Jake's Law: A Zombie Novel (31 page)

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June 30, 2016     Tucson Mall, Tucson, AZ –

Jessica was free. That was all that mattered to
Jake. Between his diversion with the Buzz Lightyear toys and the noise he and Levi were making, she shouldn’t encounter any zombies. They would be coming to him. Instead of the heat of battle he had experienced in Afghanistan or a rage of anger at what Levi had done, a sense of calm washed over and through him, as if his entire life had been a prelude to this moment. He could see nothing beyond the instant he was now in. He felt relief.

Levi was grinn
ing, enjoying the rush of adrenalin that his eagerness to kill pumped through his veins. Jake hoped his eagerness pushed him to take risks. Jake moved slowly and deliberately, knowing the longer he could prolong the fight, the further Jessica could escape in case he lost. With his eyes on Levi, his foot slipped in a puddle of water. As he regained his balance, Levi rushed in and slashed at his chest. Jake ducked to avoid the blow, but the blade sliced into his shirt. He swung his knife upwards at Levi’s arm but missed. Levi retreated three paces backwards and stared at him, breathing heavily. The foul stench of decay drifted from Levi’s clothing.
So that’s how he managed to avoid zombies. He rolled in a corpse like a dog in road kill.

“When I kill you I’m going to rip that Ranger’s badge off your chest
and wear it to remind me to kill my enemies quickly,” Levi boasted.

“Soon, you won’t have to worry about enemies. I’m going to rip out your guts and feed
them to the zombies, one loop at a time.”

As they
circled, Jake had been keeping one eye on the zombies. The zombies were ignoring Levi. However, the smell on Jake’s pants leg wasn’t enough to fool them, especially after sliding through the water and washing most of it away. They were beginning to understand that the lights and voices from the toys were not food and were moving back toward the sounds of fighting.

Levi began tossing his knife from hand to
hand. “I’ve had plenty of practice with shivs in prison. You don’t scare me, copper.”

Jake ignored the ‘copper’ comment.
“I don’t want to scare you. I want to kill you.”

He crooked his finger at Levi and motioned him to come on. Levi growled and lunged at him. This time, he was ready. He waited until the last second, and then
turned and sidestepped Levi’s knife thrust. As he turned, he made a backhanded swipe at Levi’s exposed back, slashing his shirt and drawing blood. Levi reached back with his free hand and felt the shallow gash. He looked at the blood glistening on his fingers.

“Barely a scratch
,” he said

“I wasn’t trying to kill you,” Jake said. “I just wanted to draw blood.” He motioned toward the zombies
surrounding them. A few heads were turning toward Levi. “Now they smell fresh blood. I don’t think your corpse stink will fool them for very long.”

L
evi cast a worried look at the zombies. Jake waited until the closest one zeroed in on him, and then kicked it in the stomach, knocking it to the floor face down. Casually, to send a message to Levi, he stomped on the back of its neck with the heel of his boot. With the sound of its spine shattering, the creature ceased to move. He then turned his attention back to Levi. He saw a glimmer of worry cross Levi’s face and smiled.

“What say we get this little soiree over with,” he said.

Holding his knife low, he moved toward Levi. When he was within three feet, Levi suddenly whipped off his Stetson and sent it spinning Frisbee fashion at Jake’s head. As Jake ducked the hat, Levi faked a move high to the right before moving low to the left. The unexpected feint left Jake’s right side open. He saw the knife coming too late. He reached out his free arm to block it, but he felt the blade sink into his flesh like a red-hot branding iron. Only his grip on Levi’s forearm prevented the blade from going in deep enough to reach a vital organ. Still, the pain was excruciating. He pushed Levi’s arm back and stumbled away, pressing his hand over the wound. Waves of pain lanced through his side, radiating from the wound like aftershocks of a tremor. Blood seeped between his fingers and ran down his side. He gritted his teeth, released the wound, and faced Levi.

“Now we’re even,” Levi said
, grinning.

The zombies, smelling the fresh blood, were becoming agitated.
Their focus shifted from him to Levi, confusing them as the two moved in a circle. Their shuffling feet beat a staccato counterpoint to their hungry wails and moans. More and more of them spilled onto the courtyard around the stairs. Both men were forced to dodge their outstretched arms while watching out for their opponent. Levi used them like blocking dummies, keeping one of the creatures between him and Jake, as Jake tried to reach him. Jake grew tired of the game and shoved one creature away from him. It collided with another, creating a domino effect of falling zombies. If not for the severity of the situation, it would have been comical. Levi, having lost his zombie barricade, closed in quickly, forcing Jake backwards toward the zombies. He couldn’t turn to look without letting down his guard. One of the creatures, a Runner, fell on him from behind the stairs, wrapping its arms around his neck. The Runner was strong. Jake couldn’t break its grip. As its head closed on his neck, Jake jammed his knife twice into its throat. It released him and staggered backwards, wrenching the knife from Jake’s hand. Seeing that he was now defenseless, Levi rushed in for the kill.

Jake
’s gaze fell on the staircase off to his right. He loped up the stairs, stopping on the first landing to face Levi. He was unarmed, but now Levi would have to come at him straight on from below. As Levi mounted the steps, Jake grabbed the piece of rope from that had bound Jessica’s hands from the floor. Using it as a whip, he flailed it at Levi’s face, keeping him at bay. He knew he couldn’t fend off Levi for long with a length of rope. His foot brushed against one of the zombies he had killed with the crossbow. He reached down and plucked the bolt from its head, just as Levi danced beneath the rope. In one swift movement, he fell to the floor, reached up, and jabbed the bloody bolt into Levi’s leg just above the knee. Levi yelled in pain and fell backwards, tumbling down the stairs.

As much as
Jake wanted to finish off his opponent, Levi was still armed and he wasn’t. He believed wholeheartedly in
Jake’s Law #3
–
A fool and his life are soon parted
. He searched the courtyard for his pistol and saw it being trampled beneath the feet of zombies merging on the prostate Levi. Then he noticed the rifle Levi had thrown out, an M16, at the base of a planter. Following the direction of his gaze, Levi saw the weapon a moment later, and he was closer. Jake vaulted over the stair rail to the courtyard below. The impact on the hard tile produced a bone jolting pain that shot through his wounded side, taking away his breath. His vision clouded for a moment as he fought to breath. Even wounded and dragging his injured leg behind him, Levi reached the rifle first.

Before he could train the barrel on Jake,
he was inundated by a mob of zombies. He pushed them away with the butt of the rifle, and then fired two short bursts into their midst, but those not hit by the stream of bullets continued to press him backwards into the entrance of
Macy’s
, firing the M16. Jake ignored the pain and leaped over a planter, headed for his pistol. Before he could reach the pistol, a bullet shattered the tile beside it.

“Next one goes through your head,” Levi called.

Jake stopped and turned slowly, arms raised in the air. He preferred dying facing his killer than to receive a shot in the back. Half a dozen zombies lay dead around Levi, but they had done some damage to him. His arm bled from three wounds, and his shirt was ripped and covered in blood from deep scratches to his chest.

“You’re tougher than I expected, Blakely, but I don’t have time for a slow death for you. Thanks to you, now I have to escape through the zombies.”

“I hope they chew your liver,” Jake spat at him.

Levi took two steps toward Jake and raised the M16 level with his chest. Levi’s hand trembled, but from so close a distance, he could hardly miss. Jake prepared to die.
Then, Levi’s body folded at the waist and he lurched backwards, as if struck by some invisible hand. His chest turned crimson. Jake realized whose hand it was when the sound of the shotgun reached his ears.
Jessica.
The look of utter surprise on Levi’s face was worth all the pain he had endured. Levi’s eyes lifted skyward just as a second blast ripped open his side. The M16 clattered the floor.

“Come on, Jake,” Jessica yelled at him.

He watched Levi crawling across the floor toward the rifle until the zombies fell over him. His screams filled the mall and seemed to continue far beyond his death, as the creatures ripped into his body with hands and mouths. Jake watched for a few moments more, and then went upstairs to Jessica. As she stared down at Levi’s mutilated body, her chest heaved. Her grim expression frightened him.

“I said I would kill that bastard,” she said.

“You did.” Jake took the shotgun from her trembling hands. She fell into his arms and began sobbing, not from any weakness on her part, but as a catharsis. Now, she too had murdered. It didn’t matter that it was a man who needed killing or that she had done it to save his life. Once that thin line was crossed, one could never retreat. He had crossed it in Afghanistan, and it had changed his life forever. Her future would be forever marred by this one moment of revenge. He knew how she felt, but this time, he knew how to save her, as she had saved him.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go home.”

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July 1, 2016   Tucson Mall, Tucson, AZ –

Jake sat with Jessica on the bank of the Rillito River and watched the sun come up over the Catalina Mountains. The wound in his side ached but had scabbed over and stopped bleeding.
It would need stitches, but he would live. Jessica was slowly recovering from the shock of her first killing. He had tried to reassure her that she had done nothing wrong, but getting through the thick veneer of her civilized moral code would take time. He didn’t want to destroy her beliefs, just amend them to the new world. It would take her a while to recover from her trauma, but he would see to it that it didn’t take as long as it had him. He would see that she didn’t descend into the dark places from which he had barely escaped.

The dawn broke clear and bright. An omen, he hoped, of things to come. The morning was cool after the monsoon rains.
A mist hovered over the river and hung to the tops of brush and trees. Over the rush of the river, the soft cooing of a mourning dove and the rustle of a pack rat stirring from its burrow lent a pastoral air to the morning. Another sound broke the stillness of the morning – vehicles. He glanced toward Oracle Road and saw a line of military trucks approaching. They stopped at the bridge beside his ATV. He shook Jessica to get her attention. Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying, but she smiled until he pointed at the army trucks.

“Looks like we have company.”

Her hand went to the AA-12 shotgun beside her. He stopped her.

“No, we can’t fight them.”

An officer stepped down from the lead truck. His eyes searched the riverbank until he spotted them. Behind him, another figure appeared – Reed. He saw the pair and waved. Men spread out and headed toward the mall. Reed and the officer walked toward them.

“I guess Reed managed to get through to his friends.”

Jessica looked at him in confusion.

“I’ll let Reed explain.” When Reed reached them, Jake said, “You’re a little late, but I appreciate the gesture. How did you get through to the army?”

Reed smiled. “An A-10 flew over when I didn’t call. I signaled with a flashlight. Morse code,” he explained.

Jake shook his head. “You are a
true boy scout.” To Jessica, he said, “Jessica, meet Alton Reed, high school science teacher and part-time spy for the military.”

She stared at Reed in a new light. “All this time …”

“Jake can explain. Later. Right now, let’s get you back home.”

“Is anything left?”
she asked.

“Enough to build on,” Jake said
. “If you still want to hang around a while?”

He removed the Arizona Ranger’s badge from his shirt and stared at it. It had gotten him through some dark times, but it was time for him to step into the light.
He flung the badge into the river and heard it splash.

“Reed offered me a new job, Sheriff of San Manuel. We’re going to start rebuilding for the future. Are you up for it?”

She kissed him. He thought he felt in her kiss more than gratitude for saving her life or an exchange for services rendered. He felt enthusiasm. He hugged her and kissed her back with a passion he had not expressed in many years. He turned to see both Reed and the officer smiling.

“Levi’s dead.” He didn’t mention who had killed him. That would remain his and Jessica’s secret. “Let’s go home.”

“Home,” Jessica repeated. “That sounds lovely.”