The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (32 page)

Ronnie: Probably going to be the best
friend I’ve ever had. In the world I had friends, and I thought
they were real friends, as tight as I could imagine, but this kind
of world makes for a kind of friendship, at least for me, that
could never have been in that old world. He’s solid. Loyal. Smart.
I need him too.

I’ve started to do this thing over the
last few days. I think things out loud, bounce them off him. He
seems to think of the things I don’t. That’s important. I may lead,
but this is not a one man show.

Candace: I suppose she’ll read this
someday. Or at least if she wanted to I would let her. I was by
myself. I don’t mean I never went out; I did, but there was no one
special, no one I was serious about, and I don’t think there ever
would have been. I was used to who I was.

There is nothing she doesn’t know about
me, and I’m pretty sure I can say the same thing about her. She
told everyone, me included at first, that she was here visiting her
grandparents. It's not true though. She was living here. She had
wanted to go into Law Enforcement like her father, but she hadn’t
been able to make the college end of it work out yet. So, she was
here dancing. That’s why she doesn’t allow anyone to call her
Candy, except Janet who can do no wrong in Candace’s eyes. She was
saving for college. She was dancing here hoping it never got back
to anyone who knew her in Syracuse. I love her. It doesn’t hurt to
say that, but it scares me.

Patty: She’s got this distance thing
with me. Not cold, not mean, not anything like that. I don’t know
what it is. It baffles me. Even so, I don’t think it will affect us
or the group, and maybe it’s me.

Sandy: She has something against
Candace, and that means she has something with me by proxy. It’s
just that way. I don’t know what the deal is. Maybe it’ll work
itself out, maybe it won’t.

Nell: Nell is solid. I like her. Annie,
Tim, good kids, not really kids either. Janet… I should like her
and I do but I have this reservation in me about her. There is a
part of her that bothers me.

Lilly: I can’t help but like Lilly. She
is real all the time. Where Bob believes in The Great Spirit, she
believes in Jesus. She calls herself a Christian. She says she’s
not religious though, and that Jesus wasn't either. She believes
he’s coming back, but probably not for a while, not in her
lifetime.

Molly and Susan: I tried not to like
them, to be reserved. But they are too likable, too honest,
straight forward. They’ll be assets to us. I like them in spite of
my fear of just accepting anyone at all at face value. I don’t know
what to make of the world outside of Watertown.

I do know that this little drive has
been enlightening. There is so much destruction everywhere I look,
but then I see other things as well. Herds of deer and cows
everywhere, a few horses, and packs of wild dogs as well, and we’ve
traveled only a few miles, really. What will the rest be
like?

So many animals, so few people. Looks
like we’ve adapted ourselves right out of existence. I guess those
are my thoughts. They seem kind of small written out like this, but
at the same time frightening... huge. We’re down for the night, on
the road to where ever tomorrow.

~State Street Hill~

They came from the barn and made their
way out to the twisted and buckled road. Thirty all together, and
now they did have a leader. They had a leader, and they were
becoming less and less afraid of the living.

The fires that burned far below in the
city were another matter. They could not overcome the panic and the
fear that leapt into them every time they saw the flames leap far
below or the smell of smoke came to them on the air currents that
floated up over the city and up to where they were.

He came last from the barn, slow, but
not slow because he needed to move slow, or because he was missing
parts of himself like so many were. He moved slow because he chose
to move slow. He moved slow because there was no need, in his mind,
to move fast. Slow worked.

He walked through the others where they
had gathered looking down at the city and the pall of smoke that
hung over it. He walked to the edge of the road where it curved
into the dip that began the long, steep fall down into the city. He
stood for a long time... scenting the air... thinking.

The moon continued across the sky. Time
slipped by; the noise from the city did not return, and yet he
stood still. Finally, he turned and faced them. He shook his head
slightly, raised his eyes to the moon and then looked back down.
“No,” he said. His voice was smooth, seemingly unmolested by rot
and decay. “No,” he said once more. “Not yet.” He walked back to
the barn slowly. The others hesitated a few seconds and then turned
and followed him back to the barn.

The moon continued its trip across the
sky, shining its silvery light down upon the earth.

The Zombie Plagues: Book
Two

* * * * *

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

Geo Dell on Smashwords

*
* * * *

BOOK TWO

Copyright © 2010 - 2015 by George
Dell

Created by Wendell Sweet.

Additional Copyrights 2009 – 2015
Wendell Sweet & independAntwriters Publishing All rights
reserved

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.
This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you
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and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only,
then please return to your bookseller and purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

LEGAL

This is a work of fiction. Any names,
characters, places or incidents depicted are products of the
author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual living persons
places, situations or events is purely coincidental.

This novel is Copyright © 2010 – 2013
Wendell G. Sweet and independAntwriters Publishing. No part of this
book may be reproduced by any means, electronic, print, scanner or
any other means and, or distributed without the author's
permission.

Permission is granted to use short
sections of text in reviews or critiques in standard or electronic
print.

THE ZOMBIE PLAGUES: BOOK TWO

Chapter One

On the road

~ March
26
^th
~

The camp was up before dawn, tents
packed away and breakfast and coffee taken quietly together around
the low embers of the camp fires. The breakfast didn't consist of
much more than the coffee and a few energy bars, but it suited
their purpose well enough. The Dog, who still had no name, was
going person to person and begging little tidbits even after his
own breakfast of canned meat.

As the sun was touching the horizon,
the small caravan of six vehicles were once again winding their way
southward, leaving the roads where they were impassable and taking
to the fields.

The two Suburbans that had been fitted
with lifts and bigger tires had no problem with the on and off road
transitions. It was tougher for the other four vehicles.

They monitored the radios as they drove
along. Bits and pieces of conversation and skip came through the
static. Sometimes clear, sometimes garbled and barely intelligible,
but there were no conversations they could follow. Mike had never
been a C.B. Radio fan, but Bob had been and he explained skip to
everyone.

Skip could be two thousand miles away,
or only a hundred. It was a signal that hit the atmosphere just
right, or cloud cover, or a mountain range, and carried farther
than it normally would have. You might talk to someone a thousand
miles away as clearly as though they were no more than a mile down
the road. And you might have that conversation for ten minutes or
two hours and then suddenly they were gone because those
atmospheric conditions that had allowed the conversation had
changed.

Early on, Mike had thought about Ham
radio. You could reach around the world with Ham radio. But Bob had
explained that Ham radio accomplished that with relays. All the
people that did the relays were most likely gone, at least for now.
Maybe they would be back eventually, but they had heard nothing but
a soft electric hiss cutting across the miles the two times they
had tried the bands, and no one had answered their
calls.

The F.M. Band had also remained dead.
It seemed all the traffic was on the C.B. Channels. The V.H.F.
Bands, normally used for Marine conversations, were empty too. But
that offered a secure option for them to talk without being
overheard. As they drove through the morning now, they talked back
and forth on the V.H.F. Band, monitoring the C.B. and the F.M.
Bands.

~

They filled their tanks two hours after
dawn at a collapsed gas station next to the interstate. A length of
rubber hose connected to a hand operated Kerosene pump made the job
quick. The only hard part had been locating the underground tank.
The cover had been found though, the cap spun off, and the odor of
gasoline drifted up into the air telling them that the underground
tank had not been ruptured.

The little area that serviced the
interstate contained a large garage, two small Mom-and-Pop stores,
the gas station and a chain auto parts store right next to the
garage, probably built with the garage in mind.

On the other side of the asphalt
parking lot sat a motel unit that had seen better days. Most of the
units were flattened. The swimming pool was cracked and empty; wire
mesh and what looked to be a bottomless void graced the middle of
the rust stained pool. A second row of motel units running parallel
to the pool looked to be untouched. Across the road were two name
brand outlet stores, obviously placed to take advantage of the
interstate. They had pulled the trucks onto the cracked pavement of
the gas station, and after they had finished gassing up the trucks,
Mike had gathered everyone together.

Bob and Tom came back from checking out
the garage and the auto parts store just after the trucks were
gassed up. Bob nodded his head at Mike.

“
You noticed Bob and Tom
looking over the garage,” Mike said. “We're thinking of stopping
here. We'd probably end up here for a few days while Bob and Tom
work on the other four trucks. And we need a few other things: tail
gate swing outs that can hold a spare tire, gas can too, roof racks
to carry gear, lifts, better, bigger tires... In short, the things
we had intended to do back in Watertown.” He looked around, trying
to catch the eyes of each person individually.

“
You can see how much
easier it is for the two Suburbans to get around wrecks, buckled
roads, down in to and out of ditches. It just makes sense to give
the other four trucks that ability, otherwise they'll just be
slowing us down. You saw a little of that this morning.”

“
Makes sense,” Janet Dove
agreed.

Molly nodded. “My only concern is, are
those...” she paused and her face reddened, “People,” she managed
after a long pause, “coming after us?” Her eyes were dark and
questioning. Mike could read the fear in her posture.

“
I doubt it,” Candace said.
She spoke quietly but forcefully.

“
We'll listen in on the
radios,” Nellie added.

“
They won't come. In the
city they knew how to get around... Out here,” Patty waved her arms
around, finally lifting them to the sky. “They wouldn't know what
to do. Couldn't sneak up on us.” She shook her head. “I just don't
think they're the kind that want to deal with even
odds.”

Candace nodded in agreement. “You know,
Molly. Spineless, right?”

Molly nodded and Mike watched the fear
leave her and something closer to determination replace it. She
nodded her agreement once more, looking directly at Candace as she
did.

Mike cleared his throat and continued.
“The reason we traveled on was to put some miles between us and
them. It's a long way for them to come. I don't see it,” Mike said.
He let the silent nods continue for a moment and then
continued.

“
There are other things we
can do, things we need. Canned goods, maybe one of those cows, or a
deer. They seem to be wandering everywhere. There really is enough
to keep all of us busy for the next few days while Bob and Tom get
the truck situation straightened out.” He paused but no one spoke.
“So... If there are no real objections?”

“
Let's do it,” Molly
said.

“
Yeah, I'm for it,” Patty
added.

~

As Mike turned away, Patty, Candace,
Molly and Nell began to set up a plan for monitoring the radios.
Everyone agreed that they would probably hear about anything coming
their way long before it reached them. Molly went over to the
garage a few minutes later and pitched in, helping Bob and Tom move
whatever was in the way so that they could reach the racks and
garage bays. There were two tow trucks that they used to do most of
the work, but chains and muscle power accomplished the
rest.