*****
Cinching the sheeting together where I ran out of length, I struggled to drag the bundle containing my sister toward the house. An old garden hose lay coiled there, and I picked it up to test it for usefulness. The rubber was still soft enough to use for my purposes, so I cut an 8’ length of it and split it lengthwise with my pocketknife. Now I had two pieces pliable enough to tie like a rope. I sat on the roll with Jamie’s body inside it, and tied one length tightly around the end where her head was, and repeated the procedure where her feet were.
I took note that she was quiet now. But I felt her shifting within, so could tell she was still alive – if that was even a word I could use to describe her anymore. At the time, I really didn’t know.
As I did this, I kept my eye on the pool and on the yard beyond where I sat working, because if there had been one curious zombie-neighbor, there could be more. And I wasn’t comfortable anymore with just the .38 and three more rounds of ammo. I needed way more firepower if this was as widespread as I had begun to fear.
Trina was on my mind. She was locked in the truck, and should be safe if she just stayed put, but she was six years old and not extremely logical. I felt a sudden sense of dread and urgency even greater than what had seemed to become the new normal.
I stood and looked down at the roll containing Jamie. Slight movement. No insane struggling, no screaming. Stillness. Silence. I could take a moment and go check on Trina.
My gun was in my hand as I opened the screen door and walked around the corner to the side yard. The rear of the Suburban was visible, and looked okay. I broke into a slight jog and seconds later I was at the truck. I knocked softly on the window so as not to frighten Trina. A second later I saw her little face appear before mine behind the glass. She waved her little hand back and forth, her mouth unsmiling. I pointed at the lock, and she pulled it up.
I opened the door. “Hey, baby. Good girl.”
“Did you find Jesse and mommy?” she asked.
I didn’t want to have this conversation, so I lied to her, the way adults are supposed to lie to kids when what they’ve got to tell them would shatter their worlds.
“No, baby. I think maybe your mommy felt better and they went and hid. I’m hoping they took your daddy’s car and drove to Jacksonville.” This was a lot of bullshit that she’d likely have trouble sorting through. I was just talking off the top of my head so had no idea what I’d said the moment it was out of my mouth. I hoped she wouldn’t ask any questions and test my powers of recall, and I got lucky.
She nodded. “I hope she’s better. Maybe she was pretending, like at Halloween.”
“I think you’re right, honey. Just play-scary, like Halloween. Now I have something to do that’s going to take me about an hour. But first I’ve got to hook your daddy’s trailer up my car so we can bring some stuff with us. I want you to stay right here, just like you were, and if you feel the car bouncing and stuff, it’s just me. Get back on the floor and see if you can go to sleep for awhile, okay?”
She nodded. I looked at her for a moment. “Baby, wait right here, okay? Just a sec.”
She nodded. I locked and closed the door again, and ran back inside the house. I ran right by the scene in the entry and to the girls’ bedroom. I grabbed the two twin sized Disney Princess comforters from the beds and ran back to the truck. I unlocked it with my key and pulled the door open. Her head popped up.
“Here, Trinie,” I said, using my pet name for her. “I know it’s warm out, but I want you out of sight. Cover yourself with this and stay on the floor, okay?”
She nodded, her blonde hair bouncing with her cute little head. “Okay, Uncle Flexy.” That was her pet name for me.
“On the floor,” I said. I pushed the lock knob down again and closed the door tight.
The trailer was parked up against the side of the house. I didn’t want to start the truck’s engine because of the noise, so I lifted the tongue of the trailer and walked backward, rolling it over the uneven ground toward my Suburban. I passed the truck and spun the trailer slowly around, then dropped it down onto the tow ball, snapping the latch into place. I plugged in the electrical connector just to be safe. Hauling what I planned to haul, it wouldn’t be smart to get pulled over, though I kind of doubted that dead running lights were something the police would be concerned with right now. They’d be more likely to take you for a criminal if you were hunched over somebody sawing the top of their skull off with a steak knife.
That job complete, I had three more tasks left before I could get my ass on the road. I was exhausted, but the adrenaline was still coursing through my veins, and sleep was the last thing on my mind.
My next task was to bury Jesse. That sweet little girl who loved to play checkers with me. The one who really taught me the rules of hopscotch, and who could beat me at both even when I wasn’t letting her.
But first I needed to get Jamie secured in the back of the equipment hauler. I went back inside the screened pool enclosure and lifted one end of the cylindrical shaped sarcophagus I created for Jamie, then dragged it behind me as I walked backward toward the Suburban. The plastic slid fairly easily over the ground, and I got her to the trailer in just over a minute. I lowered the rear hatch, which converted into a ramp, and dragged her up onto it. There were two coils of nylon rope in on the trailer, so I tied one length around the center of the bundle in case the hose slipped or loosened. No loud noises from Jamie so far, but I could still feel slight movement, so I knew she was alive – or at least not completely dead. Afterward, I lashed the bundle containing my former sister to the passenger-side railing of the open trailer using the steel tie-down rings.
She would not be going anywhere. I didn’t know what to do with her. This wouldn’t do for very long, but I didn’t have any choice, and this was all I could do right now.
Before I could lay Jesse to rest, I had to retrieve her from the bottom of the pool, but it would not do to have her body lying exposed in case it drew more of them. I would be better off digging her grave and getting her afterward.
I walked around to the side of the pool enclosure to the small shed. It wasn’t locked, and inside was everything I’d need. There was a tarp, but I didn’t want to wrap her body in that. I grabbed a spade shovel and took note of the empty space that I believed once accommodated the small axe that was now inside the house – or more specifically, embedded in Jack’s flesh.
I walked back out and tested the earth in several spots. It had rained earlier, so the ground was moist, to my relief. I started digging the grave for my darling Jesse directly behind the shed. The rear fence blocked sight of me from anybody who might still be alive, or anyone who might want to come at me for whatever reason – I still wasn’t completely sure, at least at that point, what was happening. I would love to be as blind to the new dangers of the world as I was at that particular moment in time, but I’m no fool. The saying used to go ‘what you don’t know can’t hurt you,’ but it’s changed in this world. Now it’s ‘what you don’t know can eat you.’
From my vantage point, I could look around the corner and see the cab of my truck, so that made me feel better about leaving Jamie so close to Trina.
The grave was not too big. Just about four and a half feet long by two feet wide. I wanted to make it about another foot deep, but I didn’t have the time or, as it turned out, the energy. The adrenaline had started to dissipate, after all. Using the shovel as a support, I propped it outside the hole and leaned on it as I stepped up and out.
“Flex?”
The unexpected voice made me draw back, and I almost fell back into the small grave.
She stood barely five feet in front of me. It was Gem.
“Jesus Christ, Flex! It is you!” She ran to me and I threw the shovel down and took her into my arms. I wrapped them around her and squeezed her so tight to me that I almost couldn’t breathe. We didn’t
say a word for the longest time, and when she pulled away from me, I looked into her face, her eyes.
She kissed me gently on the mouth, then pulled back, her eyes meeting mine, a question in them.
I broke the silence, but there was nothing awkward about it. “Gem, I’ve been thinking about you. And here you are. God I missed you.”
“Me, too,” she said. Then: “Flex, I’m scared. Uncle Rogelio is . . . one of them, and there were so many of them in Miami that I had to get out of there. He killed my Aunt Ana, Flex! I can’t tell you how. . . You do know what’s happening to people, right?” She searched my eyes, waiting for my answer.
I nodded. “Gem, I know. This is the only firsthand experience I’ve had so far. It’s fucking bad here.”
Gem shook her head. “I know, Flex. You were on my mind for weeks before this all happened, but once I realized something bizarre was going on, I knew I had to find you.”
“Gem, I’m glad you’re here, and there’s a lot I need to tell you – none of it good. Jamie’s one of them. She killed Jack, near as I can tell, and Jesse . . . well, Jess is dead. She drowned in the pool trying to escape her mom.”
Gem’s face fell, and tears immediately formed in her eyes. “Oh, Flex. Oh, my God. Not little Jess.” Her expression became more distressed. “Where’s Trina? Is she okay?”
I nodded and pulled her against me again. She put her head on my chest and I breathed her in. “Trina’s in my truck, locked in, lying on the floor. She’s a good little hider, and she’s been really good, listening to what I’ve told her to do.”
Gem held onto me for another long moment, then pulled back. “So this . . . grave. It’s for Jess?”
I nodded. “She’s still in the pool. I didn’t want to get her until . . . you know.” I looked at the grave. “I think it’s good enough now.”
“Give me your keys,” she said. “I need to go to Trina.”
I fished them out of my pocket and handed them to her. “I’m glad you’re here, Gem. You are the one person I needed to see now. I think the only person.”
She shrugged. “It was the same with me. Go get her, and I’ll sit with Trina for a bit. But don’t finish this without me. I want to see her.”
I nodded and headed toward the pool, turning back to watch her walk to the Suburban. The one that got away was back. I must not have done everything wrong.
I reached the edge of the pool again and scanned the water. The zombie I’d killed was caught in the side ladder. He’d floated into it and his arm was caught, so he was not sinking down to where Jesse’s body lay. I entered at the steps and just walked in. When I was chest deep, I dove down and found her again.
Dead Hunger: The Flex Sheridan Chronicle Page 6