The Undead World (Book 1): The Apocalypse

by Meredith, Peter

  “Yes,” the admiral said. “Sadly yes. I wish it weren't so, but that's the way it's got to be. The chain of command has snapped. You are evidence of this as you come begging for supplies. The truth is the Secretary can't even run the CDC properly. How can she possibly run a scattered people?”

  Eric was quiet. He didn't have an answer to the admiral's question.

  “Exactly,” the admiral said as if Eric’s silence was a tacit agreement. “Now there's still an answer that I need from you Dr Reidy, will you help us?” Eric started to splutter out a quick denial, but Stevenson spoke over it. “If you do not help more lives will be lost and the end result will be the same. We can crush the CDC with overwhelming force, but I'd rather do it neatly.”

  Eric was in shock. His country was dying and worse he was being asked to pound the final nail in the coffin.

  Chapter 33

  Sarah

  Illinois River

  Sarah came blearily awake as the small man dashed into the living room. “Neil?” she asked. Partially it was a question because she wasn't quite certain if that was his name and partially because she wondered why he was so flustered and shoeless. He stood there with mud up to his calves, panting and pointing.

  “Zombies,” he said. Louder he called, “Sadie there's zombies coming. A lot of them.”

  And then he was rushing around grabbing his drying clothes and a damp sleeping bag and anything else he could clutch to his slim chest. Sarah stood and then wobbled in place still under the effect of half a bottle of rum on an empty stomach. She looked down at the side of the couch, and even on the wrong side of tipsy she knew that she had set her gun right there. “Where's my gun?”

  If anything the question turned the pale man whiter still and he looked back the way he came. “I left it in the barn,” he said with large eyes. “I'll…I'll just go get it.”

  Sadie came into the living room then. She still wore her muumuu and nothing else, not even her black converse which she carried in her hand. “You're not going out there, Neil. Look I can see ten of the things already.”

  “Yeah, we have to lock the doors,” Sarah said. She went to the front door but Sadie pushed past with odd look on her face.

  “Have both of you gone bonkers…damn its gotten cold,” she said stepping out onto the porch where the rain ran sideways with a new wind. “We could be in trouble. We'll freeze in the river.”

  “That's why you should be coming in,” Sarah insisted. Were these two idiots? They had to get in quick before the zombies came.

  “There's a hayloft in the barn with a ladder you can pull up,” Neil said. “I'll draw them away and you two…”

  Sadie laughed at this. “I'll draw them off. You're too much of a slow poke. See ya!” And then she was skipping across the lawn, singing, “Tra-la-la-la, come get me monsters. Time for lunch.”

  Of course they oriented on her in heartbeat and she continued to skip. “She's crazy,” Sarah said in a whisper. “We have to get her inside.”

  “Inside here? No way, not when they know we're here. They'll tear this place apart. Quick grab that green bag, it's a tent. And that afghan. With everything wet it's going to be a little cold. Oh, and there she goes.”

  Sarah grabbed the tent and the blanket in a hurry. Turning back to the front door she asked, “Aren't you worried that they'll get her…I guess not.”

  The teenage girl wasn't just nimble and quick, she could fly. The nearest zombies were coming after her skipping body with obvious hunger in their eyes and just when they got within a few steps the girl turned on the jets and raced away. After running half the length of a football field she stopped and huffed out volumes of grey breath as she waited for them to get close again.

  “No wonder she isn't really scared,” Sarah said with awe in her voice. “I wouldn't be either if I could run like that.”

  “We should hurry either way,” Neil said. He was clearly worried for the girl. “One little slip and they'll be on her.” They jogged to the barn and after a quick check to make sure it was empty, Neil pointed Sarah up the ladder. Then he ran for the M16 and waved for the young girl to come in from the rain and the monster play.

  When she came in she was drenched and smiling, while Neil was mumbling, red faced and vaguely pointing to the loft, instead of looking at the girl. Sarah understood if Sadie didn't; soaking wet the old muumuu was sheer and see-through.

  “Come here,” Sarah said to the girl as she came up the ladder. The woman held out the afghan and wrapped her in it, saying, “That was very brave.”

  She shrugged off the compliment, though her cheeks were a little pink. “I used to run track. It's not so brave if they can't catch you.”

  “It was still impressive to us,” Neil said. “I bet you used to win a lot.” He came up, bringing the ladder with him, and though the girls cuddled and he was as wet as Sadie, he sat a little off to himself.

  “No, not really,” Sadie said. “There's a ton of competition. There were even girls on roids. They might have been growing little penises but they sure could run.” They chuckled at this and then Sarah's eyes went to Neil.

  “What are you dressed for?” she asked, just then noticing that he had traded in his khakis. “Halloween?”

  Neil looked down at himself and belatedly began rolling up one of his cuffs—it hung down past his foot and it made him look comically small. “All my stuff was wet so I borrowed farmer Jones' clothes.” He got up and began to inspect the twenty by twenty loft. It was warmer in the loft than it had been down below, but it wouldn't stay that way for long and so Neil began to flatten out an area for the tent. When he did he discovered another stash: A jar of peanut butter, a box of saltines…and more Playboys.

  He held them up and Sadie grew confused. “Do those three go together in a way that I'm too young to understand?”

  Neil and Sarah locked eyes and then burst out laughing. “I'm far too innocent a creature to know, I'm sure,” Sarah said. This was actually quite true. Counting her moment with Veronica, Sarah had been with a total of five people.

  “Me too,” Neil agreed. “All I have to say is yuck.” He tossed the playboys down to the zombies who were congregating below.

  “Don't listen to him,” Sadie said. “He was the stud of Montclair. I'm sure he knew all sorts of kinky stuff; he just hides it under his shy demeanor.”

  “Sadie,” he said to the girl as if warning her. “I'm not like that at all, really. Or I wasn't before, back in Montclair, and Sadie knows it.”

  Sarah completely believed Neil—real studly types rarely blushed when they were called a stud. They usually only puffed up more like rooster than normal. “How does she know it?” she asked. “If you met on the road then you could have told her anything. Like being the stud of Montclair.”

  “I never said that to anyone,” Neil pleaded.

  Sadie, who had begun to shiver, snuggled closer and said, “I've been to his house. We met when I was robbing him. That's how I know he was all studly. He had a big ol' house with lots of choice stuff and a fine car. It was a veritable babe trap. Any girl he got back there would have her panties off in no time…”

  “Sadie!” Neil said, glaring. “The only true part of that was the fact that she robbed me at gun point.” At Sarah's insistence he told the story and Sadie was quick to add to it.

  “You don't know this guy Neil took on. He was a bad ass. John was like this savage; no one messed with him. Even I was scared of him…he was the reason why I started stealing. He looked on everyone like they were sheep. And he was right. You know how many people are out there hiding in their homes, waiting to die? They'll eat through their food and then just starve to death, or they'll come out when they are weak and become easy pickings. John said we only speeded up the process.”

  “It was still wrong,” Neil said gently.

  “Yeah, I know, and besides what did it get us?” Sadie asked. “I stole from you, you stole from us, and then I stole from you again, and then it was all stolen f
rom us by the bastard the colonel.”

  A shiver went up Sarah's spine and she gave herself a shake. “Maybe we should break out the peanut butter and crackers and try not to think about the porn. I'm getting kind of hungry.”

  “You two go ahead and eat,” Neil said, standing up. “I want to get the tent set up before it gets too cold.”

  As he went about setting up the little tent, cursing the Chinese under his breath for having such bizarre instructions, Sarah and Sadie munched through the crackers. “You're lucky you found him,” Sarah whispered. “Nice guys are a dying breed these days. I was from a whole town of nice guys and nice girls and I'm probably the only one left alive. In fact, I'm sure of it.”

  “You're lucky too,” Sadie replied with her little impish smile that seemed to impart more than her words. “Maybe you don't realize it yet.”

  Sarah's mouth came open but just then Neil said, “The tent's done. It's kind of small. I could probably make do sleeping in some of this hay. Cat's live in this sort of thing, right? That's what I hear…”

  Sadie grabbed him and pulled him into the tent after her. Sarah, who had gone first, had to keep from laughing when she saw that Sadie had squished far to the right leaving him with only the option of the middle. He took a deep breath before settling himself down between them and in a very unstudly manner clasped his hands to his chest as if they couldn't be trusted.

  That didn't sit well with Sadie who flung one of his arms wide and snugged in close. “I wonder what time it is?” she asked. “It's probably not even two and I'm exhausted.”

  “That's why you don't drink at ten in the morning,” Neil reprimanded. “It ruins you for the rest of the day. That goes for you too,” he added turning to Sarah with a smile that quickly disappeared.

  “I just shot my mother,” Sarah said, wondering if the words had come out of her mouth. The idea, the fact, the concept, the truth had circled her head all during her bout with the rum—I just shot my mother. I just killed my mother. I just murdered my mother. I just executed my mother. She was sure that she had said it a number of times, but couldn't remember if anyone had been in the room when she had. “She was going to turn…she had the fever. I think I was entitled to a drink.”

  “I'm so sorry,” Neil said. Sadie only gave her the smallest glance and then clung again to the man she had adopted as her father. Sarah wished she had that just then.

  Instead all she had was the feeling of being dead inside. She had mustered a bit of rage at seeing the soldiers earlier and she had smiled at Sadie running because it was such a pretty thing, but that was all the feeling she had.

  Though in this she was wrong.

  When the tent became unbearably quiet, Neil asked where she was from. “Danville,” came her reply, and just to be polite she asked, “And you're from Montclair? Where is that?”

  “It's right outside Manhattan.”

  “New York,” she breathed out the words, and now she had feelings again. Her insides weren't dead after all. She only wished that they were. “And is everyone…is anyone alive there?”

  “I don’t think so. Not in the city,” Neil answered with concern in his light blue eyes. “Why? What's wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Sarah whispered. And then in a move that wasn't at all like her, she pushed closer and lifted Neil's other arm. “May I?” she asked and then didn't wait for his reply and placed her head upon his chest. She knew what his answer would be. A nice guy would never turn down an invitation to cuddle.

  Even if they wanted so much more.

  Chapter 34

  Neil

  Illinois River

  Neil couldn't remember a better night since the entire apocalypse began. He laid there with two women huddled into him for warmth and was surprised to find himself enjoying the aromas of both. In his old life something either smelled good or bad too him—they had never intrigued him. This was a first.

  With Sarah there was that particular odor that rum presented, though it was very light; and there was the grey, neutral smell of the river water, while beneath both she still possessed a hint of perfume in her hair and it was this that he concentrated on and he breathed her in longingly. On the other hand Sadie smelled like a kid—a touch of shampoo over the lightest scent of sweat, but above both an earthy natural smell. It was the way a kid smelled when she came in after dark after a two hour game of kick the can.

  Since they had gone to bed so early, Neil woke while it was still deep dark and this gave him a lot of time to enjoy the different scents. He had never known such contentment in so little a thing before.

  On the other hand he was absolutely positive that he stank to all hell. It could not be any other way in his mind. He was a man and even the smallest man accumulated stink like a bee gathered pollen, he just had to walk around. There in the dark he vowed to bath in the river the following day no matter how cold it was, and if the weather could be judged by the wailing wind, it was going to be cold indeed.

  He wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep for eighteen hours straight. At some point before dawn Sadie whispered urgently, “We need to talk real bad.”

  “Your talk can't wait until morning?” he asked. Her dark eyes looked huge in the dim tent; she shook her head and he sighed.

  Sarah stirred next to him and spoke with a sharp edge to her voice, “Your talk can wait. There were zombies down there a little while ago.”

  “I don't care,” Sadie said, getting up and unzipping the tent. “It has to be now or else.” Sarah began to argue some more and Neil tried to pat her on the shoulder but ended up patting her on the breast instead and to make matters worse because what he was touching was round like a shoulder but was so very soft he grew confused at what it was, which had his hand exploring until Sarah smacked it away.

  “Sorry,” he said quickly. “That was, um. I'll explain later.”

  Simply put Sadie and Neil were both rather gun shy when it came to using the restroom in public, and since someone had to stand guard while the other went, they had developed codes rather than blurt out that nature was calling. They had come up with the idea in the short time that they had been with Chuck and his son.

  There were two codes: We need to talk and We need to have a long talk. Thankfully it was only a talk that had Sadie so insistent just then.

  When Neil backed out of the tent, Sadie was dancing the I gotta Tinkle Two-step with her hand pointing in alarm. Below them something shuffled about, which ruled out a whole lot of privacy. Looking around, he grabbed her and tiptoed to the farthest corner of the hayloft and quickly made a pile out of the stiff straw to about three feet, giving her the tiniest bit of privacy. He would've made it higher but she was already heading in.

  Walking away he made a great point of looking for the zombie below until he could hear her crunching softly up to him. “Thanks, that was close,” she said in a breathy whisper. She held up the hem of her muumuu, which she had ripped. “Got plenty more if you need to have a long talk.”

  “I'm good.”

  Climbing in the tent they saw Sarah sitting cross-legged, she shook her head at them and said in a low voice, “That was one tough code to crack. You guys should work for the CIA.” Sadie snorted at this, but Neil only smiled, noting that the blonde had shifted away from him. Stupid! He swore inwardly at himself. It had been the free feel that had scared her off.

  In the morning, after the women took turns playing with each other's hair for two straight hours waiting for the sun to rise, they crept out of the tent and were happy to see that the zombies had all moved on, though some hadn't gone too far. A few stood about idly in the next field in that strange way of theirs. Just in case, Neil, armed with the M16, checked all around the barn, creeping around in the new frost, barefoot, pretending he was tough when his feet were really on fire with the cold. Next he made sure the house was empty and when it passed his inspection he waved the two women over.

  Both were as barefoot as he and they came, limping and cursing, holding onto e
ach other, until they got into the house and there they huddled under blankets that Neil had scrounged from a hall closet.

  “It was warmer back in the tent,” Sadie said, unhappily.

  “Yeah but my back was killing me,” Sarah put in. “And the snoring? Yikes.”

  Neil sagged, “I snored?”

  Sadie nodded. “And farted. But don't worry it was a big manly fart, ROOMP!” She cackled lively at his look of embarrassment. “I'm just kidding. You didn't fart.”

  “And what about the free feels? What was that about?” Sarah asked with an eyebrow cocked.

  “Who got a free feel? Neil did? You dog! You're a stinking dog. Especially with me right there. I'm a minor! There are laws against such filth, you know. I do declare I must speak to the church elders about you and your wicked, wicked ways.”

  He could feel his cheeks begin to burn and so he threw the blanket over his head. “I thought it was her shoulder,” he tried to explain.

  This had Sadie cracking up and it got worse when Sarah asked, “Has it been that long that you can't tell the difference.” Neil pulled his head out to argue his case, but caught Sarah smiling at him in such an open manner that he forgot entirely what he was about to say.

  “Maybe it was an honest mistake,” Sadie said. “Once when John was about to kill Neil, I felt in his pockets for the keys to my truck and my hand came on something rock hard and bulging. I was all like: Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

  “Sadie!” Neil said grimacing at how Sarah's smile went crooked. “It was a gun, honest. I had it right here in my pants.”

  “Relax Neil, I believe you,” Sarah said, laughing again. “You two seem to have had your share of adventures, while I…I was like those sheep-people you were talking about, Sadie. Our little town wasn't hit hard at all by the zombies and we just sort of waited to see what was going to happen without doing much to preserve our future. It was stupid…I was stupid. I wish I had gone right away to New York. Maybe I could've saved my daughter.”