Zombie Waltz (Book 2)

by Lynn E. Main

Lynne was invited out after Rose fell asleep but she declined and no one forced her. Shaun Titus lumbered off with a girl that Jill had never seen before. He pulled her out of his tent at roughly the same time Kathy was summoned by RJ, and in the same fashion.

  Jackie, the short bald and scarylooking one that never reallytalks, sits on Rodney’s other side, opposite of Jill. He takes the bottle when it is passed to him, drinks and looks sober as a church mouse. These men can really hold their liquor. Jill can imagine Rodney waiting for her to pass out, then picking her up and carrying her in his strong arms to his tent. Jackie may have made a deal that he could have Lynne if Rodney got her. The thought makes her shudder but she pretends it is just the whiskey.

  “Yooooou…surre can drink, guuuurly!” Rodney says, finally. He may be drunker than he had been letting on.

  “Oh, thank you.” Jill says politely, but then worries that she sounds much too sober.

  There is no reply. Rodney has tilted his head towards her and in the shadows, she can only see his forehead and the tip of his nose. His mouth looks open as if he plans to say something. But he sits perfectly still and never does.

  Jill holds her breath. After about 15 seconds, Rodney’s head rocks back and he starts to snore loudly. Jackie doesn’t move but his breathing has become louder and more regular. “Oh, thank God!” Jill exclaims in a hushed voice, pushing all her breath out and smiling as Jackie starts to snore right along with Rodney.

  “Yes, well done.” A smooth crisp and clear voice says to her from across the campfire. Jill jumps, startled and it disturbs Rodney. She turns to him wide-eyed and her hand flies to her mouth. She holds her breath, releasing it only when Rodney begins snoring again. She whips her head around and both men, Mr. Petrova with a particularly animated face, stare at her, grinning.

  She thought the other man, Patrick, might be asleep but both look just asawakeasshe is. She prefers it that way. Earlierin the night, Rodney decided he wanted to talk to Mr. Petrova. He had argued with the man for a while about the need to keep the Dead Boy alive. Jill’s breath caught several timeswhenRodneymentioned him. She had done her best to mask any deeper thoughts. A mask that these two apparently saw through.

  “Thank you.” She replies, grinning right back. She stands and dusts her jeans nervously and then leans over Rodney and carefully pads at his pockets with her hands. She feels a hard object and as carefully as possible reaches in and pulls out a pocket knife.

  He had shown it to her several times, proud of how sharp it was. She wonders as she opens it and eyes the blade right in front of him, how proud would he be if he woke with it sticking out of his chest and his throat slit? She turns the knife and it catches a glint of the dying fire light. She smiles and then walks over to the other men again.

  With her left hand pressed against her lips in a fist and her pointer finger sticking up as if she is thinking. “Okay Mr. Petruva…I have a new deal for you.”

  “It’s Petrova.” He says. She hadn’t been certain if she could trust these men. However, one thing is certain, she can’t trust Rodney. But he was right. These men are dangerous; she can tell. She knows sheprobably has a better chance of seeing Les alive again with them, though. If he is alive, she will need him to stay that way and she is not so sure the bikers would allow that. RJ talked around the campfire all night about how he was going to torture the guy before he killed him. Twice Rodney looked over at Mr. Petrova and reassured him that they still intended to deliver the kid alive if he was indeed the one Mr. Petrova was looking for.

  “If you find that boy what are you going to do with him? Are you going to kill him?” She asks, after a drawn-out silence.

  “Why do you care?” Mr. Petrova replies with his own question, no longer grinning.

  “Did you hear his name? Was it Les?”

  “I think so.” Patrick adds. “Les…yeah that is what his girlfriend called him.”

  Jill’s world shatters. She stutters out, “Uh…girlfriend?”

  “Yeah that was it…Les…I’m sure of it. Why? You know him?” Patrick asks again.

  “I think so.” Jill replies, barely audible.

  “So, if he has a girlfriend, do you still care if I kill him?” Mr. Petrova asks.

  “Yes!” Jill says instantly, a bit too loudly. Jackie is the one that stirs this time.He grumbles something about Sam knocking off his racket. He leans his head on Rodney’s shoulder and then promptly returns to snoring.

  “How can you be sure you know him?” Petrova continues.

  She couldn’t look long but she will never forget the ribbons of red slashed across his face and chest. His arms were black with bruises and both hands gloved in blood. He did look dead, but maybe…a lot has changed in a short time. Her Les has probably changed quite a bit. He had always had to be good at adapting and overcoming.

  “Lady, if you do me a favor and lend me that knife, I will personally make sure these bikers don’t touch the kid…at least not until you are sure if he’s your boyfriend or not.” Patrick says.

  Jill makes up her mind at that and circles behind Mr. Petrova and Patrick. She finds the knotted cords on Patrick’s wrists and starts sawing through them as fast as she can, “If you are after this guy, how can you not know if you want to kill him or not?” She asks while she works.

  “We don’t want to kill him.” Mr. Petrova admits. “Still, your friend might want to kill us.”

  “Why would he want that? Les wouldn’t kill anyone.” She asks, a little mortified.

  “He did this.” Mr. Petrova says, pointing at his face and indicating blackened bruises under his eye and his cut lip.

  Pebbles Shake

  Faith giggles for quite a while after she smokes. We all do, but later she becomes very somber and the conversation turns serious. She talks about high school and college and the little girl she lost. After she confesses that she lied to me because she did not want to explain her involvement with the foster care system and Rose, she cries. I mostly listen. We sit on the roof for hours. When the sun starts to rise, I’m dumbfounded.

  The three of us are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the south wall of the school with our legs dangling over the edge. It is clear and the skies are alive with purples and reds and yellows. The fierce orange sun is the crown in the skies firmament. It is a breathtaking view. I allow myself to hope that with a start like this, today will be a good day.

  Faith kicks her legs back over the ledge and stands, dustingherself off. “I am going to check on Kevin, then I might lay back down for a while.” We both turn and look up at her. She grins at Chris and says, “Thank you.” And then she laughs. She looks back at my face, and raises her eyes, almost like an invitation.

  “I am going to stay for a minute.” I say.

  She jerks her head in a nod and turns, allowing a tiny smirk to appear on her face when I wink at her.

  I turn back to the tiny pebble on the ledge that I was just zoning out on. Chris watches after her and when she is well out of hearing range asks, “Did you feel that?”

  “I didn’t feel anything but I think I saw something.” “It felt like a tremor. What did you see?”

  “This pebble shook.”

  “Like because of a tremor?”

  “I don’t know…do fucking pebbles shake normally on their own or what?” The tiny white pebble jumped just slightly up from the surface of the ledge where Faith had been sitting. It was as if the whole school moved under the pebble but just slightly.

  I had wanted to go back downstairs with Faith and lie down for a while. She had her hand on my leg and had been gazing up at me out of red slits for eyes. But just before she stretched and stood, I had seen the pebble move. I am sure I know what it means, but I intend to be certain. Chris has his rifle up and is looking all around. First, he aims at the trees across the driver’s ed. course then down the road. “Well?” I ask.

  He pulls the rifle down. “I don’t see anything…” He says and then pauses and looks at me knowingly for a moment, �
�…but I have felt that before.”

  “Okay.” I say, but I am not. “Okay.” I say again and pause.

  “Les, I can…”

  “No. It’s okay…it’s okay.”

  “Les”

  “Okay…I guess…um. Let’s…”

  “Les!”

  “No, it’s…”

  “Dead Boy!” He screams in my face, grabbing my shoulders. There is a look on Chris’s face that I have never seen before. I think maybe…resentment.

  “Sorry…I”

  “It’s okay, but…what should we do?”

  “Let’s go downstairs back towards School Avenue. Get past that tree line and maybe we can see more.”

  “Okay…are you okay?” Chris asks. His face has returned to the honest wholesomeness that I have come to expect.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” I’m not. I am sure the rumble is a tidal wave of undead cannibals who are moments away from descending on the school…but why can’t we see them? Where are they? Chris is right. We should have seen signs of that wave or wall or whatever by now.

  We start walking to the shack and Chris stops and turns around. “Did you feel that?” He asks.

  At first, I think that he is imagining things. But Chris is nothing if not level-headed these days and careful. He did feel something. It might have just been something like the pressure shift in a house when lightning strikes somewhere not close, but not far. I felt it too but I must have dismissed it subconsciously as just that.

  Ilook up. Not a cloud in the sky. Idon’t remember it havingrained since the night of my accident/DUI. I try to imagine that it must have rained one night, at least, while we slept in the house or mortuary or hospital or school, but that must have been a dream. This is south Florida; three weeks without rain is a drought. There was a damn hurricane the night of my accident. I know that because I wrecked into the pole after a hurricane party at the Brownstone. I think all this while Chris stares silently at the sky with me.

  “What?” He asks.

  “Has it rained?”

  “No.” He replies with a grimace. “It hasn’t…that isn’t thunder.” There has not been one drop of rain –or anything I would call typical Florida weather- since all of this started happening; maybe even before that. I look at Chris and he must see the urgency on my face because he carefully slides the rifle around behind his back on its shoulder strap.

  We both take off in a dead heat for the shed. We fly downstairs through the science department and bound through the empty dark hallway. Ourfootsteps echo chasingafterus. It is nostalgic ofthe run from the hospital.

  Ian emerges from a classroom across from the lab we commandeered. I slow and can suddenly hear faint weeping sounds through the second door of our holdout. I stop. Chris passes me but slows and stops several paces after me. He turns and shrugs. I shake my head and reach for the door. I turn the handle and push it open. Chris follows me inside.

  Faith lies over Kevin, crying. He is covered with a white sheet that is severely drenched in the middle with a big round dark red stain. Kim stands over Faith with a hand on her shoulder, weeping as well. Some People’s Priorities

  Rodney wakes with a start, Jackie’s head still resting on his shoulder. His mouth is open, exposing his rotten teeth. He is drooling. Rodney shrugs his shoulder away and Jackie’s head drops. He jumps up.

  “Shit! Must have passed out right where we sat…” Rodney mumbles, rubbing his eyes and squinting at the four empty bottles of bourbon scattered at his feet. “That little Filly must be passed out somewhere around here. I think I am going to go wake her up and make her fuck me for getting me so drunk last night.” He announces, really to no one. He looks across the fire and the two chairs where the men sat bound are deserted. Theirbindings are lyingin a pile on the ground behind the chairs.

  Rodneysuddenlyrealizeshis captives are gone. He shouts, “Wake up, you maggots! They’re gone!” There is an immediate roar of movement and yellingfrom within RJ’s tent. Rodneyignoresit and moves toward the tent where his harem had been waiting. The flap is unzipped so he tosses it aside and crouches, looking in. “Hey girly…must be pretty hung over huh?”

  No one is there. There are no sleepingbags. He hears Shaun’sloud vice saying “What the fuck?” from across the way. Rodney turns and stands. His smile is gone; probablyforever now. Oh, he will find that little brunette bitch and when he does, rape is going to be the least of her worries.

  Jackie runs up from the direction of Thad’s tent breathless, “All of the women are gone, the prisoners too, and they have cleaned us out of water and food.”

  “All of them? The girl with RJ and the one Shaun had last night too?”

  “Everyone…we are the only ones here.”

  Thad approaches the fire-pit where Shaun stands, scratching his ass next to RJ who looks so hot that his head might explode. Rodneynods at Jackie and then walks up to join the others. “It looks like everyone has run out on us; doesn’t matter though. We have a good idea where they will be going. Let’s get what’s left of our gear loaded up and go get ‘em back.” Rodney says. The others nod and grumble in agreement. RJ and Shaun go to their tents and Thad and Jackie take gear down to ready their bikes. Thad looks up at Rodney and shakes his head just before departing the roof-camp.

  Rodney asks, “Problem, brother?”

  “Maybe we should let this go. Just head for the desert like we planned.”

  “I am gonna get that kid you let get away. I’m gonna get that fuckin’ Petrova, too. Then that little bitch that ran off with him. Hell, I’ll tear her in half and share her with you if you want, brother. But we aint lettin’ this go.”

  “Maybe it is a mistake to chase them down, little brother.” “Maybe that aint your call. I recall you stepping back. You didn’t wanna be the leader of this here gang no more.”

  “What gang? Us, your boy, and fat assed Shaun Titus; the only real biker we still got is Jackie. Why don’t we look for quieter locales and…”

  Rodney follows Thad down off the roof, still talking. “Just stop, Thad. It aint like before. We aint letting this go. We are going after them. Then we are really gonna party. We’re gonna kill ‘em all. If you still wanna head for New Mexico after that, I’m right here with ya. But we are getting these fuckers first. Theywent north. It is reallythe onlywayto go. Then it’s on to St. Pete to get us some guns.”

  With that, Rodney marches over to Stella, his bike, really the only woman he ever loved, and flips open his saddle-bags. None of the money has been touched. Not even any of the gold jewelry he has pilfered. The bottle of reserve stock he has stashed with the money sits just as it has; he pulls the bottle out, uncorks it and tilts it back, drinking the hot liquor down in gulps. He thinks, all the bitch took was food and water. Some people’s priorities are all out of whack.

  100 Yards

  “What happened?” I ask, once I recover from the shock.

  “He started to hemorrhage. I tried to stabilize him…but…” Faith looks up at me, shaking. Her eyes are angry. If I did not know her better, Imight have thought she was blaming me; but Iknow, she blamesherself.

  I am stunned, standing silent in the middle of the classroom. My arms are half lifted as if I mean to catch someone falling, but it feels like I am the one falling. “I am so sorry…” Kim looks up and each cheek glistens in the morninglight with a river of tears. She tries to make a weak smile for me. I have no idea how long I stand just watching; not thinking, not even breathing, just standing here. But, apparently, it is for quite a while. Chris walks up silently behind me, reaching up to tap me on the shoulder. I react by spinning, unaware that he even exists until he comes into my line of vision. He steps back.

  “Dead Boy…if you want to stay with them…I can go check out…” I shake my head at him.

  “No. I will come. Just give me a minute.” I turn back and Faith has stood and crossed her arms. She hasn’t stopped crying for one second. She walks around the table and approaches me. She stands in front of me
with her head hung. I can tell the effects of the weed have worn off. She looks deadly sober and painfully sad.

  “I need to go check something.”

  “See how far awaythey are? The zombies I mean.” She asks in a hushed voice.

  “Yeah, see how much time we have.”

  She whispers even more softly, “I failed again…” Her face moves like she is going to smile but her jaw shakes and her eyes close. Tears sprout freely from them. She sucks in air and bawls loudly.

  “Faith…” I open my arms and she mimics the motion to embrace me. She buries her face in my chest and continues to sob.

  “Dead Boy, we should…” Chris starts.

  “I know just hang on for a second.”

  “It’s okay.” Faith says, loosening her grip on me and leaningaway. “What should we do with him?” She asks, biting her lip and visibly shaking.

  “We need to make sure he doesn’t turn and then we will take his body out of here. We should bury him.” My blood turns cold. I had never considered how soon Chris’s words would hit home. Gets easier putting down your friends and loved ones. “Chris and I are going down to check the perimeter to make sure it’s all quiet. I will help take care of him when we come back.”

  Faith nods, tears still in her eyes.

  I look around while Faith shakes and cries. Nick is leaning against the wall with his head hung. Jason lies on the shelf by him, with Nick’s hand on his shoulder. His head buried in his arms, he softly moans. Ian had followed us into the room but has since left. I nod at Chris. Squeezing Faith and kissing her on her forehead, I let her go and we leave quickly. We practically run through the science hall and down the stairs. Our shoes echo off the bare floors as we run across the quad and slam through the bus doors.

  Outside in the parking lot, all looks clear but it feels odd. This strangely heavy air hangs around us. Still, but just as apparent as if it was a torrent. A hum that is so low it is almost inaudible permeates it. Chris immediatelystarts lookingthrough his scope and turningaroundin circles as we proceed past the caddy and across the parking lot. We come up to the stop sign at the edge of School Avenue. I consider the trees and stop.