DEAD: Reborn (16 page)

As the sun dipped below the crest of the very nearby mou
ntains, a chill settled in and Chad found himself becoming even more concerned. Being out in the elements is never as simple or fun as folks might believe…especially if you are not packing any kind of camping gear. From what he’d heard before leaving on his search, Ronni had brought just the essentials: coat, gloves, weapons, a few baggies of trail mix, and a canteen full of water.

Once it became too dark to see, the pair found a spot and set up camp. Chad’s throat was a bit sore from calling his daug
hter’s name the past few hours and he’d emptied his canteen. After going down to the creek to refill it, he helped get a fire started.

“You’ve been on the trail all day,” Dustin said as the two finished dinner. “I will take first watch.”

Too exhausted to argue, Chad climbed up into his hammock that was suspended about fifteen feet off the ground. He was asleep in seconds; his exhaustion was so great that he did not even stir when the keening sound of a baby cry cut the silent, late night air.

***

Jody burst through the open door and into the entry hall of the house George and Danny had ventured into. A huge glass chandelier had obviously fallen and been the source of the noise. A length of rope and a dried out corpse were in amidst the debris. The two men were at the top of the stairs arguing.

“I told you
not to screw with that damn thing!” George was almost shouting.

“And I told you that I could not just leave that person han
ging there. It ain’t respectful,” Danny yelled back. Despite the obvious size difference favoring George, Danny was chest-to-chest with the man and showing no signs of backing down.

“Hey!” Jody snapped. “What the hell is going on?”

“Bright boy here tried to cut down the poor sap that hung himself in the entry after I told him to just leave it be.”

“It ain’t right,” Danny insisted. “I am tired of pretending that it don’t matter. All I wanted to do was put the person to rest someplace more dignified. Would you want to spend eternity hanging like that?”

“The man was dead, kid,” George said, trying to place a comforting hand on Danny’s shoulder. “He wouldn’t know the difference.”

“Well I would,” Danny growled, knocking the man’s hand away. “I get that we are trying to do whatever we can to survive, but that don’t mean we can’t extend some decency. Otherwise, we ain’t no better than those maggot sacks out there.”

Almost as if on cue, the moans of the undead began drifting in through the still open front door that Jody and Selina had come through. Selina was the closest and looked outside.

“We got about twenty coming our way from all over. None of them are clustered. I think this place just has a bunch of stra
gglers,” she reported.

“We will talk about this later,” Jody called to the two men who still seemed to be on the verge of coming to blows. “Let’s take care of the more immediate concern and threat.”

He didn’t wait for them and followed Selina outside. The closest zombie was just now making its way up the driveway. It was a woman. Most of her clothing hung in tatters on her frame. Her bra seemed to be the only article that was fully intact. Her midsection was deformed and distended in an odd manner that did not sit well with Jody as he closed in.

Just as he was about to swing his heavy blade, the zombie’s midsection roiled and shifted. Jody stumbled a bit and his blade came down on the creature’s shoulder, crashing through the co
llar bone and becoming wedged in place. Recovering, he pushed forward and knocked the woman to her back and planted his foot on the shoulder. Giving a hard yank, he pulled the weapon free.

Just before he brought the blade down with a killing blow, the zombie rolled its milky, black tracer riddled eyes up at him and let loose with that rasping baby cry sound. With a shout of anguish, Jody brought his machete down and split the creature’s head almost in two.

Stepping away, he was about to move for the next closest zombie when the distended belly of the zombie shifted again. His mind was doing everything it could to shove out the image of what it must be…or at least to a very dark corner.

“Jody?” Selina’s voice was close, but it sounded as if it were at the end of a long tunnel.

“Stay back, babe,” Jody found himself saying.

Pulling his knife from its sheath on his belt, he knelt and sliced across the lump. A black, opaque sack spilled out with a dark sludge. The sack wriggled and squirmed at his knee.

Jody stood and shut his eyes tight after placing his boot. With a hard stomp, he brought his heel down. The audible pop and squish seemed to resonate through his entire body. He heard it in his soul.

Turning, he was almost relieved to see everybody else e
ngaged in some sort of assault on the small group of zombies that were coming at them in their mindless and relentless march. Jody was torn. On one side, he knew that he needed to join in; but on the other, he did not want Selina to see this abomination. For some reason, it just seemed important that he hide this from her eyes.

Looking around, he saw a huge bush under the living room of the mansion. He grabbed the female zombie by the shoulders and dragged it over, using his foot to kick it underneath. The cord that was still attached to the thing that would probably haunt him until he died had unspooled a few feet, but remained attached. He could not bring himself to touch the blob at the end of that cord and again resorted to using his booted foot to push the offending mass underneath.

He turned, expecting everybody to be looking at him. Thankfully, they were all spread across the massive front yard and driveway putting down the last of the approaching walkers. He jogged over to Selina and helped put down the last few remaining threats.

“What the hell, Jody?” Danny asked as he came back wi
ping down his blade.

“
Yeah,” George added in. “You were about as helpful as tits on a boar. What were you doing?”

“Protecting me,” Selina spoke when it was clear that Jody wasn’t going to say anything. All heads turned her way, inclu
ding Jody’s. “One of those zombies was a pregnant woman. And—”

“Holy crap!” Danny exclaimed. “You’re pregnant! How the hell did that happen?”

“I’ll explain it to you later,” George said with a deep laugh as he punched Danny in the shoulder.

“We can discuss this
at another time,” Jody said. “But for now, could you keep this amongst just the four of us?”

Nods of agreement came from the two men. Jody leveled his gaze at Danny who thre
w his arms up in the air and stalked back into the house muttering about the lack of respect.

“Hey, George,” Jody called as the big man went to join Danny back inside.

“Yeah?”

“Keep an eye on my friend…he…”

Jody didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t that he thought Danny was a danger to himself or those around him; it was just that he’d been spiraling around the drain of depression the past few weeks. This over-reaction to wanting to deal with the hanging body was just another example.

“I gotcha,” George said with a nod.

The next few days went by fast and uneventful. While the haul had not been much in the way of food, there were still a lot of things that made it worth the trip. When they returned to Cash, they were surprised that Remar and his group were still not back.

A week passed…and still no sign.

9

Geeks on the Warpath

“I understand what you are saying,” Aleah nodded, but the frown on her face said otherwise. “But are we really in any pos
ition to do this?”

“Is there ever going to be a day when the stars all line up and the
‘Perfect’ Fairy waves her wand to make all of our plans go off without a hitch?” Kevin was checking the fasteners on his prosthetic. He still did not have full confidence that the stupid thing would not fall off at the most inopportune time.

“Catie said that she counted over fifty people.”

“It’s not like I plan on walking into the middle of their camp and asking them to come out and fight. I’d end up like David Patrick Kelly at the end of
The Warriors
.”

Something about seeing the Riffs move in around that little bastard at the end always gave Kevin the creeps. He could ha
ndle all the Jasons and Michaels and Jigsaws…but those Riffs were just some really pissed off men with chains, bats, and a few hockey sticks thrown in for good measure. He was pretty sure that was not a way he wanted to die.

“What in the hell are you talking about? Who is David Pa
trick Kelly?”

“Warrr-eee-yurrs…come out to play-YAY!” He looked at her with an eyebrow raised in question, but she just continued to stare at him like he was an idiot. “Never you mind. Not i
mportant. What is important is that you just trust me. I heard enough about these jerks to know that they are going to be predictable…at least where it matters.”

“But if you are wrong…” She let that last word hang in the air. It was not a question. She trusted Kevin. In this case, she was trusting him with her life.

“I’ll do it!” Heather offered.

“I already told you, you are staying here with these kids. They trust you and like you. You are their Wendy.”
Kevin inspected his pack and seemed satisfied with the contents. He slung it over his shoulder and climbed to his feet.

“Are you going to toss out all this obscure movie crap right now?” Aleah snapped. “From the day we met, all I have heard is that this is not the movies…this is not the movies. Now, in the past twenty-four hours you have used examples or quotes from
Red Dawn
,
Braveheart
,
Ghostbusters
…and now
The Warriors
…and who is Wendy if I can ask?”

“
Peter Pan
. The Lost Boys loved her…made her their substitute mother.”

Aleah threw her arms up in the air in surrender. She was a
ctually a little bit concerned about this sudden change in behavior from Kevin. It was not that helping others was out of his character, it was simply that he really seemed a bit too locked in on this. Tunnel vision could get a person killed.

You
’re just being a coward
, the voice in her head taunted. She gave that some serious consideration. When they had left behind the soldiers outside of Newark, Ohio, Aleah believed that they were heading for someplace where they could set up a home. She wanted that fantasy to become real. She was tired of the running and the fighting. She needed to be someplace safe so that she could feel good about the child growing inside her. Also, the longer that they waited, the more likely that she would begin to show. Once that happened, she could not predict what Kevin might do.

She was not worried that he might take off; on the contrary. Her real concern was that he would stop everything that they had planned. His vision of what they could expect in South Dakota was almost like a fairy tale when she heard him talk about it. She needed that fairy tale to become her reality.

“Hey?” Kevin was snapping his fingers in front of Aleah’s face. “You coming?”

Aleah nodded and scooped up her own pack. As she went to follow, Heather grabbed her hand. The young girl gave her a smile and squeezed.

“Be careful out there.”

Aleah leaned down and gave the girl a hug. It suddenly struck her how much things had changed in the last year. Her mother had always told her that you should never part with a loved one on bad terms. You never knew if you would see them again and did not want that to be your last memory if something bad were to happen. She always thought that her mom was just being overdramatic. Instead, she had been a prophet.

She still felt a little bit guilty when she recalled how they had said things in haste and anger when she hopped on that plane. The world had changed during that flight, and she would never be able to unsay those last hurtful words.

These days, it was a very real possibility that you might be saying your last farewells anytime you left somebody. She pulled away from the hug and kissed Heather on the cheek.

“You just make sure that you guys take care of all the stuff Kevin gave you to do while we are gone. Even though it is a last ditch measure, we may be relying on it,” Aleah said, and then turned to follow Kevin up and out of the crypt-home.

The sun was about two hours from rising. Kevin had insis
ted that they get an early start. His belief was that people were always just a bit more susceptible in the early hours just before dawn. That was, according to him, the time when sentries—and Catie had confirmed that this group was not so arrogant as to think that they did not need to keep them posted—were vulnerable.

Kevin was standing in the midst of the rest of his assembled squad. As Aleah approached, he was going over some final i
nstructions.

“…be sure that you do exactly as I instructed. Making it up or deciding that you have a better idea on the fly is a sure way to get all of us killed. They have us in size and strength. We need to use
our heads here. Are there any questions?” He looked around at the eight kids that were paying attention to him, but still clustered around Sean. A few shakes of the head was the best he got.

Aleah made eye contact with Catie
, and the other woman motioned for her to join her away from the ears of the main group.

“You sure that you are okay with this?” Catie whispered. “I mean, I could take your spot if you have any doubts.”

“No…I’m okay. I trust all of you to do what needs to be done.”

“Still kind of creepy to know how close we were to those freaks,
” Catie said with a shudder.

They had used an abandoned priva
te jet for a place to rest for the night at the airport just southeast of Valparaiso. Less than a mile away, at the fairgrounds, this band of monsters had set up camp. They had fenced in the entire fairground complex and actually had a pretty nice set up going. However, she had very little doubt as to where these men originated. Just up the road was a correctional facility that looked to have suffered from a catastrophic fire. She realized that she was making an assumption, but it just seemed too likely of a coincidence.

What had initially perplexed her was that, while she was scouting their location, she was able to identify over a dozen women. She watched very carefully and was more than a
little surprised to see that they did not seem to be being kept against their will.

“Let’s get moving!” Kevin called.

He turned and started walking, not bothering to wait and see who would actually follow him. Deep down, he half-expected most of the children to back out. The only one he had no doubts about was Sean.

They headed south and switched over to a two-lane road. Already, nature was reclaiming the area. This particular road ran east-west
through some farmland. The bad weather of winter had done its job of helping to break up the road. Weeds or grass grew up between the spider webs of cracks. Also, the fields, most that had never seen harvesting because of when the world had turned, were now jungles of dense vegetation.

After travelling about a mile, Kevin glanced over his shou
lder. He was more than a little surprised to see what looked like everybody following along on his heels. As the first pre-dawn glow began to creep into the sky, extinguishing the glitter of the stars above, Kevin spied the outline of the huge twenty-foot fence that surrounded the fairgrounds. Small cones marked what he had to assume were the watchtowers that Catie had told him about.

He stopped and turned to face the group. “Okay, you all know what to do. Sean, take your group and
get in position at the south wall. Catie, your group takes the north side, and I will be here in the east side. Aleah, stay out of sight until you hear the signal. Any questions?” He let that hang for a moment, before adding, “Last chance.”

He could only see shadowed faces turned his direction, but nobody spoke or indicated that they had anything to ask. He felt a slight tug of fear and doubt. He knew what his capabilities were. These children were an unknown, and therefore, he could not put any real confidence in them. All he could do was hope.

Everybody slipped away into the dark when it was clear that there were no questions. He watched Aleah walk away last before turning his focus to the three children who had been put on his team. Two boys and a girl; Kevin guessed them to be around twelve years old.

“So, you know what to do, right?” He
slipped his pack from his shoulders and began pulling out a few items. The children all nodded. “Once we get close to that fence, no talking. So if you have any questions…now is
really
your last chance.”

“How do you know this will work?”
the girl asked after glancing at the two boys who just shrugged.

“I don’t…I am just hoping that it goes as planned.”

“But if it doesn’t work, then what?” she prodded.

“Then we go to ‘Plan B’ and hope for better results.”

“That doesn’t seem like a very good plan.” The girl folded her arms across her body and began tapping her left foot.

Jesus
, Kevin thought,
is that just something in the female gene code?

“What was your name again?” he asked.

“Deanna.”

“Well, Deanna, if you have a better one…now is the time to tell me.”

To Kevin’s surprise, she actually seemed to be thinking it over. She pursed her lips and tapped her temple with one finger, reminding him for some strange reason of Winnie-the-Pooh. All she needed to do was start muttering “think, think, think” and the picture would be complete. Finally, and to his relief, she shook her head.

“And how do you know that the zombies will come?” Deanna pulled three of the bundles from her own pack and looked at them dubiously.

“That is one of the variables that we can only hope works. If Catie was accurate in her guess and that herd is still in the area, this will be easy,” he explained.

Actually, if that part of the plan did not work, all they would be doing was pissing off a force that was superior in strength and numbers. He
recollected back to his brief campaign against Shaw and his minions. If he knew then about the zombies what he knew now…perhaps—

He crushed that thought before it had a chance to sprout. The reality was that this was a learning process with a very steep curve. Yes, he had made some mistakes, but he also had enjoyed more than his share of victories. If he was going to be any good, he had to have limited amnesia.

You are oh-for-the apocalypse
, his mind taunted. He had seen all three of his initial travel companions die. He had failed to help the Bergmans after their capture by Shaw and his men; he further compounded that by having to be the one to actually kill Shari Bergman when she was injured and could not continue to run. His only defense was that she had practically begged him to kill her so she would not be eaten. And most recently, he had failed Valarie.

He struggled to find the victories. He needed one to latch on to if he was going to be the confident and strong leader that these children needed.

Heather!

She was his greatest success. And just like a can of spinach for Popeye, that thought coursed through him and renewed his strength and confidence.

“Follow me,” Kevin whispered. “No talking from here on out.”

The four of them moved into the nearby field that would take them to the fairgrounds.
Occasionally, they paused when they could hear rustling nearby. He had to be careful. If he became too focused on what was ahead, he could forget—as much as it was possible in any case—that the world was still overrun by the walking dead.

As they reached to within about ten yards of the barricade that had been erected around the fairgrounds, Kevin smirked.
These yahoos aren’t even smart enough to cut back a clearing.
They would be able to walk all the way up to the wall and remain in relatively dense cover.

When they reached the wall, he was actually impressed at the construction. The barricade consisted of things like railroad ties, telephone poles, cinder block, and lots of razor wire. That last bit was actually going to help his plan.

Kevin unwrapped the first device and gave it a quick inspection. He turned the knob on the timer and then tossed it into the morass of flesh-rending fencing material that he was pretty sure they had been liberated from the ruins of that nearby correctional institution that had burned down. He gave the children a nod, and they all moved down the length of the fence tossing their own devices at spaced out and random intervals.