The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (7 page)

Lydia ~ March 13th

Hi! My name is Lydia. I’ve never
written a journal or kept a diary before. We’re all here in this
cave. A cave, yes. We’re living in a cave. I can’t believe it!
There are no showers, no toilets, no kitchen. Ha! We’re eating out
of cans. It’s about as hard as it could be. I don’t know how cave
men did it. Or cave women.

We’re all writing these
journals to leave them behind in case someone comes after
we,
or some of us
,
leave. I might not ‘cause I’m sort of with Tom right now, and he
doesn’t want to go. There are six of us; Mike, Tom, Bob, Janet, me
and a girl named Candace. We’re all stuck here until spring, I
guess.

I guess that you know all about the
world ending or whatever it did. We don’t know. I don’t know. Not
really anyway, but hopefully we’ll get everything fixed up pretty
soon. I mean, a lot of stuff is F’d up, you know? But, like, it
could get fixed up eventually.

I had a boyfriend in the old world. His
name was Paul, but I don’t know where he went. His apartment was
gone. The whole street he lived on was gone. So I don’t know. It
made me feel really bad. Hopefully this will be over really
soon.

We have, like, some old
trucks now to drive around. We used to have to walk everywhere.
That sucked. The trucks are really old, like
shit boxes
as Paul would’ve said, but
at least we’re not walking, right? Paul had an old shit box truck
too. These trucks are even older. If we break down we can’t call
Triple A. Ha, Ha!

There are six of us and Tom thinks more
will come to us, probably know we're here and are just waiting. I
guess that's cool.

I don’t really know what else to write
in here. I’ll write other stuff down too though. Oh, I’m almost
nineteen…

Candace ~ March 13th

I did it. I don't know how I worked it
out or where I found the courage to do it, but Mike and I are
together. It's like I wasn't breathing, like I was waiting to
breath. Something like that. All I know with absolute certainty is
that tomorrow looks better. Isn't that all that's
important?

March ~ 14th

Everyone was up early and ready to go
before the sun was barely above the horizon.

“
Yesterday,” Tom said to no
one in particular. “Thirty two hours long.” Silence greeted his
remark. Candace checked her own watch.

“
So, like, that means
things are slowing down?” Lydia asked.

“
You think?” Tom asked
unkindly.

“
Well, something like
that,” Lydia shot back defensively.

“
Why would it go
backwards,” Bob asked?

“
Yeah. Wasn’t it supposed
to stop, reverse and then start up again?” Lydia asked.

“
Maybe,” Mike agreed. “But
that was all based on theory. No facts involved at all. I think
they had some evidence that the poles had reversed at a few points
in history before. And some legends that spoke about the Earth
standing still for a day, something like that. But even so, that’s
all theory, not fact.”

“
Yeah,” Tom chimed in.
“It’s like an asshole. Everyone’s got one.”

“
Don’t you mean opinion?”
Lydia asked sweetly.

“
Whatever. We ready to go,
or what?” Tom asked. Everyone followed outside in the uncomfortable
silence that fell.

~

“
What’s up with those two,”
Candace whispered as she followed Mike outside.

“
Who knows,” Mike whispered
back. Bob met his eyes and raised his eyebrows. Mike shrugged his
shoulders and shook his head as if to say
I don’t know
.

“
We may as well take all
three trucks,” Bob suggested. “That way if we find stuff we want
it’ll save us driving back to get them.”

“
Easier if we get stuck
also,” Candace suggested.

Tom shrugged his shoulders. “Fine by
me,” he said. He headed for the Suburban with Lydia right behind
him. Jan and Candace headed for the pickup truck. Bob broke into a
laugh and grinned at Mike. “Guess that leaves me and you in the old
dinosaur. Want to drive?”

“
After you,” Mike said
laughing. Bob started the truck and pulled out last in line and
followed the other two trucks as they picked their way along the
edge of the ruined road.

~

“
It was me that asked Jan
to go with Candace,” Bob said as they followed slowly along behind
the other trucks.

Mike nodded. His eyes following the
sides of the road as Bob drove along. “I thought it was something
like that,” he said. “What’s on your mind, Bob?”

“
Well… A lot,” Bob said
after a second or two. He hesitated a little longer. “I
guess
mainly
to
say Jan and I would like to go with you when you leave, and
Candace, I assume.”

“
Yeah,” Mike agreed. “I
know that probably seemed kind of quick.”

“
It’s a…”

“
Quick world,” Mike
finished. “Candace said the same thing. I don’t know how much
better off we’ll be, but we’d be glad to have you two with us if
you want to come.”

“
We would. Jan and I talked
it over. We talked all night long last night. I got nothing
personal against Tom; he did alright by us, but he’s a little
too…”

“
Demanding? Aggressive?”
Mike supplied.

Bob looked thoughtful. “I don’t know…
Something like that. I just don’t see him being able to see this
through. I feel like if we came back here in ten years we’d find
him still holed up in that cave. He’s… I don’t know... too immature
to talk to about it. He has only one way of looking at things. That
can’t work.”

“
You’re probably right.
He’d still be here with Lydia, probably with a couple of babies
running around. But, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Maybe
that’s a good thing.” He shrugged. “The immaturity… I don’t know…
It’s there though. Maybe he’ll move out of that. Maybe it’s just
the situation.”

“
Maybe,” Bob agreed. “But
that’s exactly the time he should be mature, isn’t it?”

Mike nodded. Bob continued.

“
So, maybe it’s a good
thing, maybe it’s not. But not for me. I don’t want to stay here.
Nor Jan either. I wouldn’t want to quit this unless I knew this was
all there was. I mean, this couldn’t be worldwide, could
it?”

“
I don’t know,” Mike said
softly. “But I agree. I know what you mean. Candace and I talked
about it last night too and came to the same opinion. It could be
better elsewhere, and whatever is right for Tom or Lydia isn’t
necessarily right for us. I was for going from the start. I have to
know if this is really the end. If there’s anything else. If it is,
I’ll deal with it, find a place to settle down. Thank God I have
Candace, you and Jan. Maybe we’ll meet others on the way to...
well, wherever.”

“
I think so,” Bob said.
“There are people, other people around. We just got to find them.
Or them us.”

“
Yeah, we got to remember
rifles or pistols. I hate to say it, Bob, but we may need
them.”

“
Yeah,” he nodded.
“Yeah.”

They continued on in silence as the
small caravan made its way past a collapsed building partially
blocking what was left of the road.

“
I think… It’s not my
business,” Bob said, “But I think you made an enemy of Lydia. She
was thinking you would be with her.”

“
Yeah, I could see that,
Bob. I don’t think Tom was any too pleased either.”

Bob nodded. “Nope, none too. Him I
wouldn’t worry about though. Her, she’s pretty spiteful. I’ve only
known her for a week, but it’s enough. That child did pretty much
what she wanted to, I’ll bet. Used to having her own way, getting
what she wants when she wants it.”

“
Yeah, I can see that. But
last night we talked about the journals; I’m keeping one. Candace
is too. Lydia said she would. Something to leave when we
leave.”

“
It’s not a bad idea,” Bob
agreed. “I’m not much for writing myself, but Jan might like
it.”

Mike nodded. “Well, Lydia liked the
idea. She didn’t say she’d go, but she might. So, hate me or not,
she might be with us.”

“
Oh,” Bob said. “I see
that. Maybe she’ll be okay. She’s a kid; maybe she’ll
change.”

“
Guess we’ll have to see,”
Mike agreed. “Guess we’ll have to see.”

Bob worked the truck up and over a huge
slab of up-tilted asphalt and followed along behind the other two
trucks as they made their way down Arsenal Street.

“
What did you think of the
idea that Tom had of fixing up one of the new trucks?” Mike
ventured after a few minutes.

“
Won’t work. Or at least it
won’t work without a lot of trouble. The new engines are computer
dependent. We could probably find ourselves another motor, maybe
even a new crate motor at a parts store somewhere around here,” Bob
said.

“
What’s a crate motor?”
Mike asked.

“
It just means a new motor,
all crated up when it was sent from the factory. They sell them.
Race cars, old rebuilds, like that. But, even if we couldn’t find a
crate motor, we could find enough parts to rebuild anything we
would need to rebuild on nearly any vehicle. So really, when we’re
done, we’d have what amounted to a new vehicle. Tom wants to
oversimplify that. He thinks we can just find the parts and swap
them out on the motor that’s in the truck. Maybe we can. I’m not
that good though, and I don’t think he is. I think we should stick
to what we can do for sure, utilize what we have - the new
parts.”

“
That what you think we
should do? Build a vehicle?”

“
Yeah. Maybe two. Four
wheel drive, of course. Go right through them top to bottom,
everything new. It would take a few weeks, but we’ve got that and
more. Meantime, you could work on your Ham radio idea, “Bob
finished.

“
Can you get electric?
Those big Ham radio outfits need regular power.”

“
Yeah, that’s not a
problem. We’ll just find a generator. That will give us all the
power we need. We could even hook up a power inverter to give us
one twenty in the vehicle,” Bob added.

Mike nodded. “So we’re going to jump
right into this thing? Get ready to go?”

Bob nodded. “I’m with you. I’m not
spending next winter in a cave unless I have to. There's a place in
Tennessee, maybe Kentucky.” He closed his eyes for a split second
as if seeing something only he could see. He shook his head,
frowned and then continued. “If not, I’m thinking the coast.
Southern or western, either will do, whichever one looks to be the
better bet. And who knows how hard it’ll be to get there, so the
sooner we’re ready to go, the better.”

“
I agree,” Mike said. “I’ll
talk to Candace.”

“
And I’ll talk to Jan. But
we already talked.”

“
So did we,” Mike agreed.
They both laughed.

Bob angled the big truck around a final
piece of asphalt and into a cracked and buckled parking lot. The
two other vehicles sat silent, waiting for them.

As they left the truck, Mike noticed
that the store hadn’t seemed to incur any more damage since the
last time that he had been there. The roof was bowed inward; it had
been before, but there were plenty of upright pillars that
supported the roof and they all appeared intact. At least the ones
he could easily see. The supports were spaced about every sixteen
or so feet.

“
Safe?” Tom
asked.

“
Looks the same as it did
the last time,” Mike allowed. Candace and Bob looked at him, and he
shrugged. “I’d say so. It looks the same as it did the last time I
was here. It doesn’t even look as though anyone has been
here.”

The scattered, powdered snow seemed
undisturbed around the shattered doorway that lead into the
building. Mike snapped his flashlight on and led the way
inside.

The inside of the store
told a different story. Someone
had
been there during the time Mike had last been
there. Several of the glass display cases that held the weapons had
been damaged. They were locked, who ever had made the attempt had
made it halfheartedly. The glass was safety glass of some sort. It
had cracked and spider webbed, but it had not broken and caved
in.

“
Guess someone tried to get
in,” Bob offered.

Tom held up a discarded crow bar. Even
in the weak light they could see the streaks of scarlet on one end.
Tom let it fall to the floor. The clatter was loud enough to make
Lydia draw in a quick breath in the broken silence that
followed.

“
Jesus, Tom,” She
sputtered. Tom only grinned.

“
Why does someone go
through all of that when they could’ve taken a simple screw driver
and just popped the locks?” Candace asked.

“
Well,” Tom
started.

Candace had walked behind the counter,
taken a screw driver from her pocket and began to jimmy the lock
mechanism. It was a cheap sliding set and easily bent to one side
far enough to slide the glass door open. Candace smiled.