The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (65 page)

“
These Indian men made most
of the deer milk into cheese, which my relatives related down
through the years as being very good and flavorful. So I decided to
give it a try myself.”

“
I got a dozen of them, one
male, they seem to prefer it that way, and I got three milking so
far. Keep them going after they give birth, same as a
cow.”

Janelle started to speak and then
closed her mouth with a near audible snap. Bob raised his eyebrows
at her. “You like deer?”

“
Yep... I have seen them...
It should be I have got... I have got some Deers in the barn that I
am milking is what it should be, Uncle Bob,” Janelle
said.

“
Deer,” Lilly
said.

“
Only one?”

“
Honey, Deer is also the
plural,” Bob said chuckling. “And, you're right. It should be I
have some Deer in the barn I am milking... I shouldn't have thrown
the got in there either...” he smiled at her.

Janelle smiled back.

“
Little Pitchers,” Jan
said.

Janelle turned to Brian.
“That means we got...
Have,
big ears,” She told him.

Brian nodded. “Aunt Patty said I will
grow into them,” he said seriously.

Patty burst into giggles and Candace
and Lilly joined in.

Bob wiped his eyes a few moments later
and began to talk again. “Ah,” he sighed. “So... Their milk tasted
pretty bitter at first, but once I shifted them to grain it
changed... I think they were eating trees and bark.”

“
I didn't even know a Deer
could eat a tree,” Rain said seriously.

“
Well, not the whole tree,
Sweetie, just parts of it,” Janet said on her way out of the
room.

Rain nodded her head. Her face seemed
serious as if she was trying to imagine a deer eating parts of a
tree. She looked over at Janelle who shrugged.

Janet came back into the room with
Arlene, each carrying a pie.

“
Blueberry,” Janet
said.

“
Sweet potato,” Arlene
said. “And yes, that is real whipped cream on top of it
too.”

“
Wow,” Lilly
said.

“
Ditto,” Candace
agreed.

“
Oh yeah,” Patty threw
in.

The Forest Lands

“
I'm guessing thunder,”
Mike said. “But, I didn't really hear it.”

“
Maybe,” Ronnie said. “But
to me it sounded like automatic gunfire... Like Annie said, far
away firecrackers.”

“
Yeah... I'm pretty
positive,” Molly said.

Mike nodded. “What are we close
to?”

Ronnie shook his head. “No way to know
what's gone on in the last five months or so in this area...
Nothing we can do, but we should be really careful when we go
tomorrow... Could be anything.”

Silence spun out. The drumming of the
rain on the canvas the only sound. Mike nodded after a short time.
“Then we'll be very careful.” He sighed. “Well, on another note
it's going to suck having wet canvas in the trucks for the next
whatever amount of time... Nice start to the trip.”

“
Yeah... Moldy canvass,”
Tim agreed.

“
No way to dry it out,”
Molly said.

“
Well,” Annie threw in. “If
it stops in the morning we could wrap them over the cargo up top on
the racks. That should allow them to dry out as we travel,
right?”

Nellie smiled. “She has a brain. That's
brilliant. It really should work. I hate the smell of moldy canvas.
I remember leaving Watertown and having to smell it all the way to
here because it never quit raining.”

“
Well, I had thought of
that,” Ronnie said.

“
Really,” Molly
asked.

“
Nope. Never entered my
mind...” He laughed. “Sat there smelling molded canvas too.” He
turned to Annie. “It really is a good idea. We'll do it in the
morning and they should dry out pretty quick.”

Mike dried his hands and then threw
some towels to the others. He unfolded the map as the others talked
back and forth.

“
Down and over,” Mike said
a few moments later. The others crowded in closer. The air steamy
in the tent, but small gusts of breeze coming through the tent flap
seemed to help a little. Mike smoothed out the map. “That will take
us into what used to be Georgia. It's a little more travel, but it
was more populated and that should make it easier for us to find
what we need. But, before we turn off into Georgia, I think we
should try to get that sawmill first. If it's there we can
determine whether it's worth our time or not.”

“
Car plants in Georgia,”
Molly asked.

“
Several,” Ronnie said.
“And two of them used to build the ones we want, if we can find
them... If they're there, or
still
there.” He shrugged.

“
Alabama's next door.
Sawmill might be easy to find there. The top of the state had a lot
of logging,” Mike said. “Ronnie says so.”

“
Tech stuff further down in
Georgia,” Nellie said. “We should try to stay away from the cities,
at least the bigger ones. But we should still easily be able to
find everything Tim wants.”

Tim nodded. “I think so too, but will
we be able to find big trucks there like we have here?”

“
We can just grab a couple
from right here,” Mike said.

“
Yeah... It's not like we
have to pay for gas,” Ronnie joked.

“
That...” Annie started to
say.

The VHF radio squawked. “Hello, hello,
hello... All intelligent life... Hello, hello, hello!”

Mike looked down at the VHF radio.
“That's not us,” he said stupidly.

Molly reached down and picked up the
radio. She cleared her throat... “Hello to you too,” She
said.

Silence for a few beats and
then...

“
Uh... Hi.... You probably
think I'm nuts, but I'm not... I guess that makes me sound even
more crazy... No one ever answers,” The voice said in amazement.
The voice sounded like that of a young boy.

“
Well,” Molly said. “This
time someone did....
Where you
at
,” she asked.

“
Hey... Hey, hang on, okay?
I gotta get my Dad up... Wake him up...” Static filled the air for
a few minutes then a deeper male voice came on the radio. “To the
woman who has been talking to my son,” the voice said.

“
That's me,” Molly
answered. “I heard his voice and asked him where he was... You
sound close,” Molly said.

“
You too,” the voice
said... “You in the little town?”

“
Nope,” Molly answered. She
looked around and raised her eyebrows.

“
Doesn't matter, we're well
armed,” Ronnie said.

“
Yeah... If they're trouble
we'll have to deal with them anyway, and they don't sound like
trouble... I have to wake up my dad? … that doesn't sound like
trouble to me,” Mike said.

“
Yeah,” Nellie
agreed.

“
Okay,” Both Annie and Tim
said.

“
We're back in the woods a
bit,” Molly said.

“
The town... Does he mean
the one with the farm store? The Jeep dealership,” Ronnie
asked.

Mike nodded. “Good
question.”

“
Are you talking about the
little town with the Farm store and the Jeep dealership,” Molly
asked.

“
Yeah... Yeah,” the man
said. “We're in the field across from the Jeep place,” the man
said.

“
Ah,” Mike said.

“
Do you know where the
State Park is...
Used to
be,
” Molly asked.

“
No... I don't,” the man
said.

“
Well, we'll be coming your
way in the morning,” Molly told him. They hadn't actually intended
to go to the other side of the town, but they would now.

“
There are... Well, there
are some bad people around these days,” The man said. “I heard some
shooting back to the west somewhere earlier... I got kids... Wasn't
you?”

“
Yeah,” Molly said. “We're
too far out... But We did think we heard something earlier... West?
West puts whatever that was between us... We're northwest from you
if you're across from that Jeep place,” she left the sentence
hanging.

“
I would say... Yes... I
believe that is the direction... We have not yet traveled in that
direction.”

“
We're not bad people,”
Molly said. “I don't know what that was … Or where... I suppose
we'll know tomorrow because we have to come that way... We can
leave it up to you. We'll be there sometime tomorrow, if you are
there... When we heard it, it was far off... Sounded like automatic
gunfire... Heavy.... I'm asking because we have to come through
there tomorrow... I'd like to know what, or as much about what we
can expect as I can.”

“
It sounded like rapid
firing to me, a few miles away, but how can you tell with the way
the world is? None of the old noise is there. Sometimes things
sound closer than they really are. Sometimes farther. Lasted just a
bit... Maybe a minute... Maybe less... I'll be honest... It didn't
really alarm me that much... It was far enough off. And you hear it
so much, you know? If it ain't a clutch of living dead, it's fights
between the living... Makes no Goddamn sense. But I guess you know
that...”

Molly looked around. Mike and Nellie
both shrugged. “We haven't had to deal with it... We've been out of
it for the past five months or so... I don't want to say a lot
more. But we don't have a clear idea about what's going on out
there... None...” She stopped and looked around.

Ronnie nodded as did Annie and Mike.
“Even so we're coming through whatever is going on tomorrow
morning. We could stop and see you and yours,” Molly
said.

“
Just worried about bad
people...”

“
Yeah... I know that... But
we're not bad people though. And I hope you're not
either.”

“
How many are you,” The
voice asked.

Molly looked around once more but no
one warned her off. “Six,” she said. “Six of us.”

“
There's five counting me,”
he said. “... We'll be here... If you wanna stop... We have
weapons... I suppose you do to.”

“
We do... I imagine
everyone does these days,” Molly said.
“Molly,”
she said.

“
What?” he
asked.

“
Molly... My name is
Molly,” she said.

“
Josh,” he said. “Nice to
talk to you, Molly... I guess we'll see you in the morning?” he
asked.

“
You will,” Molly said.
“We'll see you then.”

“
I don't know where you
might run into whatever that was or even if you will, but be
careful,” Josh warned her.

“
Oh, we will, Josh... We'll
see you sometime late morning, early afternoon,” Molly said. She
clicked off but left the radio on.

“
Well, let's hope Josh and
his are as friendly as they sound,” Mike said.

“
Amen to that,” Nellie
agreed.

They looked over the map for a few
minutes and then Mike rolled it up and put it away. They set up
posts a short time later, banked the fire so it would burn through
to morning and then turned in.

~

“
What do you think, Dad?”
Richard asked.

Josh was not really his father any more
than he was Alicia's father. But it was Josh who had found them,
wandering the streets in a small town in South Carolina. A few more
days and they probably would have joined the ranks of the dead.
They had found each other but they had been to deep in shock from
the loss of their families to be able to cope on their
own.

At nine Richard had been able to think
far enough ahead to hide them in the nights and keep them safe, but
he had been unsure where and how to find food.

Twice in the last few days, before Josh
had found them, Richard had seen the dead beginning to wander the
streets at night, feeding on the bodies that were everywhere. And
he had wondered to himself when they would think to climb the
stairs to the top floor of the hotel that Richard had chosen for
them to hide in and find them. He wondered how long the lock would
hold. He wondered where he might be able to find a gun, and if he
did if he would be able to use it.

He had seen Josh from the window and
called out to him. They had been together since then. At nine
Richard had memories of his family that were still bright and
clear. For Alicia, at just six, she seemed to have forgotten about
her past and the life she had had before. There was only Josh, and
she believed the sun rose and set on him.

“
Yeah, Dad... People,”
Alicia said.

“
Come here, Baby Girl,”
Josh said. Alicia giggled but came to him and wrapped her arms as
far around him as she could. She looked up into his eyes and then
kissed him.

“
I think they sound okay to
me. I think they do, and we'll find out in the morning. But don't
you worry, because if they're not okay they're down the road and
we're no worse off, Right?”