Zombified (Book 1): Hudson Place (21 page)

“
I’m hoping everyone will be hungry when they get back,” she said as she laid a pot holder on the counter and gazed at Charlie. “Unless they all lost their appetite with what had to be done.”

Remembering the day they had to dispose of all the bodies at Hudson Place Charlie replied, “I think I can say from prior experience that you will have a bunch of hungry folks on your hands very shortly.” He eyed everything once again. “Need a hand? I can make a mean salad, or so I’ve been told.”

Judith chuckled. “Sure, you’re on.”

As Charlie was rolling up his sleeves to get to work, Sean appeared in the doorway. “Glad I found you, we need to talk, it‘s important.”

With a slight sigh and an apologetic look toward Judith, Charlie rolled his sleeve back down. “No problem, be right there.” He shrugged his shoulders as he glanced at Judith. “Sorry, I’ll try to hurry.”

She smiled at him and nodded. “No problem, thanks for offering to help, I do appreciate it.”

Charlie was already to the door and waved as he exited. Sean was waiting right outside the door, fidgeting. “I think we have a problem at Hudson Place,” he said as they walked together down the hall.

“
How so?”

“
I got hold of Brooke,” Sean said in a low voice. “She said she couldn’t talk long, but that something bad had happened, she wasn’t sure what yet. Said Mom and some of the others had been crying and that Dad looked like he was about to hurl. Oh, and a whole group of people arrived there, supposedly they’re going to help protect them against some people from a mercenary group of thugs called the Connor Group, whatever that is. These people want us for some kind of experimental cure. Brooke overheard most of this from Mom, so I‘m not absolutely sure how accurate it is, but it still sounds bad no matter how you dice it.”

Charlie scratched his chin thoughtfully. “So what you’re probably thinking is that we need to high tail it back to Hudson Place and bring as much help as we can get with us?”

“
I don’t like the idea of doing that, but I don’t see any other choice, do you? I don’t want to take a chance that something is going down and we stand by here and do nothing.”

“
Got to agree,” Charlie said, biting his lower lip. “Ok, let me talk to Dexter, you talk to your brother, Jacob, and Mark and let’s see if we can get a move on within the hour.”

****

Cindy assembled all the women except Brooke and Kendra, who were watching the children and Lindsey who was staying with Lilly, in their bathroom. In a hurried whisper, she quickly outlined her idea and together they all decided to act on it.

“
They’re so cocky they left only one guard up here, he’s over by the ammo room,” Cindy said with a dry chuckle and smiled at Denise. “You sure you can do this?”

Denise nodded soberly, her eyes glittering with anger. “Oh I’m sure all right; nothing will give me more pleasure.”

“
Well, be careful and do it how we talked about, ok? We‘ll be right around the corner.”

“
Let’s get this over with,” Denise said curtly as she pushed off the wall she’d been leaning on. The rest of the women followed her out.

Once they were all in position, Cindy gave Denise a nod, pursing her lips in concern at her daughter-in-law’s retreating back until she turned the corner and could no longer be seen. At least they would be able to hear and listen for Denise‘s cue.

“
Hey there.” Cindy heard Denise say.

The solider/mercenary grunted in reply. Not a good start Cindy thought to herself pensively. Unconsciously she clasped her hands together.

“
My name’s Denise, I’ve been trapped in this hell hole for far too long and it‘s nice to see a real man around for a change, but don’t tell my friends I said that, ok?” Denise remarked in a low, breathy voice. “So I told you my name, do you have one?”

“
Jessie,” came the short reply.

“
Oh, what a
nice
name!” Denise fairly crooned. “Nice to meet you, Jesse. So what are you doing here all by yourself?”

For the next 10 minutes, Denise slowly drew Jesse out until they were chatting like old friends. Suddenly, Cindy heard her snap her fingers. Not able to contain herself anymore, she craned her neck slowly around the corner where she could see that Denise was now standing right next to the soldier.

“
Oh drat! I’m supposed to find someone to help get the ham radio up and running, know anything about them? Bill wants to have a talk with the guys in Shady Oaks.”

When Jesse replied in the affirmative, Denise put her hand slowly on his shoulder and gave him a dazzling smile. Cindy rolled her eyes when she saw Jesse give her a weak-in-the-knees smile back. Oh brother, Cindy thought, she’s got him eating out of her hand.

“
Oh that’s wonderful!” Denise gushed. “It’s right over here in this room.” She slid her hand down and gently pulled on Jesse’s sleeve. He hesitated for only a moment before giving in and following her.

Cindy shook her head in amazement and ducked back around the corner. She looked at the others, put a finger to her lips, and then mouthed “get ready” at them. They all nodded and everyone tensed, ready to spring to action. Cindy glanced down at the hammer in Sarah’s hand, hoping she’d have the nerve to use it. When she glanced up at Sarah’s face, she found Sarah looking back at her and she nodded forcefully as though she knew exactly what Cindy was thinking. They stood still as statues until they heard Denise open the door to the small room housing the radio.

“
Its right here,” they heard her say faintly. She was already in the room. “See what you think.”

That was the phrase they were waiting for. Silently they all turned the corner in single file, allowing Sarah to take the lead. Cindy could see Jesse sitting in front of the radio, Denise bending over him off to his left. Sarah strode through the door and seemingly without hesitation, she raised the hammer and brought it down right on top of his head. As they figured, it only seemed to stun him. Before he could react, Cindy and Meagan scurried forward and wrapped a thick rope around his midsection. Megan tied it off and soon as she finished Cindy took a bandana out of her pocket and stuffed it in the shocked soldier’s mouth. Blood was now running down the side of his face and his eyes looked definitely hazy, but Cindy knew he’d be fine with time; Sarah simply hadn’t hit him that hard. Soon as they were finished, they all left the room, leaving Denise to lock it behind them.

“
Let’s get those weapons and ammo,” Megan said in a loud whisper. As a group they rushed over to the door and within seconds they were all inside grabbing everything they were sure they’d need.

Although it only took them a few minutes to gather everything, it seemed to Cindy that it took far too long. “Let’s go!” she finally whispered frantically. She was so afraid they were going to be caught. She rushed out the door and headed back to the bathroom, not even looking behind her to see if everyone was following. Fortunately, everyone was and they soon got busy organizing what they had.

“
Ok, you need to make sure you can thoroughly hide any weapon and ammunition you have with you,” Megan advised. She supervised each woman as they hid pistols, revolvers, and the ammo that went with them on their persons. Each of them even carried plastic handcuffs hidden in their socks.

When Cindy walked around the bathroom, she could feel the box of ammo hidden in the waist of her jeans. “Megan, are you sure you can’t see this stuff on us? This is going to be tough, hiding all this and being able to transfer some of it to the men quickly without being seen.”

“
Yeah we’re gonna need a diversion,” Megan said as she finished examining Sarah. “Do you think we could get the teens to do something, like start an argument? I think anything would do as long as it gives us a few seconds.”

Cindy nodded with a grin. “That would be perfect! Everyone knows how surly a teen can be, we need to get them together and let them in on the plan.”

“
I’ll do it,” Rose said softly. She was always so quiet most of the time people tended to forget she was around. “I will get two walkies - give them one and keep the other. When it’s time I’ll give them two clicks on it when we need them.”

“
Great idea!” Cindy said as she walked over and gave Rose a big hug. Rose fairly beamed and gave Cindy a smile in return. “Ok, I think we’re all set then, let’s go!”

Cindy and Megan descended the stairs while the rest of the women went up to position themselves on the fourth floor. Cindy said a quick but heartfelt prayer as she followed Megan that things would work out and no one else would die.

Chapter 25

Despite Dexter’s reluctance to go along with their plans, Charlie managed to convince him with Darrell’s help that they needed to go back. When he also told him that there would probably be a fight, he couldn’t have kept Dexter away. They decided to have a quick dinner, courtesy of Judith, before getting what they needed together. This pushed the timeline back by at least another hour, which Charlie didn’t like, but there wasn‘t much he could do about it. Judith had insisted on going, as well as several other townsfolk, for which Charlie was grateful. Jenny would also be tagging along and Charlie didn’t even waste time trying to argue with her when he saw the look on her face.

After dinner, Charlie went looking for Scott and Sean and found them loading up the back of their SUV. The two new men, Mark and Jacob, were still with them and they were pouring over a map. One of them also held a GPS unit in one hand.

“
Hey Charlie,” Sean said as he flashed a good-natured smile his way.

“
Came by to see if you were ready yet.” Charlie stopped and gave everyone a smile. “Looks like we should be able to head out in about 10 minutes.”

“
We’ll be ready,” Scott grunted as Sean stepped back and he pulled the hatch down.

“
Sounds good. Wanted to let you know in case you have something last minute to do.”

“
Sean, as Mom always used to ask, need to go potty before we leave?” Scott teased.

Sean smirked at his brother before joining the other two men still looking at the map.

“
So, from what I hear, we are following you back because the bridge is out?” Charlie asked as he glanced at the map.

“
Yeah, we were hoping to find a quicker route back, but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen. We’re so rural out here even the GPS unit doesn’t have but the one route we can’t use on it.”

Charlie shook his head. “That’s too bad. Ok, when you’re ready let Dexter and me know and we’ll pass it on so we can all leave together.”

“
Well, actually I think we‘re ready to go,” Sean said without looking up.

“
Oh alright, I’ll let the others know then.”

Charlie trudged off in search of Dexter and didn’t need to go far before he spotted him sitting in the cab of a truck with the door open and one leg hanging out. As Charlie got closer, he saw Dexter was busily wiping down his knife. Not wanting to know what he was cleaning off, he ignored the weapon.

“
The boys are ready to leave,” he told Dexter soon as he got close enough for him to hear. He planned to swing off and head for his own truck, but Dexter surprised him by jumping out and cutting him off.

“
I sure hope this isn’t a wild goose chase,” Dexter hissed, his steely blue eyes narrowing. “We still have so much to do here and if I’m wasting my time…”

“
So we waste some time if there’s nothing wrong, at least you will get to see Rose and Kevin,” Charlie pointed out.

“
True,” Dexter grumbled, then grinned. “Hey! I can go ahead and bring ‘em back with me if Rosie wants to come! Town might not be quite ready yet, but what the hay.”

Using the opportunity to make his escape, Charlie took it. Nearing his truck, he could see that Jenny was already standing by the bed fiddling with a large backpack.

“
Hop in, we’re ready to go,” Charlie said as he walked past her. Then he halted and turned back. “Want me to take that for you? Looks heavy.”

“
No, I’m good,” she replied before tossing the pack in the bed of the pickup. “Glad we’re heading out; don’t want to be on the road in the dark.”

Charlie opened the driver’s side door, reached in the cab and picked up his walkie. “Can’t argue with that.” He quickly notified everyone they were leaving, climbed into the cab and tossed the walkie back on the seat.