The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (118 page)

“
Probably be bad if you
weren’t a chicken. But the chickens don't seem to mind,” Lilly
said.

Candace tugged the glove up her arm.
“She has me murdering rabbits later.”

Lilly looked at Patty. “She wants to
learn how to do it,” Patty told her.

“
Mike thinks that I need to
learn,” Candace frowned and stuck out her lower lip.

“
Oh stop. She wants to
impress him, so she's learning. We'll be coming right back here
tomorrow to prepare chickens... fresh chickens.”

Candace frowned. “Murdering rabbits
tonight, chickens tomorrow.” She went to the next chicken, reached
in and under the chicken and pulled her hand out with the egg in
the glove. She slipped the egg into her basket and then went back
to the first chicken. “There was another egg under this one,”
Candace said as she slipped her hand beneath the chicken. She
started to pull her hand back when the chicken suddenly erupted
into the air. Candace screamed and jumped back, crushing the egg in
her gloved hand.

Lilly was on the hay covered floor,
holding Patty and rolling back and forth, laughing
uncontrollably.

Candace looked at the yolk and chicken
shit dripping off her glove. “Can't wait for the rabbits,” she
said. Patty and Lilly went off into fresh gales of
laughter.

CHAPTER EIGHT

October 18th: Year One

The ledge outside the cave was empty
when Bear walked out. He pulled the door shut behind him to keep
the cool air from rushing in. The top of the ledge seemed to catch
the gusts of wind as they swept up from the valley floor to clear
the top of the small mountain above the cave. From there, the winds
would work their way higher into the mountain ranges beyond. The
real mountains, Bear thought of them, that lifted up so high they
were sometimes lost in the clouds that swept the sky.

He looked up at the sky now, an
involuntary thing he had noticed himself doing more and more. He
expected that soon he would look up to the sky and see snow flakes
drifting down. The air was cold, but not so bad that he felt he
should raise his collar or slip the hood of his jacket over his
head. A few months back he had begun to grow a beard. It insulated
his face now, full and heavy. What cold did get through felt good
on his face after the heat inside the cave. He was not the sort of
man that liked to be confined or felt a need for company. There had
been a time where he had sought those comforts, but that time was
far behind him.

He walked to the rock wall and stared
off down into the valley. He had been here for just a few weeks,
but it was a few weeks too long. He could feel it. Winter was on
the way, and he did not want to be trapped here.

One of the first things to change when
he had come to the Nation was Cammy. She had come before him, while
he had still been out in the real world. She had fallen in love
with it, with the people. It was home to her. She fit right in just
that fast. He hardly recognized her when he saw her.

When he had come back, there had been
no more pretense of a relationship between them. But there had been
no relationship with Beth either, at least not the relationship he
had hoped for, thought that they had discussed, agreed upon, both
wanted. It had confused him, and still did.

He had thought it was something that
both of them wanted, but maybe it had simply been another heat of
the moment relationship. Maybe that was all it was. In any case,
whatever it was, it would not matter much longer. Mike had called
the council together, a secret meeting in the barn shortly after
they had come back, and then a more public meeting in the main area
of the cave a few days after that.

Bear settled his weight onto his elbows
that he had planted atop the stone wall and looked out over the
valley.

The Outrunners were a reality. Himself,
Billy and Pearl, Billy's woman. Pearl had come from the Nation. She
had been doing part of the job already when Billy met her. She was
as tough as any person needed to be to do the job. The council had
replaced her with someone else to do the patrol job she had been
doing and freed her up to go out on their first mission as a team.
It would be the three of them making up that team this time; they
would add others as they saw a need. For now, Bear thought, it
would be best to be smaller.

The first mission was weapons. That was
the real mission. The public mission was building supplies, lumber,
steel prefab buildings, large sheets of acrylic and more. There was
a lengthy list. It seemed impossible to Bear, since it had not been
long since they had come back. But, the Nation was nearing fifteen
hundred people. Building materials were critical.

The saw mill was nearly ready, and they
could begin logging some forested valleys around them. But the need
was immediate. No one knew when the snow would fly, and they needed
to build as soon as they could. Bear was sure they could find both
the materials and weapons they needed and be back before the first
snow fell.

The council was talking about a
permanent base at the old campground. That had been a private
discussion down in the barn, after the big meeting. So when they
came back through, there might be people there already, building an
outpost of the Nation. The way they had talked, it seemed like a
certainty. They even had someone, or several someones, in mind to
live there. It didn't surprise Bear. It might even be something he
would consider rather than living in the Nation itself, but he
hoped to be on the road doing missions all the time instead. He
didn't really need a place to call home.

The afternoon was fading. True, the
days were longer, but after the first few months, he didn't really
notice it all that much. The sun rose, you fit as much into the
daylight hours as you could, and then the sun set. It was times
like this - times where it had been a long day, and it should be
over, and it wasn't - that you noticed how much more daylight there
was.

Today had been his day of indecision.
Not on the surface. On the surface he had been his gruff self. No
indecision at all. He knew exactly what he wanted, but that front
was for the public. The people that came and went in his life. Just
like the old days, nothing much had changed. He had been a loner
back then, and he was still a loner now. Today he had, had a great
deal of indecision. He had simply kept it to himself.

Bear reached into his top jacket
pocket, retrieved his pouch and then put his fingers to work
rolling a cigarette. Tobacco was about the only thing he had
remembered to bring with him. He fished a wooden kitchen match from
his pocket and lit the cigarette, pulling the smoke through his
nose and into his lungs. The door opened and closed behind him, and
he turned from the view of the valley. “Mike,” he
smiled.

“
Bear.” Mike leaned against
the wall and looked down into the valley. He looked up at Bear.
“Tim says they're ready.”

Bear took a deep pull on the cigarette,
rubbed it out against the heel of his boot and then straightened
back up. He dropped the butt into his pocket. “Done?” He raised his
eyebrows.

“
Says so,” Mike agreed. The
door opened and Ronnie and Bob stepped out. The conversation from
inside the meeting area seemed to flow out the open door with them.
Loud, a woman laughing, kids talking, other sounds mixed in with
them, but they were cut off as Bob let the door swing
closed.

“
Going down to look?” Bob
asked.

“
Just,” Bear agreed. “Mike
just came to get me.”

“
Kind of curious myself,”
Bob said.

“
Yeah,” Ronnie agreed.
“Patty says she saw him working on the last one earlier. She said
it looked like something out of a science fiction
novel.”

Bear laughed. “If it drives and gets me
from point A to point B, that's all I care about.”

“
I think,” Bob said, “based
on what I saw earlier today, it will get you to point B with no
trouble. Maybe even a few points past it.”

Bear laughed as he followed Mike down
off the main ledge area to the sloping path that lead down into the
valley.

~

“
I don't care,” Beth said.
“I don't”

Patty arched her eyebrows. “You want to
live that kind of life?”

Beth shrugged. “I think I caught it
from Bear. It just feels too closed in for me. I don't want to be
here. I don't think I could live this kind of life.”

“
Honey, they almost got you
once,” Candace said.

“
And might again,” Patty
added. She shivered at the thought. When she had seen Mike's
missing finger from his encounter with the dead, she had been even
more upset than Candace had been. Beth had lost an arm, it was
scarcely healed, and she wanted to go right back out. Patty
couldn't see that at all.

Beth nodded. She locked eyes with
Candace, shifted to Patty and then back to Candace. “Okay. I love
him. He's not going to stay here. Tomorrow he's going to leave.
He's not the kind of man that can live this kind of life. He
needs... I don't know, whatever it is, it isn't this... safety, a
soft bed, full stomach, predictability. Bear doesn't want that.
Never did. Even before this happened, he didn't want it. I know. He
told me.”

“
He didn't want it then; he
doesn't want it now. If I stay here, then he is out of my life. I
don't even know if a woman can hold him, have a place in his heart,
but I know I'll never get a chance to find out if he goes, and I
stay here. And I meant what I said too. Maybe I caught it from
Bear. But I don't know,” She turned and looked out the thick
plastic panel that served as a window out onto the ledge. Bear,
Mike, Ronnie and Bob were gone. She hadn't seen them go. Sometime
while she had been talking, they had walked away. “Damn,” she said
now. “They left.” She turned more fully toward the door.

“
Well, wait,” Candace told
her. Patty reached down and pulled her to her feet. “I'm not gonna
miss this then,” Candace said as she made her feet.

Beth laughed nervously. “You think I
should tell him then?”

“
What?” Patty
said.

“
Well, you know,” Beth
started.

“
You better,” Candace said.
“I'm as big a house, and I not only got up, but I'm following you
down into the valley.” At seven months pregnant with twins, Candace
was popped out in front. Patty was nearly as big.

“
Maybe you shouldn't,” Beth
said.

“
Bull,” Candace said. “I
have to walk home anyway. It's on the way... sort of.”

“
Sure it is,” Beth laughed.
“You're sure?”

“
I'm sure. You have to tell
him, Beth. If he is what you want, tell him. Tomorrow will be too
late.”

Patty nodded. “I would,” she
agreed.

Candace grunted as she slipped her arm
into the sleeve of her coat and then shrugged it on. She tried to
pull it closed in the front, but it lacked a few inches of
material. Patty sniggered, as did Beth. Candace laughed herself
after a few more attempts to close it. She let loose of it, turned
back to Beth and smiled. “Lead on,” She said. “Lead on.”

~

Tim stepped away from the trucks, one
hand on the canvas he had draped over them, and then tugged
sharply, pulling the covering free.

Bear whistled low. Behind him, Billy
wolf whistled.

“
Wow. I'm friggin'
impressed,” Ronnie told him. He walked to the nearest truck, ran
one hand over the front fender and then walked to the one in back
of it.

“
How the hell did you do
it?” Bear asked.

Tom, Bob and Billy stepped closer to
the nearest truck from where they had been talking. Tim nodded at
them. “Couldn't have without them. No way,” Tim said.

“
You knew?” Mike asked
Bob.

“
I did?” Bob
asked.

Bear laughed. “I've seen Billy's van,
saw him build it. I guess the van's staying behind?”

“
No way,” Billy said. “It's
reinforced six ways to Sunday, same as this is. But I had these
guys,” He glanced from Bob to Tom. “Unbelievable mechanics. I mean
unbelievable.”

“
Really though. Tom and I
just did what Tim and Billy told us to do,” Bob said. “Those two
had the knowledge, the idea.”

Bear walked a complete circle around
the trucks. “These are serious damn trucks.”

“
It's parts from what we
had. We had a few we had built to get us here. We really didn’t use
those anymore. But all of us worked on those trucks. I just took
the best from those and some spare stuff we had,” Tim
said.

“
They're goddamn tanks,”
Mike said.

“
They are tanks,” Tom
agreed. “Believe me.”

The trucks sat high from the barn floor
where they had put them together. Steel plating rose halfway up the
bodies. Heavy steel mesh covered the glass. The side glass was
reinforced with steel plating that left only small slots for rifles
in the side window areas. Steel discs covered most of the tire
surface area, leaving very little to get a bullet into. Bear
squatted and looked over first one and then the other.