Dead Life (Book 3) (23 page)
Gina and I settled in and before I could even say goodnight I was out. It seemed like I had just closed my eyes when Rick shook me awake. I got out of bed as quietly as possible. There was no reason to wake Gina. And went out on the porch. I settled in and spent the next hour fighting to stay awake. Just as I was about to lose the battle, Gina came out of the house. We spent the next several hours talking about what we would do after leaving here. I had no idea where life could possibly take us after finding her dad and making a run at getting to Fort Leonard Wood. She was thinking along lines I hadn't even considered; finding a home, would we ever have children, normal things like that. I personally couldn't see life as ever being anything close to normal again. I thought we were doing good just to be able to survive one day to the next. Gina was starting to get upset with my lack of a far reaching plan when Cindy saved the day. She woke on her own and came out to relieve Gina for her shift on watch. I took this as my opportunity to hurry back into the bedroom and get to sleep before Gina got back inside. I lay there with my eyes closed and pretended to be asleep when she came into the room. I knew she wouldn't wake me up after the long day we had so I was off the hook, for now.
Morning came and we got something to eat as fast as we could and hurried to get back on the road. We knew we were going to have a short trip but nobody wanted to risk having to have a run in with the Chief's wife. He had promised to come get us early and we wanted to be ready when he got here. When he showed up, we were ready. All we had to do was drive out to the fence and use the same method we had used yesterday to get out of the compound.
“Look, I want to thank you folks for helping us out like you did. But do me a favor, don't come back this way. My wife is mad as hell about her brother. She wants me to arrest you all.”
“Chief, we didn't do anything wrong.”
“I know that Steve. She just wants to have an investigation. You know, get to the bottom of things. She can't accept that the world has changed. Things just aren't the same.”
“Well, you don't have to worry about us coming back. After we get Gina's dad, we're headed to Fort Leonard Wood.”
“Thanks again guys. You ready?”
“Ready as we'll ever be.”
“There's not as many of them out there so it should be a little easier getting out of here this time. Bye now. Alright, move the truck.”
The truck moved forward and the Chief tossed a couple of grenades over the wall. When the back of the trailer cleared the opening, we lunged forward. I was surprised to see there were no zombies in front of us. Rick was hanging out the window of the Hummer ready to open fire. There was really nothing to shoot at so I had him get back in. Since Al was still sore from his cracked ribs, Cindy was driving the truck. She drove a lot different than Al. She went straight ahead and didn't waste time trying to swerve side to side running over anything in her path. There were still plenty of bodies in the street, you just didn't have to get a lot of steam up to plow through them.
Once we got close to a mile from the wall the number of zombies dropped to nothing. I radioed ahead to Cindy and had her stop. I pulled up next to the U-Haul and rolled down my window. Al looked over at me and rolled his window down. It was the crank kind, not push button like mine. I could see he was still in a lot of pain.
“Looks clear. Where's all the zeds?”
“Look at you learning new words. Your vocabulary grows everyday. I'm so proud of you.”
“I heard someone in Mike's group call them that. By the way, fuck you.”
“That's better. I recognize you now. Steve, right?”
“Do you think Mike lied to us? This doesn't seem right.”
“Could be. I doubt it though. He was pretty much a straight forward kind of guy. If that's all could we get going?”
Cindy pulled forward and I followed her. She crested the hill and stopped so I stopped too, waiting for her to keep going. Al's window came back down and he hung his arm out waving for me to pull up beside them. I drove up looking over at Al.
“Does that make you feel better?”
In front of us were thousands of zombies; all gathered around a motel; The Boonville Inn.
That's it for this installment of Dead Life. I hope you enjoyed the story. Some of you may have recognized the character, Rich in the Steve and Al story line. That's right RR Haywood survived the zombie apocalypse. Did you ever doubt that he would? I met Rich online after putting out the first installment of Dead Life. I started reading The Undead series while I was still editing Dead Life and am a dedicated fan. If you haven't read Rich's books you should have a look at them. They are really very good. I digress, I went to Rich seeking marketing advice early on, I was shocked to learn these books don't just sell on their own, and we became friends. Without his help and support I probably would have given up on this by now. Writing and editing can be hard work; but believe me they pale in comparison when it comes to the daunting task of marketing and selling your work. I want to thank Rich for his mentions on his web page.
One last thank you then I'll get to the part where I ask you to take a minute and review my work. Gina without your love and dedication I would be lost. That's right, I stole Gina from Steve and married her! Too bad for you Steve. My wife is my editor and she does a great job. My grammar truly does suck and the poor woman spends hours and hours going through my work correcting all the mistakes. Hats off to you baby. I love you.
Okay you are done. I am done. Click over one more page and take a minute and write a review. Thank you for your time.
Dave
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