The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (156 page)

“
And,” Bob added. “If
building isn't your thing we have tons of other stuff to do before
winter is on us. I need volunteers for crops, gardens, fields,
rabbits, chickens, cows. You get the idea. Just let me know and
I'll find a place to put you,” Bob finished.

Mike looked around, but there were no
more questions.

“
Okay... Business from us.
You have all met Bear?” Mike gestured toward Bear where he stood
against one wall with Billy and a few others. Bear nodded and the
crowd murmured. “Bear is going to be taking over our resupply
missions from here on out. They have a full complement of people
right now, but they may need help in the future. They will be
leaving soon on a supply mission, so if you have stuff to add to
the list... I mean important things, get them to one of us and
they'll be included if Bear can fit them in.” He looked at the
others.

“
The state park... Most of
you came in that way,” Ronnie said. “We came here by that route
ourselves, in fact.” Several murmurs of agreement greeted his
words.

“
So you know the place,”
Candace added and laughed. The crowd laughed with her.

“
We're going to set up an
outpost there. We have a few people willing to settle there, we
need a few more to make it... Feasible,” he decided after rejecting
safe. “So we need some people for that... I think we can easily
keep a trail open through the winter for sleds... Horses. Tim
assured us that we can extend the radio distance to there easily
too. So it would be like an outpost of The Nation,” Ronnie
finished. Several hands went up and he asked them to get with him
over the next few days to get it organized and going.

Silence held and Mike looked around
before he spoke. “One last thing,” he said. “Tomorrow we'll be
holding a memorial service for Nellie and Molly in the little park.
That's the park at the base of the falls where we had dinner... You
are all welcome to be there... Afternoon... After lunch,” Mike
finished. He rested his back against the cool wall of stone behind
him and watched the people drift away, talking as they
went.

“
They're all smiling,”
Ronnie said.

“
That was something else,”
Mike said.

Ronnie shrugged. “It's that easy, I
guess.” He laughed and Mike joined in with him.

“
Lets get back down to the
barn and make all this legit,” Candace said as she walked
up.

Mike raised his eyes.

“
Legit as in nail it
down... A written record,” Amy said to his surprised eyes. She
showed him the pad in her hand, a pen clipped to the top of the
pad.

“
Man,” Mike said. “I
thought we were done with all of that, Bob?” He turned to
Bob.

Bob laughed, “Guess not.”

Tim had walked up and he grinned. “Once
I get power up you can record it all to a hard drive.”

“
Until then, although I
have faith in my brother, the trusty pen is what we got,” Amy
said.

Mike sighed, “Well here goes the third
meeting of the night. I'm tired of driving already,” He grinned and
the others laughed. A few moments later they were making their way
down through the valley to the barn once again.

~

The moon rode low over the mountains.
It was early evening, the air still warm as Brad and Jessie walked
quietly beside the stream toward the other end of the valley and
the El that lead off into yet another valley far in the
distance.

They were both armed. Angel and one of
the other many dogs that had come in from new people followed along
with them, racing ahead or falling behind as this scent or that
noise pulled them.

“
Can you imagine all of
this in a year?” Brad asked her.

“
Can you?” She
countered.

“
I can.,” he
said.

“
I guess I'm having a hard
time imagining my life a year from now,” Jessie said.

“
Because of Mike,” Brad
asked.

They had been walking slowly, but
Jessie stopped and turned around to look at him. They had reached
the far bridge. She turned without speaking and stepped out onto
the bridge. She walked out to the middle and looked down at the
rushing water a few feet below.

“
You know?” She
asked.

“
It's obvious,” he
replied.

“
Then why this, Brad. Why
this walk in the moonlight if you knew what I would
say?”

“
Because... Because I don't know what you'll say, not really.
You can't have what...
Who
you want, and it looks like I won't be able to
have who I want... I know what it feels like believe me, “ he
said.

“
Don't be so sure, Brad. I
love someone who doesn't love me. You may not even know if the
person you love truly doesn't return that feeling... They may
change their mind,” Jessie said.

“
The woman I love, loves
someone else, Jess. She does. And that's probably not going to
change... Or at the very least I'm not the man that can change
it...” He fell off.

“
You don't know that, Brad.
Time changes everything. You...”

“
I love you, Jess. It's you
I want... It's you I want the same way you want Mike. You're the
one that holds my heart, Jess,” Brad told her quietly.

“
Oh, Jesus, Brad. I'm so
obtuse sometimes... It thought it was... I thought it was
attraction, something like that, I didn't know you were serious...
You must think I'm an insensitive bitch... I wouldn't blame you.”
She fell silent, turned away, watching the water rush under the
bridge.

They both watched the water in silence
for a few moments.

“
I've been thinking of
leaving,” Jessie said after a few moments.

“
I figured,” Brad said.
“I've thought about it too, but I have my little sister to think
about, and leaving isn't going to change how I feel.”

“
Therefore it also wouldn't
change how I feel, but I can't stay. I think it would drive me
crazy to see him every day. At least if I were gone I wouldn't have
to see him day after day and know that he could never be mine... It
really would drive me crazy, Brad,” Jessie told him. She faced him
and her dark eyes locked on his own.

Brad cleared his throat. “Have you
thought that, well, maybe it's just the circumstances? He shows up,
saves you, literally does save your life... From a horrible death
too,” Brad said.

“
Relationships form very
fast under adverse conditions when everybody has to pull together.
Did you know that sometimes hostages fall into love with their
captors? Their eventual killers? Rapists? They do. It's in the
medical histories I've read. I know it, and it doesn't change a
thing about how I feel about him,” she said. “And, the same could
be said of your attraction to me too. These are rough times. Stress
filled. Emotions are raw, right there on the surface. You don't
really know what your tomorrow will bring any more than I do, so
you grasp at what is there. What is real, and you hold on. But is
it real? Is it real for either of us? And does it matter at all?”
She asked.

Brad shook his head. “I only know how I
feel. I saw you for the first time and I knew it right then, before
Mike... I just didn't think I had any kind of chance. You're a
doctor, I'm a... I was in college majoring in screwing off, I
guess. Then I realized, none of that counts at all anymore. What I
was, what you were, it's only what we are now... What we can
be.”

“
This place is alive, Jess.
Out there? Dead... And more death coming too. I think a lot more
before it's over. A lot more... We saw how dead. How sick, maybe
that's a better way to put it... Sick. The world is sick and dying,
and the dead... I don't know what the dead are doing. Taking over,
I guess. We saw it. We lived it to get this far, Jess. None of that
is here. I can live here. I can die here too... I can die here and
know that is the end of it. Someone will make sure.” He fell
silent, once again watching the water flow.

“
I hope that's a long way
off, Jess, but it is a comfort to know I won't close my eyes only
to open them a few moments later as … I don't even know, as
something else. So... I knew... I know I want to try this life
right here. To try anyway, because this is real. This is life.
There isn't anything else.” He turned to look at her but her eyes
were shiny and a tear slid down one cheek. He turned his eyes back
down to the water.

“
I'm tempted to say yes
just because you made me believe in you. You made me see it. But
how could you be with me knowing that I was in love with another
man? Knowing Mike was on my mind?” Jessie asked.

How do you know he would be?” Brad asked. “Do you think this is
like the movies, or a book where we both walk away, heartbroken,
and we stay that way forever. Never love again? … Never feel? … No,
Jess. Somebody, the right somebody, will come along and make you
forget... Make me forget... That's why divorce lawyers have so much
work..., Did have... were so goddamned rich... We forget, Jess. It
happens to everyone. I could be that right one. I know you'll still
be thinking of him, but I think it will die... Fade... Like a tree
without water, Jess,” he said softly.

“
What if I don't forget
him, Brad? What if it doesn't fade? Then what?”

“
He doesn't love you,
Jessie. I do,” Brad said.

“
He doesn't love me and you
do,” Jessie repeated softly.

“
And I do,” he whispered to
the water flowing past under his feet.

“
And how do you see our
lives... Here... How do you see them?” She asked.

“
Don't tease, Jess.
Don't.”

“
I'm not,” she spoke
slowly, sincerely, making his eyes rise to her own. “I'm asking: If
I said yes... How does it work... How?”

He looked at her, his eyes silver orbs
in the moonlight. “Okay... We talk to Josh. Get part of that second
cave with all the room, or build a home in that valley over there.
It's not away from here, but it's not here every day. That's Josh's
deal over there. If we go, others will go. It becomes a
satellite... Like they talked about the campgrounds. A satellite,
outpost.” He waved one hand at the mountains. “Not out there in the
world where it can kill us. Here. Protected, but not right here
where your heart breaks every day... A home... Maybe more than
that.” He finished and looked into her eyes, holding them with his
own.

“
You thought of all of
this?” Her voice caught and broke.

“
Jess, I wish I could hold
you,” he told her.

“
Then hold me,” She
sobbed.

He reached over and pulled her close,
careful of her leg. “I love you... That's why I thought of it. I
don't like seeing you hurt,” he whispered.

“
I'm a fool,” she
cried.

“
So am I,” he told her. “So
am I.”

“
I don't want to use you,”
She whispered.

“
My eyes are open,
Jess.”

She leaned into his chest and circled
his arm with one of her own. “Make love to me,” She whispered, her
eyes overflowing liquid pools of silver.

“
Your leg... I.”

“
It'll be okay. Just make
love to me,” she whispered through her tears.

He was shaking as he laid her body back
onto the bridge decking. He leaned over her, drew a faltering
breath and then kissed her. Her hands came up and clasped his
forearms.

“
You're shaking,” she
said.

“
You too... Scared a
little,“ he said.

She kissed him back and pulled him down
to her.

~

Roberta Teals made her way down the
candle lit tunnel. She had never really been afraid of the dark,
she had a lantern to help, and there were candles mounted at
intervals on the walls that someone had put up. Still, it was a
little spooky, and maybe she was about to make a fool out of
herself too. Maybe she had misunderstood entirely. Maybe it had
only been a joke.

She stopped. Had it been a joke? She
thought about it. No. It may have been something else, but it had
not been a joke. She started to move again. Anyway, she told
herself, she'd be there in a just a few minutes and then she'd know
for sure.

Stop worrying, Bobby, she told herself.
But it did no good. Her heart was like a jackhammer, trip-tripping
in her chest. Her mouth was dry. In the old days this would never
have happened. She had never once let herself slip back then, never
once. She had looked, but she had never touched. She had never
given anyone any kind of reason to talk about her morals. She was a
good christian girl. A woman who loved God.

What she felt and what the church
dictated were not the same things at all. They did not fit
together, and the church didn't bend. This was not some religion
that forgave its priests for their sexual assaults on children,
this was a church that threw you to the dogs if you even looked
askance at anything sinful at all. Hadn't they thrown the pastors
own sister under the bus because she had dated a man who was not
yet divorced? They had, and even the pastor could not save her. He
had not even raised a finger. They had driven her out. She had
killed herself a few months later. Respected church woman. Woman of
God one day, then a slut the next. No in between and no redemption.
Their God was a hard God, the Bible was right about that. And they
had not, to her knowledge, done more than kissed goodnight after a
date. A single date. There was no sex involved. No improper
touching, nothing like that at all.