All That I See - 02 (28 page)

“What happened to your ear?” she said.

I reached up to touch the bandage. I’d almost forgotten about it. It still hurt, but I’d grown accustomed to the pain.

“It was bitten off,” I said. “The lobe.”

“Gross,” she said. “So now you got the Seebees?”

“The what?”

“The Seebees. You know—C for Canton and B for B--the Seebees.”

“No,” I said. “I don’t think so.”

“Antione got bit, and we shot him then and there. Two in the head…you should have seen him twitch after. Shawn said it was his nerves that made him twitch, but I think it was the Seebees.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “I don’t have it.”

She stared at me like she didn’t believe me then, in an instant, her expression changed to relief.

“You must be immune. We could make a serum from your blood like in t
hat movie
.”

“No, I—“

She scooted closer to me and put her hand on my leg.

“Do you like vampire books?” she said.

“Never read any,” I said. “Listen, we—“

“I love vampire books. You know what Oprah said about the Twilight books? She said they were delicious. I think that, too. I love Oprah.”

“That’s fine, but—“

“My friend Jason is a vampire. He’s like three hundred years old. Now he’s got the Seebees. Your blood would probably be good for him. It would be good for all of us.”

She looked up at me with her attempt at puppy dog eyes, which looked ridiculous through her broken glasses. Her bottom lip pushed out in a pout, and she made a big production out of licking her lips. Then her hand slid down to my crotch.

“Do you like that?” she whispered.
“Do you?”

I was surprised to find that I did. I pushed her hand away.

“What the hell are you doing?” I said, befuddled by her actions and conversation. “We have to help your friends.”

She scooted back against the passenger door and pretended to be examining her gun. She didn’t act angry or embarrassed by my rejection. She just acted like it never happened.

“Is your friend Cassie on her period?” I asked.

She looked up slowly from her pistol and out the windshield as if trying to see something inside the gas station. Then, just as slowly, she turned her head and looked at me in awe.

“How do you know that? Are you psychic?”

“How long have you two been together?”

“We’ve been roommates for like two years,” she said.

“How is it that your periods haven’t synced up? Doesn’t that happen?”

“You are psychic, aren’t you? Tell me who I’m going to marry.”

“Are you on your period or not?”

“I’m pregnant,” she said, smiling down at her belly then rubbing it. “My baby is an immortal just like Jason.”

“Okay,” I said. “I just wanted to be sure we weren’t going to have any unnecessary trouble. We’re going to need to find a really big truck or a bulldozer or something to move the infected out of the way.”

“We passed a big truck right after we
crossed the state line and
came into Kentucky,” she said.
“
I can show you where.”

“Where did you come from?”

“Just south of Birmingham,” she said.

“What…what’s happening down there?”

“The Seebees,” she said. “Seebees is everywhere.”

“Nothing else?” I asked. “What about bombs?”

“Well…yeah…bombs, too. They nuked the fuck out of Nashville from what I hear.”

“Really?”

“It’s for the best, I think. Country music was really bad. It wasn’t healing at all, and music should be healing.”

“Who told you about the nukes?” I asked. “Where did you hear this?”

“There was this guy driving this bus. He told us. That’s why we didn’t go through there.
He had skulls painted all over his bus, but not in a cool or artsy way. It looked like a two year old did it.
”

“But you didn’t actually see anything?
You didn’t see the bombs going off?
”

“No,” she shrugged.

“Are there a lot more people heading north?”

She snorted, “There’s not a lot more people doing anything at all.”

Chapter 33

I was frustrated with the lack of solid information about nuclear strikes. I don’t know why it should have mattered—it’s not like I could do anything about it. I looked down at the clock on the truck’s radio. It said 11:20 p.m. I knew that it was actually 12:20 a.m. because of Daylight Savings Time. Of course, nobody gave a damn about springing forward now.

“We’ll find a big truck nearby,” I said. “No need to drive to the state line for one. I’d really prefer to do it during the day, but the longer we wait the more infected will come in. It’s best if we do it now.”

I put the truck in reverse and backed out into the highway.

“Where have you been? Have you been hiding all day?”

“Yeah, in that building over there,” she said, pointing across the street. “That reminds me…this one time in Twilight, Bella and Edward were—“

“Whoa,” I said, raising my hand. “Stop right there.”

“Why?” she said, visibly offended.

I was about to tell her I had absolutely zero interest in the subject, but judging by the look on her face, I didn’t think that was a good idea.

“Well...” I said, searching for something to say. “I…I wouldn’t want you to ruin it for me. I haven’t read them yet, you know.”

“Oh no,” she said, waving both hands and acting relieved and excited. “No, no, no, this won’t ruin anything. Bella and Edward were—“

“I’d really like to read it for myself,” I interrupted. “I’m kind of weird that way. I don’t even watch movie trailers.”

She smiled broadly and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “You’re going to love it,” she said. “I dare you not to love it. I dare you.”

“With a recommendation like that, how can I not?” I said, trying to smile back.

She got an odd look on her face. “I am so going to kiss you right now,” she said, scooting back across the seat.

“No,” I said a little more loudly than I intended.

Her face was inches from mine.

“I have to drive,” I said.

“You’re right,” she said. “There will be time for that later.”

There were three zombies with broken legs still crawling around under the overpass. I drove around them and proceeded to the Clayfield city limits.

“Tell me about your boyfriend,” I said, hoping to keep her distracted. “Jason, was it?”

She snorted, “Jason isn’t my boyfriend. He’s just a friend. We fool around and stuff, but that’s all. I’m kind of like his familiar.”

“Familiar?”

She didn’t explain. I knew it was vampire lingo, but I didn’t know what it meant.

“He’s the father of your baby?” I asked.

“I think so…either him or Antione. We shot Antione. Did I tell you that?”

“Yeah. So Antione was your boyfriend?”

“No,” she said. “Just a guy from school.”

“Where did you go to school?”

“
Samford University,” she said. “A few of us hid out on the second floor of the art center right after everything happened. We stayed there a couple of days until we ran out of food. There were twelve of us in the beginning. We lost Kara, Stephen, and the Chinese chick when we left the building. Then we hid out in a mill for almost two weeks. Then Shawn convinced everyone that we needed to go north. Professor Carter was against it. He thought we should go south to The Gulf and try to get on a ship or something….but the Seebees got him. Now there are just three of us left. It’s taken all this time for us to get this far.”

“So you were studying art?”

“No,” she said. “When did I say that?”

“Never mind,” I said.

When we pulled into Clayfield, I was surprised to see how deserted it was relative to the last time I was there. I prayed that didn’t mean that Sara had been caught.

“The last time I was in town, there was a bulldozer parked on 10th Street,” I said. “I don’t know how to drive it, but I guess I’ll have to learn.”

“What town is this?” she said.

“Clayfield,” I replied.

“Clayfield,” she repeated. “Do you have a lot of clay in your fields or something?” She snickered and wiped her nose, looking at me sideways.

“That’s pretty funny,” I
lied
, forcing a chuckle. “But really it’s true. There is a lot of clay here. There
is a major clay mine right out
side of town. That’s not how the town got its name, though. Coincidentally, there was this man named Henry Clayfield, and he—“

“Snoozeville,” she interrupted.

“What?”

“They should have named it Snoozeville after you.”

“Okay…um, well, here’s the bulldozer. I hope they left the keys in it…and maybe the operator’s manual.”

I parked close to the machine so my lights could shine in the cab. We did have a moon, but I wanted to be sure I could look at the controls.

“Stay put,” I said, opening my door. “I’m going to see if I can get that thing running and rolling.”

I shined the little flashlight around in the vicinity to make sure I was clear then I ran to the bulldozer and climbed inside. I didn’t know if the cage around the cab was standard, or something improvised by Willy Rupe’s men. It did make me feel safe, though.

I held the flashlight in my teeth for a little while as I messed around with the controls. It was a mess in there as far as I was concerned. I’d never seen so many levers and pedals and buttons just to control one vehicle before, except maybe a cockpit, and I certainly couldn’t fly a plane.

I finally found the key. I turned off my flashlight and put it in my pocket, when I realized I could see just as well without it; the headlights from the truck were doing fine. I turned the key and the big yellow thing rumbled to life. I realized after I turned it on that I hadn’t given Bern any instructions. The bulldozer had no lights, so I would need her to light my way. I couldn’t get out now, because undoubtedly, the sound of the big engine would have already alerted the infected.

“Shit,” I said. I had no id
ea which pedal or lever I should
chose first.

I grabbed one to my right next to the seat, and the blade moved up. I grabbed one to my left next to the seat and
the
engine got louder.

“Throttle,” I said to myself.

I pulled on the handle next to it, and the machine started to roll. Bern laid on the trucks horn. I looked over, but I couldn’t tell what she was trying to do.

“What an idiot,” I said.

The bulldozer eased up over the curb and into the front lawn of a little house. There was no steering wheel. I pulled on the handle between my legs, and it moved to the right.

“So it’s like a joystick,” I said. “Now all I have to do is find the brake.”

I pushed on one of the pedals in the floor, and it slowed, but didn’t stop. I rolled up into the front porch then front room of the little house. The wall caved in and I heard glass shattering. Bern laid on the horn again.

“What?!” I yelled back at her, as I yanked on the joystick.

The machine turned (it felt like it pivoted), raked through
the
house, then back into the yard. I thought I saw a recliner flip out of the house, but it was dark, so I couldn’t be sure. I dropped off the curb into the street,
successfully steered
past Bern and the truck then headed north. I was going completely on moonlight by that point.

Behind me she was on the horn for a third time.

“For God’s sake, follow me!” I yelled even though I knew she couldn’t hear me. I hoped she was smart enough to figure it out for herself. She had survived this long somehow, so maybe she wasn’t stupid, just crazy.

I was a full two blocks up the street before she got around to joining me. She pulled alongside me. I looked down into the truck. Her window went down and she yelled something to me, but I couldn’t understand her. She just kept on yelling and looking at me while she did it. The truck was swerving all over the road, because she wouldn’t watch were she was going.

There were figures all around--shadows in the shadows. Occasionally, the definite form of a person would be illuminated in Bern’s headlights, then disappear again. They were still around, just not congregating.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I was struck by how unnerving it was to be in a city that is devoid of artificial light. It’s different when I’m in the country—I expect it there—but in the city limits it just adds to the feeling that something is very wrong.

I wasn’t going very fast. I wanted to remedy that, but I didn’t know how, and I didn’t want to risk going too fast and being unable to control it or pulling on the wrong lever and shutting it down. Because of how slow we traveled, the creatures were able to follow us. I could see their silhouetted forms moving behind us. There were hundreds of them.