Dead Hunger IV: Evolution (33 page)

“Yes.  I feel fine, and I need to do something.
  Serena’s next door.  She wants to see you.  I think she wants to go with us, too.
”

“
Definitely,” said Dave.  “I’ll go over in a minute. 
  What’s our route, Flex?”

Flex waved his hand and they followed him to an easel with a map of Concord propped on it.  Flex ran his finger along a corridor.

“You guys will start from here and go out here.  The buildings you need to check are marked in
red, and the route is marked in blue.  We’ve got printouts.”

“Cool,” said Dave.  “How many groups are going out?”

“We’ve organized eight.  I don’t know all of the men and women, but Kev says they’re all sharp, and they’re instructed to get on the radio right away if they find a building full.”

“Full of what?” asked Nelson.

“Zombies,” said Gem. 

“Oh, yeah,” he said.  “Duh.”

“Okay.  You want to see your
Grandpa
, Dave?” asked Flex.  “Because if you do, he’s right next door at the bar.”

*****

Flex thought it would be
nice
to see the
reconnection
between grandfather and grandson, and it wouldn’t take very long to witness something that didn’t happen very often anymore.

A family reunion.

Gem, Charlie and Dave came too, and as they walked in, Dr. Scofield was nowhere in sight. 

“Where’s the doc?” asked Flex.

Kimberly Troelar looked around the room.  “He was here a minute ago,” she said.  “Oh, yeah.  I think he went to help Vikki get a case of water off the shelf in the storeroom.

“I’ll just wait,” said Nelson, smiling.  “I want to surprise him.

Serena stood up from behind the bar and saw Dave immediately.  Flex saw the light switch on in her eyes, and everything he’d been sure about before was confirmed again.  She was in love with that man.

Flex looked over at Gammon, and saw a big smile on his face, too.  Dave walked very fast to the bar and Serena ducked under the counter and hugged him.  He put his hand on the back of her head and held her close, then kissed her cheek
and forehead
.
  Some words were exchanged between them that Flex didn’t hear, but he could guess they were words of relief that Dave was okay.

Flex got the distinct impression that Dave, unlike himself, was a b
i
t embarrassed about public displays of affection.  Everything Flex needed
to confirm the relationship between the two
could be seen in their actions and their eyes, though.  He’d seen it before in Hemp and Charlie.

Two minutes later, Dr. Jim Scofield came in carrying a case of Fontana Springs water.  He looked up and spotted Flex, and smiled.

Then his face changed.  His eyes shifted to Nelson, and he appeared to grow very weak.  He sort of staggered to the pool table, dropped the case of water there, and ran across the room
, his arms out
. 

“Nel!” he said, and pulled his grandson
to him
, holding him tight
.  His eyes were squeezed closed, and tears ran from them. 
“My God, Nel
,” he whispered.  “
I never
dreamed
you’d still be alive.
”

“I am, Gramps.  I’ve been making my way here to find you.”

Scofield pulled away and looked at him.  “You look like you could use a
hot
shower, young man.  Are you okay?  Not hurt?”

“No way, gramps.  I stayed away from those things.  None of ‘em laid a hand on me.
  And yeah, a hot shower would be unbelievable.
”

The doctor hugged his grandson again. 
“Good to hear it, Nel.  God, I can’t tell y
ou how happy I am to see you. 
You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

Nelson pulled back, his face concerned. 
“Sorry to hear your eyes are sore, Gramps
,” said Nelson.  “
But other than that, you look fine.  Really good to see you, too.”

Scofield laughed
, along with the others
.  Flex wasn’t sure if Nelson was joking or if he’d never heard the expression, but it didn’t matter.  In a world of strife and fear, family
made things that much better.

“There’s a shower in the storeroom,” said Kimberly.  I’ll crank up the gen
erator
so you get pressure.  After, you should stay here and spend time with your grandpa.”

“He’s going to stay with me, so yes, I’ll get him oriented.  How are you ladies doing?  Any issues to report?”

“I’m fine,” said Gem.  “Baby’s moving, I’m glowing, by all reports.  Perfect.”

“Me too,” said Charlie.  “Nothing to report.”

“Okay, but I want to see both of you day after tomorrow anyway.  Maybe we should do another ultrasound.  See if you want to know the sex yet.”

Gem and Charlie looked at each other and shrugged.

“
Yeah, we gotta talk about that again,” said Flex.  “
Okay, we’ve
got to get going. 
We’ll take a bunch of those waters, too.”

“That’s why they’re here,” said Vikki.  “Load up.”

*****

Whit drove with Lisa in front, and Dave and Serena sat in back.  Dave held her hand, even as he scanned the sidewalks and alleys for movement.  H
e was monitoring the map, too.

Dave wanted to say something to Serena about being careful.  He realized she was living in ZFZ4 for quite a while, and going out on patrols with Tony Mallette, so she knew her shit and didn’t need him worrying.  But it didn’t matter.  That was before he fell in love with her.  All that shit was out of his control.

And, if he was honest with himself, it still was.  Serena was no less strong in spirit than Gem or Charlie – which is exactly what drew him to her, in part – and he just needed to watch her back and know that
she
would watch his.  Of that he had no doubt.

A street sweeping truck was up ahead, throwing the urushiol mix across the roadway, its residue building up and making any sort of trek impossible for the ratz.

The undead rodents had not ended up being the threat everyone had initially believed they would be, primarily due to the defenses concocted by Hemp to defeat them, and the residual effect of the urushiol oil.

“Right up here, Whit,” said Dave. 
“On the right.  This Costco.”

“Got it,” said Whit.  “I never shopped at a Costco.  What’s the best way in?”

“Shit if I know,” said Dave.  “I run in, get my stuff, and get out.  Serena?  Lisa?”

Lisa spoke:  “The back of the store has some corridors, because that’s where the restrooms and storage areas are located.  As for getting in, I don’t think that’s going to be too easy.  Maybe just the front.  There’s a pretty good view of the store from where you walk in.”

“Has anyone
from the State House
been in this store before?” asked Serena.

“Yeah, I’m positive they have,” said Dave.

“They have,” said Whit.  “One of the first places we hit because of all the food.  The meat was rotten by the time we got here, but we took a ton of dry goods.  We left lots of rice and beans and stuff, because here was as good as anyplace to store it. Pastas, too.”

Whit parked the truck near the front of the store.  After looking carefully in all directions, they got out, radios clipped on belts, headlamps on, and machine guns in hand.  Even Lisa, who had emulated Gem by choosing an Uzi.

“It’s going to smell,” said Lisa.  “Especially by the meats.”

“I think we’ll know if they’re hiding here before we make it that far back,” said Dave.

Once they had determined the coast was clear, they
walked away from
the truck side-by-side, like four gunfighters walking through the center of a dusty main street into town.

The windows of the Costco were tinted, and they could not see in at all.

“Let me poke my head in, guys,” said Dave.  “I don’t want us to walk into anything.”

As the group of four stood a mere six feet from the
entrance
, every door
crashed open
,
each
immediately filled with zombies moving fast toward them.

Their clothing was tattered and stained, their dead faces pure putrefaction.  This group was mostly female, with perhaps about fifteen to twenty percent men interspersed among them.
  Of the women, roughly a quarter of them had intense, red eyes.

“Don’t move,”
called
Whit
, over the noise of the shambling feet dragging on the sidewalk
.  “We’re on WAT-6
!
”

“Something’s wrong with this!”
said
Dave
, his voice raised so he could be heard over the din of the approaching horde
.  “
They’re coming like they know
exactly
what we are!  Run, everyone, b
ack to the truck!”

Serena and Lisa turned tail, and Dave followed behind. 

Whit did not heed his warning.

The odor
that accompanied the dead walkers
was pure sickness, and
as Dave shot a glance behind him, he saw
extended arms and gnashing teeth
, telling him that despite the WAT-6,
something had
worked
the
zombies into a frenzy, and the only logical
option was them.

“Fire your gun, Whit!” shouted Dave.  “
Shoot them!”

Whit looked back at him.  “We’re okay!  The WAT-6 –”

“
It’s not working!” shouted Dave, reaching the truck and jumping inside, watching Serena and Lisa to make sure they, too, were safe
ly inside
.

They all flipped the door locks instinctively, and watched Whit.

He was overrun, firing his gun haphazardly, but too crowded now to get any clean shot that would help him in any way.  Tattered hands at the ends of destroyed arms tore at his face and body, and teeth found his bare skin, tearing into his flesh as he sank down and disappeared into the horde of undead creatures.

The sound was muffled from inside the car, and the three were in tears as they watched their friend, and indeed, a mentor of sorts, die in the most horrific way.

Then Dave realized he did not have the keys.

They were in Whit’s pocket.

*****

They were almost all females. 
Some had clearly been in advanced stages of pregnancy when they transformed into monsters,
but not all of them. 
And none of that select group of mothers-to-be had the vapor of the old days; the pink stuff.
 

The good old days, he now believed.

No.  Their e
yes were
scarlet red.  And this wasn’t the only change.  He swore t
hey moved faster than before – markedly faster.  They did not seem to differentiate between a human on WAT-6 and an unprotected human.

Bad news.  The worst news.

Serena was in the front seat this time, and Dave sat in the driver’s seat, staring at the empty ignition switch.

“Okay, so this got really shitty just now,” said Lisa, wiping tears from her eyes. 

“It’s getting worse,” said Dave, his eyes on the horde outside.  “They’re finishing with
Whit
.”

Several
came toward the truck
. 
Others were down on their knees,
most in regular, everyday clothes
, but a few – the ones that appeared to have been in the advanced stages of pregnancy – wore maternity clothes
.  One of
the females
looked
emaciated in all other areas of her body, but her stomach
was so
large
, she appeared to have been close to delivering her baby when she turned.

Now they all
rose from Whit’s carcass
, some clutching pieces of
their dead friend
in their hands, bringing them to their mouths, gnawing. 

But Dave noticed something else then:  The males did not
continue to
eat him once the women left Whit’s body.  In fact, when the females abandoned his
remains
, the males with the pink eyes seemed to no longer find Whit’s
flesh
desirable.  They wandered away, as if awaiting their next assigned task
, or having had their fill
.