Dead and Dead Again: Kansas City Quarantine (52 page)

“So there might be something that
trees and grass give out that attracts them when there’s no flesh around…”
Athena mused aloud.

“Maybe. Keep it in mind, but that
doesn’t help us right now,” Calvin snapped them back to the current situation.

Athena pulled out her phone and
made a note in a file she was keeping.

“You brought it up, Skipper,” Trip
said. “Ooh, I like that one. Tripper and the Skipper. Trip and the
Skipper…nope. Skip and Trip’s Holocaust Rescue Service. Hmm, almost…oh well,
I’ll get it eventually.”

Calvin sent him a withering glare,
complete with overly-dramatic eye roll. “You’re such a jackass,” he muttered. “Look,
guys. Make sure you’re feeling froggy and check your armor,” Calvin ordered.
“I’ve got sort of a plan, but I’m afraid it’s not much better than the military
had, just that it should save a lot more ammo. We might not have to use
any
if we do it right.”

“We’re going to jump out and scare
them away with our rhetoric?” Trip asked.

“We gonna throw them Tripper to eat
as a diversion while we sneak up and get the doc?” Boomer suggested from the
Hedgehog.

“Screw you, Boomer,” Tripper shot
back.

“I’ll make that plan B, Boomer,”
Calvin responded happily.

“Are we going to call in an air
strike?” Athena asked. “Because that’s the only way I see us getting through
that many Infected.”

“No, even better.” He rubbed his
hands together like some evil genius.

The others stared blankly at him,
clearly waiting to be impressed.

“We’re going to take some of those vehicles
from that dealership and then we’re going to herd the zombies like cattle out
of town in separate directions,” Calvin announced proudly.

“Damnit, Calvin. You’re out of your
damn mind,” Boomer eyed him with an intense look of incredulity. “They’re dead,
not cattle. What, we go next to them riding on top of the cars with whips and
shit, or shooting our guns in the air? Why in the hell do you damn white people
always have to come back to the westerns with this shit?”

“This
is
Kansas City,
Boomer,” Calvin explained. “Most people still think we ride horses down the
streets.”

“That ain’t it. You’re all just
crazy. Hell, if we met the damned
Alien
alien you’d be like, ‘ooh, let’s
put a saddle on it and ride him or some stupid shit like that’ Or ‘ooh, can I
keep it, Dad? What do we feed it?’ It eats
people
, stupid. Kill it. Zombies
eat people. We are people. We are
Food
. We need to kill them again
before they can kill us the first time. We can’t keep riding around in the
middle of them like we got them under control, ‘cause that can turn on us in a
heartbeat, brother.”

Calvin sighed. “I don’t want to
ride one, Boomer and I certainly don’t want to feed one. But you make a good
point; we can’t get complacent because of the armor.”

“Right,” Boomer nodded. “Any one of
us could get pulled down at any time and not get back up again, just like
almost happened to Trip and Calvin in the garage.”

“Wait, what?” Sarah asked.

“What?” Athena demanded.

“Shit.” Tripper spat.

“
Boomer!
” Calvin used his
name as profanity.

“Oh damn. Sorry, guys,” Boomer laughed.
“Let’s keep some perspective. That’s all I’m saying…I don’t know why I even
said
anything
. We all know we’re going to do whatever crazy plan Calvin
comes up with…”

After throwing a withering glare at
Boomer up in his cupola, Calvin ignored Athena’s glower and continued telling
his plan to see if they could perfect it or better it with another. “Here’s
what we’ll do. We’ll use a lead car to make most of the attracting noise. The
others will drive along slowly far behind keeping the stragglers in line by
bumping them or making quieter noise to attract them until we’re about a mile
away. Then we just leave them out there and come back and clean out the ones
that weren’t interested enough to follow. Feel free to yippee just to piss
Boomer off.”

“Sounds similar to leading away a
military force with a small group of ambushers so you can raid their supply
line,” Joel mused.

“What? No. Maybe. I guess. Look, it’s
the same thing we did when we rescued Boomer and Brick, only on a much grander
scale and maybe actually killing fewer Infected who might be cured later. We’re
just leading them away. Then we’ll come back and get the case and find the
doctor…probably in the reverse order. Then we’ll dump the Kia cars and take the
military vehicles with us.”

“I doubt we’ll be able to get any
Kia cars,” Athena cautioned him. “A friend used to manage this place. They
usually lock the keys up in the safe.”

“There should still be rentals or
keys left out on desks or cars in for service.”

“Not if they weren’t open today,”
she pointed out.

“Can you try to show a little
optimism, Sweetie,” Calvin asked.

“Is there anything that has
happened in the past few days that suggests a reason for optimism?” she snapped
acidly.

“We’re still alive,” he shot back.
“We’ll take what we find. It was daytime, remember, and the dealership is just
past the parade route. The car dealerships were probably open anywhere near the
parade. Car salesmen never sleep. They might have all been drunk, but they’d
still be up for selling a car. So we’ll take whatever we find inside.
If
we can even get in there.”

“We should check the manager’s
office first,” Athena suggested. “If they have some keys that aren’t locked up
they’d probably be there, or maybe we can find some paperwork that says where
they are.”

“I doubt that, but everyone keep
your eyes open for anything that can help us.”

“Hey, I think that’s a car
dealership there, too,” Scaggs pointed to what they had all thought was a
parking lot through the trees.

“It’s probably storage for all of
the cars being worked on,” Tripper suggested.

“No, it’s got a different name. ABC
or something.”

“Ok, we’ll keep that in mind in
case we can’t find any keys up ahead.”

“But…never mind,” she grunted.

Returning to the vehicles, the
group drove onto Tennis Court and slowly rolled towards the back lot of the car
dealership, the turrets taking out the few strays they spotted. Rolling slowly
past a marine supply distributor on the right and the other dealership on the
left, Calvin noted that the ‘parking lot’ was nearly as large as the Kia.
Should
have just said we’ll go in there instead,
he reprimanded himself, but said
nothing to the others as they approached the road behind the car dealership. Calvin
took a careful look ahead and then around to ensure their way was at least
partially clear.

“Here,” he pointed for Felicia to
stop.

Athena leaped from the passenger
seat of the Paddy Wagon, pulling the panabas out of the leather over-the-shoulder
purse/sheath combo she and Hef had fashioned to hold the blade, her M-16 slung
firmly over the other shoulder. Calvin, Trip, Boomer, Gus and Scaggs all climbed
from the various openings in the Hedgehog. Scaggs, now the proud owner of the
second finished mobile air gun in a large pink backpack, also had a collapsible
spear in a round sheath hanging from the backpack in case the contraption
stopped working. Felicia had acquired some paint and now both actresses wore
pink armor with pretty dragon designs on the helms. Gus continued to use the
spear Quinn had recommended to him and wore simple, unpainted steel armor.

Joel stayed in his turret. He
wasn’t ashamed to admit he didn’t like the up close killing thing and he was very
good with the big air guns. Lucy took over Boomer’s gun because Calvin had finally
realized they would get more use from his muscles in melee. Knowing he would be
in melee more often now, Boom had painted his armor black and now carried two
hammers. He had become quite adept at throwing them in a very short time
practicing in the Dungeon, his skill level nearly equal to Calvin with his
axes. To emphasize this newfound skill to the others, he threw one now at a zombie
that was leaning against an SUV. The head of the hammer smashed into the skull,
through the atrophied brain and softly slapped the edge of the roof, the
zombie’s mashed brains and skin cushioning the blow just enough to dampen the
sound, both eyes popping out and dangling from the optic nerves as gooey mush
dribbled from the open sockets.

Calvin nodded to his friend in
appreciation. “Let’s go through the back door,” he whispered, trying not to
draw attention in case any Infected waited between the cars in the lot ahead. “Might
have to kick it in and I don’t want to be anywhere near Burlington.”

The others nodded brusquely.
Silently passing through the single line of trees at the edge of the parking
areas, all six could clearly see dozens of dead shambling in the areas between
the cars and those same gaps afforded them their first close-up, clear view of the
horde milling around in the street. The shear number of dead waiting on the
other side of the lot pressed upon them, increasing the tension exponentially. Unfortunately,
instead of the one building the group had expected to search, there were, in
fact, four nearly identical buildings, any of which could hold the manager’s
office.

 “Which building?” Tripper asked.

“It’s not that one,” Athena pointed
to one in the middle. “That’s the repair shop. It will have its own manager. It’s
likely to have keys, but only for cars that need work.”

“Ok, keep that in mind in case we
can’t find any elsewhere. Dented cars are better than no cars.”

“But we don’t want something that’s
going to break down, either,” Athena replied adroitly. “As to which one is the
main office…I’m going to say that one,” she pointed to the one on the north
side.

“Any particular reason, o wise one?”
Tripper asked with a hint of smarminess.

“It’s the only one surrounded by
cars,” she explained simply.

“Sounds good to me,” Boomer agreed.

“We could split up and check them
individually…” Tripper suggested.

“No way!” Sarah argued. “I’ve seen
all of those movies. If we split up, half of us die. Or at least Boomer. He’s
survived waay longer than he would have in any movie. We split up now and he’s
a goner.”

“They’re never wearing armor in
those movies, sweetie,” Tripper insisted. “And they’re stupid. Of course they
die.”

“Boomer isn’t really the smartest
guy…” Calvin joked.

“Hey!”

“Sorry,” Calvin lied.

“Well, I ain’t going off anywhere
on my own,” Boomer stated emphatically, planting his feet and resting the
long-handled hammers on his armored shoulders.

“We’ll stay together,” Calvin
assured them. “It’s early and this is all we have to do today. No need to get
in a hurry if we stay quiet. If we do draw the attention of the Infected out on
the street before we’ve got the plan ready, everyone run back to our vehicles
and we’ll retreat down the street and retool the plan.”

“Calvin Hobbes abandons plan before
inception, film at eleven,” Athena jabbed.

“Hey, I’d rather have to rethink a
plan than bury another friend,” he explained with a steady glare under his open
helm for each of them. “Be careful and keep quiet.” He stepped forward with a
slap of his closing visor. “Boomer, you’ll probably have to knock the handle
off that door. Make sure you put something between the handle and the hammer to
keep the sound down.”

“Like I carry around my own sound cushion?”

“Just find something. That’s going
to make a lot of noise and after you break it we won’t have a lock to keep them
out anymore.”

“The rest of us can rush in and
find some stuff to put on the other side of the door to hold it,” Athena
suggested.

“Ok, but make sure the room is
clear first,” Calvin agreed.

The group moved silently through
the back lot towards the white building they hoped held the manager’s office
and safe. Boomer broke the lock using the Chiefs jacket he’d taken from his latest
victim to deaden the sound…

Four buildings and an hour later,
the dispirited team trudged in despondent disappointment through the back lot
of the Kia dealership with only one key between them, and that they’d found in the
bloody mess that had clearly been lunch several days ago for the five dead guys
they’d found running around inside. Every other key seemed to have been locked
in a safe that wouldn’t open for hammer, axe or bullet.

“Why do some of the people turn
into dead and others just become a meal?” Boomer asked.

“Maybe if they die to where their
injuries would kill the zombies, they become a meal,” Sarah suggested.

“Maybe some people are immune to
the virus, so they just die,” Calvin countered

Eying the freshly cut grass, the
finely tailored trees and shrubs and the dead stumbling between the cars at the
end of the lot, Tripper spat a discouraged, “Shit.”

“No dice?” Felicia asked from the
Hedgehog.

“Nothing,” Calvin reported back.

“Anyone know how to hot wire a
car?” Tripper asked casually.

Silence ensued.

“Hey Boomer…” Tripper started to
say.

“Oh hell no, mother fucker! You
think because I’m black—”

“—I was just gonna to ask you to
toss me a root beer while we wait for Calvin to figure out what to do,” Tripper
said innocently and they both grinned. Boomer had found a refrigerator with a
six pack of
Dad’s
which he had slung from his belt for later.

“How about my dealership?” Scaggs
pointed to the independent dealer.

“It’s not
yours
, JoJo,”
Felicia pointed out.

“I found it,” Scaggs argued
defensively. “If everyone is dead, it
could
be mine. In fact…I call dibs,”
she finished proudly.

“Let’s check it out,” Calvin agreed
with a shrug and stomped off in that direction, the others falling in behind,
the collective clanking of their chainmail armor sounding like a dozen silvery
wind chimes in a tornado. “And for the record, when Scaggs pointed it out, part
of me thought it would be the better place to check. I’m an asshole.”