The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (127 page)

Here, like the Martin Luther King
Highway, black topped parking areas fronted all manner of fast food
restaurants, store chains and shops, which bordered both sides of
the strip. It wouldn't necessarily assure a way around the stalled
traffic, Billy realized, but it appeared as though it would give
them a much better chance of getting to 405.

Billy led them towards the rear garage
area of the dealership, where they found a full size four wheel
drive Chevy pickup. Billy had worked at a dealership before, and
recognized the garage area as the prep shop.

“
When someone buys a new
car,” Billy said, “or truck, or whatever, they have to prep it.
Take the plastic off the seats, fill the tank, wax it, sort of get
it ready for the customer, you know?”

“
I thought they came from
the factory all ready to go?” Beth said.

“
Well... they do, sort of,”
Billy agreed, “but, they have plastic over the seats to protect
them, and oil drips from the cars overhead on the transport trucks;
dirt gets tracked into them when the guys move them around the lot.
Sometimes they may have a scratch, or small dent that the body shop
guys have to fix, and they get paint over-spray all over the car;
dust in it, you name it. I used to have to prep cars, and it's not
much fun. Minimum wage type of job and the salesman who sold the
car is usually breathing down your neck all the time you're getting
it ready. I hated it. I figured though, if we're going to find a
truck all ready to go, this would be the first place to look.
Gassed up and the whole nine yards. They even waxed it for us.”
Billy finished, trying to break the somber mood that had set in as
they crossed the airfield.

His effort worked partially, Beth
offered him a small smile as she spoke. “You know a lot of things
don't you?”

“
Not really,” Billy said.
“I just worked at a lot of different jobs. Mainly just to stay
employed, but also, I guess, because I believe you should learn as
much as you possibly can. It worked for me. I grew up with a lot of
guys who were constantly unemployed. Maybe they were carpenters, or
roofers, or auto mechanics, whatever. When things would get bad,
they'd get laid off. Not that I never got laid off, I did, but if I
got laid off I could go to work somewhere else fairly quickly. I
can practically build a house from the ground up, and do all the
rough and finish, electrical, plumbing, and carpentry. The same
with cars. I just learn well I guess, and it paid off. Someday I'd
like to build my own house.”

“
I've always wanted to own
a house,” Beth said, the tentative smile had grown wider as she
listened to Billy talk. “I never thought I would live anywhere
except that crummy apartment. If I never own a house I guess that
would be fine with me, as long as I never have to live in that dump
again.”

Billy was nodding his head as she
finished speaking. “I know what you mean. I had a crummy little
place in a little town in northern New York. I used to take all the
overtime I could get, so I wouldn't have to go back to it too soon.
I really hated it, I mean totally. I had this dream of buying some
land and building my own house, when this is over that's what I
would like to do. Just find a nice place and build a house. Maybe
have some cows, I don't know much about cows, but I could learn. I
guess that sounds kind of stupid, but it really is what I want to
do, and if I make it through this in one piece, I'm going
to.”

“
It doesn't sound stupid to
me at all,” Beth said, “in fact it sounds like a good plan, a good
dream to hold on to. I've never really dared to dream. I guess you
know that. I'm not making any excuses, and I'm not really ashamed
of how I lived. I really didn't have many choices. It seems now
though as if I do. I guess now it's okay to dream. You
think?”

“
I think so,” Billy agreed.
“I mean if you can't dream, what's the use, right?” she nodded her
head as if to say yes before Billy continued. “Like, I live my
life, and you live your life. You believe what you want, and I'll
believe what I want. You see?”

“
I do,” Beth said. “I guess
I'm sort of the same way. I always tried to live without hurting
people. I was getting pretty bitter though, I have to admit. I just
saw too much that didn't make any sense to me, and I could never
understand why, if there was a God, he would let so much bad exist.
I guess though, if people want it, it's going to be there. People
thought I was bad, but I never really dared to look at myself. I
guess I was bad, to a certain extent, but what was I supposed to
do?” she seemed pensive.

“
I had family, but... Well,
you know.... I guess I don't want to get into that. Suffice to say
I couldn't be with them. So I was on the street before you came to
L.A. ... Before this last time, and I had to live. I prayed. I
prayed a lot, but God never seemed to hear me. I guess I just gave
up. I lost a lot of friends on the streets. It's sort of like a
family, I don't know if you can understand that, or not, but it is.
We all tried to watch out for one another, but it didn't always
help. When you live your life that way, you can't expect to get any
help from the cops either. I guess I just tried to stay alive from
day to day.” She laughed, “And it was all about to change... I
didn't see you, but they gave me the job singing.” She had lost her
smile as she spoke, replacing it with a wistful pursing of her lips
and a sadness that sat deeply within her eyes.

Billy nodded his head and they both
fell silent for a few seconds.

“
Beth,” Billy said. “It
really doesn't matter anymore. I'm the last guy who would ever
think of judging you. Believe me. I've screwed my life up so many
times it's not funny. As far as I'm concerned what you did, you had
to do. It doesn't make you a bad person at all, and it doesn't have
any bearing on who you are now. I mean that sincerely.”

Now it was her turn to nod her head.
She hadn't realized it, but his opinion mattered to her, and what
he said allowed the small smile to re-surface on her face. She had
told herself that she didn't care what he thought about her, but
she knew even as she told herself that, that she was wrong. It did
matter. It mattered a great deal.

They walked together to the back of the
garage, and pushed up the steel overhead door. It took a few
minutes to move a couple of the cars out of the way, so that they
could drive the pickup out of the garage and into the lot behind
the dealership.

Billy drove the truck across the grassy
back lot, and stopped at the rear of a gas station to look for a
state map. Beth followed him into the deserted station.

She filled a paper bag with some
groceries, mostly canned goods, while Billy opened the map and
studied it on the counter at the front of the station.

“
Looks like the best way
out,” Billy said, “Is still going to be 91. We passed it, we'll
have to back track to catch it. We should be able to skirt around
most of the traffic, shouldn't we?”

“
Believe it or not, I don't
really know,” Beth answered. “I mean I live here, or did, but I
didn't get out of the city at all, or hardly ever, so I don't know
what its’ like.”

She paused and looked at Billy as he
bent over the map. He smiled as he spoke.

“
I actually understand
that,” he said. “I didn't really know a lot about getting around
outside of Watertown. I guess you learn how to get to the places
you need to get to, and that's about it. No real big deal though.
According to the map there are a lot of loops, sort of side roads
that go around, and run parallel to 91, and hey, we've got four
wheel drive, we can cut through the fields if we have to, right?
That will get us to 10 and ten is our ticket east.”

Beth shrugged her shoulders, as she
replied. “I guess?” The attempt at humor was not lost on her, and
she flashed a smile at him as she shrugged her shoulders again. “I
guess if the cows don't mind.”

Billy grinned back, and they both
laughed a little as they walked back out to the truck.

“
You know,” Billy said as
they climbed into the cab of the truck. “We should stop and pick up
a couple of sleeping bags, and maybe a tent too. We still need to
pick up a couple more rifles too.” He didn't want to alarm her, or
make her start to worry, by bringing the subject up once more, but
the truth was that he was fairly worried himself. If there were
armed people running around killing whoever they chose too, it
would be kind of stupid, he thought, not to have better weapons.
Beth had the pistol, and her rifle. Billy had his own pistol and a
rifle, but he wasn't sure it would do a lot of good. He wasn't a
good shot. She surprised him when she not only agreed, but didn't
seem to lose her smile when she did.

“
I think it would be stupid
not to stock up on whatever we can, guns included,” she said,
echoing Billy's thoughts. “You know much about them?”

“
Not really,” Billy
confessed, “I've never even shot a rifle, you know, just never
learned, I guess, or even wanted to. I think I could learn though.
You know anything about them?”

“
Well, now that you mention
it, I do. At least a little. Not from shooting one, but more from
seeing them. There are a lot of pawn shops on Beechwood, sort of
goes with the territory, I guess. That's where I got this,” she
said, holding up her small pistol, “I got the rifle from a smashed
in pawn shop... The has to be a pawn shop or sporting goods shop
out here somewhere.” Almost as she spoke Billy spotted one across
the crowded interstate.

“
There is one,” Billy said
as he pointed.

They left the truck beside the stalled
traffic, and walked through and around the cars to the large shop.
They spent the better part of the afternoon outfitting themselves
from the racks in the shop and carrying what they needed across the
road to the truck. The pickup had a black vinyl bed cover. They
opened it, stored the tent and the sleeping bags along with the
other camping gear inside it, and then snapped the cover back into
place.

“
It probably won't keep
everything totally dry,” Billy said, “if it rains, I mean. This is
kind of more for show than actual protection,” he said indicating
the cover. “But it should still do all right.”

They had both picked up weapons in the
shop. Billy had picked out a deer rifle, a fairly impressive
looking Remington. He had also picked up several boxes of the
ammunition the rifle took. Beth had settled on an entirely
different sort of weapon. It looked more like a machine gun of some
sort to Billy, and she also picked up several boxes of ammunition
for it, and several spare clips. She explained to him that it
really wasn't a rifle, but a machine pistol, and that it could fire
better than seventy rounds a second if it were converted to full
automatic. This one wasn't, she said, but she had seen some that
were. To Billy it still looked like a machine gun, and he joked
that the sight of it alone would probably scare anyone
off.

By the time they had loaded the truck
and gotten under way it was late afternoon. Even with the late
start, and the slow going due to the stalled traffic, they managed
to make it to the Colorado River in Ehrenberg Arizona just before
nightfall.

The country had been turning more arid
as they drove, the river was a oasis. Off to the north giant plumes
of smoke blanketed the sky, seeming to spread across the entire
length of the horizon. They had both wondered what it might be.
Beth had checked the map and she though it could be Yellowstone or
something close to Yellowstone.

Shops, stores, and even an RV park had
sprung up around the interchange. They foraged for food in the late
afternoon and gassed up the truck before evening began to take the
sunlight. The air had a bitter hot smell to it, the river flowed
sluggishly, the water gray, and a scum of yellow white foam and ash
rode the slow current. They sat in the truck and ate quietly while
the map lay open across their legs and the seat top. Their eyes
would drop to the map and then jump back up to scan the area. It
had seemed too quiet, and there were no bodies anywhere. No sign of
life either, and the stores and shops had not been looted. Some
were still locked up. Empty RV's in the park when they rolled
slowly through it. Neither liked the feeling, the whole place just
felt wrong.

“
Billy,” Beth waited until
his eyes left the map and met her own. He lifted them to follow her
own gaze. “The silver building over to the right. The door just
opened and then closed.”

Billy frowned. “Not something the dead
would do, is it?”

“
We didn't think they would
use sledge hammers either, or come out in the daylight,” Beth
said.

As billy watched he saw the door edge
open slightly and then close just as slowly. “Saw it... I don't
like it. Dead or alive they know we're here and they're checking us
out.” He dropped his eyes back to the map.

“
Okay,” he said after a few
moments. “Lets get back on the road. That takes us away from
civilization to a degree. Eventually that will bring us into
Arizona, but there's a lot of desolation between here and there, at
least on the map.”

“
Desolation is fine as long
as the dead aren't there.” Beth said quietly.

“
Less likely to be,” Billy
agreed.