What Zombies Fear (Book 2): The Maxists (17 page)

In that same instant, his symbiotes went into hibernation, attempting to find a way to rid themselves of the poison that was killing them as fast as they could reproduce.

Max dreamed of his mother, holding him, singing to him. He dreamed that they were back at the park by his old house, playing on the swings. Candi was pushing him on the swing. “I love you Max,” she said after one big push.

“
I love you to mommy. I miss you a lot,” he said, starting to cry.

“
Don’t cry baby. I’m always with you. I’m always watching over you, always.”

“
I miss Daddy, too.”

“
He’s coming for you Max. He had to fight a bunch of bad guys, but that’s done and he’s Ok. He’s far away and it’s going to take him one or two more sleeps to find you, but he will. He is coming Max. Can you be strong until he finds you?”

“
How will he know where I am?” asked Max, still swinging.

“
He’s your Daddy, Max. Nothing in this world could keep him from you. He loves you more than anything. He would rip a mountain apart with his bare hands to find you.”

“
He’s very tired right now Max. I need to go back to Daddy. I can’t talk to him like I talk to you, but I can continue trying to keep him safe, as I’ve done since we left our house. I’m very tired from last night.”

“
Don’t go Mommy, I love you! Don’t leave me alone.”

“
I’m never far away Max. I’m always inside your heart!” Candi said as she faded away.

Steve stood outside in the drizzle, watching. He didn’t notice the rain. He didn’t notice that his body temperature was 53 degrees; he didn’t notice the small bits of flesh that tore off his feet every time he moved. He stood in the rain, watchful, never tiring, never giving up and never closing his cloudy eyes. He stood there unmoving for seven hours before something tickled his senses.

“
Max, two soldiers and one lieutenant are near,
” said Steve.

“
Max, we are not well enough to control that lieutenant. We need to hide.
”

Max slid down in the bed, pulling the bright red covers up over his head, he kept his mind quiet and small.

Chapter 15
Homeward Bound

I looked over at John sitting up. "
Max, can you hear me?
" I thought.

"We have to move," I said.  "The last thing I remember is feeling Max call for help.  It was different than when he normally talks to me.  I don't think it was his voice, I think someone else was telling me Max needs help, I can't really describe it.”

"Max can talk to you like you talk to us?" asked John.

"Yea, we can talk that way, over long distances.  But he's not answering me right now and I can't seem to talk to any of you either.  I'm not sure what’s going on, but I can't use any of my abilities. I think maybe I overdid it last night.  Killing them by touch seemed to literally use up my power.”

"What?" Cried Leo.

"I'm fine, I'm sure they'll come back, I think I'm just mentally exhausted.” I said, as reassuringly as possible.  I wasn't sure myself, but I tried to sound upbeat and positive about it.

"How far can you teleport Leo?" I asked.

"Only about two kilometers, but I'm really exhausted.  I stayed up all night watching over you lot.  I'm not sure if I could even make it one right now.”

"How far could you make it carrying one of us?"

"Carrying all of you? I could maybe go a hundred meters.  I'm not sure I could do it at all.”

"Okay then, sounds like we're walking.”  I said getting up off the ground.  "John, how is your ammo?"

"I'm almost empty.  I have eighteen shots in one Glock and six in my revolver,” he replied.

"I'm sure that Bookbinder's team has gone home by now,” I said.  “They would have arrived just after we bugged out, I hope they're Ok.  I'm sure when we didn't come back they've already headed back to the house.”

"I'm sure they are fine, you turned all the zombies to dust just before Leo brought you here," said Marshall.

"I did?  How?" I replied.

"I don’t know, she said she found you collapsed on the ground, she appeared as the last zombie was blowing away in the wind.”

"That seems like a skill I'd like to have," I replied with a grin.

"Let’s move out.” I said, standing up, stretching a bit.  "Marshall and I will go first; Leo and John follow and watch out behind us.  No using powers, not even a little bit.  We are normal humans.”

I looked around, we were in the middle of a field, but I could see houses in the distance.  I hoped we might find a car in that neighborhood, so we headed that way.

We walked two by two, about twenty feet apart, for about a mile before we made it to the first house.  It was a large two story, the kind we'd called McMansions prior to the end of the world. Those huge 6000 square foot houses with five bedrooms purchased by thirty something’s with too many dollars and not enough sense.

We peered in the garage windows, but couldn't see anything in the dark interior of the garage.

"Think its worth going in?" I asked the group.

"Can't hurt, maybe there's some food in there, I'm starving.”

I realized I hadn't eaten in almost sixteen hours and I was starving.

"Marshall, take the front door.”

Marshall smashed the knob on the door with the butt of his shotgun and kicked it open.  I stood on the left side, hatchet at the ready; he stepped to the right and reversed his shotgun.  We waited.

We heard nothing, so we stepped inside the gloomy house, into the marble floored entry way.  We slowly advanced into the kitchen, while John and Leo verified that the dining room was clear.  We met up again in the great room in the back of the house.

"Holy shit," I said looking out the sliding glass door. The back yard grass was overgrown, but you can tell that it had been perfectly kept.  There was a huge three level deck in the back with a hot tub, swimming pool and lounge area.  On one side there was a marble counter top, with cabinets underneath, a full kitchen sink and grill mounted in the marble.  It was my dream deck.  The swimming pool was covered, but it had a slate patio all around it, the yard was beautiful.  Even just a couple of hours with a mower would return it to its original grandeur.

There was a bump from the upstairs, instantly drawing us out of our revelry, I looked down and saw my gun in my hand.  We moved forward, pushing through the house towards the stairs at the front.  Slowly we climbed the stairs, creeping upwards, guns in front of us, slicing the corners like we were soldiers.  At the top of the stairs, we looked down a long hallway.  There were seven doors, four down the right side and three on the left.

We each positioned ourselves in front of a door and on John's signal we each kicked opened the door in front of us.  Leo giggled as the skinniest cat I’ve ever seen ran between her legs.  The giggling stopped quickly when the smell hit us.  Judging by the volume of ammonia rushing out of the room that cat had been stuck in there the entire five months since the outbreak began.

We cleared the rest of the house and found nothing else of note including an empty garage.

The next house on the street was a little smaller but furnished entirely with the most ostentatious Victorian era furniture.  It was blue velvet and looked as if it might actually have been from the Victorian era.  Inside the kitchen, we found a woman who looked like she also might have been from the Victorian era.  She'd been in a wheelchair and being a zombie didn't fix being a paralyzed. The ancient zombie woman had worn her chin off flopping it against the floor.  She'd managed to drag herself almost five feet from her chair with her chin.

Marshall put the thing out of its misery with a size thirteen boot to the back of its skull.  Upstairs we found her caretaker and the source of the old woman's infection.  He was well chewed on, one arm hung limply at the ghoul’s side and one of its legs was missing from the knee down.  Draggers weren't that hard to dispatch. Another size 13 to his head and the threat was eliminated.

In the kitchen we found some canned of food and at least two hundred cans of cat food.  We all had a can of whatever vegetable we wanted and then went back for seconds.  In the way back of the pantry we found two cans of spam and a single can of Vienna Sausages.  As we ate we all remembered how much we hated canned food and how lucky we were to have all that we do.

The garage had a old bicycle in it. There were stacks of cardboard labeled boxes containing decorations for every holiday. An old chest freezer sat across from an ancient looking workbench. Above the workbench sat every manner of antique hand tool.

I raised the garage door and we moved on to the third house. It was the exact same model as the first house, a horseshoe shaped driveway led us to the front door.

I put my ear to the door to listen to the inside. I gently rapped on the door. I was rewarded instantly with scraping feet coming towards the door.

“
Sounds like three,” I whispered.

“
Let’s just bash the door in and finish them,” Marshall said.

“
Have at it, big brother.”

Marshall lifted his foot and smashed the handle of the door, splintering the wood around the deadbolt. The door slammed inward throwing the lead zombie back into the room. It landed on its back and slid into the wall between the doorway to the kitchen and a beautiful antique grandfather clock. The walking corpse looked to be in its mid thirties. It was wearing dark blue jeans and a black tee shirt under what had originally been an expensive sportcoat.

Marshall and I stepped back and to the side as the other two zombies shuffled out of the house. I brought my hatchet down on the skull of a gray haired man wearing a charcoal pinstripe suit. He fell forward with a thump onto the bricks. Leo ended the other with a quick blow from her kukri. The old woman fell on her face, landing on the bricks beside her husband.

The zombie that had been their son had reached his knees when Leo dispatched him. His head rolled a few feet eventually coming to rest at the base of the old wooden clock. We searched the house, but found no more people and thankfully no more shut-in cats.

In the garage we found a cream colored 1973 Cadillac Coupe DeVille and on a pegboard in the laundry room, we found the keys.  The car was immaculate and had 7,200 miles on it.  There was no sign that it was 107,200; the blue velour on the driver’s seat wasn't the slightest bit crushed.  The motor turned over easily and the antique car roared to life.  I'm not sure what a mint condition 1973 Caddy was worth before zombies, but it would have been worth it. This car was a beautiful example of automotive engineering.

We pulled out of the garage rollin’ gangster style leaned back on the bench seats.  The Caddy had half a tank of gas so we headed towards the highway.  We'd taken back roads to get to the government installation but I was in a hurry to get home.  The on-ramp had a pretty severe accident, nine cars all smashed into each other blocking the road.  Luckily we were riding in a steel shrouded tank with an insane amount of power under the hood.  The Caddy easily pushed the small commuter cars out of the way. The previous owners were probably turning over in their grave, or at least rolling over on their front porch.

At highway speed the Caddy was like riding a couch down the road.  My three friends fell asleep as I drove and only woke up when I had to slow down to push some cars out of the way, before falling quickly back to sleep.

"Wake up, zombies ahead," I yelled.

Each of them started awake as I plowed the giant car into a group of zombies that were taking up the entire width of the highway.  Gore covered the window, which held up under the barrage without a scratch.  I flicked the wipers on, which smeared blood and brains across the glass, temporarily blocking my view.  A second twist of the wiper knob flooded the windshield with windshield cleaner. A few seconds later the wipers to cleaned enough area for me to see out again.

One of the zombies managed to get herself caught on the bumper.  Her hand reached up over the front of the hood, trying to find something to grab on to. I tried swerving, but eventually I had to pull over to remove the remains.