State of Decay (Omnibus (Parts 1-4)) (10 page)

“So, Captain so-freaking-sure-of-himself, what is your plan if you get into Charlotte safely?” I snapped, drawing Jude’s attention back to me. A muscle
in his cheek ticked as he stared at me. I crossed my arms over my chest and raised a brow, waiting. Jude sighed and ran a hand roughly over his face.

“I’ll dress down into civilian clothes and try to get into the base and see what I can find out. Like, how many soldiers are there, if there are any civilians being held captive, that sort of thing.” I shook my head and smiled. Jude shot a questioning look at me and then over at Ghost, who was also grinning from ear to ear. “What?” he snapped.

“I hate to break it to you, Jude, but you could wear a pink tutu and call yourself the tooth fairy, but everyone will know you’re military. Changing out of those camo pants and taking off all that gear, sure as hell won’t make a difference.” I smirked when the guys chuckled. “I’d make you as a soldier in a crowd in a heartbeat and I’m not even military. I bet your first word was “hooah”, wasn’t it?” Jude continued to scowl at me, but I pushed on, hoping to get my point across. “I could go with you,” I began.

“No fucking way, Melody,” Jude growled. I ignored him.

“Now, just listen, Jude,” I chided and held up a hand. “Think about it … a single guy looking like you do, would draw attention immediately. They would peg you as military, or at the very least, a threat before you even got in the door. But, if a civilian
couple
just happen to be needing shelter, well, we would be able to fly under the radar a little easier, since there would be no way I could be military,” I said coaxingly. Jude’s mouth swung open, but Big Ben cut in.

“She’s got a point, Jude,” he grumbled. “You’d be a lot less suspicious as a couple and you’d also have someone there to watch your back.” Jude
narrowed his eyes at the big man, but Ben just shrugged. He’d said his two cents.

“I agree,” Manuel mumbled.

“Awe, hell. Not you too,” Jude said with a throw of his arm. Manuel just stared at Jude for a moment before answering.

“If one of us can’t go with you, she’d be the next best thing … she couldn’t have survived alone like she did without having to be one touch little bitch,” Manuel said with grudging admiration. I smiled my thanks at him, even though he did just call me a bitch. Jude paced back and forth for several moments before he sighed heavily and turned to face us.

“Okay, she comes with me,” he agreed. “We’ll eat here and then Melody and I will head south on foot, while you all take the vehicle and head into the town west of here to scavenge for the most necessary supplies and then head back to the base by dark.” The men all nodded their heads. “Good. We’ll rendezvous back here in one week at 0800 hours.” We all sat in the toy store together and ate lunch in relative silence, thinking about everything that could go wrong in the next several hours and over the next several days.

When it was time to go our separate ways, I had to stop myself from giving each of the guys a hug, it seemed my
girliness showed itself at the worst times. I opted, instead, for a handshake.

“Alright, you guys head out first and we’ll follow in a few minutes,” Jude said. Manuel held my gaze and I nodded at him in understanding. I would do my best to watch Jude’s back and bring him back safely. It was an odd feeling to think I was going to be responsible for someone else’s safety besides my own for once. It wasn’t an entirely pleasant feeling.

“One week at 0800 hours,” Manuel said as he clasped Jude’s arm. Jude nodded.

“One week at 0800 hours,” he confirmed, with a smile.

And just like that, we were alone and without a vehicle in the middle of an abandoned Toys-R-Us with an uncertain future sprawled out before us.

“
H
ow long do you think
it will take us to get to Charlotte on foot?” I asked as we walked down the highway side-by-side, both of us hot and sweaty from keeping to a brisk pace for over three hours. Jude shrugged and I groaned.

“Best guess would be about ten hours of uninterrupted walking, but if I take in consideration stopping for breaks and light meals and that I have a civilian with me, I’d say at least twelve hours.” I glanced up at the sky and frowned. If that was the case, then we would walking once darkness fell. Jude noticed my look and smirked. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on walking in the darkness. We’ll walk until it begins to get dark and then we’ll try to find a secure location to sleep until early morning,” he explained. I smiled at him through gritted teeth. Would have been good to know earlier.

So far we’d lucked out and had only run into small clusters of zombies on our walk. If nothing else, Jude and I made a very effective zombie elimination team. He moved opposite me, his body attuned to my movements as we took on several zombies at once. It was uncanny, but it was very reassuring. As long as we didn’t get cornered or overrun by too many, we were virtually unstoppable.

We slowly approached a particularly cluttered part of highway, instantly on the alert for zombies and other hazards. I instinctually moved toward Jude, finding comfort in the fact that I knew he would have my back no matter how hairy any situation got. We passed several cars with their doors standing open wide, abandoned by whoever had initially inhabited them to travel on foot. Cars and trucks were all parked haphazardly along the stretch of highway bumper-to-bumper. The eerie line up caused the hairs on my neck to prickle in uneasiness. Ahead of us by about half a mile, I could see a huge semi-truck turned over on its side sprawled across the highway with several vehicles rammed into and around it. I could suddenly imagine with severe clarity how the scene must have unfolded during the accident. People in a panic, trying to drive their families out of whatever town or city they’d fled from only to watch helplessly as the huge eighteen wheeler lost control, either by accident, or as a result of the virus, but for whatever reason the truck flipped over, causing a massive pile up on the south-bound highway.

My hand ran along the side of an empty minivan. Had the van held a family with little children? I didn’t peer into the window to find out. I didn’t want to know. Did zombies immediately attack this area during the traffic back up, or did the people get away on foot for the time being? No way to know. I blew out a weary breath and moved along with Jude, who was as silent as death beside me.

When we finally made it to the semi, I shivered. Not a single zombie so far and for that, I was grateful. Jude caught my eye and we both smiled at each
other … the worst of this stretch was over. We headed around the back end of the semi, glad to get out of the jumbled graveyard of vehicles. As soon as we cleared the bumper, we both knew what a mistake it had been to think we’d lucked out. Luck never was a friend of mine.

Nearly a dozen zombies in different states of decay were standing near the over turned truck in their trademark, shut down mode. As soon as we stepped into their line of vision, they all snapped out of it and turned to face us.

“This is going to be fun,” Jude muttered out of the side of his mouth. A strangled giggle escaped my lips. Fun, yeah, that’s what we’d call it. “Try not to use your gun if at all possible and stay close to me,” Jude said as his eyes hardened. I nodded, unable to form any words.

We moved quickly, slashing and hacking our way through engorged flesh and bone like a couple of macabre butchers. Six overly ripe corpse hit the pavement with a splat before we had even made it a dozen feet. Bile rose in the back of my throat as the putrid aroma of rotting flesh and rancid fluids tickled the roof of my mouth and coated my taste buds. I drew back my arm and shoved my blade through the eye socket of a short and impossibly thin zombie, ignoring the fact that the zombie was wearing a jean skirt, hello kitty tee, and had probably been someone’s teen daughter.

As soon as she fell, another zombie, faster and much fatter, took her place. It grabbed out to snatch my arm, trying to sink its rotting teeth into me. I used the zombie’s own forward momentum, snagging it by the coat sleeve, and pulling it so hard that the zombie stumbled and fell to the pavement when I swiveled out of the way. I stomped with all my might into the zombies face, feeling its skull give way beneath my booted foot until there was nothing but putrefied mush squished into the pavement. I was so busy making sure the zombie on the ground didn’t get back up, that I missed the one who had come up behind me in the chaos. I turned swiftly only to come face-to-face with a zombie so swollen with fluids and rot that it could have been someone’s sick portrayal of zombies immortalized as a wax figurine. Its eyes were so unnervingly opaque that I had no idea how it could see. Its skin glistened in the sunlight, white and waxy and stretched so tautly across the corpse’s liquefied insides, that I was surprised into immobility.

The undead man didn’t hesitate like I did, however—his hunger for human flesh motivated him to try with all his might to rip into me. Surprised by his quickness, I jumped back, only to slip on the mess of zombie goo I’d made and land on my ass right in the middle of it … losing my knife in the process. I moved quickly, scrambling backward to get away, but the zombie was already right on top of me. I fumbled for my gun, trying to get it free with my hand covered in slimy zombie insides, but I wasn’t quick enough. I lunged back again, just as the zombie’s mouth opened and a gurgle of sour zombie breath coated my shoulder. A scream clawed its way up my throat just as the zombie stilled for a fraction of a second with his mouth hanging open before a fountain of blood and mushy zombie innards spewed forth with a
pop
, coating every inch of me from the neck down. In shock, I looked up into the face of the zombie, barely noting the long blade poking through his eye inches away from me.

“Are you alright?” Jude pushed the grotesquely bloated body to the side and held out a hand. I grabbed onto it and let him pull me from the pile of
muck. “Were you bit?” he asked quickly, searching my face. I shook my head, and glanced around at the bodies strewn all over the place. I felt light headed as I slowly raised my hands up in front of myself. I looked at the gore and guts coating my arms in a detached sort of fascination.

“We should probably get moving, Melody,” Jude said gently. I nodded again, never taking my eyes off of my arms. I turned slowly and glanced back at the mess I was just sitting in and realized how very close I’d been to getting killed. My head began to buzz as I pitched forward and vomited until my stomach hurt from the pain of it. Jude rubbed my back the entire time, but I didn’t hear whatever it was he was murmuring. When nothing was left except a headache, Jude help me to my feet. He held my blade out to me and I muttered my thanks. We both began walking again, glad to put the semi and all its newly redecorated scenery behind us as quickly as possible.

“I need to find somewhere to try and get cleaned up,” I said once we were half an hour further down the road. Jude nodded, glancing at the mess that was caked all over me.

“We should take a quick rest anyway. We only have another hour or two before we should begin searching for a place to hole up for the night. There is a small town up an exit that we’ll head for. Hopefully it won’t be overrun by zombies or any of the violent groups of survivors I’ve run into in the past,” Jude said. “Let’s stop over there.” He pointed over to what looked like it had once been one of those road-side produce. I nodded and picked up my pace to keep up with him. When we were pretty sure it was safe, we walked around to the back of the stand where there was shade and sat our backpacks down.

“Here.” I glanced up from my intense hand-scrubbing with half a bottle of sanitizer and took a men’s white tank top from Jude with a frown.

“Are you sure?” Jude gave me a look and then jerked the bottle of sanitizer out of my hand. “Hey!” I protested.

“Take off your shirt,” Jude ordered. I raised a brow in shock.

“Excuse me?” I asked incredulously. Jude clucked his tongue and the sighed.

“Listen, that sanitizer isn’t going to help get all that nasty crap off of you,” he said slowly. “Take off your shirt and I’ll help you clean off with some water, then you can put on the tank top.” I shut my mouth and frowned.

“Believe me, Melody, I want you clean more than you do. No offense, but you smell like shit.” He held up a hand and shrugged as if he were just stating facts. He was right of course, my own stench was beginning to make me want to throw up again. I
had
to get clean. “Besides,” he said with a wicked glint in his eye, “it’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before.” My face flamed and he chuckled. I really didn’t have a choice. I needed help to get even a little clean. I began pulling my shirt up, realizing right away that it had pretty much adhered itself to my skin as it dried when we were walking. Just freaking great. I yanked roughly away from my skin and then pulled it slowly over my head, trying not to get any chunks or dried flakes of zombie guts in my hair.

Jude took a cloth and a bottle of water out of his pack. He poured water over my hands as I rubbed them together and then over my arms. He poured a stream of water on the back and front of my neck and I shivered when his hand gently washed my neck and shoulder area. I didn’t dare look him in
the eyes as he helped me get clean. I would have probably died in mortification. When he poured water over my chest, thankfully letting me wash myself there, I felt him shift away from me just a bit. My sad, gray bra was thoroughly soaked, but at least it was still wearable for the time being. Jude held out the small cloth to me silently. I glanced up at him from beneath my lashes and saw a look of tenderness and longing flash across his face before he caught me looking. The look was replaced by a smirk and a cool, detached gaze.

“You know this could almost be one of my fantasies … if I could just focus on the wet tee shirt contest part of my fantasy and forget the puddle of zombie guts,” he mentioned casually. I rolled my eyes and began drying off as best I could before yanking Jude’s white tank top over my head. It was too big, but it would work and on the plus side it didn’t reek of noxious zombie guts. On the down side … it smelled of Jude.