The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (141 page)

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.” He turned and nodded at the woods across the field. “We have
dead around here... Getting braver and braver. The posts and the
fires don't seem to keep them at bay any longer. Little boy come up
missing the other morning. Not one of ours, a group passing
through. There at bedtime, gone in the morning,” Billy shrugged. “A
little kid... Could have wandered off, and he did... Something got
him though. We found drag marks... No kid. We went after them.
Spent half the day scouring those woods. Found plenty of nests
where they had been bedded down in the daylight.” he shrugged.
“Gone when we got there, but they were there okay.”

“
The others left because of
that?” Cammy asked him.

“
They're not with us,”
Billy answered. “We all met here. Started a few months back with
just a few of us came from L.A. and built up from there…” He looked
off in the direction the vehicles had left. “They're going west,
we're heading back down south. Beth, me, Jamie, Winston and
David... Most of us came out of L.A. together. Met 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?”

Bear looked over at Cammy.

“
We were
thinking of going across through Pennsylvania, over that way. We
keep hearing...
Bear
keeps hearing, about the middle of the states
being dead free,” Cammy said. She didn't correct the misconception
Billy had that she and Bear were together. In truth, it really
wasn't clear in her mind whether they were or not. They had both
lost people they loved. It was probably too soon for both of them.
Maybe it always would be, she thought now, as her eyes met Bear's
and she saw the pain still riding there.

“
I heard some talk, but I
don't believe it. L.A. … A lot of the places we saw in between were
so bad,” Billy said.

Bear nodded. “The radio, a few weeks
back... They were talking about a city that was still safe... still
held by people,” he shrugged again. “It's south anyway, maybe
Alabama, just over and then down. I figured what the hell,” Bear
finished.

Billy nodded. “Alabama is gone,” he
said.

“
Gone?” Bear's voice
raised.

“
Gone,” Beth agreed. “Billy
and I drove right into the ocean almost... Maybe two hundred miles
in from the border it's just gone. Water's not deep, and I looked
through my scope... there is land a long way out,” she shrugged.
“So maybe it isn't all gone.”

“
Listen, I can't speak for
everyone.” Billy said. “We threw in together. It wasn't a vote kind
of thing, but we're heading south anyway,” he shrugged.

Beth shrugged. “We can go
your way...
I
can
go your way.” Her eyes met his. They were deep brown, liquid,
intense.

Billy scrubbed at the growth of beard
that covered his jaw. “I'm good with it.”

“
So what is this place you
heard of?” Iris asked.

“
Somewhere south. It was back when this whole thing started. I
rigged up a C.B. Just heard talk of a place in Alabama. People were
gathering together. I think Alabama, maybe it isn't, but it was
south... not on the coast. Really it was just a snatch of
conversation. I got nothing better than that, but it sounded real.
And I heard it more than once.” Bear scrubbed at his own beard.
“Okay. Well, I'm heading for it... and, well... fuck it, I got to
come out with it because I don't want a mistake about it later; I
don't follow. I'm just not built that way. I didn't do it in the
old world, and I won't do it now. As long as that's
clear,
you're
coming with me... I'm not coming with you.”

“
Harsh,” Mac
said.

“
Maybe,”
Bear agreed. “But we can't have a shit load of chiefs and no
Indians. I don't mean I have the only say, I mean that I don't...
Hell, I don't know a better way to say it. I can't sugar coat it.
I
don't follow
. It doesn't mean I don't listen though. I do. It's that
simple. I guess that means what it means.” He threw up his
hands.

“
I don't
need a leader,” Beth said. “I lead me, as long as
that's
straight.”

“
Do you?” Bear
said.

“
Wow... Can you feel the
love?” Billy said. Jamie cut her eyes over at him where she stood
next to David. She rolled her eyes once she caught his, and then
turned and looked up at David adoringly. He turned away from her,
his eyes looking for Beth, but Beth had eyes only for the big man,
Bear. Billy sighed, looked down at the ground, and then back up as
the conversation picked up once more. He ignored Jamie. He deserved
her anger, after all.

Cammy laughed, put a hand to her mouth,
and then took it away and laughed harder. A second later all of
them were laughing.

“
Hey,” Billy said after a
moment. “The two of you lead. Sounds workable to me. And I don't
have even a slight wish to lead. Not at all.”

“
Peace,” Mac said. “Along
for the ride. As long as it's stable, you know?”

Beth eyed Bear. “You and me
then?”

Bear nodded. “I can roll with that.
First thing though, we need better weapons. If this thing is south,
we don't know how far, and it could be dead by now. Not saying it
ever even got off the ground. So we don't know how far we're going.
We need good guns. How bad did you see it in L.A.?”

“
Oh, Christ,” Billy
started. He handed Bear one of the machine pistols they had picked
up.

~

The morning turned to early afternoon
before the four trucks pulled up out of the field together,
followed the service roadway back onto route three and headed
toward Clifton.

Plague Year One

September 28th

New York: Manhattan

The Night was black and cold. Winter
was coming, there was no doubt about it. Fires smoldered and burned
in the nearby park.

Behind her, thousands of the dead stood
quietly, shifting in and out of the shadows cast by the tall
buildings.

Donita stood silently, glancing from
the dead to the park ahead of her, as the cool night air flowed
past her and told her its story...

The Nation

Josh looked over the high meadow before
he led the sheep and goats down into the first Valley. The dogs
went with them and refused to leave them. The male dog seemed to be
determined to mark every square foot of what he considered his new
territory with his scent.

Down below the notch, with its entrance
to the cave and the ledges, the trucks were unloaded with care. It
was still early morning, quite some time until the mid day meal, so
they had begun unloading the trucks first.

To the children it was like Christmas.
Not only were there new and exciting things to see, touch and feel
- Rain had ended up with a handful of wool as she had grabbed at a
passing sheep - there were also new people to meet. A lot of new
people.

They decided to use three large, dry
rooms off the main meeting room to store the materials from the
three big trucks, but they quickly filled up. Everything else that
was easily transportable went into one corner of the huge living
area of the main cave instead.

Bob spied the harvester and asked whose
idea it had been. Mike pointed him to Josh and told him that Josh
had been a farmer. Bob walked up to him and shook his hand
heartily.

“
Man, do I want to have a
few dozen conversations with you,” Bob told him.

Josh laughed. “Good to meet you, Bob.”
He turned and looked down the length of the valley. “Nice... Very
nice,” he said.

In the distance the horses, cows and
bison could be seen. The barns. The stone houses set back close to
the sloping valley walls.

Bob smiled as Josh looked around. “When
you're settled in I'll show you around,” he told him.

“
Well, Bob, I don't have a
thing to myself... Nothing to settle in,” Josh told him.

“
Well, let's go then,” Bob
told him. He turned and Josh followed him down the ledge and into
the valley.

Mike stood next to Candace and watched
them walk down toward the valley floor. Ronnie and Patty stood
nearby. “Looks like the bridges are up... The corn's in too?” Mike
asked her.

“
Yep and
yep, Baby,” Candace told him. She had his hand in her own two
critically examining it. She sighed and looked up, meeting his
eyes. “We've been busy. The
babies
and I have missed you so
we've had to stay busy. Sandy grounded me though because I've
gotten so big,” she added. She watched his face.

“
Grounded,” he asked, and a split second later.
“Bab
ies?”

Candace grinned.
“Bab
ies,”
she
agreed.

His mouth hung open. “I don't even know
what to say,” he told her.

“
Say, I love you,” she told
him.

“
I love you,” he told her
and pulled her to him. He kissed her hard.

“
Wow. That was nice. Maybe
you should go away more often,” Candace told him. She plucked at
his hand. “Except this.” She looked at the bandaged hand and shook
her head. “You have to let Sandy see this.”

“
No... No more going away.
I'm never going back out there,” he assured her.

Patty and Ronnie moved over closer to
them. Patty's eyes were bright and she held Ronnie’s arm tightly to
her.

Candace looked at Ronnie’s nose.
“Nice,” she said, and cut her eyes back and forth between Ronnie
and Mike. “Him short a finger and you with a smashed up
face.”

“
Man meets dashboard,”
Ronnie told her.

“
Looks pretty bad,” Candace
told him.

“
Yeah? Well, you should see
the dashboard,” Ronnie said.

“
I believe I owe you an ass
kicking, my man tells me,” Patty said to Mike.

Ronnie pretended to look up at the
sky.

“
How come you have an ass
kicking coming, Baby,” Candace asked him.

“
Uh, I'm the guy that broke
his nose,” Mike asked?

“
You're not sure if you
were the guy that broke his nose?” Candace asked. “Maybe it was the
Nose Fairy?”

Mike laughed. “No... It was me. I
confess, but, it was an accident. I'm sorry for it...
Truly.”

“
Good for you,” Patty
said.

“
Yeah,” Candace agreed.
“You do not want to mess with a hormonally unbalanced
woman.”

“
I think she can take you,”
Ronnie said.

“
Oh, good, soup her up,
Ronnie. Soup her up,” Mike said. He laughed and the others joined
in. “But, really, Pats, it was an accident. I'm sorry about it, but
it was an accident.”

“
I know,” Patty told him.
“I just had to see you crawl.”

“
Hello,” a strikingly
beautiful woman said as she hobbled up. She was leaning on a stick.
Her black hair was straight and long, hanging well below her
shoulders. She was no more than five feet tall. Her face unlined,
concealing her age, a smile resting on her full mouth. Her skin a
light brown.

“
Oh, Jess, you shouldn't be
up,” Mike said, turning to her as she walked up.

“
I gave myself permission,”
Jessie told him.

“
Jessie
Stone,” Mike said as he turned and looked from Candace to Patty.
“Jess, my woman, Candace. And my friend Patty, Ronnie's woman.
Ladies, this is
Doctor
Jessie Stone.”

Sandy over heard the introduction from
just a few feet away and hurried over with Susan.

“
This is Sandy and her
woman Susan. Sandy is our nurse. She's been doing all of our Doctor
stuff,” Mike said.

Everyone said their hellos and Jessie
turned to Candace.

“
I wanted to meet you,
Candace. I have heard so much about you. You're a very lucky woman,
you know... Your Mike, he saved my life. Truly and completely,”
Jessie said.

Candace sensed that several things were
being said at the same time. It made her slightly uncomfortable,
but she took Jessie’s hand and clasped it in her own. “It's nice to
meet you, Jessie. Mike told me all about you,” she said. She was
suddenly disconcerted. She felt she had missed something. Something
simple, yet serious

Jessie's eyes lifted and settled on
Mike for a moment. It was brief, but it told Candace everything she
needed to know. This woman had some sort of feelings for her man.
Something that obviously wasn't returned, or there would be no need
for her to tell her how lucky she was.