Dead Life (Book 3) (12 page)

              “My name's Steve and this is Al.  In the truck over there is Cindy and Rick.  That's Gina sitting in the Hummer.”  Gina waved at the man.

              “My name is Calvin.  People mostly call me Cal though.”

              I reached out and shook his hand.  “It's nice to meet you, Cal.”

              “You folks can come up to the house if you want to.  We're kind of crowded with my bother's family staying with us but I imagine we could make room.”

              “No thanks Cal.  We don't want to disturb your family any more than we already have.  If you don't mind, we'll just stay here.”

              “If that's the way you want it.  You all come up to the house in the morning.  We'll see about getting you some breakfast.”

              “Thank you.  That would be real nice.  I guess we'll see you in the morning.”

              With that, Cal turned and walked back to the house.  Al gave me a dirty look and stood shaking his head.

              “What?”

              “You try sleeping in the back of that truck.  It's hotter than hell back there.  I might have liked to sleep in a bed tonight.”

              “Well, go catch him if you want.”

              “Good night.”

              Al turned and went back to the truck.  I got in the Hummer, kissed Gina, and drifted back to sleep.  I wasn't hot at all.  Both windows were open halfway and there was kind of a nice breeze.  Tough shit, Al.

              I woke the next morning to the sounds of laughing children.  Sitting up, I looked down the long drive leading to the house.  A group of children were playing in the yard surrounding the house.  There were kids running around everywhere chasing dogs, being chased by dogs, and rolling on the ground with dogs.

              “Kind of sweet, isn't it?”  I heard Gina say.

              “Good morning honey.  How did you sleep?”

              “I slept well enough.  How about you?”

              “I slept like a rock.”

              “How many kids does that guy have?  Looks like there's enough for a football team; offense and defense.”  Gina said with a smile.

              “That is a hell of a lot of kids.  The guy's name is Calvin.  He did say his brother and his kids were also here.  That's still a lot of kids even for two families.”

              “Are we taking him up on his offer for breakfast?”

              “I don't know.  Let's go see what the others want to do.”

              We went over to the truck.  The lift gate was locked from inside so I knocked on the door.  I stood waiting for a minute then beat on the lift gate a little harder.  I could hear movement inside and the back of the truck flew open.  Al was standing at the back of the truck in his long underwear glaring down at me.

              “Jesus Christ.  I heard you the first time.  Have you ever heard the song 'If the van is a rockin, don't bother knockin?'”

              “Yes I have and I think it goes 'don't come a knockin.'”

              “Whatever you say.”  Al stood there looking around.  His gaze finally came back to Gina and me.  “What?”

              “You getting ready to put up a tent?”  Gina asked.

              Al looked down.  “Oh.  Yeah.  You want to come help me?”

              I started laughing.  Gina slapped me on the shoulder and said, “Why don't you go give him a “hand” with that.”

              Al howled.  “That was a good one Gina.  I'll be down in a minute.”  He closed the back of the truck.  Gina and I went to the cab of the U-Haul to check on Rick.  I climbed up on the running board and looked in.  Rick wasn't there.  I stepped down and looked around.

              “Rick's not in there.”

              “Here I am.”  Rick was coming towards us from the small stand of trees by the drive.  “Good morning.”

              “How did you sleep?”

              “I slept fine until a while ago.  Those two have been going at it for the past hour.  How old is Al anyway?”

              “Believe me, he's not that old.”  It was Cindy.  She and Al came walking around the back of the truck.

              “Still sporting some wood big fella.”

              “You need to quit looking at my crotch little girl.”  Al pulled his shirt out so it covered the front of his pants.

              “I'd have to agree with Al on that.”  I said.

              Gina turned around and walked back to the Hummer.  “Let's go get some breakfast before you poke someone's eye out.”

              We drove down to the house.  As we pulled up, our vehicles were surrounded by kids and dogs.  Calvin came out of the house and introduced us to the kids.  There were fifteen in all. By the time he was done, I could only remember two of the names; Stevie and Cindy.  Go figure.  We went inside and met Cal's wife; Lisa, his brother; Dillon, and Dillon's wife; Chris.

              “The kids already ate.”  Cal looked around the kitchen.  “So you need to get your little butts outside.”  They all filed silently out of the room except for the littlest girl, Cindy.

              “Daddy, I'm still hungry.”

              “Well, then you'd better come on over here and get some more pancakes, sweetie.”

              She went with Calvin to the table, climbed up on a chair, and he got her plate ready.  “Come on over and have a seat.”

              We all went over to the table, sat down, and filled our plates with pancakes.  The breakfast was great.  The conversation was even better.  At first, we all talked about normal things like our everyday lives before the outbreak.  Calvin and his brother had inherited the farm from their father.  Dillon lived in town with his family.  The brothers worked the land together.  They had decided that Calvin would live in the farm house.  Dillon bought a house nearby and came out every day and worked with Calvin.  Together they were able to make a decent living from the farm.  Which, from what Calvin said, was a great accomplishment in these times.  Finally, talk turned to the apocalypse.

              They were out cutting hay when news broke about the virus.  Lisa rushed out to the fields to tell the brothers of the news reports.  After listening to what she had to say, Dillon hurried home, gathered up his wife and kids, and returned to the farm.  The families decided they would ride out the infection there.  They soon realized things were worse than they originally thought.  Trying to make a run for it would be too difficult with so many children.  Their only option was to stay.  They boarded up the windows, did the best they could at reinforcing the doors, and 'hunkered down' to wait it out.  Over the past few days, they'd seen a few 'zeds' and had only had one run-in with their neighbor.

              We told them our story.  I think this was when they realized exactly how bad things were.  Al invited them to come with us.  They declined his offer.  Both Calvin and Dillon felt the same.  Moving the children would be too hard and they were dead set against leaving the farm behind.  Al told them about our encounter at Les' place and advised them to leave as soon as possible.  He said they were too close to the highway and eventually they would have zombies at their doorstep.  Calvin said he had thought about leaving but really had no idea where they could go.  We told them again they could come with us.  And again, they declined. 

              “Steve, we should get going.  We can talk all day.  Calvin wants to stay here.  We need to respect that.”  Gina said.

              “Yeah, we do need to get on the road.  Thanks for letting us camp here last night.  Lisa, breakfast was great.  Calvin, you have a fine family.”  Al said.  “Let's saddle up.”

              We said our goodbyes and headed out.  Al took the lead and we back tracked to the highway.  The first two miles were clear but then we came to another huge pile-up on the highway.  Al's voice came over over the radio.

              “Shit.  We're going to have to turn around.  Gina get your map out.  Find us a way around this.  Over.”

              Gina looked at the map while we got turned around.  “We'll have to go back by Calvin's farm.  There's a way around but it's going to take us at least twenty miles of extra driving to get around this.  Over.”

              “Alright kid.  Let's do it.”

              “You didn't say over.  Over.”

              We were driving past Calvin's farm headed back to the exit from the highway.  “There's something going on at Cal's place.”  Gina said to me.

              I looked over at his place and could see the zombies surrounding the house.  “Hand me the radio.”

              “Al, you see that?”

              “Yeah, looks like they're fucked.  I can't take the truck off the road.  I'd never make it.  You want to try with the Hummer?”

              I looked at Gina and she gave me the go ahead.  “We're going.”

              “Don't do anything stupid.  We'll be there in five minutes.”

              I put the radio on the dash, stopped the Hummer, and put it into four wheel drive.  We bounced across the ditch running between the highway and the service road.  Gina and I both hit our heads on the roof of the Hummer. I stopped at the top of their driveway.  We both had our Bushmaster.223 in the front seat with us.  In the back were four fully automatic assault rifles that Al had put in the Hummer.  Each had a thirty round magazine and there was a ruck sack full of extra magazines also.  We went around to the back of the Hummer and got the rifles and extra magazines and brought them up front.  We started back down the driveway in an attempt to get the Hummer closer.  I stopped about a hundred yards from the house.  As I stepped out of the Hummer, Calvin's door crashed in and the zombies flooded through the doorway.

              I heard shotgun blasts from inside the house.  Gina and I opened fire at the same time.  We were able to put down all the zombies outside of the house.  Unfortunately, there weren't that many zombies left outside.  Most had made their way into the house when the front door burst in.  The shooting from inside the house had stopped.  That wasn't a good sign.  There were around fifteen dead zombies scattered around the front of the house.  At least twenty more had made it in.  I heard sounds from the radio coming from inside the Hummer.  Gina went to her door and got the radio.

              “You need to repeat that.  Over.”

              “We'll be there in a few minutes.  There's a horde of zombies headed your way.  Careful, Al.  We're driving through them now.”  It was Cindy on the radio.  “Goddammit Al.  Just get us there.  We can run some more down on the way back.”  We could hear her talking to Al.  She must have still had the button on the radio down.  “Stop it.  Don't grab the wheel.”  That was Al.  “We need to get there.  Stop swerving around.”

              Gina put the radio back on the dash of the Hummer.  “Are we going in?”

              “No.  Al will be here in a second.”

              “What the hell did we drive across the median for?  We still might be able to save some of them.”

              “Okay, I'll go in.  You stay out here and watch the door.”

              “You're not going in there alone.”

              “You're right.  I'm not.  Here comes Al.”

              “That's bullshit.  I'm capable of going in there.”  Gina said.

              “Yes, you are.  But do you want to see those little kids all chewed up?  Worse yet, do you think you can shoot them when they turn into zombies?”

              “You win.  Go in with Al.”

              The U-Haul pulled up and Al, Cindy, and Rick joined us.  “You been in yet?”  Al asked.

              “Not yet.”

              Al started for the door.  “We only have a few minutes.  There's a horde headed this way.”

              “At least twenty made it in before we could get to them.”  I said as I followed Al.  “That and whoever has been turned already.”

              “Watch the road.”  Al shouted back to Rick and the girls.  “We'll be out in a few minutes.”

              Al went in first and I followed behind him.  Calvin was down on the ground.  Lisa was next to him.  Three zombies were busy eating Cal.  Lisa had two on her.  Al opened fire on the zombies.  The five went down falling onto the bodies of Cal and Lisa.  Two zombies came out of the kitchen area.  Both were covered in blood.  That meant someone was most likely dead in there.  I shot both of them and went for the kitchen.  Al stood over the bodies of Cal and Lisa.  He shot each in the head.  I went into the kitchen and found Chris' body there.  Two zombies were in the process of eating her.  One looked up at me.  His hands were full of Chris' entrails.  He had his mouth full and when he saw me, he started to stand up.  Her intestines ran out of his mouth.  When I shot him in the forehead, he flew back.  His hands came up and parts of Chris flew all over me.  Fortunately, none got in my eyes or mouth.  I shot the other zombie that was still chewing on Chris' legs.  I grabbed the kitchen towel and wiped my face.  Even though I hated to do it, I followed Al's lead and shot Chris in the head.