Dead Hunger V: The Road To California (41 page)

“No, that’s right,” said Bug.  “But I always thought the need for this place would be because of a government out of control – not these God-forsaken creatures that are somewhere between alive and dead tryin’ to kill everyone.”

“David,” said Hemp, “how much urushiol do you have left?  Of the canisters we sent you off with?”

“Only like an eighth of a canister,” I said.

“Is there any poison ivy or oak in that area?”

“Russell said there was,” said Nelson.

“Hell yes, there is,” came Bug’s voice.  “I see it on my surveillance cameras.   Lots of it around.”

“David, then you have to –” Hemp began.

The voice cut off mid-sentence.

Nelson tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at the radio.  “You’re done, dude,” he said.  The dark meters now read a frequency of zero.

“Shit.”

“If we make a push to get inside,” said Nelson, “I think we need to have as much poison ivy with us as we can carry.  I think that’s where Hemp was going.”

“And Bug can use his modified brewing equipment to extract it.”

“Exactly, dude,” said Nelson.  He pulled a pipe from his shirt pocket, lit it with a Bic lighter and took a big hit.  He held his breath and stared at me, smoke leaking from his nostrils.

“We need to try our regular radios,” I said.  “We won’t get Hemp, but we might get Bug.”

*****

The operation was not going to be simple, and now that we had confirmed – in the vaguest terms – that there were other survivors with Bug, we now needed to figure out how to rescue them as well.

I turned on one of the cheap handheld radios and started on channel 9.  I went up the list and on 19, I got a response.

“Dave?” the voice came?

“Uncle Bug!  Thank God,” I said.

“We’ll see what God has to do with it when this is all done.  Davey, for now I need to know your end game.”

I sat there in stunned silence, everyone ready to roll and all of it for this man on the other end of my walkie. 

Finally, I was able to address his comment:  “End game?  The goddamned end game has always been to come and see if my uncle was alive.  You.  You
are
my end game.”

“I figured that, Davey, and I appreciate it.  I thought about you a long time over the last few months.  Figured you probably knew I was immune to this urushiol shit from me showin’ off with the poison ivy when you were a kid.”

“You learned about it from Hemp’s radio broadcasts?”

“Yep.  Problem was, I never let you get into the shit, so I didn’t know if you were immune or not.”

“Well, apparently it’s one of those good hereditary things,” I said.  “We need to come in.  If we can clear the door, will you open it?”

“I can open that one.  I’ll do it for you.”

“What do you mean, you can open
that
one?”

“You’ll understand when you get inside.”

“Me and some friends.  We’re going to need brainpower to figure out the rest of this.”

“The rest of what?”

“I want you to come back to Whitmire with us.”

“Where the hell is
Whitmire
?”

“South Carolina.  Nice place,” I said.

“Fuckin’ South Carolina?”

“Yeah.”

“What in God’s name for?” he asked.

“If I told you, you’d probably tell me you’re just fine here.”

“So, there’s no reason?”

“You’re family.  That’s reason enough,” I said.  “See?  You’d rather put all this planning you did to use than be with me – your damned family.”

“Wait a fuckin’ minute, Davey.  I want to remind you that I love you, kid.  You were my first nephew, and as it turns out, my only nephew.    I love Lisa, but her dad and I ain’t brothers.”

“Lisa’s dead,” I said.

“Oh, shit.  I’m sorry, Davey.  Real sorry.”

“Yeah,” I said.  “I’m a bit short on family these days, so if you don’t mind a whole lot, can I at least see you and find out what our options are?”

“It ain’t pretty, Davey.  I can get you in, like I said.  If you can clear away that bunch that’s been camped out here for about eleven months now.”

“Everybody’s going to put their radios on channel 19,” I said.  “Please, keep yours on, and if you come up with anything that will help, just feel free to chime in.”

Once we put the word out and everyone in the camp pitched in, we ended up with four large garbage bags filled with poison ivy leaves and stems.  We rolled them very tightly, compacting them as much as possible.  Everything we needed or thought we would need was thrown into the helicopter.  We intended to fly it to the closest point to Bug’s place and unload there. 

We met again in the large cabin.  Everyone was there, including all the girls.  Most were half awake.

“Is anyone going with me?” asked Lola.  “Not that I need company,” she said.  “I was on my own for quite a while, you know.”

“We know you can take care of yourself, Lola,” said Serena.  “That said, you’re carrying out a dangerous part of this.  I think someone needs to be with you in case things go wrong.”

“You mean in case they actually catch me?”

“Exactly, dudette,” said Nelson.  “I’ll go with you, ‘cause you’re not going to be on WAT-5.  You’ll need some backup.”

“Nelson, I need you with us,” I said.  “And we need Rachel available to fly the helicopter if necessary.”

“I’ll go,” said Russell.  “Maddie’s taken care of the girls by herself plenty.  I’ll go with Lola.  In fact, I know where you want us, so we can take a trail I know about up there and practically beat the helicopter.  We’ll take one of the golf carts.  Fully fueled and ready to go.”

“Will it maneuver the trail?” asked Lola.

“Absolutely.  I’ve done it a hundred times, hunting.  With the trailer, which we’ll leave behind.”

“Okay,” said Maddie.  “But only if he’s on the WAT-5 stuff.  Period, end of story.”

I looked at Maddie, and while there was worry in her eyes, she nodded at me.  Russell had been watching her, too. 

“Thank you, Maddie,” he said.

“Be careful,” she said, unsmiling.

“I’ll let Bug know when we’re airborne,” I said.  “Make sure he’s monitoring channel 19 and he’s ready to open the door when we get it cleared.”

*****

After dousing with WAT-5 – we used all but the powdered residue in the bottom of the baggie and even gave the last red-eye wafer to Lola just in case – we shook off the cobwebs from our mini-naps and got going.  Lola and Russell took off well ahead of us.  I had warned Russell about Lola’s connection with the red-eyes, and how if she began to say strange words, to keep his weapon ready and his eyes on her.  I stressed that unless any irrational actions ensued, she was fine and could be fully trusted.

Lola would not take one of the AR-15s, but she agreed to take a Ruger .22 caliber revolver that carried ten rounds, plus her trusty blade.  Naturally, she wore her running shoes, and as we lifted off in the chopper – me, Rachel at the controls, Serena, Nelson and Albert, we flew overhead and were all amused to see Lola running alongside the cart while Russell drove, almost already at their destination.

His head was turned as though he were saying something to her, so we figured he was trying to convince her to get in the damned cart and preserve her energy.

He didn’t know how much energy that girl had.

Rachel set the Eurocopter down on the road near the trail to Bug’s place just as Lola and Russell emerged from the trail and into the middle of Interstate 5 about a quarter of a mile south of us.  We waved to them, and they waved back.

“Everybody grab a bag of poison ivy,” I said.  “If we each take one, it should be a breeze.”

“You’re a skinny dude,” said Albert.  “I’ll carry yours, Nelson.”

“Awesome, bro,” said Nelson.  “Be careful.  It’s more valuable than weed these days.”

“That it may very well be,” I said.  I pressed the button on my radio,  “Uncle Bug.  You copy?”

“I read,” he said almost instantly.  “You in position yet?”

“No, no,” I said, “Not yet.  But we’re ready to take the trail from I-5 to your place.  Your cameras on?”

“They will be.  I’ll cycle them on in ten minutes for a quick scan.  I’m conserving gen power a bit more these days.  When you get there, the trail up here is to the left of the garage.  Be careful.  That place was swamped last I looked.”

“We cleared it out yesterday.  Verify it when you look and let us know if anything’s changed.”

“Got it,” he said.

“Okay, when you get eyes on the exterior of the main door up there, let me know if our plan’s working,” I said.

“How will I know?”

“You’ll know,” I said.

“Okay.  Over and out.”

“Later,” I said.

“We’re almost there,” said Lola, over the radio.

“Okay,” said Rachel.  “Lola, you can start any time.  We’re about to make our way up the trail, and we’re going to push it.”

“Got it,” she said.  “I’ll start now.”

“Good,” said Rachel.  “I think it’ll be a good idea to give your radio to Russell so he can keep us updated.”

“Wish me luck,” said Lola.

“Check in and let us know when you know it’s working,” said Russell, a moment later.

Ten minutes later the radio clicked.  “Davey, come in!” said my uncle.

I grabbed my radio.  “What is it?”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re doing, but there are fewer freaks out there now.”

“How many fewer?”

“Hard to tell, but they’re all looking to the south, like they’re waiting to go.  I’d guess right now there’s forty fewer than before.”

“Holy shit,” I said.

“Keep doin’ what you’re doin’,” he said.

“Got it.”

“Over and out,” said Bug.

“Russell, come in,” I said. 

“I heard all that,” said Russell.  “And we can see them now.  Lola’s standing on this big rock, just staring up the trail.  That whole line of them you said were heading up the hill?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “So she’s calling the red-eyes?”

“She’s not making any noise, but yeah – I assume that’s what she’s doing.  They’re coming.  Looks like all of them.  I’m freaking out a bit, to be honest.  You sure this shit works?”

“On the regular rotters, yeah,” I said.  “Move when you have to.  Keep them moving toward you, but don’t get cornered.  Watch behind you, too.  I know I don’t have to tell you because you live here, but I don’t need you falling into a creek or a canyon.”

“I’m thinking it’s time to get in the golf cart and drive a bit farther.  We’ll let you know.”

We reached the huge bay doors on Bug’s lower level they were still clear.  Just piles of bones and the fresher bodies of those creatures we had killed.  Flies avoided the putrid, rotting corpses, making me wonder what was different within the meat itself.

“There’s the trail,” said Serena.  “Bug said it’d be just to the left of the garage.”

“Let’s double time,” said Nelson, breaking into a jog.  Hauling our guns and bags of poison ivy, we all followed, keeping pace.  Albert brought up the rear, and I could tell he was laboring.

The surrounding woods were eerily empty.  No animals, no walking dead.  The trail ahead was spooky in its emptiness, the trees creating a shadowy canopy over the narrow, leaf strewn trail.  With a decent night’s rest under our belts, we all had adequate energy to make good time.

“Stop for a sec,” I called out, trying to project enough for everyone to hear me despite my lack of breath. 

Rachel, who had passed Nelson even with her shorter legs, slowed to a stop, then leaned down to put her hands on both knees and catch her breath.  She then withdrew a bottle of water, took a drink and passed it around to the others.

Albert drank long and hard.

I pushed the button on my radio.  “Bug,” I said.  “We’re at the fork in the trail.  The first one.  Is that where we cut right?”

“No, man” said Bug.  “Second  fork.  The second one.  It’s a bigger trail.  You take that fucker there, it leads right off a goddamned cliff.”

I looked around at the others.  They all nodded.  I smiled.

However, it was that awkward moment when only I knew that I almost didn’t make that call and just told everyone to cut right at the first fork.  I didn’t know how far the drop off was, or what was at the bottom of it, but we might have lost Rachel – not to mention Nelson, who was right on her tail.

For that brief moment, I questioned everything.  The plan.  My competence.  My fucking intelligence.

“David, let’s go,” said Serena. 

“Fine, but I lead,” I said, jogging past Rachel and taking the first position on the trail.  If anything was going wrong, it would be me who took the fall.

Literally, if necessary.