Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny (23 page)

“I’ll burn them tomorrow, but I think tonight I’m going keep watch and make sure there aren’t more lurking around.”

“You think they’re more out there?” she asked.

“Remember the attack on the house?” I was referring to back in April of last year. The zombie I’d captured had somehow led an attack on our house after he’d escaped. Rowdy was bitten as a result and had to be killed. Kelly nodded her head at the memory.

“I’ll stay up with you,” she said.

“No,” I replied. “I’ll be alright.”

“No more Lone Ranger bullshit, remember?” she chided.

“Fine,” I said. “You better fix us a pot of coffee. I’ll see if I can raise Justin and give him a SITREP.”

I let Kelly use the night vision goggles. They still gave me headaches if I used them for more than ten minutes.

“Nothing,” she whispered after she’d made a sweeping scan. “Are we staying up all night?” It was a good question. I looked at the luminescent dials on my watch. They read a little before two.

“I think we should. I’ve never seen any of them get this close before and I can’t stop thinking about that night they attacked the house.” Kelly replied with a yawn.

“You can go to bed if you want. I’ll be…” I stopped in midsentence when Kelly put a finger to my lips. She’d cocked her head like she heard something before quickly raising the goggles to her face.

“Zach,” she whispered urgently. “There’s about ten of them walking up the road.”

“Alright, go wake up Janet and let her know what’s going on. Then get back here and watch my back.” I didn’t wait for her to respond and made my way toward the edge of the van where I had it parked facing the gate. There was a partial moon out with plenty of stars, so I could make out a few of them. When they got to the gate, they started pushing on it. The gate rattled in the darkness and one of them again made a clumsy attempt to climb it.

As quietly as I could, I opened the door to the van. I rested the fore stock of the shotgun on the window frame of the van’s door and turned the headlights on. A couple of them looked up as I took aim. I picked the biggest one first. He reminded me of another tall one I ran into not so long ago. I gently squeezed the trigger. The twelve gauge slug hit him squarely in the forehead and he fell like a sack of day-old shit. I got two more before the rest of them scattered.

“Coming in!” Kelly shouted as she ran up beside me.

“Get the truck,” I told her as I fed the shotgun tube with fresh rounds. “We’ve got to go after them.”

We were right beside the van, but I knew we were in all likelihood going to be doing a lot of four-wheeling.

“We’ve got to hunt them down,” I repeated.

“How many are left?”

“I got three. I saw a few more, but I can’t be certain.” I turned on the CB and tried to raise anyone. Ruth answered almost immediately.

“We’re heading that way,” she reported.

“Alright,” I responded and updated them. “Meet us at November Bravo.” It was our code name for the intersection of Nolensville Pike and Burkitt Road. Ruth acknowledged and we headed toward the gate.

There were the two I’d shot earlier, along with the three additional ones I’d just taken care of. Kelly watched nervously as I jumped out and opened the gate. I no sooner than got it closed than one of them emerged from the darkness, charging at me. It was a good thing I was paying attention or else he would have got me.

I sidestepped, ran around the truck. I was attempting to get enough space where I could stop and shoot, but Kelly stuck her rifle out of the window and dispatched him with one shot. I finished securing gate and jumped in.

“That was close,” she quipped.

Ruth and Justin were in their Humvee and drove up about the same time we did.

“We’ve killed six so far.” Justin nodded.

“There was one walking down the middle of Concord Road without a care in the world. We took care of it.”

“I have a feeling they’re going to try the house again. I’d like to get out and sneak back while Kelly drives back in the truck.”

“Alright, I’m with you,” Justin said.

“Wait, wait,” Kelly protested. “That’s not a good idea.”

“It’ll work,” I said. “You two ride up front. Justin and I’ll ride in back and slip out before you get to the gate. If any of them are lying in wait, we’ll get them.” Kelly looked at me nervously and then at the Marines.

“What do you two think?”

“I think it’ll work if there aren’t fifty thousand of them out there hiding in the weeds,” Justin said. “If there are, we’re screwed anyway.”

So, we did it my way. Kelly slowed to a crawl before turning into the driveway. Justin and I slid out, waited until there was twenty or thirty feet between us and the truck, and followed behind. I’d disabled the taillights long ago, so we were practically invisible in the darkness. When Kelly stopped at the gate, I was absolutely certain there’d be a few of them waiting. I wasn’t wrong.

As soon as Ruth opened her door, two of them started running toward her. I’m sure Justin felt the same as I did as we dropped to one knee and began to take aim; we were protecting our women. I know, it sounds cheesy, but that’s what we were doing.

Well, that’s what we thought we were doing. Our protection wasn’t necessary. Ruth’s sidearm came out quickly and she shot both of them in the head before I could get a good aim. It was damn good shooting. Even Fred would have been impressed.

Justin and I remained in the darkness and watched Ruth open the gate. As soon as she did, I heard loud braying. It was Shithead.

“They’re at the house!” I shouted and motioned for Justin to follow me as I jumped in the bed of the truck. Justin was right behind me and Kelly needed no instructions. She gunned it, causing us to lurch backward.

There were more of them, maybe twenty or thirty. Some of them were trying to attack Shithead, but they weren’t much of a match for him. These zombies must have been city folks. Donkeys could spin and kick you with deadly accuracy if they felt threatened. We shot the ones Shithead didn’t get first, and I paid special attention to any of them who decided to run off. Four of them attempted it, but I was ready for them.

When it was all over, it took a few minutes of coaxing before Janet would open the door, but none of us admonished her. She did her job exactly how I wanted her to.

“Someone from the school called on the radio and asked what was going on,” she said. “They asked for you but I told them you were too busy killing people.”

“They ain’t people anymore,” Justin corrected. She gave him a look but didn’t respond. He hooked a thumb out the door.

“That mule is deadly with those kicks,” he said. I chuckled.

“He’s actually a donkey, but yeah, he’s a tough one.”

“What’s the difference?” Ruth asked.

“A donkey is smaller, but can be more aggressive. They’re the descendent of an African ass. A mule is a cross between a female horse and a male donkey. You know, a mule is actually superior to a horse in several ways. For instance—”

“Okay, they get the idea,” Kelly interrupted. Justin and Ruth chuckled at my expense.

“I’m sure it’s a fascinating topic,” Ruth said. “One day I want to hear all about it.”

“Yeah, me too,” Justin said. “In the meantime, I want to know what you think about this, Zach. And by the way, what made you think there was going to be an attack?” Justin was perplexed, as was Ruth.

“Back about a year ago, they’d organized together and made a multi-pronged attack on both houses and the tour bus, which was parked right about where it is now…” I stopped suddenly.

“What?” Justin asked.

“Sarah,” I replied.

“Oh shit,” Kelly said.

“I tried to call her,” Janet said. “She didn’t answer.”

“Okay, Justin and I will go check on them. You all stay here. We’ll keep in contact with the radio.” Kelly started to object, but this time I held a finger up. “The kids,” I said pointedly. She understood.

It was quiet and dark when we drove up. I flashed the high beams at the bus and even dared tap the horn. After a moment, I saw movement in one of the windows. Ten seconds later, Sarah contacted us on the radio and she came out a moment later. Surprisingly, Rachel exited the bus a few seconds later.

“Any issues?” I asked when they came out.

“We heard some movement, but didn’t see anything. We thought it was cows or deer.” I walked around the area, using the goggles in an attempt to detect anything. I spotted Sate and Hank out in the field. I wondered what had happened to them.

“Anything?” Justin asked. I pointed out the horses.

“They got spooked and ran. We’ll round them up tomorrow.”

“So, they pulled a night attack on you guys a year ago?” he asked. I nodded.

“April of last year.”

“Damn,” he muttered and was silent for a minute or two before speaking again.

“This is an enemy force where you can never let your guard down,” he finally said. “You and your people killed over two thousand of them in this immediate area, and yet, they still turn up like roaches.”

“Yeah, I was convinced they would have all died off by now.”

“At least they’re not procreating,” Sarah said. “We just have to outlive them.”

Yeah, she was right. They both were. We could never let our guard down and we had to survive, we had to outlive them.

In the spirit of camaraderie, everyone joined together for a day of cutting firewood. A mixture of men and women joined in with the axes and saws, and whoever was left over was either assigned guard duty or was back at the school with the kids and the chores.

Tonya had even joined us, but mostly she walked around and watched everyone working, like she was our overseer or something. I made no smart-assed remarks. After all, I owed her big time and the extra manpower assured us all of an abundance of firewood. We stopped for a lunch break and sat around in the shade, enjoying some fresh food.

“Cutting firewood is every bit as hard as it sounds,” Ward said with a huff. I chuckled.

“You two are doing fine. You know, it wasn’t so long ago when the two of you looked like a couple of powder puffs. Now y’all have calloused hands and hard muscles.” I lowered my voice to barely above a whisper. “Those two brothers are having a hard time keeping up.” I gestured over to them who were several yards away, lying prone on the bare ground. “Y’all are in better shape, I’m thinking.”

The two of them looked over at the much younger, more muscular brothers before looking back at me and beamed at my compliment.

“Well, I for one can say, as a nineteen year old, you’re quite strong, Zach,” Ward replied.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Were you always athletic?” Marc asked.

“No, I had to work at it.” I didn’t bother telling them what had motivated me to get this way. Nah, the only people who knew about all of that were long dead. Not even Kelly knew.

I smiled pleasantly as I listened to the conversation segue into complaints of blisters and sore muscles. Tonya, Ruth and Justin walked over during the middle of it.

“How much do we have so far?” Tonya asked.

“It looks like about twelve cords,” I replied. “That’s plenty, but while we have everyone together and pleasant weather on our side, we should keep going until sundown.” Tonya nodded thoughtfully. Ruth was looking at me like she wanted to say something.

“We have an idea we’d like to run by you,” she said and looked over at Justin.

“Well, yeah,” Justin continued. “We’ve been talking about it and think your trading post idea needs to be dusted off and revisited.”

“Justin has an idea that’s a variation of the theme,” Tonya added.

“Oh, yeah? Like a rendezvous or something?” Justin clapped his hands together.

“Exactly,” he said excitedly. “There was a movie I loved watching when I was a kid. Jeremiah Johnson, do you remember it?” I nodded. Justin explained. “Every year, the trappers and the Indians would meet up. They called it a rendezvous.”

“And they parlayed and traded,” I said.

“Yeah, exactly. I think we can do something similar.”

“What do you think, Zach?” Ruth asked.

“We certainly have enough people to pull it off now, and those trailers still have quite a bit of stuff that Mac had collected.” I finished my meal and wiped my mouth. “The biggest concern I had was maintaining security. We'd have to have people trained to respond to any threat. If some gang of marauders came in, we'd have to be able to deal with it.”

“That’s my thoughts exactly,” Justin said, and then corrected himself. “Mine and Ruth’s thoughts. We’ve talked it out extensively and with the additional soldiers, I think we can do it.”

“Something tells me you’ve already got the ball rolling. Let me guess, you’ve been broadcasting it on the radio.” Justin nodded apprehensively.

“Did I overstep?” he asked. To his surprise, I grinned.

“Not at all, I admire your initiative,” I replied. “I hope you didn’t schedule it during the winter wheat harvest.” I could tell from the look on their faces they had not even thought of that particular facet. “You do know the harvesting schedules, right?” I got blank stares for an answer. Floyd, who was sitting nearby listening, shrugged one shoulder as if to say, they never ask me anything.

“Did anyone think to ask for Floyd’s advice?” I asked. “After all, he knows more about farming than any of you guys.”

“Floyd?” Shooter retorted sarcastically. He had walked up during our conversation and felt the need to butt in.

“Yeah.” He scoffed at my reply.

“Why would anyone ask Floyd for advice about anything? He’s a dumbass gimp.”

“Oh? So, tell me, when is the proper time to harvest the sweet corn y’all have planted and what is going to be the expected yield?” Shooter started squirming, so instead of answering, he stood and stretched like he didn’t care. I stood as well and looked at Justin.

“If you want to know the correct answer, ask Floyd.”

“What’s your point?” Shooter asked before Justin could speak.

“My point is, Floyd is a valuable asset but y’all treat him like a cross-eyed stepchild.” Shooter responded by rolling his eyes. I started to say something else, but I was cut off by the sound of a distant gunshot. Everyone jumped to their feet. There was another shot, and then another, coming from about a hundred yards east of us.

“That’s Kate!” Shooter shouted and took off at a dead run.

“Everyone, form up in your teams!” Justin shouted. “Team one take the left flank!” I was in charge of team one. I didn’t want to take the left flank. I wanted to hop in the truck and haul ass back to the school where Kelly and my kids were. But, duty was duty. I gathered my team together as Justin gave me a nod and led his team off.

“Alright guys, follow me. If you see a threat, sing out.” I took off at a slow jog on a course slightly left of the source of the now constant gunfire. There was a small copse of trees blocking our field of view, but once we cleared it, we immediately saw what the ruckus was all about.

Zombies, about fifty of them. It was an even larger number than the horde that had attacked us last week. They’d surrounded the Humvee Kate was in, trying to get at her. She was shooting out of the top, but she was in danger of being overwhelmed, real danger. At least one of them had somehow managed to climb onto the hood. And what was worse, Shooter had foolishly run right into the pack and was now fighting for his life. We were about thirty yards away from them, which was a good, safe distance. I ordered my team to stop.

“Cyclic rate of fire, headshots only!” I yelled. “And be careful not to shoot Kate.” I really didn’t care about Shooter. I pointed to Goober as I took a knee.

“Watch our six!” He acknowledged with a curt nod and took a knee facing behind us, scanning with his rifle as the rest of us began methodically shooting. The sounds of other gunshots told me Justin had set up on the opposite flank and the stinkers quickly began dropping like flies. Only one of them realized what was happening and took off at a loping run. I took careful aim and popped him squarely in the back of his head. It made a satisfying impact like a ripe watermelon being hit by a baseball bat. He fell face first and his face splattered on the road.

It was over in less time than it had taken to run to Kate’s aid. Everyone was jubilant and exchanging high-fives, but I was still irritated from the conversation with that idiot Shooter and my ears were ringing from the gunfire.

“There might be more of them hiding, so be careful,” I said a little more loudly than I intended and walked over to where Shooter was now hugging Kate. I guess he believed he was the one who rescued her when in fact he was damn near eaten alive.

“They came out of nowhere,” Kate lamented, “and I couldn’t raise anyone on the radio.” Everyone comforted her while I looked around. The reason we put her in this particular location was to afford her a wide open field of view, so it seemed doubtful they came out of nowhere. I glanced in the Humvee and saw a couple of open magazines lying on the passenger seat. Yeah, they came out of nowhere. I reached into the vehicle and raised Kelly on the radio. Thankfully, everything was okay at the school. I told her what’d happened, assured her nobody was injured, and said we’d be there shortly. Justin had walked over while I was talking to her.

“Everything’s fine at the school,” I said and then lowered my voice to a murmur. “The radio works just fine.” He saw the magazines I was gesturing at and nodded at my implication. I kept my temper in check. After all, nobody got killed, bitten, or otherwise injured, so I forced myself to keep it in a positive perspective.

“This is a damn good example of why we went through that training some of you were complaining about,” Justin declared while looking at the primary complainers, Shooter and Cutter. “Alright everyone, we need to pile these things together and burn them.”

“What for?” Cutter asked. “They’re dead now, they ain’t gonna hurt anyone.” He emphasized his statement by kicking one of the corpses.

“It’s the only way to make sure the disease is not transferred to the carrion that are bound to come along and start eating on them,” Major Parsons replied. He pointed down the overgrown roadway to a rat up on its hind legs sniffing in our direction. “See? There are rats and other scavengers everywhere, and rats will eat anything.”

Cutter responded with a scornful scoff, raised his rifle, and shot at the little scavenger. He missed. Justin yanked the rifle out of his hands.

“We don’t have a whole lot of ammo to waste, numb-nuts,” he scolded. Several people started chuckling. “Alright, you heard the man. Team one, your job is to take care of the corpses.” He pointed at Private Mann. “Grab someone and scout the area. The rest of you police up all of the brass and then help with the burning.” He looked over at me. I nodded.

“We can haul the wood back later.”

“The brown rat is the most common rat in the cities of America, although the black rat is also prevalent.” The doctor had become very talkative on the ride back for some reason. I guess he wanted to show he was a valuable asset. Normally, his manner and the way he spoke irritated me, he reminded me of the actor, Ben Stein, but today I was in a relatively good mood and listened to him with interest.

“If I remember correctly, a rat carries at least eighteen known pathogens that can cause diseases in humans,” I said.

“Yes, indeed,” he replied.

“I take it y’all conducted tests on them.”

“Many, many tests,” he responded. “I know what you’re about to ask and the answer is yes, we found the virus in several of them.”

“Do you think rats spread the plague?” Tonya asked.

“The etiology of the virus was the topic of endless speculation and conjecture amongst my colleagues, but we never reached a unanimous conclusion.” I could see him thinking silently. He would start to say something and then stop himself before glancing at me. If I liked the man, I would have encouraged him to speak his mind, but I think I knew what he was about to say. I shook my head ever so slightly. He caught it, and then stared out of the window for the rest of the ride back.

“Let’s make one thing perfectly clear, Grant.” It was the first time I had ever used his first name. When we parked in the school parking lot, I had asked him to wait behind. After everyone had said goodbye and walked inside, I gave him a cold stare.

“I know what you were about to say a few minutes ago. You don’t seem to get it. You’ve screwed the pooch after what you did with my children and me, so don’t even bother suggesting more tests.”

“I understand why you dislike me, Zach, but let me say this. Over the last several weeks, I've done a lot of soul searching. In hindsight, I realize how easy it was for us, for me, to rationalize my actions and I know you’ll probably never forgive me. But, you’re a smart man, Zach. You know that your blood holds the cure and I don’t think for a moment that you’re selfish enough to keep it to yourself.”

“Maybe so, but you don’t have the facility nor the equipment to do anything about it, so it’s a moot point.”

“That could change, if you help,” he rejoined. I stared at him questioningly. “We can go back to the CDC and either make use of the labs or retrieve the necessary equipment and bring it back here. There is more than one mobile lab parked down there in the basement, gathering dust.” I frowned and shook my head.

“Out of the question. I’m not leaving my children. And before you even think about it, we’re not going to take them back down there under any circumstances.”

“Fair enough, I understand. But, I want to ask you a candid question.” When he hesitated, I motioned for him to go ahead and ask. “If I were to talk a few people into going back and bringing back the mobile lab, would you be willing to resume experiments?” Kelly came out of the school, kids in tow. She was smiling, but it looked like the kids had worn her out. I kissed the three of them and got the kids in the truck.

“What are you two talking about?” Kelly asked.

“The good doctor here wants to recruit people to go back to the CDC and bring testing equipment back here.” I motioned for her to get in the truck and I did the same. I thought for a moment and then spoke to him through the open window.

“If you want to get yourself killed going back down there, be my guest. If you’re successful and make it back, we’ll have a long talk.” I started the truck and drove off. I took one last look at him in the rearview mirror before turning onto Concord Road and saw Major Parsons grinning. Bastard.

“Was he telling the truth?” Kelly asked as we drove back home. I shrugged. “You always said he was full of shit.”