Dead Hunger: The Flex Sheridan Chronicle (22 page)

“And get
some
of these,” Gem said, unclipping the radio from her belt.  “
Cell phones, as you already likely know, don’t work anymore. 
Use channel 19.  It’s what we normally broadcast and listen
on.  Alternate is 16.  These claim to have a range of thirty to thirty-five miles, but that’s only if I’m standing on a mountain looking at you down in the valley.  Otherwise, 1-3 miles on a good day.  But on that good day, if  you pick up
any other groups in the area you can play it by ear.
”

“Find out the talents of the people in your group,” I said.  “Engineers, scientists, teachers,
police
, military. 
It’ll tell you how to organize them
.  They’re understandably traumatized, and right now they just
have an overwhelming
need
to be back with their families, to rejoin their old lives.  But those lives are history.  They’re gone forever.  They have to realize it, or they’ll die, and you might, too.”

“Any questions?” Gem asked. 

Bobby shook his head, then nodded.  “Too many, I guess,” he said.  “You guys saved us back there.  I don’t even remember how I got in that house, but I remember everything from the moment you woke us up.”

“We’ll add that to the mystery of this whole, horrible thing,” Gem said.  “We’re working with a pretty smart scientist, and the more information we gather about what and how
these infecteds
work, the more likely he’ll develop a way to cure them or a way to destroy them.  But know this: we’re working on it.”

We finished our explanations and shook hands with them.  Before they went back inside, I pulled
Marion
aside.

“
Marion
, would you be able t
o go in there and see if you have a Lillian Middleton with you? 
Taylor
’s
her granddaughter, and we found her mother back at the CDC.”

Her face became hopeful.  “Are there others there?  Do they have a plan for this . . . this
situation
?”

I shook my head.  “There’s only one man that
we
found
alive there
.  The others are turned or dead.  Listen, I have to ask you
something,
because
the basis for my question is probably the most important first step you could take.  And I apologize for being a bit scattered here, but our friend is at the CDC and hasn’t heard from us in around two hours.  He’s going to be worried.”

“I understand,” she said, bumping her glasses back up her nose with one finger.  “What is it?”

“
Has anyone complained about headaches since you all got here?”

“No, but what you said about the migraines – I
knew it already.  I
t’s how – well, it’s how my husband’s began.”
  Her eyes began to tear up.  “I didn’t make a connection.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. 
“There’s nobody it’s not going to touch.”

“It’s beginning to sink in,” she said, fidgeting with the AK-47’s strap.

Gem came out of the cooler and stood there listening to me, leaning against the wall as
Taylor
leaned against her legs.  Her hands rested on the girl’s shoulders.  Her Uzi hung off the side of her body,
the
barrel angled toward the floor.  There was a
thoughtful expression
on her face.  I smiled
at her
briefly but
continued with my conversation
.

“
Marion
, you need to quietly determine
with absolute certainty
whether any of your people here have headach
es.  Or head pain of any kind.  I’m not saying you h
ave to take any action, but you’ll want to
keep an eye on them.  A close eye.  Someone should st
and watch – probably more than one – through
the night anyway, but
monitor
them, too.  And you’re going to want to get more weapons
soon
.  We hit the evidence locker at the Tallahassee PD, but any large department should do it.”

“How can we find you
?”

“I don
’t know where we’re going to be,
but
like I said,
get either a ham radio, CB, or the handhelds.  The range varies, but put them on scan and just listen.
  Ultimately, I think all three will be in use
”

Gem
chimed in.
  “He’s right,
Marion
.  The best way to survive is with numbers and firepower.  Build your group as quickly as you can
,
and you and Bobby and who
m
ever else you deem qualified
should
start working on a plan.”

At that moment, a
loud noise came from outside, like a freight train in the stillness of the new world
day
.  Gem gave
Taylor
’s
hand quickly over
to
Marion
,
and we ran to the front door of the convenience store and unlocked it.  Nobody was visible, but a lumbering
, gleaming
bus
came charging up the street, then
attempted to slow
suddenly as it tu
rned into the store parking lot. 
A heavy layer of gravel lay over the asphalt,
and the
multi-ton motor home
could not
decelerate
fast enough
for
its sudden right turn.  The driver whipped the wheel back to the left when the traction broke.  But it was all too fast.

The
Class A behemoth was at least forty feet long.  It s
tarted sliding sideways through
the gravel,
its
huge rear end careening
toward the front of the store.  The rear half of the
monster
slid at four times the speed of the rest of the bus, as though it were cracked like a whip. 

Gem and I tucked and covered our faces as t
he gravel shot into the air in dusty clouds, peppering every glass and metal surface with tiny rocks and sand as it finally came
to rest
about a foot from the
expansive
glass panels of the
7-Eleven
.

We fanned our hands in front of us to clear the dust.  Hemp sat in the driver’s seat, smiling broadly.

“Bloody fuck
what a ride
!”
he yelled
, sticking his head out of the window.  “I didn’t have any damned way to get hold of you, and you’d been gone
over two hours! 
When I saw your cars I cranked the wheel!”

“And almost
flipped this sucker over
,” said Gem.

“
Isn’t it fabulous?” Hemp beamed.

I looked at the gun turrets he’d engineered in the sides.  Four of them, just awaiting
firearms
from our collection.  I didn’t have much doubt that Hemp had used his recollection of what guns remained in our arsenal to determine spacing, size and placement of the turrets. 

I laughed, and the sound seemed oddly out of place.  “Well, Hemp.  I’m sure glad you came.  But we were just leaving.”

“We’ve found a bunch of uninfecteds, Hemp.  Do you
think you might have
any questions for them?”

He shrugged from the motor home’s cockpit.  “I can think of something
, I’m sure
,” he said.  “Let me at them.”

As Gem and I gathered up some food and medical items from the store shelves, we let Hemp go in the cooler and probe around a bit.  He had a nice, gentle demeanor, and we knew he’
d be the perfect debriefer.
  He spent about fifteen minutes asking various questions.  From inside the cooler we’d hear his muffled British accent, then a muffled response.  Of course if he learned anything he’d fill us in later.

Taylor
’s grandmother
wasn’t
present in the room, which meant that she was one of the dead, the turned, or the burned.  We did not mention her again.

When Hemp finished, he
told
them there were several buses at the CDC, and
any
one of them would carry them all.  They had bars on the windows, so were somewhat fortified.  They’d have that and the Hummer. 

For us, t
he Suburban would be fitted with machine guns before long, too
, so we’d still have a pretty well-pr
otected rolling convoy of
vehicles
.  Overall, everyone was in good shape.

I wanted to
get
to my house.  I
wasn’t sure why, but it seemed like a good place to hole up and make a plan.  Figure out what we would be doing for the foreseeable future.  Train.  Whatever.  I just knew I
wanted to get
my ragtag group – my new family –
to my house as soon as possible.

As Hemp came out, I touched his
arm
.  “Hemp, how’s that gas line coming?”

“
I finished that. 
Straight shot, just six 20-foot lengths, some couplings, a couple of 90-degree elbows, a union, and some pipe dope. 
Done deal.”

“And now you want me to ask what you did with the next hour and fifty minutes, right?

“Spent that on the gun turrets.”

“On that motor home there,” I confirmed.

“Not a motor home, chap.  Mobile Lab.”
  He grinned.
  “And I started playing with another
vehicle
after that.  So there’s some stuff to go over before we head out.  We need some versatility in
transportation, I think
.”

I return
ed the smile on Hemp’s face that was so wide it threatened to split his head
in two.

“
First things first,” I said.
“
Let’s get this girl to her
mother.”

“I get to drive something with guns,” Gem said.

I smiled.  “Baby, that goes without saying.  When mama’s happy, everybody’s happy.”

CHAPTER
TEN

We got back to the CDC garage without incident
and pulled the Suburban and the mobile lab into the garage, rolling the door closed
.  It was now going on 4:00 in the afternoon.  I wanted to get the hell out of here before nightfall.  With the speed at which Hemp was capable of designing, fabricating and working, it wouldn’t be a problem.  The summer days were long, with
daylight sticking around until near 8:30 PM.  I
figured we could be out of here by 6:00
or so
, and
Lula
was only
about 60 miles from the CDC
. 

We
had only to hop on the I85 to the I985 to get there in just over an hour and a half – if all was clear on the road, and we didn’t expect that.  No more exits if we could avoid it, though.  We didn’t need a repeat of that offramp debacle.

The gas line that Hemp had run was expertly done, supported by
several
makeshift
support platforms
placed at strategic locations to relieve stress on the long pipe run.  We
could rest assured that Max would be supplied with a long-lasting supply of fuel for the generator.  He might have to come down and service it a few times, and try to keep his power draw to a minimum, but he should be good for a month or more.  There’s no telling what the military might organize before that, or if this thing would run its course, which was my great hope.

We weren’t bad at this, but we didn’t want to do it for the rest of time. 

We did our best to keep
Taylor
completely away from the gory remnants of the massive zombie kill we engaged in at the service elevator, so we took her into an interior hallway and we went up on the passenger elevator.  When we arrived at Max’s enclave, all was well. 

It was extraordinarily well when Cynthia saw her daughter.  She leapt out of her chair and ran to the door, falling down on her knees.  She scooped
Taylor
into her arms and kissed her neck, face, lips and the top of her head.  She felt her all over to make sure nothing was broken or hurt, and she pulled her to her again, and wrapped her arms around her in an embrace that I did not believe would end.  I didn’t blame her for a moment.  This was her little girl.