Dead Hunger: The Flex Sheridan Chronicle (26 page)

Gem tossed her head toward the sofa where her Uzi rested.  “Okay, I guess we can beat a few zom
b
–
abnormals
– to the punch.”

“Regardless, the plan is to hit a Radio Shack or a Best Buy and see if we can get the camera systems we need,” Hemp said.  “I’d also like to set up some snares in the woods around here.”

“Snares?”

Hemp nodded.  “I know it seems kind of archaic, but
there are woods on three sides of this property, as Flex knows, and that makes it fairly
simple
for someone who’s driven
to get very close to this house without being seen.”

“But snares?”  Gem wrinkled her nose at me as she took a deep sip from her hot coffee.  Her expression quickly turned into one of utter bliss.
  She did love her coffee.

“I was up early, and with my trusty MP5 by my side, I took a walk along the woods line.  There are clear paths where animals make their way, and these are the same paths that anything or anybody else will make their way.”

“So
booby-trap
the obvious paths,” Gem said.  “And what about the poor animals?”

I sat down next to Gem at the table.

Hemp shrugged.  “We’ll need meat, Gem.  Flex, what kind of animals you got in these woods anyway?”

“Oh, shit, that’s right,” Gem said, then slapped her hand over her mouth and smiled as Trina glared at her.

“A few bears, not too many.  “Deer, some feral pigs.  I guess a zombie or two.”

“So you can joke about it but we have to call them abnormals?  Great.”  Gem shook her head and swatted my arm, causing me to spill my coffee onto the table.

I shrugged.  “I don’t care anymore.  What they are they are.  What they are, Jamie is.  After seeing her last night, I don’t know how to balance terminology versus fear versus hatred versus survival instinct.  I love her, but that is not her.  Not anymore.”

Gem’s demeanor changed, and she got up and got a towel from the kitchen and wiped up my spilled coffee.  “I’m sorry, baby.”

I put my hand over hers and nodded.  I never wanted her to feel bad, because I knew her heart and it was nothing but good.

Hemp chimed in, returning the conversation back to his intended task. 
“Okay, back to the snares.  I know how to construct tripwire snares, large or small.  If we’re going after food, rabbits, small game, we can set some up on the smaller paths.  The trails that lead to your yard, the bigger ones, we’ll set up some
heavier duty traps using some pretty large stones.  I saw a few good ones
out there that should work nicely
.  With the deteriorated condition of some of these infecteds, and the probability that they’ll only get worse as time goes on, that still ought to do it.  Considering we only need an upper branch capable of supporting that kind of weight, we should be able to set some of these up
in
pretty strategic locations.”

“Are you hoping to use this system as protection?  Doesn’t seem very efficient,” I said.

“I think he’s looking to use it
more
as an early warning system that they’re finding their way here, babe,” Gem said.  “If we start seeing them snared, we know they’re onto our scent.”

“Precisely,” Hemp said.

“I guess it’s better than packing mud cakes along the walkway and trying to get footprints,” I said.

“What are we, six years old again?” Gem laughed.

“Hey, it was fun when I was six.”
 
I stood.  “I say we get started today.  But when we head out, I think I’d like to take the Crown Vic and we should all go.  The dog we can lock in the house and we can leave Jamie in the lab.”

“Bunsen,” said Trina.  “Her name’s Bunsen.”

“Got it.  Bunsen,” I said.

Gem, as was her custom, grabbed a note pad and made a list.  First stop, Radio Shack.  More walkies and batteries and surveillance camera systems. 

Next stop, another police station.  We needed to load up on more guns and ammo.  Or a good pawn shop.  Some of the shit they kept in the back could be interesting.  Hell, even some of the ranch homes would have nice caches of weapons.  We were in
Georgia
, and there was no shortage of guns here.

And Hemp wanted some medical equipment.  Particularly an EEG machine.  We put that on the list, but we weren’t sure we would have the time, freedom of movement, or the ability to find everything on our list today.  After writing a while, Gem looked up.

“What’
s the military doing about all of this you think?” she asked. 
“I have to believe some of them survived and are mobilizing.”

“I haven’t seen one plane or helicopter other than the one that almost crashed on us since this thing began,” I said.

“That is almost impossibly unlikely,” Hemp said.  There should be crashed airliners and small craft littering the country.”

“I’m sure if we travel far enough,” I said, “we’ll find them.  But for now, let’s get ready to go the store.”

“Forget the
useless
wallets, just get the guns,” Gem said, smiling as she hefted her Uzi.

“Note to self,” I said.  “Stop by the vinyl store and grab the Beatles’ White Album.  Someone needs to hear ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun.’”

“I already know that,” Gem smiled.  “But happiness also involves my Flexy.”

My house is a ranch, one story with four bedrooms and three baths.  I built it a few years ago, and Gem was very familiar with the layout. 
It was pretty typical, and had a nice long front porch with two steps leading up and a wood railing on all sides except at the steps.

When I built it I was conscious of the fact that I was somewhat removed from any neighbors, so had security on my mind.  The thick growth of trees in the surrounding forest was exactly what I wanted, and the only easy way in or out of my property was through a long, winding gravel drive.  I’d graded it very flat, and any vehicle could access it with no problem.  I’d kept the curves on the soft side, which is what allowed the
huge
mobile lab
to
make the drive up to the house.

There was a gate at the bottom,
the
wood
swinging type
, that I
most often
closed.  I’d left it open when I headed out to Jamie and Jack’s house because other things were on my mind, but if I had to leave for any extended period of time, I always closed and locked it. 

I locked it when we left this time.  Hemp suggested we replace the beefy Master Lock with a combo type that any one of us could open without a key.  There was no telling what might happen; one of us might lose a key in a scuffle, and the growth on the sides of the fence was very thick, brambly and virtually impassable.  Hemp was right again.  Gem added
the combo lock
to the list.

As Hemp hopped back in the car after swinging the gate closed and securing the lock, Gem said, “Hemp, would barbell weights work in place of rocks?  For your snares, I mean?”

Hemp nodded.  “Good idea.  I think 60 lbs per snare would work fine.  If you can imagine having that much tension pulling one of your legs in the air, I guess you could figure out how hard it might be to free yourself from the snag.”

“Try 40 lbs.  I’m not that ambitious,” Gem said.

“Fuck.  It would take 150 lbs to tame that tiger,” I said.

“Only if I were looking at you just out of my reach,” Gem quipped.

I smiled and drove on. 
Hemp had a little smile on his face as he looked back and forth between me and Gem.  I knew he was lonely, and I could tell he wished he had someone to banter with.   Besides us, I mean.  And it made sense.  When he told me the story of his wife and son, I felt for him.  He was a great guy, and I couldn’t imagine that with his surfer looks and intellect that he wouldn’t make any woman a bit weak in the knees.

Plus, he was funny. 
But what did I expect?  T
he Monty Python guys were all Brits, and damn, th
ey cracked the shit out of me.

As I left the gravel drive and hit the street I said,
“I think we might just hit a
local hardware store, and there’s a Target there where we might get the rest
.  We’ve got some diverse needs
.”

I
hit the gas and the Crown Vic’s new tires bit into the pavement and screamed off like the son-of-a-bitch cop car it could’ve been.

Everyone inside smiled.  Even Trina.

And I was rethinking Fords.
  It was a strange, new world, indeed.

*****

 
When we pulled into
the hardware store parking lot, the door to the store hung open, tottering on one hinge.  A body lay in the doorway face down, and we could see the back of the skull bashed in, a black mottled pool on the ground around it, clotted and thick.

The flies had not been affected.  They still buzzed around in a swarm at our approach.  None of us wanted to stay in the car, but Gem volunteered to keep Trina on her lap and
play
whatever game
she
wanted to play to occupy her. 

On the way to town, Trina had asked us if we were on our way to pick up her mommy and
Jesse
.  She didn’t mention her father Jack, and it may be because in her mind she already knew he was gone.  She had been in that house after all, and seeing him like that must have been a nightmare.  We were all surprised she slept through the night last night, but she was exhausted, and perhaps even the nightmares couldn’t overpower her need to rejuvenate.

In answer to her question I turned my eyes to Gem.  She shook her head slowly, then looked into Trina’s eyes.  “We’re still trying to find them, baby.  Don’t you worry.  They both love you.  Just remember that when you miss them.”

Trina said nothing.  We promised to get her some dollies at the store if she’d be good and stay with Gem.  This seemed to make her forget for the time being.

Normally I hate to lie.  Not this time.  I wanted to lie to her forever.  Make her believe they were still on this earth.

And it kept nagging at me.  What we’d seen at the CDC. Those things coming back to life because we didn’t destroy their brains.

I hadn’t done anything to
Jesse
’s brain
.
  Had she crawled from her earthen grave, now one of them?  Was she out there now, even as we faced the horrors of this modified existence, hungry, hungry,
starving
?

I put it out of my mind.  We had to know more.  I didn’t want to picture my Jess like that.  But it nagged.

Hemp and I stepped past the body, scattering the flies.  I waved them away from my face – they had just been feasting on dead flesh and I didn’t like the idea of them anywhere near my eyes or mouth.   We had handheld flashlights, but I knew the first thing I wanted.  First we reconnoitered the aisles to make sure none of the hungry dead were lying in wait, if they could even do that, and were relieved to find we were alone in the store.

It wasn’t a big store
, and at the entry the light filtering in through the storefront windows was enough to see by
.  About 15 aisles, a local store that specialized in the things the local people most often needed.  Generators, plumbing parts, electrical.  I headed for the flashlight section and found what
I was looking for immediately.  While the front of the store was bathed in light, the rear aisles wouldn’t be. 
I gr
abbed all they had on the rack and
went to the end cap where the AAA batteries were hung.  I took down a 24 pack and popped it open and began loading batteries into
a couple of the
LED headlam
ps
.  Hemp had made his way to the aisle
where the
rope
was stocked
.

“Hemp!  Where are you, buddy?”

“Aisle 7.  Found some good high tensile, thin rope.”

I turned into the aisle and met him.  He’d taken a small shopping basket and
had
put
six
rolls of the rope in it.   I gave him a headlamp. 

“Bloody good idea, Flex.”  He strapped it on his head and slid
t
he switch.  The light was excellent and directed. 

He said,
“I need some very strong, thin fishing line or something.  A fifty pound
strength would
work well if they have it.”

“Aisle 12 is fishing and camping gear. 
You good here?  I’m heading over to electrical.  Stuff for wiring the cameras.”

“Get as much video cable as you can,” he said.  I’d like to spread out our field of vision, so we’ll
probably
have some long runs.  Also get some splicing connectors
, and if you can find them, some motion detectors
.
  No sense in using the power unless they see something coming.  Then they can kick on, and that’ll draw our attention.
”