Life Among The Dead (Book 2): A Castle Made of Sand (29 page)

The car skids to a stop by the front porch,
and he leaves Eve’s candy on the floor, where it had flown during
his hasty parking job. He has forgotten the very reason he had gone
out. He tells the girl everything he heard on the radio and his
plans in one incoherent stream.

Eve is stunned. From the jumble of words she
discerns the gist. “You want to leave?”

“Yes!” He paces the dining room, unable to
stand still. “But I want you to come too. Then we can have it all.
We’ll be together with more people, and I can play music.”

“I don’t know.” She shakes her head. “I don’t
want to leave my home.”

“You won’t. Not the part you live in,
right?”

“The people who donated my trailer sent my
dad to a special school to learn how to drive the big truck. It’s
very complicated.”

“I can do it,” he tells her. “I’ll drive
slow. According to the map, New Castle is so close.”

Dustin’s eagerness blinds him to the dangers,
as well as the girl’s fears. Eve’s voice falters. “I can’t blame
you for wanting to go, but I can’t. If you do decide to leave,
please promise you’ll visit me. I like taking to you, and without
your help I will die.”

The sorrow in her voice anchors him to
reality, and he questions leaving.
Is
it
worth
it
? They aren’t a couple. Neither has said ‘I love you’ to
the other. Dustin does feel it in his heart, though he isn’t
certain she reciprocates. Lying awake at night he had pondered
whether she is even capable. Perhaps she’s too innocent to love
another being who isn’t family.

Eve quietly dismisses herself from the oval
of glass to gaze out the window that overlooks the grave Dustin had
dug for her father, right next to her mom’s. Together they had seen
the country, but always came home to roost. Though almost literally
a stone’s throw away, New Castle might as well be on the moon. She
sees Dustin pass by her field of vision on his way to the
truck.

##

How
hard
can
it
be
? Dustin thinks, struggling to raise his 5’4” body up into
the semi’s cab. The man who had once driven his family to the Grand
Canyon in this very seat was a much larger man than he is. He finds
himself dwarfed by the massive vehicle, like a child in his
parents’ car. He can’t reach the pedals when seated against the
backrest, so he must scooch forward to the edge just to see over
the hood. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, he is certain
he can do this. He will drive this rig to New Castle and live the
dream.

Behind the trailer that contains his love is
a hitch for towing a car. The height of the setup would be too big
for the travelers to take to the store or even through a
drive-thru. He plans to drag his Camaro like a caboose.

“Dustin,” Eve’s pleading voice emanates from
the walkie-talkie. “Please don’t do this.”

“You’re gonna love it there,” he assures her.
“If not, we can always come back.”

“All my supplies are here.”

“I can come back for anything you need,” he
reasons. “Plus, they may have a doctor. That’d be a good thing,
right?”

“Ok” She agrees with trepidation. “But I
think you should go there first and get…”

All he heard was ‘ok.’ After that one simple
word he was off to get his car to hitch to their ride. His handset
is still in the cab. “…someone from there to come and help you,
Dustin… Dustin?”

“Come in, New Castle.” The radio in Carla’s
office relays these words from someone patrolling beyond the
walls.

“Go ahead, Pete,” Carla says into the
mouthpiece of her headset.

“We have movement,” his voice is a harsh
whisper.

“Where’s your location?”

“I’m on the floor… of my car…”

She doesn’t hear the beep that indicates he’s
released the ‘talk’ button; the tone effectively saves them from
the monotony of saying ‘over’ all the time. Carla becomes as still
as possible as she listens to the man’s jagged breathing and blasts
of intense wind. Between the breaths, she can hear the dead.

From the choir of mournful moans, she knows
the horde is vast. She holds her own breath. All she can do is
listen, and wait for him to come back over the line. She assumes
the man is keeping the button down to prevent her voice from
drawing the zombies upon him.
That’s
good
,
Pete
…
Smart
.

“They’ve passed… There’s just too many of
them. I tried to lure them away, but they kept turning… They’re
coming home.”

The two oval windows attach to the home with
rubber gaskets and tight clamps; they are a part of the trailer
that contains the fragile Eve. The habitat is switched to auxiliary
power, so its life support can draw electricity from the truck when
it is running, and from a combination of solar panels and
generators until an external source can be tapped. The farmhouse is
powered by the dam, as is New Castle. Dustin isn’t concerned.
No
stopping
us
now
.

The grumble of the truck’s engine is a
premature triumph, for he struggles to find first gear before he
slowly pulls away from the house, like a shuttle detaching from a
space station. Dustin has to turn around in the backyard and
navigate the bumpy terrain of the property to get to the road.

Eve is caught off guard. She hadn’t expected
they’d be departing so soon. She fights the jostling to walk
through her traveling home like a person performing the same act
during a tremor. Every step she tries to take lands off its mark
due to the shaking floor.

She finally makes it to one of the seats she
is supposed to strap herself into during travel. She is situated by
one of her windows, but is too scared to look out. She cinches her
straps as tight as possible and closes her eyes just as tight. She
tries to relax and trust the man driving, the man she thinks she
may love.

“Hey,” Oz pops his head into the sheriff
station. “Lunch?”

The troubled look he receives from Carla
tells him they won’t be heading to Slim’s. His girlfriend’s eyes
are haunted, and they desperately hold back tears. “Patrols are
calling in from all over…”

Carla points to a map on the wall. Small pins
have been stuck to indicate the reports. He knows immediately what
these indicate; the dead are migrating too close for comfort.

“They’re coming our way from every direction.
Pete called from the southwest… He just stopped to piss and they
got him. He tried to bait them away from home, but they’re just
hell bent on coming here. They’re locked in on us. He shot
himself.”

“Fuck,” Oz murmurs. “What can I do?”

“I’m pulling back all the cars. I have them
coming in by the eastern bridge, since the dead seem to be thinner
in numbers there. Becka’s still at the station. Can you get
her?”

“Sure thing.” He kisses her cheek. “Relax.
We’ll get through this.”

Oz exits alone and is confronted by countless
eager faces. “Where’s Carla?”

“She’s busy, kids,” he tells his brood sadly.
“Change of plans I’m afraid. I have to go out and get Auntie
Becka.”

They ask if they can come, though they know
they aren’t allowed outside the walls. Oz simply tells them ‘no’ as
he scans the faces of bystanders for one he trusts. “David! I need
you to take the kids.”

The man who had reluctantly taken on partial
guardianship of the children, volunteered by Oz, gets out of his
compact hybrid. “I was actually planning on…”

“This is serious. Please?”

Oz is neither the type of man to say please,
nor is he one to shirk his parental responsibilities. David nods in
agreement, knowing it must be a matter of life or death.

Driving the rig is a lot harder than Dustin
anticipated, and his first attempt at shifting resulted in a
horrendous grinding sound and a stalling of the engine. He keeps it
in first now that the steel snake is winding down the road at a
crawl. Dustin glances at his side mirrors in turn to keep an eye at
the middle segment, his precious cargo. The Camaro can’t even be
seen behind this.

They travel downhill, and Dustin will hang a
right at the bottom then get them on the main road. Then he will
have to look for signs telling him exactly where New Castle is.
Gravity gradually takes control of the throttle, pulling them
faster down the hill.
Good
, Dustin thinks.
The
sooner
we
get
there
the
better
. He allows them to pick up speed, having grown tired
of the much slower pace.

Instead of a smooth application of the brakes
before hitting the bottom, Dustin presses the pedal too hard and
not soon enough. They aren’t stopping. He tries to turn, but
momentum pulls the massive living space he tows out of its hitch
and slams it into the slowing rig. The truck crashes to its side
then slides across the road. All he can do is hold on and wait for
the thing to stop. Without his seatbelt on, he has been bashed
against his door, and now he lays on it.

Sparks of friction light up his ruined rig,
and the screeching steel is maddening within the cab. But it all
ceases as fast as it had begun.

A battered Dustin climbs up to the passenger
side; all he can think about is Eve. The worst of all his physical
ailments is his stomach, and he feels sick over letting the girl
down. He wanted to be her hero, but now he feels three inches
tall.

The scene brings him to tears, the mess he’s
made. Eve’s trailer is trapped on an embankment with its front
tires hanging in the air. He just stares at the enclosure, as if
repeating that he’s sorry will reverse time. With shaky steps, he
approaches the train wreck. He trembles more, nearing the box that
contains the girl of his dreams.
She
must
be
terrified
. He has no way to move it now, no way to help;
she’s trapped inside by her illness. He wipes his eyes and looks
away from the state of the trailer, not wanting to see Eve in the
window, not even for one last time.

The purple car is on the road, seemingly
unscathed. He slides behind its wheel, and what was a caboose is
now a life raft. He turns the key and leaves her behind. Of all the
lines he’s crossed in his life, of all the people he’s wronged and
turned his back on through all of this, Eve is the one that will
haunt him.

“Dead on arrival! Massive hordes are inbound.
I estimate forty five minutes,” Carla reports to Dan.

“I want archers and long range rifles on the
wall. Let’s keep eyes on the distance at all times,” he says, while
helping a group of men move weapons from the gun shop to the back
of a flatbed just outside the police station. “Get all kids and
non-combatants to the school. I want all private paddocks cleared
and the animals ready to roll up the hill.”

“Is that necessary?”

“If the hunger crazed zombies we saw in
Raleigh are any indication, there’s a good chance they’re going to
find a way in. We’ll want to take higher ground.”

“Gotcha!” She rushes off to get the cogs of
the plan moving. En route, Carla speaks into a small radio she
always carries, which is her direct line to her brother. “Sid?”

“What? I’m busy,” he complains on his
end.

“I need you to get your ass up the hill and
get it to the ranch… No, now, Sid! Shit’s going down and I can’t do
my job if I have to worry about you. Yes, you can take your video
games.”

She had watched him drive away. Dustin hadn’t
called on his walkie-talkie or even checked in on her. She has no
idea if he’s coming back. The floor moves like the deck of a boat,
teetering back and forth. Eve unfastens her straps in the dark; her
lights went out once she became disconnected from the truck. Solar
panels are keeping her life support humming, for now. She knows it
won’t be long before the sun goes down.

She could wallow in her predicament,
wondering why she had been left behind, but she chooses to be more
proactive. One of her fictional heroes was in a bubble, and in the
film he had escaped using a homemade suit. Eve knows such a
construction isn’t possible, but she does have a portable
respirator with a full face mask. As long as she doesn’t breathe
the air, and she sanitizes herself completely afterwards, she
thinks she may be able to make it to New Castle. It’s risky, but
her options are limited. The girl knows she could die waiting for
Dustin to return.
If
he
returns
.

The mask is secured so tight it causes her
pain, but she must endure the discomfort since a perfect seal is
essential. A small green tank the size of a thermos will provide
her with four hours of oxygen once she leaves. Before she can
breach the door, she slathers a barrier cream all over her exposed
skin to prevent microbes from entering through her dermis.

“Just one small step for a bubble girl,” she
says to boost her confidence as she opens the airlock. The
antechamber makes a hushing sound when she locks herself between
home and the unknown. Eve hesitates to push the button that
releases the outer seal. Eyes clenched tight, she finally hits it,
not allowing herself to second guess her decision.

A slight breeze blows her hair, unlike the
vents of her trailer. It isn’t an even flow; it’s ever changing and
tickles her scalp. She can’t risk anything penetrating her feet
while she walks, so she doubled up her socks and put on her
sturdiest pair of slippers. Through the thick footwear, she can
feel the hard asphalt. Though the cushioned antimicrobial carpeting
of her pod was far more comfortable, it makes her smile.