Dead Surge (19 page)

It was also completely abandoned. There were no occupied houses, and if I had to guess, the homes might have been abandoned even before the Upheaval. The only business I could immediately see was a grain elevator by the railroad tracks and various small businesses and local bars. The favorite color for homes seemed to be white, because they were all over the place. We drove through slowly, taking in the quaint town, and I found myself wondering what it might have been like had the end of the world not occurred. There were several Victorian-style homes, and they looked to have been well maintained, if needing a coat of paint.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Sarah said, breaking me out of my reflections.

I shook my head to clear it a little. “Just trying to figure out how these little suckers are operating. This is a level of sophistication we’ve never encountered before, and we’re just trying like hell to keep up.” I looked out the window again as more of the small town drifted by. “I wish I knew where they were going next.”

Sarah maneuvered her way around a truck parked in the middle of the road, deftly avoiding a kid’s bike, and moving the truck to head back to the route we were following. “I know. Part of me wants to just floor it and get to the river, but we need to try to get ahead to warn the towns.”

We got our first break when we drove as fast as we could to the next town, which was Osceola. Osceola was a different town, in that it was one of the few to weather the Upheaval without any serious problems. They were located far enough from Des Moines that they did not suffer the influx of infected refugees from a large city, and they managed to contain what little infection they had pretty well. When the big mess hit, everyone in Osceola stayed indoors, locked in their own homes. If someone got sick, they were contained, and if they got out, they didn’t infect anyone else. It was interesting that the biggest problem Osceola had in the aftermath was trying to feed all of the people who survived the Upheaval.

Sarah pulled the truck up to the edge of the town, and a man on a horse rode over to greet us. He was armed with a scoped rifle, and it was plain to see he was quite competent with it.

“Howdy!” he called. He was a decent-looking fellow, wearing a plain jacket and jeans. A wide brimmed hat covered his head and bright blue eyes looked our gear and us over. “How might I help you folks?”

Sarah spoke before I did. “We’re from the capital, chasing down a series of outbreaks. They’ve been headed this way, and we were wondering if you have had any trouble here.”

The man’s face changed when Sarah used the word outbreak, which was normal for the times we lived in. “Outbreak? No, it’s been quiet around here. Outbreak, huh?” The man looked to the west trying to see if there was anything out there that might warn him of danger.

I spoke up. “I’m not going to lie, this one is bad.” I told him about the little zombies and their propensity to kill and run, letting the dead do their dirty work for them. I let them know what happened to the last town, and we were glad to see that this one had at least been spared.

The man nodded. “Well, if you folks don’t mind, I’m going to ride in and raise the alarm. We’ll get some people out here to keep an eye on things, and everyone will button up tight for a while. Name’s Ken Barnes, by the way.” The man held out his hand.

I shook his outstretched hand. “John Talon.” With my other hand, I patted the chestnut mare he was riding.

Ken looked at me for a second. “Heard of you. Obliged.” He turned the horse quickly and expertly rode the animal over the uneven terrain, heading into town.

Sarah looked at me and I shrugged. “Guess we should roll in and see if we can lend a hand.”

Sarah shrugged back and we rolled into the town. The word seemed to have spread quickly, as there was a lot of activity. People were moving about, carrying water and food to various places, and we saw several men on horseback riding out to the plains beyond the town. At first, I wasn’t sure what the point of that was, but I figured they must have that response when there was any kind of danger. It made sense to go out and meet the enemy, even though you ran the risk of infection. At least, it was away from the town.

At the town hall, I met with a man who was the mayor, and he directed me to the communications center. I spent five minutes on the radio, relaying a message to be sent to the capital regarding what we were facing, and what we would probably be needing. I left the message that the army needed to be out on the river and be patrolling between Burlington and Keithsburg. It was a large order, but we still didn’t know where these little monsters were. I hoped they got the message in time.

My duty done, I watched the activity around me for a minute, and then Charlie came up beside me. The sun was starting to set, and I was back in survival mode enough to figure we needed to find a place to spend the night. I was hoping this would be our last night in Iowa, but I learned a long time ago that timetables were useless unless you wanted to frustrate yourself.

“What’s the next move? Are we going to help out here?” Charlie asked. Behind him, the rest of the crew was out of the vehicles, stretching and working out cramps.

I shook my head. “I think the best move would be to get on the outside, get ourselves to the next town, and set up for the night. If we’ve gotten ahead of this, then we need to warn the towns north and south. We know this little bunch of Zs will avoid a fight they might lose, so they might head off into the weeds and we’re right back where we started.”

“Sounds like a plan, although it kind of feels weird to pull away from a fight.” Charlie rotated his head, popping his neck.

“I know. But they’ve survived before, and this time they know what’s coming, if it comes here at all.” I watched several men go by and they all looked grim and determined. I understood their concern. There were a lot of people and that could become a lot of zombies really fast if they weren’t diligent.

“Let’s get ourselves out of the way and decide where we want to head for the night,” I said as I went back to the truck. Sarah was sitting on the edge of the truck bed, her legs dangling over the side. She gave me a wink as I strolled up, and I wondered what she was up to, but didn’t have the time to ask.

“Okay, here’s the situation.” I started, waving Duncan and Tommy over. They were talking to a man who gave them a small sack, then jogged away. The two moved over, and as I talked, handed out some homemade peanut brittle.

“As far as we know, this place is next in line to be attacked, and they are as ready as they are ever going to be,” I said, around a mouth of sticky brittle. “We’re going to head out and see about getting our warning to some towns to the north and south. If we can get this coordinated, we might be able to return the favor and attack the zombies.”

Charlie raised his eyebrows. “Won’t we have to be attacked to know where the little bastards are?”

Tommy spoke up. “Unfortunately, yes. But if the guys on the radios are sharp, then surrounding towns can move in, cutting off a run by the zombies.”

Rebecca chimed in. “Seems pretty thin. We don’t even know how those things are advancing, and we’re trying to be on the lookout for them?”

I raised my hands. “I’m open to ideas. I’d be halfway home by now if I had my choice.”

Sarah saved me by her suggestion. “Why don’t we head east, and then head north until we can radio the next town. Then we head south until we can do the same. The best thing we can do is warn people, and then those things can be killed piecemeal.”

The rest of the crew nodded, and we piled into the vehicles to get moving. As we left, there were a lot of curious lances, but no one challenged us or tried to stop us. I guess they were used to dealing with things on their own.

I looked at the map, and saw that the closest town was Woodburn. We’d head in that direction, and then hit Lucas. After that, we’d have to choose which direction we wanted to go to first, and hope for the best.

Chapter 42

Back on the road, Sarah drove for a bit, and then asked, “Where do you want to spend the night?” She pointed to the darkening sky as we headed east.

I grabbed the map, looked at it for a moment, and then shrugged. “Let’s see what we can find in Woodburn. Lucas can wait until morning.”

We drove for a while, and then turned south when we saw the sign for the town of Woodburn. I didn’t expect much for the town, given the sign boasted a thriving population of three hundred people. However, one never knew, and we were headed there anyway.

A half hour before dark fall, we pulled into the town. Right away, we knew we weren’t going to have any trouble finding accommodations, since it seemed they had been out of business for a long time. The town was dilapidated and old, and once again, for the life of me, I couldn’t decide if they had abandoned the town before or after it became an issue for the dead to decide.

We passed home after home, and the thing that stuck out to me was there wasn’t any evidence of hurried abandonment. No belongings in the streets, no open doors, no open garage doors. Several of the homes had wood barring the windows and doors, but nothing on the inside, suggesting the owners might have had notions of eventually returning. I could relate, since I had done the same in what seemed like a lifetime ago.

“Where should we stop?” Sarah asked, moving the truck down one street, then the next. The homes were widely spaced, and it gave a lot of room for growing families a lot of room to spend outdoors.

“How about at a business? I always feel weird sleeping in someone else’s bedroom or living room.” I looked around for some sign of a business district, but nothing stood out.

I was immediately interested in the town and looked very hard for a defendable place to spend the night. I don’t know why, but I didn’t want to be anywhere that had more than two ways in.

Down the street, I saw a couple of large buildings. Turning the corner, I saw that the two were competing bars. I say competing, because it was a close contest as to which one looked seedier. The southern one, called the Whitebreast Inn, sported a sign that had a woman whose attributes defied gravity. The other one, called the Double D, had another anatomically freakish female flaunting her wares.

“You’re kidding.” Sarah looked at the two buildings and shook her head.

“Think tactically,” I said, grinning. “There are no windows, two exits, and chances are they’re soundproof because of the location in town.”

“You’re insane.” Sarah looked the two places over dubiously. “All right, it’s on you to clear them, but if there are any stripper zombies in there, you’re on your own.”

“Deal.” I hopped out of the cab of the truck and went over to the van. Charlie was just shaking his head at me while Rebecca waggled a finger. Tommy and Duncan practically fell out of the van, and I could see Duncan was full of his usual silliness.

“Oh, man,” Duncan said. “I need some singles! Anyone got change for a ten?”

We all laughed as we approached the door of the Double D, and Duncan paused to run a finger over the photographed cleavage of a spotlighted dancer.

“All right, let’s see what we got.” I pulled out my pistol and aimed it at the door. Tommy grabbed the handle and gave it a small jerk. The door was locked, which was actually a positive sign. It increased the chances the place was empty.

Charlie swung his pack around and rummaged a bit. In a minute, he had a lock-picking tool that was originally intended for car doors. We found it worked well on lots of locked doors.

This one was no exception. In a second, the door was unlocked and we stepped inside. The interior was dark everywhere, with dark wood, dark carpeting, and darkly painted walls and ceiling. The main area had three runways and three stripper poles, with two cages for dancers by the bar. The bar ran along the entire wall and there was a small door with the letters VIP written on it.

Tommy checked out the back room, while Duncan checked out the area behind the stage. I went behind the bar to the manager’s office and Charlie checked out the storage area.

We stepped outside and threw a wave to the ladies as we sauntered over to the Inn. This time the door was open, and we prepped ourselves a little better than the last time.