Dead and Dead Again: Kansas City Quarantine (33 page)

Calvin guided them down a deserted I-35
to The Paseo. This stretch was normally a very quick drive, but they were
cruising slow and listening for cries of help so it would take them several
minutes to reach his favorite road. They didn’t have to deal with any road rage
and that was always a nice change on the interstates of any major metropolis.
He silently congratulated himself on finding the silver lining. But clouds, and
the sliver linings they housed, could be blown away by any steady breeze and they
were in the middle of a storm. He let out a resigned sigh as Boomer leaned down
from his turret and hissed to get his attention. With both of them in the back
of the vehicle, his friend must have realized there was no better time to talk
about whatever was bothering him. Calvin had been ignoring the meaningful
glances Boom had been shooting his way since the rescue. He was bound to have
to face his friend sooner or later; he just did not need another problem right
now.

“Scoot, man. I’ve got to talk to
you about something private,” Boomer whispered down to him.

With another sigh, Calvin turned
off his mic and looked up at his friend. “What about?” he whispered back.

“Brick,” Boomer looked cautiously
to the front passenger seat to make sure Brick couldn’t hear them, but the
subject of their conversation had his window open and his Ipod headphones on. Boomer
considered for a moment, but eventually felt that the combined music and breeze
added to the near constant drone of the compressors between them should cover
his voice adequately if they were quiet enough.

“What about him?” Calvin asked
quietly, watching one of his oldest friends with cautious interest as the
unnatural quiet of Kansas City on a week day rolled past.

“He’s been acting real strange,
man.”

As they talked, both men watched
the freshly mown medians roll by, still eerily empty of sound and movement
other than the occasional flaming beacons that once were automobiles. These
smoking piles stood watch at regular intervals in various sates of burned-out decay,
with the charred remains of at least one zombie at each site as testament to
the battles that must be playing out throughout the city, not one of which they
had yet been witness to. In every vehicle roasted arms and legs hung out of
windows or dangled from roofs by blackened, bar-b-queued tendons. Calvin wasn’t
sure exactly what it was about the zombie remains that announced them as such,
but everyone knew which parts were Human and which were Infected. The Human
corpses just seemed cleaner, fresher. The simple act of wondering if a corpse
was a zombie or Human made him realize just how strange things had become since
this morning. So to hear someone was acting strange didn’t really give much
information to Calvin. “What do you mean by strange?” He asked.

“Well, he’s been really off since
the accident, anyway. He gets in more fights and is a bit too lippy and shit.”

“So you think he’s getting too
uppity?”

“Fuck you, man. This is serious.”

“Sorry.”

“I mean, I haven’t even wanted to
hang out with him except he always finds the nunu for me, you know? But…he got
really weird again today, man. He was all hands up on this girl’s tits earlier,
in public. And she wasn’t into it. It’s not like they were on a date or
anything. He’d just started hitting on her and next thing I know, he’s got a
full handful of the Promised Land in his fist. I mean, he played it off as if
he was just messing around. She didn’t scream or nothing, and laughed it off,
but she had this surprised expression, maybe even a little scared. She and her
friends ended up giving us the slip. Then later this other chick shut him down
hard
.
I mean, he went off, calling her names and flipping her off. I had to bring him
back down again. I swear, man, I thought he was gonna do something stupid. More
stupid, I mean. This was before the attacks and shit went down. I had to step
in and shut him down
twice
in one day.”

“No, this one! This one! Turn
there!” Tripper snapped from the jump seat across from Calvin. “C’mon, Brick.
Do your job or get out of the navigator seat.”

Brick rode shotgun, but his baby
blues were fixed in the distance as he listened to music, refusing to give directions,
though he did send Tripper a casual finger in response. Felicia sped up a
little when Trip pointed over her shoulder at the ramp they were about to pass.
Calvin watched the exchange uneasily. When he returned his attention to the
conversation, he found Boomer staring at him with an intense expression and a
nod that clearly said ‘see what I mean?’

“Twice huh?” Scooter mumbled
quietly, again eying the blonde jock with judging eyes, already regretting
putting him up front to get him involved. “That’s not good.”

“I know, right?” Boomer whispered
back.

“Did he start drinking hard early
or something?”

“No way, man. I brought the brews.
He didn’t start until I was there. That I know.” Boomer whispered now from the
side of his mouth, looking around eagerly for fast-movers. One ragged one-armed
stiff stumbled from behind a burning car and jogged towards them, but Joel put
it down before Boomer had a chance to even move his gun.

“Uh-oh. Gotta be quicker than that,
Boom Boom,” his friend joked.

“Hey, I gotta get some practice in,
man. Give me the next few.”

“Fair enough,” Joel agreed.

Scooter sat up taller in his seat
so he was closer to his friend and tried to bring him back on topic. “You think
the wreck is still having after-effects?”

“I think he’s lost it, man. He’s
not himself anymore. And when the shit started…”

“Go on,” Scooter pushed him for
more.

“Man, he just curled up on the
ground up against that building and cried. Me and these other guys are fighting
off stiffs right and left…blood, fire and moving dead people all around. We could
have really used a guy as in-shape as Brick.”

“Some guys just aren’t fighters,”
Scooter said, but he knew it for a lie and Boomer did as well.

“That’s bullshit, man. He’ll step
up to half the guys in this town if they look at him wrong or at one of us, or
the girls.”

“Has he ever actually done that,
though?” Scooter asked.

“Well, no, but the situation ain’t
ever come up. This was different, anyhow. He freaked, man. I mean, I’m
surprised he didn’t shit himself. And now he’s acting weirder.”

“Weirder how.”

“Like he broke.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, man. Like…like
something inside him, Like his ego or something…the thing that made him be
Brick, the guy who never lost his head or a game or…anything. He, or it, broke
when the world did. Maybe he was already bending from the accident and how it
derailed his career, but then when this stuff started it was too much and…and he
just broke. Right when he was about to make his comeback, this happens. He just
ran and I think he’s still running. He needs to get some control or someone is
gonna have to do something. He just ain’t all there right now, Calvin.”

“I noticed he gave the girls a few
odd looks when we got to the Fortress. Maybe they can help him when we get
back. Maybe get a meal in him and get some of the alcohol and drugs flushed out.
Sarah and Athena are good at talking people down.”

“Man…Calvin. I’m not even sure you
should have left him there with them earlier. I was worried.”

“He’s not that bad is he?” Calvin
asked in concern.

“I don’t know, man. That’s what I’m
saying. That’s the problem. He just ran and ran and ran when we were leaving
that place. There were half a dozen of us, and he just ran. He didn’t take one
swing to defend himself. He couldn’t even look at them damned zombies. But then
when we get to the library, he’s all smiles again. It ain’t right.
He
ain’t right. And at some point he’s gonna have to deal with this shit.”

“He’s always been a bit iffy about
blood, I think.”

“Yeah, but this is life or death,
man. Kill or be killed. We don’t have time for that hysterical shit. I should
have left his ass on that sidewalk when we pulled out of there.”

“Hey, he’s saved your ass enough
times.”

“Yeah, well, we’re even. He saved
my ass on the football field, but I saved his whole damn life. I saved his ass
three times. A guy died helping that son of a bitch.”

“We can’t have that.”

“Yeah, what if he does that when
he’s supposed to have
our
backs?”

“I’ll talk to him when we get some
time, see if we can coax a fight out of him.”

“Honestly, man. I’m not sure you
want whatever fight is gonna come out.”

“I’ll give it some thought.” Boomer
nodded and stood upright again to give Calvin some time.

The vehicles approached the William
T. Fitzsimons Memorial Fountain, pulling Calvin’s thoughts around in circles.
Ah,
The Paseo,
he marveled to himself.  If there was ever a more beautiful
stretch of busy roadway to be found in Kansas City than The Paseo between I-35
and The Parade at 18
^th
he had never driven it, or hadn’t been paying
attention during the drive. The beauty of the Paseo lay between the divided
roadway. This area consisted of a stretch of grassland half-a-block wide and
many blocks long with deep green, perfectly manicured lawns and artfully
manipulated floral arrangements occasionally scattered with fountains, shrubs,
Corinthian arches and at least one memorial fountain. Intersected occasionally
by through streets, but never losing its aesthetic appeal, the best stretch
basically ended at The Parade. The Negro Leagues and Jazz museums lay just
around the corner and always made nice pit stops for any out-of-towners lucky
enough to get lost on The Paseo, if they were lucky enough to have the time and
also lucky enough to not get car-jacked at a stoplight.

The road continued for another ten
miles or so, but this was Scooter’s favorite section. It was simply an unfortunate
fact of life that half of The Paseo ran through some of the most crime-ridden
areas of Kansas City.

Kansas City
. His mind
drifted.

The City of Fountains: current record
holder for Loudest Crowd Roar at an Outdoor Stadium in the entire world; multiple
Sports Championships in the same year; current World Series Champions; current
Super Bowl Champions; current MLS Cup Champions; home to some of the best
damned Bar-B-Q in the entire world and there was so much more…but none of that
meant a damned thing now.

It was all gone.

Well, not gone yet but certainly
heading for the door in a hurry, umbrella in hand and hat placed firmly on head.
Would they ever get their town back? How many had they lost already? How many
were going to make it out of town? Where would they even go?

As they approached the more densely
populated side-streets, the barricades barring off the side streets became
increasingly more sophisticated, one built with actual fencing materials and
manned by guards with radios.

Maybe there was still some hope.

Not bad work for only…
How
long has it been?

Scooter checked his watch.

18:36.

Six-thirty-six? Only eight
hours? Seems like it’s been at least a month
.
Hell, there are probably
people who don’t even know anything is wrong yet, anyone with the flu or who
worked last night and slept in. I don’t envy them the shock when they wake up.

“Hey, is there any way we can get
the word out to everyone about what is happening?” he asked the others.

“None that I know of,” Tripper
replied. “Unless we take over a television station, but you can’t guarantee
everyone will be listening.”

“Can’t. The signals are being
blocked,” Gus reminded him.

“The Emergency Alert System would be
the best,” Scaggs said. “Radio.”

“You’d think it would have already
been set off if they were going to do it,” Felicia noted with a grimace.

“The doctor has certainly gotten
word out. It’s strange they haven’t done anything about it yet,” Calvin rubbed his
chin in thought.

“Nothing we know about,” Tripper
said in a conspiratorial aside.

“What do you mean?” Scaggs asked.

“It’s likely that any plan for this
scenario includes them either fire-bombing or walling off an infected area,” he
suggested.

Damn,
thought Calvin.
Hit
it just about right on the head.

“You guys. There’s something I
wasn’t going to tell you, but now I think I should…” Calvin trailed off,
uncertain of how to word his news.

“You mean that they’re building a
wall one hundred feet around Kansas City?” Tripper asked.

“How did you know?”

“I overheard Doc telling you before,
and then confirming it later.”

“Figures. No secrets in the
Apocalypse. Well, might as well tell everyone. We’re in the middle of a
quarantine zone. As of several hours ago, no one gets out.”

“Wait, what about us?” Scaggs
asked.

“No one.” Calvin repeated.

“You mean even when we take your
magical carpet out of here we still won’t be able to actually leave?”

“There are places we can go,” he
explained.

“Screw that. I want to go home, not
to some damned fortified camp or something where we slowly get picked off
one-by-one. I want this to be over.”

“Hey, at this point we don’t even
know how many cities have been affected or will be, much less whether there
will be any place to go in a week. You should keep trying to get in touch with
your family and friends. Let them know the situation and that it’s not a joke.
Send texts. Maybe they’ll go through eventually.”

“I’d rather tell them in person,”
Scaggs muttered.

Here we go again,
Tripper
thought.

“But at least I’m stuck with a cool
crew and a handsome new boyfriend. I guess I can hang for a while,” she grinned
ruefully.