DEAD: Reborn (33 page)

“If it wasn’t for Juan arriving when he did,” April finally spoke over the murmurs, “then I would be dead. He came just in the nick of time. As it was, we barely had the chance to say much before we were on the run from a huge pack of those things…”

J
uan didn’t wait to hear the rest of what she said. They made eye contact briefly. April gave him a tight-lipped smile and nod which he returned before taking Mackenzie’s hand and making his way through the crowd. Tigah seemed to realize that his people were gone and scrambled through in pursuit.

***

The darkness was absolute. Lying in her bed, Mel could hear the soft snores of her husband and the not so soft sounds of Glenn. Twice she heard Cynthia wake him and have him roll over on his side. It seemed he was on his back once again.

She put her hand in front of her face and marveled at how she could not see a thing even when she touched her nose. The dark heavy clouds had rolled in just after they finished the eve
ning meal. That would mean it was going to be a very dark night. When the clouds came, the world—or at least the part that she and the others were in under that cloud cover—was shrouded in a darkness unlike anything that she had ever experienced.

Her mind drifted back to those early days when they were still holding out hope that things would right themselves. She still remembered the day the power went out for the last time. They had been in places where power had gone out before, but they had still found a few places where it had not failed. The last place was a town called
Sterling, Colorado.

They had pulled off the freeway with a convoy of other v
ehicles. A huge sign announced that Sterling was open and safe. Of course there was an armed group of citizens manning the entrance and a processing center where doctors inspected everybody, but it seemed a small price to pay for what felt like relative safety, along with hot water and electricity.

Large parks were open for RVs and the entire town had a great feeling of peace and calm. Construction was already at work on building a wall around the town using all available men and resources. Things were going fine until the power went down. It happened in the middle of the night. A sudden silence seemed to fall as all of the power equipment that was in use died simultaneously. The next morning, people were already leaving in the hopes that they would be able to find someplace else where the power was still on.

The four of them had debated for several hours about whether or not to stay. The consensus had been that they all believed the power would be out every place else and that this community seemed to be on the right track to being safe and secure.

When the military convoy arrived three days later, ever
ything changed. The commander of that group met with the mayor of town and a few hours later, an announcement was made that the military was assuming control of the city’s operations. Everybody would be required to work. None of them had a problem with that and went to sign up. Apparently, some others were not as cooperative.

A small riot erupted when a group of protestors were o
rdered to disperse. One of those protestors got the bright idea to hurl something at the soldiers. Apparently the rules had changed because the soldiers did not even hesitate to open fire on the crowd.

The four had a second discussion that evening and decided to accept the military’s assurance that all citizens who did not wish to stay would be free to go. The main idea behind leaving came down to the idea that if this military outfit could turn on protestors so quickly—none of them could agree that a hurled rock should be answered with bullets—it was probably not a good sign of things to come.

More than once that winter, as they scraped and fought to survive, each of them wondered if they had made a rash decision. If not for a month of one blizzard after the other preventing them from doing anything or going anyplace, they probably would have gone back.

At that moment, Mel was wondering if maybe it would not be a terrible idea to turn back
now. Their original reason to return to Palm Springs was with the hope that their friends and family would still be there. After what they’d seen, not to mention the fact that a year had passed, none of them held any real hope that there would be much of anything left should they make it.

Kyle stirred beside her and she reached over to touch him. Her mind mulled over what Glenn had shared after he’d gone to escort Ann to where she could clean up and change.
Cynthia had taken it far better than she would have if it had been Kyle. When the woman returned clean and wearing a set of loose-fitting sweats…nobody had said a word. Kyle had gone and changed after making sure to tell Mel to keep the woman away so he could have his privacy.

They sat down a little while later to eat and it was Ann as
king them all sorts of questions. “Where are you from?” “How have you managed to keep the baby safe?” “Where are you headed?” “Have you seen any other survivors?” Glenn had spent the entire meal staring at his plate and not speaking, but Cynthia did not appear bothered in the least.

After dinner, the woman had never been much more than a few feet away from Xander. Xander didn’t seem to mind all the new attention and more than once, Ann was on the floor playing with him and his toys. She could not say why exactly, but it had Mel uneasy the entire time. She watched, and while this strange woman seemed to smile and coo and treat her son well, there was just…something.

It didn’t help that the woman had donned a pair of very dark sunglasses. Of course it seemed reasonable on the surface. That missing eye and the scar did not look appealing and would have probably scared the baby. Still, she hated not being able to see the woman’s eyes. She was just certain that, if she could, she would eventually see past what she knew was a façade of pleasantry.

With a sigh, Mel closed her eyes. She needed to get some sleep. They were going to scout the area again tomorrow for any supplies.
Cynthia would be staying behind because of the injury to her leg. And that was the other thing; they had never found the person responsible. Somebody was out there and they were dangerous.

Letting the sounds of the others f
low over her, Mel sought peace so she could fall asleep. She was trying to clear her mind when a thought hit her…hard.

She’d heard everybody. She knew all their night sounds as well as she knew their voices. But there had been something missing: the baby! Not only that, but she did not hear anything unusual. That meant she was not hearing Ann.

Leaping to her feet, Mel reached for the hammock with a feeling of dread. She could see nothing, but she already knew what she would find.

Xander was gone.

***

Chad was on his feet and sprinting across the park before Dustin realized what was happening.
Scrambling up and after the man, Dustin made it about half way before his pace began to slow. He had no idea what Chad was planning, but it was clear that the two of them would not stand a chance against so many of the cursed abominations.

Pausing, he looked skyward. “God, I have no idea what your plan is in all this. Maybe we just got too big for our britches. In any case, I just want to ask you real quick for some sort of help. What I am about to do is likely going to lead to my death. I know that I am a sinner, and I pray that your promises of fo
rgiveness are real. I commit my soul to you here and ask that, if I must die here and now, please make it a quick death.”

He took off after Chad a
t a full sprint which, for a man of his size was not too terribly fast. As he saw Chad now within a dozen or so yards from the trailing end of the zombie mob, he quickly added, “And please watch over my friend…Amen.”

Just as Chad slammed into the first small cluster of zombies, the front door to the house flew open and a girl stepped out onto the porch. Dustin instantly recognized Chad’s daughter. She was holding her arms out at each side and screaming at the top of her lungs. Dustin felt his heart sink. They had been too late; blood poured down both arms and could be seen even from this di
stance dripping off in rivulets.

For Chad, the scene became almost draped in a haze and moved in slow motion. It was as if he could see every single drop of blood that came from his daughter’s arms. Each one seemed suspended in the air for a moment before plummeting to earth with an audible splat that he could feel and hear despite the improbability. The moans and cries of the undead were muted and only Ronni’s scream pierced his senses.

Chad hit the first zombies like a truck. His blade cut away the left third of the head. He crashed into a group of four and went to the ground in a jumble but simply rolled and came back up to his feet. The crowd between him and his daughter was about twenty deep. The rational voice in his mind told him he would never reach her in time. He silenced it and slashed wildly.

Up on the porch, Ronni was moving away from the stairs as zombies stumbled up in pursuit. Her eyes met those of her f
ather’s and she mouthed the words “I’m sorry, Daddy…I’m so sorry” just as hands clutched at her and she was pulled down by a group of five.

Dustin launched himself at the rear of the zombie hoard sending bodies every which way. The zombies’ lack of coord
ination worked in his favor and several fell like a twisted parody of dominoes. Chad snapped to his senses enough to realize that an opening had been cleared for the most part. He charged into that opening.

A few zombies remained between him and his dau
ghter. Her scream of pain drove him forward with unnatural speed and strength. At some point, he’d lost his weapons and now resorted to grabbing bodies and tossing them aside. Meanwhile, Dustin had regained his feet and charged through the closed front door of the home. Screams of terror came from within, but Chad heard only the cries of his daughter and grabbed the last two zombies that were on top of her by the tops of their heads. He slammed them together and hurled them over the porch railing where they landed on the gathered crowd like inept stage divers.

“Daddy!” a little girl’s voice sobbed.

Chad looked down and felt his heart disintegrate. His daughter was covered in blood and filth. Her eyes were shiny with tears; the deep brown almost looking golden as the sun hit her face. He knelt and took her hands in his. With a single motion, he scooped her into his arms and turned.

Zombies were regaining their feet and those that had not been knocked over were trying to climb over their downed co
mrades. Chad made for the open front door of the house. He took two steps when he stumbled just a bit and came to an awkward halt. He looked down at his daughter who was still staring up at him through the tears.

Her eyes.

They were normal!

***

“I don’t think we will ever know what happened,” George said in a whisper.

Jody had already made it clear that he could not handle a noise much louder than that the moment his eyes opened and Selina squealed with delight and relief. He had hugged her back once he had been able to take his hands from his temples.

“Why kill his entire crew and burn the place to the ground?” Selina repeated what Kat was signing from beside Jody’s bed where neither woman had moved from except for quick bathroom breaks for the past several days.

“And who were all the bikers?”
Danny added.

The discussion was one that would run in circles for the next several days. The entire time, Danny mulled over and sifted through everything that he’d seen after cutting the head off of Remar Jenks.

He had pulled Jody from the burning home and been relieved to discover his friend was alive. He had backtracked to an old farm house just up the road a short distance. After making sure that the place was clear, he had returned to the now fully engulfed development. Many of the houses were starting to collapse and that is how he discovered the motorcycles. There had been a dozen bikes parked in the southwest corner of the development under a copse of trees that were now in the process of becoming giant candles.

Gauging the situation and hoping his guess was right, Da
nny rushed in and checked the first chopper he came to. Throwing his leg over, he kick started the hog and roared out with flames seeming to chase him all the way through the open entry gate and back onto the road.

He sat across the road for a few hours while the place co
ntinued to burn and waited to see if anybody came out. Other than the few zombies that managed to stumble out in varying stages of being burnt to a crisp, nothing stirred from within the inferno. Danny had not even noticed the approaching clouds until the first rain drops fell on his head.

He remained on his vigil until the storm broke open with a fury that actually made it almost impossible to see more than a few yards because of the torrential rain. Coupled with the smoke that now came in hissing protest, there was no reason to remain.

He returned to where he had left Danny propped up in a musty, moldy, mildewed bed. He watched over his friend and tried repeatedly to rouse him with no luck.

The rain continued well into the night. Danny kept his vigil; alternating between checking on Jody and making sure that not
hing nasty was coming for them in the dilapidated farm house. The next morning, he rode the chopper back to Cash. Jody was still out of it and he’d had to rig it so that they were basically tied together. He knew it was extremely dangerous, but he also knew that he could not carry the man on his back the eight or ten miles they needed to go.