Running with the Horde (32 page)

Chapter 43

“OKAY, PAUSE!!!”

             
I snapped out of my Tegan movie memory walk with angry shake of the head.

             
War criminal?

             
Highly dangerous and untrustworthy?

             
What the fuck was this?

             
Who were these people?

             
It made complete sense now why Tegan and Rose didn’t kill me, I was the goddamn golden goose as far as they were concerned. How could I have missed these jack-wad posters? If they were posted on a random telephone pole in the northern suburbs, they had to be everywhere.

             
Zombie Tegan just sat there staring off into points unknown as I stalked the tiny confines of my decrepit room. I walked to the window, yanked it back open and stared down at the oblivious horde packed in tightly on the street two long stories below me.

             
Somehow some group or authority knew about my special abilities with the undead.

             
They were hunting me for whatever sordid purpose they had in mind. The outright lies on the poster told me they did not have my best interests at heart. The promise of safety as a reward for my safe capture meant I had an irresistible bounty on my head.

             
I could trust no one.

             
If I had any brains at all I would run. I would find a way, even if I had to walk to get south of the city and never come back.

             
But nobody ever accused me of having brains or even a particularly strong sense of self preservation. I had to find Daisy before I ran. She had our baby in her belly. I couldn’t just leave them. I sat back down by Tegan.

Chapter 44

“Unpause!”

             
Tegan and Rosie looked at each other, the poster temporarily forgotten in her lap. That moment, that connection, that brief passage of time communicated a million wonderful notions at once. They could be saved! They had a chance! There was a fucking safe zone!

             
They didn’t talk, they couldn’t express their feelings in words. Instead it was lust so palpable as to turn them both temporarily into rutting animals. In a few minutes any observers from the house would note the windows were so heavily fogged over as to be visually impenetrable from the outside.

             
Inside the car, to Tegan’s great joy, he and Rosie celebrated not only their new outlook on life but their passion for each other. They forgot about the zombies that could be lurking just outside their car door.

             
They forgot about everything but each other for a while. Even that rat fucker George McCloud and dear sister Daisy…

Chapter 45

“FAST FORWARD!”

             
I couldn’t watch anymore of that, noting as I scanned through the data there were many similar sessions I could have chosen to see. Rosie looked too much like Daisy for my taste.

             
The thought of Tegan and Daisy together made me want to throw up my Spaghetti O’s. So I skipped ahead as Tegan, Rosie and crew made their way slowly back toward Minneapolis. It was taking them a long time because of a combination of bad luck and limited resources. They stopped at four police stations prior to getting back toward Friendly and found them all overrun with zombies.

             
Instead of a handful of miles straight up Central or University Avenues, they were constantly backtracking and zigzagging to the next possible police station. Each one represented a promise of salvation. Each time they came away empty handed, the depression was devastating. The hope they’d discovered after reading the poster was being whittled away by good old Father Murphy.

             
On a positive note, as the weeks passed, they collected more survivors along the way including a small group in a giant RV, just like Tegan had wanted.

             
I recognized one of the women from my dream. The one who had been sitting by Daisy in family room of the very condo I was currently loafing in with Zombie Tegan. As I recalled, she didn’t survive the breach.

             
The new additions to their roving family were not weak. All of the weak folks were likely dead in what had become an unforgiving world.

             
Initially, the newbies whole heartedly bought into Tegan and Rosie’s promise of a way out and added their weapons, food and strength to the cause. Desperate times make bedfellows out of anyone with a shared purpose, like survival for instance.

             
However, loyalty was a precious and fragile commodity and one not purchased easily. Every dead end at each new police station slowly crumbled the communal faith in Tegan and Rose’s credibility. It was getting time to put up or shut up or risk a revolt in the group’s survival strategy.

             
Tegan was getting nervous as the caravan weaved its way south on University back into familiar territory. The sign advertising Friendly City Hall catching his eye like a lake in the desert would catch the eye of a man dying of thirst.

             
But he had seen this mythical lake a few times already. It was probably a mirage and he knew it. This police station would be a waste of time just as the others had been. He wiped cold sweat from his brow with his sleeve as he took a left on Mississippi Street and pulled into the parking lot of a drug store.

             
The store was situated on the corner of University Avenue and Mississippi Street, across the road from the city hall and the police station. The parking lot had a few abandoned cars in it but seemed to be empty at first glance.

             
The area around it was also curiously devoid of zombies but looters had been there. The glass doors were smashed in. Debris from inside the store was scattered from the front of the entrance into the lot.

             
Tegan and Rosie waited impatiently as the cars in the caravan took their defensive positions around the RV. They jumped out when everyone was ready and made for the large vehicle. There they would game plan for entering the police station and getting back out alive.

             
A guy named Seth they had met in Blaine was sitting on the roof of the RV and had binoculars on the place but claimed it was impossible to tell if there was a significant undead presence there. It appeared to be fenced in at least, so that was a good sign.

             
Rosie grew bored after a few minutes and told Tegan she was going to look for food inside the store. He nodded barely listening to her. This was typical behavior during these planning sessions. Tegan like to be as prepared as possible before going into a place. Rosie was more of a shoot first and ask questions later type of gal. It made them an odd but effective duo.

             
Five minutes later a panicky and very excited Rosie was back in the RV whispering into Tegan’s ear. Her hot breath made it difficult for him to understand her at first, his mind immediately went to another place.

             
She slapped the dull look from his face causing snickers from the rest of the people in the crowded RV. This time she had his attention as she whispered into his ear again.

             
“My sister is in the store! What should we do?” the fact she even asked his opinion meant she was rattled and this wasn’t her attempt at a joke.

             
“Is she alone?” Tegan asked.

             
“As far as I could tell there is no one else here besides her and us,” she replied as she fiddled with a lock of brown hair that had escaped her cap.

             
“What was she doing?”

             
“She was in the tenth frame of a bowling match against our sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Walsh. It was really tense. They were tied! I don’t know what the fuck she was doing, asshole! Looking at shit and scavenging most likely. The point is, what do we do about her?”

             
Tegan bit back several angry retorts to her unnecessary outburst. He had thought it was a reasonable question to ask but Rosie’s sister was a touchy subject for her.

             
To realize quite suddenly she was alive and well and apparently alone, calmly browsing the remains of a post-apocalyptic drug store had to have been a little earth shattering. She had either escaped or been released by the Swansons and had not returned home but relocated somewhere relatively close by. He wasn’t even her kin and it felt traitorous.

             
“I think we need to hide these vehicles and follow her to wherever she is staying so we can see who she is with,” he said.

             
Rosie took a second to process those possibilities before nodding her agreement. The next several moments were spent hastily instructing their confused comrades on the temporary adjustment to their plan.

             
They were dubious this had anything to do with George McCloud but went along with it nonetheless. The RV and other vehicles were moved as quickly and quietly as possible to the rear of the drug store. Eight of them would follow Daisy home when she came out. Everyone else would stay behind at the store and continue to scout the police station.

             
Tegan quickly inspected all five of the vehicles that had been in the lot. There was only one that still looked operational, an old Pontiac muscle car. Obviously it had been someone’s baby at some point, now it was a survival car.

             
As hard as it was to picture Daisy driving it, he didn’t see any other option. He found a spot behind a car twenty feet from the Pontiac and waited.

             
A few minutes later Daisy stepped carefully over some broken glass in the doorframe and looked around furtively as if seeing danger everywhere all at once.

             
She clearly was not used to being out alone. She was dressed for winter weather aside from her head which was uncovered, her long brown hair blowing listlessly in the chilly breeze. She had a small beige bag strapped over her shoulder. It had come from the store and still had the tags on it.

             
Convinced she was alone, she dashed to the Pontiac and jumped inside. The slamming of the door was so loud it made Tegan fall from his haunches to his ass. He heard the big engine rumble to life and shift into gear. He remained absolutely still as she drove right past him toward the entrance to the street.

             
She didn’t see him as she took a left turn and headed east on Mississippi Street. She even used her turn signal. It was clear to Tegan that the time away from her twin hadn’t made her any smarter.

             
Rosie drove up so fast from the corner of the building she almost hit Tegan with the car as she slammed on the brakes. He jumped inside and they drove to the edge of the parking lot and nosed out in the street. He figured Daisy had about a twenty second head start and wouldn’t be paying too close attention to her rear view mirror or at least he hoped as much as they pulled out behind her.

Chapter 46

“Family Reunion”

             
It went exactly the way Tegan planned. Daisy had a serious case of tunnel vision going and they were pretty much able to follow her door to door from the drug store to a house in a cul-de-sac off of Rice Creek Road.

             
Aside from a moment of panic when it looked possible Daisy may be heading up Central toward the Swanson Compound, the fox and hound routine was otherwise uneventful.

             
They watched from the end of the block as Daisy exited the car and hustled into the house. Tegan could tell Rosie was seething at this development. Seeing Daisy living in this strange house so close to her family’s home had to be murderously insulting.

             
He did not want to risk another eruption from her in the confinement of the SUV so he didn’t say anything. Jeff and Mike, two of his last three boys from the old days were also wisely quiet from the back seat.

             
Rosie gave it another two minutes before putting the SUV in gear and driving up the road toward the house.

             
“Just wait, Rosie, we don’t even know what we’re walking into. That could be a house full of armed men for all we know.”

             
“I don’t give a shit,” she snarled.

             
She drove into the driveway, parked next to the Pontiac and was out the door with her gun drawn before anyone could do anything. The other SUV pulled in behind her and soon seven other heavily armed men and women were crowded behind Rosie on the porch as she stood in front of the door.

             
She knocked loudly but politely, a curious eight-beat staccato that had to have some kind of personal meaning to the sisters.

             
A moment later light footsteps could be heard approaching the other side of the door and then silence. The waiting was unbearable. Rosie glanced back at Tegan with a carnivorous grin and repeated the knock again. Another moment passed and then a small voice could be heard from the other side.

             
“Rosie?”

             
“Yes, it’s me, honey,” her voice had acquired a sweetness Tegan had not thought her capable of.

             
He was chagrined to find a pang of jealously flitter through his mind. He couldn’t believe how hard he had fallen for this girl that he should care about ancient relationship rituals he wasn’t privy to between her and her twin.

             
“Are you alone?” Daisy asked.

             
“I just came to see you baby, let me in, I need to see you are alright,” Rosie replied.

             
“Daddy is dead, Rosie,” her voice sounded distant and alarmingly creepy. It also sounded like she was petting the door. “I saw his head, Rosie, they showed it to me,” she said.

             
Tegan could hear her quietly crying now, reliving some horror show from her recent past.

             
Rosie gave a confused look to Tegan then shrugged. She put her hand on the door as if she could soothe her sister by merely touching the wood that separated them.

             
“I know Daddy is dead, Daisy. I was there when they got him. He was fighting to get you back. We all were. Now I just need to see you. I have to know you are okay. Please open the door.”

             
“I’m okay, Rosie, but I can’t go back home, not ever. I’m okay here. It’s just me now…and the baby,” Daisy said in a forlorn tone that suggested she was the last person on Earth, perhaps going mad talking to the ghost of her long-dead sister.

             
Baby? When the hell did Daisy have time to have a baby? Tegan did some quick mental math and concluded even with a generous plus/minus range, not enough time had transpired for Daisy to have gotten pregnant and given birth to a child. She was more than likely stroking the horse hair of some mangy doll behind that door.

             
“What the fuck are you talking about a baby? Daisy, open this fucking door before I kick it in on your stupid empty head!” Rosie screamed into the stubborn wooden obstacle.

             
This meltdown seemed to make it real for Daisy, Tegan heard her messing with some stuff that must have been blocking the door and then deadbolts unlocking.

             
He counted six of them and it seemed Daisy struggled with each one, ever the fragile flower. Rosie was so impatient by the time Daisy was done she was bouncing on the balls of her feet like she was jumping an imaginary rope.

             
When the last lock was turned open and Daisy cracked the door open, Rosie flew through it like she blowing through a linebacker on her way to pay dirt in the end zone. She all but tackled her sister in an effort to hug her. Daisy screamed like she was being attacked, which in a sense, of course, she was. Rosie had violent tendencies even when she was showing affection and she was more than a little angry at her sister.

             
“Ouch! Rosie, you’ll hurt the baby! Stop!”

             
Daisy was half laughing and half crying but her concern for the tiny belly bump on her midsection was genuine. Tegan stepped in to separate the two women before things went from a rough yet sort of touching reunion, to an MMA bout. He had enough on his conscience without adding a baby fetus to his list of regrets. He figured Rosie would feel the same if she weren’t a psychopath.

             
“You’re fucking pregnant?” Rosie yelled as she slapped Tegan hard across the face and tried to knee him in the balls. “You don’t fucking own me you filthy shithole! Get your shit fingers off of me!” she hissed at Tegan while simultaneously trying to claw his left eye out and glare at Daisy.

             
Tegan had taken the full force of the slap and managed to deflect the knee into his thigh where he was sure to have a healthy bruise later on. He wondered, not for the first time, why he loved this terrible little woman. Yet, as he held her at bay with one strong right arm, he shamefully admitted to himself he was a little turned on whenever she physically assaulted him.

             
“Who are these people, Rosie? You said you were alone and yes, I am pregnant.”

             
Aside from Jeff and Mike, who he’d instructed to keep watch on the porch, everyone else had filed slowly into the room to watch Mount Saint Rosie explode.

             
“I never said I was alone,” Rosie said between deep breaths as she calmed herself down. “You remember Tegan of course and a few of the boys from home right? The rest of these fine folks are the new members of our happy family.”

             
She was conversational about it, almost cheerful. He should have known better but Tegan felt confident that she was done trying to hurt anybody for the time being and relaxed a bit. He glanced out at Jeff and Mike for less than a heartbeat when his groin region exploded in white-hot pain that took his breath away and dropped him to his knees.

             
Rosie had made good on her original attempt at kneeing him in the stones. His face was beet-red and tears peeked from the corner of his eyes as he glanced up at her in shocked outrage from the floor.

             
She was smiling at him!

             
“Fucking bitch,” he said in a hoarse whisper.

             
She crouched down on her haunches in front of him and took his cheeks in her hands.

             
“Don’t you forget it, big boy and don’t ever step between me and my sister again,” she said with a wicked smile.

             
Then she planted a big wet kiss on his trembling mouth and playfully rubbed the top of his head as she stood up and faced her sister again.

             
“I love this guy!” she said. “Now let’s talk about this baby,” as she threw an arm around Daisy’s shoulder and led her to the chair.

             
Daisy did the best she could. She held out as long as possible before she told her sister about George. When Tegan saw the glint of wicked possibilities in Rosie’s eyes, he could tell Daisy regretted letting the cat out of the bag. She had to know it wasn’t going to go well for George when he returned home from wherever the hell he’d gone.

             
Rosie was always a little mean but she was probably different now than Daisy remembered. She looked at Daisy with a smile on her face but her eyes were singing a different tune entirely. A tune that said you if you weren’t my sister, I’d love nothing more than to twist your head off and gut you like a pig.

             
She claimed she could always get the truth out of Daisy ever since they were little. Daisy could never keep secrets from her. Before long she was telling Rosie all about George. Once she did that she figured she could explain George’s side of the story. Then Rosie wouldn’t have that awful look on her face every time she said his name. She insisted that George had saved her life many times. That none of this was his fault. Except the baby of course. That was partly his fault and partly her fault.

             
She continued with her desperate outpouring of pro George propaganda but it seemed Rosie was buying none of it. Rosie seemed to believe George was some kind of terrorist, demon hound placed on Earth for the sole purpose of destroying or corrupting members of the Flowers family. He was, at the very least, an agent employed by the Swansons to kidnap Daisy and stick a baby in her belly after brain washing her into falling in love with him.

             
Tegan watched this weird soap opera unfold before him as he waited for his throbbing balls to stop hurting. He found himself torn. He actually believed Daisy. After listening to her tale he found himself thinking George didn’t seem like that bad of a guy.

             
That thought ran in stark contrast to the memory of the maniac that tore through the Flowers compound on that fateful night in the fall. He was confused and in pain and really didn’t want to think about it. He wanted to go to the RV and sleep for a day or maybe two and just forget about the twins and George McCloud for a while. But that wasn’t meant to be, the day was yet young and Rosie was on the war path. George McCloud was doomed.

             
“That’s enough, Daisy,” Rosie said.

             
Daisy put her head down and stopped talking.

             
“When will George be back?”

             
“He’s not coming back. He said he hated me and found someone new. He left me here last night and told me he’d never see me again. So I guess we broke up.”

             
“That’s funny, Daisy. One more time, when will George be back?”

             
“I don’t know,” she sobbed into her hands, “He goes out looking for stuff most days and doesn’t come home until late.”