The Darkening (A Zombie Awakening) (6 page)

             
Lady hung her head out the window and barked. The monster dog behind them answered.
Between the two animals, they’d attract every living
, or dead,
body within miles around.

             
Enough. Chalice stopped the vehicle, grabbed her rifle, and shoved open her door. “Come, Lady.” The German Shepherd bounded after her. With her gun at the ready, Chalice approached the Suburban.

             
She stopped a few feet away. “Get out of the truck.”

             
The driver’s window rolled down a few inches. “I don’t think so.”

             
“Why are you following us?”

             
“Seemed like the smart thing to do. You cleared the road like a snow plow.”

             
Chalice chewed her lip. The night wind bit through the sweat shirt she wore. “How long do you intend to follow?”

             
“No idea. Don’t worry. I’m not going to bother you.” He rolled up his window.

             
Seriously! Chalice turned on her heel and stormed back. He might say he’s harmless, but the guy was rude. Sounded young
,
too. Close to her age. She gave him another glance and climbed behind the wheel.

             
He’d better not get them all eaten.

###

             
Colton drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. The pretty girl in front of him drove too slow. Probably didn’t want to mess up the front of the motor home any more than she had already. At this rate, they’d barely move twenty miles before full dark. He squinted through the window. Why was she stopping now?

             
The girl climbed from the vehicle and
headed into the ditch.

Colton craned his neck to watch her
approach two children sitting on the side of the road. She squatted next to them, said something
he
couldn’t hear, then ushered them into the back of her house on wheels. He shook his head. If she stopped to pick up every stray on the way, he’d never get off the interstate. He waited for her to move. After five minutes, he grabbed his gun and slid from the truck.

             
He marched and pounded on the girl’s door.

             
“Who is it?”

             
“The guy from the Suburban.” He rubbed his chin.

             
The door cracked open an inch. “What do you want?”

             
“Are you moving any farther tonight?”

             
“No. Go away.” She slammed the door.

             
He glanced around, feeling foolish standing in the middle of the road. “Buddy
.
” The dog bounded toward him. “Do your business, boy.”

He cradled his rifle in his arms as the dog sniffed out the perfect place to lift his leg. Colton contemplated continuing on then discarded the idea. He couldn’t in good conscience leave a trailer full of kids alone at night.
He wasn’t positive there wasn’t an adult with them, but the fact that the teenage girl confronted him, led him to believe there wasn’t.

O
ut here
t
hey were sitting ducks.
Of course, the suburban didn’t allow him a good view of the surrounding area, either.

             
He stepped into the field where Buddy romped. Was that a road? He jogged a few yards. Yes. A dirt road branched off the interstate. If they parked among the trees, they might pass the night unnoticed. He returned to the motor home and pounded again.

             
“What?” The door swung open and he came eye to muzzle with the girl’s gun. “Uh, there’s a dirt road over there. Maybe we should get out of sight for the night.”

             
She cocked her head. “Since when did all of us become a we?”

             
He sighed. “I can’t leave y’all out here alone.”

             
“We’re managing just fine, thank you.”

             
“Look. My name is Colton Morgan. That beast over there is my dog, Buddy. All I’m asking is that you allow us to keep following you and that you pull off the road for the night.”

             
She stepped down and closed the door. Silence screamed as she studied his face. Somewhere in the distance, a gunshot rattled the night. She jerked. “Okay.” She bounded back inside.

Colton dashed for his truck. Within minutes, they were hid in the trees. Hopefully
,
far enough that they wouldn’t be murdered in their sleep.

             
He reclined his seat, laid the gun across his lap, and closed his eyes. A tap on the window snapped his eyes open. He snatched the rifle and pointed it at the window. The girl peered in at him.
He rolled down the
glass separating them
.

             
“Have you had anything to eat?” she asked
, shining a flashlight in his eyes
.

             
“I almost shot you
. What if you were one of those things?
”  Was she stupid?
He raised his arm to block the light. “Can you lower the light?”

             
“Those ‘thing
s
’ wouldn’t knock.”
She frowned. “I don’t feel right having you out here by yourself. Not when you seem worried about us.”

             
“I’m not leaving my stuff. But thanks for the offer.”

             
“My name’s Chalice Hart.”

             
“Like, a, uh, goblet?

             
She gave him a sad smile. “My mother said her cup ran over with joy when I was born.”

             
“That’s sweet.”
Made him want to gag.
At least she had a mother. “Did you pick up two kids today?”

             
“I couldn’t leave them alone. Their parents are missing.”

             
He knew what that meant. Their parents were dead
or one of the horde that shuffled along
the roads
. “You won’t have the room or the food to pick up everyone you run across.”

             
“I know.” She straightened. “But, I’ll help as much as I can. They’re children, Colton.
Five and seven years old.
” She turned and walked away, leaving him feeling like he’d been scolded by a teacher from school.

             
The night swallowed her up until her shape was highlighted by the glow through the motor home’s open door. She turned, glanced his way one more time, then stepped inside and shut him out. It wasn’t until the dark obscured everything again that he realized why he really followed the group of kids.

             
Loneliness ate at him like a fat man at
tacking
a buffet.
He wrapped his arms around Buddy’s head and wet the dog’s fur with his tears.
For just a minute
,
he’d let his emotions run. Then, he’d be strong again.

###

             
Chalice lay in the bed she’d made by folding down the dinette table
. Mychal snored from the bed next to Hanna and the two new members of their family, Junior and Sissy, shared the other bed. Colton was right. What had she been thinking to take on the responsibility of two more children, especially such young ones? But, she couldn’t leave them there. No telling who would’ve come upon them.

They were dirty and
had
wolfed down peanut butter crackers like they hadn’t eaten in a week. Most likely that time frame wasn’t too far off the mark.

             
She pulled a quilt tighter around her and tried to sleep instead of focusing on the chiseled features of Colton Morgan. His expression was hard, but
his eyes showed that
, deep inside a kindness, a tenderness, lurked.
 

             
He looked strong
,
too. She struggled with the urge to approach him again and ask him to join their little band. It’d be nice to have an older boy around. One with a gun and a huge dog. She patted Lady who lay beside her. If one dog was good, two would be better, right?
And Colton’s dog was huge!
The
dogs
would be their first line of defense, warning them when something approached.

She rolled to her side
and stared through the parted curtains at the thick night
.
No moon cut through the gloom, no stars twinkled, no light from a home’s window welcomed.
Surely, God would let the sun shine again someday, right?

Chapter 6

             
Buddy growled deep in his throat. Colton raised his seat enough to peer over the door frame.
Lights bobbed along the road,
past the lane they’d parked in. Specters of lost people traveling a highway devoid of hope.
At least they had a light, showing they still breathed.
He didn’t think zombies needed flashlights.

             
He placed a hand on the scruff of Buddy’s neck. “Hush, boy. They’re moving past.”

             
The line of strangers made barely a sound. Colton counted ten
people
, ranging from child size to adult. A peaceful group intent on making their way to wherever their destination happened to be.
He relaxed and lay back down
, praying the group would make it safely to their destination
.

For a second, he almost joined them. But that would leave the kids without him. Chalice seemed tough, but she wouldn’t be a match for evil
non-
breathers or
the ones who still lived
. No, he needed to stick around for a while.

How many people survived the devastation from the sky? There’d been little left of his hometown
except b
urned out buildings
and
craters
where once there stood strip malls and restaurants
. But maybe those in the country fared better. Not that the meteors landed in any particular place, just that people may have been able to escape the fires that raged afterward.

Then, a
month later he finds out there’s a zombie plague. There couldn’t be much of civilization, if any, left. But surely there were safe zones. The government insured that in situations of disaster, didn’t they?
Places for people to go to insure the continuation of the human race?

             
He crossed his arms in an attempt to hold back the night’s chill and eyed the Winnebago beside him. Chalice and the others were likely a lot more comfortable than he was. The vehicle was as large as a trailer.
Thirty-three feet, he guessed.
He smiled, remembering the first half hour of
her
maneuvering the monstrous thing down the road. Once, he thought she’d flip it, but she managed to keep it level.

             
Soon, his eyelids grew heavy again, and he welcomed the much needed sleep. Another rap on the window sent him scrambling for his gun. He blinked against the grit in his eyes to see Chalice staring in at him.

             
“Stop doing that
.
” He shook his head. “One of these days I’m going to shoot you.”

###

             
“No need to get your pants in a wad.” Chalice crossed her arms. “I have a proposition for you.”
She glanced in the back of the Suburban. From the amount of boxes stashed back there, he’d have more than his share of food and water to contribute. “I’d like to ask you to join us.”

             
“Why?”
His brow lowered.
“
You don’t know anything about me.”

             
She studied him in the grey light, that according to her watch, signified dawn.
H
is
d
ark hair curled around his collar and flopped into eyes the color of rich mud
, and
he
wore a
n Arkansas Razorback sweatshirt
with
grey sweatpants. A twenty-two rifle lay on the seat next to him. And
then there was
the dog that slobbered on the seats. Neither one looked very dangerous to her.

             
“If you were going to kill us, you would’ve done it last night while we were sleeping.”