The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (165 page)

She had learned there was a commander
somewhere in the facility, but as the hours slipped by it became
more and more uncertain whether the base was even viable any
longer. No one had heard from the base commander. Several of the
soldiers had deserted, leaving the base the same way they had come
into it. Finding their way back to the surface and the freedom that
lay beyond. They felt they had nothing to fear. After all, they
were protected by the virus. No matter how tough things got they
should be able to survive. She was left to wander freely around the
barracks and the rest of the facility.

In the following early days the ones
that had stayed had all been convinced that the government would be
back on top of the eight ball in no time, but that had not
happened. Instead, they had sat silent in one of the housing units
and watched as one by one the worlds top military command positions
went off line.

Washington had been taken by the
military. The president was long gone. Maybe wandering the streets
as one of the living dead himself, but the soldiers had taken the
white house, a symbol of American freedom and held it. It had
fallen in just a few days: Overrun by crazed mobs who believed the
government had been responsible for the catastrophe that had
occurred.

A large base in Texas,
Another in L.A. Military contacts in the Middle East: London,
Berlin,
Base Pearce in Australia. All dug
in for the long run. All gone in the first week.

Pearl had assumed she was free to
wander around, but not free to go. No one had said much of anything
to her about it. When someone had come around it was to ask if she
would like to make a break for the surface. They were concerned.
The commander had taken control of the base once again, and there
were rumors that the base would be buttoning up. There were already
orders to close off the air vents. If they were going they had to
make it soon, the soldiers had said.

She had watched a group of four leave,
unsure whether she could trust them. A few hours later she had met
a civilian that had been stuck below levels when the earthquakes
had hit, and he had convinced her to try for the surface. She had
made it to the surface on her own, before a team had been sent to
close the air vents off. While she had still been marveling at her
luck, she had stumbled over two of the four that had left hours
earlier. They had been shot dead and left in the last tunnel that
exited to the surface.

She had found the remaining two hiding
near the tunnel exit and they had begun to make their way through
the city. But later into the afternoon the remaining two had been
ambushed and killed by two others. The men that had done the
killing had dragged her into a building and raped her. Later, as
the flames leapt and danced from the fire they had built on the
floor of a partially collapsed building, she had made a move to get
one of their rifles.

She had weighed her choices and decided
that death was better than the life they had planned for her. She
had manged to get one of the rifles before the two men had been on
her. She had held on even as they had punched and kicked her. They
would have been better off shooting her with the guns they still
wore, because once she had been able to wrestle free and aim the
rifle she had killed them both. She had sunk down to the concrete
next to the fire and passed out. She had come to in the morning,
bruised and battered, but alive and struck out on her
own.

Pearl had told her story to the council
members and they had realized that there was a counter to the V2765
compound that had raised the dead. Rex, whatever it truly was, was
stored somewhere in the underground facility. It became paramount
to get that compound and reverse the process.

The path they followed would lead them
to the same tunnel entrance Pearl had come through with the others.
Even if it had been closed back up again it could be reopened once
more, and they could use that to break into the underground
facility by following the ducts back into the project. From there
they would look for the compound.

The underbrush sheltered them as they
made their way down to the river bank and then carefully scouted
for a metal grid that would announce the presence of an air ducting
tunnel. The rock trail was slick with new snow, and the snow was
falling harder even as the temperatures began to
plummet.

“
There,” Beth said tightly.
Bear stopped and looked where she pointed. He climbed the few feet
upward as she did, paused and looked over the heavy metal grating.
“We'll have to be careful to stay inside the duct,” he said at
last. “Pearl said they have cameras inside the tunnel itself... You
sure you want to go in?” He asked Beth.

He worked his fingers through the holes
and rocked the grating slowly, it was much too heavy for one man to
handle, but Bear was no ordinary man. He pulled a long metal bar
from a sheath on his back and inserted one end into the recessed
lip. He leaned his weight fully into it and it came up slowly. He
rocked the bar in the slot of the recess and the cover slipped
sideways and then ground to a halt.

He handed Beth the bar and then worked
his fingers under the lip of the cover and pulled it
upward.

At first it refused to come more than a
few inches from the opening, but he redoubled his efforts and the
lid came free with a metallic screech, slipped off the cement and
flipped into the darkness and the river below. The tunnel way
yawned black in the falling curtain of snow: A steel ladder
disappearing below the lip into absolute blackness.

They both stood for a few seconds
wondering at their luck. Bear wasn't even breathing hard. He took a
few calming breaths, and then climbed down into the dark opening,
lowered himself inside; he helped Beth down to the wet, rock floor.
A few moments later they began their walk through the stone cut
tunnel, following quietly as it angled down into the
rock.

Watertown: River road

They came from the shadows, the smell
of blood pulling them. The young man in the lead approached the
bodies where they lay on the broken pavement. They had watched the
bodies far into the darkness, but unlike some, they had not come
back. He looked over at them now, their eyes dull marbles, mouths
wide and yawning.

They had watched as the other dead, the
slow ones, had found them. They had chased them off before they
could take them too far into death, to the place where they could
not come back.

He walked across the asphalt, limping
slightly as he went. The bright moonlight bothered his eyes, but he
wore dark glasses to protect them. He walked up to the closest
corpse and toed it with one heavy work boot. The dead boy rocked
stiffly.

“
Done for,” he said. His
voice was distorted. Two in the small crowd behind him whined. He
stepped back from the body. “Go ahead,” he said in a rasping
whisper, “Go ahead.”

The small crowd of seven fell on the
bodies and began to feed on them where they lay in the
road.

Billy and Pearl

They had come awake in the bright
moonlight. Something had brought them from sleep, some uneasiness.
Billy had started the truck and drove slowly back toward the city
on a back road looking for a safer place to stay the night. Pearl
had taken over driving while Billy poured over the map they
had.

“
Not on the map...” He
shrugged. “I just don't know, Pearl.”

Pearl had stopped on the edge of a
housing development. It was dark, lit only by the headlights of the
truck. Cars and trucks sat neatly in driveways. The streets were
empty. The pavement was cracked and heaved, sand and debris covered
the streets in an undisturbed pattern.

“
Fucking spooky,” Billy
said. “I've seen something like this before.”

“
Beth?”

Billy frowned. “Someplace in Arizona...
I guess my mind is too tired to think straight... There could be
dead in here, Pearl. That's my concern.” He pointed out disturbed
areas in the dirt. Places that looked like trails.

“
It doesn't have to be
dead... Could be small animals raiding house to house... No garbage
cans, dumpsters anymore... Or it could be dead.”

“
That's exactly what we
were thinking, turned out to be wolves...” Billy shook his head.
“No. I say we find someplace else.” He looked back along the road,
nothing but the red glow of tail lights behind them.

“
I'll turn around here in
the mouth and then...” Pearl fell silent as strong white light
illuminated the sky above a hill not far away.

“
Someone coming,” Billy
whispered urgently.

“
Shit,” Pearl muttered. She
hit the gas and drove down into the project. She cut the wheel hard
and pulled into the first driveway and shut the lights off. She
killed the motor and they sat quietly, watching the lights grow as
they approached the apex of the hill. The motor ticked quietly as
it cooled off. They both leaned back into the seats, hiding
themselves in the contours and the headrests.

The vehicle made the apex and topped
the hill a quarter mile away. The headlights grew closer, the sound
of exhaust loud in the night. The vehicle never slowed, but swept
past the housing project and continued on its way into the
city.

Pearl keyed the ignition and the truck
rumbled back to life. Billy took a deep breath, released it, and
then something hit the truck hard and it rocked on its springs. The
smell of death hit them about the same time, and Pearl slammed her
foot down on the gas, mashing the pedal into the floor
boards.

A rotting hand came through the open
back window and fastened around Pearl's throat, her hands left the
wheel as she was yanked backwards, and the truck spun hard to the
left and accelerated, her foot still mashed down on the
gas.

Billy lifted his gun and shot the
zombie in the face. It seemed slow motion at first, the face
exploded as it fell away into the back of the pickup, Pearl drew a
deep breath and tried to grab the wheel, but it was too late.
Everything sped up to real time and the truck roared forward and
slammed into the side of a house. Her foot had slammed down on the
brake and the truck finally stopped several feet past the house in
head high grass.

Billy scrambled up from the
floorboards. He looked over at Pearl, but she seemed dazed, her
eyes unfocused, a trickle of blood running from somewhere under her
hairline. Billy levered his door open and jumped to the ground. His
left leg refused his weight, collapsing under him, the knee sprung,
or maybe just hurt from ramming into the dashboard as they clipped
the side of the house on their way into the field.

One headlight showed head high grass
directly ahead, the other was dead. An amber signal light flicked
on and off on the dead side of the truck, illuminating the grass
and then dying away just as quickly. Something moved behind him, he
watched the tops of the grasses swaying, and quickly dragged his
attention back fully to the truck and where they were right now.
Why was Pearl still in the truck? He wondered. Panic gripped him as
he forced himself to his feet, ignored the pain from his knee and
lunged back inside the truck.

The smell of death came to him on the
air, along with the smells of gas and hot motor. The dead were
close by, he had little time. Pearl was slumped over the steering
wheel, the airbag a corona around her. Blood slicked what he could
see of her face, and she appeared to be dead. For a split second he
was sure she was dead. He slammed his door to shut it with only
partial success. Pearl's door was bent inward, no way would they be
going out that. The glass was shattered and he wondered if that was
what the blood was from. He forced his mind to slow down, stop the
never ending questions. He remembered reading once that the mind
did that when it was confused. Normally the mind didn't need to ask
anything. It interpreted far quicker than words could. He grabbed
one wrist to feel for a pulse, but gave up after a few seconds. His
own heartbeat had been all he had been able to feel. It was
slamming so hard in his chest that it was all he could feel. He
took several deep breaths, fixed his fingers loosely on her wrist,
and immediately felt a steady, slow pulse. There, but was it too
slow? He forced the questions away in his head. He tapped her face
lightly with one hand.

“
Jesus, Pearl. Jesus. We've
got to go,” Billy said loudly. He reached down, gabbed Pearl's
rifle where it had fallen to the floor and then shoved his own gun
into his holster. He was surprised he had the presence of mind to
actually pull the strap over the hammer and snap it in place to
hold the gun in. He could feel the weight of his own rifle on his
back. Pearl had said nothing. He forced himself to slow down,
although he was panicked, and checked her over.

He couldn't find the head wound, but he
could see that her leg was badly injured. Blood was soaking into
the fabric of her jeans. He used his own shirt, ripped quickly from
his body and tied around her thigh to slow the bleeding. There was
nothing more he could do here. He had to get out of the truck: Get
them moving.

He reached over and pulled her to him,
she came willingly. A second later he was limping thorough the tall
grass in the moonlight.