Dead Hunger | Book 10 | The Remnants

by Shelman, Eric A.

  “That’s just it, Aunt Gem. We don’t know very much at all,” said Isis. “We just know our eyes are red, our telepathy is stronger, and we’re being pulled to the south.”

  Hemp held out his hand. “Flex, radio please.”

  Flex pressed the button and said, “Charlie, come in.”

  Hemp nodded and leaned back. Flex could read Hemp like a book, just like always. A moment later, her voice came on.

  “Hey, sugar balls. Whatcha need?”

  Colton erupted into laughter as Gem leaned over and grabbed the radio from Flex’s hand. “Your husband and I want you to come over to our place. Now.”

  “Am I in trouble for calling your husband sugar balls?”

  Flex held out his hand and Gem gave him back the radio. He winked at Hemp and said, “Look, sugar tits, just get over here. Where are you right now?”

  “You guys are ultra-weird,” said Colton.

  Charlie responded, “I was getting my crossbow ready. I planned on going hunting with Trini and Max tomorrow.”

  “Maybe a change of plans,” said Flex. “We’ll wait for you. Hurry. And you still might need the crossbow.”

  “I like the sound of that. What’s going on?”

  “Just suffice it to say it might be starting again,” said Flex.

  Silence.

  “Charlie?”

  “I don’t think I like the sound of that. I’m on my way.”

  *****

  When Charlie rolled up on a hot pink golf cart she had claimed as her own, Isis and Max began talking, and they didn’t stop until they had shared everything they knew so far.

  “Like I said, the bubbles are barely coming out,” said Max. “They’re invisible unless your nose is touching the glass.”

  “But we don’t know how it began last time,” said Hemp, shaking his head. “It may have started the exact same way, at the same levels, increasing over time.”

  “Right,” said Flex. “But like Max said, it might’ve just been a small pocket of gas. Maybe not even enough to change anything.”

  “It changed something,” said Isis. “Us.”

  “Y’all said you never lost your telepathy entirely,” said Flex. “There’s a big difference between turnin’ your eyes red and raisin’ the dead. You’re sure your telepathy’s stronger?”

  “We do nothing but tie playing rock, paper and scissors.”

  Max looked at Isis and she nodded confirmation.

  “I’m okay with you going, the four of you. You’re all smart and careful, and you’ve kept up your weapons training,” said Hemp. “I’ll need to conduct some experiments. Capture some of the gas from the tube and see what kind of concentration we may be talking about.”

  “Got any rats, or you need me to put out some paddle traps?” asked Gem.

  “I’ll need plenty. Set up a couple of them, and do it once we’re done here, if you don’t mind.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  Isis and Max looked at Gem. “Aunt Gem, you –” began Isis.

  “Look, kiddo,” said Gem. “You think I’m going to be worth a goddamned thing while you’re all out there? I’ll be going crazy.”

  “Then I’m goin’ with, too,” said Flex.

  Everyone turned toward him, brows furrowed.

  “What?” he protested. “I gotta live with her, and she’s dead right. She’ll drive me nuts. She can break out her Uzi, I’ll grab the Daewoo. It’ll be like old times.”

  “Let’s pray it’s nowhere near that bad yet,” said Hemp. “I am hoping there will be nothing to shoot at.”

  Max cleared his throat. “Dave and Nelson were going to join us, too. And Trina and Taylor.”

  “If they’re all going, so am I,” said Colton. “Anyway, Isis is only a couple years older than me.”

  “That’s a technicality and you know it,” said Flex. “Absolutely not. Save it for another trip, but until we know what this means, our job is to protect you, not throw you to the wolves.”

  Gem stood up and glared at them, jerking her head between them. “I second that, Flex. Now, you were going to take Dave and Nel and Trini and Tay, but you weren’t going to take us?”

  “I don’t need to remind you it isn’t a trip to Disneyland, Gem,” said Charlie. “Right? You might have noticed I haven’t offered to go.”

  “This is bullshit!” said Colton.

  “In the house!” said Gem, pointing with a rigid finger.

  “Language boy,” said Flex, smiling. “Makes me proud.”

  Colton glared at Gem but seemed to think better about further protest. He got up and huffed, then stormed into the house. The door slammed behind him.

  Gem said, “Charlie, as for why you didn’t offer, you know you’re way more valuable in the lab with Hemp. That’s where you should be. You taught Trina everything you knew about firing a crossbow, so it’ll be just like you’re there.”

  “Without all the snappy humor,” said Charlie. “And this somewhat saggy, but still quite nice ass.”

  Gem dropped back into her chair. “It’s settled, then. Me, Flex, Trini and Isis in my Mercedes, and Max, Dave, Taylor, and Nel in Flex’s truck.”

  “Why can’t we take my truck?” asked Flex. “That’s bullshit. You know my truck is always the one we lose when the shit hits the fan.”

  “You’re going out there to keep the shit from hitting the fan,” said Hemp. “It’s a decent plan. You’ll work a grid, as you explained, Max. Cover more ground more quickly. You should all bring some provisions and a change of clothes in case this takes you farther than you expected, and you have to stay overnight somewhere.”

  Charlie pointed at the antenna that stretched toward the sky. “See that metal tower? That means I want to hear from you every hour on the hour. Location updates, everything. If you’re staying overnight and I don’t hear from you, there will be a search party.”

  “And if I know Charlie, it might be a party of one. Please listen to her,” pleaded Hemp.

  “He’s not bullshitting. Can we say a quick prayer?” asked Charlie.

  “That’s not a ton like you,” said Flex.

  “Maybe not, but it seems like the right thing to do,” said Charlie. “Just in case.”

  She held out both hands, and Hemp and Gem, on her left and right, took hers. They formed a circular chain.

  “God, let them be safe on this trip,” said Charlie. “Let this be a false alarm. If there is gas coming out of the ground, stop it, please. Let’s just live in peace. It’s been nice here in Lula.”

  She looked around.

  “We done?” asked Flex.

  Charlie nodded.

  “Amen,” said Flex.

  “Amen,” they all repeated. The plan was in place.

  *****

  CHAPTER THREE

  They thought of several other things they wanted to bring with them, and they did not get on the road until after 10:30 AM.

  They had to drop Colton off with Vikki Solms at Three Sisters Bar before meeting the rest of the group, which set them back a bit. The boy wasn’t happy about it, but he had wisely gotten over his initial anger about not being included.

  Isis was visibly upset at the delay in departing but did not say anything. Max knew how to be with her during those times, and his presence calmed her.

  Gem insisted on a window seat and kept her Uzi between her knees the entire ride. They rode in the Mercedes, and Flex took the wheel while Trina sat shotgun. Isis took the other rear window seat.

  It was June 25th, and the nights still got into the mid-sixties, but the days could be as hot as the upper eighties. This meant jackets and tank tops.

  “Looking for anything in particular?” asked Gem.

  Isis continued staring out the window for a few moments before answering. When she did, she startled, as though hearing Gem’s question on a time delay.

  “I’m sorry? Oh, yeah. Just fine tuning. I don’t feel the pull as well when I’m in a vehicle. It’s like my feet on the earth creat
e more of a connection somehow.”

  The grid they planned out involved several stops – every two miles. At that point, Isis would get out of the car and walk a short distance from the vehicle to see if the feeling got stronger in any single direction.

  This slowed things considerably, but it was also what Max was doing, so they would travel at the same basic pace as they motored south.

  Gem shook her head. “I’m hoping it goes away. I know somebody’s going to object if I insist on the 4th of July fireworks show we had planned.”

  “My father-in-law?” said Isis, with a smile.

  “Bingo,” said Gem. “If there are zombies out there, he’s going to be afraid it’ll draw them.”

  “We’ll get the lay of the land now,” said Isis.

  “Anything yet?”

  “No, but I still feel it.”

  “Let me know if I need to make any turns,” said Flex, from the front seat.

  Trina reached back and patted Isis’ knee. “We’re equipped to handle this, whatever it is. Don’t worry, Isis. And mom, don’t worry about Uncle Hemp. There shall be fireworks.”

  Isis closed her eyes and fell still and silent for at least two minutes. “Okay,” she said.

  “What?” asked Gem.

  “What?” asked Isis. “Did I say that out loud?”

  “Uh, yeah. Were you talking to Max?”

  She smiled. “I was. I like being able to do it like this again. Before it was there, but more the odd thought, and it was a real effort. Now it’s almost automatic again.”

  In the back of the car they carried several small, acrylic tubes. Each had a metal cap with holes drilled in them glued to one end. That was the top. They’d hammer them into the earth and fill them with water in random locations to check the gas flow.

  “We’ll be in Athens soon,” said Flex. “We know there’s people there. Wanna ask if they’ve seen anything?”

  Athens was roughly 41 miles to the southeast of Lula.

  “Like what? Zombies?” asked Gem. “They’ll take one look at me and this Uzi and just think I’m desperate.”

  “I’m ready to eat,” said Trina. “Tay and I took a run down here a few times. There’s a place called Sarah’s Sandwiches. They’ll trade stuff for lunch. They’re pretty fair.”

  “I’m in,” said Flex. “We got food, but I could use a sandwich.”

  *****

  They pulled into Athens, Georgia to myriad stares and waves from the dozens of strangers they passed. It was around 4:20 PM and gardens planted on the sides of the road were being tended, many of them kept under filtered tarps to keep the sun from burning the plants.

  Athens was once a city of well over 100,000 people, but had been devastated by massive hordes moving through, right around the time Flex and the others had abandoned Lula.

  From the time they crossed the city line they saw massive bone piles on both sides of the road, deteriorating clothing, shoes, clumps of hair mixed in. It had been carnage here, decimating the living.

  There was silence in the car as everyone took it in. They had all pitched in to clean up the town of Lula – which was much smaller – so they hadn’t had the reminders of the apocalypse for several months, other than the obvious.

  When they drove up to the building with a crude sign painted with the block letters, SARAH’S SANDWICHES, they parked the vehicles and got out.

  “Do they know what we’re stopping for?” asked Gem, directing her question at Isis.

  “If Max told them, yes.”

  They got out and left their guns in the car. “Lock it up,” said Flex. Everyone pushed down the lock knobs.

  No alarm on the old Mercedes.

  A man approached, wearing an Iron Maiden tee shirt and a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap. He wore a big smile on his face and did not have any weapons visible to the eye.

  “Welcome, welcome!” he said. “Where you come from?”

  “Lula,” said Flex.

  “Used to love that little town,” said the man. He held out his hand. “Randy. Randy Wood.”

  Flex stepped forward and shook his hand. “Just passin’ through,” said Flex. “Thought we’d stop in and have a legendary sandwich for supper. At least according to Trina and Taylor.”

  He introduced himself to all of them. He was about 5’-10” tall, thin – as were most people in the post-apocalypse – and he wore a smile like it was tailored just for him. His dusty red hair was just to his shoulders, and spilled out of his Dodgers cap.

  “They are legendary, and Sarah’s is open, but it’s been slow. Got plenty of chicken, some turkey, too. I hear she made some cheese. Got plenty of mayo and mustard packets, so whatever you want. What you got on trade?”

  “What are you needing?” asked Flex. “We really just brought provisions for ourselves, but if we’re gonna eat here we can probably spare some.”

  The most common trading items were ammunition, well-preserved spices, potable water, things like that.

  The latter was the perfect trading item, and they always brought several extra bottles of it when they went out on runs, and today was no exception.

  Hemp had constructed an enormous water purification system that self-fed via solar powered pumps, which pumped the water from the North Oconee River, which while narrow, still flowed year-round.

  The water was pumped through a single pipe into a series of elevated drums that were welded together and piped to become one reservoir. The capacity was only about 1,000 gallons – using twenty 55-gallon drums – but it was enough.

  The assembly of drums was mounted on a thick, plywood platform around twenty feet high, the entire thing constructed atop a hill. There were one-way valves that prevented the water from back-flowing or siphoning out if the pumps failed.

  This water was piped and pumped to Lula proper using 3” PVC pipes that took more than a month to piece together and direct into the town. The pumps operated on pressure switches – also solar-powered, using battery banks.

  This was for the main city water supply. Many homes had their own wells – like Flex and Gem’s – and their pumps also ran on banks of batteries powered by solar panels.

  As the man thought, Gem stepped forward and held out her hand. “I’m Gem Sheridan. We have the best water you’ll find. Our resident scientist built a purification system with charcoal, gravel, and ultraviolet light. You haven’t tasted water this good since 2009.”

  “How much you got?” asked Randy. “That’s always worth a trade.”

  “Twenty gallons?”

  “That’ll get y’all sandwiches and a beer.” He tipped his head toward Sarah’s. “Come on in.”

  They went inside, and everyone settled in at a chair. A silent ceiling fan spun inside, and they all just stared up at it.

  Finally, Taylor said, “How is that fan turning? You have power?”

  There were skylights, but no electric lights. A smiling woman, blonde and pretty, with a blue bandana wrapped around her hair, walked out. She pointed up. “See that belt?”

  “Yeah,” said Tay. Everyone’s eyes were cast upward.

  “It runs through that hole in the wall, and outside, there’s another fan, only it’s out in the wind. It’s that kind with big fat blades, so if there’s even a slight wind, it turns, the belt turns this fan, and we have our own makeshift cooling system.”

  “You could use that same technology to charge battery banks,” said Isis. “Run other things.”

  “And we do that, too,” said the woman. “That’s why your beers will be nice and cold. Anyway, I’m Sarah,” she said, holding out her hand. “My husband, Andrew, takes the later shift. He likes to make sure I’m home before dark, and he knows I tend to futz with things that make me late.”

  She made her way around and they all shook her hand and introduced themselves.

  Sarah was a tall young woman, probably 6’-1”. She had light brown hair parted in the middle, and brown eyes. She had a casual way of talking, like an old friend, rather t
han a stranger. There wasn’t a stitch of suspicion or mistrust in her voice or her eyes.

  “You remind me of my mom,” said Nelson. “Before she became a drug addict. Or … maybe in the early days of it. She was an addict for as long as I remember.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “You look like you turned out alright.”

  “How many people you got in town?”

  Sarah turned, looking suspicious. Flex guessed he knew why. He spoke up. “We’re happily domiciled up in Lula – we’re good neighbors, not out to take what’s yours.”

  She looked at all of them and nodded. “I got that feeling, but we’ve been fooled before. This city that was well over 100,000 people in 2009 has been reduced to around 75 people now, though some have left. No idea why. I’d say the majority of those who disappeared during the first outbreak, including a lot of my own family, were infected and joined the hordes tearing through the countryside.”

  “I know that devastation to your soul never goes away,” said Nelson, softly. “You said you have to be home before dark. Why?”

  “So, what kind of sandwiches would you like?” asked Sarah, ignoring the question.

  It was the first chink in her armor. Isis detected the tensing of her muscles.

  “We have chicken and turkey. Both fresh, obviously. I made a batch of sourdough bread, too.”

  The growling stomachs were audible throughout the room.

  “Either one for me,” said Max. “Now I’m starving.”

  Dave said, “You have a selection of beer? Or just one?”

  “We have our own brewery, so it’s just one kind. Very nice. A blonde ale. We find it’s a good fit for most beer drinkers.”

  *****

  In the laboratory, Hemp opened up the small freezer to retrieve some of the urushiol oil he had stored. It didn’t require refrigeration, but he did not have many things in the lab that he needed to keep cool, so it went in with the few other items.

  The lab was set up the same as the old lab trailer they had gotten from the CDC so many years ago. The only thing they no longer had was a containment area for the zombies.