The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (115 page)

“
Three?”

“
Dead got her... Dragged
her off in back of the houses... She was dead already I think...
Bitten...” she lowered her voice. “Same with these two.”

He looked back down at the
two.

“
How did you get injured?”
he asked the girl.

Beth stepped up beside him. “Dead girl
had her pinned to the ground. She wasn't hurt before that. Had the
boy too.”

“
That's a
fuckin' lie!
A fuckin' lie!”
The boy screamed. “
They
never touched us... never
. We got away,”
he added in a near normal voice. He turned and looked back down the
road at the dead, and when he did, Bear saw the blood leaking from
his hairline. He looked back at the girl and her eyes were locked
on his, staring up at him.

“
Girl?” Bear
asked.

She frowned and then nodded. “I don't
know. I think I cut it on the road... He did,” she turned and
pointed at the boy. “They slammed his head into the road,” She
tilted her head as she looked up at Bear and then Beth. “It might
have been. It was this close,” she held her index finger and thumb
barely apart. “Could have been.” She cleared her throat.

“
We've been here, we didn't
just get here. They're dumb... They can't even get out of their own
way. But we found some this morning that weren’t dumb... somehow,”
she seemed confused. “Set them on fire. Some got away,” she shook
her head, staggered, and then her eyes cleared. She continued,
“Hell, maybe all of them got away. The thing is, they weren't
stupid. Not like the ones we've been dealing with,” she shrugged.
Her eyes fluttered as she spoke, and she staggered
again.

“
Sick,” Beth
whispered.

The boy looked up. “I'm telling you,
they never got her at all. Never did.” His own eyes were glazed, no
doubt due to the head injury hiding under the hair that was slowly
darkening and becoming plastered to his head. The blood was bright
red now, flowing down his neck. He held the girl for a second, but
it seemed all he could take, and they both sagged to the
ground.

“
Goddammit,” Bear muttered.
“I guess that explains the fire though.”

Down the road, three dead staggered
into the street from a house where they had seen several others
come from. Before Bear could speak, Mac and Billy dropped all four
with just a short burst from their weapons. “Getting a lot better,”
Bear said. “A lot.” They said nothing. He looked back down at the
girl and boy and then walked away and looked over at
Beth.

“
I am not for it. I think
she's sick... Maybe not the boy, but what the fuck can we do?” Beth
asked.

Bear nodded. When he spoke, his voice
was a deep whisper. “Nothing. He's not going to leave her.” He
leaned forward and looked down at her where she lay curled in the
boy's arms. He was out. Maybe not coming back. The blood was still
pumping from his head and flowing down his neck.

Bear squatted and peered down at the
girl and the boy for a few moments before he spoke again. “What do
you think of her hand?”

Beth squatted beside him and looked
down at the girl. She stood and shook her head. “I can't tell. It
looks like she's turning. Turns black, you know, but just under the
skin... like... like a spiderweb flowing out under their skin. Bad
description, I know,” she finished.

“
Not really. Pretty close
to what I have seen. Looks like the capillaries just under the skin
turn black. Takes no time at all... spreads to the rest of the
body. Can take the finger, hand, foot... if you're fast enough.
Stop it right there. I've seen it done.”

Beth met his eyes. Her voice was low.
“Can't take her head off. She's got the other cut on her face and
that seems to be turning black too... around the edges. Can't tell
for sure yet.”

“
No. Looks it to me too.”
Bear sighed. He rubbed at his eyes and then turned to Billy. “How
long do you guys need to finish your project?”

“
Rest of today. Tomorrow to
test it and make sure it's okay.”

“
Yeah? All that work and
that's it?” Beth asked.

“
Not as complicated as it
looks. It's swapping out the body, really. Everything is in the
wiring harness, just run it into the van cab... wire up a switch.
The big deal is mounting the body. I have a welder, I have a
generator, but I'm not so hot with welding.”

“
Really? Well, like I said,
I am. Show me what you got, what you need, and as long as you can
juice up that welder, I'll get it done for you,” Bear
said.

Billy laughed. “Man. That's good. I was
worried about it, but...” He broke off as Bear turned away and
looked back over the edge of the bus. “I'll wait for you... get the
generator fired up. I have to cut some plate steel and make what I
need you to weld. We'll be waiting.”

Bear turned back and nodded. “Be there
in a bit.”

Billy's eyes slid up to Mac, and a
second later they both turned and made their way down the
ladder.

“
Dell... we got this,
Dell.” Bear turned and looked at Dell. Dell nodded, relief clearly
written on his face, turned and made his way carefully down the
ladder.

Bear reached into his pocket, pulled
his pouch out and rolled a cigarette.

“
Roll me one,” Beth
said.

“
Yeah? This is rough
stuff.”

“
Yeah. Roll me one,” Beth
repeated.

Bear rolled a second cigarette, handed
it to Beth and then struck a match. Beth leaned in and pulled a
deep breath as Bear held the match to her cigarette. He lit his
own, looked over the edge, and then tossed the match after he shook
it out. His eyes looked down the street where the three dead had
now become four, bumping around parked cars. One had walked into
the side of a house. It kept backing up and then walking straight
forward again, slamming into the side of the house over and over
again.

One had found the middle of the street
and was drunkenly staggering its way toward them. Bear flicked his
machine pistol to single shot, raised it, sighted and squeezed the
trigger. Half the zombie's head instantly disappeared from its
shoulders. The other half seemed to hold together for a moment and
then toppled to the left. The zombie dropped in to the street in a
heap. Beth coughed beside him. He turned.

“
Jesus, Bear. Rough is not
the word.”

Bear nodded and then looked down at the
two teens. The girls face was beginning to darken, her hand was a
mass of small spidery black lines. The boys head wound was slowing,
but there was a fine mass of black lines running across one cheek.
“Guess that answers that,” Bear said quietly.

Beth took a deep pull off the cigarette
and rubbed at her temples with her free hand. “Is this the way it's
going to be, do you think?”

Bear's cigarette dangled from his lower
lip, seeming plastered there. “No...” He raised his eyes. “We're
gonna find that place and settle down there. No more of this
shit.”

Beth flicked her cigarette off the edge
of the roof. “Bullshit. I don't see it. I don't believe it exists,
and if it does, I don't think you can settle down.”

Bear took a deep pull from his own
cigarette and then flicked it off the roof too. He said nothing,
but leaned forward and looked off the edge of the roof. He looked
back up and held her eyes for a moment. Beth stepped forward too,
shrugged her machine pistol from her shoulder and into her hands.
She raised her eyes to Bear. He nodded, thumbed his pistol to full
auto, and sprayed the two where they lay up against the bus below.
Beth's pistol hammered away too. They were brief bursts, but they
did the job. They both backed away a moment later.

“
Okay?” Bear
asked.

Beth nodded.

Bear slipped his pistol back into the
sheath on his back, walked to the other side of the bus, snagged
the ladder and dragged it upward. A moment later he was lowering it
on the other side.

“
Got you,” Beth said
tightly.

Bear climbed down the ladder. A few
moments later he was pulling the bodies away from the side of the
bus, dragging them over behind the nearest house and rolling them
down into the ravine that the rains had cut into the hillside
there. In less than a minute, he was climbing back up the ladder
and then pulling it up behind him.

Beth watched the street. There were two
more dead that were getting closer. The one was still slamming
repeatedly into the side of the house down the street.

“
Okay?” Bear asked
quietly.

She turned to him. “Yeah. It is what it
is.” She thought for a second, but didn't know what else she could
say.

Bear nodded. “I'll send Dell back.” He
waited for a second.

“
Got a pint... Got a couple
actually...” Beth said.

“
You offering to buy me a
drink?” Bear asked.

She held his eyes. “I think I'm
offering more than that. I don't want to cause
problems...”

Bear nodded, “I'll send Dell. We'll
take a little walk. We can talk this out, I think.”

“
Yeah?” She moved closer to
him. Bear started to lean toward her and the ladder rattled. Beth
stepped back, smoothed her shirt unconsciously and looked toward
the ladder.

Iris's head rose above the ladder
level. “Something's wrong with Winston,” she said.

Bear looked a question at
her.

“
I don't
know...
sick...
Cammy said he has pain in his arm.” Iris looked from Beth to
Bear and then back and forth again. “You had to kill them
kids?”

Bear sighed. “Mac told you?”

“
Well, yeah.”

“
Yeah... Had to... Okay,
I'm coming,” he turned back to Beth, an apology in his eyes. Her
own eyes said she understood. “I'll send Dell.” She nodded. Bear
turned and followed Iris down the ladder.

“
I can't believe it,” Iris
muttered as they walked toward the garage.

“
What?” Bear said,
“Winston?”

“
Please...
You two are
fucking!”
She lowered her voice to a
hissed whisper.

Bear was taken aback. “What the hell
are you talking about?” He stopped and closed one hand on her
shoulder, turning her back to face him.

She squinted her eyes. “Are you
serious? It's obvious.”

“
It's obvious that you see
something that isn't happening,” Bear said.

"”Right... Right... I won't tell. But
it's fucked up. You shouldn't be with Cammy if it's Beth you
want.”

“
I'm telling you nothing's
going on,” Bear said.

She glanced down at his hand, shrugged
it from her shoulder. “No? You will be. It's not fair to Cammy is
what I'm saying.” She turned and walked off to the garage, leaving
Bear standing for a second before he got his feet moving and
followed her.

The Nation

“
I don't want you to go,”
Patty said.

“
I know... I would rather
have you go too, but...”

“
I
know... And I don't want to go. I don't think I could take the
riding. So, let me be clear...
you.”
She propped herself up on her
elbow next to him, the weight of one breast pressing softly against
Ronnie’s arm, and poked her finger into Ronnie's chest. “I don't
want
you
to
go.”

“
It's not fair to blind
me,” Ronnie said.

Patty looked down at her breasts.
“Assets,” she said.

“
Headlights,” Ronnie
said.

Patty smacked his arm with an open
hand.

“
Ow,” Ronnie said in a mock
hurt voice. “Blind me then beat me.”

“
I don't want you to go.”
She punched his arm with a closed fist.

“
Ouch. Now that hurt.”
Patty drew back her hand to do it again. “Okay... Okay, I'll stop
screwing around... Honey, I can't do anything about it. You know
that.”

Patty dropped her fist and laid her
head back on his chest. Her fingers picking at the tight curls of
his chest hair. “I know... I just didn't like the way it went down.
It was like you guys went to Bob, Bob went to Sandy, Sandy lowered
the boom on Candy and me.” She raised her head from his chest and
held his eyes with her own.

“
It didn't go that way,
exactly.”

“
So,
how
exactly
did it go?”

“
Pats.”

“
No... No
fair... No
Pats
this or that. What did you two do or say? It's important,
because if you feel like you can't talk to me... ask me...
share with me...
If you
have to go behind my back...”

“
Nobody
went behind anyone’s back. It went like this. Mike me, Bob and Tom
were talking. I guess Mike and I brought it up. Bob said Sandy
wouldn't let either of you go. I didn't, Mike didn't, Bob didn't,
Tom didn't. Nobody said anything else. Sandy had already planned to
tell you. And Mike and I had planned to say no, even if it meant
that we couldn't solve it with you, if we had to end up not going.
Whatever it took, but nobody ganged up, conspired.
Honey,
you're six months
pregnant.
You said yourself that you
wouldn't go.”