by C. Dulaney
“It’s done Ben. It’s done,” he whispered. He lowered his arm and pulled the gun from Ben’s hands. He pulled the hammer back and released his thumb. A tiny trickle of blood slid down his knuckle. Ben stood beside him, trembling and gasping. Jake shoved the gun inside the waistline of his jeans and led Ben back to the Jeep. He motioned for Kyra and Nancy to stay back when they moved towards him and shook his head.
He tucked Ben in the backseat, fastened the seat belt around him, and talked quietly to his friend while the others watched. Nancy and Kyra looked on anxiously, wringing their hands and glancing nervously at one another. Zack busied himself with shutting the passenger door of the truck. He glanced down at Mike, whose face was riddled with holes, before returning to the women. Jake had shut the door and was headed back.
“Grandma, you feel like drivin’ a bit?” he asked. Nancy nodded and embraced her grandson tightly. She turned and got in the truck, shutting the door without a word. Jake sighed deeply and closed his eyes.
“I need a break. Zack, do you want to drive a while longer, or do you need a rest?”
“I can go a few more hours,” Zack answered. Jake nodded and started around the front of the pickup.
“I’ll ride with Grandma. Kyra, you should check Ben’s computer and see if Kasey is on. Even if she isn’t, let her know where we are and that we’re drivin’ straight through now. I want to be out of Maryland and into West Virginia by mornin’.”
“Ok, will do,” Kyra replied as she and Zack went to the Jeep. Jake hopped in beside Nancy, pulled the door shut and rolled down the window. He sank back against the seat and blew out a breath as they pulled out.
“You okay, hun?” Nancy asked. Jake turned his head away and looked out the window.
“Yeah,” he said in a low voice. “I’m good.”
Nancy reached over and patted his knee, then hit the gas. Jake drifted off to sleep as the trees blurred by and were swallowed by darkness as night fell.
Chapter Nine
October 5th
I had sat in my study all night, drinking coffee and watching the computer screen. Occasionally I would fiddle with the dials on the radio. After I received Kyra’s message, I plotted their location on my map, and knew they should be in range. After a few unsuccessful attempts to raise them, however, I gave up and sent an e-mail instead. I nodded off after that and didn’t wake up until morning. The squawking from the radio and Gus jumping against my leg jerked my eyes open and scared the hell out of me. I scrambled in my seat and pulled the mic off the hook.
“Uh, yeah this is Kasey. Go ahead,” I said, unsure of who was calling for me and what the proper radio lingo was in this situation. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and shoved Gus away with my knee. He was very interested in the voice coming out of the big black box.
“Kasey, this is Zack. We’ve crossed the state line and are headed your way.” He kept everything general and vague, and I appreciated his astuteness.
“Copy that. I’ll stay close, keep me updated and let me know if there’s trouble,” I answered.
“Will do. Zack, out,” he said. I smiled and jumped from my chair. Gus tuned into my excitement and started running around the room. I replaced the mic on its hook and skipped into the kitchen. Finally, after days of loneliness and boredom so thick you could eat it, I had something to look forward to. Even the worry I felt for Ben was taking a back seat for the moment.
I stood at the kitchen sink, filling a glass of water and staring out the window with a stupid smile on my face, until my eyes wandered towards the dark circles in the yard. My smile faltered as grim reality settled back in. I studied the five round scorch marks in the grass and recalled the dismal task of disposing of my neighbors’ bodies. I had decided yesterday that I had left them there long enough, and I couldn’t ignore the health dangers of leaving dead bodies just lying around. Cold water from the now overflowing glass woke me from my reverie.
“Shit,” I mumbled and shut the water off. I drank long and slow, gathering my thoughts and refocusing my attention. I thought about the others and the last leg of their journey. Aside from any further car wrecks they might encounter, I figured they ought to be in the clear. This part of the country, hell this part of the state, was relatively unpopulated. Aside from the few, sparse residents like myself, that is.
The only town they would have to travel through to reach me was Matias at the base of the mountain. It wasn’t so much a town as it was an unincorporated gathering of homes. But we had a post office and a small country store, if that counted for anything. Matias wasn’t even the name of the place, just something the locals called it in respect to the man who had first settled here roughly a hundred and fifty years ago.
I still had no idea what had befallen those folks; I hadn’t left home since the day all this began. Hard to believe it had only been five days ago. I scolded myself for not having done more reconnaissance of the area. It would have been useful to Ben’s group to know what was waiting for them. I turned to Gus while I second guessed myself.
“Surely the folks down in town either left to be with their families in the surrounding hills, or were able to fend off whatever might have come their way?” I asked. Gus just tilted his head. I grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the fridge and rushed back to the study. I leaned over the desk and studied the map again. There was Matias and one larger city northwest of me. I shook my head, trying to shove away the doubt that had risen in my chest. No way deadheads could have made it from there to here, I thought as I traced a line from the city west of me to Matias. The mountains would have slowed them down. Oh sure, they could make it by sticking to the highway, but that should take weeks. Not days.
I took another deep breath and wasn’t entirely sure I had convinced myself. I grabbed the yellow post-it pad from the drawer and made note of this. It would be something to keep our eyes open for in the coming days, of this I was sure. Eventually, immediate sources of food would run out, and the zombies would migrate as far and as long as they had to until they found more. I sat down and took a sip of my soda, my eyes never leaving the map. The doubt and growing dread persisted, so I decided to fill Zack in.
“Zack, this is Kasey. Please respond,” I said into the mic. I was disappointed to hear my voice, which sounded less composed and more insecure than I would have liked.
“This is Zack, go ahead,” he replied in that calm, cool tone.
“Hey I wanted to let you know, there’s a very small town about ten miles from my location, at the base of the mountain. I’m not sure, but you may find trouble there. Maybe not. Just wanted to give you a head’s up...” My voice trailed off at the end. The more I talked, the sillier it sounded.
“Yeah, I know. Ben and Jake have been talking about it. We’ll keep our eyes open. If our calculations are right, we’re still about thirteen miles from this town. But it might take most of the day to get there. We’re running onto a lot of shit - cars and trucks mostly. And most of them have out-of-state plates,” he explained. Kasey found she liked the sound of his voice and was once again struck by how relieved she felt knowing these people were with Ben.
“Yeah those are probably tourists. This area is a big tourist attraction, especially this time of year. They probably ditched their cars and hoofed it into the woods. Unfortunately they won’t survive long out there; I don’t think I need to explain why. And that’s not counting the new menace they were running from in the first place.”
“Right. I’ll keep that in mind. Listen, everything okay there?” The sudden impatient vibe to his voice caught me off guard. I stuttered around a moment until I was finally able to produce a coherent sentence.
“Yeah. Quiet as usual. Mind-numbing, eerie-ass quiet,” I said, forcing a chuckle. I heard Zack sigh on his end before signing off.
“Good. That’s the way we like it. We’ll check in soon.”
I grimaced and replaced the mic, then leaned back in the chair and tilted my head until I was staring at the ceiling. I didn’t want
to go far from the radio, but I needed to do something. I had to keep myself occupied so I wouldn’t obsess over the fact that pretty soon, I’d have four strangers in my house, plus Ben. I figured I might as well eat breakfast, and then do a quick check around the house. Same shit, different day.
* * *
For the next few hours Gus and I busied ourselves with gathering and removing all my weapons from the guest rooms. Sure it was a fifteen minute job, but I paced myself. Had to stay busy. If I hadn’t, I would’ve been pacing and running to the radio every five minutes, wondering why no one had updated me. So I divvied up the guns; half going into my room and the other half going downstairs. I then divided those and placed half by the back door and half by the front door, which actually amounted to having one rifle by each downstairs door, and two in my room. But I discovered that if I made it sound more complicated in my head than what it really was, it took longer and distracted me more efficiently.
I glanced at my watch, then had to look at it three more times before it sunk in what time it was. Already noon, I thought, and nothing from the radio. On my way to the study I passed the fridge and figured since it was lunchtime, I might as well make a quick sandwich. So after a few minutes Gus and I settled down in front of the computer, he with a heaping bowl of hamburger (I was trying to cook everything in the freezer first, to prepare for the eventual power failure), and I with a lovely turkey and Swiss. I saw there was nothing on the computer screen, no e-mails or people online, so I turned my attention to the radio. I swallowed before keying the mic; it’s dreadfully rude to talk with your mouth full.
“Zack, this is Kasey. Come back,” I said, relaxed in the assumption that they had simply put off updating me. I waited an extra thirty seconds longer than usual, and still no reply. I frowned, pausing with the sandwich partway to my lips, and stared at the radio. I made myself wait another thirty seconds, then tried again.
“This is Kasey calling Zack, please respond.” My forgotten sandwich slid from my fingers and onto the plate. I sat straight up in my chair, my hand gripped tightly around the mic and my butt scooted to the edge of the seat. I closed my eyes and counted, forcing myself to remain calm and give whomever was closest to the radio on their end time to answer. When I reached fifty, I keyed the mic again.
“Zack, or whoever is in charge of the radio at this moment, you better be squatting behind a bush somewhere, because if you don’t answer me in the next two minutes, I’m coming after you,” I said through clenched teeth. Suddenly it hit me; they ran into trouble in Matias. Goddammit I knew it. I KNEW it! I swore at myself. I replaced the mic on its hook and sat there, staring at the radio in silence and waiting.
I looked at my watch. Five minutes, I thought. I tried the radio one last time before a wave of nausea so strong washed over me that I almost covered the desk in half-digested turkey and Swiss cheese.
“The phone!” I shouted to the empty room. I had given up on the phones after the last time I tried calling Ben. I couldn’t remember when that was, but I did know I hadn’t checked them since. I stood and pushed myself away from the desk, knocking my chair over, and ran into the kitchen. I grabbed the cordless from its cradle and dropped in on the floor. I wiped the sweat from my palms and bent to pick it up, knocking my forehead against the counter.
“Shit!” I hissed. I rubbed my forehead and grabbed the edge of the countertop to steady myself. Don’t you pass out now, you hear me! Don’t you do it! I took a few settling breaths and reached for the phone again. I hit the call button and listened. There was a dial tone, but it was crackling with faint snow. Good enough, please work. Please work, I thought as I dialed Ben’s number. Tears instantly clouded my vision when I heard ringing on the other end. Pick up, pick up, I thought over and over. When his voicemail message answered, I hung up and immediately dialed again. I did this two more times before he finally answered.
“Kasey?!” Ben nearly screamed into the phone.
“Ben, what the hell is going on?” I replied in kind, my hand shaking so ferociously I had to grip my wrist with my other hand just to keep from dropping the phone again.
“We’re pinned down. We stopped in Matias, and now we’re stuck in the general store. We didn’t see anything coming in, the coast was clear of any activity. But now we’re surrounded and we can’t get to the vehicles. We fired into them until we were out of ammo, and we can’t reload because the extra is in the truck. We couldn’t get to the radio either to call for you. I never once even thought about the fucking phone, “ he rambled on. He was talking so fast I had a hard time keeping up with him. My attention honed itself sharp as a blade while he spoke, and I was already running what needed to be done through my head.
“Is everyone there with you?” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
“How many deadheads are there?”
“Enough to trap us!”
“Ben, I need you to focus. How many are there?”
“Um…there were about fifty I think. We took down as many as we could. Nancy is the only one without a gun and Kyra left hers in the Jeep. I know we missed a few times, so that takes the total down to about sixteen I think?”
I took a deep breath and did some mental calculating before I spoke. “Are you secure for the time being? Will you last another thirty minutes?”
“I don’t know. If we have to, we’ll get on the roof,” he answered.
“I’m on my way Ben. It’ll take me about half an hour to get there. When I do, make sure everyone is ready to bolt when I give the okay.”
“Ok, Kase, we’ll be ready.”
“See you soon,” I said and hung up. I tossed the phone on the couch as I rushed by and ran upstairs. I grabbed a box of shells and my deer rifle from my bedroom, then turned on my heel and ran back downstairs. Gus met me at the garage entrance.
“Stay here and be good. I’ll be back,” I said. He whined once and turned, trotting over to his bed in the corner by the couch and curling up. I shut the door behind me and secured my rifle in the front passenger seat; the stock on the floor and the barrel pointing towards the window. I hopped inside and hit the garage door opener on my windshield visor. As it slid open, I turned the keys in the ignition, yanked the gearshift into drive, and pulled out before the door was completely up. I hit the button for the moon roof as I picked up speed down the driveway. The box of shells rattled in the seat next to me and the cool crisp air circulated inside the car, causing me to regret not wearing a jacket.
I slowed to a stop at the end of my driveway and threw the car into park. I grabbed the key to the gate from the console and slipped out the door, my eyes scanning the surrounding forest. All was quiet except for the occasional chirping of a bird or the barking of a rather aggravated squirrel. I slid the key into the padlock and pulled the chain loose. Keeping a sharp watch around me, I walked the gate open and propped it with a rock against the hillside. The CD player was switching as I jumped back in, and the sounds of Metallica filled my small SUV. I smiled cruelly and hit the gas, speeding down the remainder of my driveway, throwing gravel and dust in the air.
* * *
On the roof of the Ol’ Country Store, Ben and Jake stared out over the hungry crowd. They had piled and crushed themselves against the walls of the building, but so far had not broken through the windows. Zack, Kyra, and Nancy were sitting in the far corner, sipping water and trying to block out the moaning. Ben kept looking at his watch, counting down the minutes from when he had spoken to Kasey. Jake kept his eyes locked on the road leading towards Kasey’s, as if he were trying to literally will her into appearing.
“I can’t hear anythin’ over this damned noise,” he said as he motioned to the zombies below. Ben nodded and closed his eyes. He felt like kicking his own ass for winding up in this situation. He knew better, they all knew better, but still it had happened. They had let their guard down, thinking they were safe just because they were almost at journey’s end. Kyra had to use the bathroom, and she wouldn’t just
pee in the woods, and she said she couldn’t wait, so they had stopped here hoping there would be a bathroom inside. Ben replayed the events in his mind and was still sure the coast had been clear. There had been absolutely no sign of undead activity. Kasey was going to kill him if he lived through this.
“What’s that?” Jake asked beside him. Ben looked down the road to the spot Jake was pointing to, but saw nothing.
“I don’t see anything,” he said. He squinted his eyes against the afternoon sun, but the only thing he saw was the pavement and the leaves rustling in the trees.
“No, I hear somethin’,” Jake said again. He tilted his head and frowned in concentration. Zack stood and came over beside Ben, his eyes narrowed and his lips set in a humorous smirk.
“Is that Metallica?” Zack asked. All three turned their heads to see Kasey’s red SUV coming into view. Ben laughed as “Enter Sandman” pumped out of the open moon roof.
The SUV skidded to a halt a hundred feet from the store and sat there idling. He could see Kasey moving inside and watched as she popped up through the roof.
“Holy shit,” Jake said in a hushed voice as Kasey pulled herself onto the roof and reached back inside for her rifle. She crouched on one knee and opened fire on the deadheads directly below the guys. Three sets of shoulders jumped and hunched in surprise as they dropped to their knees. They pressed their backs to the ledge behind them and motioned for the two ladies to stay put, cringing and jumping in spite of themselves with each measured and deliberate report of the rifle. Ben tried to count them, but was thrown off when Kasey stopped to reload. He popped his head up over the wall to take a look. A guitar solo was drifting out of the car, followed by a heavy drum riff. Zack was singing along beside him.