Dead: Siege & Survival (38 page)

“My people,” Aaheru strode to the center of the open dining area and spoke in what he considered his most authoritative voice. “By now, some of you have heard that we have a saboteur in our midst. Somebody in this room tried to disable our engines. That attempt failed as you can clearly see.”

Aaheru watched a few faces in particular. Naturally he had suspicions, and would like to deal with this situation before they reached the islands that dotted the waters of Greece. There were a few that he actually had in mind and had pointed them out to the men that he had tasked with steering the ship.

“Since this coward has not stepped forward, I have decided that nobody shall be allowed outside of their quarters until we reach our destination. Anybody found out by themselves will be tossed over the side. There is to be no exception.”

Once more he looked around the room. Still nothing, but like Markata, eventually this subversive would make their presence known. When that happened, he would perhaps demonstrate with his bare hands why it was he that the gods had chosen to lead Egypt to her new age.

“You may all return to your rooms now, except for you, Ahi, I need a moment.”

The room emptied as everyone did as they were told. Once the room had cleared, Aaheru took a seat and motioned for Ahi and his companion to join him.

“Perhaps you did not realize your position and the opportunity that I afforded you,” Aaheru said with a wolfish smile.

“My apologies, my Pharaoh,” Ahi said. He immediately went on guard. There was something in the large man’s eyes that he did not like.

“No, my friend, perhaps it is I who should apologize for not making myself clear. When I gave you the task of pairing everybody up, I simply anticipated that you would select one of the women.”

“I did not wish to make such an assumption, my Pharaoh. I was not aware that you had selected all of your brides.” Ahi tried to sound casual, but he felt some of those old fears starting to emerge.

“Well feel free to remedy the situation in the next few hours, and as a consolation, perhaps this strong young man might be given the other half of the pairing that you will break.”

Aaheru glanced at the young man and began to realize that something about this person seemed to bother him. He tried to place it. Ahi saw the peculiar look cross Aaheru’s face and spoke out.

“My Pharaoh, this is Nabeh. He is the young man that was bitten but did not fall ill. He fought his way back to us and was granted your permission to remain.”

The connection dawned on Aaheru and he clapped them both on the shoulders. “This is even better. Perhaps you will be able to pass on to your offspring this trait that you possess. That will make us even stronger as Egypt begins to rise from the ashes of the old world to claim this new one.”

With that, the man turned and left the room. After a brief discussion of what they needed to do once they reached land, Ahi and Nabeh settled on a pair of women. Knowing that Aaheru would likely check up on “how things went” the next day, he instructed Nabeh to bed the woman that night. After all, they had already been together, and would be again as soon as the ship reached land.

Ahi followed his own advice and fulfilled his manly obligation to the woman he’d selected. Of course he also introduced her to the Western Civilization’s position known as “doggy style.” Through it all, he was able to imagine Nabeh. It was probably just his imagination combined with his borderline revulsion of sexual intercourse with a woman, but Ahi was feeling just a bit ill.

***

Juan steered the small boat into the cove that Frank had pointed out. They had travelled up the river and gotten way too close to the actual city for Juan’s liking. What he hated even more was being out in the middle of the river. Anybody and everybody for miles around would be able to see them. That would be even more of a problem on the return trip, but one thing at a time.

“So what makes you think this Donna girl would be here?” Juan asked as they aimed the boat for the shore and killed the motor. It wasn’t like they had been silent up to this point, but he figured that it couldn’t hurt.

“Her house is up that hill.” Frank pointed to a rather steep slope that was thick with all sorts of brush and growth that could easily conceal zombies.

“Of course,” Juan grumbled. “But this seems kind of far from where I first ran into you guys.”

“Yeah, but if she is having dreams about her brother, this is the most likely place I can think of to look for her.”

Juan did not like this at all. He saw absolutely no good coming from this little trip. It reminded him of that war movie,
Saving Private Ryan
. Last son or not, it made no sense to send a bunch of people after one guy. So you lose eight or ten and get back one? And it was that Matt Damon guy. How fair was it for Vin Diesel to get killed and for that little panty waste to make it to the end?

The boat ran aground and Juan jumped out. Frank was still sitting and had a look on his face that made Juan pause.

“What?” he finally asked when the youngster remained quiet for several seconds.

“Sorta funny how all of this shakes out,” Frank said in a soft voice just above a whisper.

“Like what?” Juan didn’t have time for a trip down Memory Lane. He would try to find this girl, and if he didn’t, he was going back home. Mackenzie needed him right now and he needed to be there.

“I had this huge crush on Donna, but she didn’t know that I even existed.”

Great
, Juan thought,
we are gonna do this now?
He would give the kid a minute or two, but then it was time to move.

“She used to have this big party every single year at the end of school. It became like a tradition. But after fourth grade, it stopped being this big open event. Only the ‘In’ crowd got invited. I wasn’t on that list. I didn’t play football, I ran cross country. I wasn’t one of the jocks and my folks didn’t have much money, so I didn’t wear the right clothes or have a car.”

Juan leaned against a barren tree and began digging at the grime under his nails with his favorite knife. There was something that Frank was getting to…he hoped.

“I was blown away when she came up to me one day and asked about how to be an Outdoor School counselor. I helped her fill everything out and since I already had an inside track because of being friends with one of the senior counselors, I put in a good word.

“When all of this crap happened, she clung to me like I knew what I was doing. I mean, I’d seen a few zombie movies, but we all know that it never turns out to be like Hollywood, right? The thing is, the night before all of this happened, we kissed after the bonfire. That was the first time I ever kissed a girl that wasn’t a relative.”

“So now you feel like you have to take care of her?” Juan asked.

“Well…kinda…” Frank stammered.

“Here’s the thing, kid,” Juan pushed away from the tree and looked up the hill. “You don’t owe nobody. You have to take care of yourself now. If you can’t handle your own business, then you sure can’t be takin’ on somebody else’s garbage. You follow me?” Frank nodded. “Good, now, we go up, we check, and if she ain’t here, we go back. You want to stay on your own, that’s your call.”

With that, Juan turned and headed up the hill. He was very happy when he reached the top and hadn’t had to deal with a single deader. However, at the top was a whole new set of problems. A chain-link fence greeted him and he would have to walk across about ten feet of wide open ground to reach it. The other option was to move down to where the house actually sat. It had a high brick wall sealing off the back yard. Looking either way, the other houses in sight had the same thing going on. But then he would be in the open when he reached the top of that wall. Which led to the other problem. This once affluent neighborhood was a curious beehive of activity. Zombies walked around in singles or small bunches. This was most peculiar considering that most zombies had wandered off on their own little adventures or whatever zombies had going on.

“It’s the wall,” Frank whispered.

“Huh?” Juan asked as he tried to decide the best way to tell this kid that his friend was screwed nine ways to Sunday if she’d come here.

“This neighborhood had a big brick wall on three sides…and the steep hill and the Cyclone fence is like a fourth wall. You can only get in from one of three main gates.”

Juan looked back and down. He hadn’t realized it was so steep until now. In fact, he felt pretty damn good that he’d made it to the top and not fallen backwards and broke his neck.

“So you are telling me that this place is totally walled off?” Juan asked. That would make sense why the zombies were still here in such big numbers.

“Yeah, everybody here was doing okay in the money department,” Frank said with a dreamy quality in his voice.

“Well a lot of good that did them,” Juan scoffed. “Follow me.”

With that, Juan took off for the brick wall that acted as the fence to the back yard of the house that Frank had indicated was Donna’s. He was up and over so quick that even if a zombie had been waiting on the other side, it would not have had time to react. Fortunately, the yard was empty.

They both had weapons drawn when they scaled the stairs that led up to the raised deck. The sliding glass door was shut. Juan glanced at Frank who shrugged and nodded. Giving a gentle tug, Juan was actually a little surprised to discover it was unlocked. Throwing the curtain aside, Juan stepped in with his arm cocked and ready to take down whatever might be waiting.

He froze in his tracks…arm still in the air. When he was able to shake off the shock, he could only think of one thing to say.

“Tight like a tigah.”

***

The village looked like a picture postcard. Chad and Scott both stopped long enough to look over their shoulders. Steam rolled off their bodies and neither seemed to be able to catch his breath.

The screams had died out several minutes ago, but Chad was almost sure that he could still hear Trina calling his name and begging him not to leave her behind.

The three of them had been actually making good time. They stopped at a small gas station and slept in the cashier’s booth for a few hours when they could simply not go on any longer. It had been Trina that had woken Chad and Scott. Her eyes were wide with fear and all she could do was point.

Chad had peeked over the lip of the counter and the moment he saw them, he knew they were in serious trouble. A few were already almost on them. If they did not leave right this very minute they were screwed. There had to be hundreds coming up the mountain road. The mob was on their heels.

“Grab the skis,” Chad hissed. “We can put them on later, right now we just have to go. This little shack won’t stand a chance, and if they trap us, it’s over.”

There had been no arguments from anybody. The trio had fought their way out the door, having to take on a handful of the leading edge of the zombie herd that had been the reason they’d had to abandon their mission in the first place. Well, everybody except Michael Clark, he had continued on; insisting that he could make the run alone and probably easier without the others to slow him down. Chad had his doubts, but at the moment he didn’t care.

They had been able to outdistance the herd with relative ease once they broke clear. Once they got the skis back on, it was even easier. All had been going well until Trina, who was actually leading the way and had to be asked more than once to slow down—a request she didn’t seem to hear—rounded a corner and ran smack dab into three zombies.

By the time that Chad and Scott had caught up, there was blood on the snow and Trina was shrieking in pain as another chunk of her arm was torn away by a zombie wearing what looked like a brown uniform of some sort. The other two were obviously soldiers. Chad had thought it odd considering that he hadn’t seen a single one since they’d left that FEMA center all those months ago.

Scott had moved forward as if he intended to pull the flailing woman free, but Chad had stopped him. He’d shaken his head and dug his poles into the snow.

“Chad, help!” the woman pleaded.

“She’s done,” Chad said to Scott without so much as glancing back.

After a few minutes, Scott had finally broken the silence. “You don’t think we should have at least put her down?”

“I thought about it,” Chad finally tapped the knife at his belt and answered as they continued to push for their destination. “But I just couldn’t look somebody in the eyes and kill them. At least with a gun you know it is quick.”

That answer seemed to satisfy Scott and they had continued through the day. Finally, they saw the signs and knew they were close. When they reached the outskirts, Chad stopped. At first he admired the idyllic scenery. He knew that it would not be long before hundreds if not thousands of undead converged on this little bastion that had given them all a false sense of security. It was in that moment that he realized that there was no such thing as a safe place.

“So what’s the plan?” Scott asked as the two made their way down the main street.

“I’m grabbing Ronni and I am heading up into the mountains,” Chad said as they came to a stop in front of the hotel they both called home.

“What about everybody else?”

“They aren’t my problem.”

“So you are just going to up and leave?”

“Pretty much.”

“What about me?”

“You are free to join us…Brett, too. But I’m not staying here and waiting for those things to swarm in and trap everybody inside. And with that many, there is no way that we will be able to keep them out. This place is over.”

Scott seemed to consider Chad’s words for a moment before he spoke. “We gonna tell anybody?”

“What do you think happens if we do that?” Chad said in an angry whisper. “These people will want to talk about it. By the time they have come to some hair-brained conclusion, that swarm will be here and it is over. Or…there is a run on the food, it turns into mass chaos, and we all kill each other before the zombies get a chance.”

Once again Scott was quiet. Chad headed inside, but a few seconds later, Scott was by his side. They reached Chad and Ronni’s room and opened the door to find the girl asleep.