Apocalypse Z (A Zombie Novel) (21 page)

“But haven’t you been giving her some medication for her headaches? Could that have helped with the pain?”

Sheryl and Lisa looked at each other, then Lisa said to Mark, “Sheryl hasn’t been giving her pain medication. Jet has been taking birth control medication.”

Mark looked even more confused. “Do you mean her and Jeff…”

Lisa quickly said, “No, but Jet has been considering it. I do need to add that she’s never been with anybody that way before and it’s a pretty big step for her, but she hasn’t said anything to Jeff about it yet.”

He looked at Sheryl and she nodded; then he asked, “Do you think those pills could have had anything to do with this? Or maybe it was a combination of that and the antibiotic Tami gave her?”

Sheryl shrugged. “I can’t say for sure, but I doubt it. If she has been infected, she should have turned by now. The most plausible thing I can think of is she’s somehow immune to the virus.” She turned to Lisa, “Didn’t you say her parents were bitten? What happened to them?”

Lisa sighed. “They were, but I don’t know. They said they didn’t want to become zombies and hurt anyone. Jet doesn’t know this part, but after they dropped her off, they went some place took their own lives.”

Mark asked, “So you’re saying she might be immune?”

“That’s the only reason I can think of. With any pandemic such as this, there always seems to be a very small percentage of the population who is immune to it. I guess it’s nature’s way of preserving the species.”

He thought before he said, “That might be true, but I don’t know. I’d feel better if we gave it another day, just to make sure.”

Lisa said to Mark, “About the medication she’s been taking, please don’t say anything to her or Jeff. Let her be the one to tell him about it when she’s ready.”

Mark nodded. They went back to Jet and told her they thought she might be immune, but were giving it another day. She understood and asked for a mirror so she could see what was happening to her. Lisa brought her one from the bathroom and held it up in front of her. When she looked into her own eyes, she gasped. There was a thin blue-white ring around her pupil that gently feathered into her brown iris.

She said, “Oh my gawd, what happened to my eyes?”

Jeff put his hand on hers. “You know, I think it’s kinda hot in a way.”

She glanced at him and then back to the mirror. “Really?” He nodded. With a nervous smile, she said, “I guess it does look kinda cool.”

Mark said, “But you will still have to wear the ties until we feel it’s safe to remove them. And that kissing rule still applies until I decide otherwise.”

Over the rest of that day and night, the blue-white feathering continued to slowly reach out until it nearly covered one quarter of her iris. The next morning, Mark untied the belts holding her wrists and ankles and set them aside. The first thing she did was to hug Jeff. Mark said, “Hugs are okay, but remember, the kissing rule still applies.”

“But I’m immune,” she said.

“You are, but my brother’s not. I just want to make sure all those zombie cooties are dead before you do anything like that. I think I’d feel better about it if you waited at least a couple more days.”

She said to Jeff, “Your brother’s right. Besides, I couldn’t live with myself if I infected you.”

Mark picked up his pack. “Okay, we’re still without transportation, so let’s start walkin’ before that stench outside kills us.”

On the way out the door, Amy asked him how far it was to the next town. Mark said it was about twelve miles, and if they hurried, they could make it there before it got dark. They walked all day up and down through the mountains, stopping only twice for a break. An hour before sunset, they looked down on a small community in a valley.

Mark said they could either go down there now to find a house for the night, or sleep there and go down in the morning. Amy and Dedee pointed out they didn’t push themselves all day just to look at it and sleep on rocks. Lisa laughed and told them he was only kidding and they would have a soft bed to sleep in tonight.

They hurried down the hill and stopped at a house just outside of town. Jeff and Jet went in to check it out while everyone else waited outside. Jet was excited and she felt good about being back in action. In the entryway, they found two blue tennis shoes with the owner’s feet still inside them. There was a bloody handprint smeared on the wall, spatter all over the gray tile floor, and a large blood trail going across the carpet over to tan couch in the living room.

They slowly worked their way over to the couch. They found a head face-down on it, but they couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. The face had been eaten off, the top of the head had been pulled apart, and the brain was missing. On a blood-soaked cushion next to it was a lady’s hand. Jet noticed the long fingernail on the index finger had been broken off and she figured it probably happened as she fought for her life.

They noticed there were some bloody footprints going from the couch into the kitchen. When they checked it out, they found part of a thigh on the linoleum floor in front of the sink. Devouring the fleshy ruminants on the bone, were several hundred large roaches that looked to be about two inches long.

Jet shuttered. “Ewwww!” She immediately said, “We need to check another house. I can deal with zombies and dead bodies, but I hate roaches. They give me the creeps and I’m not spending the night in this house with them running around and crawling all over my body.”

“Okay, let’s go out and tell Mark we’re movin’ to the next house.”

Jet went right up to Mark and told him. He gave her a strange look, but said they would check out the next house. Jet and Jeff went in again. The first thing Jet did, was check the couch and kitchen. As they went through every room in the house, she moved items around and checked in the cabinets and drawers for any signs of insect life. Once they were through, everyone came in and selected a comfortable spot to sleep for the night.

XV

Amy and Dedee ate and quickly slipped into a big soft bed. Tami and Sheryl checked on Jet, and then talked for a while, but they too went to bed early.

Jeff sat on the floor with his back against the couch. Jet sat on his lap, facing him. This time, she was the one helping him eat. She giggled as a piece meatloaf fell from the fork and rolled down his chin. He caught it before it his shirt and fed it to her. They both smiled at each other as she chewed it. She started to lean in and kiss him, but she caught herself and stopped. She said, “Just a couple more days.”

Lisa watched as Mark lay on the bed looking at the map. He said, “So close, yet so far. If we had transportation, we could be there in about a day or so.”

“We’ll find something. If not, it shouldn’t be much longer anyways.”

“No, we’re close, but once we get to the sawmill it’s still a six mile hike up into the mountains. The trail can be a major pain in the ass, but at least the zombies won’t be able to get up there.”

“If it’s so remote, how’d your grandfather build it?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. He built it a long time before I was born and I never bothered to ask. To me, it’s always been there and that’s all I really know.”

“Maybe we’ll find something tomorrow. I know it has taken way longer than what you expected, but I think some things have turned out pretty good.”

He put the map to the side and moved closer to her. “I know you’re right about that.” He leaned in for a kiss.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lisa woke up and heard an engine and screeching tires off in the distance. She woke Mark and he listened, he quickly got dressed and grabbed his gear. “I think we better check this out.”

Mark opened the front door and heard Jeff say, “Hang on, bro. We’re coming with you.” Jet and Jeff joined them and they started toward the noise. They had to kill a few of zombies on the way, but made it to what looked like the center of town. They saw two guys, about sixteen, in a big red four-wheel drive pickup, driving around an oval shaped park. One of them was in the back with a baseball bat and they heard him yell, “Go for the one in the blue shirt.”

The truck drove toward it, and when it passed, the guy in the back swung the bat. He hit the zombie in the shoulder and spun it around as the arm flew off, and the zombie fell. The driver yelled, “Single, advance to first base.”

“No way! That was a double!”

“Nope, single is all you get.”

“Fine! Then that means all my bases are loaded.” He looked around, “Hey, go for the one in the red t-shirt”

The truck drove toward it. As it passed, the guy in the back swung. The bat made a metallic ping when it hit. The zombies head flew off, breaking into pieces as it sailed through the air. “Grand-fuckin-slam!” he cried out, and held his arms up in the air as he yelled, “Woooo whooooo! Yeah!”

As the truck passed them, the driver hit the brakes and the guy in the back slammed against the back of the cab. He yelled out as he fell into the bed of the truck, “What the hell, asshole?”

“Dude! We got people here.”

The driver got out. The one in the back jumped out and asked with a smile, “Where do I enlist?”

Mark asked, “What?”

“You know, enlist. I want to serve with her.” He pointed to Lisa.

She rolled her eyes as she shook her head. “We’re not Army.”

“Oh, are you responding to one of my web posts?”

“No, we’re just passing through.” Then he asked, “You have internet?”

“Not now, I did have before the power went out. I posted about this place and I had a bunch or replies saying they’d be coming. We’ve been here waiting for them to show up.”

He started to take a step toward Mark. As he did, Mark and Lisa both put their hand on their pistols. He stopped and said, “No, the bat’s not a weapon. We’re just paying a little zombie baseball.” And he set it down on the sidewalk. “By the way, I’m Mitch, and this is my friend Joe.”

Mark said, “I’m Mark. This is Lisa, my brother Jeff, and that’s Jet.”

They both waved, then jumped back when Jet looked at them. Mitch said, “Whoa—shit! What happened to your eyes?”

Jet just stared at him without answering the question, then she asked, “Know where a girl can get a pair of shades around here?”

Joe pointed to some stores behind him. “Yeah, right over there.”

They followed them across the street to a sunglasses store. Jet tried on several pairs before she found one with sleek black frames and a darker tinted lens. They fit nicely and both she and Jeff liked them. As they walked out, Mitch offered them a ride back to the house and they gladly accepted.

Once they were there, they all went inside and Lisa introduced them to everyone else. Mitch immediately smiled at Dedee as he said, “I can see pretty runs in the family.” Dedee blushed and returned a shy smile. Lisa cut the conversation short and offered him a seat at the table. Dedee pulled out a chair and sat down across from him while Joe sat at the end.

Mitch told them about his web posts on all the social networking sites and that about twenty people had responded to them, but Joe was the only one who had shown up so far. Mark told them about his grandfather’s cabin in Washington. Both Mitch and Joe sounded interested, but said they were still waiting for more people to show up and needed to stay in the area for a little while longer.

Mitch also told Mark about an RV rental place in town and said he may use one of them to come up and visit some time. Mark’s ears perked up and he asked more about it. Mitch said it was in a zombie-infested part of town and it was kinda dangerous to go into. He offered to take them to the edge of it, but until the zombie population thinned out a little more, he wasn’t going in.

No one wasted anytime packing up and they were ready to go in less than ten minutes. Mitch drove them back to where they had first met and headed west from there. After driving five more blocks, he stopped and got out. Pointing north, he said to Mark, “Walk six blocks north, and then make a left. Go another four blocks and you’ll see it on the right hand side of the road. If you go to the back entrance, there’s a gate that has a weak latch, just give it a good kick and the gate will open.”

Mark waited for everyone to get out and said to Mitch, “Thanks, if you guys ever get tired of this place, there’s plenty of zombie-free mountains and RV parking where we’re going.”

Mitch nodded and replied, “Be very careful. The zombies around here are mean, nasty, and pretty fast. Believe me, you’re gonna need those guns and a fast aim. Good luck and I hope to see you again someday soon.” He smiled at Dedee and said, “Especially you.” He got back into the truck and waved at them as he drove off.

Mark checked his magazines, pulled two extras out of his pack, and put them in his back pocket. Lisa and Jeff did the same, and Dedee made sure her shotgun was loaded and ready. She opened a box of shells and stuffed a bunch of them in her front pockets so she could get to them fast if she needed to. Jet took off her glasses and put them in her pack, out of the way. Amy, Tami, and Sheryl all nodded when they were ready.

They walked down the middle of the street. Mark figured if something was to jump out or lunge at them, this would give them a few more seconds of response time. The first two blocks were quiet; there was no movement or sound. Halfway through the third block, one came at them from out of an auto parts store. Mark did a quick point and shoot. The bullet impacted the chest, a little blowback spattering on the road. Its feet flew up into the air and it landed on its back with a mushy thud.

They had only taken a few more steps, when two more came running at them from the left. Lisa fired once and hit one of them in the head. Dedee caught the other one in the abdomen and tore it in half with the buckshot. Intestines, a kidney, and part of the liver flew back and splattered on the storefront wall behind it. The top part sailed back a little, while the legs took another couple of steps forward before falling to the ground.

At the same time, two more came from behind. Tami hit one, and the left side of its face caved in. Jet swung at a downward angle and opened the other one up from the left shoulder to the right hip. As it separated, nearly liquefied vital organs poured out from it like chunky maple syrup onto the street.