Z14 (Zombie Rules) (15 page)

             
I had Julie drive while I kept watch. Macie was in the backseat. I had her armed with my Ruger twenty-two. When we reached Rocky Fork Road, we drove slowly, looking for any tell-tale signs of life. Macie suddenly pointed.

             
“Look! Are those goats?” She asked.

             
Julie stopped the truck and I looked them over with binoculars. “I think someone lives there. The goats are chained to a post stuck in the ground. Let’s pull in. You two stay in the truck and I’ll try to make contact.”

             
We stopped at the head of the driveway and I got out. We had our standard plan going, if I was being threatened, Julie and Macie would take action. I walked up to within ten feet of the house.

             
“Hello!” I shouted and then waited. As I stood there waiting, a scrawny little kid wearing nothing more than underwear ran out from the side of the house. He looked like he was no more than five or six. I waved. His eyes widened and he ran back the way he came, giving me a good view of a fresh skid mark.

             
A short time went by before a man appeared from the rear of the house. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties, average height, brown hair which may have been cut by an expensive stylist once, and a youthful face sporting a month of whiskers. If I were to guess, I’d say he was a yuppie with expensive suits in his closet along with an assortment of leather shoes.

             
He was also armed with a blue steel revolver. I immediately held my palms out, but was careful not to raise them over my head. I heard a truck door open behind me and knew one of them was about to shoot.

             
“Easy now,” I said. “We’re friendly.”

             
“Who are you and what do you want?” He asked warily.

             
“I’m Zach, Zach Gunderson.” I motioned toward the truck with my head. “They’re my friends. We spotted your house and thought we’d say hello. There aren’t very many of us left these days, and so we wanted to make contact. Oh, and we’re not with the Captain’s group.”

             
His wariness changed to a quizzical expression. “Are you the guy who has been painting those rules everywhere?” He asked.

             
“Yep, the one and the same.” I replied with a friendly smile. He looked at me a minute in silence and then stared at the girls. He still held the revolver, although it was not pointing at anything.

             
“Listen, if we’re intruding just say so. We’ll be on our way.” I must have broken him out of his reverie.

             
“Oh. No.” He stuck the revolver into his waistband and extended his hand.

             
“I’m Toby Eason.” We shook hands.

             
“Please, come join us. It’s just my two sons and me. We were about to eat lunch. We don’t have much, but you all are welcome to join in.” I nonchalantly gave the signal. Julie and Macie exited the truck, walked up, and introduced themselves. Toby grinned broadly as he shook their hands. The two boys had been peeking at us from the side of the house. Finally curiosity got the best of them. They walked up, stood beside their father and gawked at the two girls. Toby noticed and laughed.

             
“We haven’t seen any women in quite a while, especially not as beautiful as you two.” He pointed at the two boys. “The youngest one is Joshua and the oldest one is Caleb.”

             
I shook hands with the two boys. “My name is Zachariah, which is also a name in Jewish history. These two are Julie and Macie.”

             
Toby glanced side long at me. “Are you Jewish, Zach?” He asked.

             
I shook my head. “I happened to remember Caleb and Joshua being two spies of Moses who urged him to trust in God and enter the land of Canaan.” He looked at me oddly.

             
“I went to school with him.” Macie said. “Trust me, he’s a genius.”

             
“Oh.” Toby said. “Well, I’m cooking a chicken on the grill in back. Please join us.” We started to follow him but I stopped suddenly, causing Julie to bump into me.

             
“Where are our manners?” I said. I looked at Toby. “When is the last time y’all had some watermelon?” I went to the back of the truck and hoisted a couple of big ones out. They were mostly still ripe. Toby and his boys gasped in unison.

             
When we saw the diminutive size of the chicken, or whatever it was, we begged off.

             
“I’ll be honest Toby,” I said. “The girls fixed up a rather big breakfast. I don’t think I’ll be hungry again until sometime next week.” Julie and Macie readily agreed. Toby saw through my lie, but went along with it. He knew there was not enough to go around.

             
“You don’t mind if we eat while we talk do you?” He asked.

             
“Not at all.” I carried the watermelons over to a picnic table and carved out some slices. The two boys watched as if I were serving up Manna from heaven. I handed each of them a slice and they devoured it. Macie gave them spitting lessons.

             
I briefly told our story to Toby and he listened intently. He grinned when I told him the history of Macie and me.

             
“So, let me get this straight. You two,” He pointed at Macie and me. “Are former sweethearts, and you two,” He pointed at Julie and me. “Are current sweethearts, and yet, the three of you live under the same roof?”

             
“Yep.” Julie said with a grin. Toby laughed. He cut up the mystery bird for his boys and took a small bite for himself.

             
“My wife and I moved here when she was pregnant with Caleb. We’re both psychologists. Anyway, when things started getting bad, we boarded up the windows, nailed the doors shut and hid out in the basement. We had a lot of food stored up, but it didn’t last very long.” He nibbled a small piece of meat.

             
“We’d peak out the windows in between the cracks of the wood and watch the neighborhood. It was tough watching our former neighbors and friends walking down the road with that infection ravaging their body.” He frowned. “Since both of us were psychologists, we thought we could handle the mental aspect of being shut up in the house, isolated from the rest of the world. We were wrong. One day, my wife took one of our cars and left while I was giving the boys a bath. She’d had enough I guess. I haven’t seen her since.”

             
“How long ago was that?” Macie asked.

             
“About six months ago.” Toby said. His face briefly clouded up at the memory. “Anyway, we have plenty of some stuff, and very little of other stuff. Down the road is an overgrown farm the Captain and his crew didn’t ravage. It has plenty of corn in the fields, despite the most fervent attempts of the crows and other wildlife.” He looked at us. “Crow meat is not very tasty, just in case y’all were wondering. My scavenging forays have had limited success. I’ve found some stuff, but I’m worried about my kids, so I don’t go far. I don’t think I’m getting them the proper nutrition.” He pointed down the road. “There are stray cows running around. I killed one about a month ago, but had no idea how to butcher it. I made a big mess and the coyotes dragged most of it away during the night.” The three of us exchanged glances. I nodded.

             
“Toby, we don’t have a lot, but I think we can help out a little bit. And if I may say so, I’m a master butcher.”

             
Julie scoffed. “You can’t butcher a cow without my help Zach Gunderson and you know it.” She threw a watermelon seed at me.

             
I shrugged. “She’s got me on that one.”

             
It was after four when we said our goodbyes and got in the truck to leave.

             
“This might work out okay.” I said. “With Toby’s help, we can start rounding up a lot of stray cattle. I wonder if he’d be willing to relocate closer to the farm.”

             
“Well, after the way he ogled Macie and me, I’d bet he’ll move tomorrow if you ask him.” She turned onto Rocky Fork Road and the evening sun hit her in the eyes at one point. She adjusted the visor and Andie’s picture fell onto her lap. She picked it up.

             
“What the hell is this?” She asked.

             
“Oh, it’s a picture of Andie.” I said innocently.

             
“Why do you have it?” Her tone was not friendly. She was now alternating between looking at the road and giving me the stink eye.

             
“She gave it to me. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I took it. It’s not like I hid it in my wallet or anything.” I glanced back at Macie. She was looking out of the window and acted as if there were something really interesting going on out there.

             
Julie slapped the steering wheel. “Wallet my ass, you don’t even have a wallet anymore. That little tomboy has a crush on you!” I frowned and scoffed. I started staring out of the window as well. “Zach, look at me!” I did so, but reluctantly. She was glaring at me now.

             
“Little teenage girls don’t go around giving out their picture to just anyone. She’s got a thing for you.” I nodded, like she was telling me something I was totally unaware of. Julie slowed the truck down to a crawl.

             
“Has she done anything else?” She asked. I scoffed again, but there was no use. I was had. Minimization goes hand-in-hand with lying. I knew better than to lie.

             
“She kissed me a couple of times.” I said quietly. Julie slammed on the brakes.

             
“Oh my fucking God, Zach! Were you not going to tell me about this?”

             
I shrugged my shoulders. “I didn’t see the big deal. I didn’t do anything with her.” It sounded good in my head, but when it came out of my mouth, it sounded more like I was a two-timing weasel who had just been caught.

             
“Fuck me to hell.” Julie said under her breath. She started to drive again. “If you need to sow your wild oats or something, you can sleep with Macie you know. I won’t mind.”

             
Now my mouth dropped open. I hastened a glance back at Macie again. She was still fixated on something outside her window. “What? No! You don’t understand.”

             
Julie stopped the truck again. “Explain it to me Zach. Make me understand why you didn’t tell me this from the get-go.”

             
I gesticulated with my hands, hoping it was having a positive effect. “There is nobody else her age in their group she can relate with, and her crazy uncle is molesting her. She’s lonely and her self-esteem is probably in the toilet. If I told her I didn’t want to kiss her, or refused to accept her picture, how would she feel then?” I sighed.

             
“I believed, and still believe, she’ll be a good ally and source of information. But you’re right. I should have told you immediately. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I said exasperatedly and braced myself. I would have rather faced a few dozen zombies than her wrath.

             
Julie was staring at me quietly. It was hard to tell what she was thinking from the expression on her face. She took the photograph and looked it over. I thought she was going to tear it up, but instead she stuck it in between the windshield and the headliner. Now, Andie’s picture was prominently displayed. She looked at me again.

             
“If the little shit thinks she’s going to steal you away from me, she’s got another think coming.” Then she punched me in the arm. Hard. I didn’t protest.

             
“Guys.” Macie said from the back seat. “I don’t mean to break up this heart-to-heart, but look outside, to your right.” I looked. There was a pack of wild dogs running through the neighborhood yards. They were trailing slightly behind us, as if they were following us. They didn’t look like normal dogs. These somehow looked different, more feral, deadlier.

             
“Stop the truck. I want to see how they react.” I said. Julie slowed to a stop. “Okay, wait a few.”

             
I rolled down the window and got the assault rifle ready. The dogs approached and surrounded our truck. These weren’t your average neighborhood puppy dogs, they were hunting. They sniffed around a little, and then, as I watched, they started attacking the truck. One of the dogs attacked the mesh covering Macie’s window, sinking his fangs in the mesh and trying to rip it out. She let out a frightened yelp.

             
“Shoot them!” I urged, as I stuck my rifle out of the hole in the hardware cloth and shot the nearest dog. The girls were slow to react, but when I shot, they joined in. We killed five dogs before the rest of the pack ran off. As they ran off into the neighborhood, one of them stopped and looked back. I took aim and was about to shoot, but stopped. I recognized the dog. It was Moe. One of Rick’s dogs he found abandoned on the side of the road a couple of years ago. Moe was my buddy. After Rick died, every time I went foraging I took Moe with me. He was with me when I found Julie. Moe stared at me a moment longer before he disappeared behind a house.