Dead and Dead Again: Kansas City Quarantine (11 page)

“Ok. What’s wrong?”

“You remember that crazy plan
Scooter had for the end of the world?”

“Of course. He gave us a ten page
handbook on it and made me memorize it and put it in the safe.”

“Right. That’s it,” she sniffled.
“No questions. There’s no time. You need to get that handbook and follow it right
now.”

“What?”

“It’s happening. You have to get
out of town right now. Grab mom and get all the things he says in the pamphlet
to get. But don’t waste time. Just grab anything you can get from the house.
Don’t stop anywhere and don’t delay for anything or anyone. Fill up your tank
when you get fifty miles away. Just get on the highway and keep going.”

Her dad laughed. “Oh, honey. Is
this another of Tripper’s little jokes? You know I don’t like that guy.”

“It’s not a joke, Dad.”

“Look, honey, I can’t just take
off, I have work—”

“—you’re a writer. You’re
self-employed.”

“True, but I still have to stay on
a schedule.”

“You were just saying yesterday
that you wanted to take some time off before you edit this last book.”

“Well, yes, but—”

“—go daddy. Get out! Get out! Get
out!” she screeched, before Lucy put her hand over her mouth to shush her.

“They might hear you,” she
cautioned quietly in her ear.

Lola nodded and returned to the
conversation with her dad. “I have to know that you and mom are safe,” she
whispered.

“You’re really serious.”

“Yes. If you and mom don’t get out
of town now, you’re going to die. Please believe me.”

“Ok. Ok. We can take a few days off
to humor you. But what about you? You don’t think I’m going to leave my little
girl here while I go hide somewhere, do you?”

“It’s too late for me,” she
blubbered. “It’s all around me. I’m already in the middle of it. I wish I
wasn’t. Oh God, I wish I was there with you, but I’m not. I’m here, right in
the middle of the end of everything.”

“The middle of what, honey?”

“I told you there’s no time, Daddy!
You have to go.”

“Tell me where you are and I’ll
come pick you up.”

“What part of ‘in the middle of it’
don’t you understand? You can’t come here. You can’t save me this time. It’s
happening right here and will be coming your way.”

“Lolita Letitia Jones, you tell me
what’s going on right now,” demanded her father forcefully.

“It’s bad, daddy. I can’t. I can’t
even explain it. I don’t understand it. But it’s happening.”

“Just tell me.”

“You’d never believe me.”

“I’ll believe you. I promise.”

“Do you love me?”

“Of course I love you, baby, but—”

“—do you trust me?”

“You know your mother and I both
trust you.”

“Then go. I’ll be ok. Scooter’s
nearby and he’s coming to get me. He’s already in this too. Just get in the car
and go!” she screeched. “Promise me you’ll go?” she pleaded, holding back her
tears.

“Ok. If Calvin is going to be
there, we’ll do as you say. We’ll get in the car and go. I’m sure you just want
to have a party here or something—”

“—you know that’s not it. You’re
wasting time, Daddy. Get out. Get as far away as you can as fast as you can. You
have to go now, before it’s too late. I love you. And tell mom I love her,
too.”

“We love you too, honey.” “I love
you, sweetie!” she heard her mom yell. She must have stuck her head up to her
father’s ear when she heard the tenseness in his voice.

“I love you, Mom! Make him go! You
have to get out of town now. No delays.”

“Fine,” her father said after some
whispered discussion between the two of them off the phone. “But when you or
Scooter get to a radio, I want you to tell me exactly what’s going on. I’ll
send a radio transmission when we get to Calvin’s uncle’s. I forget his name.”

“Thank you, daddy.”

“For what, baby?”

“For believing me,” she whispered.

“Always, honey. Always. Besides. I
needed a reason to get out of the house and your mom has had the car packed for
a week and we have an open invitation to the castle. I’ve always wanted to
check it out.”

She tried to laugh through her
tears but only ended up choking. “Bye daddy.”

“Bye honey.”

She clicked the red ‘end’ button and
let the tears burst forth.

“What did you do that for?” Lucy
demanded in as loud a hissed whisper as she could manage. “Scooter’s not
coming. Why didn’t you tell him what’s going on and where we are?”

“Because…he…he would have come…to
get us,” Lola cried between sobs.

“I
know
!” Lucy hissed. “We
need
someone to come and get us!”

“Not my dad.”

“Why not? You said your dad can get
you out of anything.”

“Those guys were big and muscular
and every one of them died trying to save us,” Lola whimpered. “I don’t want my
daddy trying to come through that. He has to get out. Scooter or Athena will
answer eventually, and they’ll come get us.”

“So you want Scooter dead?”

“No. Scooter will find a way to get
us out. He’s the best.”

“Look, I love the guy, too, but do
you really think your ex-boyfriend is going to go out of his way to come get
you instead of getting his
new
girlfriend ‘the goddess’ someplace safe?”

“You know Scooter’s not like that.”

“I know he’s a nice guy. I already
said he’s awesome, but no one is going to come get us except for family. I
don’t have any family anymore, so your dad’s our last chance.”

“I told you, Scooter will come.
He’ll come, or he’ll send someone who can help us. One way or another, Scooter
will save us.”

“How can you put so much trust in
any man?”

“I’m just sorry you’ve had such bad
luck with them. If you really knew Calvin you’d understand.”

“But he dumped you. We hate him
right now.”

“We don’t hate him. He didn’t dump
me. We had…irreconcilable differences. And it was
my
fault.”

“But you said—”

“—I know what I said. I lied. It
was
my
fault. Something happened to me and I never told him and he could
sense it and got the wrong idea and I just let it get out of control and…oh my
God, it’s all gone now!”

“Hey, hey. It’s going to be all
right. We’re safe for now.” Lucy pulled her friend into a loving embrace.

“I was raped,” Lola whispered into
her ear.

“What?”

“Someone raped me.”

“What?” Lucy practically screamed.

“It was when me and Calvin were
dating. I was hanging out with this guy when Calvin was out of town. I had a
few drinks, but I didn’t think it was enough to do anything…I woke up with this
guy doing all of these things to me. I tried to stop him, but I couldn’t
control myself. I mean, I wasn’t completely out of control. I was aware of what
we were doing, but I couldn’t say no to anything. He asked if it was ok, and
took pictures and filmed me and I said and did things I didn’t really want to.
Oh my God, I’m so ashamed,” she cried as Lucy pulled her tighter, hugging her
fiercely.

“You think he Ruffied you?”

Lola nodded in her friend’s embrace.

“It was Brick, wasn’t it?” Lucy
demanded angrily.

“I can’t say.”

“You don’t have to. That bastard’s
eyes haven’t left me for weeks.”

“I can’t say who, Lucy. I just
can’t. I’m not ready yet.”

“I just get the willies every time
I’m around him. And as good-looking as he is, that shouldn’t happen. I always
knew there was something off about him. So that’s why you and Scooter broke up?
This guy date-raped you?”

“Yes. I couldn’t tell Calvin. I
mean, what was I doing out with him anyway, right? I’ve got a boyfriend. I’m
supposed to only go out with other people, not single guys. And…the man said
he’d show everyone the pictures and…and the video if I ever told anyone. He
managed to keep his face out of all of the footage, I guess. But now that the
end of the world is here, that doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Then tell me who it was,” Lucy
insisted.

“When it’s my turn, like those
people down there, maybe, or when we can do something about it,” she promised.

“We’re not going to die, Lola. Like
you said, Calvin and Tripper will rescue us. And you can tell Calvin why you
changed, and maybe he’ll take you back.”

“That can’t happen now. Scooter
Loves Athena. And so do I, and so do you. She knows how awesome he is. They’ll
never break up.”

“I know. I was just trying to make
you feel better.”

“No, you’re right. Thank you. I
feel better. I’m glad I got that out. Now all we have to do is wait.”

“But look at them down there,” Lucy
murmured. “How can anyone get in here through all of that?”

They continued to watch people
eating people and others bashing in skulls of those who were trying to bite
their family or friends. Someone had set a few of the floats on fire and a
group was throwing bodies of moving, moaning dead people on the fires to try
and get them to stay down. The potent stench of burning flesh floated up to them
making both women gag. Gunshots now rang out in every direction at random
intervals and heavy smoke wafted through the crisp morning air.

“Why won’t they stay down?”

“They’re undead now,” Lucy
explained.

“What?”

“Zombies.”

“Oh my God.”

“Look over there. The only way to
kill them is to hit them in the head like those guys are doing.”

They watched the tight group of
eight guys and four women with various rods, boards and one guy with a barber’s
pole fighting their way east towards the free-parking streets escorting a group
of children in the middle of their pack.

“I hope they make it,” Lucy
muttered.

“We should have gone with them,”
Lola whispered.

“We can still go. Let’s go with
them,” Lucy said, grabbing her friend.

“No. We’ll never get there from
here. We wait for Scooter.”

“We can’t wait for help that may not
come. We have to take care of ourselves.”

“We have to wait for Calvin or Trip
or Athena or Sarah to call.”

“No. We can’t trust anyone else to
get us out of this. You can’t trust people, Lola. You saw what happened. That
one guy just ran.”

“That was a total stranger. We can
count on our friends. They’re always ready to help. Remember when I had to
move? They were all there with less than a day’s notice.”

“This isn’t a moving party or a
barn-raising, Lola. This is the fucking apocalypse. We should have left with a
strong group like that bunch there.”

“No one was making any kind of
stand when we were down there. We did the right thing at the time. No regrets.”

“No regrets,” Lola agreed with a
sigh.

“Zombies are for real….” Lucy shook
her head and her eyes dropped with tears forming in each corner. “You know…I’ll
never understand you people with families.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…If you were my daughter,
and you’d called me and told me this story and told me to get out of town…I’d
never have believed you. I’d be calling your psychiatrist and telling him to
send a wagon to pick you up.”

Lola looked long and hard at her
old friend. “You’ve
got
family, Lucy,” she squeezed her fingers between
both of Lucy’s soft brown hands, part of her busy brain noticing how fabulous
both sets of nails looked with the alternating colors and logos of the Chiefs,
Royals, and SKC Wizards—because they will
always
be the Wizards.

“
We’re
your family,” she
continued. “I thought you knew that? And Calvin “Scooter” Hobbes is the father
figure of our group. He always has been, and he always will be. He’s
level-headed and people listen to him. He’ll find a way to get on top of this.
And he’d never let any of us die without at least
trying
to save us.”

“You know. I almost believe that,”
Lucy admitted, a glimmer of hope shining in the corner of one almond mocha eye.

“Well, just to prove it. Who was
the first person you suggested we call?”

Lucy blushed. “Scooter.”

“And you said,
he’ll know what
to do
.”

“That’s just because…I…I don’t know
why…”

“It’s because you know he’s the one
you can trust not to let you down.”

“Maybe.”

“Plus he knows Athena could never
respect him if he didn’t at least try.”

“
That
I believe. But,
still…I find it hard to believe in anyone. You know that.”

“I can’t believe you don’t know
this already, Lucy. I told you, you can believe in our friends. They’re
awesome. I mean. Look at me. I was the prom queen my last two years of High
School.
And
I was president of our sorority. You really think I’d hang
around with geeks like Gus and Joel if I didn’t trust them with my life?”

“I thought it was just because you
were using them to get your secret geek RPG cravings out of your system on the
weekends.”

“That too.” Now it was Lola’s turn
to blush. “And you’re not supposed to mention that to anyone.”

“I don’t think anyone is going to
overhear us up here,” Lucy glanced around.

“Still, better safe than sorry. I
have a reputation to uphold.”

“It’s ok. I keep telling you, geek
is chic.”

Lola laughed. “Maybe. But
I’m
telling
you
, they’ll be here.”

Ding
. Lucy’s text messaging
alert went off. “It’s Sarah.”

“What does it say?” Lola asked,
hope shining in her eyes as she wiped away the tears and sat up.

“It says, we know what’s going on.
Stay where you are if it’s safe. Don’t get bit. Zombies. Just like the movies. Follow
the rules. Head shots seem to work. Scooter is coming to save us. We’re making
plans. Will come get you when we can.”

“I told you.”

“Whatever,” Lucy rolled her eyes,
but she couldn’t keep the tears of relief from falling freely now and she
doubled over and grabbed her friend’s shoulders again in a tight hug.