Divided We Rot (One Nation Under Zombies Book 3)

by Raymond Lee

  “Can I sit up front now?” Sky asked as he stuffed the backpack and water jugs in the backseat.

  “Yeah, honey. It should be fine now.”

  Sky pulled her backpack out of the seat and dropped it onto the back floor before crawling back over the seats, moving Torres’s bat out of the way. Fortunately he’d made sure the bloody end had only touched the floor, leaving the seat clean.

  “You still need your seatbelt on,” Torres said, sliding back in behind the wheel. He handed her a jug of water and turned on the radio. “We did a lot of walking and running today so drink up. We should have enough gas to get us to a decent gas station to refuel. I’m not trying the one back there. Too many infected in the area. Do me a favor and see if you can find anything transmitting on the radio. It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything.”

  Sky buckled herself in and started searching for anything at all on the radio while Torres got back on the interstate. She tried FM and AM, turning the dial slow, picking up nothing but static. “I don’t think we’re going to—”

  An elongated beep cut her off. She shared a look with Torres as the sound transmitted from the radio. After a moment it cut off and a woman spoke. “If anyone can hear me, if anyone is out there, find shelter and stay where you are. Do not try to find the military. They can not help you.”

  “Torres.”

  He looked at her and shook his head, nodding toward the radio. She turned up the volume.

  “The zombies were the first strike. The bases were the second. The bases are gone. I repeat, the bases are gone. Fort Huachuca was the first. The rest followed after. Nothing is left. If you can hear this message, if you are alive, seek shelter. Stay in hiding and God be with you.” There was another long beep and the woman started reciting the same message.

  “It’s a recording.”

  “Yeah.” Torres reached over and turned the radio off. “I’d rather not keep listening to that message.”

  “The base is gone. She said it’s gone.”

  “I heard that.” Torres chewed his bottom lip.

  “What are we doing? Where do we go?”

  “We’re surviving,” he said, voice firm. “We already knew there was a chance the base wouldn’t be there after we saw what happened to that air force base back in Utah. We have food and water. We have a truck. We have each other. As for where we’re going, we’re going to go wherever we have to go to get through this.”

  Sky looked out the windshield as fluffy white snowflakes blew against it. She thought of Raven, and if she were still alive. Did she know there was no rescue site? Was she alone or did she have someone like Torres helping her out? Did she run into bad people? Had she been infected? Was she a zombie?

  “I’m never going to find Raven, or know if she’s dead or alive, am I?”

  Torres reached over and squeezed her hand. “Someday, honey. I promise we’ll find all the answers someday. In the meantime, we need to take care of us. We’re going to stock up and find a place before these flurries turn into something bigger. These zombies are basically dead people. They have to freeze like us, right? Maybe we just have to make it through winter and once it’s over, all of the zombies will have been frozen and maybe truly dead since they were too frozen to eat people.”

  “They won’t just thaw out and still be monsters?”

  Torres sighed. “I hope not. You really have to start being a little more optimistic, kid.”

  “It’s hard to be when I see monsters all around me.”

  “True dat.”

  “This looks much better than the gas station back by the dealership,” Torres said, driving slowly toward the pumps. “And there’s an auto repair shop next door. I can get what I need to siphon from the reservoir tanks.” He looked over at Sky and shook his head. “Can you hold it while I check it out?”

  Both of Sky’s legs shook as she fought to hold her bladder. “I gotta go bad. It’s your fault for making me drink all that water.”

  “I didn’t tell you to drink that much, and I didn’t expect this freaking blizzard to make going on the road such a bad idea.”

  Sky looked at the blanket of white snow covering the area for as far as she could see. She wasn’t sure if it was an actual blizzard but the snow had been falling steadily since they’d gotten the truck and it was high enough to make squatting to pee outside a bad idea. Torres had joked that it was so cold their pee would turn into icicles before it left them. She didn’t think that was possible, but she didn’t want to risk it.

  Torres sighed and scanned the area as he parked the truck. “You can come with me then. This area is pretty remote so we might get lucky and not run into much trouble. You have your knife and gun just in case?”

  Sky nodded. “I never took the gun off after we lost the Mustang and my knife stays in my pocket.”

  “Good girl. Let’s go.”

  Sky opened her door and climbed down from the truck, sucking wind through her teeth as she dropped shin-deep into snow. “Are we going to be able to keep driving in this?”

  “This is a Ford. It’s built Ford tough.” Torres smiled at her as he rounded the front of the truck, his bat resting against his shoulder. “That said, we can’t keep driving if it keeps snowing so we’re going to have to find a place soon. I’m thinking something with a fireplace so we don’t freeze our asses off.”

  “I’m freezing my ass off now.” Sky slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oops. That slipped out.”

  Torres barked out a laugh. “Don’t worry. You’re not grounded and I wouldn’t waste water washing your mouth out with soap.”

  They trudged through the snow until they reached the gas station. The doors were locked. Torres extracted two thin pieces of metal from his pocket and stuck them inside the lock.

  “Why don’t you just break the glass like you did at the dealership?”

  “I did that because I had no other choice. I didn’t want to give all those zombies time to get to us. We’re not in the same situation here and if there are any around I’d rather not announce our presence by breaking the glass.” He bit out a curse. “This would go a lot faster if my fingers weren’t frozen.”

  “You were slow at this even when it was warm out.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  Sky burrowed into her coat, thankful it had a hood, and watched Torres work. He cursed under his breath as he continued fiddling with the lock, his nose and cheeks growing redder as snowflakes fell onto his uncovered head. Finally, there was a click and he swung the door open. “Stay behind me.”

  They entered the store, quietly pulling the door closed behind them, and looked around. It was dark out but the moonlight reflected off the bright snow, illuminating the world. This gas station was not like the last one they’d scavenged. Display stands had been toppled and people had obviously been inside since the zombies hit as it wasn’t as stocked as the previous one.

  “Stay put,” Torres told Sky as he backed her into a corner and turned around. “Is anyone in here? We’re just coming in to use the bathroom. We aren’t here to hurt anyone.”

  “What are you doing?” Sky whispered. “I thought you didn’t want to announce our presence?”

  “That was before it hit me that we were stepping into a building that has obviously seen visitors since this shit started, visitors who locked the door behind them. Zombies don’t lock doors and I don’t want to get shot in the ass.”

  “Why is everything about your butt? You don’t want to freeze it off, get shot in it… There are other body parts.”

  “Yeah, but it takes a lot of weighted squats to get an ass like this so I don’t want it marred.”

  “Ew.”

  Torres chuckled and stepped forward. “Grab the back of my coat and stay with me.”

  Sky did as told and followed Torres as he crept through the store, bat ready to swing as he made his way across the store floor to the double doors labeled EMPLOYEES ONLY. She kept a watchful eye behind them as they moved forward, his words r
eplaying in her head. She wasn’t nearly as in love with her own body as Torres, but she didn’t want to get shot either.

  “You smell that?” Torres asked after pushing through the doors. “Damn, whatever that is, it stinks.”

  “The whole country stinks,” Sky reminded him. “I don’t think I can even smell anymore. My nose is out of order.”

  “Lucky you, because whatever the hell this is, it’s fucking nasty.” Torres paused to scan the room they were in. Sky could see the backs of the freezer and refrigerators and stacked boxes she assumed to be products sold in the store. There was an area of lockers and a place for staff to hang their coats next to a dry erase board with a schedule written on it. “This way. Damn, it’s getting worse.”

  Torres turned right and Sky followed along, the tail of his coat firmly clenched in her fist. She started smelling what he was talking about as they neared the door labeled MANAGER. She used her free hand to cover her nose and mouth as Torres tentatively turned the knob and opened the door. He’d just barely poked his head through when he jerked back, pulling the door closed, and turned away, gagging. “Holy fucking shit.”

  “Ew, what is it?” Sky asked, backing away as the smell of whatever had escaped that room in the brief moment attacked her like a punch to the face, instantly causing her eyes to tear up. She released her hold on Torres to cover her nose and mouth with both hands. “That’s disgusting.”

  Torres stood still for a moment, his fist in front of his mouth as he breathed deep through it, gathering himself. His face was tinged with green and his nostrils flared in disgust. “Whoever was staying here gave up on life and shot half his fucking face off in there.” Torres squatted down on his haunches and raked his hands through his hair. “It must not have been very long ago. He was still fucking… juicy.” He groaned, quickly stood and lunged over to a nearby wastebasket before depositing the contents of his stomach inside it. “Fuck!”

  “Feel better?’

  “Not even a little bit.” He spit into the wastebasket and stood. “All right. It’s secure back here and on the sales floor. Let’s check out the bathrooms so you can quit dancing.”

  Sky looked down at her legs. She hadn’t even realized she’d been bopping up and down so bad. Torres headed back toward the sales floor and she followed behind, glad to get farther away from the smell of vomit and death. Torres checked behind the checkout counter in case anyone was hiding there and paused long enough at the front of the store to study the outside. “We need to make this quick. The snow is still coming down and I don’t want to chance that truck getting stuck. There’s no way I’m taking shelter here. Freezing to death wouldn’t be the worst part. I’m not sleeping that close to a dead body.”

  He took the narrow hall back to the restrooms and dipped inside the men’s room. He stepped back out a moment later, shaking his head. “People are disgusting,” he said before pushing through the door to the women’s room. “Fuck! Stay back, Sky!”

  Sky backed up until she hit the wall, her heart in her throat as she heard groaning and scuffling inside the women’s room, followed by the sound of Torres’s bat striking bone. There was a loud crashing sound that she prayed wasn’t Torres losing, a lot of cursing in Spanish and then the door opened and Torres gestured for her to come in. “I can’t drag this bitch out. Either she always ordered the entire left side of the menu during her living days or she ate a whole fucking community after she turned.”

  Sky entered the bathroom to see the remains of a large woman in a dark floral muumuu sprawled across the floor, one of her thick arms stretching completely under the stall closest to the sinks as her head lay at an awkward angle against the stall, blood and bone oozing down her face from where Torres had hit her repeatedly with the bat. She smelled awful, but not as bad as the recently dead man in the manager’s office. Still, Sky’s stomach rolled.

  “Go ahead and use the bathroom. I’ll stand guard here.”

  Sky turned toward Torres, noting the green tint to his face again. “First of all, you’re going to throw up again if you stay there. Second, you’ll hear me pee.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Really, Sky? Still with this stuff?”

  “It’s weird for you to be in here while I pee.”

  “You’ll be in a stall. I’m not going to watch you.” He looked over at the heavy woman he’d taken out. “She’s gotta be like four hundred pounds. I’d probably pop out a hemorrhoid trying to drag her out of here. The men’s room is so disgusting I won’t even go in there myself. Are you going to be all right alone in here with this body?”

  Sky had no idea what hemorrhoids were and she had to pee so bad that she couldn’t care less that a stinky dead woman was on the floor. “They only bother me when they’re moving,” she said, pushing him toward the door. “You checked the whole building, now go take care of the gas while I pee. The snow’s still coming down hard, remember?”

  “Fine, but be careful.”

  “I will, I will.” She finished pushing him out of the bathroom and ran for the stall farthest away from the woman’s body. She stepped inside and locked the stall door, cringing as she saw the woman’s fingertips intruding into her space. She kicked at them with her shoe but the woman’s hand didn’t budge.

  “Great,” she muttered. She was hopping from one foot to another, her bladder screaming for release. “She’s dead,” she reminded herself. “I’ll be all right.” She removed her coat and hung it on the door hook so she could move more freely, unfastened her jeans and took care of business, thankful for toilet paper since she hadn’t thought to bring her own from her backpack in the truck. Her jeans were half way back up her thighs when the infected woman’s pudgy hand wrapped around her ankle and yanked.

  Sky screamed as she fell to the cold floor and was pulled under the wall separating the stalls. She reached out, grabbed the wall and pushed with all her strength, but couldn’t break free from the woman’s grip. She let go and struggled to wrench her pocketknife free from her jeans pocket, her hand wrapping around it just as she slid completely under the other stall and the woman’s mouth came down on her hip. She flipped the knife open and rammed the blade into the most mashed-in part of zombie head she could see, piercing the monster’s brain. The woman’s upper body fell away, revealing teeth marks just under the edge of Sky’s underwear. Sky’s eyes filled with tears and her heart slammed against her chest as she saw the first drops of blood start to well above the surface. She’d been too slow with the knife.

  Her breath caught as she heard footsteps pounding toward her followed by Torres’s panicked voice. “Sky?”

  Acting purely on instinct, she scrambled to the door, her jeans around her knees and threw the bolt. “I’m fine!”

  Torres tried the knob, cursing when it didn’t open. “The hell?”

  “I’m fine, Torres!”

  “I heard you scream! Why’s this door locked?”

  “Because I’m in the bathroom!”

  “Why’d you scream?” he asked, the panic in his voice still there.

  Sky’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. She had no idea what she could give as an explanation, but she knew she couldn’t tell him she’d be bitten. He’d have to kill her. She’d told him before that it would be all right if he did, that she would rather die than turn, but now that she’d been bitten and the possibility of him having to kill her had become reality she couldn’t let him do it.

  “Sky? That’s it, I’m breaking this door down.”

  “No!” She looked around the bathroom, desperately trying to think up something to say. Salvation came to her in the form of a large black bug crawling under one of the sinks. “There was a roach!”

  “A roach? You fucking screamed because there was a bug?” The panic in his voice gave way to anger.

  “It was big! I’m fine. Go finish getting the gas. I’ll be right out.”

  He was silent for a moment, no doubt restraining himself from unleashing his anger and frustration on her after having bee
n scared. “All right,” he finally said. “I found what I need to siphon the gas so I’ll be right out front doing that. Once you finish up you might want to see what’s left here to take with us since we might have to hibernate somewhere. Do not fucking scream again unless your life is in danger, understand?”

  “Yes. Sorry.”

  She waited at the door until she heard him walk away, fussing in Spanish, then looked down at her hip where blood had welled up and was about to start running down her leg. With one hand holding up her jeans, she shuffled to the paper towel dispenser and grabbed a handful to wipe away the blood. It wasn’t gushing, the bite not that extreme, but there was enough to stain her clothes if she didn’t seal the wound. She patted the wound, sopping up the blood while using every ounce of control in her body not to let the tears welling in her eyes fall. Torres couldn’t know she was upset. He couldn’t know she was bitten.

  Sky looked at herself in the grimy mirror and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself enough to think. The bite wasn’t that deep. She studied it, thinking maybe no saliva had entered her body. Wasn’t saliva what the news reporters said spread the disease? She looked at her reflection again. Her eyes weren’t white. She didn’t want to eat people. “It can take time to turn,” she whispered to herself, reminding herself she wasn’t out of the woods. She could turn at any time. She thought back to every warning she’d ever heard. Saliva caused the spread. Infected people got really sick and then they died. Then they woke up as monsters. Torres would have to kill her, but she couldn’t let him. She looked over at the zombie, her knife still stuck in its brain and gritted her teeth to keep the tears back. He would never forgive himself if he knew she’d been bitten because he’d failed to kill the zombie and then left her with it. His statement about taking a bullet after her echoed through her mind. More than she was afraid of dying and turning into a monster, she was afraid of Torres blaming himself and doing something awful.