The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (23 page)

“That
is good news, Roberto. We don’t want to go back,” said Esperana. “We both left
too many loved ones behind us. All we have been trying to do is get to America.
Being this close, we cannot go back now. For me, Mexico is a land of death.
America
has
to be better than where we are now. How is our gas holding
up?”

“This
pickup has three fuel tanks,” Roberto said. “All of them are full. With the
extra gas cans that we found, I think there is enough gas to fill the pickup
three more times, at least. We have enough food to last us for a week, maybe
two if we are careful. And I agree with you, we have lost too many of our
family members to stop now. I do not want their deaths to be in vain. We must
cross in their honor. I believe as you do. America has to be better than here
in Mexico.”

Roberto
drove to the collapsed border wall. Just before crossing into America, he
stopped the pickup for a moment. He was looking for anything that might prevent
them from entering the United States. He called out the side window for Maurico
to look for problems. As he let the pickup engine idle, he turned to talk to
Esperana.

“We
are so close to a new life. I never thought that I would ever be this close to
America. I never dreamed that the border would be wide open, unchecked. In the
back of my mind, I felt that I would never be able to get our family across,
and with all those doubts clouding my thoughts, I never thought of what we
would do if we ever got across. I still don’t know what to do or where to go.”

“Roberto,
why don’t we drive as far as Tucson. We can stop for the night there. After
dinner, we can talk about what we should do or where we can go once we are in
America.”

“Esperana,
had you made any plans for your family once you crossed?”

“No,” Esperana
said. “Like you, I never imagined, even in my dreams, what we would do once we
were in America. Let's just go to Tucson for now. That is a good plan. After
that, we can talk about where we should go from there. It must be about 10:30
AM. That gives us six more hours of driving before we will have to stop for the
night.”

With
that, Roberto put the pickup in gear and started to follow the tracks of the
car ahead of them. The windows of the pickup were open, and Esperana leaned out
the window to shout to Maurico.

“Did
you hear what we have been talking about, about crossing into America?”

“Yes,
Mother. I could hear the both of you. I can’t believe that we are going to be
able to drive into America without being stopped. I think you’re right. The
best thing for us is to go to Tucson. Tonight after dinner we can talk about
what we should do. Right now I don’t have anything in mind except to cross
safely.”

“Thank
you, Maurico. That is exactly what we are going to do. If we don’t have any
problems along the way, Tucson is where we will stay tonight. We should have
more than enough time to get there.”

“Let’s
get out of Mexico,” Maurico said. “I don’t want to stay here any longer than I
have to.”

After
driving several hours, dodging abandoned cars on the freeway to Tucson, passing
bloodied bodies lying in their way on the freeway, it was not long before they
entered the outskirts of Tucson. It stretched out for miles in front of them.

Sadly,
from what they could see, Tucson was not in much better shape than Nogales.
Some of the tall skyscrapers were still smoldering, the black smoke drifting in
the wind.

They
passed Tucson International Airport on the east side of the highway. It
was
in as bad shape as the
rest of the city. Just past the airport, they came to the Valencia Boulevard
exit. Esperana pointed at the exit and told Roberto, “Take the next exit. It
looks like a large residential neighborhood. We should be able to find a house
to stay in tonight. This way we are close to Tucson but not right downtown.”

“All
right,” said Roberto. “I’ll go that way. It looks as good as any other place
around here. I want to get off of this freeway. I’m tired of swerving around
abandoned cars or the bodies. I could use the rest.”

As
Roberto drove down Valencia Boulevard, he could see residential neighborhoods
to the right and left. There were homes as far as he could see. When he
approached the intersection of Valencia and Campbell Avenue, he asked Esperana,
“How does Campbell Avenue look to you? I see many houses over there.”

“Campbell
sounds fine to me. Drive down it for a few blocks. Then we can turn on any of
these residential streets to find a house to stay in.”

“Yes,
ma’am, you’re the boss,” Roberto smiled. “Let me know if you see one that you
like.”

They drove
down Campbell Avenue for a mile or so before he turned down a smaller street
with houses on either side. He stopped in front of a clean looking, two-story
home. It looked like a good candidate for the night. His plan was to drive past
the home once before coming back. He wanted to see the home with the
neighborhood before he committed to it. As he drove by, they could see that it
had a short, decorative wall around the front of the house. The front door was standing
wide open. They could see that it had a two-car garage attached to the house.
It looked vacant.

Roberto
drove five or six blocks past the house before he turned around. As he driving back
the house, Roberto stopped a few houses down the street, shutting off the engine.
As he got out, he handed Esperana a pistol, telling her, “Esperana, please take
this just in case there is trouble. I’m going to take Maurico with me to check
out the house. If it is clear, one of us will wave to you to bring the pickup.
Keep everyone safe for me, please. Come on Maurico, let’s go. Bring your gun.”

As
they walked to the house, Roberto and Maurico looked at the other houses that
they passed. They wanted to see if it looked as if anyone — or any
thing
— was, or had been, in the houses they passed. Shortly they arrived at the house
they had selected. Roberto told Maurico, “Let’s go around to the back. We
should look at the outside before we go in. As we walk around it, we can look
into any windows that we come to. I want you to go into the back yard. You go around
that side, and I’ll go around this side. Look inside as much as you can. We
don’t need any surprises when we go inside.”

“Ok.
I’ll meet you in the back. If either of us finds anything that is out of place,
we’ll turn around and get back to the front of the house.”

Both
men walked around the house from either side, meeting on the patio. Roberto was
a little faster, and was waiting for Maurico. When Maurico got there, Roberto whispered,
“I did not see anything out of place. Did you see anything on your side?”

“I
didn’t see anything, not even a broken window. Do you want to go back to the
front door? It’s open.”

“Hold
on a minute, let me try this door first. I don’t want to break down a door that
we will need tonight, but if it is open, we won’t have to walk back to the
front.”

“All
right, Maurico. Something had to break down the front door. We need to be
careful. I’ll follow you.”

The
door was open. They walked into the kitchen. They stood there for a moment to
let their eyes adjust to the darkness inside. Then they could see a little
better. They went through the kitchen. The garage door was next to the kitchen.
Roberto opened the door into the garage; it was empty. They would park their
pickup in the garage.

They
walked on through the rest of the house, starting with the living room. They
checked every room on the first floor. They went upstairs to check that floor. It
was all clear and they went back downstairs.

“This
house looks empty,” said Maurico. “No other people. No backpacks or sleeping
bags lying around. No zombies. Nothing. This will be a good place for us. Let’s
go tell the others.”

“Hold
on one moment, Maurico. I want to go upstairs to watch over things. Go into the
garage and open one of the garage doors. Walk down the driveway to the street
and wave to your mother to bring the pickup into the garage. Have her back it
in in case we have to get out of here quickly. Close the door once the pickup
is inside. Make sure that the garage doors are locked. Then we can unload the
items we need for the night.”

Maurico
did as he was asked. Before long, everyone was inside and the girls were making
dinner. Roberto came downstairs.

“This
house will be right for us,” he said. “No one was approached as we walked
through it. Once dinner is ready, we can eat. We still need to have our watch
as we have done every night before. The last person on watch will wake up
everyone at sunrise. I think the safest place to sleep will be upstairs at the
far end of the house.”

“Roberto,
you chose well. I did not even see any dried blood in the street,” said Esperana.
“This neighborhood should be safe. Come on girls, we have work to do. Our
strong men have done their work for the day. Now they are hungry.”

“Mother,
can you help me over here, please?” asked Maurico. He stepped into one of the
back rooms. Esperana followed him. Maurico closed the door before he asked her,
“Mother, do you think you should be doing so much work like you are doing with
you being pregnant?”

“Maurico,
thank you for being worried about me,” she said. “When I carried you, I worked
next to your father on the pier until a week before I delivered you. I had to
stop then. I’ve got a long way to go before I’m in my last week. Trust me when
I tell you this: I will sit down when the work gets too hard for me. Until then,
thank you for worrying about me. I love you, son. Now let me go to work.”

The
girls had brought the supplies that they needed for the night. They all had a
great dinner together, even though the sun had not quite set. They all were
tired from the day’s activities.

Maurico
took the first night watch. He was looking at the street from an upstairs
window when he saw a man outside. He was standing in the street, looking at the
house they were in. He didn’t move. He didn’t make a sound. He also did not
look like a zombie. He was in clean clothes. He was simply standing there,
looking at the house.

Maurico
ran to get Roberto. Roberto came into the room where Maurico was watching. Roberto
stood there watching him from the second floor window. He told Maurico to get
his gun and to go downstairs to wait for him. Roberto came downstairs with his
gun as well.

“What
do you think this guy wants?” Maurico asked. “Roberto, do you think he is
dangerous? Should I go out and talk to him?”

“I
don’t know what he wants. He has been standing in the same spot for ten minutes
or so. At this time of day, people don’t stand around outside for long. Do I
think he is dangerous? No, I don’t think he is. Crazy? Maybe.” He was quiet for
a minute, thinking. “We’ll need to do something if he doesn’t leave soon. The
zombies will be coming out. I don’t want him to draw them to this house.”

“Do
you want me to go out to talk to him?” asked Maurico.

“No.
Let me go out. I want you to stand next to the door, with your gun ready. If
anything funny happens, I want you to be prepared. If you have to use your gun,
don’t hesitate. Watch me, I’m going out to talk to him. Stay ready. Make sure
everyone stays inside behind the door.”

Roberto
went out to talk to him. When he was ten feet away from the stranger, Roberto
stopped. He asked him, “What do you want? Why are you here?”

“My
name is Sancho Holguin. I am with a small group of people which has been here for
the last three days. We are five houses down the street. We watched you come
into the neighborhood. We wanted to introduce ourselves before you found us. We
do not mean you any harm. There are five of us. We would like to invite you to
join us tomorrow.”

“My
name is Roberto. What are you talking about, joining you? We are doing fine by
ourselves. We are not looking for a group to join.”

“Roberto,
we have a person in our group who knows how to operate a ham radio. He was able
to contact a place that is offering safety to all who come. We are leaving in
the morning. If you want to come with us, you are welcome. Because of the
buildings that are burning, there are no zombies around. We have heard on the
radio that the zombies don’t like the smoke or anything to do with a fire. For
some reason, there is something about the fire that zombies don’t want to be
around. I don’t know why, exactly. All I know is that if you stay in a place
that has had a lot of buildings that have burned, the zombies won’t be there.
You are welcome to come to our house to stay the night with us. Or we could
meet you tomorrow on the street when we leave. Either way, we mean you no harm.
We are offering you to come with us to a place that is safe for all of us.”

“How
can we get more information before we decide whether to come with you? We need
to know more about this place. We have already set this house up for the night,
so we will stay here for the night, but what can you tell us about this place?
Where is it? Are they charging to stay? Will we be allowed to leave if we wish?
Can you tell us more before we decide?”

“Let
me go and get my brother to talk to you. I will bring my wife as well so she
can talk to the ladies. Is it all right if I come back with them?”