by Brown, TW
Great, Juan thought, we are gonna do this now? He would give the kid a minute or two, but then it was time to move.
“She used to have this big party every single year at the end of school. It became like a tradition. But after fourth grade, it stopped being this big open event. Only the ‘In’ crowd got invited. I wasn’t on that list. I didn’t play football, I ran cross country. I wasn’t one of the jocks and my folks didn’t have much money, so I didn’t wear the right clothes or have a car.”
Juan leaned against a barren tree and began digging at the grime under his nails with his favorite knife. There was something that Frank was getting to…he hoped.
“I was blown away when she came up to me one day and asked about how to be an Outdoor School counselor. I helped her fill everything out and since I already had an inside track because of being friends with one of the senior counselors, I put in a good word.
“When all of this crap happened, she clung to me like I knew what I was doing. I mean, I’d seen a few zombie movies, but we all know that it never turns out to be like Hollywood, right? The thing is, the night before all of this happened, we kissed after the bonfire. That was the first time I ever kissed a girl that wasn’t a relative.”
“So now you feel like you have to take care of her?” Juan asked.
“Well…kinda…” Frank stammered.
“Here’s the thing, kid,” Juan pushed away from the tree and looked up the hill. “You don’t owe nobody. You have to take care of yourself now. If you can’t handle your own business, then you sure can’t be takin’ on somebody else’s garbage. You follow me?” Frank nodded. “Good, now, we go up, we check, and if she ain’t here, we go back. You want to stay on your own, that’s your call.”
With that, Juan turned and headed up the hill. He was very happy when he reached the top and hadn’t had to deal with a single deader. However, at the top was a whole new set of problems. A chain-link fence greeted him and he would have to walk across about ten feet of wide open ground to reach it. The other option was to move down to where the house actually sat. It had a high brick wall sealing off the back yard. Looking either way, the other houses in sight had the same thing going on. But then he would be in the open when he reached the top of that wall. Which led to the other problem. This once affluent neighborhood was a curious beehive of activity. Zombies walked around in singles or small bunches. This was most peculiar considering that most zombies had wandered off on their own little adventures or whatever zombies had going on.
“It’s the wall,” Frank whispered.
“Huh?” Juan asked as he tried to decide the best way to tell this kid that his friend was screwed nine ways to Sunday if she’d come here.
“This neighborhood had a big brick wall on three sides…and the steep hill and the Cyclone fence is like a fourth wall. You can only get in from one of three main gates.”
Juan looked back and down. He hadn’t realized it was so steep until now. In fact, he felt pretty damn good that he’d made it to the top and not fallen backwards and broke his neck.
“So you are telling me that this place is totally walled off?” Juan asked. That would make sense why the zombies were still here in such big numbers.
“Yeah, everybody here was doing okay in the money department,” Frank said with a dreamy quality in his voice.
“Well a lot of good that did them,” Juan scoffed. “Follow me.”
With that, Juan took off for the brick wall that acted as the fence to the back yard of the house that Frank had indicated was Donna’s. He was up and over so quick that even if a zombie had been waiting on the other side, it would not have had time to react. Fortunately, the yard was empty.
They both had weapons drawn when they scaled the stairs that led up to the raised deck. The sliding glass door was shut. Juan glanced at Frank who shrugged and nodded. Giving a gentle tug, Juan was actually a little surprised to discover it was unlocked. Throwing the curtain aside, Juan stepped in with his arm cocked and ready to take down whatever might be waiting.
He froze in his tracks…arm still in the air. When he was able to shake off the shock, he could only think of one thing to say.
“Tight like a tigah.”
***
The village looked like a picture postcard. Chad and Scott both stopped long enough to look over their shoulders. Steam rolled off their bodies and neither seemed to be able to catch his breath.
The screams had died out several minutes ago, but Chad was almost sure that he could still hear Trina calling his name and begging him not to leave her behind.
The three of them had been actually making good time. They stopped at a small gas station and slept in the cashier’s booth for a few hours when they could simply not go on any longer. It had been Trina that had woken Chad and Scott. Her eyes were wide with fear and all she could do was point.
Chad had peeked over the lip of the counter and the moment he saw them, he knew they were in serious trouble. A few were already almost on them. If they did not leave right this very minute they were screwed. There had to be hundreds coming up the mountain road. The mob was on their heels.
“Grab the skis,” Chad hissed. “We can put them on later, right now we just have to go. This little shack won’t stand a chance, and if they trap us, it’s over.”
There had been no arguments from anybody. The trio had fought their way out the door, having to take on a handful of the leading edge of the zombie herd that had been the reason they’d had to abandon their mission in the first place. Well, everybody except Michael Clark, he had continued on; insisting that he could make the run alone and probably easier without the others to slow him down. Chad had his doubts, but at the moment he didn’t care.
They had been able to outdistance the herd with relative ease once they broke clear. Once they got the skis back on, it was even easier. All had been going well until Trina, who was actually leading the way and had to be asked more than once to slow down—a request she didn’t seem to hear—rounded a corner and ran smack dab into three zombies.
By the time that Chad and Scott had caught up, there was blood on the snow and Trina was shrieking in pain as another chunk of her arm was torn away by a zombie wearing what looked like a brown uniform of some sort. The other two were obviously soldiers. Chad had thought it odd considering that he hadn’t seen a single one since they’d left that FEMA center all those months ago.
Scott had moved forward as if he intended to pull the flailing woman free, but Chad had stopped him. He’d shaken his head and dug his poles into the snow.
“Chad, help!” the woman pleaded.
“She’s done,” Chad said to Scott without so much as glancing back.
After a few minutes, Scott had finally broken the silence. “You don’t think we should have at least put her down?”
“I thought about it,” Chad finally tapped the knife at his belt and answered as they continued to push for their destination. “But I just couldn’t look somebody in the eyes and kill them. At least with a gun you know it is quick.”
That answer seemed to satisfy Scott and they had continued through the day. Finally, they saw the signs and knew they were close. When they reached the outskirts, Chad stopped. At first he admired the idyllic scenery. He knew that it would not be long before hundreds if not thousands of undead converged on this little bastion that had given them all a false sense of security. It was in that moment that he realized that there was no such thing as a safe place.
“So what’s the plan?” Scott asked as the two made their way down the main street.
“I’m grabbing Ronni and I am heading up into the mountains,” Chad said as they came to a stop in front of the hotel they both called home.
“What about everybody else?”
“They aren’t my problem.”
“So you are just going to up and leave?”
“Pretty much.”
“What about me?”
“You are free to join us…Brett, too. But
I’m not staying here and waiting for those things to swarm in and trap everybody inside. And with that many, there is no way that we will be able to keep them out. This place is over.”
Scott seemed to consider Chad’s words for a moment before he spoke. “We gonna tell anybody?”
“What do you think happens if we do that?” Chad said in an angry whisper. “These people will want to talk about it. By the time they have come to some hair-brained conclusion, that swarm will be here and it is over. Or…there is a run on the food, it turns into mass chaos, and we all kill each other before the zombies get a chance.”
Once again Scott was quiet. Chad headed inside, but a few seconds later, Scott was by his side. They reached Chad and Ronni’s room and opened the door to find the girl asleep.
“I’ll wake her, you go tell Brett. Meet me at the food locker in ten minutes,” Chad said to Scott as he opened the closet and began gathering what he deemed to be essential.
Scott nodded and headed out the door at a jog.
Fifteen minutes later, the four of them ducked into the trees and vanished from sight. The people of Yosemite Village went about their business and waited for the food to arrive.
***
The fire had burned down to embers, but the warmth was still so blessedly good. Vix felt the rest of her clothes that she had hanging. Everything was dry. Of course she wouldn’t dare sniff them, she knew better. Gemma was curled up in the corner snoring softly and it was peaceful and quiet.
She hadn’t been able to believe that one person could talk so much. It seemed like one question had barely left that girl’s mouth when three more were already being asked.
She liked the girl well enough, and her decision to bring this girl with her and leave all the others behind was simple. She didn’t want any of the blokes because they would try to run things. All of the women except for Gemma had attached themselves to one of the men. Gemma was young, and most likely, she would do as she was told. Vix needed somebody like that if her plan was to work.
By now that group had figured that she wasn’t coming back. Most likely they would figure that the two of them ran into some trouble and ended up falling to the zombies. She wouldn’t miss any of them. Not to put too fine of a point on it, but they were mostly a bunch of idiots. Had it not been for her husband’s hard work, that place wouldn’t be as secure as it currently was…for now. Sooner or later, the dead would find them. Gun or not, Nigel and the others wouldn’t stand a chance.
Not for the first time, Vix wondered about her friends. Not the neighbors and such, but all the people she had met on Facebook. Many were in America, and she had seen the news reports the first few days. It was simply too crowded over there for anybody to stand much of a chance.
She thought of all those daft conversations they’d had about zombies and vampires. It seemed a million years ago now. They had all agreed on one thing: get away from the big cities. Yet here she was headed for London.
Reaching up and pulling her pack down from where it hung on the doorknob, she opened it and began digging through it for that piece of paper. Her hand felt the plastic baggie and she pulled it out. A glance at Gemma to ensure that the girl was still asleep, Vix pulled that piece of paper out and unfolded it.
The folds had made creases in the paper so indelible that somebody who did not have the writing on the page committed to memory might actually have a hard time reading it. She had no such trouble. As many times as she’d read what was written in fancy script on the page, she didn’t so much read the page as recite it.
Her lips moved, and when she was done, they curled up into a smile. Yes, there was a chance that somebody might have the same idea, but a lot of things would need to happen for somebody else to be on the same quest that she was on.
Carefully, she folded the paper back up and put it back in the baggy. Wrapping it in the rag, she stuffed it back into her pack.
It was funny how things worked out. Her friend Reggie had sent this flyer just two days before that first zombie had stumbled into her nurse’s station. She hadn’t even told Ivor about it yet. She was going to surprise him with a trip.
Thinking of him brought a sharp pain in her chest. Why hadn’t she just told him about this weeks ago? Of everybody she’d known, he always believed in her. He would have followed her with no questions asked. Perhaps he would still be alive.
“Stop thinking that way, you silly cow,” Vix scolded herself.
Nothing could be served by living with “shouldas, wouldas, and couldas” as her husband was fond of saying. No, she would move forward and do him proud.
Her mind drifted back to one of the conversations that they’d had over dinner. Ivor didn’t share her love of zombies, but he always entertained her interests.
“If that ever did happen,” he’d said one time in particular, “then I am certain you would be fine…with or without me.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she’d argued.
“No,” and suddenly his face grew serious, that sparkle that was always hinting at the smile that always came so easily was replaced by something else. “If something as unlikely as zombies ever happened, you would be one of the few who not only survived, but you would prosper. In fact, a bloke like me might just slow you down.”
“Now you’re being ridiculous,” she’d scolded.
“No, I’ve never been more serious. You are much stronger than you give credit, my love.” He’d taken her hand in his and looked into her eyes with something that was close to sadness. “Given the chance to put all your past behind you, I believe that there is no stronger woman in this world.”
Vix wiped at her eyes. Stupid old lummox of a man, she thought. He’d always had the right words, which was a feat since he was a man who used very few.
“I’m gonna show them, love,” she whispered.
Gemma made a noise in her sleep. Almost at the same time, a cry came from outside. It was one of those cursed crybabies. She hated those more than anything.
Well, tomorrow they would push on. London was two days away at the most. Then it would get tricky, but if everything worked out, then it might be worth it. If it worked…then the world would see what Vix Kirkpatrick was made of…and Ivor would be smiling.
***
“So the two of you were being held just up the road from here?” Danny was doing a pat down of his gear. “Little shack beside the access road, right?”
The girl glanced at Selina who fired off a series of rapid hand signals. After a few seconds, she nodded.
“You think this is such a good idea?” Selina asked Jody while continuing to sign so that Katherine could follow the conversation.
“If we hit them first we have the element of surprise. I seriously doubt if what that girl is saying…err…umm,” Jody began to stammer.
The dark haired girl grabbed Selina’s hands to stop her. She fired off some signs of her own while looking up at Jody with a smile.
“I am a deaf-mute, but that does not meant I do not have a sense of humor. And since this is how I communicate, yes, that is what I am saying,” Selina spoke slowly as she followed the young girl’s hands.
“We can worry about this later.” Danny grabbed Jody by the arm and began pulling him to the door. “Let’s go.”
The two men headed out of the room that they had set up as their camp for the next day or two. The idea was that they could use this location in the basement of what was apparently the local high school as a base and run into the town to search for supplies before continuing on.
As they reached the door that opened to the outside, a hand grabbed Jody’s arm. He turned to see the young girl looking up at him with a smile. She wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed. The she went to Danny and did the same thing. Afterwards she made a gesture of touching her fingertips to her mouth. Jody looked up at Selina who was standing a few feet behind.
“That means thank you,” Selina said.
“How do you say you’re welcome?” Jody asked
.
“Hold your hand in front of you and move it across like you are inviting her in,” Selina said, demonstrating the gesture.
Jody mimicked it, and then touched the girl on the top of her head. “Now stay here with Selina and we will be back in a few minutes.”
The girl glanced at Selina, who quickly fired off a series of gestures. Danny opened the door and peeked outside before grabbing Jody and pulling him along.
A cold rain was falling. It was coating everything with a sheet of ice. Already there was a shimmer to the power lines that still hung limply overhead, and several of the branches on nearby trees were sagging with the burden.
“Freezing rain,” Danny observed. “Might be able to use that to our advantage when we go into town.”
“How so?” Jody asked.
“The zombies are gonna have a hell of a time walking on it.”
“So will we.”
“Yeah. But we are much more able to focus on our balance. Zombies just walk wherever without thinking. There will be some busted legs when this is done. They will have a much worse time of it than us.”
Jody shrugged. As they started across the parking lot, he almost landed on his ass twice. Eventually they reached the grass that ran alongside the access road. It was much easier going from that point.
The road stretched on and made a gentle turn. It was just around that corner where they were supposed to find the people who had held Katherine and her friend prisoner. From the sounds of it, these guys were scavengers and had a pretty decent stash of goods. Since there were no plans of leaving these animals alive, Jody was actually fairly confident that they would make a good score when this was done.
He and Danny separated and went to their own version of sign language as they closed in on their target. They would strike hard and fast. Jody actually felt his heart begin to race. This was no zombie hunt. They were actually going to take out living, breathing men. He’d almost forgotten what that felt like.