Z-Risen (Book 2): Outcasts (11 page)

18:10 hours approximate

Location: Not-sure-where, CA - Undead Central

After what seemed like a whole day I decided we’d waited long enough.

I pushed the body away from the side of the car, then shimmied out and shoved away a couple of body parts.

I had my head sticking out in the air like fresh bait. If a couple of Z’s had been near us, I’m sure they would have been on me in a heartbeat.

I heaved myself out of the coffin-like space and took a deep breath. It still smelled terrible, but at least the light breeze made the odor a little thinner. I leaned out and offered my hand to Sails. She looked at it for a second and then accepted, so I pulled her out.

We stood and stretched, looking around for movement.

I considered our options. If we walked back, it would take hours. If we found a new ride, we’d probably be able to get back in thirty minutes. I pointed at a gas station near the off-ramp. Behind it were a few trees and a large complex of some sort.

“Try for it?” I asked.

“Might as well. I don’t want to be out in the open for any longer than we have to.”

We moved out.

###

18:30 hours approximate

Location: Not-sure-where, CA - Undead Central

We covered each other as we made our way to the bottom of the ramp. Anna moved with the same precision and self-awareness I’d seen Joel exhibit on many occasions. She was cautious, but she strode forward when she saw openings. We neatly avoided a group of Z’s intent on devouring the remains of a family of four. They’d gone down fighting, but they’d gone down.

We used abandoned cars for cover and avoided looking inside. Seeing a
Z’d-up kid scratching at the glass was a sure way to get creeped out, even after weeks of being around the crawling corpses.

I followed Sails’ lead as she gestured for me to move ahead or guard her back. We avoided another small pack intent on chasing down a dog. The dog was smarter and a hell of a lot faster than any white-eyed snarling Z.

I wished I had fast legs like that. The dog cut to the right and stopped. He sat back on his haunches, tongue hanging out as he panted, and he…what? Waited?

The Z’s closed in, one falling only to be stomped by his uncaring companions.

The dog barked and then took off again.

He was fucking with the dead.

The dog led them off and I made a mental note to find something for the guy to eat if he came back our way.

We dashed down a tree-lined side street, past houses spray painted with graffiti, doors hanging
open, windows broken, and innards tossed onto yards and porches.

At the center of the avenue we found a building that boasted a gated entryway. The front door was open, but the building itself, while looking like every other piece of shit apartment complex I’d ever seen in California, hadn’t been entirely beat to hell.

A pile of bodies lay at the bottom of the stairs; maybe that was the warning to any who ventured there. With Anna covering me, I tiptoed inside and then waited in darkness for many long minutes. Silence. Nothing stirred.

With pounding hearts, we made for the stairs.

###

18:40 hours approximate

Location: Not-sure-where, CA - Undead Central

We crept to the stairs and made our way to the second floor. The first had been ransacked. Doors stood open, and I didn’t want to try sneaking into one to find a pack of Z’s or worse, a few shufflers.

The second and third floor had been hit as well, but at least the apartments hadn’t been completely picked over. I finally chose a room at random and poked my head inside. Anna took position beside me and then dropped low. I went in with the Mossberg ready, the stock planted against my shoulder.

The kitchen was on the right and a hallway ran to the right. I held up my hand and Anna stopped next to me. She closed the door with a soft click and we waited in the dark for a few minutes. When I felt like I had my night vision up to par, I leaned into the kitchen and tapped the barrel of the shotgun against the counter just once and then we waited.

Sounds filtered in from the outside. The moans and howls of the dead sent chills up my back. If they’d seen us and were headed our way, we were now officially stuck. We might be able to go out a back window, but how would we get down? Probably not enough time to tie sheets together.

Nothing moved inside the apartment, so we made a sweep.

The first bedroom had been tossed. Sheets torn off the bed, blankets in a pile, drawers open, an empty and discarded suitcase, clothes everywhere. Someone had left in a hurry.

The next bedroom looked about the same, except for the addition of a rotting body on the floor. Sails pushed it with a foot, and when it didn’t get up and try to devour us, she covered it with a blanket. We closed that door behind us, cutting off some of the cloying scent of rot.

The last bedroom was in one piece. I checked under the bed, because don’t fucking judge me.

The living room had a two piece sectional in some kind of off-white leather. A little bit of daylight filtered in through the rear sliding glass door. There was a balcony with a small grill and a satellite dish. What I wouldn’t give to crash on the couch with a dumb action movie playing. On second thought, I was living an action movie.

We moved a chair into the hallway and wedged it under the doorknob. If someone wanted to get in, they’d make a hell of a lot of noise.

I took a breath and sat on the couch. My ankle ached, so I put it up and then just zoned out for a minute – or maybe an hour.

Sails moved around the apartment checking kitchen cabinets and drawers. She gave a little whoop, then brought back a few items and tossed them onto the couch. She went back and brought more.

My stomach rumbled to life when I found little bags of chips, granola, some fruit roll ups, and a couple of flat packets containing tuna fish. One of those went into my mouth first, right after I’d ripped the top open with shaking hands.

We didn’t talk for the first few minutes as we ate. On a scale of one to ten, I’d give this one about a five for healthy eating. It got a fucking eleven for deliciousness.

“How is it that this place still has food?” I wondered out loud.

“You saw the bodies below. I think the building was well guarded until recently,” Anna said.

“Maybe. Or could be someone else is away from his post but will be returning soon.”

“Maybe. The way I see it, we have about twelve hours.
Wanna watch a movie?” I gestured at the big screen mounted on the wall.

“As long as it’s not a fucking zombie movie,” Anna replied.

I choked on a cracker, then took a swig of one of the warm Cokes she’d found in the fridge.

Anna moved to the hallway and poked through a few closets. She returned a minute later with a couple of LA Kings blankets and tossed me one. I wrapped it around my shoulders and reveled in the feeling of warmth returning to my body.

“I’d sit by you, but you smell like a car mechanic,” Anna said.

“That’s not so bad.”

“And death. You literally smell like death.”

“Oh.”

“I wonder if the toilet would stand up to a flush. I’ll test it first,” she said and left the room.

I sat in silence and thought about what we’d lost in the past
twenty four hours. The HUMVEE. Markus and Donny. We’d lost our new fortress and now we’d lost our way. We knew that there was a force in LA, and we could probably find refuge there. But as far as I knew, Anna Sails had no idea where they were located. So we had no next play. No safe haven waiting for us. Like the first week or so, we were on our own.

“Holy shit!” Anna shouted.

I heaved myself to my feet and snagged my wrench, then hobbled down the hallway.

She was standing in the bathroom, staring at the sink. The water was running and she had her hand under the stream. Sails, with her hair hanging over her face as she stared in shock, looked beautiful.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, and then realized just how stupid I was.

I rushed to the other side of the vanity and tested the other sink. Water, cold and flowing freely, hit my hand. I ducked my mouth next to it and took a tentative sip. Then I gulped.

“How’s this even possible?” she asked.

“Probably residual water pressure. Maybe it’ll take a little longer to go out. Could be days. Could be hours, for all we know.” I honestly didn’t have an explanation. Did this place have some kind of backup generator hooked to a pump?

Anna drifted to the shower and stared at it for a few seconds before sliding the glass door aside and turning on the water. She let it run for a few seconds and then shut it off.

“You first, and don’t be shy with that soap.”

I laughed when I looked at the wire rack hanging from the shower nozzle and found some decidedly feminine products like conditioner, pre-conditioner, and liquid soap with a bunch of flowers on the label.

“
Gonna be cold, but I don’t even care,” I said, unbuttoning the nasty shirt I’d worn for the last few days.

“We should wash those,” Anna said, looking up at me.

I slid the shirt off and held it out with two fingers. This damn thing would be better in the trash than in the wash. Maybe I’d turn up some clothing that fit once we went through the rest of the apartment. I missed my overalls. They had been thick and kept all the gore off.

Anna watched me from the doorway but didn’t say another word. I reached for the button on my pants, and that’s when she turned and closed the door.

I shrugged and leaned over to drop what was left of my pants. I nearly fell as I tried to balance but keep the pressure off my sore ankle, and managed to stumble into the sink, banging my leg into the sharp edge. That got a few choice words.

“You alright in there?”

“Yeah. Just having trouble with my damn leg. Ankle gave out.” I gritted my teeth.

“I’ll see if I can find something to wrap it.”

I turned on the shower and spun it all the way to hot, then had a brief fantasy of steaming water belting out.

I put my hand under the cold stream and sucked in a breath. This wasn’t going to be much fun. I manned up and stepped under the water. It was like I’d been tossed in the ocean off the coast of San Diego all over again. I gasped and hooted then went for the soap.

I was halfway through scrubbing my face when I heard a noise. Blinking away suds and water, I found a shape in the room.

“Don’t even say a damn word, Jackson. Not a word,” she said as she slipped, naked, into the shower with me.

She pushed me aside and let the water run over her hair and face.

Anna stood there, her pale form all hips and legs, waist and butt, for me to gaze at. She grabbed the soap and then scrubbed as quickly as she could.

I turned her around and pushed her against the wall. She looked up at me and used both hands to brush water off her face. We both shivered. I didn’t say a word, just like she’d asked. Instead, I leaned in and kissed her.

###

21:00 hours approximate

Location: Not-sure-where, CA - Undead Central

We lay together on the couch, buried under a pile of blankets. I was exhausted but grinning like a guy caught in a cookie jar filled with gold. After our shower, I didn’t feel like braving someone else’s bedroom, so I took her hand in mine and tugged her to the main room. Then Anna had showed me that she had a very soft side, and for a while we didn’t have to talk.

“Can I speak now?”

“I don’t know if I should let you start. Will you shut up at some point?”

“You hurt me, Sails.” I chuckled.

“Not yet, but I might.”

She pushed against me and got me all worked up again. She sat on top and looked down at me.

“Okay,” I said. “Hurt me.”

###

21:50 hours approximate

Location: Not-sure-where, CA - Undead Central

“Are you ever going to tell me about Bright Star? Do you guys have a secret decoder ring or something?” I asked before I drifted off.

“Not much to tell. I came in a few weeks ago. Fresh recruit. They don’t talk a lot. We just go where we’re told.”

“But this thing. This nightmare that’s killing the world. Where did it start?”

Anna didn’t move for a half-minute,
then she spoke. “I heard it was Afghanistan. Some kind of test, but not by us. Someone brought it there. We followed some leads and found a village that was occupied by something like the Z’s we’ve seen. The villagers had them tied down, but the things were just…Fuck. They were barely human.”

“Like we’ve seen.”

“Not quite,” she said and blew out a breath. “They were still alive. They had big open sores, but their eyes had gone milky white. They had a pulse, but it was so slow it was barely there. We took blood samples while those that were unaffected screamed at us to leave their family members alone. The things barely moved except to reach for us.”

“That is messed up.”

“I thought they were begging, but now I know. They wanted flesh. It’s like they see what they used to be and want to have that back.”

“I don’t get it. How did they become infected?” I asked.

“Not sure. Rumors. Some kind of chemical attack and an experimental drug to help the wounded. We didn’t do it. The Afghani’s brought it in from somewhere. Lee thinks it was used in a coordinated attack against the US.”

“Lee, huh.”

“He’s a good leader and knows when to make tough choices.”

It was all I could do to clench my jaw shut and not say a word.

“We responded when things started to break down. We gathered as much of Bright Star as we could and established a pair of bases here,” Anna continued.

“The first base is gone.”

“Yeah. But I hope the second is still there.”

“Where?”

“Near LA. I know the general area, but it’s a big city. We might drive right past it,” she said.

“So you knew the location that Donny and Markus had in mind?”

“I think so. Like I said, I know the general area. It’ll be better than this.”

“Better than being in bed with me?” I gave her my
best wounded look.

Anna thumped my chest.

“Shut up, you,” she said gently. “It’s better than running and hiding. What if that gang comes back and finds us? What if we run into five hundred Z’s? It’s dangerous, and our best bet is to be with others. They have a chain of command and, hopefully, a plan.”

“No one plans for this,” I said.

“You’d be surprised what they plan for.”

“I didn’t plan on this,” I said. “You and me.”

“Yeah, well…shit happens. Just go to sleep, Creed, before you say something fucking stupid.”

“Fucking stupid is my middle name,” I quipped and got another thump.

It was worth it.

I can barely keep my eyes open. Anna sleeps next to me, but I can’t stop thinking about this amazing turn of events. Damn Anna Sails. A few days ago, I wanted to hate her. Now I am sleeping with her.

Tomorrow’s going to be a long walk back.

Time to call it a night.