Only The Dead Don't Die (33 page)

Haphazardly, she darted from one tree to another seeking refuge under its limbs, but the cold rain still found her, and the winds fought her back as she struggled to grasp her billowing hair with one hand while the other gripped the tire iron even more tightly.

She spotted a tree that was almost entirely overgrown by the ivy and was encircled by evergreen bushes. A thought flashed through her mind:
Think like a deer!
She made a run for it and practically dove under the bushes surrounding the tree. To her surprise, on the other side of the evergreen bushes was a circular clearing around the tree with the ivy vines creating a sort of tent. Instinctively, she draped the hanging vines over her shivering body and covered her head with the poncho to create a shelter while she nestled her back against the warmth of the tree.

Finally, her teeth stopped chattering; her body stopped shivering, and her heart stopped pounding as a soothing warmth enveloped her body now that the tree, vines, and bushes shielded from the harshness of the bitter-cold wind and rain. At that very moment, Scarlett felt safe for the first times since the night of the fire.

***

The whoosh of wings and the coos of mourning doves awakened the forest. In a moment of panic, Scarlett felt trapped, held prisoner by a monster-tree, and she thrashed about under the clinging vines. Then upon remembering the warmth and shelter they’d provided from the storm, she carefully untangled the vines.

Stepping into the narrow clearing, protected by the ring of evergreen bushes, Scarlett poked her head out to check the surroundings. And although the bright, blue sky adorned with wispy-whimsical clouds was free of the storm, the rain in the forest still dripped under the trees’ myriad of limbs.

The sunlight glinted up above, flitting through the trees, sparkling in the dewy-like rain that lingered on the vines and trees. She listened to the forest’s silence and realized it wasn’t silent at all. She paused, forcing herself to remain perfectly still and listened to the melody of the forest.

It sounded like a gazillion drip, drip, drips, each with its own unique tone and pitch. The sounds of birds, fluttering wings and their songs added to the melody along with a creek’s babbling waters. So peaceful, for a moment she thought she’d never leave its sanctuary. It was completely different here than in the city—the city of the dead. Here, even in the middle of winter, the forest sang with the vigor of life.

Scarlett cautioned herself, perhaps this euphoric feeling was simply due to the lack of food or maybe she was delirious or hallucinating, or had she finally gone crazy?

What was that? She turned swiftly, startled by a noise she hadn’t noticed before. She froze.
There it is again
, a sort of clangy sound. She stood still, waiting for the clangy noise again, hoping to track it down. There it was again.

It sounded like water droplets falling onto something hard, like metal, and it sounded like it came from above her. Scarlett gazed up at the enormous tree, peered up between the vines as the sun flickered through. A chilly breeze caught them, and the vines swayed. She swore she saw a glint: something shiny—something metal up in the tree.

Scarlett paced around the tree, peering up its huge trunk, trying to see what was under the vines. Then she noticed a spike in the tree, a small, metal spike, the same color as the tree, blending perfectly with the tree bark. No one would have ever noticed it unless they were standing right where she stood. Upon closer inspection, she noticed several more metal spike-like objects protruding from the tree, making a ladder up the tree.

“There must be something up there,” she whispered in amazement, “A treehouse?” Anxious to climb the tree, she drank the last Dr. Pepper for the sugar-rush then started climbing the spikes. After slipping several times, she finally got the hang of it and kept climbing higher and higher until she was immersed in a sort of shadowy-umbrella of ivy vines, draping over her like a huge weeping willow tree.

Scarlett took another step up, and her head bumped into something; she hadn’t noticed it because of the shade created by all the vines. She tapped on it, definitely something manmade, and she searched for the opening. Finally, her hand grasped what felt like a handle, and she slowly turned it. There was a sound, like the opening of a hatch and a gasp of air rushed out. Her heart pulsated as she dared to shove her body through the narrow opening.

She quickly grabbed the flashlight from her back pocket and found herself in a small, round room.
Jeez Louise, this is it—the bug out!
The room was piled with neatly stacked plastic tubs.
How did they get all these tubs up here?

She opened several plastic shutters that revealed screen enclosed windows. The light came flooding in illuminating the small round room. Food, she needed food, and she scoured through the tubs. There were oodles and oodles of freeze dried foods, which would be great later. However, she desperately needed something to eat now: this minute. That’s when she found an entire tub loaded with cans of Spam.

“Holy Crap!” she exclaimed. She loathed the stuff, but now—it was as if she had unearthed a motherlode of pure gold nuggets. No cooking required, her stomach churned when she pulled off the metal tab. Hands trembling, she tore open a box of plastic spoons, and took her first bite, forcing herself to eat slowly, savoring each salty bite, afraid her stomach might cramp for eating such rich food.

After she had eaten half of the small can, she began sorting out the supplies. She found a tub full of Trader Joe's snacks, a fantastic find of chocolates and cookies and crackers. The items were still in the Trader Joes plastic reusable shopping bags. The receipt was dated from last August, which meant the bug out owner had been here.
Uh, is anyone here now?
She panicked.

Scarlett had been so caught up in the excitement of finding the bug out and finding food that she hadn’t thought to check things out further. As she became familiar with the round room, she noticed a hatch-like opening in the ceiling and a stepladder to the side. Is there another level? She fiddled around with the hatch-like door until it swung opened. She pointed the flashlight around the dark room. There was no sign of anyone, and she stepped into the second floor of the bug out.

Scarlett opened all the small windows, and the light filled the room. It really was a bug out, complete with a tiny kitchenette on one side, a shower and toilet on the other side, a small, lightweight plastic dinette table in the center, and a small television mounted on the wall. The door next to the kitchen sink opened up to a tiny patio with a small barbecue and what looked like a meat smoker.
Hmm, I suppose they were planning on doing some hunting.
She noticed the fishing equipment in a plastic supply cabinet on the covered patio.
Must be a lake or river nearby.
Maybe she would learn to fish? She recalled hearing a creek earlier.

Well, there must be a bedroom too she decided and noticed the stepladder and the hatch.
Another level?
She poked her head through the next opening. It turned out to be the bedroom that could sleep six. A small, almost hobbit-sized door opened up to a tiny balcony, with two plastic chairs and a table. She noticed a ladder had been built into the side of the balcony, and she climbed up to find a series of solar panels.
Wow, solar power too.
They must have spent mega-bucks on this! The only problem, she didn’t have the slightest idea how to operate the solar equipment.

She began sorting through the supplies on the kitchen table and caught a glimpse of a notebook. “A note!” she gasped.

Karl & Paula,

I couldn’t get through to you on my cell. Had to go back to the city to get mom. She’s afraid to leave the house with all the soldiers and all. It’s getting bad there. See you tomorrow. The kids will have to share a bunk bed. Hope that’s alright.

See ya soon, Brad

Scarlett found herself thinking about the people in the Escalade and sat down at the plastic-like dinette table cluttered with bags of supplies. Two or three families had definitely planned to hide-out here but had never made it. How ironic that after months, or perhaps years of preparations, they had never made it here. How cruel life was to have planned everything
so
perfectly.
Only to die at a mini-mart in the middle of flippin’ nowhere.
And yet here she was—without any planning whatsoever.

Her unexpected good fortune made her think about Dean. Where are Dean and Luther now? She thought wistfully of Justin and Ella, hoping they had escaped the wrath of the Stockton Boys. She had a funny feeling Justin would be fine. He had a way of being lucky—like all the time. She smiled; she had just used one of Justin’s favorite (overused words), something that always used to drive her nuts. She prayed Justin would be able to protect Ella until this crisis ended. Maybe by spring, the government would have things back under control. If they could all hold out until then . . .

“No, like this,” Justin frowned as he re-demonstrated his stealthy Duck-and-Roll Slasher move for the umpteenth time.

“For real? You actually want me to do a somersault with a knife in my hand? That’s soooo cuh-ray-zee, even for you,” Ella’s brows knitted at the arches in that comical raised-brow look she was so good at.

“At least try,” Justin said, responding with a scowl.

“Justin, I’m not doing somersaults on this roof. No, I mean, I’m so
NOT
doing any somersaults. Period!”

“It’s easy-peasy. Look, I’ll show you in slow-mo.” And he slowly re-enacted his fave Fab-Five move in an overly exaggerated demonstration, but he was unable to stop the momentum of the well-intended slow motion somersault, which sent him colliding into the Coleman camping stove with a clanking crash.

“Uh, yeah,” Ella mocked, “That maneuver’s so uber-cool.”

They both peeked over the rooftop to see if they’d alerted any Zs rambling by. A horde at the end of the block scrambled around looking for the source of the noise and finally shambled off in the opposite direction.

“Ella, I’m serious. We’re
not
leaving here until you de-activate a zombie all by yourself.”

She gave him one of her I-don’t-think-so looks, the kind his mom flashed when he had said something ultra-sarcastic. Only now he wasn’t being sarcastic—he was super-serious. He couldn’t protect her every single second of the day. She needed to learn how to protect herself—like now.

“OK, OK, practice swinging the bat. Ya know,” he said, trying to encourage her, “the bat is Scarlett’s weapon of choice cause it’s more gut-splash resistant.” He really didn’t think it was gut-splash resistant; he just said that because it sounded convincing.

Ella picked up the bat and practiced some swinging moves. “I kinda like the bat too. It’s not so gruesome like a knife, or like those machetes Paxton and Nate use.” She took another swing, a much harder and swifter swing, “Yeah, I kinda like it.”

“Finally,” he mumbled.

“What did you say?” she gave him an icy-cold stare followed by a disdainful fluttering of the eyelashes.

“Oh, nothing dear,” Justin said, rolling his eyes emphatically, which she answered with another rolling of the eyes. Then, they plopped down on the roof and began laughing, the whispering laugh they’d grown accustomed to these past few weeks living on the cold rooftop.

Justin had been relieved when Ella had finally agreed to watch him demonstrate his Fab-Five moves, giving in to his overwhelmingly charming persistence—he’d like to think. However, he found it super-annoying that she refused to participate. He’d just have to take it one step at a time, since de-activating a zombie in real-time was way more intense and gory than in his semi-silly and semi-serious simulations. So he joked about it, in an attempt to entertain her, which he had quickly learned was way better than her freaking-out. Besides, they had all winter.

The two of them had mulled it over and had decided to wait until spring to search for Dean and Luther. He remembered how difficult it was to cross the summit to Reno in winter. They might freeze to death in a blizzard or something. And, he calculated by spring, Paxton, Nate, and LuLu should already be in Vegas. So, he had time to train Ella his awesome zombie moves, if she’d stop being so super-obstinate and so girlie and just do it.

These days Justin had been working overtime, scavenging camping gear like the tents, sleeping bags, and the small Coleman camping stove. He had managed to find them plenty of canned goods and other supplies to get them through, although it was becoming harder and harder to find unexpired food. He had even scavenged several cans of Raid bug spray and had sprayed the area to throw off their scent from the Zs. He had taken every precaution he could think of to ensure their safety.

“You think she’s OK?” Ella looked up at him with her beautiful, brown eyes. “Scarlett?” she said, her forehead frowned in concern.

He worried about Scarlett too. He still couldn’t forget about that gunshot the day they had escaped. But, he didn’t want to scare Ella. “Scarlett’s amazing—a born zombie de-activator.” He smiled, and they hugged each other.

Justin had other concerns. He couldn’t stop obsessing over his major-worry: Paxton and Nate. Meanwhile, it was going to be a long, cold, winter on this rooftop. Although he couldn’t think of anyone else he’d rather spend the time with. As long as they were up here—they were safe . . .