Amongst the Dead (25 page)

Another zombie came out of the woods, but Riley quickly put it down.
 

“Riley,” Joanne called. “Get in.”
 

The girl took a quick glance toward the woods before returning to the vehicle. More zombies, three in number, were ambling out of the woods.
 

“Think we waited long enough?” Joanne asked, but Riley knew it wasn’t a question. She answered anyway.
 

“There’s no way around,” Riley said. “Looks like we go through.”
 

“Put your seat belts on, the both of you,” Joanne ordered.
 

The car’s engine began to rev as Joanne pressed the gas pedal. Riley fastened her belt and heard Eric do the same. Joanne’s was already on.
 

The car lurched forward, the Malibu’s pickup still strong. Riley felt herself pushed back into the seat. She eyed the speedometer as the needle moved. The car reached fifty miles per hour when they went through the tollbooth lane. A second later they were through, unscathed. She had been holding her breath, finally able to let it out, when a loud bang rang out. The car swerved and Riley saw Joanne fighting to keep control. The woman was able to steer the car to the side of the road and stop.
 

“What happened?” Eric asked, panic in his voice.
 

“Flat tire,” Joanne said. She kept the car running.
 

“From?” Riley questioned, afraid to ask.
 

“Didn’t hear anything beforehand like a gunshot,” Joanne answered, “so unless we were hit by an arrow I’m assuming we ran over something.”
 

“More zombies coming from the woods,” Eric said.
 

“Crap,” Joanne answered. She undid her seat belt and got out of the car. Riley watched her walk around to the front. “Tire’s shredded. We must’ve hit a piece of sharp metal or something.” She looked toward the woods. “Riley, Eric, get out here and start picking these things off while I change the tire.”
 

Riley looked back. At least ten zombies were coming up the road from behind. Her shots must’ve alerted them. The city was on the other side of the forest. An almost unlimited number could be coming.
 

Joanne ran to the trunk and began unpacking the supplies so she could get to the spare. Riley and Eric took up position with rifles and began putting down any zombies that came their way. Eric turned out to be a decent shot, but not nearly as accurate from a distance as Riley.
 

They’d taken out close to twenty undead, but more were coming. Riley couldn’t believe how a deserted area, so quiet and still one minute, had become overrun with undead, the air filled with their moaning cries. The scene reminded her of when she was out on the road in the rain. The horrible memory returned like a nightmare, causing her to shudder.
 

“Joanne,” Riley yelled. “How’s it going?”
 

“One of the damn lugs is stuck,” she hollered back.
 

“There’s too many of them, Joanne. We’ll be overrun soon.” The zombies were pouring through the one open lane. Riley saw it now as a blessing. If all the lanes were open, they wouldn’t have had a chance, and surely been overrun by now.
 

“The blocked lanes are keeping them from really pouring in, but there’s just so many. We need to get out of here soon.”
 

“Hold the line,” Joanne ordered. “I’m working here. We’ll make it.”

Riley and Eric continued to shoot. Eric had to change guns as he ran out of ammo for the one he was using. With every zombie that went down, two more came through the lane.
 

The undead continued to pour from the lane, the mass now only twenty feet away.
 

“Almost done,” Joanne announced.
 

“Mom,” Eric yelled.
 

“Hold on, sweetie.”
 

Riley continued to fire along with Eric. His shots were beginning to miss, hitting the zombies in areas that didn’t stop them. Riley knew the kid was about to lose it.
 

“Okay,” Joanne called out. “Get in.”
 

Eric turned, jumping into the backseat. Riley saw the amount of supplies on the ground. She turned to see where Joanne was. “Joanne, the supplies.”
 

“Forget it Riley, we need to leave now.”
 

Riley could smell the rot. Turning she saw the undead were closer, ten feet away. There had been no runners surprisingly and that had been a lucky thing. Taking one last glance at the items strewn about on the road, she sighed before climbing into the car. Joanne hit the gas and the three survivors sped away.
 

Chapter Twenty-One

Close

They drove onward. A large portion of clothing, food, first aid and personal items were gone, left behind for the undead to trample—Riley’s journal among the articles. Silence ensued for a while after the departure from the tollbooths. Everyone seemed rattled, Riley still shaking the memories of her time on the road when she was nearly devoured alive if not for Joanne.
 

“That was too scary,” Eric finally blurted out.
 

“You can say that again,” Riley said, echoing the boy’s sentiment.
 

“And that’s why we don’t stop when we don’t have to,” Joanne added.
 

“Would this be a bad time to tell you I have to pee?” Eric asked. Silence followed the question, tension seeming to fill the air like a heavy stench before Joanne burst into laughter. Eric and Riley joined in, a combination of nervous tension being released with the simple need to laugh.
 

“I…have to…go too,” Riley said, still laughing.
 

“Seeing that we all got the crap scared out of us, I think we could all use a release,” Joanne said, slowing the car down. She pulled over to the side of the road, the divots in the asphalt making Riley’s teeth chatter as if she were chilly. Riley wondered why Joanne felt the need to pull over, guessing it was force of habit. With today’s barren roads, one could sit in the middle of the street and not see a vehicle for months.
 

The stretch of highway they stopped on had open fields of tall golden wheat to either side, allowing Riley to feel a degree of safety. She knew without being told it was the reason Joanne stopped the car, or else the woman would’ve waited for a safer area. But still, they went separately, one at a time, with the other two on the lookout, guns in hand. After finishing up, they climbed in the car and headed onward.
 

The drive over and through the Adirondack Mountains was a welcomed sight. Riley and the others had grown tired of the same old views—open fields and straight-away highway. The various maples, oaks and pines reminded Riley of her time spent in the cabin at Roscoe. She had had the worst of times and the best of times there. Oddly enough, she had grown somewhat used to the loneliness, having had to live and survive by herself. How she would love to see the place again, if only for a moment, and visit her father’s grave too. She’d sit by the headstone, if it still stood, and ask questions she wouldn’t get answers to. Was he really her father? Even if he didn’t share the same DNA with her, it ultimately didn’t matter. The man had raised her and he was her father, but she still had questions.
 

Riley stuck her arm out of the window, feeling the cool mountain air against her skin. Keeping her fingers together, creating an airplane-like wing, she let it soar up and down. The last time she’d done this had been with Jack. Even though she hadn’t known him for long, she found herself missing him, grateful for all he had done for her. She should’ve at least buried him, instead of leaving him to rot in the road. But she’d been a mess and had no shovel. Looking out at the trees rushing by, she whispered how sorry she was and hoped Jack, wherever he was, forgave her.
 

Halfway up the mountain, Joanne pulled the car over at a rest stop—a patch of blacktop laid out in front of a small lake with a guardrail separating the two.
 

“Thought it might be a good place to eat lunch and stretch our legs. We’re in the Catskills, which at one time was protected by the Parks Department. There are no residences anywhere near here so we should be all right. But bring your guns and keep an eye out anyway.”
 

They sat on the guardrail and ate lunch, enjoying the scenery. Thick forest surrounded the lake, with the back wall a sheer cliff of smooth rock. Flowers bloomed along the water’s edge and birds sung in the trees. Riley thought the place was magical—a place without the undead.
 

Once they were over the mountain, the road leveled out and ran alongside a large body of water. According to the map, it was the beginnings of Lake Champlain. They passed residences, bars, town halls, shops, and all were extremely close to the road. The little backwoods towns must’ve been cute at one time, but now they were “scary” as Eric put it.
 

Eventually the road led to the destination the group desired, Crown Point. They drove through the town at a steady pace, taking in the sights and looking for any signs of people.
 

Crown Point was a typical small country town. They passed the local elementary and high schools, a few churches, a diner, a hardware store and two gas stations. Everything looked deserted, clearly a ghost town now. They reached the end of town quickly, the road opening up to woodlands with houses sporadically spread out.
 

“How are we supposed to find a secret lab here?” Eric asked.
 

“You said Oliver told you his village was on the water, on Lake Champlain, so that’s where we’re heading. Hopefully we’ll find something there. According to the map, once we hit Bridge Road, there’s only about twenty miles of lakefront.”
 

They came over a hill, driving slowly, and as they crested the peak, something was blocking the road below. Joanne let the car crawl closer until the thing in the road could be identified. It was a roadblock, a makeshift gate, covered with aluminum siding and barbed wire.
 

“Great,” Eric said.
 

“You should be keeping an eye to our rear,” Joanne reminded him. She stopped the car.
 

“According to the map,” Riley said, “we’re still about five miles from Bridge Road.”
 

“This could be an outpost,” Joanne said. “Whether it’s a new one or an old one no longer functioning, I don’t know, but we’ll need to open it.”
 

“Oliver said his people were friendly,” Eric reminded them. “Not a ruthless gang, but loving and caring people.”
 

“We don’t assume anything,” Joanne said. “His people might not even be here anymore.”
 

“So what do you…” Riley began, but was cut off, startled into silence.
 

“Don’t move!” yelled a voice from the trees. Riley turned to look. Three men holding rifles were coming from the forest. Panic struck her like a hammer to the head. She held her rifle, wondering if she could get off a couple of accurate shots before they fired. She and the others were sitting ducks unless Joanne floored it, but the gate ahead would only stop them. Riley looked to Joanne. The woman was contemplating something; a look of inner turmoil going on. Riley guessed Joanne was thinking the same thing as herself.
 

“Shit,” Joanne mumbled and Riley knew they’d be going nowhere except where the men wanted them to go.
 

“Out of the car,” the man said. Riley saw two more men with guns approach from the other side of the road. They’d been waiting, using the roadblock as a distraction point, knowing that a fleeing vehicle wouldn’t get far. Riley swallowed, fear clutching her chest, knowing there would be no escaping this time.
 

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Village

They were driven, chained together like criminals, in the back of a van to a walled-in village along Lake Champlain. Riley guessed it was the place Eric’s friend had told them about. No one spoke to them during the ride, but they weren’t mistreated either, being left alone.
 

As the van rolled along the road, Riley saw the encompassing wall that surrounded the village. The place was huge.
 

The wall stood about twenty feet from the road. A wide, automobile-lengthditch ran alongside the wall, resembling a moat. Whether water or some other material lay inside, Riley could not tell—her vantage point too low. The wall itself looked to be constructed from steel beams sticking upright like fence posts, and cut timber piled on top of each other at least fifteen feet in height. Razor wire, circular in pattern, lay along the top. Riley saw guards walking behind the wire, guns slung over their shoulders. The place was a fortress.
 

The van entered through two large doors that looked like they were made for a giant. Stopping just inside the entrance, Riley glanced over her shoulder to watch as the humongous doors were closed, her spirit sinking like a rock in a pond. Thick wooden planks were slotted into place, securing the doors.