Dead Life Book 5 (6 page)

              “I don’t see them,” Cindy said, a panicked tone in her voice. “Do you see them?”

              I tried to stay calm. “They’re probably in the truck,” I lied. If they weren’t on top of the truck they were either gone or dead. There was no way Al would have come down from there and left these zombies wandering around. They would have finished the few zombies left then gone to work on trying to get the truck out. This wasn’t looking too good.

              “What do we do now?” Cindy asked.

              “We go down there with our swords, kill the rest of those zombies, and see if they’re in the truck.”

              “Can’t we just honk the horn? That would get Al’s attention.”

              I couldn’t believe it “You’re kidding me, right? Why don’t I just ring the dinner bell?”

              “If they’re down there all we have to do is drive down and pick them up. It doesn’t matter how much noise we make.”

              “If they’re down there Cindy, and that’s a big if. There is no way we’re walking away from all those supplies in the back of that truck.”

              “You don’t think Al’s there?”

              “Honestly, no. At the very least they would have been watching for us from the cab. They would have flashed the lights or something. They’re gone.”

              A look of horror came over Cindy’s face and the tears began to flow.

              “They’re not dead. There’s no way. I refuse to believe that. They hiked out of here. We’ll look around and as soon as we confirm that they’re not in the truck we’ll drive back out to the main road and wait for them.”

              “Then why do we have to go down there? Let’s go back up to the road now.”

              “You know why. We have to be sure.”

              I drove through the horrible remains of the zombie horde. This was by far the worst experience I’d had since this all began. Losing friends and loved ones was bad, don’t get me wrong, but driving over the crushed bodies that still crawled along this gravel road turned my stomach. The smell was beyond description. Flies buzzed everywhere. We kept the windows up to try and keep them off of us but soon we’d be climbing out into the thick of things.

              Cindy had her shirt pulled up over her mouth and nose in a vain attempt to filter out the worsening stench. The gore got thicker the closer we got to the U-Haul. Where we had backed through the bodies in an effort to make the road passable for Al and Gina the horror only intensified. The bodies here were smashed to a pulp. The river of black blood and guts moved with a life of its own. If it was still attached to a head that wasn’t crushed it slithered through the slime that lay two feet deep on the road. Cindy retched in the seat next to me.

              “You’re going to throw up down the inside of your shirt,” I said. “If that happens I’ll lose it too.”

              “I can’t help it,” she said, her face still partially covered with her shirt.

              “Breathe through your mouth.”

              “I tried that. It only makes it worse. I taste the rotten flesh in my mouth.”

              “Try to hang on. It looks like it’s not as bad behind the truck. I’m going to drive past. Then I’ll back up to the lift gate. If I can get close enough we won’t have to get down on the ground.”

              “That’s good, because I’m not about to get down in that shit.”

              There was just enough room to get by the U-Haul. It was easy to see all the damage Al and Gina had done with their grenade attack. Small craters dotted the road all the way down to the creek. There were even a few on the other side. I wondered what kind of damage we had done to the ecology of the small creek that only yesterday I had bathed and washed my clothes in. Now the creek flowed black with the gore that ran down the hill and mingled with its waters.

              The tree the U-Haul had slid into blocked most of the back of truck but there was enough room that I was able to get a corner of the bed of our truck up against lip of the other truck. Cindy and I sat in silence. Listening to the flies buzzing and the garbled wet sound of the moans that came from the hundreds of crushed zombies just outside our doors.

              “Do you want to wait in here?” I asked.

              “Yes, but I’ll go with you.”

              We crawled into the back seat and out the window into the bed of the truck. Right away I could see that someone had climbed down the tree the U-Haul was stuck against. When they got to the bottom it looked like they had hacked up a few zombies. After that I couldn’t tell what happened. I knew one thing for sure though. They hadn’t crossed the road here. There was no way Gina would have waded through all the blood and guts that covered the road. I didn’t think Al would have been foolhardy enough to try that either. I could imagine stepping into the pile of corpses only to be pulled down into the worst of it. No they had gone up on this side of the road. They may have crossed further up but not here.

              “Can you see where they climbed down the tree?”

              “Yeah, I think so.”

              “They climbed down then went up through the woods on this side of the road.”

              “How do you know that?”

              “Would you have waded through that?” I asked her, pointing to the road.

              “No, no way. Are we going to check the truck?”

              “Yeah, but they’re not in there. Besides, we need to load some of our stuff from the U-Haul into the truck.”

              “Let’s get going then. I want to get out of here as soon as possible.”

              “Alright, I want you to stand back. When I open the back of the truck if something comes out at us don’t scream, don’t holler, don’t shoot a gun. We have to stay quiet while we’re back here.”

              Cindy moved up by the cab and got ready with her sword. I grabbed the strap on the lift gate and pulled it open.

Chapter 6

              “Why the hell does he have a map of Missouri?” John asked.

              “He must have overheard us talking after we escaped him at the missile silo. He’s been chasing us across the country,” Lily said.

              “That doesn’t make any sense. What would he want with us?” John said.

              “Who knows? We got away. He’s crazy as a shithouse rat. Maybe he misses us. Take your pick,” I said.

              “We hurt him, just like the government did when they wanted to use his failed cure as a bio-weapon. Seems to me the good doctor is pretty big on revenge. I think we’re next on his list,” Lily said.

              “If that’s the case he’s two days ahead of us,” John said. “We need to get moving.”

              “We need to get to him before he makes it to Fort Leonard Wood,” I said.

              I needed to get hold of my dad. If Dr. Parks got to them first they could be taken by surprise. I’m sure that’s how he’d gotten this Jeep full of body parts. I remembered when we first met him. I had no idea he was one of the undead. Even after seeing him up close and personal it was hard to believe there could be such a thing as a talking thinking zombie. First thing tomorrow morning I’d have to try and get hold of dad on the sat phone. Until then we would have to do our best to get as far north, and that much closer to Fort Leonard Wood, as possible.

              What’s next?” John asked.

              “Let’s get out of here,” I said.

              “What about the General?” Lily asked. “He’s going to figure out we’re headed to Fort Leonard Wood. Are we going to tell him Dr. Parks is headed there?”

              “At this point it doesn’t really matter. I don’t care what he thinks. We’ll give it some thought while we’re driving. I bet you can come up with something.”

              “He’s going to want to know if we’ve seen anything of the men he sent here looking for Parks.”

              “If they had any sense they went AWOL just like we did. They were just smarter than us.”

              “How’s that?” Lily asked.

              “They didn’t take a sat phone with them so he could track them.”

              I didn’t wait for General Simmons to call us, I called him after talking it over with Lily and John. We mixed a little truth with a lot of lies. I told him we had found very little other than the abandoned Jeep. Then I told him we had found a map of Missouri with the city of Springfield circled on it. I pressed him as to whether or not he knew of any reason why Dr. Parks would be headed there. Our hopes were that he would become involved in figuring out what the doctor would be wanting to find or do in Springfield. Maybe that would keep him off of our asses for a few days and buy us some time to get to Fort Leonard Wood. Hopefully before Dr. Parks. Lily thought we should just go ahead and warn my dad and his group about Dr. Parks. I agreed but couldn’t get past the feeling that something bad would come of giving too much information to General Simmons. I was sure he monitored all of our sat phone conversations now and my distrust for the bastard ran deep. Letting him know everything we knew wouldn’t be best for any of us. My dad taught me to play cards when I was a little kid. The first thing he taught me was to keep your cards close. Showing your hand to your opponent was a sure way to lose every time. One thing I knew for sure. We damn well hadn’t seen all the General’s cards yet.

              All we could do was drive as far north as we could. Maybe we would get lucky and find Dr. Parks hitchhiking beside the road.

Chapter 7

              Driving at night was something Jake had sworn to Ellie that they wouldn’t do but now they didn’t have much of a choice. Everything had been fine, hiding out in the Walmart department store the past four days had gone a hell of a lot better than the previous week had. Their group had grown from just the two of them to somewhere around twenty people. Two hours ago they’d been sound asleep when the first of the screams woke them. One of the new people that had joined their group that day must have brought the infection in with them. It was dark inside the store at night but from what little the two had seen as they made their way out the back they were about to be the only two in their group again. No one else would be making it out, alive anyway. Jake was glad Ellie had insisted on the two of them sleeping well away from the main group. That was the only reason they’d been able to make it out alive. The rest of the group slept in a central location all jammed in together. Safety in numbers wasn’t always true in a zombie apocalypse. The infection was moving faster now. In most cases once someone was infected the minute their heart stopped beating they turned and the first thing on a new zombies mind was where its first meal was coming from. Usually it was the person that had been fighting right next to them. Whatever happened back there was over in a matter of minutes.

              They were lucky that they’d been able to make it to their car without being attacked outside of the store. Running out blindly into the night was a risky business in these times. No telling what could have been waiting for them on the other side of the exit door. Jake was shocked to find nothing between them and their car. Even when he’d been forced to use his flashlight to find their car in the black night nothing came for them.

              The car moved slowly through the blackness. Even though this was the first time they’d driven at night they were as ready as they could be. Jake had prepared the headlights almost from the start by blacking out all but just a thin strip on each of the lights. The taillights he’d spray painted entirely black. Too many times they had seen what could happen by drawing attention to one’s self when travelling in the daytime. Things would surely be twice as bad at night. Not only were there zombies to worry about there was now the very real threat of being discovered by the raiders. Groups of men had banded together attacking smaller or unarmed groups and taking whatever they wanted. This included the taking and the raping of whatever women or even young girls they came across.

              The dimmed headlights made driving at night nearly impossible. Rather than illuminate the road all they really did was create a grey shadow world. Every shadow seemed alive with an imagined threat. At every turn Jake feared something would jump out at them. Eventually something did.

              Jake slammed on the brakes trying to avoid hitting the figure that stood in the middle of the road directly in front of them. At the same time he hit the brakes his right arm shot out to try and catch Ellie before she hit the dashboard. He was too late.

              “Jesus Christ!” Ellie shouted. She put her hand to her forehead and brought it back, checking for blood.

              Jake stared out the front windshield and didn’t even turn to look at Ellie. “I’m sorry baby,” he said. “Somebody stepped out in front of us.”

              Ellie looked out the window, “Run it over.”

              “I don’t think it’s one of them.”

              “How can you tell anything? It’s too dark out there.”

              “The way he moves and he hasn’t tried to jump on the car yet.”

              Jake was right. It hadn’t tried to jump on the car. They always did that. It just stood in the middle of the road blocking their way. Something was different about this one.

              Ellie rolled her window down, just a crack. “Say something or we’re going to run you down.”

              A man’s voice drifted through the window out of the darkness. “Please, help me. I’m hurt.”

              “Drive around him,” Ellie said. “Probably been bit. Besides he could be a raider. This is stupid.”

              Jake yelled through his now open window. “You been bit?”

              The man started walking over to Jake’s side of the car. They could see him better now. His face still wasn’t visible but Jake could see he had a blanket held close around him draped over his shoulders. Jake aimed his pistol out the window at the man. “You need to take a step back mister. Drop that blanket. Let me see both hands.”

              His hand opened and the blanket fell to the ground. The hand he held the blanket around him with was empty. The other hung at an awkward angle at his side. “My arm is crushed. I can’t move it. Are you going to help me or not? If not then drive away. There’s biters everywhere.”

              “Go,” Ellie said.

              “I can’t do that. Let’s at least give him a ride. You wouldn’t want somebody to just leave me out there would you?”

              “This is crazy,” Ellie said.

              Jake looked over at Ellie. “This isn’t right.” He didn’t see it so much as he felt something move at the window beside him.

              By the time he turned his head it was too late. Jake felt the gun wrenched from his grasp at the same time he felt the flesh being ripped away from his right cheek. Jake’s screams almost drowned out Ellie’s as a disembodied arm grasped his throat, clenching off his windpipe. Dr. Parks leaned into the car and shot Ellie in the stomach with Jake’s pistol. No reason to kill her outright. He could eat her at his own leisure now.

              Dr. Parks leaned back in and whispered in Jake’s ear, “Hurts like a bitch. Don’t it?

Tell you what, stop screaming and I’ll make it all better for you.”

              Jake stopped screaming and turned his head to face his imminent death. He was nose to nose now with the zombie that had already killed him. So many questions ran through his mind. Mainly he just wanted to know what was happening but the pain and surprise prevented him from saying anything. Plus it didn’t help that he was still being choked by the arm that dangled from his throat. Ellie whimpered beside him. He could tell she was in extreme pain, fighting for every breath. Jake turned to face her. He could see the fear in her eyes along with something else. Anger.

              “I told you to keep going,” she rasped.

              “I’m sorry baby,” the hand had lessened its grip on his throat and he was able to breathe again. “You’ve got me mister. Let her go.”

              “Tell you what son,” the creature said. “I’ll let you both go.”

              “Really?”

              “No. I’m going to eat you now and her later if she lives that long.”

              Jake’s mind reeled. How was this possible? A thinking talking zombie. If this was how it was going to be he figured there was no reason to go on anyway. Things had been bad before this was horrible. The zombie reached in and took hold of the arm that had him by the throat. A sort of tug-of-war ensued. The zombie tried to pull the arm free but it refused to release Jake’s throat. Then something that totally shocked Jake happened. The zombie let go of the arm that was now trying to strangle Jake again and stuck his other arm in through the window. This was obviously where the disembodied arm belonged as there was only a partial arm coming at Jake. The two arm pieces lined up and touched. As soon as this happened the hand released Jake.

              “Sorry about that. I’m having trouble keeping this thing under control,” the zombie said, referring to the arm. “Seems to work best when he’s back where he belongs.” The fingers stretched twice in front of Jakes face, then he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and dragged toward the open hungry mouth of the zombie. The last thing Jake heard before he died was Ellie screaming beside him.

              Ellie woke with a jolt of pain. The horror of what she’d witnessed, and the bullet lodged in her abdomen, had caused her to pass out. She was still in the passenger seat of the car and it was moving. Ellie pried her eyes opened and looked to the driver’s seat hoping to see Jake. Maybe it had all been a dream. Jake was gone. The talking zombie now drove the car.

              “I see you’re still alive,” the zombie said.

              “Where’s Jake?”

              “You’re kidding me, right?”

              A sob escaped Ellie. “You killed him.”

              “I have to eat often. You two just happened along at the wrong time.”

              Ellie realized she was clenching her stomach with both hands and remembered being shot. “How long has it been?”

              “Since you were shot?” he asked. Ellie just nodded. “Long enough that you should be dead. The bullet must have missed your vitals.”

              “Then I’m going to live?”

              The zombie laughed. “I don’t think so.”

              Ellie pulled her door open and rolled out onto the highway. Dr. Parks stopped the car and got out. He walked back to Ellie’s body and dropped to his knees beside her. “I was going to save you for later,” Parks said to himself. “Waste not want not.”

              In her weakened condition Ellie wasn’t able to put up much of a fight and only struggled against her attacker for a few minutes. Unfortunately Dr. Parks had fed recently enough that he wasn’t too hungry. Before long he was done gorging himself and he went back to the car and drove away. What was left of Ellie’s mutilated body would soon be joining the ranks of the undead.

Chapter 8

The horde had them completely surrounded. Al finally stopped throwing grenades into the zombies below them. The zombies calmed down when they sat on top of the U-Haul and tried their best to stay out of sight. It helped that when Steve and Cindy drove away most of the horde had followed them up the road. Gina was mad at Al. She had tried her best to get him to stop with the grenades as soon as the other truck had driven away but once Al got going with his favorite toy it was hard to get him calmed down. She had grabbed his bag of grenades away from him and threatened to throw it over the side. That got his attention. He now sat on the roof of the truck and sulked like a little kid. He knew Gina was right but hated to admit it. They needed to be quiet. Steve and Cindy were making a lot of noise. Honking the horn on the truck and firing out the window as they headed up the gravel road. The loudness of the moaning from below Al and Gina decreased with each passing minute.

              “I’m going to look over the side,” Al whispered.

              Gina glared at him and shook her head no. She held up both hands with her fingers extended. Indicating they would wait ten more minutes before either one of them went near the edge of the roof.

              “Ten fingers for me? Well I’ve got one for you.”

              Gina shook her head and lay back staring up at the sky. She was worried and she knew Al was too. The four of them had split up before and every time they did things went badly for the group. Together they were strong. When they divided the group it seemed like trouble found them. Not that they didn’t run into problems when they were all together. It was just that the four of them were better equipped to operate as a unit. When she had watched the Ford go over the hill Gina couldn’t help but have a sinking feeling that she would never see Steve again. She knew in her heart that Al and she would get out of here eventually. After all she was with Al and it seemed like he could handle just about anything. Steve was capable it was just that Al seemed invincible. Even if it was Steve and her trapped here they would be able to get out. Probably not as easily but they would make it. Gina was more worried about Steve being with Cindy. The two of them might run into a situation that Steve couldn’t handle without her or Al. Cindy was getting better at fighting the zombies and the assholes they constantly ran into but she still had a way to go. Until that time came they weren’t safe out there alone.

              Al was tired of sitting on top of the damn truck. He knew waiting for the horde to lose interest in them was the best way to handle things. He was also well aware of the danger surrounding them but didn’t give a rat’s ass about that. He was worried about Cindy. Al was ready to slide down the trunk of the tree they were stuck against, shoot his way through the horde, and hike up to the road. Fuck this waiting bullshit. If Gina wanted to come with him that would be fine. The more the merrier. He had almost lost Cindy yesterday and now here he sat on his ass while once again she drove away from him with a man that was less capable than him to protect her. He knew Steve was prepared to die trying but that wasn’t good enough. He needed to be prepared to live so that they both would. With Al death wasn’t an option. No matter how many times it had seemed like the end was upon them he hadn’t once thought he was going to die. He knew he would live if for no other reason than to keep Cindy alive. Al had been in love with her for years. Ever since that first day that he had knocked on her door and she had let him in.