Zombies! (Book 7): Still Standing

  “Thank you, sir. I’ll keep that in mind. What’s the mission sir? The man who brought me up here mentioned I’d be briefed on what my platoon was expected to accomplish?” Kyler asked. The commander started shuffling papers around until he found the one that he was looking for. He handed the paper to Kyler. It was a map with some locations marked on it.

  “We’ll be dropping you off here. You’ll make your way over to these settlements. You’ll destroy each settlement as you come to it. We expect you to keep going through these settlements until either all the settlements have been destroyed or you run out of volunteers.” The commander said referencing the fact that the platoon was made up mostly of groups from the Tennessee volunteers.

  “Yes sir. Kill everyone sir? Women and children? No prisoners?” Kyler asked. He was fantasizing about stabbing this Jabba the Hutt looking dirtbag in the throat and shooting his way to the door. He’d probably survive the jump. The train couldn’t be going much more than forty miles per hour. It’d be too risky for them to be going much faster than that. He could wave to Ritz from outside the train to let him know to go ahead and jump off to.

  “That’s right son. We’re going to pull a reverse Sherman on this scum and force them to pick up and run. You understand what you’re supposed to do?” The commander asked. His second chin jiggling as he stared coldly at Kyler.

  “Yes sir.”

  “Excellent. We’ll send a man with details on the time for you to disembark once we have a better idea on when we’ll get there. Hopefully we don’t have to waste too much more time cleaning off the tracks ahead of us. If you’re good to go, then you’re dismissed.” The commander held Kyler’s eyes for a second then completely disregarded him after half-ass returning the salute Kyler gave him.

  Kyler walked back towards the car his platoon was in with his mind in overdrive. The commander had just confirmed that this train was a spear aimed at the heart of the civilians in the settlements. No way Kyler was going to let that spear strike home.

  Chapter 20: Scars, Walking and Whiskey

  “I’m glad this happened. It’s been a while since I’ve had to limp my way through the woods with a concussion.” Randy joked. He was making light of the situation, but he looked like he was wearing the makeup to try out for the lead role in Interview with a Vampire. Only he wasn’t quite rocking the pale, dead look quite as well as Tom Cruise had.

  “You keep racking up scars it’s going to look like you’re trying to compete with Kyler.” Kelly said. A shirtless Kyler looked like he’d been dragged by a horse through a bonfire raging on a spiked chain-link fence. The poor kid had scars everywhere. His scars were scarred.

  “Caitlyn thinks Kyler’s scars are hot!” Myriah chimed in. Caitlyn kicked out at her slightly younger sister almost dropping Doreen in the process.

  “You guys do realize we’re walking through the woods near a couple of major explosions with probably like a zillion Zombies running this way and you’re being pretty loud right?” Bryan asked rhetorically. He had Zoey perched on his shoulder like a giant parrot. At the speed they were going they could’ve had Zoey and Ali walking. Bryan and Phil weren’t complaining about carrying them and the girls didn’t seem to want to get down, so Kelly hadn’t said anything. She was too distracted worrying if her husband was on the verge of dying or not to stress too much over who was carrying who.

  Properly chastised they stopped goofing around. They’d heard some Zombies off in the distance earlier but for the last few hours it’d been smooth sailing. They were really focused on putting distance between themselves and the site where the convoy had been attacked. They’d seen driveways and houses off in the distance but decided to stay on foot for now rather than try and find a vehicle. The memory of Franks truck exploding in front of them was fresh in all their minds. None of them felt comfortable getting back in a vehicle yet. Not while invisible drones were swooping through the air waiting to blow them up.

  In addition to Bryan and Phil there were a couple of other guys from the warehouse tagging along who’d been in the truck with Bryan. They were warehouse guards who were clearly outclassed by Bryan and Phil. They were the type of guys who might’ve been mall cops back before the apocalypse. They probably had less time in the field than Randy and Kelly. Not that many people could claim the range of experience that Randy and Kelly had managed to accumulate. The couple had fought their way up and down the entire east coast to find and save their children.

  They slept under the stars that night. Which is the romantic way of saying they walked until they got too tired to take another step then lay down in the dirt to go to sleep. Kelly found herself at the bottom of a pile of children. Randy started out next to her but was gradually edged out until he was on the periphery of the love pile. Shivering he wished he’d grabbed the bag with all the blankets in it before the drone blew up their truck. They had a few but those had gone to the children and Kelly. He was welcome to as much pine straw as he could scoop on himself. He considered bringing up the concussion and the bloody hole in his hand to try and get a sympathy blanket but didn’t feel like doing all that just to be turned down.

  Phil squatted down beside him and asked him how the hand was doing.

  “Pulsating with pain every time I breathe. That’s actually a good thing though since Kelly told me the number one thing to worry about for concussion victims is letting them fall asleep. The excruciating pain is doing a good job of keeping me awake. Well, the hand pain and the cold. The overall miserableness of the situation is helping a lot too. How are you doing?” Randy answered quietly falling easily into the gallows humor soldiers use when talking to one another.

  “Here. You may need these last few sips more than me. I’m hoping it’ll shut you up. Otherwise, your whining’s gonna attract a bunch of the infected.” Phil said handing Randy a pint bottle of Southern Comfort that still had a decent amount left in it. He was acting tough, but Phil was genuinely concerned about Randy. He had mad respect for the man that’d managed to get his family through all the crap Randy had. He’d only heard bits and pieces of their story, but it’d been enough to impress the hell out of him.

  Randy took a big sip of the smooth amber colored liquid fire. He let the heat run through his body. Nodding his thanks, he tried to hand Phil the bottle back, but Phil shook his head and pushed the bottle back towards Randy.

  “I’ve got guard duty later and am way too tempted to down the rest of that bottle right now. You’ll be doing me a big favor by finishing it off before I get to it. Besides, it’ll help you sleep, and you need some serious rest to deal with all the crap you’ve put your body through.” Phil said quietly before standing back up and walking over to where Bryan was working on setting up the guard posts.

  Randy waited a minute to see if Phil changed his mind and came back for another hit of the whiskey. He also used the time to make sure Kelly wasn’t looking in his direction. He assumed she’d frown on him self-medicating with the rest of the booze considering she’d already handed him a pain pill along with his antibiotics for the night. He lifted the bottle noting there really wasn’t all that much left in it. He sipped at it until it was gone. Between the half pint of booze and the codeine, he was passed out on the pile of bug-ridden pine straw in no time. He didn’t even wake up when Phil came by in the early morning hours to make sure the bottle was thrown away before Kelly saw it. He had no desire to be known as the guy who gave the concussed guy half a bottle of whiskey.

  Following that train of thought he made sure Randy was breathing regularly before continuing on his rounds. He was relieved that his selfless gesture hadn’t killed the guy he was trying to help. He spent the last few hours before dawn alternating between cleaning his weapons and walking the perimeter of their little camp making sure nothing was sneaking up on them. When the sun finally came up, he was busy wishing he had coffee. He could almost smell a Bojangles biscuit.

  Forcing the image of the biscuit out of his head he snagged a can of green beans ou
t of his pack. Kelly waved and told him good morning. Phil grumbled that a good morning didn’t start with half a can of green beans then sat down to scoop the beans into this mouth. He watched as the rest of the family awoke. One of the little ones had to go pee so she started waking up everyone to go with her.

  The only one left in the dirt was Randy who was snoring with his mouth wide open. He’d fallen asleep in an extremely awkward and uncomfortable looking position. Phil watched as Kelly walked back from the early morning group pee session to check on Randy. She was picking through her pockets trying to find the medication when Phil saw her eyes suddenly light up. She bent down beside Randy and pulled something off of him. Phil wasn’t sure but it looked like the label from a bottle of Southern Comfort. Randy wasn’t going to enjoy his wake-up call. Phil immediately broke eye contact and disappeared back into the woods to ‘stand guard.’ Randy was going to have to handle that one on his own.

  Randy woke up and saw Kelly squatting beside him. She was hitting him on the shoulder to wake him up. He looked at her blearily as she handed him an antibiotic. She made a big deal out of theatrically putting away the other pill she’d been holding in her hand. Then she got up and left without saying a word. Despite the hangover boiling up in his head and stomach he was happy he seemed to have escaped the expected matrimonial wrath. If Kelly had seen an empty bottle anywhere around him, he was sure she’d have had a lot to say about it. He was curious why she hadn’t given him his pain pill. He held his water bottle up to wash down the antibiotic. Feeling the label slipping off it he looked down and immediately felt his stomach sink. The water bottle had the Southern Comfort label wrapped around it. He’d totally been busted.

  He drank the water and walked over to where Phil was studiously looking the other way. Kelly was glaring at them both from over by the girls.

  “Dude. Why’d you come straight to me?” Phil asked.

  “Misery loves company and I don’t see Bryan anywhere.” Randy answered.

  “Yeah he’s scouting up ahead. He left a couple of hours ago with the two other guys and left me here to guard you. Is your wife going to keep looking at us like that? You’re the moron who drank the whiskey. I’m just the guy who offered it up for medicinal purposes. You smell like a hobo by the way.” Phil said.

  “Great. I need mouthwash and aspirin if you happen to have any. I hurt everywhere. I’m not sure what’s wound related and what’s just hangover at this point.” Randy said.

  “I’ve been there.” Phil said. “Like twice this week. Once we get rid of all the Walking Dead and the drones stop trying to blow us up, I may need to go to one of those meetings.”

  “I’ll go with you. I’d kill for some coffee and donuts.” Randy said. Expecting to see Phil laugh or at least grin at that comment he watched as instead Phil got a nervous look on his face before turning and disappearing into the woods. Fearing the worst Randy slowly turned around.

  “Have a nice time last night?” Kelly asked with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. Randy braced himself for the onslaught.

  “No, I feel like hell and now I can’t even tell if it’s a hangover or the fact that I almost got blown up yesterday. I also have a hole that goes all the way through my hand which is kind of neat, but it hurts like hell.” Randy said defiantly.

  “It’s fine. Don’t worry about the whiskey. I get it. It just scares me so much babe. Everything that’s going on. If we’re not always on guard who the hell knows what could happen. I love you.” Kelly said. Randy stood there confused. He couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t being chewed out.

  “I love you too.” He managed to stammer.

  “Good. Let’s go get the kids ready to get out of here. Let me know when you need a pain pill. No more drinking. It screws up the healing process. Where’s Bryan at?” Kelly asked.

  Randy explained that Phil had told him Bryan took a couple of guys to scout ahead. They took their time getting the kids up since until Bryan came back there wasn’t a lot of reason for anyone to be moving around anyway. The kids had all gone back to the pine straw pile to try and fall back asleep. Randy felt the familiar sensation of pure love rise up and wash over him looking down at his girls. He’d do anything to keep them alive. He happened to catch the identical look in Kelly’s eyes at almost the same exact time. Her fierce love shone out palpably. He pitied the enemy who got between her and those girls.

  Kelly looked up from the girls in time to see the branches on the other side of the small clearing part. She expected to see either Bryan or one of the warehouse guards walk out. Instead a Zombie walked into the clearing staring straight at her. The Zombie was a woman of about Kelly’s age. Her dark hair was long and tangled. The bottom of the tangled mess still dyed the platinum blond it’d been back before the world went insane. The Zombie was on the far side of the clearing. The kids were between the Zombie and Kelly. The Zombie advanced as Kelly and Randy both immediately reacted with startled curses while reaching for weapons.

  Caitlyn looked up with bleary eyes and lazily turned her head to look around. She saw the Zombie coming and almost levitated out of the middle of her sleeping sisters. Kelly came around the tree to get between the girls and the Zombie. Randy had pulled out his pistol and had the Zombies head in his sights. The only reason he hadn’t pulled the trigger was the noise would attract more Zombies. It’d be better if they could kill it quietly. The girls were all scrambling to get behind him. Kelly was standing ready with a hatchet in one hand and a long stick in the other.

  The sore covered woman stopped and stared at Kelly. The Zombies skin hung from her like an ill-fitting flesh colored pant suit. Eyes so covered in broken blood vessels and crust they looked like red orbs. She was pant less like most of the infected. A stained and tattered shirt that might’ve been green at one point hung off her shoulders. She didn’t screech. She didn’t run towards Kelly with her mouth hanging open. She just stared and occasionally sniffed at the air. Her head moving around in small circles on her long neck.

  Kelly was at a loss. Pretty much all of their Zombie killing techniques were based on the beasts running straight at them. With the sawed-off broom stick she had in her hand it was easy enough to step to the side and trip up your average Zombie. She stood in her fighting stance waiting for the infected woman to charge. Instead it just looked at her like it was trying to remember how to say hello. Maintaining that eye contact Kelly moved forward thinking she could put the Zombie on the ground until they could figure out what to do with it. It seemed cold blooded to just whack her down where she stood.

  Out of nowhere Phil charged in and whacked the Zombie down where she stood. The tire iron he liked to use for Zombie bashing smashed into the skull of the burnt-out infected woman like it was an over ripe watermelon. Blood and brain matter splattered all over Phil and Kelly both. The corpse of the woman fell to the ground with a severely deformed skull. Phil looked over at Kelly expecting a thank you. She gave him an exasperated look and spun around to check on the girls.

  “What?” Phil asked clearly confused as to why everyone was acting so odd. He’d been doing his rounds when he’d seen a Zombie walking towards Kelly and the girls. A quick look had showed him Randy had the Zombie covered if a gun was needed. Phil’s only thought had been that if he could hit the Zombie from the angle that he was at then Kelly wouldn’t be in any danger at all. He also wanted to make sure Randy didn’t have to pull the trigger making a bunch of noise. It’d happened so fast he’d mostly been focused on swinging the tire iron hard enough to do the job in one swing while simultaneously hoping Randy didn’t accidentally shoot him.

  “It was one of those burnt out Zombies.” Randy said walking past him to help the girls get their junk together.

  “Ok.” Phil said. He was still at a loss as to why anyone cared about him bashing in the burnt-out woman’s head. He’d already gathered his stuff together and was just wondering where Bryan was at. They had an alternate rally point they could head to if needed but it hadn’t be
en that long yet.

  Kelly was starting to think they should plan on leaving without Bryan when the scouting party finally returned. They stepped out of the trees doing their best not to look like Zombies. That was a good thing since there were five rifles aimed at them the second that they emerged from the trees. Everyone was on edge after the Zombie burnout randomly appearing in the middle of the camp. That’d worked out ok but if it’d been a group of regular Zombies then it could’ve gone a whole different direction. There were zero acceptable losses when the victims would be their children.

  “Where’ve you guys been?” Randy asked. He kept his voice low. It evidently wasn’t low enough though. Bryan instantly shushed him and made motions with his hand for everyone to keep the noise down.

  Bryan looked over at the pile of pine straw they’d raked over the dead Zombie. In a world covered in corpses Kelly didn’t see any reason to expose her girls to any more death than absolutely necessary. She was proud of how Myriah and Caitlyn stepped up when needed but she really wanted to get back to a world where they weren’t needed so much. Bryan motioned for the adults to all gather around.