Generation Dead - 07 (11 page)

The next block had a bunch of houses, but they had all been broken into, some with doors completely ripped off the hinges, others with broken windows.  Several of the homes had trees and shrubs growing out of the center of them, and here and
there,
we could see furtive movement, as if animals darted about. 

On the other side of the street was a strip mall and an auction house, but both had been burned long ago.  Blackened beams and studs reached up like charred fingers, a final plea to a God that had turned His back on the world.

Past the two restaurants, which dad used to call ‘fast-food places’, we reached the truck stop.  The place was a disaster.  It was literally two hundred feet from the highway, and that proximity had killed it.  There was a line of crashed and rusting cars
stretching
from the gas station to the highway, and several cars had smashed into each other, jamming up the works and damning those who were trapped.  Dad used to say it was the strangest part of the whole ordeal. People would stay with their cars, when safety was just a few hundred feet away.  All they had to do was abandon their cars.  For some, that was just too much.

We got out of the truck and slowly made our way across the sea of cars and bones.  A couple of cars had zombies in them, and they slowly watched us walk past.  Jake wandered over to one of them, and using his mace, smashed in the window.  When the zombie leaned out, Jake cracked it in the head, killing it.

“That was
effective,
”  Jake
said, looking around for another one.  When he didn’t see one nearby, he gave it up and headed back towards the truck stop building.  I followed at a distance, checking the area, making sure we weren’t being followed.  I don’t know why, but my alarms were going off, and I didn’t see anything to warrant it.  That was when things usually got pretty bad.

Jake ducked under the collapsed awning of the gas islands and re-emerged a second later.

“This way is
blocked,
” He said tightly.

“Car?”

“Bodies.”
  Jake moved away and went around to the side of the building.  I was tempted to go take a look, but considering Jake was disturbed by what he saw, then I really didn’t want to look.  Two things affected Jake that way.  One was the bodies of little children, and the other was anything that indicated a child
might
have suffered.  I could ask Jake why these things bothered him, but the truth be known, he didn’t know himself.  It was just the way it was.

We rounded the corner and made our way to the next doorway.  This one had ‘SHOWERS’ written on it in faded letters, and when Jake opened the door, he quickly
stepped aside to let anything in there that wanted out to get out without finding him in the way.  The little courtesies mattered these days.  It also kept you from getting a face full of bats or bugs.

Jake pulled out his flashlight and gave it a shake. The light came on after a bit, and he looked around before stepping inside.  I took out my own light and followed.  The interior of the truck stop was musty and damp, with a unique black mold coming out of the restroom area.  Jake was careful not to disturb it, and I did the same.  You learned as a kid not to touch the stuff, since
you would
be hacking your lungs out for a day if you breathed any of it in.  One of our friends actually died from it.  He coughed black crap for days before finally choking to death.

The interior was nothing but piles and piles of junk.  Cowboy hats and belt buckles were scattered about, and NASCAR toys were in abundance.  Anything that might have been useful was long gone, but Jake did manage to find a set of ruby-eyed skull valve caps for our tires.  That in
itself
almost made the trip worthwhile.

I hunted around the tools section, and came up with a torque wrench and an
Allen
wrench set.  We could sell this stuff at a nearby town, since tools were always in demand. 

“Oh,
my,
” Jake
said.  I looked over at him and whistled.  Under a display case, Jake had found a full carton of Marlboro cigarettes.  We had seen them only briefly in our lives, but we knew what they were
. C
igarettes manufactured before the zombies
rising
became scarcer and scarcer
.  As the years went by
,
 
some
communities had even used them as currency before the move to precious metals.  What Jake was holding was easily worth a gold piece a pack, if not more.

“That was
luck,
” I said, hoping I could find something to compare.  I didn’t have much hope, but you never knew.

“No kidding.  We could forget this whole trip, head back now and be done with the job, just tell them that the house burned to the ground or
something,
”  Jake said, casting a sidelong look at me.

“Tempting, but we can’t.  You know
that,
” I said.

Jake sighed. “Yeah, I know.  ‘Your word and your honor are the two things that separate you from the savages.  Keep them well and you will walk among men.’  I get it.”

That phrase had been drilled into our heads from an early age.  Dad believed it with all his heart, and it kept us from going back to the beasts we once were. 

We poked around a little more, but found little of any value.   There were some light kits, but no one needed those.  Under a pile of toiletries, I found a box
labeled
‘Trojans’.  I held them up to Jake.

“Any thoughts as to what these are for?”  I asked.

Jake shrugged.  “Anything named after a dead civilization can’t be healthy for you.” 

I tossed it and we made our way to the back door, Jake holding his prize like it was his baby.  I felt a little putout, since Jake had the big score, but the trip was still young, and I might get to even things up later.

We skirted the mold again and Jake went out the back door first.  I followed and immediately bumped into Jake’s back.

“What the…? Oh.”  The parking lot, which had been empty when we entered the truck stop, had suddenly sprouted about a dozen zombies of various shape
s
and sizes.

Chapter 19

“Got your sword?” Jake asked, putting down the cigarettes and gripping his mace with both hands.

“Back at the
truck,
” I said, pulling out my knife and tomahawk.

“Good place for it.”

“You’re the one who had to come over here for a look-see.”

“Blaming is not productive.”

I snickered. 
“Especially when you’re to blame, hey?”

“You’re learning.” Jake tensed, and I knew he was about to move. 
“On the left.”

I looked and saw a little zombie moving fast.  I hated the little things.  They nearly killed us years ago and had actually managed to kill my uncle. They were fast, for whatever reason, and they were nasty. 
These little bastards caused ninety percent of outbreaks
. The virus that caused the zombies effected kids differently.  They were faster, smarter, and much more difficult to kill.  Sometimes they even stalked you, which was unnerving.  Once Jake actually had to chase one and kill it, which took a lot out of him. 

“Got it.”
  I waited for a second to figure out the little girl’s trajectory, and moved quickly, timing the swing of my tomahawk with
its
rush.  The axe head slammed into the
girl’s
forehead, wrenching her off her feet and dumping her on the ground.  I kept going, zeroing in on an older zombie that reached out towards me.  I batted aside the arms and jammed my knife under
its
chin, poking the tip out of the top of
its
greasy head.  As it fell, the knife got stuck, so I left it there, going after the next one with just my axe.

This one was dressed well for a zombie. It wore what might have been a tuxedo, complete with wilted brown flower in its lapel.  I jumped forward, kicking it in the chest, and knocked it into another zombie dressed in a similar fashion.  As I killed the two of them by spiking their heads, I wondered briefly if we hadn’t somehow crashed a zombie wedding.  If the bride showed up, I would know for sure.

A brief glance showed Jake was doing well by
himself
, changing things up here and there by jumping in the air before smashing their heads in.  I watched him as he jumped up, knocked over a zombie, then stood on
its
helpless form as he killed another, then swung down quickly to kill the zombie struggling beneath him.

The last two on my side used to be women, and they wore identical dresses.  That reinforced the notion that there must have been a wedding nearby.  I personally had never seen a wedding that involved more than six people, but I had seen pictures of some pretty lavish affairs.

These two were pretty gross, and I had to be creative killing them, since they came right at me side by side.  I ducked under the arms of the one on the left, giving her a shove as she went by, knocking her into her companion.  Usually that worked, but somehow the second stayed on her feet and came right after me.  I had to jog a little ways away and kill her with a blow to the top of her head. The other one was just getting to her feet, but I didn’t give her a chance, I just slammed the ‘hawk across her head and killed her for good.

Jake was finished with his side, polishing off another tuxedo zombie.  I cleaned my axe and retrieved my knife, pulling it out of the zombie’s head with a wet, sucking sound.  I used some kerosene to burn off the virus, and did the same with my tomahawk.

“Think I killed a bride and groom over
here,
” Jake said.  Sure enough, a zombie in a dirty white dress was slumped over a tipped garbage can.

“I got the rest of the wedding party,
then,
” I said. 
“And the flower girl.
Wonder what happened to cause all this at once?” I asked.

Jake looked over the parking lot.  “I’d say a mess of zombies attacked a wedding reception at the hotel, and since the group had nowhere to run, they all died together.”

I looked at Jake.  That was pretty detailed, and Jake wasn’t known for his imagination.  “How do you figure?  Maybe they were on their way to a reception and someone turned in the limo.”

“Oh, I’d say the fifty or so nicely dressed zombies coming out of the hotel is a pretty good
clue,
”  Jake said, pointing with his mace.

I looked, and sure enough, they were coming out of the hotel, lurching, stumbling, and dragging
themselves
in our general direction.  They looked pretty bad, being dead for so long, but they were no less deadly for it.

“I think I’ll skip the buffet this
time,
” I said, putting my weapons away.

“Right behind you.”

We bolted for the truck, hoping there weren’t any fast ones to cut us off.  We knew when there was a time to fight, and a time to run, and this definitely qualified as a time to run.  The entire reception turned as one to follow our flight, and
if
we
had
been trapped into a fight, it would have been the end.  No matter what the braggarts said, unless the conditions were ridiculously in your favor, you will lose to a horde of zombies.  Dad never really talked about his exploits, but others had, and I always figured them to be ninety percent exaggeration.

Jumping in the truck, we sped away, racing back towards Route 50.  About halfway there, Jake slammed on the brakes, cursing.

“Dammit!” he yelled.

“What? What’s the problem?” I looked for an animal or something that might have run out in front of us.

“I left the cigarettes behind.” Jake checked his rear view mirror,
and then
looked around, possibly checking for a place to turn around. 

I held out my hand.  “No fucking way are we going back for the damn
cigarettes.
”

Jake ignored me, and I finally put my hand on the wheel. “
No
, Jake.”

Jake looked over at me.  “That’s money we’re just leaving behind.”

I returned the look.  “Better that than our lives.  Where’s your head?”

Jake looked ruefully at his mirrors.

“Could we check back later? Maybe when the zombies have wandered off?”

“No!”

“Fine.”
Jake stepped on the gas again and we found Route 50 again.  Heading south, we didn’t say much until we were a mile or two out of Monee.

“I wasn’t really going
back,
” Jake said.

“Uh, huh.”

“Really.”

“Uh, huh.”

Jake was silent for a bit.  “Okay, maybe I was.  But I didn’t.”

I looked over at Jake.  “You mean
,
you weren’t going to be able to.”