The Reanimates (Book 2): The Highway (2 page)

“All done.” I said when the last tube was connected.

“
Huh?” DaWayne asked, confused. He was so busy being worried that he didn't even realize I was done. I laughed at him. It occurred to me that I didn't have anything to hang the bags of fluids up on. It was an easy solution, for once. I put a couple nails into the bunk above DaWayne's and bent the heads up to make little hooks. The saline was started first and before I started the flow of antibiotics I pushed a dose of morphine in the line. He looked like he was in less pain immediately. The antibiotics were started as DaWayne went to sleep. Tanya looked at me and smiled.

“
You’re a good kid, Cali. Thank you for taking care of my son. I'll never be able to repay you for patching him up.”

I smiled and said that I'd check on him in a little bit.

I stepped outside the trailer and stretched my arms above my head. It was definitely going to be a cold night. Trisha was talking with her dad as she watched Daniel's girls play. I walked over to them to see how they were doing. She was talking about how they were going to need someone to take care of them now.

“
Dad,” she began, “I want to adopt them.” Tyreese rolled his eyes.

“
Baby girl, these are kids, not stray puppies. You're too young to adopt them.”

“
Dad, I'm almost 18. Besides, before all this stuff happened, I knew a few girls my age with kids. Tomisha is the same age as Sasha's son. I could totally take care of them. And next month is Tomisha's birthday; she should have a family before then.” She could tell her dad was not yet swayed. “Dad,” she continued, “It's not really like it makes any difference who adopts them here anyway. We're all in this together. I just want them to know I love them and want to be a real momma to them. They never had a momma that loved them. Alexus was just a bitch that used them as a pawn in a game. I want them to know that momma's aren't really like that. Momma's are supposed to love them.”

Tanya came out now that DaWayne was resting comfortably. She had heard the last bit of Trisha's argument. She agreed.

“You know hon, she has a point.” Tanya said to her husband. “It doesn't really matter who it is that takes them on as their own because we are all in this together. We'd obviously be right here to help her out when she has questions. I'm fine with it if she wants to be their mom. It's not like there is social services to take them or to argue what makes a parent anymore.” She smiled at Trisha.

Tyreese sighed with a dramatic flourish, knowing he had lost the argument. “You got your mom on board. Alright. You have my blessing on taking them on.”

Mercedes had been sitting on the trailer edge and had overheard all this. She had been rocking Annali who had been glued to her side since her mom died. Mercedes had become a serious attachment person to her. Annali had been on the edge of sleep when she shook herself awake.

“
Ms. Mercedes, if Tomisha and Dalynn can get a new mommy I want one too. Will you be my new mommy? Even if it's make-believe?” My heart broke to hear her ask this.

Mercedes continued to rock Annali and said “Sure, baby. If that’s what you want, I'll be your mommy.” Kyle was standing near enough to be hearing all of this talk about parents. “Kyle, if you want I'll take care of you too.”

Kyle weighed what was being presented to him. “Yeah, I guess that would be all right. You aren't my mom though. My mom died. She's my mom. I don't know what to call you.”

“
You can call me whatever you want.” Mercedes said.

“
Auntie Mercedes? Maybe just auntie?” Kyle asked.

“
Okay by me.” she responded, her voice held a tone of comfort that made Kyle's defensive walls melt away. He looked like he was relieved to know that no one was going to make him try to forget his mom. Kyle wanted to know someone was going to take care of him and care about what he needed. He didn't want his mom to be replaced and Mercedes understood that. He climbed up next to her on the trailer and rested his head on her shoulder.

“
Thanks auntie.” he said.

Everyone in the group seemed to be glad that there was someone for all the kids and that everyone was going to have someone to take care and love them. It was a major lift to everyone's spirits. Everybody needed somebody.

And on that note, we needed to get moving.

Truck Stop

After the break was over and everyone was settled into the trailer, Drew and I joined Trent in the cab. Trent fired up the truck. With a quick check of the gauges, Trent declared that fuel was going to be a priority on somewhat short order. We pulled back onto the silent freeway and started driving. The sun was starting to put out the slightest glimmer of light in the east, at last marking an end to the long night we had. Drew dozed off quickly from his spot on the floor between our seats.

"Are we likely to find a station that has diesel fuel?" I asked softly, not wanting to wake Drew.

"Hope so... I'm counting on the fact that the desolation out here has made it important for the gas stations to be multipurpose." Trent replied in the same soft voice I had adopted. "The lighting is what's going to make things hard. Something tells me no one put up solar panels before leaving these stations. With no signs lighting the way it's going to be hard to know the gas station is even there. Sure the sun is starting to come up but it's still going to be a bit before there is enough light to really see by."

I hadn't thought of that.

"Wait, I just had a thought. How do we pump the gas without the electronic pumps?" I asked.

"Never fear. We just have to find the pump vents. We pop those off, drop a hose down it, and start siphoning. Now they are likely locked but the keys are going to be inside. The other thing we need to do is find some fast food joint that fries its food." I must have given him a puzzled look because he went on explaining himself. "The oil they fry in works as fuel. It was part of what had Joey so excited about using this as an escape vehicle. If tank one has regular fuel and fires up the truck, after a bit the engine heat thins the oil in tank two. We can then switch over to tank two and drive on it. As long as we switch back to tank one a while before we stop to clear out the oil we'll be fine. We can't stop on oil because once the engine cools so will the oil and it will be too thick to start it back up again." He looked a bit smug in his geek filled knowledge base. It made me proud to see that look.

Before too long coming out of the predawn shadows was a gas station and a fried chicken place. What a stroke of luck! Trent pulled in the parking lot and got out. Drew woke up when we stopped. I went around to the back with Drew and explained to the group what was going on. Drew climbed in the trailer to hang out with his friends for a little bit. I asked Tyreese and Tanya if they would help. They agreed. We all collected in front of the truck to hash out a game plan. When it was said and done we decided that Trent and I would take on the gas station while Tanya and Tyreese would collect the oil. We made sure that everyone was armed and ready.

When Trent and I got to the door we saw a sign, the paper showing age even in the limited light and the ink of the marker obviously faded that read:

"We got bit. We are quarantining ourselves. Sorry, gas services are suspended pending our quarantine results. Best of luck to you out there."

I heard the patter of feet running from the side of the building and I pulled my gun into a firing position. Before I pulled up on the hinge mechanism I heard a voice call out from the shadow.

"Guys?" Tanya's voice called out, "There's a sign in the door." She turned the corner and we could see her finally. She noted the gun in my hand that was still raised a little.

"Tan? Hey point of suggestion. Don't run up on someone when they can't see you. You scared the ever loving crap out of me." I admonished her, my relief readily apparent, more grateful I hadn't shot her than that it wasn't a zombie.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry! I hadn't even thought of it like that." She looked at the door we were standing at and saw the note we had been looking at. "Oh. You got one too. What are we going to do?"

"Well, I suppose we don't really have a choice. We need the fuel." Trent responded.

"That was Tyreese's take on it all too." Tanya reported.

She took off to get back to her husband. Trent gave me a “what else are we going to do” look. He took the handle on the door and tried to open it. The door was locked. Figures.

Through the glass of the doors we saw a flash of movement. Trent and I looked at each other with incredulous looks. Could that actually be? Nine months of being locked in without food should have killed off anything. Stumbling to the door was this thing that was more mummified skeleton than anything alive looking. He was wearing overalls that were hanging on him, extra-large on an extra-small frame. He must have wasted away a great deal. His movements were stuttering, puppet like. He raised his arms at us desperately. Trent fired at him simultaneously killing the gas station guy and taking care of the locked door problem.

We knew that the sound of the gunshot would attract any undead thing that was still wandering about. We had better get to work. Trent went behind the counter to look for the keys while I made sure everything was clear.

The station was filled with the smell of rotting flesh from the attendant. I had figured that the smell would have been over a long time ago, but I suppose it made sense that if he was still moving then the decomposition process would be continuous. The virus seemed to be an elegant thing that slowed down everything.

“Cali?” Trent called from behind the counter, “I'm not finding what I figured I would. I did locate the keys to the main tank fill cap. I'm going to just use that.” I agreed with that plan. I really didn't want to stick around any longer than we had to. Trent went back to the truck and pulled out the hose we had taken with us from the complex with this purpose in mind.

Erin and Trisha decided that they needed to use the restroom after they found out the gas station had been cleared of the zombie. I went back into the bathroom that I had previously cleared to make sure it was still safe. Both stalls were clear. I waved them in and told them to hurry.

I went out of the mini mart to go see how Trent was doing. He was filling up the tank, a slow process when it's coming through a garden hose, when out of a quiet morning a gunshot rang out.

“
Take the hose!” Trent called to me. No sooner did I have it in my hand did he let it go and started to run over to the fried chicken place, gun drawn and ready for action. I listened carefully for any new sounds, moans coming from the shadows, anything that indicated we needed to go fast.

Trent came up behind me, nearly scaring me half to death. “Trent! Damn you can be quiet!”

He laughed at me.

“
So what happened out there, anyway?” I asked.

“
Pretty much the same thing that happened to us, actually. There was a sign in the window but they hadn't seen anything inside until they went into the back store room looking for more oil in bottles. The door had a tricky latch that had the two zombies confused as all get out. They had been trapped back there all this time. Tyreese took care of it though and now that place is zombie free.”

“
Was there oil?”

“
Tons of it. Sealed in nice portable boxes. They're on their way right now. There was a shipping dolly that they were starting to load up.”

As he was saying this, Tyreese and Tanya came around the corner, Tanya had the shipping dolly and Tyreese was pushing a large cart. Both were loaded to the gills with oil. They discussed for a moment the most logical course of action. Trent was set to start the bio conversion. Tyreese had a different take on the situation.

“Why don't we put these in the trailer for now. Fill the second tank with regular fuel as well. Run off of tank 2 first. When it's empty we can stop and fill it up with the oil if fuel doesn't fall out of the sky. It would definitely be safer to haul oil than gas.”

He made sense. Finally gas started to pour over the edge of the tank lip. We decided that filling the second tank really was a good idea. Trent took the hose from me. I looked over the parking lot when a sinking feeling hit me, the girls hadn't come out of the bathroom yet. They should have been done ages ago. My eyes grew wide and my jaw fell open. “Shit. They never came out.” I whispered to no one. I took off towards the doors of the mini mart, my heart in my throat, scared that I was going to see them dying or turning on the floor in front of me.

This was not the scene in front of me. What I did see replaced my look of worry with a smile. The girls had gotten a hold of a ton of shopping bags, the reusable burlap style ones, and began to fill them to the brim with all manner of snacks and treats.

“
Hey Cali,” Erin said, “How's it going?” She almost had the look of a kid who got caught getting into the cookie jar.

“
Just fine, Erin. What on earth are you two doing in here?”

Trisha smiled. “We have been eating nothing but good for you stuff for months and months. We need sugary and salty crap, stat.”

“And soda!” Erin called out, having wandered to the back of the mini mart. “We definitely need soda.”

I laughed. We had been more concerned with survival and keeping ahold of the kind of stuff that was nutritious. We hadn't really given junk food much thought. I missed it too, I had to admit. Chocolate sounded just about perfect right now. I grabbed a bag and started to help.

We filled our sacks and went back to the trailer. Tyreese had loaded up all the oil and we loaded our stuff as well. I went to see how Trent was doing, grateful to hear that we were almost done. Sitting out in the open like this just felt wrong, vulnerable. I went back to the trailer to get Drew, and tell him he could pick out a candy bar, pulling a couple out for Trent and myself.

“
We'll make another stop soon guys, okay?” I told everyone. “We want to get a little bit farther, maybe just beyond the pass. Get into a nice open space where nothing can sneak up on us.”

We hit the road. The road was long and quiet. Trent drove slower than normal, not knowing what may pop out of nowhere. It took several hours to get through the pass. We had to carefully drive around the cars that were stopped in the road, and with a very large truck, that was no easy feat. We finally got through and the road opened up again to a multiple lane highway. I sighed a breath of relief; the pass was not known to be kind to big trucks. Wind usually funneled though it tossing trucks around like cardboard boxes. Today it had been relatively still.