The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (86 page)

The woman by the horse snorted
derisively. “With all that firepower?” she asked. She walked the
low rise back up to the highway from the field and then walked past
the others towards Mike and Ronnie.

“
Jess,”
one of the others in her group called to
her.

“
It's okay,” she said as
she continued on. She stopped in front of Ronnie. She was even
smaller in person; dark, flat features that he found hard to place.
Asian? Native American? She nodded at his dripping nose. “Did that
trying to stop,” she asked Ronnie.

“
Yeah,” he
agreed.

“
It's broken, you know...
Pushed over to the right... I mean your right... I'm a doctor....
Well, I used to be a doctor anyway. Let me fix it... It's the least
I can do.” She looked around. No one spoke for a second.

“
Well?” she asked. “It's a
push. Believe me. We don't want problems. We are not looking for
trouble either.” She holstered her gun and folded her arms across
her thin chest.

“
Alright,” Mike agreed.
“But you should know this isn't all of us.” He turned and looked
back at the hill. “There are ten more behind them, and I'd like to
get them all on this side of the hill.”

“
We'll have to push that
truck. It's done up.”

Mike turned to Bear and the others.
“Tell them what's going on... Tell them we'll be a few more
minutes.” He made eye contact with Bear, Chloe and Josh, then
finished with Tim. Making it clear he wanted only Tim to go. “You
guys come on down. Help push this truck out of the way.” He turned
towards the front directing the question at the other
group.

“
You are not making this
easy,” the woman called Jess told him.

Mike nodded. “We've been through some
bad stuff... I suppose you have to. I had thought at one time that
all the being careful stuff was over with... Then the dead came
along... And the living too. I'm not as trusting as I used to be...
I can't see myself apologizing for that either,” he
finished.

She nodded. “Okay... We'll do it your
way... Let's get this truck off the road.”

One of the women got in and steered as
they pushed the truck to the side of the road.

Blood was smeared across the outside of
the windshield. Ronnie walked alongside and kicked at the drivers
side tire which seemed to have a mind of its own, to keep it
pointed in the same direction as the others. Something made a loud,
grinding, clicking sound in the front end as they pushed. Something
else made a metallic clanking noise. Fluids leaked onto the
roadway.

“
You know, you got a bad
cut yourself,” Mike said. He pointed to her forehead.

She frowned, touched the spot Mike had
pointed out and then looked at the blood on her fingertips. “Damn,”
she said. “I didn't know.”

He came closer, and carefully looked
her over. “Pretty deep... About two inches long.” He shifted his
gaze to the radio on his belt, picked it up and spoke. “Bring them
over, Tim.”

Chloe and Debbie went back along with
Josh. Bear stayed behind, jumping into Mike and Ronnie's truck and
pulling it down off the roadway, over to the side of the cracked
pavement.

The Nation

The sky was a beautiful mix of yellows
and pinks as Lilly and Candace stood on the ledge looking down into
the valley. A hot supper was ready in the cave behind them. The
children were helping Janet get bowls, cups and utensils ready.
Down the valley the rest of the people were on their way back,
walking in groups, laughter and conversation rising on the air
currents to the ledge.

The horses had been put away. The
wagon, loaded with corn now, was parked inside one of the barns. It
only remained to bring it from there up into the storage area of
the cave. They would do that tomorrow.

The entire crop was picked: Half
already in the storage area, the rest waiting on the
wagon.

Jan walked up behind them. “We would
never have finished it today if not for the longer days. We had
close to seventeen hours of daylight today,” she told
them.

“
You know,” Lilly said, “It
doesn't seem as though it took any great effort to get used to
it... a few more hours every day, I mean.”

“
It doesn't, but I wonder
what it means long term? What this winter will be like, and the
rest of it,” Candace said, half to herself.

The Dog and Angel looked off down the
valley from the top of the ledge, wagged their tails, and took off
running to the people who were coming to the cave. Angel was
showing more and more, her belly getting closer to the ground
daily.

“
I wonder what those
puppies are going to look like,” Lilly said aloud.

“
I was just going to say
that very same thing,” Candace said and laughed.

“
I would think they would
look like very big wolves. Once they grow up I bet those wolves
that have been coming around will want to find themselves another
valley to bother,” Janet said.

Patty reached the bottom of the ledge
first. She held up a pair of booties, perfectly made. Candace and
Lilly held up their own pairs, grinning and laughing as they
did.

Dinner was baked potatoes with a rich
fish gravy. Thick slices of the sourdough bread and butter to go
with it; now that they had bread again, no one could seem to get
enough of it. A large platter of cheese, and blueberries with
cream, rounded out the meal.

“
Did we ever eat this well
on a regular basis in the old world,” Candace asked.

“
I certainly never did,”
Janet answered.

“
I think the things we eat
now were frowned upon in the old world... Real butter... Cheese all
the time. Whole milk,” Patty threw in.

“
I was afraid to,” Roberta
added. “You know, moment on the lips, lifetime on the hips, but we
burn more calories now than we ever did. So it's not the problem it
used to be.”

Bob patted his flat stomach. “I can't
recall the last time I was in this kind of shape. It's good for
us.”

“
I'll say,” Shar said.
“We're busy all the time. I tried Sandy's scales the other day,
just curious. I've dropped thirty pounds. Then I looked at myself
and realized it could be true. That made me look in the mirror and
I realized it was true. I don't look anything like I did in the old
world at all,” she finished with a laugh.

Craig and Cindy sat next to each other.
Seeing the two of them together caused Candace to think about
Mike.

Patty took Candace's hand. “Don't do it
to yourself, Candy. They'll be back before you know it.” She patted
her hand, squeezed it, and then placed it on her
stomach.

“
Holy God. That kid is
kicking the crap out of you. And, thank you,
Little-miss-mind-reader.” She left her hand on Patty's stomach. The
kid really was kicking up a storm.

“
Any time,” Patty said.
“Any time.”

“
Can I feel?” Craig
asked.

Patty nodded and he placed one of his
larger hands next to Candace's. “Wow...” His face twisted in
shocked surprise, causing both Patty and Candace to laugh. “Doesn't
that hurt?” he asked.

Patty giggled. “Not really.
Just feels funny. Now when the kid gives me a shot to the
kidneys?
Yow!”

All three of them laughed. Craig sat
back, looked at Cindy, then put his arm around her and drew her
near. “This is pretty good,” he said quietly.

“
It is,” Cindy
agreed.

“
Okay, corny, but don't you
think this is the way we were supposed to live,” Candace
asked.

Several heads nodded.

“
And,” she continued, “look
how different we are.”

“
It's the circumstances,
though. We're bound to change,” Bonnie said. She had pale skin and
freckles and looked sixteen instead of twenty-two. Her auburn hair
framed her face. Her eyelashes were nearly blonde, Candace
noticed.

“
It is,” Candace agreed.
“But other stuff, like: Who here used to smoke? Drink? A little
recreational pot or cocaine? Little vices. I'm not talking about
the heavy use, I'm talking about the things that were in the world,
in our lives. Maybe doughnuts, too much coffee... Everybody had
something I think.”

Several heads nodded.

“
Who still does those
things? That one thing, whatever it was?” No one spoke. Candace
laughed. “By the time I had time to think about smoking again I
didn't want it.”

“
We were in this store,
gathering stuff we needed, and there was this huge metal cabinet,
you know some sort or steel mesh on the front so you could see into
it, full of cigarettes, and I thought,
'I
should get some now before I forget.'
and
then I thought,
'What the hell
for?'
I just walked away,” she
laughed.

“
I used to go out drinking
on the weekends... Something to kill the loneliness,” Patty said.
“I didn't even think of it after everything happened... At all. I
didn't need it anymore. I haven't had any since... I mean, it's not
here. If we wanted it we could have brought some in with us, yet
none of us did.”

Candace nodded. Bob spoke.

“
I liked my beer. Cigars. A
good football game. They're just not on my list of priorities any
longer.” He looked around.

Heads nodded around the room. Some he
knew, some so new he didn't yet know their names. They would have
to do something about that soon. They should know how many they
were. What skills they had. He smiled.

Somebody, one of the newcomers,
mentioned a television show they used to watch, and that got
everyone talking about television shows and movies from the old
world. That conversation lead to music and bands they had liked.
The conversation went back and forth as they ate, taking on a life
of its own, and when dinner was finished people broke up into
groups to pass the evening.

Lilly, Tom, Cindy and Craig were
talking back and forth about the stone houses. How hard they were
to build, and whether Tom thought there would be enough time to
build a few more before winter set in.

Sandy, Susan and Roberta were talking
about medicine and nursing. Shar joined in and asked as many
questions about medicine as she was asked about Veterinary
sciences.

Candace, Patty, Janet, Arlene and a few
others were working on crocheting. Practicing different stitches
that Janet had shown them.

David, Bonny and Bob were talking about
farming. How the valley was laid out. The two fields up top. The
idea Cindy had about flooding a low lying area in the second valley
and making what amounted to a large pond so they could have their
own fish supply.

Bonny told them the valley reminded her
of Ireland and told them how it had looked to her when she had gone
to visit her grandparents with her mother a few years
before.

The children were being supervised by
everyone as the adults talked; some joining in this conversation,
some in another.

As the sun finally left the sky, Tom
begged his leave, and left to take up the first watch.

On The Road

Ronnie swore for more than ten minutes
after Jess had straightened and then taped up his nose. “I can't
breathe through it,” he said. Sounding as though he had the worst
kind of cold. He kept spitting blood onto the cracked
pavement.

“
You will,” Jess told him.
She handed him two aspirins. “Call me in the morning,” she
joked.

Steve Choi, who had been in his second
year of medical residency, disinfected Jess's cut and then sunk two
stitches in to close the gash. She grimaced but that was
all.

Mike whispered in Ronnie’s ear. “And
you cried like a little girl,” he teased.

“
She's a doctor,” Ronnie
complained.

“
And that makes a
difference?” Jess asked as she walked up.

“
Well... You know what's
coming, right?” Ronnie asked.

“
Yeah, a needle in my head
with no Novocain,” Jess said straight faced.

“
Girl,” Mike repeated
quietly. “Little girl.”

Ronnie laughed. “Just wait until Patty
sees what you did to my nose.”

“
It will give you some
character,” Jess joked.

“
A nice little bend,” Mike
said, pretending to look Ronnie's nose over.

“
Now you are impugning my
work,” Jess laughed. She stretched to her tiptoes and pretended to
examine Ronnie's nose. “I could put a bend or two in there though,”
She joked.

One by one the others introduced each
other.

The older couple was Peter and Melanie
Kant. They were in their late fifties. They had been show dog
breeders.

Jess was Jessie Stone. She was Native
American and African American. Just shy of forty, she
said.

The other man was John Steele. A
slightly built, pale man who looked as though he had never spent
much time in the sun. He had been into stocks and bonds, he said.
His English accent said he had not been in the states for long.
“Five years,” he told Chloe with a laugh, when she told him how
much she liked the sound of his voice. “Came from Hunstanton to
holiday and stayed.”