The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. (98 page)

Fires burned over on the west side too.
Nothing like Jersey though. There seemed to be a concerted effort,
behind those barricades of buses, to get the fires out. It had been
just over a week now since the city had collapsed. She and Bear had
come here two days before. She thought back on it, playing the
scene over in her head as she watched the fires burn across the
river. Cliffside, North Bergen, Union City. She couldn't tell where
the fires burned and where they left off. Maybe all of Jersey was
on fire.

Two days prior...

They had walked right down the middle
of the street, looking up at the buildings as they walked. Park
Avenue looked bad, but nowhere near as bad as Harlem had
looked.

618 rested above the door of this
building in two foot tall brass letters. The door had been partly
open. They had seen that from the street and walked
closer.

The doorman, an elderly white haired
man, had been dead, lying in the doorway preventing the door from
closing and locking. The dead had killed him but not turned him. Or
at least he had not turned yet. What a lot you learn in three days,
she told herself now, as she remembered. They had dug in, shifted
him outside the door. Bear had dragged him to the gutter as she had
held the door. They had no sooner let the door close than he had
sat up in the gutter of the street.

“
Bear! He's only hurt,” she
had said, shocked. She had turned to Bear where he stood behind her
in the hallway. The words coming to her lips
automatically.

“
Baby,” he had started. But
that was when the doorman had hit the glass door. Rattling it in
its frame, scaring her so badly that she had peed herself a little.
Bear had dragged her unprotesting, backwards down the
hallway.

They had used the elevator, taken it to
the top of the building. There had still been electric in the
building that first day. Now the elevator was dead, wedged open on
their floor.

There had been an old lady in the
apartment across the hall. She had come and stared as Bear had
forced the handset and let them into the apartment.

“
You know, Amanda Bynes
will not care for that at all,” she had told them as she stood in
her doorway, clutching her dressing gown to her throat.

“
Well, fuck Amanda Bynes,”
Bear had told her. He turned to her. “Not to put too fine a point
on it,” he added. She had shrunk back.

She blinked. “Well, I don't suppose
she'll be back. Do you?” She hadn't waited for an answer, but
answered for herself. She lowered her eyes to the floor. “No. I
don't suppose she will.” She looked back up. “Well, you're welcome
to it I guess. I guess it doesn't belong to anyone anymore. You
just scared me is all.” She stood blinking. Donita walked across
the short distance and stuck out her hand.

“
I don't think anyone who
isn't here right now will ever be back,“ Donita had told her. She
had held the old woman’s cold, thin hand.

“
Alice,” the old woman said
as Donita told her, her name. “Jefferson,” she had
added.

Bear chuckled from across the hall.
Donita had turned her eyes to him. “Just found it amusing is all,”
Bear had told her.

“
I wonder
what Mister James might think about all of this,” Alice had said.
“We've never had...
trouble
like this,” she had finished quietly.

“
Mister James is your
husband?” Bear had asked kindly.

He tended to snap at people and then
regret it after. He was so big that he scared people when he did
that. Six foot three, and at two hundred and ninety, very close to
three hundred pounds. But he was really an easy going soul, Donita
knew. He had been trying to make up for snapping at the old woman a
few seconds before.

“
No, dear, our doorman.
He's not supposed to let anyone in at all.” She had clutched at her
throat and the collar of her housecoat once more.

Donita had looked at Bear. He had
opened his mouth and then closed it. She had turned her eyes to
Alice. “Alice... Alice, the Zombies got him. They got your Mister
James... I'm sorry,” she had told her.

Alice had blinked. “I see.
Well he'll probably lose his job if he's... well if he's
un
able to do it,” she
had looked at Donita. “Do you think he's unable to do
it?”

Donita nodded. “I'm pretty sure,” She
had said.

“
Well, I wonder who will do
it then?”

The silence had held in the hallway for
a short time and Bear broke it. “Do you think you might want to
come over here with us? We're going to try to ride it out. Can't
last forever, right?” He had finished with the lock-set, swung open
the door and looked into the gloomy interior of Amanda Bynes'
apartment. He turned back to face her.

“
No. Thank you, but I have
always lived alone and I can't see changing it now. Have you seen
these Zombies, these dead people? I saw it on the T.V. before it
quit working.” She had peered up at Bear.

“
Yeah. We've seen them. Had
to fight our way through them.” His hand had come up and scrubbed
at his face and the beard that was beginning to grow
there..

Alice had nodded. Her long robe lifted
at floor level and a small white dog had stuck his head out from
under the hem and looked up at Bear and Donita. Alice followed
their eyes down. “Ge-boo,” she had said. The dog looked up at her
and then slipped his head back under the hem of the robe once more.
He had poked his nose back out a few seconds later, fixed his eyes
on Donita, and then slipped back under the robe for good. It seemed
to Donita as though it hadn't really happened.

“
A dog,” Bear had
said.

Alice had nodded. “I have
been walking him in the daylight. They said...
the T.V. said...
they can't come out
in the daylight. Like vampires or something. They haven't bothered
Ge-Boo and me. Have you seen them in the daylight?” She had
asked.

“
No,” Bear had told
her.

“
No,” Donita had agreed.
“But you shouldn't go out. There are bad people out there... not
just Zombies.”

“
You mean people that break
into people's houses?” Alice had asked. She had looked from Donita
to Bear.

“
Yeah, well, okay,” Bear
had agreed. “Just be careful... Alice,” He had added her name as an
afterthought. “Donita,” Donita had nodded at Alice and then stepped
into Amanda Bynes' apartment.

Now she looked out over the fires
burning in Jersey. The air was full of ash and smoke. It seemed
like it always was now. She turned and went back into the
apartment, sliding the balcony door shut behind her.

Madison and Cammy

The street was empty. Madison went
first, taking her time, then called to the others. Cammy and Mickey
came around the corner a few seconds later. Cammy stopped, watching
Madison where she waited. Mickey came slowly, trying to look
everywhere at once, holding the machine pistol he carried pointed
up at the sky.

Harlem was crazy. There were very few
dead, but there were very few dead because the gangs were running
all the sick and elderly out of the neighborhoods. They had watched
from the safety of a rooftop that overlooked the projects, as some
gang members had gone apartment to apartment in the projects,
running the people there out into the street.

They had lined them up in the middle of
the road and run them out of the projects, past the buses. Three
different times one of the oldsters had turned to argue, or maybe
just to make a point and they had clubbed them down, dragging them
unconscious, out past the buses, and then shooting them in the
head. After that they had begun going house to house looking for
any other old people, sick, injured. Yeah, it was crazy in Harlem.
They had decided to get out. There was no telling what might happen
if they stayed.

Mickey finally lowered the machine
pistol he carried to the ground, took one more look around, and
then his eyes came back to Madison as he walked.

The shot rang out, and they all
flinched. Madison went into a crouch. She had reached out and
grabbed Cammy, pulling her low too, so she did not see Mickey begin
to fall. Did not look that way until he was crumpled on the ground
like a small pile of dirty clothes. Her eyes shot up toward the
buildings quickly, but they dropped as a voice spoke.

“
Get the
fuck up, bitches.” A tall, dark-skinned kid - a kid, no more than
that - walked from the darkened doorway of a building across the
street. “I said,
get the fuck
up,”
he repeated as he walked toward
them.

Cammy stood from her crouch and Madison
stood with her. “You don't have to hurt us,” Madison
began.

“
Good... Good. You bitches
just get your asses moving and it'll be cool then.” He motioned
back the way they had come with his gun. Madison looked down at
Mickey crumpled in the street, blood pooling around him, and got
her feet moving. She held Cammy close as they walked slowly back
into Harlem.

Watertown New York March 9th

Candace's Diary

I saw a man across the river this
afternoon when we were on our way back from the south side of the
city. He seemed to be climbing the riverbank. I only saw him for a
few moments, and I could not be sure where he was going. I had to
set down the bags I was carrying to get a better look, foodstuff we
had picked up at the markets over on State Street. As I watched, he
disappeared into the brush on the side of the bank.

Two days ago I had seen boot prints at
the market. Then again yesterday. I know this has to be that man.
Has to be.

Anyway, I'm leaving in the morning to
go over there and find the man that I saw. I know that sounds
crazy. I know it does, but I'm going. I'm getting up at sunrise,
and I'm going. Jan and Bob said they would go with me. I was
outside until way after dark looking for firelight on the other
side of the river. I didn't see any at all, but I know he's
there.

I don't know that area though. Maybe I
wouldn't see a fire over there. Maybe he is being careful. I want
to know so much. When will I know it?

Mike's Journal

I saw other footprints at the market.
It frustrates me, because I don't know how old they are. How long
have they been there? Have they been there right along? Did I just
miss them? I don't know how to tell. I do know they seem crisp at
the edges. It seems like the way things melt and change, the wind,
that they would have lost that look. I think, I don't
know.

There are a few obvious different sets.
Small and large. I can't tell past that. Maybe tomorrow I'll go
earlier, try to be there when they are, assuming they are coming
before me.

I have this cave coming along fine.
I've been stockpiling food. I should have no problem this winter. I
have more than enough to see me through, a few dozen others too. I
hope. I know there are people here. I know it, but for some reason
they are staying hidden.

If I could find my way to a bigger
city, I'm sure things would be fine. I wonder if I should stuff
this stockpiling, and try to get to Syracuse... or Rochester...
maybe even New York. It's close to four hundred miles, but maybe
there are answers there. I just don't know.

I thought today about a radio. C.B.,
F.M., something. Even A.M. when I go tomorrow, I'll look for
radios. Guess that's it. I'm hanging in here, still on my
own.

Billy

He came from sleep fast, Jamie's face
above him, her voice a low, panicked whisper.

“
Wha... What...
What?”

“
Downstairs... It's
downstairs,” she didn't finish but she didn't need to. A crash came
to his ears, but he could not tell if it was from the downstairs
hallway. At least he hoped it was the downstairs hallway, not the
stairs outside of their apartment, or, God forbid, even
closer.

He jumped from the tangle of blankets,
started to pull his shoes on, and then reached for his machine
pistol instead as another noise came from the hallway. This time it
did sound like the downstairs hallway; the steel gate that closed
off the lobby. Billy thumbed the safety off the machine pistol and
ran for the apartment door.

The hallway was nearly completely
black. The hallway windows let in the light from outside, but it
was very little. He slowed and felt his way to the staircase. He
sensed her before his hand brushed against her.

“
Don't you fuckin' shoot
me, Billy Jingo.”
Beth whispered tightly. A
small penlight clicked on and he could see her leaning against the
wall from the upstairs apartment.

“
No,” Billy said. It was
stupid, but he could think of nothing else to say. “Going down,” he
told her. He made the stairs and headed down toward the lobby.
Behind him Beth had turned out the light, but he could feel her
following behind him.

The noise became louder as they made
their way downward. Billy tried to count the steps as he went.
Fifteen to the landing, turn to the right, feel for the banister.
Fifteen more to the bottom, but he missed the last step. He had
made himself count the steps just earlier that day in case he had
to navigate them in the blackness.