The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (19 page)

“
So… What are you going to
do, Bob? What are you really talking about? I mean, say it so we
know,” Patty said.

Bob looked from Janet to Sandy. “We
have to decide, but we will go - we just haven’t decided where yet
- back into the wilderness… the lands... somewhere isolated. But we
want to bring more people. It wouldn’t work with just a few of us.
So we would like to go with you with the understanding that we
would eventually go out on our own,” Bob finished.

“
So you would try to
recruit people from the people we meet along the way?” Ronnie
asked.

“
You make it sound like
stealing,” Bob said.

“
No. No,” Ronnie said. “I
don’t mean to make it sound that way. But it makes it kind of hard
to get behind. Here we would be trying to bring people together,
and you would be trying to convince them to something else. We’d be
trying to get them to work with us, and you’d be trying to get them
to work with you. It might drive them away if they think we can’t
even agree how it should be between us,” Ronnie
finished.

“
Stealing,” Bob said
again.

“
No… It’s… This is a
community,” He looked to Mike and Candace who nodded for him to
continue.

“
So... it’s a community and
we would be trying to get everyone to work together. You
see?”

“
Are you saying you
wouldn’t have us because of that?” Sandy asked.

“
No one said that at all,”
Candace said.

“
Certainly not,” Mike
agreed. “It’s not like that. If you want to come, you come. I can
see where you would be an asset to us. I can also see your need to
do this thing you want to do. I can see where you would need more
people to do that. I can see where
I
might be convinced to go with you.
Let’s not shut doors. Let’s not start mistrusting or trying to read
things into what we say. Ronnie asked the questions any of us might
have. In fact I would have if he hadn’t. The people you need for
what you want to do are probably not going to be the same people we
need for what we want to do. It’s a different type of life.
Different people… Different ideals… Different purpose, dreams,
directions. How could that hurt either of us? I don’t see where it
could. Let’s not go back to the old world view, fear of what we
don’t know about each other; let’s just let it be. No one has
decided yet to go with us or you. We don’t even really know if
we’re on opposite sides yet,” Mike concluded.

“
I agree,” Ronnie said. “I
didn’t mean to imply that I have some great plan or idea. I could
find myself wanting to go with you when the time comes too. Mike
makes sense. Maybe we don’t want the same things, maybe we do. And
after today, I think it would be safer if we all travel together.
Less inviting to trouble.”

Bob nodded, satisfied. Silence held for
a few seconds.

“
He’s not coming back. I
know that,” Nell said. Her eyes teared up. “My husband,” She added
after a short pause. “I lied to myself, you know. I don’t want to
believe he’s gone. But I don’t want to wait here, stay here; I want
to go with you guys. This place is… like a city of dead,” she
finished.

Make that three surprises, Mike thought
to himself.

“
I want to go,” Tom said.
“I… I want to go.”

Mike nodded.

“
I want to go,” Lilly
said.

Mike had been sure that if Tom had said
he wanted to stay, Lilly would have wanted to stay too. Now he
wasn’t sure. It seemed now it might be the other way
around.

Annie was looking from face to
face.

“
I don’t want to stay
here,” she said at last.

“
You could come with us,”
Tim said. He smiled. “You want to, right?” he asked. His smile
faltered a little.

She answered him with her own smile. “I
want to.”

“
Good,” Tim
said.

Mike looked around. Amazing, he
thought. “I’m amazed,” he said. Echoing his own
thoughts.

“
When?” Bob
asked.

“
Today changes it. Doesn’t
it?” Patty asked.

“
Does it?” Mike
asked.

“
I think so,” Ronnie
said.

“
I do too,” Tom
agreed.

“
Yeah, it has to,” Sandy
agreed.

“
Well, then it does,” Mike
said. “What do we… what do
you
want to do? Leave sooner?”

Yes,
they all answered in unison. He blinked, surprised again. “My
concern is winter,” he told them. “I don’t like this situation
either. We could have two people out there with weapons waiting to
come after us… Coming around, maybe taking shots at us,” He
shrugged. “Or maybe they’re as scared as we are. Just as scared.
And maybe we shouldn’t over react because of that fear. In any
case, the days are colder. It’s still winter. It could snow at any
time. We have shelter here. Yes, it’s a cave, but we’re not cave
men because we’re living in a cave. It’s shelter. We know the area.
We know where to get gas for the trucks, food,
supplies.”

“
It’s close to April,”
Patty said. “Just a few days really.”

“
So we could shoot for
getting ourselves ready to go by April first,” Mike said.
“Supplies.” He looked around at the supplies in the vast cave.
“April first. If the weather’s good, we go,” He paused. “Everyone
agreed?”

Another chorus of
Yes
answered him. Even
the dog barked and wagged his tail. The looks on nearly everyone’s
face showed relief. The dog’s enthusiastic and well timed bark
caused most of them to break into laughter. Relief, Mike
thought.

“
Until we go,” Mike waited
for the talking and the laughter to die down “We only go somewhere
together, and we take one of these carbines when we do.” He held up
one of the rifles they had taken away from the two young men just
hours before. “The other stays here to protect the cave. Double the
guards at night, starting tonight.” He paused again, but no one
spoke out. “Guess that’s it,” he said quietly. “We’ve
decided.”

Janet ~ March 19th

We are going. We have all decided to
go. Bob announced our plans for a new Nation of people. They are
not all for that… yet. But I know some will be.

We all agreed on April first. Thirteen
days. I hope that is not unlucky.

We have three more with us from a
horrible incident that happened today out at the mall on Arsenal
Street. A woman was killed and Bob had to kill someone. That is the
main reason we are going.

Tom even changed his mind about going.
He has changed a lot in the last few days. He’s very different from
what he was when we first met him. We will leave these journals
behind us for others to find, I guess. We didn’t really discuss
that part of things. I'm not sure I want to.

We are all nervous about today. There
are two more people out there still on the loose that may want to
hurt us and they may know where we’re at. Tom and Mike have posted
a double guard until we leave… APRIL FIRST!

Candace ~ March 19th

If there was any doubt in anyone’s mind
who is leading us, there isn’t now. Mike does it so easily. I
sometimes think he doesn't realize how much faith people put in
him.

Tom surprised everyone
tonight; he’s with us now. Bob, Janet and Sandy are not. They have
an idea of reestablishing the Native Nation, going back to the
land. It has its appeal. And, it’s clear to see they are not just
talking about it. They, Bob and Janet at least, have thought it
out. Janet told me later on that Bob has a place in mind. He has
had that place in mind for years.
Years…
That is how well planned it is
in his mind, how serious he is about it. Never say never, but I
can’t see myself there.

Mike said he doesn’t want his T.V.
back, me either, maybe, but was it all bad? No. When he said that I
thought of an old song, Dire Straits, with a line “I want my
M.T.V.” Don’t ask me why that popped into my head, but it did. Must
be the musician in me. My point is, it wasn’t all bad. It wasn’t.
Why throw it all away? Why not get rid of the bad shit and save the
rest?

Mike said to me later, when we were
alone, that he thinks that’s what Bob really wants to do, get rid
of the bad shit and keep the good shit, and if he does really want
to do that, then Mike is for it. And, really, so would I
be.

So, we will leave April first, Bob with
us, and we may split or stay together at some point after
that.

Ronnie made a point which I thought was
a good one: It could be a draw on us as a people as Bob takes some
away from us. I mean, they make it sound so good, who wouldn’t want
to go? Ronnie made that point later when it was just he and Patty
and Mike and me. During the conversation we all had, he skated up
to the same statement, but Bob didn’t like it right out there bald
like it was.

Paradise? Living off the land? Living
as one with Nature? Mother Nature? Doesn’t it sound good? Living in
harmony with God. Almost as if it will not be work at all. No one
shouting at you… Anyway, Mike made a good point too: If we go
towards a way of life more like the old world, technology, we would
not be attracting the same people anyway. So, what will we have
lost traveling together? Maybe people we would eventually have lost
anyway, and it will definitely be safer to travel together. When
and if the split happens, we can worry about or deal with it
then.

April first… If there is no snow… If
it’s safe. We still have to decide where we are going, but there is
time.

Tom ~ March 19th

I changed my mind today. It was a bad
day for me today, but

a worse day for the man Bob had to
kill. It’s all we do anymore, kill. That’s not completely true, but
it’s close. It’s a harder world.

I’m going. Lilly is going with me.
We’re going together, maybe that’s the best way to put it. We have
fourteen of us now to be worried about. Mike is younger than I am,
but more solid. I think I didn’t like him for that at first, but it
is what it is. I work better... I mean, in my head it’s easier, the
way things have been lately with him in charge.

We decided on April First to leave
Watertown.

~In the Moonlight~

They came from the shadows, the smell
of blood pulling them. The young man in the lead approached the
body where it lay on the pavement. They had watched it far into the
darkness, but unlike some, it did not come back. He walked up to
the corpse and toed it with one heavy work boot.

“
Done for,” he croaked. 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
body and began to feed.

CHAPTER SIX

Best Laid Plans

~ March 20th ~

“…
it’s not the same every
day,” Tom was saying as Candace came out of the cave entrance. She
looked a question at Mike and Ronnie where they sat
listening.

“
Length of the day,” Mike
explained.

“
Yeah,” Tom agreed. He
nodded at Candace. “Yesterday, twenty-six hours and a couple of
minutes. Day before, twenty five and forty-two.”

“
Pretty close though,”
Ronnie said. “Starting to become uniform. Beats the days when it
was closer to forty hours or more.”

Tom nodded.

“
We don’t know what it
means anyway,” Candace said. “Even a scientist would probably give
us about ten hours of song and dance and then hand us the same old
bullshit theory based on some other theory, based on, well, you
know.”

“
It’s colder again,” Mike
said. “But it doesn’t feel cold enough to snow.” He looked up to
see if anyone held a different view.

Janet Dove and Sandy walked out of the
cave with the young girl, Annie, and the two little ones trailing
her. A few seconds later Tim came out of the cave too, looking
around until his eyes fell on Annie. Candace smiled and glanced
over at Janet Dove who was also smiling. “Good morning, Janet,”
Candace said. “I see you’ve got lots of help this morning.”
Everyone carried boxes filled with odds and ends. They set them
down, and Annie and Tim began going through them.

“
I do at that, Candy,”
Janet said. “We’re sorting through the stuff we brought back, to
see what we’ll take with us, what else we need.” Candace smiled and
nodded back.

“
Candy?”
Mike mouthed when she looked his way. She rolled
her eyes.

Bob walked over. “I thought we should
make specific lists. Janet’s going to make lists of what we’ll
really need and what we have, so when we go out, that way we’re not
out a long time. We’re going for exactly what we need,” Bob
said.

Everyone nodded agreement. “I guess we
should all be thinking like that,” Mike said.

“
Yeah,” Ronnie agreed.
“What we take, or have to have, we may end up carrying. There’s no
guarantee that there will be roads in good shape, or roads at
all.”