End of the Line (Book 2): Stuck in the Middle (18 page)

             
I didn’t mind.

             
He looked down. “I can’t believe I lost my grip—”

             
“Don’t blame yourself—“ Felicia said but her voice was still dull and emotionless.

             
Manny stripped not caring if anyone saw him. I wanted to look but didn’t. Gwen hung his clothes near the fireplace. He placed the blanket around his body but the shivering got worse. He needed some real clothes.

             
It wasn’t that dark and that would give us time to check other houses. Who knew if Manny’s clothes would be dry by tomorrow and who would want to wear clothes washed in seawater?

             
“Gwen and I can check the other houses for clothes. How about it?”

             
Manny didn’t respond. He looked tired and cold.

             
“It’s no problem. I could do for a change myself.” The cuffs of my jeans were still soaked. I ignored that for now because they were hitting my boots not my skin.

             
“If you promise to come back alive.”

             
“We will.”

             
“You want me to come?” Dave asked.

             
I shook my head. “You stay here and keep an eye on the others. We won’t stray too far.” I took the gun from the pocket of my coat. “Here Manny.” I noticed that he didn’t have the sidearm anymore. I assume it was either in the pack he left on top of the car or lost in the water.

             
“You keep it,” he said, shivering. “I keep losing them.” Then he laughed to try to break the tension.

             
“I suck at shooting, better with a crowbar.” Manny took the gun, but with no clothes, he put it on a coffee table.

             
“You should try Tanya first,” Dave suggested.

             
I pulled the radio from my pack and turned it on. It crackled to life. I’ve been careful to keep it off when not in use.

             
“Care bear to Papa Smurf come in?” The beep indicated it had transmitted, but when I released the talk button I heard nothing. Part of me panicked thinking they were all dead, but I knew I was out of range. 

             
“We need to get closer. I’ll try tomorrow at the marina.”

              Gwen put on her jacket and pack. I did the same even though mine was still damp. We left the house, a two story Tudor with faded white paint and went right to the next one. It was still windy but the rain had died down.

             
The next one also a Tudor, with chipped white paint, smelled horrific as soon as we opened the door.

             
“Can we skip it please? I know we’ll probably have to use a house with bodies but it smells like a lot of people died here.”

             
I was with her. I have seen my share of dead bodies, it doesn’t make any less nauseous.

             
The next house was smaller but not as bad as the others. On the second floor we found three bedrooms. A dead woman was in a small bedroom, so we put a blanket over her and closed the door. We went into the master bedroom. The bed was made but dusty. Dead flowers decayed on the nightstand. I opened the drawer to find clothes for both Manny and me. Manny was only a few inches taller and had a similar build. I lucked out and found two unopened pairs of medium men’s underwear. Should fit us.

             
“Do you like Manny,” Gwen asked. She was sorting through women’s clothing.

             
“Why? Do you think he’s gay?” I hadn’t thought about it other than the fact he was good looking.

             
“Maybe.”

             
“Whether he is or not, I barely know him.”

             
“Like you and Eric?”

             
The boat had no secrets. I never told them that Grace shot Eric’s mother but they all seemed to know.

             
“Eric and I are over once we get to Harbor.”

             
“I’m sorry.”

             
I smiled. “It’s okay. I gave up my baggage and he can’t or won’t.”

             
“Sad,” she pulled a frilly dress out of the closet to change the subject. “Is it me?”

             
Considering Gwen’s love for jeans and tee-shirts, it wasn’t. “Not even close.”

             
We were interrupted by the sound of something walking outside. Judging by the shuffling footsteps, it was a zombie.

             
“Damn,” she said. I looked at the window to spot it. I was surprised to see it was a young one. Gwen stood next to me peering out. The look of fear on her face hadn’t changed from the first time she saw one up close.

             
“Should I get these clothes to Manny so he can help?”

             
“No, the poor guy is freezing. I can take it out.”

             
“It’s a young one, harder.” Glad to hear she was learning but that didn’t actually mean doing.

             
“Yes, but I took out the young one before. I can do it again. Most of the people bitten by zombies are taken by surprise.” I didn’t know if that was true but most everyone I knew who had died of a zombie bite had been surprised by one.

             
“I’ll help.”

             
I liked Gwen but was ready to peg her like most of the camp people. She had spent the last two years hiding at Orient Beach. “You sure?”

             
Her dark face fell. “No, but what the fuck. We have to get rid of all of them.”

             
I put the clean clothes in my pack and pulled out the crowbar. Gwen had a tire iron.

             
“They aren’t as deadly as when in packs, but I’m only seeing the one here. They aren’t smart. One of us has to be the bait, attract its attention, while the other has to hit it in the head.”

             
Gwen had a look on her face between pondering and fear, finally she said: “Both sound like they suck.”

             
“They do.”

             
“I’ll try the bait now. Maybe I can move on to hitter later.”

             
“If you get scared you can always run away. Come on,” I said, taking her hand. We went down the stairs, out the door and to the back of the house where the zombie wandered. The houses all had connecting backyards, some fenced in, some not and some fences had fallen.

             
The rain had turned into a misty drizzle. I saw him looking around the backyard. He probably smelled the living. I studied him before I put the plan into action. He wore a gunbelt but I didn’t see any gun. He was bloodied but everything else looked freshly dead. His glazed over dead eyes looked at nothing. We knew so little about what made them tick. Did any of their senses still work or were they stronger than before? I only knew their moaning brought others and that they only cared about getting to human flesh.

             
“What do I do?” Gwen asked.

             
“Get him to focus on you as far as possible. Give me time to hit.”

             
“Sounds easy.”

             
“Most of the time it is. But sometimes they can surprise you.”

             
“I hate surprises.” I didn’t either. Even before. Cam loved surprising me but not always with things I wanted. He loved practical jokes and enjoyed pulling them on me. His favorite had been calling me on a throwaway cell he had gotten from a job, breathing heavily then ringing the doorbell and running away. I panicked when I saw no one worried that I was about to become a victim of gay bashing. I almost called the police but Cam called back this time making ghost sounds. We had been dating a year, hadn’t started living together and almost broke up over that. He thought I overreacted but at least he stopped.             

She walked a little ways away from me and gave herself a wide berth before trying to get in the zombie’s line of vision.

              “Hey asshole!” she yelled. She waved her arms and jumped. The thing looked up, seemed excited over a warm body and walked towards her. “Look at me, I’m a delicious human.”

             
I tiptoed behind it. It focused solely on Gwen. It was now about two feet away from me and four from her. Gwen moved backwards, trying to keep the thing out of reach.

             
I got behind it and whacked him hard on the head. Instead of going down, he spun around, and made a grab for me, but whacked me with his hand instead. I got knocked to the ground and dropped my crowbar to break the fall.

             
Now the attention was on me. The zombie didn’t change expressions. His mouth opened allowing black goo to come out as it moaned.

             
“Shit,” I said and tried to back up. I reached around for the crowbar but didn’t find it.

             
“Jim!” Gwen screamed. She began running towards me, but had no weapon to stop it. It was closing in on me. I tried to shuffle back further. Where the hell was that fucking crowbar?

             
A moment later his head exploded. I moved out of the way so it wouldn’t fall on me. It collapsed into a heap inches away.

             
I looked up figuring I would see Manny with a gun but instead I saw a white woman with short black hair holding a rifle.

             
“Hello,” I said. Gwen looked at her. The woman’s dark eyes widened into saucers. She turned around and ran like a rabbit to the street.

             
“Hey!” I repeated. “We aren’t here for trouble.” I stood up and tried to chase her but by the time I got to the street she was gone.

              I told the others what happened as I gave Manny the clothes. He wanted to search for the woman but his teeth were still chattering.

             
“Bad idea,” Dave said. “A million hiding spots. She saved Jim but she doesn’t want anything to do with us.” I agreed for now. That woman took off faster than a feral cat. I don’t know if she thought we were someone else or just wanted to do a good deed. I didn’t care about the reason because she had saved me. 

Manny didn’t argue. He looked cold and tired.

Manny took the clothes and went upstairs, about ten minutes later, he came down dressed. The jeans were a little long but he had rolled them up and the tee was a little big, but he could still move around without a problem and they showed off his muscular arms which I liked.

             
“It’s freezing upstairs,” he explained. “There are three bedrooms but only the master one has a fireplace. It does have a king size so three people should be able to sleep comfortably. We should gather some things to burn.”

             
The women got the bed not because the men were chauvinistic but because of Felicia’s age and Rose being old fashion and not wanting to sleep in a bed with a man who wasn’t her husband. Although Paul rolled his eyes when she said that indicating she was fibbing. 

             
The living room had a large sectional including two recliners at each end. Dave took one of the recliners while Paul took the other. Manny and I shared the middle. I took first watch, Paul would take the second. I would call Tanya at dawn and see when they could come get us.

             
It felt nice to be next to Manny and I hoped Gwen’s feelings were spot on. I didn’t plan to make any move until we were settled at Harbor and Eric and I had fully moved on. Even though Manny may not even be gay. I heard Manny’s teeth chattering.

             
“You still cold?”

             
“Yes, a little,” he said. He pulled the blanket closer to his body. “That cold swim didn’t do me any favors.” he looked down. “I wish I got to Millie.”

             
“You tried.”

             
“It’s probably nice and toasty upstairs with all that body heat and a closed door,” he said, changing the subject.

             
The living room opened into other rooms so we couldn’t do much other than keep the fire going. If I had time I might have put up some sheets, but I don’t think it would have mattered for one night.

             
“Want me to get you another blanket?”

             
“If you think you can find one. That would be great.”

             
I grabbed a flashlight, the clean clothes from the other house and headed upstairs.

             
It was freezing. I hoped that the girls were okay. I went into the first bedroom and stripped the blanket from the bed. The room had books. I flashed my light on them and grabbed two at random. I didn’t know what time Tanya would be getting us, and I wanted something to do. Also I hoped to start a library and community space. I know I’m moving forward too fast, but the idea of organizing a new town excited me. For a few brief moments took my mind off Cam, my mother, and my sisters. I thought about Lori who was the youngest, the baby. She lived in Seattle with her husband Scott. Dad knew she and Scott had died because they had the flu which had a 100 percent kill rate. I knew two people who never got the zombie virus but never met anyone who survived the flu.