All That I See - 02 (29 page)

It took us about twenty minutes to get back to her friends.

Chapter 34

The crowd around the car had grown, but I felt confident that I could clear them away, and I felt fairly secure inside the cage. I thought the best course of action would be to plow away the ones in front of the car to see if perhaps Cassie and Rodney could just drive out of there. I should have gotten more information from Bern.

She got on the horn again. I just shook my head, because really there was nothing I could do about it, and I doubted she had anything useful to say.

I stepped on the pedal in the floor and the bulldozer slowed. I stomped on a second pedal, and it finally came to a full stop. I played around with the lever that controlled the blade. I got it to go down then hit the pavement. It continued to push down until it was lifting up the front of the machine. I backed off. When the front of the dozer dropped back down to the ground, I let my foot off the pedals and steered toward the car. I could hear the blade scraping along the highway. I pushed into the crowd and the bodies heaped up ahead of me. I hoped Bern’s friends were brighter than her and would take the oppo
rtunity to escape. They weren’t,
and they didn’t.

Once I cleared the front of the car, there was a
short window of opportunity for
them to get the car moving before the creatures behind me filled the vacuum. They didn’t take advantage of it, so I decided to make a second pass, thinking that maybe they’d had time to discuss it and come to a realization about what they should do. The second go was
just
as
un
successful as the first.

“Okay,” I said. “We’ll try something else.”

This time I came in and hit them head on. It wasn’t jarring for me at all, but I’m sure
they
felt it. A couple of zombie torsos rolled off the hood, their legs no doubt mashed to sausage through the grill of the car by my blade. I could see the dark figures inside the car moving around, but that was about all.

I shoved the car backward through the mob. Finally, someone in the car cranked it, and either shifted it into reverse or neutral. Once I’d pushed them to the outer edge, they took over and backed well clear of the
crowd. They must have driven in
reverse for almost a quarter of a mile before stopping. Of course, the crowd pursued them. The driver of the car pulled off onto the ramp, down to the highway, and sped away heading north. Bern followed them.
They just kept going. I stared out at their shrinking taillights.

“You’re welcome,” I said. “Feel free to keep my gun….and truck.”

I drove the bulldozer onto the overpass and looked up the highway. I watched their taillights get smaller and sm
aller. They weren’t coming back,
that was o
bvious. Then one of them braked (
the lights go
t brighter)
and then the taillights wobbled. I couldn’t tell which vehicle it was. It wobbled then cut off to the left and stopped. The other vehicle kept going.

I sat there in the bulldozer, surrounded by zombies, watching those taillights and working out what might have been going on. Rodney and Cassie must not have realized that it was Bern in the other vehicle. Even though they were freed by the bulldozer, they were no doubt afraid that I might not be a very nice person, and perhaps the person in the truck was chasing them down to hurt them. Or, maybe they
did
know it was Bern and just wanted to be away from her. Or maybe the stopped vehicle contained Rodney and Cassie, but Bern was just too daft to stop.

I looked around me at the moonlit creatures lowing and moaning and howling around me. One of the smart ones had even climbed up on the bulldozer’s tread. He had hooked his fingers in the wire of my cage and was trying to chew his way into me.

“Hold on
tight,
buddy,
” I said. I lifted my feet off the pedals and the machine began to move. He held on, but his feet went with the tread. Very soon he was being pulled down the deadly conveyor belt to be smeared on the road.

I took the ramp and rolled toward those lonely taillights. I didn’t like that I was being followed—I was going to need some breathing room to check on the vehicle—so I shined my flashlight on the lever that had initially got the machine moving in the first place. I noticed that there were notches, and I hoped that meant different speeds. I stopped again, moved the lever to a different notch, and was pleased to find I was going faster. I stopped again and shifted to the farthest notch. That did it. I wouldn’t win any races unless I was racing zombies…which I was. I easily outdistanced them. I figured I must have been going about 30 or 40 mph. I would have a little time to check out the vehicle and occupants before the creatures caught up.

As I neared the vehicle, I saw that it was the truck and it was in the median. It looked like Bern had run off the road. I stopped the bulldozer and climbed out.

I opened the door on the truck, but Bern wasn’t inside. I shined the little flashlight around, and then I saw her. She was kneeling in the road. I’d driven right past her, and if I’d been in the other lane, I would have run over her.

“Bern!” I yelled, running to her. “What the hell are you doing?”

She was hugging an animal. She looked up at me and I saw that it was a dog.

“I killed it,” she cried. “I ran over it.”

“Bern, we can’t be out here we—“

Then I heard a yelp nearby. Then another. I shined the flashlight around me. Glowing eyes all around.

“Dammit, Bern, get back in the truck!”

More glowing eyes came into view ahead of the truck. They neared and the headlights illuminated three dogs.

“Look, there’s more!” Bern said. “Come here, puppy.”

“Get in the truck!”

“Here, puppy,” she said, reaching out her hand. She was still on her knees with the dead dog in her lap. She whistled. I opened the passenger door of the truck. One of the dogs (in the dim light, it looked like Old Yeller…after the rabies) ran at me. I jumped in and shut the door before it could get me. I rolled down the window.

“Bern, get in the truck!”

More dogs darted through the headlights toward her. Her pistol was in the seat, and my shotgun with its one shell was there, too. Bern screamed. I didn’t have much time. I slid over to the driver’s seat and pulled the truck back onto the highway making a U-turn so the lights were shining on her. There were ten dogs that I could see, but I would catch glimpses of shadows in the moonlight and eyes shining then disappearing. Bern was covered up and screaming.

The dogs were yapping and snarling and doing their best to get a piece of her. Bern was on her back, her legs kicking wildly. I stepped out of the truck with the pistol and drew down on the pack. I fired twice. One yelped and whined. The rest were visibly startled by the noise, and most of them shied away with their tails between their legs. Some, however, were hesitant to give up their prey.

I took careful aim on one of the brave ones and fired again. It fell and twisted on the ground. The others ran a short distance away. I advanced. They watched me from the edge of the light.

“Bern, can you walk?”

She didn’t answer, but I could hear her crying
,
so I knew she was alive.

“Bern?”

She was bleeding from her face and at least one arm. I took a look around at the pacing, waiting pack. They were eerily quiet.

“Get up, Bern. We need to go right now.”

I pushed a dead dog off her. Another lay nearby, while a third continued to kick and whimper. It had been someone’s pet once. It still wore a thick leather collar around its neck and a second narrow flea collar. Now it was a killer just like the rest.

I pulled Bern into a seated position. She cradled her left arm. One of the dogs decided to test me and crept into the light. I couldn’t let it do that. The others might be emboldened by its example. I shot, and it practically did a somersault. I wasn’t sure if I’d hit it or just scared it, but then it fell. It’s whole body seemed to tense up as if it were stretching, then one of its hind legs started to kick and spin it around on the pavement. The other dogs converged on it, fighting for its carcass. This gave me the time I needed.

I got Bern to stand, draped her arm over my shoulders, and then we hobbled back to the truck. I got her into the passenger side. Then I fired the gun into the night to keep them scared long enough for me to get around the truck and get inside.

Once I was behind the wheel, I turned on the interior light and looked at her. She was leaning against the door crying and holding her arm. A plug of flesh was missing from her cheek. There were also teeth marks in her forehead.

“Where all are you hurt?” I said.

She would only stare ahead and cry. I pulled off the rag I had been using as a mask and put against the wound in her face.

“I’m going to take you to a doctor,” I said. “You’re going to be fine.”

“That poor puppy,” she said.

“Where are you hurt?”

“My arm hurts really bad.”

“Is that all? Did they bite you anywhere else?”

“Cassie and Rodney left me.”

“They didn’t know it was you,” I said, shifting into drive and turning the truck around. “Do you know where they were planning to go?”

“We never decided on a place. We were just going north.”

We arrived at the assisted living facility, and I parked directly in front of Somerville’s apartment. The curtains moved then the door opened. Dr. Barr came outside with the pistol in his hand.

“I’ve got a young woman here,” I said, getting out. “She’s hurt.”

Dr. Barr stuffed the pistol in his pants and came out to help me.
Ellen
appeared in the doorway but didn’t come outside.

“What happened?” the doctor asked examining the wound in Bern’s face.

“Dogs,” I said.

“Were they rabid?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t know.”

“Well, dogs don’t just attack people,” he said.

“Things are different now,” I said.

“You think they have the virus?”

“No,” I said. “They’ve just….reverted, I guess. They were feral.”

He looked at me dubiously, “Help me get her inside.”

Bern was able to walk on her own, but we assisted her.
Ellen
stepped aside to let us pass. She gave me a cold look when I went by her. We put Bern on my mattress in the floor.

“Go get my bag,” he said to me. “
Ellen
, light some more candles in here, and bring me that gallon jug of water.”

I went into the bedroom. Mr. Somerville was sleeping soundly. I was about to leave with the bag when
Ellen
came into the room and picked up a lit candle from the nightstand.

“What part of ‘don’t come back’ did you not hear?” she whispered.

“She’s hurt,” I whispered back.

“She’s all chewed up,” she said. “She’s probably infected.”

“It was dogs, not people.”

“What did you do with my shotgun?” she asked. “I want it back.”

“It’s in the truck,” I said. “I’ll get it for you.”

“I’ll get it,” she said, turning to leave.

I didn’t want her to do that. Bern’s pistol was still in there. I knew
Ellen
would take it, and I needed a weapon. I grabbed her shoulder to stop her. She spun around. As she did, she grabbed one of my fingers and t
wisted
it back. That brought me to my knees. She shoved the candle in my face then bent so we were face to face, the candle between us.

“Don’t you ever touch me again,” she hissed. The flame on the wick danced in her breath.

She stalked out leaving me in the floor. I made a fist a few times to work the pain out of the finger she’d twisted. I didn’t get why she was so venomous toward me, but so compliant toward Dr. Barr. I wasn’t the one taking advantage of her.

I joined Dr. Barr and put t
he bag on the floor beside him.

“
Ellen
has gone out again,” he said, absently. “Doing her part to use up the world’s cigarette supply.” Then to Bern he said, “You don’t smoke do you, dear?” Bern shook her head.

He turned and looked up at me. “We should probably get her a drink. I have a bottle in the apartment next door.”

“No,” Bern said. “I’m pregnant. I can’t drink.”

“We’ll have to risk it,” he said. “Have you been exposed to the infected?”

“Not much,” she said.

“Get the bottle,” he said.

Chapter 35

I went outside.
Ellen
was standing in the open door of the truck with a cigarette in her mouth. She turned toward me when I came out. I watched her put the pistol in the front of her jeans then pull her shirt down over it. Then she drew out the shotgun and shut the door.