“Sometimes that's how babies are,” Sarah had said. “You just run down the check list: is she fed, burped, diaper changed? Is she too hot, is she too cold? Are her jammies bunched somewhere? Is she just colicky? Go ahead, go down the list. Start with a bottle.”
They discovered the problem eventually when Julia went to burp the baby. “She's not a China Doll,” Sarah said, laughing. “Don't tap her like you're doing a golf clap. You got to go harder than that...harder.” Finally, when Julie gave her a good thump on the back, Eve belched like a man, and then promptly fell straight asleep.
This had them all grinning, all save Cassie. She remained a rock, sitting just behind Ram, who was in the passenger seat. Neil saw her lack of response and asked her, “Do you have any brothers or sisters, Cassie?” When she emitted nothing but the passing of her breath, and eyes began to dart around at her rudeness, Neil just spoke as if they were in an actual conversation.
“I don't either. Supposedly I was a problem child, however the nannies never seemed to mind. That was how I was raised: Nannies on the upper west side, right up until the crash of 87. Do you know what that was?” Cassie answered by looking out the window, which did not detour Neil from explaining anyways.
In a nutshell that was how the day went. Their going was slow and tedious. Where before Ram had sought to avoid any town upwards of fifty-thousand people, now the land seemed to squeeze in on them as they progressed through the tail end of the Appalachians so that only twenty-five miles separated the suburbs of Chattanooga and Huntsville. And those miles were forested with stiffs.
That first night they holed up in a liquor store with barred windows and a sturdy set of doors. The boys drank until they were silly, while after her second warm beer, Sadie had trouble feeling her toes, which seemed much further away than usual. Julia and Sarah were drunk with baby fever, and did little besides sit next Eve and smile at her least movement. Cassie sat alone sipping from a bottle of Tuaca.
The following day they traveled at a snail's pace and only came upon the city of Rome, just across the Georgia state line, near three in the afternoon, though it was technically a large city, they had been having a hard time finding gas and they had to chance it. It was there that they came upon their first taste of what was to come at the CDC.
Just as they skimmed the outskirts of the city a light flashed at them and Neil stopped short. “Did you see that? It was a light, whoa, there it is again.” A light from a dirt brown vehicle flicked their way. “Sadie?”
“On it,” she said. Whenever there was exploring or recon work needed the group called upon the slight girl. Staying low, she slunk along the cars parked on the side of the street, ready to tear off at the slightest sign of danger. Behind her she knew that both Ram and Neil had their M16s trained at every doorway and alley she passed.
It was a nice to have Ram backing her, and it was nice to let Neil feel needed—his ability with any weapon other than his axe was suspect—but it wasn't necessary. Since the world had died, the air had become so still that she heard the zombies long before she saw them, and she didn't think she was in much danger.
In this case she could hear them shuffling on a side street next to the odd vehicle that had flashed them. The vehicle was clearly military, yet was so strange: it had the treads of a tank, however it was without a main gun and its design was that of a brown shoebox. On the top was what looked like a raised manhole cover and from a gap beneath a set of eyes stared out at her.
“Did you need something?” Sadie whispered to the man.
“There's a shitload of stiffs right over there.” He pointed away from himself toward where Sadie had heard them. She lifted herself from her crouch and gave them a look over the front edge of the vehicle. There were maybe fourteen of them and probably triple that number hiding where she couldn't see.
“Do you want us to kill them for you?” she asked. It seemed a reasonable thing to do.
“What? No we were warning you. Go back and get in your car before they kill you.” She gave them a quick nod and was about to slink away when the man whistled. “Hey, my friend wants to know your name.”
“It's Sadie,” she answered, feeling an instant heat on her neck.
“He say's you're cute.”
The heat crept up her face, but she summoned her courage and tried to look past the man and into the cramped vehicle. She couldn't see a thing. “Tell him thanks, but I can't see him so I have to assume you are a bunch of sardine people from the planet Georgia. What is this thing?” she asked and tapped the metal box lightly.
“It's an M113 armored personnel carrier and I think flirting time is over. The stiffs heard us. You better run.”
They were gang rushing her. Unperturbed she stepped back from the APC and clapped her hands over her head to make sure she had all of their attention. Only when every stiff in the alley was fully aware of her, did she run the seventy yards to the Suburban. And she did so at top speed—showing off.
“What's up?” Ram asked.
Breathing heavily, but feeling good, Sadie answered nonchalantly, “Just some soldier boys. We should ask them about how things are going at the CDC.”
“Soldiers?” Sarah asked. “Maybe we shouldn't.”
“These aren't the same guys,” Neil put in. “Now hold on to Eve. It's going to get bumpy.” He waited until the stiffs were right on the vehicle before plowing through them and over them; he then gunned the SUV down the street and pulled up right next to the APC.
Ram rolled down his window. “Good afternoon. What can you tell us about the CDC? Is it still operational?”
The man gave Ram a look and then tried to peer into the vehicle, his eyes darting right over Cassie as if she wasn't there. Sadie leaned forward and waved, catching his eyes and she saw them crinkle up with a smile. He then turned back to Ram and said, “Yeah, but they ain't taking in any more refugees. You need to go west to Guntersville. They got some spots open, at least they did a few days back. Now you better get on going. Them stiffs are coming back.” They were about to leave when the man noticed Cassie staring at him with a sneer. “What are you looking at?” he asked matching sneer for sneer.
“A sorry-ass cracker.”
“Cassie!” Julia cried, outraged.
“You better put a leash on her,” the man advised, turning cold. “She's in good ole boy country now. We won't put up with that sort of talk. Now get.”
The stiffs were already marring the paint and smearing the glass, so Neil took off. As usual he floored it to clear the area, took a couple of turns and then slowed to a crawl again, looking for cars with their gas caps still sealed. There were so many left hanging open that it was obvious someone had come through and had siphoned them dry.
“What the hell was that about?” Ram asked. He had sat in a gathering anger, trying and failing to calm himself. “Are you going to make enemies wherever you go?”
“Shit. We in cracker country now, Ram. You and I ain't welcome. I bet you they'd let all these nice white folk into the CDC, but we got to go to some refugee camp. You ever see white folk at a refugee camp? I ain't never seen a one unless they be the ones handing out the food.”
“I vote her out,” Julia said suddenly. “You were warned, Cassie. You were warned not to make any more trouble. Ram? You warned her.”
His anger, which sat on his face like a mask seemed to fade as he looked out at the town of Rome. Down every street there were signs of death: burnt houses, decomposing bodies, old brown bloodstains on the sidewalks and sprayed on cars. Zombies, here and there.
“Not yet,” he said. “When we get out of town. We'll find her a farm or something.”
Neil cleared his throat. “Maybe we should part ways at the CDC instead. I find Cassie's behavior incomprehensible as well as deplorable, However, I think we can deal with it for one more night. We’re pretty close.”
“If we let her out now it would be like killing her,” Sarah said. “If that's the plan you should just shoot her instead,
Ram. It would be more humane. I'm with Neil, we should wait. Sadie, what do you think?”
She thought Cassie was bad news. The girl had clearly been stewing in hatred for some time to be the way she was—and that meant trouble. Still the idea of abandoning her here seemed completely heartless. “I can wait. We're in the home stretch. I can feel it, like we’re almost done running.”
“Shit,” Cassie said. “Don't do me any favors, Sadie. Cuz after Ram, you'll be next. It's just what the white man do...”
“I'd zip the lips if I was you,” Sadie said, cutting her off. “I can change my vote anytime. And I'll do it if you keep pushing.” She stared out the window and shook her head for a few seconds but was so bothered by Cassie that she added, “You almost sound like you want us to kick you out. Why?”
“You saw how that dude just ignored me. Like I wasn't even there. I was fucking invisible to him, and that's how it always be. That's how it was with that baby. None of you even paused for a second to see if I wanted her. No one asked me what I thought about taking you guys on. I was a second class citizen before the zombies and I'm a second class citizen now. And that's how it'll be in fucking Atlanta.”
“Do you even want to go?” Sadie asked. She expected the answer to be a quick no. Instead Cassie had to think it over, yet she did with eyes turned away so that only Sadie caught sight of them reflected in the glass. They were the eyes of a toad.
Their camp for the evening, according to road signs was twenty miles outside of Marietta, which was just one of a gazillion little towns and cities that made up sprawling Atlanta. It was still farm country, however the farms had shrunk and they were closer together, with some being little more that Gentleman Farms, That grew next to nothing. On the plus side their accommodations were cozier, some of the barns being as nice as hotel rooms.
On the down side, it took some work for Neil and Ram to make their position defensible. While the sun was still above the horizon, Sadie kept watch, as Sarah and Julia took turns feeding Eve. The two men went to work on the stairs leading up to the loft. They pried out the treads and risers to a height of six feet, and set a ladder firmly in place. Next they covered up the windows with heavy blankets. Only then did they start hauling baggage up and down. Though in this it was mostly Neil doing the work.
Cassie usually helped but she was off to herself and Ram's knee was still too tender to go up and down the ladder more than a few times—when he did it was with a grimace on his face.
Sadie would've helped, however someone had to keep watch...and hefting heavy loads was man's work as she saw it. “You two better hurry,” she called to the men as she made her rounds. “The sun will be going down in a few minutes.”
Sarah glanced up from the baby in alarm. “Neil! I need to have a long talk with you before it gets dark.” Sadie snorted at the silly code word as Neil hurried down the ladder.
“What about you?” he asked Sadie. “Do you need to talk?”
“I'm good,” she said, walking away to stroll across the soft front yard of the house.
“If anyone wants to talk they'll have to come up here!” Ram exclaimed, sweating and wincing as he went back up to the loft with another bag. “I'm not coming back down for nothing.”
So they went their ways and they did so in foolish contentment. Cassie went her way as well, only she did so with revenge in her heart.
The house that came with the barn, as the group saw things, was a big one with tall Greek columns and a long drive that was bordered with straight trees that were lined up like a hundred sentries on parade. Sadie sat in a rocker on the front porch and pictured the fabulous life it must have been like living there.
“Probably like Gone with the Wind,” she said. Then, as the sun crept below the trees, she decided it was time to go into hiding as they did every night. She came around the side of the house thinking this was where she wanted to live if ever the zombies could all be killed and then suddenly she froze in place—her mouth came open and she threw a hand up to her eyes as lights blared in her face and an engine roared into the night. Someone was in the Suburban! And they were leaving! Sadie jumped back as the SUV flashed by and there she saw plainly Cassie in the driver's seat and next to her was the unmistakable silhouette of Eve's car seat.
And then Ram was limping like mad and pointing a rifle at the fleeing Suburban. He fired twice before Sadie screamed, “No! Don't shoot. She has Eve. The baby's in the there.”
Ram ignored her and went to one knee and fired three more times before she jumped in front of him. “Get out of the way, damn it! I'm aiming at the tires.” Sadie jumped back and watched as the SUV slewed to the right after Ram's next burst. Then it went down the hill and was out of sight.
“She killed Julia,” Ram said, his mouth hanging open and his eyes unblinkingly large. “And she has the baby.”
In a rage, beyond any ability to think, Sadie took off running. No one could catch the Suburban if she couldn't.
Chapter 44
Julia
Rome, Georgia
Julia was of two minds. One part of her dwelled on the feeling of contentment, the like she had never known. The baby was hers! She was a real mother. It was a sensation that couldn't be described, beyond the meager concept of being complete.
When she had heard the news that she was barren—a word that was horribly appropriate when dwelt upon—she had allowed herself to be fooled into thinking that it didn't matter. After all, men weren't judged on whether they could procreate, but only on whether they could get an erection. When it came to babies they fell all over themselves to keep it from “happening to them”, while men with a vasectomy walked around as if they had won the lottery.
Julia's contemporaries, other professional women, were quick to point out how good it was for her career that she couldn’t conceive. These same women looked down their noses at stay at home moms, saying that these were the women who were incomplete.
Ha! What a joke her friends were. They scorned God and worshipped evolution, conveniently ignoring their own teachings. Evolution wasn't about racking up degrees and lording them over anyone with only a bachelor's degree; it was about the continuation of the species. And evolutionarily speaking Julia was a dead end.
But not anymore.
She bent over the portable car seat and rubbed her cheek against the softest skin in the whole world and knew all of that was just junk. Julia had been blessed with this tiny person even if she hadn't come from her, and now she was a mother and now she was complete.
And also aggravated. Cassie took up the other part of her mind and it was no wonder. Julia blamed herself for Cassie's attitude, at least partially. What had she said wrong? What had she done, or didn't do? These were the questions that came to her mind as she watched the black girl swinging in a tire that hung from a huge shade tree in the back yard of the house.
Eve drew her mind back to what was important by making a little noise—a sigh—and Julia smiled, feeling her soul like a hot breath inside of her. And when she looked up again there was Cassie with Neil's axe raised above her head and murder in her ferocious eyes.
“Not the baby,” Julia begged in a whisper, her new motherhood coming out in full force as she leaned forward putting her arms out to cover the car seat. This left her dreadfully exposed with no way at all to defend herself, however, love spoke and overrode her sense of self that her friends had always dwelled upon. There were things so much larger.
The three words held the axe at bay, momentarily. “I coulda been her mom,” Cassie hissed. “But you wouldn't let me.”
“I'm her mother,” Julia said. “Do what you want to me, but please don't hurt her.”
Cassie's eyes flicked to the baby. “Uh-uh. You gonna see her die and you're gonna live with that.”
The girl glowered in a sudden rage, and brought the axe back as though she were going to split a log when she was really aiming to hue the baby in two. Julia could've leapt back, instead she lurched forward with the cry that had
Ram stirring, throwing herself over the car seat, protecting her baby and feeling the bite of the axe and knowing in that second of death that she was a real mother.
Chapter 45
Sadie
Rome, Georgia
Sadie saw the possibilities—the group had come off of I-41 and had taken three lefts in a row, which meant Cassie would have to retrace the route exactly—she wouldn't take a chance on Atlanta, not after committing such a horrible crime.
With a fear for little Eve that was near to madness, Sadie launched herself at the forest, heading north-northeast, directly for the highway which was just over a mile and a quarter away. Through the dark forest was the quickest way and the most dangerous; the stiffs seemed to come alive at her passing and they went unnumbered and despite their horrifying appearance went almost unnoticed. The girl had no time for zombies when she had a ghoul to kill.
If Sadie saw in herself one redeeming quality, it was her dogged, fierce loyalty, and it was this that propelled her at speeds she had never surpassed, so that she came upon the highway in just under six minutes. Still she missed Cassie. A long ways down the road Sadie saw the retreating taillights.
She fell against a tree, her breath hucking out of her, tears coming in a rain, and the black pistol swinging at the end of her arm as if it were nothing more than her Power-Puff lunch box she used to take to school with her when she had been little. It used to knick her leg just as the pistol had. As a purely defensive mechanism, she turned from the distant lights and pictured the pink lunch box she had carried for so long and in her mind she saw herself as the little girl she had been with the huge Anime eyes, and she remembered running with the box swatting her leg as she beat the boys time after time in every race they could conceive.
All of this was better than picturing what Cassie was going to do to Eve.
“She better not do anything to...” she began, however a zombie came hurrying forward to die a second time. With animalistic fury, Sadie jammed the gun in its face and pulled the trigger. It fell in a most satisfying manner.
The Undead World (Book 1): The Apocalypse Page 33