The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (70 page)

A sharp sob caught in Chloe's throat.
She turned her head away, moaned low in her throat, and began to
cry harder.

Nellie rushed over, her own face
clouding over as she came.

“
I... I...” Chloe tried,
sobbing harder.

“
Honey... Honey, come
here,” Nellie said. She knelt down in the soft grass and pulled her
to her. “It's going to be okay.

Chloe pulled away. “I just wanted to be
left alone,” she sobbed. “He wouldn't...” She broke down and
allowed Nellie to pull her back into her arms.

Mike stood and looked around
uncomfortably. Ronnie met his eyes. Bear stood stoically by the
fender of one Jeep, Josh between them. Mike walked over to where
the three men stood silently, watching as Nellie rocked Chloe in
her arms, speaking softly. Molly stood a short distance away. Her
eyes shiny. Looking alternately at the ground and then back up at
Nellie and Chloe.

“
Is there a place,” Molly
asked. “She shouldn't have to go through this right here in front
of everyone.” She looked off towards the dealership.

“
The van,” Josh said. He
pointed.

Molly walked over to Nellie and Chloe.
She bent to the ground. “Hey,” she said, “Hey, Girl.” She smoothed
Chloe's hair away from her brow. “Let's go to the van so you can
talk or just rest... Okay,” Molly asked her.

Chloe nodded.

Molly helped them both to their feet
and they walked off to the van. The door chuffed quietly closed
behind Nellie and Chloe. Molly walked back over. Her own eyes still
misty. Mike looked at her.

“
I wanted to go too, but I
want her to be okay. She has Nellie. She doesn't need a crowd right
now.” She looked up at Mike. “She's one of the girls that was with
them? Like Cindy?”

Mike nodded.

“
I wouldn't know it to look
at her. She looks like no one I remember. But I've talked to
Cindy... I can imagine what kind of hell she went through... Same
thing I would have gone through... Nellie, if they had had their
way.” She stopped and cleared her throat.

“
Yeah.” It was all Mike
could think to say.

Ronnie shook his head, cleared his own
throat but said nothing.

“
Bad,” Josh
asked.

“
You have no idea,” Mike
answered.

“
And hopefully you never
will,” Tim added. His eyes were red. He stood alone next to one of
the other Jeeps.

Josh nodded grimly.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Nation

“
Shush,” Sandy said. She
had a stethoscope and was moving it around Candace's stomach. She
slid the stethoscope one inch left and then back. She smiled.
“You're grounded,” She said through the smile.

“
But why? I feel fine! I've
done everything you told me to do,” Candace pouted. “I'm just
getting heavy is all.”

“
Lilly's not having twins
it's just a big baby... That happens sometimes. She's taking care
of herself, that makes the baby grow. Genetics... Supplements...
Diet, just a big baby,” Sandy said as though she were talking to
herself.

“
What's Lilly's baby got to
do with my baby?” Candace asked confused.

Sandy smiled. “You're big, Honey.
You're going to be bigger than Lilly when the time comes,” Sandy
told her.

“
Big baby's,” Candace said.
“I guess Pats will have a big baby too.”

“
As a matter of fact,”
Sandy said smugly, “Patty is going to have a big baby too. Probably
not as big as Lilly's, but big. We are taking care of you. All the
right things, but you are not going to have a big baby, Candace.”
Sandy grinned from ear to ear.

Candace raised her eyebrows
questioningly.

“
You are going to
have
two
big
baby's,” Sandy told her. She held up two fingers as she finished
and laughed.

Candace screamed. “No way,” she
said.

“
Yes way,” Sandy told her
still smiling.

“
Holy cow... Wait until
Mike finds out... Wait until Pats finds out! Wait until Lilly finds
out!” She said excitedly. She turned serious. “Who else knows,” she
asked.

“
Nobody,” Sandy assured
her. “You and me.”

Candace screamed again.

~

Susan, Patty and Cindy were talking
quietly outside the little clinic. They all stopped talking and
raised their eyebrows at one another. They all shrugged.

Susan smiled. “It's your turn next
though.”

“
Ha, ha,” Patty said. “I
hope it's ha, ha.”

“
Sounded like a happy
scream to me,” Cindy said.

The door opened and Candace walked out
with Sandy. They were both smiling.

Patty raised her eyebrows.

“
Oh, Pats,” Candace said.
“I'm the one who's having twins. Me. It's me, Pats. It's me.” She
burst into tears.

Patty's eyes flew open. She jumped up
and wrapped her arms around Candace.

“
Hormones,” Sandy
said.

“
Oh yeah,” Susan
agreed.

~

Down in the valley, Bob and Tom were
nearly done stripping out the two big trucks. They were using two
teams of oxen with a large A-frame and pulley system. They had
built the A-frame to help set the large aluminum girders and beams
for the steel buildings.

One set of oxen lifted the first truck
bed skyward using the frame for leverage. The second team was
hitched to the flatbed wagon they slipped beneath the suspended
truck bed.

The oxen then pulled the cart to the
stream where a second temporary A-frame, and another chain fall had
been set up. With the same careful maneuvering the deck rose into
the air and then dropped down neatly onto the concrete pylons that
had been built for it.

The bolts had to be lined up, but once
that was accomplished, Tom slowly backed the oxen up and the bed
settled onto the bolts that were set into the concrete. Nuts,
washers and a set of big wrenches and the first footbridge was in
place across the stream.

This bridge was at the first place
where the stream curved over into the valley. After they added a
set of rails the bridge would be able to accommodate animals,
people, even small vehicles.

The second bridge was going further
down the valley where the stream narrowed, after widening out, and
then curved to follow the valley floor off to the right and
eventually out of the valley all together. The concrete was ready.
That bridge would make it easier for everyone to pass into the far
end of the valley. The stream was deeper there where a second
stream came down from the ridge and joined it. It was too deep to
cross safely. In order to cross it everyone had to double back
nearly two miles where the stream was still very
shallow.

They walked the two teams back down to
the stack of parts that had once been two large trucks. Set up the
A-frame over the bed of the second truck, hooked up the team and
attached the ropes to the truck bed.

Once again Tom backed up the oxen until
the ropes took up the slack and then the bed began to raise into
the air. A few minutes later and the bed was resting on the large
flat topped wagon and they were rolling slowly down the valley
toward the first bridge.

At the first bridge they took apart the
poles that made the A-frame, added them to the truck bed, and then
headed toward the other end of the valley to set up the second
bridge.

The oxen had come about as a by-product
of too many bulls. Too many young bulls. They had selected the two
largest ones and left them with separate herds of cows. With so
many young males there was too much fighting.

They had taken the seven remaining
bulls and converted them to oxen. Bob had explained that an Ox was
simply a castrated bull, not a different breed of animal. Although
people sometimes thought that because the castrated bulls tended to
grow larger, more muscular, as well as more docile. The temperament
sometimes presented as an entirely different animal when compared
to other bulls of the same breed. It was a larger, less aggressive
animal that was not distracted by the cows. They had been fairly
easy to train once the idea that they would have to work for a
living was implanted in them.

They had chosen the best six,
slaughtered the one remaining male, and between Bob and Tom they
had trained them. Putting them to work as soon as they were
healed.

The process with the horses had been
the same. They had four large draft horses that had been castrated
specifically for the job. Between the five teams they had plenty of
muscle for any project that came their way. They did tend to save
the horse teams for the harvest work. They were steadier around
other people, whereas the oxen did not like crowds. They did well
with just Tom or Bob. Sharon had been down to work with them
several times. More than that and they got skittish.

The horses were used to being ridden.
Used to people. But as fast as the oxen were learning Bob and Tom
were both sure there would come a day when the oxen would be every
bit as useful as the horses were.

The second bridge was up and they were
heading back to the opposite end of the valley before
noon.

Bob nudged Tom. “Look,” he said,
pointing back to the new bridge. A pair of young cows were walking
slowly back and forth across the surface of the bridge. After a few
times they began to make a game of it, chasing each other back and
forth across the bridge. Tom and Bob both chuckled as they
watched.

They stopped to look over a small apple
orchard they had planted. Six trees, all different varieties. They
had hoped at least one variety would take, as it turned out six out
of the initial nine trees had taken. It would be a few years before
there was any fruit yield, but once they did Bob had plans to clone
them using cuttings.

Slightly farther on were pear trees,
oranges and banana. The pear trees were doing fine. The orange and
Banana they had little hope for. Janet had talked about trying to
grow them in green houses, but they lacked the materials to do that
and with winter coming Bob was sure that they would probably die
before they could get them into an environment where they could
survive. For now they seemed to be fine. The severity of the fall
and winter would tell.

Blackberries, Blueberries growing wild,
and grapes and raspberries they had planted with the hopes that
they would take and mature within a few years.

The day was pleasant. The sun was hot
with no hint of what the winter to come would be like.

They made their way to the barn. Put
away the teams and harnesses. By then it was late afternoon and
they made their way up to the main cave.

On The Road

Josh and James pitched in to help set
up the tents. They had decided they would probably be better off
staying put. It was late in the day and they probably wouldn't make
a lot of headway anyway. And, in any event, Mike told himself, they
were not in any really big hurry. Things were obviously much
different from they had suspected.

One day would not hurt them. After they
set up the tents they could drive to the old farm store and check
out the rear storage warehouse where Bob was positive he had seen a
fairly large disassembled saw mill.

Molly seemed very quiet and Nell was
still in the van with Chloe. Mike caught Molly's eyes.

“
Go ahead,” Molly told him.
“I'll wait here,” she turned to Josh. “If you want to leave Rich
and Alicia that's okay,” she assured him.

Josh nodded thank you. “You sure,” Mike
asked her.

She put one hand on his sleeve and
patted his arm. “It's just thinking about it. It'll pass. The kids
will cheer me up and I'll feel much better when Nell comes out of
there, hopefully with Chloe feeling better... Go,” she pushed his
arm away. “Go and see about that sawmill.” She patted her belly.
“Nellie and I are going to need to put an addition on. We'll need
that sawmill.” She smiled and most of her real self came back from
the dark place she had gone to. The tension bled away from her
face.

Mike felt relief. Molly turned away and
he jumped back in to helping Ronnie set up tents. They left shortly
after as the day was moving toward afternoon. Mike, Ronnie, Tim,
Bear, Josh and James.

Un-dead

She stopped and scented the air. The
vehicles were miles ahead, but it didn't matter. She would be able
to follow their trail days from now as easily as she followed it
now. She had stopped because she had scented more of her own. The
question now was whether to follow or gather.

She had no doubt she would eventually
follow them back to where ever it was they ended up... The living,
she knew, gathered together. Not like the dead did. The dead
gathered, but only for purpose, not social safety. The dead were
afraid of nothing at all. The living seemed to be afraid of
everything. They seemed to live in fear of everything, so where
ever they ended up there would be others living there, where ever
that turned out to be. But she was only one and a days travel away
there were more who would follow her, and if she scented them, then
they knew about her too.