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

by David J. Lovato

  Rob walked to the other side of the pool without saying anything else.

  “So where do we go?” Hannah asked.

  “We should probably take the back roads and get out of town,” Will said.

  “Sounds easy enough,” Jeremy replied.

  “We should leave soon,” Steven said.

  “Wouldn’t it be better to wait until night?” Alex asked.

  “We tried moving at night. Didn’t seem to make us any harder to spot. All it did was make it harder for us to see where we were going.”

  “He has a point,” Kalli said.

  “Yeah,” Will said. “Let’s get out of here.” He had his own reasons for wanting to leave the pool far behind, but Steven’s logic was good, too.

  Everyone gathered their things and headed out of the community center. Will tried to avoid contact with Gladys, though once he tried to apologize again, only to be ignored.

  They took a small street around the community center. American flags hung from the street lights and telephone poles, but they were tattered, and a few were missing. Once it was someone’s job to change them out every season, but those days were dead.

  “Anyone know this area?” Steven asked. A few people looked to Will, even Gladys, but hers was more of a glare.

  “No,” Will said. “Sorry. My family used to go to the community center, but we didn’t ever really go past it.”

  “Guess we’ll have to find out ourselves.”

  They walked for a few hours. The streets were thin, and quiet except for the leaves crunching below their feet. It was nice out, but most of them were sweating from the weight of their bags, and Will was thinking his shower was getting less worth it all the time.

  “Oh God,” Alex said. He pointed; in a yard on the other side of the street, picked-clean bones rested around a dog collar still leashed to a nearby tree.

  “Poor thing,” Rachel said. Will was sure they all shared the sentiment, but another half hour of walking put the long lost dog far from their minds.

  They reached a one-lane road with no sidewalks. It cut through the trees and went up and down hills like a wave. The group was walking mostly single file along it when they heard the gunshot.

  “Sounded close,” Jeremy said.

  There was a second gunshot. “Someone might need our help,” Kalli said.

  “Too dangerous,” Rob replied. “They might just shoot us and take what we have.”

  “Because we have so much worth taking,” Alex said.

  “They wouldn’t know that until they checked, dumbass.”

  Another shot came. “Make a decision, guys,” Ed said.

  “Let’s go,” Will said. “Let’s go help. There’s safety in numbers.”

  “You can go if you want,” Rob said. “I’m moving on.”

  “Fine.” Will headed off the road, into the trees, in the direction the shots came from. For a minute he didn’t even look and see who followed, but curiosity got the best of him. He turned back, and was surprised to see everyone was right behind him, even Rob.

  “We should be careful,” Gladys said.

  “No, I think we should be reckless,” Alex replied. Gladys gave him a sharp look.

  They came out of the trees into a collective back yard, behind a cul-de-sac.

  “Reminds me of home,” Alex said, then a bullet hit him in the shoulder, and he screamed and fell to the ground.

  “Get down!” Steven said.

  Everyone ducked, Ed lay flat on his stomach. “I knew it!” Rob said.

  “Fuck,” someone said. “Holy shit, sorry!” Will looked around, but he couldn’t see anyone. “Up here!”

  There were people standing on the roof of one of the houses. One was a man holding a rifle. A trail of zombies littered the ground between the woods and the house, and a few lay in the street as well.

  “Didn’t know you guys were normal, thought you were zombies. Speaking of which, you should get the hell out of there, there might be more!”

  “You fucking shot me!” Alex shouted.

  “Come on up here,” one of the other people said. Will counted three of them. “We have first aid.”

  Hannah helped Alex stand up. He grimaced and whimpered. “Oh, be quiet, you big baby,” she said.

  They headed toward the house. The man with the rifle fired a few more times before Will and the others got close enough to see them better: A man, a woman, and a third who hadn’t spoken yet. He had short black hair hidden by a beanie, and sat huddled in a hoodie. He looked to be around Will’s age.

  “Get inside,” the man said. “Take the stairs to the room at the top, there’s a door in the closet that leads up here.”

  Alex had a hard time getting through without hurting his arm, but eventually they all emerged onto a big flat section of roof.

  “Will this hold all of us?” Jeremy said.

  “It’s a roof,” the man replied. “It’s supposed to hold some weight.”

  “We’re more than some,” Steven said.

  “Let me take a look at your arm,” the woman said. She went to Alex and looked over his wound. “It just grazed you. We’ll get this taken care of.”

  “How long have you people been here?” Jeremy asked.

  “Forever,” the man replied. “My grandfather built this house.”

  “What do you do for food and water?”

  “We catch rain, get food from the store, mostly.”

  “We were just wandering because we couldn’t find any more food,” Will said.

  “Then you aren’t looking very hard, are you?” the younger person said, and Will was surprised to find out it was a girl, not a boy. “Don’t look so scared,” she said. “I don’t bite. Hard.”

  “Annie, stop that,” the woman said. Annie smiled.

  “Where are your parents?” the man asked.

  “We’re all that’s left,” Steven said.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Anywhere we can find food and water nearby.”

  Steven talked with the man for a minute. The others had split up, and Will noticed he was standing alone next to Annie.

  “How old are you, buddy?” she said.

  “Fourteen.”

  “You’re cute, for a fourteen-year-old.” Will blushed, and Annie laughed. Will wasn’t sure if she was trying to be mean, but he’d already had a long day.

  “You look like a boy.”

  “Thanks, I try.” Annie stood up. She was a little taller than Will. She had clear blue eyes and freckles in little strips below them, like war paint.

  “How old are you?” Will asked.

  “Seventeen.”

  “You’re short.”

  “I could push you off the roof, you know.”

  “Annie!”

  It was her father this time, and she flinched, then smiled wide. Her dad went back to talking to Steven.

  “Where do you guys find food?” Will said.

  “We eat zombies. And we eat people who come around asking questions.” Will stared at Annie, and she laughed. “Why should I tell you where we get our food? So you can go and take it all?”

  “We’re just passing through.”

  “That’s what they all say.”

  A shot rang out two feet away. A zombie that had been heading up the cul-de-sac dropped to the ground.

  “Sure are a lot of those fuckers out today,” Annie’s dad said.

  “How many people have passed through?” Will asked.

  “You guys are the first,” Annie said. Will’s eyes narrowed, which seemed to give Annie great delight, as she laughed out loud. “I’m fucking with you, kid. Lighten up.” She punched Will’s shoulder.

  “All done,” the woman said. Alex was shirtless, and there was a large bandage on his shoulder.

  “Maybe now you’ll quit crying,” Hannah said, then smiled and hugged him. He hugged her back.

  “Hey, Albert,” Annie said. “Think there are any more for today?”

  “Don’t see a
ny,” the man with the rifle said. “If you want you can go inside. I’ll stay up here a little while, take care of any stragglers.”

  “Thanks, dude.”

  “You call your dad by his first name?” Will asked her.

  “Of course not, that’s rude,” Annie said. “His name’s Bill.” She turned to the woman. “Sarah, I’m going inside.”

  “What’s your mom’s real name, then?” Will said.

  “My mom’s dead.”

  “Oh.” Will blushed. “I’m sorry.”

  Annie laughed again. “Lighten up, kid. It’s cool, it’s ancient history. Sarah’s my stepmom, but I’ve known her forever.”

  “Come on, guys,” Sarah said. “Let’s go inside, I’ll make everybody lunch to make up for…”

  “Almost shooting them?” Annie said.

  Sarah pulled Annie’s beanie down over her eyes. “Yeah.”

  “Sounds great,” Rob said. “Thanks, ma’am.”

  “Just call me Sarah.”

  The teens worked their way inside, and as they did, another shot rang out from the roof. Steven stayed outside to talk with Bill.

  Will was one of the last inside, only Annie was behind him. They crawled through the tiny hallway and out into the closet of the upstairs bedroom.

  “Annie,” Sarah said, “why don’t you show everyone around? I’ll get lunch started. It’ll be pasta, that’s about all we ever have.”

  “That’s fine,” Rachel said. “Thank you so much.”

  “Okay kids,” Annie said, “follow me.”

  They headed down the stairs and reached a landing, where Sarah continued down, but Annie went into a hallway.

  “Most importantly,” Annie said, “there’s the bathroom. We keep a bucket of used water to flush out whatever goes in there. It’s not pretty, but it works.” She went on down the hall. “Bedrooms are down here, too.”

  “Why are you always walking so close to Will?” Gladys said. “He’s a pervert.”

  Annie seemed to find everything funny; she laughed. “I’d rather be a pervert than a gossip.” Will hadn’t been able to tell if he liked or hated Annie until then. He smiled.

  “That one’s my bedroom,” Annie said. She pointed to a closed door with a Jolly Roger painted on it. “Don’t go in there, okay? It’s off limits.”

  “Hear that, Will?” Gladys said. “You do know what that means, right?”

  “What do you want from me?” Will said. It came out more forcefully than he had intended, but he was past stopping himself. “I said I was sorry. What the fuck do you want?”

  Everyone was quiet for a few seconds. Annie smiled. “Something happen I should know about?”

  “No.” Will wanted to leave the hallway and escape their stares, but he couldn’t without pushing past everyone else, which might have been okay if Gladys hadn’t been among them.

  “He walked in on Gladys taking a shower,” Rachel said. “It was an accident, though. Will would never do something like that on purpose, he’s too shy.”

  Annie giggled. “Lighten up, kids.” She turned to Gladys. “Get over it, okay? You can’t hide your titties forever, girl.”

  Gladys turned beet red. She looked like she wanted to say something, but then she locked eyes with Rachel, who was glaring at her.

  “It sure is nice of you guys to share your food with us,” Rachel said, still looking at Gladys. “We hope we don’t overstay our welcome.”

  Annie only laughed. “Hey guys, let’s head back that way. You should see the basement.” Everyone started down the hallway again. Annie put an arm around Will’s shoulders as they walked. “Well well. My new buddy’s a sly little devil, huh?”

  Will looked away. “It really was an accident.”

  “You can touch mine if you want.”

  “I wouldn’t.”

  Annie laughed. “Good. If you had, I would’ve punched you in the mouth. Just trying to see what kind of person you are.”

  “What kind of person am I?” Will asked. He stopped walking, and then he and Annie were alone in the hallway.

  For once, Annie didn’t laugh. “A good person, I think.” She headed down the hallway, and Will followed her.

  28

  In Katie and Keely’s Room

  “I don’t hear anything,” Keely said. She had her head pressed against Katie’s stomach. Katie was lying on the bed, her shirt pulled up. Her skin was warm, and she laughed.

  “It’s too early, I think.” She paused for a minute. “But it’s not too early to think of names.”

  “We’ll have to come up with a name for each gender.”

  “Yeah.” They both sat up cross-legged, facing each other.

  “If it’s a boy, can we name him Brandon?” Keely asked.

  “Of course,” Katie said. “That’s a great choice. I have an idea for a girl name: Aixa. Spelled with an X.”

  “S-H not good enough?” Katie laughed, and Keely smiled. “It’s pretty.”

  “I saw it in a book once, I had to look it up. It has different meanings depending on the origin, but I liked them all.”

  The two women were silent for a while. “This is going to be hard,” Keely said. “No doctors, no sonograms, nothing.”

  “People got by without those for thousands of years,” Katie replied.

  “Yeah… But a lot of them died.”

  Katie leaned forward and hugged her. “I’m not going to die. Everything will be okay.”

  “Yeah.”

  ****

  Construction was going well. Everyone was able and willing to help however they could, so things went quickly.

  They started by clearing out the blocks immediately surrounding the barricades, and made temporary barricades to mark where they planned on expanding the city. In the meantime, Robert was using the heavy machinery to build portable blockades. They would stack two cars, each on its side, with wood in front and behind them. Then, they’d fill the whole thing with concrete, and then drill holes so the barricades could be moved as needed, by forklift.

  The only problem was they didn’t have a forklift. Garrett was getting a party together to find one when he asked Keely if she wanted to go.

  “You’ve been on the last few outings,” he said. “It’s become a sort of regular thing.”

  “Sure,” Keely said. “Any idea where we’re getting one?”

  “Remember that first family who showed up? The ones who took our car? Well, the guy, Dave, he worked at a hardware store and drove a forklift all the time. That was in another city, but he knows of another store nearby, and they’ll probably have forklifts there, too.”

  “Who else is going?”

  “Same group as usual, I guess. Me and Vince, Dom and Harry, I think Dex is coming, he’s getting bored hanging around here all the time.”

  “What about that one guy? Randy?”

  “I actually haven’t seen him in a while,” Garrett said. “Can’t seem to find anyone who even knows him, and the ones who know him haven’t seen him. Hope he didn’t wander off and get hurt.”

  “I’m sure he’ll turn up.” Keely followed Garrett to the main barricade, where the others were gathered. Ralph was with them.

  “You going too?” he asked.

  “Yeah. You?”

  “Yeah.”

  “If it’s not too much trouble,” Dave said, “I’d like to make this as quick as possible. I don’t like leaving Amber and Paula alone.”

  “I understand, man,” Garrett said. “Thanks for doing this for us.”

  “We got a way of transporting this forklift?” Dom asked. “Or we just gonna drive it all the way back here?”

  Garrett turned to Dave. “How far is the store?”

  “Can’t say for sure, I only went there a few times. It’s right off the interstate, I’ll know it when I see the area.”

  “Might want to use the van, then.”

  “We haven’t used it since we found it,” Dex said. “I’ll be surprised if the thing even starts.”
r />   “We’ll deal with that when we get to it. Everybody armed?”

  “I’m not,” Dave said. Vince took a sidearm from a holster at his side and offered it to him, but Dave put his hands up and shook his head. “Never fired a gun in my life. I’m more likely to hit one of you.”

  Vince put the gun away and offered Dave a knife instead. Dave took it with a shaky hand. “You probably won’t have to use it, but it’s better to have it just in case. Don’t wander off.”

  Garrett, Dave, Vince, Harry, and Dom took one of the cars and left New L.A., toward the moving van. Keely, Dex, and Ralph had to walk, but it wasn’t far.

  “They’ll probably have the thing running by the time we get there,” Dex said.

  “Yeah,” Ralph replied. He looked up at the sky, squinting. “Nice day, at least. I haven’t been outside New L.A. in a long time.”

  “It hasn’t gotten any better out here,” Keely said. They rounded the corner and saw the others getting out of the car a few blocks ahead.

  “Probably hasn’t gotten any worse, though,” Dex added.

  “You and Katie decide on a name yet?” Ralph asked.

  “Aixa if it’s a girl, Brandon if it’s a boy.”

  “Not bad.”

  The van roared to life when they were still a few yards away. Garrett turned to them with a smile on his face, but then frowned. “Behind you!”

  Right as he said it, they heard the zombies. They came from an alley between two buildings, and by the time Keely turned, one had pounced on Dex’s back. Dex reached behind him and grabbed the zombie, then threw it forward. Surprisingly, it worked: The zombie came down back-first onto the asphalt, and Keely heard its back break. It writhed on the ground, flailing its bony limbs, but Dex didn’t have time to finish it off. He turned and caught the next zombie by the arms.

  “I can’t get a shot!” Ralph said. Keely shoulder-charged the zombie, sending it sprawling. Ralph tucked his gun away, took out a knife, and stabbed the zombie through the eye.

  A third zombie was just leaving the alley. It growled and shuffled toward them, barely strong enough to lift its legs. Garrett pushed past Keely with a pipe in his hands and went to work on the zombie’s skull. Behind her, Ralph was finishing off the zombie with the broken back.