Amanda Carter in the L.A.Z., life after zombies

by Jo Lee Auburne

  Red had dutifully followed Sam down the hill, but as she told him to wait at camp, he whined and then sat down to beg with dark, soulful eyes. When he could tell that Sam wasn’t about to relent, he got up and sculled away in a direction away from camp, presumably to hunt.

  “I hope Red’s okay with staying here,” Sam said, sounding concerned.

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” Roy said. “He knows how to take care of himself. He’ll probably go catch himself some dinner. For a wolf, what we’re giving him is barely adequate for him to keep his muscle toned.”

  They didn’t need to worry about transferring the rails because they were still in the Jeep, sticking out the back window of the soft top, where he and Maryanne had put them the night of the run.

  “So what’s over there?” Cole asked, speaking of the canyon next to them.

  “We don’t know, that’s why where heading over there to check it out,” Roy said, looking quizzically back to Cole who had stuffed himself into the backseat next to the rails.

  “I don’t mean that,” Cole said, realizing that he had not made himself clear. “I mean, the area over there, what’s it like?”

  “Don’t know,” Roy said with a shrug. “I’ve never been over there. I’ve driven past that canyon but never into it.”

  “How do you all expect to keep yourself safe and have an exit strategy if you don’t even know what’s around you?” Cole asked, clearly exacerbated with their current operating system.

  “Oh, now, don’t be getting all like that,” Roy said, feeling his emotions beginning to rise too. “Amanda knows this desert well. That’s the only reason we’ve all been tucked away so safe like here. She brought us here, and it hasn’t been easy, but we’ve lived secure.”

  Sam was finding it hard to concentrate on her driving, and she ground the gears hard, causing both men to cringe. Roy helped the girl to find the gear and then looked back to Cole.

  “I think that it’s time that you as a group start instituting some new policies, for your own good,” Cole said, by way of an apology.

  “I feel like instead of asking us to change, you go around judging us, as if the way we did things wasn’t good enough for you. But it’s you that’s seeking refuge with us, not vice versa,” Roy said.

  Roy liked the guy but felt that he could be extremely irritating and smug. He also felt like they all owed Amanda a lot for having taken them this far safely, and he would defend her to the death if need be. And that included defending her from insulting comments made by Cole, even if he was right at times.

  “Look, I think that we’re starting off on the wrong foot here,” Cole said, trying to temper his usually tactless way of putting things. “What I meant to say, is that maybe if we pool our ideas, we can improve upon the way we do things, considering that there is more of a threat to your way of life than there used to be out here. I’m sure, knowing this, Amanda would agree that more needs to be done.”

  Roy looked to Cole, studying him for a few seconds before nodding.

  “I get it, why didn’t you just say it like that before? Everything doesn’t have to be somebody’s fault. We don’t sit around camp, judging each other and thinking of ways that we can get one up on one another. I bet you ran into some problems with your fellow officers sometimes.”

  Cole slumped back in the seat. He felt like he had ultimately won this battle, but it had not started off well. His wife had always understood his way, and she had never called him on it, but Roy was right. In the force, he had been passed up for several promotions because of his difficult manner. Cody’s psychologist had also pointed this out a time or two and had been working to instill some changes in him, but he felt that he was (like his son) who he was and that there wouldn’t be much changing it. He wondered for the umpteenth time, how it was that his son found it so easy to make friends when he hadn’t learned it from him.

  Cole looked across the desert, amazed that there wasn’t a single creeper to be seen and realized something. He had been looking for a safe haven to raise his son. He wanted his son to grow up around good people. Additionally, the doctor had said that she would teach the boy medicine. Right here, among these good people, he had found what he was looking for. He breathed out a long puff of air.

  “I’ll try,” Cole said.

  “Try what?” Roy asked, as if he really might not know to what Cole was referring.

  “I’ll try not to sound like I’m judging. I’ll try to learn to be more tactful.”

  Roy nodded, and Sam stopped the Jeep at The Trench, where both men jumped out to grab the rails. Sam had intentionally stayed away from any appearance of listening in on their conversation. She figured that they needed to work some things out for themselves, but she did smile as she watched the two working side by side to lay the planks, knowing that they were already friends, even if it was begrudgingly so at times.

  O

  Amanda was curious about what the exploratory group would find over there. She had climbed up on the boulder that overlooked that side and was attempting to use the binoculars in order to get a read on the situation. All she could see was something that was shining in the sun. She frowned. The fact that something shiny was reflecting back at her meant that whatever the vultures were attracted to wasn’t what she had begun to think it was: a near-dead animal. Judging by the amount of vultures in the sky, whatever it was, wasn’t small. Despite her attempts not to, she had begun to worry.

  “You agreed to go and lie down after washing up,” Maryanne said, scolding her.

  “Hey, I’m doing good since I managed to refrain from going out with the search party,” Amanda said, squinting through the binoculars again, but still she could make nothing out other than the shine.

  “Shouldn’t you be wearing your ball cap?” Maryanne asked. “It’s hot out.”

  I’ll be much happier once I’m not under the doctor’s care anymore, Amanda thought, feeling that all of Maryanne’s concern had become tiresome. But the quicker she healed up, the sooner that she would be free of it all, so she climbed down and made her way to her mat. Surprisingly, though, she knew it was another hot, hot day; she wasn’t the least bit bothered by it.

  “You know, this book is really interesting,” Jason said, looking up from his read.

  “That’s nice,” Amanda said, realizing that he must be talking to her because Maryanne and Cody had begun the trek down the hill to bring up more water to sanitize.

  “Yes, it’s about General Patton’s military exercises right out here in this desert. I didn’t realize that he had spent so much time training his troops here,” the man said, looking up over his glasses that had slipped down his nose while he was reading.

  “Oh, I knew about that,” Amanda answered. “He had at one time believed that Japan would attack us by coming up through Mexico. He wanted to be ready for anything.”

  “Very interesting,” Jason said, beginning to turn back to the book.

  “I made a good deal of money by tracking his routes and photographing some of the old sights that still had memorabilia around, like old telephone lines, bullet casings, cement platforms where he had once operated out of,” Amanda answered, and for a moment, she could remember those carefree days out in this desert where town offered safety and easy access to food and supplies when she had finished after a tough few days in the heat.

  “Now I’m wishing that we could spare the gas,” Jason said. “I’d really like to check it all out. But I guess that there’s no sense in digging up the past when we’re having trouble holding on to our future.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Amanda said, while secretly wondering how it was going for the three that had left camp.

  “Sure would be nice, though,” Jason said.

  “At one time, there was an underground cave network that housed a lot of his operations out here; it was a bunker of sorts. I had the chance to see it once, miles of cave system with many offshoots, offices, desks with paperwork still on them, military rat
ions, stored batteries, drums of oil, even an old tank. But the military sent a bombing raid over the area fairly recently and demolished the cave until there’s no way in anymore. They said it was a hazard. We sure could have used it now,” Amanda said.

  “No kidding!” Jason expressed, clearly amazed by the news.

  “Yep, folks said that it could fit the entire city of Blythe plus some, and I think that they were right. I would have liked to have had my camera on me the day that I went in. The entire underground network was destroyed a few months after that, and I never got the chance to take any pictures inside the system.”

  “Fascinating,” Jason said, returning to his book.

  The camp fell silent as Jason read, Maryanne and Cody made trips up and down for water, and Amanda waited for news from the three that had left. She couldn’t sleep yet because she didn’t feel tired, so she occupied her time by watching the hovering vultures and trying to surmise what might be waiting for them over there.

  O

  “Amanda was right about me being a city boy and not knowing about this desert,” Cole said as they bumped along in second gear, slowly making their way around the bend that would lead them into the next, as yet, uncharted canyon.

  “Oh, really,” Roy said, amazed that Cole would make the effort of admitting something like that.

  “It’s true, and I don’t know a thing about these buzzards, or whatever they are, except what I’ve seen in the movies,” Cole said.

  Cole had decided that he might try to repair some of the damage that he had caused by calling Amanda’s and the group’s way of life into question. He really did want this relationship with them to work, more for Cody’s sake than his own. But judging by Roy’s reaction so far, he might be appearing too obvious in his efforts.

  “Well,” Roy said, “it’s definitely like what you see in the movies. Pretty straight forward really. Vultures, or buzzards, as some people call them, are carrion birds, they eat flesh, dead flesh, and they show up when they know that something is dying, thus the circling overhead.”

  They had rounded the corner and were entering another canyon that looked similar to their own, like a close relative to the one that they lived in. The Jeep rolled past the same type of brush and terrain as they drove farther in. Only this canyon had no official road to it, and the ride was a lot rougher.

  Now they were close enough that they could see the birds circling overhead in the distance, and not knowing what to expect, they kept their guard up. For all they knew, there could be a horde of creepers that had become trapped in here.

  Cole had begun to feel edgy. It had felt safer when they had first pulled out into the open and deserted desert. But now, with a potential threat ahead, he could feel his muscles stiffen at the prospects of what might be waiting for them up ahead. He had never been the type of person that found it easy to relax, but since the onset of the infection, that was especially true. Cole knew that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder; he had seen it in other officers over the years. But he also knew that he wasn’t alone. He figured that a psychologist would be hard-pressed these days to find anyone alive that was not suffering from it in some form or another.

  Cole also didn’t like that he was jammed into a tight spot behind the passenger seat. His long legs were folded up, leg muscles beginning to cramp, and he could not see out ahead of them very well. He craned his neck from side to side to try to establish a good visual on their surroundings, but still, his visibility remained low, and this irritated him.

  “You all right back there?” Roy asked, having noticed how much Cole was fidgeting around in his seat.

  “Fine, everything’s fine,” said Cole. “It’s a tight fit, is all.”

  “I’ll drive us on the way back, and Sam can squeeze in back there,” Roy said, feeling some understanding for the man because he was a tall man as well.

  “That’s cool, whatever,” Sam said, while secretly wishing that she could drive them on the way back too.

  “There’s a car,” Roy said. “Slow down, let me use the binoculars and see what’s up with it.”

  Sam attempted to slow the Jeep and downshift into first gear, but instead, she stalled it, and they suddenly halted with the engine stopped.

  “Let me out,” Cole stated in a frustrated tone, suddenly feeling more claustrophobic.

  “Yep, it’s a four-door sedan, one of those all-wheel drive, small station wagon types,” Roy said, ignoring Cole.

  “If there’s something going on up there, then I don’t want to be trapped back here!” Cole said, and this time, he sounded angry.

  “Let’s just switch places now, Sam,” Roy said, opening the door on his side and stepping out.

  “Sure,” Sam said, feeling mortified that she had stalled the vehicle like that.

  With some color to her cheeks, Sam hopped out too, while Cole scrambled out quickly like he had a fire to put out.

  The area was quiet, and Cole requested the binoculars so that he could see the car for himself. Roy did not protest and passed the binoculars off to Cole, before making his way to the driver’s seat.

  “It would be good if you could keep an eye on things as we drive,” Roy said to Cole.

  “No problem,” Cole said, suddenly feeling freer as he hopped into the passenger seat, after Sam had climbed into the backseat.

  Roy started the Jeep and slowly cruised toward the sedan, with Cole peering through the binoculars, looking for anything that might be trouble up ahead.

  “Do you get many passersby out here?” Cole asked.

  “No, Amanda’s occasionally spotted a vehicle or two off in the distance while out on the runs, but we’ve never seen anybody out here,” Roy answered.

  Now the little forest-green mini wagon was coming into clear view, and Cole lowered the binoculars. Nothing was moving in the area, and he told Roy that it looked safe to pull up a little farther.

  Roy stopped the Jeep in front of the vehicle in question, and they all climbed out, careful to be watchful. But still, nothing moved, except for the vultures overhead.

  Cole moved forward, gun drawn and ready, to peer into the mini wagon. It looked like someone had been trying to live out of the car. There was a small collection of empty water bottles in the back hatch portion, a blanket spread across the backseat with a pillow, and a few unopened cans of food stacked on the passenger seat. Cole circled the car but found no sign of life. Several empty tin cans, which had once contained food, were scattered off to the side.

  Seeing that Cole was occupied with the car, Roy and Sam began to look farther past the vehicle. A large lizard scurried away from them, causing Sam to jump back a little in surprise. So far, if not for the carrion birds, they would have figured this location to be abandoned.

  “See anything?” Cole asked, after flipping open the glove compartment of the car to read the registration.

  “Nope,” Roy answered back, still looking and beginning to broaden his search.

  “Look, over there,” Sam said. “See it?”

  Roy followed the direction that Sam had pointed, barely making out what looked like a swatch of clothing stuck on a bush.

  “We might have found something,” Roy said, beginning to take the lead in that direction.

  Cole caught up to them quickly.

  “It’s a woman,” Sam said, starting to move past Roy to go and check it out.

  Roy put his arm up to block the girl, using it to gently push her back.

  “Hold on a second,” he whispered to Sam. “We don’t know what we’ve found yet. It’s best that you wait here.”

  “I agree,” Cole said, starting to move forward, cautiously stepping toward the figure that as yet had not moved.

  Roy followed right on Cole’s heels, while Sam waited anxiously, biting at her lower lip and shielding her eyes from the sun with a hand.

  Once they had closed in, it was easy to see where the woman had used a garden trowel to cut away some of the earth from the bank to ma
ke a small alcove for herself in the side of the mountain. She would have been seeking shelter, and the earth would have been cooler than the vehicle, especially if she had any prolonged plans of staying out here in this type of heat. But it was clear, by what Cole had witnessed back at the car, that she had run out of water, and that was a death sentence in this desert during the summer months.

  “Is she moving?” Sam asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

  Chapter 64

  The woman was curled into a ball with her back against the mountain and an arm over her face. She had long all-gray hair, and some of it had spread over the arm that was shielding her face. It was easy to see that the woman was small.

  “What do you think?” Roy asked, wondering if the woman was still alive.

  “If the registration on the vehicle is accurate, we’ve just found Sky Ryder,” Cole said. “And I can’t tell if she’s alive. I’ll have to get closer.”

  “Sky Ryder,” Roy repeated. “Who has a name like that?”

  “Cool name,” Sam said, trying to peer past the two men and inching her way closer, hoping that they wouldn’t notice.

  “She’s alive,” Cole said, noticing that there were small movements coming from her chest to indicate shallow breathing.

  Cole moved in to where he could nudge her and got no response. The woman’s body remained still, looking lifeless. He nudged her again, this time harder, but still there was no response.

  He decided to roll her out of the alcove that she was tucked into. Once he had her out and her face was clearly visible, it was easy to tell that the woman was in her fifties, if not sixties. She appeared to be unconscious, and with the little bit of checking that Cole did, she did not appear to have any highly visible bite marks.

  “I think she ran out of water,” Cole said. “She’s dehydrated, lips cracked, skin dry.”

  “Let’s get her to the doc,” Roy said, turning to head back to the Jeep, feeling a sense of urgency in acting quickly on her behalf.

  Cole decided to take a chance on her not biting him, should she be infected, and scooped her up in his arms. The woman was smaller than Amanda and weighed less than her too. It was easy for him to carry her back to the Jeep in his arms.