Aliens Versus Zombies (26 page)

“I know!” Amanda grabbed Jay’s hand and dragged him to the boys’ room. “Maybe something in here will fit you.

He rummaged through the closet and dressers and managed to find some clothes that fit. The shorts and shirts fit fine, but the long pants were much too short. Still, the clothing was better than what he had on.

Amanda raced into the girls’ room and quickly found several outfits that fit her. She also picked up several “learn to read” type picture books.

And, “A dolly! She’s so pretty. I think I’ll call her Carrie Ann.”

Now the only problem was that they had far too much stuff to carry. If it weren’t so hot outside they could bundle up under layers of clothing. That was clearly out of the question in early August.

They carried their bundles down to the front door, where they put the clothing in piles alongside the backpacks.

Jay stopped to think. It no longer hurt, as it once did, but it often took a long time to come to any conclusions, and sometimes he couldn’t. This was not one of those times.

“Cart! Need cart.” He had an image in his mind of a shopping cart, such as the one Amanda used when they first met.

He ran out the front door and around to the garage. The door was securely shut. He ran around the back. That door was locked as well. Jay reentered the house, hoping to find something to break down the door with. Then he noticed the door at the side of the kitchen. It opened easily into the relative darkness of the garage.

There were no cars inside. That made it easy to see everything neatly stacked or hanging from the walls. There were no shopping carts there.

“Big Wheel!” Amanda ran over to where the plastic tricycle hung. “Gimme, gimme!” She hopped up and down, unable to reach it.

Jay stretched and pulled it down. As soon as it hit the floor, Amanda jumped in and began racing around the garage, doing loops and figure eights. “Whee! Watch me!”

The adults grinned at her antics.

Jay continued to look around the garage. On his left, two bicycles leaned against the wall. Two more hung from hooks. A thought occurred to him and he walked over to one of them. He had a vague memory of having been on a bike before, although not what they were called.

He climbed on and tried to ride. He immediately toppled over, nearly falling on Amanda as she sped by. He tried again, this time managing a wobbly course across the garage until he crashed into the far wall. He was traveling slow enough that it didn’t hurt.

He carried the bike out through the kitchen and then the front door to the driveway, where he tried again. Amanda followed with her trike and soon the two were weaving an intricate path of near disaster, almost colliding several times. Once he got the hang of riding again, Jay grinned from ear to ear. It was hard work, but fun.

“You’ve got two flat tires, Uncle Jay. Maybe there’s a pump inside. I saw my daddy do it once.”

Jay had no idea what to look for. Amanda helped him search. Tucked behind one of the bikes was a bright red pump. Amanda showed him where to attach it to the tire. After some fumbling he figured out how it worked. Minutes later, tires inflated, he discovered that riding a bike was easier and less tiring than before.

He went back to the garage and, one by one, brought out two other bikes and inflated the tires. After a bit of persuasion, the two women tried their hands at riding. As with Jay, it took a while to get the hang of it, but soon both were able to stay upright and continue moving.

They now had a much faster means of travel, and with the backpacks, they could carry a lot more food and stuff than before. But they still had too much to carry to fit in their backpacks.

Then Jay remembered something else he’d seen in the garage while moving the bikes.

He returned a minute later with a little red wagon and a length of rope.

Soon, the foursome set off on three bikes and a trike. Each wore a backpack. The wagon carried the other backpack and a large plastic trash bag stuffed with clothing. It was towed behind Jay’s bike using the rope.

That lasted all of a hundred yards. It took only that long to realize that Amanda couldn’t hope to keep up with her tiny legs.

That required some more thinking.

They decided to have Amanda sit in the wagon, holding the trash bag in her lap. Jay rode back to the house for another short piece of rope that he used to tie the Big Wheel behind it, containing the extra backpack stuffed down onto the driver’s seat.

Had there been anyone else around to witness, they would have seen a man on a bike towing a girl in a wagon, towing a tricycle. All this parade lacked was a baby elephant holding onto the trike with his trunk.

Finally, they were ready to go and off they went. The road was smooth and reasonably clear of wrecks and debris. Over the next hour, they stopped only once, for Jay to remove a long branch lying across the road.

It was peaceful and serene. They could have been going for a Sunday ride in the park.

And then they heard a shriek and a hoot. Amanda screamed and pointed. “Bad people!”

Jay yelled “Fast!” to the other bike riders. They all picked up speed.

The Zoms were coming from the side and slightly ahead. They closed the gap with every step. Seven of them burst through the hedge alongside the road, only yards away.

Amanda shrieked as the wagon bounced and jostled every time a wheel hit a pinecone, an acorn, or a large twig. The faster Jay went, the more precarious Amanda’s position became. She held onto the sides of the wagon, trying to keep from falling out. The wagon could flip at any moment.

Jay’s backpack held his gun. All he could do was peddle faster and hope to outrun the pack of screeching Zoms.

The bike riders were past the first three. Four more were almost within reach.

And then the Big Wheel flipped and bounced along. The backpack dragged on the ground, slowing Jay’s progress. The two women pulled ahead slightly.

Now they were past the pack, but two Zoms were gaining ground, only feet behind, almost close enough to grab Amanda.

“No, no, no, no!” she yelled.

She shrieked as the wagon bucked. But that caused the poorly tied knot to work itself loose. The Big Wheel slid to a stop. On of the pursuing Zoms tripped and fell. The other dodged it, but fall back a bit. He kept coming, closing the gap again until he was only inches behind. He grabbed at Amanda’s fluttering hair and managed to snag a few strands, briefly yanking her head backward.

“Ow!”

And then he was down, the victim of a turned ankle.

The riders kept peddling briskly, though at a slower pace, for another five minutes, until the Zoms were long out of view. Then, exhausted and out of breath, they stopped.

The day after the feast, Casa Paradiso was more or less back to normal. The bonfire had burned out. Two people were out hunting. Geoff and one other had taken Mabel and Buck and gone exploring, still hoping to find a larger house for all of them to live in. Three toiled in the garden. Several worked on curing all that leftover beef.

One thing that
wasn’t
back to normal was the relationship of Chrissy and Daniels. Overnight they had gone from friends and comrades-in-arms to lovers. The glow hadn’t yet worn off.

The two picked straw out of each other’s hair and clothes as they attempted to get dressed in the hay loft.

Daniels fought back feelings of guilt as he tried to think of a way to broach the subject that had cost him some sleep the night before.

“Are you sure, absolutely sure, this is what you want? There must be someone a lot closer to your own age that would be interested in someone as hot as you are.”

“Oh, so you think I’m hot?” She flashed a crooked grin his way. “Thank you, kind sir. But are we still on that tired old subject? I thought we settled this last night. Yeah, there are several guys who’ve approached me, but no one I’m interested in. I already told you. It’s you I want. Are you feeling all cradle-robbery now?” She laughed.

“Yeah, I guess so. I always hoped to find someone to settle down with someday, but I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be with someone young enough to be my—”

“Don’t even go there. I’m
not
your daughter, and I’m plenty old enough to make up my own mind about who I fall in love with.”

“Love?”

Now it was Chrissy’s turn to be on the hot seat. “I…uh…was speaking hypothetically. But who knows? Maybe…someday. Would that be so bad?”

Daniels flashed the easy grin that had earned him the nickname Chick Magnet in his younger days. “No, not so bad.”

* * * *

Jay and the women were exhausted from their exertions, and Amanda had turned cranky. They found a more-or-less intact house and moved in for the evening. Human remains lay in one of the bedrooms, but once they closed the door, the rest of the house was all theirs.

They lost a fair amount of food when they lost the Big Wheel with the backpack in it. But they still had a lot more food than they’d started the day with—and the all-important can opener. And despite all the bumps and near flips Amanda and the wagon suffered through, somehow the trash bag full of clothing and shoes managed to stay put. They were safely out of the city, and had food, clothing, and a warm, dry, place to sleep.

Overall, it had been a good day.

* * * *

The next morning, bright and early, Daniels and Chrissy—now that she’d had some riding lessons—took Buck and Mabel out on an exploratory trip. The cover story was that Daniels wanted to check some of the houses closer to the river for usable goods. The real reason was that he wanted to see what was happening back in the city, if from afar. He had observed more and more alien ships flying in and out of the city.

Daniels was getting worried.

He knew that they would take over the entire planet, and then eventually they would probably go after the scattered remaining humans, but he’d hoped that would be a long time in coming. Now he wasn’t so sure.

It was a pleasant morning and they had plenty of time to talk.

Daniels had had many bedmates over the years, but precious few he felt emotionally close to and even fewer that he felt the desire to open up to and reveal his deepest, darkest fears—the fear of growing old and dying alone, of never finding the true soulmate that everyone dreams of: the yin to his yang, the one who would understand him as no one else could, the woman who would endure his many faults and love him for them. Or the newest one: the fear of being ripped apart by Zoms, of being eaten while his heart still beat in his chest.

His feelings for Chrissy had grown over the year or so since they’d all banded together for mutual defense against the Zoms, but he’d pushed those feelings to the back of his mind. Too many things wrong with the world to think about romance. With the fear of death a constant companion, even thoughts of sex seemed ridiculous.

Never the right time or place or mood.

Now, everything had changed. Life, if not perfect, was at least much more like normal than it had been for nearly a year and a half. He felt he could afford to reach for at least a small piece of the happiness pie.

He began talking: about his childhood in Pennsylvania, his early days in the Marines, working his way up from buck private to sergeant, and even some of what it was like in Afghanistan. Not the really unpleasant parts—he pushed those memories deep into the recesses of his mind—but the good parts: the camaraderie, the beautiful stark scenery, the simple people trying to make a life for themselves despite having almost nothing.

His tension gradual melted away as he talked, as if his words were massaging the aches and pains from his muscles. He grinned and laughed like a schoolboy on his first date with his dream girl, both giddy and nervous at the same time, and then finally comfortable with his situation.

After a while, he wound down and Chrissy began to talk about her early years: her dolls, her first crush—but not Uncle Jack. No, she wasn’t ready to talk about him to anyone, not yet.

* * * *

After all the excitement the day before, The Pack slept in. When they awoke, they ate a breakfast of canned peaches and Spam. Even Carrie Ann the dolly had an imaginary spoonful or two. Not only was the meal filling, it lightened their load a bit.

It was late morning when they finally hit the road. Their pace was slow and comfortable, unlike the breakneck speed of yesterday.

Following the river to their left, they headed southeast. In the distance a bridge spanned the river. Crossing it would put them farther from the city and the golden people.

* * * *

Hours later, Daniels and Chrissy rode in silence, all talked out and happy to be together. They crested a hill. Trees on another hill between them and the river partially obscured the city beyond. They studied it for several minutes. Flashes of light above and around the city indicated air or space traffic. There definitely was more of that than there had been a few weeks earlier when they’d escaped. The aliens certainly were making themselves at home.

The duo continued on down the hill and to the valley beyond. They rounded a curve. Buck reared up, throwing a surprised Daniels. His left foot tangled in the stirrup. His head and shoulder hit the ground, hard.

“Chick!” Chrissy cried out. “Zoms!”

Sixty yards in front of them were the pair of Zoms that had startled Buck. They charged the horses.

Daniels drew his pistol and tried to shoot, but hanging upside down and with Buck in the way, he had no shot. He clipped the gun back in his holster and attempted to free himself.

Buck reared up again. Daniels was in danger of being stepped on or kicked by Buck’s hind legs.

Two rifle shots rang out. Looking between Buck’s legs Daniels saw the two Zoms fall. He struggled to either pull himself back up to the saddle or free his foot. Chrissy gasped.

“Three more! No, four…five! I need some help here, Chick!” She fired twice and hit one Zom.

The other four kept getting closer, although cautiously, clearly looking for an opportunity to pounce. Mabel was getting squirrely, dancing and rearing, which threw off Chrissy’s aim. The Zoms spread out to surround the horse and the pony.

“Whaddaya think I’m trying to do?”

Daniels momentarily gave up trying to free himself and drew his gun again. By holding onto the saddle’s flank billet with his right hand, and holding the gun left-handed, he was able to steady himself enough to aim. But Buck’s gyrations made accuracy almost impossible. Still, he had to do something

He fired off four rounds. Three were wild. Did he wing one with the fourth shot? He counted five more shots from Chrissy’s rifle and saw a Zom fall. Her clip was almost empty. He had to do something or they’d be overrun when she stopped to reload or pull her pistol. He still had eleven rounds left in his clip, but he’d be lucky to hit anything. He could only hope to hold them off long enough for Chrissy to reload.

He kept firing until the click of an empty chamber indicated he was out of ammo. Two more pistol shots rang out, followed almost simultaneously by another rifle round. How was she shooting both at once?

Buck stopped heaving and Daniels took the opportunity to unhook his foot from the stirrup and fall to the ground. He tried to stand. His ankle wouldn’t hold his weight. It was badly sprained, if not broken.

Sitting there, he counted five dead Zoms sprawled around them. A man and a woman stood in the road ahead of them. The slender man held a smoking pistol and the woman a blood-covered machete. Clearly the last two pistol shots had come from the man’s gun, not Chrissy’s.

“Hello,” Daniels called out. “Thank you. We owe you our lives.”

He struggled to stand, putting his weight only on his right foot and holding onto Buck’s saddle for support.

“My name is Byron Daniels. My friends call me Chick. This is Chrissy Montoni.”

The other two stood there in silence.

“And your names are?” Daniels prompted.

“Name Jay. She Joanie.”

“Hi, Jay,” Chrissy chipped in. “Hi, Joanie. It’s nice to meet you.”

From behind a big elm tree, out stepped another woman and a small girl.

Chrissy gasped. In a stage whisper, she said, “Chick! That’s the girl! The one I told you about when we were scouting that neighborhood.”

“What are you talking about?” he whispered back.

“The day I said I thought I saw a little girl with a pack of Zoms? Remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, but obviously that was impossible. And even if it was, this couldn’t be the same girl. The other one would have been eaten by now.”

“I know, I know, but it sure looks like her.”

“I’m sorry, folks,” Daniels said, speaking louder. “My friend here is still a little spooked.”

“Are you okay, Mister?” the little girl asked, now that she was closer.

“We’re fine. What’s
your
name?”

“I’m Amanda, and this is Aunt Suzi.”

“Nice to meet you, Amanda, Suzi. I’m Chick and this is Chrissy. So what are the four of you doing walking out here?” He addressed the question to the adults, but Amanda answered.

“Chick. That’s a funny name for a boy! We ‘scaped from the city. The bad golden people kept killing us and we didn’t wanna die.”

“You walked all the way here? That’s a long walk.”

“Oh, we have bikes. I had a Big Wheel until some bad people tried to eat us and we lost it.” She pouted for a moment.

Why was only Amanda speaking?

“Are you folks okay, not hurt?”

“We okay,” Jay said at last.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” said Amanda. “We’re just looking for somewhere to live where the bad people won’t try to kill us.”

The adults continued to stand there, mute.

Daniels glanced at Chrissy. There was definitely something weird going on here. Jay didn’t seem like the brightest crayon in the box, and the two women didn’t seem any smarter. Oddly, they all seemed to take their cues from the little girl.

“Well, if your folks would like to come with us, we have a nice place to live. It’s clean, reasonably safe, and not too far from here.”

Jay and the women looked to Amanda. Weirder and weirder.

“Our bikes are back there.” She pointed down the road behind them. “We’ll be right back!”

She took Suzi’s hand and led her back to where she said the bikes were. Jay and Joanie followed.

The foursome returned on their bikes and wagon. Chrissy and Daniels—gingerly and from the wrong side of the horse, so he could use his good foot—remounted and set off for home.