Hamsikker 3 (13 page)

“Or zombies,” Lukas said.

“Huh? What’s that?” asked Jonas.

“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about something.”

“You ever been to these parts?” Jonas asked Julie. As they had some time before they reached Grand Portage, he figured he may as well try to find something out about their new friend. If she was from the area, she might be able to help. When they reached Thunder Bay, all Jonas had to go on was Janey’s address and a picture in his head. He hadn’t visited his sister before, and he would take any help he could get. “Were you stationed here, or…?”

“No, I grew up in Vermont and moved to Minneapolis with my parents when I was still a kid. I lost them soon after I joined up. Some idiot fell asleep behind the wheel of a semi. He took them out after they’d been out for a meal to celebrate their anniversary. The bank took the house, I lost my home, and I’ve made the army my family ever since. Sergeant Carlton took good care of me; took good care of all of us. My platoon respected him. We were doing some training exercises at the Reserve Center in Madison when we got the call. It didn’t take us long to get to Janesville. I never thought I’d be stuck there as long as I was though. Carlton never really adapted to the situation. He liked to control things. He was good at his job, and yet…

“So to answer your question before I went and side-tracked myself, no, I haven’t been to these parts. I always wanted to go to Canada. Never thought it would be under these circumstances.”

“I’m sorry about Carlton,” said Dakota. “I’m sure he was a good man.”

“He was. Before we lost everything, before we lost the platoon, the communication, our weapons, before any of that shit, he really was a good man. When we were trapped, though, in that awful fucking place in Janesville, he began to lose it. I’m sorry he died, but I’m not sorry I’m not with him anymore. He was driving me crazy. He needed to maintain control, keep the illusion going that his rank actually meant something. He still believed the army were coming to get us.”

“We all have to cling to hope,” said Jonas. “If you give up on that, what else is there?”

“Okay, okay, let’s not start getting sentimental,” said Lukas. “Sorry about Carlton, Julie, truly. Nobody wanted what happened to him, but Hamsikker is right. We’ve got something good here. Another hour or so, and we’ll be at the border. We gotta start thinking about the future now.”

“That’s the last obstacle in our way,” said Jonas with some trepidation. “The border.” He didn’t know what to expect. Maybe they could just drive on through. It wasn’t going to be manned anymore, and they certainly didn’t need their passports.

Lukas began to hum a tune quietly. “We’ll worry about it when we get there. For now, let’s just enjoy the view.”

The sub climbed higher, and the lake spread out before them, like a shimmering oasis in a desert of death. It was truly beautiful, and Jonas could understand why Janey had chosen to live up here. It was far away from their father and the bad memories that accompanied Louisville, yet if all she had wanted was distance, she could’ve gone anywhere. No, this part of the world was stunning, and even knowing that at either end of the road were probably hundreds of zombies, it still felt untouched. Watching the lake as they drove north affirmed Jonas’s mind that they were doing the right thing. Thunder Bay was going to be the perfect place to raise their child, and he would make it work. He was under no illusion that the impending winter was going to be hard, but it wasn’t as if they were moving to the depths of Siberia. Life went on up here no matter how cold it got. Life always found a way.

After a while of contemplation, Jonas noticed that they were slowing. The road itself was fine and in good repair, but there was a queue of cars all along the highway, and Lukas was lucky that there was nothing coming the other way. Signs began appearing indicating that there were major road works ahead, and Jonas hoped the road was still passable. Nearly all the doors of the stationary cars were open that they passed, suggesting the occupants had long gone. But north or south? If they had headed back to Duluth, then there shouldn’t be a problem. If they had gone north, then Jonas knew they might find the road blocked or a worksite teeming with zombies. Going back to find a different route would cost them hours.

“Castle danger,” said Lukas eyeing up a signpost smeared with what he assumed must be blood. “Sounds lovely.”

“You’d better take it easy,” said Jonas. The long line of cars was thick, bumper to bumper, and up ahead he could see a crane. As they drew closer, he could see the cause of the trouble. The right hand side of the road had been dug up, and a digger was parked up on the verge. Temporary traffic lights at either side had stopped the flow of traffic and reduced it to one lane opposite the hole in the ground. Jonas looked for any sign of zombies, but there was none. It was deathly quiet.

Lukas stopped the truck just ahead of a barrier and several cones that had fallen over. “I think we can get past,” he said. “Once we’re past this damn hole in the ground, the traffic is single file again. There’s a small gap between the barrier and that digger that I can just about squeeze through. If we can just pull the barrier out of the way, I can get us through.”

Jonas knew he was right. Two of them should be able to move it, and they would be on their way again in under a minute. “Okay, let’s go. Lukas, stay here and get ready to move the truck through when me and Julie have the barrier out of the way.”

“What should I do?” asked Dakota.

“Stay here. Keep an eye out for trouble, and let us know if you see anything.”

Jonas got out of the truck and went around to the back. Opening the back doors, he pulled a gun from one of the bags they had thrown in the day before. Bishop had left them plenty of food and water and a couple of extra round of ammo. Jonas didn’t want to go anywhere unarmed.

“That for me?” asked Julie.

Jonas passed her the gun. “Actually, it is. It’s fully loaded.”

“I can see that,” said Julie checking it over. “Not exactly what I’m used to, but it’ll do the trick. Thanks, but what about you?”

Jonas crossed over to the verge, and picked up a twisted piece of metal. “I’m not much good with those things. I prefer a blunt object over a gun any day. Something I can hold with both hands, and I know I’m not going to miss with.”

Julie smirked. “When we get across the border, I can give you some shooting practice if you like? I have a feeling we’re not going to be short of targets.”

“Sure. Dakota too. I want us both to know how to use a gun. Just in case.”

“Just in case.” Julie crossed to the verge where Jonas was standing. She looked out over the still lake. The air was cold, and it looked as if the clouds were growing darker. The lake was flanked by greenery, and the sound of the water lapping at the shore reminded her of better times. Vacations had been rare when she was younger, but her parents had made sure she could swim and invariably took her somewhere where there was at least a beach. “Sure is beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Cold, but beautiful,” agreed Jonas. “Let’s do this. Just watch your back. It looks quiet, but you can never be entirely sure.”

Together they waved at Lukas and Dakota, and then proceeded ahead on foot to the road works. Jonas kept one eye on the cars. Even though it looked like they were alone, he wasn’t sure. There were just so many cars, so many trees, that a zombie could be hiding anywhere. Jonas noticed a set of tracks in the grass leading around the work site. He followed them until they got lost down the bank, and then spied a couple of cars in the water. “Looks like someone tried to gun it and lost control.”

“Patience is a virtue,” said Julie. “I guess they had no choice. When it’s life or death you do crazy things.”

A vision of Cliff’s battered face sprang into Jonas’s head. “You sure do.”

As they neared the hole in the highway that had been dug and then abandoned, Jonas looked down into it. There was an exposed pipe, a pool of water, and a dead body. It was face down, and bloated. It wasn’t moving, and Jonas knew it wasn’t a zombie, just some unfortunate soul who had met his end out here on a lonely road. Even if it were a zombie, there was no way it could get out. The sides of the hole were nothing but dirt, and it wouldn’t be able to claw its way out no matter how much it tried.

“You ever think Janey might have left home, tried to make her way to you?” asked Julie.

“No, absolutely not. She has three young children. There’s no way she would try anything so stupid. No, she promised me she would stay put, and she wouldn’t change her mind. No, she’s there all right.”

“Cool. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t riding with someone who hadn’t at least considered all the possibilities. Good to know. This whole thing can make you blinkered. Carlton couldn’t see that things had changed. It cost him his life. I just need to know you and Dakota are on the level.”

“We’re good,” replied Jonas. He knew that Julie was worried about where they were going. It was only fair she question him. “Lukas too. He’s solid. I can tell he has a soft spot for you.”

“Lukas? Please, I hardly think so. I don’t think he’d know what to do with me if he got hold of me. Which, by the way,
isn’t
happening. I have no intention of hooking up with anyone. There’s far too much to do before I start thinking about that shit.”

As they approached the barrier that had been left across the road they paused. There was a large dark tarpaulin spread out over the road, and it crunched as they walked across it. Jonas noticed it was anchored down in two corners by some rubble, and in another by a tire. It flapped very gently as the wind began to pick up. There was some bad weather coming in, and Jonas wanted to be safely in Thunder Bay before it hit.

“Come on, Julie, cut him some slack. Why shouldn’t he be interested in you? You’re a good-looking woman. He’s a good guy. Never say never.” Jonas looked at Julie, and he could tell she was flattered. He could also tell from her face that she was serious about not getting involved with anyone. Her military training hadn’t left her yet, and she was still planning, thinking ahead.

“Let’s just get this thing moved, shall we? I think my love life can wait for another day,” said Julie, smiling.

“You grab hold of the barrier, I’ll get the other end. We can move it together,” said Jonas. “Let’s just get out of here.”

They began walking over the tarpaulin, and Jonas wondered why it had been spread out over the road like that. Perhaps to cover a fatality? Perhaps in their haste to get away, someone had died here, run over or crushed by the cars. There was no sign of the police, nor any ambulance or fire trucks.

From the other side of the barrier, suddenly a zombie approached. It came running from behind a parked car, and the very ground seemed to tremble as it ran toward them. An obese man, rolls of fat still clinging to his dead body and jiggling around like jelly, thundered toward them. Pudgy fingers extended from huge arms where swathes of fat like wings swung, making it look like the man was trying to take off as he ran. Sores and boils ran down the man’s legs, and stretch marks coursed his belly. Jonas assumed that somewhere underneath the man’s belly fat was a pair of boxers, but either they had perished or were just hidden well.

“Jesus Christ,” said Julie. “You’d think being dead you’d lose a few pounds.”

Jonas knew it was dangerous to take on such a formidable zombie. One blow might not be enough to take it down, and if it landed on top of him, it would be a struggle to get out from underneath. He also didn’t want Julie to go shooting the place up in case it alerted others to their presence. Where there was one, there was usually more.

“Hold up,” said Julie taking aim, “I’ll get it.” She wanted to make sure she got a clean head shot, and walked forward over the tarp, letting the obese dead man get closer, waiting for the perfect moment to kill him.

“Okay, but hurry up. I don’t like this.” Jonas walked across to the barrier, and as he did so, he thought he felt the tarpaulin slide under his feet. It just slipped a couple of inches, but it was enough to make him concerned. He didn’t want Julie falling on her ass just as she was about to shoot.

Julie watched the zombie come at her, bouncing off the vehicles, until it was finally in view, and she was staring straight down the barrel at it.

Jonas grabbed one end of the barrier, and when he put his hands on it, they came away wet. It hadn’t been raining, and the ground was still dry, so why was the barrier wet? Jonas looked at his hands. They were covered in blood. The tarpaulin abruptly shifted beneath his feet again, slipping another couple of inches. Something strange was happening. It couldn’t be moving of its own accord. He and Julie were standing still, so what was dragging it, and to where? Jonas took a step back and looked at the barrier. In bright red blood, words were painted on the rear. The writing wasn’t visible from the truck, and it had obviously been put there on purpose. When he read those three simple words, Jonas felt like a sledgehammer hit him in the side of the head.

“Three, two, one…” Julie breathed in and lined up the zombie. It planted one foot on the tarpaulin, and she squeezed the trigger.

“Julie, wait!”

The tarpaulin was whipped out from beneath his feet, and Jonas was thrown forward. He tried to grab the barrier for support, but it fell with him, and he was pulled back with the moving ground. He heard the gun go off, but as he fell, he had no idea if Julie had hit her target. She screamed, and then Jonas found himself falling. Somehow the tarp had been set up over another hole, concealing it from view, and they had walked right on top of it. He saw the sky above him as he twisted and turned, and he caught a glimpse of Julie a few feet behind him. He thought he saw the body of the obese zombie fall, too, but he wasn’t sure. It was all so quick.