“Where do you think you’re gonna get that we won’t find you?” Davis asked Ash, who had started to cry.
“If you follow us, I’ll kill you,” Mike promised, which brought a sneer from Davis.
“Whatever, old man.”
It was then that Marco had burst from the club, and he rushed with the switchblade toward Mike. He wasn’t fast enough, and Mike quickly shifted his aim. The gun roared once, and the .357 round ripped through Marco’s belly, halting him in his tracks. He staggered down to his knees as Davis roared, stepping forward with his fist cocked. The gun roared again, out in front of the wide-eyed Mike as Ash had screamed and backed away.
Davis sputtered, the round having struck him in the chest. But as Marco was struggling to reach his feet, Davis had staggered back directly into the pawing hands of one of the ghoulish things. Ash screamed again as she watched the walking corpse descend to sink its teeth into Davis. Mike spared her any more horror as he shoved her toward his car.
“GO!”
They were moving faster across the lot as a few more zombies had begun to take interest in the noise from the club, and now the screams of Davis. Trying to reach his bouncer as Mo and others burst from inside, Marco suddenly felt a searing hot pain and realized, another of the things had him by the hand, and had started to gnaw.
“No, FUCK!” Marco screamed. “MO!!”
The other bouncer stared in horror.
Mike had stuffed Ash in the passenger seat, where she sat, shaking and hysterical while he rushed to the driver’s side to get in. Hands stopped his car door, and Mike looked up at the slack, gray face as the thing lurched toward him. What had been a man that a calmer Ash would have recognized as “Leonard” was now a mindless beast that was trying to reach Uncle Mike. A moment later, Leonard found final rest as the third shot from Mike’s gun tore away the back of the ghoul’s head.
With squealing tires, Mike’s car- a much tinkered-with Mercedes- raced from the lot. More of the dead were closing in.
Inside the car, Mike looked over at the sobbing, wide-eyed Ash, and he quickly reached across to slap her face. It barely worked, but she did look over at him, her breath still hitched and frantic. He looked at her sternly, and shook his head.
“What the fuck are you on?” he asked her. “What have you been letting them feed you, girl?”
“It’s just a little coke,” she whined. “And maybe some weed.”
“Well that shit ends right now,” he growled at her. “Now we gotta get your sis. If that shrink-dick knew who I was, then they know about Dana.”
“They can’t get to her first!” Ash cried.
But as they raced to the motel, finding an increasing number of the dreadful zombies staggering the streets of the small town, they found the room door already open. Mike readied his gun, and ducked inside. He was half relieved that no one was there to greet them and stir a fight, but he knew what it meant. Ash had been left in the car, but she followed him up the stairs, and to the room door, where she looked in panic at the empty room.
“They took her!” Ash shrieked.
“We’ll find ‘em,” Mike growled. “Probably went back to that shit hole club.”
They were preparing to leave when there came a sound from the bed. It was the sound of music- classical music- and they searched the bed. Ash recognized it as Dana’s ring on her cell phone, and she clawed at the bed to find it. Finally, amid a tangle of the sheets, she found the phone and drug it up before her face, which was streaked with makeup running from tears.
“What is it?” Mike asked.
“It’s Beethoven!” Ash answered in a panic, referring to the piano music of Fur Elise that Dana had explained to her once. Ash held the phone up as Mike looked at the screen, and his brow furrowed.
“Shit head?” Mike asked, reading the display.
“My dad is calling,” Ash said, and pressed the screen to answer.
“Hello? HELLO!?” Ash called into it.
“Now take it easy, ya’ dumb whore,” Welles snarled at her. “Couldn’t rest until that fuck wagon Mike come down to save you and your smart ass sister, huh?”
“Dad, please don’t-”
“Now just shut your mouth for a fuckin’ second, and I’ll tell ya’ how it’s gonna go,” Welles told her. “Too many of them rot heads in town to stick there, and it looks like you made a war out of the Fox Tail, so we skinned out, and we’re headed to Harper’s Grove. You’re gonna meet us there in two days, you got that?”
“What do you want?” Ash asked desperately.
Now, Welles laughed quietly.
“Just wanna be a family again, baby,” he said to her, which made her skin crawl.
“Don’t you hurt her,” she said, almost a whisper.
“Nobody’s gonna get hurt,” Welles said. “Especially if you just get your ass here, and bring me what Marco owes me. You got that?”
Ash had no idea what to say, but Mike, who could hear the conversation, gave a nod.
“Ok, I’ll get it.”
“Now there’s a good girl,” Welles said. “And Ash? You try to pull anything stupid? I can’t say for sure Tank and Clyde will keep listening to me about your sister.”
She would have answered, except that Welles had ended the call. Ash looked up at Uncle Mike, shuddering as tears came again.
“What do we do?” she asked.
“What did he want from that Marco prick?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know, it was probably drugs,” Ash wailed.
“Well fuck that,” Mike said. “I got friends in Harper’s Grove. We’ll get your sis, and I’m gonna put a hurt on your dad that he’s had comin’ for a long time.”
They left the hotel room, noting that there was a group of the zombies beginning to draw uncomfortably close to their car. A police car raced by, with sirens going, and Mike figured it was headed to the Fox Tail. The pair of them was soon in the car, and racing away to reach Harper’s grove. Along the way, Mike looked over at her, and tried to calm his anger.
“You just… Just sleep that shit off,” he said, sounding a little more calm. “I’ll wake you up when we get near Harper’s Grove.”
Ash, her expression going vacant again, barely nodded as the car roared on.
The farm was quiet, with a few of them periodically keeping watch over the grounds, while the wounded man had grown quiet, and was being tended to mostly by Wilma. David checked in to see Marty sleeping in a recliner, and then decided that it was time for him to get a little rest as well. The back of the house had a large, open deck on it, and Andy had found himself outside, looking over the farm with fond memories as he leaned on the railing.
The back door opened, and two figures emerged, one of them being the man Andy remembered was named Austin, while the other was Clint’s wife, Abbie. They joined Andy at the railing, and all of them stared out into the night. Once again, Andy caught Abbie from the corner of his eye, gazing at him until he turned to her. Rather than asking her just what the hell she was so fascinated for, he shifted his gaze to Austin.
“Getting too boring in there?” he asked.
“Won’t let us smoke in there,” Austin grunted, getting out a cigarette and lighting it. It was not lost on Andy that Abbie took out no cigarette to smoke, but he loved the irony of the fact that though these two had been ordered out to smoke, David was often smoking his old pipe in there..
“Well, the only things out here since I’ve come out have been a couple deer down there at the tree line,” Andy explained, turning back to the night.
“So, you a soldier?” Abbie asked.
“US Marines, ma’am,” Andy answered her.
“Ma’am…” she said, surprised. “I’m younger’n you.”
“They all talk like that,” Austin said with a wave of his hand. “Where you servin’ at?”
“Really far away,” Andy answered with a smile. “I can’t even pronounce the names of most of the villages I was in.”
“Iran?”
Austin asked, pronouncing it as though he was saying EYE-ran.
“Afghanistan,” Andy clarified.
“Same bunch a’ rag heads,” Austin said, and took a long drag off his cigarette.
“You ever kill anyone?” Abbie asked, sounding half curious, half seductive as she had turned fully to Andy.
“Sure, yeah,” Andy said. “Not sure it’s anything I’d be proud of, but I did what I had to do.”
“Sounds scary,” she remarked.
“It sure could be,” he agreed.
Austin smashed out the cigarette butt onto the deck railing, and then flicked it out into the yard, not noticing that Abbie and Andy’s eyes were locked. He headed for the back door, and she turned back to the yard.
“I’m goin’ in,” Austin informed them. “Gotta crap.”
“Thanks for the update,” Andy said, not even looking at the man, but then turning back to the yard. The back door closed and she gave a sigh.
“Hate that guy,” she said. “Creeps me out, but Clint swears he’s all cool. I think Clint wants me to do ‘em both at the same time.”
Andy, an amused smile on his face, turned to her.
“Yeah?” he asked. “And what do you think of that?”
She shrugged.
“Like I said, guy creeps me out,” she explained, still watching the trees for the deer.
“Never figured Clint would get married,” Andy said.
“We was just down in Florida, and havin’ such a good time, it was just right,” she said. “I don’t know if we’ll last, but we sure did have a lot of fun down there.”
“He’s what… twenty one, now?” Andy asked. “He was just a kid, last time I saw him.”
“I’m only nineteen,” she said. “Still, when you know somebody’s right for ya, I guess it makes sense.”
Andy didn’t comment, but thought it was actually some pretty terrible logic to get married just because you were having a good vacation. Still, she had a great figure, and wasn’t covering a whole lot of it up, and that was not lost on the man who had been overseas in combat with a bunch of equally dirt-covered men. He finally gave a nod.
“It’s as good an idea in the middle of this crap as any,” he said. “The world all wiped out, dead people getting up and walking around…”
“It’s scary,” she said, now sounding a bit less like she was on the make.
“Like Austin?” Andy asked, which brought a big, girlish smile to Abbie’s face.
“Nah, like I said, he’s just creepy,” she corrected him.
“Ah yes, creepy,” Andy acknowledged, looking at her, then back out at the night and the yard.
“You ain’t creepy,” she said quietly, stepping toward him. He turned toward her.
“And what about Clint?” Andy asked.
“He ain’t creepy but…” she said, unbuttoning the top button on her plaid shirt. “He ain’t out here, neither.”
Andy smiled.
CHAPTER NINE- TRIALS OF THE ROAD
Morning had found the US with new rounds of violent storms, including a wave of arctic air that had rushed south into the New England states to layer them with ice, then snow. As the sun rose behind clouds, Jon had found that his travels were better, the rain having left the area for the time being. Mick was not as lucky, driving through hail as he headed west to meet with the others at Anderson’s farm.
Jake had driven with his adopted family for many hours, finally stopping when they found another clog of cars blocking the highway they were on. He and Bill had taken to gathering fuel, along with a smattering of other highway travelers, who were also fending off the few zombies milling about the traffic jam. Jake had discovered a car- a rather simple sedan with the keys still in it, and a gas gauge that read only half empty. He glanced up at Bill.
“Looks like I may be able to make my own way, now,” Jake said casually. “Provided this thing will run.”
“We can make it run- I got jumper cables in the trunk,” Bill said. If it’s got gas in it, you should be good to go. Wish you could leave me a gun, though.”
“You’re headed to Texas, Bill,” Jake said with a grin. “There should be a gun about every ten feet.”
Bill gave a laugh, and turned as he heard a shuffle. Near them was a slow-moving, horridly gray, mottled walking corpse with a torn red sweater, and a vicious looking wound the length of its face. Bill backed off as Jake regarded it, and looked at the Sedan again. He looked over his shoulder at Bill.
“Here, take this gas can back to your car, and get the hell out of here,” he said.
“Jake, you take that can, but make sure this damn thing starts,” Bill said. “What do we do about him?”
Jake looked at the zombie.
“Do they die?” Jake wondered.
“I… don’t know,” Bill admitted, but stepped back as the thing was coming closer. There was another one, a shriveled old woman, behind it, which let forth a dry groan. Jake lifted his pistol, holding it up so it was pointed at the thing’s heart.
“This is gonna hurt you way more than it hurts me,” Jake said, and squeezed the trigger to fire the gun with a loud report. But the bullet ripped through the thing, which merely angled backward with the shot, and then started forward again.
“Oh, shit…” Bill wheezed. Jake studied it a moment, and then lifted his pistol higher. It went off again, and the round struck the creature just below the left eye, opening a small wound there, but the hollow point round blasting its head open wide in the back. Without a sound, the thing in the red sweater staggered backward two steps, and then tumbled to the concrete in the path of what had been an old woman.
“Well, I think we learned something,” Jake said. “Get back to your family, and good luck in Texas. I can find more gas, but we shouldn’t hang around here long.”
“Stay safe, Jake, and thanks for helping us out,” Bill said. But then there came a voice, and it froze them as they heard it.
“Well if it ain’t super stunt driver with the machine gun,” the voice said, and both men turned toward it.
There were six of them, each as filthy, fat, and disgusting as the next as they brandished everything from wrenches to a double barreled shotgun. Jake was unimpressed, and he kept his pistol up as they stared at one another. Bill was very obviously terrified, and he looked them over as one with a big, stainless steel revolver, stepped to the front.
“Took us a bit to recover from your bullshit, but now, I think we need some repayment,” the man said.
“You’re not getting anything except out of my way,” Jake said confidently. There was a rumble of laughter. The old woman’s animated corpse responded to their laughter with a sharper moan, almost a snarl as she drew closer.
“Boy, you don’t know when you licked,” the one with the double barreled shotgun said to him.
“Nope,” Jake agreed. “But I sure know when to get out of the way.”
“Out of the way…?” the man with the huge silver revolver said.
Jake said nothing more, but dove, leveling Bill just as the car roared at them, with Tammy behind the wheel. She closed her eyes as she drew near, and the men tried to dive away as the car plowed into them, and another car. In the distance, two men who had remained with the trucks of the thugs began a run at them. The only two men to avoid the crash were scrambling to their feet, and one grabbed the shotgun, aiming it at the car, and Tammy.
Jake’s pistol went off, and the man clutched his right side, crying out as the shotgun fell away. The other one, no seasoned veteran at conflict, backed away, and was preparing to flee when he staggered over a damaged muffler on the ground. As he struck the ground, he began to sit back up when the old woman grasped him, her rasping wails horrifying him just before her ragged teeth clamped on his throat.
Looking away, Jake rushed from Bill to snatch up the big, silver revolver from the ground, and noted the approach of the other two. He brought the MP-5 around front, and let off a burst of the 9mm ammunition at them, which ma
de them draw up short. He then lifted the weapon higher, and clenched his teeth as he hardened his eyes on them.
“I’m already sick of you,” he said. “So you got one option right now, and that’s to get the fuck out of here, you hear me?”
The men paused, each raising their hands, and starting to back off.
“But our friends!” one of them howled.
“Once we’re gone!” Jake called at them, over the screams of the man still fighting off the old woman. He threw her away from himself, but could only clutch the flowing wound in his throat, and Jake motioned for Bill to come close.
“Start that car,” he said to Bill, who leaned into the sedan, and turned the key. To everyone’s surprise, it started with little effort, and Bill came back out. Jake handed off the revolver to Bill.
“Jake…”
“Take that, and grab that shotgun, too,” Jake said. “It will be easier to find ammo for that.”
Bill did as ordered, tucked the revolver in his waistband, and then leveled the shotgun on the men. He went to his car, and slid into the driver’s seat as Tammy moved over. Jake motioned for the thugs to check on their buddies, and he was quick to grab his bags from Bill’s car. He leaned in to Casey.
“You be good for your mom and dad,” Jake said. “They’ll take good care of you.”
She smiled, and then hugged Jake around the neck. He backed out of the car and shut the door, receiving only one more appreciative look from Bill and Tammy before they backed up, revealing some of the crumpled bodies of the thugs under their car. They then drove off, as Jake was tossing his bags and the MP-5 into the sedan. He looked over the last two thugs that were undamaged, and kept his pistol at the ready.
“I wish it hadn’t come to this shit,” he said. “It didn’t have to.”
“You fucking killed ‘em!” one of the men howled, and Jake noted the approach of more zombies. The old woman zombie was recovering.
“We defended ourselves,” Jake countered. “Are you telling me you weren’t trying to squeeze us last night on the road? That now without so much authority, you’re just out prowling the roads for shit you can use?”
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