The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (30 page)

He found a trail that would be easy to
locate again from the dealerships rear lot, and nosed the Suburban
down the trail and out of easy sight from the tree line. He drove
about a quarter mile down the trail and pulled the suburban off to
one side. The second Suburban coasted to a stop behind him and shut
down. Nell, Patty and Molly climbed out of the Suburbans along with
Mike.

“
Let’s go,” Mike said as he
started back down the trail at a trot. “We’ve got to find two more
Suburbans and then two more pickups. And we can’t take too long,
they’ll get suspicious.”

The others fell in behind him as he
made his way back down the trail to the dealership.

Finding two pickup trucks was easy;
finding two more white suburbans was not so easy. They settled for
a white one and a light gray one. Mike and Patty pulled the two
trucks to the rear of the lot, side by side; took the keys they had
located inside the dealership and tossed them into the nearby
field. If anyone came checking, it would look like the two
suburban’s they had driven out from the caves and abandoned. Mike
paused, took one of the hand held VHF radios from his belt and
keyed the mic. Button. “Ninety-nine,” he called.

Tim’s voice came
back.
“We’re fine,”
he said.

“
Hang tight,” Mike told
him.

“
Okay,”
Tim answered.

Mike re-clasped the radio to his belt
and he and Patty hurried over to the pickup trucks where they idled
waiting for them. A few minutes later they were making their way
back down the hill into Watertown.

~

The posts observed the trucks on their
way back into Watertown. The groups in the pickups were unable to
hear them on the way back, but Mike heard from Bob who was keeping
track of the conversations concerning them from the front seat of
one of the pickup trucks parked outside of the cave.

There were no problems, and they pulled
back past the two truck blockade and onto the front asphalt area
that fronted the cave and shut down the newly acquired pickup
trucks. Mike walked over to Bob.

“
And then there were
seven,” Mike said and smiled.

“
And then there were
seven,” Bob Agreed.

Twenty five minutes later, the
remaining suburban rolled off the end of Old River Road. Behind it
the two pickup trucks re-blocked the road. Mike pulled away from
the mouth of the road and headed into the square, around the
traffic circle with its cracked and missing pavement, and headed
out of the square onto Washington Street.

~ Overheard on C.B. Channel Eighteen
~

“
Uh, Base…?”

“
Go.”

“
Uh, Base. They’re at it
again… And they’re talking again too… You copy?”

“
Yeah… I got it… We’re
listening… Stand by One… You also Six.”

“
One clear,”
One said.
“I mean
standing by…”

“
Six standing by,”
Six said.

~ Overheard on C.B. radio Channel Ten
~

“…
Okay… One more new
pickup coming up,”
Mike said.

“
Okay. Everything back
here is good… Nothing going on,”
Bob
said.

“
All the lookouts
too?”
Mike asked.

“
Quiet,”
Bob repeated.
“We’ve seen
nothing all day.”

“
Okay… I’m heading out
Washington… I’ll be standing by.”

“
Four,”
Bob said.

~ Overheard on C.B. Channel Eighteen
~

“
You North side boys
there?”
Base asked.

“
You know we are,”
a voice replied.

“
It’s business as usual
for them, looks like,”
Base told
them.

“
You been watching
them?”

“
Yeah… They’re just
swapping trucks… Something easier to get around in,”
Base answered.

“
Yeah?”

“
Yeah. Suburbans or
Jimmies… Ditching them for pickup trucks. Earlier four went out,
four came back. This time two went… Two will come back.”

“
So… Tomorrow?”

“
Tomorrow,”
Base affirmed.

~

Mike keyed the button on his VHF unit.
“Okay. We’re here.” He said. “Give me a little time to find
something that’s not all smashed to hell and back,” he
said.

Bob keyed his own mic. “Got you…
everything’s good back here.”

~ Over heard on C.B. Channel Ten
~

“
Okay… Got a good one…
We’re going to head back, but we’re going to cut cross country…
Come back Massey Street or maybe Coffeen. See how everything is
there. Might be something out that way we can use,”
Mike said.

“…
Okay… Base standing
by.”

…
A few minutes
later…

“
One check in,”
Bob called.

“
One here… Nothing… All
clear,”
Candace said.

“
Two?”
Bob asked.

“
Two clear… Dead
here,”
Ronnie said.

“
Three check
in.”

“
All clear here too. Has
been all day,”
Tom said.

“
Base standing by,”
Bob said.

…
About a half hour later
…

“
Coming in the back door,
Base,”
Mike said.

“
Be careful of that
section; it’s not stable,”
Bob
warned.

“
Already past it… At the
front door,”
Mike called.

“
Base standing
by.”

Silence on C.B. Channel
ten...

~Overheard on C.B. Channel Eighteen
~

“
They’re back,”
One called.

“
Good… What’s all that
coming in the back way shit? … Had me worried,”
Base said.

“
Well, they’re
back,”
One repeated.

“
You see them?”
Base asked.

“
Of course not… We ain’t
got nobody where they went… But… You heard them same as we did…
Right?”

“
Right… Right… Just called
their posts again… Little while back. … Listen… Keep your eyes and
ears open, okay? … You heard… We’re taking them in the morning… I
was just concerned they’d be out getting more weapons, people,
something, but they’re just gonna sit there and wait for us I
guess.”

“
Well… Maybe they think
they can get away with what they did to us,”
One said.

“
Yeah… Well, they got a
surprise coming if they think that,”
Base
said.
“Come tomorrow… Anyway… You hear
something you let me know… Base standing by, One.”

“
One clear... Shit…
Standing by, Base... Goddammit You know what I mean.”

Base laughed.
“I hear you.”

~

Mike sat in the suburban as it idled
behind the dealership listening to the exchange on channel
eighteen. When they signed off, Mike hit the power button on the
hand held C.B. and turned it off. He looked over at Bob sitting in
the passenger seat holding his own C.B.

“
I guess that’s that,” Bob
said. He switched his own unit off.

“
Okay folks.” Mike turned
to the back of the Suburban. “All clear. Looks like they bought it.
Let’s go. We got stuff to do.”

Nell, Patty, Candace and Molly popped
their heads out from under a tarp in the back, climbed over the
seat back and stepped down onto the parking lot.

“
There are three G.M.C's
with the keys in them over on the other side of that garage.” Mike
pointed. “Keys are under the mats... didn’t want to make it too
obvious,” Mike finished.

Candace and Nell stayed behind. The
other three were back with the three G.M.C’s a few minutes later.
Lining up behind Mike's own.

Mike looked around the field once,
dropped his own truck into drive, rolled off the broken pavement
onto the grass and dirt and headed towards the trail hidden at the
tree line. The three pickups followed behind him.

~ Earlier that day: The cave before
sunrise ~

Mike looked around. Everyone was
quietly waiting for him to speak.

“
Here’s what we’ve decided
to do. They’re going to come for us… Some of you have heard that
because you were listening in when they discussed it. They’ve
decided they want the cave… and more… And some of us have discussed
that.” Mike didn’t think it bore repeating with the two children
there and listening to every word that he said. And there was no
place to put them where they wouldn’t hear.

“
This is their fight. Those
two groups of men will fight it out. They each want to control this
area, and us too.” He paused.

The silence held in the cave until Mike
began to speak once more.

“
So… Do we fight? It’s not
our fight. It’s their fight. And, we already decided we were going
to leave the cave in just a week or two anyway, so there’s nothing
to fight for. I can’t see any of us getting hurt… Or worse… And all
for something we don’t even want… Didn’t ask for.”

The heads started to nod.

“
We can’t surrender though,
and we can’t give up, that’s equally stupid. They’ll hunt us down
and kill us… Most of us...” He deliberately didn’t look at anyone,
but focused on the hanging tarps at the entrance to the cave for a
few moments.

“
So, we decided to be as
sneaky with them as they’ve tried to be with us. Everything we need
is pretty easy to get on the road. Believe it or not, almost all of
you in here right now are going in these two suburban’s, hidden in
the back… under tarps of course. We’ll pack some stuff in with you.
It’ll be tight, but we’ll be able to do it. We're going to drive
out Washington Street and make it look like were going to trade
these two Suburbans in. What we’ll really do is run you all out one
of those trails where you’ll wait for us to finish setting them up.
Ronnie and Tom know about the trails and where you’ll be waiting
for us. We’ll leave you there and get two other trucks. Then we’re
going to do it one more time. While you wait on us, we’ll go back
and get the ones we left behind at the cave…”

He looked around at the
cave. “We’ll leave this place empty… We’ll, empty of
people
. Oh we’ll pull the
trucks back across the highway. Make it look like we’re still here,
but we’ll be heading for you.” Mike paused.

“
Lilly, Sandy, you two
drive the Suburbans. Tim, You’ll let them know when it’s clear.
When Bob calls for ninety-nine, that’s you. Just answer and go.”
Mike waited. Each of the three nodded.

“
Well. That’s the plan.
Maybe it seems too simple… Maybe it seems like running. Hell, maybe
it even is, but it’s what we got. By the time they wise up, we’ll
be long gone… Safe,” Mike finished.

“
Where do we drive to?”
Lilly asked.

“
That trail you’ll be on
just runs through the back woods,” Mike said. “It comes out by
Adams Center near Route Eleven. We have no idea what shape it’s in.
We’ll have to wing it. We don’t know if there’s anyone out that way
either. Keep the F.M. and the C.B. on as well as the VHF. We’ll be
about two hours behind you. Wait for us in the woods at the end of
the trail.”

~ Present Time ~

Mike came into a small clearing about
an hour later. The two suburbans sat waiting. Everyone gathered
around. There were pats on the back, hugs, and more than a few
kisses too.

The C.B.’s and the F.M.’s had remained
silent. They had left their own VHF units silent as well; although
Mike was convinced that if they had been listening on the VHF
channels they would have attacked them already. It wouldn’t have
been hard to figure out that they were up to something, if only by
the fact that they were talking on the VHF systems. Everyone split
up between the trucks. They had bottled water, food supplies, but
they would have to pick up other things as they went along. They
had not been able to pack anywhere near as much into the trucks as
they had wanted to. They would head for Adams Center and hope to
pick up some of what they needed there before they moved on to
somewhere further along where they would spend their first
night.

Janet ~ March 25th

We have finally begun, myself, Robert,
Sandy and a new young woman named Susan. We also have the two
little ones, Janelle and Brian. I’ve taken care of them, taken them
in. They will go with us when we go, I expect.

Sandy had some sort of falling out with
Nell. She won’t talk about it, but she’s been upset all of today,
and she was upset most of yesterday. She did seem better tonight
though, laughing and talking with Susan. I have an idea.
Relationships on their own can be difficult, especially now. But I
could be wrong. Maybe it’s only the stress we’re all dealing with.
Maybe it’ll be easier now.