DEAD: Darkness Before Dawn (15 page)

“He was still a jerk,” Danny muttered.

“
Anyway
…” Jody said with a sigh, “I still plan to at least try and meet him out on the highway. If he does not mean us any harm, then there’s no sense in getting him riled up. We really don’t know what the deal was with him and Remar.”

“Just be careful,” George said. “And I think you got bigger problems than just the possibility that we are about to be raided by a force with superior weapons and firepower.”

“I told you Selina would be pissed,” Danny snorted.

Jody had
known that she would be more than a little upset at his decision. However, he believed in his heart that it was the best thing. If this went bad, he would at least feel better knowing that she and Kat would have a chance. At least that is what he told himself.

“Any other questions?” Jody said, not bothering to actually acknowledge the comments by either of the men. When nobody spoke up, he gave a nod. “And remember…do not fire unless they shoot first.”

“I never understood that policy,” Danny muttered. “If they fire first…chances are that you won’t be doing much of anything except bleeding.”

Once more, Jody ignored his friend. He turned and headed back out to the highway. He walked until he saw the little mar
ker that he had placed. Standing in the middle of the road, he held the rifle across his chest in the crook of his arm. He tried to dredge up any moment with Sergeant Pitts that had not left him thinking that the man was an absolute ass. Nothing was coming to mind.

It was less than a half hour when he
saw the first signs of a cloud on the horizon. Bringing up his binoculars, he could just make out the leading edge of what had to be well over a thousand people. He had not seen that many living, breathing folks in one place since the first days of their arrival in Bald Knob.

Now it was just a matter of waiting. He had made sure that the sign was large and easy to see. He did not want even the slightest possibility that it would be missed. They would come within range of it about a mile west of the bridge that crossed the creek that they had tapped with their canal project.

The sun continued its slow march across the sky as if it were trying to meet the approaching force. As Jody continued to scan these people, he felt his stomach drop. They had obviously found an actual military armory or two. They were armed to the teeth with what, even from this distance, he could tell were M4s. He thought he even saw a few M32 grenade launchers!

“We’re fucked,” he breathed, thankful that nobody else was seeing what he could see.

All Jody could do now was sit and wait. They were coming within range to where they should be able to read the sign he had posted. Now it was just a matter of seeing how Pitts would respond.

He actually felt a physical sense of relief when he saw a signal given and the entire column come to a halt.
After a few moments, a lone individual began to walk his way. Slinging his rifle over his shoulder, Jody began the long walk to meet with Sergeant Pitts…hopefully. After all, the man could certainly send somebody else in his place, but if Jody knew anything about Pitts, it was that he had an ego as big as his home state of Texas.

8

Geek
Spiral

They had been on the move for the entire day after the decision not to wait for darkness was reached. The three individuals were freed from their manacles and had opted to stay behind since they were in no shape to travel and expressed the hope that they would reunite with their friends.

Catie actually used the event as a teaching tool when she demonstrated how easy it was to pick the locks of handcuffs. However, she was upstaged when Rose stepped forward and picked a set even
faster. This quickly turned into a friendly challenge. Both volunteered to be cuffed at the wrists and ankles—hands behind their backs—and then given the cue to begin their escape. Rose handed Catie both sets before Catie had managed to get free from the first set.

Everybody was enjoying the moment of good
natured fun except for Kevin. He was a ball of emotions. Some he saw as purely selfish, others more legitimate as he considered what his fate would be if all that those three had shared turned out to be true.

Once everything was packed, they slipped out and headed east
through Egger’s Wood and into an industrial district. They had been given both warnings and assurance that these so called Guardians would not be encountered that direction.

“I would not
go near Indy Boulevard. If you do, you probably won’t get very far,” one of the trio warned. (They had given their names, but Kevin had not even tried to remember them.)

“Why not?” he asked.

“There are probably ten gangs in the area. Most make The Guardians look like angels…no pun intended,” was the reply. “They have long stretches of that road staked out. The first one, and the nastiest of the bunch, has the bridge over the Calumet…the first bridge that you will come to on the Chicago Skyway Toll Road maybe a mile or so north of here. If you can get up to East 106
th
street, there is another bridge there. The gang holding that area usually only patrols when they are running low. It is a crap shoot, but if you are so set on heading north, those are your only two options unless you go south and follow the Burnham Greenway. You can take that to 126
th
and follow it to Torrence.”

They had followed that last route, using the woods to stay out of sight. It had meant pushing the bikes instead of riding them, but once they stumbled out onto the bicycle trail known as the Greenway, they were able to pick up the pace and get mo
ving.

They also found out why no gangs liked this area. The mil
itary had been thick here. There were still remnants of what looked like a large compound that had been used to “store” undead. Kevin had heard a rumor that there was an initial attempt to keep the zombies in containment facilities because of the misguided belief that they were simply taken ill. Since they showed no inclination to attack each other, it was hoped that by keeping them together, they could control the attacks and not hurt the poor “sick” individuals. If he remembered correctly, that idea got tossed quick when one of the containment facilities had a breach and a few thousand of the undead poured into a residential neighborhood.

They passed what had to have been one such attempt, only it seemed that the Army Corps of Engineers had made a very stu
rdy containment facility. Across from a huge trucking distribution hub for Ford sat what was once a vast open field. The fence was well over thirty feet tall and had towers every fifty feet or so. The smell was horrendous and they actually heard it well before they saw it. The noise was such that Kevin had signaled a halt and sent Catie forward to scout the way. He had expected her to return and report that a herd was passing through.

She had described the containment area and assured him that it looked to be holding up just fine. When they passed, Ke
vin marveled at how many of the undead had been crammed in to this location. In fact, it was probably that reason alone that kept them from breaking out. They were packed in so tight that none of them were scarcely able to move.

“How many you thin
k are in there, Kevin?” Aleah had asked.

“A few hundred thousand at least.”

Kevin could hardly process what he was seeing. And the structure was a marvel of its own. The barricade was built so that it angled back at the undead not really allowing them to gain any sort of leverage. He would remember that if he ever managed to make it to South Dakota and establish his secure compound.

The only way to reach the bridge here that crossed the Ca
lumet was to walk directly past that containment center. Even though it showed no sign of buckling, it was still unnerving. And it was only made worse as the living beings walked past. It caused an uproar of moans and cries that spread through the massive horde of undead and soon rivalled a stadium crowd on any given Sunday during the football season.

“You think that noise will bring one of the gangs?” Heather had asked nobody in particular.

“Everybody pedal faster!” Catie called after she glanced at Kevin and he had not said a word.

They had crossed a bridge that was littered with military v
ehicles that had been stripped of anything and everything. It looked like there had been a formidable blockade here that had just simply been abandoned. There were no bodies, and nothing looked like it had suffered anything more than the damage of neglect.

As they travelled, Catie began to keep an eye on Kevin. He had been acting peculiar ever since hearing the story of those three immune survivors. Try as she might, she could not puzzle together what in the world could have the man so
shaken up. Yet, if he was all of a sudden hesitant and unresponsive, it was important that somebody take control.

Tha
t evening, they came to the start of another neighborhood. This one, however, had not fared as well. Directly across from a rail yard, it had suffered a massive fire most likely back when all of this began. Now, all that remained were blackened skeletal remains of the buildings for a good distance. That allowed them a better view of their surroundings, but it also left them somewhat vulnerable.

Eventually, a large brick building was spotted that seemed to be on the fringe of where the fire had burned out. The sign out front was barely readable, but the name could still be made out.

“R.H. Lawrence Junior…School for Mathematics and Science,” Rose read as she scratched her head and turned to Heather. “They have schools
just
for math and science?”

“Not on any planet I would want to be from,” Heather said with a laugh.

“That would be like Heaven for me,” the girl sighed. “Those were the only classes I liked. History was boring and full of dead people…and English? I speak it fine, I don’t need to know how to conjunctigate a verb or whatever it is you do to them.”

“But you liked math and science?” Deanna chimed in as she pulled up beside them.

“They made sense,” Rose said with a shrug. “Math is just a series of rules that, once you learn, never change.”

“And when did you follow rules?” Sean quipped. Deanna gave him a sharp elbow to the ribs, but Catie noticed that it was more playful than intending actual harm.

“I followed some.” Rose turned a defiant glare up at the boy and planted one hand firmly on her hip.

The group all slowly
came to a stop, gathered in front of the two-story brick façade and began to talk among themselves. Catie nudged Heather and pointed out Kevin who had stopped as well, but apart from the group.

“What’s up with him?” Catie whispered as Aleah stopped beside her.

“No idea,” Aleah said with a shrug. “I tried a few times to get him to talk and he just dismissed me…told me to keep my eyes on the road.”

“He has
been this way since those three people told their story,” Catie pointed out. “Any idea as to what they might have said that has him so rattled?”

“He did have another friend who was immune,” Heather o
ffered. “But he died a while ago so I don’t know.”

The women all looked at each other to see if the other had the answer. One by one
, they each shook their head.

“Well whatever is bugging him, we need to keep an eye open for a bit. I think it is on us to keep things together for the time being,” Catie whispered so that the children could not ove
rhear.

“Agreed,” Heather and Aleah said in unison.

“Okay, we need to take a look inside,” Catie turned and announced to the children gathered together on the sidewalk. “I am going in with Sean and Heather. Everybody else keep watch.”

The trio headed for the main doors of the school. It looked like it had been boarded up at one time, but whoever had done so had left in a hurry. The main doors were open…a corpse just i
nside had rotted to the point of almost melding with the linoleum floor. 

“I don’t know if that is a good sign or a bad one,” Heather whispered.

“It ain’t trying to eat us,” Sean spoke up, “so I am gonna go with good…for now.”

As they made their way in, the shadows were almost
impenetrable. The building was made even darker by the fact that the ground floor windows had been boarded up. Holding up her Coleman lantern, Catie shined the light down each direction of the main corridor; nothing stirred.

“It looks like every door has been boarded up from this side,” Catie said. “Let’s check them to make sure they are s
ecure.”

“Shouldn’t we take a look inside one?” Heather asked.

“I hate to do this, but I am gonna have to refer to Kevin’s line about this not being the movies. If it were, then we would open one and zombies would rush out and eat us…
or
…we would leave it and despite the doors having held all this time, one of them would magically fail for no real reason and zombies would get us in our sleep.” Catie held up the lantern so they could see the closest door. “Whoever did that did a good job. I say we move on upstairs and see how it looks.”

There were no objections and so she led the way up the stairs. At the landing between the first and second floors, she stopped abruptly causing the two behind her to run into her back.

“What?” Heather peeked over Catie’s shoulders.

“I think we can make camp here with no worries,” Catie said. She held up the lantern to illuminate the top of the stairs more clearly.

“Nice,” Sean breathed appreciatively.

***

“Is he sick?” Rose whispered, nudging Aleah and nodding to Kevin who had climbed off his bike and was now sitting on the curb beside his bicycle.

“No…” Aleah answered, but her voice trailed off with u
ncertainty.

“Well he sure is acting funny.”

“Yeah…well he has been the glue holding us together for so long, maybe he just needs some time. After all, he was in a coma for over two weeks.”

“You changed his underpants while he was sleeping. Didn’t that make you want to be sick?” Rose asked, looking up at Al
eah with genuine curiosity.

“They weren’t my favorite moments, but he needed taking care of.”

“You love him,” the girl sang with a huge smile.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Do you kiss him?”

“Sometimes.”

“Do you do
other
things?”

The word “other” was drawn out far too long and Aleah wondered what sort of life this little girl who could not be older than
eleven or twelve had to have lived for that question to even be asked.

“None of your business,” Aleah answered, but her hand went to her belly. She was going to have to spill the beans pretty soon. It had been a while since her last period and she was star
ting to dispel the notion that it was just her body out of whack.

“How did you meet him?”

That was a subject that Aleah was far more comfortable sharing. She told the story, backing up to a week or two before. She had been out on her own for a while and was very proud of how she had handled herself. For some reason, she wanted to be a positive role model for this little girl.

Kevin heard the two talking, but he was not really paying a
ttention to them. His mind was spiraling into depression and, try as he might, he could not break free.

He looked around. Everybody was sort of loosely gathered, but nobody was really paying him any attention. His head craned back about a block away in the direction they had come. Taking another look to ensure he was not being observed, he got up and just ambled off. He would only be gone for a minute or five. A
ctually, he was not holding out much hope, considering the neighborhood.

He kept looking over his shoulder to see if he was noticed, but everybody was busy horsing around. In fact, he was a little concerned at how little they were paying attention. If he could slip away, then it was quite possible that zombies could sneak up and catch them unaware.

“I will deal with that when I get back,” he mumbled as he stopped in front of the nondescript stone building. The sign that was clinging by a wire had the unoriginal name “Pete’s Liquor Store” in faded red script still visible.