The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (119 page)

“
There is another tire
inside that tire filled with rubber. We had cans of the stuff. You
spray it, and it sets up hard. If they do get the tire, she'll drop
about two inches and ride like the tank she is, but you'll be able
to drive it,” Bob told him as he squatted beside the tire. He
motioned up under the truck. “All the vulnerable stuff is up and
out of the way: brake lines, transmission lines, electrical
harness. Not a guarantee, but it should stay clear from
harm.”

“
Christ,” Bear said as he
rose from the squat. “This will do the job.” He put one size
fourteen foot into the metal stirrup that descended from the bottom
of the cab and hoisted himself up into the cab of the huge
suburban. Monitors showed images from the cameras mounted outside
the truck.

“
Pretty impressive,” Bear
said as he looked over the rest of the interior. “Gas?”

“
Diesel,” Tim said from the
open doorway. “Both of them. Easier to get. More dependable too.
The cameras are assignable. Choose what you want to keep an eye on
the most.”

Bear nodded, reached down and turned
the key. The big diesel rumbled to life. Tim had hooked hoses to
the tailpipes of both trucks earlier. Bear listened a few moments,
and then shut it down. In the silence that descended, they all
turned as the door to the barn squeaked open.

Beth stepped through the door, Candace,
Patty and Lilly behind her. Bear jumped down from the truck and
landed lightly for a man his size.

“
You walked down here?”
Mike asked Candace.

“
No, I called a cab,”
Candace joked. She looked around, spied a bale of hay, took Patty's
hand and made her way to it. She sat down with a sigh. “Ugh. It's
like carrying around another person strapped to your
body!”

“
Honey
it
is
another person,” Patty said and laughed. “Two other
persons!”

Mike came over with Ronnie.

“
What did Jan say? Two
trucks in your garage?” Ronnie asked.

Patty laughed as she nodded her head.
She stretched up and kissed Ronnie.

Candace giggled. “Jan gets some good
ones in, doesn't she?” Mike bent low and kissed her.

“
What gives, Honey?” Mike
asked.

Candace nodded in the direction of Beth
and Bear.

Bear stood by the door of the truck
where he had jumped down from and watched Beth as she walked up.
Her arm was all but healed. The flesh still pink and new, but
healed. The sleeve of the shirt was tied shut on that side. She
carried a machine pistol across one shoulder, and a 9 MM at her
waist. Bear knew there was also a long knife in an ankle case. He
grinned at her as she walked toward him, looking over the truck as
she came. She stopped and looked up at Bear as she came up to
him.

“
A woman after my own
heart,” Bear said jokingly.

Beth kept a serious look on her face as
she stared directly at him.

Bear cleared his throat. “I was kidding
around, Beth. I meant the...”

She cut him off. “I know what you
meant. The tough side of me. The side that would climb right up
into that cab and ride with you. The kind of woman that gets
restless around too many people.” She held his eyes. “The kind of
woman that could put up with the constant travel, life with an edge
to it.” She still held his eyes for a moment after she finished
talking. She finally looked away.

Bear cleared his throat. “Exactly,” he
said quietly. “I imagine you would be going with me tomorrow if you
had not...” He trailed off.

She turned back to him. “If I hadn't
lost my arm?”

“
I'm sorry, Beth. I wish I
hadn't had to take it.” He turned away, running one hand over the
swell of the hood and a fresh air duct that ran from the engine up
to the roof line.

“
And you think that somehow
that changed me? Who I am? How I am?” Her voice rose slightly.
Across the barn, Candace looked over and then went back to talking
to Mike and Bob about something. Beth lowered her voice. “It
irritates me, I guess. That's why I've stayed away. You pissed me
off, Bear. And you hurt me with your assumptions. I am no different
from what I was, Bear. No different.”

Bear's face turned serious. “What are
you saying, Beth?”

“
I'm saying that when you
leave in the morning, I want to be in that other seat,” she held
his eyes for a moment and then looked away. She ran her own hand
over the thick steel plating that armored the truck. She looked
back up, her eyes dark and serious. “Bear,” she took a deep breath.
“Bear I love you. I have loved you since I met you, Bear. I kept it
to myself when I thought Cammy was in the picture. I wanted to say
it... I had to, Bear.” Her voice caught at the end and she turned
away.

Bear's heavy hand cupped her chin and
turned her face back and up to his own. The tears she had felt
threatening, slipped over her bottom eyelids and spilled across her
face. He pulled her to him. “Then you go,” he said quietly. “We go
together.”

New York: Central Park

The Night was black and cold. Winter
was coming, there was no doubt about it. Fires smoldered in the
city, but no longer burned.

Donita walked the wide, empty streets.
There were very few of the living in this area. But the dead were
everywhere.

There were thousands here. A scatter of
wrecked and long burned out vehicles sat abandoned and strewn close
to the park. The line of buses that blocked the roads and pathways
into the park loomed ahead.

As she stood and listened, she heard
the occasional gunshot, some far off, some closer by, none close
enough to cause concern, and it was only a matter of hours before
the remaining living became her own and the gunshots ceased. Hours
only. Except Harlem. But once the park fell, Harlem would be next.
It could not stand against her army.

She stood silently as the cool night
air flowed past her and told her its story...

THE ZOMBIE PLAGUES: BOOK
FIVE

Created by Geo Dell & Dell
Sweet

* * * * *

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

PUBLISHED ON SMASHWORDS BY GEO
DELL

PUBLISHED BY:

Geo Dell and independAntwriters
Publishing

The Zombie Plagues Book
Three

Copyright © 2010 – 2015 by Geo Dell
& independAntwriters Publishing All rights reserved

This book is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other
people. If you would like to share this book with another person,
please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re
reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased
for your use only, then please return to your bookseller and
purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of
this author.

LEGAL

This is a work of fiction. Any names,
characters, places or incidents depicted are products of the
author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual living persons
places, situations or events is purely coincidental.

This novel is Copyright © 2010 – 2015
Wendell Sweet. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means,
electronic, print, scanner or any other means and, or distributed
without the author's permission.

Permission is granted to use short
sections of text in reviews or critiques in standard or electronic
print.

THE ZOMBIE PLAGUES: BOOK FIVE

Prologue

Plague Year One

The Nation

Cammy sat drinking coffee with Annie
and staring down the length of the valley. It was an hour past
sunrise. The sun had finally lifted past the mountain tops in the
distance, and golden light had spilled into the length of the
valley.

“
I know you said it was
this nice, but no way did you do it justice. Or I'm so damn jaded
that I just couldn't believe it.”

“
If you live here, you take
it in stride sometimes, I guess. But, coming back this time? Being
away after being here, living here... I will never leave again. I
don't care,” Annie said.

The door to the main area of the cave
opened, and Candace came out with Lilly and Patty. A second later
Jana, Sandy and Bob stepped out. Tom followed shortly after,
sipping at a cup of coffee as he and Bob talked. They both said
their hellos, Tom bent and kissed Lilly, she had sat on the wall
next to Annie, and then he and Bob started down the wide ledge into
the valley below. Jana settled down next to Cammy.

Cammy lifted her eyes to Sandy. “How's
our girl?” she asked.

Sandy smiled cautiously. “I want to say
okay... I took the rest of her forearm, pumped her full of
penicillin. She seemed to tolerate that well. I think she'll be
okay.”

“
They say anything at all
about how long they think they'll be?” Candace asked. She looked
from Cammy to Annie.

Annie shook her head, as did Cammy. “I
think though,” Annie said, “That things were going well. It seemed
like things turned up fast... maybe...”

Candace nodded.

“
What was it like?” Lilly
asked. “I mean, with so many dead around. How did you manage? We
didn't have that to deal with, and we still barely made it
here.”

Cammy shook her head. “I had no direct
dealings with it. Bear and Beth... Billy, Mac, David to a lesser
extent.” Her voice seemed to choke up for a moment. “Bear and Beth.
Those two have no fear. I guess we owe them a lot. They lead us
together. That was something I thought would be bad, but they
seemed to click.”

Candace nodded.

“
The city... we came from
the city. It's bad there. I mean, the dead are everywhere. They're
different too. When we were in Pennsylvania, Bear and Beth told us
that. The dead there were not smart like the dead in New
York.”

The door opened, and Arlene stepped out
onto the wide stone ledge and sat on the wall.

“
The radio here tells us a
lot. But it's tough to believe some of it. They're stronger than
us? Some people are turning without being bitten?” Lilly said. “I
know I should let you be... ask another time. I don't mean to push
you.”

“
It's okay,” Cammy said.
She sipped at her coffee and then began to talk.

On The Road

Bear and Tim

Bear sat silently with Tim as Mike
talked to the young woman a few yards away.

“
She's had it pretty
rough,” Tim said.

Bear Nodded. He looked over at the girl
talking with Mike once more. “She was one of the ones that tried to
kill you guys?” Bear asked in a near whisper. They were far enough
away for her not to hear, but Bear pitched his voice low
anyway.

Thirty feet away, Mike stared across
the fire at the young woman. She met his gaze levelly, but her eyes
were still red and puffy and told a story about a long, searching
night. Her hands seemed at war with each other, the black
fingernail polish chipped and flashing in the muted
light.

“
It was back at the
campground,” Tim told him. “It started in Watertown. That's where
we came from, up north next to Canada...” He looked at
Bear.

Bear nodded, and Tim
continued.

“
So these guys tried to
kill us there. They did kill one of the girls that was with Mike
and Candace before I was with them. Then they all out attacked us.
That was when Molly and Nellie escaped from them. We killed a bunch
of their guys when that happened That put us right into it with
them as far as they were concerned. Annie?”

Bear looked at Tim and
nodded.

“
They had made a deal with
the people that had Annie. They intended to have her, but she
escaped too. So they came to us to try to buy her back. The guy
thought Mike would do it.”

“
Christ,” Bear
said.

Tim nodded. “Not long after that we got
away, but they followed us.”

Mike spoke quietly. Too quiet to hear
his words, but at his words Chloe's eyes began to leak once again.
Bear fought back the anger that was bubbling just below the
surface.

Although there were no words for
context, Bear understood she was asking how the others might
feel.

“
If they forced her, then
it's not her fault,” Bear said. He focused on a patch of scuffed
dirt on the ground. Ronnie and Tim seemed to be bird watching.
There seemed to be huge birds of prey everywhere now. Two of them
floated high in the sky now. He turned back to Tim but there was
nothing to say. They would be calling the Nation on the Radios in a
short while. Let them know they were on their way back. Let them
know about Molly and Nellie. It would be nice to talk to Cammy,
find out about Beth. He turned back to Tim once more.