America the Dead (29 page)

Janna’s eyes lit up with hope at the possibility of helping her friend, a good sign that she was sincere. She spilled out her tale so quickly I was nearly lost three seconds after she started.

In a nutshell, she was working as a hairdresser in a small town when the Upheaval hit. She was able to fight her way to her parent’s house, only to find they had been infected. Her little brother was killed by zombies when she was trying to get him out to safety and she spent the last couple of years on the move. She met her friend Gina out on the road and the two stayed together for obvious survival reasons. They got surprised by a large group of zombies and when she jumped from the roof to a dumpster, the dumpster tipped over and before she could right it, the zombies chased her away from her friend.

“What’s with the scissors?” I asked, just out of curiosity.

Janna smiled at me. “They work as weapons. I’m used to them and they easily penetrate zombie skulls if you know what you’re doing.”

I had to agree. One pair of the scissors seemed to have blades over seven inches long, longer than my knife blade.

“All right,” I said. “Climb aboard. We’ll see what we can do for your friend.” I held out an arm at the RV, which Nate had started and was waiting for us.

“Thank you,” she said, clasping my hand with hers.

“Don’t thank me yet,” I said, taking my hand back to open the door. “Your friend is still in danger.” Janna stepped inside as Tommy came up to the door.

“Truck really broken down?” I asked under my breath as he passed by.

“Battery cable came off. Might be on purpose, might be on accident. Can’t tell.”

“Keep your eyes open. I don’t trust this at all.”

“Ditto.”

25

We moved slowly into town, as I told Nate to take it easy. I wanted to give the appearance of a group just looking to see if things were okay before they stopped. If we were being watched and the hairs standing up on the back of my neck told me we were, then I wanted to present as much of a humble front as possible. It was one thing to try and trap someone. It was another when the person you trapped turned into a much bigger animal than you thought..

I felt like we had a huge target on the side of the RV and were getting closer to the order to fire. Trouble was, I had no idea who might be waiting for us. I just had the feeling. In all honesty, if it was an ambush by zombies, I would probably feel better.

Janna and Duncan sat at the kitchen table and he tried to get more information from her. Zeus the cat came down from his perch to meet the new arrival and he was currently lounging on the table in front of Janna. She idly stroked his back while telling her tale. She had been travelling with two friends, as it turned out, but the guy she was with had been killed. She didn’t go into any more detail. I was standing by the side window, watching the town move past.

We drove past several homes and turned onto High Street, which looked like it would take us through the center of town. We passed Harrisburg United Methodist Church and it looked worse for wear. All of the homes looked like this town had had a rough go of it, since it was so close to the interstate and all the blocked cars. When people fled their cars, where did they go? Right to Harrisburg. Who followed them? You got it.

As we passed Sycamore Street I noticed a truck sitting in the middle of the street. It seemed wildly out of place. The truck was of a military style, with a high cab and bias-ply tires. The back was canvas covered and it was just sitting there. It seemed to be a vehicle capable of hauling a lot of stuff over heavy terrain, so why anyone would leave it seemed odd to me.

“Nate,” I called up front. “Stop here. I want to take a look at something.”

“You got it.”

The RV slowed to a stop and Tommy immediately went to the ladder to the roof. Duncan reluctantly broke away from Janna and picked up his rifle. Nate stayed at the wheel, ready to gun it and get us out of there if need be.

I went over to the door and waited and in a few seconds, Tommy thumped the roof to let me know it was clear to go out. As I went, I heard Janna talking to Duncan.

“You guys act like you’ve done this before…”

I didn’t hear the rest as I was outside and moving around the front of the vehicle. The sun was brighter and I was wishing I had brought my sunglasses with. I moved down the center of the road, careful to make as little noise as possible. From experience, I knew that zombies might be waiting in ambush, but they would have to cross some open ground to get to me. I knew my back was being watched by Tommy and unless he was way off his game, the first shot I would hear would be his taking out a Z.

I moved over to the truck and pulled myself up to the cab. I didn’t see anyone in it and a quick look through the canvas showed some supplies, but no clues as to why such a truck was here. Strange.

I was about to jump down when a map caught my eye. It was tucked into the small storage area that ran the length of the dashboard. I took it out and opened it, figuring to see just another map of Ohio. What I didn’t expect was to see three areas circled. One was Harrisburg, which made a certain amount of sense. The other was a small forest preserve southwest of here and the last was a larger forest preserve called Stroud’s Run State Park. There was a red question mark over the area we had stayed the other night and Route 50 was heavily penciled over. There were cross marks on several towns and some were boxed in. It made no sense at all.

I left the map and walked back to the RV, shaking my head at Tommy and Nate. As I reached the center of the road, a shot rang out from in front of me. At first I thought it was Tommy, but then in the next second I realized it couldn’t be Tommy because I had been shot! The round slammed into the left side of my abdomen and there was a popping sound as the bullet hit me. Something hit my head and I stumbled backwards, dropping my rifle, and coming to a stop near the truck. My gut hurt like hell and I immediately tried to press both hands to stop whatever bleeding there might be. My head hurt and I could feel blood pouring down my face.

I heard several more shots being fired and the sound of the RV roaring to life. The last sound I heard was Tommy screaming my name as the RV pulled away. After that I didn’t hear anything.

26

I opened my eyes to what I thought was some time later and stared at the weird scene in front of me. There was a long metal bar right above my face and another at a cross section. If this was the afterlife, it was already a disappointment. My head cleared a bit and I began to realize what had happened. Somebody had shot me and I was under the truck I had been investigating. I reached down to where my wound was and poked around a bit. My vest was frayed and there was a lot of busted metal that pricked my probing fingers. My side hurt like hell, but it didn’t feel as bad as I thought it would. I had heard that getting shot in the gut was as bad as it could be and doomed the recipient to an agonizing death. If this was agonizing pain, I was tougher than I thought I was. I explored my head wound and found a gash near my hairline. My face was crusted with drying blood, so I was sure I looked a fright.

I could hear the sounds of gunfire, so I figured my friends were still in the fray, taking on whoever had shot me. I raised my hand and looked at my fingers, expecting to see them covered in blood. I was rather surprised they weren’t.

What the hell
? I started to sit up, but my side hurt again and I bumped my head on the axle of the truck. Falling back, I put my hand out and touched the stock of my M1A. I looked at it for a second and figured I must have grabbed it before I took shelter under the truck. I didn’t remember doing either of those things, so it was another surprise.

I rolled over, wincing as a fresh wave of pain hit my gut and crawled out on the opposite side of the truck. Whoever had shot me was pretty lousy at assassination, since I was a fairly lively corpse. But if they were still out there, I didn’t want to offer them a chance to correct their mistake.

I got to my knees and willed myself to look at the damage. I was expecting to see blood soaked clothing and a very disturbing hole in my sacred person. What I was not expecting to see was a vest pocket blown away and a very badly damaged rifle magazine. Several rounds had exploded when they had been hit, rupturing the mag and blowing out the pocket.

I thought I knew what had happened. The sniper had hastily taken his shot, since I had gotten out before the planned ambush site and the round had punched into one of the steel-sided magazines for my rifle. The steel had absorbed most of the energy of the round, but it had enough to penetrate three of my cartridges, causing them to fire and blow the mag apart at the front. One of the rounds went north and had struck me a glancing blow to the head. Two inches to the left and I’d be dead.

I was going to be sore as hell for a while for taking a hit from a rifle and having a small explosion at my liver, but there was no way around the truth. I was luckier than I had a right to be. Somewhere out there, there was a guy who couldn’t walk through a doorway without bumping something. I had all of his luck, as well as mine.

I looked over my M1A for damage and it had nothing worse than a few dings in the stock and flash hider from its fall to the ground. As I wiped it off and checked the barrel for obstructions, the sound of gunfire came to me again and in a flash, I was pissed. I also clearly understood what the circles and symbols meant on the map. This was an ambush for me, sent by Thorton.

My blood went cold as I let my rage build. I closed my eyes and breathed deep, pulling in the pain from the near miss and drawing strength from it. As I opened my eyes I smiled grimly to no one. The killer was free.

The shots I was hearing came from the south, so I decided to head that way. I wanted to fight, to kill and every second of delay made me angrier. I ran back to a side street and worked my way south, with the notion that I might be able to come up behind the attackers and take them by surprise. I had no idea who was alive or how many people were still fighting. I did know one thing for sure.

I knew who was
not
going to live.

The road I limped down was called Fire Lane and it was pretty much an alley between two larger roads. But it gave me a corridor to approach the firefight unseen. I passed by the Harrisburg Community Center and I glanced at it briefly, thinking I saw something move in the shadows. But I didn’t have time to care, as the firing intensified. Somebody had somebody else pinned down pretty good, but the fact that the firing kept up gave me hope that someone was still up and fighting.

Fire Lane ended at Walnut Street, where a day care center sat on the corner. Across the street I could see some houses that looked to be occupied by the dead and they were standing at the windows, looking out at the action. I still couldn’t tell where the firing was coming from, but it seemed I was a lot closer. The shots were less frequent, only an occasional round being fired here and there. It sounded like the two sides had settled into a kind of a stalemate.

Crossing Walnut, I made my way around a small strip mall, aware that the firing seemed to be coming from the building right in front of me. I thought it was a grocery store, but it could have been anything. I moved further to the east to see if I could get a glimpse of the situation and when I did, I could see the RV parked next to a brick building. Moving a little more, I could see it was a post office. I smiled. Trust Nate to find the best building for defense. Old time post offices were built like bomb shelters and it would take a hell of a hit to bring it down. The brick allowed for good protection from gunfire and the steel mesh covering the windows prevented more accurate shots from finding their targets.

I could see rounds bouncing off the walls as less-than-precise firing came from the building across the street. As I looked, rifles poked out from the building next to the post office, making escape impossible. Nate and the others were pinned down, no question about it. They were going to either be killed or die of dehydration. Neither of which was an option to my liking.

I decided to take on the building next door to the Post Office, figuring it had fewer men inside. That was a pure guess, but it made sense. I needed to get across the street without being seen, so I backtracked a block and ran down Walnut to Spruce Street. I cut across Columbus and made my way through overgrown backyards, stepping around discarded children’s toys and playhouses. Lonely swings squeaked a greeting as I moved quietly past. I worked my way close to a house and crawled around a swimming pool, gritting my teeth against the pain in my side. I hoped like hell I didn’t have any internal bleeding or I was going to be mad.

The way looked clear and I moved silently over to the door. As luck would have it, the entrance was on the side away from the street, so I could enter without being seen by the group across the way. Hopefully, my luck would hold out a little longer.

I figured my rifle would be too much for close in work, so I slung it across my back and pulled my knife. I needed to do this quietly and try not to alert anyone I was there until it was too late. I had my SIG if I needed it, but I hoped I wouldn’t.

Opening the door, I stepped inside quickly, ducking to the side and letting my eyes adjust to the interior. I was in a professional office building and that made my job easier. A large open place like a restaurant would be tough, but small offices made moving around unseen that much more expedient.