by Gillian Zane
“Zombie. Is that what you think these people have turned into?” Zachary scoffed.
“What else would you call them?” I spoke up. “They are walking around all dead like and trying to eat our faces off. Last time I checked that was a zombie in the fucking dictionary.”
“They are infected humans. They have a strain of Mad Cow Disease.” Zachary sounded like he was regurgitating a news clip.
“Sure, that’s why you can decapitate them and they still try and eat you. Mad Cow Disease.” I shook my head at his naiveté.
“You decapitated one and it was still alive?” He looked horrified, I had to give him some credit for his attachment to morals and human decency, this seemed like an option he hadn’t even consider.
“Bitch was still trying to eat me. Just the damn head. Last time I checked Mad Cow Disease didn’t reanimate the dead, or so they were pushing on the news before I witnessed it myself. Why do you think there is a media blackout in our area now that it hit? Would they do that for some infectious disease? The dead are rising and attacking the living…where have you been hiding? You haven’t had much contact with them?”
“We tried our best not to engage. They are human beings, you can’t just go around killing infected people.”
“When those infected people come at you en masse and try to eat you, they get killed,” Blake backed me up and I could have kissed him. I wasn’t the crazy one, denial was a good way to get killed. “You never were a fan of horror movies though, James, it didn’t take me and Alexis long to catch on. You can shoot, stab, or destroy almost any part of them and they keep coming. Take out their head, their brain, and they are truly dead.”
“I can’t…believe this shit.” Zachary ran his hand over his face, his conflict evident on his face.
“You didn’t see it? You didn’t see them?” My voice was a little too loud in my frustration. How many people were out there like this? In denial, ready to go out and try to “cure” one of these zombies, which will only lead to more zombies.
“Yeah, I saw them.” His voice was a whisper to my shout. “I made it to the office, you must have just left,” he nodded at Blake. I holed up for a few hours, trying to get everyone that was active on the radio. Marquez, Kirk, and Tillman were close, so they came in and we stayed put. When I hadn’t heard from you, well we started making rounds, passing by your house every 24 hours or so...I figured you had gone from the office straight to your house. I couldn’t figure out what had happened to you. We managed to avoid the infected people, only engaging on a few occasions. But, we are out of supplies and need to fall back to the island. There are just so many of those people out...they are getting harder to avoid.”
“They aren’t people anymore.” Blake put a hand on the man’s shoulder and I sensed a very long and complicated past between the two of them. It was an underlying tension, evident in the way they regarded each other. These were old friends, competitors…brothers.
When Zachary looked over at me, I knew that at some point I would be considered an obstacle unless I fell in line. And what choice did I have? I could go out on my own, as one woman. Sure, I had experience, I could shoot a gun, I could hold my own, but nothing in my repertoire of experience could compare to these two soldiers, to the potentially small army at their fingertips and the island safe-haven they alone possessed. I was on Team Blake, but would Team Blake change when paired with Zachary James?
I suddenly had a very sickening feeling in my gut. I was pretty sure I knew Blake. I didn’t know him, as far as his past, but I had a good idea about the kind of person he was. People face stressful situations with their base natures at the forefront. And from what I had seen of Blake’s base nature, he was a hero. In this world, a hero was exactly what I wanted by my side. I don’t know why I was freaking myself out just from a glance from Zachary. It had to be my insecurities surfacing. If Blake was friends with this man, partners, he would have to be a nice guy, right? Or at least similar in beliefs and morals? I mean, he didn’t want to kill zombies because they might be just infected humans, wasn’t that a sign of goodness and respect for human life?
I was being overly-dramatic. I had to get a grip, I didn’t even know my own thoughts. Zombie Apocalypse Alexis needed to stop overthinking things.
“What is your plan, Blake? Were you just going to hole up here with her and play house, or did you have something in mind?” Zachary asked.
“Walls or water.”
“What?”
“Safety. We need to find a place with walls or water to keep the dead out.”
“The base has both.”
“I was going to bring it up with Lex today.”
“It should have been your top priority.” Zachary obviously couldn’t let go of Blake’s disregard for their company.
“My top priority was keeping Alexis and myself alive, James.” Zachary’s tight lips and nod in response showed he still wasn’t happy.
“Fine, so we go now?” Zachary urged.
“What was your plan?” Blake retorted.
“Marquez, Kirk, and Tillman are outside, guarding the perimeter. We have two Humvees, but we didn’t think we could get through on 90. Romeo and Baby, along with a few of their family members are already at the base camp, we’re in radio contact. They mentioned they were in touch with Peters and his family, they are trying to make it in via Slidell.”
“Have you been able to get in touch with anyone outside the city? Our Chicago location or Seattle?”
“No,” Zachary shook his head, “all quiet. Almost like there is a blackout. From what I can tell they deployed the Guard to try and enforce a quarantine at all the exits leading out of the city and institute a lock-down, all long-range communication is shut-down. The obvious goal was to keep the rest of the country in the dark about what was happening, kill the infection and then make up some excuse later. But the infection made it into the units, so everything broke into chaos. From that point on, they either dispersed or fell back to a different location. We encountered one group that pushed over the Twin Span when they were being overrun through Slidell, but they were just looking for another unit to hook up with. They didn’t know much, but they filled us in on the basics.”
“So, basically we shouldn’t expect to get rescued by the Army.” Blake laughed somberly.
“You expected that? Thought you learned your lesson in Sangin.” A hint of a smile ghosted across Zachary’s face.
“A boy can only hope.” Blake shrugged.
“Nothing? There is no contact from outside of the city? Are you sure there is a blackout? That just seems so extreme.” I had to ask, I couldn’t just give up. Both of the men turned to me. Zachary looked like he had forgotten I was even there.
“Nothing, cell towers are down, there are no television broadcasts, even radio signals are just beaming static. Basic protocol in a situation of this nature would be to put up a damper to keep news of the spreading infection at bay from the rest of the country. Probably wrote off New Orleans, New York, Miami as uninhabitable…all the initial infection points would be considered liabilities and the main aim would be to keep the infection contained within those areas.” Zachary’s grim tone implied this wasn’t the first time he’d experienced this sort of protocol.
“So we’re on our own?” Again my question seemed petulant, even to my own ears, but I couldn’t help myself. “Why would they do this?”
“If there was no hope for containment within the cities, they would have tried quarantine. The radio silence is to prevent lawlessness in the rest of the country. Yes, basically. We’re on our own.” Zachary showed no emotion, just a simple shrug.
I looked back and forth between the two men. Their expressions were tight and they shared a look which spoke volumes. They had obviously played this game before. Being on domestic soil might be a change and fighting the dead instead of enemy forces was a big leap in the direction of weird, but the base conflict, fight, survive, prevail was nothing new to these two.
“Time to make our own way then. Where’s your map of the city, Blake?” I asked. The pouting was over, it was time to act.
“In my office.” We followed him to the back of the house and he spread a large map of the city out on a table in the corner.
“I think what we’ve been doing has been working. We’ll just get back on the boat and take it up the Industrial Canal. We might have to open the lock, but that path will be easier than going through the streets. Where is this base of yours?” I asked.
Blake pointed to an area of land on the edge of Lake Borgne, on the map all it seemed to be was a little outlet of swampland. But New Orleans was famous for “creating subdivisions” by filling in the marsh. This must have been one of those endeavors.
“We can take the Industrial to the Intercoastal and it will put us right in your back yard.” I smiled and traced the route with my finger.
“We’ll have to ditch the Humvees, I’m not happy about that.” Zachary’s excited smile didn’t match his words through. He knew this was a good idea.
“Unless you commandeer a boat that can haul those,” I suggested. “There are plenty of vessels on the river and not an operator in sight. Granted, you’ll have to be able to pilot them, those things aren’t like driving a car.”
The two men actually looked at me like it was a viable option.
“The Gretna Ferry dock is actually right across the river if you know how to run that thing you could load up. That is if it’s where its supposed to be.”
“I’ll ask Marquez. He seems to know how to do a lot of odd jobs and he’s mentioned that his dad was a tug operator.” Zachary and Blake looked excited with our plan.
“Call in Tillman and Kirk and have them load up my munitions. I need to grab a few personal items and then we can head out.” Blake grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hallway.
When we were out of earshot he turned to face me. “You know you can trust me, right?” He whispered. When I nodded he kissed me and pushed the hair from my face so he could see my eyes. “These guys are good guys. But they are going to be a little gruff. All business. We are going to load up the Humvees and head out for the boat. If Zachary can get someone who knows how to pilot a large ship, we’ll just see them to one of those boats. If not, we’ll have the whole crew until we make it to the base. You’ll be the only female, but they know I’m in charge.”
“I know, Blake, don’t worry about me. I can handle myself around men.”
“They can just be a little intimidating. James is the worst, I’ve just…been with him for a long time. He’s overbearing at times, I don’t tell him everything. What he said…”
“The other girl he mentioned…this Clara…what is that about? Is that what you mean?” I pushed. I told myself I didn’t want to know, but the jealousy was there. The introduction of another player in our survival game could upset things and I was fine with how they were progressing.
“Yeah, I…” He ran his hands through his dirty blond hair. He looked perplexed and if I wasn’t feeling weird jealousy pangs I would have thought he looked cute all frustrated and unsure. “Well, I fucked up with that one. Clara, she’s my ex-wife.”
“Shit. How ex?” My heart sank. An ex definitely complicated things. If she was alive. Was I sick to hope otherwise?
“I signed the divorce papers two weeks ago.” Alarm bells sounded in my head.
“Christ, Blake. That is a big deal. And why didn’t your partner know? Isn’t divorce a big deal?”
“I told him she moved out, recently, but really she’s been gone for the last six months, I kept it quiet. It was all my fault…I, well…it’s a long story. We’ve been through for a while, I just didn’t want to tell James. He didn’t think I should get married to begin with, I didn’t want the ‘I told you so’s.’”
“So when he busted in on us in the kitchen, he thought you were cheating on your wife? During a fucking apocalypse! Holy shit Blake, no wonder he was giving us the third-degree.”
“Yeah, yeah. Look, I’ll tell him. Dammit, like I could predict this.”
“I don’t know what to think about this.” I shook my head.
“There is nothing to think about, Alexis. I have an ex, she’s in another state. If James wouldn’t have purposefully brought that shit up, just to fuck with me, we would be packing our shit and moving on.” He was right. This didn’t change anything. Zachary had brought it up to shame and place guilt on Blake because he was pissed. There was nothing I could do about some ex-wife in Texas. She was, in all likelihood, dead. Call me callous. Call me a bitch. But it was the truth. This wasn’t the time or the place. Time to pull up the big-girl panties and leave the drama tucked away for a moment with a little more spare time.
“I get it, I do.” I emphasized the I do, forcing myself to believe my own words.
“Don’t hate me baby, I know we haven’t had time to sit down and play twenty questions, but I’m here for you. No matter my past. We’ll talk about things when we don’t have zombies breathing down on our necks. Look, just grab your shit, let’s get moving. I promise, I’ll tell you everything when we have a moment.”
“I hope we get that moment.” I whispered.
“We will,” he said with certainty.
TWELVE | Uma, Reese and Zombie Roadkill
Marquez, Tillman, and Kirk loaded up Blake’s munitions quickly and damn, there was a lot of them. He had whole crates of weapons like he was preparing for World War III. When I raised my eyebrows in question he just shrugged and mouthed, “soldier.” I guess that was as good an excuse as any. The three soldiers from the Humvees were dressed identically to Zachary and each one looked like a civilian playing soldier because of their haircuts and facial hair. They all wore their hair grown out, instead of the high and tight look of the military that Zachary was sporting. One was even showing off a thick beard and hipster glasses. They wore their uniforms in impeccable order though and the way they carried themselves made it obvious what they were. I guess the hair, like Blake’s, was their little way of rebelling and showing they were now in the private sector. They just couldn’t shake the fact that they were soldiers through and through from they way the walked, held themselves and talked.
While they loaded the Humvees, Blake and Zachary watched the streets with wary trepidation. I certainly had not forgotten the hoard of dead that came after us yesterday. They were most likely still in the area. All it took was one bite.
Just as the last box of guns was loaded into the Humvees, we all turned as one toward the unmistakable moaning of the dead. It could faintly be heard coming from the direction of the river. The way we needed to go.
I stood just looking in the direction of where the sounds of the dead were coming from with a frown on my face. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, one of the men made a beeline for me, his hand extended.
“Hey.” He greeted me. “Arthur Tillman, how’s a girl like you end up with someone like Miller?” He was cute in a little boy sort of way, a splattering of freckles and longish red hair adding to his immature look. He couldn’t be much older than me and I wondered how this type of guy ended up as a mercenary.
“Hands off Tillman,” Blake called. Tillman flipped him off and turned back to face me.
“Alexis, Alexis Winter,” I took his hand, his grip was firm, but he didn’t try any show of strength.
“Why don’t you ditch the stiff and we can run away to paradise...heard there are a few mansions available on St. Charles. Cheap.” I couldn’t help it, I laughed.
“Nice try, but I’m happy with the stiff.” I smiled to soften the blow, even though I was pretty sure this was more about lightening the mood of the group than flirting with me.
“Shame. We could have been great baby, with your brains and my good looks...”
“Get moving, Tillman,” Zachary hissed.
“Aye, aye.” He ran toward the vehicles with a wink.