Zombiemandias (Book 2): In the Year of Our Death

by David J. Lovato

  “Don’t worry about it,” Georgie said. “Layne’s a great guy. He’s one of my best friends I’ve ever had. You can talk to him about anything.”

  As soon as he said it, Georgie wondered if he should tell Layne about the man he’d killed on accident. But it was time to go, and anyway, Katie wanted to talk to Layne.

  “You’re right.” Katie smiled, and this time it did look happy, and it made Georgie happy, too. “Goodbye, Georgie. I hope we see you again soon.”

  “Me too,” Georgie said. He left the place behind, and as he rode into the crisp desert morning, he decided to talk to Layne about the man the next time he came through New Los Angeles.

  12

  In A Blurry World

  It had been the middle of the night, so Nelson had picked up the pieces of his glasses, set them on the shelf, and tried to go back to sleep, telling himself he’d take care of things in the morning. He locked the door of the little office he had converted into a bedroom, just in case any more zombies had gotten in, but that wasn’t what kept him from sleeping, it was the glasses.

  Sleep now, Nelson. Take care of the glasses in the morning.

  His brain didn’t listen to him, and Nelson was wide awake even as the sun began to rise. He sat up, his head spinning in protest.

  You had your chance for sleep, don’t complain now.

  Nelson looked over at the remnants of his glasses. Even if he could bend them back into some semblance of their former shape and glue the pieces together (which he wasn’t sure he could), they’d be useless, full of cracks and splits in his vision.

  Nelson sighed and got up to make a pot of coffee. He took the gun with him, went to his makeshift kitchen and started a pot, then went up and down the halls of Hoover Dam looking for zombies and making sure all the doors were locked.

  He kept a hand along the wall at all times, though the place was easy enough to navigate. Ahead of him a bright light broke the dim monotony of the hallway, and Nelson realized it was an open door. He went to it and kneeled down to see what was holding it open. A yellowish shape was caught in the door, ending abruptly in brown, and the whole thing had streaks of dark red: A hand in a sleeve, both bloody.

  Nelson opened the door and looked around. The body holding the door open had been mostly eaten. Some poor soul had been traveling with someone, one of them had been bitten, both came to the dam (or maybe one was fleeing the other?). One turned, attacked the other just as they were about to enter, killed and ate him, and then entered the halls through the open door.

  It wasn’t a door Nelson used often, so he nudged the arm out of the doorway with his foot so it could shut, locked the door, and returned to checking the halls. He could worry about the body another time.

  When he finally returned to the kitchen, the coffee had finished, and the maker hissed to remind him from time to time. Nelson flipped the switch and sat down, rubbing his eyes. They felt like they were bulging, pushing their way out of his head to escape the extra work load he’d just put them through.

  So what to do, Nelson? There’s Layne in New Los Angeles, but unless he’s an eye doctor, he’s not going to help you. Besides, that’s a long way from here.

  Nelson sighed and leaned his head back. The ceiling was a sheet of slate gray with an orb of yellow light at the far edge of his vision. Layne hadn’t even given him a shortwave radio or walkie-talkie for emergencies. Annoying as it was, he couldn’t put all the blame on Layne; Nelson should’ve been smart enough to think of it a long time ago.

  The only logical solution is to head to an optometrist’s office. Would there be one in Boulder?

  He weighed the pros and cons. There was Boulder City, Henderson, and Las Vegas. Las Vegas would definitely have an eye doctor, but it would also have the most zombies wandering its streets. Boulder City would have the fewest, but did they have an optometrist? He didn’t know.

  Henderson’s a bigger risk than Boulder. But it’s more likely to have an optometrist. And if you go through Boulder and they don’t have one, then Henderson wasn’t a bigger risk in the end, was it?

  Nelson could head out along the highway until he reached the outskirts of Boulder City, go through the desert to skirt the town, and arrive in Henderson by tomorrow. He put his head in his hands, pressed his palms against his eyeballs.

  Then how do you find an optometrist? Systematically check every sign outside of every building until you find one? That would take days even if there weren’t any zombies, which there definitely will be.

  Nelson downed the entire pot of coffee before the answer came to him, cruel in its simplicity.

  You don’t have a choice. Go to Henderson and start looking, or else get used to seeing blobs for the rest of your life.

  Fumbling through shapes and probabilities, Nelson began packing a bag of supplies for his trip. One shape kept catching his eye, a black amoeba toned with brown on one side, his Telecaster. It begged him to take it with him, and Nelson considered it more than he considered some of the things he stuffed into his bag, but in the end he had to tell it goodbye.

  “You’ll only be more weight I don’t need,” he said. “Anyway, if I have luck on my side, I’ll be back in a few days. If I don’t… I guess I won’t be back at all.”

  Nelson slung the bag over his shoulder and headed out the door and onto Route 93. He was already sweating.

  13

  Free

  Bailey arrived before the sun, and she thought that might look bad, so she waited down the road until sunrise. She looked along the interstate often. She didn’t think Mike would send anyone to get her, but there was always a chance his group would be wandering this way anyway.

  When the sun was high enough, Bailey headed out, and where the interstate branched into a dirt road, she followed the dirt.

  She came to the chain-link fence, as she had once before, twice if you counted her trip back over it. A small wooden shack had been erected next to the gate, and two men came rushing out of it, raising their rifles at her. Bailey recognized one of them.

  “Stop,” the other said. Bailey raised her hands. She stared at Gary, the one she knew.

  “What the fuck do you want, coming back here?” Gary asked.

  “I want to talk,” Bailey replied.

  “We got nothing to say to you. In fact, I should just shoot you right now.”

  “If you kill me, the information I have dies with me.”

  The two men looked at each other. “What info?”

  “Gary, go get Burke. I want to arrange a deal.”

  “He won’t be happy to see you. You stole from him. Tricked him.”

  “I know,” Bailey said. “No tricks this time. Go get him.”

  Gary looked at the other man, whom Bailey didn’t recognize. He must have been new. Gary motioned with his head, and the young man headed toward the Air Force base.

  When he came back, he led a line of people. Burke was right behind him, and four armed men and one woman trailed him.

  “You have a lot of nerve,” Burke said. The people lined up on the other side of the fence, in firing squad formation. Bailey kept her hands in the air, though they were getting tired.

  “I want back in,” Bailey said. “I’m done with those people.”

  “Fool me twice. Give me one good reason not to kill you right now.”

  “I have information you’ll want.”

  “Prove it,” Burke said. Bailey shook her head.

  “I want to make a deal. I want to buy my way back in. I’ll give you the info, and you let me in. No tricks, I swear.”

  “Seems like you’re a buck short,” Burke said. “I asked you for a reason why I shouldn’t kill you. You give me the info, and I’ll let you live. But you’re not coming in here.”

  “I risked my ass leaving Mike, you know that. And I risked my ass again coming here to give you information. The way I see it, you owe me one.”

  “Or maybe you don’t have anything and I can kill you right now and be on my way. Maybe
Mike sent you to give me false info.”

  “Why the fuck would Mike send the same spy twice?”

  “So you could say that and hope to convince me.”

  Bailey was out of ideas. “Fine. Shoot. My life isn’t worth anything, but this information is worth everything to you. Everything you know and love, your way of life. If this is the call you want to make, go ahead.”

  Burke looked around, sizing up his base, then sighed. “Why?”

  “I never liked their lifestyle. I never wanted any of it.”

  “Didn’t stop you from robbing us.”

  “You’re good people, I know you are. I’ve seen it. I just want somewhere to go and be safe. I want to make up for what I’ve done. Not just to you and yours.”

  “All right,” Burke said. “The info first.”

  “Mike’s planning to attack the base. I don’t have an exact date, but I know it’ll be within the next few weeks. He has almost twice as many people as you, but he’s not as well-armed. He’ll sneak everyone in through the fence, sometime in the night. His ace is the element of surprise, but I’ve just taken that from him and given it to you.”

  Burke looked at the others. They looked worried. “Why should I believe you?”

  “What harm could this info do, Burke? If I’m lying, then Mike isn’t coming at all, and your guys are just on edge for a while. There’s no sense in that, you have to see that.”

  “You’re right. I believe you.” Burke turned to his men. “Stand down.”

  “So you’ll let me in?”

  “Hell no.”

  Bailey’s arms dropped. “We had a deal!”

  “No we didn’t,” Burke said. “Thanks for the info. Now we’re even on those things you stole. I’ll let you live as a courtesy. I won’t extend it again. Don’t let me or any of my men catch you.”

  Burke turned and left without another word. Bailey watched them disappear. After a while, Gary said, “You should get out of here.”

  Bailey felt like she could cry. “Can’t you do anything?”

  “I couldn’t if I wanted to, Bailey.”

  “Gary, how is Melissa? She and I were friends, you know that. We played chess every night for two weeks, she went home late because of it.”

  “All a ruse,” Gary said. His eyes were watery. “And all the more reason you should go.”

  Bailey looked at the new guy. He looked confused. Bailey sighed. “All right. But can you tell Melissa I’m sorry? Tell her she really was my friend, even if I couldn’t be hers.”

  “Just go.”

  Bailey turned and left the gate behind her. She continued along the dirt road until it met the interstate.

  Death behind me, and death down one road.

  She turned and faced down the interstate. Bailey didn’t know where it would lead, but she couldn’t escape those odds.

  14

  On a Bus

  The bus had a first aid kit above the driver’s seat, and Adam used most of a roll of gauze on his hand. When blood soaked through, he wrapped more around it. The pain was disorienting; the world through the windshield twisted and warped as they shuttled along.

  The church always kept medical supplies, but rarely needed them. Adam took three aspirin from a bottle, which barely dulled the pain. He tried to focus on the surroundings, scouting for theater-like buildings. He would not congregate in a small structure; the Cause demanded something greater.

  “That may be a theater,” he said. He pointed to a distant building. The man driving was a young man named Eric, and he looked at Adam.

  “You want us to stop again already?”

  The others began to whisper.

  “Adam, we’re low on gasoline,” Horace said. “We have enough to get us to the West Coast but not much more, not if we keep stopping. So why do we keep stopping?”

  The eyes of the others asked him the same question. Only Randolph looked confident.

  “Horace, must we talk about this now?”

  “Why not? Do you have something to hide? Surely the leader of our church should hide nothing.”

  “I’m no leader,” Adam said. “Just a follower, like all of you.” He looked over the crowd of faces. “Our brother Horace is right. We should have no secrets. I will confess to you all that I don’t know where we’re going. I don’t know how to find the Great Evil One.”

  Someone shouted, “Where are you taking us then? What about the Cause?”

  “Have faith, as I do. God will guide us, He will show us the path. I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but He will. I feel it, don’t you?”

  “I feel it!” It was Randolph. It always started with Randolph.

  “God won’t do everything for you, Adam,” Horace said. “Maybe our church should be led by someone a bit more… Resourceful.”

  There were nods and words of agreement. Adam felt dizzy, but then he saw a sign in that, and he knew he would be okay.

  “The church,” Adam said, “is led by God. Who do you think is more resourceful, brother Horace?”

  “Yeah!” someone said. It wasn’t Randolph, and Adam smiled.

  “Who has shown us the path time and again, guided us from bastion to bastion with no harm? We are here for a purpose. I ride this bus just as all of you do, and I make no claim to know more than you do. All I know is that God will get us there. It’s His will.”

  More nods, more murmurs. Adam held up his bandaged hand so the others could see.

  “I bleed just as you do. I give for the Cause and, as all of you will, I will one day die for it. We are each other’s equals, and together we are all lesser, as God has deemed by the signs He has given us. Tell me, brother Horace, who are you to think you’re anything more?”

  There were shouts, and some boos.

  “You’ve made your point, Adam,” Horace said. He grit his teeth together. “I apologize for my outburst.”

  “You need not apologize,” Adam replied. “I am doubtless that you only have the Cause in mind. Perhaps you are right in some regard. We moved slowly because I was afraid, so this is all my own fault. We shall make greater distances between havens from now on, and make for the West with all haste.”

  The bus erupted in cheers. Adam sat down, and almost immediately passed out.

  ****

  He woke up because the bus stopped. People were talking, some moving around.

  “What’s going on?” Adam asked.

  “Travelers,” Horace said.

  “How many?”

  “Three. Should we take them?”

  Adam mulled it over. “I think we should spare them.” There was a collective groan.

  “A few lesser humans could come in handy,” Horace said. “As I’m sure you know. They’re so rare, these days.”

  “We’re too far from the city,” Adam said. “A city teeming with greater humans is easy to disappear in. But suppose these three are expected somewhere? Suppose they’re couriers and have recently checked in? Someone disappearing in the middle of nowhere will seem suspicious, and we can’t afford any trouble, not this close to our goal. You heard the Great Evil One the other day—”

  Boos and “Mercy”s and heads shaking. Adam went on. “People have noticed. We have to be careful who we take, now. We shall pass them. God will see them removed in due time.”

  Everyone returned to their seats and the bus started moving again. As they passed, they waved to the three travelers. The travelers smiled and waved back, and to Adam they looked disgusting. They seemed so happy, but they didn’t even know how close they had come to destruction. A simple word could end their lives, and they would never know. The thought was almost enough to make him regret it.

  But he thought of the greater ones. They knew no words and comprehended no destruction. They didn’t ignore their mortality; they knew nothing of it. They were pure, living just to live and not to gain wealth or power or beauty. They were perfect.

  Adam looked at his hand. It throbbed.

  Disgusting.


  15

  In the Garage

  Will and Hannah emerged from the garage. Will looked over the sword in his hands. It was decorative and thus dulled, but would still do a lot of damage, and it was short and easy to swing.

  “Find anything?” Gladys asked. She and Rachel were standing on the stairs.

  “Yeah,” Hannah said. “You?”

  “No,” Rachel said. “And I don’t plan to.”

  “She’s being stupid,” Gladys said. Rachel punched her arm. “She thinks the only reason she’d need a weapon is if we got attacked, and if we get attacked either you guys will fend them off or we’ll be screwed, so ‘what’s the point?’”

  “That’s not what I said!” Rachel said.

  “It’s close enough. I’m going to go find something now. Rob wants us all to meet in the living room in ten minutes.”

  “All right,” Hannah said. She and Will headed up the stairs, and then she turned into her room and Will continued toward his. He saw Jeremy’s and Alex’s eyes light up as he entered.

  “That’s badass,” Jeremy said.

  “I found it in a box.”

  “Want to trade?” Alex asked.

  Will shook his head. “Sorry.”

  “It’s cool.”

  They talked for a few minutes, and then Kevin tapped on the door.

  “You guys ready? We’re all meeting in the living room to make sure we have everything and then we’re shipping out.”

  “All right,” Alex said. The three boys followed Kevin down the stairs to the living room, where Ed and Steven were arguing.

  “Ed, you’re dumb,” Steven said. “You can’t bring a chainsaw.”

  “Why not?” Ed was already holding the thing, he held it against his chest as though it were precious treasure.

  “Because there’s no fucking gas, Ed! Even if whatever’s in there runs, that’s all we’ll have.”

  “We could at least take it for emergencies,” Ed said.

  “It’s really heavy. It’s just going to slow us down. And what happens if there’s an emergency and you fall back on that chainsaw, but it won’t turn on?”