DEAD: Darkness Before Dawn (8 page)

Glenn would head south on a road identified as S. Spanish Valley Dr. He would go all the way back to the huge quarry that bordered the
southernmost end of what was once the town of Moab, Utah. He would work his way back to their treehouse with explicit instructions to break off the search and return before nightfall.

Mel and Kyle would leapfrog each other heading west first, and then north. The city proper was still a good distance away and there was no way that they would reach it today. The hope was that they could search as much of the suburbs as possible in the next two days and then the trio would move to the city if need be.

Cynthia would do all she could, which basically amounted to posting up on top of the roof of the treehouse and doing a constant three-sixty with the binoculars. Since they only had three flare guns, she would be the lone person unable to signal the others. However, if she did spot anything, it would be easiest for her to keep eyes on the location until the others returned.

Mel continued to go over every single detail of the mystery woman’s brief stay. It had been clear from the start that her i
nterest had been in the child. The question was why. In a world overrun by the undead, a child was, for lack of a better way to look at it, a liability. They were a drain on supplies and came with no guarantees that they would be quiet if the need arose.

As she pedaled from house to house, she kept her search of each premises brief. She had to figure that it would be obvious if a place was inhabited.

By the end of the day, her frustration was peaking. She had not come across one thing that indicated a living person had been in the vicinity at any time since early on in the zombie uprising.

She was
about to begin the return trip. She would turn down this one last street that sported a cluster of duplexes. She would not have time to search any, but she could cruise through and scout the area. They would all three be together tomorrow and the search would begin here. However, the entire day had been an absolute bust with the exception of the storm blowing through and giving way to the sun that was now sinking behind distant hills to the west. The last thing that she expected was the naked man who jumped out from behind the burnt out pile of wreckage where no less than five vehicles had collided and started a fire that looked to have taken at least two houses out in the process.

With only a few seconds to react, she instantly decided that she would come out the better if she simply slammed into the individual. After all, she was in full protective attire which co
nsisted largely of a combination of baseball catcher’s equipment and some actual riot gear that they had looted from an abandoned police station several months ago.

She hit the man and did her best to break her own fall as the bicycle flipped over on impact. As predicted, the man did not fare well
in the least.

Scrambling to her feet, Mel jerked the flare gun from its holster on her belt and fired skyward. Then, drawing her wea
pon, she stalked toward the downed individual who was lying face down in the middle of a growing pool of blood. Using her booted foot, she rolled the man over.

“
P-p-please,” the man coughed up blood as he tried to speak. And now that she was close, Mel was getting a much better look at this individual’s body. It was covered in scars from what looked to be scores of bites. “Don’t let them get me.”

Of course the request was moot. The man began to co
nvulse, and then was still. Mel’s eyes glanced skyward; two flares had been fired in answer to hers. The men were on the way.

Drawing her blade, Mel plunged the piece of steel into the man’s head, then she climbed on the cold, blackened wreckage and waited for the arrival of Kyle and Glenn.

***

Chad hit the ground with a solid thud that almost knocked the wind from him. Fortunately, his grip had not lessened on his daughter and he was able to struggle to his feet with surprising ease. In fact, he was briefly reminded of a better time. For just an instant, he allowed his mind to enjoy a me
mory that seemed even older than it was.

His mind’s eye flashed the perfect image of him tucking his sleeping daughter into bed after she had fallen asleep in his lap while he had read her favorite story,
Green Eggs & Ham
. Of course, it had always helped that he used funny voices when he read it to her just before bedtime each night.

Almost painfully, his mind came back to the
present. The undead were coming from around the front of the house…the rear of the house…and the few he had flown over when he jumped from the window.

The first two steps were difficult, and that was when Chad realized that something was wrong with his right leg. Glancing down, he quickly realized the problem. A large shard of glass jutted from his calf.
He had to kneel so that he could keep his daughter in his arms. After a slight adjustment of her still unconscious form, he reached down with a gloved hand, grabbed it, and yanked it out.

His eyes studied the bloody piece of glass with an almost detached curio
sity. He had difficulty realizing that it had been in his flesh just a moment ago. Tossing it aside, Chad rose and started back across the park.

He reached the place where he and Dustin had dismounted and was only a little surprised to discover
that both of their horses were gone. He only felt the anger bubble up for the briefest of moments. The man had done what he felt needed to be done in order to save three children. He knew with certainty that he would have let not only those children die if it gave him a chance to save his daughter…but Dustin as well. This was the new way of the world…but was it really so new?

He looked down at his daughter and allowed his eyes to e
xamine her arms now that he had time. He could not get over what she had done. For some reason, she had sliced her forearms, and equally, if not more inexplicably, she had used a heavy duty staple gun to close up the wounds. And was that a bead of glue down the length?

He would have to get her cleaned up as soon as possible and have the injuries given a more proper treatment. However, the moans of the walking dead were closing in; it was time to get on the move.

Chad picked up his daughter and headed into the woods. His mind was taking inventory of his limited supplies. He had lost his canteen at some point, but he still had his pack. That meant he had at least a little bit of beef jerky, a few packages of dried fruit and he thought there might even be a few pieces of flatbread. He had no idea what had become of his crossbow. All he had was the machete hanging from his belt and a pair of long-bladed knives along with about twenty feet of coiled line and a pouch of zip ties.

Stumbling once, Chad did his best to turn his body and shield Ronni from any impact. Despite his best efforts, she let out a small moan. Squeezing his eyes against the pain, Chad rose to his feet
and did his best to ignore the throbbing that was building in intensity emanating from his injured right calf.

As he staggered deeper into the woods, he began to notice that he was growing dizzy. He felt the icy tendrils of fear start to creep up his spine. He knew that he was not moving fast enough to put a substantial distance between himself and the zombies he could hear that were on his trail.

His eyes began to scan his surroundings. He needed to find someplace to either shake the zombies form his trail…or make a stand. He was aware that his pace was slowing; mostly due to his continued stumbling and staggering.

At last he came to a rocky outcrop. Moving around it, he guessed it to be at least fifteen feet high. If he could get up on top of it, he could set Ronni down and hopefully kill all of the zombies
that were in pursuit.

The problem would be getting up on top of the rocks. To be more precise, he knew for a fact that he could not climb it while carrying his daughter. His only choice would be to tie the line around his daughter and then climb up. Once on top of the rock, he could haul Ronni up beside him.

He laid her down and went to work. By the time he had the loop made, in place under her arms, and snugged tight, it sounded as if the zombies were very close.

Chad went to climb the rock and discovered he could not use his right leg for any leverage at all. He would need to rely almost solely on upper body and hand strength. The problem he had was that a great deal of his strength had ebbed. Twice he almost lost his purchase. He knew that a fall would be the end of them both. It was that thought that forced him to dig deeper than ever before.

At last, he pulled himself onto the slightly slanted but mostly flat surface of the outcrop. Just as he did, the leading edge of the zombie mob crashed through some nearby brush. The first one paused, its head cocking to one side, but then snapping down to fix its gaze on the helpless body still on the ground; almost as if it did not even notice the person on top of the rocks.

Chad gave the line a few wraps around each hand and began to pull. He was stunned at how difficult it seemed all of a su
dden. He had been carrying her all this distance and marveling at how light she had seemed. Now, as he drew on the line hand over hand, he struggled. He felt the line cutting into his hands, but he continued to pull with all his might.

He could see more zombies entering the little clearing and immediately stumbling his direction, no doubt to try and get ahold of his daughter. Twice, he felt a sudden pull on the line. Tears began to fill his eyes as he feared that one or more of the undead had reached Ronni and taken yet another bite.

At last, she came into view and he pulled her over the lip of the rock’s edge. Scrambling over to her, he searched her thoroughly for any new bites. The relief he felt was enough to cause him to lose his battle with holding back the tears. Hunching over the still figure, he reveled in the relief of the feel of her steady breathing causing her chest to rise and fall. Even sweeter, he could hear the steady pounding of her heart.

Eventually he pulled himself away and took in the scene b
elow. Well over a hundred of the walking meat bags had them surrounded. Empty, expressionless faces gaped up at him and hands clutched at the air as if they could will him into their grasp. And that was when he realized his folly...

While he had indeed managed to get them up and to safety, his weapon
had slipped free and was out of reach. They were trapped.

***

“Do you think we are in danger?” Selina asked as she and Jody took a walk just as the sun was beginning to set.

“Pitts was a dick, but I have a hard time seeing him as some sort of crazy marauder from a B-grade horror flick,” Jody a
nswered. The problem was, Sergeant Pitts was exactly like some evil Army villain from one of those movies.

He hadn’t really been into that sort of thing, but he’d had friends who were. In fact, when he was in high school, he and his best friends had a monthly movie marathon. Each of them would show up with one DVD and they would eat obscene amounts of junk food and sprawl out in either his folks’ bas
ement or his best friend’s parents’ garage that had been turned into his friend’s dad’s “man cave” which was really just a ratty couch, a seventy inch television, and a keg cooler.

One of his friends had been way too into the horror movie scene. Even worse, he had a thing for zombies. They had watched this one movie called
Day of the Dead
or something. The first time he had met Sergeant Pitts (about three months prior to this whole crazy thing kicking off) he had instantly thought of that dark haired military leader who was such a comically stereotypical bad guy.

“You h
aven’t heard a word I just said.” Selina elbowed Jody playfully.

“Sure I did,” Jody snapped back to reality. “You said that I was a damned handsome fella and you hoped that I was healed up enough to jump in the sack.”

“Absolutely…” Selina paused and turned to face Jody with her most sultry look. “Not!”

“Hey…a guy has to at least try.” He leaned over and kissed the tip of her nose. “Sorry, just drifting a bit is all.”

“Which leads me to believe that we do have something to worry about with this Pitts person.”

“I wouldn’t say we had to worry…just be alert. I think if Pitts was going to try and take us out, he would have done so already. If what Danny saw is even close to correct, he has the numbers. They could roll over us like one of those big herds.”

“So then what do you think his deal is?”

“That’s the problem…I don’t have the slightest clue.”

They walked in silence for a while. Selina was not fooled in the least. When Jody had suggested that they go for a walk, she had an idea as to his reason why. Sure enough, he led them to the perimeter of their little community. He was checking the defenses. To her, that was enough reason for concern. Twice so far, they had paused; each time, he had given a lame justification about enjoying the view or some other equally ridiculous excuse. Was he looking for a possible vulnerability?

The last sliver of the sun could be seen to the west. The few clouds in the sky were painted bright oranges and purples. It r
eally was beautiful. She just wished that this was truly the reason they were out walking.