Man Eaters (12 page)

“My guess is as long as it doesn’t have weapons, we might catch a break.”

As they drove through desolate areas that were more than abandoned—haunted was more like it—Dallas spotted man eaters here and there, just walking around on shoes worn by the shuffling movement of their feet.

“How did they get here so quickly?” she asked quietly.

“You’d be surprised the damage just one can do. That’s why it’s so hard to control. All it takes is for one family to try to save a loved one. They fail, and now all of them are undead. And if you want numbers, how’s this: Let’s say one man eater can turn twenty people in one day. The next day, those twenty turn twenty, so in two days, four hundred of them are created. From four hundred in two days to eight thousand in three, to one hundred and sixty thousand. Four days from the original man eater is the potential of one hundred and sixty thousand more of them. That’s why containment is critical early on, and they didn’t contain it. We’re well beyond the hundred and sixty thousand number.

“I understand that, though I hadn’t realized the numbers increased exponentially. What I meant was how did they get here so fast?”

Einstein shrugged. “Like I said, there’s always that one person who thinks they can save their bitten loved ones until there’s a cure found. They can’t, of course, and their eater ends up killing them.”

Dallas thought about the immigrants in the truck, and when she focused back on the road, she saw a man carrying a stick of some sort as he ran down the street

“What’s he doing?” Einstein asked, leaning forward in his seat.

Dallas slowed to a stop about fifty yards away. “Pull your gun on him.”

“What?”

“Pull your gun on him. Tell him to stop.”

Einstein did as he was told and the man stopped and raised his hands.

Dallas also pulled her gun and together they looked like a bad version of Starsky and Hutch.

“Don’t come any closer,” Dallas demanded

The man responded by raising his hands. He looked to be in his mid-fifties, slightly balding, with sideburns reminiscent of Elvis in his older days. He held some kind of dowel in his hands.

“You...you’re not military,” he said.

“What are you doing out here?” Dallas asked.

“Running from those things. My car broke down about five miles back and they’ve been dogging me ever since.”

“Your car?”

He nodded, his eyes scanned the area behind the Hummer. “I got tired of those asswipes calling all the shots. Who do they think they are, anyway?”

“Yet you were surrendering to us, thinking—”

“Thinking I’d rather be shot than eaten alive.”

Suddenly, over the crest of the road, came five man eaters plodding toward them.

The man looked over his shoulder at them. “If you’re not gonna help me, then just shoot me. I can’t run anymore.”

Einstein looked at Dallas. “We can’t leave him out here.”

Dallas shook her head. “I suppose not. Ditch the stick and come on. Get in.”

He lowered his arms but did not release the stick. “If I have to part with it, just shoot me.”

Dallas watched as the eaters closed in. They had about thirty yards to go before they’d be on top of him.

“You’d rather die than give up your stick?”     He shrugged. “Without a weapon, I’m a dead man anyway.”

“Fine. You and your stick get in. Hurry!”

He scrambled into the Hummer just as the man eaters got within ten yards.

Dallas locked the doors and turned to Einstein. “Keep the gun on him until we get to where we’re going.”

Einstein turned the gun toward the back seat. “We don’t mean to be rude—”

“My friends call me Cue.”

“Q?”

“Cue. C-U-E. It’s short for Cue-Ball.” He held his stick out and when Dallas flinched, he withdrew it. It was a pool cue stick.

“It’s a pool stick,” Einstein explained. “Get it? Cue-Ball. Pool stick?”

“I get it.” Dallas ran over one of the man eaters as she pulled away. “I’m Dallas. This is Einstein.”

“Nice meeting you folks. I appreciate the save.” Cue-Ball looked around the interior of the Hummer with eyes that had spent too much time in smoke-filed bars and pool halls. “You two commandeered this beauty?” Einstein kept the gun trained on him. “We need to get out of California before they burn it out. So we took it.”

“Good for you guys. Finally, someone got one over on the damn military. The bastards.”

“Well, we had to do something. They’re killing us all.” Dallas slowed down as she came to the town sign. “What have you heard?”

“Not much. People tried to leave across the border, but were shot. All main arteries in and out of L.A. have been destroyed. Freeways, bridges, causeways, you name it.” He shrugged. “But who knows what to believe anymore?”

“Too true. Do you happen to know if there’s a Ready To Go Store in the next town?”

“I have no idea. I’m not from around here. I was coming to San Francisco for a tournament. I’m a professional pool player.”

“Ah. And that’s why the pool stick.”

“This baby has saved my life more times than I can count, both in the pool hall and out. Made from teak in Central America. I’ve already killed my fair share of zombies with it, not to mention eight tournaments.”

“Ah, and that’s why you couldn’t leave it.”

“Right. Them damn zombies can’t have it, either.”

“We call them man eaters, because they don’t seem interested in any other flesh but human.” Einstein lowered his sidearm. “I’m kind of an expert.”

Cue grinned. “I’ll just bet you are.”

About five minutes later, they came to the main street entrance. Newspapers blew across the street even as there was an eerie stillness in the air. The storefronts were faux, like some Wild West stores. There was even a carved Native American in front of a smoke shop.

It had probably been a quaint little town at its heyday, but now, it was void of life and filled with just too much death. Blood splatters along one wall told the tale of a recent fight and there were what looked like guts strewn on the once pristine sidewalks. The doors were bolted shut, but that didn’t keep the iron scent of death from abating. This town, like so many others she was afraid they’d see along the way, was now utterly lifeless.

“There’s the store. Here’s what we’re going to do. Einstein, you and Cue go in and grab as much freeze-dried food as you can. Take both our backpacks and anything else you can carry it in.”

“What about you?”      

“I’ll watch your back and the Hummer. You have five minutes. Don’t get distracted, don’t look at anything else. Focus in and get food supplies.” She turned to Cue. “Nothing extraneous. We need food. Lightweight, easy to carry food.”

Einstein and Cue both nodded.

When Dallas stopped in front of the store, she unlocked the doors. “Five minutes.”

As Cue started out, Dallas grabbed his arm. “You come out without that boy, you’re a dead man. You understand me? I’ll shoot you where you stand.”

Cue looked her right in the eye. “Then you better start your timer.”

The store had already been broken into. All the glass cases were smashed and empty, the aisles strewn with crap nobody wanted or found use for.

“Clock is ticking, fellas. Get moving.” Dallas held her rifle against her shoulder and scanned the empty street. Time fell like one grain of sand at a time. Sweat slowly dripped down the sides of her face and spine. She could hear someone rattling around in a garage across the street. She wondered if it was a human or a dead person banging around, trying to get out. It didn’t matter either way. She wasn’t going to check.

As she waited for the longest five minutes in the world to end, Dallas wondered if picking up Cue was a wise move. What were her obligations to other people? Did she collect people along the way, making it harder to move as fast, or did they just say when enough was enough?

It wasn’t in her make-up to walk away from those in need. She was a firefighter, after all. Helping others was what she did for a living. So, what did she do now? Now that life’s rules were so very different, what was in the best interest of the group? Could they protect each other if they got bigger. Was bigger safer?

So many questions, so few answers.

The sound in the garage stopped. Dallas pivoted to look down the street and that was when she saw them. A whole cluster of man eaters was walking toward them. She counted ten at the very least. They weren’t stopping to look anywhere else. They were not meandering. They were coming right toward the Hummer.

“Get in the Hummer! Now!” She yelled.

Without hesitation, Cue and Einstein grabbed their backpacks and two duffel bags filled with freeze-dried food and bumped into each other trying to get out the front door.

When Dallas jumped in, they were far enough away that she could get in, buckle up, and make a U-turn without hitting any of them.

“We need gas.” Dallas said as she looked in the rearview mirror at the man eaters, who were now small in the mirror.

“We don’t wanna go into town for it,” Einstein said, opening his backpack. He withdrew a wand-like device to show Dallas. “Bonus! This is a Steri-Pen. It’s used by campers to sterilize water.”

Dallas shot him a look.

“It’s only a matter of time, Dallas, when getting our hands on filtered, clean water may prove difficult. The only downside is that it runs on batteries, and most were gone. I did manage a pack of lithiums, though.”

“Among other things,” Cue said under his breath.

“Never mind him, Dallas. Everything I grabbed was essential. We got freeze-dried eggs, spaghetti, stroganoff, chicken breasts, risotto, and an assortment of vegetables and beans, so we can spice it up.”

“Excellent job, Einstein.”

“But wait! There’s more.” He pulled out what looked like two keys. “It’s a Swedish Firestart for starting fires. It’s only good in a dry climate, but you can’t get any drier than the desert, right?”

She smiled over at him. “Were you a Boy Scout?”

He made a face. “Too nerdy even for me. No, I’ve read the book How to Survive a Zombie Outbreak and Take Over the World.”

Of course he had.

He opened the big duffel bag at his feet. “A collapsible saw, a can opener, a compass, fishing hooks with reels of line, two canteens, a tarp, and a small tent. The rest is food. Oh, wait...and these.” He held up utensils. “No need to eat like barbarians just because the world is coming to an end.”

Dallas smacked him in the thigh. “Don’t say that!”

Einstein laughed and scooted away.

“You two brother and sister?” Cue asked.

Before Dallas could answer, Einstein barked out, “Yes. Yes we are.”

Cutting her eyes over to him, she remained silent. If that was how he wanted to play it, she would go along. He was a smart enough kid to know what he was doing.

“Where to now?” Cue asked.

“You’ll see. Why? Is there some place you need to go?”

Cue leaned back in his seat. “Nope. Wherever you two are headed works just fine with me.”

As Dallas drove through the deserted streets, she wondered what Roper was doing, what she was thinking, and how she would react when she found out their team had a new member.

****

Dallas

“We need to find some place to lay low tonight,” Dallas said, looking down at the gas gauge.

“Already? It’s early.”

“I know, but I’m beat, hungry, and we are in desperate need of gas. What do you suggest?”

“A garage.”

Dallas frowned.

“You know, a mechanic’s garage. There are multiple ways to get out and they’re single story. It will also be easier and safer to keep the car close by and out of sight.”

Cue leaned forward. “Sounds like you’ve done this before.”

Einstein shrugged his boney shoulders. “I’m a gamer. I’ve also seen a ton of zombie flicks, which is why, to be perfectly honest, I don’t really trust you.”

“Einstein!”

This brought a chuckle from Cue. “That’s okay, ma’am. He has a point. You don’t know me from Adam. The boy’s smart.”

Dallas said nothing, her mind lingering on the fact that it would be a long wait for Roper and the horses. Should she have tried to talk her out of them? Should they have made a better plan? What, exactly, was the best course of action? How could she keep everyone safe and alive?

“You have a plan, there, Dallas, or are you just driving around in an old military vehicle?”

Dallas gripped the wheel a little tighter. “In fact, we do. We’re meeting more people.”

Cue leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “As long as I’m sitting back here and not being some dead guy’s lunch, I’m good.”

Dallas drove a little ways, allowing her mind to dance across the thoughts of holding Roper so close to her the night before. She had felt so warm…so right laying there in the curve of Dallas’s body. It felt like she belonged there.

Dallas suddenly shook her head. What in the hell was she doing? “Er, uh, what have you seen, Cue? Obviously, Santa Rita was overcome with man eaters. I mean, they were chasing you down the street.”

“I saw more dead than alive there, that’s for sure. This thing…it got away from them fast.”

“Where were you headed?”

“After the breakout? To the coast. I figured I could steal a boat and sail to Hawaii, or some other island.”

Dallas cut her eyes over to Einstein, who raised his eyebrows. “Hawaii, huh?”

“They gotta be safer than here, right?”

“I’m thinking anywhere is safer than here.”

As Dallas drove, she considered his words. Maybe an island was a better option than the desert. It was certainly something to think about.

“Troops in Hawaii would have blown your boat to bits before you could get close,” Einstein explained. “Keeping the islands free of the virus might be the only hope we have.”

“Virus? You so sure it’s a virus?”

“I have no idea what it is, but the fact that it hits the bloodstream from a bite and you have virtually minutes before you are one of them suggests that, yeah, it’s a virus.”

When they arrived in Patterson, Dallas took it slowly. There were a couple of man eaters walking around, but they ignored the Hummer.