Running with the Horde (16 page)

             
I was going to be a dad,
I thought again. I felt like smiling but didn’t because of Rosie. She was looking at me intently for some kind reaction to this revelation. I didn’t feel like giving her the satisfaction.

             
I wondered why Daisy never said anything to me. She was probably nervous I would freak out. She had been acting out of sorts lately. I thought she was just being crabby because of the zombie thing, I hadn’t known her all that long after all.

             
Then I remembered the sudden odd change in behavior from the zombies when they stopped coming to the house when I was out. It was like she changed from prey to…well, someone like me overnight. It must have been the baby. Maybe the kid would have my…uh, gift.

             
“How did you find us?” I asked.

             
“I didn’t find this place if that’s what you mean. I found Daisy at the drug store up the street of all places. The place is mostly trashed and empty of anything useful but I found her there. Turns out she was looking for pregnancy tests. Anyway, my sister didn’t see me and I didn’t want to scare her so I just hung back in the shadows until she got what she needed. We followed your monster car back here. That thing is hard to miss by the way. Real subtle. A good way to stay under the radar,” she said.

             
I rolled my eyes at her and she laughed. The sound made her sound like Daisy but like a bizarro Daisy that didn’t have a soul.

             
“We scoped the place out to make sure she was alone and then knocked on the door. She must have thought it was you because she opened right up. She had one of the pregnancy tests in her hand and a big smile on her face. Of course she’d also been crying. Looks like she was going to make the big announcement today. You really missed out on a precious moment. Anyway, at first she was super happy to see me, she is my twin after all. That’s kind of a special bond, FYI. She got nervous when my boys began cleaning this place out and then angry when I explained how things were going to be going forward,” she explained.

             
I was incredulous, “She is your sister!”

             
“Thanks. I fucking know who she is, freak!” she shouted. “I will take care of her and my little niece or nephew the way only family can. You don’t need to worry about it. You have a legacy to consider now, right? If you really care about her, you’ll be a good boy and go along with this trade off. As far as Daisy is concerned, she will see how things have changed. She’ll adapt. She’s always been good with change. Since daddy died someone had to step up. That someone was me. That’s just how it is, freak.”

             
“How do you know you can trust these people to give you what you want?” I asked out of concern for Daisy. My experience in the new world so far was that trusting people or helping people you didn’t know only resulted in trouble. Evidently my question touched a sore spot for Rosie.

             
“Fuck off and keep your mouth shut until they get here,” she said with a scowl.     

             
There wasn’t much to discuss after that. We sat there and waited, her humming and me brooding. Eventually the sound of a truck could be heard chugging up the street. The grinding of its breaks told me it was stopping in front of my house.

             
“The gangs all here!” Rosie said with pep as she hopped out of the chair and opened the door.

             
I followed her out to the front porch. There was not only a truck but a small convoy of vehicles. A black SUV held the lead position, behind that was a very large RV that looked like it could possibly be used on a moon landing if necessary. There were also two other cars and a pickup truck. This caravan would require frequent stops at the gas station that much was clear.

             
The man that emerged from the SUV carrying a machine gun was the man I’d seen execute one of his colleagues for urinating on zombies. I remembered he’d seemed to be a serious, scary sort of fellow and I wasn’t looking forward to officially making his acquaintance.

             
Daisy appeared in the doorway of the RV looking stricken. I smiled at her and mouthed that I was okay. She took a step down the metal staircase before someone inside called her back in.

             
My stomach dropped when the guy from the SUV walked over and stood in front of me

             
“This is him, huh?” he asked Rosie.

             
“Yep, this is the freak that got my daddy killed and knocked my sister up,” she replied in a reproachful tone.

             
He gave me the hard case stare that tough guys always can do so perfectly but I didn’t look away until he spit in my face. Then I wished I had looked away.

             
As I wiped the spit away with my sleeve he drove the butt of his rifle into my gut. I went down to my knees and knew instantly that I’d shit myself. He kneed me in the face and I flew backward on the porch landing on my back.

             
“Get him, Tegan!” Rosie shouted and laughed.

             
The pain in my nose was shocking and I was sure he broke it. My vision wavered but I didn’t pass out.

             
I recall hearing two things, the laughter of cruel people mocking a man who’d just shit his pants and Daisy screaming.

             
I had a feeling shit was about to get real for these folks.

             
Then I did pass out.

Chapter 28

“Transportation Issues”

             
I awoke in intense pain like I had so often since Rosie and company had entered my life. My head was throbbing, my stomach was sore and of course I had shit in my pants.

             
Shit on your ass actually kind of burns if you leave it on there a while. Like say during a period of unconsciousness. I had a new appreciation for the fortitude of babies.

             
I was in my bed. The front of my shirt was covered in dried blood and I couldn’t breathe through my nose. There were zombies in my room surrounding my bed. I threw the cover off and got to my feet. I stumbled on my way to the hall. A long dead middle-aged soccer mom in yoga pants caught me before I could fall.

             
“Thangs,” I mumbled but I wasn’t sure why.

             
I made my way through the hall and down the stairs navigating around zombies that were standing vigil along my route to the living room.

             
The house was trashed. It hurt to use my eyes. It tasted like I had a mouthful of dirty assholes.

             
I was having a shitty day, literally.

             
The door was standing open and the main floor was also full of zombies. I stepped around them onto the porch. A contingent of the dead were entrenched around my property. There was no sign of Rosie, Tegan the asshole, or Daisy and the caravan was gone along with the minivan.

             
My once beautiful car was still in the driveway though, all shot to hell. The driver’s side tires were blown out. I walked down to the street and stared stupidly down the block. The only signs of the caravan were several skid marks and hundreds of shell casings.

             
A few of the zombies milling around me looked fresh. I called one over to me. His clothes were shredded and he was missing a shoe. There were wicked looking bite marks all over his body. I thought I recognized him from the caravan but I wasn’t sure.

             
It wouldn’t have been my favorite way to go out.

             
The presence of the fresh zombies meant the caravan had been hit hard and fast. That would explain why they left me and the rest of my supplies. The zombies must have responded en masse to Daisy’s screaming summons and gotten there quickly enough to cut Rosie and her men off from me and the house. They had all they could do just to escape with their lives.

             
It must have been a hell of an adventure getting all the vehicles out of the cul-de-sac. I had no fucking idea where they went. Rosie had mentioned something about trading me for passage into a city. Most likely that meant the big city but last I’d seen, it had been closed for business.

             
Damn, I missed Daisy already. That saying they have about good things and all that, well, it’s true.

             
I sent the zombies away with an angry burst of thought. They sprinted for points unknown as if their undead lives depended on it. I couldn’t decide what to do next.

             
The shit in my pants decided that for me.

             
The rain barrel was a quarter full. I dumped that into the bath barrel. I had four gallons of drinking water left. Rosie had taken the rest of it earlier in the day. I hoped Daisy drank it all while they slept tonight. I fired up the grill and stood naked in the cold, until the water boiled.

             
Four gallons of boiling water on top a quarter barrel full of ice water still equals moderately cold bath water that only comes up to a tall man’s thighs. It was not a fun bath and that water was nasty by the time I finished. I almost needed a bath after my bath but it wasn’t meant to be.

             
My head hurt so badly I couldn’t think straight. I toweled off, dressed as warmly as I could and made a blanket bed on the floor in my spare bedroom upstairs.

             
My actual bed had seen better days. I wasn’t getting in that ever again.

             
I was cold and sore but managed to pass out after two Vicodin with a whiskey chaser. I dreamed of Daisy and a cute little dark-haired baby I would probably never meet.

             
The next morning my head still hurt but not as badly. My nose was the worst. My bathroom mirror showed a man in his late twenties that looked more like fifty, who had gone a round with Tyson in his prime. Two black eyes and a great big swollen nose that was clearly off kilter.

             
I was a good looking man once. Now I was Frankenstein.

             
I grabbed a soda from my secret stash in the garage. I hid it there because Daisy drank a lot of soda. Brooding on my chair, the one Rosie had lounged in, I thought about my next steps. Daisy was going to have my baby. I was going to be a father. It was my job to take care of them both. No one was better equipped to do that than me with zombies being at the top of the food chain, least of all her fucking wing-nut of a sister. My baby girl would be doomed from the start with Rosie as a role model. I’m not sure how I knew she was going to be a girl but I did.

             
My plan was stupid yet simple, find a vehicle and drive around until I found them. When I did find them I would kill Rosie and Tegan and maybe some other people. My strategic mind was a thing of beauty.

             
The house and my stupid car were done for. I wasn’t planning on ever coming back once I left. It served as reminder of the shallow life I lived before the zombies and the painful loss I just endured the day before. My only good times in the house had been with Daisy and I had been too foolish to appreciate them.

             
I thought I should burn it down, maybe burn the whole damn neighborhood down. I probably would have too, if I would have been physically up to it. But in the end I decided it was possible Daisy could escape and she might come back to the house looking for me. It wouldn’t do for her to come back to a burned out hole in the ground, possibly with my daughter in tow.

             
So instead I wasted a day and a half cleaning up the house and making it secure again just in case. I grabbed a travel bag and packed a change of clothes, a gun and some emergency supplies. I figured I could get anything else I needed on the road.

             
I found a way to shove my big photo album into my bag as well. This was after a fierce internal debate. Part of me knew that keeping it or really even making it in the first place was kind of crazy. But in the end I’m sentimental, I didn’t really want to forget Serendipity Lane.

             
According to my mental calendar it was sometime in mid to late December when I left my New Brightown home for the last time. I shut the door behind me and hid the key under the blood-stained welcome mat and didn’t look back.

             
Toting my heavy bag on my back I set out walking down the road ignoring the handful of undead I passed along the way.

             
December in Minnesota is usually quite cold but on that morning I didn’t mind. Aside from my fucking nose, I was fine for a brisk morning walk, I had made sure Daisy and I were well outfitted for the winter weeks ago.

             
My feet were freezing in my silly running shoes before I’d gone very far but I wasn’t concerned. The first item on my to-do list was a acquiring a vehicle.

             
It was doubtful any of the cars or trucks I passed along my route would even start. The first three I checked had no keys. The next two had keys but wouldn’t turn over. I finally lucked out on an old Ford pickup.

             
It didn’t look like much so I almost skipped it but the keys in the ignition made me try anyway. At first it just turned over without starting but kicked on with a roar when I pumped the gas a few times. I turned the heat on high and blew into my cold hands while I let it warm up. There wasn’t much more than a quarter tank left but it would do to get me where I wanted to go.