Generation Dead (Book 3): Beyond The Gates (16 page)

Chapter 38

We got back into the Jeep and Mark pointed us to a small house set a little ways back into the trees.  A young woman came out onto the porch, and when she saw me she went back inside.  An older man followed her back outside, and it was to her that Mark spoke.

“Doc, these folks helped us out with the outbreak, but one of them was hurt earlier this morning.  Can you look at him?” Mark said.

The doctor, a man probably around sixty, nodded and waved me up to his house.  “Of course, young man.  Of course.  Glad to help.  How in the world did you manage to get shot?” He looked at the wound. “More importantly, how did you survive?”

I followed the doctor into his home, and we immediately turned left into an examination room.  The place was well stocked, with a sink, an examination table, and a wall of jars filled with herbs and roots.

“I’m Doctor Harris, by the way, but they all just call me Doc.  Theresa, hand me a flashlight, will you? This is Theresa, my granddaughter, by the way.” Doctor Harris slowly removed the bandanna I had been using as a bandage, tsk-tsking all the way.

“You’ve been extremely lucky so far, young man.  Let me see if there has been any other damage.”  Doctor Harris’s hands moved quickly and surely over the wound, putting slight pressure here and there. He nodded and went over to the wall of herbs, selecting a jar. Dropping some of the leaves in a mortar, he sprinkled in a bit of another herb and added some water.  Scraping the paste into a small jar, he handed it to Julia, along with a bandage.

“Your hair will never be the same, but I’m going to do the best I can to make sure you don’t have too bad of a scar. Would you like a sedative?” Doc asked.

I was slightly stunned at the matter-of-fact way the doctor had, but I had to admit, things were different these days. I also had to admit that I would never take a sedative with Jake watching.

“Stitch me up, doc.  I’m late for dinner,” I said.

Doctor Harris smiled.  “I’ll do what I can.”

During the procedure, the doctor kept my mind occupied by asking me about my travels, and what brought me to my current state.  When I described the events in Victor, he sat back for a moment. 

“I had heard rumors of something like that happening over the mountains.  Didn’t want to believe them to be true,” Doc said.  He looked up again, and speaking more to himself than me, said, “If that’s what happened, please let them have gone quickly.”

“What?” I asked, thinking he had spoken to me.

Doc shook himself, then his shoulders slumped a little. “My son and his wife went north to see if they could find a little place of their own, maybe start a ranch for horses or something.  I kept my granddaughter here, thinking it was just for a few nights.  Never thought it would have been fifteen years.”  He shook his head.  “Now that you tell me this, I’m grateful I kept her back. God knows what they would have done to her.”

I winced as the needle went in again. “Glad to have helped.”

I finished up at the Doctor’s, and sporting a new bandage, met back up with Jake and the girls.  They had been talking with Theresa, and it was clear she had been told about Victor. 

Theresa held my hand for a minute. “Thank you for stopping those horrible people.  We wondered what happened up there, but no one ever knew.”

I nodded acceptance and thanked the doctor once again for his help.  He waved me off, and told Julia to get that paste on my head before I went to sleep tonight.  She assured him that I wouldn’t sleep until I was wearing it, and none of us thought to argue the point.

We picked up Mark again, and he guided us through the small town of Irwin. It was a thriving community, with several hundred people, all living in a small bowl in the mountains.  They were safe, mostly, and had access to two roads in case of need.  The river also provided a small measure of power, thanks to a hydroelectric plant on the southern end of the valley. Water was not a problem, and the zombies today were the first they had seen in years. 

“Truth is I’m glad to see you, in more ways than one,” Mark said as he brought us to a small, single story home right off the highway. “It’s nice to know we’re not the only ones left, that there is life out there if we want to go to it.”

Jake replied. “You have a nice set-up here, Mark; why would you want to leave?”

“Why did you leave your nice home, Jake?” Mark said shrewdly, correctly guessing at Jake’s character.

“Point made,” Jake said.  “But hasn’t anyone else left before?”

Mark nodded.  “Yep. And no one has ever come back.  Weird, ain’t it?  And then we had that body on the north end, basically telling us to stay put.”

“What body?” I asked.

“About a year ago we found a body on the other side of the river.  Dressed in what looked like black pajamas; the poor man had been shot in the back.  Whatever hit him blew out his chest and ended his career, pronto,” Mark said.

We all looked at each other.  Julia recovered first.

“Was he carrying anything? Numbers on a piece of paper, maybe?” she asked.

Mark shook his head.  “Didn’t find anything like that.  Like I said.  It was a while ago, and we all took it as a sign we shouldn’t go that way.”  He shook our hands before he left. “Head on down to the Rendezvous when you’re ready.  I’ll tell them you’re coming, and we can talk again.”  Without another word, he walked away from the house, heading back into the town proper.

The house was thinly decorated, but it had decent beds.  I lay down on one while Julia put some paste on my head.  The paste was cool, and smelled a little minty.  My wound, which had been throbbing, suddenly calmed down and didn’t hurt anymore.  Whatever the doc had mixed up, it was working.

Chapter 39

After an hour, we all walked down to the café called the Rendezvous. It was a nice, comfortable place that served simple meals. We ate a nice meal of grilled chicken, and when Mark didn’t show, we headed back to the house. Jake was the first to see the signs of something not being right.

“Aaron? Did you go back to the Jeep before we left?” he asked.

“Nope,” I said, heading over to the vehicle.

“I’ll check the house,” Jake said.

I went over the Jeep and looked it over.  The doors were still locked, and there wasn’t any sign of someone trying to pick them.  The back of the Jeep was the giveaway, though.  The spare tire was not fully put back against the vehicle, leaving about an inch gap from where it was to where it should have been.  I looked down into the dirt and with my flashlight saw a set of footprints that didn’t match any of ours.

I went back into the house, and Jake was waiting in the kitchen with Kayla and Julia.

“Someone went through our packs,” Jake said.  He held up a hand before I could protest.  “Nothing was taken, but things are not exactly as they were before.”  Jake looked at me. “What do you want to do?”

I shrugged.  “Let’s go camping, this house seems to be attracting vermin.”

“Agreed.”

We packed up and started the Jeep, heading north on the highway to the far end of the valley.  We kept our lights off, and the black exterior helped us blend into the night.  I didn’t know what Mark Loving was doing, and I certainly didn’t want to sleep in a place he had picked out for us, especially if he was looking to rob us, or worse.  Of course, he could be completely innocent, but I wasn’t going to chance it.

We eased our way up to the edge of the river, stopping when we reached the bridge.  The water moved underneath us at a steady clip, providing a decent barrier from the zombies.  Jake pulled the Jeep off the main road and onto a small side road. There was a worn path that led almost to the river’s edge, and we went down there out of sight.  Anyone looking for us would have a bit of a time finding us, and we’d hear them before they came close.

Jake and Kayla elected to sleep outside, grabbing their blankets and ground rolls.  Julia and I decided on staying with the Jeep, as my head was feeling the effects of the recent injuries.  Julia applied some more of the salve, and I settled into a night’s sleep, the river singing a constant lullaby.

In the morning, Jake woke me up with a tap on the window.  I was instantly fully awake, a trait that I must have inherited from my father.  He was always able to go from sound sleep to high alert in a second.

I looked around and saw that the girls were down by the river, washing the sleep from their faces.  I got out and stretched, working the kinks earned from sleeping in a seated position.

“Anything happen in the night?” I asked Jake, heading down towards the river.

“Heard some vehicles moving around, but that could be anything.” Jake said. 

“Think they were looking for us?” I asked, taking a small bucket and washcloth from my wife, giving her a wink in thanks.

“I know they were,” Jake said.

That wasn’t what he implied earlier.  “How’s that?” I asked, filling my bucket and washing my face with freezing mountain water.  A bath in that river would get you hypothermia pretty damned quick.

“Before I went to sleep I went back to the entrance to the road we took down here.  Being just dirt, it would have led them right to us.  But I wiped out the tracks, and we were able to sleep without trouble,” Jake said.

“Did you see them looking around that area?” I asked.

“Yep.  They came right to the bridge, turned, went back to the side road, then left. Seemed a little put out, too,” Jake said.

“I’ll bet. How many were there?” I asked.

“Just the one.  Why?”

“My thought is Mark is acting alone or with another.  This isn’t a town thing.˝ I said.

“How do you want to handle it?” Kayla asked.

I thought for a minute.  “Let’s leave it.  Right now we have the good will of the town, having helped them through a tough spot.  I’d like to be able to go back through this area without worrying about taking a shot.  As far as everyone is concerned, we just decided to move on.  No trouble to them.  If we blast back into the town accusing their leader of stuff we can’t prove, then that good will is gone.”

Everyone ruminated on that for a second before nodding.  It seemed like the best plan, and we didn’t need anything from this place, anyway. 

Julia came up to me and checked my wound.  “If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d not have believed it. Look!” I went over to the Jeep and checked my head in the mirror.  My wound looked like it had been healing for weeks, not just a day.  The stitches had sealed nicely, and the area was pink and healing.  “I’ll be damned.  Too bad we didn’t ask what it was he put in that salve.”

“When we come back through, we will,” Jake said.  “For now, let’s get ourselves across the river and moving on.”

Our path took us through the valley, with the river on our right.  The view was great, but occasionally we could see the small figure in the distance, shambling alone or in small groups.  As we passed, they inevitably turned to follow, hoping we might have some sort of wipeout that would leave us helpless and vulnerable.  Alas for zombie daydreams.

Chapter 40

As we drove by, South Fork Lodge looked like it might have been a nice place to visit, but with zombies wandering around freely, there wasn’t anything there to hold our attention.

On all sides, the mountains rose to the clouds, and we never seemed to be getting nearer, until suddenly we were in them.  It was a disconcerting feeling knowing that these things were so huge.

After a good hour of driving, we started to see signs of another town.  Side roads and signs told us we were passing the town of Ririe.  As it was, the area was flat and empty, with the river being to the north of us.  My guess was Ririe was not a place left for the living.  However, I was not above checking the nearby gas station for supplies.

Jake pulled in, and we all tumbled out of the Jeep.  The morning sun felt good on our faces, and I took that moment to give Julia a good morning kiss that I had neglected earlier.  She returned the favor, and then she and Kayla sauntered off to see what they might find. Jake and I went to the gas supply and were happy to see that one of the tanks still had some gas in it.  We siphoned out about five gallons, and were working on our second five, when there was a loud crash that came out of the gas station.

Jake and I dropped what we were doing and ran in that direction, each of us pulling our pistols.

“Julia! Kayla! You okay?” I yelled, pulling the door wide enough for Jake to run through.  I was right behind him, and we quickly scanned the gas station. The place had been thoroughly looted, so much so that the shelves that used to hold the supplies were gone.  The only thing left was a bunch of advertising papers littering the floor.

“Here!” Julia yelled from the back room.  “We’re fine!”

Jake and I wandered back to the room, holstering our weapons.  In the back room, which was dimly lit by a skylight, was Julia.  Kayla was over by a door, standing on a shelving unit that had been pushed over, working on picking the lock.  When she heard us she straightened up.

“Oh, hey, baby.  Can you get this for me?” Kayla asked Jake.

Jake shot me a look, and I just shrugged.  For once it wasn’t my fault. 

“What happened?” I asked Julia. “Did you two make this mess?”

Julia smiled shyly.  “We did.  We were looking for any sort of supplies, when I noticed a doorknob right above a shelf.  It seemed weird, but when we looked behind the shelves there was a door.  We shoved the shelves over, and when we found the door still locked, we thought there might be something inside.”

That made sense.  I probably would have done the same. I told Jake that Julia and I would finish with the gas while he and Kayla figured this mystery out.  Jake just grunted a reply, still trying to get into the room.

Outside, Julia and I took a moment to look around, breathing in the mountain air in the morning.  A gentle wind shifted the grass around us, and we listened while grasshoppers clicked in the grass.

It was Julia who noticed it first. 

“Aaron?”

I looked over at her, wondering for the millionth time how I ever got so lucky in marrying her.  “Yeah?”

“Do grasshoppers click?”

“Well, sometimes they do,” I said.  Then it hit me.

“Aw, hell.”