Stay Dead: A Novel (20 page)

“
It’s crazy, maybe if we all went
it could work. But we’d be dead long before the city. Just think
about how many more of them there’ll be in a big city like that.
Whoever didn’t burn up from the bombing is going to come back—a
city of the dead--”

“
Against the two of us,” Jon-Jon
cut her off, “they wouldn’t stand--”

“
We wouldn’t even be a snack,” she
snapped. “We would get up, as dead as them, and come right back
here looking for…” she broke off into tears.

Jon-Jon held her, but couldn’t console her one bit.
They cried in each others arms, unable to move. They would stay the
course. They would help build the wall, and maybe, just maybe they
would survive.

***

“
I want to go back home,” Judy
said.

“
Me too, babe,” Scott replied, “I
don’t see it happening, but I want to go back too.”

“
I miss Mister Butters so much,”
she began to weep. “I hope he’s okay.”

“
I know, I know.” He rubbed her
back.

“
Steamer’s doing just fine on his
own, he never needed us—it was the other way around,” Scott
said.

“
Stop calling him
that.”

“
It’s his name,” Scott
smiled.

After a few quiet moments Judy said, “We’ll never
see our home again, will we? This is never going to end is it?
We’re all just going to die.”

“
It has to end. We can survive
this. We just have to be smart about it. We got to keep our heads
screwed on straight.” Scott rubbed his forehead. “If you want to go
back home we can try it. But I feel safer with everyone else. I
think we stand a better chance together than we do on our
own.”

“
Me too. I’d love to go back home,
though, but you’re right. We’re safer together. Maybe this wall
thing can work, too, right?”

“
Sure it can. All we need is
enough time to do it.”

With that they felt more at ease. They felt hope
begin to kindle again somewhere deep inside them.

CHAPTER 22
: Runaways

They were driving on fumes, and fast too. How they
made it so far and managed to survive none of them knew. After
Titan City had been leveled, and another after that, they knew they
had to leave and get as far away as they could. They didn’t know
how, or to where, and a series of near-disasters on the road had
led them to just outside of New Haven.

They had not rested, had not slept, and had only
managed to drive by some form of autonomy. Everything that had
gotten them to where they were was by accident or luck, and either
of them would be hard-pressed to differentiate between the two.

Fighting to keep her eyelids open, Danni drove as
fast as the car would allow her. She had with her two passengers:
to her right, Clem, was barely awake, and Darryl, the panicked
back-seat driver who was practically sitting on her shoulder
irritating the shit out of her. They came across him by sheer luck
as well, and as the two in the front would agree, it was probably a
bit of bad luck. The guy was bad news, drugged-out, annoying, and
of little-to-no help at all.

Dane was on roadblock duty again. But apart from
guarding the town line he was also to be doing some preliminary
work on what would be the wall: and that meant digging, and Dane
hated digging. He didn’t go through the academy to dig ditches. He
became a cop to stop bad guys and go on high-speed car chases.
Little did he know that he would be giving out speeding tickets for
most of the time leading up to the end of days.

Dane noticed the little car kicking up dust in the
distance and whistled to Keith, who was also working the roadblock
with him. Keith had a flask in one hand and a shovel in the other.
He looked in the direction of Dane’s finger and nodded, but didn’t
seem impressed. They didn’t have many people coming through town
lately, but he figured they would eventually.

They pulled themselves up out of the growing ditch,
and readied themselves behind their cruisers. Dane stood ready with
a rifle while Keith grabbed the handset to the car’s PA system. The
car was not slowing down.

“
Stop the car,” Keith slurred
out.

They didn’t.

“
Stop the car,” Keith yelled
louder.

The car continued to speed forward. Dane was ready
to fire.

“
Stop the fucking car, or we will
shoot,” Keith screamed.

Dane fired at the front tire. Though not the best of
shots, he hit his mark and caused the car to swerve violently. It
didn’t slow down however, and Dane and Keith had to run out of the
way as it came crashing into the two cruisers.

The back-seat driver was thrown through the
windshield, sending tiny cubes of bloodied glass into the air. He
smacked his face on the cruiser and then lay limp on the hood of
it. Danni had fallen asleep, and only after the impact of smashing
into the two police cruisers did she stir from sleep. Her nose was
broken on the steering wheel and blood poured from it—she was in a
daze. Clem lay unconscious with his body slumped forward, after
smacking his head against the dashboard. Had he not been wearing a
seatbelt he’d probably have been thrown through the windshield with
Darryl.

Dane rushed toward the car, slinging the rifle over
his shoulder and pulling out his service weapon from his holster.
Keith was right behind him.

“
Don’t fucking move,” Dane
commanded.

“
Wha-wha- happened,” Danni
mumbled, her words soft around the edges.

“
Dane,” Keith tapped his
shoulder.

“
What is it,” he
turned.

The back-seat driver lifted himself from the hood of
the cruiser. His jaw was slack and his face was mangled. He began
to move, but Keith and Dane both fired at the dead man. They didn’t
have to check his pulse to know he wasn’t alive. The dead things
had a look to themselves that no living person could pull off,
actor or not.

The noise of the gunshots jolted Danni and Clem,
back to reality and out of their semi-unconsciousness. Danni began
to scream, and Clem tried to figure out what the hell had
transpired in the short amount of time since he’d fallen
asleep.

“
Oh, my God! What’ve you done, why
did you kill him,” she screamed.

“
Maam, calm down.” Dane said to
her. “He was already dead.” Dane told her.

“
Then why are you pointing the
fucking gun at me?” She was screaming at him. “I don’t believe you.
Leave us alone!”

“
You drove straight at us you dumb
bitch.” Keith stormed closer to her.

“
Don’t you talk to her like that
you bastard,” Clem yelled as he got out of the car, stumbling with
a bloody forehead.

“
Sir, do not move. Stay where you
are and put your hands in the air.”

“
You gonna shoot him too? Shoot us
both?”

“
No way,” Clem chimed in. “She’s
hurt and I’m hurt, and I’ll be Goddamned if I’m going to let you
two do anymore damage. Shoot me if you want, but I ain’t gonna take
yer shit.”

“
Listen old man, we don’t want to
hurt you. We told you to stop but you guys kept driving. Look at it
from our point of view—you tried to run us down!”

“
Well we didn’t mean to, I fell
asleep and I guess Danni did to. We didn’t mean it. We haven’t
slept, just been driving…seems like days. We don’t have any real
weapons, just a pipe and a baseball bat. Now I’m gonna get her out
of the car. You two want to help or keep pointing your guns at
us?”

They helped get the woman from the car. She was
weak, and dizzy. Dane got them both some water. He sat with them by
the side of the road as Keith called for back-up.

***

Sal, having slept enough to just barely function
answered the call for back-up. When he arrived on the scene he saw
Dane and Keith looking over their cruisers and spotted the two new
arrivals to town. He pulled over close to the two folks who sat off
to the side. They looked at him with penetrating skeptical eyes.
The type of eyes he had grown accustomed to since putting on the
badge.

In Sal’s experience most people didn’t care much for
cops unless they needed them. Even in a town like New Haven he
still got the looks, less than he did before his move, but some
were just nicer about it. Not these two, these two looked like they
didn’t even trust the wind or the sun.

He stepped over to the car and nodded to the two
folks. He tried to smile and they didn’t smile back.

“
Hi there, you folks
okay?”

“
Been better,” the man
said.

“
Been worse,” said
Danni.

“
You mind me asking what happened
here?”

“
You just did,” cracked the old
man.

“
Guess so. Well?”

“
I guess I fell asleep at the
wheel.” Danni said. “Crashed into your friends over there—got our
friend killed.”

“
Sorry about your friend, atleast
you two are okay, right?” Sal forced a smile. He couldn't care less
about their friend, or about them. But since his brothers of the
badge were okay he would try to keep his humanity, even if it was
fading fast.

“
It’s okay,” Clem said. “He wasn’t
exactly a friend, more like a pain in the ass. But he was alive for
a bit and we’d rather travel with one of the living than one of the
dead.”

“
Hmm,” Sal nodded, unsure of what
else to say. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go see what
the damage is.” He walked over to Dane and Keith.

Keith stared at Sal with squinty eyes as he walked
over to them. Dane was kneeling down looking under the car, trying
to figure out what was leaking.

“
Thank God it’s Friday,” Sal
said.

“
Shit, it’s Friday already? I
guess that means you brought us our checks,” Keith
smiled.

“
Checks? Ever hear of direct
deposit?”

Keith laughed. “I don’t trust computers.”

“
What’s the damage?”

“
Well, this one’s leaking
something. Looks like coolant. And it’s not turning over. The
other’s fine, besides the busted taillight. That guy’s dead, and
their car is totaled.” Dane stood up and brushed off his
pants.

“
Yep, he looks dead all right,”
Sal smirked.

“
Had no idea New Haven was such a
tourist destination. Maybe we should get cracking on this wall, so
we can keep people out—especially if their crashing in like this.”
Sal chuckled.

“
Don’t get me started on that
fucking wall bullshit,” Keith slurred.

They all had a good laugh, though Keith really
didn’t think this wall was a great idea. He felt it was a joke that
he just didn’t get. Sal and Dane were on board with it but knew it
was a huge undertaking, maybe more than they could handle. The two
sitting off to the side didn’t seem to appreciate the laughter.

“
Clem, what’re you thinking?”
Danni whispered.

“
Thinking about my sweet
Lorraine,” he replied.

“
I know you are. But what about
these people?”

“
They seem okay I guess—they’re
breathing air, right? What more do you want from them?”

“
I dunno. They just seem to be
taking this all so lightly.”

“
Maybe that’s how they cope with
it. But we’ve been cooped up and removed from the reality of things
for a long time. These guys seem like they’ve been on the front
lines the whole time. Just look at all the remains.”

Danni hadn’t noticed it before but once she began to
pay attention to her surroundings she noticed all sorts of human
remains scattered around. Just a few feet away from where they sat
lied a crumbled up pile of ash and bone. The dust and dirt covered
it like camoflauge—she looked around at the landscape and shivered
at the number of bones she spotted. Clem was right, she thought.
She had been removed from the world. She was a stranger to it now,
and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to get to know it.

CHAPTER 2
3: Unrest

West Virginia.

Mount Weather Special Facility.

Rachel rubbed her temples firmly and slowly.
Her head ached, her neck hurt, and grabbing a nap on the cot in the
break room didn’t do her any favors. She fished around in her bag
and pulled out a bottle of aspirin. She twisted the top off and
shook three of the little white tablets into the palm of her hand,
popped them into her mouth and swallowed. She didn’t need anything
to chase them down, but opened a can of cola anyway. She drank it
for the sugar and the caffeine more than anything. Rachel wasn’t
much for sodas but she figured it couldn’t hurt, it was the end of
the world anyway—a few calories weren’t going to kill her, at least
she hoped.

She tilted her head back and emptied the last
mouthful of bubbly cola into her mouth. She swished the fluid
around in her mouth, then gulped it down. Taking aim at a
wastebasket in the far corner she launched the empty can. It hit
the floor about four feet shy, filling the room with a clank and
then a scuttle. Rachel snapped her fingers in mock disappointment
and headed for the door.

She was once again suited up and ready to
continue her work with the cadaver. A new guard was in the same
spot as the old one, who nodded at her as she entered the room. She
nodded back.