Slow Burn: A Zombie Novel (52 page)

“
How’ve you been making out?” Stephen asked.

“
I’m famished, friend,” Casper replied. “Could ya spare anything to eat or drink?”

Stephen tossed the starving man an energy bar and a bottle of water, which Casper hurriedly devoured.

Dan pushed closer to take a look at the man. “Mind explaining the ears you got around your neck, hero?”

Casper looked down at his necklace and touched them.

“
Oh these,” he replied. “These are from the vile crazy people that tried to bite me when I was stuck at work. I had nothing else to do. Call it boredom.”

“
I call it fucking disgusting!” Dan replied, turning to me. “I think he’s lost it.”

A long set of questions and answers followed as we discussed what to do with the odd mailman. He did not appear to know anything about Father Kettle, who was operating several blocks north of where he’d been holed up. He relayed his tale of the woman being chased by the rabid crowd. Casper explained how he tried to save the women, but she ran off. He seemed bewildered by our presence and the state of the world, but we chalked it up to being alone through all of it. In short, we invited Casper to join us, which he agreed to do only after he and a few others searched in vain for the woman he saw. Another trigger man was always a good thing, and it appeared he knew how to tough it out. Hearing him tell others about drinking from toilets the last few days just solidified my reckoning of him.

Chris volunteered to take the generator back to the prison along with Casper and the other security personnel after they returned, since the trailer was hooked up to his truck. We told Chris to keep an eye on him until we felt he could be fully trusted. After Chris left, we decided to make a push for the Joliet Police Department Armory to hopefully stock up on ammunition and more firearms for our own people at the prison. The area near the station was reported to be heavily infested with the undead, but we decided to burn up our precious remaining ammunition on a gamble that we would hit pay dirt. Stephen and Mattie climbed aboard Dan’s vehicle and followed me as I turned the large front end loader around and headed towards the department, which was still several blocks to the west.

It took twenty minutes to clear a path to the department, and I used the big machine to make room for Dan’s bus. Having worked at the station and knowing exactly where the armory was, I steered the large steel bucket of the loader right through the exterior wall. Shortly, I made a hole large enough for Stephen and Mattie to climb through and find out what loot was to be had. While they were doing that, Dan and I pulled security outside. I would point out approaching zombies for Dan to take out with his suppressed rifle to try and keep the noise to a minimum; however, crashing through the brick and concrete had gained the attention of several groups of the ugly bastards, and Dan was forced to keep up a constant stream of fire. Several times he allowed one or two of the creatures in for batting practice with my trusty aluminum bat.

While we focused on taking out our threat, inside Stephen thought he won the lottery. Stacked on heavy gauge steel shelving were cases of 5.56 rifle, 9mm pistol, and 12ga shotgun ammunition. Stephen and Mattie began making trips back and forth to the bus with the heavy cardboard cases. It took quite some time, and Dan and I eventually traded out with Stephen and Mattie when they began to tire. While they gladly took a break, I had to manually steer Dan away from Mattie. He seemed to be in a trance while staring at the sweat glistening on Mattie’s exposed cleavage.

“
Come on hero, stop staring, a bug might fly...” I started to say when my eyes also locked in at the wondrous sight as well, and I promptly forgot what I was talking about.

Mattie cleared her throat.

“
Uh guys, hello? Up here,” she said pointing at her deep brown eyes.

Both Dan and I abruptly looked up and damn near collided into one another while trying to escape.

Mattie stood next to Stephen and watched Dan and Mike trot away laughing.

“
Can you believe those two?” she asked.

Not getting an answer, Mattie looked over at Stephen, who was also in a trance.

Stephen looked up from her chest. “Um…what was that you said?”

“
God, I’m drowning in testosterone!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration.

Stephen thought it best not to get caught looking at her ass while she walked away, and had to quickly do a mag change and make up for the several zombies he had let get in close while distracted. In all, we recovered forty thousand rounds each of .223 and 9mm, and four thousand rounds of 12 gauge buckshot. We also loaded up several Remington 870 shotguns and eight Armalite AR-15 rifles. We also tossed in a couple cases of 30 round aluminum magazines still wrapped in plastic.

“
Jackpot!” Dan yelled upon hauling out the last load.

While we finished packing the ammo and weapons in the bus nice and tight, I remembered that I had some nice winter clothing in my locker. Since we were here I decided I might as well grab it, knowing that colder weather was coming. The police station was dark and eerie as I walked down the short hallway to the locker room. It was thankfully vacant, with the exception of a single subject, still wearing the supervisor white shirt uniform. He must have been bitten and locked himself in the watch commander’s office before turning. His face was now unrecognizable as he clawed grotesquely at the large glass window, unable to open the locked door. I shivered and let him be, grabbing my clothing and returning to the others, still feeling the heebie-jeebies.

Stephen was looking across the street at the City Hall garage where other vehicles, such as the police mobile command center were stored.

“
I wonder if anything is left worth taking,” he asked.

Dusting my hands off, I looked to where he was staring. “Only one way to find out,” I replied as I un-slung my M4, dropped the magazine, inserted a fresh one, and slapped it home. “Dan, you and Mattie finish packing the ammo please. Stephen and I are checking on something across the street.”

Dan paused and looked over at Mattie.

“
My pleasure, Mike,” he replied with a grin.

Mattie froze in the process of moving a case of shotgun ammo, looked over her shoulder and rolled her eyes and whispered, “Why me?”

The main garage door at the City Hall maintenance bay was left open, most likely when the mobile command center was moved to the safe zone. Peeling the corner, Stephen and I cleared the large garage area. A lot of garbage and debris had blown in, and it had the appearance of being looted. It was hard to tell if anything important had been taken, and there were signs of fighting, with large blood stains on the floor and walls. No signs of the victims, however. They must now be roaming as zombies somewhere.

“
Sweet!” Stephen said from a dark corner.

I hurried over to him to see what he found.

Stephen tossed aside a large tarp and uncovered two Honda four wheelers complete with emergency lights, sirens and police markings. They looked a bit used and abused, but they were perfect for weaving in and out of stalled vehicles. It took a few minutes, but we located the keys and had them fired up in minutes. We each hopped on one and drove them out of the garage and over to the bus where Mattie and Dan stopped packing to see what new toys we found.

“
Let’s head back and unload our supplies. Chris will need the loader to unload the generator anyways,” I said as I got off the ATV and waved Mattie over. “You can ride in style now, Mattie.”

“
We’ll scout ahead, Mattie,” Stephen offered. “Mike, you got the loader, Dan you bring up the rear.”

I watched them take off, feeling a wave of satisfaction come over me as I reflected on how much progress we made today. Soon our compound would have plenty of electricity and water to go with it. And the ammo was a major score as well.

“
Yes sir!” I decided. “Things are looking up.”

Sweat rolled off the nervous man’s head and continued down his back. Looking at the figure who silently stared at him from behind the old oak desk didn’t help his nerves.

“
Explain to me again how one of my sinners has escaped,” Kettle hissed as he leaned forward and splayed his fingertips together.

The thin, nervous man couldn’t bear to meet Kettle’s gaze. Wringing his hat in his hands, the man stuttered, “Um, w-well you see, we had a big g-group of survivors join recently, and there was lots of pussy there. Some of the husbands and brothers didn’t take kindly to your orders of detaining the women for cleansing, and we had ourselves quite a disturbance.”

“
I see, but that doesn’t tell me how the girl Holly escaped,” Kettle replied.

“
There was a huge fight, and they needed my help to quell the rebellious men,” the man quickly added. “She must not have been tied up too well and slipped out the back of the church.”

Behind the thin man, a nondescript man silently stepped forward, so close he could smell the nervous man’s sweat.

Kettle leaned back into his chair and looked at the man who was in charge of Holly’s imprisonment.

“
So what you are telling me is that you left your assigned post without direct orders from me or your immediate supervisors?” Kettle accused. “I gave you one responsibility.”

Kettle nodded at the figure standing behind his doomed follower.

“
Well, under the circumstances, sir,” the nervous man started to say, “I had to— uurrKKK!!!”

The thin man’s head was pulled back roughly by the forehead and a razor sharp blade was raked across his throat. The attacker kept a hold of the violently bleeding man, keeping him upright and still looking at Kettle. Kettle stood up, face red with rage, and placed both fists on top of the desk and leaned forward.

“
The punishment for disobeying a prophet of God is death!” he screamed at the dying man.

Kettle sat back down and waved his hand towards the twitching fool who didn’t realize he was dead already. “Get this filth out of my sight and make sure the others see his body, and let it be a lesson to them,” Kettle ordered the other two men in the room.

The two door guards grabbed the now lifeless corpse and dragged him out of the room.

“
And we’re going to need a better way to keep my little pet projects safe!” Kettle added in disgust.

The roar of gunfire in the small grocery store faded as the last few empty shell casings spun to a stop on the tiled floor of the aisle Stephen and I stood in. The bullet hole riddled, now dead zombie fell to the floor with a wet splat. Stephen went forward to make sure the accursed creature was dead while I checked our rear position.

“
It’s dead, Mike, how does it look your way?” he asked

“
All clear on my end.”

Stephen swapped out his rifle magazine for a fresh one. While he did so I looked over and saw I stood next to a display of Hostess apple fruit pies.

“
Oh sweet God, I haven’t had one of those in years.” I began to salivate like a hungry dog.

Stephen took point, and I tucked my bat under my arm, snagging one off the shelf and began tearing open the delicious beauty. The crinkling of the wrapper sounded much louder than I had anticipated. Stephen jerked his head to the side and glanced back in alarm. I abruptly stopped and gave him a chagrined look and shrugged my shoulders. Stephen shook his head disapprovingly, rolling his eyes and stepped off again to finish clearing the store. Before long he stopped as the sound of tearing wax paper was once again breaking the thick silence. He again turned around, clearly out of patience as he stood staring at me happily munching on the sickeningly sweet apple delight.

“
Do you mind focusing for just at least a few more minutes?” he asked angrily. “Filling your pie hole can wait, can’t it?”

Popping the last bite into my mouth, I dusted my frosting covered hands off on my pants and stepped towards Stephen, patting him on the shoulder.

“
Sure thing, buddy.” I retrieved my bat from under my arm, stepped past him, and crushed the head of the undead creature that had walked up behind him.

Looking back at Stephen, who had a surprised look on his face, I added with a straight face, “You might want to pay more attention while on point however.”

“
But… I didn’t …you were…there wasn’t…bah this is bullshit!” Stephen sputtered.

I just smiled and finished chewing the remnants of the apple pie treat as Stephen stomped off.

On our way to the front doors, I grabbed a shopping cart that had been left where the last shopper abandoned it, and began loading as many canned foods as it could hold. Once it was full, I wheeled the cart to the doors and saw Mattie enter.

“
Hey there, hope you like canned veggies,” I said. “Cause I have about two hundred or so cans of it.”