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

by David J. Lovato

  “More or less,” Cliff said. “Plenty of game in the woods, and we stocked up food when the shit hit the fan. We collect rain and snow for water. About the only thing the snow is good for.”

  “Any zombies?”

  “Sometimes. But not often. We take care of them easy enough.”

  “This is no talk for dinner,” Alyssandra said.

  “Plenty of wood for fires,” Cliff went on. “We try to plant three trees for every one we cut down, should keep things going as long as we’re alive.”

  “It sounds wonderful here,” Bailey said. She was unable to hide the longing in her voice.

  “You can stay here. Plenty of houses, plenty of resources. You’d have to pitch in, of course.”

  “Of course. I mean, I would, if I was staying. But I just can’t.”

  “Don’t start that again,” Alyssandra said. “Where are you going to go? Into the city? That’s not safe. And from what you’re saying, heading back the way you came is no good either. Not for a while anyway. Might be you could sneak back up that way in a few months, once things have cooled off. But then what? You just follow the interstate into the desert, and then? You’ll starve or die of thirst before you reach another town.”

  “Thought that wasn’t dinner talk,” Cliff said.

  “Hush,” Alyssandra replied. Cliff frowned and took a bite of steak.

  “You make a pretty compelling argument,” Bailey said, and it was true. As long as she stayed in a different house than the couple, they’d probably be safe.

  “At least sleep on it,” Cliff said. “We’ll take this house tonight, you can stay just across the street. We still have some of our stuff there.”

  “All right,” Bailey said. “Just for tonight.”

  ****

  A night turned into two more, and two more turned into a week, during which it began to snow. Cliff and Alyssandra were great company, and Bailey felt less paranoid, though she always slept in a different house and asked that they move around every few days.

  One morning, there was a knock on her door. Bailey abandoned her breakfast to check it, closing one eye and looking through the peephole. Cliff was outside in his camo, and he was armed and carrying a bag. Bailey opened the door.

  “Need to get some supplies,” he said. Bailey wasn’t sure if his cheeks were red from the cold, or from embarrassment. “I told you before you’d need to help—”

  “Say no more,” Bailey said. “Just let me finish eating and then get ready?”

  “Of course.”

  “Come inside.”

  Cliff waited on the couch in the living room while Bailey finished eating and then put on the clothes the man from the gas station had given her.

  She was lacing up her shoes when she asked, “Where are we going and how are we getting there?”

  “There’s a grocery store I haven’t looked much into yet, just down the road. We go by foot, sadly.”

  It took an hour to reach the store. They were both armed, and each carried an empty duffel bag for bringing supplies back. Outside the store, along the side where there were no windows, Cliff stopped them.

  “I don’t know where they go, but the zombies hide when it snows. Always have. Whatever the case, the store might not be empty. You ready?”

  “Yeah.” Bailey made sure her gun was loaded, that the safety was off, then nodded. “I’m ready.”

  “All right. Stay close. We need food. Canned stuff, mostly. Don’t worry about water, it’s heavy and we have plenty of snow. But grab things like matches, non-perishable food, lighter fluid, the kind of stuff you’ve seen in the houses.”

  “Okay.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Cliff moved around to the front of the store, and Bailey followed. The door was electric and wouldn’t open, since there was no power.

  “We’ll have to smash the glass,” Cliff said.

  “Can’t we just pry it open?”

  “Not a good idea. If it happens to shut itself behind us, we’d have to pry it open to get back out. Best to be able to get out quickly if we have to.” Cliff took off his scarf and wrapped it around his hand, then slammed the butt of his gun into the glass, which shattered. The two of them stepped inside, where they heard shuffling and panting.

  “How did they get in?” Bailey said.

  “Don’t know, just shoot!”

  Bailey fired, and a zombie that was rushing toward them fell to the tile floor. She fired again and missed, but her third shot hit another zombie in the stomach. It cried out and tumbled. Cliff had already killed two more. The crowd in front of them was thinning, but a few more zombies worked their way toward the front of the store from various aisles, shoving through shopping carts and stumbling around the bodies of their former companions. It was harder to see the farther back they were, since the only light was the overcast day coming in through the windows.

  Soon the moving shapes dwindled, and then all was quiet in the store, aside from the shots still ringing off the walls.

  “Be careful,” Cliff said. “There might be more. Besides, they had to have come from somewhere, might be another door or a busted window somewhere.”

  They split up after that. It was hard to see, but after a few minutes, Bailey’s eyes adjusted to the darkness.

  “Bailey?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Nothing. Figure we should probably call out from time to time, just make sure the other’s okay.”

  “Good idea.”

  Bailey reached the canned goods and put several pounds of cans into her bag. “Canned stuff is over here. We should each take a little bit, to distribute the weight.”

  “Okay. I’ll be that way soon, I’m grabbing some cereal.”

  Bailey found some pasta and grabbed almost every bag. They were light and would be easy to cook, all they’d need was fire and water. “Cliff?”

  “Yeah.”

  They wandered the store for a while, eventually switching from calling each other’s names to playing “Marco Polo”.

  Bailey found a broken window near the back of the building, by a small food court, and figured that was how the zombies got in. She wondered if they had smashed the window to escape the cold, which bothered her. If they could do that here, they could do it anywhere. She shook the thoughts aside and went to meet with Cliff at the front of the store.

  “Marco,” she said, even though she could see him. He was crouched by one of the registers, and immediately turned to her and put a finger to his mouth, then motioned for her to duck down. Bailey crouched low and crept to where he was. “What’s going on?” she whispered.

  “Someone out there.” He pointed. It was hard to see, but in the parking lot a small group of men stood near a large sled-like fixture made of wood. They were talking, and several kept motioning to the store.

  “I think those are Burke’s men,” Bailey said. She was already worried about Alyssandra, and by the look on Cliff’s face, so was he.

  “Fuck,” he said. “They’re coming in.”

  “They’ll kill us.” Bailey grabbed Cliff and started moving, still crouched, away from the front.

  “Where are we going?” Cliff asked.

  “There’s a broken window in the back, it’s how the zombies got in. We can get out.”

  “Let’s hurry.”

  They didn’t dare stand. Bailey and Cliff reached the end of the register aisle, and Cliff started moving forward. Bailey grabbed him and moved a few aisles to the side. It took a few seconds, but it was safer than being straight across from the front door. She looked back and didn’t see anyone, but since they were halfway down an aisle, she couldn’t see the door. She hoped no one had seen them.

  “This way,” she said. She and Cliff went down an aisle. At the end Bailey glanced both ways and didn’t see anyone. She could hear voices, though, and they sounded close. She grabbed Cliff’s arm and tugged, and they crossed into the food court.

  Light poured in from the broken window. Their only way out wou
ld make them easy to spot. Cliff kept glancing back, but Bailey was afraid to.

  They reached the window, and Bailey hopped onto a table and dove out. She landed hard; the snow did little to soften the impact of the asphalt below it. She finally looked back, where Cliff was climbing out of the window. He lay down in the snow, and for a moment neither moved, they just listened. They could hear men from the parking lot on the other side of the store, but little else.

  “Go,” Cliff mouthed.

  Bailey crawled, even though her hands and knees were freezing. She had no idea how much time passed, but eventually Cliff appeared beside her, standing up. He helped her to her feet, and then they were jogging, and then running. Soon the air was stabbing its way out of Bailey’s chest, and she couldn’t feel her legs, and she had to stop. Cliff was already several feet ahead.

  “Cliff,” she said, and only then did she realize how out of breath she was. He stopped, his face red, puffs of air rapidly appearing and disappearing in front of his face.

  “We can’t stop,” he said. Bailey looked back. They had made their way up a small hill behind the store, but were only a few hundred yards away from it. Bailey could even see dark shapes in the parking lot.

  “Woods,” she said. “Up ahead.”

  “I don’t know if it’s safe.”

  “We don’t know if anything is safe.”

  They disappeared into the trees. The cold bit into Bailey’s face and neck, and it hurt worse to breathe through her mouth than through her nose, but when she shut her mouth she couldn’t get enough air into her lungs, so she dealt with the pain.

  Cliff dropped to his knees ahead, among the trees. His duffel bag rested softly on the snow.

  “Cliff,” Bailey said, and then she was beside him, trudging past him. “We have to get back. It’s getting dark.”

  “I can’t. It’s too cold, I’m carrying too much. This was a bad idea, I should’ve scouted the store first.”

  “It can’t be far.” She knew Cliff wouldn’t believe that, because she didn’t even convince herself. She stopped walking and looked back. There were trees all around, and the vague shape of the road to the west, but she didn’t see or hear any sign of Burke’s men. The world was silent, frozen.

  “Okay.” Cliff tried to stand up, but as soon as the strap of his duffel bag went taut, he fell back into the snow.

  Every step was a hundred miles, but Bailey made her way back to him. She’d rather be walking in waist-high water. Bailey picked up Cliff’s duffel bag and slung it over her free shoulder. There was so much weight, and she thought she’d fall over if she tried to take a step, but she didn’t. She turned around slowly, and Cliff climbed to his feet.

  “Don’t,” he said. “It’s too much, too heavy. I’m sorry, I can do it.”

  “Cliff, if I stop to give your bag back, I don’t think I can start moving again.”

  They waded on, pants and shoes and socks soaked through, their limbs numb. Every breath was a battle, and the darkening sky might as well have been the cloak of death. It continued to snow.

  Eventually, and against her will, Bailey dropped one of the bags. She wasn’t even sure whose it was. She went on, and fought to turn her head back to see if Cliff could pick it up. He somehow already had, and was trekking along behind her.

  An hour passed, and without warning Bailey turned to her left and walked back to the road. When she reached it it was covered in snow, and she stamped her feet to knock some of the weight off her legs. Cliff followed. Bailey didn’t know if it was safe, but honestly didn’t care anymore. She felt bad that she was putting Cliff in danger by going back to the road, but if he felt half what she did, he didn’t care either.

  “How far are we?” he asked after a while.

  “I don’t even think we’re halfway there,” Bailey replied. She wasn’t sure if it was true, and prayed she was wrong, but aiming low would only make the houses appear that much faster.

  “I hope Alyssandra is okay,” Cliff said after another frozen moment.

  “I do too.” Bailey hoped he wouldn’t say anything else, because she felt another word might make her collapse from exhaustion. But he didn’t, and then she could see their houses. She had thought seeing them would give her newfound strength, but every step was more taxing than the last, and the houses only taunted her.

  She and Cliff headed for the house Cliff and Alyssandra were staying in. They should’ve come up with a plan and checked discreetly, but the thought didn’t cross either of their minds. Cliff just went up to the front door and knocked.

  Alyssandra opened the door, looked them over, and helped them inside.

  “Ran into someone,” Cliff said. “You okay?”

  “Of course,” Alyssandra said. “I didn’t even see or hear anyone go by. You poor things, go sit by the fire. Drop your bags, I’ll take care of them.”

  “Can’t,” Bailey said. “I have to go home. Too dangerous, they’re out looking for me.”

  “Honey,” Alyssandra said, “they’re looking, but not for you. They didn’t even knock, and I’m sure they saw smoke in the chimney. Sit down, rest.”

  “No,” Bailey said, but the fireplace was raging and calling to her like she was one of the zombies, and she trudged toward it, discarding her bag and then her coat and hat and gloves and one shoe before she fell to the carpet in front of it, and slept.

  27

  In the Swimming Pool

  Will was one of the last to wake up. He was groggy, and sore from sleeping in the pool. He looked around and saw some of his friends sitting around and talking, some still sleeping. Most of them were little more than black shapes. Little light entered through the windows, which were only a foot tall and positioned near the top of the huge room.

  “Hey Will,” Jeremy said. Will could barely tell it was him. “There’s water after all. We don’t know how much though. But you should be able to take a shower. A few of us have already.”

  “That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard,” Will said. He stood up, and his knees and back popped loudly. Will stretched, even though it hurt.

  “The water’s not very hot, but it does get warm.”

  “I take it back. That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Will headed toward the glass door that led out of the main pool room. He walked past the kiddie pool and into the locker rooms.

  Along the wall across from the lockers were seven doors, each leading to a small shower room. Some light came in through the windows on the doors at either end of the hall, but it was dim. Will turned to the first door and opened it. There he saw Gladys, dripping wet, bent forward and struggling to pull her jeans up, topless.

  Will immediately shut the door, and Gladys yelped. “You pervert!”

  Will wondered if she had even seen who it was, but there was no use in hiding. “I’m so sorry,” he said.

  “Why the fuck wouldn’t you knock?”

  “Why wouldn’t you lock the door?”

  “…I didn’t think I’d need to!”

  “Nobody told me you were in here. I’m sorry.”

  “Just go away, you freak!”

  Will went to the end of the room, the last shower, and knocked on the door.

  “Now you knock?”

  He tried to ignore Gladys. Will stepped into the dark room and shut and locked the door behind him. There was a sink and a toilet in the room, and a small tile wall dividing them from the shower. Will stepped into it and turned the water on. He hung his bag from a hook on the door, took his soap from it, and began undressing.

  The water wasn’t hot, but it was warm, and it felt nice. After a few minutes, Will heard the door to the other shower open and close, and then he heard the door to the locker room shut.

  Even though it was an accident, he felt disgusting. He tried to push it all from his mind. Once or twice the image of Gladys almost naked appeared in his head, but he would shut his eyes tightly and shake his head and force himself to think of something else.

>   When he finished showering, Will dressed and then headed back toward the kiddie pool, but he stopped there. Rachel and Gladys were inside, talking.

  “He’s such a freak,” Gladys said. “I bet he’s in there jacking off right now.” She shuddered.

  “I’m sure it was an accident,” Rachel said. “We should’ve told him you were in there. It’s our fault.”

  Will pushed through the door. Rachel and Gladys stopped talking, and he took care not to look at Gladys as he passed.

  “Go away,” Gladys said.

  “Morning, Will,” Rachel said.

  “Good morning,” Will said without looking back. He went through the door to the main pool.

  Jeremy, Alex, Kalli, and Hannah were sitting in a circle near the door. They all stared at Will when he entered, and Will could tell they had been talking.

  “Hey,” Jeremy said.

  “Gladys told you guys, didn’t she?”

  “Yeah,” Alex said. “Sounds like you had a pretty good morning.” Hannah elbowed him in the side.

  Will sat among his friends. “It was an accident. I swear, I would never—”

  “We know,” Kalli said. “It’s okay. And Gladys will get over it.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Alex said.

  “Will you shut up?” Hannah said. Alex laughed. Will didn’t find it funny at all.

  “This was a mistake,” Rob said. He was standing near Steven, inside the pool. “I can’t believe we did this. Taking showers. Guys, we could’ve gotten our water from here and brought it back home.”

  “It’s like Sharon said last night,” Steven replied. “Anything left in there would last us, what, a week at most? And you know how far it is, you saw how many zombies were out there. Besides, we need food, too.”

  “I’m going back home. Stop taking showers, guys. There’s probably plenty of water left.”

  “You can’t go home,” Jeremy said.

  “Why the fuck can’t I? Who do you think you are? You can’t tell me what to do.”

  “If you go home, you’re going alone,” Steven said. “Kevin died so we could get away. You want to just throw that away? We press on.”