Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny (14 page)

Floyd’s vehicle, a beige-colored Toyota FJ Cruiser, was stopped on the side of Franklin Pike, sitting at an odd angle, like it had a flat tire. It was also surrounded by a dozen or so zombies. I turned our truck sideways in the road and stopped it approximately fifty feet away. Justin started to exit the truck.

“Hold up,” I said as I reached into the glove box, grabbed a packet of ear plugs and handed them out. “Stay in the truck,” I said to Kelly. She nodded and held the kids tightly. “Head shots only,” I reminded the Marines. “Don’t waste ammo.” Justin frowned at me as if to say, you think I don’t know that already?

I stepped outside and used the hood of the truck to steady my aim while he and Ruth took up positions at the back of the truck. We had no problem dispatching all of them in less than a minute. The last one died and fell against Floyd’s door. He struggled to push on the door before finally getting it open with a heavy, one-armed heave. The dead zombie was knocked backwards, landing with a dull thud as its head hit the asphalt. Floyd gingerly stepped over it and jogged down to us. He looked tired and frazzled.

“I sure appreciate y’all. I ran out of ammo about eight hours ago.”

“No problem, buddy. Do you have a spare tire?”

“What?” he asked and looked back at his vehicle. “Oh, yeah, but it ain’t the tire, I think I broke one of the front struts,” he started to explain but stopped and gratefully accepted a canteen from Ruth. I waited as he drank from it sloppily.

“What happened?” Kelly asked. He shrugged with a pained, apologetic expression.

“I was going to go down there to that golf course to shoot a few rabbits and squirrels. I was excited about it and I guess I was going a might too fast. I hit a pothole and messed up the front end.” He pointed at the bodies lying in the roadway.

“I started walking back home when them things came out of nowhere.” He kept staring and shook his head ruefully. “I barely made it back to my car and it was a good thing I locked the doors because they was pulling on the handles and trying to open ‘em. I ain’t never seen ‘em do that before. They was trying to smash out the windows too, but they was just too weak, I guess.”

I looked him over carefully to ensure he hadn’t been bitten and waved a hand at the Marines. “I’ll let them introduce themselves. Let’s get you back to the school.”

I made the major ride in the bed of the truck on the way back. He didn’t like it, I guess he thought his rank dictated he be allowed to ride in front, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

“Floyd,” Justin said with a little bit of harshness in his tone. “I just met you, but what in the hell were you doing out here by yourself? Your friends back at the school didn’t even know where you were, they just said you went hunting somewhere.”

Floyd didn’t say anything and looked down at his feet. I thought he was going to cry. Justin must have seen it as well and tried to make amends.

“I mean, I’m just saying. Ruth and I will gladly go hunting with you next time. Ruth’s a natural born hunter, you should see her shoot.” I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Ruth had actually blushed at the compliment.

It was a very interesting bit of information. I didn’t let my face betray any emotion as I wondered if she was the sniper and not some other fictional Marine.

We dropped Floyd off at the school and then drove the Marines back over to the old homestead. I put the truck in park and turned toward the back seat.

“Alright, you’re options are plain as day. Go live at the school, stay here, or head out to greener pastures.”

“We’ll talk it over and should have a decision by tomorrow,” Major Parsons said and then cleared his throat. “Is there any chance we can join you guys for dinner?” I started to say something derogatory but I caught a look from Kelly.

“Sure,” Kelly replied. “Get in your Hummy-thing and follow us.”

I was pretty sure I’d had my fill of the Marines. After all, I’d spent the entire day with Justin, but dinner was not as unpleasant as I thought it’d be. The conversation was mostly about the people at the school.

“They’re certainly an eclectic group,” Grant remarked.

“The two gay guys are psychologists?” Justin asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “If I had met them way back when and someone asked me what they’re chances of survival would be if the world came to an end, I would’ve answered they’d be dead in twenty-four hours, but they’ve proven themselves to be survivors.”

“What about that Tonya woman?” Ruth asked.

“Nuclear engineer,” I answered. “Very smart, but I don’t need to tell you that, she’ll tell you any chance she gets.” I drank some water.

“I can’t say much about Gus, he’s a little bit on the lazy side. Rhonda is…”

“Rhonda is very sweet,” Kelly interrupted and gave me a look that told me not to say anything negative about her. Ruth picked up on it and laughed.

“I got the impression those two brothers are recent additions to the group.” I nodded.

“Yeah, we don’t know much about them.”

“Well, if we’re going to be interacting with them I’m going to teach them a lesson or two about taking care of your own,” Justin declared. “That screw up with Floyd was a total no-go.”

We talked more, and much to my relief they left as the sun was setting, but not before Kelly invited them to breakfast the next morning.

I opted out of my morning workout, got the kids cleaned up and was sitting on the front porch waiting on them as they drove up in their Hummy-thing, which was known to most folks as a Humvee.

“Good morning, Ruth, Justin,” I said amicably. “You two go on inside and help Kelly get breakfast ready.” Ruth grinned at me as they walked inside. Major Parsons started to walk in as well. “Not you,” I said with an icy undertone. The major stopped in his tracks and stared at me. I guess he was thinking I was probably joking, but quickly realized I wasn’t.

“Would you mind if I at least sat down?” he asked. I shrugged noncommittally. He sat tentatively in one of the porch chairs, watching me as he did so.

“You know, Zach, at some point you’ll have to put this animosity behind you,” he said. I stared at him balefully.

“Did you get a look at that private I killed? What was his name, Solonowski?”

“It was a pretty brutal murder,” he asserted.

“Call it what you want. I call it an act of survival. My life depended on me getting out of there. Solonowski was in my way. The bad part about it is he was merely following orders. Colonel Coltrane’s orders and your orders,” I paused and looked over at him. “You know, I dream about doing the same thing to you.”

“So, you’re blaming me for the fact that you murdered him,” he contended, but before I could respond he waved his hands in a placating gesture. “I was following orders as well, Zach. The tests I performed were necessary. I wish you could see that.”

“Human rights be damned, right, Major?”

“Zach, I didn’t tell you everything about the CDC.” He was deflecting, he didn’t want to talk about my imprisonment and the tests. I knew it, but he thought if it weren’t discussed I’d forget about it. Fat chance.

“I’m listening,” I finally said.

“The world is dying, Zach. Humans are dying out. There has been intermittent contact with other nations, but what little Intel we received left no doubt; it’s bad, Zach. The latest projections predicted the extinction of the entire human race within fifty years.” He had my attention now, but I didn’t act like it.

“Once we arrived at the CDC, there was a collective effort. We worked our asses off. And, with the help of the tests on you and your children, we believe we had made a significant breakthrough. And then...” He left the sentence unfinished.

“Significant breakthrough,” I retorted scornfully. “You treated my kids like lab rats.”

“Say what you will, but we protected your children, and during that time I grew quite fond of them. Janet, Ruth and I cared for them like they were our very own.” I grimaced. The mere mention of Janet’s name made my colon churn. I saw a look on his face that made me wonder something.

“Were you sleeping with her?” I asked. Major Parsons grunted.

“I was.” He emphasized the last word and saw me looking at him questioningly. “I caught her with Colonel Coltrane. I kind of lost interest in her after that.” It was another item I wanted more information about, but it could wait.

“Tell me more about this vaccine, serum, whatever it is.”

“Normally, there is a very complex set of protocols to be established and followed. Obviously, there wasn’t time to follow those protocols, so we tried it directly on a human.” I looked at him in disgust. “You don’t understand, Zach,” he countered. “I was the human.” My expression was a mixture of disbelief and skepticism, but then I realized he was telling the truth and had a sudden epiphany of understanding.

“That’s why you said it. The other day, at the barn, you said you needed to be exposed.” He nodded.

“It’s really the only way to be sure the vaccine works.”

“I’ll be more than happy to arrange that.” Before either of us said anything more on the matter, Kelly stuck her head out of the door.

“Breakfast is ready,” she said cheerfully. I stood and as Kelly gave me a look I gestured for the Major to follow me in.

“So, what’ve you guys decided about your living situation?” I asked after we had finished eating.

“Ruth and I are going to move into the radio tower,” Justin replied. I was surprised, I didn’t think they’d move there.

“Tonya agreed to feed us until we get on our own feet, but she made it clear we would be expected to help out.”

“Well, that’s really nice. What about you, Major?”

“Tonya has invited me to stay at the school.”

Kelly looked at me with a smile. I guess they had already told her while I was sitting outside having a chat with the major.

“Yeah,” Justin continued. “Ruth and I talked it over and thought about starting up radio broadcasts again. But, we’re going to help you guys out all we can too.”

I looked at him in confusion. “Why? I mean, I can always use help around here, but why the radio tower?”

“You had the right idea, Zach,” Ruth said. “But you gave up on it too soon. The survivors of whatever is left of this nation need to pull together, just like you envisioned.”

“I thought so too, once, but lately I’ve been thinking it’s a futile effort.” Justin shook his head.

“No, I disagree. You may not realize it, but you’ve already made it work, to some degree. In spite of all the adversity you’ve had, you guys have created something. We need to keep going with it.”

I started to tell him it was going to be a wasted effort, but stopped. I found myself at a loss to express my feelings on the matter, especially with all of them sitting there, looking at me expectantly.

“Excuse me,” I said, stood up and walked outside. I found myself walking around the barn. Shithead was outside of the corral doing who knows what, saw me and walked over. When I ignored him, he nuzzled me.

“I don’t have any carrots for you, buddy,” I muttered and scratched him behind his ear. I heard the back door shut and a minute later Justin appeared.

“Hey, if we said something in there that offended you, I apologize.” I shook my head.

“No, y’all didn’t do anything,” I replied and gestured at the donkey. “This is Shithead. He didn’t like any of us at first, except for a girl named Jessica. He loved her and followed her around like a puppy dog. Jessica was a beautiful, sweet girl. She was twenty or twenty-one when your friends killed her.” I thought about the horrors she had gone through, only to be murdered a few months after being rescued.

“She never got a break,” I said softly and continued scratching Shithead while thinking of the right words to explain.

“Back when it all started, I went to live with my buddy, Rick.”

“You two lived in the old homestead, right?” I nodded.

“Yeah. It was just the two of us at first. We talked for hours about what was happening in the world and we wondered if anything would ever return to normal. It got me to thinking.”

“About what?” Justin asked. “How life was going to be?”

“Yeah.” I chuckled without humor. “I saw the need to recreate a society and thought I was the man to do it, even though I was only sixteen at the time. I had such lofty ideals.” I’m sure he heard the irony in my tone, but he said nothing.

“I had a grand plan. I even wrote it all out in excruciating detail if you ever want to read it. But looking back, I realize now how naïve, how stupid I was. Very, very stupid. I had no clue.” Justin shook his head again and started to speak. I cut him off.

“Oh, no? Let me put it to you this way. If I had stuck to myself and left everyone alone, people like Jessica would still be alive. Julie would still be alive. Hell, there are so many others you don’t even know about.” Rowdy, Fred, Andie, Terry, Mac, Tommy, Joe, Wanda, Konya, Howard, they’d all most likely still be alive if not for my
grand ideas
.

“Oh, and let’s not forget about the people I’ve killed in the past three years.” Let’s see, how many? Twelve? Thirteen? “Did they deserve it? Well, at the time I certainly thought so, but there’re many times, this particular moment being one of those times, when I wonder.”

I felt myself getting worked up, picked up a rock and threw it as hard as I could at nothing in particular. Justin listened quietly, neither offering an opinion or any other commentary. Shithead nuzzled me again before growing bored and slowly walking off. I decided to change the subject and pointed over at the semi parked near the barn.

“That Volvo is a tough truck. We found it at a dealership about ten miles from here. I’ve got a lot of repair work to do on it.”

“Quite a few bullet holes,” he observed. I nodded.

“Kelly was being chased and shot at by people I thought were friends, you met them, the ones who set me up.”

“Yeah, I met them. They tried to kill her, huh?”

“Yep, but she managed to escape and then drove around until she somehow found me.” Justin looked at me in surprise.

“Did she know where you were?”

“Nope, she didn’t have a clue, she just relied on her intuition.”

“Wow,” he said. “She looks so… what’s a proper word, unassuming.” I managed a short chuckle.

“Yeah, I thought so too when I first met her, but I underestimated her. I tend to do that with all women. Julie, my wife, she was feisty as all get out. Andie was another girl in our group. She was a skinny little girl but she was a stone cold killer.

“There were some people who died in a tanker explosion, one of them was a pretty unique woman. Her name was Mackenzie but everyone called her Big Mac. She could do everything and I’m pretty sure she could have beaten any man in a fair fight. I have to tell you, these female survivors are as tough as any man.”

“You got that right,” Justin said. “Ruth’s a good example.” He paused a moment. “She’s a good woman.” After a minute or two of silence, I turned and looked at him.

“So, when are you guys going to tell me the truth?” I asked pointedly. Justin, AKA Gunnery Sergeant Smithson, faced me and looked me squarely in the eyes.

“Say what’s on your mind, Zach.”

“Ruth wasn’t with your team. She was with the other team, the team that went to my house and killed everyone.”