Dead Highways (Book 2): Passage (6 page)

Peaches nodded. “Sounds like a good idea.”

“Also, I should probably teach you how to shoot.”

Peaches walked over to the weapon locker and peered inside. “Wow, I’m surprised there’s still any in here, after seeing how many he took with him.”

“There’s plenty left for the two of us. See anything you like?”

“I don’t know. I’ve shot a rifle before, but it’s been some years now. Ex was into hog hunting, ya know.”

“Was this the same ex that cheated on you?”

“Yep. Same asshole.”

I sorted through Ted’s handgun selection and brought out a silver 1911. “This might do. What do you think?”

“Sure, I guess.”

I checked to make sure the gun wasn’t loaded and then handed it to Peaches.

“What are you doing?”

“Just take it. I’m gonna show you how to do stuff. I learned from Ted. Now I’ll teach you.”

“That sounds dirty.”

Peaches did everything just as I instructed. It wasn’t dirty, but there
was
something incredibly sexy about her holding that gun. It was like I was Christian Grey and she was Anastasia, only there was no handcuffs and we both had our clothes on. She definitely caught on quicker than I had. I still remember asking Ted where the bullets went, like a dumbass.

“Sometime we’ll have to go out and shoot. Find a nice open area where you can practice. I’d say we could shoot out back, but we don’t want any unwanted visitors coming by.”

From inside the house, Olivia started to cry.

“Sounds like somebody else woke up,” Peaches said. “She’s probably hungry. You gonna be in here for a while?”

“No, not really. I’ll get some supplies together and start putting them in the Jeep.”

After Peaches left the garage, I loaded up a few magazines for her 1911 and then sorted through some of the other less deadly items. I found an empty box and filled it with a variety of things, including flashlights, batteries, knives, light sticks, and a first aid kit. Then I carried it outside to the Jeep.

As I set the box down in the back, I thought I heard a sound coming from the woods across the street. I turned and scanned the tree line, my right hand resting on Sally secured to my hip. The woods by Ted’s house wasn’t nearly as dense as those we had camped in off the highway. It would be hard to go unnoticed in the brush unless you were a small animal. And that’s probably what had made the sound. Some kind of small animal, a rabbit maybe.

I stood beside the Jeep for over a minute, scanning the woods, but all I heard were birds chirping. So I headed back inside.

I walked by Peaches on the way back to the garage. She was feeding Olivia.

“I can help you carry stuff in a minute,” she said.

“There shouldn’t be much more.”

Back in the garage, I sifted through more boxes, seeking out only the most useful stuff. For once, I wished I had my grandma’s old lady car, as there was very limited space in the back of the Jeep. Ted would probably kill me if he knew I was condensing down some of the boxes, but Ted wasn’t here, and it was unlikely he’d ever return.

I stopped sorting, looked around. It hadn’t really kicked in yet until that moment. All of this was mine now; all the supplies, the guns, the ammo, the green Jeep, the house with the dead animals mounted on the wall, the fish I could barely see through the dirty water. All of it—mine, mine, mine. Though I didn’t want any of it.

I checked the time.

3:37 p.m.

In two and a half hours, Robinson and friends would be leaving the Walgreens, on the move again. I wanted the time to go faster, wanted it to hurry up and be six already. So I could start to move on. So I could get them out of my mind.

I stuffed the second box full of MRE’s and bottled water. The MRE’s might not offer much in the way of flavor, except
bad
flavor, but they’d keep us nourished for a week or so if needed—until we could hunt down something better. If I had to eat them any longer than that, I may as well be dead.

I carried the second box out to the Jeep and set it down in the backseat. Not much room left. I could squeeze a rifle or two between the boxes and the seats, but that was about it.

Peaches joined me outside. “We’re done now,” she said, holding and burping Olivia.

“I’m almost done too,” I said. “Just gotta grab a few guns.”

“Before you do that.” Peaches handed Olivia over to me. “She wants to say hi to you.”

I took Olivia in my arms and smiled down at her. She didn’t smile back. She had a serious look on her face, like she was concentrating very hard on something. Filling her diaper with green mush, perhaps. Once I began making silly faces at her, she finally flashed me her pretty smile.

How things change.

I had never imagined having children of my own. Just having sex seemed a lofty enough goal. But there I was, smiling down at a beautiful baby in my arms who was smiling up at me, and it felt right. We were doing this all for her, staying for her. And although I wasn’t her birthfather, maybe someday she’d call me dad.

“Isn’t it funny how everyone always thinks their baby is cute, even when they’re not? And of course all their family and friends are too nice to tell them the truth.”

“Jimmy.”

“But Olivia here … she really is—”

“Jimmy!”

I stopped rambling, looked up at Peaches. “What?”

“She’s back,” Peaches said, pointing behind me.

The woman with the white bloodstained shirt and jean shorts—who along with a pack of other infected had chased after us in the Jeep like dogs hours earlier—slowly walked out of the woods and into the road.

This time, she was alone.

“Here. Take Olivia,” I said, quickly handing the baby off to Peaches.

Then I drew Sally from her holster.

“Better not come one step closer!” I yelled.

Oh, when would I learn? Talking to the infected never worked. They either didn’t understand what I was saying, didn’t care, or both. They only responded to overwhelming force. They had to see what you were capable of before they’d reconsider making a move, and even then, many
still
wouldn’t back down. Just like with non-infected humans, there seemed to be varying levels of intelligence among the new infected class. Some were conniving, carefully planning their attacks, while others just rushed in wildly like a geek at a comic book convention. In either case, like Corey Hart—they’d never surrender.

Except this one.

She stopped in the middle of the road and slowly put her hands up. Then she said, “Please d-don’t shoot me.”

“She’s not infected,” Peaches whispered.

Nope. I kept Sally sighted on her anyway. I wasn’t taking any chances.

“I n-need help,” the woman said.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“If you let me inside, I’ll tell you.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” I said.

“I’ll do anything you want. Please, they could be here any moment.”

“Who?”

“The others. I know you saw them. They were chasing me. I lost them in the woods, but it’s only a matter of time until they figure out where I went. And when they find me out here, they’ll find you too. So we need to go inside.”

Peaches had gradually backed up all the way to the front door. “Just let her inside, Jimmy. We don’t want to be discovered.”

I gave the crazy lady the go-ahead and then followed her inside. We all gathered in the living room.

“So … start talking,” I said.

“What’s your name?” Peaches asked.

“Nicole.”

“Is that your blood?” I asked, pointing to her red and white shirt.

Instantly, tears filled her eyes. She frowned and shook her head. “No, it’s … m-my … my…”

“Okay, why don’t you have a seat,” Peaches said.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “Do you have any weapons on you?”

That’s right, wait a darn minute people. I was the sheriff. This was
my
jurisdiction. I made the rules. I was the one in charge.

“Shut up, Jimmy,” Peaches said. “She can barely stand up. I don’t think she means us any harm.”

I backed off. There was a new sheriff in town. I wasn’t in charge anymore.

Nicole sat down on the couch. “I don’t have any weapons anyway.”

“I’m gonna make a nest for Olivia in the other room,” Peaches said. “I’ll be right back.”

After Peaches left the room, Nicole looked up at me and said, “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you guys. I just didn’t know where else to go. I was beginning to think there was no one left … like us, ya know.”

I sighed. “It’s okay.” I put Sally back in her holster and sat down on Ted’s second couch. “I’m sorry I pointed the gun at you. I just figured…”

“I was one of
them
?”

“Yeah, when we saw you earlier, we didn’t know you were being chased. We didn’t know you were … like us.”

“Would you have helped me if you
had
known?”

I shrugged. “I doubt it. There was a bunch of them chasing you, and I didn’t have any ammo at the time.”

Nicole put her head in her hands. She was shaking.

“You want something to drink?” I asked.

“Yes, thank you.”

“I’ll get it,” Peaches said, walking back into the living room.

“You have a nice house,” Nicole said, surveying the room.

I started laughing. “It’s not ours. Well, I guess it sort of is now.”

“So you didn’t kill those animals then?”

I glanced back at the deer head mounted behind me. “No, I’ve only been out in the woods once in my life, and I wasn’t the one doing the hunting.”

Peaches handed Nicole a glass of water and then sat down next to her. “You want to tell us what happened?”

Nicole took a small sip. “I don’t know where to start.”

“Start at the beginning.”

And so she told us her story, starting three days ago, when the plague swept into town. She lived a few miles from Ted’s, not far from where we had first seen her. She was married, but had no children. Sadly, her husband hadn’t been as
lucky
as her. Like the majority of the population, he had fallen into a coma. When he woke the next day, he had tried to kill her, almost succeeded. But she managed to slip away, ran into a shed to hide. After some time of keeping quiet, she figured he’d given up looking for her. Wrong. He was waiting for her when she opened the shed. He attacked her again, tried to strangle her, but this time she was armed with a pair of gardening shears. And so she let him have it, until he could no longer hold himself up—until he choked on his own blood. The blood that poured down and stained her white shirt red.

Nicole began shaking again as she relived the awful experience. Tears rolled down her face. Peaches put an arm around her.

“I dragged him into the shed and locked it,” Nicole said. “Then I looked for help. I thought that maybe since he woke up there would be others that woke up too. But all the people I came across were just like him. They wouldn’t talk to me. They only wanted to hurt me. So I went back to my house and spent the rest of the day inside, scared to death of going out again. I watched from the upstairs window as people crossed the streets, passing through the neighborhood. I don’t know where they were going, but there had to be hundreds of them. I don’t think I even recognized one person. Oh, and there was gunfire. I definitely heard gunfire. I knew I had to leave the house. I couldn’t stay there forever. But I was so scared.”

I looked at Peaches.

Peaches looked at me.

“That was probably us,” I said.

“What?” Nicole asked, wiping her eyes.

“The gunfire you heard. We were in the area yesterday afternoon.”

“There was more of us,” Peaches added. “We had a decent sized group. But we kinda got separated.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nicole said. “I wish I could have found you guys earlier. I spent last night in my house, but I could barely sleep. Then this morning I finally decided I had to leave. So I snuck out the back … and I … I swear I heard sounds coming from the shed.”

I leaned forward, curious. “What kind of sounds?”

“Like something was moving in there. It couldn’t have been my husband. I was sure I had killed him, but even if I hadn’t, he couldn’t have survived in there all night. The shed was old. I figured some animal found some rusted out section in the corner or something and got in there. No way I was going to unlock it and find out. So I left the yard, tried to keep hidden as I headed toward town, but eventually they spotted me. And then they chased me.”

“And that’s where we came in,” I said.

Nicole nodded. “I just kept running. I knew if I stopped, I’d be dead. They followed me into the woods, and that’s where I lost them.”

“Are you
sure
you lost them?” I asked, getting up from the couch.

She took a moment to answer. “No.”

At least she was honest.

“Wouldn’t they be here by now if she hadn’t?” Peaches asked.

“You’d think,” I said, and went to the front door. I peered out a nearby window. “I don’t see anyone.”

“Will you let me stay here?” Nicole asked. “I’ll do anything you ask.”

“Cook us dinner,” I said, returning to the living room.

“He’s kidding,” Peaches said.

“I will if you want.”

“No, no. In fact, Jimmy, you’re cooking dinner tonight.”

I smiled. Is this how it was going to be? I was already outnumbered before with two girls in the house. Now that there were three, I was most certainly doomed.

“I’ll cook dinner. Not saying that it’ll taste any good. But if you want, I’ll cook it.”

Peaches smiled back. “Thanks dear.”

I checked my watch. 4:09 p.m.

“It’s just after four. I’ve got time. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna finish packing the Jeep.” I began walking away and then turned back. “Nicole, nice to have you around. Have you ever shot a gun before?”

“No, never.”

“You will,” I said, and then left for the garage.