The Fall (Book 2): Dead Will Rise (15 page)

The woman's hands tensed on the steering wheel. She nodded. “I don't know the details. Like I said, we joined up and had a week of staying in a camp a few miles from the main settlement. I don't know what the place is called or even looks like. Our town wasn't the only satellite to the larger one, and there were at least five hundred people there.”

Anger filled her eyes, aimed not at Kell this time but at her own memories. “They didn't tell us anything, really. Kept us in the dark. There's always gas, always vehicles, always enough clothing and supplies, but never enough food. So Kevin and I,” she said, jerking her head at the bleeding man, “volunteered to stay out here for months to do this run. We get extra food this way, and we're not kept in those damn camps, treated like leeches while the people in charge ignore us.”

Kell could identify; he'd done as much living in North Jackson. Crouching, he let the rifle hang on its strap. “Listen, because I don't have much time until she comes back.”

His tone caught the attention of both prisoners. Kell pointed north. “If you don't give us trouble, we won't have any reason to hurt you, and we'll leave you alive when we take your truck.” The woman grimaced.

“Yes, I know it's unfair. I don't feel great about taking it from you, but the men you've been picking up food from are not good people. They're maybe not as bad as marauders, but they aren't saints. Once we leave, you could go to them and take your chances. I'd advise against it. The man in charge isn't completely stable. The other choice is to run off on your own and try to find a community to join. Or anything other than back where you came from since you don't seem to like it much. I don't care either way.”

The man laughed, blood spatter dusting the dashboard in front of him. “You don't have to shoot us to kill us,” he said in a wet voice. “Leave us tied up and those things will do it for you.”

In the distance, the SUV rolled into view, the distant thrum of its engine echoing down the lonely highway. The prisoners looked at him, one with defiance and the other in defeat. He stared at them hard for a few seconds before putting his hand back on the grip of the rifle and leaning forward.

The woman tensed her body, ready to attack, but Kell's hand darted in to press the trunk release before she could manage it. Kell released the magazine before clearing the round in the chamber, then threw the loose bullet and the gun itself into the trunk. One by one he shucked every round from the magazine, leaving them scattered in the trunk.

When Andrea pulled up a few seconds later, he waved for her to stop. “Pop the hatch,” he said loudly enough to be heard through the closed window. She gave him a questioning look, but released the tailgate. In the back of the SUV Kell saw the extended fuel tank someone had added, giving the vehicle a hugely expanded range. He opened the cap and saw gas gleaming inside. There were also several red plastic cans, all with clear stripes running their height to show how much gas was in them. Every one was full. Kell grabbed one of the five-gallon cans and added it to the trunk of the car. At his request, Michelle handed him the packs she'd found in the back of the vehicle, and after depositing them in the trunk he shut the lid.

Crouching next to the woman's open door, Kell held up a pocket knife. “I'm going to give you this,” he said. “You have a weapon and thirty rounds of ammunition. You have the supplies you brought with you. Assuming this car will start, you have five gallons of gasoline.”

Both of them gazed at him in open disbelief. “Why?” the woman asked.

“Because you're people. Living people who did nothing to us. I won't take you with us, that's not my call. But I won't leave you here with nothing.” He handed the knife to the woman and turned to leave.

Over his shoulder, he said, “But if I see either of you outside of this car while we're driving away, we'll assume you're going for the rifle in the trunk and are coming after us. If that happens, you'll die. Stay in here until we're out of sight and you can go start a new life somewhere else.”

He climbed into the back seat with Michelle, who admonished him to put on his seat belt, and they drove south. Kell was turned in his seat, watching, until the old car holding the prisoners faded into the background and was gone.

Andrea didn't say a word to Kell about giving the prisoners weapons and supplies. The idea had come to him as naturally as breathing, as had the potential ramifications. There had been times since The Fall began when he'd left people alive when it would have been smarter to kill, but this felt different. He'd never gone out of his way to give more to those people than their lives. As the SUV trundled south, slow and steady, Kell felt a curious lack of guilt.

They had a good chance rather than simply being alive.

As before, the drive was slow. Andrea didn't do much more than cruise along at idle speed, only touching the gas to go up hills or move past dangerous areas perfect for traps. Kell chatted with her off and on for a while, then fell into playing games with Michelle. Evan watched in endless fascination at the world moving past them, occasionally naming an interesting thing he saw through the glass.

“Two archeologists discover the bodies of Adam and Eve in a cave. They're perfectly preserved, and look like they just went to sleep. How do the scientists know it's Adam and Eve?”

Michelle screwed her face up in thought. The girl had a sharp mind, and asking riddles was a game he'd played on car trips with his parents as a child. “Is it because they have fig leaves?”

“No, but that's a good guess,” Kell said. “I said the same thing the first time I heard this riddle. They're completely naked, but the scientists knew they were Adam and Eve at first glance.”

The little girl chewed her lip absently as she worked out the problem out loud. “The only thing they have is their bodies. What would be different about them? Could it—oh! Belly buttons! They don't have belly buttons, right?”

Kell held out a hand. “High five! You got it.”

Michelle pumped a fist in triumph. From the front seat, Andrea chimed in. “No belly buttons? How do you figure?”

“Mom, they weren't born. They were made! Babies have belly buttons because they came from mommies. Adam and Eve came from clay.” The little girl said it in the same tone others might have used on her a hundred times, explaining things to a kid.

“It's one of those riddles kids get a lot easier than adults,” Kell said. “That's what my parents told me, anyway. Said it has to do with kids being able to make larger logical jumps than an adult.”

Andrea looked back at them, smiling. “Okay, I've got one for you guys. It goes like this: hold me tight, I'll slip away. Keep me gently and I will stay. What am I?”

Kell went through a lifetime of possible answers all at once. Was it literal, something to do with relationships? Was it a solid object you could grasp, maybe a reference to a hot kettle or maybe something electrified? Could it be more abstract, like shadows or sunlight? Maybe—

“It's sand!” Michelle said, smiling like a maniac. “I used to grab sand in my sandbox back home.”

“Correct,” Andrea said. “I'm driving. Please accept a high-five from Kell instead.”

Hearing his name sent a jolt of fear through him, and a pleasant sensation of normality. “Not to change the subject,” he said, “but you guys need to remember not to call me that when we're around other people. Kate and Laura are okay, but no one else knows who I am.”

There was general grumble of agreement from the car, even Evan joined in.

“Still kind of nice to be called by name,” he said. “I've been hiding for so long.”

“Maybe you should tell the people in your convoy, at least. Sounds to me like most of them put themselves on the line to help you out. Don't you think they deserve a little trust?”

Kell caught her eyes in the rear-view. “Maybe,” he said. “I've thought about it. It's just that if the wrong person finds out and decides to put me on trial or just kill me because of who I am, I might never get to work out a cure.”

Andrea snorted. “Please, you said yourself you've become more reckless. We all saw it for ourselves. Seems to me dying isn't really what's scaring you. I think you're just afraid of being known as the man whose work made this wonderful new world possible.”

He chewed on that for a long time, staying silent until they made camp for the night. Andrea was probably right, of course. She usually was.

What bothered him was how completely he had blinded himself to the obvious things she saw.

Just after noon the following day, Cincinnati managed to sneak up on him. They'd moved with greater speed through long stretches of highway too wide and clear to be trapped. Part of the reason for their decision to pick up speed had come the night before. As the four of them huddled together in the garage of a huge abandoned home, the sound of vehicles moving down the highway filtered through the door to reach them.

Kell had risen from the mattresses and piles of blankets hauled into the garage and placed next to the SUV to get a look through the grimy little window. Several large vehicles crawled across the bridge, sweeping the sides of the highway with search lights. They'd been smart to hide the truck indoors, apparently. It couldn't be coincidence.

Leaving in great haste the next morning brought them here. Back to where it all began.

Andrea stopped the truck a mile outside the city, on a hill that theoretically overlooked Cincinnati but in practice only showed the taller buildings and flashes of urban landscape through the trees. His old cabin wasn't far, and the thought brought back every memory in a crushing wave.

How strange it was to be back after so long trying to forget.

“What's the game plan?” Andrea asked.

“I'm sorry?” Kell said, shaking off the flood of recollections.

She pointed to a map unfolded in front of her, perched against the steering wheel. “Who'd have thought these things would come in handy, right? I never looked back once I had a smartphone. What I was asking, before you drifted off into another emo trance, was what route we should take through the city.”

Kell looked down at the map, putting images to the lifeless lines. “It's better if we cut west around the city. We need to be on 71 in Kentucky if we want to keep on the trade route. We'll take 75. It's what the traders have been using, though it comes closer to the surface streets than I'd like.”

“How bad was the city?” Andrea asked. “You sound like you're at a funeral.”

“It was a nightmare,” Kell said. “I spent months moving through it two or three times a week. At first the zombies were so thick, this being ground-zero, that I had to avoid entire neighborhoods. Crashed cars, buildings burned and falling into the streets. One road could look like a civil war was being waged there, and the next one over as if nothing had happened. The National Guard rolled in for a while, but that just made things worse. The best thing would have been to call for an evacuation. Eventually they did, but by then it was too late.”

Kell closed his eyes. “I can point to where my cabin is. I remember walking the streets wearing that cloak, covered in gore to mask my scent. I spent days at a time in the library and at campus. I learned so much, lost myself in researching everything I could think of to survive.”

His eyes opened. “Then I'd walk back out in it. Smell the soot and death, fight the zombies who saw through my disguise, have to see the bones of thousands. Every time it was the same. And do you know in all those months I never went back to my own home? Didn't go back to where they died, either. I couldn't.”

Andrea started the truck. “We can go back, if you want. We're not on a schedule. You could grab a photo album or something.”

The old wound was torn open, raw, but Kell shook his head. “No. I'm ready to leave this nightmare behind for good.”

“Orange, again,” Evan said, having resumed his post riding shotgun.

Kell had spotted it at the same time, their experience with the car reminding him to look for signs. This time it was literal; a road sign held a small symbol, one that told them to take this exit. It was a tag used to imply life-or-death, and the only people that could have used it were his friends.

“Take this exit,” he told Andrea. “Go down the ramp slowly, there should be more directions.”

“But the 71/75 split is only a little way ahead,” she protested.

“I know, but if Kate and Laura left this, it was important.”

Andrea complied with minimal grumping. At the base of the off-ramp another symbol pointed them east, which led them under the overpass. A third directed them to a massive truck stop where, hidden from view of the highway on the eastern side of the building, was a sight that made his heart grow three sizes that day.

It was the RV.
His
RV.

Sitting in the passenger side with the door open was Laura. She was reading a book. Probably one of the infinite number of James Patterson novels he found everywhere. Though it took him a few seconds to see her, Kate was sighting at him through an absurdly large rifle scope from the roof of the RV. Laura didn't look up at the sound of crunching gravel, only finally putting her book down with an exaggeratedly annoyed motion when Kell threw open the door and ran to her.

Laura jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and raining kisses onto his cheek. “You complete bastard,” she said, squeezing his neck until his eyes bulged. “We were starting to worry you were dead.”

Setting her on the ground, Kell raised an eyebrow. “It hasn't even been a week,” he said. “How did you think I was going to travel 350 miles so fast?”

From above them, Kate chimed in. “You're resourceful. We figured you'd be here in two or three days, tops.” She handed the rifle down and slid her legs off the roof, landing gracefully on the gravel. “So is that what took you so long? Had to take time out to rescue some puppies?”

Andrea and the kids stood a few paces away. Michelle looked deeply suspicious while Andrea was only guarded. Evan was squinting at the RV curiously. “Smaller than ours,” he said.

Kell motioned his new friends toward the old, introducing them. When the hand-shaking was done, he turned to Kate. “I didn't save them. They saved me. In fact, Andrea infiltrated an enemy camp in the dead of night and freed me from captivity while avoiding men who wanted to kill her and zombies wanting to eat her.”

Andrea, to his astonishment, blushed. “Come on, Kell, when you say it like that it makes me sound awesome. Then again, I guess I kind of am. So that's fine.”

He laughed, joyful at the sudden reunion. Snatching Michelle into his arms and resting her on his hip, he stage-whispered in her ear. “Your mom is very humble.”

“I don't know what that means, Kell.”

Clearing her throat, Laura said, “I can't help but notice these fine ladies are using your name. Did you fill them in?”

Feeling oddly as if he'd cheated on them, he nodded. Michelle slid down his side but stood leaning on him, one tiny fist tangled in his belt. “Yeah, I did,” he said. “A lot has happened since we split up. We need to sit and talk.”

Laura opened the door to the living compartment. “We do. You tell us yours, and we'll tell you ours.”

“I don't like your tone of voice,” Kell said. “Is something wrong?”

Laura grimaced and brushed a wayward red lock out of her face. “Given the truck you arrived in, I think your news and our news might be related.”

“We made it to Frankfort safely, which was when we found out about these strangers on the road.”

The adults sat in the dining nook of the RV, crammed into the small booth. Laura explained the situation to them while Michelle and Evan sat in the front, idly playing a hand-slapping game.

“The crazy thing is, we even passed them on the road. Didn't think much of it, the people in the truck you stole just pulled over while the convoy went by. Didn't wave, left their windows up. We were cautious but they didn't do anything but sit there, so we figured them for traders. Then we get to New Haven and talk to the man in charge. Will something or other. He asks us if we've seen anything on the road, we tell him about the yellow SUV, and he swears us to secrecy. Turns out his scouts have been watching these people for a month, maybe longer.”

Laura took a sip of water. “At first they don't seem like much. A few odd shipments here, hunting camps there. They don't get close to New Haven and aren't causing problems, so he files it away as just another group. Then a small community to the southwest of New Haven gets wiped off the map. Hidden supply caches in outlying communities all over the south and southwest get picked clean. The little town that refines gas for New Haven and the communities they trade with? Their fuel shipments get hit.”

Andrea leaned in, hands against her chin. “And Will thinks these things are all related.”

Laura nodded. “They appear to be. There is a lot of guesswork here, but they appear to be working with a large group. No one knows where they're based, and since that week-long wave of attacks everything has been quiet. Except for one thing, which is the radio chatter we picked up on our way back up here. Whoever you took that truck from didn't make it back, and all hell broke loose. The people in charge figured you were headed for New Haven, it being the biggest settlement anywhere close to here. They set up an ambush at the split. Thirty seconds after you hit 71, you'd have been under attack.”

“Damn,” Kell said. “So what do we do?”