The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (163 page)

In a few seconds they were screaming
backwards down the wider street beyond the downtown area they had
driven into. Billy's truck slowed beside him, the tires locking up
and hopping on the pavement, and then the truck backed hard into
the hospital parking lot. Flying into the air as it left the road,
and disappearing from site into the lot.

Bear locked up his own brakes, swung
around hard, and then floored the gas pedal and backed toward the
parking lot too. Beth shot her arm out and braced herself as the
truck leapt into the air when the rear tires hit the small rise
from the roadway to the parking lot, and bounced high into the air.
Bear locked up the brakes a split second later, barely missing
Billy's truck, and slammed backwards into a car at the back of the
lot before stopping. The collision did nothing to the heavily
reinforced iron bumper of the truck, but sent the car spinning like
a top across half of the cracked and tilted parking lot. It hit the
opposite side of the lot and skittered off the side into a deep
ravine.

“
Jesus, Bear,” Beth said.
She pushed herself backwards into her seat once more. A second
later she was scanning the monitors and then squinting through the
side port to the outside.

“
Nobody hurt?” Billy's
voice over the FM.

“
Good... You?” Bear
asked.

“
Good... Bastards,” Billy
spat.”

“
Yeah,” Bear agreed. He
looked down at the rear monitor again. Shadows moved in the deep
black of the nearby parking garage. “Looks like dead in the parking
garage,” Bear added.

“
Saw that,” Billy answered.
“Fuck. When it rains it pours, I guess.”

Bear laughed. “Yeah, well, I wouldn't
have it any other way.” He looked over at Beth and then down at the
monitor checking the lot once more. “Here's what we're gonna
do...”

A few minutes later they were in the
trucks and running fast down into the city. Beth drove while Bear
manned the gun. Billy while Pearl ran their gun. As soon as they
were in range they began to launch grenades at the surrounding
buildings: The results were instantaneous. Return fire came hard
and fast, but it only served as a beacon for Pearl and Bear to
sight in on. Soon those strong holds were gone, the buildings where
they had secreted themselves nothing but crumbled ruins scattered
into the streets. Smoke and flame rose into the sky to warn others
of their presence.

There had been no pin pointing of the
conversations they had monitored on their way into the city. Two
distinct groups, but they seemed to be in cooperation with one
another. Bear didn't care what their alliances were as long as both
sides got the message to leave them alone or suffer the
consequences.

A few grenades cleared the cars and
they made their way into the public square. Pieces of the cars
burned, and wreckage lay scattered everywhere, lending a feel of
war torn third world unreality to them as they slowly made their
way past the wreckage and into the traffic circle. Behind them the
buildings sent smoke and flame into the air, brick, glass and wood
had been blasted out onto the pavement. The occasional body lay on
the blacktop, or hung partway from the exploded buildings, but
there was no more return fire. A half trip around the old traffic
circle and they made the west side of the old public square and
bore away from the city.

The streets here were buckled,
virtually useless and hard to travel. The river came into view far
below, past a vast area of ruins, and Bear lead them off road down
a steep hill in that direction. A little slipping and sliding
bought them to a road that traversed the top of the river gorge,
and they turned cautiously back toward the center of the city. They
hadn't traveled more than a few hundred feet when Bear rolled to a
stop and his voice came over the radio in Billy and Pearl's
truck.

“
All wrong,” Bear said
tightly. “This should be the back way into that cave Pearl told us
about. Has to be. There isn't any other road below this
one.”

Billy was studying the monitors hard.
“She thinks it is... So?”

“
So, if it is, and it is
occupied, where are they? Wouldn't you protect your back
door?”

“
I see your point,” Billy
agreed. “I would.”

“
Might be booby trapped,”
Beth threw in.

“
In the roadway?” Pearl
asked.

“
Best place,” Bear
agreed.

“
Or it could be nothing...
Maybe they didn't take the place,” Beth said quietly.

“
Yeah... Yeah... I just
don't buy that,” Billy said. “It's too nice down here... Cleaned
up. Neat... And even the brush is cut back, or seems to be, doesn't
it? Doesn't look like you could hide anywhere... No... I think they
have us in sight right now... And I think the roads are booby
trapped. Fuckin' lucky we didn't blow our asses up
already.”

“
Should leave,” Pearl
added.

“
No,”
Beth said. “I say we
should stay. If range, for them, is that brush line where things
become hard to see for us, then we are out of range for anyone
except a good sharp shooter with a long range rifle. They're not
likely to have one. If they do, well, I guess we'll pay for it, but
my point is I don't think they do, and the longer we sit here the
more paranoid they'll get... Maybe we can force their hand. Watch
our exit, watch that brush line... See what we can see.”

“
I don't want to, but I do
agree with that,” Billy said and chuckled.

“
Think I'm right?” Beth
asked.

“
I think you're unstoppable
when you set a thing in motion. Seen it. And... it's a solid
plan.”

“
Yeah,” Bear
agreed.

“
Yeah,” Pearl threw in.
“Came to have it out, may as well have it out.”

Twenty minutes of waiting saw the first
movement along the brush line. Pearl spotted it.

“
Gang...
Gang, I think that is a cannon...
Rocket launcher?
I think maybe we
overstayed our welcome.”

'What? No way... No... Dammit, lets go
now,” Bear said quickly. “Send some grenades at them on the way
out.”

The monitors would maintain targets
once locked, as long as the line of sight was intact. They were
tied into Tim's weapons aiming system. As Bear and Pearl both
geared up to leave, both Beth and Billy locked on the small targets
at the brush line. While they were turning, the grenades were
launched and began to tear up the brush line and the small rocket
launcher they had been setting up. Shoulder mounted. The tube and a
half dozen people spilled out of the brush line, sprawled onto the
pavement. A few still moved. The aiming system disengaged as they
raced back up the muddy hillside and it lost its lock.

Pearl had nearly made it to the top of
the muddy hill when a huge blast rocked the truck hard, and it
lurched to the right, burying its nose in to the earth. A second
later it began to slide back down the hill, turning sideways as it
went. Billy could hear Bear calling on the radio, but when his eyes
found Pearl, wondering why she had not answered, he found she was
tumbled in a heap on the floor. A minute after that the truck
caught on something under the earth of the hill and went over,
rolling to the bottom of the hill and crashing into the
trees.

Beth watched the truck roll away down
the hill, but there was little she could do. A second rocket
launcher had appeared from the trees and she had watched as someone
dropped a rocket in by hand and a second later, before it fully
registered, the rocket was climbing a trail of fire into the air
heading for Billy's truck. She watched her front monitor and the
back monitor as she finished her climb. She saw the people and the
rocket launcher turn to dust as Bear hit it with their own weapons,
but had it been too late for Billy and Pearl?

“
We have to get somewhere
safe and figure this out,” Bear yelled above the whine of the
engine.

“
Billy and Pearl?” Beth
yelled back.

“
Don't know. The rocket
missed their truck. Hit in front of it. They rolled down the hill,”
Bear yelled.

The radio suddenly erupted
in a spate of rushed words.
“Don't stop...
We'll get out. I'll be in touch.”
Billy's
voice screamed into the microphone. Nothing else but
static.

Beth punched the gas hard and
maneuvered the truck into an open field. She matted the pedal and a
second later they were tearing along the tree line looking for
safety. Beth followed a trail into the trees, slowed to stay on the
narrow trail, and a handful of minutes later they coasted to a stop
near an old barn. The doors yawned wide in the afternoon sunlight.
Beth turned the truck slowly so as not to tear up the ground and
then backed into the yawning chasm. She shifted the truck into
neutral and listened to the rumble of the motor.

“
They made it out,” Bear
said.

“
I heard him,” Beth
agreed.

“
No, I mean I saw them
scramble out, Billy and Pearl.”

The ran out?” Beth asked.

Bear frowned, wishing he had not said
what he had. “Billy got out. I think he was carrying Pearl... Over
his shoulder.”

“
How can you not be sure of
that?” Beth asked. “You sound like you don't know.”

“
No... I mean, yes. I know.
I just didn't want to upset you, Beth. Billy had her over his
shoulder.”

Beth stared for a second, locking her
eyes on Bear's. “Bear, just to keep things on the level. Don't
sugar coat shit, just give it to me. Don't assume I can't handle
it, I can...” She frowned deeply, but kept her eyes on his
own.

Bear nodded. “I don't know why I did
that... Billy said they were fine, so maybe they are.”

“
Yeah, well, Billy tends to
coddle me too, so he would never say if she was good or
not.”

“
What do you think we
should do,” Bear asked. “Dusk in a few hours.”

“
Yeah,” Beth nodded. “No
sense in looking today. We aren't equipped. They have a strong hold
there. Tomorrow we can start fresh... We have to go in, Bear.
Billy, whether he's okay or not, would want us to go on... Finish
this... That means going in. We should go in tomorrow.” She held
his eyes.

“
We'll go, but tonight...
Better to bring it fast and get it over with. They'll think they
drove us off. Sneak back under cover of darkness... Make
sense?”

“
Unfortunately it does,”
Beth agreed. “We should go on foot. Leave the truck here. Their
truck is likely shot. We have to have one able to get us out of
here and back home.” She switched off the truck and slipped the key
into her pocket.

Ten minutes later Bear was easing the
big barn doors shut to hide the truck. They started off down the
trail at a fast trot trying to make it back to the river and the
caves before nightfall so they could plan their attack.

Watertown New York

Billy and Pearl

The river road ran away in both
directions. Pearl had come to as he had begun to run. She could not
run fast, but she could run and that made their chances of getting
away rise significantly Billy thought. He had eased them into the
tree line and they had faded into the darkness there, traveling
toward the outskirts of the city as quietly as they
could.

It would be full dark soon and that
would hide them. It would also leave them wide open to attacks from
the dead too, he thought sourly. He stepped from the trees and
looked up and down the road. It appeared empty so he set out at a
fast walk, staying close to the shadows. Almost immediately a
figure stepped from the tree line less than a hundred feet in front
of them. They both came to a quiet stop, each group waiting on the
other.

A kid, Billy saw. Or at least not much
more than a kid. The kid spoke quietly into a hand held radio and
Billy's heart sank. The words had been lost on him, but he heard a
motor turn over and catch not far away. The motor settled into a
low grumble and then revved slightly, growing louder as it neared
them from the west, the end of River road that lead out of the
city. Away from where the fight had been. Billy wondered if that
meant there might be others coming at them from behind. He no
sooner had the thought than the nose of a Ford pickup eased around
the bend in River road a quarter mile away and coasted down to
them. The truck shut off and two more kids stepped down to the
asphalt in the silence that ensued. The three moved forward as a
group.

Pearl raised her rifle and pointed it
at the lead kid. “That's it then.” She said.

She didn't scream it, softly spoke it,
Billy thought later, but the kid stopped in his tracks.

“
What's with the fuckin'
guns?” The kid asked.

“
It's a rough world. We
weren't looking for a fight, you bought it to us: As for the guns
you had yours on us from the first we saw you. It only makes sense
that we're going to put ours on you,” Billy said. He hoped he
sounded as cool as Pearl had.

'Bullshit,” one of the other kids said.
“You had it in your hands when I looked at you. That's why I got
mine ready. And you're the ones that was shooting us up a while
ago, right?”