by Poe, S. B.
Bones
in the
Road
Marionette Zombie Series
Book 5
SB Poe
Cover Image by K.Poe
Copyright © 2019 SB Poe
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978179071738
DEDICATION
To my wife
For my kids
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental
BOnes in the Road
1
These Times Ain’t the Same
3
2
Bloodstains and Daydreams
21
3
Collier Pt 1 The End
49
4
Collier Pt 2 The End Again
61
5
Seeds
77
6
Living Among the Dead
96
7
Ghost Stories
118
8
A Road of Bones
135
9
Rise, Lazarus
152
10
Miles from Nowhere
Afterwords
171
182
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For all of you who are on this journey with me.
Thank you.
1
These times
Ain’t the same
The wind blew against his upturned collar, dipped under the brim of his hat and landed cold on the back of his neck. The horse hesitated as it started across the shallow creek. He could have used the small bridge but the winter rains had washed a lot of debris over the top of it and the piles made the horse nervous. Hell they made him nervous too. More than once a dead hand had reached out from some dark place to grab at them. The dead could tolerate a lot of damage and still be dangerous. He reached down and patted the horse’s neck.
“Try not to get me wet and I’ll try not to think how good a horse burger would be right now.”
The horse waded in slowly. The water rose just over it’s knees in the middle of the creek but never any deeper. It high stepped across the last few feet splashing water on the rider.
“Yeah, keep pushing it.” He said as he wiped the water out of his eyes.
They wound their way through the brush beside the creek. The new leaves were still weeks away but some of the branches were starting to show a little life. The horse paused long enough to nibble at the soft tips. The rider gazed at the blackened spot on the sandy bank and could make out the now familiar shape of a burnt corpse among the charred remnants of wood. He had seen plenty in the last few months. He looked briefly at the remains. Just a scorched skull and a couple of blackened bones. Nothing else was left. Anything not burnt away had been picked over by the birds and the coyotes. He knew the coyotes were still around, he could hear them at night.
“Because it’s not nearly creepy enough.” He thought to himself as he pulled a drink from the flask in his pocket.
They climbed up the short bank and he steered the horse toward the road. He swayed in the saddle as they followed it deeper into the woods. His eyes drifted from side to side as he watched the trees go by. The winter had been colder than normal. And it seemed to be longer. He wasn’t sure about the last part because he wasn’t exactly sure when it was. The horse stopped and he snapped out of his daydream. He looked up. They had come to a wide spot in the road.
*
Josh ran the long hose down into the gas tank on the bus. He slid the shorter hose in beside it. After stuffing some rags around the filler neck to make it a little more airtight, he ran the other end of the long hose into the gas can on the ground and blew into the short hose a few times. The gas began to trickle down into the gas can.
“How much is left?” Jahda asked.
“The needle says a little under half a tank. The plate on the door says it’s got a two hundred gallon tank. So eighty gallons or so?” Bridger said from the drivers seat.
“And the others?” Josh asked.
“The SUV has a half. Your dad’s truck the same. The jeep and the other truck are almost full.” Evelyn said.
Bridger climbed down out of the bus and joined them. He knelt down next to the gas can, checking the level. The others stood and watched as the can slowly filled up.
“We’re almost finished working by the fence. Another few days and we’ll be down to barely using any. And that’s only when we charge the walkie’s.” Jahda said. “So, do you think we have enough?” She asked Bridger
“Well, I don’t know where we could get more if we didn’t but yeah, we have plenty.” Bridger said.
“I want to go with you.” Jahda blurted out.
“Why?” Bridger asked without looking up.
“I..I.. I don’t know. I just do.” Jahda said.
He stood and wiped his hands on his pants.
“Well let’s get this finished up and we can all go talk about it.”
Josh withdrew the hoses and put them in the stairwell of the bus. They all walked towards the saloon. Josh and Bridger kept walking when Evelyn and Jahda turned to go inside. They continued to the small building next to the Alamo and Bridger opened the door. The hum from the generator grew louder and the smell of exhaust hit them in the face. Bridger reached over and hit the kill switch.
Josh removed the cap from the generator and topped off the gas. He sat the can on the ground outside the door. Bridger grabbed the handle and gave a pull. The generator fired back up. They had started using it to charge the walkie’s scavenged by Jahda in South Springs. Ed had taken some of the off-road lights from the top of the mascot truck and mounted them on some homemade tripods to make spotlights at the gate. When the days grew short they used the lights as they cleared the last of the trees from around the perimeter of the fence. It had taken most of the winter but they were almost finished.
Bridger and Josh walked into the saloon’s back door just as Kate, Scott, Devin, Charlie and Jennifer came in the front from a day of cutting trees. Lori and Dottie were already working on supper of rice and beans with squirrel meat. The MRE’s were gone. Martin and Ham sat at the bar with a deck of cards.
“Evening.” Martin said to Bridger as the others sat down at the large table.
“Evening, and to you too Ham.” Bridger said as he sat down next to her. She raised her hand of cards to show Bridger. He pointed at the Jack. She smiled and lay the card down.
“That’s almost cheating.” Martin said.
“Not really, Bridger isn’t very good.” Evelyn said as she sat down next to him. Bridger smiled.
They all turned as the door swung open again. Raj and Tilly came inside.
“See, they’re all here again. Without you and me. I’m telling you they’re plotting against us. Probably turning cannibal and you and I are just too scrumptious.” She said as she removed her gloves and jacket.
“Nah, you’re probably too sour to eat Tilly.” Bridger said.
“Raj doesn’t think so.” Tilly deadpanned. Raj’s mouth opened and he looked more than slightly embarrassed. The room erupted in laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Ham asked. The laughter began again.
Martin stood and walked over to the wood-burning stove. He placed another log inside the belly. The coffee pot sat on the bar. Empty. The coffee ran out a few weeks back.
“Folks listen.” He
looked at Kate. “I think we should really…” The door swung open again and Ed hurried inside.
“Hey Red, you wanna come give me a hand with something?” Ed looked at Tilly. “We got a couple of gate crashers.” He turned and went back out the door.
Tilly stood and slung the shotgun over her back. Raj stood but she put her hand on his shoulder.
“I got it.” She said as she unconsciously touched the machete on her hip.
“I’ll help.” Bridger said as he stood.
“I thought we were going to talk about…” Jahda started, Bridger interrupted her.
“When I get back. Just be a minute.” He said as he followed Tilly and Ed out the door.
“Talk about what?” Jennifer asked when the door closed.
“The run. About who is going? Where we’re going? That kind of stuff.” Jahda said.
“Where do you think we should go Jahda?” Charlie asked.
“Not from around here. I don’t really know anywhere.” Jahda said.
“We could go back to South Springs. We barely touched that place.” Devin said.
“We touched it enough. The stadium?” Josh said.
“What about the refugee shelter?” Scott asked.
“The what?” Evelyn turned to him.
“Remember? Back in the beginning. They set up a refugee shelter by the interstate.” Scott said.
“Yeah, it wasn’t far from here. Probably fifteen miles or so. Maybe a little more.” Charlie said as he leaned forward in his chair.
“That was a long time ago guys.” Kate said. “A long time.”
“He’s pretty damn grabby ain’t he?” Bridger said.
The thing against the fence kept trying to force his hand through the chain-link and with each thrust a little more skin tore away from its fingers. Faint ribbons of flesh hung from the knuckles delicately coating the fence in rot with each grasp.
“It’s late in the day.” Tilly said.
“Huh?” Bridger replied.
“Yeah, the last week or so. After y’all finish for the day there have been a few show up. Just a few but all of them pretty frisky.”
“Do you think it’s the lights?” Bridger said as he glanced up.
“Maybe, but the lights have been up for a while.” Tilly said.
“Why now?” Bridger asked.
“Who knows?” Ed said as he stepped forward and drove the machete through its eye. Pop.
“So where are the other ones?” Bridger said.
Ed raised his machete and pointed. Bridger looked across in the fading light. The trees were mostly gone. A few large ones still stood but now they could see for almost a hundred yards beyond the fence in any direction. He could see smaller stumps sticking skyward like spikes mixed among the trees that lay where they fell. Three deaduns stumbled among the obstacles. Ed reached down and released the pin. He swung the gate open. They all walked out.
“Let’s draw them over to the road.” Tilly said.
She took her machete and knocked it against the gate. The deaduns jerked at the sound. She started walking down the road waving the machete in the air.
“Come on ladies. Over here.” She called as she walked.
Bridger and Ed followed her as she moved a little farther down the road. The spotlights cut sharp angles through the growing darkness. The deaduns were struggling to stay upright and one finally fell. The other two made it almost to the road. Tilly sidestepped the first one and drove her machete into the side of its head. Pop. The second one was still slightly off the road beyond Tilly. Bridger walked around her and brought the butt of his rifle up into the deaduns rotted lips, smashing its teeth to bits. The thing fell backwards and Bridger followed it down with the butt of his rifle hard against its forehead. He drove it down a second time. A third. The face disintegrated under the force. Pop. A single splash of rot whipped across Bridger’s cheek. He wiped it off with the back of his hand. Tilly looked at him and tilted her head.
“You ok dude?” She asked.
“It’s a healthy way to work out frustration, I think.” Bridger said.
“Completely healthy.” Tilly said as she tapped the toe of her boot against the open cranium. She leaned down for a closer look. The deaduns skin looked different. Thicker. Grayer. She touched it and it felt course like rough leather. The thing had a backpack on and she rolled it over. She reached down and cut the bottoms of the straps with her knife and lifted it free. The skin had grown into the material and some of it hung in tendrils from the pack.
“Aw that’s fucking gross.” She said.
The backpack yielded up two more knives, a box of ammo, but no gun, and three cans of dried beef. She turned and started walking back towards the gate.
“What about that one?” Ed said as he nodded towards the deadun struggling to get off the ground.
It had almost managed to push itself up but its arms were slightly shorter than the stump it was impaled on. It would raise itself almost clear and start forward only to be brought back down as the stump slowly ripped through its abdomen. Bridger stepped over to the struggling deadun. He grabbed the back of its shirt and lifted it clear. He stepped slightly to his left and threw the thing back down. Pop. The sharp end of the stump protruded from the head of the facedown deadun as gravity slowly brought it sliding toward the ground. They all walked back inside the gate.
“You really going out there? Out there, out there?” Tilly asked as she turned and looked back down the muddy track toward the darkened horizon.
“What choice do we have? We can survive on squirrel but if we are going to make this long-term we need other things too. Fencing, tools for…”
“Seeds to plant.” Ed interjected.
“Lots of things. And we need to figure out where to get them.”
“Hell I used to just run over to the co-op and pick up the stuff I needed.” Ed said.
“You farmed?” Tilly asked.
“Uh, not legally.” Ed said as he brought his thumb and forefinger together at his lips and drew a breath. “I had a little garden stashed away by the creek.”
“Of course you did.” Tilly said as she turned and started walking.
They came back through the door of the saloon and the first thing Bridger noticed was the heat. For the last few months walking through this door would have brought welcome warmth, tonight it felt a little stifling. His body hadn’t cooled as much when he was outside. The days were definitely getting warmer.
“Everything ok out there?” Martin asked.
“Just a few deaduns walking around. No problem.” Ed said as he sat down at the table.
“We were talking about where we were going on the run.” Jahda said.
“Yeah, we think the refugee center would be a good spot.” Scott said.
“Or South Springs.” Jennifer said.
Bridger leaned back against the bar and smiled.
“No.” He said almost laughingly as he looked at Scott. “We won’t be going to South Springs either. Too far.” He said to Jennifer. “And I haven’t decided who is going.”
“We can do that now.” Jahda said. “I volunteer.”
“Look I get it, you really want to go. I want you to go. So you’re in.” Bridger said. “I’d like for you to go too Devin.”
“Sure. Of course.” Devin said.
“Josh?” Bridger said as he turned.
“NO!” simultaneously said by Kate and Lori. They looked at each other and smiled.
“Why Josh?” Kate said.
“I’ll go.” Josh tried to interrupt.
“Yeah, why Josh?” Lori asked.
“Because he has been out there, he knows this area and he can help. You can help too Lori.” Bridger said. Her eyes widened briefly but she smiled. She looked at Kate and Kate nodded at her. Bridger turned.
“Ed?” He asked.
“Uh, why me?” Ed said through the mouthful of rice.
“Because it was your idea.” Bridger said.
“Huh?”
“The co-op. You’ve told me about your little town on more than one occasion. Doesn’t sound much bigger than a gnat’s ass but it has a Walmart and a co-op and that’s big enough. You said it was about twenty miles northwest right?” Ed nodded his head. “That’s where we’re going. Tree cutting is officially over. Tomorrow we’ll prep the vehicles, make out lists of things we need and get everything ready. The next morning Jahda, Devin, Josh, Ed, Lori and I will load up and head to Ed’s old stomping ground.”
“Where the hell is that?” Jahda asked.
“Collier.” Ed said as he choked down the last bite of beans.
2
Bloodstains and
Daydreams
The fire flickered in front of him as his shadow danced against the curved roof over his head. The horse stood opposite in the dark. Occasionally it would swing its head into the glow of the fire, appearing before him like an apparition. He sat there as the logs crackled, watching the random sparks rise in the heat until they winked out.
The ground was covered in mud from the slog of winter but here and there he could still see signs of what had been. A leg from a folding chair, burnt and misshapen. A pile of rotting blackened clothes sticking from under a piece of scorched yellow metal. The bus was in two big pieces and several smaller ones. Seats and overheard racking were twisted and scattered about. The engine and cab were mostly intact. The rear exit door, roof and walls of the last third of the bus had come to rest against a now abandoned car. He made his camp under here. The heat radiated back down off the roof and he slowly warmed.
The sound came a little closer and he marked the direction. He reached out with the stick in his hand and stirred the embers. The flames dipped and belched out a fresh shower of sparks. The horse’s eyes mirrored from the darkness and he heard it make a soft snort.