The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (150 page)

He lifted his eyes back up to Susan. “I
guess I asked because I can teach you what I know. The more of us
that have the knowledge, the better... I guess I'm thinking long
term. Pass it down to our children even... Would that interest you?
Either of you? Both of you?” He asked.

“
Are you kidding? Yes!”
Susan said.

“
Yes, yes and yes!
Absolutely. We have been trying to learn on our own as best we
can... Yes... We would really like that,” Sandy said.

Steve nodded and smiled broadly. “You
could teach me about herbs... Medicinal plants. I don't know
anything about that part of it. It's the way we'll have to go once
the medicine stocks run out, or expire, and become worthless. We
bought a lot back with us, but it won't last forever.” He smiled
and nodded as much to Sandy as to himself. “Yeah. That way we can
exchange information and knowledge. Be on the same
page.”

~

A large group sat under the shade of a
spreading oak. Violet Hidecki, Roberta Teals, Pam Glass, Darren
John, George Dell and Edward Horton.

“
I would have never thought
to live in a cave,” Roberta said.

“
I know. I would have
thought, sleeping bears... Bats. That kind of thing,” Violet
said.

“
Well this whole area is
probably riddled with caves. You can see the limestone, and that's
what formed this cave too. I've read a little about this area,”
Edward said.

“
Really?” Pam
asked.

“
Really,” Edward agreed.
“It, the limestone, dissolves over time leaving these huge caves
behind.” He was in awe of Pam Glass. She was older. So
sophisticated. But the truth was that he probably would have been
enamored with any woman here who spoke to him the way she did,
included him, smiled at him. It just happened that Edward was not
used to women paying him much attention. Pam favored him with a big
smile and he flushed red.

“
Do you suppose we'll live
in the cave?” George Dell asked.

“
I think we'll live where
we want to live. Maybe in the cave at first, but I think I'm going
to look for a spot and build a house,” Pam said. Her eyes drifted
to Edward once more.

“
Just like that?” Roberta
Teals asked.

“
Sure. What else is there?
I mean we're here. This is home. I'm not going back out there,
that's for sure. So this is it. I'm going to make the most of it.”
She looked back at Edward once again.

“
I guess that's exactly
what I'll do. The people I was traveling with had talked about the
same thing... I think it would have gone bad had we done it out
there. It's bad out there, and who knows for how long... But here
we can live... We can live here... It's a good plan, Pam,” he
colored a little at using her name like he had a right to, but the
way she lit up told him it had been the right thing to
do.

Violet set her empty plate aside. She
had watched the play between Pam and Edward. She had known where
her own thoughts lay for a few days now. The old Vi would have done
nothing. Too shy. Too work orientated to make the time too, but she
was not the old Vi. She wasn't exactly a brand new Vi, but she was
most definitely a changed Vi. She lifted her eyes.

“
Darren,” she began. He
heart began beating harder in her chest. He looked over at her. He
had been looking at her for the last two days. His eyes asking
plainly. The attraction was there, and it wasn't one way, she was
interested too. “I was wondering... I'd like to see the upper field
where they took the sheep... I was wondering...” She locked eyes
with him.

“
Yeah... Yeah, I want to
see that too,” Darren said. His face went a little pale around his
eyes. He seemed instantly tongue tied, more frightened than she
was. He swallowed hard as he rose to his feet. Stopping in a half
crouch before he realized he had stopped and then rising to his
full height and clearing his throat. “You want to see it with me?”
he asked. He stepped forward.

Violet lifted one hand and Darren
easily pulled her to her feet. “I'd like that,” she told him as she
stood and brushed at the seat of her jeans. They made their
goodbyes to the small group and then walked of toward a path that
left the ledge above and then wound its way up to the ridge and the
field.

~

“
I don't got a girlfriend
or a wife,” Mark said to Alicia.

“
I don't neither.” Alicia
told him seriously.

“
I might marry Janelle when
I grow up,” he said. “She's really smart.”

“
I'm smart too,” Alicia
told him. “See?” She held out both hands, fingers spread and
counted to ten. She smiled at him.

“
You really are smart,”
Mark said. “Do you think you would marry me when you get older?” he
asked.

“
Maybe,” she told him. She
looked him over seriously. “You wanna play Mommy and Daddy?” She
asked.

“
Okay,” Mark decided after
a brief pause.

~

“
I've never seen silage
made that way,” Josh said.

“
Works,” Bob
agreed.

“
Works well,” Josh
countered. “He took a bite of cheese from the piece on his plate.
“This is made from deer milk?”

“
Yeah,” Bob agreed a little
sheepishly. He smiled crookedly. “I thought why not. The deer, like
the moose in the valley just fell in with our cows and followed us
here. They tamed up pretty quick too: Once they were eating better
the milk began to taste better too. I thought, well, what the
hell.” He smiled, shrugged and then changed the subject. “Do you
really think we can hook that harvester up to a team of
oxen?”

“
Yeah I do, don't you?”
Josh asked.

“
Yeah... Yeah, I do, but I
just can't see any way to do it: Can't work it out in my head,” Bob
said.

“
Oh. Well don't worry about
that. I haven't worked it out in my head either, but we'll just put
Tim on it. I've paid attention to the boy. He's smart. He'll work
it out,” Josh said.

Bob laughed. “I believe he will. And
probably expend less energy that we would to get it to work.” They
both laughed.

~

After lunch they spent the better part
of the day settling in: They decided that for the time being the
main area of the cave would be used for a huge communal sleeping
area. With some blankets, a few quilts and some stones to use as
boundary lines they worked it out quickly with plenty of leftover
space.

Before nightfall there were three new
couples: Edward Horton and Pam Glass. Violet Hidecki and Darren
John, and it only took about ten minutes of Sharon and Josh talking
to one another and they were inseparable.

Later in the evening after a much more
subdued evening meal, Candace, Lilly, Cindy and Tim played some
music. They were all surprised when Bonnie picked up a guitar and
coached Amy, who she had been teaching a little, to follow along.
They played along, laughing and enjoying themselves.

Eventually the evening wore down and
everyone drifted off. Mike and Candace said their good nights and
then walked off down the valley to their little stone house with
Ronnie and Amy. They split up, wished each other good night, and
then Mike and Candace made their way to their front porch and sat
on the small swing Mike had made with Bob's help, looking out at
the moonlit valley.

“
She's in love with you,
Mike,” Candace said.

“
I know... She told me
she'll get over it,“ Mike said.

Candace frowned. “Maybe... Maybe
not.”

“
Mike looked over at her
and caught her eyes with his own. “I told her I love you... I told
her what that means to me... I left no room for doubt, Baby. No way
would I let any...”

She stopped him with a kiss that went
on and on. “I know.” She rested her head against his own. “She'll
have to get over it then,” she said breathlessly.

Her lips came back down to Mike's own
and he kissed her passionately, his hands tracing the sides of her
breasts. “Can we?” He asked her.

“
Oh yeah. Yeah we can.” She
took his hand and led him into the house.

~

Jessie's Diary:

I am on my feet. This is a beautiful
place. I loved it from the first I saw it. I can't stay though. I
love Mike and I can't be here and not have him. It would drive me
crazy. It would make this perfect place a perfect hell.

How, speaking of hell, how in hell do
you fall into love with someone that fast? I have never fallen that
fast: Never, not ever. I have always been the one in control. I'll
tell you, I don't like it at all.

I have to stay for a while. I can't
leave the way I am. I have to figure out what to do, make the right
decision, not just run away like some heartsick little girl. And I
have The Fold to think of, keep foremost in my decisions. I miss
everyone back at Snoqualmie: Joe, Becky, so many others, but Mike
pulls at me.

Have you ever loved someone with
everything that you are? All that is in you? Well, that is where I
am at. A right next to that I have the Fold. My own people waiting
on me. Could it work out here? Could we all be happy here? Would
they come? Are they still there? I have to answer that question and
soon.

~

Candace's Journal

I spent today taking it easy. There are
so many extra hands now, that when Sandy says grounded she means
grounded. Now she has two doctors to back her up. I don't actually
mind. I have other things I want to do anyway, and it really is
getting uncomfortable to do even simple things. It's like I just
blew up all at once.

I wrote a poem. It's sort of poetry
anyway, about Nellie and Molly. I know Tom is making some stone
markers for our little cemetery. There will be a service, maybe
I'll read it then. As for the real cemetery, it is quite a way away
from the little park at the bottom of the falls, but it is still
close enough to be seen from there. I think it needs to be farther
away, or... I don't know, but it makes me wonder every time I see
it. And I have seen others end up with their eyes locked on it and
I know their thoughts have gone wandering too. A cemetery is
supposed to be a place of rest, a place to go and remember. I guess
we remember but we remember the wrong things.

Bonnie is a musician she joined in
tonight and it was really nice to hear her play. She did some
instrumental stuff that blew me away. She has talent in those
fingers.

It's funny, but in the old
world you would see people together and you would see their
relationship unfold and grow over the space of weeks or months. In
fact weeks, maybe even months might be considered to be moving too
fast in that old world. Not here though. Here it's an hour. I know
I am exaggerating, but not much. A day or so, any more than that
and someone else might be in the picture narrowing up your choices.
It's kind of... Well, I guess it would be scary if you really
thought about how fast things are changing, but we don't really
have it right there up front. It's buried back in your head. A sort
of,
well, that's just the way it is
now,
deal. It must seem strange to people
sometimes though, or maybe we are all so changed by this that most
of us don't even see it anymore.

I saw it happening the last few days
and it reminded me how fast it was for Mike and me. I saw him, I
knew it in my heart. I just walked over to him and laid it out.
Bold!

I was never that way. I'm not shy, but
I'm not bold either. I spent a few years on the streets in
Syracuse. That took something... Courage? A will to live? Something
like that. And when I say streets I mean streets.

At first I drew lines. I won't pass
this line. I won't do this, no way will I do that. Ha, I passed
every line I drew in the sand. From drugs to riding in cars. Mike
knows. Amy knows.

This diary is for the two
of you and whoever else I am blessed with. Brothers? Sisters? I
don't even know you yet and my mind is skipping ahead to the next
thing. But it is fair that you know who I was. It doesn't really
mean anything about who I am now. But it is who I was for a while.
I'm not proud of it, but maybe I learned something about boldness
there. When you have to eat from dumpsters, sleep in abandoned
houses and take rides with men that have nothing to do with riding
you have to be able to be bold. At least bold enough to feel
something. To have hope inside of you. How ever I got it, I am glad
I got it,
have
it. It put me with Mike, your father. It put me right here,
right now. It has been a long strange trip, but I am glad I am
here. Did I just steal a classical song reference? I'll have to
tell you about that song. About life. You don't even know what the
world was and you probably never will. It is such a sobering
thought. Such an awesome responsibility.

Tomorrow we're going to look deeper
into the caves. Follow some tunnels, that shouldn't be too
physical. Amy, me, Lilly and Bonnie. Craige and Cindy too, maybe.
You can feel air coming through those passages, so they must go
somewhere: Who knows what we'll find. I'm looking forward to
it.