The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (21 page)

“
Yeah, well,” Patty said as
she stood and tugged her own jacket on. “It can’t work this
way.”

Mike nodded as Patty bent down, pecked
Ronnie’s cheek and walked out through the hanging barricade
herself.

The silence held for more than a
minute.

“
Washington Street,” Mike
said at last. Everyone looked at him.

“
When we went to get the
trucks, the first one we got to start was in a parking lot across
from the old High school. It used to be houses, most of it anyway,
now it’s strip malls. There has to be a lot of the stuff we need
there. It’s close by.” He turned the last into a question of sorts
and Ronnie, Tim, Bob and Tom all nodded their heads.

“
That will work all the way
around,” Bob said.

“
Tomorrow, if the snow lets
up?” Tom asked.

“
That’s what I was
thinking,” Mike said. “So, what else?“ he asked.

Patty poked her head in
through the hanging tarps.
“Hey,”
she said loudly. “There’s a truck out
here.”

Everyone grabbed up their weapons and
rushed out into the snow.

~ Dark ~

The truck was idling low, stopped about
two hundred yards down the road back towards the area where the
restaurant was and the road swung back out to the square. The
headlights were on, high beams lighting up the roadway.

Mike looked at Candace.

“
Just drove in there a few
minutes ago and stopped. Hasn’t done anything since. It’s only been
a few minutes though.” She looked at her watch. “Maybe three. That
little.”

A few of the others went back inside to
get jackets for the cold. Ronnie came back out and handed Mike his
own.

“
Thanks, Ronnie.” Mike
watched the idling truck where it sat.

Although no longer horizontal from the
wind, the snow was still coming down hard. The wind still gusted
occasionally, but the storm was nowhere near as fierce as it had
been throughout the day. There was maybe two feet of fresh snow on
the level, drifts well over two feet on the roadway between the
cave and the idling truck.

The headlights suddenly snapped off. It
took a few moments for their eyes to adjust to the dimmer night
light. The engine remained running. The driver's door opened, and
someone stepped out into the night.

“
Don’t want no trouble,” a
male voice called out.

“
You armed?” Mike called
back.

“
Isn’t everyone?” The voice
called back.

“
How many are you?” Mike
called back.

“
Just one. Just me for
now,” The voice called back.

“
Come on then,” Candace
called. She unsnapped the leather straps that held the Forty Fives
in their holsters, pulled them free one by one, thumbed off the
safeties and returned them to their holsters. She seemed so calm.
Patty followed suit and then moved sideways and a little away from
Candace, making it clear she’d follow whatever Candace wanted to
do. Candace looked over and nodded at her. Some sort of unspoken
instructions passed between them as Mike watched. Patty slipped a
couple feet further to the west and stopped, feet planted wide
apart, her eyes on the darkened roadway. Mike turned his own
attention back to the road.

“
I'm not looking to get
shot,” The voice said.

“
Neither are we,” Candace
called back smoothly. “And, we aren’t looking to shoot
you.”

Mike stepped closer to Ronnie. “If it
comes to shooting it looks like Candace and Patty got a plan. Leave
it to them. I guess we’ll cover them,” He whispered.

Ronnie nodded as he stepped up closer
to Mike.

“
He must have pulled the
fuse in the truck. The light never came on when he opened the
door,” Mike said.

“
Saw that,” Ronnie agreed.
“Says he planned on this.”

Mike nodded.

The mans shadow made its way along the
roadway through the blowing snow, and as he came closer they could
see the outline of a rifle held loosely in the mans left
hand.

The dog walked stiff legged past Mike
and Ronnie and began to growl deep in his throat.

“
Jesus,”
the man said suddenly. He stopped in the
road.
“You got a dog?”

“
Easy Dog,” Sandy said. The
dog turned and looked back at Sandy where she stood in the shadows
of the cave entrance, looked back toward the road and the man, then
turned and trotted over to Sandy.

“
Dog won’t hurt you,” Sandy
said.

Mike watched the rifle outline, which
stayed pointed at the ground. The man stepped forward; close enough
to be seen through the heavy snow, maybe seventy feet away in the
shadows, Mike thought. He was sure Candace would have no trouble
hitting him if she had to.

“
Maybe we could step
inside?” The man asked.

“
Maybe,” Mike allowed.
“Why’d you leave your truck running if you planned on coming
inside?”

“
What’s that got to do with
anything?” The man asked.

“
With the truck running,
quiet as it is, we’d never hear anyone coming on foot,” Mike
answered.

“
Why’d I do that?” The man
asked.

“
I didn’t say you would. I
said if that situation occurred, we’d never hear a
thing.”

“
Not much with trust, are
you people?”

“
Nope,” Tom answered
quietly. “We’re not.”

The man paused, then turned around and
walked back to the truck and shut it off. Again the light stayed
off as the man opened and closed the door. He trotted back to them,
the rifle still loosely clutched in his left hand. “Good?” He
asked.

“
Better,” Tom agreed. “But
that doesn’t tell us what you want.”

“
Just a talk, catch us both
up so to speak.” The man answered.

Candace stepped forward from the
shadows. Patty watched her closely. “I’d like that weapon,” she
said.

“
Why’s that?” The man
asked. He stepped forward a little more. He wore a heavy jacket, a
hooded sweatshirt under that with the hood pulled over his head,
tall, thin, face cast in shadow. Not much else to see.

“
We’ve been through some
stuff. I don’t want that weapon in your hands. You want to come in,
give up the rifle. If not…” She didn’t finish.

“
Kind of pushy aren’t you?”
He asked.

“
Want to go that way, you
can get right back in your truck,” Mike said. “This is our place.
You came here. You came here with a weapon. You seem on edge. Some
way or another, you disconnected the interior light in your truck
so it wouldn’t come on when you open the door, like you didn’t want
us to see you, or maybe the inside of the truck. Maybe both for all
I know.”

Mike walked closer to the
man as he spoke. His own rifle, he had grabbed one of the assault
rifles, held in both hands. The index finger of one hand rested
lightly against the trigger guard, caressing the cold steel of the
trigger, feeling its curved shape as it slipped past the ridges of
skin on the edge of his finger. It made the rifle feel alive to
him. The other hand was wrapped tightly around the stock. “You
don’t look stupid, but it must be that you are. Or you think
we
are. If you’ve been
close by, you know there’s been trouble. One of ours was killed a
few days back, and you want to talk like a smart ass to my
woman.”

The man stayed silent for a moment.
When Mike had finished talking, he had continued to walk until he
was no more than five feet from the man, facing him, his eyes
hard.

“
I took the fuse out.
Otherwise, every time I open that door at night, I’m a sitting
duck. Maybe it looks another way to you,” he paused. “I didn’t know
she was your woman. Not trying to make excuses. I’m not used to
being talked down to by a woman, I guess.”

Mike saw Candace lean back into the
shadows once more, her hands fall to her sides, the guns within
easy reach. It was clear how the man's words had made her feel. His
reaction was not much different. Ronnie stepped forward and rested
one hand on Patty’s arm. She had taken a step forward.

The man cleared his throat, oblivious
to the drama playing out around him. “I came to ask your plans.
What’s next? There’s six of us, none in the truck, all close by.
I’d be stupid to come here without them close by.”

No matter how Mike looked at the
situation, he didn't like it. He was uncomfortable with it, the
man, his motivations… whatever they might be. He didn’t want to let
the man inside to see how the cave was set up. If he wanted to join
us, he told himself, he would’ve already asked us. And we wouldn’t
have him anyway. No, this is something else, he told
himself.

“
We can talk here. There
are children inside,” Mike said.

“
You’re not inviting me
inside?”

“
No,” Candace said from the
shadows.

“
That so?” The man
asked.

No one answered.

“
We knew you had trouble,”
The man said at last. “We’ve had some trouble ourselves. You came
out alright.”

“
And?” Mike
asked.

“
And, I’m just making
conversation,” the man answered. He sighed. “Okay, we’re trying to
get ourselves in shape for next winter. You got this big cave. It’s
easy for you. We’re in an old abandoned factory up on… Well, forget
where. It don’t matter. What matters is we’re trying to look ahead.
We don’t want trouble. We got gas to trade. Fuel oil, good for
heaters. We can find other things too.”

“
There’s gas free for the
taking everywhere,” Bob said. “Same as the other stuff you
mentioned.”

“
Not really,” the man
replied. “At least not out State Street there isn’t.”

“
Plenty of gas stations out
there,” Bob disagreed.

“
Didn’t say they weren’t
there. They’re ours though.” The man said.

“
Really?” Bob
said.

“
Really,” The man
replied.

“
And?” Mike
asked.

“
Well, you got vehicles,
you’ll need gas.”

“
Uh huh, and what’s it
you’re looking for in trade?” Mike asked.

“
Listen,” The man said. “I
see your setup here. It looks good. I see this is your show. I’m
not trying to step in either. I run my own show too…
really.”

“
What do you want?” Mike
asked, losing patience with the man.

“
Women… I need a few women.
We talked to Sin about that woman that was with him and he was
saying...”

Mike cut him off with a wave of his
hands, but Tom spoke over him. “What?” Mike asked.

“
You knew that Sin guy?”
Tom asked.

Candace stepped out of the shadows.
Patty moved away from Ronnie. Both of them walked to within a few
feet of the man and stared him down.

The man nodded at Tom’s question. Tom
also moved closer to the man.

Tom swore lightly, and his rifle
started to come up. Mike reached out and lightly rested one hand on
the barrel. Annie spoke from the darkness. No one had known she had
come out.

“
Sin planned to trade me to
him. I remember him,” She sounded on the verge of tears. Nell
rushed from where she had been standing over to where Annie now
stepped from the shadows.

Mike watched Candace’s hand come up and
then drop onto the butt of the Forty Five closest to
him.

“
So, you think we’d trade
that little girl for some... what, gasoline?” Mike asked. He seemed
to be the only one who could still speak. Everyone else had fallen
into a hard silence.

Candace released a deep breath, turned
and went to Annie and Nell. She squatted in front of Annie and
looked into her eyes, freezing everything and everyone else
out.

“
Honey,” She said softly,
much more softly than she felt. “That man is not going to touch
you. Not going to, you see?” She waited until Annie nodded through
the tears that had begun to spill over the bottoms of her lids and
course down her cheeks. “Oh, Baby, don’t cry,” Candace said. She
reached out and pulled Annie into her arms. She held her as she
sobbed against her breast. “I promise, Annie. I promise,” she
pulled away and looked in her eyes. “Okay?”

Annie nodded. Candace raised her eyes
to Nell. “Nelly, take her inside, would you?” She reached forward,
kissed Annie, hugged her once more and then waited until Nell took
her inside, past the hanging mass of tarps and blankets.

Tim stood glaring at the stranger from
the side of the cliff face where he had been standing next to
Annie.

“
You good, Tim?” Ronnie
asked now.

“
I can’t believe that guy
came here to hurt Annie. I hate him,” Tim said.

“
Now wait a minute,” The
man said. “I didn’t come here to hurt anyone at all.”

“
No. Just come to buy a
woman, a little girl, like you would a dog,” Candace said. She was
walking slowly back toward the man as she spoke.