The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (161 page)

It was a short walk, but she quickened
her pace. She had thought that they had plenty of time, or at least
Steve had thought that the last time he had called. So she had
pitched in to help Brad put up a long section of wall. That was
when Steve called and said that Lilly's water had
broken.

The Nation was about to meet its first
baby. Jessie smiled to herself as she walked along. And, she told
herself, one more was coming: She had tested herself this morning
and she was pregnant. She hadn't even told Brad yet. She was saving
that for tonight. She smiled to herself again. She felt great. Life
was good. She picked up her pace as she walked through the
tunnel.

SIX

Tom stood at the stone wall overlooking
the valley. He had stayed inside, paced the ledge back and forth:
Thought about going down the tunnel and helping Ronnie and Mike.
Rejected that idea. Reconsidered going in to watch the baby being
born, a once in a lifetime experience, he agreed, but he just
didn't believe he could do it. To him a man's place was in the
waiting room, only they had no waiting room, so here he was looking
out over the valley and waiting.

The air was crisp and clear. The
morning fog that usually covered the valley had burned off as the
sun had risen, but the temperature had risen only a small amount.
It still felt cold enough to snow to him.

The door opened and Mike and Ronnie
stepped outside. Tom grinned, Mike patted him on the back and then
Ronnie did too as they both shook his hand. Mike handed him a cup
of coffee he'd bought out to him.

“
Not gonna watch, huh?”
Ronnie asked.

Tom shook his head. “I went in for a
few seconds, but she's got the girls with her... That's all she
needs,” he said.

“
I might try it... I mean
when Aim is ready... I mean, it's a once in a lifetime thing,
right?”

Tom nodded. “That floor is stone... Be
damn hard to hit when I faint.”

Mike laughed. “I gotta go with Tom.
Candace asked me just this morning... I don't know... I'm
squeamish, I guess.”

“
So you're not gonna do
it?” Tom asked.

“
Oh, I'm gonna do it. Are
you kidding? She asked, and she wants me to be there, same as Lilly
wants you to be there. I just don't know how I'm gonna handle it...
Like Ronnie said, it's a once in a lifetime thing.”

“
I'm squeamish too,” Tom
said.

“
What's squeamish,” Ronnie
asked. “Some word you made up?”

“
You never heard of
squeamish?” Mike asked.

“
I've heard of it... It
means easily upset... Something like that,” Tom said.

“
Delicate?” Ronnie
asked.

Tom frowned. “I don't know about
delicate,” he said.

“
Yeah... Well, we were sent
to tell you Lilly asked for you. She wants you in there, so it's a
moot point... You gotta go,” Mike told him.

Tom's face turned white. “Really?” he
asked.

“
Really, buddy, she's about
ready and she wants you there,” Ronnie said.

“
You guys will go with me,
right?” Tom asked.

“
Hell no,” Ronnie answered.
“It's bad enough that I have to go in when Aim gives
birth.”

Tom's eyes fell on Mike. “Hell no. Uh,
uh,” Mike said. “Once will be enough for me.”

“
Damn,” Tom said. He took a
deep sip from the coffee cup and then handed the cup back to Mike.
“Here goes,” he said as he walked back into the cave.

~

Jessie looked up as Tom stepped into
the room. “Here's your man now,” she told Lilly.

Tom stepped to Lilly's side and took
her hand.

“
Talk to her Tom. Tell her
to breathe. Push when she needs to. Encourage her, Tom. Help her
through this,” Jessie said.

Steve stood to one side
with Sandy, a stainless steel tray next to him draped with a towel.
He wondered briefly what it might be for and then Lilly cried out
and everything left his head. “Breathe, honey,” he heard someone
say. “I love you, hang on baby...
Breathe.
” And he suddenly realized
the voice he heard was his own.

“
Push with the next one,
Lilly,” Jessie said.

“
I did this time,” Lilly
panted.

“
I know, Honey, just push
again... It's crowning. One more big push should be enough,” Jessie
told her.

“
You can do it,” Tom said.
“I know you can... Breathe like she showed us.”

The contraction started and Lilly began
to moan.

“
Push now, Baby, push,” Tom
told her. His own breaths were coming short and hard. His eyes kept
flicking back and forth from Lilly's face to the baby's head that
had suddenly appeared.

“
Good... Good... A
little... Good... Alright, honey, alright... Breathe... Take a
breath, breathe,” Jessie said.

Steve moved in and took the baby. Sandy
clamped the umbilical cord off and cut it. Steve massaged the
baby's chest as Sandy suctioned his mouth and nose.

“
One more push, Honey, just
one more,” Jessie said.

“
Just one more, Honey,” Tom
repeated. “Just one more.” His eyes were on the baby boy that was
now waving his chubby arms and legs as he was being cleaned up on
the top of a nearby stainless steel table.

Lilly pushed one last time and Sandy
caught the placenta in another stainless steel tray as Steve
thumped the baby on his feet with one finger. He opened his mouth
and bawled.

“
You did it! You did it,
Lilly!” Tom said.

Amy and Candace were on the other side
of Lilly, one holding her hand, the other patting her
shoulder.

“
You did it, Lil,” Candace
told her. “He's beautiful.”

“
The first baby,“ Amy said.
Her eyes were tearing up. “The first one, Lil, the
first!”

Lilly choked back a sob.

“
Here you go, Hon,” Sandy
said as she eased the baby onto Lilly's chest. Lilly's arms came up
protectively. Sandy laid a soft blanket over her and the baby. His
head lifted and he began looking for a nipple. Lilly lifted her
blouse and let him have it. His tiny hands clutched at her breast,
his mouth found her nipple and he began to settle down.

“
Oh,” Amy said, a tear
streaking her cheek. “That is so cool.”

Tears leaked from the corners of
Lilly's eyes. One hand smoothed the thick blonde hair on the baby's
head. “He's perfect,” she said.

“
I have a son,” Tom said in
wonder. “I really do.”

“
And you did good, Tom, you
did good,” Candace said. She smiled at him.

“
I did, didn't I? I didn't
pass out or anything,” Tom marveled.

Lilly squeezed his hand. “You did
great, Baby,” She said quietly.

“
So did you,” he said. He
bent down and kissed her forehead.

Jessie and Sandy finished up and while
Steve held the baby they transferred her to the fresh bed next to
her. Steve laid the baby back on her chest and she put him back to
her breast.

“
Okay,” Jessie said. “Mommy
needs her rest, everybody say your goodbyes now.”

Candace and Amy kissed Lilly's cheeks
and the baby's head.

“
We'll come see you later,”
Candace said.

“
Get some sleep,” Amy
added.

Lilly smiled a sleepy smile. “I don't
think that will be hard. Thank you guys for being here with me,”
she said.

Tom let go of her hand, kissed one
cheek and then brushed a finger across the back of one of the
baby's hands. The hand lifted, found Tom's finger and fastened
around it. A second later the tiny hand went back to the warmth of
Lilly's breast.

“
I love you, Honey, and
I'll be back later on once you've gotten some rest,” Tom said. He
turned to Jessie and the others. “Thank you,” he said.

“
My pleasure,” Jessie told
him.

“
Number one,” Sandy said
and hugged him tightly.

“
You did good, man,” Steve
told him.

“
I love you too, Baby,”
Lilly told him. Tom followed Amy and Candace out the door into the
main area of the cave.

October
18
^th

Los Angeles

Don Abrams stood on top of the low
building and watched the street. It was nearly sunrise, and the
dead held the streets at this hour. To look down at the street you
could easily convince yourself that there was nothing there to be
concerned about. That the fear they all held of the dead that had
roamed the streets up until the last few months had been totally
unfounded. And it wasn't because the dead didn't roam the streets
any longer, they did, it was because you didn't see them. They were
smarter than that. The hid themselves.

Don paused a second and
digested his thoughts. It was not the first time he had admitted it
to himself, but it was the first time it had simply rolled right
out during a chain of thought as though it belonged... As though it
were real, as though
they
were real, changed, smarter, existing in some way
that none of them could understand.

Something clanked loudly in the
darkness below and Don jumped.

“
What?” Iris from behind
him.

“
Nothing... Nothing,” He
whispered the words tightly. “A noise below.” Iris said nothing,
but left her side of the building, walked over and scanned the
street carefully as Don himself was doing.

“
Fuckers are so sneaky,”
Don whispered.

“
Should have been gone
already... We waited too long,” Iris said a little too loudly. Her
voice was emotional, on the edge of another argument. It had, after
all, been Don's idea to stay. It had been Don who had been
convinced that Los Angeles would rebound. One of the biggest cities
in the world, how could it not, he had reasoned, but time had
written a different story. The dead owned Los Angeles. All of it,
and what the dead didn't own the gangs did. They had no business
being here at all. The dead were killing off the gangs and soon the
dead would own it and them right along with it. When he thought
about it like that it made his blood run cold: He could feel the
chill in his veins; Iris had been right.

There was nothing he could say at all.
Not an admission, not a denial. Iris knew the truth, she hadn't
made the remark in hopes of convincing him, she was only stating a
fact. They had stayed too long, and now, even though they were
trying to make their way out it was proving impossible to get out.
They were two in a city full of gang wars, flooded areas,
explosions from the broken gas lines, fires, continuing
earthquakes, and the dead who followed their every move yet made it
seem they were only ghosts in their imaginations. Nothing more than
smoke. The clank came from the street again, and this time Don
zeroed in on their truck where it sat three stories below. Locked
up tight: Welded steel plating over the glass. The doors protected
with heavy lock-boxes that protected the door-locks and
handles.

The drivers side was in bright
moonlight. Nothing there, but the passenger side was in shadow. He
didn't believe anything was there. He hoped nothing was there, but
he was unsure. Unconvinced. They were so quick. They changed more
and more every day. What seemed beyond them today, hiding in the
shadows of the passenger side and working at opening the
lock-boxes, might be within their grasp tomorrow. Might even be
fully within their grasp today. They simply may not have tipped
their hand.

A low metallic clicking sound came to
them. They both raised their rifles, aiming down at the passenger
side of the truck. A scratching, scraping sound, followed by some
metal object falling to the pavement below, something like chains
dragging on concrete, Don thought, and then full panic hit him just
before he heard the coils of chain dragged through the eye bolts in
the door below and falling to the concrete.

“
The door,” he managed, as
he thrust himself away from the edge of the roof and ran back along
the roof surface toward the door that was propped open with a
length of wood, but before he reached the doorway and kicked the
lumber away, he heard the heavy pounding of feet on the stairway.
More than one, many, coming up the stairs fast: Even as the wood
went flying he knew he was too late. He slammed the door shut with
all of his weight and tried to hold it.

Stupid, he told himself.
It was a mantra in his head,
Stupid,
stupid, stupid!
There was no lock on the
door. None. He hadn't thought of it.

He had just begun to wonder if the
simple closing of the door would matter. Like it was some sort of
horror story and the dead would need to speak some sort of magic
words to pass the doorway, unlocked or not, when the first of them
hit the door on the other side and it burst from the frame throwing
him aside like a rag doll. A second later he was trying to scramble
back to his feet. He was twenty feet away from the door, near the
edge of the roof, a few steps and he could jump... Head first would
do it. He dragged one leg behind him, moving as quickly as he
could. Behind him he heard the rifle chatter as Iris opened up on
the dead, and he realized he had not fired a shot at all. He tried
to shift his direction in mid-stride, yanking the rifle strap from
his shoulder as he did, but it was too much. His center of gravity
shifted and he fell backwards off the roof.