Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny (43 page)

“Could be.”

“The trip’s going pretty well so far, don’t you think?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’d say so. Even the two dumb shits aren’t causing too many problems.” I glanced at my watch.

“Looks like I have guard duty in five minutes. Either we can try for a quickie or I’ll relieve Sarah early.” Kelly gave a short laugh.

“Yeah, right,” she said. I guess that meant guard duty. I stood and stretched. “Alright, I’ll be back in two hours.” Kelly smiled in the dark and pulled a blanket over her. I took one last look at her alluring shape before descending down the ladder.

“Three,” I whispered loudly as I walked up to the Stryker. Sarah was sitting on the top of it. I stopped several feet away and waited for the counter sign, indicating she wasn’t under any form of duress.

“Ten,” she answered. I walked up and climbed on top of the Stryker.

“Kate and Shooter are out in the weeds doing the nasty,” she said indifferently as she handed me the night vision goggles and pointed. “Outside of the perimeter.” I shook my head in disgust.

“It’d serve them right if they got bit.” I sighed. “Alright, I’ll go rein them in.”

I guess I was lucky, they’d already finished and were mostly dressed when I walked up on them. I didn’t need the night vision; one or both of them were smoking cigarettes. It was easy to find them.

“Jesus, guys, this isn’t safe at all.”

“A man has needs,” Shooter responded smugly. Kate ignored me and walked back toward the convoy.

“You’re not jealous, are you?” Shooter chided as he zipped his pants up.

“The point, Simon, is safety. We don’t have to like each other, but we have to watch out for each other – and not do stuff like this without at least telling someone so they could watch out for you. Why didn’t you tell your brother? He would’ve watched your back.” Shooter, Simon, whatever, stared at me, the way he did whenever he wanted to reply with a clever, condescending retort but his brain couldn’t come up with anything, which was common. Finally, he sighed.

“Alright, whatever.” I followed his backside as he walked back without waiting on me. Climbing up on the Stryker, I sat down beside Sarah.

“Alright, Major,” I whispered. “You are properly relieved. Grab some sleep.”

“I’m not very tired at the moment. I think I’ll hang out with you a little while.” That was fine with me. Having someone to talk to, even if we had to whisper, made the watch go faster. I stood and did a full scan with the goggles before sitting.

“The first day went pretty well, I’d say.” I waited for a response, but got none.

“I had a little talk with Shooter. I don’t know if he listened but at least he didn’t argue with me.”

“Yeah, that’s good,” Sarah said halfheartedly. Several minutes passed in silence. Sarah was not a talkative type, but I could sense there was something on her mind. It could take days before she’d tell me, so I tried the direct approach.

“Is something bothering you?” I asked. She didn’t answer. I prodded a little. “You know, I always feel like if I have a problem and I don’t want to discuss it with Kelly, I can always come to you. I hope you feel the same way.” There was another long moment of silence and I was going to let the matter drop, but then she spoke.

“I’m scared, Zach,” she finally said. I looked at her in surprise.

“You? Scared?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, yeah, I guess I’m a little bit scared of the unknown too,” I said. She shook her head slightly, I barely saw it.

“No, it’s not quite like that. I mean, yeah, it is, but not like you’re thinking.”

“Uh, okay. Now, I’m confused.” There was another long minute or two of silence.

“I spent two years alone. Totally alone. You have no idea how bad that was, Zach.”

“After my buddy Rick died, I was totally alone for a couple months. It damn near drove me to suicide, so I can only imagine going through that for two years.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“But, you’re not alone now. You have us, and you have Rachel.”

“That’s just it, Zach. Once we get to Mount Weather, who’s to say she won’t find someone else? I’m a few years older than her and I’m not sure she sees me as anything other than a convenient partner until someone better comes along.” She started sobbing then. She was quiet though, not a woman who blathered loudly. I reached out and found her hand in the dark.

“I can’t speak for Rachel; I’ve no idea what the heck she’s going to do. But, what I can tell you is that Kelly and I will always be there for you. We’re family.” She squeezed my hand tightly and sobbed some more.I didn’t say anything else, it wasn’t necessary. After a few minutes, she gathered herself and blew her nose. I guess this had been building in her ever since we first spoke of relocating. We sat in silence for almost an hour. When I stood to check the area, she stood with me.

“I believe I’m going to turn in,” she whispered, reached out, and hugged me tightly. “Thanks, Zach.”

“I’d always wanted to go to Bristol and watch one of the races,” Justin said. We’d taken a break and were about twenty miles from the city, stopped in the middle of the Interstate. “Any of you ever been?” There were shakes of heads.

“When I was a kid, my brother and I begged our father to take us to one of them, but he forbade it,” Raymond said. “He felt stock car racing was below our social status.” I chuckled.

“I never went to one either, but it had nothing to do with my lofty social status.” Raymond looked at me curiously.

“Did you not enjoy auto racing?” he asked.

“Oh, no, just the opposite. I loved NASCAR, but you see, I was what you’d call poor white trash.”

“I don’t follow,” Raymond replied. “I mean, no offense, but I always thought that NASCAR fans were, well…”

“Rednecks,” Kelly finished.

“Well, yeah.”

“On the contrary. NASCAR had fans all across the social spectrum. We just plain couldn’t afford it.”

“Zach was an orphan living with his elderly grandmother,” Kelly explained.

“Oh, I see,” Raymond said, a little awkwardly now. “I didn’t mean to be presumptive, I apologize.”

“Nothing to apologize for,” I said affably. “A buddy of mine had a big screen TV and surround sound. It was the next best thing to being there.” I decided to needle him a little.

“I bet you had a huge flat screen in your bedroom, am I right?” He glanced at me again and nodded.

“We had one in every room. I even had one in my bathroom. I could watch it while taking a bath or sitting on the toilet.”

“Wow, sounds nice.”

“I suppose,” he said and quickly changed the subject.

“Well, what do you think is wrong with it?” We were standing around in a loose group, staring at the van’s engine.

“Gas,” Josue answered plainly. I nodded at him. I liked how the man could say in one word what could be said in one word.

“Yep,” I answered. “Regular gasoline only has a viable shelf life of about a year. We’ve been lucky it’s lasted this long.”

“Are we leaving it?” Seth asked.

“Yeah, we have to,” I replied. “It’d take the rest of the day to clean out the fuel lines.” Justin scowled at the van a moment and then spoke up.

“Alright everyone, no need standing around here staring at it. Unload your stuff and split it among the other vehicles.” One of them, Earl I think, sighed deeply.

“I guess we should thank you for bringing extras,” he finally said. Yeah, I seem to remember a couple of them wondering about my logic with that and this would have been a good time to point that out and say something witty like, ‘I told you so’ but I didn’t. I guess I was getting more mature.

It was going to take some time to get everything sorted out and my stomach had been rumbling for several minutes, telling me I better not hold off very much longer.

“I’ve got to make a visit to the little boy’s room,” I told Justin.

“You need me to go with you?”

“Nope, I like a little privacy when I do my business. I won’t be long.”

“Be careful,” Justin said and went back to helping unload the van.

I told Kelly the same thing before fast walking off the Interstate where a lone, dilapidated building stood. Quickly looking around to ensure I was alone, I set my weapons against a wall. Making sure my half a roll of toilet paper was handy, I dropped my pants and squatted. Within seconds, I heard something coming up from behind me. Before I could squeeze my butt cheeks and stand, I was bumped on the shoulder. Startled, I turned quickly, only to see that goofy ass dog, holding a well-used tennis ball in his mouth and looking at me the way all dogs do when they want to play.

“Damn it, Callahan, I’m right in the middle of something here.” He panted and sat, dropping the ball at my feet, indicating he was more than willing to wait but I should certainly hurry.

“Damn dog,” I grumbled and settled back into position. I was lost in my thoughts, wondering what the heck I’d eaten which was now causing me so much discomfort, and right at that joyful moment of voiding my bowels, Callahan suddenly stood, emitted a short bark and ran back behind me, bumping me clumsily as he passed by. Someone was coming.

“Why in the heck can’t I get any privacy?” I muttered and was about to unleash my displeasure with whoever was approaching when I heard that distinctive raspy snarl.

The bastard emerged from around the side of the building and lunged at me. I managed to roll to my side, not an easy thing to do with my pants to my knees and the paperwork not complete, if you know what I mean. The zombie stumbled into my fresh organic deposit before righting himself by flinging his arms up, causing shit to fly everywhere. Somehow, I managed to get to my machete and make short work of him.

“Where the hell did you come from?” I rhetorically asked and looked around for others before inspecting myself.

“Shit,” I muttered, not realizing I was making a pun, and tried the best I could to clean myself up. In the end, I sacrificed the rest of my toilet paper, a decent pair of underwear and a half a canteen of water. During all of this, Callahan kept picking up his ball and tossing it at my feet. I was tempted to toss that damn ball as far into woods as I could, but with my luck he would have brought a bunch of zombies back with him.

“Some help you were, you little bastard,” I said, picked up the slobbery ball and tossed it in the direction of the caravan.

And so, we were down another vehicle. After Julie’s death, I’d developed a special fondness for that van. Whenever I looked at it, it reminded me of her and how the two of us had discovered it. It was like our first date, our first real day together. I hated to leave it. Maybe I’d come back and get it one day. They had finished up repacking everything and after everyone had taken their own restroom breaks Justin gave the command to mount up, but before anyone could act, Sarah spoke up.

“We’ve got movement coming down the interstate from the north.” I looked quickly down the northbound lane. There were five to ten of them, moving toward us at a loping run, snarling loudly as they got closer.

“Get the kids secure!” I yelled at Janet, who didn’t have to be told twice.

“They’re danger close!” Justin shouted. That meant we were to shoot the front ranks first. I picked the one heading straight toward me and made a clean headshot as the others opened fire. We dispatched them quickly and efficiently, and were about to congratulate ourselves when Jorge yelled.

“Nine o’clock, ten more at fifty feet!” I swung around just in time. Two of them were moving quick and got to within ten feet before I could shoot them. Jorge and Josue made quick work of them just as another one emerged out from behind a burned-out Mercedes. Josue took careful aim and hit him right between the eyes. His son grinned and gave him a pat on the back. When it was over with, we consolidated and caught our breaths.

“Alright, how about a quick debriefing,” Justin directed.

“I believe they just tried a flanking maneuver on us,” Seth surmised. “They’re getting rather clever.”

“If they ever figure out how to use weapons, we’re really going to have our hands full,” Sheila added.

“At least they can’t procreate,” Rachel said and then snapped her fingers. “I bet all of the zombie men’s dicks have rotted off and the women’s woo-hoos have withered up…” She stopped as Sarah gave her a withering stare. Everyone else began laughing and soon even Sarah couldn’t stop herself from shaking her head and grinning.

It was midafternoon when we rolled into the outskirts of Bristol. It was once a quaint southern city with a population somewhere around thirty-five thousand. Now, it was like every other city across the world; bleak, dismal-looking, a cancerous shell of what it once was. As we slowly travelled along Interstate 81, we saw nothing unusual. Abandoned, wrecked, burned vehicles, overgrown plant life, disintegrating and cracking asphalt was the norm. Even so, I used Kelly’s camera to take a few photos.

“Mother Nature is taking back her planet,” Janet quipped. “It’s not all daisies and lollipops anymore.” I looked at her quizzically. It was rare that Janet joked around anymore. She saw me looking and grinned. “Now it’s just rotten peters and withered woo-hoos.”

“Look at that,” Kelly said, pointing out of the window. There was a large commercial plane wreck just to the side of the interstate. The surrounding area around it indicated a large fire had taken place and all of the surrounding vegetation was still dead.

“Do you think there’re any survivors here?” she asked. I took another photograph.

“I see several cars that looked like they’ve been searched, so yeah, probably.”

I retrieved the mike.

“Come in, Seth.”

“Go ahead.”

“Did you guys have any contact with anyone in this area on your way through?” He’d already answered the question back when we talked about it in Nolensville, but I wanted confirmation.

“That’s negative,” Seth answered. “I don’t see any changes either.” Jorge interrupted excitedly.

“Man, I see somebody right now!” Kelly looked at me in surprise as I grabbed the microphone, but before I could speak, Justin jumped in and immediately called a halt to the convoy. Jorge sped back to us without waiting to be told to and skidded to a stop. I jumped out as soon as Kelly got the truck stopped. Justin and Seth jogged up to us as Jorge pulled his helmet off and began speaking excitedly.

“It’s a man sitting on the side of the interstate. He’s beside a van that has the side doors open and a trailer behind it. I don’t see anyone else.”

Shooter and Cutter, not wanting to be left out, ran up and joined us and demanded Jorge repeat what he had just told us.

“I was about a hundred yards away when I spotted him. He was just sitting there, and then he waved at me, man. Is that bad?” Justin grunted and lowered the binoculars.

“Looks like just one man,” he said. “Hard to tell. The van he’s sitting by has the side door open and it’s full of stuff. What do you think, Zach?” Justin asked as he handed the binoculars to me. We were at a straight, level area of the interstate, very few derelict cars, and the man was about two hundred yards away, sitting without a seeming care in the world. As I watched, he stood up, gave us a wave, and then dropped a piece of paper, seemingly by accident. He looked at it and pointed at it with a stiff arm for a few seconds before picking it up. I smiled grimly as the memory of Rick teaching me that very same trick came to mind.

“Giving the wind speed and direction, huh buddy,” I muttered and started scanning.

“Did you say something, Zach?” Justin asked. I focused back on the man, who casually sat back down and scratched his beard. Yeah, he reminded me a little of Rick.

“What’re you thinking, Zach?” Justin pressed. I handed his binoculars back to him.

“It looks like he came up from an access road. Since there’s nobody else on the interstate, I’d say he’s here specifically for us.” Justin digested what I said.

“Our route takes us right past him. Seems only prudent we should introduce ourselves,” he commented idly. I thought a moment.

“Why don’t you two keep the group rock steady and I’ll ride up with Jorge and introduce ourselves.”

“I’ll keep him in my sights in case he tries anything,” Cutter declared.

“Oh, no, don’t do that,” I responded quickly. “I’d suggest not doing anything that might be considered threatening.”

“Why’s that?” Shooter demanded to know. I looked at him as I got on the bike with Jorge.

“Because he has at least one sniper deployed, maybe more.” Justin frowned at my statement and started scanning the area again as Jorge and I rode off.

“Been waiting on you fellas for the past hour,” he said as soon as Jorge cut the engine. He was casually sitting on a folding chair under one of those big picnic table umbrellas. Justin was right; he could have been forty or fifty. It was hard to tell with his thick beard, mirrored sunglasses and bandanna tied around his head they way bikers do. A braided ponytail snaked out of the back of it and ended an inch or two below his shoulder blades.

“Yeah, we’re a little slow moving today,” I responded as I got off of the bike and stood before him. “My name’s Zach and this is my friend, Jorge.” The man stood easily and offered a closed fist for a fist bump rather than shaking hands. Jorge and I responded in kind. His smile was pleasant, showing a healthy set of teeth, but his wariness was evident.

“I’m Joe, Trader Joe.” His manner was casual, although I’m sure he was just as suspicious of us as we were of him. He pointed at his van and the flat trailer behind it. “And this is my mobile trading post.”

“So, I’m guessing you saw our convoy and thought you could do a little business.”

“You are guessing correctly, my friend.” He motioned toward a dry erase board leaning against the van before swinging his arms again.

“I’ve written down today’s specials. If you see something you like, point it out and tell me what you’ve got to trade for.” I looked at him a moment as he smiled good-naturedly. The list, written in small but neat block lettering, filled the entire board, candles, cookware, canteens, hand tools, but all of it was stuff we either had or didn’t need. Not surprisingly, there were no essentials like toilet paper listed. He must have sensed it in my expression.