The Fall (Book 2): Dead Will Rise (10 page)

“Makes sense,” Kell said.

“I know. That's why I'm
awesome.
I was already gonna help you, but right when I was getting ready to wake you up, that man—Grim, you said his name is—did it for me. And then I heard you talk about that vial, and being a scientist, and I figured since you were with that group, all of you must have been moving somewhere better. Somewhere safe.”

“Again, I'm curious how you knew we were moving somewhere? I'm sure you've seen enough traders come through, how did you know we weren't hauling goods?”

Andrea smirked, an expression solely the domain of women patiently explaining things to dumb men. “Traders don't carry everything they own with them, least of all their children.”

Oh.

“So not only did I rescue your ass, but I've been living out here with my kids for over a year. Keeping us all safe and fed. What I'm saying is if you take us with you, we won't be a burden.”

Watching her face, Kell chose his words carefully. “If that's the case, why do you need me at all?”

Andrea glanced at the point of light down the hall. “Bit of a difference between managing here, where my kids have a safe hiding place, and wrangling both of them out there, alone. I did that when we escaped Massachusetts. The group we lived with there got overrun. The dead chased us for miles, then bandits. Took us months to get this far, and everyone else but the three of us died along the way.

“Listen, I'm not asking for me. I might be able to do it alone and still manage to keep the kids safe. But I don't know how to get anywhere safe. I've heard of them, sure. Most people know about the place in Kentucky, which I imagine is where you're headed since there's not much else south of Michigan. I'm asking your help because you
do
know, and because if something happens to me...”

Andrea's jaw clenched, eyes going hard and flat. Kell knew it well, the urge to hold back tears. A camp full of enemies hadn't swayed her, nor laying exposed and helpless while waiting for those same enemies to pass.

But the idea she would leave her children alone in the world, with no one to keep them safe went through her defenses completely.

“I'll help,” Kell said.

“There you are, you fuckers,” Andrea said.

Kell grunted in acknowledgment but remained silent. From their perch in the back of the van pulling double duty as an entrance to their hiding place as well as a nice observation perch, they were able to watch as the undead caught wind of Grim's people. True to her prediction, none of the hunters showed up at the highway. Only the dead came close.

None of them were aware of Andrea and Kell a few yards away, tucked inside the van. At first Kell resisted coming, not wanting to fight if he could avoid it. The disquieting thought struck him that risking himself was becoming something of an addiction; like an alcoholic, he craved it.

She assured him he had nothing to worry about. Before leaving the RV she opened a jug of something that smelled like a mixture of perfume and gasoline. It was strong enough to make him pull back, which only helped until she poured some in her hand and smeared her clothes with the stuff. At her instruction, he did the same.

“It's not like ammonia, driving them away. This just masks our scent. Overwhelms their sense of smell completely. We don't want them to leave since they're part of the security here.” She explained that some of her time spent gathering supplies from the area involved picking up the strongest-smelling fluids she could find. The undead walked right by her, never knowing she was there.

“That's brilliant,” he said.

“Well, most people know their sense of smell is how they track. Pretty common knowledge. The trick here is to mask without pushing them away.”

Now, as they watched the undead migrating down the highway pause and reorient themselves, he recognized the sheer cleverness of it. They themselves were invisible, but the trail they'd left earlier in the day was not. One after another, the milling zombies turned and walked toward the narrow gap between the trees on the other side of the road, heading back the way Kell and Andrea came.

“They're going to be pouring into the woods for a while,” she said. “They'll follow our path, then smell the blood and meat, and those fuckers won't know what hit them. Their defenses won't do much good against these numbers.”

Kell was forced to agree; at least two dozen zombies were drifting toward the woods.

“So what's the plan, then? How long do we give it before we leave?”

Andrea grinned. “Michelle is packing as we speak. I say an hour after the last ghoul leaves the road, then we move.”

“God, that's fast. I thought we were going to rest, really get prepared,” Kell said.

She shook her head. “Would have, if the numbers were less. Waiting until we
know
the camp has been hit was my original plan. But with this many zombies, well, we can't miss an opportunity like this. They'll be the best cover we can get. Enough to buy us hours of moving without a chance of pursuit.”

There was something behind the words, a tension he'd heard when she cut off his questions over lunch. “I thought you said they wouldn't get near us.”

“We're sending a swarm of zombies at them,” Andrea said. “You think it might piss them off a little?”

“But that's not all, is it? They might not even realize we had anything to do with it. There's something else. You're worried about that other run-in you didn't want to talk about in front of Michelle.”

Jaw clenched, she nodded. “Yeah.”

“I need to know what I'm getting into here, Andrea. I'm not under any illusions. You saved me. And you've been handling yourself and your kids on your own for a year. I only lasted four months on my own. You don't need me for the survival part. You're asking me to move with you and I'm willing to pay that debt, but I won't do it blind.”

“Come on,” she said, leading him out of the van. “Let's take a walk.”

Down the narrow stretch of dirt between the rusting hulks, past a jumble of discarded suitcases sorted through for useful things, they stopped at the edge of the graveyard.

“This is where we'll leave from,” she said. “Right where the little home we made meets the woods. We'll follow the treeline along the highway until we're out of range of those...people.”

Her voice went raw in the pause between words, though whether from anger or sadness Kell couldn't tell.

“They first showed up about three months ago. I was out hunting and got caught flat-footed. They're good, really good. One of those boys we heard talking tackled me to the ground. Pinned me. I don't know if he was just holding me down until the others could help him restrain me, or if he was planning something else. I didn't give him the chance to show me.”

Andrea spit. “Son of a bitch must have seen me, thin woman who got caught easy as telling a lie, and thought I wouldn't give him too much trouble.”

Kell smiled. “Hard to imagine.”

“Oh, he learned. Bastard put an arm across my throat. Probably expected me to try to push it away. Instead I pulled the little steel bar I keep in my sleeve out when he's looking over at his buddies and break a few of his ribs. Then I crack him on the head and neck after he rolls off me, just for good measure.”

“So you think he has some personal vendetta.”

Andrea pursed her lips. “I know he does. Just like I figured you were part of that convoy, they have to know it's me. Should have heard him that day, calling me every name in the book, screaming into the woods after I'd run off that he'd find me, kill me, all the things he'd do before I died.” She sighed, some of the fight going out of her. “I couldn't just take the kids and leave. That was the dead of winter, and food was scarce. Might have risked the cold or hunger, but not both.”

She sipped from her canteen and passed it to Kell. “So I watched them. Listened to them plan their hunts to make sure they weren't heading this way. They've been expanding their range every few weeks. Won't be long before they move their camp to this side of the creek. Maybe a month, two at the outside. I've seen visitors come to their camp, people showing up to pick up the meat they preserve. Watched what they did to another guy they caught walking the woods, too. Questioned him for anything he knew about other communities. When he couldn't tell them anything new—and trust me, after a while they got
very
creative about how they asked questions—they cut his throat and dumped him over that cliff. I was up in a tree at the time. They dragged the body right below me.”

“Jesus,” Kell said. “I can't believe—well, I was going to say I can't believe anyone would do those kinds of things. But that's stupid, you know? Most folks came through all right, give or take, but some people either got broken by what happened to the world or had the thin skin of control pulled away by it. Makes you wonder how many people were psychopaths just waiting for a chance.”

Andrea nodded. “I don't think there are many people who haven't asked themselves those kinds of questions. I began to worry about myself, actually. After the guy attacked me, I almost burned their camp to the ground. I would have, if Michelle hadn't seen the bruise across my neck and begged me to stay home. I didn't even think of it in terms of right or wrong. These people would have killed me, left my children alone and helpless. Killing them was necessary. End of story.”

“That scared you,” Kell said quietly. “It made you feel guilty that you didn't feel bad about it. You'd have done anything to keep them safe. What happened to you didn't factor in at all, neither did any other cost in lives or misery. You were consumed with the need to keep them safe, alive.”

Andrea stared at him in abject shock. “Yeah. That's it exactly. How...?”

Amused despite himself, Kell chuckled. “Survivor's guilt. Or, I guess, guilty survivor. Takes one to know one.”

Dusk was edging closer to night as Andrea, Kell, and even Michelle looked over the maps of the area in an attempt to catch him up. Mother and daughter spent hours studying and knew the location of every stream and spring, where the right roads were and where to avoid. Kell didn't have a chance of being informed enough to lead the group; he was just trying to get a general idea.

The thunder of rifle fire filled the evening. It was close.

“Stay here,” Kell said as he ran to the back door of the RV. Andrea blew out the candle as his hand touched the knob. Within seconds he was outside and in total darkness, easing the door closed behind him. It was a tense few moments finding the door of the bus and hustling through, though by the time he reached the end his eyes were beginning to adjust. Even so it was still nearly impossible to see. The canopy of trees brought the poor light of an overcast evening to a screeching halt ten feet above his head.

Another round of gunfire, this time close enough he could catch the reflection of the muzzle flash off trees. A hand squeezed his heart. Scrambling backward, he rushed to the RV. The kids were waiting with bags already slung on shoulders. They'd been wearing their protective gear for hours, just in case.

“We need to go now,” Kell breathed. “Right now. They're across the road. They're either on their way here or will be soon.” He grabbed his own pack and a second, heavier bag full of supplies. Shoving his pack inside the larger one, he pulled the straps around his shoulders. “Ready.”

The four of them raced through the bus and toward the deeper woods. Evan kept up well, even holding onto Michelle's hand and pulling her along as they ran. The dead shapes of old cars flickered past like bad memories, then only trees. Andrea stopped, then, a fierce expression on her face.

“Come on,” Kell said, stopping as well and wiping sweat from his face. “What are you doing?”

“Hopefully buying us a little time,” she replied. She had pulled a piece of rope or cable from the ground and yanked hard. A distant snapping followed, and Andrea smiled. As she began jogging again, children on each hand, she explained.

“Pulled a brace. If they come through the van entrance, there's a good chance some of the pile will fall down on them.” She said it with the calm detachment of a person telling you what they had for breakfast. No remorse, which made sense. Andrea saw it as a necessary precaution. Michelle's reaction was more disturbing; the little girl had a satisfied grin plastered across her face.

The world exploded exactly in Kell's right shoulder. He stumbled and fell, insensate from the agony. Hands were grabbing at him, but his efforts to brush them away were pointless. His right arm was numb, hanging dumb to the earth. There was a loud noise with the pain, but that seemed unimportant. Breathing, yes, that was the main thing to worry about here. Except it
hurt.
So much.

When the mental fog began to clear, he was moving again. Somehow he'd been convinced to stagger along with the rest of the group, though the apparent nuclear detonation in his upper back burned and cut into him at the same time.

“Not much farther,” Michelle's little voice piped up in a bright whisper. “There's a safe place.”

Time was strange for him, compressed or stretched out depending on the second. His right arm dangled uselessly behind him as he ran, his left hand pulled by Evan, whose desperate eyes met his every time the boy glanced back. How old was he, Kell wondered? Twelve? Fourteen? Not old enough to shave, in fact--

“Stay with us,” Andrea said. “You're starting to drift.”

It was only then Kell realized he'd been talking out loud. The sense of unreality began to recede. His limbs started to feel like his own again. The pounding static in his head lessened as he focused, concentrating harder than he ever had in his life on taking control of himself.

“T-think I'm in shock,” he muttered. The words came out “thinguminshog” from his rubbery lips.

“Yeah, I'd imagine,” Andrea said. “You were shot. Which means any ghouls around these parts are going to be lively very soon.”

“Safe place,” Kell said, making the words a question.

Michelle pointed forward with a tiny hand. “There's a little town ahead, but it's too far to run in the dark without a break. There's a cabin with a basement close. I've been there.”

“They'll catch us,” he said.

There was a long silence. “We left them behind a while ago. You went loopy for a bit. Do you not remember me saying there were ghouls moving in behind us? I poured a little ammonia on the trail. We saw the hunters turn back and run.”

Still gathering his wits, Kell shook his head. “Feels like it's only been a few minutes. Have a headache.”

Andrea glanced back at him worriedly. “We've been running for more than half an hour. There's no one behind us anymore. We're almost there.”

The outline of the cabin appeared a few minutes later, not so much an object in the darkened woods, but a
lack.
An empty space where the thin light between trees should have been. Kell was hustled down a set of steps into utter darkness, where his mind finally came back online, all systems green.

Except for the crater in his shoulder. That still sucked in five different languages.

“Light,” Andrea warned before clicking on the lantern. She kept it pointed away from him, though the sudden change was enough to hurt his eyes. “I need to take a look at your shoulder.”

“We don't have time, Andrea. They could circle around and follow us here.”

Guiding him to a bench, she sat him down and took the pack. “It's possible,” she said as she began removing his outer layers of clothing. “Not likely, though. I've never seen them out this far, and since they rarely cross the creek there's a good chance they don't know this place is here. As for tracking us, it's also possible. But there are a lot of ghouls out here. They've made a mess of the woods. Do you think those men are good enough to tell the trails of the dead from ours, in the dark?”