Zombie Escape_More Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse

by E. E. Isherwood

  While they observed what they could, Sabella ran up the slope to be with them. Her interest was in the motorcycles.

  “More are alive? Is my baby over there?”

  The pickup truck in the lead plowed into the infected standing on the edge of the blast zone. A number of people huddled in the back bed. Another truck followed, and a dozen or so motorcycles chased the two leaders before the zombies could close back in. It was a miniature version of the giant parade up on the main road.

  “How close is that road,” Liam asked Sabella.

  “How would I know?”

  “Well, um, you were here before this horde arrived. I thought ... ”

  “I was brought here against my will. I was blindfolded and in a lot of pain.” Her voice trailed off as she continued to watch the survivors depart. Finally, seemingly spent, she sat heavily onto the peak of the roof. “I've lost my baby girl.”

  Victoria didn't know what to say and when Sabella began to weep she was even less sure. If her daughter was lost, would she be as composed?

  The motorcade was deep into the crowd when another pair of motorcycles cranked over. The smoke was heavy for a few moments and only cleared up when they were driving away. Both were driven by men, and each had a woman behind them.

  “My God, that's her. That's Elise.”

  Sabella stood up and seemed to inhale deeply. “Elise!”

  Victoria swore she saw the girl turn her head, but before she could say for sure, the motorcycles joined the great trails of dust kicked up by the first group of vehicles. All of it added to the debris already aloft from the zombies.

  Soon, Sabella only had the sound of the bikes to comfort her.

  She screamed for her daughter several more times, but each was less forceful.

  When the wind shifted again, she made out the little caravan as it went directly for the flow of big rigs.

  “They are heading toward the truck convoy, I guess,” she said to Sabella. “Maybe they'll find some help. Maybe she'll be alright.”

  Victoria watched for her to sit back down and descend into tears, but she surprised her by taking a knee. “Lord, protect her in this hour of need. Protect us all. Amen.”

  “Amen,” Victoria added.

  Sabella brushed at her unruly hair, then scurried down the roof to the entry for the window. Victoria assumed she wanted to comfort her other two daughters.

  Liam made sure she was gone before speaking. “I'm shocked she can still pray to a God that put her in that room.”

  “None of us are immune, Liam. Horrible things have happened to all of us.”

  “I know you're right. That reverend I accidentally killed could make anyone doubt their faith.”

  “Try not to worry. You saved her and her kids. Maybe God put you there for that reason?”

  “Maybe. But you would have done the same. This place was some kind of brothel and, uh, a clinic.”

  “I know. Margaret and the fat guy were abortionists. But the girls who came here never got to leave. They used them.”

  “The reverend said he harmed women, here. He was in his room all alone when I arrived, but it looked like it had been well-used. Fat man, too. They were regulars, though I think he was also the husband of that woman downstairs.”

  “Ugh, that makes him Russ's father.”

  “Step-father, actually,” Russ replied.

  They'd been talking loud enough to be heard from the window lower on the roof, and Russ stuck his head out to talk with them.

  “Roger wasn't my real dad, thank God. He had something wrong with him, I think, because he was responsible for all that went on here. An evil that I never noticed before the zombies. I saw him, by the way, when we came upstairs. He's in that first room.”

  “That fat man?” Victoria blurted out.

  Russ nodded.

  “Sorry,” she said sheepishly.

  “It's okay. It's just so hard to believe he's dead, you know? I've known him since I was a little boy, but he was always kind of standoff-ish? Like he didn't want to be hassled with me. I rarely saw him because he worked so much in his clinic. That was fine with me, but the things I've seen him do the past few weeks. Girls. Drugs. Burying remains in our yard. Hitting my mom! How long has he been a grade-A butt muncher?”

  Though Margaret appeared keen to take care of a baby for her, she didn't seem to revel in it. It was too late to ask her what she thought of her also-late husband, but Russ asked his mom about a man named Roger when they all left the house. She didn't run up there to save him. Was he the same man calling for Margaret in those first confusing minutes? She recalled how his voice made her cringe.

  “Maybe I knew. Always knew, I mean. When we came here, and I saw him involved with the people coming in and going out, I knew. Young girls came here crying, and they just sort of stuck around. Sometimes they'd ask me to help them, but I didn't know how. It kind of seemed like a game-first they said the world ended, then the zombies came, then all these pretty girls ... ”

  He seemed embarrassed at the realization. “What I can't figure out is why my mom did it. She wasn't an evil person. I never heard her be mean to anyone.”

  “Well I bet-” Liam started before she shushed him. He flashed a bemused look but didn't argue.

  “Your mom took care of you. Kept you alive. That's all that matters. If she could have done it any other way, she would have. I believe that after having met her. I really do.”

  Privately, she knew there were no good guys in the running of a brothel-dance hall-abortion parlor. Margaret could have left at any time and taken her son with her, but she chose not to. If she left her dirtbag husband in the end, maybe that was a bit of good, but it was far too late to do much for the girls stuck out in the shed.

  5

  “This is your house, right?” Liam asked.

  Russ seemed embarrassed but nodded yes.

  “I don't suppose you have any supplies?” Liam continued. “We should stock up while the zombies are distracted. They seem to be focused on everything but this house right now.”

  “Lots. Mom had me do inventory all the time ... ” Russ stopped for a second as if making a realization. “Which kept me down in the basement a lot. There's tons down there, but some things are in the kitchen pantry, too.”

  “I'm sorry about your mother,” Liam replied in a grave voice. “My mom just died, too. Out there.” He pointed toward the black cloud over Cairo.

  Victoria decided to give the two some space while they spoke of loss. Her parents were alive and well in Colorado, as far as she knew, and she was never going to let go of that. Hearing them talk about such things wasn't good for maintaining that belief.

  She stood tall and made herself busy watching vehicles.

  Far to the north, the fleeing motorcycles and trucks continued to bounce across the dusty field and were mostly out of the dense part of the horde. They approached the tractor-trailers on the road like a group of robbers on horseback matching the speed of the money train in the Wild West. At the last moment, they seemed to merge with the flow of traffic and head in the same direction.

  “Hey Russ. I need you for a second.” Sabella called out from the hallway.

  Victoria glanced back. Liam crouched at the window still talking with Russ. The blonde-haired boy smiled at her when their eyes met. That small act made her feel good because he didn't seem to hate her, anymore.

  “Hey guys,” Russ said, “I'll be right back after I see what she wants.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Liam said with a bit of indifference.

  She spoke once it was clear Russ had gone out of the room. “He's not all bad, and he almost killed himself in that shed. I think he's ashamed of what he saw.”

  “Well, good.” Liam said it with confidence but corrected himself almost immediately. “I mean. Not good. I'm just not happy with him or his family right now, but I'll get over it.”

  “You will,” she replied. “You have a good heart.”

  “It's been tested,�
�� he said with the sound of exhaustion.

  He stood up next to her and they both watched things unfold in the fields.

  “Would you like a drink of water?” she asked in a cheerful way.

  “Hell yeah. I'm dying of thirst.” He looked her up and down, then glanced all around where they stood. She showed him her empty hands before he finally caught on. “You don't have water, do you?”

  She grinned at him.

  “You did that to me back at the Arch. You'd think I'd catch on.”

  Victoria took his hand and noticed his skin felt hot. They'd been on the move since they met up on that barge in Cairo earlier in the day and hadn't touched any drinking water since then.

  The sirens continued to call from the town, and she observed something else in that direction. “Liam. Look.” She pointed to the zombies. “They're facing the same way.”

  Indeed, they all appeared to be facing the river.

  “Let's look over the roof,” she said with excitement.

  She trotted up the steep roof until it was possible to see the horde in the fields to the west, beyond the outbuilding. The zombies didn't line up with military order, but they had some uniformity because their faces were all visible. None were turned around or sideways as she saw them from her perspective. They all seemed to orient their bodies on her, but she took comfort that those on the sides of the farmhouse were also facing east and not at her.

  They were also shuffling their feet.

  “They, uh, are moving as a group again,” Liam said in a whisper.

  They spent a few minutes observing how the infected walked like someone was ringing the dinner triangle in Cairo. There was still a bit of a clearing around the farmhouse from where the fire raged, but it was getting smaller as the zombies moved from west to east.

  “Holy Sheefu,” Victoria exclaimed as she pointed to the parking lot. “What are they doing?”

  Sabella's reddish-brown hair swished from side to side as she ran toward the shed. Russ trailed just behind her, trying to keep up. The boy looked over his shoulder once to wave to her and Liam, but then continued beyond the shed. In moments, they were lost from sight.

  “And where are her daughters?” she replied.

  “She's getting a car,” Liam said in an even voice. “Then she's going to take them with her.”

  “Let's get downstairs,” she suggested. It seemed like a pretty good idea.

  They slid down the roof as a car engine started up. When they got inside and back to the first floor she was surprised to see the two girls standing at the back windows, watching their mother. She expected a car to spin across the rocks like in a movie, but the car engine faded, rather than approach the house.

  The two girls held each other and cried. The oldest one turned to her. “She's gone after Elise with that boy. Mom said to wait here.”

  Liam surprised her by kneeling down in front of the little one. “Susan, your mom knows what she's doing. You don't have to be scared.”

  He looked back up at her and smiled.

  She then noticed the other girl. “Hi!” she said in a friendly voice. “I'm Victoria. Pleased to meet you.” She held out her hand to shake.

  “Hiya,” she said with a bit of uncertainty. “I'm Leah. I guess I'm glad to meet you, too.”

  “Your mom is pretty brave,” she said to both girls.

  “Too brave,” Leah responded.

  “Don't say that,” Susan chided her. “Mommy will bring back Leezy.”

  Leah huffed but let it go.

  She almost let slip that it was suicide to go out there unarmed, but the thought made her realize she'd lost track of her shotgun. She remembered setting it down on the edge of the roof when she climbed out the upper floor window, but it wasn't there when she came back in or she would have brought it downstairs with her.

  “Your mom took my gun?” she asked.

  “Yeah, she took a gun, some ammo, and bottles of water,” Leah said.

  “Ammo?” Liam snapped back. “Where is that?”

  “Water?” Victoria added. “Is there more?”

  Leah pointed to the kitchen pantry, which had to be the one Russ mentioned earlier. The little closet was a nook in the wall with dust-covered contents on several deep shelves. At one time there was a big lock to hold the door shut, but it had been left open. When Liam looked in, he whistled in awe.

  She tried to whistle, too, but her lips were too parched.

  The cupboard was stuffed front to back with canned goods, water bottles, flashlights, batteries, cooking oil, flour bags, rice sacks, and big cardboard boxes labeled with ammo calibers on the side. There was a small box with six or seven can openers, just for good measure.

  Victoria playfully pushed Liam aside and pulled out one of the many plastic water bottles. She nearly bit the cap off and chugged the contents. Half of it went down her shirt but she didn't care in the least.

  “Wow, drink much?” Liam said sarcastically.

  She finished off the bottle and glanced at him with mild embarrassment. “Sorry about that. Once I made that joke about water, I couldn't stop thinking about it.”

  He opened his own bottle and downed it with similar results.

  “Is this the best water you've ever had?” she gushed.

  Liam tossed down his empty and yanked out a second. She followed his lead and they both consumed them with noisy gulps and more spilled product.

  “They need more manners,” Susan said as if telling on them. “Pee-eww,” she added.

  Victoria halted for a second and glanced at Liam's filthy face and clothing. The front of his shirt had been soaked in blood and some kind of black goo, but it had dried for the most part. Now, as the water from the bottle drizzled down his neck, it reactivated that mess. Some of it dripped onto the floor of the kitchen and it smelled terrible.

  She looked at her own feet, glad that she wasn't covered in the same stuff. Both of them slowed their drinking so it wouldn't spill as much.

  “Where did this come from?” Leah wondered.

  Victoria was glad to talk about anything but her bad manners. “Margaret said they started out accepting food as payment, but that later on no one had food to trade. It's what started the whole thing with gambling, prostitution, and worse.”

  “They made a killing,” Liam replied as he set his half-empty bottle on the counter. “We can eat like kings.”

  She was thinking things through when Liam sprang to action. He spoke to the girls, who had been watching them drink. “Get pillow cases, sheets, anything to put this food in. We'll carry it upstairs to the roof. I'll grab this water.” He pointed to the pile of government-issued water bottles on the floor of the pantry.

  While everyone was running around searching, she noticed a small, yellow radio poking from one of the shelves. It was the kind of weather radio her mom and dad used when they planned to spend the day in the mountains of Colorado. Dad liked to get his weather “raw” as he would say, direct from NOAA, rather than one of the talking heads on the television.

  The device had batteries and started right up. It was already tuned to the proper station and a man spoke as if he were reading a note.

  “-at $45 a gallon. You are reminded that hoarding and gouging will not be tolerated. This crisis will pass. Your Federal Family is working night and day to restore order, starting right here in St. Louis ... ”

  “Liam, we have news,” she shouted.

  He and the girls came back in a hurry and she held out the radio.

  “-come back north on Highway 55. Come east on Highway 70 or 44. Come west on Highway 64 or 70. You will be cared for. You will be well-protected by the new President of the United States. Before we loop this message, here is a final thought of survival from President Cantwell.”

  She glanced at Liam and saw his mouth hang wide open with surprise.

  “Good day America. Your first task is getting here. Walk. Run. Bicycle. Find a vehicle if you can. Just get here. We will take care of you, your fami
ly, and your friends. Much of the East Coast convoy will be arriving any day. The infection is everywhere. Those afflicted will be very dangerous and must be avoided at all costs. They are dangerous, but the real threat comes from those healthy humans intent to make this lifeboat sink. They want to fight you. Stop you from finding safety. Who knows why, maybe they believe they are individualists with a sick understanding of the founding of this country. They want us all to live in log homes and read the Bible to each other. They call themselves patriots and rebels, but they are anarchists. Following this broadcast, a FEMA official will list names of the most dangerous of those rebels ... ”

  Uh oh.

  The radio felt heavy in her hands. Liam's fingers were on his chin, like he was thinking. She read his mind, then turned off the radio.

  “Wait. Why did you turn it off?” Leah asked.

  “We need to save the batteries. We'll take it up on the roof with us. We have to get this stuff out of this closet before the zombies return.”

  And I know a name or three that are going to be on that list.

  The girls hardly cared, but Liam looked relieved she turned it off.

  “I'm going to put it aside.” Victoria said it as a throwaway statement, but she went to another room and listened to the broadcast at the lowest volume.

  The man on the radio read name after name at the speed of an auctioneer. It took minutes to go through the list of most wanted citizens and it felt a lot like listening to school closings on a snowy day, but this time she did not want to hear anything familiar.

  Just as she was ready to turn it off and get back to packing the supplies, the man's voice slowed to normal.

  “And here are some of the most dangerous individuals to the restored government. Due to poor communications we can't say if they are alive or dead, but we are offering substantial rewards in food and housing to anyone with information leading to their arrest or capture.”

  She didn't recognize all the names but knew a good portion. Travis, Haylee, Liam's mom and dad, Mel and Phil, and numerous people they'd come in contact with over the last few weeks. Doctor Yu was in there. Hans Grubmeyer. General Jasper. She flinched when her parents' names were read. The man seemed to savor reporting on Liam's grandma Rose, then his great-grandma Marty. Finally, her name was read with Liam's. They included Liam's alias of Sam Stevens. More names continued, but she'd heard enough.