Zombie Road (Book 5): Terror On The Two-Lane

by Simpson, David A.

  The officer seemed to consider it for a moment, put his hand to his chin and looked skyward. “I have a better idea.” he finally said. “Lay down your arms and come with us. We’ll let you live.”

  “Really, dude? That’s the best you can offer?”

  “Yes dude.” The officer said sarcastically. “Surrender or die. You have five seconds to make up your mind.”

  Jessie didn’t hesitate. The days of macho posturing or making threats without consequences were long gone. Someone had just said he was going to kill him. He had the M-4 up and spitting lead before the officer finished his sentence. He raked hollow point death across the gathered men as they dove out of the way or slammed to the ground clutching at holes in their bodies. He slid into cover at the nose of the truck as a few of them returned fire, was ready to spin back out and finish the job when he heard the thwacking of steel on bone. The guns fell silent and Scarlet slid weapons away from bleeding bodies. It was over almost before it began. The officer was still alive and spitting curses at Scarlet, calling her the Whore of Babylon and the Great Satan of the West.

  Jessie hopped up on the dock and kicked his foot. “Enough of all that, now.” he said. “Besides, I thought you guys believed in some Egyptian stuff, not the Christian books. Dog headed gods and all that.”

  “The lord of the underworld will avenge me.” he gasped, his hand holding the two holes in his belly. “He will not be mocked.”

  Jessie just shook his head at the mans fervor, even with his dying breaths.

  “He’s the only one that’s had the injections.” Scarlet said, indicating the officer, the only man with any fight left in him. “and lots of the Devils Breath from the sounds of it.”

  While the others lay dead and dying, blood spouting from their wounds, the officer pulled himself upright and leaned against the fork truck. Jessie could hardly believe he was coherent, let alone still full of piss and vinegar. He’d been hit twice in the chest with jacketed hollow points, his back had two fist sized holes in it where his blood and chunks of guts were pouring out. The pool of red he was sitting in kept growing as his face grew paler and paler.

  “It didn’t have to be this way.” Jessie told him, slapping in a fresh magazine and not feeling much sympathy at the moment. “We didn’t have to be enemies.”

  “Wasting your breath.” Scarlet said, unmoved by the carnage. “They’ll never change and I don’t know why it took me so long to see it.”

  The man tried to curse her again but he’d lost too much blood, his eyes rolled up in his head and he slumped back then slid down into the warm red puddle.

  “There’s something I need to show you.” Scarlet said as Jessie examined the guns, checking to see if he wanted to keep any of them.

  “And there’s something I need to tell you.” he said and stood, leaving the cheap guns behind.

  She waited for him to speak and it took him, a man of few words, a moment to find the right ones.

  “I won’t doubt you again.” he finally said and she knew he meant it. The same thing drove them both. Some inner demons that wouldn’t let them sit idly by and let evil men do evil things if they could stop it. They had a code to live or die by.

  It took burying a single headless child, an orphan girl his mistakes had killed, to set Jessie on his path. Childish things were put away. In the new world there were things that needed to be done and he’d decided to do them. For Scarlet, the slap from her father because she questioned where he was leading the Movement had started her thinking. Trailing Jessie and seeing him help people instead of hurting them had strengthened her resolve to try to change things. Seeing her own men who used to worship her as a Goddess try to gun her down had finally convinced her there was no redeeming the Movement. It had become a death cult, rotten with corrupt power in just six short months. Somehow, they had to end it.

  She let a slow smile touch her lips and nodded once. She knew he spoke the truth.

  “I have something strange to show you.” she said. “It’s on the other side of the building.”

  Jessie followed her out but Bob led the way. He had been smelling it all along and had a low warning growl in his throat.

  They went through the broken front door and the Shepherd made a beeline across the parking lot then disappeared down a side street. Jessie started to run but Scarlet stopped him.

  “I only saw them for a second but I’m sure they’re both dead.” She said “He’s just curious.”

  Jessie prepared himself to see more carnage. There was a trail of boxes and canned goods strewn across the asphalt that lead to the road where Bob had disappeared. Someone had been at the food warehouse when the Anubis cult showed up. There were brass casings scattered across the asphalt and he spotted a blood trail as they neared the entrance to the side street. More than one, and they’d been hit bad. They skirted around a huge crimson puddle and Jessie saw the footprints running away from it. Big animal prints. A bear or something and there were huge splashes that followed the sidewalk around the corner. What ever it was, it was dragging something, there was a solid line of smeared blood, like it had a deer or a pig in its jaws as it ran. Or maybe one of the soldiers.

  Scarlet had glimpsed it as she dashed towards the warehouse but now she saw everything and her shoulders fell. Bob was sniffing at the carcass of a polar bear, not sure what to make of it. It was a magnificent beast, a huge male at least eight or nine hundred pounds with a saddle on his back. A smaller female was lying nearby, a homemade saddle and pack with cans spilling out strapped to her also. They had both been shot dozens of times, their white coats drenched in red. A little boy was in the jaws of the male and he’d been shot too, his blood coagulating on the blacktop with the bears. He hadn’t been bitten though, only his jacket was in the teeth, his skin hadn’t been damaged.

  “They must be from a zoo.” Jessie said. “And this kid had befriended them somehow.”

  Scarlet stared down at the boy then closed her eyes. She forced back the tears. She wouldn’t cry. She forced back the anger. She would feel nothing.

  Jessie took in the whole scene and pointed to the shredded hind quarters of the bigger polar bear.

  “Most of the bullets hit him in the rear.” he said “From the blood trail, I’d say the kid got shot out in the parking lot, maybe knocked out of the saddle. This bear picked him up and ran with him, trying to save him. They opened up on him as he fled, looks like he got hit twenty or thirty times.”

  Scarlet nodded. Be detached. She told herself. Be clinical and professional. Set it all aside and see what there is to see. Learn how to read the scene and be wiser for it. She pulled her eyes away from the boy and looked at the female.

  “Most of hers are in the belly and chest.” She said, taking in the battle scene, replaying it in her mind like Jessie was. “She stood over her mate to protect him after he fell and they cut her down.”

  “Bastards.” Jessie spat. “There was no need, they were running away and the boy was just trying to get some food.”

  Bob was sniffing at the other side of the female, whined a little and Scarlet walked around the fallen animal to see what held his interest. There was a small leg sticking out from under the fur and she motioned Jessie over. They lifted the bear enough to pull a bullet riddled body out. She couldn’t have been more than seven or eight and the saddle had been built for her. The body was still warm to the touch. They were probably less than an hour dead. Jessie couldn’t imagine the fear and confusion that happened in the last few moments of their lives. He hunkered down, soothed Bob and saw the whole senseless massacre in his head. He was glad he killed those men. Scarlet crouched down beside him, had tears threatening to spill over and pulled the little girl tight to her chest.

  “I’m sorry.” She whispered over and over as she rocked her and smoothed her hair. “This is my fault. I let this happen.”

  Jessie knew a little something about guilt, it had taken months and months for the accusing eyes in the mirror to fade away and he
’d been ready to put a gun in his mouth more than once. He’d learned to live with them, though. He’d learned that the more people he saved, the fewer baleful eyes stared back at him. He’d found his forgiveness out on the road, his redemption from his wrongs. Preacher told him he would be redeemed by faith alone, not by doing good works, but that wasn’t enough for him. He couldn’t sit on a pew and say a few words and then feel like everything was fine. He had to balance the scales himself. He had to fix things and right wrongs when he could. He didn’t pray for forgiveness, he prayed for strength in battle. He prayed for courage and bullets. He prayed for his hands to know the ways of war. He prayed to the old testament God of wrath and vengeance. With Him, he could shatter nations and destroy kingdoms.

  He put a hand on Scarlets shoulder, wishing he could pull the pain out of her and into him. He would take it all if he could.

  “I’ll get the car.” he said after a time. “I’ll find a shovel, we can bury them in that little park we passed. Maybe under one of those big trees.”

  She nodded, saying nothing but turned her head and kissed the hand on her shoulder.

  25

  Jessie

  It was full dark when they finished their unhappy task and Scarlet patted the small mound of dirt down with the shovel. Bob had been restless, staring off into the blackness between the buildings for the past few moments, growling occasionally. Nefertiti slunk back to the car and jumped through the bars of the open window. Jessie and Scarlet both were sweating in the humid June heat, both stripped down to leather pants and soaked t-shirts. Her batons were still in their holders and Jessies guns still rode low on his hips, though. They’d both worn their weapons so long, had gotten so used to the weight and the feel of them, they felt uncomfortable without them. Scarlet sniffed the air and Jessie followed suit but he didn’t smell anything but his own funk.

  “We’ve got visitors.” Scarlet said. “You should put Bob in the car for now. I think they’ve been watching us for a while.”

  Jessie was learning to trust her instincts so he grabbed his Shepherd and hauled him back to the Mercury. He still didn’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary. Bob didn’t like it and stuck his head between the bars, peering down the alley.

  “We mean you no harm.” Scarlet said. “We killed the men who killed your friends. The children are buried here.”

  She indicated the mound “But we can’t do anything about the bears.”

  There was a faint darkening of the shadows, a whisper of hushed voices, a scuff of a boot on blacktop. Bob growled low in his throat but it was just a warning sound, not his vicious rumbling snarl that meant he was about to attack. That he was about to make you sorry.

  “You’re not with those men?” a child’s voice asked and they heard others shushing her.

  “But they have a dog and a cat!” they heard a hushed angry reply from a little girl. “They can’t be like them!”

  More whispers, louder now in argument, all of them young.

  Jessie and Scarlet exchanged a puzzled glance. They could only hear children’s voices; no adults and now they could both pick up the sounds of deep breathing and an occasional snuffle. Jessie cocked an eyebrow in question at her.

  “We don’t bite.” she said to the blackness. “Why don’t you come out so we can see who we’re talking to?”

  More whispers, a little louder now. Definitely kids.

  “Tell him to put his guns away.” An older voice said “and maybe we will.”

  Scarlet turned to look at Jessie who shook his head.

  “I don’t do that.” he said. “Too many bad guys and zombies. I even wear them when I take a shower.”

  More whispers. A giggle. More hushed arguments. The three-quarter moon was high in the night sky and clouds were sparse. The little park where they’d buried the kids was well lit. Their watchers knew they were alone and finally the older one spoke up.

  “Okay. But don’t try anything funny. We have snipers on the rooftops and they’re all sharpshooters.”

  Jessie raised his hands shoulder high to show he meant no harm. His eyes darted across the rooflines for profiles, shadows that might be human, even though he was pretty sure he wouldn’t find any.

  They came out then and even though he knew they had animals with them, even though he’d seen the polar bears and knew somehow these kids had tamed the creatures from a zoo, his breath still caught in his throat at the sight of them emerging into the moonlight. A lumbering brown bear led the pack with a boy, maybe in his early teens, walking beside him, a hand on his neck to guide and calm him.

  Bob’s growl increased and Jessie shushed him sharply.

  “Hush.” he said. “He’d have you for a snack if he wanted.”

  Jessie wasn’t afraid, exactly. He knew you weren’t supposed to show fear, animals could sense it, but he knew which way to jump and had an escape plan already in mind as they approached. The bear was huge, the teenager walking beside him wasn’t much taller than its shoulder. Coming up behind him were other kids, ranging in age from seven or eight up to the oldest who was apparently their leader. Most of them stayed in the distance and he could only catch glimpses, fleeting images of children and beasts. A panther stood beside a boy in the shadows. It was a blacker shade of black, its eyes glowing yellow, motionless except for a twitching tail. A pack of wolves padded softly beside a girl, surrounding her in a protective circle. A skulk of foxes flitted from shadow to shadow with their two-legged companion. The teenager gently tugged at the bears fur and they both came to a stop. Scarlet stepped forward and extended her hand, palm down, to let the bear sniff her. To show she posed no threat. Satisfied, it sat with a grunt as the boy handed him an apple and stroked his neck. Jessie kept his distance, stayed near the car and told Bob to hush up again.

  “I’m Scarlett.” she said and extended her hand to the boy. “and the grumpy one is Jessie.”

  They shook and he said his name was Kodiak. Jessie offered a box of snack cakes around and kids came in from the shadows to take them before they disappeared into the darkness again. They stared at his face and he tried not to smile, he knew it only made the scar look worse. Their animals moved with them, some close at hand, others distant but watching. Most slipped over to the grave where the two were buried to place their hands on the dirt for a moment, leave parts of the cakes or a necklace of flowers on the mound.

  “Quite a group you have here, Kodiak.” Jessie said when the last of the smaller ones had all silently taken a snack and moved back into the night. “No adults to take care of you?”

  “I’m in charge.” He retorted with a little heat. “I can take care of them. I have been since all this started.”

  “Ignore him.” Scarlet said, scowling at Jessie. “He needs to work on his people skills. I can see you take care of your group. You are obviously a good leader.”

  The boy brushed off her compliment but was having a hard time hiding the pride he felt from her words. She kept him engaged and their story came out, the other children chiming in from time to time. Bob got tired of being in the car, saw there was no danger from these strange creatures and opened the door with the pull handle. Nefertiti chose to remain inside, to observe from the windows. Jessie tried to see how the kids were holding up, if they were eating well and were healthy and saw no signs of malnutrition. The town was zombie free, on the streets anyway. Whatever horde that had been here had long ago chased some car or truck down the road. They had free reign of the food warehouse and there was enough in there to keep a small group going for years. Until the Anubis cult showed up, anyway. They would have stripped it bare.

  Kodiak said they’d been on a field trip to the wild animal safari the day the world went crazy. He wouldn’t say exactly where it was but one of the kids said they lived in a haunted house. It wasn’t hard to figure out where they were staying. Scarlet had mentioned the wildlife park from her tour books and they’d wondered what happened to the animals. Mystery solved. Adopted by a handful of kids
. Or maybe it was the other way around, the animals were friendly enough but they were protective.

  “Today is the first day we’ve seen people since it started.” Kodiak said and Jessie wondered if all the kids took on their animal protectors names. “We were getting supplies like we always do from the warehouse and they just started shooting.”

  He broke off and stared at the freshly mounded pile of dirt and sighed.

  “We didn’t know there was anyone else.” he said. “We listened to the radio until it went dead and it sounded like everything was lost. Like the whole world was infected.”

  “Most of it was.” Jessie said. “But a lot of us made it through and started rebuilding. There are a bunch of small towns that have a lot of survivors. They built walls around them and they’re safe. If you want, you can come to Lakota. It’s in Oklahoma where it doesn’t get so cold in the winter. We have electric and running water and schools even. You guys would be welcome and there’s plenty of room for your four-legged friends. There are hundreds of acres inside the walls that are empty.”

  Most of the kids had crept in to hear the conversation and there were excited murmurs.

  “Do you have movies there?” someone asked and before Jessie could answer another boy asked if they had PlayStation.

  Jessie grinned his crooked grin. “They even have an arcade in the bowling alley.” he said “And at Chucky Cheese.”

  “PIZZA!” someone shouted and then the questions came so fast him and Scarlet couldn’t keep up.

  Jessie jerked his head at Kodiak, letting him know he wanted a word in private. They stepped away from the hubbub of questions being thrown at Scarlet and Jessie stared the young man in the face, his gnarled scar making him look older and meaner than he was.

  “You’ve done a commendable job keeping your people healthy and alive.” Jessie said “but we could really use a good bunch like you in town. Those men in the black uniforms are trying to take over and you’ve seen how they act. We’re already at war with them, all though it’s only been a few battles here and there so far. It’ll escalate soon and you’ll probably have to choose sides. If you want, I can ask Lakota to send a few big rigs out to pick you guys up. We can offer protection and we can use your help.”