The Dead Live On (20 page)

    
“We saw them on the way in, ran a couple of the bodies over to get by. So, what happened to Troy’s friends?”

    
“They wanted to go home.” Troy piped in and sat in the stool on the other side of John. “So, I took them home. They were brothers; whole family lived in the same big house. As soon as they hit the door they were toast, all of ‘em zombies and fell on top of them so quick. One had looked directly right at me, you know,” he used his to fingers in a V and pointed from his eyes to John’s eyes. “Right at me so it seemed when we met eyes, it was like clicking on a zoom button or something. Suddenly it was like we were standing face to face! Close enough to kiss me! And we had an understanding. He understood I was alive and I understood he was coming after me, so I floored it and was gonnie!” He made a sliding motion with his hands. “I wasn’t gonna sit there and let him get to me! He was one of them, you know, whatever the fuck their called but, man are they fast! There wasn’t anything I could’ve have done for my friends.” No one had anything to say about that because really, there wasn’t anything else he could’ve done short of getting himself killed.

    
“How come you guys didn’t know what was going on? Didn’t you have a radio or anything to keep up with the news?”

    
“No, we took CD’s and cassettes. Yes, I said cassettes. We were getting away from the world and so we listened to music and fished, grilled out and drank massive amounts of beer. Smoked a little weed, had a great time. We only left because we ran out of beer and the store was closed. The next store would be too far from camp and to close to home to go there and back. We went back to camp and packed up our things to head home. It wasn’t until we started seeing what we thought were crazy people on the street and noticed the traffic lights weren’t working. Then we saw flyers everywhere and realized our cells no longer worked. It was then they decided not to go to my place but to go home and check on their family. I couldn’t blame them and who was I to stop them?”

“What made you come here, instead of home?” John asked.

      “I drove by my place, there were too many. I love this bar so I thought if anyone was around, they would be here.”

     
“You got lucky that I decided to look out the window to see who had crashed. You may not have made it to the door.” Mojo said.

    
“And for that, my little friend, I am thankful to you and shall be indebted to you for the rest of my days.” He said jokingly. Taking a cut a Mojo’s height was not a good idea but he thought just this once he’d slip it in and Mojo thought that just this once he’d let it go.

    
“That’s the only one you get, Troy. Next time you won’t have any days left at all.” They continued chatting and everyone joined in the conversation. Just for a little while, it seemed like a regular group of people enjoying a drink with friends at a bar.

    
Upstairs, Tank lay deeply immersed in dreamland, with his wife and daughter. They are happy and laughing, they are alive. He kisses Debbie for the first time in a long time and he savors the feel of her lips and the smell of her breath. Everything is good and they are in a place where there is no such thing as the living dead. His subconscious is unaware that it is only a dream. They were happy and that was all that mattered. He didn’t feel a thing when his heart gave up.  

Chapter Twenty Eight

It had been only a day but Kate decided it was time to go. Her ankle was still a bit sore but she could put her weight on it and after making several short laps around the crypt she had taken for shelter, discovered that she could run if need be. It would be painful but she could do it. Her pack on her back and armed only with great courage and determination, she exited the cemetery through the front gates. She was unaware that Dave’s decaying body lie only a few yards away. It was best that she did not see it.

She had no ammo for her gun and was only a little worried. She had given in to the fact that if she were to come upon a horde of infected, she would die. Still, she walked on and was able to avoid the few she had seen. It would not be so easy when she reached the city. If she is attacked, she will let her mind wander far away and try to achieve inner peace as her body is being torn to shreds and consumed. What else could she do? Her only goals at the moment were to find ammo or a loaded weapon and a vehicle. She had a long walk ahead of her until then. If she happens to get that lucky, she will join her friends in Ohio. She had to find out if Angel had made it.

     She had just made it out of the field and into a little suburb when she saw Kimmy sitting in the middle of the street, feasting on what looked like it might’ve been a cat or a rat. She wasn’t sure but the size of the child and the burned and tattered dress led her to believe that it was definitely Kimmys reanimated corpse. The hair had been burned away. She stood still for she didn’t want to attract her attention. She looked all around her and the only thing she saw was a large heavy slab of rock. A weapon, yes, but it posed a problem. She would have to get close to use it and if she was too close, the blood spatter would get on her and when blood spatters, it does so in such fine tiny droplets that you can’t see everywhere it went. She didn’t want it on her.

   
Just then Kimmys head lifted from her victim and her spine stiffened. Kimmy turned her head and her previously large black eyes were now a large creamy burgundy. Kate picked up the rock and as Kimmy wobbled to stand on her feet, Kate ran up, kicked her back down, knocking her on her back and slammed the slab rock down on her face. It was okay though, the slab of rock was wide enough all around and served also as a blocker from the spatter. She still checked herself and satisfied that she had found none, she turned and walked away from Kimmys now truly dead corpse.

    
She cursed to herself as she thought about the purple heart; it should still be in Kimmys dress pocket. She sighed and found a long twig on the ground that she used to poke at the pockets to see if there was anything in them. Not feeling any resistance she decided that it was so small she would have to look harder. She got down on her knees beside the body and cringed at being so close the carnage. She dismissed it quickly and lifted one of the pockets open with the twig and peered into it, seeing nothing she tried the other pocket. Nope, no purple heart. She stood and tossed the twig on the ground and proceeded to the abandoned military jeep that was a hundred or so yards away.

Inside the jeep, she found a rotting corpse and a nine millimeter pist
ol, almost exactly like Dave’s. She rooted through the jeep and found several clips for the gun and more food rations. She put all she could in her pack and checked the ignition for keys as she exited the vehicle. Gratefu
l
to have ammo, she walked on in search of a vehicle that she could drive away.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Allen awoke with boundless energy, being the y
oung man he is, wanted to hear music. He looked through all the bags for his I-pod. He wanted to use it while he could before the battery died and he was getting upset because he couldn’t find it. He asked everyone if they had seen it lying around. No one had, so he figured it must be outside in the car.   He sat at the bar brooding because he knew he wasn’t supposed to go outside and he wanted so bad to go and get it.

    
The only one he didn’t want to piss off was Mojo and he didn’t worry much about that because Mojo was asleep at a table in the far corner and John had taken the pallet in the floor upstairs when Allen had gotten up. The ones left awake were Woody, Troy and the two girls. 

     Allen
contemplated not saying anything to anyone and just going on outside by himself to get it. It was daylight and he would be able to see and there probably weren’t many infected out there anyway. Just as he started to get up out of his seat Woody spoke to him. 

  
“Whatcha thinkin’ bout doin? I can see it in your face. Spill it.” Woody lit a cigarette and blew the smoke in his face. Allen coughed and waved the smoke out of his face before he replied “I think I left my i-Pod out in the car. I want it so I’m gonna go get it.”

  
“Not without me you don’t! I will watch over you but I want to listen to it, too. That’s the deal and you better make it fast. I don’t plan on being zombie kibble and I promise that if they attack; I will run!”

  
“Then just stay in here, I don’t need you if you ain’t gonna help.” Allen said and then got up to go through the dark kitchen to the back door.

 
“I was joking! Wait for me!” and Woody ran in front of him to block the door.

 
“Wait! Look out the peephole first. We don’t want to run head first into a crowd.” He said.

   
Allen looked out the peephole and didn’t see anything. He started to open the back door slowly and Troy quietly entered the kitchen and slammed his hand on the stainless steel table behind them, startling them both. They all but jumped into each other’s arms, Woody letting out a high pitched squeal and squeezed his eyes shut.

  
“It’s just Troy.” Allen said and pushed Woody away from him. Woody let out the breath that he was holding and Troy spoke.

 
“What the fuck are you two twits doin? You gonna risk your life for a fuckin’ I-pod? Are you serious?” He asked with serious attitude. Allen shrugged and said “Well, yea. I mean, it’s just right there. I’m pretty fast. How hard could it be?”

  
“It can be very fuckin hard; you ain’t using your head. They come out of nowhere sometimes. I ain’t agreeing with this at all but if you insist on going, I’ll stand right by the door and listen for you, but I’m telling you man, you better hurry.”

  
“Man, it doesn’t take much to slip past you, does it?” Woody scowled at him.

  
“Shut it and get going before I change my mind.”

  
“Okay, thank you,” and Allen said to Woody, “let’s go.”

   
Woody eased the back door open and poked his head out slowly. He looked left to right and up and down and saw no infected. There was no telling what might be around the other side of the building but they wouldn’t know until they got to the car if there were any over there. Allen shoved him out the door and ran in front of him to the mustang they had arrived in sitting in the third spot from the door. He flung open the passenger door and dived in the back looking for it in the floor boards.

Woody tiptoed his way to the car, looking all around for anything to move. Satisfied with his conclusion that none were near, he lit another cigarette and leaned back against the trunk and stared at the side of his building which shared a lot with Tank’s. He so wanted to go home and see if his cat was still okay. He was thinking of talking Allen into going over there with him when he was done here. He had done him a favor, so Allen could do one for him. He put cigarette in his mouth and rubbed his hands together and looked down at them. There were getting dry and cracked, they looked like old people’s hands. He looked up and the cigarette fell from his mouth.

     Allen had searched the floor boards and down in the seats as well and found no sign of the missing i-pod. He decided that the glove compartment was his last resort, maybe one of them had found it while he was sleeping and placed it in there. He opened it and the little light inside came on, casting its dull glow onto the papers inside. He took them out and noticed the name on the title. “Well, thank you Mr. Eggerton for the use of your fine vehicle.” He folded it back up and put it back in the glove box. He was finally accepting the fact that he wasn’t going to find it, that he had probably left it at the church.

  
The infected that had somehow made his way towards Woody unnoticed was only a few feet away. Woody recognized his recently dumped lover and tried to scream but no sound escaped his lips. He paid no mind to the other infected moving nearer to Allen as his former lover attacked him.

  
“All right, Woody,” Allen yelled. “Thank you. Let’s get back in-.” He turned to exit the passenger door that he had left ajar while searching and was stopped by the massive bulk of a dead man reaching for him, and he screamed.

Chapter Thirty

Tisha woke up with a start and flung the blanket off of her. “Where’s Allen?” She asked alarmed.

“They went out to get his I-pod, Troy is watching the door.”

      “Are you serious? You guys let him go out for that?” She ran towards the kitchen and slammed into Troy, who was running back in to get the shotgun, he screamed that Allen and Woody were being attacked. Tisha ran ahead of him and barreled out the back door. She could see Woody being mauled by an infected but could not see Allen on the other side of the car.

     
She ran unarmed to get sight of him and screamed loudly as she saw he was lying under two infected and his eyes were glazed, blood bubbling from his mouth, his hands pushing weakly at his attackers. She barely heard the shot gun as Troy blew the head off of the zombie that killed Woody and the second shot that insured that Woody would not come back.

   
Tisha whaled at the zombies mauling Allen, her hands and legs flailing and landing wherever they could, while she continued to scream out at the top of her lungs. “GET OFF OF HIM! GET OFF! GET OFF!” She screamed at them as she beat at them with her fists and kicked at them as hard as she could. They lost interest in Allen and fell upon Tisha, ignoring her blows, one sinking his teeth into her shoulder the other stayed on its knees and grabbed her leg; his teeth ripping through her blue jeans and the blood spilling out instantly. She screamed and continued fighting, ripping chunks of hair off of their heads, and feeling their skin smoosh grossly beneath her hands with each blow, nausea swept over her and she gagged.  Tisha knew it was over for her but she was so angry and distraught; she would continue to fight until she was dead. She wanted revenge and she was going to have it. They have killed her precious nephew, the only thing left of her baby brother.