DEAD: Darkness Before Dawn (14 page)

“
First light,” Mel conceded.

None of them slept well that night. It was only made worse when there was a series of horrific shrieks and screams that pierced the darkness. From inside the treehouse, it was imposs
ible to be certain, but Mel was willing to bet they had come from the direction of that duplex development.

Well before dawn, Mel threw off the covers and climbed out of the sleeping bag. She began going through all of her gear, checking the blades for sharpness, ensuring that all of her bin
dings on her body armor were secure. When she finished with hers, she started on Kyle’s and then Glenn’s.

By the time the men began to stir, Mel
was dressed and ready. That meant that they both had to listen to her as she complained about their lack of speed. Finally, it became too much for Kyle.

“
Enough!” he snapped with uncharacteristic anger. “In case you forgot…that is my son out there as well! You aren’t the only person feeling the pain and the loss. And if you don’t think it is tearing up Glenn and Cynthia, then you need to step out of your shell and take a look around.”

There was a
long silence. Mel scanned the faces. Only Kyle was actually looking at her. Glenn was busy studying something on the sleeve of his jacket and Cynthia was inspecting the bandage on her leg with a great deal of intensity.

“
I just…” Mel’s voice grew weak and strangled.

“
Darling, we all know,” Kyle’s voice was back to that soft-spoken and gentle tone that he was better known for, “and we will not stop until we find him.”

“
She can’t have gone far,” Glenn offered helpfully.

The foursome came together around Cynthia (since she still could not walk that well) and hugged each other for a moment. Mel tried her best to scale back her emotions, but in the end, she simply came to the conclusion that she would have to mask them when she was around the others.

Ten minutes later, Mel, Kyle, and Glenn climbed down once more, but this time they had a target in mind. Nothing was said as they biked down the cracked and sand-obscured road. When they reached the entrance of the little development, they were greeted by four bodies hanging from light poles. Each one was low enough that the undead had been able to reach them. Their lower halves had been torn away and now, four zombies looked down from their nooses, mouths moving, but not a single sound issuing forth.

Pushing the bicycles over beside the sign welcoming them to
“Rim Village” that was made to look like the reddish rock prevalent in the area, they drew their weapons and ventured forth.

The lush yards were now as brown and dead as everything else in
this region. The only plants still flourishing were cacti of varying sizes and shapes. Each of the homes was a reddish stucco exterior that was probably supposed to give a Southwest feel, but now just looked bland and unremarkable.

Decomposing bodies littered the roads and a few of the homes showed signs of having come under siege by scores of the undead. Broken glass and dark stains were the norm. It did not change as they ventured down one cul-de-sac after another.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Mel finally exclaimed; her exasperation almost bringing her to tears.

“
I was wondering why they had not gone through the trouble of even making the slightest attempt at barricading this place. If somebody is here, you would think they would go through the trouble of putting up at least something to keep the undead at bay,” Kyle said after a long drink from his canteen.

It was not
so much that it was hot, but with all of the protective gear they wore, the sixty or seventy degree temperature coupled with an absolutely clear sky that allowed the sun to shine down on them without any hindrance, and they were starting to get a bit sweaty. They reached a dead end that had a crumbling barricade in place. A large field unscrolled before them.

After the second passing around of the canteen, Kyle paused before giving it over to M
el who was staring intently back at the development as if she thought a sign might materialize and direct them exactly where to go.

“
You see that cluster of trees way over there?” Kyle asked as he climbed up on the concrete base that made up part of the barricade at the end of the circular cul-de-sac.

“
Uh-huh,” Glenn muttered absent-mindedly. His thoughts were back with Cynthia. He hated that they were spending so much time away from her. If this woman meant them any harm, she would be alone and, while not actually defenseless, certainly much more vulnerable.

“
Is that a house?” Kyle shaded his eyes.

The other two continued as if he had not spoken. That was a problem Kyle had dealt with all his life. Because of his size, he had always been self-conscious about coming across too strong. His voice was one thing he could control and he had spent years developing his soft-spoken nature. Sometimes that became a de
triment as people learned to tune him out.

“
Hey!” he snapped, causing the pair to jump. “I said…” he pointed, “…is that a house just on the other side of those trees?”

Mel and Glenn climbed up with Kyle to get a better look. There was almost no wind, but a slight ripple in the branches allowed very brief glimpses at what may be a building just b
eyond.

Scanning the area, there was no way to approach that grove without crossing at least a quarter of a mile of open terrain that was nothing more than dirt and weeds that were
sprouting through last year’s growth which had withered and turned brown.

“
What are we waiting for?” Glenn said as he hopped down and started across the open field.

***

Chad had managed to rip off a piece of his shirt and fashion a makeshift pressure bandage by using his belt to keep the strip of folded over cloth in place. Next, he looked over his daughter. She was abnormally pale. If he was a bit light headed from his blood loss, then she was exponentially worse.

Once again he examined her injuries. She had done an amazing job of using some sort of glue and then staples to close her wounds. He still did not understand what had possessed her to flay herself in that manner to begin with.

As the day wore on, Chad began to feel frantic. Yes, they had at least a little food, but they had absolutely no water. The human body could endure for much greater periods lacking the former versus the latter. If his memory served, three days was about as far as they could hope to last. He figured that was likely much less considering their situation.

For perhaps the hundredth time in the past few hours he looked down at the gathered horde waiting at the base of their large rock sanctuary. He was not surprised to see the number had grown. And worse, a few more were just now stumbling through the brush to join their brethren.

Chad lay back down next to his daughter and stared up at the sky. A few fluffy clouds scudded past. If not for one very specific aspect of things, this could be considered a perfect day.

His mind drifted to the days he had spent dreaming of being able to spend some time with his daughter. He imagined walks at the park where they would discuss a boyfriend or perhaps (and preferably, of course) homework problems.

He recalled one dream in particular. In it his daughter sat down at a table with him and simply said the three words he longed to hear.

“I forgive you.”

He had been absent for a good portion of her life. In that time, she had grown up knowing that her father was in prison; whether she knew the reasons or not…or if she had any idea of the whole story…all of that was irrelevant. The reality was that he was not there when she came home with her first skinned knee. He had missed her first school program, and all the ones that followed. All the times she took ill and needed somebody there to bring her soup…he had been gone.

He had missed her entire life. And now, with the world in chaos, the unthinkable occurring, he was trying
desperately to connect with her. He had failed—at least in his eyes—at every single turn. He had not been able to protect her mother, and so Ronni had been forced to watch the only stable part of her life torn apart before her very eyes.

His mind scoured everything that had happened since this nightmare had begun. All he saw was one mistake after another on his part. At every opportunity, it seemed that he simply put them in greater danger.

Well, he was not going to let her die. Not here. Not now. He had known when he set out to find her that he would give his life for hers without a second thought.

He scooted to the edge and stared down at the zombies. With his machete, he was still about a half a foot away from b
eing able to reach them. An idea formed and he set to work.

A short time later, he had used some of his line to securely fasten his knives to one another. Next, he attached them to his machete which he would be able to grip with both hands. Before pu
tting it to use, he made a few practice jabs at the rock. It held and seemed to be just fine.

He scooted to t
he edge and stabbed down at one of the upturned faces. There was a crunch and the point of the knife at the end plunged into the forehead. Pulling up sharply in order to hopefully keep the blade from catching, Chad could not restrain himself from letting out a little whoop.

One by one he stabbed down. After about twenty minutes, he looked up and felt his heart sink. It did not look as if he had made so much as a dent in their numbers. More were continuing to file in. Not only that, but he was creating a
pile of corpses on the ground that those still mobile could easily stand on. His mind flashed on an image of the zombies rising like water in a sink until they eventually could reach out and snatch him and Ronni from the rock.

Flopping down, he did his best not to scream or curse. That would do neither of them any good. He tried to block out the sounds of the moans and baby cries below. He needed to clear his head if he was going to have any chance of coming up with a decent solution.

One by one, ideas came. And each time he dismissed them as either totally unrealistic, or simply too risky. He looked down at his daughter again and took a moment to try and appreciate that he was with her at this particular point in time. He tried to tell himself to be thankful that she had not perished back at that house before he had been able to rush in and save her.

That thought made him laugh
bitterly. He had not saved her; he had simply postponed her death and perhaps given her a moment of false hope where she believed that her father would save the day. A new wave of self-pity came on strong.

***

“You sure about this?” Danny grunted as he tied off the piece of fishing line to the fence post.

“Nope,” Jody said as he gave the line a thrum with one fi
nger. “But I saw something like it in a movie once and it worked great!”

Danny muttered something indecipherable as he shook his head and stepped back to give their work a quick look before falling back. This was probably the least deadly of the traps that they had set for the approaching invaders that they expected any minute now.

Jody wiped the sweat from his eyes as he eased the jack out from the derelict vehicle that had been abandoned beside the highway for who knows how many months. It was what was now under the car that he had been working so hard to set up properly.

One of the beauties
of being surrounded by farms for as far as the eye could see was the abundance of fertilizer. The back of the car was filled with scrap metal and two boxes of ball bearings that Old Man Joe had mysteriously kept in his basement.

“How big of an explosion
do you think you’re gonna make with that baby?” Danny asked as he and Jody retreated into the town proper.

“Well, I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but I think the blast radius will be a solid five hundred feet.” Jody paused and looked back to the wes
t. “You sure you saw them loading up and getting ready to roll out?”

“I know a deployment when I see it.”

The two made their way back to the parking lot in front of what had once been the post office and was now the armory. George was already handing out weapons and ammo to the men gathered around.

“All set?” Jody called as the pair walked up.

“As much as we can be,” George admitted. “I still don’t know how you expect this to work.”

“Well…first off, I am not absolutely certain that Pitts i
ntends to attack. He may be coming peacefully,” Jody said as he gave his Mossberg .30-06 a quick check. “The reality is that he might want nothing more than to check us out and make sure that we don’t mean him or his group any harm.”

Danny made a snorting cough sound and rolled his eyes. “That dude was a jerk. I was never happier to see somebody go AWOL
in my life. He once gave me a whole month of extra duty for being a few minutes late for watch.”

“You were three hours late for a four hour watch,” Jody scoffed.