DEAD: Confrontation (5 page)

“I saw one of them, Kevin,”
his mother whispered. “Missus James…she is in her backyard. At first I thought she was gardening or something, but she was following after that yipping little rodent of a dog that she owns. I was upstairs in my room and looked out the window. She…trapped it…”

His mother went silent for a second, but he could still hear her breathing. He would let her get this out. Maybe then she would accept the harsh reality.

“She caught it on the porch and tore it open with her teeth, Kevin. And that little dog yelped and howled…but nobody came. Now…now they are
both
out there in the yard! Walking around. That little dog is dragging itself by its front legs.”

Kevin filed that
thought away. He was a little surprised to hear that whatever this was, it was jumping species. Of course this was no ordinary virus or disease, so what he knew from the movies was really just a lot of supposition.

“Mom, let her bring the Barbie, but you two get out of there within the hour. You hear me?”

“And when are you going to join us?”

Kevin had hoped that she wouldn’t actually ask him that question. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he wasn’t co
ming. She wouldn’t understand.

“Mom…this is something that I have spent my life prepa
ring for. I can help. I need to be able to do something and make a difference,” he lied.

“Wait…what? Are you saying that you aren’t coming?” his mother asked, her voice
growing just a bit shrill.

“I said I can’t come right away. Besides, the government might get a handle on this in a few weeks…months at the most—”

“Months!” his mother exploded. “Kevin, you can’t expect me to just take Sara out into the middle of nowhere without knowing what has happened to you.”

“Mom…if anybody has a shot at making it through this…I do.” He wasn’t used to bragging, especially to his mother. Tal
king trash to his friends during one of their marathon
Halo
sessions was one thing. Real life was an entirely different matter.

“And what am I supposed to do?” his mother said.

It took a moment, but he finally realized that his mother was actually
asking
him. She had no idea what to do. For a moment, he considered scrapping his plan. Actually he had a series of plans. Each one was based on his evaluation of just how serious he believed the situation to be. If he felt there was any chance that things would recover, he planned on fortifying his location and riding it out. The extreme scenario involved a run for a sparsely populated part of the country—he had chosen South Dakota, but that didn’t seem likely at the moment.

“Get all the food you can load into the car and leave now. Once you get on the road,
Sara won’t care. She will be too busy pointing out cows and trees and pretty water,” Kevin said.

He remembered the first time that he took his
sister for a drive. At first, she drove him crazy. Then, it slowly dawned on him that she really hadn’t been anywhere. His mother, while she loved her daughter, seemed reluctant to take the girl anyplace public. The world was a wondrous place to his little sister.

“I don’t know if I can do this, Kevin.”

“Mom…I know you’re scared, but if you are considering staying at home, just look outside at Missus James…and her dog.”

“
I am going to load the car. Will you talk to your sister while I do?”

He glanced around his apartment. As far as he could see, it was ready if he decided to stay. There were a few things he still needed to take to his car in case he changed his mind, but that was simply
the last resort. The only reason he’d taken anything down this early when he was still very much doubting that the “Final Option” scenario would be coming in to play was because it was simply his nature to prepare for the worst case.

“Fine…put her on,” Kevin agreed.

“Kevvy?” She must have been standing there beside their mother the entire time for as fast as she came on the line.

“So…are you ready to go to the cabin?” Kevin’s voice i
mmediately changed. The only person he ever spoke to with any real warmth was his sister.

“Can I bring my Barbie?”

“Yep.”

There was a squeal of happiness on the other end. That was probably the one aspect of his
sister that he had grown so fond of…her complete lack of an emotional filter. If she liked something, she was a bundle of squeals and giggles. Conversely, if she didn’t like something…be prepared to duck.

“So I need you to help me with something,” Kevin said. “I want you to keep a close eye on Mom and make sure that she is okay.”

“Is she sick?”

“No…but—” he started, struggling to come up with the right words.

“Is she gonna turn into one of those monsters like on television or in Missus James’ yard?”

“You shouldn’t be watching the television,” Kevin snapped.

“But I was looking for my toons,” she protested.

“Toons won’t be on for a while,” Kevin insisted. “You stay away from television, okay? For me?” He hated pulling out the secret weapon, but things were going to be rough enough on her without those images stuck in her head.

He had been stunned to realize just how much she absorbed. He’d taken her to see a few movies over the years, but when he’d taken her to see
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
(Mike had been working the box office and not said a word when he showed up at the window with a seven-year-old Sara dressed like Magenta) and she had pointed out that the man who answered the door to Frank’s castle was the same man from the wedding, his jaw almost snapped it dropped so hard.

“How did he get to the castle so fast, Kevvy?”

At first he’d had no idea what she was talking about, then he realized that she was talking about Riff Raff. There were other examples, but that was always the one that stuck with him. His sister might have Down’s, but she had an eye for details that he never could figure out.

“Okay…no more television. But when my toons come back, can I watch them again?” she asked.

“Huh?” Kevin shook his head. “Oh…yeah.”

Just then, the sound of breaking glass sounded, followed by his mother’s scream. A wave of fear battled with the nausea that hit him in the gut.

“Miss James is trying to get in the kitchen win—” Sara started, but the phone was yanked away.

“We’re leaving now, Kevin. Try to get to us as soon as you can.”

Those were the last words he heard from his mother or sister. He spent the rest of the day checking and re-checking his set up. He was pretty convinced that he could hold out for at least a month if it came to it. The third floor wasn’t ideal, but since each building was self-contained with a flight of stairs that split it in half—four units on each side of the stairwell with a U-shaped walkway that allowed the residents to come up and turn left or right to their front door—it would be easy to defend if things didn’t get out of hand.

He was in a chat room with his three friends when the a
nnouncement came. Of course, they’d already seen enough on television by then for him to make the call, but that announcement sealed the deal.

“…the president has declared a state of martial law
that goes in to effect immediately. He urges Americans to locate the closest FEMA center and report there immediately. Local governments have been given the task to activate full emergency resource protocols. Your local stations should have the information scrolling within the hour. As soon as day breaks in your area, you should be prepared to move immediately. Military, National Guard, and local law enforcement will be deploying to facilitate evacuations if possible.

“Please be advised that martial law will be in effect from sunset to sunrise from this point forward. Any citizens seen out will be considered to be infected
or engaged in looting and considered a threat. Deadly force has been authorized…”

The talking head droned on, but Kevin had heard all that he needed to hear. He hammered away on his keyboard. At first there was some hesitation as he laid out his full plan, but event
ually the guys came around. Of course it helped when Mike and Cary had to put one of those things down themselves.

He and Darrin haggled over the best location to meet up. Darrin wanted to meet out by the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, but Kevin insisted that they meet in a location central to where they lived. The more they were out running around on their own, the more likely they were to run into pro
blems.

Once it was agreed that
they all meet at Trashmore Park, Kevin went into overdrive getting ready to leave. He brought up Map Quest on his computer and sought the closest pawn shop in relation to his house. He had never actually gone in to one before, but he figured that would be the easiest nut to crack this early into the zombie apocalypse. He was amazed at how many there were within just a few blocks of his place.

He figured that they simply blended in with the landscape. If you didn’t actually need one, you likely never realized they were there. However, once you were aware, it was like you tripped over one every time you turned around.

He found a cluster of five within a quarter mile of his house that were also on the way to the rendezvous. He glanced outside and realized that he still had a few hours until sunrise. The sound of a single gunshot broke the stillness a moment after he shut off the television. He waited for another, but it didn’t come. That was when it struck him.

Had he told his mother to bring the guns? He couldn’t r
emember. And as chaotic as it had gotten on her end, he wondered if the thought even occurred to her. He tried the number, but it went straight to voicemail. He had to rely on hope and the fact that his mother sounded as if she was starting to understand the situation at the end when Missus James had shown up at the window.
He
was ready, although he didn’t actually have any real firepower. He cursed himself for the hundredth time about that one.

He had a good assortment of medieval weaponry that he’d acquired over the years; most of it was even functional. Howe
ver, he had always put off purchasing a gun. He had an idea of what he wanted. Heck, he’d even gone to the shooting range with an acquaintance who served in the Navy. The guy would go to sea and Kevin would watch his place. In exchange, the guy usually brought back a few trinkets and he always took Kevin shooting.

Each time the
y went shooting, they would stop in the gun shop. The first time he saw some of the price tags, he almost had a heart attack. He’d had no idea that guns were so expensive.

Well…he would remedy that situation tonight. He had kept his scanner on and quickly figured out that. Martial
law or no, the police had too much on their hands right now to worry about break-in alarms. To add to the woes of the local police department, apparently there were quite a few “no shows” at the last shift change. Obviously the men and women who had been working the past few days knew that it was bad; worse than what television was saying.

At some point he had wandered out
onto his porch. From there, he could see four fires flickering in the night. On the street that ran past his apartment complex a lone figure was staggering past. He couldn’t see it too well, but when it passed under the street light, his suspicions were confirmed.

He was about to go inside when some movement directly down below caught his eye. Between his car and his upstairs neighbor’s something shifted. Kevin reached back and felt for the light switch. He flipped it and his living room went dark.

It took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust. Once they did, he felt a brief surge of nausea threaten to squeeze the contents of his stomach. There was no mistaking the long, slender leg that jutted out from between the two cars.

It was the rest of the picture that he had trouble putting t
ogether. His neighbor was busy feasting on some poor sap. That meant that, at some point, she had become infected and turned. That part was easy. However, he was really curious as to why she was wearing an emerald green teddy with what looked like black feathers trimming the top, thigh-high fishnet stockings, and one stiletto heeled pump.

Even more interesting to him was how she could have po
ssibly caught anybody while dressed that way. The shoes would probably be difficult to walk in during the best of circumstances. He couldn’t imagine a zombie trying to walk in stiletto heels.

As he watched, his neighbor
struggled to her knees and then stood. He actually had to stifle a laugh when she took a step and fell with an audible crunch into the dark void between the cars. He wanted to feel bad for her, he really did. But she had never been all that nice to him, and their earlier exchange just hours ago had been the longest he could remember.

Moments
later, the figure of a man—obviously her recent victim/snack—rose and stumbled out from between the cars. His pants were down around his ankles. That brought even more questions, but he simply did not have time to ponder them.