Life Among The Dead (69 page)

“
How many?” Dan asks, knowing the answer by the look on Carla’s face before she even says the words.

“
A lot.” She says. Dan takes a second to think it over.

“
Send a meat wagon with two volunteers.” He starts. “I want them loaded for travel; food, water, gas, guns and ammo. These things love to play follow the leader; get them chasing a meal back the way they came. Have the car lose them, and double back.”

Dan hates this plan. He fears it’s like firing a gun into the sky. It might not hurt those around, but the bullet has to come down somewhere. He has no choice, his special weapons team is still in the inspiration phase.

“
I think I’ll take this mission myself.” Carla says.

“
No.” Dan denies her. “Send someone else.”

“
Why? I want to go out and do something.” Carla complains.

“
For the same reason you won’t let me go out there. You are not expendable. What would I do without you?”

“
Probably bleed to death from the ulcers you’d give yourself.”

“
Exactly.” He continues to take his family towards the ice cream shop. He turns back to add one thing. “If possible, have the meat wagon take some pictures.”

20

The Williamsons sit down at their favorite picnic bench with their favorite frozen selections. The boys have already messied themselves within the first few licks.

“
Why do you want pictures of the zombies?” Heather asks her husband.

“
I want to see just how big this horde is.” He answers.

“
It’s kind of like the one that got away?” She says. “You want to know how big the fish is that broke free of your line.”

“
Is that bad?”

“
No, I guess not. I bet you’re thinking about how you’d get rid of them, aren’t you?”

“
I’d drive through the heart of the group and drop a steel drum of fertilizer and diesel fuel. Then, I’d haul ass out the other side as it explodes. I can see them going up like the Death Star.”

“
How can you sleep at night with such horrible thoughts in your head?” Heather asks her husband as she rubs his short hair.

“
The trick is to go to bed thinking only of happy things.” He kisses her.

“
Will your plan work?”

“
It will get them away from us. The zombies are dumb and tend to follow the herd.” He pauses. “It won’t make them any less dangerous to whoever gets in their path though.”

Silence falls upon the Williamsons as they watch life go on in the town. People are riding bikes and horses. Carriages taxi people and supplies throughout the society. Everything is calm and peaceful. They hope it will never change.

The sleepy town is rousted by a chain reaction of excitement. The people see their neighbors running towards the eastern gate, so they follow suit. Others follow them. Soon the entire community is stampeding through the streets like the running of the bulls. Barbara runs past and sees the king and royal family sitting by the large plaster cow.

“
Survivors.” She says breathlessly. “At the east gate.”

She is off again, racing the pack. Dan and Heather collect the boys to chase the rumor like everyone else. They clean the boys on the fly, wanting the princes to be presentable for company.

21

The crowd at the covered bridge parts to let Dan pass. They had sealed the end with planks at the start of spring. Men are now poised with crowbars awaiting Dan’s orders. He nods and they proceed to pry the boards away.

Nails squeak free and the boards fall, clanking against one another as they are piled up. A tall man is slowly revealed standing alone on the bridge. Dan can’t place the face that is revealed to him. He knows this man from somewhere. The stranger has to duck under some boards to enter the town. He picks Dan out of the crowd immediately and shakes his hand.

“
Muzzleloader.” He greets the king.

“
Duct tape?” Dan’s head cocks to the side in disbelief.

“
It’s a small world, huh?”

“
And, getting smaller.” Dan smiles at the man who had saved him a couple times back in Waterloo. “Any trouble finding the place?”

“
Not at all.” Duct tape answers. “Your directions were impeccable.”

Kids start to enter the town slowly. They seem apprehensive at first. It’s probably too much for them. All of these people, standing around staring at them.

“
It’s Ok kids.” The tall man tells them. “We’re home.”

He directs his attention back to Dan. “As you can see you missed some back at the hospital.”

“
I guess so.” Dan loses count of all the tiny people entering the town somewhere around 20 heads.

“
I assume you’re Dan.” Duct tape says. Dan is puzzled as to how the man knows his name. He slowly nods. “My name is Oz. Can I talk to you over here?”

Dan and Oz walk onto the bridge, away from the others to have an aside. The king can tell his new subject has something difficult to say, and is having trouble finding the right words.

“
We stopped at a rest area… That’s actually how we found this place…” Oz hands Dan some things he hopes will explain for him.

A dog tag, Dan doesn’t know the name on it. The other item makes his stomach drop, his locket. The cheap plastic charm is scuffed. He opens the cover and the hinge is loose. Oz pulls a larger object out. He had it tucked in his belt, behind his back. It’s Bruce’s journal.

The stiff cover is battered and the pages have yellowed around the edges. His uncle had doodled a bit in the white areas. The title read: King of the Road. Dan had seen this when the man left almost three weeks ago. Since then Bruce added to it. The word Composition now has a DE in front of it. There is a heart with B+R inside. Dan can hear a gasp from the people in the crowd who recognize the book, those in the know who share Dan’s sorrow.

The king walks through the covered bridge to the large white truck on the other side. He climbs up and sees a lump in the passenger seat. He swings the door open. Bruce is wrapped in a child’s cowboy blanket.
Fitting,
Dan thinks.
He often acted like one or the other.
Dan tries to joke to get through this, yet it doesn’t ease the pain in his heart.

A tentative hand pulls back the fleece. Dan wonders if it would have been better never to have seen Bruce again, rather than see him like this. The left side of his face is a shell of brown scaly scabs.
He clearly went through some shit,
Dan thinks.

“
I don’t know if it helps,” Oz says. “We would have been turning off the road, and heading north if it wasn’t for… You know.”

Dan just nods to acknowledge what Oz has said before he drops down from the truck. He can feel the emotions welling up inside him. Heather and Carla have joined him outside the walls. Heather has her hands to her mouth to contain her grief. Her eyes glisten with impending tears. Carla futilely tries not to cry. Dan tells himself to be strong. He can’t break down.
Someone has to give the orders.

“
Carla,” His voice is a whisper. “I want you to disperse the crowd after you get me some volunteers.”

“
Sure.” She weakly answers.

“
The truck won’t fit through the bridge. I need someone to bring it around to the southern entrance. I want this wall put back up. Get Barbara and Becka to show our new citizens around. I want them given food and shelter in any order they prefer.”

“
Ok.”

“
I’ll need you to accompany us to the ranch to help me with planning the memorial service for…” He squeezes his jaw shut almost losing his composure. “My uncle.”

“
I’d be honored.” Carla waits a few seconds. Dan has no further orders so she heads off to get the people moving. Heather puts her arm around her husband while he reads his Uncle’s journal.

#

Log entry: Final

Dan, I hope you get this. If so it means the world isn’t as hopeless as I thought. As you can see you are the king now. I have to apologize for stretching the truth in my last bird-o-gram.

I was tired and in a lot of pain. I wasn’t planning on coming back at the time I had written it. I couldn’t tell you the truth about your folks that way. Sorry. If it helps any, old Wall put up a hell of a fight from the looks of the place. He took good care of your mom.

I had to come back. I had something to tell you but it didn’t come to me until after I sent my last fucking pigeon. I think I know the cure to this whole mess. It’s so simple. The cure is Time. Let the Earth correct itself.

Remember the dogs you told me about in Gaines, and the neighbor lady’s cats? They ate the zombies. I saw bugs doing the same thing. And, we can’t forget good old-fashioned decomposition. Hot summer days will help that along. I know it isn’t a huge revelation, or a vaccine, but it is all we have.

So, we might not know how the whole thing started but we definitely know how it will end. I give them no more than 3 years until they are just dust in the wind. All you have to do is sit tight, don’t let the zombies bite, and make sure your dead stay that way. It should be a cakewalk. I have faith in you.

You may be wondering what happened to me. Let me start by saying my trip out to Vermelho was very eventful. I met a girl. The ride home was boring up until about 25 miles from New Castle. Just like they say, you’re more likely to have an accident close to home.

I got careless and sloppy, lulled into a false sense of security. I was running on fumes and needed to gas up. What king walks home? I pulled into a small filling station. It was nighttime and some of the lights were burned out.

The pumps were up and running. Can you believe it? The card reader was actually working. If AMEX ever calls looking for their $33.57 (Outrageous!) tell them the check is in the mail.

I’m sitting there while my chopper fills up when this zombie drops into my lap out of nowhere. He must have been hidden behind the pumps. I had been careful, I stayed on the road making noises to try and bring out the dead. I just missed this one I guess.

Do you know what really boils my eggs about this? I had a sidecar full of guns, and still got sidelined. Tag, I’m it. I don’t want you to feel too bad for me, I’ve been knocking on Death’s door for years now. I guess the Reaper must have been in the can all this time or something and only now looked through his peephole and saw yours truly.

I know what you’re thinking: I told him not to take a bike through Corpse County. Well, you should be ashamed to think things like that, even if you are right. I had no choice. All that I had access to were dorky ass K-cars and a few mini vans. My dad’s Mustang was gone. All Wallace had in the garage was a station wagon with wood paneled sides. I needed to come home in style.

You have just inherited the entire kingdom of New Castle and a nice big hole in the ground out east. The home you and I both grew up in is no longer there, and the hole actually has about a thousand zombies at the bottom. It’s kind of like that old lawyer joke. It’s a good start. I always found it funny that our ancestors had bought that land with the hopes of flattening it out and farming it.

They thought they had been fucked over when it turned out to be too rocky to cultivate. Then they discovered the hills were filled with granite. It was like finding gold only useful.

I just go on and on, don’t I? I have to admit I’m a little scared about what I’m about to do, and this is the last time I’ll ever really get to talk to you. I don’t even know if you’ll ever see this. I couldn’t bring this shit back home, and I could never make you pull the trigger for me. I’m a big boy. I can do it myself.

I should close this. I’m not feeling too well, and I have shit to do. Kiss Heather and the kids for me. Tell everyone who matters I love them. I never really said it to you that often but I love you, and I’m damned proud of you. I know your dad and mom are too. Take care of business out there.

P.S. Here is your locket back. Thanks a heap. It brought me tons of luck as you can see. I’m just kidding. It was an honor to carry it. I love you, boy.

P.P.S. I’m having trouble building up my nerves. Whoever said suicide is the easy way out should fucking try it! I guess I have time so I should mention what I want done with my remains. I don’t really want to be burned like the others. Williamsons are not Vikings. I want a burial. I want to be buried in my favorite place in the whole world, but since the Flag Pole has probably gone downhill I’d like to be buried at my ranch. That should do.

I spoke to Lindsey and Becka about a memorial wall to honor the fallen people of New Castle. I want a few names added to the roster. The first is Rashida Steele. She was a good kid and deserves it. Add Wallace, and if there’s any room left go ahead and add your mom. I know Nancy never really liked me (unlike every other woman on the planet) I think she was a great lady. She kept your dad on the straight and narrow, and she raised one hell of a son.