Dead Hunger III: The Chatsworth Chronicles (43 page)

“That was our next question,” said Serena.
  “Why you’re here.”

I explained everything.  Our discoveries, the Ham radio broadcast we left in
Alabama
, all of it.  Tony said they’d all heard Hemp’s voice discussing Urushiol and how it worked.  They had not yet learned how to create it, so were mostly using bats, suppressed weapons, and other quieter forms of defe
nsive and offensive techniques.

“We can help you,” I said, looking at them.    “All
we need to do is get Hemp back and
we can help you as much as you need.”

“If the town isn’t flattened,” said Tony.

“What do you mean?” Dave asked.  “Flattened?”

“Those guys you saw in the truck.  Rory and Pete.  They’re the worst of the worst.  And they got a bunch of guys working with them.  I’m telling you it’s like the fuckin’
Nazis
.  They’ve burned buildings they’ve found us in.  They’ve destroyed grocery stores filled with food just so we wouldn’t get to it.  We’re lucky there were tons of smaller, mom and pop operations around here, and we’ve got plenty.  It’s not like we can plant a garden.  You see this shit bubbling up from the ground?”

“That shit is the
cause of everything,” I said.  “According to my husband.  He believes it was caused from a fissure in the core of the planet.  When the Earth formed, a fuckin’ bazillion years ago or whatever it was, some meteor crashed into it, embedding this shit inside.  He thinks maybe one too many underground nuclear tests where the charge was set too deep and was a lot too large, cracked the core and allowed for the release.”

“Tony stared at us, and in an amazed voice, said, “It’s like fiction shit.”

“It’s George Romero shit wrapped in Stephen King shit, stuffed inside a Dean Koontz box with Clive Barker bubble wrap,” said Dave, nodding his head.

“So will you help us?” I asked.

“Got a plan?” asked Tony, eyeing Dave.

“Touché” said Dave, smiling.  “But yeah, sort of.”

“Spill it,” said Serena, moving closer to Dave and me on the floor. 
Jason and Nick
scooched over too.  Each individual’s shadow danced on the wall, thrown here and there by the flickering candle flames.

Dave reached into his back pocket and withdrew a glossy piece of paper. 

“Not many attractions here in Shelburne,” said Dave.  “Sorry if this is your home town.”

“No offense taken,” said Serena.

“One of them is Carville’s home.  A drive-by tour in a bus.”

“Tour’s over,” said Tony.  “The bus would draw a bunch of attention now.

He looked dead serious.  I looked at Dave, who shrugged and unfolded the paper in his hands.

“This is a map of Shelburne,” he said.  “Not topographical, but designed for tourists, which is actually a good thing, because it not only shows Carville’s house and how to get there, it shows boat rental places.”

“I didn’t know you had that, Dave.”

He looked at me.  “You were out.  I couldn’t wake you.  I went out and made a short run to the corner.”

I held up my hands.  “It’s cool – just asking.  Go on.”

“My idea is this.  First off, has anyone been near his house?  Laid eyes on the grounds?”

“Hell yes,” said Tony.  “They built a fence around it.  We saw a bunch of lumber trucks filled with supplies heading in that direction, so we put two and two together.  The fence was probably done over a month ago.  About twelve feet tall, I guess.”

“Can you shoot though it?” I asked.

“Yes, absolutely.  It’s uprights and heavy chain link.”

“So bolt cutters have to be on the supply list,” said Dave.  “Is it guarded?”

“Like a fortress,” said Serena.  “We were coming back from there
tonight
when we almost got caught by Rory and Pete.”

“Okay,” said Dave.  “Do you know if the fence runs along the lakefront?”

Serena looked at Tony.  “It doesn’t.  Each end of the fence does extend into the water about fifteen feet, but it’s only like four feet deep that far out.  Still accessible from the water.”

“Good, because that’s exactly what I want to do.”  Dave looked at me.  “Charlie, I think we should load whatever urushiol, guns, crossbows, anything and everything we can use, into the boats – whatever kind they end up being, and we make our approach slowly and qu
i
etly from the water.”

He looked around the room.  “Anyone have an idea when it’s a new moon?”

Everyone shook their heads, but Tony spoke.  “See those clouds building out there?  The moon’s half as visible as it was when we were hiding from the assholes.  If the clouds keep building, we could at least check it out tonight.”

“Let’s keep an eye, then.”  Dave stood to leave.  He walked over to the plywood wall and pivoted one of the peephole and gun turret cover plates back, putting his eye to the hole.  It smelled of gunpowder.  Then he let the cover swing back down and looked at Jason.  “You’re right.  Could’ve happened to anyone.”

“So tonight, then?” said Charlie.  “We wait for the cloud cover to build some more, then –”
             

Suddenly there was scratching on the door.

Charlie and I looked over, reaching for our weapons on the floor simultaneously.

“Don’t worry,” said Tony.  “Fuckin’ rats.  They can’
t get in.  We’ve made sure.”

We looked at the bottoms of the doors in view, and they had cut off plywood pieces and screwed door skirts on to every one, even interior doors.  I pointed.

“Why the interiors, too?”

“If they get in, we need another line of defense,” he said.  “They won’t expect it.  So we win.”

“I don’t think they expect anything except to eat you,” said Dave.  “But good idea.”

“We’re staying in a room at the Liberty Inn
,” I said.
 
“
I don’t know the
room number and
the rate’s good
but
there’s no cable.  We’re going to wa
lk to the boat rental place once the cloud cover builds, so if you want to join us, we’d be happy to have all the help we can get.  Tonight we’ll go prepared, but it’s mainly for scouting purposes I think.”

“We’re expecting someone else, too,” said Dave.  “Flex and Gem.  They might already be here.  If you see a big guy with a short haircut and a goatee, and a tall, hot
Latina
woman, that’s them.  Approach with extreme caution and make sure they know you can talk.  They won’t shoot you if you can talk, but they’re bound to be on guard for the guys who took Hemp, so tell them you know Dave and Charlie and you’ll be okay.”

“You talk about them like they’re Terminators,” said Jason, looking at his dad.

I shrugged and looked at Dave, who shrugged and nodded back.  “Sound about right,” he said.

“How long do the rats usually persist?” I asked.

“No telling.”

“How do you know when they’re gone?” asked Dave.

Tony pointed.  “Low peepholes, but not too low.  Angled down.  My idea,” he said proudly.

I went over and looked through them.  The furry bodies milled around and I closed the hole again.

“We wait,” she said.  “But as long as it’s
still dark, my plan’s in motion
.”

****

The meat-craving rats, for whatever reason, left an hour later.  They seemed to move as a group, the proverbial rat pack, in search of whatever food source beckoned to them at the moment.  Perhaps they had some sense of imme
diacy and had been here before – this same group –
waiting, intending to return at a later time.

I didn’t know that they could think like this and I hoped to hell they couldn’t.  There were too many unanswered questions about the
way their minds worked,
not only the rats, but the zombies themselves, and until Hemp was free and able to research, those questions would remain
unaddressed
.

I moved the curtain aside in the window of the hotel room and scanned the street.  Dave and I had taken two candles from ZFZ
4
and sat in the bathroom with the door closed, going over the map on the small vanity.  I sat on the toilet with the lid closed, and he stood.

Tommy never would have stood and let me sit.  If there were a throne, Tommy would be sitting in it
, fuck the women, one and all.

Especially me.

But again, I digress.  I’m a married woman now, and should never go back to the time – even in my mind – when I was dating a dipshit.  I did think of how he killed my mother and hated him all over again, though.  It felt good to hate him, and to have ended his second life with no chance of a third.

“Where’s your head at, dude?” asked Dave, a crooked smile on his face.

“Killing my ex,” I said.

“Say no more,” said Dave.  “Been there. 
Okay, oddly enough, I didn’t find a boat rental place listed, but then again, we’re in eliteville, and
these
rich bastards probably don’t like the idea of tourists blowing past their mansions on Jet Skis.”

“Probably not.  So what’s the backup plan?”

“The backup plan is kind of the long way around, but it gets us there.  Still just over eleven miles.  We have to get on
Shelburne Road
for a mile or so, but it’s pretty well past the turnoff for Carville’s place, it looks like.”

“What’s there?”

“Big ass marina.  There have to be a lot of boats, because look here.”

He turned the brochure over, and it showed an aerial photo of
Shelburne
Bay
.  The marina was big, and it looked to
be
fully rented with b
oats in every slip. 
There was also
a huge storage yard a short distance away with triple the number of boats there.

“Where’s Carville’s place on here?” I asked.

Dave pointed at the aerial shot.  See this point on the marina side?”

“I do,” I said.

“Run your finger straight across the bay and what do you see?”

I
did, and tapped the page. 
“
That’s
his house?”

“House?”
said Dave.

“Okay, compound.
”

“Exactly,” said Dave.  So if it’s
not fenced on the water side
, it’s like perfect.”

“And Gem’s car?”

“I think we should
get
someone else to
drop us and drive back.  They can
park it somewhere under cover outside Carville’s gate.”

“Then why wouldn’t we just drive it there?”

“Charlie.”  Dave’s eyebrows knitted together and he looked at me like I was a moron.

“What?” I said.

“In case they get caught.
  Patrols?  Remember?”

“So they get caught.  What good do they do us then?”

“They don’t go there
right away
, Charlie.  They’ll be on the radio.  Some obscure fuckin’ channel, I don’t know.  We got the walkies, we mig
ht as well use them for this operation.
  They wait until we’ve got Hemp and we radio them.  Maybe use the click method like you guys used to use.”

“Yeah,
but
the one these guys use,” I said.  “
They know it already, so t
hat works.  We’ve got
a little
urushiol left, and the silenced Walthers.  I think we can do this, Mr. Gammon.”

“Methinks you’re right, m’lady.”

“What are you, gay?” I laughed.

“Ye
s,” he said, his chin held high.
 
“
Dave Gammon, the gay blade.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“Not at all,” I said, still smiling at this kooky guy
I was really starting to love.

“You read comic books, don’t you?” I asked.

“How did you know?”

“Never mind.”

“Whatever.”

“Let’s go now,” I said.  “I want to do it tonight.”

“And if you weren’t a married woman,” said Dave, “we’d be doing it right now, but let’s try and focus here.”

I glared at him, my head cocked.

“
I’m trying to get you off that idea. 
Tonight was supposed to be recon, Charlie.”

“Why?  Is it going to get easier tomorrow night?”  Before Dave could answer, I went on.  “No, it won’t.  All that could happen is someone in ZFZ
4
could get caught, or now that word’s gotten out to all the ZFZs, which it probably has, then anyone of them could give us up and tell Carville’s guys our plan.”