by Geo Dell
“Yeah, well, that's always the problem with shit like that,” Ronnie said. “No one you actually know has seen it, can vouch for it. Dead people coming back to life? Come on. Really?”
“Didn't say I believed it,” Jeff said.
“No... But do you?” Candace asked. She looked back around the clearing. Nest, her mind whispered. There did seem to be an orderliness to it that was human, not animal. There seemed to be an area that was flattened down where someone may have slept.
“No,” Jeff said. “I didn't believe in that kind of shit at all. I thought maybe it was someone sick, real sick... nearly dead... out of their head, and so they ran away when help came.” He shrugged. He looked over at Mike.
“Go on,” Mike said. “Jeff and I talked about this. With the stuff that's been going on, us making our decisions, I didn't think we should get right into it.” He looked around the clearing. “But this...” He shook his head. “Tell them what you told me, Jeff.”
“I said I didn't believe in Zombies... Un-Dead... Walking dead, living dead. None of it. And I didn't. Then one day I was checking out this building. It smelled bad... like this, but a building. I didn't connect it, but I stepped into a room, and there was a body, dead. I swear to Christ that woman was dead, missing part of her neck, body glued into the blood on the floor. Dead. And I nearly turned and left. And then she sat up... saw me... hissed at me. She hissed at me. And then she took off. And I mean took off, fast. She could move.” He shrugged. “That's it. I didn't believe. Not until then.” he finished quietly.
“Don't matter if they believe in you,” Patty said quietly.
“Oh come on, Pats,” Ronnie said. “For Christ's sake.”
“Could be real,” Candace said. “Doesn't take much, government shit, some sort of chemical change.”
“Please,” Ronnie said.
“Please? Then why did the C.D.C. issue warnings about it? If it's bullshit, why would they do that?”
“Candy, that was a joke,” Ronnie said. “When I just said it, it was a joke. I was joking.”
“Ronnie, don't fuckin' call me Candy. And it wasn't a joke. An organization like that doesn't joke.”
“Sorry,” Ronnie looked embarrassed. “Sorry, but you don't really think that.”
“I didn't say I did.” The fire bled out of her eyes. “Looks like people camped out here though... not an animal.”
Mike cleared his throat. “Whatever it was doesn't matter. I saw that whole thing too. Does anyone remember back in Watertown? It's in my journal. I can't remember the date. I heard Airplanes in the night, woke up the next day there was this blue shit all over the snow.”
“And?” Ronnie asked.
“And, I don't know. Does anyone? Can anyone say this wasn't a pack of wolves? Wolves do this. They act a lot like humans. They do. I'm not ready to say we have Zombies running around, but, well, ignoring shit is not good. Better to look at the big picture. I'm not saying it is; I'm not saying it isn't. But, what was that shit about? Why spray that shit after all that had happened? What was that?”
“I remember that blue snow. I didn't hear the planes. I remember the snow though. Could be they are real,” Candace said.
“But... Never mind, I jumped, I am sorry, but, fuck, a thing like that. What the hell could we do against a thing like that?” Ronnie said.
Silence held for a few minutes. The gloom began to get to them. It seemed twenty degrees cooler out of the sunlight.
“It was my fault. I shouldn't have made that crack,” Patty said.
“I got spooked, I guess,” Jeff said.
“Doesn't matter,” Mike said. “Let's get out of here.”
“Shouldn't we bury the body?” Patty asked.
Mike stopped. “Ronnie, go back and get us ready to go. Jeff and I will take care of this.”
“The guy's been dead for a while,” Ronnie said.
“Yeah, but I'm going to do it anyway. Go on back and get us ready. Talk to Bob. Babe,” he looked at Candace. She turned her eyes to him. Patty was still curled into her side. “Okay?”
Candace nodded. Patty looked up and nodded too. “Just scared me,” Patty said.
Mike nodded. “Jeff, you and me, let's go get a shovel. And this stays with us. Later on we'll sit down and talk to the others if it looks like we have to. It doesn't look like we have to right now. I will talk to Bob about it myself,” He nodded, raised his eyes from the ground and then started through the trees to get a shovel.
~On the road again~
The camp began to break up at mid-morning. The day was gray and overcast, a few drops of rain falling from the sky. But the gray day and rain couldn't put a damper on the smiling faces talking to one another, laughing behind the glass windows of the vehicles as the caravan pulled away parallel to the highway, riding through the grassy field which wasn't in much better shape than the road.
Each truck had a V.H.F. radio so they could communicate with each other and a C.B. radio to monitor everything else. The skip talk on the C.B. was light this morning. Twice a voice bled through claiming to be from somewhere in L.A. and warning everyone to stay away. The voice claimed the city was on fire, gangs fighting for control of what was left. The dead were rising and walking the streets.
“Feds?” Patty asked.
“Feds landed and took over the streets?” Ronnie supplied.
Patty nodded doubtfully. “I hope so, because it sounded like dead... The dead are walking the streets.” She trailed off and turned her eyes back to the scenery, woods, fields, low hanging gray clouds that slipped past the windows. “That's crazy, though, right? ” she asked. “Crazy?”
“Yeah, nuts. I think it was Feds. Maybe it means there is still someone in charge there? Could be,” Ronnie said. He pulled Patty closer to him.
The voice, a young male from the sound, continued to talk on in a matter-of-fact voice, something close to a monotone that suggested he was drugged or high. They were all glad when whatever atmospheric conditions had brought the voice to them passed, and the other skip took its place.
~
Just before noon they came upon a small gas station and convenience store area and stopped to top off the gas tanks. The store looked well used; everything was picked over. But no one came around, and no one called on the radio. They all got out and stretched their legs, lunched on canned meat and energy bars, washed down with vitamin water and sports drinks.
Just after midday, they left the interchange behind them and continued on their way. The heavens continued to leak rain and the fields became harder to travel through, so they stuck to the pavement, traveling slowly on the broken surface, skirting the occasional abandoned vehicle, tilted piece of pavement or washed out section of roadway. About twenty minutes later, they consulted their map under the portico of a sagging motel office and angled west, off the main highway, away from Syracuse and its suburbs.
The C.B. was useless, bursts of static and people blocking each others transmissions. Thick black smoke billowed up into the air several miles ahead, about where Syracuse would be, and a plastic electrical smell hung in the air even with the rain. But they saw no one at all, not even animals. They were all happy once the black smudge in the sky had disappeared behind them.
A few minutes after that, a large herd of horses grazing in a field popped their heads up when they saw the trucks and then galloped after them for about half mile before turning and pounding off towards a wooded area in the distance. That kept everybody talking back and forth on the VHF radios for a while. Arlene thought possibly they were part of some range stock, and they were used to associating vehicles with feed. Lilly worried that they might be hungry, but Arlene assured her they had plenty to eat.
Mike had watched one large gray horse spotted with black on its nose which had kept pace with his truck. Steam had risen from his coat as he had stopped and then turned away into the rain. Beautiful, Mike had thought.
“Beautiful,” Candace said from beside him.
He laugh
ed. “I was thinking exactly that when you said it,” Mike told her. “How big do you think he was?” Mike asked.
“Probably about six feet at the shoulder,” Candace said. “Big.”
“Got to be,” Patty said from the back seat. “Because we're way off the ground, and it was pretty much even with us.”
“Anybody ever ride a horse?” Ronnie asked.
“Nope,” Mike said.
“Not me,” Patty said.
“Me either,” Candace added.
“It looks easy,” Ronnie continued. “But of course I'd bet he'd buck you off pretty quick if he didn't want you on him.”
“She,” Patty said. “It was a female and females are supposed to be better tempered.”
“Pats, I didn't realize a girl horse could get that big,” Ronnie said.
“How did you learn that, about female horses being better tempered?” Candace asked.
“It was a novel I read, Lonesome Dove. The horses, female horses, mares, had the best temperament, but you could get a male horse that was gelded, a Gelding, and they would be pretty even tempered too,” she said.
“I never read that book,” Mike said. “Wanted to though.”
“You can learn a lot from a book, I guess,” Ronnie said. “I wonder what a Gelding is. Like a... like a specific type of horse I imagine? I've heard of a Paint. A Paint is a kind of horse.”
Patty giggled.
Candace nodded. “I always wanted to ride a horse. I went to Rochester once. The cops there ride them downtown. There were several horse farms that I saw along the way as well.”
“All the cops are on horses?” Patty asked.
“No, just around downtown. I was there with someone for a concert at the War Memorial. I was just a kid, so they looked even bigger than they probably were, but it made an impression on me.” She finished.
“Well, I'm pretty sure you'll get to ride horses,” Patty said. “We both will. Even Geldings,” she said and laughed.
“Okay,” Ronnie said. “How have I got it wrong?”
“No testicles,” Patty said. “A Gelding is a male that has had their testicles removed.”
“Jesus,” Ronnie said. His eyes looked hurt.
“Guess that would make you pretty docile,” Mike said.
“Yeah,” Ronnie agreed.
“We'll learn how to ride,” Patty said.
Candace turned and smiled, and they touched closed fists and laughed. “It's going to be so good,” she said. They both looked over at Ronnie who was still cringing. His lips compressed into a thin line. They both laughed.
~Donita in the daylight~
She had seen them start into the field, but even before that, she had known they would come. It was the way her new mind worked. It had seemed cloudy for so long that it had surprised her when it suddenly began to process thoughts again. She thought maybe she was coming back to her old self. But like her eyesight, it was completely different.
She simply knew things. One second they were not there and the next they were. Clear, concise, every detail fully understood. What was not there was reasoning. There was no reasoning process she had used to arrive at the information her mind had held. It was as though it came from some other place, as though it had been delivered to her.
That had caused her to panic. Delivered meant a kind of dependence, and she did not desire dependence on anything or anyone. But she had come to understand that dependence was not what it was, and delivery was not what it was. Knowing was what it was. She knew things. She knew things out of the air. They came with the scenting, a part of her new abilities.
Even so, she had nearly waited overly long. They had stepped into the field and panic had leapt into her chest and shot through her body like a live wire. She had leapt backwards where the two lay sleeping and kicked them into flight. Mindless, screaming flight, and they had run through the trees soundlessly, leaping from footfall to footfall.
They had run until they had come to the opposite end of the small woods and Donita had stopped. The sun was up, sapping their strength, seeming to burn her eyes, but she was not dead again. She did not fall down and lapse into twilight. It was not pleasant. The heat from the sun was not pleasant.
She stared out at another field that looked almost exactly like the one they had run from. Two horses grazed nearby, the air brought their scent to her eyes. They had not turned, so the same air had not betrayed her by bringing her scent to them.
The idea, the knowledge, came to her all at once, blooming in her mind, fully formed and ready. If she knew it, the two behind her knew it too, or at least the one did. She tensed her legs, squatted, and then leapt from the tree line.
The horses panicked, but far too late. She reached the largest one almost at the same moment it saw her. The huge horse reared, muscles bunching in its rear quarters, front hooves tearing at the air. Donita was past the sharp hooves and at its side even as it twisted itself and tried to turn. Her teeth fastened in the animals neck as she leapt to its back, hands entangled in its mane, legs clutching at its broad, muscular back.
She looked over at the other horse. Her new boy rode its back, teeth into the thick skin of its neck. The other boy lay scattered upon the ground. His body broken beyond repair, kicked apart. Her horse reared, and she lowered her body, pressed into the horse and held on as he ran. The bite would have him. It was only a matter of time.
~The Road~
Eventually they had to cut out channel nine on the C.B. For some reason the static, skip and occasional talk from Syracuse was louder on that channel than any of the others, and it would not allow the C.B. to scan.
It was better, as far as everybody was concerned, not to have to listen to it. A steady flicking through the channels and the occasional bursts of static the skip offered was much easier to deal with.
~
Late afternoon found them on the edge of a large lake. The rain was still a low drizzle as they stopped.
Mike was driving the lead vehicle, so it was clear to everyone in that vehicle why they had stopped. The road was gone. The asphalt tilted down and then disappeared into the lake. Everyone behind them had to come up to take a look.
A nearby stand of trees provided enough protection from the rain to consult the map, but the map told them what they already knew; the lake wasn't supposed to be there. They were in the finger lakes region, and there were several small lakes scattered across the map, but none that corresponded to where they were.
“There was a road, cut to the right about a mile back,” Bob said.
“That's back toward Syracuse,” Mike said.
“That is where we don't want to go,” Tim said.
“Can't go off road. The ground is too saturated. So we are probably going to have no choice,” Ronnie said.
“Maybe the road will curve around after a bit, bring us back in this direction. If so we'll be okay, and we've driven quite a way, so it should have more than a few roads cutting across it going in the direction we want to go,” Mike said.
“Either way, we got to go back or swim,” Arlene said.
Lilly laughed.
“That's the truth,” Tom said looking at the road where it ran into the water. “Wonder what happened?”
The lake stretched away to the horizon. There didn't appear to be an opposite shore, at least not one close, Mike thought. “More damage from all those earthquakes I would imagine,” he said. “Limestone caves, maybe, that have collapsed. Lot of that around here. I'd bet it's something like that, something along those lines,” he said.
“Might see a lot of changes like this though, if you think of it. There were places in Watertown that completely disappeared,” Patty said.
“Whole neighborhoods,” Candace agreed.
They backtracked to the next road, then took the next one going in the direction they wanted to go. That road, although broken and in some places missing short sections of pavement, skirted the lake at a comfortable distance. And even where the road itself was m
issing, the gravel base made for better traveling than the fields which were quickly becoming waterlogged, little ponds and lakes of their own. Mike had no doubt he would bury the Suburban even with the four wheel drive and the wider tires if he tried driving through the fields.
By late afternoon the sun was creeping from the sky, changing everything around them to a darker shade of gray than they had been seeing all day long. The back roads became wider, though still broken up, and soon they found themselves on the outskirts of what must have been a small village. It was hard to tell for sure. It was really just the presence of more buildings still standing and a few stretches of nearly intact residential neighborhoods.
They stopped at a large truck stop at the convergence of two major roads to top off the trucks' gas tanks once more. By the time they had located the underground tanks and then found a way into them, it was late afternoon, and what little light there had been was quickly fading from the sky. They decided to stop for the night and fill the trucks in the morning.
Within a short time, several fires were going under the long metal roof that covered the gas pumps. They parked the trucks in a large circle and posted lookouts. They had seen no one, and even the C B's were quiet, but they were taking no chances.
Janet Dove, Lilly, Tim and Nell began to work on getting dinner ready, while a few others checked through what was left of the small diner and a little convenience store that was part of the truck stop. They were both stripped bare. Not so much as a moldy loaf of bread rested on the shelves.
“Must be people around somewhere close by, probably down in the village,” Ronnie said to Mike.
They were all back under the steel roof sitting on overturned crates and a few leaning chairs they had found.
“Had to be, but where are they now? They had to see us,” Mike said. He was carrying a portable V.H.F. radio which continued to flip serenely from channel to channel, picking up nothing at all.
“Might maybe left,” Arlene said. She seemed to gravitate towards Mike's group, even though she had come with Jeff's group, and she grew on you quickly, Mike thought. She had an open, honest face and seemed to be genuinely concerned about other people. Mike could understand. It didn't take long seeing people who didn't care to know where your own heart lay. Mike and several others had liked her immediately.