The Dead Series (Book 3): Dead Weight

by Jon Schafer

  He was more optimistic now that they were near Fort Polk, but he knew the chances were slim they’d reach anyone since the distance was still too great. He was hoping someone would pick up his transmission and relay it. He’d done everything he could to boost the range by adding an inline amp and narrowing the band, but he realized the solution lie in finding a directional antennae. They’d come across one on a looted house when they were going through the preserve and had stopped to retrieve it. It stood at the very peak of the roof and it had taken him an hour to climb the three-story structure only to find it was so twisted and bent that it was useless. He ended up having to make do with the whip antennae. But now he had something else.

  Height.

  Shouldering his bag of tools and grabbing the CB, he headed for the stairs to the second floor with Connie in tow carrying the antennae. Grimm freaked him out with the whole Reaper thing, but he figured she was more approachable than the raggedy twins to ask how to get up on the roof. Of the fifth person in the crazy crew that populated the asylum, there was no sign. He knew that Igor did talk since he’d heard him call Cindy ‘the chosen one’ when they’d first met, but he had refused to speak since then and had fixated on Cindy.

  At first, Linda was scared for the child’s safety and kept shooing him away when he started following them around, until Grimm explained to her that Igor thought the little girl was the chosen one and had proclaimed himself her protector. When Pep seemed to take to him, Linda relaxed her guard but still kept Cindy by her side. She’d found out at an early age that she couldn’t have kids, so she had taken on the role of Cindy’s surrogate mother and loved every minute of it. She didn’t feel she was being overprotective, because the dead weren’t the only predators in the world.

  As Brain trudged up the stairs, he remembered Grimm telling them that she would be in the recreation room on the second floor if they needed her. When he reached the top, he found himself at the beginning of a long corridor. Discrete signs and a directory on the wall eventually led him to where he wanted to go. The door to the room stood open, so he peeked in to see if she was there.

  He saw couches and chairs clustered around a ping-pong table, and an arts and crafts area in the far corner. Grimm was sitting in an overstuffed chair in a television area at the other side of the room with her scythe propped up next to her.

  Knocking on the doorjamb, he asked, “Mind if I come in?”

  “Bathe him, and bring him to me,” she said with an imperious tone in her voice.

  Taking this as a yes, he motioned for Connie to stay in the hall as he entered. Approaching the TV area, he could see it was a nice setup. There was a 60” widescreen on the wall hooked up to a DVD and a game system. None of it was turned on since the generator wasn’t running, but Grimm was staring at the television anyway.

  “What are you watching?” Brain asked with a nervous laugh.

  “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Grimm answered.

  Brain laughed and started to say something, but she held up her hand and said, “Shhh, this is a really good part.”

  Brain closed his mouth with a snap as he realized that she thought she was really watching something.

  After a few minutes, Grimm picked up the remote control, aimed it at the TV and pushed a button. She turned to him and said, “Okay, I can pause it here. Now, what can I do you out of? If you’re thinking about suicide, don’t do it. I did, and I ended up here.”

  Slightly flustered, Brain stammered out, “Actually, I wanted to know how to get up on the roof.”

  “I told you suicide shouldn’t be an option,” Grimm said.

  Confused, Brain said, “Oh no, not to jump, I need to set up an antenna.”

  “Mmmmm,” Grimm said thoughtfully. “I guess the best way would be to go through the attic access in the room at the end of the hall. Directly above it is a hatch that leads to the roof. They used to keep it locked, but I busted it open so I could get up there to enjoy the view and watch for my children.”

  “Thanks,” Brain said.

  “Da nada,” she replied before picking up the remote.

  Brain considered backing away but didn’t want to be rude. He turned and walked self-consciously back into the hall. Waving for Connie to follow him, they made their way to the door at the end of the hall.

  When the mansion had been turned into an asylum, it had been remodeled into thirty, two person dorms. Every two rooms shared a bathroom, and there were ten upstairs and five down. With only five inmates left, the newcomers could almost each have their own if they wanted. They split up into twos, since no one wanted to be alone, leaving almost half the huge house still empty. Grimm had told them that her room and the raggedy twins’ rooms were easy to tell by the doors, but the fifth person moved from room to room and never slept in the same spot two nights in a row.

  Not knowing if anyone had picked this room, Brain rapped his knuckles against the heavy steel door made to look like wood.

  Hearing a muffled, “What?” Brain groaned. He knew this voice well.

  The door swung open and there was Sean. Standing in his boxers with his hands on his hips, he gave an exasperated groan and asked, “What now? Are you here to get me to move something again? Lift the piano so you can vacuum under it?”

  Bristling, Brain said, “I need to get on the roof so we can set up the radio and try to save your skank-ass, so get your pants on and get out of the way.”

  Sean started to say something, but the look on Brain’s face stopped him. Grumbling, he did as he was told.

  Despite the cold, dry weather they’d been experiencing, the attic area was hot when Brain opened the access. He was relieved when he managed to flip the three-foot square metal hatch back on its hinges and it banged against the roof. Ignoring the view, he went to work and had the antennae set up within a few minutes. He’d charged his cordless drill in an outlet in one of the minivans, and as he zipped the last screw in, was grateful he had it.

  Playing out the wire behind him, when he reached the hatch a wicked grin spread across his face. He dropped the cable down to Connie and saw her grab it and tug.

  “Is that it?” She asked as she looked to where its end barely reached the floor.

  “That’s it,” he answered as he put a small piece of wood under the hatch to keep it from pinching the wire. After closing it slowly, he climbed down onto the desk he’d used to boost him up.

  Sean came in, so Brain told him, “I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that the antenna is up, but the bad news is that you have to move.”

  Sean face grew bright red as he said loudly, “Move? Why do I have to move?”

  “The wire isn’t long enough, so we have to set up our radio room here,” Brain explained. “If you don’t mind a twenty-four seven roommate with a radio on all the time, I guess you’re welcome to stay.”

  “Get more wire,” Sean demanded.

  Brain shrugged and said, “Okay. Get dressed. You and I can grab a car and go back up to the highway and find some.”

  “That’s not my job,” Sean said as he stamped his foot on the tile floor childishly.

  “It is if you don’t want to move,” Brain told him.

  “Figure out some other way to do it then,” he demanded. “There’s got to be something you can come up with.”

  “Oh yeah,” Brain said sarcastically, “I’ll just Google it.”

  Grumbling again, Sean gathered his things and went in search of a new room.

  When he was gone, Brain told Connie, “Start getting everything together while I go grab a car battery. Use the desk to set everything up. I’ll see if I can find a ladder too.”

  When they were done, Brain realized that he needed to adjust the antennae. It was easier getting up to the roof with the ladder in place, so he made short work of it. As he was climbing back down through the hatch, he looked to the east as his mind wandered to what he and Connie would do after they finally got Cindy somewhere.

  With his head still
above the sill; a wide low cloud caught his attention. At first thinking it was a storm, he realized it was coming up off the ground. Climbing back up for a better look, he perched at the peak of the roof and shielded his eyes against the glare of the setting sun behind him.

  His mouth watered at the thought of fresh beef. He’d seen images on TV of huge herds of cattle and saw how they created such a dust storm. He remembered how their hooves would churn up huge clouds.

  Or feet, he thought with shock as he realized that all the cattle were gone.

  ***

  Tick-Tock entered the room that he and Denise shared and saw that she had pushed the two single beds together to make it a full size.

  That’ll work, he thought, unless we decide to do the wild thing in the center and fall through.

  She was sitting at a desk, and turned to smile at him as he entered, saying, “I checked everything out like you asked, and things look pretty good as far as supplies go. Grimm and Igor have been stripping everything they could find off the highway for a long time, so they’ve got more food than I think we could all eat in a month. Add our stuff to that with whatever else we can scavenge, and we should be good for awhile. I ran into the raggedy twins and they took me on a tour of the place. Between dancing and flopping around, they told me that all the appliances in the kitchen are electric so they eat one hot meal a day when they fire up the generator. I also found out that they draw their water from a well.”

  “With the electricity off,” Tick-Tock asked, “How do they run the pump?”

  “They cut the pipe and put one of those old hand pumps on it,” Denise explained. “The water was used for irrigation so it doesn’t taste that great, but it’ll keep us alive. What did you find?”

  “The storm panels are aluminum,” he told her. They’ll hold up to a small assault but not much more than that.”

  Pulling a chair up next to her, he unfolded a map and laid it out before saying, “Now we have to find a way around Jasper.”

  “We can’t stay here for just a little while?” She asked with disappointment.

  “We’re going rest up for a bit, but then we’ve got to move,” he told her.

  She was about to say something when the sounds of Connie calling for Tick-Tock and Steve interrupted her. The survivors had taken five rooms at the opposite end of the second floor from where Brain was setting up his radio room. Despite the length of the hall, due to the enormity of the house, they clearly heard the fear in her voice.

  Together they bolted up and ran into the hall as Connie was coming toward them. She waved for them to follow her before taking off at a dead run. Grimm poked her head out of the recreation room to see what was going on and watched as Tick-Tock and Denise raced by.

  Following them at a slow walk, she already had a good idea of what had caused all the commotion.

  They had spotted her children.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Russellville Arkansas:

  Lieutenant Randal told the soldier on duty that he needed some air as he left the farmhouse. He’d just finished a meeting with Doctor Hawkins, and beside the fact that he needed to tell Major Cage what was going on, the orders the doctor had given him made him feel ill enough to actually need the fresh air.

  He knew that Cage walked the perimeter every night at the same time, so he checked his watch to gauge where the Major might be. Cutting across the camp, he made his way between a wide array of tents and trailers while giving the motor pool a wide berth. Despite the fact that he was an officer, he wasn’t exempt from being shot by the sentries if they found him wandering through this area.

  As he stepped out from between two tents, he stopped. He could see the fence ahead of him and could just make out the Major’s shape walking with another person far down on his left. This would probably be Staff sergeant Fagan, the man Cage told him about who would be helping them. He didn’t want to call out and attract attention to himself, so he cut back through the camp to approach the two men from another angle.

  He turned abruptly and was about to move when the hair on the back of his neck rose up in warning, and a chill went through him at the sight of a shadowy figure ducking behind a storage locker.

  Am I being followed?

  When he saw more movement on one of the tracks that ran through the camp, his hand dropped to the pistol at his hip. Drawing a sharp breath and his weapon at the same time, he relaxed when he saw it was only two men pushing wheelbarrows. Randal looked around again but only saw the usual activity of a nighttime camp. He looked closer at the bin where he’d seen the movement and saw that it was used for cold storage, then realized he was behind one of the two mess halls in the compound.

  He told himself that it had probably just been a cook sneaking out for a smoke, so he holstered his pistol and started off. Despite his own reassurances, this time he stayed to the main roads that crisscrossed the compound.

  Randal came out onto the dirt track that ran around the inside perimeter of the fence and looked for Cage and Fagan. Seeing that he’d gotten ahead of them and they were still a few hundred feet away, he waited for them; he had a lot to tell Cage.

  The same chill he’d felt behind the mess tent suddenly struck him, so he spun abruptly on his heel as his hand dropped to his pistol. Scanning the darkened area, he saw the usual tents, mobile homes and storage bins.

  Shaking his head at his own paranoia, he turned back to find the two men approaching him.

  “Good evening, Lieutenant,” Cage said loudly in case anyone was in earshot.

  “Good evening, Major,” Randal answered.

  Motioning with his hand, Cage said, “Care to join us? We’re walking the perimeter.”

  “Yes, sir, I would, sir. Thank you.” Randal said loudly, and then in a quieter voice added, “I have a lot to tell you, Major.”

  In this area of the camp, the tents were only separated from the fence by the perimeter road, so the men walked in silence until they came to an area where they wouldn’t be overheard. Since they had stopped Hawkins from using the civilians at the chicken processing plant, they knew they had to be careful or they’d give themselves away. If caught, they understood they would all be sent to Dead Duty at best, or shot for treason at worst.

  Reaching the helicopter pad, Cage stopped, lit a hand rolled cigarette and asked, “So what’s going on up at the farmhouse, Lieutenant?”

  Randal took a deep breath, before replying, “A lot, sir. Hawkins threw a fit when he found out his test subjects were rescued by you before he could use them. He ordered us to immediately go out and find some more.”

  “And?” Cage asked.

  “I tried to keep my men in the areas we’d already searched, but this one, Sergeant Cain, that they sent me from Fort Hood, took off on his own when he was supposed to be reconnoitering the lake. He came across a group of about twenty to thirty people living in an abandoned school a few miles on the other side of town, sir.”

  “You’ve got some real eager beavers on your squad, don’t you Lieutenant?” Cage asked.

  Randal laughed and said, “Not really. We do what we’re supposed to, but no more. This guy is an ex-ranger who supposedly got hurt in the battle for Orleans. They sent him here to convalesce, sir.”

  “The Rangers aren’t in New Orleans,” Fagan told him.

  “Are you sure?” Randal asked.

  Fagan snorted and said, “I was just there, I’m sure, sir. They’re considered too valuable a resource to waste on that kind of duty.”

  The three men came to the same conclusion at the same time; Randal had a spy in his platoon.

  “Who do you think he’s working for?” Randal asked.

  “Could be anyone,” Cage answered. “But my guess is that whoever he reports to, reports to the Joint Chiefs. They’ve got a lot invested in this, so it would only make sense they have someone watching it.”

  Getting them back on track, Fagan said, “So you told us you found some more survivors, sir. When is Hawkins planning his nex
t test?”

  In two or three days,” Randal told them. “Before, he wanted to assess the Z’s capabilities in getting through the fence at the processing plant, but now he wants to see how an overwhelming number of them will fare against a brick structure. The school is a two-story and the first floor openings are reinforced. From the report Sergeant Cain brought back, he says that there’s not a lot of the dead around since it’s off the beaten path, but that’ll change as soon as they get the Malectron inside and turn it on. The school is about a mile from the I40 and there are always huge groups of Z’s wandering it. Add to what it’ll attract from the town and…” His voice trailed off.

  “What’s the range on that thing, sir,” Fagan asked.

  “That’s one of the things they need to test,” Fagan told him. “I’ve overheard some numbers getting thrown around, but best estimate puts it at eight miles.”

  “Eight miles in a straight line?” Cage asked.

  “No, sir,” Randal answered. “It will attract every Z in an eight mile radius.”

  Fagan gave a low whistle and said, “That’s a lot a lot of dead meat hitting one spot at the same time.” He looked at the fence a few yards away, and then added, “If we get hit like that, we’re through.”

  “But we’re protected by the first unit Hawkins made,” Randal told him. “It isn’t as effective as this one, but it’ll keep eighty percent or more of them away. The rest of them seem to know that they need large numbers to overwhelm us so they stay away.”

  Turning to Cage, Fagan asked, “So how do we do this, Major, go in and pick them up again before Hawkins gets to them?”

  Cage considered this a moment before saying, “We could, but then Hawkins will just find some other poor, dumb schmucks to run his test on. That we got to those people at the processing plant before he did could be written off as a coincidence, but if we do it again, he’ll know we have someone on the inside and I don’t want to put the Lieutenant in any danger. We need something to slow him down and buy Doctor Connors some time.”