Dead, But Not For Long (Book 2): Pestilence and Promise

by Kinney, Matthew

  “The world has changed, Reynolds. We can do almost anything we want now, and there are no consequences,” Henry said.

  “What about this group that you mentioned? The Vigilarre,” Reynolds said. “You told me that they don’t always approve of your tactics. Would they condone this?”

  “I’ve made it clear that they are not to concern themselves with the day-to-day running of this colony,” Henry snapped. “So far, they have been obliging me. They certainly will understand that the end will justify the means, in this case, since they are the ones who requested I bring in this immune person.”

  Henry held up his phone, showing Lee a picture on it. “This might encourage you to change your mind.”

  Lee’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the photo. “Is that Lindsey?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s the same guy that was on the roof with her last time. I think she called him Hawk,” Reynolds said, staring at the picture. The biker’s arm was around Lindsey and he was smiling at her. “Son of a bitch.”

  Henry fought back a smile. “Oh? You’ve seen them together already? So is she dating this hoodlum?”

  “She said that he was just a friend, but it doesn’t look that way to me,” Reynolds said, the words coming out short.

  “Then maybe it’s too late to try to talk to her if she’s already involved with someone else,” Henry said with a sigh. “It’s too bad. You know it’s only a matter of time before that hospital is overrun. They just don’t have the safety measures in place that we do. I doubt that either Lindsey or the immune person will survive much longer if they stay there.”

  Lee knew that Henry was trying to manipulate him by using the photo, but his points were valid.

  “I need to talk to her. Maybe if she comes here and sees this place she’ll change her mind. It’s got to be soon, before she gets any more involved with this guy.”

  “Shall we go pick her up?”

  “Now?” Reynolds asked, surprised.

  “No time like the present.”

  Lee thought about it for another minute. “Okay, let’s do it. I hope it’s not too late.”

  “Let me handle it,” Henry said, turning to tell one of the maids to bring him his coat. “I can be very persuasive when I need to be. And if she doesn’t agree, just think of it as an intervention. Now, go get the chopper ready. We’ll need the big one.”

  ~*^*~

  ~43~

  St. Mary’s Hospital, Lansing

  The rain was coming down from the gray clouds in a light drizzle as Lindsey huddled beneath the overhang on the small utility shed. She hoped that the weather would keep everyone away from the roof for a while. When she heard footsteps on the stairs, she moved around to the back of the small building, having no desire to talk to anybody.

  The sound of the door flying open was followed by the thud of heavy boots. One of the bikers, she guessed. Moments later, Wombat found her.

  “We need to talk,” he said.

  “I think it’s a little late for that, don’t you?” she asked.

  “It’s not too late until you leave.”

  “Leave?” she asked. “I’m not going anywhere. I told you that.”

  “I thought you changed your mind,” he said.

  “Not a chance,” she said. “Lee’s not the person I thought he was. I told him it was over when he came back to drop Eric off.”

  “Then what was this all about?” he asked. “You said you were going to be giving me some space, and for the last two days you’ve refused to ride with me and have barely said a word to me. I don’t get it, Lindsey.”

  “I just can’t be around you anymore,” she said. “I thought I could do it, but every time I hear Roberta’s name mentioned, it’s like a stab to the heart.”

  “Why?” he asked, looking bewildered.

  “Because of how I feel about you,” she sighed. “I thought maybe you and I were going to get together, and then Roberta came along. I get it — things change. And I really do hope that you have a fantastic life. You deserve to be happy, even if it’s with her instead of me.”

  “What is this problem you have with my bike?” he asked. “You almost sound jealous.”

  “Your bike? What does your bike have to do with anything?” she asked.

  “That’s my question,” he said. “You’re the one who keeps bringing it up.”

  “I never said a word about your bike,” she replied.

  “You just did,” he said. “And downstairs you said something about Roberta going in your place.”

  “What does Roberta have to do with your bike?” she asked.

  “Roberta is my bike.”

  For a moment, Lindsey stared at him while she replayed scenes from the previous few days in her head.

  “I thought Roberta was that blonde from the school.”

  “What blonde?” he asked.

  It was Lindsey’s turn to look confused. “You were with her in the ER. After I talked to Lee the other day, I went to find you. You had your hand on her hip, and she had her chest in your face.”

  He groaned and shook his head. “It figures you’d walk in right then,” he said, “that wasn’t what it looked like.”

  He explained the situation with the blonde to her. When he was done, she closed her eyes, not able to look at him right away.

  “You came up and asked if I saw your new toy . . .”

  “I meant the bike,” he grinned.

  “I know that now,” she said, her face reddening.

  “You should know me better than that,” he added.

  “I was very surprised by the comment,” she admitted, looking down at her feet.

  “And then I said something about her being a beauty.”

  “You sure did,” she said, managing a slight grin. “I feel like such an idiot. I was sure you’d found a girlfriend.”

  “Lindsey, I want to be with you. When I finally tried to tell you that, I thought you ran off to Reynolds.”

  “I only went to talk to him,” she said. “Whatever it was we used to have, it’s gone now. Maybe it was never really there.”

  “I could have told you that,” Wombat said.

  “Oh? Please enlighten me,” she said with a smile. “How did you know that it wasn’t meant to be?”

  He placed his hands on the wall on either side of her head and leaned closer. “You didn’t go with him. If you had really liked the guy, you would have gone with him when he first asked you to.”

  “Possibly,” she said.

  “And he didn’t try hard enough to get you to go with him,” he added. “I would have thrown you over my shoulder and carried you to the helicopter.”

  Though completely unnerved by his nearness, she laughed. “You would not,” she said.

  “Yes, I would have. I would have let you go if you’d insisted, but at least you would have known how I felt,” he said, his face just inches from hers.

  “How do you feel, David?” she asked quietly. She held her breath as she waited for the answer.

  “Why don’t I just show you?” he asked. He closed the distance between them and kissed her.

  ~*~

  Whispering Springs, Nevada

  Miranda gave them a quick tour of the house once Rayburn’s bandage was in place. After showing them most of the inside, she took them outside through the French doors in the family room. Dan saw a fairly large yard that was in the process of being dug up. There was also a pool.

  “Do you still have running water?” he asked her.

  “So far,” she said. “I’m keeping the pool full so I’ll have that if the water stops.”

  “Do you know how to treat it?”

  She hesitated then shook her head. “Not really. I’m not exactly a prepper. I have been starting to read up on this stuff, but I haven’t gotten to the water yet.”

  “I can give you some tips,” Dan said. “I’m not an expert, either, but I would be happy to pass on what I do know.”

  “I’d appre
ciate that,” she said, looking a little relieved. “I know I can get a lot of this online, but it seems like I spend too much time digging for answers.”

  “When we go back inside, I’ll go over it with you in case you want to write any of it down.”

  “Thanks,” Miranda said. She led them around to the side of the house and pointed to a solid-looking cinder block wall.

  “I tore out the gates and built that wall. It isn’t pretty, but it keeps the dead out,” she said. “The rest of the yard was already walled in, like most of the houses in the neighborhood.”

  Dan nodded, noticing that the blocks weren’t all exactly in line, and there was some extra mortar between them, but he pushed against the wall, and it felt as sturdy as it looked.

  “So, when did you put up the bars on the window and build the wall?” he asked her.

  “I got the bars installed about a week after I heard about the outbreaks in Lansing and Salt Lake City,” she said. “We got the materials for the wall shortly after that, but I didn’t start building it right away. I hoped that I wouldn’t need to. I started stocking up on supplies and bought some survival items online.”

  “You didn’t think it was a hoax or anything? Seems like nobody believed it at first,” he said. “At least the people I talked to didn’t.”

  “I just had a bad feeling about it,” she admitted. “I have a couple of friends who are into dystopian fiction, and they love to talk about all these scenarios. We used to get together once a week at the local wine bar and have a few drinks. Sometimes we’d talk about things like nuclear war or a supervolcano eruption. I think we covered just about every possibility except this one.”

  “Still, discussing it in a hypothetical way is a little different from actually putting a plan into action,” he said.

  “When the reports came out about Lansing, people were laughing about it,” Miranda told him. “I remember seeing something on the news one night. The newscasters were joking and smiling about the zombies, but I got online and found some things that made me think that maybe it wasn’t a joke. It almost seemed as though something was being covered up. I didn’t think that there were actually flesh-eating zombies running around, but there were reports of people attacking each other, mostly in Central America and Colombia. I also noticed that a lot of these reports weren’t there when I went back to the bookmarks. Just to be safe, I started getting ready. I figured that if I was wrong, I’d tear the bars out later, and we wouldn’t have to buy groceries for a while, but I wasn’t wrong. I wish I had been.”

  When they walked back into the yard, Dan nodded toward the pile of dirt and grass. “Planting a garden?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “I already had a small one, but I’m expanding. If this thing lasts for a while, I’m going to end up running out of food.”

  Dan and Rayburn glanced at each other.

  “What?” she asked, catching the look that passed between the two men.

  “It’s just that we don’t think it’s going to end,” Rayburn said. “I mean, the zombies and the parasite could die off, but the world is probably going to be changed for a long time.”

  Miranda was silent for a moment. “I guess you’re right,” she finally said. “I just keep hoping that someone is still in charge out there that can pull things together.”

  She looked up at them suddenly. “Wait, why do you say it’s a parasite? I haven’t heard that.”

  “It’s something we learned when we were in California,” Dan said, intentionally keeping his answer vague.

  They went back inside, and George finally pulled Dan aside when Miranda went to get some laundry out of the dryer.

  “Should we show her the DVD?” he asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Dan said, having asked himself the same question. “It might put her in danger if anybody ever comes looking for us.”

  “We left a copy with Ryan and Emily,” George pointed out.

  “I know,” Dan said, keeping his voice low, “but Ryan and Emily are well armed, and they know how to stay hidden. I think they can take care of themselves. I’m not so sure about Miranda.”

  “That’s true. They might kill anybody that knows too much.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking,” Dan said.

  ~*~

  St. Mary’s Hospital, Lansing

  It wasn’t until they heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter that Wombat lifted his head. “He has the absolute worst timing ever. I thought he said he’d be back in a week.”

  “That’s what he told me,” Lindsey replied. “He’s early.”

  “I’m staying up here,” Wombat said, still not letting go of her. “If the guy threatened you last time, who knows what he’ll do when he finds out you haven’t changed your mind about going with him.”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea?” she asked. “I don’t want him freaking out because I didn’t come alone.”

  “I’m staying. Period. Just tell him I’m on guard duty if he has a problem with me being here.”

  He reluctantly stepped away before the helicopter came into view. Zipping up his racing jacket, he wandered over to the edge of the roof and looked out over the city.

  ~*~

  “Helicopter?” Moose asked Hawk, who was in the crow’s nest with him at the time. Most of the others had gone to help with the harvest. Snake had been nervous about leaving the hospital so unprotected, so he had left the best two shooters, Moose and Gunner. Fish, Dumbo, and Hawk had also stayed.

  “Sounds like it,” Hawk said. “The guy wasn’t supposed to be back for a few more days. I’ll head up there and check it out.”

  “Maybe I should go, too,” Moose said. “I know Snake’s worried that Reynolds might do something.”

  “He also wants us to keep a low profile. Too many guys up there might make Reynolds nervous, and things could escalate,” Hawk said, sticking a cigarette into the corner of his mouth. “I’ll go alone. Let me have the radio in case there’s trouble.”

  “I don’t have it,” Moose said, looking around. “I think I left it downstairs.”

  “Can you run down and get it, or see if Gunner can give Snake a call? I need to get up there.”

  “All right,” Moose said, leaving the room.

  ~*~

  Hawk walked out onto the roof, nodding at Lindsey before he walked over to join Wombat.

  “You’re nuts, mate,” Wombat said, looking at his friend who was just wearing a t-shirt. The rain had let up, but the morning was still chilly.

  “I was in the crow’s nest,” Hawk said, cupping his hands to light a cigarette. “I didn’t want to go to my room to get my jacket. Lindsey’s buddy is a little early, I see.”

  “I don’t like it,” Wombat said, keeping his eyes on the city, rather than the helicopter.

  “Did you talk to her?” Hawk asked before taking a drag on his cigarette. “She was pretty upset about something when I was up here a while ago.”

  “It was just a misunderstanding,” Wombat told him.

  “Good,” Hawk said.

  “She thought Roberta was a woman.”

  “She what?” Hawk laughed.

  Keeping his voice low, Wombat explained the story.

  ~*~

  Lindsey walked to where she could see the helicopter as it touched down on the roof. She noticed right away that the aircraft was larger than the one that Lee usually brought, and she wondered if it might not be him after all. Once she could see the co-pilot, she realized that it was the same man that Lee had brought along when he’d returned Eric to the hospital.

  She glanced over at Wombat, and their eyes met briefly before she looked away again.

  It was a few minutes before Lee finally stepped out and walked over to where Lindsey stood.

  “You’re a little early,” she said.

  He looked over at the two bikers who were standing near the edge of the roof. His eyes narrowed when he recognized Hawk. “Him again?”

  “Smoke break,” she
said with a shrug, trying not to let her nervousness show.

  “You must think I’m stupid, Lindsey. He’s up here every time I come to see you. Do you have something going on with him? Is that why you don’t want to go with me?”

  “I already told you why I don’t want to go with you,” she said.

  He watched the bikers for a moment. “How long will they be up here? I want to talk to you privately.”

  “They can’t hear us,” she said. “Not with the helicopter making so much noise.”

  He looked at her again. “So you’re not going with me?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “I had a feeling that’s what you’d say.”

  Lindsey was aware that Wombat was watching them closely, and she hoped that Lee wouldn’t notice it. Fortunately his attention seemed to be fixed on Hawk.

  Raising his voice to be heard, Reynolds yelled over to the two bikers, “Hey, why don’t the two of you go inside for a while so we can talk without an audience?”

  “Can’t do that, mate,” Wombat said. “We’re on guard duty.”

  “Stay here,” Reynolds told Lindsey, walking over to the helicopter.

  Lindsey grew tense as she saw him speak to someone inside. When an older gentleman stepped out, she relaxed a little. He had white hair, a neatly-trimmed beard, and a general grandfatherly appearance about him. They approached Lindsey together.

  “This is Henry,” Lee said. “He runs things at the place where I’m staying.”

  “And you must be Lindsey,” the man said, though he didn’t offer his hand.

  “Yes, I am,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “I would much rather handle this without any unpleasantness,” Henry said, glancing at the two bikers before turning his attention back to Lindsey. “Perhaps you can answer a question, and we’ll be on our way.”

  “What’s the question?” she asked.