Zombies and Chainsaws (Book 2): Dark Roads (16 page)

They were reunited with Leslie and Joann, who had changed clothes, as well, in a empty cafeteria which seemed to be the main intelligence center for the makeshift camp. Joann saw the three of them sitting at a table and she sprinted to Jude, squeezing him in an embrace that blocked his breathing. She kissed the top of his head, not letting up. “Oh, my God, I didn’t think we would ever see you again. Like, ever again. If we did, I thought it was going to be when they took us out back to put a bullet in our heads.”

Dr. Steward held out a hand, making quick introductions to Joann and Leslie. He said, “Well, in our defense, we had to get more recruits in, as we didn’t know how this spread, or that shots to the chest were of little to no use. Jude and Chuck were just explaining that blinding them seems to have been the most effective thing yet to help take them down.”

Joann and Leslie both nodded. Leslie said, “Yes, actually. Before, we thought slicing through their kneecaps was the best way to stop them. But my sweet man here, Chuck, figured it out, and since then we've been doing better. The only problem is that the extinguishers don’t last all that long. Seems like there are more dead out there right now than fire extinguishers.”

Dr. Steward said, “Well, I don’t think you have to worry about that. I have a full lab here, with every chemical you can imagine to blind these things. I'm not talking about temporary blinding, either, I am talking permanent and water-resistant. It won’t matter if they walk into rain or not, they'll stay blinded. It will give us more time to take out the threat.”

Chuck cut in, not waiting for anyone’s opinion. “You know, that's great and all, but you do realize you army boys are only going to be able to make it so many places in the time we have. What I'm saying is, the longer this thing goes on, the longer the dead will have to multiply, infect, eat, etc. etc.”

Dr. Steward said, “And the point of all that is?”

“That you need to come up with some clever shit. What I'm saying is, if people could make something at home with common household stuff, you’d be good to go. Think about this, you could have only the army know the secret and have the materials available, or you could play it damn smart and have anyone with a kitchen, garage, or cleaning supplies capable of making whatever it is you need. Think about having millions versus thousands
—
do you think it'll be in our favor, doc?”

Dr. Steward thought it over and came back to the table a few minutes later. He showed them the household items he had on hand. “Can anyone think of anything more basic than this, once you add water to it? Or do you think this will do the trick?”

Charlie said, “Seems like we probably ought to try it out, give it a go, and we can let y'all know about it.”

Steward said, “Well, unfortunately for us, we have a plethora of the soon-to-be-dead here. We can grab one of them, blind them, and if that works, we'll give you a truck
—
since we ruined yours
—
and you can be on your way. I heard you had some important people to get home to.”

“My boy and my sister-in-law are back in Iowa. I have to get back to them. They're probably hiding in the basement, terrified. I can’t imagine what's going through Patrick’s mind right now—he must be so scared, with all this happening.”

They walked out to the back of the school; there was no shortage of piles of the dead. A man who had been bitten lay comatose on the ground. He had visible wounds on his arms and legs; it was obvious he was going to become one of the dead soon. Jude said, “How long has that fella been out here?”

Steward said, “We brought him out the minute you boys told Dr. Barnes that you had a way to cripple them. He is out of his pain now.”

Jude watched as the man slowly rose to his feet. It yanked as hard as it could on the chains binding it to a pole. When it realized that it was surrounded by fresh meals, it leapt toward the closest guard. The man fired off a shot at its stomach from reflex.

Chuck yelled, “Yeah, soldier, sir, that ain’t gonna do a lot of good, considering he’s dead and all.”

The soldiers took a step back. Jude's crew walked forward, followed closely by Dr. Steward. When they were within five feet, Jude pumped the small weed-sprayer up with pressure and shot a quick spray across its face. It instantly began clawing at its eyes, ripping the skin from its face, and then sat still. Now that it could no longer see the guards, its desire to go after them diminished. One of the soldiers stepped within a few feet of the dead. "Hey," he said, "It's blind. It can't—"

The dead man reached forward quicker than the soldier thought it could. It gripped the soldier by the first thing it could wrap its hands around and drew him in, clenching its teeth around the soldier's neck. The soldier screamed, batting at it, trying to push away, but when it pulled back, it was only because of the chunk of meat it had in its mouth had been severed. The soldier fell to the ground, gurgling on blood. His two army friends knelt down, trying to give him first aid.

Jude stepped forward, gripping a shovel from where it had leaned against a nearby fence, and brought it down as hard as he could on the dead man’s newly bloodied face, knocking the dead off its feet. When it tried to get back up, Jude brought the shovel down with all his hate for its kind. The shovel cut halfway through its neck, the head barely dangling on. Jude struck one more finishing blow, separating the skull, and then put the chomping head on the shovel blade, chucking it as far away from them as he could.

Dr. Steward walked forward, staring at the soldier. “Suggestions for him, Jude?”

Jude pushed the other soldiers away, taking the deceased's sidearm from its holster, and sent three shots into his skull. He dropped the gun quickly as the two remaining soldiers aimed at him. He said, “You and I both know he was going to turn ugly, and he was going to do it really fucking quick. There ain’t any reason you all need to be like that. I’ve lost friends, too, because of this
—
friends I've probably known a hell of a lot longer than you knew him.”

Jude picked the shovel up, knowing the shots to the head would kill the human in him, but that the dead was still on its way. “I need to finish this; if you don’t want to watch, nobody's making you.”

Jude brought the shovel up and, this time, directly down into the skull—once, twice, three times, until he broke through the cranium. The body twitched as he broke the scalp open; the shovel came out covered with brains.

Leslie, staring, said, “You know, it doesn’t seem to matter how many times I see that—each and every one just seems worse. I think I actually prefer having Jude with a chainsaw or axe. It seems more humane, somehow.”

“More humane slicing through their brains with a chainsaw?” Joann said.

“Hey, I can’t help how I feel. I mean, as many of these things as we’ve taken out, you'd think it would be a bit less disturbing, but it isn’t,” Leslie replied.

Jude looked back to Dr. Steward. “You satisfied with the results? I got a boy to get home to. I think we pretty much just figured out how to eradicate these things, don’t you?”

Steward was still staring at the ground, at Jude's handiwork. He finally nodded and said, “Yes. Yes, I think we're probably good to go. We need to go somewhere we can take massive amounts of this. Do you boys think you can replicate it on your own?”

Jude nodded. “Close enough. If you can get me a Humvee with a trailer hitch, we’ll be on our way…oh, and I want our shit back, too. I’ll take my axe over one of those AR’s right now. You boys are gonna run outta bullets. Once those things are blinded, you’d probably do just as well running over them with a truck or tank and squishing their brains out. I don’t know what the answer is, but those rifles probably ain't it. You could use them for taking out their knee caps. Maybe do like we do and blind them, disable them, and smash their fucking heads in, rinse, repeat.”

Steward said, “I'm sure we'll be able to figure out something. Thank you so much; I really do appreciate you helping us. I think we have a chance now. Before, we were just trying to keep it from spreading, with no clue how any of this happened. Joann, you were very insightful, thank you all again.”

Chuck coughed a little, and when he got no reaction, coughed a second time. “Well, God forbid anyone tells ol' Chuck thank you. I figured out the blinding shit, man
—
that is golden! We wouldn’t be able to do jack shit without that. Throw me a bone, for godsakes!”

Dr. Steward smiled awkwardly and the soldiers walked away, leaving the dead where they lay. Chuck looked to Jude, who said, “Chuck, you and your brain are the best thing in this world. I appreciate you. Now, quit acting like a little bitch, and let’s go.”

Minutes later, they had their gear back and had been given a Humvee with a full tank of gas, along with rifles, shotguns, and enough ammo to fill the rear of the vehicle. Jude walked around, inspecting the truck, thinking how they’d not had anything this fancy when he was wearing fatigues his first time. He saw the trailer hitch and smiled, thinking that, with a few quick stops on the way home, they would have a better than fair chance of making it back alive!

They waved to the soldiers, who, this time, let them through the blockade. They drove to the outskirts of town, slowing when Jude found a feed and supply store. Steward had given each of them a canister for the road, and Chuck gripped his tighter. “What the hell are we doing here? We got plenty of crap to take care of anything we see on the way home, Jude. I thought you were in a hurry to get home?”

Jude said, “Yeah, and when we get home there’s a damn good chance people will be trapped and haven't seen the army's broadcast. I want to make sure that when we get home, we can do some serious good. We're going to decimate these things, and then we're going to make sure everyone has a chance.”

Joann gripped his shoulder. “Right, and what does a feed store have to do with that, stud?”

Jude pointed out his window, smiling as he rolled the Humvee to a stop. The four looked at what he was pointing at and saw a cattle water tank. Charlie whistled and read the sign, “Cattle water tank holds 400 gallons of water.”

Chuck looked over at Jude. “You've got some bad intentions, don’t you?”

“Only for the dead, Chuck. When we make it home, we'll be doing everything we can to make a difference.”

“What about that wonderful little plan we had about getting home, getting Patrick and Maria, and getting the fuck out of Dodge?” Chuck asked.

“We can run, Chuck, or we can stay and take our city back, and then our state. You said you wanted to be a hero, right? Well, this is your claim to fame, then. Coming up with the way to kill them is great, but whoever decimates the dead is going to be the man.”

Chuck said, “I wonder if we can, like, get an exemption from paying taxes…forever?”

Leslie patted his shoulder. “Chuck, I think you're losing focus, here.”

Jude got out, kicking the tires of the water tank's trailer. He motioned for Chuck, who jumped to the driver’s seat, backing the Humvee up to the hitch, and Jude set the trailer down, locking it in place. They drove to the front of the store and went inside, gathering ingredients. Jude wheeled out carts full of each component, and they dumped it all into the water tank, then filled it to the brim with water, attaching a pump to the bottom.

Jude tested the rig, spraying the side of a wall and tweaking the sprayer until it shot a straight line. He set it down, and they started the long drive home.

Chapter 12

Maria and Patrick sat in the woods. Maria had found enough wood to get a small fire going. Their clothes were slowly drying, but were still soaked. Patrick said, “Aunt Maria, what are we going to do? Those things are pretty close to us.”

Maria had all of the guns loaded to capacity and resting against trees. She looked at their surroundings, thankful that at least the wooded area they’d ended up in was not too thick. She wanted to be able to see anything coming for them in time to run. The more time they had to react, the better. "I think we'll be okay, Patrick. Your dad is going to be back anytime now, I’m sure of it...because if he isn’t, I’m going to hurt him.”

“Oh, Dad’s coming back, and he’s going to put the hurt on those things. It's a good thing you brought the guns along, since we left home and all those dead things came into the house.”

Maria smiled uneasily. It wouldn't be easy for Jude to see them from the road, where the trees were incredibly dense. She worried about Jude seeing what was left of the house—the only thing that might give Jude hope was the fact that her car wasn't there. She didn’t want to be a pessimist, but optimism was escaping her at the moment.

Patrick patted her on the shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, Maria, I'll keep you safe if they come down here.”

She gave him a tight hug, looking at the tree line and not letting her eyes off of it for anything. Patrick crawled into the tent and, within minutes, was passed out. The day had put a strain on both of them. Maria could feel the wobble in her neck—the longer she sat there, the more tired she grew. She longed for a nap, even if it only meant a few minutes, but knew she could not allow it, remaining vigilant until the moment the darkness overcame her.

Maria woke, startled and unsure what had roused her. She rubbed at her eyes, trying to wake up. The sleep had left her feeling even more exhausted than she had been already.