The Undead World (Book 2): The Apocalypse Survivors

by Meredith, Peter

  You scared her, duh, Ipes said. Sure is funny looking, though.

  "I guess I did. Hey, Sadie it's just me, Jillybean. I'm not a real zombie if that's what's got you all ascared about. It's just Halloween make-up, see?" The little girl pulled back on the shredded up Eagles shirt to show her normal pale skin beneath.

  "What?" Sadie asked, bewildered. "But how?" She peered over the top of the dash back the way they had come. "Where are all the rest of them? Weren't there were lots of zombies in that pipe?"

  "Oh them," Jillybean said with disgust. "They're all stuck behind this grate a few feet back. They were good for camel-flog, but..."

  Camouflage, Ipes corrected.

  "Right, camouflage," Jillybean said. "But they sure were annoying. So did Mister Ram rescue you? He was gonna get you and Mister Neil and Miss Sarah and the baby. Do you think he'll be back soon? Some people came and robbed us. That's why I had to hide in that pipe and it's been real, real boring. Hey, what's wrong with your eyes? Huh, Sadie? Why are you crying?"

  "Ram is dead," Sadie said, running tears down her already wet face. "They made him into a zom...zombie."

  Jillybean sat back stunned for a moment, but then she burst out in peals of laughter. "No, they didn't. He was just wearing a costume like from Halloween. See? Look at mine. It fools the monsters. Once for Halloween I was a fairy. The dress was pink and silver, but the wings were..."

  Unexpectedly and with the speed of a striking snake, Sadie grabbed Jillybean and crushed her in a hug. Sadie dribbled tears and rocked back and forth in misery.

  Confused, Jillybean went on, "...The wings had gold on them all along the edge. And you know what? The costume came with a wand! My daddy said the Chinese didn't know the difference between a fairy and a fairy godmother. Which is real funny. Is that a real thing? A fairy godmother? Ipes says it is, but I think he's trying to be a jokester."

  Sadie went on crying, with a slight hitch in her chest.

  Eventually Ipes rolled his eyes and said, There are godmothers, but no fairy godmothers. He then followed up his argument, asking, Does she smell weird to you? She smells like the river. I don't think that's the cleanest water. Remind me not to go swimming in there.

  "Stop being bad," Jillybean scolded the zebra, despite secretly agreeing with him. As a consequence of possessing an ill-mannered tongue, Ipes was set on the far end of the truck's dashboard.

  "Look Jillybean," Sadie said with a husky throat. “Ram is really dead. I watched him get bit by a zombie, and...and...and I saw him t-turn into one."

  "For reals?" Jillybean asked. She felt strange all of a sudden—her body went completely numb all except her ears. These tingled and rushed with the sound of TV static.

  Sadie nodded with blank eyes. They were dark and black, save where points of light, like sharp needles seemed to shoot out. "For reals. And yes, there are godmothers. They raise a baby just in case something happens to a parent. I can be your godmother if you want me to."

  The static grew, making Jillybean's head feel filled with it, like a scarecrow with its hay. "But what about Mister Neil and Miss..."

  Jillybean watched as Sadie suddenly burst out in fresh tears. Her head rocked back and then out of the blue she slapped herself, leaving a four-fingered mark on her cheek.

  "You ok?" Jillybean asked.

  "They're gone too!" Sadie shrieked. "Damn it! Damn it! Fuck!" As soon as she cursed Sadie's black eyes flew open and she stared at Jillybean, realizing it was a mistake.

  "Those are bad words," Jillybean said, blinking. Her monster makeup was streaked with tears that she didn't feel. Just at that moment she couldn't understand what Sadie meant by gone or really what she meant by Ram being dead. These were abstract words to Jillybean. Their meaning kept changing in her mind as what ifs sprang up: what if she was wrong? What if she didn't see it correctly? What if Ram was faking? What if Ram could get better?

  These answers fell into the category of what she didn’t know. What she did know as fact was what her father taught her. She knew rules. Rules were black and white, and concrete in their meaning. And one of the rules was that people weren't supposed to say bad words!

  "You're right," Sadie said, making a sound that was a combination of cry and laugh. "Neil would say the same thing."

  "Cept he's a monster, right?" Jillybean asked trying to grasp more concrete ideas. "And monsters can't talk."

  Sadie blew out a long breath through puffed cheeks and then told Jillybean everything that had happened, which only led to more uncertainty.

  "You're too ascared to go save Mister Neil?" Jillybean asked.

  There were parts of Sadie's story that were very heartbreakingly sad and others that made her little teeth clench together as though they had been welded shut, and others that were confusing, especially this one point. If Neil was alive, but chained to the open deck of a boat and a simple tool would free him, why didn't she want to go?

  "Do you think it's too dangerous? I told Mister Ram that everything is too dangerous now, even just living, and he believed me."

  The older girl wiped her eyes, saying, "And look what happened to him. What good did it do?"

  "He saved you. That was good," Jillybean said. "I think so and so does Ipes, though he thinks you smell too much like that green river."

  "It doesn't matter anyway. We can’t save him because we’d never get on the boat," Sadie said after making a noise like she was flicking dirt from the tip of her tongue. "Ram couldn't. They're watching every way on board."

  Jillybean's lips pursed as she recalled the short pier and the boats tied alongside of it—she saw all of it in her mind as though she was there looking down on the scene. On the right side of the pier was a white boat. It was brightly lit; tall and long. On the other side were two orange boats—ferries the word popped into her mind—tied side by side. The two ferries had platforms running from the dock to the lower decks allowing people and vehicles to get on board. She also saw the highway and the fences and the zombies and the little guard house and the men on guard. And she saw a way past all that.

  Stop, Ipes ordered. We aren't going to try to save Mister Neil. Not after what happened to Ram. It's too dangerous. He...

  Like shutting a door, the little girl closed her mind to the zebra. One second he was there, pointing out how dangerous going on to the boats would be, and using Ram's death as an example, and the next second he was simply a toy sitting on the dash. She decided she wouldn't think about danger. Danger was what happened to other people. And she wouldn't think about Ram either. Thinking about Ram hurt far too much--it was like a knife in her heart, a fist in her gut, a hand crushing her throat. It was like all the pain in the world being crammed into her soul...

  She would think about something else.

  "They're not watching every way," Jillybean said. No they weren't, and why would they? Ram was dead, Neil and Sarah were captured and Sadie had been forced to flee. Why would they keep too tight a lookout? "We can get on the boats, but first we need to change your look. You'll need to do something with your hair if you're going to pass. And, of course, you’ll need a dress. Maybe a pink one."

  No, not a dress, Ipes said, suddenly there again in her mind, cutting in on Jillybean's vision of Sadie in her full potential. If we're going to do this we're going to do this right. No one wears dresses anymore, not even Miss Sarah. Besides we have to deal with getting her past the monsters first. Her hair is perfect for pretending to be a monster already so at least you don't have to change that.

  "Ipes, hush!" Jillybean gave Sadie an embarrassed smile. "He has some silly ideas. Now let's get you costumed to look like a proper monster."

  "Are we really doing this?" Sadie asked. When Jillybean nodded the older girl added, "Neil is going to be pissed."

  Giving Sadie the look of a monster took almost no time. Jillybean shredded her clothes with her little pocket knife and applied the makeup as though she was wielding a trowel. It took minutes only. Teaching her how to act like a monster wa
s another matter. For so long, Sadie had used a hyper-aware state to stay alive: she had the quick, nervous eyes of a mongoose on the hunt, while at the same time her head swung about as though on a swivel.

  "Try half-closing your eyes," Jillybean suggested. "And maybe stare at the ground for the most part. Watch me do it." Jillybean did her best monster impression.

  "But how do you see them coming?" Sadie asked. “With your hair all down like that you won't see them coming."

  "It doesn't matter if you see them coming. You're not aposed to. You just go along and pretend you’re a monster. Come on, I’ll show you with real monsters.”

  Jillybean took Sadie’s reluctant hand and began to walk back to the FDR highway, looking for zombies, but strangely, in a city full of them, there weren’t any around. They crossed the highway, simply stepping over the fencing that Ram had destroyed the day before, and on the other side slipped through a gap where a zip-tie had let go.

  They proceeded south on a course parallel to the FDR, heading toward the pier and the colony of boats. They didn’t need signs or directions; sound drew them on. The roar of heavy machinery carried in the still night air and like an infernal summons it attracted every zombie within blocks. Finally they saw some late comers staggering on.

  “I’ll go first,” Jillybean said. They were ducked down behind a car, watching the stragglers slowly moving south. “Just do what I do.” She took a second to adjust her pack beneath the flayed sweatshirt and muss her hair even more before stepping out in a slow gimping manner. To show Sadie that there wasn’t anything to worry about, Jillybean went straight for a lone zombie and passed within inches of it before heading back to the car.

  “That’s so crazy,” Sadie said, somewhat in awe. “It didn’t even give you a second look.”

  “Yeah, just be one of them and you’ll be fine. Now it’s your turn.”

  Sadie did her best. When it wasn’t good enough and a zombie would come close, drawn by some peculiarity, Jillybean would let out a human word, or throw a magic marble, or otherwise draw attention away from the older girl.

  As they drew closer to the pier, Sadie’s acting became more stiff and human-like, however the zombies were very much focused on what was happening in the lot that had been erected near the pier and didn’t notice. A pair of forklifts, piled high with crates that were filled with guns, ammo, fuel, and food, buzzed back and forth among hundreds of trucks and SUVs parked in the receiving area.

  There were people there as well; men in the black uniforms were sifting through the goods that people were putting up in exchange for the vaccine.

  “How are we going to get in there?” Sadie asked in a breathy whisper. “And how on earth do you think we’ll get by all those people?”

  Jillybean went stiff that Sadie would dare to break character, surrounded as they were. “Shhhuuuushh,” she moaned loudly. She then grabbed Sadie’s hand and pushed through the crowd of undead. The closeness of the creatures, the touch of their slimy skin, the fetid and dank odor drifting out of their open mouths was mind numbing in its horror, yet Jillybean persevered with a not-altogether single minded determination. Ipes was there in her mind as well, urging her on in a voice that reminded her of Ram’s:

  Hurry Jillybean. Cassie will be at the front of the line to get her vaccines. Time is short if we have any chance at saving Neil.

  In truth she didn’t need to be reminded. Inside of her heart was a fear countdown that was rushing to conclusion. It forced her on faster than she thought prudent. Still she arrived unmolested at her destination: a corner of the fence where vehicles were lined up close, conveniently blocking them from view of the workers.

  “How…” Sadie began, again in a whisper.

  Jillybean waved her arm in the older girl’s face to shut her up and Sadie responded by gesturing at the barbed wire that ran along the top of the fence. Her question was obvious: how do we get past the fence?

  “Fooolloooow meeee,” Jillybean intoned and then squirmed between the dead where they bowed out the fence. Suddenly she dropped to her knees, crawled forward at a fast clip until she was at the very edge of the fence, and then rolled under it. When the press of zombies bowed it out, they created a slim gap at the bottom.

  Sadie followed right behind and came up smiling. “That was cool,” she said in her normal voice. There was no sense being quiet now, the zombies were making a hell of a racket. “So what’s next?”

  “We change back into people,” Jillybean replied, scanning the vehicles. “There it is, Mister Neil’s rover-thingy.” Keeping low, they scampered to the Rover and found it had been pawed through and everything of any real value had been taken already. Still there were baby-wipes left to clean the makeup off their faces, and brushes to run through their hair, and clothes of Sarah’s for Sadie to change into so that she looked very pretty in Jillybean’s eyes.

  Jillybean didn’t have extra clothes to change into except her white dress. Against Ipes strong opposition she happily put it on.

  “You’re not going to stand out at all,” Sadie said sarcastically.

  “No one is looking for me,” Jillybean replied. Ipes was quick to point out that Abraham of the doomsday cult would probably snatch her up if he got the chance to. She chose to ignore the zebra just then, rationalizing: “Besides I don’t have anything else to wear.”

  “I guess not,” Sadie said as she watched the people work. They were very methodical, sorting, cataloging, and storing what goods they wanted from each vehicle. They buzzed quickly through each in a matter of minutes. They were far out-pacing the forklifts which had a line of thirty crates waiting to be picked up and moved.

  The six-year-old watched as well. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked.

  “Probably not,” Sadie said with a laugh. “What I’m thinking is that we’re going to get caught right off the bat if we try to get down that ramp. I guess we could say we left something in our truck?”

  “What?” Jillybean asked incredulously. “No, that won’t work. Even in Miss Sarah’s clothes you still look like you, which means we can’t have anyone see you up close. I say we use those wood boxes. We can climb in and get a ride onto the ferry. Should be no problem at all.”

  Sadie looked unconvinced. “What happens if they pop open the crate the second we get on the boat?”

  “We say we were playing a game,” Jillybean suggested. “You know, like hide-and-go-seek. They might yell at us but that's about it.”

  “Seems like a plan,” Sadie said with her half shrug. “Let’s do it.”

  Gaining access to the crates was a simple task as it was only a matter of timing. They waited for the forklifts to bear away their burdens and then they just climbed into the next crate in line. The crate smelled of fuel and oiled metal which made sense since they were sitting next to a little gas-powered generator, while all around their feet were bullets of all calibers crammed into ammo-crates, as well there was a wicker bushel basket filled with roundish objects that caught Sadie’s attention.

  “Put these in your backpack,” she said dropping three of the items in among Jillybean’s candles and string and other oddities.

  “What are they?”

  “Hand grenades. They’re like little bombs, so don’t even think about using them,” Sadie said with a stern, motherly glare. She hooked two of the bombs to her jeans under her white buttoned up shirt.

  Jillybean wouldn’t dare use them. She was afraid to even move with them in her pack and when the crate was lifted and jostled by the forklift she had to hold her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out.

  After a short ride, the crate was set down in a dark, noisy area. Sadie peeked out and then swore under her breath.

  “We’re on the wrong boat,” she said, opening the top of the crate and lifting Jillybean out. “We wanted the one on the outside of the two. That’s where Neil is.”

  Their crate, along with dozens and dozens more, was in an open area of the lower deck. Men and women w
orked there: some hefting supplies to other parts of the boat, some directing the forklifts, and others installing a string of light bulbs to illuminate the dim proceedings. For now the dark hid the two girls, but, as an extra precaution, they snuck around to the back of the crates and crouched.

  Sadie poked her head up again to find a way out. “I think we can make a run for it after the next forklift comes in.”

  With her pack filled with bombs, Jillybean didn’t want to run anywhere. “How about instead we try to see where those stairs lead,” she said, pointing at a set of stairs that sat in the middle of the vehicle deck. It brought them dangerously close to where the men were working on the lights, however their focus was on the ceiling.

  The older girl nodded and then took Jillybean’s little hand in her soft, cool one and led her to the stairs making sure to keep low and quiet. Sadie started up, but Jillybean didn’t follow. She was looking down.

  “Those won’t go anywhere,” Sadie said to her. “That’s the engine room I bet. We don’t want that…Jillybean? Hey, we can’t just stand here, they’re gonna see us.”

  Jillybean wasn’t just standing there. She was thinking.

  On the next ship, where Neil was, there were guards—according to Sadie probably three or four; too many for Sadie to fight, which meant that in order to free Neil they would need a distraction. A big one.

  A fire is big, Ipes suggested.

  In her mind’s eye she pictured where the stairs down would lead: a room, long and low, but very well lit. Machinery with pipes and knobs and blinking consoles would run from one wall to the other. These were the engines. Engines ran on fuel, and fuel burned.

  “And you want to start a fire?” She could envision the boat engulfed in flames…and people running and screaming. People were going to get hurt.

  Ipes was unfazed. Ram got killed and they did nothing. They aren’t nice people and besides it’ll be a slow fire with lots of smoke. At least it will start that way. We just need a couple of those gas cans to get it going.

  Sadie was tugging on her shirt and saying something, but Jillybean ignored her, turning to see a line of jerry cans just feet away on one of the crates.