The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (134 page)

He walked over to a slightly raised
area, where a board filled with keys spanned most of the rear wall
behind a small, but long counter top. He gave Beth the keys to a
convertible that was between them and the doors, and she moved it
while Billy jockeyed the truck around until he managed to get it
aimed at the wide glass doors set into the side of the building. He
drove it outside, checking the gas gauges as he did.

The truck had dual tanks, and both of
them were full. Not that they'll last any longer than the pickups
single tank, he thought, but he was still glad that they were full.
They edged carefully around the still burning Jeep, and made their
way slowly out of town and back to the pickup, watching the side
roads as they went. They were both spooked.

When they were still more than a
hundred yards from the pickup, they could tell that they'd had
visitors while they were gone. Billy edged the Suburban up
carefully to the truck and they searched the surrounding
countryside, but decided whoever had been there was
gone.

The truck was demolished. Someone or
some-ones had attacked it with a vengeance. All the windows were
smashed, and the black vinyl cover that had spanned the bed of the
truck was slashed to ribbons. The tires had been flattened, and
they had dented or punctured nearly every body panel. The camping
gear, along with the rest of the venison, was gone. The map they
had been using lay ripped and shredded across the front seat, which
had also been slashed.

They only walked around the truck once,
but it was enough. They both turned without speaking and walked
back to the Suburban.

“
Doesn't matter,” Billy
said once they were safely back inside the Suburban. “We can pick
up more gear down the road. I saw a small sporting goods store
about a mile back, it had a little shopping center right next to
it.”

“
I guess we don't have to
deal with the dead here because these people are here and killed or
chased them off. But then we got to deal with people alive trying
make more dead out the living... . One or the other and no in
between, I guess,” Beth said.

Billy shook his head slowly as they
drove away.

When they reached the small sporting
goods store he pulled as close to the front doors as he could. The
parking lot looked deserted, but the dealership had also looked
deserted, and he was taking no chances. They looked the huge lot
over for better than ten minutes before they left the truck. He
wished they didn't have to stop at all. The sooner they were on the
road the better, as far as he was concerned. He supposed it
probably wouldn't be any better stopping somewhere else though.
They entered the store and took turns watching the lot as they
picked up what they needed. Besides a handful of dead, all head
shot, the store was empty. Beth looked over the bodies.

“
I guess some archaeologist
is going to dig all this shit up in forty thousand years, if we all
survive and have to come up with some explanation as to why so many
skulls show evidence of bullet holes... Makes me wonder what
they'll say... Religious practice? Sacrifices to the gods?” She
asked.

“
Hopefully they'll never
know what the zombie plagues were really about,” Billy said
quietly.

By the time they had re-outfitted
themselves it was nearly dark. The setting sun casting the lot in
deep shadows, and Billy was glad he had parked the truck close to
the doors. They debated staying. They could sleep right inside the
small shop Beth argued, but Billy didn't want to, and Beth's
argument was halfhearted at best. They both decided they would
rather put as many miles as possible between them and the small
town. In the end they left despite the descending darkness, and
they did not stop that night at all.

Billy drove while Beth slept, and
towards daybreak as they were nearing Fort Deposit the road
disappeared into the water. They had stood looking as the sun rose
higher into the sky. It was water as far as the eye could see. The
air carried the tang of salt. They were both at a loss for words.
Finally, Billy angled the truck down off the pavement, turned it
around and drove back to an old logging road he had seen a few
miles back. He dropped down off the pavement and followed the
rutted road into a quiet, forested area and killed the hot
motor.

They quickly set up a small camp in the
sparse morning light, and then crawled into the tent. They held
each other tightly as they drifted off to sleep.

~

Beth
awoke long before Billy, and now sat outside the small tent,
watching the last rays of light fade from the sky. It seemed to
seep slowly away, and darken the sky above the pines. The wind
kicked up briefly, blowing the dead leaves across the ground. They
scratched and rattled as they went, making her think of small
skeletons rattling in the wind. She felt afraid, and had since she
had awakened earlier. She couldn't explain it to herself. She had
been tempted to awaken Billy, but had decided after twice starting
to do so, to wait until he awoke on his own.

She could tell now though, by the
change in his breathing, that he would soon awaken, and she walked
to the small fire she had built earlier to start some coffee
brewing. She placed the small tin pot on the coals next to the
fire.

She was sitting by the fire wondering
how to approach the subject of what next, when Billy rolled out of
the tent. She turned around to face him, and she saw the sadness
etched into his face. He's worried too, she thought, and before she
could complete the thought he proved her right.

They had been undecided for a short
time after they had found the highway arcing down into the water
somewhere inside what had been the border of Alabama. They would
have to go back, but where? They had been heading south, not an
absolute place, but south nonetheless. South was now out of the
question., The water had stretched away as far as they could see to
the south, east, and then arced away forming a new coastline to the
west. They had starting backtracking the next day.

Beth poured coffee in the small tin
cups for both of them before she spoke. “Where are you
thinking?”

They had backtracked all the way into
Kentucky. Stopping last night at what they assumed was the Ohio
river, too tired to decide what was next.

He shrugged his shoulders as he
responded. “I think we can start heading for the East coast. What
do you think?”

“
I guess so, I... I don't
know. It certainly won't hurt, and where else would we go?” she
stared into the fire as she spoke. “I think we should be a lot more
careful though. I get the feeling that those people we ran into
aren't the only ones around who would just as soon kill us, and I'm
not kidding myself about it, I think it was pretty clear. They
didn't want to talk, or even to just take us prisoner or something,
they wanted to outright kill us. No sense pretending about that.”
She paused.

“
I mean, I really thought
there, for a second, that they were just scared or something, or
maybe saw me and... Well, you know. But that wasn't it.”

When she finished he
nodded silently, and then sipped from the cup before he spoke.
“You're right, I just didn't want to think about it, Hell, I
couldn't think about much of anything except getting as far away as
possible, and I kept thinking about the truck too. Did they do that
before they tried to kill us, after, or was it someone else?
There's no real way to tell, but even if they were alone I'm not
kidding myself that there won't be others just like them. We do
have to be careful,” he paused, thinking. “In fact I think we need
to get off the main road from now on. These parks, rural areas seem
better. No dead... Few dead anyway... Fewer people. I never thought
I would say fewer people was a good thing, but,” he shrugged,
“guess I just did. I don't think it's safe...
You agree?
I mean, there are lots of
other roads that parallel the main highway. I guess it just seems
like the smart thing to do, and it feels like the right thing to
do. What do you think?” he asked.

“
I think you're right. I've
been sitting out here thinking about pretty much the same thing for
quite a few hours, and you're right, we have to be careful, and
you're also right about the main road... It just doesn't seem safe,
or the safest way to get anywhere anymore.”

“
Well,” Billy said, “if
we're going to take side roads, we're going to have to get another
map, and that means we're going to have to go into the next city to
get one. I'm not thrilled about that, but we're also going to need
to pick up more ammunition too. Either way, we have to at least
follow the highway into the next town down the line. No way around
it,” he almost seemed as though he were hoping that she would come
up with some alternative as he spoke.

“
No other way,” she said,
“so... I guess we better get moving?” She allowed what she had
meant to be a statement to rise at the end and turned it into more
of a question.

“
No,” Billy said
immediately. “No way. It'll be dark soon, and I really don't think
that would be a smart move at all. No... I think we should wait it
out here tonight, and get on the road early in the morning. We
should be able to make the next town without a map. I don't even
know what the next place is, but it can't be too far, can it?” he
didn't wait for a response; he had asked more for himself than her.
“No, I'm pretty sure it won't be far. We've been running into lots
of small towns every twenty, thirty miles or so, and most of them
at least have gas stations. We should be able to get a map fairly
easily. After we do though, that's it. We get off the main road,
and stay off it.”

As darkness closed in, they had both
turned quiet. Beth had begun a small dinner over the coals in the
fireplace, they had hastily thrown together earlier that morning
when they had arrived, and Billy had walked over to the truck and
occupied himself with checking the mechanics, making sure that
nothing had been damaged the night before as he had
driven.

Several times he had driven over debris
in the road, but in his haste to put miles between them, he had
ignored it. He had also become convinced during the night as he
drove, that they were being followed. He had kept glancing into the
mirrors, sure that he would see glowing headlights closing in on
them from behind. It had not happened though; the road behind them
had remained empty all night as he had driven.

He had another thought as he stood
looking over the truck. What if they had done something to this
truck? He wondered. He knew it was irrational, there had to have
been over a hundred trucks on that lot, and... How would they have
known to choose this one? And if they had, wouldn't something
already have happened?

In spite of how ridiculous it seemed,
he checked the truck over anyway. There was one small gouge in the
front passenger fenders paint, probably due to some debris flying
up and hitting it, but other than that the truck seemed fine, and
none the worse for the hurried trip. He pushed it from his mind as
he walked away from the truck and back to the fire.

Beth was stirring a stew like mixture,
to keep it from burning on the hot coals.

“
I think it's ready,” she
said as he approached the fire, and squatted down beside her.
“Hungry?” she gave him a small spoonful to taste.

“
Oh yeah,” he responded,
and rubbed his stomach with one hand to show her it was true. He
sat down close to the fire, and turned his thoughts away from the
truck.

Billy tried a tired smile on his face
as he took a bowl of the stew. Beth sat down next to him, and they
began to eat as the last traces of light seeped from the
sky.

April18th

Beth
awoke a few hours before dawn and sat just outside the small
tent, lost in thought.

Billy had mentioned the day before,
that it was probably not safe to use the main road any longer. She
knew now that he was right. At first she had thought that his
reasoning had been influenced by the previous attack they had
experienced, but now she was not so sure. Now she was convinced
that he had already known, that he had somehow seen what was ahead,
and knew that the only way for them to travel safely was via the
back roads.

As she sat in the darkness waiting for
the sunrise, she realized that she too had known. She had only to
recall their conversation of the previous night. She sat and tried
to make sense of all the thoughts that seemed to be running loose
in her mind.

She slowly became aware that the sky
was beginning to color with the first rays of sunrise. The silent,
night-black forest surrounding them began to awaken. Birds began to
whistle in the pre-dawn air. Their whistled conversations flew back
and forth, and were soon joined by the chatter of a multitude of
squirrels who also called the forest home. The symphony created by
the forest inhabitants began to break apart her troubled thoughts
as she listened, the black mood that had begun to descend upon her
finally lifted as the first brilliant rays of sunlight began to
stream down through the thick pines of the forest.

She rose slowly and began to re-kindle
the fire. When Billy awoke a few minutes later, she had coffee
heating, and had already prepared a small breakfast from the left
over dinner of the night before.