Dead Hunger III: The Chatsworth Chronicles (35 page)

Night
fall
had
come and gone
since that horror
, and the new day arrived with a chill. 
T
here was no weather report to watch, but everyone who lived in this area knew it felt like snow.

Reeves stared up at us from his desk.  “I don’t know what happened.  “We’ve had a few days of rain
just before you got here.  A little since
.  Guess it softened up the dirt enough.”

Flex shook his head. 
“
Kev, I tell you, it looked like the rats were burrowing into the graves.  Maybe tunneling.  When they busted through, it was like a flood gate opened.  A fuckin’ dam.”

“You know what you did before we got here, Kev?” said Gem.  “You got groups together and you went out hunting?  You need to do it again.  You need to rig some vehicles – I don’t know, like street sweepers – with different nozzles.  Something that makes the water jet out rather than just spray the ground.”

“Yeah, Gem!” I said.  “Fill that tank with our z-juice and drive it right over the cemetery.”

“Everywhere,” said Dave.  “Keep the windows rolled up and just get on the prowl for the dead fuckers.”

“It’s a good idea,” said Kev.  “We’ve got four of them.  All in good shape.  Just a couple years old.”

“I know this sounds like a Hemp idea,” said Dave, looking at me.  “At least I hope it does.  We need some sort of system for injecting this building’s sprinkler system with that urushiol mix. 
Kind of like a Miracle-Gro sprayer that draws the liquid from the jar as you spray water through it.  It wouldn’t hurt any non-zombies, but once we have it set up, we could just turn it on if they break through the barriers.”

“I tell you what,” said Kev.  “Let’s save that job for when Hemp is back.”  He nodded at me and gave me a reassuring look.  “He’ll know just how to install it, I’ll bet.”

“Oh, don’t worry about keeping him busy, Kev,” I said.  “I’ll give him plenty to do, believe me.”

“I want to help,” said Lisa.  “Gem, you want to drive one of the sweepers?”

Gem shot a quick glanced at Flex, who was already looking at her.  “Absolutely,” she said.  “So will Flex.  We need to go on an eradication mission.”  She turned to Kev.

“
You know, Kev? 
I liked this goddamned town when we drove up.  People walking on the streets like nothing ever happened, shit we hadn’t seen in months.  I want to see it again.
  Hell, wasn’t it only a few days ago?
” 

She turned to Flex and worked her eyebrows, smiling at him. 

He shook his head and laughed.
  “I never worried about you babe,
not really,” he said.  “Beyond trying to get up close and personal with that chick zombie in Hemp’s lab, anyway.”

Gem held up her hands, showing her missing thumb.  “Won’t happen again.  Distance, baby.”

“I’m riding along with you, Gem,” said Lisa.  “Sounds like a good time.”

“You sure?” asked Gem.  “Dave?”

“He’s not my keeper.”

Dave shrugged.  “She can go if she wants.  She’s right.  I’m not.”

“You could be an asshole about it if you wanted to be, and I’d get that, too,” she said to Dave.  “Thanks for not doing that.”

Dave smiled, and said
“
That reminds me. 
Kev,
you knew that
Hemp soaked Gem’s thumb in
urushiol
oil when she got her thumb bitten
,
right?”

“Ye
ah,” said Kev.  “That’s right, but I haven’t really gotten word around.  Good point. 
You know how soon it has to be done?”

“Hemp jumped right on it, so I’d say the sooner the better,” I said.  “We don’t know that it’s a cure-all or a sure thing, but if it even works sometimes, it’s worth taking the time.  Especially for the potential zombie.”

“Okay,” said Lisa.  “I have a question.”

We all looked at her and smiled.  She was very cute and she listened to everything we said with ears that might as well be pricked like a German Shepherd’s.  I didn’t think she missed much.

“Shoot,” said Flex.

“The snow.  The cold.  How cold does it get here, Kev?”

“
This time of year, usually 50s in the daytime and sometimes dipping into freezing at night.  Two more weeks though, and we’ll be looking at snow every time there’s precipitation.”

Lisa looked at us.  “What will cold do to them?  Slow them down?  Anything?”

“Good question,” I said.  “Stop the vapor?  Give ‘em rigor
mortis?  I know who I’d like to ask, damn it.”

Everything reminded me of him now.  Anything I needed to know, I’d ask him.  Hemp would look at me, that twinkle in his eye, that fucking British accent making him sound so damned sexy and smart – and he’d spit out the answer.

“Don’t worry about that yet,” said Reeves.  “We get around four inches in November, but the heavy stuff doesn’t really start falling until December and January.”

“Everyone’s saying that despite your history of snow in late October, it feels like it’s on the way.  I’m hoping it really
messes
with the bastards.”

“And the rat bastards,” said her brother, with a grin.

I had to get back to what was on my mind.

“We have the day ahead of us,” I said.  “If we’re gonna be in for weather, I don’t want to put off going after Hemp any longer.  So tell me the plan.”

“Let’s get this taken care of today,” said Flex.  “Let’s do what we can to make sure this town is safe to bring Hemp
home
to.
  Charlie, you know I’m thinking about him all the time, too.
”

“Sounds logical,
Flex,
but it’s fucked,” I said.  “We don’t know what they’re doing to him.  We don’t even know if he’s alive, or on the verge of death.  You know he’s counting on us.  Right, Gem?  You’ve
both
known him longer than me.”

Gem looked into my eyes, and I knew
both she and Flex
shared my
pain
.  “Charlie, tomorrow.  We’ll go in the morning, early.  We’ll get him back, sweetie.  I think Kev is trying to find someone who can fly one of the planes at the airport.”

“I am, but so far I can’t get
any of
the pilots I know of to leave the city,” said Reeves.  “I understand – they don’t know Hemp, so they don’t have a stake.  Plus, they’re scared.”

“So am I,” I said.  “Really fucking scared for my husband.  I think I’ll pass on the street sweeping.  I’m not in any
mood
to go on patrol.”

“I got it,” said Gem.  “You take the Ford home.  But be careful.”

“Are t
he girls still with the ladies?” I asked.

Vikki, Kimberly and Victoria had volunteered to keep them.  Flex and Gem had made damned sure they had a huge supply of urushiol, and a bottle of it by every door and window.  They might have a gooey mess by the time it was over, but they’d survive.  Plus they knew the rules.

“Yep.  In good hands, probably cringing while the girls play
Fuck Off
.”

“Good,” I said.  “Dave, will you come with me to the house?  You can take the car after if you want to come back and help.  I’m just nervous.  Not sure why.”

“Go home, lock the doors and rest your mind,” said Gem.  “I know it’s been spinning.”

Dave looked at the others.  “Sure, Charlie.  Absolutely.  Guys, I’ll be back over in a bit.  Work out a route for me.”

“Got it,” said Reeves.  “We’ll see you later.

“Be safe, Lisa,”
Dave
said, then slapped his forehead.  “What the hell am I talking about?  You’re riding with Gem.  Never mind.”

They laughed as Dave and I headed out.

I felt bad lying to them. 

****

The others left and we kept our radios on in case something happened on the way.  I saw the rats, moving slower than normal rats, but not that much slower, moving in huge groups.  Among them I saw about five very deteriorated zombies staggering, but with the population levels as they were in the city, I couldn’t chance taking them out with the AK on top of the car.  The bullets that didn’t hit their targets might kill innocent people hiding in their homes.

Right now, this town looked as bad as many of the others we’d gone through.

“Punch
Vermont
into that GPS, Dave, would you?”

He stared at me.  I turned to stare back.

“I’m going.  Now.  I can’t wait for them.”

“I knew that,” he said. 

“I think I thought you knew.  Will you come with me?”

“I’m not letting you go the fuck alone, Cha
rlie, b
ut this
is a crappy
idea. 
Tomorrow’s not that long
.  Can’t you wait?”

I shook my head.  “Not another second, Dave.  I want to go to the house, grab more urushiol and my stuff.  I might be gone a while.”

“Well, I’m glad my shit’s there, too,” he said.  “But I’m leaving a note.”

“It’s not like you have to,” I said.  “They’ll know instantly where we went.”

“Either way. 
And t
he town
we
want is
Shelburne.” 

He tapped in the city-to-city directions, and the display said it was 157 miles, two hours and thirty-seven minutes.

“I love the northeast,” I said.  “Everything is so close together.”

“Let’s just hope there’s not a ton of bullshit to deal with along the way,” said Dave. 

I pulled into the driveway and we went inside to pack.

I found some suitcases in the garage.  The house had a lot of supplies, so I guessed whoever had lived here had turned.  Not while they were in the house, because there was no sign of zombie goo or destruction in the home, which is one of the reasons we picked it.

The couple that had lived here were big into
beanie babies, and it was stupid and irritating.  Every shelf, every ledge, every stair had a damned beanie baby sitting there, staring out like little zombies.

Hope they didn’t invest too much.  I kicked fifteen or so of them off the steps as I trotted up with my case.

I passed Dave’s room, and he was stuffing his clothes into a duffel. 

“Don’t forget the Colgate,” I said, smiling.  “I’m bringing my lipstick and Scope.  That’s a big deal, ‘cause I don’t wear that shit, and I want to have it on and fresh breath when I find him.”

“He’d take you in a burlap sack with a head full of lice, I’d bet,” Dave laughed.  “Hurry up.  I’m going to change my mind.”

“No you won’t,” she said.  “Because you know I’ll go anyway.”

“You would,” he said.  “Yes, you would.”

We were out the door in ten more minutes.  We lifted the garage door and took two five-gallon cans of gasoline out to the car and filled it up.  Dave grabbed one of the hand-crank fuel pumps along with twelve feet of extension hose, and I took a third 5-gallon can and
we put all of it
in the trunk along with the empty
gas cans
. 

Dave walked around to the trunk.  He leaned over and pulled a Daewoo and an HK MP-5 from the trunk.

I stopped him.  “No.  That’s Hemp’s.  He’ll want it.”

Dave looked at me and nodded.  “
I know that.  I’m putting them inside the car.  The K-7’s for me, and I’m expecting Hemp will want his gun back when we find him.
  I’ll
grab some more magazines for them
.”

He went back into the garage and dug in a shallow plastic bin.  “These them?”

I knew them well.  They were identical to the ones Gem and I carried to the edge of the woods
near Flex’s place
when
he
and Hemp were surrounded by zombies.  “That’s them,” I answered.
  “Grab about twenty boxes of ammo.”

“
We e
xpecting a fight?” he asked?

“Always, I said.”

“Ready?”

I hopped in the driver’s seat and popped the magazine from the AK mounted on the roof.  It was full.  I slammed it back home.

“Yep.”

I fired the engine of Gem’s baby, and put the car in reverse.  As I backed out and accelerated along the path of the GPS, I asked, “You write the note?”

“I did,” Dave answered.

“What did you say?”

“I said I’m sorry, but Charlie needs me.  I said I was going to bring back the other halves of their souls.  You and Hemp.”

I looked at Dave, with his long hair and kinky beard, and his twinkling eyes and a smile that did the same. I realized that had I not met and fallen in love with Hemp, this is a guy I’d have given a shot.