The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (6 page)

“
What?” Candace
asked.

“
Well, as this goes on. It
might not be over yet. There might be more changes ahead. The days
have slowed down, almost seemed to stop for a while last week when
the sun just hung in the sky. Maybe what was supposed to happen
happened? Now the sun’s rising in the wrong place in the sky. Did
the Earth's spin reverse, that fast? Weren’t some people claiming
we’d fall off the Earth? Something like that?” He took a deep
breath.

“
I guess I’m just waiting
to see how this goes. What happens next? But in a few months, not
far into spring, I’ll probably leave. Whatever has happened,
is happening
, should be
over by then,” He smiled. “I guess that was a long drawn out
answer.”

“
No. Not really,” Candace
answered. “I’m in the same place. I’m not sure what happened
either, or if it’s all over. But, I don’t think I want to live in a
cave forever either.” She looked around, “But who knows; maybe it’s
come back to that?”

Mike shrugged his shoulders.

“
Anyway,” she continued.
“I… I just wanted you to know I’m seeing it the same way as you. I
mean… I mean I want to be on your side of it.” She locked her eyes
on his and gave a firm nod, then flipped her short, black hair out
of her eyes. She firmed her mouth, set her jaw and spoke once more.
“I'd like to go get my things, Move over here with you.” Her dark
eyes settled on his own. “Be with you... I mean be
together.”

“
Quick,” Mike
said.

She nodded and smiled, “Maybe it’s a
quick world now. I’m taking you at face value, I guess. You don’t
have a little harem locked away farther back in these caves, do
you?” She smiled.

Mike laughed. “Not hardly.”

“
Well then,” she asked
quietly, her eyes serious.

Mike nodded, which caused a huge smile
to spread across her face. His own smile answered it. But, he
thought, did she really mean…? He didn’t complete the thought as
she stood and walked across the cave to where she had put her
things and spent her first night. She turned and looked back at
him. Mike stood and walked over to help her move her things over to
his side of the cave.

Several pairs of eyes watched the
move.

~

“
Guess that settles that,”
Robert Dove said to his wife Jan.

His wife nodded, a slight smile on her
face. For the last few days Tom had been pushing Candace. Jan had
disapproved. Let the girl make up her own mind, she had
thought.

“
Maybe it’s for the best,”
she said now. “That young man is much more likable,
Bobby.”

Bob nodded in agreement. The fly in the
ointment might be Lydia who had been making eyes at Tom since
they’d first met, but who, for the last few days, had only had eyes
for Mike. Bob looked over just as a look passed between Tom and
Lydia. Oh, he thought.

Jan shook her head. She had noticed the
look pass between them too. “Maybe if those two get together it
will level everything out,” she said softly. Tom had made it clear
he was interested in Candace, not Lydia, but the girl had made her
choice. Tom would have to accept it. Jan felt Candace had made the
better choice of the two. She turned her attention back to the
conversation she had been having with Bob.

Tom watched as Candace moved her
sleeping bags and back pack over to Mike’s side of the cave. He
didn’t see what she saw in Mike, but it was her choice, and she
wouldn’t get a second chance with him. He frowned at his own
thoughts. Don’t be an ass, he told himself. It’s not that serious.
He looked over and caught Lydia's eyes; the question was right
there. He nodded, and she sprang to her feet like a rabbit. A mean
look on her young, pouty face as she looked towards Candace. The
look went unanswered by Candace. She turned her back to the girl as
she walked back over to Mike’s side of the cave.

~

Lydia quickly gathered her things and
moved them over to Tom’s area. Stupid bitch, she told herself. She
can have the cave man dude. She’d only wanted Tom all along, even
the last few days. Chasing after Mike the last few days had only
been an attempt on her part to make Tom jealous. Tom would take her
out of here. She hated this place and everything to do with it,
always had. Tom was tough, tougher than the other guy. She didn’t
think of it in terms of Alpha Male and territory, but it came down
to the same thing. Tom was the top dog. Her top dog.

The fire burned lower as everyone
settled in for the night. Some happy, some worried, some undecided,
but everyone along for the ride.

~ March 13th ~

Bob leaned around the hood and looked
through the windshield of the old Suburban. He nodded. “Try it,
Tom.”

The motor turned over a half dozen
times then suddenly fired and rumbled to life. Tom gave it a little
more gas, pulled out the old fashioned choke. The motor smoothed
out and began to run a little better.

Bob backed away from the engine
compartment, a large smile on his face. “Know what this means?” he
asked, raising his voice to be heard above the noisy
truck.

Tom grinned and nodded back. “As long
as they’re not electronically controlled, they’ll run. We should
find a few more.”

Bob nodded in agreement.

They had found the old Suburban in a
lot out in back of one of the car dealerships on outer Washington
Street. The lot itself was wrecked; the buildings not much better,
but hundreds of new cars and trucks sat on the cracked pavement, or
pointed their noses or tails at the sky where they were half
buried. The Suburban had been set up with a plow, and they all
agreed it was probably just used to plow the lot.

Before they had even gone looking for a
vehicle, Tom and Bob had gone hunting for a small gasoline powered
engine. Lawn mower, leaf blower, it didn’t matter, just something
small without an electronic ignition or brain. They’d come up with
a heavy duty chain saw. Several tugs and a little choke had gotten
it running. That had convinced them that it would be worth finding
an older, full size truck.

“
We could convert one of
these newer trucks. It would take some work but if we can find the
right parts we could do it,” Tom said.

“
Maybe,” Bob agreed.
“Trouble is finding a block that’s still the same. Heads, intake,
it’s a lot to hope for. It would be easier to just fix the old
stuff up. New tires, battery, we could even do the axles if we
absolutely had to.”

Tom nodded his head. “Hmm,” he
grumbled. “Guess so.”

Bob turned away. It was obvious to him
that Tom didn’t like being disagreed with or second guessed. Yes,
parts were parts, and if they were just parts, no problem. There
were even kits to convert non-electronic ignition motors over to
electronic ignition, but not the other way around. There were
motors built mostly for racing applications that were designed to
use carburetors and simple distributors. There were things they
could do, but it wasn’t simple black and white.

He had been seeing more and more of
this close minded attitude from Tom since they had moved into the
cave. Tom had lost his place as leader. It didn’t matter that he
had been nearly the only one who had seen himself that way. He had
seen the situation that way, and now the situation had changed. He
didn’t see himself as leader any longer, and he didn’t like it. Oh
well, Bob thought. He’d get over it, or he wouldn’t. There was
nothing for it except to watch it happen, whatever way it
happened.

Tom let the truck idle high for a few
minutes then reset the choke dropping the idle down to
normal.

“
We got wheels,” Lydia said
happily. She, Mike, Candace and Jan had come walking back from
further down the lot. Pulled by the sound of the truck starting
from where they had been searching for other vehicles that would be
good candidates for starting.

“
We found three others that
seem as though they might work out,” Mike said. “One's an old crew
cab state truck the other two are old pickups. All three are four
wheel drives.” He grinned at Bob.

Bob laughed. “Well, let’s go get them,”
he said. He turned and started away.

“
Hey,” Tom said, leaning
against the door of the truck, “Wouldn’t you rather
drive?”

Bob laughed again. “Yeah,” he agreed.
“Much rather.” Everybody piled into the Suburban. Tom pulled out of
the back of the lot and headed back in the direction the others had
come from.

Mike ~ March 13th

Man, it’s been a long day. We walked
out Washington Street to the car dealerships. Everything’s torn up
out there, but there are tons or cars and trucks out there. We
found three trucks that we got running, and we drove them back. So
we have a pickup truck, a suburban and a big four door state truck,
one of those you always used to see along the highway when they
were doing road repair. There were a few others we found that also
ran, but they were in such bad shape that we left them.

Tom wanted to build one. I mean take
one of the new trucks and put old parts on it. I got the idea from
Bob that it probably wouldn’t work out the way Tom thought that it
would. The right parts would be hard to find. I could see the idea,
the appeal of a newer vehicle so we wouldn’t have to be concerned
about break downs. But I could see Bob’s point of view too. I think
it pissed Tom off though. But it seems that almost everything
pisses Tom off.

I didn’t write this in here yet, but
Candace and I are together. It just happened that fast. I was
surprised in a way, but in another way I wasn’t all that surprised.
Who knows how long this world will last, what it was that really
happened? Maybe there is no time for slow anymore.

Candace said that, and once I thought
about it, I agreed. Things are so different. And she’s right for
me. Maybe it wouldn’t have happened this fast in the old world.
Maybe it wouldn’t have happened at all. But everything’s changed.
It’s all different, and this seems right. It seems like the way it
should have happened with her and me, the right way for it all to
work.

It also seemed to work out for the
others as well. By that I mean Tom ended up with Lydia. She’s a lot
younger than he is, but like I said, it’s a different world now.
They seem to be happy together. I thought I felt some animosity
from both of them at first. But either I imagined it, or they’ve
moved past it, gotten over it, something like that.

We haven’t discussed leaving again.
It’ll come up. Candace and I want to go. I think Bob and Jan want
to go too. Tom and Lydia seem to be against it. Lydia keeps talking
about how none of us know what it might be like anywhere else, like
she wants to throw that out before we even discuss leaving at all.
Here we have food, shelter, what’s so bad? I guess we have been
talking about it without really talking about it at all.

Tom backs up everything she says with a
nod of his head. He pointed out we’re in an area of mainly
limestone, that’s what made this cave, and we may not find that
anywhere else. At least not easily. Maybe they’re right. Hell, they
make sense, but it’s the attitude. The rest of us bend. They refuse
to.

We decided to go out to Arsenal Street
tomorrow to the sporting goods store, and also look at some super
markets out there, something else I didn’t check out while I was
out there.

Lastly, I’m glad Candace and I have
each other. It makes all of this easier to deal with.

She asked me why I’m writing this
journal. I felt kind of stupid. I told her why I started it though,
and that I’m continuing it for someone in the future. Maybe a
child? Someone to come later on?

I expected her to laugh that off, or
look at me like I was crazy, but she only nodded as if that made
perfectly good sense. She told me she has a journal too. A diary,
she said. Of course Lydia jumped on that as well. At first arguing
against it, then saying she thought it might be okay. Tom said he
wouldn’t do it. He said he’s not leaving to go anywhere and if
someone shows up here, he’ll be here, not some journal.
Okay.

It’s stuff like that that
makes me wonder. And, anyway, I only mentioned it; it wasn't like I
wanted anyone else to do it or was trying to encourage someone else
to do it. It's that kind of
jump on
it
attitude I don't like, like they think
I'm looking to screw them over somehow.

But it’s all good. I’m alive. I looked
back at some of what I wrote in here. I had no one just a short
time ago. I didn’t even know whether there was anyone else. Now I
have Candace. We have some plans, things we’ve begun to talk about,
agree about. A little ego trouble with Tom is really just bullshit
in the scheme of things. I have to try harder to look past that.
Maybe I'm too damn sensitive. And anyway things are good. This
could be a lot worse.

A thing that bugs me and I can not
figure out, where are all the bodies? I mean there don't seem to be
enough bodies to match all of those that were killed. It bothers
me. Maybe they weren't killed? But that makes no sense. Where would
they be? I don't have an answer. I only know it bugs me.