Dead Surge (11 page)

I spoke up. “If you’re right, then why would they leave? Why aren’t they just hanging around like the adults?”

Rebecca shrugged. “Haven’t figured that one out yet. But it’s the only theory that fits the facts right now.”

“All right,” I said. “Let’s get ourselves to the next town and see if it’s the same. If it is, then at least we know what we’re dealing with here.”

As we climbed back into the vehicles, I looked over at Sarah and smiled. “Good thoughts.”

“But?”

“A zombie kid army scares the shit out of me.” Considering everything we had been through, it was as scary a thought as I had had in a long time.

Chapter 23

We drove east on Route 34, not having any real plan except to go to the next town on the list and see if there was anything to be learned. Given what we had so far, it wasn’t very likely.

Sarah and I drove in relative silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Part of me thought we should have sent a message to Leport, but the other part asked what would we say. Everything we had up to this point was conjecture, and our operating theory was way the hell out there.

“I guess I’m just being stubborn, since it flies in the face of everything we’ve seen so far. Maybe I just don’t want to believe it,” I said, looking over at her.

“Could be, but if you start with the dead coming back to life in the first place…” Sarah trailed off and I could see where she was going. We had seen the dead show signs of rudimentary group behavior, and several had shown limited problem solving abilities, including how to open doors and set up crude ambushes.

“You do have a point. I suppose it just scares me, since all the kid zombies we’ve seen so far have been nasty, quick little suckers, and if you throw some form of intelligence on them, then everything changes.” I dodged a crack in the road and watched in the rearview as Charlie hit it head on. The van bounced and I laughed as I imagined the cursing going on in there right now.

“How far to Hastings?” I asked.

Sarah checked the map. “About twelve miles. Are we going to take a look at Malvern? That was on the map as being black, too.”

I shook my head. “The first group to be sent out was weeks ago. They were just checking the first town to go dark. Likely, they found the same things we did, so they moved on. If I had to guess, they bought it at Malvern, which caused the second group to go out. We may find an answer or two at the third or fourth town, which is Hastings.”

The countryside passed by slowly, and here and there, were some farms on the sides with their untended acres slowly reverting to pre-human status. Eventually all of this would be forest, and little to any sign humans had been here at all. Even the grass on the side of the roads was pushing its boundaries. It would be a long, long time before things got back to what we would consider normal.

Sarah saw the camp before I did. “Look over there!” She cried, hitting me on the arm and causing me to swerve slightly.

I slowed down and came to stop. A quick check of the map told me where I was and what I was looking at. Outside of Hastings was a decent sized river, and the river oxbowed at this point east of the town. The water was wide and deep enough to form an effective barrier, and the surrounded land had only a half-mile space between riverbanks. Inside the protected area was nothing but forest, creating a very defendable place. It made sense, then, to see three vehicles parked quietly across the river in a small clearing close to the water.

“Let’s go check it out,” I said, moving ahead and crossing the next bridge. I drove into the grass and made my way slowly across the fields and around the water. In the past, this area had been farmed, and the farmer had driven over the same area hundreds of times, creating nearly a road to where I needed to go. I thought it was convenient as hell.

When I reached the edge of the trees, I parked the truck, and the van parked behind me. Jumping out, I grabbed my carbine from the truck, letting everyone know it was time to go to work.

“Saw the vehicles, did you?” Tommy asked, flicking the safety off his rifle.

“Yeah. You, Charlie, and Rebecca take the far side, I’ll take this side with Duncan and Sarah, and we’ll meet on the inside by the trucks. Charlie, what’s up?”

Charlie was squatting over by the grass, looking intently at something on the ground. Pulling his knife, he stabbed whatever it was and picked it up, inspecting it closely.

Stepping over to him, I saw what it was and sighed. “Great. Here we go.”

Sarah looked over and shook her head, and Duncan peered around and got an eyeful when Charlie stuck it out to show everyone.

“Yuck,” said Tommy as the severed finger was displayed. It didn’t even look like a clean bite. It looked more as if the finger had been bitten and then torn off.

Charlie pointed to the spot where he had been standing. “Something strange out there. I can see several spots where something sat and bent the grass down, like it had been there for a few hours. Then the trail leads away from the camp. Over there,” Charlie pointed to the south, near the river, “is the same thing, only the trail leads into the camp.”

“Odd. You think it was living?” I asked.

“Explain the finger,” Tommy said.

“Good point.” We hadn’t degenerated as a species yet to resort to cannibalism, although I hadn’t visited the West Coast yet. Who knew what lay beyond the mountains? “All right, same plan. Keep your eyes open, and see if there are any other clues around here.”

We split up and moved cautiously through the brush. The woods were heavy, but only about a quarter of a mile deep, so we could see fairly well. I thought I detected movement in the darker recesses, but since I wasn’t chasing after it, I figured it would come to me.

We crossed a small section of brush and walked out in the open. This part of the peninsula had been mowed at one point, giving us tall grass, but no trees, and a gentle slope to the river. I could see the vehicles about six hundred feet ahead of us, so we would get there quickly.

That was the thought, until three zombies stood up out of the grass, and started working their way over to us. I didn’t waste time with single combat. I fired a round into two of them, dropping them cold, while a shot from beside me took out the third.

Chapter 24

I looked carefully at the torn face and lacerated throat, and realized I recognized the zombie on the ground. It was Jane Coswell, the leader of one of the groups sent out by Dot.

“Damn. All right, keep your eyes open. Chances are there’s more,” I said.

No sooner had I spoken those words than rifle shots sounded on the far side of the woods. First two shots, then a third. My guess was three more zombies just bit the dust.

We found the vehicles and looked them over very carefully. Four tents were on the ground, and one was still occupied. That poor soul was stuck in his sleeping bag, and glared at us impotently as Sarah shot him between the eyes.

Charlie and the rest came walking around the edge of the water, and immediately began looking through the other trucks. When he reached where I was, he raised an eyebrow in question.

Tommy, who was closest, dropped the pack he was inspecting and stood quickly, bringing up his rifle. One shot later and the zombie who was sneaking up on the rear fell to the ground.

“That makes ten from here,” I said. “We’re missing one.”

Charlie looked around. “Could be they’re still in the bushes.”

“Could be they ran.” I pointed to the far side of the river where dried mud and matted grass came out of the water. The trail led up to the road and disappeared.

“Smart move. Where do you think they went?”

“No idea, but let’s get this stuff out of here,” I said. “We’re running out of daylight, and I have no desire to stay here tonight.”

“I heard that,” said Tommy and Duncan in unison.

We drove the vehicles to the road and took everything we could use out of them. The team that had perished was well provisioned, and we stocked up on a lot of ammo. We took the time to say a small prayer for our comrades, expressing the regret that they had not been able to see the Upheaval to the very end. The empty trucks were a stark reminder to us that whatever was out here, it was extremely dangerous, and we could not take anything for granted.

We drove into Hastings as the sun was starting its final quarter descent. A fall wind was picking up, stirring the long grasses and saplings along the sides of the roads. A quick right turn and a half-mile later took us to the outskirts of Hastings. It was a small town, barely a mile square. The buildings were run down and abandoned, and the homes were slightly worse. If I had to make a guess, things were bad before the Upheaval.

I climbed out, and again I shook my head at the willingness of anyone wanting to live here. However, small towns were popular, and this one was no different. Trouble was this one, according to the reports, was just getting started again when they went dark.

Charlie was right. If they had gotten to the point where they were tracking us, and not attacking right away, we were in trouble. I didn’t want to think about that jump in intelligence.

Chapter 25

We loaded up and started to walk, splitting into three groups and staying to the center of the streets. It was an old practice, and made the most amount of sense, given the unfamiliar terrain. The good news was small towns like this one were generally laid out in a grid pattern, so it was easy to keep your bearings and agree upon a rendezvous point. Sarah and Rebecca were together, and Tommy and Duncan were another group, while Charlie and I made the third. We had worked together like that for so long it would have been strange to suggest any other pairings.

Charlie and I took the route directly towards where he had seen the movement, so we might get a look at our sneaker. It was possibly a feral kid, one of the thousands of orphans we had found in our travels. Sometimes they willingly came with us, sometimes they didn’t. Once or twice, we left them alone, figuring them too far gone ever to adjust to a community. A few times, we had to put them down, their minds completely reverting to an animal state of insanity, and were a danger to others.

The walk towards the next street was uneventful, and I noted the litter and debris in the ditches. Charlie saw it, too, and his expression mirrored my own feelings. People in this town stopped caring long before the end of the world.

At Platte Ave, we moved south, carefully checking the darkening corners and behind fences and porch railings. There were a lot of places to hide in a town, and we didn’t have time to find them all. In fact, we had about an hour before I called it quits and we found a secure place for the night.

At Hale, we turned east, and it was more of the same. Homes with unkempt yards, dilapidated garages and rusting cars. I guess the people who wanted to settle here had a thing for projects and fixer-uppers. Speaking of people, we hadn’t seen any people at all, living or otherwise. We’d have to do a house search once we found our little ghost.

“There!” Charlie whispered, bringing up his rifle. I covered the other side, in case there were surprises. We moved carefully down the street, keeping an eye on the shadows.

“He’s not moving. He’s just staring at me,” Charlie said. He was looking through his scope, so he could clearly see his adversary.