Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 6): In the Arms of Family (25 page)

“Holy shit.  What’s your name?”  The muted soldier asked Becca.

“Becca.  Why?”  She was scared, and choking back the waves of tears that threatened to take over.  She didn’t know what to do.  Her boyfriend was bitten and would die soon here in this yard, and a strange man with a large gun was interrogating her.

“Becca what?  Do you have a brother named Adrian?”  The man asked.

Her heart skipped a beat and she straightened. “Yeah, yes.  I do. Do you know him?  Is he okay? Is he here?”  Becca’s fear for her life melted away in the revelation that her older brother might still be alive. She looked around, hoping he'd appear through the hedge just like this man and woman.

“Fuck yeah.  You look
just like him
.  He’s still alive and well.  Crazy too. He’s got a whole town practically under his control now. Guess it does all work out in the long run.”  The soldier lowered the barrel of his rifle slightly and let out a laugh.  He bit his lip, revealing gray gums, and unhealthy teeth. He scanned the neighborhood around them.

“Hi I’m Angie, this is my boyfriend Raef by the way.  Is your friend hurt?  He seems it.”  The girl with the handgun said as she crouched down to lend a hand. She seemed entirely okay with her man's strange health. Maybe it was just the way he looked.

Becca nodded and looked back to Max.  The color of his skin was already turning that deathly jaundiced blue.  She’d seen many people bitten, especially right on June 23
^rd
, and it was a little different every time.  Some folks lasted for hours, some even days, but some succumbed to the bites in minutes.  Max didn’t have long. She knew at least what
that
looked like.  “Yeah, he’s bitten.”

Angie recoiled like Max was infected with the black plague.  Both her and the soldier named Raef backed up.  Becca strangely noticed his nametag said LaFrenz on it.  Maybe he was French-Canadian in origin.  Quebec wasn’t that far a drive really.  The Ring clan had taken a vacation to Montreal when Becca was little.  It had been very pretty she remembered. Like Europe appeared on post cards, and school textbooks on history.

“I’m so sorry,” Angie said as she stood back up.  No amount of medical care could save the young man now.  Bites were always fatal.  No exceptions.

“Where is my brother?”  Becca asked defiantly, trying to be strong.
 

“He has gathered a large amount of survivors at a private school about an hour away.  Auburn Lake or something.  We actually left there a few weeks ago.  We didn’t want to live at the school so we’re heading north to get somewhere rural.  You could totally make it there.  The roads aren’t all that bad right now.  Most of the undead you can just drive around if you're careful,” LaFrenz told her.

Becca smiled, and then realized a question to ask, “What about Cassie?  My brother's girlfriend? Is she alive?”

LaFrenz and Angie looked lost.  After exchanging glances with Angie, the soldier answered her, his gaze drifting downward to the rapidly falling Max, “I don’t know anyone named Cassie, I’m sorry.”

Becca looked down at Max, realizing that her brother’s girlfriend was probably dead.  Other than Sophie and her boyfriend Max, Cassie was easily Becca’s best friend.  Max looked up at her with eyes glazing over.  Becca could see the film of cataract whiteness already forming in the darks of his eyes.  He only had a minute at most. Becca suddenly regretted not spending these moments focusing on him.

  “Max.  I love you.  Can you still hear me?”  Becca whispered down at the young man she loved.  Her first love really.  Silly Max who threw up in her makeup bag at that party.  Silly Max who held her hair when she threw up at the same party.  Silly Max who gave her gas station flowers more often than he could afford, and silly Max who told her she was the most beautiful girl at the college they went to.  Silly Max who just died in her arms.

Becca’s face tightened into a silent sob as she doubled over.  Angie swept in and grabbed her, pulling her away from the dead body that would sit up shortly and try to kill all three of them.  Becca let the girl lead her through the hedge and into the road as LaFrenz fished a steel rod covered in rusty colored blood stains from his pack.  Becca heard a series of wet thunks, stopping only when she heard the distinct crack of a skull breaking open. 

Silly Max and his thick skull. She let go, and the tears came.

*****

“Do you know how to get there from here?” LaFrenz asked the remnants of the family sitting around the table.  He himself stood tall, his pale hand continuously on the grip of his rifle.

Becca answered before Caleb could, “Yeah I do.  It’s at the end of this long country road, and over a bridge.  I know right where it is.”

“How many folks are there now?  How is Adrian doing?  Is he okay?”  Caleb asked.  Caleb was the eldest of the five ring siblings.  Four brothers and little Becca, the darling baby girl.  Caleb was an asshole when they were growing up, but now that he was a father he was protective of his loved ones to a fault, and the news his younger brother was still alive had set a fire under his ass.  Sophie watched on holding Adam as her husband exhibited signs of pure joy. 

Angie answered him, “He is just fine as far as we know.  He’s been hurt a few times I’m sure, but there are about what?  Forty people now?  Thirty?  They have chickens, and crops, and water, and even some electricity.  That school is amazing.  Some of the folks have taken to calling it
The Last Bastion
.  Humanity’s final stronghold.  Heavy shit.”

Becca and Caleb smiled the same smile.  Angie was shocked at the family resemblance they shared.  The entire family looked like they were stamped out of the same mold.  There was no chance at all that anyone would mistake them as anything but siblings. 
 

LaFrenz had to add to the conversation, “It really might be you know.  They say he’s got a connection to something big.  Something bigger than us.  Mike said your brother has dreams, and the dreams show him what to do or something.  I don’t know.  I thought it was weird.  However… your brother has managed to build a heck of a place to stay, and he has helped quite a few people. Can't take that away from him. There's more to it than that, but it doesn't matter right now.” LaFrenz looked to Angie and they shared a forlorn look. It was as if they had a secret they were ashamed of.

The gathered family took that news with a confused expression on all their faces, but didn’t press the couple.  No one said anything.  It seemed as if they felt LaFrenz was fabricating a strange story for an unknown purpose. It was too strange to be true.

“Why aren’t you there?  Why head north? When did you leave there?”  Caleb asked the questions rapid fire, breaking up the awkward moment.

LaFrenz considered his words wisely. “Your brother scares me.  He’s hard.  Too hard I think.  Sometimes I think he’s just a mistake away from getting people killed.  I know a lot of other folks have died there, and I think some of those deaths might be partly his fault.  I don’t know. I don’t mean to bad mouth him or anything.  He’s your brother.  But I just felt safer if Angie and I went out on our own, and headed north.  We left a few weeks ago.  Middle of July.  We hit my family’s home, Angie’s place, and stopped by a few of our friend’s homes on the way to here trying to see if anyone else we knew was still alive.  I’m sure you all would love it there.  They have kids, and food, and everything.  I must admit, I’m still not sure it was the right decision for Angie and I to leave.  I'm not sure it was worth it. If things are, uh, rough up north and we need to move, we’d head back there in a heartbeat.”

“What day is it?  None of us have a calendar for this year and we lost track of the days a long time ago.  We thought it might be August?” Becca queried.

Angie responded, “I don’t know the exact day, but I think it’s something like August 15
^th
or so.”

Caleb and Becca listened and tried to understand the state of the school their brother apparently ran, and the state of the world.  Caleb knew better what the situation was.  If Adrian was in charge, then he was running it like he had to.  Making the best decisions he could for the people living with him, and making sure he was doing the best job he could for them.  At his core, Adrian was a good person.  One of the best, and at the end of the day, people were going to die one way or the other.  No amount of carefulness could change that.

 “The Last Bastion eh?  Kind of dramatic,” Sophie said as she caressed her son’s fine brown hair.  Tiny Adam was half asleep, bored by the conversation the older people were having.

 LaFrenz nodded.  “If you prefer, you can call it ALPA like Adrian does.  Although some of us from Westfield had taken to calling ALPA just plain old Bastion.  It sounded neater I guess.”

 “Bastion,” Caleb tasted the word out loud.

 “That sounds like something Adrian would fucking hate to hear.”  Becca grinned at her brother.

 “Yeah.  We need to get there and start calling it that around him.  See how much of an asshole he’s become now that he thinks he’s in charge of something.”  Caleb laughed.

  “I’ll draw you a map of where to avoid.  Do you have paper?”  LaFrenz asked. 

  Becca rose to her feet to get a pad of paper.  The profound sadness of the loss of Max was temporarily covered with the elation of possibly seeing her brother again.  A smile slipped out as she pulled the kitchen drawer open.  With any luck, she’d see him tomorrow.

*****

LaFrenz and Angie left the family that night with a pair of warm hugs, and a parting gift.  The young couple had far more in the way of resources than the Ring family did, and before they drove away in their borrowed National Guard humvee, they made sure to share their wealth.  Caleb’s handgun had fifteen rounds left for it, and LaFrenz happened to have spare ammunition in the same caliber.  He left a box of 50 rounds in Caleb’s hand after a handshake, and the two men embraced.  LaFrenz stiffened slightly under Caleb’s embrace, almost as if he was being hugged by Adrian, the other Ring brother that made him uneasy.

 Becca gave both of them a hug, and thanked them for their help in dealing with Max, and Max’s murderer.  Even though the woman was dead and entirely out of control, Becca still felt like she was a murderer.  Angie and LaFrenz told her it was their pleasure to be there for her at that moment, and tried to say they were sorry for their loss.  There was just no easy way to say it, even though everyone had said it a hundred times lately. 

 After that they left.  The dark green truck pulled away and headed down the unlit night street towards the on ramp that would take them to the interstate, and to the home they hoped they’d find far up north, away from the urban sprawl of the south.  Everyone hoped they’d make it.  The two seemed like good people, and they definitely seemed like they deserved safety and happiness together.

 The night after they left was almost entirely devoid of rest.  Everyone but little Adam was up late as they packed up all the goods they’d accumulated over the past year-plus.  Clothing, shoes, weapons, tools, and the meager food stores they scraped out of the ruined pantries of the city’s fringes.   When it was all said and done, there were but three duffel bags, and three backpacks of items worth bringing. It was so little, but seemed like so much.

 After a night of quiet discussion and ten minute long naps in the living room, the sun rose outside, casting a dull bluish-grey light on the world, and the four Ring family members committed to their course of action.  Caleb was the first out the door that morning, bringing the bags down the street to the small burgundy minivan they knew still ran.  He sprinted as fast as he could under the weight of their worldly possessions.  He slid the key in the van’s door, opened the slider and tossed the bags in the back.  Once he knew the street was clear enough of the dead for the rest of the family to join him, he waved his pistol in the air, motioning them to come, and they came running. Sophie cradled Adam in her motherly arms as she sprinted as fast as she could in the growing summer morning heat.  She strained to carry the heavy little boy. It would be a humid day for sure.  When they reached the car all three adults were covered in perspiration.  They had dark stains of salty sweat ringing their necks and armpits.  It would be oppressive if the sun was powerful later in the day.

 Caleb sat down in the driver’s seat as a handful of undead trotted shakily down the center of the street at them.  He looked up at them as he turned the key to the import van, sending the motor into a coughing fit.  It roared to life as the trio of rotted dead began to reach out for the hood of the van.  In the rear Becca and Sophie piled in, slamming the sliding door shut with a mechanical thump.

 “Go, get us moving!” Becca hollered out loudly at her brother, angry that they weren't already moving.  In response Caleb pulled the steering column mounted shifter down into reverse and gunned the gas.  The van lurched backwards, sending the women crashing to the floor.  Sophie did her level best to protect her small boy, but Adam still let out a painfully frightened screech. 

 The hands of the three undead scraped and banged on the hood of the van as it pulled away. Once he’d backed the suburban vehicle fifty feet or so away he spun it in a circle, and put it in drive.  One more application of his foot to the gas pedal later the van was speeding away towards the same on-ramp that had taken LaFrenz and Angie away the night before.

 Escape from the city was but minutes away.

*****

The motor in the red van coughed and sputtered like the wheezing of an asthmatic.  Wet racking hitches dropped the speed of the van immensely as Caleb pressed his foot to the floor, trying to feed the dying beast more fuel, stuffing its belly with rancid old gasoline.  Moaning like a hungry beast dying in the desert, the motor continued its death knell, and the van finally died, coasting towards the break down lane on the highway.  Caleb put the vehicle in neutral and aimed it towards the off ramp they were approaching.  Fortunately, it was the exit they wanted.