by Russ Watts
Wherever they ended up camping for the night, Javier intended to make sure their numbers thinned out some more. Time had overtaken them at the warehouse, so he was going to have to reassess things. The water would soon disappear with so many thirsty mouths, and he didn’t need them all. Rose had her fun with Peter, and now it was time for Javier to get some action. Pippa was like a zombie now that her son was dead, and she was useless. She could be the first to go. If he made it look like suicide, nobody would be surprised. Mrs. Danick was pushing all his buttons, too, and he was itching to be rid of her. It was definitely time to cull the herd.
“Ain’t nothing more important than your kin,” said Javier seriously. “I never had the chance to have kids before, but I have a brother. He’s up north, in Canada, close to where this Janey lives. I mean to get to him, and it seems like we can help each other out, you know? Between us we can share the driving, and like Mrs. Danick says, we can watch each other’s backs.”
Mrs. Danick snorted, but said nothing.
“We don’t have time for this dicking around. Let’s get going,” snapped Rose.
Javier could see the way Rose looked at Mrs. Danick, and he felt the same way. The old woman suspected foul play, and she was staring at Rose’s back as if her eyes were throwing mini daggers at her. Javier was feeling impatient, but he knew he had to be smart about it and wait.
Jonas looked around the cramped campervan at everyone. It seemed as if a little hope had been raised in a few faces. Not all of them by any means, but certainly Quinn and Dakota were at least holding their heads up now. He wasn’t sure how Erik and Pippa were going to get through this, but he would do everything he could to make things right. Jonas turned back to the front and looked up into the rear view mirror. His eyes met Gabe’s, and Jonas thought he saw a whisper of a smile disappear when their eyes met. “Gabe, get us the hell out of here. Keep pointing north. We don’t stop ‘til sundown.”
CHAPTER NINE
“It’s as good a place as any.”
The van idled to a stop, and Jonas breathed a sigh of relief. As he peered out at the spread of trees before him that slept silently beneath the sinking sun, he estimated that there was an hour until sunset, and he wanted to make sure they were set up long before it got dark.
They had been driving all day, circumnavigating their way around the towns that seemed to spring up every few miles and keeping well away from Indianapolis after the disaster that was Martinsville. They had refueled down a narrow country lane, with Gabe siphoning off the gas from an old Buick. Jonas wanted to give Gabe a break from the driving and took over behind the wheel mid-afternoon. From then on Erik had joined Jonas up front to help navigate, and he had sent Mara with Gabe into the back seats. There was a frosty atmosphere between Mara and Mrs. Danick that no amount of small talk could banish.
“How’s it looking?” asked Javier, stretching. “Safe and sound?”
Jonas didn’t even know what that meant anymore. Every time he thought they were safe, something bad happened, or someone died. “Seems to be, but let’s check it out. Any sign that we’re not alone, and we’ll move on.”
Jonas jumped out of the van. They were in a small clearing surrounded by lines of grape vines. A thin wire fence surrounded the vines, and the van was parked up beneath a withered old oak tree. The area appeared to be quiet, and they were looking down over a hill, affording them a good view of the valley beneath. The oak tree gave them some protection, and they were far enough away from any roads that they were unlikely to encounter any unwanted visitors. The surrounding trees hid them well, and it looked like a safe enough place to stay. Jonas looked at the van. It was beat up badly. There were countless dents and scratches on the side, and the front headlamps were cracked. They had lost one side mirror, and blood was streaked down both sides as if someone had made a crude attempt with red paint to put stripes on it; all evidence of their difficult escape from Martinsville earlier in the morning.
“I think this should work,” said Erik as he walked around the van. “Some of us can sleep in the van, and the rest out under this tree with what few blankets we have left.”
Jonas watched as Erik went to Pippa, and he held her to him. Freya clung to her mother’s side, and Dakota walked across to Jonas.
“I don’t know if it’s the baby or being cooped up in that van all day, but I feel like crap.”
Jonas let Dakota rest her head on his shoulder, and he put his arms around her waist. He hadn’t held her in so long that it felt odd, as if he was holding a stranger. The last person he had embraced this close was a dead woman back in Martinsville. He had decapitated her, and he shuddered at the memory.
“You all right?” asked Dakota.
Jonas just nodded. He didn’t want to talk about how hard it was; about what he was thinking or feeling or imagining. Now he had stopped driving, he wanted to just eat and get some rest. Talking about all the bad things that happened wouldn’t help anyone, and he didn’t need any help in dredging up terrible memories.
Dakota smiled feebly. “I’m going to help Quinn and Mrs. Danick. They mentioned something about collecting firewood so we can heat something up for dinner.”
Jonas nodded again, watching Gabe and Mara close up the van. He suddenly felt useless, as if his part was done. He wandered over to the wire fence, and looked upon the valley, at the overflowing vines. There were grapes growing that they could collect and would make a refreshing change from the usual tinned food. At the far end of the valley were some discreet, low-rise buildings indicating the edge of the town they had bypassed.
“Just another shit-hole town, Hamsikker.” Javier joined Jonas at the fence. “Nothing there but a bunch of dead people. We’ll give it a wide berth in the morning, just to be sure.”
Jonas yawned. His body ached, demanding rest, but his mind was full of thoughts. “I’m having trouble figuring how to do this with a pregnant wife, you know? I’m not even thinking much beyond that.”
Rose walked up to them and smiled at Jonas as she patted her belly. “I know I’m not showing yet, but I can’t keep it in any longer. Just hearing you say it out loud gets me excited about bringing life into this world. There’s too much death. It’s like that’s all we talk about these days. When our little baby girl pops out, I’m going to spoil her rotten.”
Javier patted Rose’s stomach and smiled at her. “Or boy, my darling.”
Jonas couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “For real? You’re pregnant, Mara?”
“I didn’t want to steal Dakota’s thunder, and I really wasn’t sure when the best time was to say,” Rose said, feigning nervousness.
“Well, it’s a surprise, that’s for sure,” said Jonas. Surprise was an understatement. There had been no clue, no signs that Mara was pregnant. Just when it seemed he was getting to know them, they threw out another curveball.
“It came as quite a surprise to me, too, when I found out,” said Javier. He had no idea what Rose was doing, stirring things up, but he had no choice but to go along with it.
“Congratulations, I guess,” said Jonas. “Mara, maybe you can talk to Dakota. You have a lot in common, and maybe you can help each other out? She’d appreciate any advice you can give her.”
“Sure, I’ll go talk to her. We can start talking baby names,” said Rose as she disappeared to find Dakota. “I’m so excited.”
There was something surreal about it all, and Jonas felt like he was being thrown around on a ship at sea. What were the odds of there being two pregnant women in the group? It was almost like a bad joke, but there was no way Mara would make up something like that. They would just find a way to deal with it. The sooner they got to Janey’s the better. She had three kids and would know what to do.
“You remember where you were when it started?” asked Javier.
“What?”
“When the zombies first hit the news? The outbreak, where were you?” asked Javier.
Jonas was still trying to come to terms with Ma
ra’s news, and now this?
“I was at a funeral. Look, I don’t really want to talk about it, Gabe. Maybe we should go help…”
“It’s like the JFK thing, or 9/11, you know? Everyone knows where they were when they first heard about the dead walking. It’s not something you can forget.”
“No matter how hard you try,” muttered Jonas.
“We were shopping,” said Javier. “We were in a baby store looking for a cot.”
Jonas remembered all too vividly where he was when it started. He could still feel the coolness of the church, the slippery, leathery feel of his dead father’s skin as he held him down, and the burning smell in the air when Mrs. Danick put a bullet in his father’s head. He remembered how Erik had saved him and Dakota at the church, and he didn’t appreciate Gabe churning up bad memories. Everyone had their own stories, each unique and disgusting and upsetting, and Jonas sensed that he was about to hear Gabe’s. Everyone had to get it off their chest, tell the others how it had started for them. It united them all. Really they were strangers, yet this was the one thing they had in common, and it gave them a sense of something shared. Like telling tales around a campfire, telling everyone where you were when the dead started rising was cathartic. It brought everyone together and united strangers who had nothing else in common except having to live through a waking nightmare.
“It was a beautiful day,” said Javier quietly. “I wanted to buy a cot, even though we weren’t sure if Mara was even pregnant at the time. I just knew it was going to happen for us. Anyway, the store was pretty empty, just a typical day really. The assistant was showing us some piece of Chinese crap when she was called away to answer the phone, and then there was a banging on the window. You know how those stores have massive windows at the front to display all their shit? I can see it so clearly. This man was… well, he was dead, no two ways about it. My guess was he had been run over. His neck was twisted so his head was practically facing the wrong way, and his clothes were covered in blood.”
Jonas rubbed his dirty hands over his face. He knew it was selfish, but all he really wanted to be was on his own. He didn’t need to hear anymore. He had heard a dozen stories like it, and he already knew the ending. Still, he let Gabe go on.
“He was shouting something, but nothing that made sense, just grunting noises really. He kept banging on the window, and I thought he was going to smash it in. The store assistant came back and told us we had to leave as they were closing. I told her there was no way we were going out there with that madman on the street, but she insisted. I should’ve made her let us stay, but I didn’t. I’m a pushover really, just sweetness and light. I don’t like confrontation, so I let her go. She went to open the door, and the guy rushed her. He just flew through the door and took her down, like he was running the line for the Broncos or something. He started ripping into her like a dog. Her face looked awful after, and he bit off quite a few fingers when she tried to stop him. I didn’t even think about what I was doing. I just grabbed the nearest thing to hand, and I hit him. Turned out that strollers aren’t that great at stopping zombies, and he left the young girl to attack me. I was aware of Mara screaming behind me, but all I could think of was how this asshole had ruined my day. All I wanted to do was buy something for my unborn baby, and this motherfucker had upset my wife, damn near killed the shop girl, and now he was coming after me? I pushed him back, grabbed the stroller, and pinned him down. I beat him over the head with it until one of the legs came free. I jammed it through his skull until he finally quit. He didn’t get up after that.”
“And the shop girl?” asked Jonas.
Javier shook his head and pretended to choke up. “Dead. I checked her over. She wasn’t breathing. He’d torn her throat out. We called for an ambulance, but we couldn’t get through. When the girl got back up, we ran.”
A grieving silence fell between the two of them. No two stories about that day were the same, yet they were all filled with sadness. Inevitably somebody died. That was how it always started. Someone’s partner, someone’s friend or colleague died and came back. What had happened on that spring day to cause it? Rarely did Jonas bother himself with thinking about it, but occasionally the question surfaced. There was no rhyme or reason to it. It wasn’t Halloween, the Son of God hadn’t returned to Earth, unemployment was up, the Cardinals had just lost, again, and gas prices were rocketing. It was just another day in the good old US of A - except that morning had turned out to be the beginning of the end. Jonas kept wondering when he was going to wake up.
“It was like someone flicked a switch, don’t you think?” asked Jonas. “One minute we were fine, the next…”
“You don’t have to get bit to turn either. Anyone who was already dead back then came back too. You die, you come back,” said Javier calmly. “At least we know where we stand.”
Jonas felt for his axe, and remembered it was in the van along with the Pulaski he had found. It was undeniably reassuring to have them so close, but he intended to sleep with at least one of them by his side tonight. It wasn’t that he distrusted his friends or Gabe and Mara, but he needed them. Like a young child needs a blanket to sleep, Jonas couldn’t imagine being apart from his axe now. They were like extensions of his hands. One day he would probably lose one or both, and that would be that. Until they were ripped from his dying hands, he would fight to the end.
“I think I need to get some sleep,” said Jonas. No good would come of trying to talk when they were as exhausted as they were. Their heads weren’t in the right place, and neither was his. He needed some space. He needed to make sure Dakota was all right, get some food, and get some rest. They still had to organize who was going to take what shift on lookout overnight, and it was likely that it was not going to be a restful night. Jonas took two steps away from the fence and then turned back.
“Gabe? Thanks. Thanks for everything. You’ve helped us no end. You’re a good friend.” Jonas left Javier by the fence, and headed to the van to retrieve his ax before joining the small camp the others had made underneath the old oak tree.
Javier turned back to the valley and smiled. God, Hamsikker was an idiot. They were all so gullible. They still thought they would make it, as if they were somehow better equipped to deal with the zombies than the millions of others who had already died. The only ones who made it through this were the strong ones; the ones who would do whatever it took to survive. Javier knew he and Rose were going to make it. They would use Hamsikker and his pathetic group until they didn’t need them anymore. That was what it took to survive. It was all about putting yourself first. Anything else was suicide.
Javier ran through a mental checklist of what weapons they had left. It didn’t take long. He knew that he held the last gun, with a couple of rounds left, and then there was Jonas with his axes. There was a rusted hammer in the van, but since Jonas had left the chainsaw behind, there was nothing else. Javier had the power now, and he knew it. He had given Jonas a sob story to make sure his spirits were low. The real story of where he was when he had first encountered a zombie was not too dissimilar to the one he had just told, but there was certainly no baby store involved. There was a gas station, him holding a gun to some stupid kid who was handing over the contents of the register, and a dead cop in the doorway. The cop didn’t stay dead long, and that was when things started to get weird.
When the time came, he hoped Jonas might join him on the road with Rose. He was the only one who offered something. He was strong for sure, and he didn’t shy away from confrontation, as he had proved back at the warehouse in Martinsville. Tonight, though, Javier was going to freshen things up and wanted to find time to thin out the group some more. Rose was right. There were too many. It was as if they had taken over a kindergarten, and he wanted to get rid of some of the more annoying babies in the group.
As Javier left the fence, he felt like he was being watched, and looked back at the rows of grapes growing down the valley. He studied them for movement and carefu
lly watched the town, but there was nothing, no movement, not even a zombie, and he joined the others. The town down there was dead, he was sure of it.
* * *
Hamsikker had a sense of déjà vu as he sat staring into the dying embers of the fire. That feeling of hopelessness, the cold air, and the faint rustling of the trees all stirred a vague memory in him. Was this how it was going to be? Sleeping with one eye open? Eating scraps from cans and drinking warm water? It dawned on him that not only did Janey need him, but he needed her. They all did. He looked around at everyone, seeing the same hopelessness he felt in their eyes. There was something else, though, inside of him, a building anger made of resentment, of disappointment, and of revenge. Too many people had died, and if he let the others lose their way, more would die. He needed to make them see that they were in more danger now than ever before.
“We have to start thinking of this as a war. We’re in a fight with these creatures, and we can’t negotiate a truce. They won’t quit until we’re all dead. They won’t quit, and neither will we. Everywhere we go, every town we enter, every house or yard or garden that we cross, is a battleground. These bastards can hide anywhere. They don’t sleep, they don’t have remorse, and they don’t care who they kill, they just do it. I think it’s time we accepted that they’re not people anymore.
“Ever since we left Erik’s place we’ve been thinking we would be fine. We keep thinking we’re going to stumble across some kind of sanctuary, somewhere like the golf club where we can relax and start over. I’m telling you that it’s not like that. It’s not going to fall into our laps, and it’s not going to be easy. We can pretend we don’t know what’s going on, or we can get our shit together and fight back. We need to start acting smarter, thinking smarter, and stop letting things just happen to us. We’re going to take control of our own lives.”