Don't Dare Call Them Zombies : Books 1-4 (21 page)

“Who are you?” one of the men asked in a derogatory voice.

“I'm Hank and this Jennifer. We’re just curious what the plan is because we want to help,” I responded.

“Well, this is a meeting of the board of deacons and I must ask you to leave,” the man stated.

“Let them stay,” Reverend McMann interjected. “We could use their help.”

A man with the blue tie took his hands off the table and took a step backwards.

“By all means, please continue,” he blurted out sarcastically. “We would all appreciate your valuable input.”

“We don't have a plan yet,” Reverend McMann informed us, while looking angrily at the deacon who had mocked us.

“But we need one, fast. Do you have any ideas? What would you suggest?” Reverend McMann asked.

My mind raced. Memories of being holed up in the grocery store, finding Jennifer at the barbershop, finding the relief station at the library, and escaping Sandy Hills flooded my mind. We had made it this far, and I was not about to give in to despair.

I realized that to have any hope of escaping the onslaught of the freaks we needed to do what we had successfully done before.

“We need a decoy to lure them away,” I stated.

Before I could continue explaining the plan I had quickly formulated, everyone in the room heard gunfire from outside. It brought a temporary silence to the room.

“What do you mean?” Reverend McMann asked.

“The freaks are attracted by sound. This is especially true during the daytime, when their vision is impaired,” I said. “They’re all headed this way because they heard the church bells. What we need to do is lure them away with another noise.”

“And just how do you propose we do that?” the sarcastic Deacon asked.

“Who has the best, loudest stereo system in their vehicle?” I asked. “We can use it to lure away the freaks.”

“Linwood South,” Rev. McMann stated. “He has a huge truck.”

“Okay, then. We need to find him, ask for his keys, and get me to his vehicle,” I said.

“Go get Linwood as fast as you can and bring him here,” Rev. McMann told the Deacon to his left. “Tell him it's an emergency!”

A series of additional gunshots interrupted us again. Normally I would have run outside to see what was going on, but we had to make plans fast.

“Now, this is the important thing. We need to get everyone inside. As long as there is gunfire and shooting going on outside at least some of the freaks are going to hang around. Everyone needs to get inside, stay inside, and stay quiet – not matter what,” I said.

Rev. McMann barked orders at another of his Deacons to tell all the patrols to retreat and regroup in the social hall. I continued laying out my plan to the Reverend as Jennifer held onto my arm. A few moments later, the Deacon returned with Linwood.

The short, wiry man with a long braided looked up at me and put his hand out.

“I'm Linwood, I hear you need to borrow my truck,” he stated.

I shook his hand and was taken aback by his appearance. His long beard was braided in rubber bands and extended down to the middle of his abdomen. His blue jeans looked torn and his short sleeved shirt had an image of a motor cycle riding through hell's flames. I couldn’t read the lettering on his hat, because it was adorned with all kinds of fish hooks and what looked like a lure of some kind.

“Yes,” I responded to the man. “I need to borrow your truck to distract the freaks. Does it have a loud sound system?”

“The best in Marlow county,” he stated.

“Do you have any CDs in the truck?” I asked.

“Yep,” he said. “You don't have to worry about that – prolly have fifty or so.”

“Okay, can I have the keys?” I said. “I'll do my best to bring back your truck.”

“Hey wait a minute, I'm not going to let you go alone,” he responded. “I've spent too much money on that truck to have some city slicking yahoo crash it in a ditch somewhere.”

“I promise I'll be careful,” I said.

“No, I'm coming with you,” he said. “You’ll need me to operate the sound system while you drive.”

“Okay,” I conceded.

At that point I felt Jennifer's fingernails dig into my arm.

“I’m coming along,” she said.

“No, you can't,” I said. “Not this time.”

“We’re not splitting up,” she said. “I'm not going to go through that again. Hank, I love...”

She paused. I couldn’t believe what I had heard.

“Listen,” I said. “If you’re with me I’ll be distracted. You have always distracted me. I’ve never been able to take my eyes off you since the day I met you. But right now, getting distracted by you, while going out there, could get me killed.”

She looked at me with exasperation; she clearly was not happy with me.

“I think it's going to be safe in here. They have the place barricaded pretty well. Just go find Roy and Kay and stay with them until I get back and this is over. They seem like good people,” I told her.

She started to speak, but I interrupted her.

“I don't have time,” I said. “We have to go.”

I quickly pulled her towards me, embraced her, and let go.

“Now go! Find Roy and his wife,” I commanded.

I felt like I was being rude and bossy to her. It was not like me. Normally, I wouldn’t speak in that tone of voice to her or anyone else. But this apocalypse was changing me; it was changing lots of things.

“Keep everyone quiet,” I told Reverend McMann.

Turning towards the exit to the fenced off perimeter, I saw a number of patrols entering the social hall. They were obeying the orders the church leadership had given them. There was no more gunfire outside, and the room was quieting down.

“Do you have a firearm?” I asked Linwood.

“Does a fish swim in water?” he quipped before pulling out a pistol from his pocket.

“Wait until you see what I have in the truck!” he exclaimed.

“Okay, good. Let’s go!” I said.

As we walked out of the social hall, I could see dozens of freaks lumbering around the church yard. More were wandering the fields, and there would surely be more arriving soon.

“We need to hurry,” I told Linwood.

As we rushed towards the gate we saw Meredith standing beside it. She was the only patrol who had refused to obey Reverend McMann's order.

“You need to get inside,” I told her.

“No, I'm coming with you,” she said.

“So you heard about the plan?” I asked.

“I got the basics,” she said.

“There’s no reason to risk your life,” I said. “The two of us can handle this.”

I watched as she started to unwrap the bandage on her arm.

“It's infected,” she informed us. “I don't feel bad, but look at the red lines.”

The wound did look infected.

“If I'm going to die, I want to go out my way – doing something meaningful,” she said. “Let me help!”

“You’ll have to sit in the back with all my fishing equipment,” Linwood said

“Fine,” said Meredith.

I unsheathed my long, stainless steel butcher knife. Meredith's blade was already in her hand.

“Let’s move,” I ordered.

We exited the gate and secured it behind us. I followed Linwood as he led us to the left, around to a side of the church I hadn’t examined closely before. Positioned on a series of wooden mounts were two long rows of solar panels; they were obviously the source of electricity for the church. A wire ran out from the array and into a hole drilled into a window frame. Next to the panels was a small play area for children with a couple of slides and a swing set.

We had run between the parked vehicles to avoid the freaks that were coming in increased numbers now. Luckily we were all quite nimble and were able to dodge their flailing arms and menacing snarls.

Linwood was soon standing next to a vehicle that towered above the parked sedans and station wagons. Flaming red with giant tires that seemed to reach up to my chest, the truck seemed like it would be the ideal vehicle for the mission.

“Go get the truck started, but don't turn the music on until yet,” I said. “We will cover you.”

Linwood lowered a step ladder on the driver’s side and climbed into the truck. Meredith and myself turned around as we heard the engine crank up.

Two freaks were approaching and they needed to be dispatched. As the first freak approached, I carefully looked for a safe opening to attack and drove my blade into its skull. I retracted my blade and watched as Meredith kicked in the knee of the second freak. It collapsed to the ground, and she proceeded to drive her machete into the back of its neck.

“That felt good,” she said.

I looked around and saw another freak approaching from behind a small, yellow vehicle. The lower jaw of this freak was shattered and hanging loose. It had a number of teeth missing as it slowly staggered towards me. Without a moment of hesitation I ran towards the freak and took its head off with one smooth stroke of my butcher’s knife.

With no additional freaks in our immediate vicinity, we looked back towards the giant truck we were supposed to climb into. Linwood had backed the vehicle up so that it was now positioned in the lane between two rows of parked vehicles. He was now sitting in the passenger seat, and the driver’s side door was open.

“Come on, get in!” Linwood called out.

“You go first,” I told Meredith.

She proceeded to climb up the step ladder on the driver’s side and maneuver her body into the back. I then climbed into the driver’s seat and folded up the ladder. I closed my door, locked it, and rolled down the window.

“Can you drive a stick?” Linwood asked.

“It's been a while, but yes,” I said.

“Hold on, Meredith,” I called out. “Don't fall out of the truck.”

I slowly let off the clutch and pressed the gas pedal. The vehicle moved forward as I drove the vehicle out of the parking area.

“So what do we do now?” Linwood asked.

“Turn on the music,” I said, “and make it loud.”

“What should I play?” asked Linwood digging through his seemingly bottomless glove compartment. “I’ve got Patsy Cline, Kenny Rogers . . ."

 “No, something that will get their attention!”

“Hey, I got it – ZZ Top!” beamed Linwood. It was the first time I had seen him smile – he was missing a few teeth.

“Perfect – put it in the CD player, and crank it up!”

Linwood put the disc in the slot and pressed the play button. Nothing happened.

“Just wait,” he said, “it won’t take long.”

I was driving slowly around the parking lot was careful to avoid hitting any of the freaks, although if I did, it would probably not be a disaster. The truck had a large front bumper that would probably be impact resistant and the tires were so large, the truck would probably not be damaged by running over any freaks crawling on the ground.