DEAD: Confrontation (22 page)

“This is gonna suck,” I sighed.

Drawing my machete, I moved away from where I was su
pposed to be stationing myself. I did not want to attract the attention of the guys in the apartment…if I hadn’t already. The zombies were even more bizarre than normal with all the snow. For just a second, my mind pictured them as they stood and then plastered the image on a Christmas card.

“
Hark! The horrid zombies sing…
” I croaked softly. I would have never made it on
American Idol
.

The first one stepped into range and I swung overhanded, the blade biting deep and stopping just past the bridge of the nose.

As I pulled my weapon free, I gave this one a glance. For some reason, I always fixate on the first zombie if I am faced with killing more than just a couple. Honestly, after the third or fourth, they sort of all blend in together and just fade. However, I think I can describe almost every single zombie that I have killed to start off a fight.

This one was a woman. She could have been anybody’s mom back in the old neighborhood. I would guess her to be in her late thirties or early forties, but it is getting harder to tell as time starts to do some damage. That and the facial rearrang
ement that comes from smashing up against a door, window or wall for a week or longer while trying to chew through the solid surface as every single zombie behind you shoves forward in an attempt to do the same. Toss in the random elbow to the face when these things are in a herd, or that when they fall over, no effort is made to protect themselves from the fall. Some of these things are starting to look less and less related to humans.

This lady looks like she died from a single bite to the arm. Her right arm has a nasty blackened wound that has the dark tendrils radiating from it. She still has her
jeans on and a muffin top that looks seriously deflated is hanging in a flesh flap around her waist. Oh yeah…she is not wearing any top and her bra is long gone.

She crumples and disappears into the snow on the roof as more step in to take her place. They are all reaching for me. Once, my machete hangs up just enough so that I have to jerk to the side and snatch the closest zombie by the arm and sling him over the
edge. By the time I am able to kill the last one, gunfire erupts from over towards the apartment complex.

I
was pretty sure there are no more zombies up here or hidden under the snow, but I still tried to stay in the area of smashed down snow that was created during the skirmish. When I reached the edge of the roof, I stayed hunched over and tried to barely peek over the edge.

Jon and Jake are nowhere to be seen, but I
observed one body hanging partway out of a window of the top unit on the far left. Also, smoke is coming from the windows of three ground floor units. I must have missed the part where they said they were going to flush these people out with fire. I imagine there are two ways to die that, if you had to pick, would be at the top of the list on ways NOT to go out. Burning and being eaten alive by zombies have got to be a close first and second on just about everybody’s list.

From my perch, I scan the area with my binoculars.
Still no sign of Jake or Jon, but I see one figure moving around in one of the upper units. It is really just a dark shadow that has almost no form, but it is moving around too fast to be a zombie. I keep my eyes locked on it until I notice something else worth diverting my attention.

Moving up a side stree
t just past the apartment complex, using snow-covered vehicles, the buildings, and anything else they can for cover are about two dozen people. Even from here I can see the weapons sticking out from these new arrivals. They are armed to the teeth!

Now what do I do? My brain is rattling with uncertainty. I squint my eyes and search for any signs of Jon or Jake and still come up with nothing. This is going bad fast. Could Shelly have sent us into a trap?

My brain quickly tosses out that possibility. She has been our prisoner for a few weeks. There is no way she could have set this up. That means that this is another of the groups that she was talking about.

We are in so much trouble.

10

Vignettes XXXIV

Caleb stuck his head out the doorway. He looked both ways and saw nothing moving. Turning to Aaheru, he smiled.

“They have gone?” Aaheru asked, doing his best to hide his pain. His arm felt hot to the touch and was swollen so bad that the skin looked like it would split at any moment.

“There is nothing moving, and I have heard no sound for hours,” Caleb reported.

Aaheru nodded and rose to his feet. The room swam just a bit and he almost lost his balance, but he dug down deep to his reserves and mustered the strength that he needed to take first one step, and then another.

Outside, a cool breeze blew, wiping away the heat being generated by the sun and causing his body to start to shiver. Aaheru was no fool. He knew very well that he was in trouble. His arm was a problem and it would kill him before much lon
ger. He would need to do something drastic.

“Come, boy,” he mumbled to Caleb.

Together, the pair walked through the apparently empty remains of a small coastal village. From the few huts that actually remained standing, an occasional stirring could be seen. They stayed in the center of the brick road that ran down its length. Already, the sand from the beach had blown in and covered much of what seemed to be the only actual road. The side streets were all clay or sand strewn with gravel. In less than a year, it was doubtful that much would remain at all to indicate that man ever lived here.

As they walked, Aaheru would point out things for Caleb to collect. Eventually they stumbled upon a small cart and began to stack ev
erything that Aaheru indicated into it. Caleb would drag it along and set it down every so often if sent to fetch one item or another.

Once they reached the outskirts of the village, there wa
s an actual paved road that wound up a hill in a switchback manner. At the top there looked to be an old dilapidated fortress. If they were going to find anybody alive in the area, it would stand to reason that they would be there.

While the road was in fairly good shape considering, Aah
eru struggled as they climbed the hill. Several times along the way he signaled the young man to stop so that he could catch his breath. After the third or fourth time—Aaheru did not know which—Caleb asked if he would want to sit in the cart and be pulled along.

Aaheru leveled his gaze as best he could and tried to etch his face with what he hoped was a look of disdain. It looked more like a grimace, but Aaheru swallowed once to ensure that his voice would not crack from his throat being dry as he spoke.

“Do you think me weak? Perhaps you believe that I do not possess the might to continue to call myself your leader…your pharaoh. Well let me set your mind at ease,
boy
.” He made sure that he emphasized that last word to further make the distinction between them. “I have the blood of the gods flowing though me. They have seen fit to place the rebirth of Egypt in my hands. I will walk up this hill…and then I will show you the strength that I still have in me.”

Caleb nodded and kept quiet. As they continued their jou
rney up the hill, he watched the man slump further and further at his shoulders. He truly believed that this man would crawl on his belly to prove his point. As they reached halfway, the man began to mumble. At first, Caleb believed it to only be the man’s labored breathing, but soon, words formed. He heard names; the most common being “Ahi” and “Ahmes”. These were usually followed by rantings of their failure or even apologies. Caleb remembered the one called Ahi, he had been the advisor to Aaheru. There had been something about the man that seemed peculiar, but Caleb had never been able to place it. There was simply an uncomfortable feeling any time the man was around him.

As for Ahmes, he knew that Aaheru had one particular woman that he claimed as his queen, but the man was also not beyond seemingly attempting to sow his seed with any of the other women that had been brought along.

When Aaheru collapsed face down onto the road, Caleb scooped him up and deposited him in the wooden cart. He made the rest of the trip in silence. As he climbed higher and higher up the hill, he was able to look down. It seemed that the tiny village was really part of a more sprawling little town that wrapped most of the way around the small harbor that they had pulled into. He could see the sunken wreck of their ship jutting out of the water. Here and there he saw singles or small groups of what had to be more of the undead, but none showed up to bother him as he made his way up the road.

When he reached the top, he slowed and waited to see who or what might come out of the ruined old castle. When it was clear that nothing would, he headed through the entry arch ca
utiously. Across the open courtyard was a ramp that led up to a corner tower. He crossed and observed that all of the walls had areas that were collapsed. That seemed to explain why nobody had come here and used it.

Caleb reached the base of the ramp. It was much steeper than the road had been. He did not think that he would be able to haul Aaheru up the incline. He had to work at it to get the man out, and then he was able to get under one arm and half-drag, half
-guide the man up to the tower.

Once inside, he discovered another problem, there was no door and the only safe place was a landing about ten feet above them that would require them to climb. There was no way that Aaheru would be able to perform such a task…even with help.

“It has to come off, boy,” Aaheru moaned from where he sat against the wall.

Caleb looked at the man and then around the room to try and discern what he could be talking about. Aaheru mumbled something unintelligible.
Caleb leaned in closer.

“…the arm has to come off…it is killing me…the only choice…fire…”

Caleb listened for what seemed like several minutes, but Aaheru said pretty much the same thing over and over. Maybe he changed the order, but that was about all. Slowly it dawned on the young man what was being said.

Running back down to the wagon, he looked at the seemin
gly random things that Aaheru had told him to gather up as they passed through the village. There were pieces of wood, three belts, a sheet of cloth that looked like it could be used to make a sail, and a couple of sticks about an inch around and a foot long. There were also a handful of dead tree branches, an axe head and an odd looking rock, some fishing line and an assortment of metal scrap.

Caleb dragged the cart up the ramp and then
went to work rigging a few lines across the ramp that would provide the only access to the tower. As he worked, he gained an even greater respect for the man who would be Egypt’s new pharaoh. The man certainly could not have known what they would find at the top of the hill, but it seemed that his mind had been sharp enough to know that he must prepare for anything. The fishing line and metal were obviously to be used as alarms. The rest seemed self-explanatory. The materials were there to build a fire; then he would cut off Aaheru’s arm, cauterize the wound, wrap it in cloth…and then hope.

Less than an hour later, Caleb had a raging fire going. It had been difficult, and more than once he thought that he would not succeed. He had managed to run around the castle and just ou
tside to gather more than enough wood to keep it going. The next part was the hardest.

He laid Aaheru down
and stretched his right arm out away from the body. Taking one belt, he wrapped it around the arm just above the elbow and cinched it tight. Aaheru groaned, but his eyes did not even flutter. Taking another belt, this one made from some sort of woven cloth, he placed it just below the first belt and used the stick, twisting until it could not turn any further and then tied the loose ends of the belt to keep it secure.

He had sharpened the blade while the fire got good and hot and then stuck it into the flames until the metal turned almost white.
Lining up the blade, he brought it high above his head and then came down with all his might,

A scream echoed
through the castle.

***

“What were you thinking?” Mackenzie said with as much anger as Juan could ever remember hearing from her in the relatively short time that they’d gotten to know one another.

“Did you get the part about that kid pulling a gun on me?” Juan asked. He could not believe that this was even an issue.

“He was scared!”

“Trust me…you look down the barrel of a gun being poin
ted at you and scared doesn’t quite cover it.”

“But you said that you will be going back, right?”

“I will.”

Juan did not want to tell her about the gate having to be left open or the number of zombies he passed on his way to the boat. Hell, he was lucky he got out of there alive. As it was, he’d had to leave over half the stuff in the truck because he had attracted so much attention.

He paused for a moment and then sat down on the edge of the bed beside Mackenzie. Brushing the hair from her face, he took her chin in his hand and tilted her face up to his.

“I’m not one of the bad guys,” Juan insisted.

“I know that, you big idiot.” She leaned forward and kissed him. He did not miss the slight wince.

“You okay?” he asked with genuine and more than just a li
ttle concern.

“Just some cramps,” she said, waving him away. “It won’t last too long, but right now I just don’t feel great.”

Juan did his best to remain calm. He had no idea what a woman went through during the course of a miscarriage. He did know that, with doctors in short supply, they were facing a much more complicated situation when it came to what used to probably be considered “routine” medical issues.

“Now you just wipe that look off your face,” Mackenzie demanded. “I have already been checked by April and she comes over a few times a day to follow up on my condition.”

“Before I went on this last run, April and that other lady…what was her name?”

“Jeannie?” Mackenzie raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I think that was it. They were saying that we needed to make a hospital run or something. I think maybe that I will get a list from them.”

Mackenzie hated the idea of Juan leaving yet again. Still, she knew that he would not sit this out. He seemed to think that he had to do everything. The problem was, one by one, their original little group was thinning because they always seemed to be the ones making the runs off the island. Juan had defied the odds so far…but his luck only needed to fail once.

Juan’s thoughts were not too different from Mackenzie’s. In fact, he was determined that this would be his last trip off the island for a while. In fact, he did not see why he would ever have to leave again after this one. They had been taking steps to become self-sufficient. The fence was up and the lookout towers were in place. As he drifted off to sleep holding Mackenzie, he became more and more certain that he was ready to put an end to his days ‘in the field.’

When he awoke, Juan slipped out of bed, kissed Mackenzie on the forehead
, and started suiting up for what he hoped would be his last trip. After double and triple-checking his gear, he went outside. The air was actually a bit warm compared to what they had been seeing. Not only that, but as he looked west, the horizon seemed clear. The sun was already burning through the wispy fog that was clinging desperately to the ground.

He walked down the road until he came to the house he knew April called home. He did not even knock on the door b
efore it opened and he was looking down into the face of the woman he sought.

“Is Mackenzie okay?” April asked in a rush.

“Yeah…” Juan’s voice drew that word out and rose with uncertainty. “Shouldn’t she be?”

“
Of course, but—” April’s mouth shut so hard that her teeth clicked.

“But what?”

“Look, Juan, I’m not going to lie to you. With a miscarriage, there are so many things that could happen. But honestly, she seems fine and I have been over three or four times a day to check on her. Plus, a lot of the other gals stop in during the day, so she really hasn’t been alone. It’s just that, without being able to do things like ultrasounds or x-rays. We are going solely off of external cues.”

Juan scratched his face; the few days of growth were star
ting to itch. He wished he’d taken the time to shave, but he really just wanted to make this last trip and be done if that was at all possible.

“Look,” he said finally,
“I appreciate all that you are doing. I am getting ready to make a run and see if I can find you some medical stuff. So maybe you could make me a list?”

April pursed her lips for a moment. She seemed to be ready to say something about a dozen times. Juan was almost ready to give up. He figured he could just go to a hospital. He could just break in to the pharmacy and load everything he saw into a cart until it was full. That should do just fine.

“I’m going with you.”

Juan took a step back and shook his head. “I don’t think that is a good idea.”

“Look, Jeannie will check in on Mackenzie—” she started, but Juan cut her off.

“It ain’t about that. You have that EMT training…right?” April nodded. “Well it does not seem like a very good idea to drag you out there and put you at risk.”