Deadies: Run for Your Life (6 page)

“
Nick!” I called out. Was he still alive?

“
BLAM! BLAM!” Two more gunshots, the proof, he was still alive. The sparks from the gunshots lead me to him. I shouldn’t bring more deadies in his path but I couldn’t think of a better plan. Nick was standing below a nightlight in the middle of dead corpses. He had slain them all. I ran toward him with my personal deadie trio hot on my trail. He lifted his gun. “BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!” One by one plus one more, he took out the three deadies with shots to the head. Was his eye sight that good or was the taped flashlight on top of his Glock an act of genius? A question for a later time.

“
Are you okay?” Nick asked.

“
Yeah, I shot one of them.” I wanted to tell him I wasn’t useless.

“
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone.”

Tears welled in the corner of my eyes. I tried to hide my sudden panic. “Can we get our supplies and get out of here.”

“
Yeah,” Nick said as I followed him back to our carts.

The silence was interrupted by a single growl. We turned around and the swinging double doors that read employees only, burst open. There were three more deadies full of vigor trudging toward us.

“
BLAM!” Nick shot one in the head. The deadie fell. Another deadie detoured around a rack of clothing and was headed in a straight line right at me. I tripped over a metal bar sticking out the bottom of a display. Now I will die like all those other women in horror films that trip and fall. I was on the floor and I could not see Nick anymore. I could plainly see the deadie salivating at the sight of me as I crawled backwards. I could see deadie’s milky cataract eyes beaming down on me.

“
BLAM!” The left side of the deadies head was blown to bits. His boney body tumbled down, right on top of me. In a frenzy, I pushed the gross corpse off of me. A hand reached down to help me up. It was Naveen holding a smoking gun.

I stood and looked for Nick. He was a few feet away standing over a deadie with a hunting knife lodged in the center of its forehead.

Nick bent down on one knee and removed his knife for the dead skull. “Pop goes the weasel.” He wiped the blood on a pair of shorts hanging on the rack beside us.

“
Time to go home,” Naveen said.

“
Let’s grab our shit and get the hell out of here.” Nick grabbed both his carts.

Naveen took one of my carts and we ran through the aisle. We pushed and ran like playful kids but fun didn’t move our feet, fear did. We made it to the employee side door faster than humanly possible. Fear makes you superhuman. A life lesson I learned the day my neighbor Laura viciously attacked me. We quickly loaded our goods into the trucks. We had collected quite a bit of goods. Nick reached up and pulled the strap to close the truck door. He slammed it down and hooked the latch. That was enough excitement for one day. Enough life or death for one lifetime.

“
Nick!” Terror rang in Naveen’s voice.

Nearly ten deadies were shuffling toward us from the rear of the superstore. Nick turned to me. “Get in and start the truck!” I ran to the driver’s side.

Naveen had his gun pointed. The deadies were getting closer and closer to the Escalade. “We have to leave the Caddy!”

Nick slammed the trunk of the Escalade. “No, you get in the mail truck with Jesse! Get out of here!” Nick yelled just as I started the truck. I looked at my right rearview mirror and I could see the deadies running at us. I looked over at the left side rearview mirror and there were more deadies.

Naveen opened the passenger door and he was in the seat next to me. “Jesse, go!”

“
We can’t leave Nick!”

“
Go! Go! Go!” I heard Nick yell over the roar of the engine and the groans of the deadies vastly approaching.

I put the mail truck in drive and sped off. “BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!” There were too many shots to count. Naveen’s head was backwards out the window. He was watching Nick fight for his life. I was too afraid to look back. I didn’t want to see it. Instead I glanced down at the speedometer. I was up to forty-five miles per hour.

“
He’s in the truck.” Naveen said through the window. “BLAM!” There was a single shot that echoed behind us.

“
What?” I looked down at the driver’s side mirror and I could see the Escalade moving behind us. It was driving backwards. There were deadies running behind it or more accurately in front of it.

“
I think he’s okay.” Naveen said while keeping watch out his window.

I took another look in the mirror and Nick was gaining ground on us. I watched as he spun the huge luxury truck around. Now he was headed in the same direction, forward instead of backwards.

“
That was close.” Nick’s voice rejoiced over the walkie-talkie’s. I exhaled. My walkie was hooked to the side of my shorts. I had forgotten about it. I grabbed it and handed it over to Naveen.

“
You scared the crap out of us. Jesse has both hands on the wheel.” Naveen looked over at me and smiled with relief.

“
I scared the crap out of myself. Did you see the freak hanging on my door?”

“
Yeah I saw you take him out.” Naveen said into the walkie.

“
Pop goes the weasel.” Nick pulled up on the side of us and looked over at me. I was so happy he was alive. Nick placed the walkie to his lips. “Straight to the house, follow me.” Nick sped up in front of us and took the lead.

CHAPTER 5

The group appeared to be happy with the things we gathered and we lived peacefully for the next week without incident. The deadies were increasing in numbers at night outside the windows. With teamwork, we had our fortress locked up nice and tight.

Since the women didn’t have to take shifts being look-outs. I stayed with Nick when it was his turn. No one trusted Malik with lookout duty so he was regulated some other menial duties. One of which was inventory. Malik gave me the creeps. He was a brown colored black man with messy hair and a mustache. He looked like he was up to something. I didn’t feel like I could trust him. Marine Joe kind of scared me. I would catch him talking to himself and he was always playing with his guns. Worse, he would walk around would a bullet in his mouth. He chewed it like it was gum. That was far beyond weird as far as I was concerned and we all lived in a world of the weird.

Naveen had saved my life in Target so I treated him like a little brother. He was two years younger than me. He had a wealth of knowledge that was not superior or obnoxious. Nick was right; Naveen was the resident nerd, our very own Goggle search engine. Naveen prayed many times throughout the day. He was the most peaceful and tranquil person in the group.

I spent lots of time with Kait. She was a sweet kid tossed into a horrible situation and she handled it better than I would have at that age. I admired her strength. She took care of her dad. Kait’s dad, the good doctor was hard for me to read. He was a nice guy. Is there a such thing as too nice? Michelle had a crush on the doctor and I think they were sleeping together. One night I saw the doctor sneak into Michelle and Kait’s bedroom. I knew Kait was asleep on the couch downstairs so I figured it out. Ray confirmed my suspicions. Michelle didn’t say a word to me and I was fine with that. You can’t make anyone like you when they don’t really have a good reason for disliking you in the first place. I spent most of my time with Nick and Ray. Ray helped with the boredom. Ray was pretty, like a gay guy but he was straight. He was like my best girlfriend in the house but a guy.

This day Nick was in the kitchen drinking with Joe. Ray and I were in Ray and Naveen’s room upstairs. Ray and I lay next to each other in bed. Something we had done plenty of times before. The door was wide open. I thumbed through a gun magazine while Ray played a handheld video game.

“
I have a secret.” Ray taunted without looking away from the game.

“
What’s your secret?”

“
I know who you are, Jesse Bordeaux.” Ray looked from the game to smirk at me.

I fell silent, my face fell flat. Deer in headlights comes to mind.

“
Fix your face. I’m not going to tell anyone. Obviously you don’t want the cat out the bag. Bordeaux is a French last name, Creole?

“
Oui, my grandfather was Creole. How did you know?”

“
You just look it. My grandmother was Creole… Your profession, shouldn’t you be in New York or L.A.?”

“
I was born in Chicago. I have, I had a place here.” I loved my place before it was violated by a deadie.

“
I didn’t know that? How the hell did you get from Chicago to Eola?”

“
The same way you did. I run from them. I fought them and I hide from them. I survived and I’m here to tell the tale.”

“
If things ever go back to normal, you’ll have one hell of a story.”

“
We all will have one hell of a story.” That’s if we live to tell it.

“
True… You know you are different than I would have thought.”

“
How so?”

“
I don’t know. I thought you would be uppity. You’re really cool.”

“
I’m from Chicago not Beverly Hills. Can anyone from Chicago be uppity? You can’t walk around like a diva in four inches of snow.”

“
True… So what’s up with you and Nick?”

“
Nothing’s up?” I shrugged it off.

“
Is he gay?” Ray said without conviction.

“
I don’t think so. No, I know he’s not.”

“
He sleeps next to you every day and he makes no moves. I give him one more week.”

“
Whaaaaaaaaaat?”

“
He’s going to poke you in your sleep. Get ready.”

“
No he’s not.” I blushed.

“
Did you grab any protection when you went out shopping?”

“
Protection was the last thing on our minds. Nick is not going to touch me but if he did, I’m ready.” I giggled. It feels good to giggle.

“
I’m sure you are. Every time he opens his mouth, you watch his lips.”

“
I do not. Damn, I do don’t I.” I laughed out loud and Ray raised one eyebrow.

“
Make sure he knows we’re just friends. Make sure he knows I’m not trying to move in on his territory. That’s one white boy who can kick my ass. You see the guns on that Billy-bob?” Ray flexed his bicep muscle.

“
Yeah he has nice muscles.”

Nick appeared in the doorway. He peered in on us. “Hey.”

“
Hey,” Ray said as he focused all his attention on the video game in his hands.

“
What you guys doing in here?” Nick casually inquired.

“
Absolutely nothing,” Ray said with much more clarity than needed. “Absolutely nothing, I got my hands on the game.” Ray mumbled so Nick couldn’t hear him. Or at least I hoped he didn’t hear it.

Nick stood awkwardly for a second. “Okay.” Nick walked away from the door. Ray and I listened as he walked up the attic’s stairs.

“
Okay Jesse time for you to go.”

“
Why?” I innocently asked.

“
Nick needs you. That was his nonverbal mating call.”

“
Whaaaaaaaaaat?”

“
Nick’s mouth said okay but his mind said, Jesse get out of that bed with that black man.”

“
Stop being silly,” I grinned as Ray raised one eyebrow.

“
That dude is not going to beat the black off me for some chick I haven’t even sleep with.”

“
You are full of it.”

“
I know. Get out.” Ray held his video game with one hand and pushed me out the bed with the other. I threw the gun magazine at him. It hit him in his head. I stuck my tongue out at Ray. I did my happy dance from his bedroom as he watched.

I went upstairs to the attic. Nick was sitting on the air mattress with his back to me.

“
Do you want to be alone?” I asked.

“
No, I’m cool.” Nick turned to glance at me. “What’s up?”

“
Oh nothing, are you okay?”

“
Yes mother.” He hissed. That was an insult. Did he think of me as his mother? “There’s going to be a family meeting tonight.”

“
Really,” I noticed Nick looked tired, more than his usual fatigue.

“
Doc wants to talk about moving from the house.”

“
How do you feel about that?” I took a seat on the mattress next to Nick.

“
We got to go. Question is when and where.” He ran one hand through his dirty blonde hair.

“
Well whatever happens, I’ll back your play.”

“
I know. You’re really loyal. Loyalty is hard to come by, even before the zombie raid.”

I agreed. “You have quite a few tattoos. Can I see them?”

“
Sure.” Nick proudly pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it behind him.

I gasped and hoped he didn’t hear it. His body was male model amazing. Who knew mechanics looked like this under those ugly dark gray one piece jumpsuits. “What’s this one?” I pointed at the old styled lettering on his chest.

“
I don’t really want to tell you about that one.” He smirked.

“
Why not?” I was really curious now.

Nick innocently rubbed his chest. “You will laugh.” His smirk turned into a full-blown smile.