Zombie Rules (36 page)

             
After a minute she checked the thermometer. “You’re right at a hundred degrees.” She looked at me with concern. “Everything seems okay Zach, but I’m not a doctor. Is there anything else I should check?”

             
I gave her a crooked smile. “I think you’ve done fine Nurse Good-Body.”

She looked like she was about to give a sassy retort, stopped, and smiled patiently at me.

“You must be hungry. How about some soup?” I nodded. I was hungry. Thirsty too. “I’m afraid I have some more news. Some of it is not very good.”

             
My bladder was begging in protest, but I held off for a minute. I had to hear what was wrong. “What is it? Is Fred alright?”

             
She squeezed my hand. I think she was telling me to shut up and let her talk. “Fred is fine. After we got you fixed up, he went around taking care of the chores. That included checking the traps.” I realized Moe and Larry were missing and had a sinking feeling.

             
“We got one coyote, and Larry got caught in another one. Fred had to put him down. We don’t know where Moe is.” Curly must have sensed what we were talking about. He let out a small whimper and nudged his head under my hand. “There’s more. When we were driving home, we encountered somebody.”

             
“Who?” I asked. I did not have to wait long for an answer. Macie heard her cue and appeared in the doorway.

             
“Hello Zach.” She said quietly.

             
I eyed her warily as Julie filled me in. It was obvious that she had not had it easy. She was practically emaciated, but freshly bathed. Her blonde hair was a darker shade now, but was still pretty, especially with it glistening in the light. She was wearing a plain tee shirt. Her pregnancy bulge was more pronounced than the last time I saw her. “She was walking along the road toting an oversize suitcase.” Julie leaned closer. “Zach, we couldn’t just leave her. There were zombies everywhere.”

             
I looked at Macie and cocked an eyebrow. “Well, one thing is for sure. We now have extra dog food on hand, so she’ll have plenty to eat.”

             
“Zach!” Julie was aghast. There were many emotions swirling in my head, but aghast was not one of them. I pushed the covers aside, ignoring the fact I was naked. Standing was not as hard as I thought it would be, but it still intensified the headache. The two women watched me with their mouths open as I walked somewhat stiffly to the bathroom.

             
Julie attempted to follow me and knocked on the door as soon as I shut it. “May I have some privacy please?” I asked plaintively.

             
“Are you okay?” She asked. I stifled a smart assed retort.

“I’m fine. I’ll be out shortly.” I guess she understood. After emptying my bladder, it seemed like it took an hour, I decided on a bath. There was some hot water left, so I filled the tub with roughly two inches of water and enjoyed a nice lukewarm bath while I tried to calm down and clear my thoughts.

              So Macie was here now. I had occasionally, well more like often, wondered if I would ever see her again. I tried to think it all out, but my head was just not cooperating. I knew I could not, and would not, order her to leave. She could stay with Fred I supposed, but it seemed to me Julie already made the decision she was going to stay with us. When I realized I was doing nothing but confusing myself trying to think it all through, I got out of the bath.

             
I managed to brush my teeth and get some fresh clothes on without too much discomfort. As long as I went slowly, my head did not throb very much. I watched myself in the mirror as I stuck my tongue out and moved it from side to side, and then up and down. My analysis was my tongue was in working order, which was somewhat of an indicator I had not suffered any kind of stroke or seizure after being shot. The headache may be an indicator otherwise, but I was optimistic. I wolfed down several ibuprofen tablets before joining everyone in the kitchen. The dinner table conversation was quiet, maybe even a bit tense.

             
Fred broke the silence by recapping me on the events that transpired when I got shot. He pointed at Julie with his spoon. “Two of those soldiers caught Julie. I was on the roof about the time you got shot. Then the zombies came a-calling.” He filled me in on what they did next. Everyone chuckled when he stammered through the tampon idea. “Anyway,” he said in an effort to stop talking about girl stuff. “We spotted you and got back into the safety of the truck. Zombies were everywhere Zach.”

             
“Did you get a good count?” I asked. “How about their level of decomposition?”

             
Fred shook his head as he finished up his soup. “There were at least a thousand of them, maybe more.” He waved with the spoon. “I know you’re going to ask me a dozen questions about them. Let’s see if I can answer. They moaned a lot. It seemed like if one moaned it would cause all of them to moan. They were loud, so at least if there is a big pack of them wandering around we should be able to hear them coming well in advance. And the smell, they smell really bad.” He set his spoon down and drummed the tabletop with his fingers. “I was unable to get a good visual examination of them, but I’d say most, if not all of them, were in an advanced state of decomposition. I didn’t see anyone that looked fresh. Did you Julie?”

             
Julie shook her head. “All I know is they stank and all of the moaning was very irritating.”

             
Fred nodded. “A thousand rotting zombies definitely emit a foul odor. If we’re down wind of them we’ll know.” Fred snapped his fingers. “Oh, here’s something rather interesting. They couldn’t figure out how to use the ladder to get to us, but at least some of them still had enough of their brain working to realize we were on that roof, even though they had not actually seen us in several hours. The trick with the tampon confirms they’re attracted to sound and smell.” Fred was silent for a moment while I jotted down everything on my note pad. He ate his soup and watched until I got caught up before continuing.

             
“It appeared as though they didn’t merely crawl over the roadblock. The sheer inertia of all of them pushing each other forward propelled them over and through it.” He frowned a little. “So, I think a big question has to be: what made a thousand zombies decide to leave the downtown Nashville area and walk en masse down Fourth Avenue. They continued down Fourth, across the railroad tracks which is where Fourth changes into Nolensville Pike, past the old fairgrounds, across I-440, and on down Nolensville to the roadblock. I’ve no idea what caused it, but they came out in droves.”

             
He continued frowning. “You know, we’re making a rather asinine assumption here. We’re thinking all of them came down Nolensville Pike. It’s entirely conceivable a couple of thousand went east, a couple of thousand went west, a couple of thousand took a detour onto I-440. Hell, for all we know there are hundreds of thousands of them. We just came into contact with one group.”

             
I nodded and tried not to grimace. “Did they follow us in the truck?”

             
Fred nodded. “They attempted to. While Julie was tending to you, I was trying to make a zigzag route back here. I went down Haywood Lane real slow so they would follow us, and then sped off through back roads until we lost sight of them.”

             
Fred drummed his fingers on the table. “I almost forgot something important. When we got out of sight of them, I doubled back and went to Southern Hills Hospital. It was just as you had predicted. The hospital was full of zombies and rotting corpses. There was smoke coming from part of the building. It may be burned out. It’s a shame, there has to be some good medical equipment in there.” I nodded thoughtfully. It made sense, where do people go when they get sick? The hospital, of course. Rick and I had figured all hospitals would be danger zones, at least until all of the zombies died off.

             
“So, we decided to get back to the house as quickly as possible. We got just over the county line when we spotted Macie. She was by herself. Now, I know you two have a, shall we say a storied history, but we couldn’t leave her.” He left the rest unsaid and took his dishes over to the sink.

             
I started getting sleepy, but forced myself to concentrate. “Okay Macie, your turn. Where had you been and where were you going?”

             
She looked directly at me. “After Jason cooked up his plan, I waited until they left, packed up what I could and snuck out.”

             
“Why?” The question seemed to have caused some emotional pain. She wiped away some tears with a trembling hand. I did not care. I wanted answers. I stared pointedly at her.

             
“He was not the person I fell in love with. He had changed, or maybe it took the end of the world to occur before I saw his true character. Believe me, it wasn’t an easy decision. I was scared to death. I was scared of the zombies and scared what would happen if any of them caught me, but I had to leave.”

             
“How did you get away?” I asked.

             
“I had previously found a car in the neighborhood with the keys still in it. So, when I heard them hatching their plan, I made up my mind.”

             
“Where did you go? Why did you not go back to your parents’ house?” I asked.

             
She shook her head. “They were both dead.” She looked at everyone and then down at the table. “I guess I should explain. I came home from school one day and they were in the house. It looked like they had attacked each other. There was blood everywhere. I ran outside and called 911, but nobody ever answered. I called Jason. He came over and picked me up. We stayed in his house with Darius and Trina. We met up with Tay a couple of days later. Chad spotted us a couple of weeks ago and invited us to live with him.” She moved some hair out of her face with a trembling hand.

             
“So, I did not go back home. I went to my Aunt and Uncle’s house. They live in the Crieve Hall neighborhood. I found them in the garage. They had shut the garage door and started their car. I guess they decided it wasn’t worth living anymore. I didn’t have the strength to drag them out, so I left them there and spent the night in the house. I couldn’t stay. It smelled too bad in there. I left the next morning. I drove around to the houses of various friends, but they were either gone or dead. Then the car ran out of gas. I didn’t know what to do. I slept in it for a few nights and then started walking. I was hoping to make it here without getting killed by anybody. I didn’t know about Julie or Fred. I was hoping you and Rick would forgive me and take me in.”

             
She took a big gulp of water before continuing. “Julie told me what happened with Jason, Darius, and Tay. All I can say is I’m so very sorry. Jason should have listened to you. I should have listened to you.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for everything Zach.”

             
Julie piped in. “Have you seen any other live people recently?”

             
She nodded. “After I left my aunt and uncle’s house, I saw a group in a couple of cars and a school bus, but I was too afraid to approach them. They all had guns and looked pretty rough. There were a couple of women with them and they looked pretty rough as well, so I hid from them.” She sucked on her lower lip. The mannerism reminded me of Julie. “I’m pretty sure I saw a plane not too long ago, but everyone else said I was just imagining and made fun of me.”

             
I suppressed a contemptuous snort and pretended to take notes for a few minutes while I thought of something to say. Finally, I looked over at Julie and Fred. “You two already know about our ugly break up. I was beaten, it was posted on the Internet, my house was vandalized and I was degraded on my Facebook page. What you two do not know is, after all of it had happened, this person felt it necessary to call me and point out all manner of deficiencies she saw in me. It was very cruel and humiliating.” I pointed at her. “She is a person who only thinks of herself. I tried to put personal feelings aside, help her, and help her friends. But we all know how it turned out.”

             
“I had nothing to do with that Zach, I swear. But you’re right. I was a very shallow person. You did not deserve to be treated how I treated you.”

             
She stared at her soup, not daring to make eye contact with me. Was she telling the truth or was she a co-conspirator in the failed ambush? I wanted to believe her because I loved her once. “You are judged by the company you keep Macie. There is the stink of Jason on you.” Her hair was hiding her face. I saw a tear drop into her soup, but she said nothing.

             
I turned my attention to my real friends. “I have serious doubts she will ever be a person I will look upon as a welcome member of our group.” I said quietly. I had gotten my blood pressure up and it was not helping that dull throb in my head. I kept my hands under the table. I had been clenching them but did not want anyone to see it. Julie stared at me quietly. Fred gave me a nod as if to say, it’s your call Zach. I nodded back and sighed. It was a little melodramatic I’m sure.