The Death Doll (24 page)

What will Cody say?

The painful emptiness hit her as hard as her guilt.  She fought with herself over what to do next until she noticed the furious Pride of Life shooting in all directions, each one getting picked off in turn. 
Craig
. 

A few of them started shooting at her.  She evaded but found her roll lacking momentum with a sword sticking out of her chest.  She yanked it out, picked up her own sword, and cut down the assholes coming at her with both blades.

While the rest of the Pride of Life was busy shooting at nothing, she faced the bus.  Even in the dark, she could see every shocked, betrayed, and fearful look through the gun slits.  She didn't know what to say; there were just no words.

“Come on,” Ron said from the front of the bus, waving her over with one arm while the other held Cynthia over his shoulder.  “We’ve got to go.”

Didi was stunned.  One of her principal detractors just watched her eat a guy, and he came for her anyway.  She smiled and re-sheathed her sword, then stared at the sister sword in her hand.  Figuring sisters should stick together, she hacked off Kenny's dastardly head, kicked over what was left, and yanked his scabbard from his body.  She sheathed her new sword, wrapped it around her shoulder, and followed Ron. 

A woman's scream drew her attention to the Pride of Life, but she couldn't see anything past the headlights shining throughout the barricade.  Ron looked over them with pure horror.

LIFE OR DEATH

“Oh, my God,” Gilda blurted as Bob placed Cody back in his seat.

“What is it now?” Paula groaned as she approached the front, still fuming over being kept in the dark about Didi and Cody’s reckless plan.  Lives could've been spared if everyone knew in advance; lives like poor Megan's.

All that anger went out the nearest gun slit at the sight of the huge mob of zombies trudging through the dark streets.  Though many of the dead fell to the Pride of Life’s firepower, the rest soon overtook the living mob and ate to their heartless content.  Some of those maniacs tried to flee with their vehicles, but their frantic driving resulted in crashes that made an escape for all but a few impossible—and no gap through which the bus could escape.

Paula couldn't breathe.  It's happening again.  They're going to take my Adam from me.

Ron stepped onto the bus with Cynthia over his shoulder.  Bob shut the door behind them and shouted, “Hold on, everybody.”

“We can't drive through those cars,” Jerri said.  “We'll burn out the engine.”

“We can't stay here, either.”

“Where's … Didi?” Cody asked through labored breaths.

Hashim pointed out the nearest gun slit.  “There.” 

Paula looked over the crowd as best she could, then found Didi hacking down bodies—living and dead—in the streets.

“We have to … help her.”  Cody tried to stand but collapsed into the seat. 

Gilda quickly stopped him from trying again.  “Stay down, Cody.  You can’t help anyone if you hurt yourself.”

Jerri touched Cody’s shoulder.  “Yeah.  Besides, you know she can't see well in the dark.  She might kill us by accident.”

“She can see,” Lee said, pointing outside.  “She’s going toward that fire out there.”

Only the inferno started to die down.  Whatever her differences with Didi—especially after watching her feed—Paula prayed the Death Doll would save all their lives again.  Somehow.

*****

Screaming and gunfire filled Didi’s ears, but the dying flames made seeing harder by the second.  Even the headlights of the various convoy vehicles weren’t much help.  All she could do was cut a swath through the masses on Sixth Avenue to make her way back to the truck. 

“
Over here
,” Craig said from somewhere out there. 

“I can’t see you,” she said, still hacking down whatever moved near her.

“
I'm coming to you.
”

“No, stay back.  I don’t want to cut you.”

“
Just hop in the back of the truck when I get there.
”

Didi liked that plan.  Even with so little light, she could tell a truck from a body.  And a bulldozer.

“Hold that thought.” She rushed to the bulldozer and climbed inside, shoving the lifeless bastard behind the controls out of her way.  She used what little light there was to gloss over the many switches and levers, then played with them until the engine roared to life.  She eventually managed to get the damn thing to back up, then forward, then aimed it at the cars blocking the road in front of the bus.  She played with the controls until she got the blade where she needed it.  The dozer hit the vehicles with a loud, metal-crushing noise that grabbed the attention of a few boneheads.  To her delight, the cars moved with little resistance.

Cheers from the bus cut through the chaos outside, which made her smile while she cleared out all the vehicles blocking the road out of town.  When she finished, she yanked the big sucker's gear shift lever back into place and hopped down, taking out the boneheads that came to investigate.

The Ford finally arrived, parking between her and the feeding frenzy while the door to the bus hissed open.  “Time to go,” Craig yelled from the truck.

“If you say so,” she joked as he headed toward the bus.

Something growled ahead of her.  The bus door quickly closed.  She drew her sword and cut down whatever boneheads stood in her way, but a lot more emerged from the shadows.  Then behind her.

*****

“She's trapped,” Jerri shouted as the dead mob converged on Didi. 

Cody tried to pick himself up again, but Gilda held him down with Ron’s help.

Jerri grabbed a pistol and shot down several of the tightly-packed zombies reaching for her friend.  “Come on.  We have to help her.”

“No, wait,” Bob said as he pulled her away from the window.  “They're too close to her.  You could hit her.”

“So, pick off the ones on the outside, but we have to do something.”  She resisted, but Bob's grip kept her in place.

An engine roared.  She and Bob turned to watch the Ford drive straight into the mob.  Craig’s driving took out a few zombies, but shoved a lot more into Didi and made her drop her sword.

Jerri rushed to grab Bob’s radio and yelled, “Pull back, Craig.  You trapped Didi.”

The Ford pulled back without a word, followed by some of the dead.  It didn’t help Didi any, as she furiously fought everything moving around her with her bare hands.  With so little room to move, she was in deep trouble.

“What do we do?” Paula asked from the back.

Jerri wished she had an answer, so—taking a page from Didi’s book—she prayed.

*****

Okay, this sucks
, Didi thought as the masses swarmed her.  Having lost her sword in the push and unable to feel the one on her back to grab it, she resorted to fisticuffs and manual neck breaking.  She tried crawling through their legs to find a clearing, but they stopped her in every direction.  There were just too many, and their putrid hands groped her everywhere.  She couldn't risk letting them rip her apart.  She didn’t want to survive in pieces that could do nothing but waste away in the empty streets of Sibley.  Even if she couldn't feel what was about to happen, she still feared it, and it was obvious she couldn’t escape it.

“Go,” she yelled at the bus, this time for real.

“No,” Cody yelled back.  “Use your grenades.”

Her last grenade hung from her belt, but she shook her head.  “I’m too close.  It’ll damage the bus.”

“We’re not leaving you.”

While kicking and shoving the boneheads, she pled, “Please, go.  I can’t let them get you.”

She saw Cody’s eyes through the gun slits, filled with all the pain she felt at having to lose him.  One last time, she begged him to go.

Through the slits on the door, she saw Bob's grave expression as he nodded and pulled ahead.  Next to him, Jerri cupped her mouth.  Cody screamed the entire time.

As the bus drove away, several eyes stared back at her through the gun slits.  She smiled back at them as best she could over her attackers until the bus was clear. 

The boneheads grabbed her all at once, trying to tear off her limbs.  She shoved them back one last time and ducked.  She yanked her last grenade from her belt, pulled the pin with her teeth, and prayed her friends all got away safely. 

I love you, Cody.

*****

The explosion startled everyone on the bus.  A pile of bodies had been thrown all about in the streets, but there was no sign of Didi.  A great warrior fell, sacrificing herself for the camp she swore to protect. 

Cody wept as he collapsed in his seat again.  Jerri took him in her arms and let him cry on her shoulder.  Knowing the recent loss of someone so dear, her heart broke for him.

Everyone moped in silence.  Babies cried, but no one moved to comfort any of them.  No one had any comfort to offer.  Though they survived—thanks to someone they had tried to oust—they were now homeless.  Their home of two years shrank into darkness somewhere behind them, and the path ahead looked even darker. 

Screeching and yelling drew everyone’s attention rearward.

Ron tromped back to the bathroom, yanked the door open, and jerked Cynthia out by the hair.  He slammed her against the wall and looked her dead in the eye.  “If you don't shut up, I'm going to shut you up,” he warned her.

“You can't hurt me,” Cynthia spat back, huffing defiantly at him.  “You’ve already taken everything away from me.  Murderers.”  Then she spat in his face.

Ron reared his fist, but it hovered.  The girl didn’t even flinch.  Jerri wasn't even sure if she cared whether or not he hit that spiteful girl.  However, he gagged her with something nearby and shoved her back into the lavatory.  “We need a better place to put her.”

“Why are we even keeping her?” Max asked while wrapping his wounded leg on his pedestal.  “She's not insurance anymore.”

“She’s a child,” Paula said.  “She needs a chance to learn.”

Hashim spun the office chair to face Paula. “You mean like Jake?”

Paula started yelling at Hashim, who yelled back.

Jerri shouted them down, and all eyes fell on her.  She sank back into her seat next to Cody and held him again. “The fight was back there.  Let’s leave it there and move on.”

Hashim slowly backed away from Paula, who sat down and pouted.  Dandy and Lee gaped at the catatonic Cody.  Belinda moped over Megan’s body. Clarissa coddled her baby girl. Chuck held Leticia. Pepe wrapped Roy’s seared eyes while Dawn watched.  Bob just drove quietly. 

Jerri stared at the ceiling, wishing her beloved Xing was here to comfort her.  She hoped he had seen Didi keep her and their babies alive, just like she promised.  She hoped he was as proud of Didi as she was; as grateful.

STAGES OF GRIEF

Even though Rock Rapids had been thoroughly raided long ago, Rachelle kept a vigilant eye out for anything that might still be crawling through it.  She wasn’t sure if it was fear gripping her or the onset of boredom as she and Isaac waited in the alley behind a small motel. 

Everything was eerily quiet—not even a whisper of wind.  The faint sliver of the moon barely revealed the lifeless buildings along Main and Union Streets.  After all she had been through over the last few days, she expected something to walk out of one of those open doors, be it a hungry rotter or a ruthless scavenger.  Alas, nothing, which made the relative tranquility of this unremarkable town that much scarier.  She was tempted to throw a rock at the gas station just to see if something would respond, but she didn't dare.  Even if nothing appeared, Isaac would probably wring her neck for it.

Something rumbled in the east, which made her a little hopeful.  Then another engine sounded, and she was less optimistic.  The louder the rumbling grew, the faster her pulse raced.  When the dark intersection began to glow, she pulled her revolver, let out a shaky breath, and crossed herself, praying there were only two vehicles. 

Headlights quickly appeared in the intersection, shining upon the gas station as they pulled in.  The screech of brakes made her jump.  She struggled to identify the vehicle through the beams when the second set of headlights flashed into view and pulled up beside the first vehicle. 

All lights shut off.  When her night vision returned, she saw the Ford and bus silhouettes and smiled.  “They're here.” 

“Go on,” Isaac said as he backed up.  “I'll bring the truck around.”

Rachelle nodded and went with him to meet their people.

The bus hissed twice as it shut down and opened its passenger door.  Rachelle slowed down to avoid startling anyone, though she was anxious to tell Didi about how she took out the R.V. 

Bob stepped out and looked around, then Ron and Jerri.  They all looked upset.  Craig got out of the Ford and froze at the sight of Rachelle, who waited to see Didi exit with him.  The other three stared at her like she had caught them stealing her stuff. 

“What’s going on?” Isaac asked.

Bob's eyes fell.  Craig struggled to speak.  Jerri slowly approached like she had bad news.  Someone must’ve died or something. 

Starting to worry, Rachelle backed away from Jerri.  “Where's Didi?”

Bob's mouth opened and closed.  Jerri looked like she was about to cry as she gently held Rachelle’s arms and said with a broken voice, “She's gone.”

Rachelle’s stomach hit the floor.  “Gone?  What do you mean, ‘gone?’
 
What happened?” 

No one spoke for a long time.  Isaac looked either shocked or confused, glancing from one rueful pair of eyes to the next for clarification.  Jerri tried to hug her, but she backed up and shouted again for answers, her fear and rage growing by the second.

“How’d it happen?” Isaac yelled, looking almost as pissed as Rachelle.

“It was the dead,” Craig said.  “They overwhelmed her.”

“You left her behind?” Rachelle yelled.  “She was your friend.  She saved all of your lives.  How could you do that to her?”

No one spoke; they just stood around looking pathetic. 

Her eyes burning with tears, she ran away.  She had to.  She just couldn’t look at any of those cowards anymore.

*****

Isaac looked from eye to pathetic eye that did nothing while Rachelle ran down the dark alley alone.  So,
he
followed her.  Kid or not, they fought and bled together through some serious shit.  There was no way he was going to let some random face-muncher get her now. 

He sprinted down the alley until he found her hugging her knees against the motel wall, bawling her eyes out.  He stopped a few feet from her while she let out her pain.  He wasn’t the hugging type, so he sat against the wall with her. 

She didn’t look at him.  She just sobbed.  “They deserted her.”

The betrayal in her voice stung him.  He couldn’t help but try to lighten her mood.  “Nah.  They know their asses would be Chow Mein if they did.”

Rachelle briefly laughed through her blubbering.  “They would be, wouldn't they?”

“Yeah.  You were right about her,” he said, getting a surprised look in return.  “She did a lot for them—for all of us.”  He couldn’t believe he was about to say something like this, but, “She was a hero.  She wouldn’t go out easy.”

Rachelle smiled at him.  “She was badass like that.”

“You know that's right,” he said as he dared to put an arm around her.  She sniffled and leaned against him.  Then he mildly shook her. “I guess that means we need a new one.”

She snickered.  “Not if Paula has anything to say about it.”

He waved her off.  “Fuck her.  She doesn’t know you.”

She smiled bigger. 

He kind of enjoyed being someone the kid felt comfortable with, especially since he was starting to feel the same.  He didn’t know if he would’ve felt this way with his own daughter if he had kept her alive, so this had to do.  After all, she was a defender like Didi.  Someone needed to keep people like Paula from trying to take who she was away from her. 

For whatever it was worth anymore, Isaac said a prayer in his head: God bless the dead, and all she protected.

*****

“I've never seen anything like that,” Sean admitted to all the dismal faces huddled under the awning while Ron and Max stood guard on opposite ends of the bus.  “I couldn’t have done it.  She was a real hero.”

His beloved Paula looked away with a clenched jaw, but Hashim and Jerri nodded.  Gilda nodded from the driver window of the bus and glanced back in.  Bob stared out into the street next to Ron.  Craig silently refueled the bus.  Pepe and Dawn stared at the ground.  Clarissa softly rubbed her baby's back, her eyes fallen. 

Isaac and Rachelle joined the assembly, accepting welcome-back sentiments.  Her eyes were puffy like she had been crying.  Sean had to marvel for a moment at how much the rude thug had changed in their short acquaintance. 

Then came the next question, so Sean asked it.  “So, what's next?”

Most of the Panel glanced between each other.  Bob just stared out into the night.

“Cody and—” Jerri uncomfortably stopped herself.  “He was on his way to his hometown before we convinced him to stay.  We agreed we’d go there if we ever needed to evacuate.”

“Where is that?” Sean asked.

“San Clemente,” Gilda answered.  “California.”

Pepe frowned.  “That’s a long way, and a hell of a risk.”

“We've picked as direct a route as we could figure,” Craig said as he unfolded a laminated map.  A thick marker line ran over interstates through Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and part of Arizona toward the southern California coast.  “We’ll hit a few major cities, but we’ll go around if they’re occupied.”

“Hold up,” Isaac said.  “I know he's in charge and all, but why we still gotta go there?  What about everyone else's hometowns?”

Hashim smirked.  “The ones we ran from or the ones we were rescued from?”

“Where would you go, Isaac?” Jerri asked.

The big man looked at each of them, then pointed along Interstate Ninety through Montana.  “I was headin’ this way to San Francisco.  Thought it might be pretty clear.  Maybe find a lot of the gas stations no one emptied.”

“He's got a point,” Hashim said with a small grin.  “We shouldn’t run into many people—”

“No.” Everyone faced Bob as he popped off the bus and stepped toward them.  “We can't hide from the world.  The Pride of Life should've taught us that.  The main roads will have plenty of stores, gas stations, probably some good crops, and survivors.”

Paula looked shocked at the notion.  “How can we take on more people?”

“Didi and Cody always offered help to whoever needed it.  We should follow that example.”

“We're in no shape to do that.”

Bob smiled.  “For all we know, we might rescue a doctor, an electrician, or someone else who'll be useful when we rebuild.”

“We should avoid major cities,” Sean said.  “Omaha will be risky enough, but Denver?  Los Angeles?  God knows what kind of messes we'd have to get through.”

Isaac shrugged.  “We could find other bus stations or garages, in case we need to do any maintenance on this bus.  Pick up some parts.”

Gilda nodded. “We may find a few more medical supplies in hospitals.”

“I can help clear them out,” Rachelle said.

“You shouldn't have to do that,” Paula said.

“Hey, Didi taught me—”

“Didi isn't here anymore,” Paula shouted.  “You shouldn't be risking yourself.”

Rachelle stepped up to Paula and stared her down.  “Didi believed in me enough to teach me how to fight for our people, so that’s what I’m going to do.  I'm a defender, and I will gladly give my life like Didi did if it means protecting this camp.”

Paula's jaw hung open as she struggled to speak.

“Me, too,” Isaac said as he stood beside Rachelle, followed by Pepe, Craig, and Hashim.  Sean didn't know what to say.

“Let's bed down for the night,” Bob said with a dark calm, his tone clearly indicating where he stood on the issue.  “We'll head out in the morning.”

Sean tried to comfort Paula, but she shook loose and followed the others toward the nearby motel.  All he could do was let his wife cool off.