Zombie Rules (17 page)

             
There was somebody lying down in the back seat.

              I recognized Julie immediately. Skinny, petulant Julie. Even though she had her oversized coat zipped up and the collar pulled up to her face, there was no mistaking those blue eyes with the green speckles, the splash of freckles across her cheeks, and her tousled chestnut brown hair. She was looking up at me in sheer terror.

Shit, this was not good. I dropped the machete and drew my Glock as I backed up and looked around. I scanned every nook and cranny but did not see anyone else. If Julie was here, Don and Janet had to be nearby. I walked back to the car and watched her hands as I tried to open the back door, but it was locked. I motioned for her to come out. She shook her head. “Come on out, it’s okay.” She shook her head again. I was not going to break out the window, nor was I going to beg. I shrugged. “Have it your way.” I had too much to do and she was not on the agenda. I retrieved my machete and got about halfway back to my truck when I heard the car door open. She ran toward me until she saw the gun. She stopped suddenly. “
Where’s Don and Janet?” I demanded.

             
“Don’s dead.” She said. How many teenagers do you know call their grandfather by their first name? I suddenly recalled Janet calling him by his first name as well. I did not find it odd until now. I filed that tidbit away.

             
“Where is your mom?”

             
Julie’s lower lip quivered. “She’s not here. She…we met some people. Mom said we should join in with them.” She looked at me. “They’re not very nice.”

             
I walked closer to her and suddenly reached out to frisk her. “You got a gun on you?” She shook her head quickly. I squeezed the pockets of her jacket, felt around her waist band, and wasn’t shy about grabbing her crotch for any indication of a weapon. She flinched, but did not protest. Satisfied, I stepped back. “Tell me about Don. What happened?”

             
She had a familiar expression on her face, like she was about to say something smart about me grabbing her crotch, but then thought better of it. “Zach, it was so weird. After we left you guys, Don started acting really strange. We drove around in circles for half the night before mom finally convinced him to stop until daylight. He’d mumble stuff to himself and was just kind of zoning out. He kept insisting we go back to downtown Nashville. He said he saw real people and there had to be a FEMA camp around there somewhere. When the sun came up Don somehow figured out how to get to Nashville. We got to somewhere around Vanderbilt. Don got out of the car with the shotgun and started looking around. A zombie came out of nowhere. He actually ran up to Don and jumped on his back. He started biting him and clawing at his face before any of us could do anything.”

             
I held up a hand. “Wait. The zombie was actually running? Are you sure?” She nodded. Wow. I had heard of this during the initial stages of the outbreak, but did not realize a zombie still had the capability of running. “Did you note the amount of decomposition?”

             
Julie gave a halfhearted shrug. “There wasn’t much at all. That may have been why Don didn’t react right away. His eyes were crazy looking and his face was reddish, like he had a fever or something, but otherwise he almost looked normal.”

So, a freshly turned zombie can run.
Interesting. Even more interesting, if what she was saying was accurate, this person had turned at a much later time than everyone else had. Did I say it was interesting? A more appropriate word would be alarming. “Okay, what happened next?”

             
“Don was fighting with it, trying to keep it from biting him. And mom…” I could tell she did not want to tell me, but I needed to know. I held my hand up and made a swishing motion - tell me. “So mom got into the driver’s seat and drove away. She left Don. He didn’t deserve that.” She brushed some hair out of her eyes. It had gotten longer since I last saw her. I had to admit, it enhanced her femininity. Mine had grown out as well. I started keeping it tied back in a ponytail. I really hoped it did not enhance my femininity.

             
Julie continued. “After that, we just drove around aimlessly. We’d park in obscure areas and sleep in the van at night. Sometimes we’d find something to eat and Tommy got pretty good at getting gas. He’d crawl under the car and knock a hole in the bottom of the gas tank. Then he’d fill up empty milk jugs.” She smiled proudly at Tommy’s ingenuity. I had thought of this technique as well, but once you’ve done it, the automobile was inoperable unless you fixed the tank. I did not feel it was prudent thinking and did not do it.

             
She continued talking. “Mom even talked about coming back to you and Rick. She seemed to think she could smooth things over. You know, blame everything on Don. That’s my mom. Nothing is ever her fault, always somebody else’s.” She paused a moment, I guess she was thinking of the character that her mother was. I was pretty sure I knew how she felt. Everyone wants their parents to be perfect. When you figure out they’re not, or worse, when you figure out that they are majorly flawed, it hurts. Deeply.

             
She then flipped her hair back and continued. “We had been just kind of driving around avoiding zombies, no real destination planned. Then the van broke down. We didn’t know what was wrong with it and we couldn’t fix it. I made a comment about how Don could have probably fixed it and mom threatened to lock me out of the van. It was getting late in the day when we saw them. They were in one of those Hummer limos. There were six of them. They were riding around and they were standing out of the sun roof like stoned idiots taking pot shots at zombies, or anything that looked like zombies. Or windows, Darius seemed to be fascinated with shooting out windows. They were smoking weed, drinking, and just having a good old time. Mom stepped out of the van, smiled real big, stuck her chest out, and waved at them. Long story short, they invited us to join them.”

             
“Where are they now?” I asked.

             
She pointed back over her shoulder. “They’re staying in someone’s house back that way about ten miles.”

             
It seemed like she was being truthful, but I was still suspicious. “What are you doing out here by yourself?”

             
She shook her head, like she was trying to shake away a distasteful memory. “Yesterday, two of us decided to go out looking for food and stuff. I thought Darius was a good guy, but he pulled over on the side of the road and tried to, well you know. I convinced him I had to pee first. I got out of the car and made a big deal out of finding a good place to squat. I took off running and managed to hide from him. He drove around for about an hour looking for me. Then I guess he gave up and left. I’ve been walking ever since. I was doing a pretty good job of hiding from the zombies. They don’t move so good in this cold weather, but then that one found me sleeping in that car.”

             
She gestured at Mr. Headless. His mouth was opening and closing slowly. It still was not quite dead, even without anything below the neck. “That was pretty cool, what you did with the machete.”

             
She reminded me of the zombie. I walked over and looked at his neck where the head used to be. There was some kind of black goo slowly oozing out of the neck. It may have been blood, but it did not look like any blood I had ever seen. Okay, so if there is no blood, or I guess I should say no red, oxygenated blood, the circulation system must be compromised. I thought maybe that also applied to the respiratory system. It answered some questions, but seemed to create more questions as well. I then tore open the shirt and looked at the armpits. There was distinct swelling of the lymph nodes. So much so, it looked like cantaloupes were stuffed under each arm. I straightened, used my waterless soap again, and focused my attention back on Julie.

             
“Alright, so this guy tries to rape you and you escape. Where did you think you were going to go?”

             
She shrugged and stuck out her lower lip. I was not sure if it was a natural mannerism or if she were putting on an act, like her mother had. “I was hoping you and Rick would let me stay with you.” I scoffed and started to shake my head. “Please? I’ll be good, I promise! I’ll cook, clean, feed the chickens. You name it, I’ll do it.” I had several responses on the tip of my tongue, but we were interrupted by Moe barking. I looked down the road. There were three figures. They were kind of standing there. Well, that was being a bit subjective. They were hunched over, definitely not standing erect.

             
“Wave at them.” I said. Julie looked at me like I was crazy. “You said you’d do anything, was that a lie?” Much to her credit, she immediately started waving vigorously. No response other than the distinctive shambling walk. “Zombies don’t seem to wave back. So that one you saw running, he wasn’t doing that?” I pointed at the trio.

She shook her head. “The one that attacked Don, he definitely ran. And he was pretty fast too.” I thought about what she said. I wondered if one of them would still be able to run in cold weather.

              They were still a good distance away, but getting closer. “Are you going to shoot them?”

             
I shook my head as I holstered my weapon and retrieved my machete. “This is a scavenger mission, not a go out and kill zombies mission. I’ve got to get at least twenty more gallons of gas and anything else I can find. Time to leave. Are you coming?” I trotted back to my truck without waiting for an answer. She followed.

             
“Did you bring any clothes with you? Food, toothbrush, female stuff, anything?”

             
She shook her head. “I didn’t think that I’d be running away. Well, let me change that. I had planned on running away when the opportunity was right, just not right then. So, it was either get raped or take off empty handed, and that’s exactly what I did. I think I could eat a horse right now I’m so hungry.”

             
I nodded my head in understanding as I retrieved the spray paint can. I still had time to paint some rules.

RULE NUMBER 4: FRESH ZOMBIES CAN RUN, OLD ZOMBIES CAN’T. Big block letters so everyone could see it. I added two more.

RULE NUMBER 5: THE COLD SLOWS THEM DOWN.

RULE NUMBER 6: DON’T LET THEIR BLOOD GET ON YOU!

RULE NUMBER 7: HIGHER BRAIN FUNCTIONS ARE DIMINISHED, BUT THEY’RE STILL DANGEROUS.

I finished it off by signing a Z underneath.

              Julie looked at it and smiled. “Nice. Are you putting these everywhere?” She said.

             
I nodded. “Everywhere I can. Maybe it will help other survivors.”

             
When we got to the truck, Moe instantly attacked Julie with devastating licks to the face. He barked, jumped, and spun around in the truck the way excited dogs will do. I had no idea that the two of them had bonded in the short time that she had been with us. He apparently missed female company too. Julie hugged him and shortly spotted the cooler sitting in the back seat. I had no doubt she was as hungry as she claimed. I cocked my thumb at it.

             
“I got some food and a jug of water in there. Help yourself. Now let’s see if we can get you some clothes.” She quickly turned in the seat and dived into the cooler. “Whoa, whoa, hang on.” I reached into my jacket pocket and retrieved the waterless hand sanitizer. “Always use this or some equivalent. We don’t exactly have ready access to antibiotics and doctors.”

             
She looked at me funny. “I never thought of it like that.” She squirted her hands liberally and rubbed them together before looking in the cooler. I made a U-turn and headed back to the cheerleaders’ house. I ignored all of the stop signs and we arrived in short time. I parked and pointed. Julie had already finished the sandwich, and was wolfing down a Twinkie as I parked. I cleared my throat. She looked at me with a dirty mouth. “I’ve already cleared this house. There’s a bedroom upstairs that looks like two sisters lived in. There are some clothes that I think will fit you. Go up and grab what you want. Don’t waste your time on the frivolous crap like high-heeled shoes, focus on the practical.” I handed her some of my newly acquired trash bags for her to put her clothes in.

             
She nodded, and I watched as she tore into a Three Musketeers candy bar. Damn, I was saving that for desert. “Aren’t you coming with me?” She asked between bites.

             
I remained seated. “I’m going to watch for zombies.”

             
She stared at me with those bright baby blue eyes. The chocolate smeared lower lip stuck out for a moment. “Are you going to leave me?”

             
She had me on that. I must admit I had considered it. I considered it strongly. Something about the way she looked at me though caused me to make a decision.

             
“No. but we might have to have a little talk in a minute. Now go get some clothes and don’t forget feminine hygiene stuff.” She smiled tentatively and jogged to the front door.