When the Dead Rise (Book 1): The Beginning (16 page)

Mark started down the steep incline, not waiting for further instruction. Megan turned to Ron, grimacing. "Do I really have to go with the suicidal maniac?"

Ron chuckled, checking his gun before putting it back in its holster. He turned, resting his hands on the young girl's slender shoulders. "I need you with him to keep him from getting himself killed. You're smart and he listens to you... well more than he listens to anyone else." He nodded after Mark, "You'd better catch up. Once you have your side cleared, meet us at the store but don't go in until we're all together."

Megan nodded, took a deep breath and set out after Mark, who'd already reached the parking lot. Ron turned to Ruth; she stared up into her husband's weary eyes, giving him a small, encouraging smile. "You're doing just fine," she said softly, lifting up on her toes to give him a quick kiss. "Eyes wide."

Ron nodded and turned to Harris, patting his back. "Let's do it."

Ruth watched as the men made their way to the far end of the parking lot; each armed with machetes and short homemade spears. She prayed that the four of them didn't come upon more zombies than they could handle.

Caleb tugged on her shirt. "Can I stand on the roof of the car to watch?"

Ruth squatted beside the boy, taking both of his hands in her own. "You don't want to watch them get rid of the zombies Caleb. It isn't something a little boy should see."

"But I'm going to have to know eventually," Caleb pouted, glancing up to where Paige now sat on her father's shoulders, watching the scene below. "And Paige gets to watch and she's littler than I am."

Sighing, Ruth knew the boy was right. He would have to learn how to defend himself against zombies if he hoped to survive in this new world. She'd hoped to keep his childhood innocence intact a little while longer, but that seemed impossible now that they were on the open road. "Okay, I'll help you get up on the roof of the car, but we need you to keep very quiet." Caleb nodded, eager to watch.

Noticing the living creeping through the parking lot, the zombies began to wander towards them. Ruth wanted to shout for Ron to be careful, but knew she couldn't distract him from his task - Harris was watching his back and Ruth had to trust he'd take care of her husband. Having already killed one of the zombies, Mark and Megan were moving on to the next; Megan acting as bait while Mark manoeuvered behind the undead creature to bash in its skull.

"Yes!" Caleb whispered from his perch on the roof of the car, when Mark's crowbar ended another zombie's existence.

"He's being reckless," Paula said from beside Ruth.

"He's never been anything but reckless," Steven replied in disgust. "He's the weak link in the group and I'm willing to bet he'll be the death of us all. We'd be better off if he got himself bitten."

"Steven!" Ruth gasped, shocked at the man's callous attitude. "Mark is an asset. Yes, he might be reckless, but that doesn't mean he should die because of it. He's young and given time, I believe he'll become invaluable to our group. He's not afraid to get up close with those things, which has already proven useful."

Paula looked at Ruth and gave a small shake of her head. "I have to agree with Steven on this one. Mark is mentally unstable. Not only did he have to kill his parents and his baby sister, but he also had to do his girlfriend, her parents, and three of his friends. That's got to take its toll."

"They've cleared the lot and are getting ready to open the doors to the store." Caleb turned briefly to Ruth before turning back to watch. "I hope there aren't too many inside." Ruth hoped the same.

A low moan came from behind them and Ruth turned to see a fat zombie stumble from behind a van. The zombie's express delivery shirt hung in tatters, exposing his fleshy belly; dried gore plastered what was left of his shirt to his chest.

"Shit!" Paula squealed. She lifted her hatchet and walked towards the creature.

Ruth could see the bites on his left arm and shoulder; sadness filled her. This poor man was probably on a delivery run, complaining about the stalled traffic when the zombies caught up with him. In his condition, Ruth doubted he'd stood much of a chance in escaping.

"Get him Paula!" Paige cried, pulling on her dad's hair, as if that would get him to back away from the enormous zombie.

"Don't let him grab you," Steven warned, moving back as the zombie stumbled towards them, flailing his arms and gnashing his teeth.

Paula swung the hatchet but the blade became embedded in the fleshy side of the zombies head. The zombie snapped at her arm, "Now what?" she squeaked, backing away from the creature; she'd lost her only weapon.

"Wow!" Caleb said in amazement as they all stared at the hatchet protruding from the side of the zombies head.

The zombie moaned and swiped at Paula again. "We need to do something fast."

Realizing they had little choice, Ruth pulled her pistol, pointed it at the zombies head and pulled the trigger. It was impossible to miss at such a close range. The back of the zombies head exploded and the massive lump of dead flesh thumped to the ground. A moan floated down the highway from ahead of them and several shadows between the vehicles began to shift and move.

The gun was too loud!
Ruth began to shake as she realized they'd just given away their presence to every undead in the area - they hadn't cleared much further up the road and who knew how many zombies lurked between the cars.

"You didn't have a choice." Paula shook Ruth. "But we can't stay here."

Ruth tore her eyes from the shadows and glanced from Paula to Steven, who'd gone pale and wide-eyed. "We have to get down to the parking lot and hope they don't notice us."

Paula put her foot on the side of the zombies head and bent, pulling at her hatchet; the squelch from the blade as it pulled free from the dead flesh turned Ruth's stomach. She pulled Caleb, who now sat crouched on the car's hood, into her arms and hurried down the embankment towards the service station; Ron and Harris were already weaving through the cars towards them.

Harris waved them over to the cover of a large truck. "We heard the gunshot. What happened?" he hissed.

Ruth fell into her husband's waiting arms. "I'm sorry," she whispered as Ron gently stroked her hair.

"A big fat one with a thick skull happened," Paula retorted, nodding in the direction of the building. "What's the situation in there?"

Harris shook his head, dismayed. "Everything's been looted. We're going to check some of the trailers to see if there's anything salvageable inside them, but we won't have much time. That gunshot's drawn a lot of unwanted attention."

Steven cleared his throat. "I think we'd better move on." His voice shook as he spoke. They all turned, following his gaze - six zombies stumbled down the embankment. One lost its footing and fell, rolling down the hill landing hard on the paved access road. Caleb and Ruth giggled as the zombie struggled back to its feet. It continued stumbling towards them; they fell silent when it stretched out its arms and moaned, exciting the others.

They quickly wound their way through the vehicles, trying to stay low and out of sight. Upon reaching the building, they crept along the side of it, quietly calling for Mark and Megan. When they reached the lot where all the transport trucks had parked, they began to make their way through them carefully searching for signs of their two other companions. Ruth saw zombies stuck in truck cabs, wildly thrashing at the windows, trying to get to the fresh feast walking by. One of the trailers rocked and loud thumping sounds echoed in the silence.

"A group of survivors must have locked themselves in the trailer," Ron spoke in low tones, bending to see beneath the line of trucks. He moved away from the rocking trailer, not wanting to risk drawing additional unwanted attention to them.

"Shouldn't we let them out?" Paige asked innocently.

Ron turned and sadly shook his head. "By the sounds of it, they aren't survivors anymore."

A bloody hand with two missing fingers suddenly reached out from behind the truck they were standing beside and dead fingers gripped onto Ron's shoulder. Ruth cried out a warning as Ron spun. He tried to back away from the clicking teeth but the zombie held on, stumbling after him.

"Shit!" Harris moved with lightening reflexes. Grabbing a knife from its sheath at his side he deftly pulled back on the zombies head and buried it to the hilt in the zombies chin.

The clacking stopped and the limp body slumped to the ground, tearing the sleeve of Ron's shirt as it fell. "That was too close," he breathed.

Someone behind Ruth retched and she turned, still in shock, to Steven hunched over with his hands braced on his knees, emptying the contents of his stomach. Paige stood beside her dad, gently patting his shoulder and making soft comforting sounds. Caleb stood beside Paula, mimicking Harris' movements as he watched the dead-again zombie twitch on the ground at Ron's feet. Ruth marveled at how resilient the children had become - adjusting to their new reality so quickly. If only she could be so lucky.

"This guy was fresh." Harris nudged the body with the toe of his boot. "Couldn't be more than a few hours old, which means there may be other survivors in the area."

A crack of a rifle cut through the silence and everyone turned in unison to the rear of the property.

"We've got to go Mark." They heard Megan shout just before another shot echoed through the maze of transport trucks.

"Just a few more," Mark shouted back as two more shots rang out.

"Head towards the pumps," Ron hissed, pointing in the general direction. "Hopefully the shots draw the zombies towards them and away from us. I'll meet you there with the others." He turned and jogged off without a backwards glance. Ruth wanted to call after her husband, to warn him to be careful, but in a moment, he'd disappeared from sight, lost in the maze of trucks.

"Paula, take the rear. Ruth, keep the kids between you and Steven." When they all nodded their understanding, Harris motioned for them to follow. The roar of two truck engines spurred them into action. "Let's go." They moved quickly and quietly, checking for undead between the trailers before moving forward to the next, and were soon at the edge of the parking lot.

Before them stood the abandoned gas pumps, tattered signs hung from the displays informing patrons that diesel was no longer available. The ground around the pumps was littered with bodies; the four adults stood stunned by the scene. Ruth pulled Caleb to her in an attempt to shield the boy from the grisly sight, but he pulled away, straining to take in every detail.

"There's Ron," Steven said, pointing down the line of trailers.

Relief washed over Ruth as she turned to watch her husband, followed by Mark and Megan, jog towards them. Mark was holding something in his arms and Megan was carrying both hers and Mark's backpacks, which appeared to be filled to capacity.

"What's all that?" Harris asked as the three approached.

"We don't have time to explain," Megan huffed, handing one of the packs to Harris.

"She's right," Ron said, glancing back over his shoulder. "There is a group of survivors in a warehouse at the rear of the property and they apparently didn't like that we found several trucks with supplies and helped ourselves. Let's get out of the immediate area, and then we'll find a place to stop and divide up what we've found."

A little slice of normal...

Mark and Megan filled the group in on what happened as they cautiously made their way out of the area. Apparently while Harris and Ron came back to find the others, Mark and Megan began searching the trucks behind the store. There they'd found a truck carrying a load of bottled water, another filled with beef jerky and pepperettes from one of the stores suppliers and a third, half-filled with cigarettes. While no one in their group smoked, Mark insisted they'd be a good item to have if their group ever needed to trade for supplies.

After grabbing several cartons of smokes, and while Megan had been filling their packs with the beef products, Mark went to check out the truck with the water logo -that's when the group from the warehouse opened fire without warning. While Megan quickly finished filling their backpacks, Mark grabbed two cases of bottled water and together they made a dash for the cover of the tractor-trailer parking lot.

That's where Ron found them, discussing how they'd find the others in the maze of trucks. They filled Ron in on what happened and were surprised when five armed men exited the warehouse, carrying two gas cans. He'd overheard two of the men talking about how they'd have to spend the next several days searching trailer by trailer to make sure they got everything of use out of the trucks. After moving the cigarettes from the third truck into the trailer of the other, and closing the doors on the bottled water truck, the men drove back to the warehouse. Ron supposed they hadn't known the contents of the trucks or expected anyone to start searching them, so they'd left them there until their supplies ran low. However, when Mark showed up, they realized the need to secure the now precious commodities so no other passers-by would come along with the same idea.

The story shocked Ruth. They were all survivors - all in need of supplies. It wasn't enough that the men had a secure place to stay; they also wanted to hoard what was left, so they wouldn't have to go without - no matter the cost to others. She wasn't sure if she could live by this new world's rules... wasn't sure she wanted to. Mark and Megan wouldn't have been able to take all the food or water - they wouldn't have been able to carry even a quarter of what must have been there, but the men hadn't wanted them to take what little they'd been able to carry. Ruth was just glad they'd made it back safe and with what provisions they'd found.