The Undead World (Book 1): The Apocalypse (35 page)

“
I could have walked,” Sarah replied, grasping at straws in her misery.

“
And you would have died.” Neil took her hands. “And Eve would never have had a chance for you to be her mother. And neither would Sadie. That's how she looks at you.”

If there was something striking about Neil it was the blue of his eyes. They stared right down into her soul.
“Are you saying you'll vote for me?” she asked and he nodded. “What about the rest of it? It's…it's not easy raising a child alone. A baby shouldn't just have a mother.”

“
Yes, I guess so,” he said, slowly, realizing what she was asking. “I suppose I need to ask you the same question: what about the rest of it? Us, I mean. We're going from holding hands to being parents? Is that what you're suggesting? How do I know that this isn't some ploy to get me into bed?”

She laughed.
“
Us
was progressing. Only last night I discovered I wanted it to progress to the next stage, and who knows what would have happened if Sadie hadn't been there. So, no, this isn't a ploy. I want us to be a we eventually. I wouldn't ask you otherwise. So…what do you say?”

He looked away, towards Julia who seemed in two places at once, emotionally speaking—fear and hope were working her face through a series of odd looks. Neil, grinning a sad grin, said,
“I'd love to raise this child with you. I'd love to be her father, but I don't think it would be right. The way Julia reacted just now...clearly she needs this. I don't know her so well, but it feels like she's been treading water and if the vote goes against her, she may sink.”

It was Sarah who felt like she was sinking just then, as if her feet wer
e slipping beneath the pavement. “I suppose,” she said in a whisper.

Neil reeled her in, pulling her gently closer so they looked each other dead in the eyes.
“Besides, if you are truly interested in me being father to Eve, you would be interested in me being father to our own children, too. Can you wait nine months? I guarantee I'll give you the prettiest baby.”

She dipped her head, feeling tears come up quick, but not knowing if it was disappointment she was feeling or a hope for the future; her first hope in a long while. She realized Julia was probably feeling that same hope, only she had hers pinned on this one child. Sarah
's hope was for more.

“
I'll vote for Julia,” she said. “I’ve had one baby and I can have more in the future. And I have Sadie, like you said.” She thought Neil would also vote for Julia, however, he did not.

After a few minutes they gathered again and Ram handed each a piece of paper and a pen.
“I figured we should do this with a secret ballot,” he explained.

“
I don't think there's any need for that,” Sarah said. “I want Julia to know I voted for her. She was right about everything…” Sarah had to stop as Julia rushed up and hugged her. “You'll be a great mom,” she added in a whisper as the lady cried on her.

“
I'm voting for Julia also,” Ram announced as the two women broke apart. He handed her his piece of paper and added, “Though in a way, I'm voting for myself too.”

Now it was Neil
's turn, but when he stood he didn't go to Julia, he brought his paper to Sadie. “One day it'll be your time, and when that day comes you'll be a great mom, I know it,” he said and she blushed prettily.

“
Shit,” Cassie said in her slow way as everyone looked her direction. “I was gonna vote for myself since I knew none of you crackers would ever vote for a strong black woman, but now I sees this will be more interesting.” She went to Sadie and dropped the paper at her feet. “Now it's all tied up. Whatcha gonna do? Split the baby down the middle?”

Julia, suddenly robbed of her victory, stared at Sadie.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.

The girl lifted a shoulder in reply and then stooped to pick up Cassie
's poisoned vote. For a long while she stared at it before saying, “Eve needs one mom and one dad. I can't give her that, not honestly. I vote for Julia, but in return I want your share of any pop tarts that we find for the next year. Is that a deal?”

“
Yes,” Julia beamed at the girl and accepted Eve in her arms. Then like a coin flipping she turned on Cassie and snarled, “You aren't a strong black woman. I've known many strong black women–they were educated and accomplished and knew what decency was. You're nothing like them. You're broken is what you are!”

At this the girl
's anger flared and her eyes shot fire while her hand went to the Beretta at her hip that she always wore, however Sadie had learned her lesson with the knife and she produced a black pistol so quickly it seemed like magic.

Cassie snorted at the gun, as if it meant nothing and said,
“I see how all you be. Don't worry, you'll get yours.”

“
Our what?” Sadie demanded.

“
What's coming to you,” she hissed. “One day it won't be four crackers and a race traitor against just one of us. Then we'll see…”

Ram jumped up and grimaced through the pain in his leg.
“I'm done with her, Julia,” he roared, waking the baby who began to bleat with the sound of a lamb. For the moment he ignored her as he hobbled up to Cassie. “I'm not going to play around with you for one more second. You have two choices and only two. If you're going to keep running that mouth of yours, then leave right now, no one wants to hear it. Or if you can zip it until we get to Atlanta then we'll part ways then. What's it going to be?”

Despite his anger, she only raised an eyebrow.
“I'll be a good little nigger.”

Sadie was slow to put her gun away. She didn't trust Cassie, and that was partially because she understood Cassie. Certainly not on all levels, there was no way a girl from Passaic could truly understand a girl out of Compton, but on certain fundamental points she did. Such as how come she detested Julia.

The woman was generally quiet to everyone but Ram, though when she did speak she was polite, if not shy. Except when she spoke to Cassie. Then the words that came out of her mouth fell as if from on high. She acted as though she had some great wisdom that Cassie wouldn
't be able to fathom.

This sort of not so subtle racism was embarrassing
—though only she and Cassie seemed to even notice.

And that was another of Cassie
's issues with the group. Ram had a low running dislike for the girl, even before the baby had come into their lives, and he brushed off Julia's odd attitude, never once bothering to say anything. Sarah, a small town girl from Farm Country USA was completely baffled by Cassie—the way she spoke, the way she dressed, the way she rarely washed her hair, the way she had a wall around her like a shield. They were so completely alien to each other that neither said upwards of a dozen words a day to the other.

Then there was Neil. If given enough time Neil would
've chiseled a hole through Cassie's wall. His was an infectious personality—something that Sadie took full credit for. He had been a turtle living a hermit life before she had stumbled upon him, and now free of that restricting shell he blossomed, which was a salve to Sadie's guilt.

If anyone could
've gotten through to Cassie, it would have been Neil, but once the baby came, she was beyond help. Though he tried. The remainder of the journey that afternoon had been difficult on the group. Eve wasn't as easy as she looked and fussed so much that Julia was in tears, thinking she was failing in some respect.

“
Sometimes that's how babies are,” Sarah had said. “You just run down the check list: is she fed, burped, diaper changed? Is she too hot, is she too cold? Are her jammies bunched somewhere? Is she just colicky? Go ahead, go down the list. Start with a bottle.”

They discovered the problem eventually when Julia went to burp the baby.
“She's not a China Doll,” Sarah said, laughing. “Don't tap her like you're doing a golf clap. You got to go harder than that...harder.” Finally, when Julie gave her a good thump on the back, Eve belched like a man, and then promptly fell straight asleep.

This had them all grinning, all save Cassie. She remained a rock, sitting just behind Ram, who was in the passenger seat. Neil saw her lack of response and asked her,
“Do you have any brothers or sisters, Cassie?” When she emitted nothing but the passing of her breath, and eyes began to dart around at her rudeness, Neil just spoke as if they were in an actual conversation.

“
I don't either. Supposedly I was a problem child, however the nannies never seemed to mind. That was how I was raised: Nannies on the upper west side, right up until the crash of 87. Do you know what that was?” Cassie answered by looking out the window, which did not detour Neil from explaining anyways.

In a
nutshell that was how the day went. Their going was slow and tedious. Where before Ram had sought to avoid any town upwards of fifty-thousand people, now the land seemed to squeeze in on them as they progressed through the tail end of the Appalachians so that only twenty-five miles separated the suburbs of Chattanooga and Huntsville. And those miles were forested with stiffs.

That first night they holed up in a liquor store with barred windows and a sturdy set of doors. The boys drank until they were silly, while after her second warm beer, Sadie had trouble feeling her toes, which seemed much further away than usual. Julia and Sarah were drunk with baby fever, and did little besides sit next Eve and smile at her least movement. Cassie sat alone sipping from a bottle of Tuaca.

The following day they traveled at a snail's pace and only came upon the city of Rome, just across the Georgia state line, near three in the afternoon, though it was technically a large city, they had been having a hard time finding gas and they had to chance it. It was there that they came upon their first taste of what was to come at the CDC.

Just as they skimmed the outskirts of the city a light flashed at them and Neil stopped short.
“Did you see that? It was a light, whoa, there it is again.” A light from a dirt brown vehicle flicked their way. “Sadie?”

“
On it,” she said. Whenever there was exploring or recon work needed the group called upon the slight girl. Staying low, she slunk along the cars parked on the side of the street, ready to tear off at the slightest sign of danger. Behind her she knew that both Ram and Neil had their M16s trained at every doorway and alley she passed.

It was a nice to have Ram backing her, and it was nice to let Neil feel needed
—his ability with any weapon other than his axe was suspect—but it wasn't necessary. Since the world had died, the air had become so still that she heard the zombies long before she saw them, and she didn't think she was in much danger.

In this case she could hear them shuffling on a side street next to the odd vehicle that had flashed them.
The vehicle was clearly military, yet was so strange: it had the treads of a tank, however it was without a main gun and its design was that of a brown shoebox. On the top was what looked like a raised manhole cover and from a gap beneath a set of eyes stared out at her.

“
Did you need something?” Sadie whispered to the man.

“
There's a shitload of stiffs right over there.” He pointed away from himself toward where Sadie had heard them. She lifted herself from her crouch and gave them a look over the front edge of the vehicle. There were maybe fourteen of them and probably triple that number hiding where she couldn't see.

“
Do you want us to kill them for you?” she asked. It seemed a reasonable thing to do.

“
What? No we were warning you. Go back and get in your car before they kill you.” She gave them a quick nod and was about to slink away when the man whistled. “Hey, my friend wants to know your name.”

“
It's Sadie,” she answered, feeling an instant heat on her neck.

“
He say's you're cute.”

The heat crept up her face, but she summoned her courage and tried to look past the man and into the cramped vehicle. She couldn
't see a thing. “Tell him thanks, but I can't see him so I have to assume you are a bunch of sardine people from the planet Georgia. What is this thing?” she asked and tapped the metal box lightly.

“
It's an M113 armored personnel carrier and I think flirting time is over. The stiffs heard us. You better run.”

They were gang rushing her. Unperturbed she stepped back from the APC and clapped her hands over her head to make sure she had all of their attention. Only when every stiff in the all
ey was fully aware of her, did she run the seventy yards to the Suburban. And she did so at top speed—showing off.

“
What's up?” Ram asked.

Breathing heavily, but feeling good, Sadie answered nonchalantly,
“Just some soldier boys. We should ask them about how things are going at the CDC.”

“
Soldiers?” Sarah asked. “Maybe we shouldn't.”

“
These aren't the same guys,” Neil put in. “Now hold on to Eve. It's going to get bumpy.” He waited until the stiffs were right on the vehicle before plowing through them and over them; he then gunned the SUV down the street and pulled up right next to the APC.

Ram rolled down his window.
“Good afternoon. What can you tell us about the CDC? Is it still operational?”

The man gave Ram a look and then tried to peer into the vehicle, his eyes darting right over Cassie as if she wasn
't there. Sadie leaned forward and waved, catching his eyes and she saw them crinkle up with a smile. He then turned back to Ram and said, “Yeah, but they ain't taking in any more refugees. You need to go west to Guntersville. They got some spots open, at least they did a few days back. Now you better get on going. Them stiffs are coming back.” They were about to leave when the man noticed Cassie staring at him with a sneer. “What are you looking at?” he asked matching sneer for sneer.

“
A sorry-ass cracker.”

“
Cassie!” Julia cried, outraged.

“
You better put a leash on her,” the man advised, turning cold. “She's in good ole boy country now. We won't put up with that sort of talk. Now get.”

The stiffs were already marring the paint and smearing the glass, so Neil took off. As usual he floored it to clear the area, took a couple of turns and then slowed to a crawl again, looking for cars with their gas caps still sealed. There were so many left hanging open that it was obvious someone had come through and had siphoned them dry.

“What the hell was that about?” Ram asked. He had sat in a gathering anger, trying and failing to calm himself. “Are you going to make enemies wherever you go?”

“
Shit. We in cracker country now, Ram. You and I ain't welcome. I bet you they'd let all these nice white folk into the CDC, but we got to go to some refugee camp. You ever see white folk at a refugee camp? I ain't never seen a one unless they be the ones handing out the food.”

“
I vote her out,” Julia said suddenly. “You were warned, Cassie. You were warned not to make any more trouble. Ram? You warned her.”

His anger, which sat on his face like a mask seemed to fade as he looked out at the town of Rome. Down every street there were signs of death: burnt houses, decomposing bodies, old brown
bloodstains on the sidewalks and sprayed on cars. Zombies, here and there.

“
Not yet,” he said. “When we get out of town. We'll find her a farm or something.”

Neil cleared his throat.
“Maybe we should part ways at the CDC instead. I find Cassie's behavior incomprehensible as well as deplorable, However, I think we can deal with it for one more night. We’re pretty close.”

“
If we let her out now it would be like killing her,” Sarah said. “If that's the plan you should just shoot her instead, Ram. It would be more humane. I'm with Neil, we should wait. Sadie, what do you think?”

She thought Cassie was bad news. The girl had clearly been stewing in hatred for some time to be the way she was
—and that meant trouble. Still the idea of abandoning her here seemed completely heartless. “I can wait. We're in the home stretch. I can feel it, like we’re almost done running.”

“
Shit,” Cassie said. “Don't do me any favors, Sadie. Cuz after Ram, you'll be next. It's just what the white man do...”

“
I'd zip the lips if I was you,” Sadie said, cutting her off. “I can change my vote anytime. And I'll do it if you keep pushing.” She stared out the window and shook her head for a few seconds but was so bothered by Cassie that she added, “You almost sound like you want us to kick you out. Why?”

“
You saw how that dude just ignored me. Like I wasn't even there. I was fucking invisible to him, and that's how it always be. That's how it was with that baby. None of you even paused for a second to see if I wanted her. No one asked me what I thought about taking you guys on. I was a second class citizen before the zombies and I'm a second class citizen now. And that's how it'll be in fucking Atlanta.”

“
Do you even want to go?” Sadie asked. She expected the answer to be a quick no. Instead Cassie had to think it over, yet she did with eyes turned away so that only Sadie caught sight of them reflected in the glass. They were the eyes of a toad.

Their camp for the evening, according to road signs was twenty miles outside of Marietta, which was just one of a
gazillion little towns and cities that made up sprawling Atlanta. It was still farm country, however the farms had shrunk and they were closer together, with some being little more that
Gentleman Farms,
That grew next to nothing. On the plus side their accommodations were cozier, some of the barns being as nice as hotel rooms.

On the down side, it took some work for Neil and Ram to make their position defensible. While the sun was still above the horizon, Sadie kept watch, as Sarah and Julia took turns feeding Eve. The two men went to work on the stairs leading up to the loft. They pried out the treads and risers to a height of six feet, and set a ladder firmly in place. Next they covered up the windows with heavy blankets. Only then did they start hauling baggage up and down. Though in this it was mostly Neil doing the work.

Cassie usually helped but she was off to herself and Ram's knee was still too tender to go up and down the ladder more than a few times—when he did it was with a grimace on his face.

Sadie would
've helped, however someone had to keep watch...and hefting heavy loads was man's work as she saw it. “You two better hurry,” she called to the men as she made her rounds. “The sun will be going down in a few minutes.”