Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel (69 page)

“Can I have a pudding?” Alice asked.

“Sure.”  Danny passed her a chocolate pudding.  “There are no spoons though, so you have to eat with your fingers.”

“That’s okay.”  Alice peeled back the top of the pudding.  She liked eating pudding with her fingers.  Her Daddy would only let her eat the last little bits like that but she had always wanted to try eating the whole thing with her hands. 
Now she got to.

“Would you like something?” Danny asked Mr. Eggor.

“I’ll have a granola bar if you don’t mind.”  Mr. Eggor reached for himself.

There were several kinds of granola bars, and Alice was pleased to see that he took the gross one, the one without any chocolate.  Although Danny took one of the best kind.

“After you’re done the pudding, do you want to share the Dunkaroos with me?” Danny asked Alice.

“What are Dunkaroos?”  Alice had never heard of them before.

“They’re little cookies you dip into an icing,” Danny explained.  “It looks like we got a vanilla flavoured one.”

“I hate vanilla,” Alice made a face
,  “but I’ll try the cookies.  Do they have chocolate chips?”

“I don’t know,” Danny shrugged
,  “some do and some don’t, and I can’t see which ones these are.  It probably means they’re the kind that don’t.”

“I’ll try them anyway,” Alice decided.  Some cookies were still good, even if they didn’t have chocolate in them.

Shoes got up off of Mr. Eggor’s lap.  He flopped back down at Alice’s feet, next to Mr. Eggor’s knees.  Mr. Eggor tore off a piece of his granola bar and gave it to Shoes, who gobbled it down in one quick bite.

“Too bad we have nothing to give him some water in,” Mr. Eggor said.  “He looks like he could use some.”

“He drank from a pool earlier today.”  Alice remembered.

“Well, hopefully that’ll tide him over till we find something.”  Mr. Eggor patted Shoes on the head.

A small section of the back window slid open near Mr. Eggor’s own head.

“You three okay back there?” Kelly asked.

“We’re good.”  Mr. Eggor gave her a thumbs up.

“If you’re cold, there should be an old blanket in the left side panel,” Kelly told them.

“Thank you.”  Mr. Eggor said as the window slid closed again.  “Either of you cold?”

“I’m all right.”  Danny took another bite out of his bar.

“I’m only a little chilly,” Alice told him.

“Well, that’s no need for a blanket, but here.”  Mr. Eggor shifted around until he could reach the back of the truck where he picked up a big, beat-up, green jacket.  It was the one that Danny had draped over his bag when they first met.  Mr. Eggor had brought it with them from the Jeep.

Alice noticed that when Mr. Eggor moved, he grabbed his pants and used his arms to move his legs.  “So you can’t move your legs because you got shot?”  Alice remembered the story he had told in the Jeep.

“That’s right.”  Mr. Eggor made his way back over.  “Here, let Danny hold your pudding for a moment.”

Alice looked at her pudding.  She trusted Danny, but could she trust him with her pudding?

“I promise I won’t eat it.”  Danny held up his hands so that Alice could see that he didn’t cross his fingers.

“Okay.”  Alice handed him the pudding even though he might have been crossing his toes.

Mr. Eggor wrapped the big coat around her.  He then rolled up the sleeves really high so that Alice’s little hands could stick out of them.

“Is that better, Princess?” he asked, as he folded the front around her.

Alice had been called Princess before, but not in the way that Mr. Eggor said it.  He said it in that way that grown-ups had, when they were lying, but they wanted you to know they were lying,
as if it was a joke or something.  Alice knew there was a word for it, but didn’t know the word.  Her Daddy always called her his little princess.

“Yes, thank you.”  Alice reached for her
pudding, which Danny gave to her right away.  He had kept his promise and hadn’t eaten any of the pudding.

“Where are we going?” Alice asked as she scooped up a blob of chocolate on her finger.

“We’re going to a place where we can be safe,” Mr. Eggor told her.

“Safe from the crazy people?”  Alice ate the pudding blob.

“Yes, safe from the crazy people,” Mr. Eggor nodded.

“Will we able to call my Daddy from there?”  Alice looked up at the older man.  “And tell him where I am?  He’ll be worried if he finds out me and Shoes are gone.”

“I’m sure he would be.  And I’m not sure if we’ll be able to call him.  We can try though.”  Mr. Eggor seemed very truthful for an old man.  Alice had begun to notice that lots of adults lied but she didn’t think Mr. Eggor had done so yet.  He just wouldn’t always give a complete answer.  Or sometimes he just wouldn’t answer at all.

“I wish I had a number to call my brother at,” Danny sighed.

“You’ve never been able to get in contact with him?”  Mr. Eggor turned to Danny.

“There’s an emergency number at Keystone where they can relay important messages to him, like if I get into an accident or something, but nowhere I can call him directly,” Danny shrugged.

“Well I think this counts as an emergency,” Alice spoke up.

“I think Keystone knows all about this emergency,” Mr. Eggor smiled at her.  “They aren’t going to be helping us out anytime soon, though.”

“What about your mommy and daddy?” Alice asked Danny.  “Can you call them?”

“My mom and dad died when I was little,” Danny told her.

“My mommy died when I was little too.  Daddy said she was very sad and didn’t want to make us sad,” Alice nodded.  “I have pictures though.”

“I have pictures too,” Danny smiled but it wasn’t a real smile.  It was a sad smile.  “My brother took care of me.”

“I don’t have any brothers or sisters,” Alice told him.  “It’s just me and my Daddy and Shoes.  Do you have any brothers or sisters, Mr. Eggor?”

“Mr. Eggor?”  He smiled a real smile.  He thought it was funny.  “You can call me Alec okay?”

“Alec.”  Alice tried the name.  “Alec and Alice.”  She smiled brightly at the similarity.  “So Alec, do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“I had a sister,”
Alec
told her.  “She passed away a few years ago.  She was married though, and her husband is pretty much my brother now.”

“What about your mommy and daddy?” Alice wondered.  Although it was always weird for Alice to picture grownups with mommies and daddies, she had met her grandparents and knew they existed.

“They passed away an even longer time ago.  There was a plane crash,” Alec sighed.  It was a sad thought for him.

“My mommy’s mommy was in a plane crash once.”  Alice remembered overhearing a story.  “It was a little one, though.  A little plane.  They went too far and went off of something called a
tarmac
.”

“A tarmac is what planes land on,” Alec told her.

“Oh, so a runway?”  Alice knew what a runway was.  “I got to fly in a plane once.  Me and my Daddy went to visit grandpapa and grandmama last year.  We got to fly over the country to Van
cou
ver.  I saw mountains.”  When saying Vancouver, Alice always stressed the
cou
part.

“I’ve been in a plane a few times,” Danny told her.  “I wanted to learn to fly helicopters.”

“You don’t want to anymore?”  Alice had noticed the past tense.

“I don’t know if that’s possible anymore.”  Danny looked sad.

“Sure, you can still learn.”  Alec knocked on Danny’s helmet.  “This will right itself out and they’ll still need chopper pilots.  You’ll see.”

“I want to be a vet,” Alice told them.  “I want to help animals, like Shoes.”

“I’m sure you’d make a great vet,” Alec told her.

“Do you think it’s safe to open the pop?” Danny wondered.

“No idea,” Alec shrugged.  “You might as well try though.”

“’kay.”  Danny picked up the soda can again.  He held it out away from his body and squinted his eyes when he pulled on the tab.  The can cracked open and the pop fizzled.  It didn’t explode or gush out, but Danny quickly placed his mouth over the hole and sucked out the top stuff just in case.  He then held it out to Alice.

“You don’t have cooties, do you?”  Alice took the can.

“Nope, I got my cootie shot,” Danny told her.

“Cootie shot?”  Alice had never heard of the concept.

Danny gasped.  “You don’t know what a cootie shot is?  Then you must have cooties yourself.”

“I do not,” Alice pouted.

“Want me to give you a cootie shot?” Alec asked her, showing all his teeth when he smiled.

“Does it hurt?”  Alice didn’t like shots.

“Not at all.  In fact, it’s the least painful shot you could ever get.  All you have to do is hold out your hand.”  Alec held out his own.

“Okay.”  Alice imitated him.  “But if it hurts, I’m going to be really mad at you.”

“I promise it won’t hurt.”  Alec held her hand in his own.  He drew circles on the back of her hand and tapped the centre of them with his finger while he chanted
, “Circle circle, dot dot, now you got your cooties shot.”

“That’s it?”  Alice looked at her hand.

“That’s it.”  Alec smiled.

Alice then took a big drink from the pop can.  It was delicious and fizzy.  When she was done, she burped loudly and giggled.

“Excuse me,” she giggled into her hand.

“Oh yeah?  Watch this.”  Danny took the pop can from her and took another drink.  He waited a brief moment and then burped louder than Alice had.

Alice giggled even more and Danny laughed.

“That’s nothing.  You’re sitting next to the burping champ,” Alec told them both.  He then started to burp out the ABCs without taking a single sip of pop.  He got to G before he started laughing too hard to keep going.  They were all in stitches.

Danny and Alice passed the pop back and forth, trying to burp more, until it was all gone.  They then shared the Dunkeroos.  Alice liked the little cookies.  She tried the dipping stuff, but she still didn’t like vanilla, and so she didn’t have any after that.  They went through the rest of the snack food that Kelly had given them.  Even Alec ate some more granola bars.  When it was all gone, Alice yawned loudly.

“You tired?”  Alec looked down at her.

“A little,” she nodded.  Also her head was hurting a little.

“Why don’t you try to sleep then?” Alec suggested.  “I'll wake you up if something happens or if we stop.”

“Do you promise you’ll still be here when I wake up?”  Alice looked up at him.  The last time she went to sleep, Paul and Judy disappeared.

“I promise,” he nodded.

“You too, Danny?”  She looked across Alec to Danny.

“I promise to be here also,” he smiled.

“Okay, good.”  Alice snuggled down next to Alec, placing her head on his leg.  She pulled the coat tighter around her, then grabbed Shoes and pulled him up to her chest.  The dog huffed but didn’t try to get away.  She fell asleep almost instantly.

Abigail

Abby looked through the bag that she had been given.  Although they had a list telling them what was in each pack, they all sorted through them anyway, making sure.  She couldn’t understand what had made Cender’s doctor friend run off without waiting for him, but she also thought that maybe the dead bodies on the back porch and in the bedroom had something to do with it.

“So, let’s take a vote,” Cillian spoke up from where he was sitting in a plushy, grey armchair.  “Who thinks we should take a short break here to regain our energy before following the map we were left?”  He raised his own hand.

Tobias, Cender, and Jessica all raised theirs as well.  Although Abby would have rather gotten moving as soon as possible, she raised her hand in the end so as not to be labelled as separate from the group.

“Second vote: Who thinks we should trade the limo for the hybrid Ford Escape in the garage?  Both have about half a tank of gas in them.”  Cillian raised his hand again.

Abby and Jessica also raised their hands, but Tobias and Cender did not.

“Three to one, sorry guys,” Cillian shrugged.

Tobias shrugged back and kept looking through his pack.

“Third vote:  Who thinks that, along with the packs we’ve been left, we fit as much else in the Escape as we can?”

Everybody voted unanimously for that one.

“All right.  Now this next one is not a vote.”  Cillian got up from his seat.  “I’m starving and
I’m going to make some food.  Who else wants something?”

Everyone but Jessica raised their hands again.

“Okay, I’ll check out what’s in the cupboards.”  Cillian headed into the kitchen.

Not long after he left, Abby came across the gun in her bag.  It was some sort of pistol, matte black.  It looked like the kind the actors used in the TV show she worked for, only this one was real.  It came with a holster that could be threaded onto a belt, two extra clips already loaded, and a sack of extra rounds.  Abby didn’t have a belt to put the holster on, but since the backpack was the hiking kind with the straps that buckled in front, Abby was able to thread it through one of the straps.  She put the sack of extra rounds back into the backpack and put the loaded clips into a side pocket.  The side pocket already held a water bottle, but since the other side held one too, she packed that bottle into the main section of the pack.