The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (56 page)

Janet, Patty, Lilly and Annie had a
fire going and breakfast ready before the sun was more than a hint
of color on the horizon. Everyone watched in wonder as the sun
broke over the mountains to the south and drenched the land with
golden light.

The herd of buffalo was huge, several
hundred animals, maybe as many as a thousand, Janet had supposed.
They had moved off down the valley, and a few of the larger cows in
the herd kept an eye on the strange visitors. They didn't seem
frightened, just cautious. There were several dozen calves within
sight, being fussed over by their mothers, and the bulls, as well
as the females were taking no chances.

After breakfast they tried the radios
again, but received no answer. “It doesn't mean they aren't on the
way or that anything bad has happened,” Patty said, when Annie
seemed about to burst into tears.

“
Oh no,” Janet said. “Bob
told me they'll be along directly. They have to take care of those
people, pick up some supplies, but they'll do that and then they'll
be along. They will. I wouldn't expect them to catch up to us for
several days. They have too much to do.” She tried to sound as sure
of herself and as upbeat as she could, but both were things she
didn't particularly feel.

Annie looked at her, a faint doubt line
creasing her forehead, but after a few seconds she nodded, and the
line smoothed out.

“
What we have to do is find
a place,” Janet said.

“
Do you have a map,” Annie
asked, “to help us find... whatever it is we're looking
for?”

“
Yes, dear, but the map is
no good now, don't you see, where we are there have been only a few
people in over two hundred years. No map can show this. No, we'll
do this on our own. I guess we'll get moving now as well. Patty?”
She asked. She waited until Patty looked over, “Would you find
something, yarn... ribbon, to tie to a few of these trees...
Something to show that we've been here?” Janet asked.

“
Yes, that's a good idea,”
Patty said and smiled. She had worried about the others being able
to find them, but had not wanted to voice her concern.

“
Yes, but I wish I had
thought of it yesterday,” she frowned. “Well there's nothing for
it, as Bob would say. We will mark our way from here on out,” Janet
proclaimed.

They had the Suburbans loaded and ready
to go a half an hour later. Bright red ribbons fluttered from
several trees, and Patty had a good supply cut from a bright red
plastic tarp. She'd mark trees periodically as they
went.

The herd grew nervous when the
Suburbans moved out. The cows gathered around the calves; the bulls
pawed and snorted. But the three Suburbans gave them a wide berth
as they passed them and continued down into the long
valley.

~

She wiped her sweaty hands on her
jeans. The trucks had been gone for over half an hour now. She
needed dry hands, she didn't want to slip coming down the tree. She
wiped her hands once more, and slowly began to shimmy down the pine
from limb to limb, favoring one leg as she descended.

Sticky sap stuck to her hands and
clothes, but she didn't care. She made the ground and headed into
the camp a short distance away. She was starved. She couldn't even
remember the last time she had eaten.

A large iron pot sat at the edge of the
fire. In the larger of the four tents she found a stack of plastic
bowls, cups and eating utensils. She ate first.

When her belly was reasonably full, she
rummaged through the clothing in one of the tents and put together
some clean clothes. She found one of the V.H.F. Radios, turned it
on and set it on the picnic table. If they came back, she would
know. She took the clothes down to the stream to clean
up.

She had a bullet wound in one leg, the
fleshy part of the outer thigh, a crease really. The bullet had
furrowed a hole through the skin, but it hadn't gone into the meat
of her leg. Even so, it was an angry red, and she knew what that
meant.

She cleaned it out, grimacing at the
pain as she did. She looked at it closely, decided it was as clean
as she was going to get it, and then smeared a half tube of
antibiotic ointment on it from a first aid kit she'd found in the
same tent as she had taken the clothes from; she bandaged
it.

She walked around testing the leg
before she slipped the jeans back up and pulled the boots back on
her feet. She could find the rest of what she wanted in the nearest
town. She looked down at her chipped fingernails, the black polish
nearly gone in places. I'll fix that too, Chloe told
herself.

She retrieved the radio. She had heard
them calling back and forth to each other a few times, crossed the
camp and walked down to the truck they had left.

The back of the truck was a gory mess,
flies took off and landed from the blood covered floor, making loud
buzzing sounds as they did. That was okay, she told herself. She'd
just find another truck when she got to the next town. This one
would still get her there.

She flipped her hair away from her
head, her flat emotionless eyes focused on something only she could
see. She laughed to herself and then climbed up into the
truck.

~

She had spent the night in hiding. She
had seen the others come and drag the bodies away. Nearly
impossible to see in the night. She had heard the others looking
around all morning long, and she had known they would not find what
they wanted.

The others had been a puzzle. It wasn't
Death or Murder or Shitty. She was sure of that, or as sure as she
could be. It had been damn black, hard to see anything, but it was
the way they had moved that told her it wasn't her own people. And,
she had been about to call out. It had even seemed as though they
had looked up at her. But then something had seemed wrong,
something in the blackness. She just hadn't been able to put her
finger on what it had been. So she had stayed silent. She had held
onto the tree for all she was worth - suddenly scared all over
again - kept her breathing as quiet as she could and
waited.

And then the others had walked right
past her several times this morning looking for the bodies. It was
funny how people just didn't think to look up, yet thought they had
looked everywhere. They had looked and then they had talked it
over, and she had heard that too. And then they had left, and she
had heard that conversation as well. She had only waited to make
absolutely sure they were gone. Maybe the others that had come and
taken the dead would come back. Maybe not. So she had
waited.

She started the truck now, backed
around and onto the park road, and then shifted into drive and
wound her way out through the trees to the main road. She left the
park road and turned left onto the main road, heading back to the
last truck stop. There were other vehicles there, she remembered.
She turned the volume dial up a little higher on the V.H.F. Radio,
to get over the sound of the engine, and listened as she drove.
Nothing but static. They had fallen silent, but she knew it
wouldn't stay that way. She'd heard everything. She knew where they
were going, and she'd catch them, she told herself. Take them by
surprise. Make them pay!

She pushed at the gas pedal, and the
truck surged ahead, she laughed again, adjusted the rear view
mirror and pressed the gas pedal down a little farther.

~

Nothing had been hard to find. There
had been advertisements in the front of the collapsed store area
for steel barns, and in the back, by the loading doors, piles of
aluminum beams and corrugated panels, boxes of nuts and
bolts.

Bob had backed up a forty foot long
flatbed truck to the rear loading dock. It was one of the big stake
racks, and after they had loaded up enough steel panels, boxes of
nuts and bolts, and aluminum girders and beams, using a propane
powered forklift, to build four or five barns, they put the sides
back up and began to load other items: seed, hay bales, farming
implements, axes and wooden mauls, boxes of nails, screws, grain, a
good selection of heavy coveralls, jeans, jackets and work boots.
In no time at all the truck was packed, tarped and moved out of the
way.

They pulled out late in the afternoon
with three of the big trucks loaded and five fifty five gallon
drums of gasoline on the back of the last truck. They drove slowly
and more than two dozen horses followed them all the way back down
to the state park.

They spent the last few hours before
dark setting up some more grain in the back of the pickup truck and
leading horses down to the stream.

~

“
I thought they'd go wild.
I thought it would be no time at all before they would have nothing
to do with us,” Bob said.

“
Don't look that way to
me,” David said.

“
No, it doesn't. Of course
this doesn't mean they'll stay with us or follow us. Leading them a
couple miles down the road is a lot different from taking them back
into the woods. There are big cats, bears... Horses spook easy. And
cows, tomorrow we'll look for cows. We'll leave that truck right
there, I believe the horses will stay right with it,” Bob
said.

~

Candace walked back with Mike from
further upstream where they had gone to clean up.

“
I've got to find more
clothes tomorrow,” Candace said. “I could've sworn Patty left me
some, but I can't find them,” she told him.

“
We'll just pick up some
more tomorrow,” Mike agreed. He bent down and kissed her, and as he
did his eyes fell on the road leading out of the park. Something,
he thought...

“
What,” Candace said
startled, turning quickly.

“
I,” Mike
started.

“
Fuck. The truck is gone,”
Candace said. She reached down and slipped off the leather thong
that held the gun in its holster. Almost instantly one finger slid
down the side of the frame and flicked off the safety. She knew it
was off because she made herself practice flicking it off until it
was second nature.

Mike called out to Bob and the others
and they began to search.

They spread out but kept each other in
sight as they searched the campground. Tom found wrappers from band
aids, and a pile of dirty clothes nearby. Everyone walked over and
looked.

“
I guess they don't care if
we know or not,” Candace said. She bent over and retrieved the
pants, staring at the blood stain on one leg. A ragged hole in the
back of the leg and a neat small circle at the front where it had
gone in. “A woman, or a girl. Overly small for a man or a boy,”
Candace said. “Shot.”

“
Looks like you did get her
after all then, Tom,” Bob said. “This may not be everybody, but
this has to be our missing girl. When you shot down at the truck,
you hit her.”

Their eyes picked up the rest of the
clues: The empty food bowl, the half empty tube of the antibiotic
cream.

“
So, she just came in
here... helped herself to our clothes, food, drugs... took the
truck... and?” Candace said looking around.

“
No telling what else,”
Mike said. “Guess we're back on guard duty tonight
though.”

“
I think we're missing a
radio too,” Ronnie said. He was coming back from the direction of
the tents. “All my stuff was gone through, my radio is
gone.”

“
Do you think she's smart
enough to figure out the difference?” Tom asked.

“
Absolutely. If she's
everything Cindy says she is,” Bob answered. “Anyway, we've got to
assume she figured it out, that she's listening to everything we
say. Probably already did today.”

“
What is the difference?”
Cindy asked, feeling foolish.

“
We were monitoring you
guys on C.B., but we do all of our personal talking on a marine
radio. V.H.F.,” He held the radio up so she could see it. “Looks
the same as a C.B., but talking on this, they couldn't hear us,”
Mike explained.

“
So that's how you knew we
were coming. Not that I'm mad. I'm glad, the way things turned out.
Will she notice? If she took the radio, she already has it figured
out, don't you think?” Cindy asked. “I can't see no...
any
, reason she would
take it otherwise. If she was here last night, maybe hiding,
waiting... she probably heard you talking on them... saw
you.”

“
Had to be her that took
the bodies as well. I can see her own people, but why Jeff?” Tom
asked.

“
I don't think she took
Jeff, Tom. I don't know,” Mike said.

“
What's not to know?” Tom
asked.

“
Well, she weighs, what,
maybe around a hundred pounds? Maybe?” He looked over at Cindy who
nodded.

“
So?” Tom said.

“
So, how does a hundred
pound girl drag a full grown man that weighs over two fifty out of
the woods?” Ronnie asked.

“
And we didn't hear him,”
Cindy added.

No one answered.

“
Well, had to be her. I
mean, you ain't buyin' that Zombie shit are you?” Tom asked. He
looked at Mike and then slowly around at the rest.