Wake the Dead 2 (Wake The Dead Series) (16 page)

“I’ll try. How’s Hannah?”

“So far so good, thanks to you guys. The meds really helped.”

“Selina will be happy to hear. Everyone else good?”

“Yeah, man. Be careful out there, okay?

“See ya man,” Alex said, giving Phil a nod of appreciation at his sentiment and then spinning the boat around and guiding it back out of the moat.

As he passed the myriad of undeath along the riverbank and surrounding area of the fairgrounds, he hoped that they were all making the right decisions.

Should we stay? Should they come with us? Is Hannah really cured? Do I really wanna try to find my family?

It was suddenly all very confusing to him. But, as he once more gave thought to every reason to leave, the thought of the wolf simply reaffirmed that leaving was a necessity. Among all other things, he simply could not leave Shadow alone in that courtyard any longer. He would no longer question the decision and simply make the best of whatever happened next. And if his he found his family and they were
not
zombies, it would just be all the better.

As he approached the landing point, he was further gratified by that thought process as he witnessed Selina lying on the grass at the base of the hill and Shadow nuzzling her face and licking it. Selina waved him over and he couldn’t help but smile at knowing that whatever happened, he would have these two with him, supporting him and making the rest of his days worth living.

Chapter 13

They quickly put the boat back in its resting place and Alex once more removed the motor and dragged it the thirty or so paces up the hill to the ambulance.

“I’ll be happy when I don’t have to do
this
every day!”

“Yeah, but it’s keepin’ you in shape, tiger,” Selina said coyly, winking at him.

“I can think of better ways to stay in shape,” he said, staring back at her, trying not to allow his irritation show.

“Someone is grumpy. You wanna take a rest here for a bit, or get moving?”

“Nah, let’s hit the road,” he insisted, strapping the motor into the back of the ambulance. “We’ll try further west this time and maybe a little further north. This area’s really not that densely populated, so we should be able to find somethin’ that’ll suit our needs.”

“There was no way you could have fixed that other car back there?”

“Maybe, but there are too many factors. That hunter guy was still out there far as we know, plus I'm not sure the guy had the parts I would need to fix whatever was wrong with the car in the first place. Just a bad scene. We’ll find something else.”

“Okay, sounds good. And you still need to teach me how to use this stupid thing,” Selina said, holding up the smallish bow that Alex had grabbed for her when they were at the SuperMart.

“Well, whaddaya wanna do first? Find a car or practice shooting the bow?”

“Well, let’s find a car first, I guess. That’s cool.”

“All right. Tell ya what…if and when Shadow gets rammy, we’ll pull over and see if we can kill two birds with one stone. Sound good?” Selina nodded happily at that compromise and Alex focused back on the road, circumventing a few wrecks that were in the center of the highway.

It was a peaceful and serene thing to see the countryside, and under normal circumstances would have been lost on him. In this new environment, however, he wanted to make sure he did not take small things like that for granted.

It wasn’t long before they passed the development where all the chaos had happened, Alex this time navigating them further north.

As a filling station came into view in the distance, he nodded to Selina, “check it out.”

“Need to fill up?”

“Probably not a bad idea,” he said, figuring that there might not be another one again for a long time. The area was growing more densely populated by nature and less by people.

As they pulled into the station, Alex took a look around and liked what he saw.

“It’s got a market inside,” Selina said excitedly. “Gotta have some candy bars.”

“Yeah, and even more importantly, those bay doors there mean that they do repairs.”

“So there could be cars
in there
?” Selina asked again, more eagerly this time.

“Exactly. Fill up for me, okay? I wanna check that out,” Alex said, climbing out of the driver seat and grabbing his pistol from in between the seats. He chambered a round in the Glock and then made sure his knife was strapped to his belt, feeling for and finding the handle.

As he approached the bay door, he could see nothing inside but blackness. He got all the way up to the pane and peered in.

“Holy shit!”

Something slammed into the window, causing him to stumble backward a few steps and level the gun at the door. It took him a long moment to get his breathing under control as he took in deep gasps of air. He felt his heart thundering in his chest, too, doubling over and almost vomiting.

“Jokers inside there?” Selina called to him, replacing the gas nozzle back into its housing and striding over to him.

“Of course. Can’t ever be easy,” he quipped sarcastically, straightening himself and exhaling his vexation.

“C’mon now, tiger. You know that’s more likely to be than not, right?”

He nodded in silence, his heartbeat and breathing finally coming under control once more. “How many?”

“Dunno, can’t see. Grab the flashlight in my bag,” he instructed, peering inside and seeing at least two zombies ponding against the bay door. Selina quickly retrieved his flashlight from his pack and handed it to him. He switched it on and shone the light inside.

“It’s only the two that I can see. What about the market side?”

“Haven’t checked it out yet.”

“Okay, let’s take a look.” The two of them peered inside the window of the door and rubbed their cheeks together in the process, their heads right beside one another.

“Smooth,” Selina commented, rubbing his face.

“Give it a few days,” he said with a wry grin. “Nothing moving inside.”

“Looks like Shadow wants to come out and play,” she said, peering back at the passenger door and seeing the wolf pawing at the doors.

“I’ll let him out in a minute. I have an idea, first. Go back to the door and keep their attention there. I’ll go inside and put one in the back of their heads.”

“Why don’t
I
go inside and
you
stay here. I’ll use my sword to cut ‘em up and we can save on ammo.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I don’t see why not.”

“Because they’re fast
and
strong and there’s
two
of ‘em.”

“And?”

“
And
I don’t want you to die, okay?!” Alex clarified more forcefully. “Let me shoot ‘em. It’s safer this way. Besides, I have plenty of ammo and we can always try to ‘
shop’
for more,” he added, using air quotes. “If it was only one I’d say sure, but
two
?” Selina nodded reluctantly and waited at the front of the bay door, peering through the small pane of glass, banging on the door keeping the zombie’s attention on her.

Alex moved into the market side of the station and found the connecting door to the garage. He opened it quietly and was pleasantly surprised to see only the two zombies, their attention engrossed on Selina, who stood outside the bay doors tapping on them. He fired, hitting the first one easily and dropping it, and then placed another slug into the second zombie’s skull.

Both of the ravenous undead creatures were once more sent to their final resting place, as Alex found the bay door switch, opening the door for Selina.

Light entered the gloomy garage and uncovered three vehicles inside the five bays, with two being empty at the far end. The first bay was the shell of a Porsche that clearly was someone’s pet project, in various states of disrepair.

The next bay had a mostly dismantled Dodge Charger, again possibly an ongoing project.

The third bay, however, had a relatively new model Subaru Forester in a deep shade of blue. Alex was hopeful that the vehicle was in good condition. The keys were still in the ignition as he peered inside the window. He opened the front door and popped open the glove box, finding the owner’s manual, skimming through its pages. It was a 2010 model and in pretty good shape inside, too.

He went back behind the desk, found the chart for the car on a clipboard, and found the reason for which it was in the shop in the first place.

“Looks like we found our vehicle, baby,” Alex cooed, staring up at her from the clipboard.

“Can you get to the internet?” Selina sked incredulously, hands on hips, staring at a computer that seemed powered up.

“No, silly,” Alex said, seeing that there was no connection. “But I have access to their program they use to track their repairs, maintenance and whatnot, up on the screen. Here’s the info on that one.”

“And…?”

“And this one is in for an oil change. It wasn’t done yet I guess, but that’s simple enough to do,” he said, striding over to the vehicle and popping the hood. Looking around for a minute, he found the intended supplies on a shelf nearby. “Just gotta get this baby up in the air, finish the oil change, and we got ourselves a vehicle. This one’s big enough for the three of us and plenty good on gas.
And
it’s got all-wheel drive.”

“That sounds great. Do the seats fold down?”

“Of course. Why don’t you take a look around and see if you can find anything useful. And let Shadow out of the rig, too. I don’t want him peein’ back there.”

Selina disappeared out the door as Alex went about changing the oil and giving the vehicle an overhaul, even though he found that it was already in pretty good shape. After an hour or more, Selina came back to stand before him with a box of things that she found in the office and storefront.

“Son of a bitch,” Alex said, ignoring most of the things and digging to find a few compact discs. “
Steppenwolf, Led Zeppelin, The Who
, all classic rock music and then some. And best news of all…it’s got a CD player,” Alex said with a giddy laugh.

“Oh, and I'm saving the best for last. Pulled this one out and saved it for you,” Selina said, holding up another disc.

“Is that…?!”

“Yep.
The Best of Queen
!” Alex grabbed her and kissed her on the lips.

“So, do we drive ‘em both back then? And how are we gonna say goodbye to them?”

That question was followed by reflective silence as the two of them realized at the same time that they would indeed have to be saying their goodbyes, and soon. Alex hadn’t really given it much thought, but these people were certainly like family to him in the short time that they had spent together.

“I guess we can go in shifts, right?”

Alex nodded and frowned. “Yeah, it sucks no matter how you cut the cake.”

“Is that thing ready?”

“Yep. Just toss that box of goodies in the back seat on the floor and let’s get movin’. You can drive this one if you want. It’s easier to manage for sure.”

“Either way,” Selina said, confident that she could handle either vehicle. That confidence was one of the things that had attracted Alex to her in the first place, and it was evident in everything that she did.

“Okay. You drive the rig then,” he said, giving in to her confidence. They climbed inside the vehicles, Shadow getting into the ambulance again and they pulled onto the road heading back to say their last goodbyes.

He followed her and saw Shadow moving occasionally in the back window. As he considered his recent friendships and beyond, he considered the wolf to be something special—something more than any of the friends with whom he’d met. And Shadow and Selina were the two constants that would remain in Alex’s life in the near future and beyond, no matter what he had to do to keep them safe.

As he thought about his encounter with the wolf and how their relationship developed, he could not help but feel a soulful companionship. If it weren’t for the wolf’s presence in that cabin that first winter, he most definitely would not be here today.

He gave thought to that along with his workout regimens and everything that he had developed to keep him sane in those first few months as the miles passed.

Shadow was a companion the likes of which he could not explain. And he was more than thankful for that.

And Selina…she was the human contact the likes of which he never thought he’d ever experience again. There was something in her that reminded him of Sara—her willfulness, her confidence, and certainly her kindness—though some things were different enough to make her unique.

Thoughts of their first encounter again filtered in his thoughts, specifically about how he was a mere second away from walking away and leaving her on top of that building. He was thankful for their camaraderie in more ways than he ever thought possible. They were his family now.

Weird how things work out.

He pulled the Forester in behind the ambulance, as there was plenty of room back there behind the thick copse of trees.

He was more than willing to remain behind while Selina went and said her goodbyes, but in the end, he decided that they needed to go together.

“Hey, I was thinking maybe we should both go. With Shadow. Ya know, get the goodbyes all done with in one swoop. Whaddaya say?”

Selina said nothing but instead smiled and crushed him in a lengthy embrace. “I think that’s a great idea.”

“Yeah,” Alex said, opening the back door of the ambulance, “now all I gotta do is convince this one.” Shadow jumped out of the back and dashed after—and subsequently caught—a squirrel in his maw.