turning toward the shelf stack.
* * * * *
“There’s no way.” Wes said, shaking his head.
“Not without a lot of risk, no.” Byron said.
“Is that how you put a bunch of us getting shot?” Phil said. “Risk?”
“Us?” Ed said. “Us?”
“Yeah, us.” Phil said, sweeping his hand to indicate the group. Everyone was gathered in a circle, sitting on the floor in the middle of the area left clear by the displaced shelves. “All of us in here.”
“Well considering how even trying will need people willing and able to basically vault through the hatch and come out on the roof, I’m not so sure you two guys are really going to be in on it.” Ed said. “No offense.”
“You’ll get old too one day sonny.” Ben said, a tone of definite amusement in his voice.
“Holding the front door will be useful regardless.” Phil said. “Or do you guys want some of them sneaking around behind you while you’re up there slugging it out on the roof?”
The door upstairs had turned out to be a hatch in the ceiling. It had been locked, but not with anything particularly sturdy. Better, the hinges had been on the inside. Probably to prevent would-be thieves from doing exactly what Austin and Byron did; knocking out and removing them so they could pull the hatch off and gain access. Unfortunately, that was where the good news ended.
Jessica hadn’t bothered to look, hadn’t even asked, which put her in a minority. Most everyone else had wanted to see what was going on outside, to have a look at their prison guards. Only Ben and Phil, who declined to bother making the climb; Carlo, who was too injured, and Donita, had climbed up and taken a look after Austin had finished his own survey of the situation outside.
That had taken Austin several minutes, and involved him using his steel tactical mirror to peer around without looking directly and likely drawing attention. After some arguing, and it was finally impressed upon everyone how important it was to not be seen on the roof, they borrowed the mirror and looked for themselves.
The building had a flat roof, broken up only by a pair of boxy HVAC units. Three of the four structures that surrounded their prison had parapets, the walls Jessica had seen, on their perimeters. The fourth was like their building’s, flat without the parapet. Eleven people had been counted on the four ‘guard’ buildings, lounging on lawn chairs near the closest edges to the store she and the others were trapped in. Austin said they didn’t seem particularly watchful. But they were all armed with hunting rifles, and would surely notice anyone who emerged onto the roof of the building they were ostensibly guarding.
“Without cover, and even if we put together some stairs or whatever so we can rush the roof in one fast clump and take them under fire, it’s pretty much going to be a fight.” Austin said. “Trust me. Unless they’re all completely inept, at these ranges, and with cover that even an idiot would know to use, they’re in charge up there.”
“Great. So we burned most of the morning and a lot of sweat to learn what we pretty much already guessed.” Tori said.
“You know, since you weren’t doing any of the lifting, and really didn’t have anywhere else to be, I don’t see why you give a fuck.” Wes said, fixing her with a sharp look.
“Listen here—” she started to say.
“Tori—” Donita began at the same time.
“Now hold on—” Nate chimed in.
“Hey!” Byron shouted, looking at them and holding a hand up pleadingly. “Not helping.”
“We know more than we did.” Austin said calmly as the others subsided, Tori and Wes continuing to glare a little at each other. “Not guessing, not assuming, knowing. Which is better than the other options.”
“So how do we use it?” U asked, sounding interested.
“We can incorporate it in our thinking, but like I already said, I’m pretty sure whatever we try unless we come up with something new, or the situation outside changes enough, we’re either stuck here or have to face that some of us will at least be wounded trying to break out.”
�
��Or killed.” Tori said, though she was clearly making an effort to even her tone out as Donita glared at her too.
“Or killed.” Austin said with a nod. “Which is why we need to sit tight and try to keep planning, or wait for something to alter the situation.”
“Qué tipo de cambios tendría que suceder?” Rico said.
“What kind of changes would we need?” Arcelia translated. Jessica was starting to figure out the Spanish trio weren’t completely helpless linguistically, at least as far as catching broad meaning. Also, they had been getting a little side help from Arcelia during the meeting; receiving whispered comments from her as the conversation developed.
“No zombies.” Byron said. “The obvious one.”
“Yeah it is obvious, but if the zombies all leave or whatever, not that I think it’s likely—” Ed said.
“How would that help us?” Wes broke in. “I mean, really. Those guys would still be out there, right?”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Austin shrugged. He held up a hand as Tori, and Nate also, opened their mouths. “If the zombies can’t be held here, for whatever reason the guys outside are making sure they stay, if the zombies leave they might leave with them.”
“And we’d just leave when it was clear. Yeah. I think we’d all already figured that part out.” Phil said.
“But if it’s just the guys on the roofs, we’d have some other options we don’t right now.” Austin said patiently. “We could try and make a break for it.”
“With them shooting at us?” Ed asked.
“I’m not saying it’s the best idea, just that it is one.” Austin said. “We’re in an urban environment. The walls and buildings give good cover. From the front door to the closest alleyways is only a couple of seconds of running. And almost immediately two of the four roofs won’t have the angle to aim at us. Once we make an alley, it’s basically down to just the one.”
“For some of you maybe.” Ben said, though he wore a wry expression of amusement.
“Ben, you won’t believe how good I can run if the situation calls for it.” Phil told his friend. “Try to keep up.”
“Again, I’m not saying I’d necessarily pick that if we lost the zombies.” Austin said. “And you’re right, not everyone can just charge off and be away. Carlo can’t run very fast either, and they might get some shots off. Or have friends nearby who could try and meet us, head us off.”
“So that’s one option if there’s no zombies.” U said. “What else?”
“Another would be that we’d have the street to fight from.” Austin said. “And we could put people on the roof, our roof, at the same time. Try to hit them from multiple directions.”
“What would keep the people on the street from taking off?”
“We’d have to trust everyone to stick to the plan.” Austin said calmly. “Plus it would have most of the risks of simply trying to flood the roof and shoot it out from up there.”
“And we’ve already decided that one anyway.” Tori said.
“Going the other way, if the guys on the roof leave for whatever reason, we’d just be left with the zombies.” Austin said, flipping his hand to illustrate he was changing the subject. “If that happens, I actually think our chances get really good.”
“There’s a ton of zombies out there.” Ed said.
“Who’s been treed by zombies before now?” Jessica asked. “Or maybe I should ask who hasn’t?” she added as hands went up. In fact only Diego, Rico, and Jorge’s didn’t lift. She looked at Arcelia. “Have they not had that happen yet?”
Arcelia said something to them. The men looked at each other, then shrugged. “Realmente no.” Rico said, tilting his head back and forth.
“Not … no muchos como este.” Jorge said.
“Not really, not by so many.” Arcelia said. “Before you ask, I already know how the three of them survived Indiantown. They weren’t that deep in, and their four friends more or less ended up distracting a lot of zombies trying to eat them by default when everything went bad. They just got out and kept running.”
“Alright.” Jessica said, suppressing a wince. She looked around. “So zombies fixate. On people, on something they can eat.”
“Yeah.” Wes said. “That’s right.”
“So if the roof guys vacate, we give it, what a day or so, and then the horde should disperse?” U said, sounding enthusiastic.
“It should be down to manageable numbers.” Byron nodded.
“But that’s if the guys leave.”
“And if the horde disperses.” Tori added.
“Why wouldn’t it?” Phil asked.
“What if the guys leave, but they also leave something that attracts the zombies so they stay.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. We’re supposed to be planning here aren’t we?”
“Exactly.” Austin said. “In that case, we could try to distract the horde ourselves, then exit the building from somewhere else, and we’re on our respective ways.”
“So what you’re saying,” Wes said, “is our best chance is for it to be down just to the zombies.”
“Pretty much.” Austin agreed. “Which is why I wanted to get more information. In fact, I think we should really consider setting up a rotation of some kind for people to take turns keeping an eye on the other roofs. If they leave, we’d know. Plus we might learn something more.”
“Standing up there holding the mirror up to keep watch is going to be painful.” U said.
“We can rig something up.” Byron said. “I’ve got some duct tape in my bag. And we can take apart one of the shelves and pull together a stick or rod or whatever to fix the mirror to.”
“Who’s willing to go into the rotation for roof watch?” Jessica asked. She raised her hand and looked around. Most of the hands went up, which was enough.
“Even at night?” Donita asked as she lowered her hand.
“At least tonight.” Austin said. “Just so we can see if anything changes when the sun goes down. I’ll take a night slot, a middle of the night one; it won’t bother me.”
“How long do we watch for?” Arcelia asked as Jorge straightened, having just leaned in and murmured something to her.
“An hour at a time.” Byron said, glancing at Austin and looking for his reaction. The big man nodded, and Byron did too. “That’s fair, and not really too long to be a burden.”
“We start with today and tomorrow, and just see what happens.” Austin said. “Sound like a plan?”
“Better than anything we came up with before now.” Carlo said under his breath.
Jessica glanced at him and smiled. “We’ve got time.”
Chapter Eleven — Falling off the wagon
Candice opened her eyes and sat up quickly. Her bedroom was still and quiet, safe. The door still had the drop bars in place, and the door itself was closed and intact. She listened, but the house was quiet. Scrambling out of bed, picking up the holstered Shield from the bedside table, she paused only long enough to hook the holster onto her belt and lift the bars clear before she opened the door and peered out into the back hallway.
The path lights were barely lit, as usual in the morning; only the barest glimmer of a glow that indicated they were still struggling to work. She listened again, but heard nothing; just dead air. After she was confident, she entered the hallway and cracked open the door to mom and Austin’s bedroom.
Nothing. Only the still made bed, uncreased and without any sign it had been disturbed since the morning the two of them left. Four days ago, five now; this was the fifth. Frowning, Candice pulled the door closed and went into the living room. At the front door she dragged a chair over and stood on it to look through the peep hole, but it revealed nothing that lifted her spirits.
She glanced over her shoulder, but the back door was closed with its bars up too. If they’d come home, they’d have opened up the back deck. Stepping down from the chair, Candice moved it out of the way, then reached for the first dro
p bar.
These were heavier ones, more than even the ones that went on the back door. Mom and Austin both felt the front door was the most likely to need to resist any sort of intrusion attempt. And it couldn’t be nailed shut and reinforced with additional permanent reinforcements like the shuttered windows with their additional wood cladding. And the back door had the lake, and the deck itself, to help guard it.
For that reason, the front door was heavily reinforced. Additional boards had been nailed in on both sides, after being coated with industrial epoxy to further bond them to each other and the door while thickening it. The drop bars on the front were, for the same reason, some of the thickest and sturdiest boards mom and Austin had been able to come up with. She always had to struggle to maneuver them in or out of place.
After almost dropping the top one on her head, and narrowly missing pinching her toe with the middle as she set it aside, Candice disengaged the locks, then cracked the door open to peer out. The little dead-end road outside was empty, with only the car and truck that had been used until the gas started becoming unreliable parked on it. On and off the pavement, she saw nothing except sand and the usual rubble, scrub grasses and weeds that mom and Austin kept trimmed to a reasonable height for security using a scythe they’d brought back. And nothing moving except the vegetation as the breeze gusted in off the lake and rustled through.
Her heart sank. Maybe, maybe she’d thought, if they’d gotten back during the night, they would have waited outside, or maybe in one of the other houses, to avoid having to alarm her by knocking loud enough to wake her. There was no way short of breaking in to enter when the house was sealed from inside; that was the point of the locks and bars and the rest of it.
Candice considered the other houses. There could be a chance they were over there, in one of those. But … she knew mom and Austin. They’d have left some sign, a note or even just a piece of clothing or something else that she’d recognize, to alert her if she checked. Especially now, when they were so late.
Closing the front door, Candice locked it and went to the back. She got it open and stepped out on the deck. The fire was crackling gently in the cut-down barbecue grill exactly as it was supposed to, and there was still wood on the feeder ramp Austin had set up. The pile on the corner of the deck was down a lot, but wasn’t gone yet; she probably had another two days to feed in unless she was misjudging it. And everything else on the deck, all the totes and other items that lived out here, were right where they were supposed to be.