by Mark Clodi
Both men were tossed like rag dolls into the side of the Escape, Max’s rifle barrel was bent at a ninety degree angle, Ruben had lost his entirely. The other zombie, a woman dressed in a halter top and sporting short spikey blond hair was struggling with it, trying to figure out how to cock it and fire.
Without hesitation Ruben drew his long combat knife and stabbed her. His training came back to haunt him though and he stabbed for her heart, landing what would normally be a killing blow. They were pressed together for an instance and she belched forth a thick, black goo that splattered Ruben’s face and caused him to pull back. However, he retained enough sense to take his knife with him
The trench coat zombie was up on two legs again, wobbling, but standing. He sneered at Max and pulled out a knife of his own. Max reached for his combat knife, only to remember he had taken it off his belt when they were in the truck, it had been digging into him all morning on the ride. His hand came up with his canteen instead.
The zombie gave him a puzzled look of bemusement, then was hit from the side by a snarling Stewart. She grabbed his head and twisted as she flew over him, swinging the zombie over entirely. She ended up on her feet and the zombie’s body continued its movement while its head was held in her vise like grip. The resounding crack that split the air made Max wince, the zombie became a twitcher in her hands and she dropped it to assist Ruben.
The blond and Ruben had squared off, she was using the rifle as a club, held by the barrel, he still had his knife.
“I haven’t seen five humans outside of a camp for weeks.” said the blond. “Where’d you escape from?”
“We ain’t from around here, darling.” Ruben responded.
The blond swung the rifle at Ruben’s head, thinking that with the added reach it would be a quick take down move. Ruben ducked sideways, taking a blow that deflected off the side of his head in order to get in close and slash at the woman’s throat. His blade went deep, tearing a ragged furrow that exposed the inner workings of her esophagus to the world. Choking, she put her hand to the wound, a purely human reflex. Ruben followed up on by planting his combat knife into her left eye. The woman stayed up for a moment, held there by his knife, then he pushed her backward, where she slide off of his blade to crumple onto the ground, still clutching her throat.
Max approached the door of the Escape, trying to sense any other zombies that were still active. The only thing he sensed was Javier. The young man had been thrown through the windshield to land on both of the front passengers. His combat boot was embedded in the front passengers head. The foot on that side was also twisted around completely and dripping a steady stream of blood into the car. Javier was unconscious and Max resisted his first instinct to pull the young man out.
“Stewart.” Max said, “The zombies are all dead. Help me with Javier. Ruben, go see if Bill needs a hand out of the ditch, please.”
Stewart came to the open door and looked inside. She stepped back, pulling Max with her. “Shit, I don’t know what to do. He’s fucked up.”
“Do we move him?”
“Do we have a choice? We can’t leave him there.” Stewart said, “Better to move him now, while he is out, than to do it when he comes around.”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to get the front door open.” Max said.
“Fuck that, just drop the front seat back, that will let us pull him out through the back door. We really need a back board or something, in case his back or neck is broken.”
“We’ll have to risk it.”
“Javier?” Bill said, huffing as he came around the back of the Escape.
“Not good.” Stewart said, “We need to get him out of there.”
“You have a plan?” Bill asked.
Max and Stewart nodded.
“Let’s do it, quickly.” Bill said, “Ruben do you see any other cars? We just took it up the ass as far as vehicles go. See what you can find.”
Max hadn’t even noticed, but what Bill said was true, the ‘good’ truck, had been hit head on and was leaking fluids all over the ground beneath it, worse it had been pushed back into their other truck, which was also leaking green fluid, even though the damage from this latest assault didn’t look that bad.
Bill and Stewart had both of the front seats of the Escape lowered back as far as they could get them and had taken a hold of Javier by the shoulders.
“On three. One. Two. Three!” Bill said. They pulled Javier out of the truck, eliciting a groan from the young man.
Max grabbed his legs as he came out and helped lower him to the ground. After he was put down, Max twisted Javier’s foot around until it looked more or less how it should if it were not damaged.
“I don’t think you are supposed to do that Max.” Stewart said.
“We heal faster, he might too. I don’t want his foot healing up facing backward.”
“Ah, yeah, okay, gotcha.”
To one side of them Ruben was moving their limited gear from the more damaged truck to the windowless one behind it.
“We can still take this one, for a few miles. I don’t see anything leaking other than the radiator fluid. It will heat up and burn out soon, but we won’t have to walk while we look for a new vehicle. Load him up in the bed and let’s get out of here.”
Max pulled a shotgun and a rifle out of the Escape, to replace his damaged gun. He only found a few shells for the shotgun, all shot, and no extra bullets for the rifle. Bill and Stewart loaded Javier into the back quickly and then helped Ruben finish moving their equipment over. In a few moments Stewart was behind the wheel of the truck and she tentatively tried the ignition. It caught and sputtered to life. She drove it to the top of the exit ramp.
“Which way?” Bill asked, peering both directions, hoping to spy an auto dealership.
Stewart pointed at a sign with destinations and distances on it across the road, “I say we go right.”
Bill read the sign and nodded, “I hope it works out.”
The sign was simple, the arrows to the left indicated fast food and gas stations. The right arrow also indicated there were gas stations in that direction. However, it was the last line that Stewart had been referring to. The bottom line read “Highway Patrol Headquarters”.
Chapter 26 – Katie
“Florida. I didn’t think I’d ever be back here.” Katie told Randy.
“You’ve come a long way baby.” Randy was dressed in the same fatigues he’d worn when he died. Well, not exactly the same, they were clean and blood free.
‘At least my mind can do that much for me.’ Katie thought, ‘I don’t know where I’d be if even my imaginary friends showed up filthy.’ The very thought made her giggle and Randy raised a questioning eyebrow.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing. Just thinking. Besides, don’t you know?”
“You’re a little weird lately.”
“Tell me about it. I think I am going to go for a swim. Do you want to come along?” Katie asked him, hoping he would.
“Sure. I might keep lookout though. Don’t forget to bring a towel.”
“Oh yeah, there’s nothing worse than gritty sand.” Katie followed the signs from the highway to get to the state park, within ten minutes she was pulling into an empty parking lot at a public beach. Katie debated parking in the lot; she was worried about going out of sight of it. Looking around she saw there was a beach access road, the only thing separating it from the parking lot was a thin chain stretched over a sandy expanse of ruts.
“We’re going to the beach Randy.” she said, putting her newest vehicle, a nice civilian Jeep into four wheel drive. The chain snapped on the front bumper as she drove off road. The Jeep had wide tires that were designed for beach driving. Looking both ways along the coast she finally chose to go left and drove for a mile or two until they were out of sight from the public park access.
Closer to the water Katie threw down her towel then stripped off her clothing. Wrinkling her nose she said, “Whew! I sme
ll like death! And in this stage of the game that is saying something!” she tossed the rest of her clothing down next to the towel and headed towards the water. She took a glance back and saw that Randy was still with her. He had been flaky lately, coming and going despite her thoughts.
“Well, c’mon!” Katie called to him.
“I should just watch, you know, in case someone comes along.”
“Randy! We can see for miles! No one will sneak up on us. Quit being a wuss!”
The man strode into the waves after her, giving one plaintive look back at the jeep.
Katie forgot about him for a moment, the water was warm and she relished the chance to use the sand to scrub herself clean in the shallow water. When she looked for Randy, he was up to his neck much further out than Katie would have thought he needed to be. She stood and trudged towards him, the water depth increased only slightly with each step she took.
By the time she reached him she was swimming.
“There’s a storm coming.” Randy said, looking out to sea.
Dark clouds were present on the far horizon, but over the beach there was nothing but sun and cloud free sky.
“We’ll be gone by then, or at least back in the jeep.”
“Yeah? Where are we going from here?”
“Oh, nowhere. I am pretty happy to just lay about and enjoy the weather for a change.”
“All that rush to get here for nothing?”
“What rush?” Katie asked, not wanting to admit something had been driving her this way since she left Chicago.
Randy sighed, and shook his head. “Stubborn as a mule, like always.”
“I call it assertiveness.”
“I call it mulish.” He reached out with both hands and pushed her under, then used his leverage on the sand bar to push away from her.
Laughing Katie surfaced and yelled out for him, “Just wait, I’ll get you, paybacks a bitch!”
But he was gone. This cast a pall on her mood and Katie swam in far enough so she could touch bottom. Bobbing as the waves came in she scanned the beach for unwanted guests, seeing no one she turned to watch the approaching storm. The air had an electric current to it, like something was about to happen.
“Me and my overactive imagination.” She laughed. Randy leaving wasn’t a big deal, she decided, she could cope. Her next move would be to find a nice house to stay in, to ride out the storm and maybe even live in, if the place were as deserted as it looked.
“But for now, I am going to enjoy this afternoon. Fuck it. No take backs.” Katie kicked over onto her back and swam parallel to the shore, stretching out her muscles and soaking in the sun.
Chapter 27 – Max
The truck finally gave out as they coasted into the highway patrol parking lot. Stewart put it into neutral and they coasted into a parking space, gently bumping into the curb where the sidewalk began.
“That was perfect.” Bill said.
“Only if there is a car here we can use.” Stewart answered, “We might just have to walk.”
“What do you mean?” asked Bill, pointing to the patrol cars in the lot around them.
Stewart laughed, “Oh Bill! Police cars are driven into the ground, these could all be piles of shit, parked out here to make people think the place is full. I know, I’ve driven enough P-O-Ses over the years.
“P-O-Ses? Oh yeah, piles of shit, got it. But these can’t all be bad! They just can’t!”
“I hope not.”
“How’s Javier?” Bill called back to Max and Ruben. Both men were sitting in the truck bed with the younger man.
“He’s still out. He isn’t bleeding anymore either.” said Max.
“Well, he’s got that going for him then.” Stewart muttered.
Bill and Stewart got out of the car with their weapons and both leaned up against the truck bed to look at Javier and talk to the others.
“How do we do this?” Bill asked with a nod towards the building.
“Well they probably have a board or something with the patrol car keys hanging from it, or maybe a slot system, like you might put mail in. The keys should match up the cars out here. See how each vehicle is numbered? We just find the keys, run them out here and start the car.”
“Let’s look for the better looking cars first.” said Ruben, “No sense pulling all the keys if can find something good in the first place.”
“That sounds fair. Anyone have a pencil or paper to write down a few car numbers?” Bill asked.
“I think I saw some in the glove box.” Max said.
Ruben pulled out a small notepad and a thick pencil like the kind used for marking wood on a construction site. “How about you sit here Max and let us know if any zombies get close? The three of us will find us some wheels.”
Max nodded, “Yeah, sure, okay. The place is empty though….”
“But?” prompted Stewart.
“Well, I couldn’t see Aubrey. I’m concerned; maybe there are others who know her trick?”
“We’ll be careful. You look with your eyes as well as your mind and we should be fine.”
“Unless they come out of the woods behind the station.” Max had a clear view of the road in both directions, but the forest grew right to the edge of the building in the back.
“Yeah, unless they come from that direction. You just watch your part.”
Ruben had already gathered up the numbers of three of the newer model state patrol vehicles by the time Bill retrieved the pen and paper from the glove box.
“Check this out.” Bill said, showing Max the pen. It looked about half the length of a normal pen. “I think it got cut in half by a bullet passing through the glove box.”
Stewart snorted, “Men!”
“Kinda cool.” said Max, examining it, “Does it still write?”
“Yeah.” Bill said, demonstrating on a piece of scrap paper, “Stewart you’ve got to enjoy the little things.”
“I have, I slept with Max.” Stewart quipped.
“Very funny, seriously check it out.” Max said.
“It’s a broken pen.”
“No, not just that. It’s a pen that was shot. By a bullet. That makes it cool. Especially cause it still writes.” Bill said.
Bill headed to the opposite end of the parking lot from Ruben and inspected the decrepit vehicles parked there. “I think these are the really shitty ones they were parting out.” He called back to them.
“Then fuck it, come back here with your cool pen and we’ll go find the keys for the cars Ruben found.” Stewart called back.
“I’ll feel back leaving the truck here, I mean, it got us through a lot. Look how shot up it is and it still works, except for the radiator thing.” said Max.
Stewart shook her head, “I suppose. We are going to loot the place for any food and hopefully we’ll find a fuel tank for topping off the cars over on that side of the building. That looks like the service area.” She was pointing towards the side Ruben had gone.
“Yeah, there’s a tank.” Ruben said, catching the end of their conversation. “I got five numbers, one or two of them ought to be good.”
“Let’s go find the keys then.”
Bill caught up with them as they approached the entrance to the building. The doors were glass, with metal frames, one of them was shattered into small green squares on the ground. Inside the building was dark and ominous looking, all three of them pulled out flashlights before entering. Ruben tucked the notepad into his front pocket and pulled up his shotgun.
Without a word Stewart went in first. Looking about she saw the place was a mess. There were dark stains covering much of the front lobby and a rotting corpse in state patrol khaki colored clothing lay in front of the main desk.
“Whew-whee. I’ll never get used to the smell.” Stewart said, approaching the bloated corpse.
“What are you doing?” Bill asked, choking on the foul air.
“He probably has the keys to one of the cars that works in his pocket. This is an
easy one.” Stewart rolled the body over and jumped back as the maggot ridden corpse disintegrated as it rolled.
The quiet sounds of thousands of maggots wriggling and eating was made more pronounced by Stewart disturbing the corpse they were eating.
“Fuck, this is disgusting!” Stewart pulled out her combat knife and used the tip to poke at the man’s belt, where there was a key chain attached. Stewart prodded at it until it unclipped and dropped to the floor by the sprawling filth that had been his stomach. With a sliding motion she shoved the keys through the muck until they were on a clean part of the floor. Stewart looked at the keys, then at the men.
“You know, I think I need a rag or something.”
“A bucket of bleach?” suggested Ruben, holding his nose with the same hand that was holding his gun.
“Just leave them Stewart, we’ll find something to clean them up inside and bring it back. And for fuck’s sake don’t roll any more bodies over! I don’t think I could stand the smell again.” said Bill.
Stewart just nodded and moved the keys over closer to the front door.
“Where now?” asked Ruben.
Stewart shrugged, “I would guess that way. At least that is the way to the garage and the fuel tank, so I would think they would keep the keys closer to that end for doing maintenance.”
They passed three more bodies along the way, but Stewart didn’t approach them as she had the first. All were very badly decomposed corpses. Most looked like they had been shot in the head, but with the amount of decomposition it was difficult to tell. The smell, if anything, became worse as they made their way further into the building.
“God. It is bad. I think I am going to puke.” Bill said.
“You’ll be okay. Just don’t think about it.” replied Ruben.
“If you do hurl, don’t do it in the middle of the hallway. I don’t want to step in it if we have to run away.” advised Stewart.