America The Dead Book Two: The Road To Somewhere (25 page)

After breakfast they tried the radios again,
but received no answer. "It doesn't mean they aren't on the way or
that anything bad has happened," Patty said, when Annie seemed
about to burst into tears.

”
Oh no," Janet said. "Bob told me
they'll be along directly. They have to take care of those people,
pick up some supplies, but they'll do that and then they'll be
along. They will. I wouldn't expect them to catch up to us for
several days. They have too much to do." She tried to sound as sure
of herself and as upbeat as she could, but both were things she
didn't particularly feel.

Annie looked at her, a faint doubt line
creasing her forehead. But after a few seconds she nodded, and the
line smoothed out.

"What we have to do is find a place," Janet
said.

"Do you have a map," Annie asked, "to help us
find... whatever it is we're looking for?"

"Yes, dear, but the map is no good now, don't
you see? Where we are there have been only a few people in over two
hundred years. No map can show this. No, we'll do this on our own.
I guess we'll get moving now also. Patty?" She asked. She waited
until Patty looked over, "Would you find something, yarn... ribbon,
to tie to a few of these trees... Something to show that we've been
here?" Janet asked.

"Yes, that's a good idea," Patty said and
smiled. She had worried about the others being able to find them,
but had not wanted to voice her concern.

"Yes, but I wish I had thought of it
yesterday," she frowned. "Well there's nothing for it, as Bob would
say. We will mark our way from here on out," Janet
proclaimed.

They had the Suburbans loaded and ready to go a
half an hour later. Bright red ribbons fluttered from several
trees, and Patty had a good supply cut from a bright red plastic
tarp. She'd mark trees periodically as they went.

The herd grew nervous when the Suburbans moved
out. The cows gathered around the calves; the bulls pawed and
snorted. But the three Suburbans gave them a wide berth as they
passed them and continued down into the long valley.

~

She wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans. The
trucks had been gone for over half an hour now. She needed dry
hands, she didn't want to slip coming down the tree. She wiped her
hands once more, and slowly began to shimmy down the pine from limb
to limb, favoring one leg as she descended.

Sticky sap stuck to her hands and clothes, but
she didn't care. She made the ground and headed into the camp a
short distance away. She was starved. She couldn't even remember
the last time she had eaten.

A large iron pot sat at the edge of the fire.
In the larger of the four tents she found a stack of plastic bowls,
cups and eating utensils. She ate first.

When her belly was reasonably full, she
rummaged through the clothing in one of the tents and put together
some clean clothes. She found one of the V.H.F. Radios, turned it
on and set it on the picnic table. If they came back, she would
know. She took the clothes down to the stream to clean
up.

She had a bullet wound in one leg, the fleshy
part of the outer thigh, a crease really. The bullet had furrowed a
hole through the skin, but it hadn't gone into the meat of her leg.
Even so, it was an angry red, and she knew what that
meant.

She cleaned it out, grimacing at the pain as
she did. She looked at it closely, decided it was as clean as she
was going to get it, and then smeared a half tube of antibiotic
ointment on it from a first aid kit she'd found in the same tent as
she had taken the clothes from; she bandaged it.

She walked around testing the leg before she
slipped the jeans back up and pulled the boots back on her feet.
She could find the rest of what she wanted in the nearest town. She
looked down at her chipped fingernails, the black polish nearly
gone in places. I'll fix that too, Chloe told herself.

She retrieved the radio. She had heard them
calling back and forth to each other a few times, crossed the camp
and walked down to the truck they had left.

The back of the truck was a gory mess, flies
took off and landed from the blood covered floor, making loud
buzzing sounds as they did. That was okay, she told herself. She'd
just find another truck when she got to the next town. This one
would still get her there.

She flipped her hair away from her head, her
flat emotionless eyes focused on something only she could see. She
laughed to herself and then climbed up into the truck.

~

She had spent the night in hiding. She had seen
the others come and drag the bodies away. Nearly impossible to see
in the night. She had heard the others looking around all morning
long, and she had known they would not find what they
wanted.

The others had been a puzzle. It wasn't Death
or Murder or Shitty. She was sure of that, or as sure as she could
be. It had been damn black, hard to see anything, but it was the
way they had moved that told her it wasn't her own people. And, she
had been about to call out. It had even seemed as though they had
looked up at her. But then something had seemed wrong, something in
the blackness. She just hadn't been able to put her finger on what
it had been. So she had stayed silent. She had held onto the tree
for all she was worth - suddenly scared all over again - kept her
breathing as quiet as she could and waited.

And then the others had walked right past her
several times this morning looking for the bodies. It was funny how
people just didn't think to look up, yet thought they had looked
everywhere. They had looked and then they had talked it over, and
she had heard that too. And then they had left, and she had heard
that conversation also. She had only waited to make absolutely sure
they were gone. Maybe the others that had come and taken the dead
would come back. Maybe not. So she had waited.

She started the truck now, backed around and
onto the park road, and then shifted into drive and wound her way
out through the trees to the main road. She left the park road and
turned left onto the main road, heading back to the last truck
stop. There were other vehicles there, she remembered. She turned
the volume dial up a little higher on the V.H.F. Radio, to get over
the sound of the engine, and listened as she drove. Nothing but
static. They had fallen silent, but she knew it wouldn't stay that
way. She'd heard everything. She knew where they were going, and
she'd catch them, she told herself. Take them by surprise. Make
them pay!

She pushed at the gas pedal, and the truck
surged ahead, she laughed again, adjusted the rear view mirror and
pressed the gas pedal down a little farther.

~

Nothing at all had been hard to find. There had
been advertisements in the front of the collapsed store area for
steel barns, and in the back, by the loading doors, piles of
aluminum beams and corrugated panels, boxes of nuts and
bolts.

Bob had backed up a forty foot long flatbed
truck to the rear loading dock. It was one of the big stake racks,
and after they had loaded up enough steel panels, boxes of nuts and
bolts, and aluminum girders and beams, using a propane powered
forklift to build four or five barn like structures, they put the
sides back up and began to load other items: seed, hay bales,
farming implements, axes and wooden mauls, boxes of nails, screws,
grain, a good selection of heavy coveralls, jeans, jackets and work
boots. In no time at all the truck was packed, tarped and moved out
of the way.

They pulled out late in the afternoon with
three of the big trucks loaded and five fifty five gallon drums of
gasoline on the back of the last truck. They drove slowly and more
than two dozen horses followed them all the way back down to the
state park.

They spent the last few hours before dark
setting up some more grain in the back of the pickup truck and
leading horses down to the stream.

~

"I thought they'd go wild. I thought it would
be no time at all before they would have nothing to do with us,"
Bob said.

"Don't look that way to me," David
said.

"No, it doesn't. Of course this doesn't mean
they'll stay with us or follow us. Leading them a couple miles down
the road is a lot different than taking them back into the woods.
There are big cats, bears... Horses spook easy. And cows, tomorrow
we'll look for cows. We'll leave that truck right there, I believe
the horses will stay right with it," Bob said.

~

Kate walked back with Mike from further
upstream where they had gone to clean up.

"I've got to find more clothes tomorrow," Kate
said. "I could've sworn Patty left me some, but I can't find them,"
she told him.

"We'll just pick up some more tomorrow," Mike
agreed. He bent down and kissed her, and as he did his eyes fell on
the road leading out of the park. Something, he
thought...

"What," Kate said startled, turning
quickly.

"I," Mike started.

"Fuck.
The truck is gone," Kate said. She reached down and slipped
off the leather thong that held the gun in its holster. Almost
instantly one finger slid down the side of the frame and flicked
off the safety lever. She knew it was off because she made herself
practice flicking it off until it was second nature.

Mike called out to Bob and the others and they
began to search.

They spread out but kept each other in sight as
they searched the campground. Tom found wrappers from band aids,
and a pile of dirty clothes nearby. Everyone walked over and
looked.

"I guess they don't care if we know or not,"
Kate said. She bent over and retrieved the pants, staring at the
blood stain on one leg. A ragged hole in the back of the leg and a
neat small circle at the front where it had gone in. “A woman, or a
girl. Overly small for a man or a boy,” Kate said.
“Shot.”

"Looks like you did get her after all then,
Tom," Bob said. “This may not be everybody, but this has to be our
missing girl. When you shot down at the truck, you hit
her.”

Their eyes picked up the rest of the clues: the
empty food bowl, the half empty tube of the antibiotic
cream.

"So, she just came in here... helped herself to
our clothes, food, drugs... took the truck... and?" Kate said
looking around.

"No telling what else," Mike said. "Guess we're
back on guard duty tonight though."

"I think we're missing a radio too," Ronnie
said. He was coming back from the direction of the tents. "All my
stuff was gone through, my radio is gone."

"Do you think she's smart enough to figure out
the difference?" Tom asked.

"Absolutely. If she's everything Cindy says she
is," Bob answered. “Anyway, we got to assume she figured it out,
that she's listening to everything we say. Probably already did
today.”

"What
is
the difference?" Cindy asked,
feeling foolish.

"We were monitoring you guys on C.B., but we do
all of our personal talking on a marine radio. V.H.F.,” He held the
radio up so she could see it. “Looks the same as a C.B., but
talking on this, they couldn't hear us," Mike explained.

"So that's how you knew we were
coming. Not that I'm mad. I'm glad, the way things turned out. Will
she notice? If she took the radio, she already has it figured out,
don't you think?" Cindy asked. " I can't see no...
any
, reason she would
take it otherwise. If she was here last night, maybe hiding,
waiting... she probably heard you guys talking on them... saw
you."

“
Had to be her that took the
bodies also. I can see her own people, but why Jeff?” Tom
asked.

“
I don't know,” Mike
said.

“
What's not to know?” Tom
asked.

“
Well, she weighs, what, maybe
around a hundred pounds? Maybe?” He looked over at Cindy who
nodded.

“
So?” Tom said.

“
So, how's a hundred pound girl
gonna drag a full grown man that weighs over two fifty out of the
woods?” Ronnie asked.

“
And we didn't hear him,” Cindy
added.

No one answered.

“
Well, had to be her. I mean, you
ain't buyin' that Zombie shit are you?” Tom asked. He looked at
Mike and then slowly around at the rest.

“
No, I'm not ready to believe
that. Look at those horses today. They've been living out.
Nothing's bothered them. I don't know what Jeff saw. I wasn't
there.” Mike sat back on one of the picnic table tops.

Kate nodded. "Well, who's watching when?" she
asked after a short pause.

~

Janet wrote down the mileage, thirty five
miles, and it had taken all day. All three vehicles were nearly
empty, and the cans on the back of the trucks were dry. There were
also dozens of new scrapes and dents in the bodies of the trucks.
They had come through some rough country, even traveling over the
relatively flat lowlands they had traveled. She was also surprised
at how much gas the trucks had burned once the going got rough, and
they were in four wheel drive constantly. That seemed to double the
gas consumption. But the short gas rations and the dented trucks
didn't matter overly much to Janet Dove anymore. They were going no
further.