State of Decay (Omnibus (Parts 1-4)) (19 page)

I
t had been over three
weeks since everything had gone down at the Charlotte army base and yet I still couldn’t seem to shake the overwhelming feeling of loss and betrayal surrounding me like a fog. I couldn’t shut out the little voice of doubt every time I thought of Tex and how I had let him go out into the infested world all alone on a soul-searching mission or some such bull crap. Anger had been welling up inside of me so much lately that the guys had begun throwing around words like “hormonal” and “she-bitch” when they thought I couldn’t hear them. For the past week I had even pushed Jude away, holding him at arm’s length for whatever screwed up reason my mind had concocted.

So, here I was squatting outside in overgrown weeds on the outskirts of the base, taking my anger and frustrations out on every single zombie I could find. It wasn’t a difficult task and I’d convinced myself that we would be just
that
much safer if I thinned out the area several times a week, so that when we went out for a supply run, we’d have an easier time of it. Jude had stopped trying to convince me to stay inside. Everyone had.

I stood up from my hiding spot and rubbed the back of my neck. I glanced around the area in the fading light and squinted my eyes to scan the distant field. There weren’t near as many zombies in the area as there had once been. Usually on any given day, even after I’d cleared them out a day or two before, I’d easily find a dozen or more zombies in our backyard. This time I had probably only taken out around six. And now that I thought about it, all the zombies I’d taken down in the past week or so had been a bit
too
easy. Maybe I was getting better at the killing. I wasn’t sure if that was such a good thing, but one thing I did know was that it would keep me alive longer. There was that.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready to call it a day,” The voice came from close by and belonged to the young female medic, Maria, who we’d brought with us from the Charlotte base. I’d put my jealousy of her gorgeousness aside when I was sure she didn’t have her eyes on Jude as anything other than a patient. We’d become pretty close since then. It helped that she didn’t ask questions and was an amazing shot. I hadn’t had anyone of the same sex to talk to since … well, in a very long time.

“Yeah, my shoulders are killing me. I could use some grub and a shower,” I answered grudgingly. “You go ahead, I’ll follow behind you in a few.” She nodded and accepted what I said without blinking. She knew I needed my time alone and she knew as much as anyone that I could handle myself out here.

“Okay, I’ll see you inside. Be careful.” I smiled at her and began a final lap around the perimeter of the base. I took it slow, letting myself really enjoy the outdoors. I wasn’t stupid. I knew the base, the underground safe house, was the safest place for anyone to be, but sometimes I missed the fresh air. I missed the outdoors, the open sky, and the sounds of nature. Because even though there were now unnatural sounds echoing all around the world, sounds that had no business haunting people’s nightmares, I still missed the sound of a bird singing, the sound of the small river out in the woods as it trickled its way through the forest. Even in our most fucked up world, the good could still be seen and heard … if you were willing to look hard enough. I sighed deeply and slung my gun onto my back.

I sprinted across the property and skirted around a few buildings until I spotted a solitary zombie in between me and the door to the main office building. I slowed my pace to a brisk walk as I made my way toward the undead man. About the time he noticed me, I was within ten feet of him. Instead of closing the distance between us and dispatching the corpse like I normally would have, I stood and waited for him to come to me. The zombie opened its mouth to groan and gnash its teeth, but the sound that came from its throat was
off
. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it definitely didn’t sound the same … it sounded … juicier.

The zombie’s head also seemed abnormally large, the cranium nearly double the size of what it should have been. Besides all that, an eyeball was hanging from one of its eye sockets and dangled back and forth as it stumbled forward. How attractive. I shuddered as the mutant zombie made an effort to come after me. He was slow. Very slow. Maybe it was because of
the shape the corpse was in … maybe I was over thinking it. Maybe. When he finally made it close enough to me, I didn’t even have to dodge him. I just struck him once, right in the forehead. He didn’t have a chance … and neither did my clothing. The zombie’s head popped like I’d just burst a balloon that had been overstuffed with rank, rotten innards. The zombie-head-piñata burst and all its glorious prizes spewed forth in one huge
splash
all over me. I gagged and wiped some unknown substance off of my cheek as I stumbled toward the door.

I was never going to live this down.

I
was scarfing down a
protein bar and some nuts when Jude entered the mess hall and sat down at my table the next morning. “So, I heard you were quite the sight when you came in yesterday.” His lip twitched with the effort it took to keep from smiling. I scowled and popped the last bit of protein bar into my mouth, watching him from beneath lowered lashes.

“The freaking zombie just burst like I’d stuck a pin in an over inflated balloon. Blood, guts, and crap just spewed all over me,” I answered grumpily. The guys were still giving me crap about it this morning. My one-finger-salute and my very colorful vocabulary didn’t sway their hilarity. I opted to ignore them from this point on. Jude, very wisely, kept his wise cracks in check.

“How was it out there?” he asked after a moment.

“I don’t know. The same, but different. I can’t put my finger on it, but something has changed.” Jude nodded and stood up from the table.

“Well, looks like we are going to get a chance to check it out. Major Tillman wants us to lead a group out today.” I finished off my bottle of water and studied Jude’s face. His face was … resigned.

“You didn’t want me to go.” It wasn’t a question. He ran a hand through his hair and stared at the top of the table.

“It’s not that I don’t think you can handle yourself. It’s not that you’re a female. So, don’t take it wrong. It’s just that … well, I’d like to be able to go out like I used to.” I stood, pushing away from the table and came to stand in front of Jude with my arms crossed over my chest.

“And how did you go out when you didn’t have me to tag along?” I asked quietly. Jude sighed deeply before answering.

“With a clear conscience,” he stated without apology. My arms fell to my side and I took a step back. “I was able to lead my missions, to go out there without any thought for myself. If I died … I died so that others could survive. If I die tomorrow, I’d feel the same. But, when you’re out there
with
me …” He shook his head. “I’ll be worried about you and I might not be able to make the hard choices. I’ll be worried that you’ll get hurt. And if you got hurt—if you were to die, then nothing—none of this—will haven’t meant
anything
.” I stood there with no idea what to say. I couldn’t help how he felt and I couldn’t just stay home and out of harm’s way to keep him from worrying about me. That was part of the world we now lived in. I put a hand on his arm and waited for him to turn his face toward me.

“Jude, you can’t keep the people you care about bubbled away from the harsh reality of the world. I could stay here this time, but the truth is that we put ourselves in harm’s way now by just
living
. I could get hurt here on my daily rounds, we could have a breech, we could run out of food and water, or an illness could sweep through the base. That is our reality. No matter what happens though, no matter what we face, I would rather be by your side when it does. I would rather die tomorrow fighting with you than sit here twiddling my thumbs and wondering if you’ll ever come back to me.” His eyes softened and his hand came up to caress my cheek. I closed my eyes and leaned my face into it.

“I love you, Melody Carter.” My eyes popped open and I stared at his face, noting the crooked smile on his lips. “I think I’ve loved you since the moment you attacked me butt-naked and socked me in the eye.” I grinned and felt my cheeks warm.

“I love you too, Agent Harrison,” I said with a small smile. “Now, let’s go round up the guys.” He nodded and grabbed my hand, tangling his fingers with mine as we made our way around the base, gathering our group to forage for food and supplies.

΅

“O
kay, so here’s the thing,”
Jude began when we were all topside and gathered in the office building. “This won’t be just a regular supply run.” I raised my brow. I hadn’t even known this. I glanced around the room and into the other dozen or so faces as they listened and immediately knew that no one else had known either. “Major Tillman didn’t want to alarm anyone, but we are extremely short on supplies. Not only are we low on medical supplies, but we are dangerously low on food supplies as well.”

“How low?” Ghost asked, his deep voice seeming to boom off of the walls of the small office space. Jude caught each of our eyes and then met Ghost’s inquiring stare.

“There is probably enough food to hold the entire base over for another two-to-three weeks if we drastically cut all our portions to the bare minimum.” A couple of guys muttered beneath their breath and we all understood what this meant. Higher risk for larger quantities of food and supplies. It wasn’t easy to care for almost a hundred people in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. “As some of you know, we also have another slight problem.” He cleared his throat before continuing. “We have been doing supply runs in this area and surrounding areas for over two years now and the places we’ve scouted, the places we’ve foraged before have basically been picked clean.”

“What does that mean?” The question came from a soldier we’d brought over from the Charlotte base.

“It means we are going to have to go into a larger city. It means this could be a very dangerous mission,” I answered. Jude nodded his head.

“That’s exactly what it means. We need to go out of our normal range and find larger quantities of food, larger quantities of supplies, which means going into zones that we haven’t scouted before and probably running into a lot more of the undead while doing so.” He glanced around the room once again. “If you don’t want to do this run, we won’t hold it against any of you and we won’t think any less of any of you. The risk will be great.” Jude
paused. “If there’s anyone who wants to stay … now would be the time to jump ship,” he said seriously. No one made a move.

“As if we’d let you and Melody go out and have all the fun,” Manuel said with a smile. A chorus of “hell
yeahs” sounded in agreement. Jude smiled at them and stood up, pulling his knife from its sheath.

“Well, let’s get going then. We’re burning daylight.”

T
he day was overcast and
gloomy as we made our way slowly out of town in a small caravan of vehicles. The plan was simple, but everyone knew that simple didn’t mean easy or safe. Safe was one of those words whose meaning had changed since the end of the world. Safety was really only a state of mind in our violent surroundings. Maybe one day that would change, but for now we could only help survivors until the world started getting back to normal—
if
it could ever get back to normal.

“So, once we find supplies, how are we supposed to get it all back to the base?” A young man who went by the name “Z” asked.

“The plan is to find a truck big enough to haul everything back to the base. We have several guys who can drive semis on the team, so it shouldn’t be a problem. I’m sure finding an abandoned eighteen wheeler or smaller won’t be a problem either.” Jude answered. Z nodded at Jude and turned to look out the window as we kept driving. It was slow going where we were with a lot of abandoned vehicles and debris littering the road we’d taken to get to city of Gastonia.

Jude pulled off to the side of the road a few hours later, the other vehicles followed his lead and pulled off behind him. I glanced around the area, spotting only a few zombies compared to the large amount of deserted and overturned cars. Jude searched the area one last time and then turned to me. I nodded. This looked as good as any place. We were only a few miles outside of the city limit and needed to walk the rest of the way. Jude cut the engine to the SUV and we all waited for his command.

“Okay, let’s do this then,” he clipped out. We all exited the vehicles and began our journey on foot into Gastonia, North Carolina by cutting down all the zombies in our way for the next two miles. There were plenty to go around. When we made it to the city limits we did what we had discussed and split into two groups. One group, with Manuel in charge, went in search of the two drug stores that were supposed to be only four blocks into the city and we went to find the Sam’s Club that was supposed to be nearly half a mile west of the pharmacies.

We made it several blocks in relative ease, but there was a tension in the air and I couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. I didn’t voice my opinions though, I didn’t want to spook our group. We ducked into a tiny bookstore, about a block away from our destination, when a larger group of zombies lumbered around a corner and down the middle of the street. I took the time to really study our surroundings through the glass doors of the bookstore as the zombies stumbled past.

“There seems to be a lot of bodies in the streets,” Ghost whispered near me. I nodded and clenched my jaw.
Too many
bodies were in the street. The stench of the undead wafting off of the pavement was nearly toxic and definitely strong enough to make you tear up as you walked past. I searched the streets beside Jude and Ghost with my heart sinking further and further. Something just wasn’t right.

“It’s not just victims from those first days out there,” I said quietly. “There are dozens and dozens of undead, which look like they’ve been taken down recently, littering every single street.” I shook my head. This couldn’t be good.

“Damn it,” Jude muttered darkly as we stood there watching the majority of the larger group of zombies pass us by. “There has to be another group in this area.” Ghost muttered something beneath his breath and backed away from the door, leaving me with Jude.

“Maybe they’re not hostile.” I tried to sound hopeful. But, the truth of the matter was that if there was a large enough group in the area to clear out hundreds of zombies at a time, more than likely they’d laid claim to all the supplies in the area or at least would make it very difficult for other groups to pilfer anything worth taking. Jude swore again and we both stood quietly wondering if we should move forward or head back the way we’d come and find the rest of our group. We used the walkie-talkies we’d brought with us to tell the other group to be extra careful as they moved through the city. I pulled the map and list of stores, hospitals, pharmacies, and such we’d made before we left camp.

I hunched down and spread the papers out on the ground and used my mini flashlight to look over them. I found what I was looking for and pointed it out to Jude as he squatted down next to me to look at my papers.

“That’s where we need to go,” I said, pointing to the scribbles.

“Ashbrooke High?” Jude questioned with a raised brow. I smiled broadly and snatched the papers off of the ground.

“Think about it, Jude. The schools would have had hundreds of kids on a daily basis. Most schools have high fences for security and not many people would try to loot a school during a zombie outbreak.” Jude stared at me like he knew I was getting to a point, but he wasn’t sure what it was. I rolled my eyes at him and sighed. “How much food do you think a regular sized school would have stocked up to feed hundreds of hungry teens at any given time?” I asked with a smirk. Jude eyes widened and then he grinned at me.

“I knew that,” he said. “I was just testing you.” I chuckled under my breath and followed him over to the rest of the group and listened as he told them about our change in plans.

The road to the high school was paved with more bodies and even more of the undead. We tried to play it safe, only engaging the zombies when we had to, keeping to the buildings and ducking behind cars as much as possible. Sometimes, though, we had to fight tooth and nail for our lives, for the lives of our comrades, and to make it further into the city and closer to our destination. As careful as we were, we still lost one of our people on the way.