Dead: Winter (10 page)

“Is there really such a thing?” Matt interrupted. “I mean we might be fairly safe from the undead, but what about people…you know better than most that there are some bad guys out there that are ta
k
ing advantage of things.”

Kevin and his friends had run afoul of just such a band of men early on. The men had killed one of his friends and abduc
t
ed Shari, her two sisters, and her mother for their own purposes.

Oddly enough, it was while he was searching for those men when he encountered another ind
i
vidual who’d taken Heather and several other girls prisoner to use for his own deviant d
e
sires. Even more twisted, the man had intentionally turned the girls by exposing them to a single bite on the
arm or leg
. That was how he had discovered that the bite didn’t guarantee a pe
r
son would turn. Heather was immune.
Near
her
ankle
was a healed bite.

“I just don’t want the weather to do what zombies and crazed mad
men haven’t been able to do as of yet,” Kevin said as he shuffled through the completed sets of gloves.

“But it is going to drive everybody crazy,” Matt pressed. “The gang needs something to take their minds off of the last few months.”

“So what?” Kevin set the gloves down. “You suggesting that we throw a party?”

“Not exactly,” Matt replied. “Maybe just take a day, dig through our stores for some of the del
i
cacies you have managed to bring in like candy bars and stuff, and roast one or two of the chickens we have running around from that trip you and Aleah made last week. Seriou
s
ly, dude, how do you keep finding this stuff?”

Kevin reached in his pack and pulled out a big, black notebook. “Found this at an abandoned military post. It has Google
map images of the surrounding area for miles in every dire
c
tion.”

Matt took the book and thumbed through it. He paused on a page and tapped it. Kevin looked at the unremarkable section of the image.

“There is a huge farm here,” Matt said. “I used to go out there with my girlfriend. She was into all
that
natural crap. They had all kinds of
farming
stuff. I bet if you hit that place, you’ll find everything that you need for us to start that garden you are so hot about. Plus, you might even find some food. They had a big produce stand that had crap all year round. I think they might’ve ev
e
n
had g
ree
n
hou
s
es.”

“Why didn’t you bother telling me this before?”

“Honestly?” Matt shrugged. “I really didn’t give it much thought until I saw the map. See the le
g
end?” Matt tapped the image with a pencil.

Kevin leaned in and read. “Sage Farms?”

“That was the family that owned the place.”

“So much for house crawling,” Kevin said absently as he leaned in close to study the page more
intently
. By his best guess, the
location
was at least fifteen miles away. That would mean being gone for a few days.
He immediately regretted making the decision to bring Shari. He would feel much be
t
ter having Heather or Aleah with him. At least he was confident that they could handle themselves in a serious crisis.

Oh well
, Kevin thought as he began to trace a route with his finger,
it was time the Pop Princess got her hands dirty
.

“
W
e have a problem,”
Dr. Zahn’s voice cut through the chaos of six people checking gear and preparing to venture out into the dark.

We’d brought in the two women, Nickie and Christina, just under an hour ago. We’d run into a few lone shamblers during the recovery mission, and while the doctor began working in earnest on her patient, we’d held a quick conference and decided it was best if we made certain there were no more stragglers. It proved to be a wise choice. A few dozen of the things had made it past our traps and were stumbling out into the open field. There wasn’t much ambient light, but there was no mistaking them for the undead.

Night is a terrible thing. Since nobody is making batteries anymore, flashlights have become a thing of the past, and now we rely on handmade torches. Working in pairs, we would be going out in three groups: Jamie and Ian; Jon and Jake; and Fiona and Billy.

“More blood,” the doctor said. “As in I need some right now if we are going to have any chance of saving this girl.”

“Who can give?” Teresa asked as she pulled Jamie’s harness tight that held his assorted blades and bludgeons.

Dr. Zahn had tested and typed all of us and had the forethought to ask for testing strips during one of Jon’s runs when they were scavenging medical stuff to deal with my leg after I busted it up pretty good dealing with a small pack of zombies that had been intentionally lured to our camp by a man who had murdered a few of our group simply because he didn’t like the color of their skin.

“That’s the problem,” Dr. Zahn sighed. “The only matches that we have right now are Melissa…and Thalia.”

“So get Melissa hooked up, I’m sure she has no problem—” I didn’t see the problem.

“She can give some,” Dr. Zahn cut me off, “but with her being pregnant, we have to be very careful.”

“I can help, Papi,” Thalia’s voice came from right behind me as I finished helping Ian buckle his leather leggings.

I looked up at the doctor who seemed to be considering Thalia with a look that I was not exactly comfortable with seeing. I patted Ian on the side and he helped me to my feet.

“They have cleared the entry to the berms and are in The Killing Tunnel,” Billy announced.

The Killing Tunnel was what Jake had started calling the stretch of road that we’d bordered with all the dirt we dug up when we’d excavated the trench that circled the hill that our communal home sat atop. At some point, the name had stuck.

“And we got more coming through the trees,” he added seconds later. “Flares are being tripped all down the right side.”

“That’s east,” Jon said. “Usually we see them from the west or the north zones.”

In a flurry of activity, all three teams were out the door. I hated the fact that I still wasn’t deemed healthy enough to participate in these events, but the facts were the facts. I was still using a cane, and in no condition to outrun a zombie if it got dicey.

I returned my attention to Dr. Zahn. To her credit, even with a life on the line, she hadn’t just scooped Thalia up and taken her into the room to give blood.

“Isn’t she a bit young?”

“Absolutely,” Dr. Zahn confirmed. “In the old world it wouldn’t even be considered. We haven’t got that luxury anymore. I won’t put the child in danger, Steve.”

I knew that…deep down. It still didn’t make me feel any better about it. Still…

“We should get in there,” Melissa took Thalia’s hand and led her to the small closet that Dr. Zahn used to perform her miracles.

I watched the three of them leave. Just before the door shut, Thalia turned and gave me a little wave that ended with a blown kiss. I caught it and forced a smile on my face. There was no mistaking the look on hers. She was probably at least a little scared, but all that shown through was the pride. She was helping.

I grabbed a few torches and went out to the porch. I had my spiked bat and an assortment of blades as well as the 30.06 with its precious few rounds of ammunition. I brought it to my shoulder and used the night scope to scan the scene.

At the very least I guessed there to be fifty undead making their way across the field and another twenty in the tunnel. It was easy to locate the pairs. Their heat signatures were blazing icons against the cold of the walking corpses. I dropped the weapon for a second to confirm something.

Snow.

It was coming down in large wet flakes that didn’t drift so much as plummet to earth. That was just great.

“You folks really have a system here,” a voice right behind me made me jump. It was the newcomer, Nickie.

“Still a work in progress,” I said, bringing the scope back up to my eye.

Ian and Jamie were up on one of the berms with crossbows. Fiona and Billy had come down the hill on the east side and were circling around the rear of the main body of the herd. Jon and Jake were busy making noise as they killed the leading edge of the pack. This would keep most of the zombies focused on them as Billy and Fiona came from behind and took the easy kills.

“Maybe so,” the woman’s voice held a hint of skepticism. “But none of the groups I’ve travelled with had it like this.”

“Groups?”

“First bunch I hooked up with only lasted a day…but I still count ‘em.” Nickie’s voice changed, a bit and I could tell she was fighting back tears. “My husband and son and I were in one of those useless FEMA centers when a bunch of the people inside who’d been bitten all started to turn.”

I listened as she recounted her story and felt a bit guilty that I wasn’t giving her my full attention. However, I had six of my people out there taking down a large number of undead that had followed us after we’d gone and gathered up her friend Christina. I wasn’t blaming her for the situation, but the fact was that, at the moment, I had a job to do.

A child-sized zombie was scrambling up the berm behind Jamie. His focus was on the handful in front of him. He wouldn’t see the other until it was too late. Sighting in, I squeezed the trigger. The tiny figure jerked sideways and slid back down the dirt incline.

While not technically silenced, the suppressor helped muffle the sound greatly. Jamie never even knew how close he’d come. I sighted in on a pair that were going to be a problem for Fiona who was busy trying to pull her machete blade free of a skull. I put them both down before I realized that Nickie had stopped talking.

“Sorry about that.” I looked at her and saw the tears I’d heard in her voice.

“No,” she waved a dismissive hand. “I should probably be inside in case your doctor has news.” With that, she turned and ducked through the door.

I scanned the scene. The hardest part was deciding who was actually in enough danger for me to expend one of our precious rounds of ammunition. Up in the crow’s nest, DeAngelo would be doing the same thing. I sighted in on one that was slipping up behind Ian when Nickie came out onto the porch in a tizzy.

Great
, was my initial thought,
her friend didn’t make it
.
That was unfortunate.

“Steve?” Her voice was strange. I hadn’t known her for more than a few hours, but there was something off about it. “The doctor wants you inside right now.”

“Does she understand what is going on right now?” I said over my shoulder as I exhaled slowly and squeezed the trigger. Another zombie toppled.

“She said that no matter what you said, you needed to come in right now.”

Of all the things I could say about Dr. Zahn, there was one thing for absolute certain. She was not an individual prone to exaggeration. I handed the rifle to Nickie.