POW! (Book 1): The Zombie Days (7 page)

Chapter Ten

Breaking out from the tree line, we could see the giant wall of the camp that meant we had officially made it to what was hopefully our final destination. From what I had seen in the treetop, I knew the camp was made from a large subdivision of a suburb that also encompassed an elementary school.

"Wow," said Evelyn. "It looks so different here, now. Before Dad forced me to go up and stay with Mom, it didn't look so . . . dead here. It's so quiet."

"We've lost a lot in the past couple of months,” Mac said. “We had to reinforce the gate. The deaders used to be able to build up enough bodies to knock it down. But not no more. We've also got foot patrols ‘round the clock to keep their numbers down. That's how I found y’all. I was makin' my final rounds when you decided to blow up a herd of them deaders out there. Thanks for gettin' all my work done for me!"

"Deaders? Livers? Man, you guys suck at name calling. Did you learn nothing from your time with me in the Corps?" I asked with a laugh.

“I guess not, man,” Mac said, smiling.

“Evelyn, you said you were living down here a stretch a little while ago?” I asked.

“I was, indeed. My father and I both thought I could be an asset in helping with all of their efforts. I was going to school for a bunch of different things, because I could never make up my mind as to which degree I should get first, but my dad said that things were getting too dangerous down here for me. That’s when he told me I was no longer allowed to stay down here and try to help. So I went up to my mom’s place. I guess I’ve mostly just been sulking away up there. That’s why you haven’t seen me around too much. I’m kind of a private person.”

“You’re not the only one. I tend to avoid people in the same way that most people try to avoid the undead.” I smiled in her direction. This girl just got better and better as time went on.

We arrived at Mac's place. It was just inside the gate. Not an ideal location in my book, but then again Kyle and I lived in the last two houses on our street up the hill. I guess we were in basically the same boat.

Looking like there was the smell of fres shit in the air—likely a result of my previous comment towards him—Mac said, "We may suck at name calling without the great mind of Peter Oliver Wonder around, but none of us here really liked the thought of living in the land of 'zombies,' so we just call them deaders instead."

"That is so fucking retarded, Mac. Do you really think that calling them something else will make your problems any better at all? To paraphrase Shakespeare, 'A zombie by any other name would smell as sweet.'"

"Yeah, whatever bro."

Evelyn nudged me with her elbow. Perhaps I wasn’t being such a nice guest. "Hey, thanks for letting us crash here, Mac. It really means a lot to us. But do you know if my father is here? Or, if he has been here recently, would you be able to point us in his direction?" Evelyn asked.

"Oh, that reminds me. Did you say your father was a doctor?" I asked.

"Yeah. He's actually a physicist, not a medical doctor. He came down here to help work on a cure or something, I think."

"Garcia," said Kyle, Mac and I at the same time.

"Are you guys planning some sort of reunion or something?"

"We might as well. Garcia, as you might have guessed by now, was also in our unit. Only thing is, he's the only one of us who was actually a smart guy. And I mean
really
smart. This dude also had a PhD in physics. If anyone knows where your dad is, it would most likely be him. Do you have any clue where he's at, Mac?"

"Sure do, he's been living at the school with the rest of the research team. I'll take you right to him."

"Right on, man! Let's go! We can be headed out of this dump and back on our way home in the morning," I said, making my way to the door.

"No can do, Pete. The school closes down at night."

"What the fuck for? They have business hours and then just lock everyone inside? This place is just plain stupid, Mac."

"I don't know what the story is there, man. No one does. Them dudes at the school don't really talk much about what they're doin' in there. I don’t think they want any word gettin’ out. Must be some real secretive shit that they've got going on behind them walls. We'll go see Mr. Jose Garcia in the mornin' though, a’ight?"

"Whatever's clever," chimed in Kyle.

I was not at all happy about having to wait until morning to find out if I could go back home or not.

"Y'all can sleep wherever you can find an open spot; I'll grab some blankets ‘n’ shit. Evelyn, if you change your mind about Pete at any point in the middle of the night—and who could blame you if you do?—there's plenty of room in my bed for you."

"I'll keep that in mind," she replied, once more nudging me with her elbow.

While our host was rummaging about the place for extra bedding material, the rest of us took turns washing up in the kitchen and bathroom sink and changed our filthy clothes. When Mac returned with the “blankets ‘n’ shit” we all curled up on the floor and got ready to pass out for the night, but before we did I pulled Evelyn aside. “Your father is some genius scientist, and you’re following right in his footsteps. Why on Earth would you be with a dude such as myself?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? You seem to be prepared for anything, and you always know how to make people laugh. I really enjoy spending time with you, Peter. Like you said, we make a pretty good team.” What an amazing lady.

Feeling full of confidence, as usual, I did my best to find a spot on the floor where we would be able to sleep next to one another, but found no joy. The logistics of such a thing just wouldn’t work out in this amount of space with this many bodies. I gave her a kiss and we parted to find our own places to sleep for the night.

Chapter Eleven

"Ow, what the fuck?!" I yelped out. Mac woke me up by stepping on my calf on his way to the restroom.

"I know I said you guys could curl up and sleep wherever you wanted, but really, man? The hallway in front of the bathroom was your first choice? Sorry for steppin' on ya and all, but damn man. C’mon. Would a little bit of common sense really hurt you that much?"

"Sorry, man. It just looked so appealing right here, I couldn't resist. Sorry for yelling at you, but I'm still a bit sore from the explosion."

"You were in that blast last night?" he asked.

"Nah, not that blast. I was in a different blast. They were both quite similar though, really."

"Shut the fuck up, liar."

"It wasn't quite as bad as getting shot the next day while dodging a puma attack, but it put me on my ass for a bit, that’s for sure."

Mac was left dumbfounded for a moment. His jaw hug open as he appeared to search for the proper words to say. Then, "Can I make y'all some pancakes or something?"

"Is it Christmas come early? You have stuff to make pancakes with? Holy God, you are a Saint, man! A
Saint,
I say!" I said, thrilled at the prospect of a delicious breakfast.

"Pancakes?" blurted out Kyle, just now waking up. Without making too much movement, he reached up and rubbed at his eye with his left hand.

"I've had some stuff stored away for a special occasion," Mac said. "And this beautiful autumn morning would most definitely qualify as that. I haven't gotten to make a gorgeous woman breakfast in way too long." He was, of course, eye raping my now-girlfriend, Evelyn.

"Tone it back, ladies’ man." I knew he was just playing around . . . mostly.

"Do you have, like, syrup, too?" Kyle was now standing up, holding his blanket like a frightened child in the middle of the night. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if he put his thumb in his mouth to complete the image.

"You know it, brother!" said Mac.

Everyone let out a little gasp of excitement as they all began to stir.

"Before breakfast, can I talk to you in your room privately for a second?" I asked Mac.

"Sure thing man, but don't get mad at me when these folks are pissed at you for makin' 'em wait on their grub."

I grabbed my pack and we went into his room.

"I got a little something for you, Blackness." I fumbled through the bag as I spoke, and headed back towards his room.

"I hope it's got a vagina," he grumbled.

"It’s not quite that good, but it’s pretty close; it's got alcohol!" I whispered excitedly. I handed him a bottle of wine that I had wrapped up in one of my shirts for safe keeping.

"FU-"

"Shhh, if you ever come up the hill, I'll have some more for you, bro. But you are hooking us up big time by letting us stay here and everything. This is my way of saying thank you."

"Y'all motherfuckers can come stay any time you like! Now, let's get this breakfast goin'!" he said excitedly as he headed into the kitchen.

***

"Oh my word, those pancakes were simply amazing!" declared Carolina.

"Maybe so, but I probably could have pulled them right off of the street and they would have tasted amazing with this syrup," Mac said in acceptance of the compliment.

"The only thing that could add to my enjoyment of this

would be a cup of coffee. But, then again, even if you told me you had some coffee lying around here somewhere, I would probably die of joy, so it wouldn't even matter," I said with a mouth full of pancake.

"Unfortunately for us all, I have no coffee. Sorry to disappoint you folks."

Mac looked around the table. "If everyone is finished, up I think we can go on over to the school now to see if we can't find Jose yet."

"That sounds fucking awesome, bro. I think we're all ready whenever you are," I said, speaking for the group.

Everyone got out of their seats, quite satisfied from our lovely pancake breakfast. We gathered our belongings and headed out.

"So you work in this town, helping to protect it, and they have given you not one single clue as to what it is they’re doing right in the damn middle of it? Doesn’t that make you at all nervous or pissed off that they don’t even trust you?" I asked Mac in disbelief.

"All I know is that it's got to be something to do with getting rid of them deaders, man. I just hope it’s something good that’s too sophisticated for us common folk to wrap our pea-brains around."

That stupid name again. Deaders…

"But why would they keep that a secret?” I asked. “Is there a big pro-zombie movement down here? What the hell is going on? It seems to me, if it was a good thing, they’d at least make some effort to calm your nerves and let you know what’s going on to some extent, right?"

"Maybe you'll be able to get some answers from Jose or someone else inside, but no one's been tellin' me jack squat. I ain't even been able to talk to Jose in a long ass time. We work different shifts. One of us is asleep while the other one is working. I'm probably gonna get my ass handed to me for bein' late this mornin' to tell you the truth. I just hope Jerry won't be too pissed off at me."

"Jerry?" I asked.

"He's my partner out there. He's a pretty cool dude for the most part. You guys should just be glad it was me that found y'all last night and not Jerry. He probably would have shot your ass for that cannibal comment," Mac said with a laugh.

"I don't think I speak for just myself when I say we were happy that it was you that found us. No matter what the other options were, bro."

The school was by far the most secure area of the camp. It was located directly in the center of the whole thing, which meant that any threat from any direction would have to be quite formidable to reach it.

The school itself, however, no longer resembled a school in the least. It had been double fenced off the entire way around with razor wire all around the top. There was also one guarded access point on each end. Now, it looked much more like a prison yard than a friendly place for kids to learn.

After a little bit of walking we arrived at the guard shack. "Who are your friends there, Mac?" asked the  man with a bit of an attitude and a bitter expression on his face.

"These are a couple of my old Marine buddies from back in the day. This is Pete, and this is Kyle,” replied Mac. “Guys, this is Cliff. And back there are a couple of their friends that we're trying to help out. We were just going to go in and talk to Jose for a minute. They think that he’ll be able to help."

"C’mon, Mac. You know that it's authorized personnel only inside. They'd destroy me if I let your friends in. Speaking of which, shouldn't you be on patrol right now?"

"I was gettin' there, man. Just help me out by lettin' us in, then I'll be on my way."

"Sorry, Mac. I can't let your friends in," said Cliff.

"A’ight, man. I'll catch you later, then," Mac said. He turned away, shaking his head with a sigh and a frustrated expression.

"What's the deal, Ma-"

"Shhh . . . We're gonna try the back entrance, a’ight. Just act cool and turn around."

We did as he said and turned around. As we were walking to the other side of the building our luck took a turn for the better.

"Jose?!" I shouted out at the man I saw down the street. "Is that you, Garcia?"

The man studied us for a moment before responding. "Pete? Kyle? Can't be," he said, still squinting in our direction.

The three of us ran to a meeting spot in the middle and exchanged some bro-hugs. "How's it been, man?" I asked. "Long time no see!"

"Things have been anything other than normal, I would say. And speaking of abnormal behavior, why would you guys have come here of all places? It’s not exactly the ideal vacation spot to bring your significant others for some down time."

"As a matter of fact, we were hoping you could help us out a little bit on our quest. We're looking for a Dr. Korpiklaani. Do you know who that is?” I asked him. “This is his last known location."

Jose tried his best to have no reaction at all, but his eye had a slight twitch and he bit at his lip.

"Why would you be searching for him? I'm sure I could assist you in anyway that he could have. Just tell me what you need."

"Well, that's cool of you and all, but do you see that smokin' hottie back there?" I pointed to Evelyn, but I doubt he could have possibly missed her. "I don't really want her calling you Daddy if you know what I'm saying." I thrusted my hips through the air so it would be just noticeable to someone very close.

"The doctor is her father?" Jose's voice had a hint of worry to it now. I could only imagine that was a bad sign for all of us.

"Look man, what the hell is going on in this fucked up place? I haven't been here long, but I know there's something very wrong with this picture. I thought you were all locked up inside the school. What are you people doing out here?"

"They're . . . doing some field experiments. I had to come back because I've been having some stomach issues," said Garcia, cradling his stomach.

"You called in sick? How cute," said Kyle.

"You guys should really just go back up the hill. You're much safer up there," Garcia insisted.

"Jose, we can't leave until we find her dad. Are you going to help us or not?" I asked, getting desperate for answers.

Jose sighed deeply. He bit his lip again and I could see this was a hard decision for him.

"I can tell how much you must hate it here, man, and that's okay; we totally get that. We are your friends, Jose. Help us out, then you can come up and live with us. There's a place right next to Kyle's house. You'll love it up there. Just ditch whatever it is that you’re working on right now and come with us. There’s no need to stay here and be miserable due to your oppressive boss. There’s plenty of misery to be had elsewhere for many other reasons than employment," I implored.

Jose gave a deep sigh. "I might have to end up taking you up on the offer of moving out of here, but I can’t come with you just yet. But I will tell you that I'm not sure how much I like the ways this research team has chosen to go about handling the threat. I’m going to do my best to avoid them for as long as I can."

"Why? What are they trying to do? Are they making a bomb or some shit?"

"It’s or ‘some shit’, I’m afraid . . . I don't know, man. I've just got a bad feeling about all of this. Tell you what, for now, I'll point you in the right direction and you might get lucky. Or it might be too late, but let’s hope that I’m just being paranoid."

"Too late for what?! What the fuck is going on, dude?" I was growing impatient.

"Listen guys, you really don't have time for me to explain everything to you right now. Even if I did, it wouldn't help you with anything at this point. You should get going as soon as you possibly can. Like, right now as a matter of fact. They took off that way, but be very careful. There are lots of deader-"

"ZOMBIES!" I broke in as he was pointing in a direction that was clearly out of town. I felt like I was going to snap if I heard one more person call a zombie a deader. “They’re called goddamn zombies, bro.”

He looked thrown off by my outburst. "Yes . . . There are a lot of them in that area. That's why it was chosen by the research team; it’s evidently ideal for their purposes. I see you've got the hardware. You will be needing it out there, I’m sure . . ." He inhaled deeply as he bit the other side of his lip.

Kyle and I shook Jose’s hand once more in a thank you and turned to head back to where we’d left Evelyn, Carolina, and Mac.

"What's up, guys? Any good news? Please tell us that you have some good news!" asked Evelyn excitedly.

"Kinda. We heard your dad is likely this way, but we have to hurry it up. Mac, can you get us out of here in a hurry?” I asked.

"Yeah. I saw where he was pointing. That where you headin'? There's an old building over there that's been turned into housing for the civilians that lived outside of these walls before. We can climb up the fire escape and get you over the wall that way. It sure as hell beats walking all the way around the wall of the camp; especially when you're in a hurry."

"Thanks again, Mac. You're fucking amazing!" Everyone made little sounds of agreement. When it came to Mac, we had a lot to be thankful for today.

"It's back this way, let's go." Mac turned and we all followed him.

We headed around a corner in the direction Garcia had pointed out for us. A couple blocks later, we had yet another encounter.

"Oh, Jerry, it’s you!" Mac said. "I’m sorry I'm late, man. I ran into some old friends that needed a little bit of help. This is Pete, Kyle, Carolina, and the lovely Evelyn. I'm just gonna help them get the hell on up outta here and on their way and I’ll be right back. I’ll only be a few more minutes, I swear. Then, I'm all yours again, bro!"

Jerry did not respond.

"C’mon, man, you know that I would be cool with your bullshit if it was you that was runnin’ a little bit late! Remember that one time when you were shacking up with that ol’ lady that used to be a cashier at the grocery store in town? What was her name? Diana? And that was a
nasty
old bitch that you kept me waitin' for, man!"