The Complex: (The Reanimates) (28 page)

             
Those of us in the trailer rocked and rolled over every speed bump on the way out of the complex. Here I had thought that my truck took those bumps hard. We bounced about like popcorn in a frying pan in an incredibly short distance. I knew that we hadn't even gotten through the bridge yet.

             
I heard a light tap on the horn as Trent signaled to Anna that it was time to run the gate. I settled Jody on the trailer floor and made sure DaWayne was safely in the bunk with his parents watching over him before I darted off to the gun ports. I loved our gun ports because they doubled as windows.

             
I could see the car that the bridge was attached to move forward and I could see the bridge lower. The truck lurched forward a hair to get closer to the gate as Anna ran forward to undo the bike locks we used as a back up system. She got the second lock off and ran the gate open on the rail. As she did, an army of zombies came pouring through the opening. In a quiet whisper I started chanting to myself, “Get in the truck, Anna, get in the truck.” She started to run for the cab but suddenly stopped, looking at the zombie hoards as they came through.

             
“Brett!” She screamed “Brett! Here!” It didn't make sense, why was she calling to someone?

             
Kyle jumped up and ran to the port next to me. “My dad is out there?”

             
Oh, no. It occurred to me suddenly who Brett was. I remembered her talking to me about him one lazy summer afternoon. There were no alive people in that mess, of that I was sure. No person could walk through an army of zombies and make it out alive. “Kyle! Down!” I yelled at him. I felt bad that I was talking to him so harshly but I knew how this was going to play out. I couldn't bring myself to have this boy watch his mother be ripped apart by a thing that used to be his father. I looked back up and saw Anna run right for the Brett thing with open arms. He bared his teeth and bit into Anna's face. This was not the kiss she had been expecting. Her back had been to me, but the zombie Brett had spun her around to face to me. Several other zombies jumped into the fray and consumed the meaty portions of her as she screamed.

             
My eyes were wide in horror. We had been surviving in the zombie apocalypse for nearly nine months and I had never seen anything like this. I saw how chewed up the other zombies were and realized how sheltered we were. I was terrified that we were in no way prepared for life out there. We were living the high life up at the foothills of the mountain. We had food. We had water. We were feeling nice and safe before. We were not going to be prepared to deal with things that were that chewed up. Zombies had been slow things in our point of view, flies to be shooed away with the trenches. If they were capable of doing this much damage to a person maybe we were taking this all way too lightly.

             
I turned to face Kyle and Annali, I had put off that responsibility for as long as I could. How do I tell those children they are orphans? Kyle read my face immediately and knew his mom hadn't made it. He heard the zombies ahead of us and knew what happened. Annali being three didn't. “Where's my momma?” She asked with an indignant little girl tone. Kyle grabbed on to her and hugged her close to him. He was trying so hard to be a good big brother, strong and brave, but his sobs said everything was wrong. “Kye? Is momma with daddy now?” He nodded into her shoulder. Mercedes scooted over to them and wrapped her arms around the two of them.

             
I realized with a start that they weren't the only orphans. Tomisha and Dalynn were too. I looked for them and found them sitting on either side of Trisha. I was so grateful that she had been with them taking care of them. I wondered how much Tomisha would remember of her parents. Dalynn wouldn't, at two she wouldn't remember anything about how much her daddy loved her.

             
The truck lumbered forward slowly. Hundreds of fists pounded on the trailer in futility. Tyreese called for everyone to cover their ears as he jumped up from the bunk and started to fire into the crowd. It did very little good in the grand scheme of things but we all had the feeling of at least we were getting back. We could feel the truck and trailer go over several of the zombies. It was like a washboard road and the bouncing I thought was significant over the speed bumps had nothing on this. Tyreese sat back down as his balance faltered at the gun port. Tanya braced herself against the bunk to keep herself in and her son in place.

             
Jody had been having contractions every three minutes by my watch. This baby was going to be small and born in the back of a SpringForth water truck. I felt a tug at my heart as I recalled Joey saying that this baby was going to have one hell of a story about his birthday. I realized I had no clue about the date to even call the baby's birthday. I hoped someone else would. I heard us rumble over the bridge and we all collectively held our breath as we passed over it. We didn’t have a truck like this go over it before. We built the trench after the water run. Our smiles were huge when the sounds changed back to paved road. Trent had done it, we were out. We ran over the median and were all rocked hard in the trailer, but things started to smooth out right after.

             
As we picked up speed we bumped along. The only sounds were that of road noise and the now spaced by a minute and a half apart contractions. I saw Jody was trying to keep her pain quiet, to not scare the kids. The increased frequency of her moans though told me I needed to do a cervix check.

             
It was a darn good thing I did because that baby was already moving down the birth canal. “Erin? Come on over here and hold your mom's hand. You're about to be a big sister.” Erin scurried over and sat next to her mom. “Jody? I need you to push really hard with your next contraction, OK?” Jody had already had three kids and I figured that this was probably going to move fast. Jody did not let me down on that expectation. She crowned in her first push and her next push expelled the baby's head. Trisha was waiting with towels and washcloths. I took one, wiped off the baby's face and had her push again to deliver the shoulders after I took a towel from Trisha. A wet, slick, red-faced little boy slid into the towel. I flipped him down face first patted his back and he let out a loud newborn baby cry. I put him into Jody's waiting arms. “It's a boy Jody. He looks perfect!”

             
She delivered the placenta and I clamped the cord with shoelaces. I felt the engine of the truck slow down its vibrations and realized we were decreasing speed. The truck was pulling over, to my great delight. When we stopped I asked Tyreese for his pocket knife and cut the cord.

             
Trent pulled open the trailer. “I wanted to make sure we were far enough away from the zombies before I pulled over.” He said somewhat apologetically. He took in the scene of the trailer and saw Jody with the baby. He looked for Joey to congratulate the new dad when he realized Joey wasn't there. “Cali? Where is Joey?” I shook my head no. Trent's face looked crestfallen. It didn't even occur to me that he didn't know Joey wasn't here. His loss was like salt rock in our fresh wounds.

             
It was then that I realized that Joey's letter was still in my pocket. I pulled it out and gave it to Jody. She read it quickly, handed it back to me and said, “Please. Read this for everyone.” Tears were rolling down her face.

             
“Are you sure?” I verified. She nodded her consent.

Joey's Letter

Dear Jody,

             
Hello my love. I have a nagging feeling that if I don't write this letter I am going to be really sorry. As these things seem to go if I write the letter everything ends up just fine, so here it goes.

             
I wanted to start with the sappy stuff, by telling you how much I love you. I feel like my life started over with meeting you. Told you it'd be sappy, didn't I. I think it a blessing that those zombies went and took over everything, because it led me to you.

             
For years and years I thought I was a zombie. I ate, I moved, but I wasn't alive. I shuffled through my life. All my falling apart wounds were all inside, eating me right on up. They were wounds from my before life, the one we all say doesn't matter anymore now that things have been turned on their ear. I never meant that I would never tell you my PZ (pre-zombie) tale, just it didn't matter.

             
But I guess it kinda did matter or I'd not been hearing the others in the complex saying stuff like he's military but scarred by the experience so we don’t talk about it. Was worth quite the chuckle. Questions that no one asks with answers that don’t come out, well I love those questions the most. Make people think. The imagination answers make them so much more interesting.

             
No. I don’t want to start there. It goes back further.

             
It starts with a little girl named Sally Jean. Sally and I were sweet on each other since our junior year. Almost right out of the senior year I got my Sally in a “Family way” and in Sally's family the corrective actions of a surprise baby meant a wedding with shot guns at the ready in case of a runner. Really and true.

             
I married that pretty little girl. We found a place with an apartment that looked like home. There was a baby, a beauty of a boy named Ethan. I was working late at my job fixing on a car one night. Since I was late my Sally went and got Ethan from her momma's house. On their way home they got hit by a drunk driver and I lost them both there on that road while I was at work. I swear I wanted to die myself but I never could pluck up the courage to do it.

             
I got a letter in the mail from some guy who I fixed a car for. It was asking me if I wanted a job that had a whole lot of risk and I'd get to see the world. Turned out to be a private security job that usually our marines do, but this company did when the government had no interest in having our guys on record being there. I figured, hell, fine by me if I go ahead and do this. If I got shot up in say Africa that would fix my wishing I could die thing.

             
As it turned out I was darn good at this job. Thinking like desperate people with nothing to lose just kinda came to me. I kicked ass at it and I would have been still doing it if I hadn't blown out my knee jumping off a landing.

             
Anyhow they had the doctors at UCLA fix it up just fine. But they decided that it would be a liability if I came back to my job so they started me on my retirement benefits. So here I am in California. I found me an apartment in the middle of nowhere and moved in next to this fiery red haired girl. Turned out that girl knew just what it was like to lose someone she loved.

             
I was trying to pluck up the courage to ask this red haired girl out to a movie when the zombies took over. Well, you know that red haired girl was you and while we never did go to the movies, I had the opportunity to talk with you and well, you were around for all that.

Point all being here, before I met you my life was over. I lost my family then I lost my career. I was a sad country song before I met you. I love you Jody. I was saved by you. I love your kids, I feel like they are my own. And we have another on the way. You gave me something to fight for and something I will always fight for, and that is love.

             
You just giggled a bit in your dream while I wrote that. My sappy side must be leaking all over you. Think its best then to close this here letter off.

             
I'll see you soon.

             
             
                    Joey                                         

What's Next

             
I wiped the tears off my face after reading Joey's letter. I gently refolded it and handed it back to Jody. She took it in her hand as though it were delicate.

             
“Looks like he really did love me. I never knew he was interested before the zombies hit, cause I would have gone to the movies with him.” She looked down at her new little boy, Liam and Abigail crowded near their mother and new brother.

             
Abigail was the first to ask, “Mom what's our brother's name?”

             
“Well honey, I've been thinking on that. I was thinking before that I would name him something like Duncan or Wallace. Now I think that the perfect name for this boy is after his daddy. After all, if it wasn't for him getting all of us in the truck, we'd all not be here. Meet Joseph James, Junior..”

             
Everyone sighed softly over the perfect name for this baby. Erin spoke softly at first. “Momma? Can we name him JJ for short? It'll remind people that hes just a baby. Not his dad, but a way to still to honor Joey.” Jody agreed.

             
Trent, Drew, and I jumped out of the trailer to take a walk. The night air was cold but refreshing. We looked at the three lane freeway which was as empty as a tomb. I've never seen that before in my entire life. I bent over to touch the asphalt to see if it was really real. When I stood back up I said “Well, where to next?”