America The Dead Book Two: The Road To Somewhere

by Lindsey Rivers

  He bucked once more, arched his back so hard she could hear the tendons straining and then bolted upright, eyes wide, moonlight alive and shining in them. His chest heaved, heaved again, but his lungs did not work, would not work. She squatted still, her fingers tented upon the earth to hold the weight of her body, and waited.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ~ March 29th~

  "No," Mike said, " I don't want to get up."

  "Are you sure?" Kate asked teasingly.

  "The sun isn't even up," Mike said.

  "Nope, but this is our last morning like this for awhile," she said.

  "Oh," his arms reached around her and pulled her close. "In that case," he said.

  ~

  After they made love, they lay awake talking in low whispers, watching light creep into the world.

  "There was a song I liked, A minor, like the key?" Kate said.

  "I remember that. Some guy." Mike said.

  "Yeah. There was a line, really there were a few lines that I liked, but one was like the guy was talking about my life,” she said. “It was, 'I'm just sitting here waiting on a bus for the next.' Talking about his life and how it was, how he felt about it. That was me. I used to look out at the world and wonder where I was going to, what moved me along to whatever might be next, because there was nothing here for me." She finished softly.

  "I know that feeling. I felt that as well," Mike said.

  "Yeah, but where I'm at now is the exact opposite of that. I've got the whole world somehow. You... I know we'll have children, a safe place to live, friends. God, how could I have been so far down? Now I can't wait to live life, see what today is. It's just such a different place. I love you so much," she said. Her eyes were shiny in the sparse light. He kissed her and pulled her to him.

  "I love you too," he said as he kissed her again. He kissed her neck, worked his way down to her breasts, then across her stomach as she lay back into the pillows.

  And the light crept slowly into the room.

  ~

  Mike sat sipping coffee by the fire when Jeff and Sharon walked over. Sharon settled into a conversation with Kate. Jeff raised his eyebrows at Mike and Ronnie. They both got up and walked away from the fire.

  “What's on your mind, Jeff?” Mike asked

  “Probably nothing. I had the overnight... kept hearing something, I don't know, out of place. The Dog kept looking over at the woods, growling really low. The fires were going, meat still drying, cows, deer, who knows what else out there in the fields. Could be a predator, I thought.”

  Mike nodded. Ronnie looked concerned. He stuffed his hands down into his pockets and leaned closer.

  “That's it. No big deal. I wasn't about to walk away from here and go check it out in the middle of the night.” He sipped at his coffee. “Went over first thing, right after daybreak. It was bugging the hell out of me.”

  “What was it?” Ronnie asked.

  “Nothing right out there, but...” he turned and looked towards the woods, turned back, dumped what little coffee remained in his cup, grounds mostly, Mike saw. “Walk over there with me?” He asked.

  “Sure,” Mike agreed.

  “Absolutely,” Ronnie said tightly.

  Mike returned his own empty cup to the table, smiled down at Kate's questioning look. “No big deal,” he told her. He turned away, and he and Ronnie followed Jeff across the fields toward the small woods on the other side. Halfway there, Kate caught up, Patty with her. Kate slipped one arm through Mike's own; Patty had her other arm. “Don't know,” Mike told her. “It's Jeff's show.”

  The smell hit them before they reached the woods.

  “Jesus,” Ronnie said, “What in ...”

  “Bad, right?” Jeff said. “That's why I wanted you to come along.” He moved his eyes to include Mike, and then further to include Kate and Patty. “That hit me hard, just like it did you.” He walked to the edge of the woods and peered in. “Come on,” he said. “Take a look at this.” He stepped into the tree line and disappeared from sight almost entirely. Just another shadow in the shadows that made the tree line their home.

  Kate stepped into the shadowed woods, and her eyes adjusted almost immediately. Once they did, she could see well in the shadowed clearing, and it was clear to her that something had been living here. She stopped. Patty bumped up against her and then pressed her body tightly to her own, burying her face in Kate's neck.

  “My God,” Patty whispered against her neck. She pulled away a second later and walked quickly back out into the sunshine. Kate looked after her, hesitated, and then went after her. Mike, Ronnie and Jeff stood in the shadows looking over the small area that had been hollowed out of the woods.

  The carcass of a small calf lay rotting a few feet away, the throat torn open, the stomach bloated, swollen, intestines spilling out of her side where whatever had killed her had been feeding. A few feet away, a shriveled corpse, whether man or woman it was hard to tell, but whatever had been feeding on the calf had been feeding on the body also. The head had been dragged several feet away. Most of the chest was gone, one arm, and the stomach lay open. A hollowed cavity.

  Mike raised his eyes and took in the gloom. His eyes searching the area.

  “Something’s been living here,” Jeff said quietly.

  Kate and Patty stepped back into the small clearing. “Why does it look as though this was cleared?” Kate said.

  “Exactly my question,” Jeff said.

  “Probably was already cleared,” Ronnie said. “Then this animal comes along...”

  “Maybe the body was someone camped out here, then whatever this was came along and killed them?” Patty asked.

  No one spoke.

  Mike turned back to the clearing from his examination of the surrounding woods. “Trails,” Mike said. He pointed. “There and there.”

  “Might have been here last night.” This from Kate. “I say it because there's nothing else here. No other animals have moved in to take what's left.” She looked at Jeff.

  He nodded. “I thought that also. It's maybe not a problem because we're leaving soon.”

  “Today,” Mike said. His eyes swept the clearing again. “This morning.”

  “Yeah,” Ronnie agreed.

  “Probably should keep this to ourselves,” Mike added.

  Jeff nodded. “My thoughts.”

  “But I guess we better check the areas we stay in closer,” Kate said. “Who knows what this was.” She turned and looked through the woods across the fields. Their camp was easily visible. She shuddered. Jeff caught her eyes and blinked. Mike caught the interplay.

  “Yeah,” Mike said. “Whatever it was could have crouched here, hidden, and watched us.”

  “Do animals do that?” Patty asked.

  “Sure,” Ronnie said.

  “'Cause it seems like hunters,” Patty added.

  “Animals are hunters, Babe,” Ronnie said.

  Patty stayed silent. Jeff cleared his throat quietly. “Back in Vermont we came across a... a nest like this more than once.”

  “Why nest?” Mike asked.

  Jeff shrugged. “It seemed like a nest. Look at the way it's arranged, like a clearing, like a real clearing. Seems...” He shrugged.

  Kate raised her eyebrows to him.

  “I don't have an answer, okay. Look at it though. I never used to hunt in the old world, but it looks a little like a hunting camp, doesn't it?” He looked embarrassed.

  “No campfire,” Ronnie said.

  “Yeah. Yeah, that threw me. I guess my concern is someone following us.” Jeff said.

  “People don't eat people,” Patty said quietly. She seemed glued to Kate's side.

  “Zombies do,” Ronnie said and laughed.

  “Not funny, really. Some people in Vermont swore they saw things like that.” Jeff said. He looked at Mike.

  Mike fixed his eyes on him. “We need to be careful there. You mean someone, some thing else beside what you told me?”

  Jeff sighe
d. “Nothing solid. This one guy was with us a day or two, found a... a nest, he said, a nest like this... a body. But, the body, he said, was not dead. It got up and ran away when he poked it with a stick.” He held his hands in front of him. “Didn't say I believed it. Wasn't there... Didn't see it.”

  “Yeah, well, that's always the problem with shit like that,” Ronnie said. “No one you actually know has seen it, can vouch for it. Dead people coming back to life? Come on. Really?”

  “Didn't say I believed it,” Jeff said.

  “No... But do you?” Kate asked. She looked back around the clearing. Nest, her mind whispered. There did seem to be an orderliness to it that was human, not animal. There seemed to be an area that was flattened down where someone may have slept.

  “No,” Jeff said. “I didn't believe in that kind of shit at all. I thought maybe it was someone sick, real sick... nearly dead... out of their head, and so they ran away when help came.” He shrugged. He looked over at Mike.

  “Go on,” Mike said. “Jeff and I talked about this. With the stuff that's been going on, us making our decisions, I didn't think we should get right into it.” He looked around the clearing. “But this... “ He shook his head. “Tell them what you told me, Jeff.”

  “I said I didn't believe in Zombies... Un-Dead... Walking dead, living dead. None of it. And I didn't. Then one day I was checking out this building. It smelled bad... like this, but a building. I didn't connect it. But I stepped into a room, and there was a body, dead. I swear to Christ that woman was dead, missing part of her neck, body glued into the blood on the floor. Dead. And I nearly turned and left. And then she sat up... saw me... hissed at me. She hissed at me. And then she took off. And I mean took off, fast. She could move.“ He shrugged. “That's it. I didn't believe. Not until then.” he finished quietly.

  “Don't matter if they believe in you,” Patty said quietly.

  “Oh come on, Pats,” Ronnie said. “For Christ's sake.”

  “Could be real,” Kate said. “Doesn't take much, government shit, some sort of chemical change.”

  “Please,” Ronnie said.

  “Please? Then why did the C.D.C. issue warnings about it? If it's bullshit, why would they do that?”

  “Katie, that was a joke,” Ronnie said. “When I just said it, it was a joke. I was joking.”

  “Ronnie, don't fuckin' call me Katie. And it wasn't a joke. An organization like that doesn't joke.”

  “Sorry,” Ronnie looked embarrassed. “Sorry. But you don't really think that.”

  “I didn't say I did.” The fire bled out of her eyes. “Looks like people camped out here though... not an animal.”

  Mike cleared his throat. “Whatever it was doesn't matter. I saw that whole thing too. Does anyone remember back in Watertown? It's in my journal. I can't remember the date. I heard Airplanes in the night, woke up the next day there was this blue shit all over the snow.”

  “And?” Ronnie asked.

  “And, I don't know. Does anyone? Can anyone say this wasn't a pack of wolves? Wolves do this. They act a lot like humans. They do. I'm not ready to say we have Zombies running around. But, well, ignoring shit is not good. Better to look at the big picture. I'm not saying it is; I'm not saying it isn't. But, what was that shit about? Why spray that shit after all that had happened? What was that?”

  “I remember that blue snow. I didn't hear the planes. I remember the snow though. Could be they are real,” Kate said.

  “But. Never mind. I jumped. I am sorry. But, fuck, a thing like that. What the hell could we do against a thing like that?” Ronnie said.

  Silence held for a few minutes. The gloom began to get to them. It seemed twenty degrees cooler out of the sunlight.

  “It was my fault. I shouldn't have made that crack,” Patty said.

  “I got spooked, I guess,” Jeff said.

  “Doesn't matter,” Mike said. “Let's get out of here.”

  “Shouldn't we bury the body?” Patty asked.

  Mike stopped. “Ronnie, go back and get us ready to go. Jeff and I will take care of this.”

  “The guy's been dead for awhile,” Ronnie said.

  “Yeah. But I'm going to do it anyway. Go on back and get us ready. Talk to Bob. Babe,” he looked at Kate. She turned her eyes to him. Patty was still curled into her side. “Okay?”

  Kate nodded. Patty looked up and nodded too. “Just scared me,” Patty said.

  Mike nodded. “Jeff, you and me., let's go get a shovel. And this stays with us. Later on we'll sit down and talk to the others if it looks like we have to. It doesn't look like we have to right now. I will talk to Bob about it myself,” He nodded, raised his eyes from the ground and then started through the trees to get a shovel.

  ~On the road again~

  The camp began to break up at mid-morning. The day was gray and overcast, a few drops of rain falling from the sky. But the gray day and rain couldn't put a damper on the smiling faces talking to one another, laughing behind the glass windows of the vehicles as the caravan pulled away parallel to the highway, riding through the grassy field which wasn't in much better shape than the road.

  Each truck had a V.H.F. radio so they could communicate with each other and a C.B. radio to monitor everything else. The skip talk on the C.B. was light this morning. Twice a voice bled through claiming to be from somewhere in L.A. and warning everyone to stay away. The voice claimed the city was on fire, gangs fighting for control of what was left. The dead were rising and walking the streets.

  “Feds?” Patty asked.

  “Feds landed and took over the streets?” Ronnie supplied.

  Patty nodded doubtfully. “I hope so. Because it sounded like dead... The dead are walking the streets.” She trailed off and turned her eyes back to the scenery, woods, fields, low hanging gray clouds that slipped past the windows. “That's crazy, though, right? ”she asked. ”Crazy?”

  “Yeah, nuts. I think it was Feds. Maybe it means there are still people in charge there? Could be,” Ronnie said. He pulled Patty closer to him.

  The voice, a young male from the sound, continued to talk on in a matter-of-fact voice, something close to a monotone that suggested he was drugged or high. They were all glad when whatever atmospheric conditions had brought the voice to them passed, and the other skip took its place.

  ~

  Just before noon they came upon a small gas station and convenience store area and stopped to top off the gas tanks. The store looked well used; everything was picked over. But no one came around, and no one called on the radio. They all got out and stretched their legs, lunched on canned meat and energy bars, washed down with vitamin water and sports drinks.

  Just after midday, they left the interchange behind them and continued on their way. The heavens continued to leak rain and the fields became harder to travel through, so they stuck to the pavement, traveling slowly on the broken surface, skirting the occasional abandoned vehicle, tilted piece of pavement or washed out section of roadway. About twenty minutes later, they consulted their map under the portico of a sagging motel office and angled west, off the main highway, away from Syracuse and its suburbs.

  The C.B. was useless, bursts of static and people blocking each others transmissions. Thick black smoke billowed up into the air several miles ahead, about where Syracuse would be, and a plastic electrical smell hung in the air even with the rain. But they saw no one at all, not even animals. They were all happy once the black smudge in the sky had disappeared behind them.

  A few minutes after that, a large herd of horses grazing in a field popped their heads up when they saw the trucks and then galloped after them for about half mile before turning and pounding off towards a wooded area in the distance. That kept everybody talking back and forth on the VHF radios for awhile. Arlene thought possibly they were part of some range stock, and they were used to associating vehicles with feed. Lilly worried that they might be hungry, but Arlene assured her they had plenty to eat.

  Mike had watched one
large gray horse spotted with black on its nose which had kept pace with his truck. Steam had risen from his coat as he had stopped and then turned away into the rain. Beautiful, Mike had thought.

  "Beautiful," Kate said from beside him.

  He laughed. "I was thinking exactly that when you said it," Mike told her. "How big do you think he was?" Mike asked.

  "Probably about 6 feet at the shoulder," Kate said. "Big."

  "Got to be," Patty said from the back seat. "Because we're way off the ground, and it was pretty much even with us."

  "Anybody ever ride a horse?" Ronnie asked.

  "Nope," Mike said.

  "Not me," Patty said.

  "Me either," Kate added.

  “It looks easy," Ronnie continued. "But of course I'd bet he'd buck you off pretty quick if he didn't want you on him."

  "She," Patty said. "It was a she. And females are supposed to be better tempered."

  "Pats, I didn't realize a girl horse could get that big," Ronnie said.

  "How'd you learn that, about female horses being better tempered?" Kate asked.

  "It was a novel I read, Lonesome Dove. The horses, female horses, mares, had the best temperament. But you could get a male horse that was gelded, a Gelding, and they would be pretty even tempered too," she said.

  "I never read that book," Mike said. "Wanted to though."

  "You can learn a lot from a book, I guess," Ronnie said. “ I wonder what a Gelding is. Like a... like a specific type of horse I imagine? I've heard of a Paint. A Paint is a kind of horse.”

  Patty giggled.

  Kate nodded. "I always wanted to ride a horse. I went to Rochester once. The cops there ride them downtown. There were several horse farms that I saw along the way also."

  "All the cops are on horses?" Patty asked.

  "No, just around downtown. I was there with someone for a concert at the War Memorial. I was just a kid, so they looked even bigger than they probably were, but it made an impression on me." She finished.