Only The Dead Don't Die (35 page)

Justin snuck his way back to the house where they’d been hiding out the past few weeks, his pack heavy with non-expired canned goods. He found himself rushing, not being as careful as usual. His excitement to get to Ella and tell her about his latest find caused him to be overly reckless. It had taken him a while to devise a plan to get Ella off the rooftop for a test run. Try as he might; she absolutely refused to leave the roof. She was so adorably obstinate it drove him insane. Sometimes he worried that they’d be stuck on the rooftop
forever
. But, early this morning, while scrounging through the remains of the already-raided Best Buy for batteries, he got an idea that just might work.

Justin crept to the side of the stucco, Spanish-style house and tossed a pebble on the rooftop, Ella’s signal to lower the rope ladder down from the roof. Ella peeped over the edge of the roof, and the ladder came flinging down. He had a comical vision of Ella as Rapunzel, trapped in her tower, only fast-forwarded a few centuries, replacing castles and witches with rooftops and zombies. He pulled himself over onto the roof and purposively gave Ella one of his best up-to-no-good smirks.

“What?” Ella asked.

“Oh, nothing,” he kept smiling, knowing he had to approach the subject carefully.

“Alright already, tell me,” she whispered anxiously, snatching his pack, already going through the newly collected goodies.

“Yuck, not more beans and corn,” she fussed. “Hey, where did you find these?” she exclaimed, holding up a handful of unopened Duracell AA battery packages.

Justin avoided answering until he showed her the CD player he had found the other day. He had hidden it, waiting to find batteries so he could surprise her.

He came out of the tent, “Ta-Da!” he said, holding up the Sony Walkman CD player. “Now you can listen to music when you sleep,” he announced proudly.

Ella did OK during the day, but at night she freaked-out like a feral kitten, jumping at every little noise. Even when she was sleeping, if any groaning Zs walked by, she’d wake up in a screaming fit. Some nights he didn’t get any sleep at all. So, he’d been super-stoked when he had found the portable CD player; the problem was finding batteries. Batteries were like super-impossible to find these days. This morning, he decided to chance it and checked out Best Buy for batteries.

“Awe-some—” she practically sang. “What CDs did you get?”

“Check it out, Best Buy has tons of CDs—on sale ‘today only,’ ” he quipped.

“So what’s the catch,” Ella frowned.

“Put on your mascara and stuff. We’ve got to get there before they sell out,” Justin teased.

“Are you cuh-ra-zee or what?” She used “the tone.”

The tone, warning him she was close to getting super-pissed, depending on what he said next. So, he just didn’t say anything. Ye-ah, living on this rooftop alone with Ella these past few weeks was like a crash course on how to deal with women and their hormones and their super-illogical ways of thinking.

“What? You got me a CD player
and
the batteries—but
no
CDs?” her tone went up another octave.

“Mariachi music?” he offered with a questioning look. Careful, this could start an entire afternoon of either arguing or sulking. He turned his back to pull up the rope ladder, thereby avoiding the evil-eye-glare he was already getting.

“What kind of music do they have?” her toned changed, and she actually sounded curious.

“Tons of CDs, like all scattered on the floor.”

“I get it. You just want me to go zombie hunting. You’re such a scammer.”

A few seconds more of this, and it would be an entire afternoon of her sulking and ignoring him. “
Whatever
, if you don’t want any music—”

Justin opened a can of Bush’s Baked Beans, the Sweet Heat variety, and heated them on the propane camping stove, while ignoring her, pretending “not to be” waiting for a response.

“So, like how long would it take to get there?” Ella almost whispered.

“Twenty minutes or so depending on the traffic,” he smiled,

She slugged him in the arm. “What traffic?”

Awesome, she’s not mad—but it was a close one.
He was relieved that he hadn’t been banished to spend the entire afternoon in the corner z-watching and thumbing through the stack of comic books he had confiscated.

“So, you wanna go tomorrow morning?” she asked hesitantly.

“Why not now? It’s not even noon yet. The weather’s great—partly cloudy with a slight chance of scattered Zs, but no hordes,” he said very carefully, attempting to sound as if he didn’t care if she went at all.

Complete silence, she paced the rooftop while he pretended not to notice, stuffing his mouth with baked beans.

“You promise—it’s safe out there, right?” she said, her voice uneasy.

“It’s quiet in this part of town. They must be downtown at the Kings’ game,” he smirked.
Yes, think it’s working.
He secretly gave himself kudos for a job well done.
Now if I can just get her to de-activate one . . .

They snuck down Bell Avenue as long as they could. Ella did OK until they saw the first zombie, then, as usual, she froze. He had to carry her to the side of a building while they waited for it to amble down the next street.

“Ella, come on now. It was like way over there.” Justin grabbed her hand, and they began again.

The Arden and Bell intersection appeared ahead. When they silently approached the intersection, the sunlight caricatured the movements of several slow-jerking shadows drifting about the road. It was like the Zs were all waiting there, expecting them. It made him wonder if Zs could actually read his mind, or maybe not so much read it—but see his thoughts like on a big screen TV or something. He decided it was a dumb idea.

When Ella saw the shadows, she froze again; once again he grabbed her hand, and they ducked behind a wrecked SUV.

“C’mon, already—” He gently shook Ella by the shoulders. “They didn’t even see us.” He peeked over the SUV as if to reassure himself. “Ye-ah, they’re just sort of spasming in the middle of the freakin’ road. We’ll go that way,” he pointed. “I know the back way,” Justin said and pulled out a can of Off Insect Repellant Spray from his pack. “This’ll throw them off our tracks.” He had sprayed them before they left but doused them again to give her confidence.

“Come on, ‘Rule #4: Yo smell tells,’ ” he said, trying to encourage her.

“I thought we weren’t doing the ‘number thing’ anymore,” Ella’s brows knitted in disapproval. But she didn’t argue, and they headed the back way.

“Almost there,” he pointed to the shopping center next to the Arden Fair Mall. “It’s right there,” he encouraged, feeling her tense up. “Remember, if you get close to one—start swinging.”
Too much info
. He regretted saying that for she froze-up again, and she just stood there with a vacant expression on her face. It scared the livin’ crap out of him.

“Seriously,
you
can do this,” Justin said, feeling like a cheerleader.

Finally, she shrugged and nodded OK. They were about to turn the corner to the back wall of the Best Buy when he heard a constant thudding-like noise. He put his hand up and mouthed “STOP,” and peered around the corner of the building, surprised to be face to face with one. “Holy Shit,” he gasped. He hadn’t been ready for it mentally, but his crowbar was, and he pounded on it until its bloated skull popped open like a giant zit.

“
Ew
!” Ella screeched.

Justin turned around in time to see the look on Ella’s face, the look of sheer terror and disgust, a look he’d never forget. Grabbing her hand, he led her to the Best Buy’s back door.

“Easy-peasy,” he quipped, except that
one
had actually surprised him. Sure he had heard it, but he’d thought it was at the other side of the building. He figured his spider-senses weren’t as amped as usual because he was too busy worrying about Ella. He absolutely needed to be more careful.
Dude
,
stay focused
.

“Look at all these CDs,” he announced, relieved they had made it here all right. There were piles of plastic-packaged items on the floor as if some kids had gotten their kicks by trashing the store, tossing its entire inventory onto the floor. “Must have been a pissed customer,” he speculated. “Could have been?” he said, responding to Ella’s disapproving frown.

“OK, so you go through these CDs,” Justin said, making sure the back door was securely closed. “I’ll take point at the front of the store.”

“Look who I found—” Ella waved a CD in the air.

He looked over his shoulder and recognized the Lily Allen CD cover. “Cool,” he said while trampling over the plastic coated floor. But, he thought he just heard a different type of sound.
It was probably Ella.
It kind of sounded like it came from the parking lot. He didn’t see anything from the window.

“I like this one too.” She bent down and waved another CD in the air. “Wow, I always wanted this CD,” Ella exclaimed.

At least she was having a good time; he was starting to have second thoughts.
Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.
Justin tiptoed quickly over the littered floor of plastic encased items; the crunching sound drove him cray cray as he rushed to the store’s back entrance to double-check the outside area. No signs of any Zs. So he made his way back to the front of the store and stood guard again. Ella’s comments comforted him as he nervously spied out the cracked, spider-webbed windows of the front entrance frenziedly surveilling the front parking lot.

“Regina Spektor, and, and, Lenka. And Justin, here’s a Linda Ronstadt,” she yelled excitedly.

He heard it again. “Uh, Ella?” he warned in a tone above a whisper. But she wasn’t listening to him.

“Didn’t you say you love Linda Ronstadt?” she yelled again.

“H O L Y S H I T!” he dashed to Ella, slipping on the CD covered floor. “K, now, if you get in a jam, remember to swing your bat like you are a super-insane baseball batter. Ella, like where’s your bat?”

“Somewhere around here.”

It was his turn to give her “the look.”

“What—like you told me to get CDs?” she grimaced.

“Remember rule #—” he stopped in mid-sentence, her frown reminding him that she hated the Z-COS, which he had so logically written. He heard it again, loud and clear. He had no freakin’ doubt this time. The sound of squealing tires approached, and by the expression on her face, Ella heard it too.

“OMG is that—that?” Ella started to shake.

“We don’t know that,” he lied.

He grabbed her by the shoulders, “Ella, Ella, look at me. Do you trust me?”

Her gorgeous eyelashes fluttered closed then opened to reveal her terror, but she nodded yes.

“Chances are they won’t even come in here. I’ll keep watch at the front. You stay back here. It’s safer here,” he said, trying to sound calm.

Two trucks roared passed the store’s entrance down Arden Way, and based on the trucks’ wild antics there was a definite possibility it was Paxton and Nate, for it reminded him of the Z-truck. He still had nightmares about Paxton’s Z-truck.
Having a graphic imagination like super-sucks!
The blue truck stopped at the next intersection and spun 360s like a possessed demon or something. Then, the blue truck came racing back, followed by a black truck, and the two trucks zig-zagged back towards the mall’s parking lot.
Right freakin’ next to the Best Buy!

That’s when Justin saw it.
Holy shit, man, Holy shit! That’s like the biggest freakin’ horde—EVER.
It was like the horde of all hordes and apparently Paxton and Nate were herding it into the Arden Fair Mall’s entrance adjacent to the Best Buy parking lot. Why did they have to pick today, of all days, to go on one of their el sicko Z-smashing runs . . .

Justin clasped his hands over his ears tightly, not wanting to hear all the gushy sound effects as the two zombie-trucks plowed over the horde in a gut-gushing bone-splintering rampage. “Uh, ye-ah, it’s Paxton and Nate.” He heard their whooping of Yee Haws. When the Z-smashing and the ranting finally ceased, Justin and Ella crept out the back door.
Why are Paxton and Nate still in Sacramento?

“What if Scarlett’s with them?” Ella asked in a papery-thin voice. “If she is, you know we gotta rescue her,” Ella said, serious as ever.

“Like, how?” he quipped, feeling guilty that all he had thought about was getting the two of them hecka out of here.

“You got a gun, right?” she said sarcastically.

“Seriously, you think
I
can take down Paxton and Nate?”
No freakin’ way, man.
“WTF, are you out of your
freakin’
mind?” Justin spouted.

“Justin Luke Chen! Don’t you swear at
me
,” she snapped, hastily making the sign of the cross then rubbed at the jade rosary beads around her neck.

I knew I’d regret the day I told her my middle name.
“Ella, I’m not some action hero. I can’t go out there all willy-nilly and expect to—”