Z14 (Zombie Rules) (48 page)

             
“I think we told him pretty much everything.” I said.

             
“If you’re referring to the ring on your finger, I’d say you two got married somewhere along the line.” Fred said. Julie and I laughed while she told him about the wedding.

“I’m sorry I missed it.” Fred said.

As we approached the radio station, the first thing we saw was Big Mac on a backhoe. We stopped at the locked gate and waited for her to come over. Today she was wearing bib overalls with a plain white tee shirt underneath. Her hair was held back by a blue bandanna.

             
“That is one heck of a large woman.” Fred commented dryly.

We introduced Fred to Big Mac, and to my surprise, Mac was a bit on the giddy side. “I think she likes Fred.” I whispered to Julie, who giggled in agreement. Wanda was her usual self, but the rest of the women gave Fred a warm welcome. Mac excused
herself and went into the restroom, emerging a couple of minutes later with freshly brushed hair. Julie nudged me and giggled again.

“Zach, did you see the pits
I dug?” Mac asked, while casting glances at Fred.

“Yes I did, they look awesome. You’ve been busy. Have y’all had any problems?”

“We had a few people drive up yesterday. They didn’t stay long.” Mac said.

“They were a bunch of freeloaders who tried to bully us.” Wanda interjected.

“Yeah,” Kelly added. “They told us they needed food and tried to get inside the house. Mac knocked one of them out.” She said with a grin. We looked over at Mac in surprise.

“I used to be on a roller derby team.” She said for explanation. “
Of course, Wanda and Kelly had rifles aimed at them too. I told them to come back when they had stuff to trade. But, we haven’t seen any zombies in a while.”

As much as I wanted to, I refrained from commenting about Wanda’s remark
concerning freeloaders. Hopefully, she understood now. I looked around and noticed two people were absent.

“Where are Rowdy and Cindy?” I asked.

“Oh, they went scavenging.” Kelly said. I frowned but withheld commentary. I hoped Rowdy had picked up enough about clearing houses to keep from being surprised.

As we were leaving, Wanda pulled me off to the side. “I don’t feel comfortable with that little colored boy around the babies.” She said in a hushed tone. She was referring to Joe, of course.
It was bullshit. Joe was very polite when introduced to everyone, and well behaved the whole time. He gave nobody any cause to be concerned. Even so, Wanda had an issue with him. It was pathetic.

“He’s a good kid Wanda.” I could have said a lot more, but I held off. Instead, I bid my goodbye and left.

I tried the horse farm first, and found Bo mucking the stalls. He met us at the barn door with a pitchfork. Lucy saw us, disappeared inside the barn, and came back out with her tennis ball and a wagging tail.

“Hello Bo.” Fred said when he got out of the truck.

“Hello Fred.” Bo replied. The two men shook hands, and then hugged.

“I’m glad you’re alive.” Bo said.

“Same here.”
Fred said.

“My, what an emotional reunion!”
Julie said. We laughed while Fred and Bo looked at us.

“Have you two known each other long?” Corporal Alexander asked.

“We grew up together.” Bo answered. “Did any of the rest of the family make it?” He asked. Fred slowly shook his head. Bo sighed. “Mine neither.”

Fred looked at us. “If you all don’t mind, I’ll take that thermos of coffee and spend a bit of time with Bo. We have some catching up to do. He’ll give me a ride back.”

Joe looked anxious. “Can I stay?” He asked Fred. Fred looked at me.

“Hey Joe, let the old men talk about the weather while we go find you some new clothes and stuff.” It was obvious Joe wanted to sta
y with Fred, but he quietly assented.

We went back to the Lennox Village area. I had previously cleared over half of the condominiums, and remembered seeing kids’ bedrooms in a few of them. I insisted Julie
stay in the truck. I explained it was due to her pregnancy, but she called me a chauvinist anyway. I pulled Joe off to the side.

“Alright big guy, we’ve cleared houses together before, so I want you to hang out with Julie until we get a house cleared. Then, you can come in and pick out what you need.”

Joe agreed quietly, although I think he wanted to help out. He had survived on his own, so I knew he was pretty tough for an eleven-year-old kid.

We located the
units which obviously had children at one time and checked them out. Joe found several articles of clothing he could wear and we loaded up. We also looked for more clothing for Julie. Her baby bulge was growing daily.

“A
lright, the third bedroom in our house is empty. I was thinking we can get it set up for you and Fred.” I said to Joe. “So, I want you to pick out a bedroom suite for the two of you. We’ll need two beds and furniture. I think we have room in the bed of the truck. If not, we can make two trips.” Joe’s eyes lit up and he ran into one of the condos before I could say anything else. He ran out a minute later.

“I found some!” He shouted.

The weather was so pleasant, we opted to eat outside at the picnic table which
was set up under an old oak tree. Terry had shot a turkey and Fred helped him dress it. We complemented it with some of our canned vegetables.

“How is Bo doing?” I asked Fred while setting everything up.

“He’s doing okay, been a bit lonely, but now I think he’s fine. He’s going to help me build a new house.”

“That’s awesome!” Julie said. “With no costs to consider, you can build a mansion.”

Fred shook his head. “Nope, it’s going to be something simple, concrete block walls and a roof. Nothing fancy.”

Julie made a raspberry sound. “You’ll do nothing of the kind. We’re going to make it pretty.” Fred glanced at her, but said nothing. “I’ll talk to Mac tomorrow and get her over there with a bulldozer. She’ll have the lot cleared in no time.” She grinned mischievously at Fred. “She’ll be glad to help
you.”

“We’ve actually got the numbers now to get things done.” I said. “If you want, I can start drawing up some plans.”

Fred nodded. “You should create a boiler plate design, something simple to build and easy to fortify. You also want to take into consideration the utilities, so electricity from a generator, or better yet, solar, and a water storage system.”

“There has to be a business around here somewhere that built water tanks.” I said, more to myself than anyone else.

I started with some notes, but kept getting distracted by Julie playing footsie with me under the picnic table. I’d frown at her, but she’d smile at me playfully, which totally prevented me from getting mad. She had been in a great mood ever since Fred came back. We all looked up when we heard a vehicle approaching.

“I believe that’s Big Mac.” I
said.

“Well, you’re girlfriend didn’t waste much time coming to call.” Julie teased. Fred looked at her with an arched eyebrow. As they got closer, I saw Wanda sitting in the passenger seat.

“Shit.” I muttered. Julie giggled. The two women got out of the truck and walked over to the picnic table.

“Hello ladies.” I said with mock cheerfulness. Everyone else said hello as well.

“Hi everyone.” Big Mac responded. “Is Cindy here?” She asked. Julie and I looked at each other.

“I don’t think so. Isn’t she with Rowdy?” I asked.

“They left out early this morning and were supposed to be back at noon. We were getting a little worried.” Mac said. I looked around. The dually was missing. I got up and looked in the tour bus, just to make sure. It was empty. I walked back to the picnic table and sat down

“I wouldn’t worry about them.
They’re probably out enjoying this pretty day, and lost track of time.” I said. Wanda shook her head vigorously.

“There’s something wrong. I know it.
”

“The dually had a full tank of gas. I think they’re okay.” I tried to say reassuringly, but Wanda shook her head vigorously again. I sighed. “Okay, did Rowdy say whereabouts they were going?”

“He only said they were going shopping.” Mac replied. I immediately thought of Cool Springs and voiced my suspicions.

“He wouldn’t be stupid enough to try going inside the mall
with just the two of them, would he?” Julie asked. I looked over at Andie.

She sighed as well. “Yeah, he would. He was talking about the two of us doing it a couple of days before the Birmingham women rolled into town.
”

“Oh, shit
.” Julie said. I groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Mac asked.

“The mall is full of zombies. We tried going in several months back. It was like a zombie black Friday in there.” I said, and immediately regretted it. Wanda went pale and started hyperventilating. She started to swoon and Mac caught her. Picking her up like she was a small child, Mac carried her over to a chair and gently set her down. She looked at Fred and me with worry.

“Okay, okay, let’s not all get worked up. We’ve got plenty of firepower here, we’ll go look for them.” I knew an argument was about to start as I looked over at Julie.

“Don’t you dare suggest I stay here Mister Zach Gunderson. I’m going with you!” She said. I looked at Fred. He was very dramatic as he tilted his head about a quarter of an inch.

“I’ll be damned if I sit here on my ass while a pregnant woman goes
huntin’ zombies.” Bo said as he stood. I nodded in thanks.

“Andie, how about you a
nd Terry get the 5.56 ammo cans, it’s the ammo we have plenty of, so everyone take one of the M4s or an AR-15.” I looked at Fred. He stood up.

“Bo and Joe will ride with me in the semi.
” He said. “I believe you and Julie should ride in the truck.” He gestured at Andie. “Andie and her soldier boyfriend should ride in the jeep.” Terry looked startled at being described as Andie’s boyfriend. “What CB channel do you think Rowdy would be listening to?” Fred asked.

“The last time I drove the dually, I had it on channel nineteen.” I said.

Fred nodded. “Nineteen it is then.”

We followed the large Volvo down Concord Road. I looked over at the gated entrance to the Governor’s Club as we drove by. My note was gone. Someone lived in there, I was sure of it. I didn’t see a red dually anywhere in the neighborhood, so I hoped we weren’t going on a wild goose chase. Fred opted not to try I-65, and instead turned on Franklin Pike before turning back left on Moore’s Lane. At Wanda’s insistence, they followed us. I hoped Mac took care of her, because she was worthless.

“Come in, Zach.” I heard Fred calling me on the radio.

“Go ahead.” I responded.

“Is it Rick’s red dually
they’re in?” He asked.

“Roger. I figure when we get close, we spread out and search the parking lots for it. I’m guessing he’
ll park close to one of the entrances, if he’s even there.”

“I copy. In the meantime, why don’t y’a
ll continue trying to raise that knucklehead on the radio? I’d suggest trying all channels and we’ll stay on nineteen.”

I did as suggested, but to no avail.
It became evident why, when we turned onto Galleria Boulevard. Julie suddenly pointed. “There!”

T
he dually was parked in front of one of the main entrances on Galleria Boulevard. She drove up beside it and stopped. I jumped out with my M4 at the ready, and ran up to it. There was nobody in it, nor was there any damage, or anything else out of the ordinary. I ran back to the truck and radioed the information.

“Zach, do you think he’s in the mall?” Andie asked.

“He’s got to be.” I said. “They didn’t park right at the front entrance in order to go somewhere else.”

“Zach,
” Fred said over the radio. “Would you move your truck out of the way? We have an idea.” Julie looked at me perplexed and backed the truck up. About the time we were clear of the entrance, the big Volvo zoomed by. The steel cattle catcher busted the concrete flower pots which were supposed to act as barriers, and crashed through the glass doors. As Fred entered into the mall, he laid on his air horns repeatedly.

Julie followed the Volvo in and slid to a stop beside it. “You will keep your ass in the truck or I’
ll spank you so hard you won’t be able to sit for a week!” I yelled at Julie as I exited. Andie and Terry jumped out and took up firing positions.

It didn’t take long before we had company.
There had to be over a hundred of them. Most of them were horribly decomposed and could hardly move, but a few of them seemed to be moving without a great deal of difficulty.

“Don’t rush your shots! We have plenty of firepower for a change!” I
yelled as I took aim at a male zombie in a security guard’s uniform and dispatched him with a clean headshot. The others followed my lead and began methodically picking them off. I felt a presence by my side. It was Julie. I glared at her.