Respect for the Dead (Surviving the Dead Book 1) (35 page)

They had left town hours ago, yet they were only about forty miles away.  After clearing the bridge it seemed like smooth sailing.  They were traveling outbound in the inbound lanes without any other vehicles in sight.  Over on the other side of the road it was just mile after mile of abandon, burned and wrecked vehicles.  As the highway wound through the mountain the lanes got closer together and people had attempted to cross the median. Now both lanes were scattered with discarded vehicles, luggage and occasionally a body.   All too soon the road had become blocked. 

Devin had made an attempt to go around the jumble of wreckage.  Crossing into the median the heavy trucks tires sank into the soft earth.   They were stuck. 

“At least we have a moment to stretch our legs.”  Matt exclaimed, trying to put a happy spin on their predicament. 

An hour later they were all sore from pushing and pulling.  Several undead now lay crumpled across hoods or seeping thick blood onto the pavement.  Matt wiped the sweat from his brow while Devin groaned as he stretched his back.  The vehicle was finally extricated from the mud.

“I think I will deal with cramped legs next time.”  Beth commented as she wiped mud from her hands. 

Beth drifted in and out of a fitful sleep.  The faces of Max and Stancy kept swimming into view causing her to wake with a start and stare around in the near blackness.  Devin had pulled over on the shoulder a few minutes after they had freed the truck.  Everyone inside was too tired to continue on. No one spoke about the ones they had to leave behind but their absence weighed heavily in the truck, Max’s did anyway. 

Dawn was finally breaking.  Pale light began to filter through the front window.  Beth blinked a few times while quietly struggling to her feet.  Her back was stiff and her legs were sore.  She had been pushing at the back of the truck when they had gotten stuck, mix that with being tackled earlier and she was surprised she could even walk.  Easing her way through the others, she made her way to the front of the truck.  Devin snored softly from the driver’s seat.  Gillian was curled up in the passenger’s. 

Sitting with her back against the center console, Beth watched the others sleep.  She cocked her head to the side.  She was sure she heard something.  It was a muffled thumping, she was sure she heard it.  Looking out of the front window on the slowly illuminated highway she tried to make out where the sound might be coming from.   There were several cars further up the road, but they all seemed empty.  They had discussed taking one or two earlier in the trip, but ruled it out as no one wanted to get stuck with so many windows.   

Beth strained her ears.  There it was again, rhythmic yet distant as if brought to her on the breeze.  The sun was breaking over the horizon, Devin stirred and mumbled in his sleep. Gillian’s eyes were open and questioning what Beth was doing.  Beth held a finger to her lips then cupped her ear.  Gillian turned her head to listen.  “Thump……thump, thump, thump………..Thump.” 

“Did you hear that?”  Beth hissed.  Gillian nodded. They both looked out the window aware that Devin was now awake and also scanning for the source. 

“There!”  Beth whispered and pointed at a large white panel van way up the road.  Devin sat and watched the back of the truck trying to discern why Beth had chosen it. 

“Thump..Thump, thump, thump.”  The back doors shuddered, a chain dangling from one of the handles jumped with each sound. Devin sat up straighter in the seat, stretched his back and reached for the key.  “Bang!”  The back door to the van flew open and slammed against the vehicle, the tail light shattering from the impact. 

Torn clothes and torn flesh emerged falling out of the blackness of the interior.  Devin turned the key firing up the engine.  Five of the undead caught the sound.  They were moving toward them.  Questions and grunts filled the air as the truck lurched forward.  Devin swerved and dodged around the refuse of the road, clipping one car and a zombie.  Beth fell back when the truck accelerated.  She lay in pain and watching the ceiling and listening to the crunch of metal and bone.  Matt helped pull her to a seated position against the wall. 

“Good Morning.”  He muttered. 

The sun was now blinding them with early morning light.  Devin slowed.  The zombies were far in the rearview and the truck had fishtailed a few times in mud when they had to take to the median.    They began to be more cautious as they weaved their path along the littered highway.  The amount of abandon vehicles thinned out dramatically and they were back to smooth unimpeded travel, for a little while. 

The road disappeared around a bend as engine whined under the strain of pulling the heavy vehicle up the steep slope of a mountain.  It was fortunate that the armored car was so heavy and the travel slower than Devin would normally have driven.  Cresting the mountain and following the curve the road ahead was littered with crashed and burned out cars almost blocking their path. 

They had reached a set of tunnels through the mountain.  Now they had a choice. 

              Steve grabbed Kate pulling her to the wall next to him.  He raised a hand as he peaked around the corner back toward the church.  Further down their hall a set of double doors burst open.  Wes came flying out at them, wide eyed and pale.

“Steve!  Kate!  They’re here, they’re here!!!  They broke through the windows in the cafeteria and they are getting in!  I tried moving some stuff in front of the window but it won’t hold!”  Wes shouted.

              “Come on!  We have to get back to the church and warn them!”  Kate called running ahead of Steve.   

              Turning the corner the sight that met them made Wes’ blood run cold.  Bear was thundering down the hall straight at them.  Behind the huge biker they could see the Priest sheparding the other survivors into the fallout shelter. Sarah’s pained face disappeared as she herded a child forward.  Steve motioned for bear to turn around, “Get to the shelter!”  He cried. 

              Bear slid to a stop, turned, took one step and stopped again.  Father Michael was arguing with the man who had been on guard.  The guard pushed him and raised his rifle.  Steve yelled distracting the man.  They aimed at each other but Mike punched the guard. 

“RUN!”  he cried with one last desperate look at Steve.  Father Mike pulled the heavy door shut.  Regaining his feet the guard began pounding on the door screaming.  He stepped back and began firing at it.  Bear had been running full tilt to the door. He skidded, slipped nearly falling.  His boots squeaked on the floor trying to regain traction.  He covered his head and ran back toward Kate.  He caught her by the shoulders.      

“Come on we have to get out of here!”  He thundered down the hall with her in his wake.  Glass shattered behind them.  They could hear the tables tumbling down. 

“How many are in the church?” Steve shouting as he stopped Bear’s progress.  He looked straight through Steve as if he hadn’t heard the question. 

“Bear, how many?”  Kate asked again. 

              “Not many, they came from the back.  I don’t know how many.”  Bear trembled. 

              “We have to chance it, all our stuffs in there.  It is close to the door.  If there isn’t too many we might be able to outrun em.”   Wes said.  Ignoring the guard who was too panicked to notice them as he pounding on the door to the shelter they ran toward the church.  Wes skidded up to the door, kicking it open. 

The heavy oak door collided with something on the other side.  Wes kicked it again and the door swung open.  A zombie was on the floor struggling to regain its footing.  Wes ran up to it and stomped on its neck.  A sickening crunch filled Steve’s ears.  Wes kept stomping on the head until he was pulled off by Kate.  Bear and Steve were already at the pew throwing packs on and grabbing guns.  The bald man they knew from the front steps lay in a pool of blood.  He was already twitching, coming back to life.  One of the bikers sat on a pew a bullet hole in his head.     

              Several zombies were shuffling through the church toward them.  They were coming through a door at the very back of the church, the door that lead to the priest’s office.  Steve knew the key to the shelter was in there but could do nothing to get to it.  His attention then turned to the door they had just passed through.  Undead after undead were streaming through it.  “Front door!”  Wes called as he ran, Bear at his heels, Steve and Kate close behind.

              Moans filled the church with the steady stream of undead pouring through the doors.  “How did they get in?”  Kate asked slamming through the doors to the entrance. 

              “I found a broken window as I was looking for a way to escape.  It looked like someone threw a chair through it…UMPH.”  Wes pushed the huge door open leading to the outside.  “I don’t think we were the only ones who wanted to get out.  I don’t, over there,” he pointed to the gap in the buses, “think they made it too far, ran right into them by the look of the pieces.” 

              Running down the stairs the four headed to the gap.  Bear slipped on the bottom step and faltered.  Steve and Kate slipped through the gap quickly, followed by Wes.  Bear recovered and hit the gap.  Again his girth caught him.  The metal belt buckle of his jacket caught on the grill of the bus.  Wes stopped and cried out to the others.  Steve was already firing his rifle at several oncoming undead. 

              Wes and Kate pulled on the struggling man.  His head kept turning to the front doors.  Zombies were already spilling out and down the stairs.  Several had fallen all the way down to the bottom, strips of flesh hung off of them as they regained their feet, staggering toward the buses and Bear. 

              A tear leaked out of Bear’s eye when he looked at Kate.  “I have a great way to keep them from coming after you through here.” He laughed.  Kate began to sob and pull harder on Bear’s sleeve.  He held up a huge hand and pushed Kate away, “Here, get off you two.”  Kate stumbled back tears flowing freely.  Wes grabbed at the lapel of the leather jacket as Bear pulled the gun from Wes’ waist.

Kate Screamed “No!” but it was too late with one last look Bear shot himself in the head.  His body immediately went limp yet, was still hopelessly wedged between the busses.  He completely blocked the zombies from getting through after Kate.

Wes shook his head picking up his gun, “thanks, but I wish you could have come with us.”  He patted the dead man on the shoulder and ran after Kate and Steve.  Steve was half pulling half carrying Kate down the empty street, listening for any sounds of pursuit and watching for movement.  Huddling in a doorway Wes clutched at a stitch in his side and looked at the other two.  Kate was crying onto Steve’s shoulder. 

“We’re never going to make it out of here on foot.”  He breathed.

“There are abandon cars all over the place we need to find one with keys.”  Kate said between sobs.  She looked sideways at the two men, “unless one of you knows how to hotwire one.” 

Wes and Steve looked at each other then at Kate.  “No, do you?”

“No,” was her choked reply.  “Damn it Bear we needed you.”  She hit her own leg.   

Steve pointed up the street, “there is a garage let’s hope they had some business.” 

“And they finished it.”  Kate said.  Wes looked at her confused.  “Hey if the car is still broken down it won’t do us much good.”  She explained.  Wes nodded.  With nerves on end they cautiously approached the garage. 

They were a block away, half a block, and still no zombies.  They began to run.  All three skidded to a stop.  In their path was a lone figure.  It slowly made its way around the corner of the building.  “We can just outrun it.”  Wes suggested.

“What if the garage is locked?” Steve asked. 

Kate raised the gun Steve had handed her when they left the church in her shaking hand.  “If we shoot it, we might alert more to where we are.”  She whispered.  Steve stepped behind Kate and steadied her arm. 

“Just like a video game remember.”  He whispered to her.  Wes stepped back.  Kate exhaled and aimed at the zombie’s head.  Steve released her arms and also stepped back.  She squeezed the trigger. Part of the zombie’s ear flew off but it continued forward.  She turned and gave Steve a panicked look.  He just nodded to her to try again.  Wes had his weapon readied. 

“Hey Kate, in the video games you might get something good if you get a head shot.  Sometimes they drop ammo, or health.”  Wes smiled while taking aim at the ghoul.

“You can do this.”  Steve reassured.  Kate took aim again.  Her next shot was true and the zombie crumpled.  As it fell something dropped from its hand.  Wes walked up to the corpse.  Reached down and held up a box. 

“Holy shit!  Ammo!”  He exclaimed.  All three looked at each other.  “Um, let’s get to the garage.”  Wes said looking down at the red box of bullets in his hand. 

“Seriously?”  Steve responded and the three ran to the garage.  They weaved their way through a couple of cars parked in the front lot.  Steve assessed them approvingly.  They were all classics in various stages of restoration.  Standing between the wall of the garage and 1962 Corvette that was missing its interior Steve turned to look at Kate.  She was watching Wes checking the door. 

“You ok?”  Steve asked

“Yeah, I guess so.”  She replied, but jumped at the sound of Wes smashing a window.  Steve edged closer to her and put a hand on the side of her face.  He looked into her eyes and inched closer to her.  She closed her eyes and tilted her face toward his.  A gun blast made them quickly cover their ears and jump apart.  Something heavy hit the Corvette behind them making them jump again.  Kate spun and looked as Steve grabbed her and pulled her away from the back of the car.  The zombie slid off the back of the classic car.  Steve swung around and saw Wes standing in the doorway with his gun still aimed. 

“Come on guys, I need your help finding the keys.”  Wes called and ducked back into the garage.  Steve turned and looked at Kate.  He was shaking slightly. 

“Um Kate I really like you.  I also really want to kiss you, but I don’t think I will try again until we are a very long way from here.”  

Shaking Kate nodded and said, “I’ll hold you to that.” 

He held out his hand, she took it and followed him into the garage.   Wes was in the office rummaging through the desk.  Kate walked over to the workbench.  Steve joined Wes in the office.  Wes did not look up when Steve joined his search. 

“You might want to calm your raging hormones until we are a bit safer.”  Wes grumbled. 

“Thanks for saving us.”  Steve muttered.  “I have already told her we are on hold until we get out of this.”

“Yeah?  You just don’t want me saving your ass again.”  Wes Laughed, “it might start to look like I’m the better catch.” 

Steve grabbed a pen from the desk and threw it at Wes, who tried to catch it but it ended up going through his hands and smacking him in the face.  “Nice hands.”  Steve smirked. 

Wes gave him the finger and replied.  “Twice, I saved your ass, twice.” 

“Hey guys,” Kate’s voice called from the garage area.  “I found the keys, so if you want to quit goofing off we can get out of here.”  

Wes moved to the door but Steve grabbed him and pushed him out of the way.  Kate just shook her head as they two men tried to make it through the door at the same time.   “You know right now neither of you is quite the catch.” 

“What’ve you got?” Steve asked shouldering Wes out of the way.  Wes punched Steve in the arm.  Kate shook her head again. 

“Looks like a Chevy key.”  She grinned and pointed to the Impala while holding up a key ring. 

“Sweeeet.”  Wes moaned in appreciation admiring the 65 Chevy Impala super sport.  All three made their way over to the car.  Steve looked inside, the interior was immaculate.  Kate opened the door and slid in behind the wheel. 

“Let’s hope they were done and waiting for the owner to pick it up.”  She grimaced while putting the key in the ignition.  Crossing her fingers she turned the key.  The engine roared into life.  Wes gave Steve a high five and ran to the passenger side.  Kate leaned over unlocking the door.  Wes jumped into the back.  Steve stared into the front window of the car and crossed his arms. 

Kate glared at him and put her head out of the window. “You aren’t going to pull some macho bullshit on my about women and driving are you?” 

Steve glared back and said, “No, I want someone to help me with the friggin door.”  Wes gave a guilty laugh as he climbed back out of the car.  Steve pulled the chain raising the door about a foot.  Wes dropped down to the floor to look under the door. 

“Looks clear.” He called.  Slowly the door inched upward.  Wes kept watch over the empty street in front of the building.  He stood up as Steve got the door open enough for Kate to pull the car through. 

She pulled level with them, “How’s this for luck?  Full tank!”

Pulling out of the garage slowly Beth kept the engine at a purr.  Steve motioned Wes forward then ran out behind him.  He let go of the chain, the door rattled down with an almighty crash hitting the ground.  Wes had thrown the passenger door open and was clamoring over the seat into the back.  Steve sprinted to the car as the street before them suddenly began to fill with the undead.  Steve was barely in when Kate hit the accelerator.  The door slammed shut as the 305 V8 roared and the tires squealed.  Kate pulled the wheel hard right and tore down the road past the grasping hands of the zombie horde.  They bounced down the road took another hard right and headed for the bridge out of town.