The Dead Live On

by Cooper Brown, Julie

  “Where did you see the van?” Kate asked, knowing that Tank’s van was what he was searching for.

  “Back in Georgia.”

  “Well, I can tell you that I was in the blue van along with my friends and two little girls. One got attacked by birds and then mauled by some infected. I ended up killing her just hours ago. She had become one of them. The other little girl...” Jack pulled out a picture of Angel and her father.” Is this one of the girls?”

  “Yes, that’s Angel. She was still alive when they left. I’m going to find her, too. I hope she’s okay. I hope they’re all okay, but I think that might be asking a little too much.”

  “Where did you meet Angel?”

  “My friend,” and she dropped her head as she thought of him. “My friend Dave and I found her in a trapped in a house in Florida. We had to kill several of them. I was surprised to find her. We had to kill her father, too.”

  “I made a stop there as well and saw him. He was beheaded and shot between the eyes. What happened there? Aren’t they supposed to go down with a head shot no matter what?” He asked.

  “Yea, they are. We were just as surprised when he got back up several hours after we shot him. Don’t know why that happened. Haven’t seen it happen to anyone else before or since. Anyway, I watched out for her until we came to a church where the Pastor had locked his congregation in a room infected people and allowed them to die. My friend blew the place up and the rest of us got away. I could have gone with them but I wanted to check on Dave. He was infected already but had not changed yet, so I had to find him. But I didn’t. So, now I am going to Ohio to find my other friends.”

  “Well, let’s hope we find them alive. I think we will. What are the chances of me running into you, looking for the same person? It will be okay. I have a son and a couple friends already inside the shelter. It’s back in Georgia, though. Hopefully we’ll make it. Without the key the girl holds, we won’t be able to kill the infected. I was lucky enough to find the code in the pocket of Dr. O’Dey’s pants. Angel’s father, that’s his name. Carl O’Dey. He was a renowned scientist.”

  “I don’t think she has anything on her, Jack. Though, she does have a teddy bear. Maybe it’s in the teddy. What does the key look like?”

  “I don’t know. It could be just a regular key, maybe a card. If we find her we find the key. Gas will be difficult, but we are in Kentucky now and getting closer to them with every mile. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and get the girl and whoever we can carry and get back to safety.”

  Kate thought briefly about the little heart that Kimmy had shown her but did not say anything. She was comfortable for the moment and the trials of the day had taken its toll on her and she nodded off to sleep.

  Jack looked over at her thinking she was very attractive for a pale-skinned redhead, but quickly pushed those thoughts aside. They were on a mission and he would take whoever he could back to the shelter with him once he found Angel and the key. He drove on in silence and hoped that the roads didn’t become any more difficult than they already had and the rain began steadily falling, again.

  “Hey, wake up.” Jack said to Kate as he shook her shoulder to jar her. She woke and rubbed her eyes as she readjusted herself upright in the seat.

  “Where are we now?” She looked out the window and they were crossing a bridge and saw signs for Liberty and U.S. 50.

  “We just crossed into Cincinnati from Kentucky. Dayton is still a little over and hour or so away, if traffic were normal. Hopefully we don’t encounter too many more road blocks.” Jack said as he slowly maneuvered his way through the clusters of cars on the bridge. “I thought you might want to wake up a bit before we actually get there.”

  “Yea, I do. We have to be ready for anything. Thanks for letting me get some sleep. I must’ve needed it.” Kate said. “I sure wish I had a cup of coffee.”

  “Don’t have coffee but do you want a smoke?” He asked taking a crumpled pack of Marlboro out of his shirt pocket and offering them to her.

  “No thanks. I don’t smoke often. Don’t think I want one right now, though I might take you up on that later. Have all the roads been this clogged?”

  “Well, most of them. I’ve had to take a few detours and run over a few infected but it hasn’t been so bad, and we’re just about there.”

  “I’m hungry.” Kate said as she reached into the backseat to get her pack. “I have some extra rations. You want something?” She said and unzipped her pack to pull out a couple granola bars. She really liked those. They didn’t taste bad and gave her energy to boot. He was pretty hungry himself so he took the granola bar that she held out to him.

  “Thank You.”

  “Not a problem.” She said and they ate their granola bars and rode in silence for several miles before Kate said “Some of them have a conscience, you know.”

  He looked over at her and saw that she believed what she was saying, though he really didn’t know about that. “No, I didn’t know that. How did you come to that conclusion?”

  “I’ve seen it.” Kate proceeded to tell him about what she read in Jillian’s’ papers and told him that she still had them if he wanted to read them. She told him about Jillian herself when Kate had called her name and how undead Jillian reacted.

  “I haven’t heard of that. It’s a first, but then we really don’t pay too much attention to what their faces and emotions are. We’re too busy trying to kill or run from them to stand and try to analyze their emotions. He thought on this for a while as the road to Dayton seemed to open up and there weren’t as many cars to dodge and creep around. They got up to a steady forty miles an hour and cruised the rest of the way.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  “What time is it?” Belinda asked as she lifted her head up from the table where she had been sleeping and swiped the drool with escaped her lips with a grimace. She was a nice girl and had only started her job at Tank’s a month before the infection got out. She looked pretty silly with drool dripping from her otherwise very pretty face. She had deep set almond shaped green eyes and a full mouth with a set of gorgeous teeth.

  Troy looked at her and laughed, handed her a napkin and said “Almost eight o’clock. Why? Got some where to be?” She slid him a sideways look and yawn, stretching her body out so that you could hear it crack. “Oh, I am too young for my body to be snapping like this!” And she laughed as well. “Stay off your back and the rest of your body will heal.” Mojo said from behind her and he flicked her in the back.

  “Ow. That hurt.” She whined.

  “Quit crying. I’ve been thinking about this, Troy.” Mojo said. “We have to leave here sooner or later, I looked out the window and they know were in here. They’re starting to gather out front. We’re gonna have to use the big bus to get us all out of here.”

  Troy stood on a table to look out the window himself and counted twelve. “Yea, they are, but how we gonna get to it?” Kristen had been sitting at the bar with her head down and spoke from under her arms. “Tommy had the keys last, Mojo. We haven’t seen him, so how we gonna get it started? You gonna hot wire it?”

  “No,” he said and pulled a ring of keys from his pocket and dangled them in the air. “I have Tank’s keys.”

  “Oh, so what are we gonna do for gas, then? The pumps won’t work without electricity, if we can safely make it to a station. We took the bus to the Air Force Museum; the fuel was pretty low when we got back.”

  “We’ll burn that bridge when we get there. We can syphon, we just have to find a hose. I think we can use the line from the sanitizer in the kitchen; we have to find a way to rinse it out. Anyway, we gotta focus on getting out. They are gonna be trying to knock these doors down soon. Sure seems like they’re getting restless. Listen.” Everyone quieted and listened for the sound of the infected outside. They could hear the moans of the dead and an occasional screams of the soon to be. Kristen broke out in goose bumps and said “Oh my God, make some fucking noise. I don’t want to hear that.”r />
  “Smart, let’s make noise so we can encourage them to get at us. They already smell us.” Troy said.

  “I don’t mean be loud as fuck. I just mean keep talking so we can block it out.” Belinda rubbed her arms as it gave her the chills as well. “I will never be able to get those sounds out of my head.” She turned to walk into the kitchen.

  “Okay, let’s plan this out. It’s gotta be done right or we’re all gonna die sooner than later. John?” Mojo called out to him.

  “Yeah, I’m awake.” He said from the upper dining room. “I’m just listening.”

  “I’m gonna need your help. The first thing is we gotta figure out who’s gonna get to the bus. Now, it’s only across the alley, parked next to Tommy’s house. One of us has to stay by the door, the other two have to head to the bus, who’s gonna do what?”

  “I’ll go to the bus.” Troy said and John said he’ll go with him. “But I’ll drive.” He added.

  “Okay then. I’ll keep the door clear and provide cover for you. Kristen, you and Belinda gather all the stuff we need, but not more than you can run with. John will pull the bus up and open the doors. I want you two to stand inside by the door with Angel, one of you carry her, and wait for my signal. I’ll bang twice quickly. Then you run directly onto the bus. Don’t waste time, you drop something, leave it. Understand?” They all nodded their heads and had worried a look in their eyes. They knew they were going to lose somebody. Isn’t that how it always went in the movies when the trapped are trying to escape?

  “All right, let’s get the show on the road! You guys grab your guns and you girls get your shit together. We won’t have but a second to get on the bus. Let’s go.”

  The girls immediately broke into action gathering a few things and getting Angel up. She had been sleeping a lot, but none could blame her. She was traumatized. For a child of six she had seen way too much. The guys walked back to the kitchen and waited for the girls to get back there in their waiting positions before they exited the building.

  Mojo opened the door and peered around, only one infected in the back lot standing by Woody’s body only 25 feet away. John and Troy ran straight ahead across the alley towards the bus and Mojo waited as long as he could before he shot the infected. He didn’t want to attract the attention to the others in front sooner than he had to. He saw john climb into the drivers’ seat and he fired the shot, and it popped the head of the infected in a shattered mess. You could hear the carnage splatter onto the ground.

  John had started the engine and was not expecting any other persons on board. Unfortunately, Tommy had been bitten and must’ve got onto the bus for shelter. It was there that he died, in the seat directly behind the driver’s seat. And it was there that he had risen and his mouth opened so much further than it should have been able to, and latched onto John’s entire shoulder. John grabbed Tommy’s head with his left hand and he could not get him off.

  He struggled to stand with Tommy tearing into his shoulder, and saw Troy aiming his gun to shoot. Straining to keep from screaming he said to Troy “Stop, Not on the bus.” He threw himself and Tommy with all his might, down the bus stairs and out the door onto the ground. He looked at Troy and said “Do it, now. Troy shot twice quickly, one for each of them. And John was no more.

  Troy climbed into the seat and pulled the bus out onto the street. He had to turn it around to get the doors on the right side, and it was getting crazy now. He could hear Mojo’s gun firing and knew he only had just a minute to get there. Finally he pulled up and saw headlights on the rearview mirror as Mojo banged on the door to get the girls to come out.

  Jack and Kate had gotten there just in time and started firing out the window at the other infected that were trying to close in on the survivors that they saw trying to escape. She saw Angel being carried by a female she did not recognize. The male who stood at the doors of the bus looked in her direction and said “Hurry!”

  She looked to the right at the beautiful red Mustang that Tank and the others had escaped the church in, and noticed two familiar bodies on the ground along with a few others. She didn’t have time to think on who they were. They both exited the vehicle firing their weapons as the infected were growing ever so greatly in number, and headed right for the bus. Kate saw the last girl to exit was carrying supplies and as the back door fell shut behind her and infected grabbed her by the shoulders, she dropped the box of supplies she was carrying and it pulled her down and began biting into her face. They made it to the bus and jumped on; there was no use in trying to save the girl outside. The driver shut the door behind them and put it in reverse, he would have to back directly out into the street.

  Before he could get more than five feet away, the girl was chasing the bus and beating on the side. Somehow, the virus had mutated and the girl was now fully undead. Blood poured from her face and mouth and she screamed and clawed at the bus. Jack lowered the window beside his seat and fired one shot into her forehead. They all saw her drop as the driver prepared to straighten the bus and head out, and they all saw her rise again just a quickly. The wound in her head looked much like a gaping black hole, dripping blood and brain matter down the bridge of her nose, and her face expressed pure hatred. She ran at the bus faster than could be believed and she jumped, her fingers caught the top of the lowered window. She screamed and spit, she bit at the window until Jack used his knife to pry her fingers up, she let go and fell, cracking her head completely open and finally she lie still. Her bloody face had left smears of several different fluids across the window. Troy floored the pedal and they took off in a swerve, he struggled to get the bus under control and was able to get it corrected just before it would have slammed into a telephone pole.

  Angel ran down the aisle to Kate and jumped into her arms and snuggled deep into her chest. Kate hugged Angel tightly and asked about the whereabouts of the others. She needed no response as everyone quieted and their heads dropped in answer to her question. They were all dead. Jack broke the silence by introducing himself and everyone followed suit. Mojo told them what had happened since Tank’s arrival and Kate was very upset, but not surprised at their deaths. As Jack filled the others in on his own quest, and informed them all on how the virus got out in the first place, Kate questioned Angel about the key.

  “Angel, this is very important. Do you have a key of some sort?” Angel lifted her head from Kate’s chest and moved Teddy to her other hand as she dipped into her pocket and pulled out the little purple heart and held it out to her. Kate was not surprised to see it, only stumped on how Angel had ended up with it after she had seen Kimmy with it.

  “Did you take this from Kimmy?” She asked her as she took the key and examined it.

  “No, my Daddy gave it to me. Then the birds gave it to me. I didn’t know I lost it.”

  “The birds gave it to you?” She thought of their violent attack on Kimmy and figured that is how they got it. But what birds are intelligent enough to return something to its owner? This was getting stranger for her by the moment.

  “Yea, they flew all around me and one little birdie gave it to me. I don’t know how they got it. I thought it was in my pocket. Daddy said I shouldn’t show it to anyone until they asked me for it.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter now, we have the key, and it’s going to help us fight the scary monsters. And most importantly I have found you. I was so worried about you.”

  “I was worried about you too, Kate. I knew you were the one my daddy was talking about.” Kate thought that it could have been anybody and more than likely no one at all. If Kate and Dave had not shown up when they did, Angel would not have survived long enough for Jack to get there. She hugged Angel tighter and listened to the conversation that Jack was having with the others about heading to the shelter. The only problem now, was fuel. This was a large vehicle and probably didn’t get many miles to the gallon. They were going to have to fill up some time or another. They had a long trip back to Georgia. It was decided that they would try
the next exit and get it done as fast as they could. But as usual everyone dreaded every stop they would have to make. They didn’t want to lose any more people than they already had.

  Chapter Thirty Three

  “Take this exit.” Mojo told Troy as the neared the ramp marked ‘Middletown’.

  “This area is not so populated; maybe we can get fuel with no problems. There’s a Duke Station as soon as you turn left.”

  “Okay, I know where I’m at. Troy said as he navigated the bus around the cluster of vehicles in the road. There weren’t many. And there weren’t many cars at the station either. Most places evacuated everyone to shelters in the area so most of the infected would be elsewhere. Still, they would have to look out for whoever had been in these cars.

  “Pull up next to the truck at the pump, maybe they had gotten filled. Then we’ll check the others. Let’s give it a minute though, see what pops up out of the woodwork.” Mojo said as he stood with his shotgun and everyone fell silent. The quiet outside thick and making them feel uneasy. Jack spotted an infected falling out of a car several feet from the bus and had a clear view. He shot once and it entered the top of the zombies head.

  “Let’s go!” Jack said and got off the bus as Mojo followed behind with the hose and can. “Let’s get this done quick. Troy, if it looks like you can get in the store, see if there is anything worth taking.”

  “I’ll go with Troy.” Kristen said as she got up to exit as well.

  “No,” said Mojo “you stay here with Kate and Angel.”

  “I’ll be fine, I wanna help.” She followed Troy inside and Jack already had the hose in the tank of the truck, which thankfully; was full. Mojo had found two more cans in the lot and was beside him giving him another when he was ready, and funneling the full ones into the bus. They were almost finished and the bus was just about full, Jack was filling the cans again from other vehicles to take with them when Kristen screamed.