The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (107 page)

Alone... Hungry... Mistrustful...
Donita said nothing, simply flexed her legs and leapt into the tall
grass, the big man behind her.

~

The woods ended at a small creek
running down the side of a ravine. The woman never heard them until
they were nearly on her. The big man had circled and purposely
rustled the tall grass behind her. When she turned quickly, Donita
leapt, the full weight of her body crashing into the woman before
she even knew she was there, and took her to the ground. Donita
took her slim neck in her hands and snapped it before she could
react. The power in her own arms still surprised her. The woman's
neck broke like a dry stick. Her feet kicked at the ground as the
man came from the grass and watched.

Silver-blue moonlight painted her face
as she held the woman until she stopped fighting. A second later,
it was over. She lay dead. Donita stood briefly and then moved to
the man where he stood, his eyes reflecting the same moonlight that
had brought so much life to the woman's eyes just a few moments
before. He cocked his head sideways and then came to her, his body
settled down next to the woman. He seemed to be waiting on Donita,
his fingers tented, holding his body weight as he
waited.

There was still warmth in the woman,
and it both excited and repulsed Donita as she squatted and her
thighs settled on either side of the woman’s ribs. She bent forward
and lowered her mouth to her throat, finding the hollow. She tilted
her chin with one hand and then turned her neck to the side. Her
teeth found the artery below the skin and closed over it. A second
later, the passion took her and she lost herself. The man scrambled
up onto the woman's body, whining low in his throat as he
did.

Later...

The moon was bloated and silver bright.
The man stood nearby, the last remaining twin was curled into her
legs, arms wrapped around them.

They knew. The people nearby were aware
that they were here. The other dog, the one in the camp, the one
she had not been able to get, had been barking most of the night.
One of the breathers kept looking over to where they were. He would
come. He would not come until morning, but he would come and he
would bring others with him too.

She could take them all easily, but
this was not her fight. This is not where her fight would be. This
was not what the army was for. They were purposed for something
else entirely.

Her hand fell to the twin. She had
taken her and her sister in the south. They had been her favorites.
She had lost one not long before, but she had made those that had
killed her pay for it. The touch of her hand raised the twin to her
feet.

A few minutes later they were all on
the way, running through the night at a fast lope, running down the
moon.

The Camp Late August

Billy sat sipping coffee by the fire,
talking over traveling plans with Dell and a few others, when
Winston and Rogers walked over. Rogers settled into a conversation
with Jamie. Winston raised his eyebrows at Billy and Dell. They
both got up and walked away from the fire.

“
What's on your mind,
Winston?” Billy asked.

“
Probably nothing. I had
the overnight... kept hearing something, I don't know, out of
place. The dog kept looking over at the woods, growling real low.
The fires were going, who knows what's out there.”

Billy nodded. Dell looked concerned. He
stuffed his hands down into his pockets.

“
That's it. No big deal. I
wasn't about to walk away from here and go check it out in the
middle of the night.” He sipped at his coffee. “Went over first
thing, right after daybreak. It was bugging the hell out of
me.”

“
What was it?” Scotty
asked.

“
Walk over there with me?”
He asked.

“
Sure,” Billy
agreed.

“
Absolutely,” Dell said
tightly.

Billy sat his own empty cup down,
smiled down at Jamie's questioning look. “No big deal,” he told
her. He turned away, and he and Dell followed Winston across the
road toward the small woods on the other side. Halfway there, Jamie
caught up. She slipped one arm through Billy's own. “What is it,
Babe?” She asked.

“
Don't know,” Billy told
her. “It's Winston’s show.”

The smell hit them before they reached
the woods.

“
Jesus,”
Dell said,
“What in...”

The carcass of a small dog lay rotting
a few feet away. The throat torn open, the stomach bloated,
swollen, intestines spilling out of her side where whatever had
killed her had been feeding. A few feet away a human corpse,
whether man or woman it was hard to tell. But whatever had been
feeding on the dog had been feeding on the body also. The head had
been dragged several feet away. Most of the chest was gone, and the
stomach lay open, a hollowed cavity.

Billy raised his eyes and took in the
gloom, his eyes searching the area.

“
Some of them have been
living here,” Winston said quietly.

Jamie stepped back into the small
clearing. “Why does it look as though this was cleared,” Jamie
said.

“
Exactly my question,”
Winston said.

“
Probably was already
cleared,” Dell said. “Then this Zombie comes along...”

“
Maybe the body was someone
camped out here? Then, this Zombie came along and killed them,”
Jamie asked.

No one spoke.

Billy turned back to the clearing from
his examination of the surrounding woods. “Trails,” Billy said. He
pointed. “There... and there.”

“
Might have been here last
night,” said Jamie. “I say it because there's nothing else here. No
other animals have moved in to take what's left.” She looked at
Winston.

He nodded. “I thought that
too. It's maybe not a problem because we're leaving soon, but that
looks... I don't want to say fresh... but it looks like a new kill.
And the dog was barking all night, looking in this direction. I
thought, if they are here,
this
close,”
he shrugged.

“
Today,” Billy said. His
eyes swept the clearing again. “This morning. Maybe last
night”

“
Yeah,” Scotty
agreed.

“
Probably should keep this
to ourselves,” Billy added.

Winston nodded. “My
thoughts.”

“
But I guess we better
check the areas we stay in closer,” Jamie said. “Who knows what
might have happened.” She turned and looked through the woods and
across the field. Their camp was easily visible. She shuddered.
Winston caught her eyes and blinked. Billy caught the
interplay.

“
Yeah,” Billy said.
“Yeah... Probably crouched here, hidden, and watched
us.”

“
Do they do that?” Jamie
asked.

“
Sure,” Dell
said.

“
That seems like hunters,”
Jamie added.

“
Zombies are hunters,” Dell
said.

“
Doesn't matter,” Billy
said. “Let's get out of here.”

“
Shouldn't we bury the
guy?” Jamie asked.

Billy stopped. “Dell, go back and tell
Beth... better send her over, in fact. She's been lying low, but
she'll want to know about this... Bring a shovel back.”

“
They'll probably come back
and dig it back up,” Jamie said. She looked around
nervously.

“
Yeah. But we're going to
do it anyway. Go on back and get Beth. Keep it low key. Don't
mention this to anyone else,” he sighed. “We're going to have to
leave soon, a few days more at the most, and we'll have to decide
and go,” he looked at Jamie. She turned her eyes to him. “Okay?” he
asked.

Jamie nodded. “Just scared me,” she
said. She looked away. It only took the mention of Beth's name to
piss her off lately, Billy knew.

Billy nodded. “Dell, this stays with
us. Later on we'll sit down and talk to the others if it looks like
we have to. It doesn't look like we have to right now,” He nodded,
raised his eyes from the ground and then started through the trees
to get a shovel.

Into the city Once More

Donita

They had run until they had come to the
opposite end of the small woods, and Donita had stopped. The sun
was up, sapping their strength, burning their eyes. It was not so
much to her. She had grown used to it, but not so for the others,
and it was not so far behind her that she did not remember the
pain, the fear. It could not cause her to fall down and lapse into
twilight. The heat from the sun was not pleasant, but it could not
kill her, and she knew now for sure that it could not. Better that
these behind her learned that too. Best that they were not afraid,
not ruled by it.

She stared out across the field and
then raised her eyes beyond it. The buildings of Manhattan rose
before her. Miles away yet, but they called to her, and not her
alone. She set off across the field at a lope. The big man fell in
behind her, the remaining twin at her side, the thousands pouring
from the deep woods, following like a shadow across the open
ground.

CHAPTER FOUR

September 2nd

The cars and trucks in the field were
pulling out when Bear dropped his truck down off the road and into
the far end of the field. He very nearly shut off the motor before
Cammy's hand fell on his own and stopped him.

“
You trust too easy, Bear,”
she told him.

He sighed and then nodded. Maybe he
did, he told himself. But could you live on the edge all the time?
Never able to let your guard down? He laughed. The truth was, now
that he forced himself to think about it, that he had always lived
that way. He never let his guard down. This was just a case of
tired, or stupid, or both mixed together.

“
What could you possibly
find funny about that, Bear?” Cammy asked him. She was so serious
all the time. A perpetual worrier.

“
I'm sorry. It wasn't about
that.” He debated telling her what it had been about, but the look
on her face stopped him. “You're right, Cammy. You're right, and
when you're right, you're right.” He looked down the field at the
trucks and cars.

There was a slow curve that lead up to
the field. He had not known they were here, and they had not heard
him coming because the trucks and cars were all running, drowning
out the sound of his own motor. They had looked as surprised to see
him as he had been to see them.

Bear and Cammy sat looking out at the
shocked faces in the trucks and cars at the other end of the
field.

Several cars and trucks pulled out
anyway, driving past where they sat, eyes sliding over them before
they disappeared around the bend.

There were three trucks left in the
field. Bear stepped out and walked alone down the field to one of
the trucks and the small crowd that stood waiting for him. He held
his shotgun in one hand, pointing at the ground, there if he needed
it. He stopped in front of the people gathered around the
trucks.

“
I have never seen a man as
big as you that walked that easy,” a young, dark haired girl
leaning against the hood of one of the trucks told him. The young
guy at the front of the hood turned and looked at her.

“
Easy, Iris,” he told her.
He turned back to Bear. “Mac,” he said. He nodded at the young
woman that had spoken. “Iris.” He turned and pointed at each of the
people standing there in turn.

“
Beth, Billy, Winston,
Dell. There are a couple of kids sleeping in the back of the
Suburban. You're pulling in?”

Bear shrugged. “Bear,” he said. “We're
heading out from the city... Manhattan. The lady in the truck is
Cammy.” He raised one hand, turned and waved it at Cammy. A few
seconds later, the truck dropped into drive and Cammy drove down
the field. She stopped the truck, opened the door and stepped
out.

Beth made the introductions once more.
Mac walked to the back of the truck and Billy moved up to talk to
Bear and Cammy.

“
We were about to light
out. You don't want to stay here. As impossible as it may seem,
we've got dead around here.” He turned and nodded at the woods
across the field. “Right over there a few nights back, while we
were right here. We had posts set up too,” he shrugged. “Gone when
we realized it the next morning, but they were there
okay.”

“
The others left anyway?”
Cammy asked him.

“
They're not with us,”
Billy answered. “We all met here. They're going west, we're heading
south. Beth, me, Peggy, and Dell came out of L.A. together. Met
Jamie, Winston, Mac and Iris; they got two kids... parents gone,
crossed over from Jersey a few days back - Don Westfall and Ginny,”
He pointed back at the third truck and a couple who stood talking
to another couple. “Don is the tall guy with the bright red hair.
Ginny's the woman next to him with the black hair. The two
traveling with them are Danny Best and Rose Evans.” He turned back
to Bear. He had been looking back at the others as he spoke. “You
and your lady heading south?”