The Zombie Virus (Book 1) (27 page)

Sleep came slowly to me that night. The loss
of Holly was raw in my heart and I found myself several times
hugging Kera tight to me and silently sobbing over the loss of my
beloved wife.

I awoke to find Kera gone. It was dark in the
store even though I could see the sun was up by the light pouring
in through the front windows. I looked over the counter and saw her
exiting the bathroom up front. The pressure on my bladder reminded
me that I should get up and do the same.

Kera came around the corner of the counter
and smiled at me.

“Good morning.”

“How are you feeling this morning?” I know
that question was probably getting overused now.

“My head feels better.” She gingerly touched
her face with her small fingers, wincing when they probed her
bandages.

The tape I had used to hold her head gauze on
was coming undone from her sweating in the heat of the store’s
interior. I grabbed some fresh gauze and wrapped it tightly around
her head like a scene from The Red Badge of Courage.

“I’m pretty hungry now.”

I smiled. “Well that’s a good sign. Do you
still feel lightheaded?”

She shook her head no and I handed her a pack
of the peanut butter crackers from the small backpack. She devoured
them ravenously.

“Do you think you can leave here?” I asked
hopefully. My son was out there somewhere waiting for me. I
couldn’t afford to delay any more. It was time to leave.

She nodded and started into her second pack
of crackers, grimacing with each bite when the salt stung her
injured lips. She finished a bottle of water then got shakily to
her feet. She swooned into my arms before regaining her
balance.

“I stood up too fast.”

“Take it slow. I don’t want to rush you,” I
said, even though I did.

She let go of me and stood on her own,
swaying slightly, the top of her head barely coming to my chin. I
picked up the rifle, clipped it back to the sling that was still
around my shoulder, then threw on the small backpack. I took her by
the arm and led her to the drive-up window which I promptly opened,
letting in a fresh breeze that felt wonderful in the hot, stuffy
room.

“I guess you want me to crawl through that?”
she asked with mock skepticism.

I did laugh at ‘cwawl’ although only
slightly. “I’ll go out first and make sure the coast is clear then
I’ll help you out.”

I stuck my head out the window and craned my
neck to look both ways down the access road. Nothing moved in the
shimmering heat. It was only 0900 hours and it was already hot and
muggy. I ducked back in and threw the small pack out the window,
then unclipped the rifle and handed it to Kera.

I slid out the window on my belly, feet first
and landed lightly on the curb. Kera handed out the rifle and I
surveyed my surroundings. I saw some Loonies far across the
intersection, although they paid me no notice, yet. Behind me, Kera
grunted as her small tennis-shoed feet poked through the entrance,
followed by her filly-like legs. I grabbed her ankles and pulled
her through the window and made sure her feet found the top of the
curb. When she was standing beside me I retrieved the pack from the
ground and looked toward the woods. I took Kera by the hand and as
inconspicuously as possible we slinked off toward the cool safety
and concealment of the forest.

CHAPTER 16

We escaped from the pharmacy and ran into the
shadowed depths of the thick summer undergrowth where Kera pulled
me to a stop. I looked back at her questioningly.

“My gun!” she said. “Dude I can’t do this
without it.”

I had the rifle and the .45 in my hip holster
plus some extra ammo for each, but the bulk of our ammo was in the
packs. I also had to admit that Kera could kick some Loony ass with
the semi-auto shotgun.

I sighed. “Okay, wait here while I go take a
look.” I glanced at my watch. 0920 hours. We still had most of the
day ahead of us. It shouldn’t take us long to cover the four miles
to my son, that is, if we walked the road. Here in this thick
tangled undergrowth, it may take us a day. I removed the small pack
and tossed it to the ground next to her.

“If it looks like I can get to them without
any trouble, I’ll try, otherwise we’ll have to leave them.” I
pulled out my handgun. “Here, take this until I get back.”

She took the gun and thanked me.

“Rest up. I won’t be longer than fifteen
minutes.”

She plopped down onto the soft, rotting
leaves from last year’s fall. I turned and headed back the way we
had come.

When I reached the forest edge I stayed
hidden behind the dense green foliage that bordered it. There were
only a handful of Loonies left by the pharmacy. Two sat in the
vestibule of the entrance, their backs against the hard metal of
the case I had shoved across the doorway. They seemed to be
sleeping.

If I could make it undetected to the first of
the cars stalled in the intersection, I should be able to get to
our abandoned equipment without being seen. That first part was a
big if. There was about fifty yards of open space I would have to
dash across with those creatures half that distance away. Then I
would have to run back across that space again carrying all the
gear.

I guess the question was – was I feeling
lucky today? The closest Loonies I would pass were lying in the
shade of a tree near the building. I couldn’t tell if they were
truly asleep. They were two men and four women. Most of them had
discarded their clothing except for a few odds and ends that still
clung to their dirty frames. I could do this, I told myself.

I loosened the strap on the rifle sling so
that it was ready if needed, took a deep breath and dashed across
the dirt lot between the woods and the intersection. I ran at a
half-crouch, staying low and silent. It seemed like it took
forever, but I finally reached the first car, a newer model
Chrysler Sebring. Both doors were open and black patches of blood
stained the leather seats. I glanced through the open doors toward
the reclining group of infected. None of them had stirred, and my
confidence picked up. I sprinted to the next vehicle, keeping it
between me and the Loonies. The guns and packs were sitting next to
the dried, dark patch of Kera’s blood. The body of the Loony I had
shot lay nearby, already beginning to bloat in the heat. I ducked
and ran the rest of the way to the gear and dropped to my knees
beside it. I slung both Kera’s shotgun and Holly’s rifle over my
shoulder and slid into my backpack.

I put one of the straps from Kera’s pack over
the muzzle of a rifle and thus loaded stood up, and was nearly face
to face with a tall, lanky, dark-haired man. I almost screamed.
Almost. He put his finger to his mouth to shush me. He quietly
snuck around the front of the car to stand before me. I looked back
over his shoulder to the group that I had been watching, they still
remained motionless.

“They’s all dead,” he stated matter-of-factly
in a gritty voice and held up a large blood-stained bowie knife. My
apprehension was building.

He gave me a twisted smile, exhibiting a set
of crooked yellowed teeth with two missing in the front. He had a
wad of chew between his cheek and gum.

I noticed a revolver tucked into the
waistband of his dated corduroy pants.

I backed up a step. “Thank you,” I said
trying to sound casual. “My name is Steve.”

His crooked grin broadened and became even
more unbelievably crooked. “I’m George.”

He held out a bony hand for me to shake. I
could see dirt caked behind his long, ragged fingernails. The knife
was still displayed in his left hand. A drop of blood rolled down
the hilt and onto a finger, then hung there tenaciously before
departing on its journey to the ground.

I looked back up into his vacant gray eyes;
his smile did not reach them.

Instead of taking his hand I took another
step back. My spidey-sense was tingling like mad.

He seemed to not notice my slight and dropped
his hand. “I seen you and the young gal leave that there CVS and
run off into the woods.” He loudly spat a wad of tobacco juice onto
the body of the dead, bloated Loony.

This guy was definitely not hitting on all
six cylinders.

“That’s nice, George. Where did you uh, come
from?” I stole another step backwards.

His grin disappeared momentarily, revealing
something else hidden beneath, something that sent a chill down my
spine.

“Was y’all the ones making all that racket
yesterday?” He took two steps closer. “Y’all got all them ghouls
all stirred up now, you sure as hell did.”

I took a step back and he matched me with a
step forward, like some deranged dancer.

“Them ghouls, they killed my May-Bell!” His
mouth was no longer smiling, a line of brown spittle spilled down
the side of his mouth. “Karen did it, she was one of ‘em, she was
eatin’ on May-Bell. Lordy, I couldn’t let Karen be doing that to
her.” He patted the revolver at his waist.

That explains the dead waitresses, I thought
to myself.

“Where’s yur lady friend at?”

“Listen,” I said calmly, avoiding his
question, “I have to get going. It was nice meeting you,
George.”

He was having none of that. He spat another
wad of juice near my boot.

“Y’all ain’t leaving me here alone with these
ghouls. I ain’t for that!”

He reached out quick as a snake and grabbed
at my wrist. I barely twisted out of his grasp and leveled my rifle
at his chest.

“Now George, you don’t want to do anything
stupid.” I emphasized the last words with a shake of the
barrel.

His eyes dropped to the rifle. “Well that
ain’t nice, fella.” His face darkened with anger as his voice
rose.

I couldn’t take my eyes from him, though I
knew our conversation wouldn’t go unnoticed very long.

He forced his crooked grin again, “Come on,
fella, take me to yur friend.”

The hard, cold look in his eyes left no doubt
in my mind what he would ‘do’ to my friend.

“George, you better get on your way. You
can’t come with me.”

The grin quickly disappeared and hate and
madness that rivaled that of the Loonies filled his eyes.

“That ain’t very nice!” he snarled. His knife
hand came up and swung across my belly, snagging briefly on my
tee-shirt, but somehow missing the skin. I pulled the trigger on
the rifle before he completed the arc beneath it. The round punched
a hole through his chest below the right pocket of his blue and
white striped shirt. He stared down at his chest in disbelief, then
his legs buckled and he fell to the pavement.

“Ow! Ow! Ow!” he screamed loudly, bloody
froth mixed with tobacco juice erupting around his lips. He still
clutched the knife tightly in his left hand as he rolled around in
agony on the ground.

I saw movement in the distance as his shrill
screams brought out the Loonies from their haunts like a siren’s
call. I thought about putting another round through his skull to
shut him up, but then decided this screaming beacon would probably
keep the Loonies occupied long enough for me to escape back into
the woods.

I ran back along the cars, hearing George’s
agonized cries filling the air behind me. I glanced back once when
I neared the wood line and saw nearly two-dozen infected converging
on the screaming man. By the time I was fifty feet into the woods
his cries had been cut short.

Kera was on her feet and nearly in hysterics
when I burst through the woods into the little clearing where I had
left her. She ran up and threw her arms around me in a hug.

“I thought that was you screaming!” she
cried. “I thought they had gotten you after I heard the shot!”

I dropped the packs and guns and hugged her
back. It felt good to have the close human contact after that
experience.

I pulled her down to the ground with me, my
legs collapsing from underneath me. I was still shaking from the
encounter with George.

“What happened?” she asked.

I shook my head, trying to formulate my
thoughts. “I-I had to kill someone.”

“A loonie?”

“He was kinda off his mental reservation, so
to speak, but he wasn’t one of them.”

“Why’d you kill him?”

“Because he would have killed me and then
come for you,” I stated bluntly. I ran my fingers through my hair
nervously. “I never had to shoot a person before, at least not one
that was still human.”

She put her hand on my forearm in sympathy.
“I’m sure you had no choice.”

“That’s how close it was.” I grabbed my
tee-shirt and displayed the new cut in the already ragged
material.

“Are you cut?” she asked with concern.

“No. I was damn lucky.”

There was a loud snarl in the distance behind
us that sent a chill down both of our spines.

“Can we get outta here?” She stared back over
my shoulder, shivering.

“Yeah.”

We packed the contents of the school pack
into our bigger packs then stood and donned our gear. I decided to
veer toward the road that I hoped Jeremy and Frank had taken. It
was the only main thoroughfare that went west from where we had
abandoned the truck. If they had taken another route we might never
find them.

We emerged into the bright morning sunshine,
already dripping sweat from the hike through the woods in the warm,
humid air. The road was clear of infected. We set off at as fast a
pace as I could force on Kera, up the grassy berm that paralleled
the roadway. After a quarter of an hour we passed the entrance to
the housing development that we had skirted several nights ago. My
heart squeezed in pain at the thought of Holly lying in her leafy
grave so close by. I would give anything to see her again, just
talk to her one more time. I knew that her loss would be a hole in
my soul that would never be filled.