Zombie Waltz (Book 2)

by Lynn E. Main

  I step in front of the desk and see the chairs sitting there, smile to myself and sit down. “Is this okay? Or would you prefer we go down to the principal’s office?”

  Gretchen frowns at me but Ian cracks a smile. He wipes it away and looks over at Phillip who is glowering at him. “Look, I am sorry. I know we got off to a bad start. These guys…” She indicates towards Nick and Kim, “They think you are the greatest. I know you are trying to do right by the boy that got shot too…it’s just…”

  “I think I understand…”

  “No, you don’t. We are not like you; not brave or anything like that. Ever since we got here we have been hiding from anyone who happens by. We haven’t even had to fight off too many of those things. We were happy; getting pretty used to it here. We just wanted to have some kind of a normal life.”

  “And I am messing that up?” I ask, lifting my shoulders and eyebrows.

  “I know you want to help us…but we just don’t want your help.” Gretchen finishes.

  “We do think it is best that you leave when your friend is feeling a bit better, but until then, we are going to find another classroom to stay in.” Phillip says. Ian smiles thinly at me as Phillip reaches down and unlocks the brakes on Gretchen’s wheelchair. He pulls her out the way Ian did and wheels her toward the door. Ian follows with his head hung. He turns back before walking out and pushes his glasses up on his nose. He gives me a tight nod, then quickly turns and rushes out the door after the others. Nick walks over to the table where Kevin is lying and looks over at me.

  “We are goingto move for the night too, just to the next classroom over. It is pretty clean…and weare going to tryto get some rest.” He nods his head atme. The bruises under his eyes are diminishingand his swollen lip is down. He is healing.

  “Okay.” I say. He squeezes Kevin’s shoulder, looking down at him for a moment then turns back to Kim and Jason who are slowly walking towards the door.

  When they leave, I am alone. Faith is right out in the hallway, but honestly it is a relief that everyone has cleared out. I go through the supplies and grab some blankets and pillows and build a little nest right by the table Kevin lies on. Faith walks in and looks down at me as I am smoothing out a spot.

  “I guess they wanted some space.” She says.

  “It’s better this way. I was going to go look for a private place anyway, but now I don’t have to.” I motion around the classroom. She smiles and sits down on our bedding.

  “What about Chris?”

  “He won’t come off the roof.” I say, as I lie down next to her.

  “Should we go up and check on him?”

  “Iwill when I wake up.” I say as I close myeyes and lean into her. She continues talking but I must have been more tired than I realized. Before I know it, I’m out.

  Bitch

  After Jill walks, back to the tent, she takes three big breaths and tries to calm her wild excitement, unzips the door, kneels and enters. She knows an overlysunnydisposition will set Lynne off and shewould rather keep her good mood to herself for a while.

  Inside, Lynne sits cross-legged with a brush in her hand, combing through the little girl’s hair. It is already as straight and neat as it could possibly be without shampoo, conditioner or electricity for a straightener, but Lynne continues. The little girl does not seem to mind. She is playing with a little metal lunch pail. Jill stares for a moment at her birthmark. It is a perfect egg of pink-red in the center of her right cheek. It seems to be fractured at the top like an opening bloom, and with a single thick tendril running straight down across her soft jawline for about an inch.

  Rose bats her bright brown eyes at Jill. She smiles at her. Jill cannot help but smile back. The smile does not fade easily from her face and she covers her mouth with her hand just before Lynne looks up at her. She pretends to stifle a yawn. “What are you girls up to?” She asks.

  Lynne has been a terror since they lost Brian. Pissed off at the bikers all the time and usually pissed off at Jill too. At least she has some patience with the little girl, Jill muses. She had been right behind Jill, staring at the back of her head and running next to Brian. He had his fingers interlaced in hers. Suddenly his grip tightened and then loosened to nothing and he slipped away. The biker had been just in front of them. He had a gun pointed.

  The zombies had been just behind them. A whole damn horde of them and as soon as Lynne turned, one had ahold of Brian. If he had gone down because of them he would have been bitten. His grip would have released slowly or maybe not at all. And maybe it was an accident that RJ shot him. But Lynne still blameshim –truthfullyblames them all- accident or not.

  Lynne voices her suspicions of the bikers every chance she gets. She told Jill that she believed Brian was shot on purpose, so other men didn’t stand in the bikers’ way of doing whatever they wanted.

  On that point, Jill had to agree. It had been a strange couple of days living with these men. The thing is, Jill never really saw any of the other women. Theyhadmostlystayed frightenedin their tents. She shrugs it off though. If she were not sharing a tent with Lynne and Rose, she would never see them either.

  Jill lies on her cot and pulls the corner of her open sleeping bag over her. “I think Les is alive.” She blurts out, smiling now at the roof of the tent.

  “That is impossible. You know…” Lynne starts, but Jill is going to be heard out.

  “I was out there, not hiding in here. The biker kid, RJ, came back; shot.” She starts.

  “Good.” Lynne retorts, her thin line of a mouth barely moving.

  “By Les…”

  Lynne brushes Rose’s hair maybe 5 times a day. The little girl will have the best-looking hair in the apocalypse…of that Jill is certain. Lynne had brushed her hair until they met Rose, and although it has been getting a little wilder, she is glad that Lynne doesn’t anymore. She spends all day brushing the little girl’s hair instead.

  She says it helps her think and stay calm. Jill thinks it helps her stay numb. She is afraid that when they are attacked, as they inevitably will be, that Lynne won’t make it out. “How could that possibly be?” Lynne finally asks.

  “The guy that got shot described him, well his injuries at least.” “There could be a lot of guys these days with cut up faces, Jill. Sweetie, I doubt…”

  “And the bite. A lot of guys with big hunks of their arm taken out? Are there going to be a bunch of those? The man they have tied up out there thinks it is the guy he is looking for too.” Jill points out.

  Lynne looks up. Her eyes narrow. She starts to speak slowly, “What do you mean?”

  “RJ said the ‘Kid’ that shot him had a bite on his arm and scars on his face, including a big one across his forehead.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything. We saw him, Jill. He is…”

  “You don’t know that…we didn’t know that. We didn’t know anything. We just left him there. We left because we were scared and you know it. Look what good that did us.”

  “I saw him. He is dead, Jill…just like Brian.”

  “The man by the fire pit was asking about him…by name.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know but I think it is him. I know it is him. He must have still been alive, and somehow –I don’t know- survived and got to that school.”

  “Jill, we know a zombie bit him. Even if he is still alive, for how longcould he possiblystaythat way? Remember Tara and Shaun and Bret and…Daniel.”

  “We don’t knowifDaniel turnedor not. We just saw him get taken down.”

  “They were tearing him apart. You know he turned. Everyone turns and so did Les. We should have taken care of it. It would be better. You could move on. I mean, didn’t you already?”

  That last part stings. Jill sits up and crosses her arms defiantly. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “With Bret.” Lynne retorts sharply, a knowing look on her face.

  “That was before. And I don’t recall you having anyproblem with it then
.”

  “That’s even worse. I didn’t say anything because you are my friend. But you claim to still be in love with Les. You have claimed that eversince this shit started. Well it is certainlyconvenient that you realized you love him now that he is gone. But that didn’t stop you from sleeping with Bret, did it?”

  “We were broken up.”

  “You are still broken up.” Her words make the tears Jill is fighting to hold back start tostream down her cheeks. Lynne has a look on her face like she is about to cry for a moment and then as if she shakes it away, her eyes dry and she says, “We need to get out of here, Jill…” pleading soberly. “These men are going to do terrible things to us. I can see it in the way they look at me. Have you seen any of the other women in this camp? We are all prisoners.” Lynne says.

  “I think the man I love may still be alive. We are going to try to find him.” Jill smiles at Rose. “We can’t leave until we know if it’s him or not.” She looks back at Lynne and the smile drains from her face.

  “Even if he is alive, you broke up with him for a reason. He was nothing but a drunk. Then you went to a party, ran in to one of his best friends and slept with him…on practically the same day!” Lynne says matter-of-factly and then has the nerve to smile at Jill.

  “You bitch.” Jill unzips the tent. She looks out at the bikers still gathered around the fire pit. She stands and walks at a swift pace in the opposite direction. A cat-call follows her but she ignores it. Jill is well practiced at that. She quickly climbs down the ladder off the roof and stomps down the stairs.

  She finds a small grove at the edge of the parking lot where the brown earth turns to sand. She marches into it and finds a pine with a bed of needles around it. She sits with her back to the tree and cries.

  Jill hugs her knees up against herchest for whatseems like forever. She hears someone approaching and instinctively scrambles to stand.

  “Take it easy. It’s just old Rodney.” The aging biker appears from around the tree. “Saw you take off and thought I should check on you.” He looks her up and down, grinning. Jill flashes him a fake smile.

  “Are you going after the guy that shot your son?”

  “Damn straight.”

  “Tonight?”

  “I’d like to…” He trails off and looks back towards the motel, “…but Junior isn’t feelingverygood…first time shot and all…” He seems worried. “He went to lie down a while in his tent. The rest of us were thinking about breaking out some whiskey we have squirreled away to pass the evening. Then we are going to ride out at first light. You want to join us? For the drinks…I mean…not for the ride.” Rodneyis still smiling broadly but fully expects Jill to make an excuse not to come.

  “Sure. I could use a drink. It has been a shitty couple of weeks anyway. If you know what Imean?” She looks up at him hoping to appear sultry and mischievous, though she has no eye shadow and probably just looks desperate…but that might work too.

  The Cool Kids

  The room is still dark. I feel beside me and find Faith, curled in a ball. She had rolled away from me in the night, but she is there; she is very much real. She moans and then shifts. “Hey are you okay?”

  “Yeah…” I reply.

  “You screamed.”

  “Just a bad dream is all…” I sit up and then start to rise.

  “Where you going?” Faith asks, now sitting up as well. With a little help from the moon shining in the window, I can see part of her face. She looks very tired. Her blue eyes are black in the dark and the flesh beneath them is purplish. They remind me of my dream. I fight the urge to shiver.

  “I’m goingto check on Chris. He has been up on the roof all night. Plus, I really don’t feel like waking up to another surprise like the one at the hospital.”

  “I’ll come with you.” She yawns and stretches.

  “That’s okay…”

  “I know it is okay but I want to…I need some fresh air and a cigarette.” She stands and I smile at her in the moonlight and sweep her up against me.

  “Let’s go then.” As we walk out, Faith grabs her shotgun and cigarettes off the last lab table before the door.

  “You want one?” Faith says in the hall as she offers me her open pack.

  “No. I think I will quit. I always liked them but…I just don’t want to anymore. I don’t feel like I need to.”

  “Wish I felt that way. I smoked some before, don’t get me wrong…especially when I drank…but not much. But now…” She stops talking to take a drag. “I guess it’s the stress.” She stops and looks at me. I can see her face behind the glowing orange of the ember in the end of her cigarette.

  She drops the lit cigarette in the hallway and smashes it with her tennis shoe. We proceed to the boilerroom where the ladder and trap door to the roof wait.

  “After you.” I say, letting her climb up.

  Chris has a small kerosene lamp lit in the shack on the roof and the yellow light shines across Faith’s skin just as I start up the ladder. I gaze up and follow her toned thigh to the edge of her panty line on her butt beneath the skirt she has on that honestly is a bit short. She is so intoxicating; sometimes it is hard to believe how beautiful she is. I fight the urge to reach up and touch her leg as she lifts herself out of the trap door. Ifollow her up into the vacant shack and then onto the roof. It seems vacant as well.

  An ominous sense of foreboding sets in immediately as I scan from one side of the roof to the other. Where is Chris? I begin to worry until I hear a cough. It is coming from behind the shack. We creep around it and right away I am hit with a pungent odor that is unmistakable.

  There is a low awning attached to the roof-shack and beneath it is a window unit air conditioner. Chris huddles just below that with a joint in his hand and his othercovering his mouth as he turns, surprised byFaith and me.

  “Oh, shit!” Chris exclaims. “Sorry…um…”

  “It’s okay man. I won’t narc you out to the principal.” Faith and I snicker.

  “I never really smoke pot. I…well I tried it I mean. I was afraid of…I don’t know…getting caught I guess.” He says, shyly as he somewhat reluctantly places the joint awkwardly between his lips and sucks at it again. It is a pregnant mess and besides that it looks as if he’s gone and punched a carburetor into it. But it is smoking well and after he breathes out, Chris starts choking loudly.

  “Stuff must be good.” I say with a grin.

  “Yeah…” Chris says and smiles. His face is a little different. His eyes look smaller and his cheeks are redder. He offers me the smoking joint but something inside of me doesn’t really want any. Any day before now I would have taken it and puffed away hands down, but not today.

  “No thanks.” I say.

  Chris looks at Faith and bats his eyes. She had covered her mouth to laugh and still stands there, slightly shaking her head at Chris as if she is thrilled beyond measure. “Do you uh…” He starts to ask.

  To my surprise, “Sure!” She says enthusiastically. She reaches down and takes the joint from him. She holds it backwards in her hand and places it in her mouth at the corner. She takes a large hit and blows it out, barreling the smoke all over me.

  “Come on, Dead Boy. All the cool kids are doing it.” She says with a chuckle but then starts coughing. At first, it is small; controlled. Then the cough grows until she is doubled over and I feel a little bad for her. Okay maybe she isn’t exactly Tommy Chong. She finally stops coughing and hands the joint back to Chris, shaking her head. Her eyes are watering and already very red. I laugh again. She has a look like she has been the victim of a joke she didn’t hear for a moment and I stop. Then she starts chuckling and it is almost uncontrollable. Chris and I join in her laughter as they finish the joint.

  Now it’s a party

  Rodney offers Jill a hand, which she takes. She brushes the pine needles from her jeans and allows him to lead her back to the stairs and up onto the roof of the motel. She didn’t expect to be impressed by how large and s
olid his arms are, but she is. Rodney leads Jill back up to the fire-pit. She is relieved to see that the two men have been taken off the ground and sat in chairs. They are still tied up but the black sacks have been removed.

  “Alright, now this is turning into a party.” Shaun Titus says, looking up at Jill and Rodney. Jill wonders if he knows how close he was to getting shot. He should, but whether he does or not, here he sits among the others laughing and drinking just the same.

  He offers her a bottle of Jack Daniels. Jill takes the bottle from him. If I were you I wouldn’t be here. Jill thinks as she tilts it back.

  The hours roll by. The bikers tell all kinds of amazing stories. Most, she hopes are not true, but fears theyare. Jill knocks the bottle back again. This one’s still nearly full. It is the fourth one the bikers have come up with; all Jack Daniels. Jill takes a long draw to the cheers of the two remaining bikers. The other two men still sit around the campfire with them awake, but they do not cheer.

  The one called Petrova has been staring at her every time she drinks and occasionally smiles, knowingly. This one probably makes a couple dozen drinks. If she hadn’t been blocking the mouth of the bottle with her tongue with every swig, Jill knows she would be passed out drunk right now. She also knows that is exactly what Rodney wants to happen. He has traded her drink for drink and doesn’t seem to be getting any drunker.

  Thad left the camp-fire hours ago, RJ not long after him; holding on tight to an ex-banker, Kathy. She had been literally pulled out of her tent after the bikers started to drink and damn near had the bottle forced in her mouth the first time. Jill had to pretend to drink extra-long to avoid watching RJ grope her and rip her blouse open. Rodney must have sensed Jill’s discomfort then because after a forced lap dance, he sent the banker and RJ back to her tent.