“What are you thinking about, Doc?” I asked.
She looked at me with tired, red-rimmed eyes. “Tokyo.”
“Come again?”
A smile crossed her lips. “I was just wondering about Tokyo. I spent a summer there with a friend during a break from medical school.”
“Nice place?” I asked. Gia and I always wanted to travel, but the closest I had been to Tokyo was the local Japanese restaurant. The only traveling we had ever done was the occasional trip to Biloxi, Mississippi to enjoy the beach and to do a little gambling.
Doctor Connelly smiled as the memories came flooding back. “Great city. Full of life. There was a crowd everywhere you went. There were neon lights on all the buildings, and the food…let’s just say you didn’t leave Tokyo hungry. I had a wonderful month staying there. I almost thought about moving there for a while.”
“So what made you think of Tokyo?”
The doctor looked down at the dirty floor of the truck. “I was wondering what it looked like now. I suppose it’s full of undead. The neon probably doesn’t light up anymore, either.”
Doctor Connelly brought up an interesting point. I began to wonder what the cities of the world looked like now. Places like Paris, London, and Moscow. Even some places closer to home came to mind, like New York or Chicago. The great cities of the world, at least the ones not firebombed, were probably crawling with undead, the empty streets and slowly decaying buildings no longer fit for the living. It had been over a year since humanity’s downfall, and nature was taking over. Weeds and wildflowers were probably growing on sidewalks and streets. The cities probably resembled grassland by now. A vision of deer and other wild animals grazing on Wall Street crossed my mind. We may never be able to set it right. Maybe just fence all around it and move on.
Ryan groaned, and interrupted my thoughts about dead cities. He was pale and sweaty. It didn’t take a doctor to know he was fading fast. Doctor Connelly made a quick check under his bandage. The look on her face told me everything I needed to know: Ryan wasn’t doing too well.
“How’s he doing?” I asked, knowing full well Ryan was dying as we sat there.
The doctor leaned forward to talk to me in private. “He’s hanging in there, but I need to repack the wound.” She glanced back at Ryan. “He’s slowly bleeding to death.”
“It’ll be okay. We’re pretty close now.”
Ben found the entrance to the mall where Safety One was located. I noticed that he signaled his turn like a safe driver. He flicked the turn signal on as made a perfect turn into the wreck-filled driveway. He gave me a sheepish look. “Sorry. Force of habit on the turn signal.”
“Yeah. You don’t want to attract any undue attention from the cops, right?” I said.
“Right. Black man driving a stolen SUV. Man, I’d be in serious trouble,” Ben joked.
Ben drove as quickly as he could to Safety One. Everything looked clear as we approached the old ice cream parlor. The bodies of the Yellow-Eyes we had dispatched remained on the ground near the door. Our first visit to Safety One that morning seemed like a hundred years ago.
As we got close, Ben stopped. He glanced in the rear-view mirror with an intense look in his eye. “What’s the matter, Ben?” I asked.
He wheeled the SUV into a parking space hidden from sight among the wreckage of the lot. “Nothing. Thought I saw something moving behind us.”
“Living or dead?”
Ben looked a little concerned. “I don’t know.”
“Let’s be careful then.”
We exited the SUV, and hurried to the front door of Safety One. Ben was helping Ryan, and the doctor had Amy in her arms. When we got to the door, Ben searched his pocket and found the key. We took it from Jenny’s body before we entombed her.
Ben unlocked the door and let us inside. After he locked us in, we all went into action. I carried Ryan to the back room and the doctor cleared off a stainless-steel counter. I laid Ryan’s limp body on the counter, while Ben brought in some bandages and other medical supplies. The doctor produced some gloves from her bag. She rolled Ryan onto his side, and prepared to remove the bloody bandage on his back.
She shot a quick glance at Amy. “Uh, Ben? Maybe you and John could take Amy into the other room, and find something for her to eat.
“Okay, good.” Ben took hold of Amy’s hand. “Come on. Let’s find some food.”
For a second, Amy looked a little scared to go with Ben, but the big smile on his face calmed her nerves, and she took his hand. We walked into the main room of Safety One. Ben found a box of cookies among the supplies, and gave a few to Amy. After looking at us and the cookies a little suspiciously, she took them from Ben’s hand. I set up a few chairs for us to relax on while we waited for the doctor to finish her work.
Ben sighed as he sat down. “It was supposed to be an easy trip. Get in, grab the doctor, and get home. Simple, but elegant. Jenny planned the whole thing.” He shook his head. “She said it was going to be easy. I guess we screwed up.” He put his head in his hands. “I guess we need more experience out here if we’re going to survive this mess.”
The world had changed, and not for the better. The skill sets needed to survive took time to learn. I leaned forward in my chair. “It’s okay. Nothing is easy anymore.”
Ben looked at me with tired-looking eyes. The strain of the day was showing. “What if Ryan doesn’t make it?”
“The doctor will do her best. From what I’ve seen so far, he’s in good hands.”
“Yeah. Hate to lose anybody else.”
I rubbed my eyes with my hands. My shoulder hurt where the flaming Red-Eye had grabbed me. The ordeal of the clinic came back and weighed on my head. “Ryan told me to leave him there. He told me to save everyone else and leave him there.”
“Really?” Ben looked at his shoes. “Pretty heroic. I guess he thought he would slow us down.”
I shook my head. “No. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave him there to die. Still feel bad.”
“Why?” Ben handed Amy another cookie. Sugar, this time.
I sighed heavily. “You’re right. He was going to slow us down. Most survivors would have left him there for the zombies. Couldn’t do it. I couldn’t make that decision.” I looked at the ground despondently. “I’m weak like that I guess. It’s a wonder how Claire and I survived out here.”
Ben put his hand on my shoulder. “No. That’s what makes you human. It makes you strong. Strong enough to survive.”
I looked Ben in the eye. He had wisdom beyond his years. “You think so?”
Ben smiled. “Do you think we just rescued you and little Claire because we felt like it? Denise doesn’t let just anybody from the outside into our little family of Cannon Fields. Odegard from Double-Six told Denise you guys were different. She doesn’t just pick people who can shoot, or scrounge, or use a hammer. She picks people with humanity. People with good hearts and minds. People who won’t abandon friends when things go bad. That’s why you volunteered for this trip, and that’s why you jumped into the firefights and took care of Jenny when she was bitten. That’s why you couldn’t leave Ryan at that clinic.”
Ben paused, and sat back in his chair. “My Momma told me, when this whole apocalypse thing started, It’s no use surviving if you can’t hold on to who you are. It’s something we aspire to in Cannon Fields. We’re going to make it, but we’re not going to become like the others out there…alive or dead.”
“You know. When we get back, I want to meet your mother. She sounds like a smart lady,” I said.
Ben’s smile got bigger. “That she is, John. That she is.”
We sat there for about another half hour, eating cookies and trying to keep Amy entertained. Ben made silly faces that made Amy smile, but she remained silent. No matter what we did to make her talk, no words. Only smiles.
Ben was in the middle of telling Amy a story when Doctor Connelly came out of the back room. Her hands were slick with Ryan’s blood, and some h
ad found its way to her white coat. I could tell by the look on her face that things hadn’t gone well. Doctor Connelly removed her gloves and walked towards us. Ben and I stood up to receive the news.
“I did my best. I can’t get to the bullet. Ryan would bleed to death before I could remove it.” She sat down heavily into a chair. “I guess it’s up to Ryan now. I repacked the wound and put on a fresh bandage. At least, we might be able to get him home. I can try and remove the bullet there.”
Not the greatest news. “Is he going to make it?” Ben asked.
The doctor stared into space. “Maybe. He’s lost a lot of blood. I gave him an antibiotic to fight the inevitable infection. If he survives that, and the wound, and moving him around, he has a chance. And even if he survives, he could be paralyzed.”
“Still no feeling in his legs?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine the horror of being paralyzed when facing a horde of undead.
“He was too out of it to ask, but I saw some movement in his toes when I was examining him. That could be good news.”
I tried to reassure the doctor. “Doc, you did…”
I didn’t get to finish my thought. The storefront exploded in a shower of glass. It was followed by automatic weapons fire from the parking lot.
We all scrambled for cover behind the ice cream counter. The only thing that kept us from dying in a blaze of glory was the fact that whoever was shooting at us had terrible aim. Bullets zinged and ricocheted around the old ice cream parlor. The counter was not great cover. The bullets were smashing glass, and slicing through the thin metal.
My ears were ringing. Must have been some sort of grenade or something that torched the window. I watched as Ben fired back at our unknown attackers. There was so much smoke and dust that he was basically firing blind. The doctor was on the floor near Ben’s feet, shielding Amy. The bullets continued to fly into the store with only small pauses between each volley.
I knew who it was: Wallace’s goons from the clinic had followed us. All this gunplay was going to draw every Red-Eye in the county.
After a few more exchanges, the gunfire stopped. My ears began to clear up. I heard a voice from outside the ice cream store.
“John Linder? Are you in there?”
Ben, Doctor Connelly, and I looked at each other. “Someone you know?” the doctor asked.
I stood up, and looked out the shattered store window. The parking lot was empty. “Who wants to know?” I shouted into the unknown.
A thin voice came from someone in hiding. “I want to talk to John Linder. Is that who is talking?”
This conversation was ridiculous. “I’m coming out.”
Ben ran over to the window. “You’re kidding, right? They’re going to shoot you.”
“Don’t think so. If they wanted to shoot me, they wouldn’t have started a conversation.”
I stepped outside through the shattered window and into the parking lot. The smoke and dust from the battle was beginning to clear. I could make out the shapes various cars and trucks as I walked out of Safety One. I walked slowly, making sure my hands were in plain sight.
“That’s far enough.”
A skinny young man with a crew cut materialized out of the gloom. He was wearing a gray city- camo uniform that was about a size too big. I guess boots weren’t part of the uniform. He was wearing regular running shoes. He looked like a kid playing soldier.
Except he was carrying a really big gun.
The boy-soldier pointed a machine gun at my chest. Attached underneath, and doubling as a grip, was a small tube that I assumed was some sort of grenade launcher. He must have been the one to shatter the window of the ice cream parlor.
“You John Linder?” he asked, in a heavy Southern accent.
“Who wants to know?”
“Are you John Linder?” he said, ignoring my question.
“Yeah. That’s me. I’m John Linder.”
“Hey, Rick! I told you it was him.” Another citizen-soldier, this time dressed in a white shirt with camo pants, walked up from my right side. He was holding a rifle as well. “You owe me a daily ration, son!”
“He don’t look so tough up close. Just looks like an old man to me,” Rick said.
Old man? Rick and the mystery man came closer and semi-surrounded me. For a second, I thought they were going to shoot me where I stood. My hand crept to my gun.
The boy-soldier raised his rifle. “None of that. Let’s see those hands.” I turned my hands palm out, and froze in place. These guys meant business.
“Greg, just shoot him and be done with it. I’m tired of following this asshole around,” Rick said, with disgust in his voice.
Greg laughed. “No way, man. We’re bringing him back alive. Can you imagine the reward we’ll get from the boss man?”
They had been following us all day. “How long have you been tailing us?” I asked, eying the gun now in my chest.
Greg laughed again. It was a coarse, almost evil laugh. A real douchebag laugh. “Man, we’ve been on your ass all day. Me, Rick, and the late great Bobby Johnson have been following you all afternoon. You know Bobby, right? He’s the one that got eaten at the clinic during our first meeting. He had our goddamn radio too. I knew we should have brought two.”
I remembered Bobby. The Red-Eyes had taken care of him. They couldn’t contact Wallace without a radio, so he couldn’t call reinforcements. “Yeah. I remember Bobby. Too bad about him, huh?”
A little anger flashed in Greg’s eyes. “Yeah, well us three were keeping an eye on you guys from Cannon Fields. Just a little recon. All of a sudden, Wallace comes on the radio yelling about this tall dude and his little girlfriend escaping, and how he can’t trust anybody anymore. Man, he was tearing it up. He was just about ready to rain all kinds of hell on your little refuge in Cannon Fields. We saw you leave in that white car, and Bobby starts yelling. He caught a glimpse of you in the car. He starts yelling, ‘Hey! That’s the guy!’ So we started following you as close as we could. We lost you a few times, but we caught up to you here at this here mall for your little lunch break. I was spying through binoculars, and holy crap, it was you.”
These idiots saw everything. They saw the battle versus the guys in the white truck. They saw us get swarmed near the clinic.
They watched as Jenny died. They did nothing as she turned.
My hands turned into fists as I imagined kicking both of these guys asses down the road, but I forced myself to remain calm. “Look, I’ve got an injured man, and a little kid. I’ll go with you, but you have to let them go.”
Greg thought for a minute, then said, “We don’t have to do nothing. First, we’re going inside your little hidey-hole here to get a little fuel for our jeep.” He stepped closer and put the barrel of the rifle to my head. “Then, maybe I’ll shoot your friends, knock you out, and take you back to Wallace on a silver platter. I think we only have enough room for your tall ass anyway.” He looked me up and down with disgust.
I caught some movement in the wrecked cars and the broken stores. The Red-Eyes had arrived.
“I don’t think so, Greg. With all your damn shooting and window breaking, the zombies are here.” He stepped back and started to scan the parking lot. His partner in crime, Rick, did the same. “I’m getting to know how they think,” I said, taking a step back towards Safety One. “They’re getting smarter every day. They hang out where humans hide, and wait for them to do something stupid. Like, I don’t know, shoot out store windows. You drew them right to us. They’re probably all around us right now.” I took another giant step backward, toward the ice cream parlor.
A Red-Eye zombie streaked out of one of the stores and grabbed Rick. He never fired a shot. He disappeared into a ex-shoe store without even having time to scream. The only thing that remained of Rick were his oversized boots still in the parking lot where he had been standing just a moment before. The Red-Eye had snatched him out of his shoes.
Greg started firing wildly into the stores and cars. T
hat was it for me. I turned and ran as fast as my forty-one-year-old legs could carry me back to the ice cream parlor. I was near the broken window when Greg turned and sprayed a volley of bullets in my direction. I turned, drew my gun, and returned fire. With all the running and noise, we both missed. I watched in horror as three Red-Eyes - a small, blond female, a larger male with half his face torn off, and a larger male with a tattered policeman’s uniform - popped up and zeroed in on Greg. I turned and flew into the store as the first shots of Greg’s rifle began to echo off the walls.
I stumbled into Safety One out of breath. Ben was in a defensive position by the window. He ran over to prevent me from falling. “Behind the counter,” I gasped. “Now.”
We all got behind the stainless steel counter. It wasn’t much in the way of cover, but it was all we had. Ben peeked over the top, and I crouched and looked around the end. Ben put the doctor, who was cradling Amy, between us. We held our breath as we waited for someone or something to come through the broken storefront window. It turned out to be a couple of somethings.
It was the trio of deadheads from the parking lot. The two smaller Red-Eyes bounded into the ice cream parlor with their noses in the air, trying to catch a scent. The big ex-policeman hung back, watching the scene. After a few minutes of sniffing, the blond female and the small male looked back at their large companion. He waved his hand to direct them into the store to take a closer look. He was the leader. I was dumbfounded. The zombies really were getting smarter. The two young ones cautiously walked into Safety One, sniffing the air as they walked. The leader stayed outside, letting his subordinates do the dangerous work. They came in deeper, looking, sniffing, and cocking their heads to hear any sounds. The female turned over a table, and it made a scraping noise against the dirty floor. As they came closer, the overwhelming stench of death washed over me.
Don’t make a noise. I glanced at Ben and the doctor. They were frozen in fear. The doctor was holding Amy in her arms, but I could see her big, five-year-old eyes. They were watery. Just stay quiet, Amy. Maybe they’ll go away. I stared at Amy, and tried to will her to be quiet. She was holding her own, but she was beginning to cry. Don’t cry Amy. Please don’t cry. They’ll hear us.
Sometimes We Ran (Book 2): Community Page 15