“Just shut the fuck up,” I said, staring at Joel, but there was no anger.
“Yeah. Okay. That your pick up line?”
Anna and Belle burst into laughter.
“I’m serious. What did he say, Anna? That he had a crush on you, might be the end of the world, all that shit?”
“Jackson Creed was a perfect gentlemen,” she said.
Now who was keeping a poker face?
“Just tell me what we’re doing so I can get back to sleep,” I mumbled.
“Sleep, huh. Remember the rules, keep the noise down.”
I rolled my eyes and joined them.
With the couch and table in use, there was little extra room, and I had to hunch over to peer at the map. I gave up on that uncomfortable position and got on my knees.
“We’re here,” Joel said and pointed at a red dot. The area around it was mostly rural but the highway was easy enough to follow, and it led straight to LA.
“Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” I asked.
“This is where Bright Star may be located,” Joel pointed at a blue dot that was just outside of the big city.
I found the legend and studied the scale. We were a long way from that dot. On any normal day we’d be able to drive up the coast in an hour. Now, with the freeways jammed, it could take days.
“So why not stay here? This is nice enough, and they have a plan. Just stay quiet.” I said.
Every time I thought about the old folks here using that to avoid detection, I wanted to groan. There were just too many of the things out there, and if they became fixated on the survivors, these people would be dead in no time.
“Roz and Christy want to stay, but I’m going.”
“Going where? To Los Angeles? How do you plan to get there? Fly?”
“I ain’t going to LA. I’m going here.” Joel pointed out another spot on the map.
“Camp Pendleton?”
“They train Marines, but they might let you in.”
“The fuck would I want to go there for? You can have all the saluting and shooting stuff with your hard-on assault rifle. I’m sick of it,” I said.
What I didn’t say was that I thought the idea of staying here was pretty damn good, especially if I could talk Sails into staying. She might be a pain in the ass, but right now she was my pain in the ass. Or so I surmised after our one night together. I was under no delusions that I could keep her here if she didn’t want to stay.
“I’m sick of it too, but I need to know what’s going on out there. I need to know if my brothers are still there. I’ve been thinking about it, Creed. This shit, this running around shit, I’m done with it. I want to get back, get in a unit, and get in the damn war.”
“So you’re going to abandon us and drive, what, forty miles away to a Marine base? How do you plan to get there?”
“Side roads, off road, whatever I have to do. I’m taking this camper.”
I looked at Belle but she just shrugged and went back to studying the map.
“It’s a good plan,” Anna chimed in.
“It is?” I asked.
“What do you want to do, Jackson, stay here and start a family? It’s the end of the world. If I can live a few more weeks, fight for a few more days, it’s worth it. I’ve got nothing else left,” Anna said.
That stung, but I coughed to cover the lump that had formed in my throat.
Anna met my eyes and then she must have realized what she said because she looked surprised.
“Anna,” I started.
“Come on, Belle. These two got stuff to sort out.” Joel rose to his feet, hunched over to avoid the roof, and made for the back door.
“Joel. Can’t you think of any other options? We’re a team, man.”
“We are, but you have to do what’s right for you.”
“That’s your big speech?”
Joel shrugged, peeked out the back window and then cracked the door open and hopped down. Belle followed, and then the door clicked softly shut.
###
22:45 hours approximate
Location: Trailer Park - Undead Central
“Don’t start with me. I’m going,” Anna said.
“Fine. You don’t have anything here, right?”
“Oh Jesus, Jackson. I didn’t mean it like that. What're we doing, anyway? Last night was just a way to blow off stress, right?”
I dug out a bag of crackers and munched on a couple. Anna handed me a bottle of water which I drained in one go.
“Sure, Sails. Just blowing off steam. Couple of people just out for a zombie joyride jumped in the sack together.”
“You better not fucking fall in love with me, Jackson. I’ll kick your ass.”
“Who’s talking about love? I just like being around you, okay? And you can try to kick my ass anytime you want.”
Anna covered her look with a drink of water.
“Idiot,” she muttered.
“Maybe, but I’m the idiot that’s here right now. Why don’t you think about staying? Give it a day or two. After yesterday and today we deserve a break.”
“I don’t want to stay here. I'm going with Joel because it gets me closer to LA, and that gets me closer to Bright Star. Roz and Christy are staying, so you’ll have someone to keep you company."
"I need to watch over Christy. I owe her after what happened to her brother." I tried to cover the disgust in my voice but it was there and it was bitter.
"I've told you a million times."
"You can tell me a million more times and it won't change the fact that he's dead and that fucker Lee is responsible."
"Enough about the kid. We're talking about us, right? If you're so bitter then I’ll no longer be around to be a reminder.”
"Fuck!"
“The hero would stay,” she said. “You saved us all back at the hotel.”
“Enough with the hero bullshit. I just did what was right and it sucked. How many of those guys did I kill? Joel probably shoots a guy and doesn’t think twice. That’s not me.”
“It was us or them. I’m glad it wasn’t us,” she said.
I met Anna’s eyes and pondered what kind of a future she and I might have. The way the world was now, it wouldn’t be a good one, but at least we’d be able to watch over one another. Sails wasn’t what I’d expected. Back when she was running with Lee, she’d been a hardass that punched my Marine buddy and then pulled a gun on him. Even I wasn’t that fucking stupid.
She didn’t take shit and I liked that. She was tough and I liked that as well. I’d never planned far enough into the future to think about settling down with someone. Never thought twice about what I’d do beyond the next port of call or the next bar hop.
But here I was.
“Just tell me what you think we're doing and I’ll tell you if you’re right,“ she said.
“Don’t put that shit on me. It takes two to make a couple. Math. I may be a dumb squid but I can count.”
“See, Jackson, that’s where we differ. I don’t see us as anything like a couple. We’re just here to watch out for each other,” she said.
“And that’s it?”
“You don’t know me, Jackson.” She looked down. “You don’t know what I saw or what I did. In the end it didn’t matter, because they were taken from me. Everyone. First my husband when he ran off last year. Then my kids when they were killed by those things.”
I reached across the table and took her hand in mine. Anna looked down and her hair covered her face. I knew she was fighting tears and I didn’t know the first thing to say. She gripped my hand for a few seconds, shook her head, and looked up at me.
“It’s okay. We can talk in the morning. Okay?”
“Yeah, sure, but I’m sleeping by the door in case you try to pull a disappearing act.”
“Clingy doesn’t suit you.”
“Running away doesn’t suit you.”
“Just shut the hell up, Jackson. I’ve done enough talking today.”
S
o I shut up.
We ate in silence for a few minutes. I grabbed a magazine off a pile and saw the date was from a few years ago. After flipping through a few pages I realized it was all about golf, something I was not at all interested in, but it was better than sitting around glaring at each other.
“I’m sorry,” Anna said.
“Me too.”
“What do you have to be sorry for? I’m the one who’s being stupid.”
“Forget it, you don’t have to apologize.”
“Yeah, Jackson. I do need to apologize for treating you like shit. For treating you like you don’t matter,” she said. “You do matter, Jackson.”
After a second I shut my mouth. “You better not fucking fall in love with me, Sails.”
Anna didn’t say anything for a few seconds, then she laughed, and just like that, the tension was gone.
“Come on, let’s just get some rest,” she said.
Anna stood up and stretched. She checked the door and turned the lock.
“Z’s can’t open doors.”
“Yeah, but others can,” she said.
Anna took my hand and led me to our bunk.
Entry #18 - Land of the Free
11:30 hours approximate
Location: Trailer Park - Undead Central
We didn’t stay for just one day. We stayed for a few.
I dug out one of the shirts Anna had found at the apartment and went to town with some duct tape, covering my arms. I applied it liberally but left space for my elbow so I could bend my arm without difficulty.
“Very fashionable,” Anna observed.
She sat on the side of the bed dressed only in panties and bra, looking hot as hell. Sadly, she slid into more clothing. I watched her dress and she watched me back. We didn’t speak but I was getting used to that. She had her demons and there wasn’t a lot I could do about it except to be there for her. Sounds useless, but it was all she wanted. She told me a little bit about PTSD while we lay together the night before and it sounded horrible. Then it dawned on me that we were probably all suffering from the same thing. She asked me to be patient with her and I promised that I would.
“Look, Anna,” I said. I took her hand in mine and just held it for a minute. “I’m not under any delusions here. I know we’re a mess, but we’re here for each other, right?”
“Yeah. We’re here for each other. Fucking hell, Creed. If you go out there and try to collect flowers for me I’m going to be really disappointed,” she said.
“You don’t have to be a hardass all the time.”
“I’m not a hardass. I’m just me.”
“Fine. I’ll go find some nice weeds for you.”
Anna kicked at me with one slim foot but I sidestepped it and tugged her off the bed and into an embrace. I could get used to this. Anna might be a time bomb. She might be a hardass. But there was a lot to like about her.
I wondered how hard the new world was planning to work against us.
###
12:05 hours approximate
Location: Trailer Park - Undead Central
The folks that made up the little camp came from varied backgrounds. Most were senior citizens. We’d met a dozen the first night. By the next day a third of them had drifted away. Safety in numbers was Claude’s credo, but some argued that they were better on the move. Campers left at night, and besides the puttering of motors, we didn’t hear another sound out of them as they faded up the road.
Claude was a natural-born leader and wasn’t shy about getting the people to work together. He’d organize groups of three or four and have them outside for a few minutes, gathering supplies from abandoned RV’s, or collecting water.
Joel and I ignored the politics and worked during the day to go out on patrol, shore up the fence, and put a better lock on the gate. They’d used a piece of twelve gauge wire to loop a couple of links together, but I found a chain that might have been used to hold the gate closed in the past. Someone had cut it cleanly. I dug out a couple of pairs of pliers and worked at the links until I had a half-ass lock. It performed by someone sticking a screwdriver into a pair of links and using the smaller wire to keep the length of metal in place. It wouldn’t keep out a determined intruder, but it would keep a Z out.
The gate was made of chain link and was eight feet tall. Z’s occasionally gathered, so we taunted and bribed them with our bodies until they followed us near the gate. Then Joel, Anna, Roz, and I went out and killed them.
Roz was in good spirits and stuck to Christy like they were sisters.
“How’s the leg, Jackson?” Roz asked.
“Ankle. Still hurts but I’ve had some good care.” I lifted my pant leg and showed off a bandage that wrapped around my calf and down into my boot.
“Good care, huh? You and Anna seem to be pretty friendly.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Friendly.”
“You two make a good couple. You’re kind of a mess and she’s kind of a badass.”
“That’s what I like about her.” I smiled.
I didn’t ask about her and Joel. This wasn’t high school and, frankly, it was none of my damn business.
Christy spent a few minutes running Frosty ragged before ducking back into the RV with the wet dog in tow. Frosty followed, tail wagging. True to the camp’s rules, they stayed out of sight as much as possible.
The weather sucked. Rain fell in a light mist that got heavier as the day wore on. Joel and I rigged up some tarps over a pair of RV’s to capture the water. Claude pointed me toward some old PVC tubing. I ran it into Joel’s temporary home.
Christy was interested in what I was doing, so I showed her how to make a basic water filter.
“Rain water’s clean, but if you ever need to drink water and you don’t know if it’s safe, just make a filter. The best way is if you have charcoal,” I told her.
We requisitioned an empty two-liter bottle. I cut the bottom off and then cut some fabric into strips. Christy and I went out near the pond and dug down until we found a little bit of sand. She gathered a few handfuls while I loaded up on pebbles.
“We’re going to make clean water with dirt?” she asked.
Christy wore a long red dress with black tights. She had a light windbreaker on. Her hair was drenched in minutes.
“Yep. You can go back if you’re cold,” I said.
“I’m fine. I want to learn this.”
She and I dug out enough sand and little rocks to complete my project. The rain picked up, so we hightailed it back to the camper with our treasures.
Back in the big RV, we laid our collection in neat little piles on the counter. Belle ‘tsked’ at the mess, but I promised her that Christy would clean up after we were done. Christy shot me daggers, but I stuck my tongue out and she smiled back.
Belle, Anna, Roz, and Joel had all escaped the rain and were sitting inside the RV. They laughed as they played high-stakes poker for millions of dollars. Christy glanced at the game, but was more interested in what we were doing.
We filled the filter with five layers: pebbles, sand, crushed charcoal from a fire, sand, and more pebbles. The little strips of old bedding we’d converted into strips separated each layer.
“Why all the sand?” Christy asked.
“The little rocks and sand filter out dirt and particles. The charcoal gets any chemicals out. By the time it passes through, the water is safe to drink.”
I used more strips of cloth to attach one end of the filter to the tarps, then I dragged the other end of the PVC tube into the RV. I untied the knotted end and watched as the first few drops fell out of the tube and into the sink.
“Get a cup.”
Christy grabbed a coffee mug off the counter and held it out.
I tasted the next few drops, smacked my lips together, and then motioned for Christy to try. She filled her mug halfway to the top and then took a sip.
“Tastes weird, like it’s got wood in it or something.”
“Probably the charcoal.
If you want to filter rainwater, all you really have to use is a coffee filter. Duh,” I said.
“Jackson, you jerk.” Christy laughed.
“And it falls from the sky. Just stand outside with your mouth open. If you stand there long enough, you’ll get a full belly of water. Plus, you’d look like a crazy girl. The Z’s might just leave you alone.”
Christy giggled as I tossed my head back and opened my mouth wide and stuck out my tongue.
“Is that what he did to impress you?” Roz asked Anna.
“Something like that. The tongue part is good,” she said, then her face went scarlet.
Roz sat back hard in her chair and laughed.
I ignored them.
“Mad person disease, that’s what Z’s call it when they don’t want to eat someone,” I said.
“What makes the person mad?” Christy asked.
“When they can’t build a good filter, I guess.”
“I won’t get the disease, then.”
“Just remember this filter in an emergency.”
“I will. I’ll write it down. I write down all the survival stuff I learn.”
“Learn how to shoot straight yet?”
“Joel showed me but I haven’t actually fired a gun since the hospital,” she said.
“Anna’s an ace shot. You should ask her to teach you.”
Christy glanced up at Anna and then looked away quickly.
“Joel’s fine,” she said under her breath.
After the last few days I’d come around on Anna, but my change of heart hadn’t spread.
“Just something to think about,” I said lamely.
“Do you like my dress? Belle said it was her daughter’s. It’s a little big but the color’s pretty, isn’t it?”
“Of course it looks good on you, dude. I’ll have to start calling you princess.”
We joked around for a few minutes and then talked about video games while the poker match went on. After Joel was in the hole for a half a billion dollars he called it a game and asked if I’d make a quick perimeter run with him.
Z-Risen (Book 2): Outcasts Page 14