LZR-1143 (Book 4): Desolation (21 page)

As he made the final turn of the lock, he barely escaped the horde that pressed against the fencing, making the chain link bow with their pressure. Smiling, he backed up toward his car door, never noticing the single creature that had made its way quietly toward the idling engine.
 

Even after he was bitten, Evan didn’t realize the effects of the bite or what it would do to him.

After all, Evan wasn’t that smart.

He drove home to his family, content that he had made the right call. He had saved people.

Little did Evan know—nor would he have cared—that months later, several unprecedented earthquakes would rock this region, shaking the very world to its core.
 

When the last of these quakes hit, the roadway outside the main gate—the gate that Evan had tried so hard to seal—buckled. When the roadway buckled, the concrete underpinnings of the fence posts were undermined, making the fencing weak and flimsy. And when a large convoy of vehicles approached the fence, the creatures inside swarmed to the noise, pushing against the fence and toppling it immediately.

Instead of allowing these creatures to disperse over the last few months, joining larger herds and moving away from the area, Evan’s actions—though guided by altruism—resulted in disaster. He had penned up several hundred hungry zombies, and they had just been released on a group of survivors.
 

“I guess you’re not dead.” Ethan’s voice wasn’t unkind, but it was abrupt.
 

I blinked slowly, noticing that my hands were now loose and I thankfully brought my arms around, flexing the tired muscles. Romeo found his way into one of my hands and I chuckled at his persistence, ruffling the short hair on his head.
 

“No, I guess not.” I sat up carefully, testing the strain on my leg. The throbbing pain was gone, replaced with a nagging tightness and a dull ache. The bandages were clean, and I tested the leg by drawing my knees up closer to my torso. Turning to the older man, I squinted in the faint light.

“Listen, I really appreciate …” He cut me off with an aggressively waving hand.

“Not necessary,” he grunted, moving away and taking another drink from his flask.

“No, really, I …”
 

“Son, it ain’t necessary. Not ‘cause I don’t appreciate the thanks but because if it weren’t for Rhi, you’d still be on the shore, likely dead.” He narrowed his eyes and raised the flask in front of his face, as if toasting the sentiment.

Ah. Gotcha. Not necessary, then. Understood.

“Uh-huh,” I said. “Copy that.”
 

I looked around.

“Where is your, uh, better half?”
 

He nodded to toward the tree line and smirked.
 

“Watering her foot. We’re trying to get ready to go. Been here fuckin’ ‘round with you long enough.”

Looking around, I again took in the small clearing surrounded by thick trees. Many had fallen around the small area, creating a somewhat secluded and partitioned area back from the river.
 

“Where are we exactly?” I asked, worried that I might have made my way back to the southern bank.
 

“North bank, about two miles west of Concrete, Washington. You came ashore in a pretty unique place—about two hundred feet that direction,” he pointed with the flask. “We’re in an area that runs parallel along the river, that’s got rock walls about four hundred feet back to the north, and only two narrow strips of land that access this strip—and you can’t see this fire from neither of those strips. We got the river on the other side. Even if those shits could see us from the other side of the river, we might as well be on the other side of the moon. The damn thing’s been rushing through this canyon gettin’ wider and angrier all night. You was damn lucky to get out of there alive—even if you heal up quick, I reckon a good drownin’ would put you down.”
 

I reckon it would, at that. Such sage advice from my newest friend.

We both stared into the fading night in silence, until my curiosity got the best of me.

“Mind if I ask you what you and your wife are doing out here? Seems like you know your way around, but we haven’t seen many people since we left Seattle. Not live ones, at least.”

He squinted briefly, then turned to spit into the darkness under the trees.

“No, don’t believe you would have. Been some unrest in these parts lately. Folks moving around the area killin’ other people. Just shootin’ ‘em dead. No robbery, nothing like that. We’ve seen the bodies and a couple of our folk in our group heard them coming through their towns. Lots of folk have tried to avoid populated areas, taking to the trees or to other safer places. We used to live on a farm about thirty miles north of here. Took a crack at fortifying it and making ourselves invisible to those things, but a month ago we went out hunting and came back to find a couple humvees and some folk looked like soldiers outside our doors. Didn’t much take to them showing up uninvited, so we hung back and watched. They broke in, looked around some, and then left. Didn’t steal nothin’ but were thorough about lookin’ around. That was enough for us. Realized that we needed to be off the grid somewhere safer if folk were going from house to house looking to kill people.”
 

He spat again, wiping a small line of spittle from his beard with his left hand. An owl hooted in the distance, and I absently poked the fire with a stick, drawing a line in the fallen ash as I did so.

“So you’ve been alone out here since then?”

A rustling in the trees pulled both of our heads around until Rhi’s form moved out of the woods.
 

“Tell you what,” she said, adjusting the thick belt around her waist and moving quickly to gather her things into her large pack. “Thing I miss most about the old world? Toilet paper.”

I smiled as Ethan moved to help her pack their few items away carefully.
 

“We haven’t been alone for about three weeks,” Rhi answered my question as she straightened, pulling the straps of a smaller pack tight on her narrow shoulders.
 

“We have a small group. Been holed up in an abandoned hydroelectric plant a little north of Concrete for the last few weeks. Damn good hideout too, if you excuse the pun. Power. Running water. Thick concrete walls, steel doors, fencing around the perimeter. But when the first quake hit, it knocked all the turbines offline, and the alarm system was activated. Drew in those things from miles around. We managed to get the alarm to shut off, but by the time we did, there were hundreds of them crawling around the woods and the road outside. Without power, we got no clean water and no light. Worst of all, though, is that the quake knocked down the fencing, and knocked those nice thick steel doors out of alignment. We can’t lock the doors anymore. So if those things discovered we were in there, we’d be toast. Ethan and I decided we were the closest to death of everyone on account of our advanced years, so we volunteered to hunt around for a better shelter.”

“How’d the search go?”

Ethan shook his head and Rhi sighed.

“Nothing out there better than what we had, and not a lick of much good for more than catching our breath. But we can’t stay there. It’s a death trap without those doors in place and if there were another quake … well, the whole damn thing might just disappear into the river. We were on our way back to try to pull folks out and start north—at least we could try our house again, see if there was any evidence of anyone coming by.” She paused, looking at Ethan meaningfully. “We know it’s a risk, since we have men and boys in our group, but …”
 

“Oh stop it, you crazy bat. You know those is just rumors.”

I had missed something.

“Rumors, are they? How many of those bodies we found are women? How many? Three, maybe four? Out of fifty? And they’re always with a man. Never alone!”

“Sorry, but …”

Rhi rounded on me in her sudden irritation.

“The people out there that Ethan was tellin’ you about? The killers? They only kill men. They take women and they kill men. That’s what we’ve seen, and some of our group heard ‘em when they came through their town. Screams and such.” She glanced at her husband. “This one doesn’t believe it. Says it don’t make much sense. I keep telling his stubborn ass that none of this” she gestured around, to the ash, to the trees, to the world, “makes much sense, but it’s still the order of the day.”
 

“I saw something too,” I said softly, thinking aloud. Realizing I had spoken I looked up at both of them, trying to lever myself to my feet on my sore leg. Wincing, I pulled myself to my full height.

“South of the river. Small cabin. No evidence of theft, they didn’t even take the gun. Just a dead man near his wood pile. Looked like someone had just murdered him. Is that the kind of evidence you’re talking about?”
 

She nodded excitedly, as Ethan shook his head and turned away.
 

“Y’all are being ridiculous. I seen some crazy shit in my day, including in ‘Nam. I seen men take ears as trophies, rape entire villages of people, and burn towns to the ground. I definitely ain’t sayin’ it’s not possible. But it makes no sense. What’s the point? Humans are already the minority round here—probably round the world by now—why make a point of killin’ the stronger members of the species.”
 

Rhi glared at him for the last comment, waiting until he averted his eyes.
 

“You ever tried child birth, you self-centered idjit? Let me try pushing a watermelon out your ass and see who you think’s the strongest.” She spit at his foot and grimaced. “Besides, if they’re so strong, why are they the ones dying?”
 

She made a good point.

“Do you have any idea where this group might be now?” I asked, thinking immediately about Kate and Ky.

She shook her head.

“No, they move around.” She thought for a moment, then added. “But Susan said she and her family made it out of Hamilton five days ago, and they heard shooting and explosions before they left. Coulda been that group.”

“Where’s Hamilton?”
 

“About five miles west of here on this side of the river. But that’s just a guess. Like I said, they move around. Could be in Seattle or Vancouver right now too. No telling.”
 

Vancouver.
 

The word snapped me out of my daze.
 

I had to get back to them. Even if they were somewhat protected by their gender, this group sounded insane. And sooner or later Kate would cross the wrong person if they were forcing conscription. She wasn’t about to let them keep her away from her mission to find her daughter.
 

Staring at the fire, I realized I had no idea how to get back to where I had left Kate and Ky. I had seen this town on the map several times when plotting our journey north—drawn by the unusual name to be sure—but I had no concept of whether I could find my way back. Clearly going by river wasn’t an option. Even if there were boats left—doubtful to be sure—I was positive that, alone, I couldn’t fight the tidal surge that was still pushing seawater inland as the west coast moved slowly under the ocean. I also knew that the mountains and foothills were a maze of rock in the best of times. After the recent quakes, going through those passes on foot would be deadly.
 

“Listen, I need to get back to my friends. I appreciate the help, and if there’s anything I can do…”

Rhi interrupted quickly.

“Actually, there is something,” she said, sparing a glance for Ethan, who looked less convinced.

She kept on.

“Our group. They’re in trouble. When we left, we managed to get out from the dam through a small entrance near the water’s edge. But that was before the last quake. That entrance is probably gone now, and …”

“We don’t know that, Rhi,” said Ethan, annoyed.

She ignored him.

“…we might have to fight our way to the main entrance to get them out safely. And if that entrance is no good, we might have to go out a different exit that’s covered in those things. There are only a few of us, and we’ve got little ones to think of. Despite what my ex-Marine husband would have you believe, we couldn’t possibly hope to get them out of there by ourselves.”

I shook my head, looking down at the ash gathered around my boots, considering it briefly before looking up again.

“I’m sorry, but I …”

“There are children. Small, helpless children. If you don’t help us, they
will
die. I’m sure of it.”
 

I locked eyes with the formidable woman, seeing the steel in her spine. And the sorrow. She knew as well as I did that many people weren’t swayed by such appeals anymore. Death was just a part of life. It was expected. It was horrid. And it was unavoidable. Saving others was passé, and it brought death closer to you.
 

Little did she know that she was talking to the last true American action hero.
 

Also known as the last true sucker.

I ran a hand through my hair, shaking my head and groaning as I broke eye contact.

“How far?”

“Close. Maybe three hours on foot, then through town and up the ravine to the dam. We can come at it from the woods and you can see what we’re dealing with before making a play.”

“Okay, but on one condition.”

She narrowed her eyes and her hand, perhaps unconsciously, strayed to her hip where her pistol rode like a coiled snake.

“Name it.”

“I need your help finding my way back to my friends. We do your people quick, find them somewhere safe to stay for a couple days, then back to the river. I need to find their trail.”
 

Next to her, Ethan guffawed, beginning to reject the concept out of hand, but she held up a hand.

“Don’t silence me, devil-woman,” he yelled over her raised hand. “I ain’t signing up to go on no wild goose chase with this asshole. We just met him, and here you are trying to convince people there’s some crazy ass group out here huntin’ man-hide, but you’re signing me up to take him on a walk-about in the open? I won’t do it.”