Zombified (Book 1): Hudson Place (14 page)

“
We already found the key.”

“
Really?” Jenny said, her face lighting up. “So who has it?”

Charlie gave her a solemn look. “Gordon.”

****

Dexter was furious. He stomped, he roared, and he uttered one expletive after another. While Charlie leaned against the wall in the lobby and waited for him to calm down, he glanced over at Jenny and Darrell. Their faces were expressionless, but he knew they were also quietly waiting so they could decide what to do.

Dexter finally whirled on Charlie, veins bulging at his temple and breathing heavily. “So what’re we gonna do?” he shouted in Charlie’s face.

Charlie flinched at the smell of garlic on Dexter’s breath. Trying to keep his face as calm as possible he replied, “We find Gordon and get the key.”

“
Damn! I
knew
you were gonna say that! And how the hell are we gonna do that?”

“
The only thing we can do is hunt him down. We need to take the zombies out right? So let’s do just that. We’ll hunt them down, find out where they are. We know Gordon has to be around here somewhere and the town’s not that big, we’ve already secured the main business part of town so it shouldn’t take us that long.”

Dexter rubbed his temples in frustration and Charlie could tell he was trying to think. “Ok. We know they’re avoiding us. From what we’ve learned, once they know we can take them out, they disappear. We saw it happen at Hudson Place and now here.”

At Charlie’s nod, he continued, “If you were a zombie, where would you go?”

The question caught Charlie off guard. “I-I don’t know exactly,” he stammered. “If they’re grouping together, they need a place big enough to hold them all. This town had a little over eight hundred people in it. Let’s say two to three hundred are dead, I’m talking really dead. We may have some survivors and let’s say that total is one hundred folks, including those that were in the shelter. Some zombies may have wandered away.” Charlie shrugged. “I’m just guessing but we might have around three to four hundred or so zombies out there.”

“
That’s still too many,” Dexter growled. “We need some real fire power if we’re looking at those kinds of numbers.”

“
I think I know what we can do,” said a voice from behind them. They all turned to see Travis grinning impishly at them as he sat on the stairs.

After hours of discussion and planning, it was decided. They would go out the next day to find Gordon. Charlie knew it was going to be extremely dangerous, but they had no other choice. Meanwhile, Charlie was determined to contact Dave.

Evening was fast approaching and after a quick dinner, he sat down before the radio and quickly replaced the batteries. To his delight, the radio fired to life and he quickly dialed in the frequency.

With Jenny, Darrell, and several others watching over his shoulder, he keyed up the mike. “Hudson Place, this is Charlie from Shady Oaks, over?”

Everyone held their breath in anticipation, but there was no response. “Hudson Place, this is Charlie from Shady Oaks, over?” he said again in a louder voice.

“
Charlie! This is Jeff from Hudson Place! Am I glad to hear from you!”

Charlie grinned broadly. “Jeff, good to hear your voice! Is Dave around?”

There was a bit of static, and then Jeff’s voice came through. “He’s upstairs; can you wait while I get him? I don't have my walkie with me so I'll have to run up there.”

“
Sure, but try to hurry. Hey Jeff, it’s good to hear your voice, buddy.”

Charlie could hear the happiness in Jeff’s voice as he replied, “You too! We were worried about you guys!”

“
We’re fine, and Jenny’s right here beside me,” Charlie said as he grinned up at his daughter.

“
That’s wonderful! I’m going to run and get Dave so give me a few minutes, ok?”

“
You got it, we’re not going anywhere,” Charlie chuckled as he sat back to wait for Dave.

Chapter 13

“
Charlie, this is Dave, over?” Dave glanced over his shoulder with a grin, Mick, Matt, and Jeff were right behind him and out in the hall he could see Cindy and Lilly standing with the others.

“
Dave! This is Charlie, sorry we didn’t contact you sooner but we had battery problems.”

“
We’re just glad to hear from you,” Dave responded. “So how’s it going?”

As Charlie filled Dave in on the situation in Shady Oaks, Mick frowned to himself. He didn’t like the idea of them going out to hunt down this mayor-turned-zombie person, but he realized they didn’t have any choice. Their plan seemed solid enough, but going up against hundreds of zombies didn’t sound too good.

Before signing off, Dave told Charlie what had been going on, including the news of their new guests, and promised that they would go over what Charlie had told them and let him know if they could think of anything to help them out.

Once Dave promised to contact them the following morning, he signed off and turned around. “I wish we were there to help them,” he said with a worried look on his face. “I’m afraid what they’re going to attempt is nearly impossible and extremely dangerous.”

“
It is, but what choice do they have?” Mick asked. “Sounds like they’re ready to have it out with those things and get on with their plans.”

Dave turned off the radio and stood to face them. “Yeah, I can’t blame them one bit. If I were in that situation I’d probably do the same thing.”

He motioned toward the door. “Let’s go upstairs and talk this out, maybe we can figure out something that will help them.”

While Cindy, Sarah, and Megan were overseeing that the children had their baths, brushed their teeth, and were tucked into bed for the night, the rest of them sat once again around the table.

Dave eyed Jacob and Mark for a moment. “All of you want to go to Harris, right?”

At their nods he continued. “I’m thinking that the folks in Shady Oaks can use all the help they can get. Would you be willing to go down there tomorrow and help them out? They’re not going out until after they talk to us tomorrow and I could send you over there in one of the spare SUV's. If you help them out, I’m sure they’d return the favor and help you find your family over in Harris.”

“
I would go in a heartbeat,” Jacob replied. “But I’d like to leave Amy and Melissa here until it’s safe for them.”

“
Same for Reggie,” Mark stated. “I’d like for him to stay here for the time being, too.”

“
Agreed,” Dave said quickly. “I completely understand. It’s just that I have a feeling that they will need all the help we can give them.”

“
We want to go too.”

Mick’s head jerked around to stare at Sean sitting at the end of the table. Sean and Scott were both nodding. Sean glanced at Mick for a moment before turning his attention back to Dave.

“
We have a few ideas of our own, we’ve seen the arsenal you have downstairs and we think we know of a way to take care of those zombie bastards.”

As his sons glanced at each other and winked, Mick felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew they were growing bored with sitting around and taking pot shots at the occasional creature that stumbled their way. They’d all realized the zombies could learn and were at least as smart as the dogs who now for the most part avoided Hudson Place. He could object to their going, he was deathly afraid for them, but he knew his sons and realized that they had already made their decision.

Mick felt Dave’s gaze upon him and threw up his hands in resignation. “I can’t talk them out of it,” he said simply. “When they make up their mind that’s pretty much it.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dave’s nod. “It’s settled then. First thing tomorrow we’ll send them out to Shady Oaks and let Charlie know when to expect them.”

While his sons slapped each other on the back and began to talk rapidly in excited voices, Mick rose slowly from his chair. Feeling every bit his age and then some, he went in search of Cindy to break the news to her.

****

At noon the next day, everyone once again stood in the open garage door waving goodbye. Dave talked to Charlie and filled him in. Sean and Scott spent most of the previous evening preparing and saying goodbye to their wives.

Mick, Dave, and Jacob loaded the vehicle with all the munitions the boys requested, and Mick had to admit what they were planning could work. Mark had his hands full with Reggie, who was insisting that he should come along. Mark finally turned to Dave in frustration and together they managed to convince Reggie to stay for the time being. Reggie stood a little apart from the group, trying his best to make it obvious that he wasn’t happy about the decision.

Everyone said their goodbyes, and as the vehicle disappeared from view, Parker glanced at Reggie and thought rapidly of what to say to make him feel better. They slowly followed the rest of the group upstairs. “You know,” Parker said in a low voice. “They need us here, more than ever now. We’re the ones going to have to take up the slack and you know what that means?” At Reggie’s curious glance, Parker continued. “We get to be the ones who take most of the watches and we can take out any zombie that’s stupid enough to wander over here.”

Reggie slowly nodded his head as he thought it over. “That’s what Dad said, that we were needed here, but I’m worried about him going off like that – we’ve always done things together - always.”

“
Things are different now though, we gotta be tougher. Don’t worry, your Dad will be all right, Charlie said the roads are clear so they’ll have no problems getting to Shady Oaks.”

“
I’m not worried about that, I’m worried about what happens after they get there,” Reggie grumbled as they reached the second floor and went through the door. “They’re planning on hunting those things and that’s so dangerous.”

“
He’ll be ok,” Parker said in a reassuring voice. “I know you haven’t met Charlie and Darrell, but they’ll make sure he’s fine. They’re really good guys and they won’t let anything happen to any of them.”

Reggie looked somewhat doubtful but gave a slight nod. “They’d better.”

“
I have an idea,” Parker said with a smile at his friend. “Why don’t we man the radio for awhile and maybe we’ll hear from Charlie and we can be the first to know they made it.”

Reggie’s eyes lit up at the thought. “That would make me feel better. Ok, let’s ask.”

Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t locate Dave. They stopped and asked Mick, who was rolling out play dough for the little kids on one of the dining tables, if he knew where Dave was.

“
Tell ya what,” Mick said as he stood with a grin. “You two take over here for a bit and I’ll see if I can find him. Deal?”

The two boys looked at each other before nodding. “Ok, thanks I guess,” Parker said with a laugh. He sat down at one end of the table and Reggie took a seat at the other end. Mick watched for a moment then headed downstairs in search of Dave.

He decided to start at the bottom and work his way up. Once on the first floor, he glanced around and was about to leave when he noticed a faint glow coming from under the door leading to the basement. He opened the door and peered down the stairs. Unable to see anything clearly, he slowly descended.

“
Dave?” he called out as he looked around. He passed the water tank and heater, further down shelves on his left held surplus electronic equipment and the opposite wall was lined with boxes of more supplies. As Mick walked deeper into the room, he frowned. Obviously someone had been careless and left the lights on. He had almost reached the wall at the end and was about to turn around when he heard a soft hum. Startled, he took a step back. To his surprise, a door appeared in the wall and Dave stepped through it.

Dave glanced up and froze in place, his face turning beet red. As the two men stared at each other, Dave grinned sheepishly.

“
Looks like you might want an explanation.”

Mick’s eyes flicked past Dave into the dimly lit room behind, where he could make out the glowing screen of a computer monitor. Wordlessly, he looked back at Dave and slowly nodded.