The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books.

by Geo Dell

  “I'd bet that we are in the Catskills already, maybe only the foothills, but we have to be in them. This rain is just hiding the mountains from us. The Appalachian line is the backbone we'll follow down to the Great Smoky mountains and the Blue Ridge, all part of the Appalachians. We'll find those gaps in the Blue Ridge mountains and again by the Great Smoky mountains. It's just a matter of choice then, where we want to go in,” he finished.

  Mike sipped at his coffee and nodded. “So, a few days away,” He said.

  “At the most,” Bob agreed.

  “How's Arlene?” Mike asked.

  “She's... She's shook up. Guilt. What the dirty bastard made her do,” Bob said, “David says she's sleeping on and off. Sharon's been in to see her, so has Sandy. Just have to work it through. How's Candace? And you?” Bob asked.

  “Candace is with Patty. Those two love each other better than sisters. It's what she needs right now. I think She'll be fine... I just don't know when,” Mike said.

  Ronnie came back in dry clothes and a cup of coffee of his own. “Bob, Mike,” he said, “What's doing?”

  “Bobs showing me our home... and I wish we were there.” He looked out at the gray skies, the falling rain.

  “Yeah,” Ronnie said, “Janet asked if you want something to eat. She said...” he trailed off. Mike looked at him. “She says you should,” he finished.

  Mike nodded, “I will. I will. I guess I will right now. I didn't realize I was even hungry.” He nodded. “Bob, Ronnie, I'll be back in a bit.” He walked away to where Janet stood waiting. She embraced him, set him down at a make shift table and then set a plate of food in front of him.

  Ronnie watched for a minute and then turned to Bob, “So, what were you showing him?” he asked.

  “Well...” Bob began.

  ~

  Several people found an excuse to stop by and see how things were as Mike sat eating. Jeff, Sharon, Sandy and Susan, Tim and Annie, Nell and Molly. Most were just going on or coming off posts and had just stopped by to tell him they were thinking of Candace and hoping she was all right.

  “They were on post all night?” Mike asked Janet Dove.

  “They've switched on and off, Mike, but nobody is expecting you to be there. What they are expecting you to do is get our girl back on her feet. Me as well, Mike. Me as well,” Janet said. She looked out at the sky.

  “Funny,” she said after a few moments of thought, “Used to be you could flip on the T.V. and have a pretty good idea of how long the weather was going to last, or what was coming next, for that matter. Now it just happens. Whatever it is going to be, we'll find out soon enough,” she said.

  Mike had a feeling she had started out talking about how the weather was and then veered off into something else. “Bob thinks we're in Pennsylvania,” Mike said. “Running through the foothills of the Catskills. Which means that sometime yesterday afternoon we had to have passed close to the city of Pittsburgh, or Greensboro, and there's a river that we should have crossed there, but we didn't cross one,” Mike finished.

  “Things have changed, Mike. We might have missed what was left of it in the rain. Or, maybe we've yet to come to it. We don't really even know what side of the mountains we're on, do we?” She asked.

  “No,” Mike admitted. “But it's not like we could get completely lost. We should be able to find our way once this rain lets up... and... and we're on our way again,” he said.

  She patted his hand and then held it with one of her own, “It'll pass,” she said, “It'll pass.”

  Mike didn't know if she meant the rain or what had happened. But they would both have to run their course, and he believed they would.

  As he was thinking, David and Arlene walked over. Mike looked at her. Her eyes were swollen and her face was too white, but it seemed composed nonetheless. “Arlene... I want to thank you, Arlene. I...”

  She let go of David's hand and reached out and hugged Mike. Mike stopped talking, put his arms around her and pulled her to him. She sat clumsily beside him, her head buried in his shoulder. “I'm sorry,” she said, “but I should have gotten there sooner.”

  “Nonsense,” Mike told her, “I don't even want to think about what would have happened without you,” Mike told her.

  “I had to,” she said.

  “Damn right,” Mike said, “You had no choice, but, it's going to be all right, Arlene. It's going to be all right.”

  She pulled her head away from his chest and looked at him. “You think?” she asked.

  “I think,” he said.

  David and Arlene left and found their way over to the table where Bob and Ronnie sat discussing the map and where Bob intended that they should all end up.

  Mike sat quietly, sipping coffee, watching as Arlene became caught up in that conversation and some color began to creep back into her face. Good, he thought. A hand fell lightly upon his shoulder as he sat thinking. He turned around to find Patty standing behind him.

  Her eyes were every bit as puffy, red and swollen as they had been earlier, but her face was much less tense, and her eyes didn't seem quite so hopeless as they had earlier.

  “I'm going over to spend some time with Ronnie. She wants you to come back in for a while, Mike,” she told him.

  Janet bent over the table and filled Mike's coffee cup once more, looked around, found another cup, filled it, and gave it to Patty. Patty smiled and picked up the cup gratefully. “Thank you,” she said.

  “No problem at all, dear. No problem at all,” Janet told her.

  “Thank you, Janet, Patty,” Mike said. He picked up the coffee and walked off to the diner.

  He reached the blanketed off section, hesitated, then pushed the blankets aside and stepped into the dim interior. Candace rose to meet him, and he took her in his arms.

  She kissed him passionately, pulling him down into the softness of the built up blankets and quilts. She pulled back, looked at him, and then rested her forehead against his.

  “You love me, Michael?” She asked him.

  “Candace, you know I do. You know I do; more than anything.” He answered.

  Her eyes locked on his own just inches away. “Do you love me, Michael?” Not much more than a whisper.

  “Honey...” He bent forward and kissed her lightly. “You know that I do... You know.”

  “If you love me, Michael, then make love to me,” she whispered. Her hands pulled him down and his own hands found her body, feeling her warmth, pulling her near.

  ~

  The rain found its tempo; once again pouring down from the skies. The gray of the skies progressed to darker and darker shades as the day slipped by.

  Arlene threw herself into the conversation with Bob, Ronnie and Patty. Noting the somewhat oblong area Bob had circled on the map. The area he had marked out on the map was bigger than the entire state of New York and then some. It encompassed the eastern edges of Kentucky up into the corner of West Virginia, Virginia down to the Carolinas, and on the other side down thru Tennessee and parts of Alabama and Georgia. She found herself excited by the possibilities. There were several large lakes, rivers, three mountain ranges and the Appalachian Valley, and several other valleys, both small and large, that had not seen people for over two hundred years.

  Janet had a large notebook open before her and worked at the lists of suggestions people had offered. She had had no sleep, as almost everyone else, but sleep was not what was on her mind. She found herself hoping nothing else would happen to them before they got to where they were going. She went back to her list, prodding her memories of books she had read on homesteading, western pioneers, and copying what she was sure of into the notebook.

  Tim sat on the back bumper of one of the Hummers, a pistol in his side holster, the leather retaining strap unsnapped. He tugged at the short piece of leather. Annie sat beside him, one of her pale hands on his thigh. Her red hair spilling around her shoulders.

  Annie had felt a lot of guilt about Tim at first. Not that she had neve
r had sex. All the girls in school had been doing it, and she had tried it once herself. Except she had been stoned that time, and the whole thing had been over in a matter of seconds, and all she had felt was sore for several days after. This was different.

  This was love. She knew that. It wasn't just because they had been thrown together; it was the real thing. She didn't know what she would do without him.

  Patty had talked to her about protection, and she had listened to her, but the thought of a baby of her own was too much to ignore. The thought of the baby that was part her and part Tim was beyond ignoring. She couldn't possibly be happy until she was pregnant, she told herself. After all, all the other groups are trying to do the very same thing, she told herself.

  “Are you okay?” she asked Tim.

  “Just tired, Annie, that's all,” Tim answered.

  “Tim... What was it like to... To pick up that dead guy and drag him away like that? I couldn't do it. I don't think I could do it,” she said.

  “There was... It was bad, Man, really bad. I hope I never have to do it again.” He took her hand gently into his own and looked at her. “It was hard, Annie. I don't want to ever do it again,” he said quietly. She nodded, moved a little closer and then lowered her head onto his shoulder. He slipped his arm around her. His other hand tugged at the leather strap a few times, then he let it go, wrapped both arms around her and stared out at the falling rain as he held her.

  ~

  The children had grown cranky as the gray and rainy day had dragged on. Lilly had dug out all of their toys and had done her best to keep them occupied. Finally, it was The Dog and Angel that had come to the rescue, volunteering to be petted, wrestled with and pretty much abused by the five children. The dogs really didn't seem to mind it. They, it seemed to Lilly, had been bored themselves and welcomed the attention.

  Jessica didn't seem herself. Usually good tempered and long on patience, today she seemed moody and distracted, and Lilly had seen her touch her arm a couple of different times during the day as if she had hurt it. She probably had hurt it, they had all bounced around in the trucks pretty good. But, Lilly knew it was also a sign of heart trouble. She decided to speak to Sandy about it later.

  The day wore on. Afternoon came and went, and then evening, and finally darkness to the accompaniment of the steady patter of rain. The post changed every four hours. The camp began to catch up on their sleep.

  ~Janet Doves journal~

  It's late, and I am more than ready for sleep. I've not slept in more than thirty six hours.

  A horrible thing has happened. Something that has affected everyone in our little community. Candace Loi was attacked by a madman and nearly sexually assaulted. And he had to be killed by Arlene Best, a woman who was not even with us a week ago, and only happened upon the crime by accident. God in his heaven, it could've been so much worse, but it is bad enough. Patty has told me that Candace will be all right. She's strong, she said; she'll be fine. I hope so.

  We stayed on today, but we may leave tomorrow. The rain is steady and shows no sign of stopping.

  ~Lilly's journal~

  It's been a really hard two days. I am so tired, I'm sure I could fall asleep standing up. The children are finally sleeping. Jessica's resting. Sandy thinks she may be having heart trouble, but said she denies it, so there is nothing she can do except have me keep an eye on her. And she has no drugs to give her. Sandy thinks she has been taking Aspirin on her own, thinking it would help. She says there really isn't much more she could do, but she plans to stock up on a cross section of medications the next time she finds a pharmacy. Maybe Nitroglycerin, a few other drugs she thinks may help her. But, until then, there isn't much we can do but watch her.

  I got to talk to Candace a bit today, really only a few minutes at dinner when she finally came out of the little place in the truck stop she's been holed up in. I guess I would want to crawl into a hole too if it was me.

  She didn't seem that different to me, tired. You could tell she had been crying. But we've all been crying over the last 30 hours or so. And we're all tired. So I'll take it as a good sign that she's not letting what that creep tried to do to her get to her.

  Arlene has got to be my hero. She saw what was happening and blew that fucker away. Right away. I don't want to sound too happy that she did that, but it could've been me! It could've been anyone! I had just taken Janelle out there about an hour before when the rain let up for a few minutes. It really could have been, her, or me, or both of us.

  I'm not going to pretend. I'm glad he's dead. I mean, like, what would have happened if Arlene didn't shoot him and then Mike got there? I think Mike would've killed him right there on the spot. Tom told me he would have if it had been me. Just like that, right there on the spot.

  ~Bad Pennies~

  Fifty miles northeast four trucks sat idling on a broken stretch of asphalt. All four trucks were heavily modified and we're running over-sized tires, but they were still no match for the stream that had overflowed its banks and what was left of the road. The rain continued to pour down from the skies.

  C.B. channel sixteen crackled to life inside one of the trucks.

  “What you gonna do, Death? What you gonna do?” the voice of Johnny Red asked.

  "Shut it down. We're going to shut these fuckers down so we don't run out of gas and wait for this ever fuckin' rain to end. Then, when we can get past this water, we'll find them," Death told Johnny, and Johnny believed him.

  A few seconds later the headlights on all four trucks snapped off. The engines died, and the only sound that was left was the steady pounding of the rain on the steel roofs.

  ~Building The Army~

  She awoke before full dark. One second gone, the next twilight had released her and all of her senses were fully on. It was no longer like human senses. She couldn't truly remember any longer when she had been a breather, for how long, what she had done with her days and nights, but she regretted it. She wished she had always been numbered among the superior.

  She thought of it that way, the Superior Race. Because these senses, they were completely there. There was no fogginess from sleep. None. She was alert and ready. In every way, she was now far superior to the being she had been.

  The horse was here with them. She felt it studying her, waiting for her. It was changed with the horse. Somehow it was changed. She reached over, touched the boy, and he was instantly out of twilight. Together they crawled from under the machinery and out onto the factory floor.

  The horse had managed to lift its head from the floor. Maybe the neck was not broken. Or maybe the neck was healing, she thought. It amounted to the same thing. It waited on her now. It was loyal. There would be no more fighting from the horse.

  Her eyes brought her the scent of people. Without a sound or discussion, the three moved across the factory floor and out into the bright moonlight.

  The smell of a wood fire was on the air, but the fire itself was out. Nothing but a low red glow some forty yards past the factory parking lot, still choked with long dead cars and trucks. They made their way quietly. Twenty feet from the four sleeping members, the horse stopped and Donita and the boy continued forward.

  One of them was old, useless to her. Two were young, and one was dangerous. Female. She slept with both hands around her rifle, it rested between her knees, the barrel nestled alongside her face.

  Donita looked at the woman for a long time. She would like to keep her, but she knew it was not to be. She stared for a few seconds longer. The boy was behind her, waiting.

  She knelt beside the sleeping woman. The smell of her coming death was already a stink upon her, billowing out of her lungs and filling up the night air. Her soul knew. Her soul knew and could do nothing at all about it.

  Donita reached forward slowly. One hand wrapped tightly around the top of the barrel, the other, index finger extended, found the trigger. She paused a second longer, hands in place. Then in one smooth move she jerked the rifle down, jammed i
t under her chin and squeezed the trigger. The top of the woman's head flew apart before her eyes were fully open. The live wire rigidness that had come into her body in that split second of time now drained away and she sagged back to the ground, one last breath rushing from her lungs in a low moan. The children began to scream.

  ~March 31~

  The first thing Candace did was take down the blankets that closed off the area in the corner of the diner. Mike helped her.

  “I don't want to hide out. I needed it, but I can't hide from it anymore,” she said. She sat the pile of blankets down on a leaning pedestal table and took Mike's hand. A few minutes later they were both sitting, sipping coffee at one of the tables.

  “I have to take a post. They've been covering for me,” Mike said.

  “I know,” Candace said.

  “You'll be all right?” he asked.

  “Yep,” she said, “I can't hide. I'll probably take a post as well, Honey.”

  “So soon?” Mike asked.

  “I just want things to be normal... to get back to normal,” Candace said. “So I'm going to do what I normally do.”

  He finished his coffee, leaned over and kissed her again “I love you.” He swiveled his eyes to one of the trucks where Ronnie and Patty were looking out at the still flooded fields. “I'll be right there if you need me, Babe,” Mike said.

  “I love you too,” she kissed him back. “And if I'm not okay...” She caught his eye. “I'll come and get you.” She took a deep breath, finished her coffee and walked off to one of the trucks where Sharon stood watching the field and the highway beyond.

  Mike walked over to Ronnie and Patty, “Go,” he said. “And I can't tell you how much I appreciate both of you. Go spend some time together.”

  “She seems okay,” Patty said.

  “I think she is... or will be,” Mike said, “Go on, spend some time together so you two can be okay as well,” he finished. Ronnie touched a closed fist to Mike's own before he turned to leave.