Free to move, I hit the lights and backed up as fast as I could, angling the car into a driveway. Slamming the gear into drive, I shot out, down the street, and fled.
I had half a mind to circle around, hunt down the big Suburban, and take care of Lee. A man like that couldn’t be allowed to continue his reign. But who was I to police the new world? It wasn’t my business. What he had done was horrible; what his men had done was worse. They all deserved to meet a grisly end.
Right now, I had to take care of Katherine.
I punched the gas and accelerated away from the battlefield. Coming around a corner a bit too fast, I had to slam on my brakes to avoid running into someone standing in the street. The tires screeched and Katherine cried out in fear, as I came to a stop a few feet from the figure.
From a distance, it had appeared to be a person. When they turned to look into the bright lights, I saw that it was one of the dead. It was a pitiful thing. An elderly woman with long white hair hanging in her face turned to regard me. She moaned around a half of a jaw, and then shambled off into the night.
* * *
I hit the high beams and crept through roads I had not seen in months.
There was a line of trucks just ahead, as though a convoy had arrived and circled the wagons. I came up on them and slowed to a stop. Slipping out once again into the night, I moved away from the safety of the car. I played the rifle over the trucks and felt like scratching my head in confusion. How the hell did the road get blocked? My house was a mile or so up the road, and I would have to climb over the blockade to reach it.
I heard a noise in the distance, as if a motor was starting up, and then a burst of light shattered the darkness as high-intensity beams ripped the night apart. As they came to life all around me, I shielded my eyes. I felt like a deer caught in massive headlights. Like the world had just turned on a gigantic sun. I backed up one step at a time as I tried to train the rifle all around me.
The car door behind me slid open, and I knew without a doubt Katherine was behind me, watching my back. Noises from ahead; movement and the clink of metal on metal. Whatever this trap was, I had fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker. I tried to shield the light, but all I managed was to warm my palm.
I worried that I had found a group of Lee’s men. If he had made it here, I was a dead man.
“What the hell is going on?” Katherine yelled.
Before I could reply, a voice came from the barricade of cars and trucks. “Lower your weapon and identify, or we will shoot you.”
I just about dropped the gun in shock when I heard the voice. It was a woman, and it held a great deal of authority. I had no doubt she would shoot. She and whoever was with her.
I lowered the rifle, but I didn’t drop it. Still backing up, I was determined to jump in the SUV and get out of here. Whatever little fiefdom these people had set up, I was not interested in getting to know them.
“Stop moving or we will shoot!”
If I turned and made a dash for the car, I could be there in a few seconds, but even a ten year old with decent aim would be able to pick me off.
Stopping, I faced the blinding light. “My name’s Tragger, and you’re blocking the way to my house. I just want to get some stuff and leave.”
There was movement, but I couldn’t tell what was going on. I was going to climb out of my skull at this rate. I did not like standing in front of these people with no protection. If they opened fire, I was as good as dead, and Katherine would be next.
More clanking around, and I wanted to make a run for it. Fuck this. Then an engine started, and a truck backed up to make a small space. A slim figure came out of the gap and walked toward me.
“Erik?” A female voice called out almost softly.
“Yep.”
Her voice played with my senses, and I saw someone from the past. The way she spoke and moved reminded me of Allison, but that was ridiculous. There was no way she could have made it to our old home together. The last time I had talked to her was almost a month before the incidents started happening. I felt my heart swell at the thought of her, of what she had meant to me at one time, and the crushing anger that had burned for months after she had left followed. It made a powerful contrast.
“Alli …” and I stopped, because I knew it wasn’t her.
“It’s Lisa.” She stood a few feet from me, dressed in a jumpsuit made of some thick material that zipped all the way to her neck. She had on a scarf and gloves. She looked familiar. Still, I almost backed up again when she stepped to me and put her arms around me in an embrace.
Automatically I returned her hug, and stood as she sobbed against me for a full ten seconds before I realized who she was. My neighbor—Devon’s wife.
* * *
I had to pick Katherine up and help her out of the SUV. She leaned against me as we went into the barricade. Once we were past, the truck started up again and pulled forward to close the gap. The lights were easy to bear from this angle, and I was able to appreciate the simplicity in the design. With the trucks and cars facing out, it made a much harder barrier for the zombies to get through. In fact, with enough firepower, this place could hold out for a good long time.
Behind the vehicles was a series of fences with concrete barricades up against them. From a tactical standpoint, it reminded me of the Walmart, where a killing maze had been set up. The people here didn’t have enough fencing to encircle their location, but they did the next best thing by staggering sections so the zombies could not get in.
I followed Lisa in and glanced at the faces on either side. There were at least twenty people that I could see, but none who looked familiar. They appeared like us—tired, dirty, and sore. A woman leaned on her gun as she tried to stay upright. I wondered what they had endured over the last six months. I heard whispers and tugged Katherine tighter to me.
“Where did they come from?”
“Lisa knows him.”
“She does not look good at all.”
An older man looked me up and down, nodding to himself as if I met some criteria. I nodded back at him just the same. The low hum of a smaller generator kicked in, and dim lights lit the houses behind the barricade. It seemed like my life was coming down to what barricade I was able to hide behind at any given time. Many had wished for a new world, but I didn’t think this was what anyone had in mind.
Lisa spoke with someone in low tones behind me before she ran to catch up with me. She looped one hand in the crook of my arm as another person came and took Katherine.
“I can’t believe you’re alive,” she said, and I heard a strong hint of relief. I could only imagine what she and Devon had gone through after the zombies showed up.
“Where is Devon?”
“Gone,” she said simply. “What’s wrong with your … friend?”
“Katherine. She was shot by one of those ghouls.”
“They don’t shoot. They only direct the undead things to do their bidding.”
“Well, someone with glowing green eyes did a good job of learning how to fire a gun,” I said in frustration. I didn’t want to talk about it; I wanted to get Katherine fixed up and out of here. This fiefdom was fine and dandy for them, but I wanted to go in pursuit of the caravan and hit Portland as soon as possible. I was sick to death of living in fear and living on the run.
“We have medical supplies and a nurse. She has done some amazing things, even though she isn’t a doctor. She can take care of her.”
Lisa guided me to a house; I think it used to belong to Mark Wilson, a neighbor with whom I was never very friendly. He seemed like a nice enough guy, if a bit aloof. The door was open, and they were helping Katherine down a hallway to what must have been their triage room.
“Have you been here since the shit went down?” I asked.
“We tried to leave once. Devon wasn’t sure what to do. He wanted to wait for some instructions from the government, or at least someone who seemed to be in authority. We waited and waited for at leas
t a week after you left. One night, the power went out, and we sat up in the dark. The next day, we wandered around the neighborhood, but it was so empty. It seems most of the neighbors left shortly after you did.”
“Who was still around?”
“Well, Mark didn’t leave either. He had a hunting rifle, and he took the doors off all his upstairs rooms and nailed them over windows. He tried to build a fortress, but that was in the early days, and we weren’t organized like we are now.” Her tone was almost shy. Her hair was once a sheet of auburn curls that hung over her face when she laughed. Now it was a lighter color, and it was straight. I realized that hair that looked so natural was an act, just like the act kept up by the other survivors around us.
“I’m so glad to see you alive. I have seen some horrible things—some not too far from here. That was you at the house that was on fire, wasn’t it?” she said. “We almost shot you, you know.”
“That was your people?” I asked in surprise.
“We weren’t going to get involved.” She stopped me with a look, probably reading the shock in my eyes. “We try to stay out of the way. When it became apparent you were going to start a shooting match, we decided to spook the other guys.”
“Lee’s men,” I said.
“Who is Lee?”
“Long story. Let’s just say he’s a bad man. I wouldn’t be sad to see him dead.” I sighed.
“Is that his first name?”
“Come to think of it, I have no idea.”
Lisa studied me, but didn’t pursue the matter. I was sure we would have time to talk about it later. I was on edge, worried about Katherine. I’m sure Lisa was aware of my constant glances toward the room Katherine was in.
Lisa had a new bearing about her. She was no longer the shy housewife that used to giggle at my jokes when she and Devon stopped by, before Allison left. She had come into her own, and I was willing to bet she was the one who yelled at me earlier.
I found an unoccupied La-Z-Boy and took a seat in it. She came around and sat on a beat-up couch that was probably once a fine leather sofa imported from somewhere expensive, if I knew Mark.
I glanced down the hall and wanted to pursue Katherine, wanted to be by her side when they worked on her, wanted to be there in case they had some bad news. One of the men who had helped us out came back and nodded at me.
“Nurse said she is gonna be all right, man. She is lucky that bullet went in and out clean. She’s gonna stitch her up and give her some antibiotics. We don’t have a lot, but we can spare some for a neighbor.”
He was light skinned but had a slight Hispanic accent. He carried a shotgun over his shoulder and was dressed like the others—jumpsuit with a scarf tied around his neck. I liked him right away for reasons I couldn’t pinpoint. Being in Special Forces, I had learned pretty quickly who I could and couldn’t trust. I had a feeling about him as soon as I saw him. I was pretty sure he was also the man I had seen pass the car when they spooked Lee’s men.
“I’m Scott, by the way.” He offered his hand, and I shook it, noticing he also wore gloves.
“The outfits must be protection from the biters.”
“Smart guy. We should keep you around.” He grinned.
“Thanks, I think.” I smiled back.
“Now this is nothing personal, man, but I’m gonna have to ask you to take your clothes off.”
“Excuse me?”
“Gotta check you for bites, man. Like I said, nothing personal. It’s a brave new world, brother. We don’t stand on modesty much.”
“What, here?”
“You want a private room, amigo?”
Lisa had a churlish grin on her face, but tastefully turned her head to the side to give me the illusion of privacy. Stripping down to my skivvies, I shook my head. They were old and torn, and I felt ridiculous in them. Scott gestured, so I held my arms out and spun around.
“Not the tighty whiteys, I hope,” I said.
“If a zombie bit your ass, you got bigger problems. You’re cool.”
I nodded and put my clothes back on, while Lisa fought back a cough.
He wandered back outside, and I was left alone with Lisa, who sat back and studied me.
“Is that how you greet every survivor?”
“If I didn’t go out for you, you would have been stripped and spread eagle on the ground before you were even let into the perimeter.”
I liked how she used words like that, like she was in the military. This was not the sweet but simpering Lisa I had met a few years ago. This was a confident woman who was used to giving orders and having them followed.
I took a seat in the La-Z-Boy again and tried to look relaxed after doing the striptease. She studied me, and I studied her in return. She was still pretty, but she had the same hard look to her eyes that Katherine had. I hoped she was doing well in their care. I couldn’t imagine she would be too happy with their methods of inspecting for bites.
“I thought the bites were fast—like the movies. You get bit, you die and change. Come back as one of those dead things.”
“It used to be that way, but the virus has mutated. In some cases, it can take days to make its presence known. The ghouls have sent in more than one survivor who didn’t even know they were going to change. Those things are too smart by far. We need a plan to kill them all.”
“I think I know what you mean. We had trouble too. It was like they were driving a bunch of the zombies to kill us. They seemed to have a strange power over them. How can a virus do something like that?”
Sighing, she sat back. She put her hands in her lap and looked small all of a sudden. If I had been close to her, I probably would have patted her hand in a familiar gesture, like one friend does for another.
“We don’t know much—just theories and rumors. There was a lot of talk of a bad swine flu vaccine, and then others said it was the regular flu shots. Then there was a rumor about some experimental gas in North Korea that got out of hand. None of it makes sense.”
“Understatement.”
“Yeah. What have you been up to? You look like you’re in good shape.”
I had been hoping for answers, but like the other survivors, these didn’t know anything either. I wanted to pound the chair in frustration, but what good would it do? Would it even matter, knowing how the cursed virus started? It would just be one more thing to file away for a rainy day when we were all old and retired from zombie hunting—if we lived that long.
I had done more thinking along the lines of food and supplies. The stuff in stores wouldn’t last forever. We would need to start farming, raising animals, taking care of crops. How could we do that when the world was overrun by the dead?
“I hid out at a cabin until I ran out of food. Then I came back and hooked up with a bunch of crazies holed up at the Walmart.”
“Oh them. We have been in communication a few times. They wanted us to join them, but we were happy here.”
So there was dissension in the tiny fiefdoms after all.
“You didn’t want to join forces?”
“We worked hard to build this place. We brought in generators, a tanker full of diesel. We have semis full of food lined up. We brought in a truck filled with water bottles, and we’re doing all right. When we need more stuff, we go on recon and get what we need. We didn’t need them trying to bring it all to them.”
“They had a pretty nice setup. Very secure.”
“We have a nice setup.”
I had to agree. They had a defensible position and they were well supplied. If overrun, they could always pile into the trucks and make their escape.
As if to punctuate my thought, a gunshot broke the still air outside. Another followed. From the blasts, I guessed it was an AK-47, which had a very distinctive sound. I would have loved to have gotten my hand on one; they didn’t look as nice as my assault rifle, but they were a lot more reliable.
“Shit,” she said and jumped up. I followed her out, but I glanced back down the hallwa
y through which they had taken Katherine. Lisa saw my look and nodded. “I’ll be out there when you’re done. As soon as you can, ask around about a jumpsuit. They’re pretty good protection, and your clothes are a mess.”
I nodded my thanks and turned to check on Katherine.
The hallway led me to a kitchen, where a respectable triage unit had been set up. A pair of tables draped in white made up the beds. They both appeared to be padded. There were a couple of kitchen chairs in a corner, and a whole counter full of tools and medications. There were syringes and a box of sutures, piles of gauze and bandages. This place was ready for war.
Katherine sighed as the nurse slid a needle out of her arm. She smiled in a goofy way at me, and I wondered what kind of painkillers they had given her.
“You know something, Erik? My life was a lot simpler before you walked into it.”
“If you’re getting romantic, then I’m all ears.”
I went to her side and took her hand. She was still cold, but the woman attending piled a sheet and a quilted blanket on her. Katherine’s shoulder was exposed, and the paper towels had been pushed aside. The woman took the same syringe, wiped it and Katherine’s skin with alcohol, and then administered a couple of shots to the area. Katherine didn’t even seem to notice.
“She’s floating on a sea of morphine right now. She may get sort of loopy.”
“I’m Erik. Thanks for the hard work, Doc.”
“Oh I’m no doctor, but I’m the next best thing. I’m a nurse, used to work in a facial reconstruction office, but I have all the chops.”
She was dressed in the familiar jumpsuit, but she had a white strip tied around one arm, which reminded me of the corpsmen I used to see in old World War II movies. She was tall and thin with strong Asian features.
“I’m Maddy,” she said and gave me a short wave in lieu of a handshake.
“Hi, Maddy.”
“I’m numbing the area. I don’t have a lot of morphine, so I have to use it sparingly, but I do have a few bottles of Lidocaine. Same stuff they use at the dentist.”
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