Zombified (Book 1): Hudson Place (33 page)

Jenny soon joined him and together they loaded the truck with their gear. Charlie was impressed at how quickly they were ready, not even an hour had passed. Guess we've had a lot of practice, he thought wryly.

After Dexter checked everyone, they were ready to move out. Charlie slid into the driver's seat and shut his door. He started the truck as Jenny slid into her seat and fastened her seat belt. He gave her a look.

"What?" she asked with a grin. She settled back against the seat.

"Fastening the seat belt struck me funny for some reason. Here we go - off to battle zombies - and you put on your seat belt."

To his surprise, he laughed out loud. Jenny tilted her head to look at him and the look on her face made him laugh harder. "Well," he said with a gasp in between. "It is funny."

She grinned at him. "Yeah, guess it is." She shook her head and giggled.

Charlie fastened his seat belt; they looked at each other and burst out laughing. As he drove by Dexter, he gave him a wave, laughing louder at Dexter's perplexed look. Sometimes you have to laugh at the absurdity of it all, Charlie thought as he headed toward the field. Either that or go mad.

****

The trip to pick up the armory folks went without a hitch, until they were almost back to Dave's Place. The idea to travel mid-day worked perfectly, they saw not one creature - living or otherwise. Sullie turned out to be a small, compact woman around sixty with pure white hair and big smiling brown eyes. After quick introductions and once supplies were handed over, Mick and his team quickly headed back with their new charges. He was feeling hopeful as they neared their destination. He felt more than heard the two clicks from his walkie. His steps slowed as he fished it from beneath his jacket. He put up a hand and heard rather than saw the group behind him come to a halt.

He carefully checked the volume before responding. "Mick here," he whispered. "What's up?"

"Mick, this is Lindsey. We've got problems." Mick adjusted the volume up a tad. "Zombies started showing up about ten minutes ago. We have no idea why."

Mick winced. He glanced at his son. "You heard?" Sean nodded. "What should we do?"

"Find out how many zombies we're talking about and where they're at, we may be able to sneak around and go through the garage."

He smiled at Scott. "Good thinking."

"Lindsey, do you think we can get in through the garage? How many zombies are we talking about?"

"Not many and they're mostly on the main side," Lindsey replied. "If you hurry, I'd say you could get in at the garage. Let us know when you're ready and we'll open the door."

"We should be there in about five minutes," Mick said softly. "Will message you when we're close."

He placed the walkie back under his jacket and turned to the others who were whispering among themselves. "We need to hurry," he said in a loud whisper. "Try to be as quiet as you can and stay close to each other."

Without waiting for a reply, Mick turned on his heel and began to trot toward Dave's Place. He wanted to get there as quickly as possible, but they had to stop twice so parents could pick up and carry the children who were falling behind. Within a few minutes, he was able to see the top of Dave's Place. He slowed down and pointed so the newcomers could see their destination. He looked back.

"We're not going directly in," he whispered between breaths. "We need to take a left up here, so pay attention."

Once they reached the corner, he took a sharp turn and ran across the street. If he had kept going straight, they would have come up on the main entrance to Dave's Place. Now they needed to approach from the other side. Once safely across, he stopped with his back up against a building. The others followed his example and soon they were lined up with their backs to the wall. He could see Jeff bringing up the rear. Most were breathing heavily and everyone was sweating in the midday warmth.

After a brief pause, he turned and slowly headed toward the end of the block. Once there, he cautiously peered around the corner. The side street was empty and he sighed quietly with relief. He inched forward, hugging the wall. He was afraid zombies would come along and spot them if they moved too fast. He could feel the sweat dripping down his neck and back. He glanced back to see Scott right behind him. He stopped. A few more feet and they would be at the end of the street. Time to call Lindsey. He leaned forward a bit so he could see the garage. No zombies. He pulled the walkie out and promptly dropped it. His eyes widened in surprise. Did he break it? He grabbed it off the ground and fiddled with the volume. Everything seemed ok.

"Lindsey," he whispered. "We're ready."

"Ok, hang on; we're going to give these guys something to fixate on. When you hear the fireworks, come running."

He once again put the walkie back and straightened up. He gestured for everyone to huddle together.

"They're going to throw fireworks over on the other side to distract the zombies. When they do, we're all going to run right across the street to the garage. Please, whatever you do, be careful and stay close!"

Even with the warning the sudden sound of the fireworks going off made everyone jump, a few even cried out in surprise. Without a word, Mick took off and could hear pounding feet behind him. He ran without looking back, he heard the hum of the garage door as it began to slowly roll upward. The timing was perfect, he ran straight in with the group right on his heels. The door was already going down before he stopped and turned.

Lilly and Cindy were waiting for them. Mick dropped his backpack and drew Cindy into his arms, giving her a hug and kissing the top of her head.

She leaned back to look up at him and pointed to her lips with a grin. He obliged her, kissing her with a loud smack which made them both laugh.

"You goof," she said good-naturedly as she pushed him away. "I'm so glad everyone made it back safely."

"You and me both," he said, kissing her again.

Once again introductions were made and while Lindsey, Cindy, and Brooke showed the newcomers around and got them settled, Mick took Scott up to the rooftop to have a talk. To his relief, Scott was agreeable to heading out to Shady Oaks, as long as they didn't leave Lilly shorthanded. Mick already knew one family they brought in wanted to stay for awhile to see if any of their relatives turned up.

Later Mick and Cindy went in search of Lilly. After a lot of tears and hugs, she assured them they would be fine. Jeff and Lindsey, as well as Matt, Diane, and their children, were staying behind for awhile as well to keep the numbers up. There were still a lot of chores and animals to attend to and the new families agreed to do their part to help out so Dave's Place could continue to run as smoothly as possible.

Since they were shorthanded on vehicles, Mick decided they needed to call Sean and Charlie and have all the vehicles driven back. They would then take two back to Shady Oaks and Scott would drive his family in their car. He wanted to make sure Lilly and the others were not stranded and had enough transportation if they needed to leave quickly for any reason.

Finally the day was winding down and Mick could relax with Cindy sitting next to him on the rooftop.

"Do you think we're doing the right thing?"

"Having doubts?" she asked softly as she intertwined her fingers with his. He squeezed them gently.

"Some. I think the time is right to leave, but I hate leaving anyone behind here. Then again, I know we need to have people here for as long as possible, we provide a real lifeline to people who are still fighting to survive out there, even if there's not many left."

"I agree," Cindy said. "Time is limited here, we know the city is infested now and eventually more and more zombies will be around - we've seen more in the last few days than in all the time we've been here. It'll come to a point where they can't be driven away and we don't have the ammunition to kill them all. Then Dave's Place will be closed down and everyone will be at Shady Oaks."

Mick sighed and Cindy leaned her head on his shoulder. Together they watched the sun set on what would be their last full day at Dave's Place.

Chapter 36

Jenny gasped with surprise when they reached the football field. She turned to Charlie.

"Did you know about this?"

He shook his head without looking at her. "Nope."

Two backhoes were at work on either side of the field. There were two long and deep trenches running the full length of the field. In the center of the field sat a lone table with what looked like an amp and the boom box. The backhoes were fairly loud and Charlie was surprised they hadn't attracted any unwanted attention. He saw a few people stationed here and there on the bleachers holding rifles, they were obviously on watch. Charlie turned off the truck and opened his door.

"Let's go find out what Dexter's up to."

They simply followed the loud string of expletives coming from Dexter to find him. When he saw them approach, he grinned.

"We're gonna get them SOB's this time," he crowed. He grabbed Charlie by the arm. "Lemme show you how this works." He pointed to the far end of the field. "They'll come from there or from the other end to investigate all the noise. When they do, we open up on 'em. Some should fall in the trenches, the rest we'll put in there when we're done. Then we set it all on fire, there's already hay scattered around down there soaked with gas and kerosene. End result - no more zombies."

Charlie looked around. "Must say I'm impressed," he said without the same enthusiasm Dexter showed. What was about to happen only made him queasy. "We're not leaving the bodies here are we?"

"Nah, townsfolk want to open this school up again so we can't bulldoze dirt over 'em and call it a day. They'll be hauled off and buried."

"Good to hear," said Jenny with a nod.

The backhoes finished and they watched them head toward the other side of the school.

"I see Travis fiddling with the boom box," Jenny said. "Is it ready to go?"

"Almost," Dexter replied. "We had the idea to hook it up to the loudspeaker system - that will get their attention!"

Dexter nodded back toward the school. "We need to head over there. I've had everyone redirected to the parking lot on the other side. We'll wait there until I get the signal from my guy on the roof and then we'll go get 'em. Travis hooked something up that will enable us to turn on the floodlights too so we will be able to see what we're killin'."

Charlie looked up and sure enough saw a man standing on the roof. He glanced back at Dexter.

"Looks like you've got it covered."

"Yep, let's get out of here so we can get this party started!"

Charlie shook his head at Dexter's retreating back. He felt a hand on his arm and looked down at his daughter.

"He'll never change," she remarked dryly. "He doesn't see that these were people once and they need some respect."

"He only sees them as an enemy and one to be destroyed at all costs," Charlie said sadly. "Sure, they are deadly and they would destroy us in an instant, but they're driven by impulses and urges now. We have to remember they were once people. We'll put them down and bury them, but we can do it respectfully like we did before."

"Agree," Jenny stated simply as Charlie steered them both toward the truck. "I imagine we can get Pastor Gonzales to say a word when this is done."

"Great idea sweetheart," Charlie replied with a smile. They quickly climbed into the truck and moved to the other side. All engines and lights were off - no one was out of their vehicle and everyone was quiet. Charlie realized they didn't want to attract any attention. He quickly shut the vehicle off and all was quiet except for the pings coming from the engine as it cooled. He felt Jenny grab his hand and he gave it a small squeeze.

"It'll be all right," he said in a low voice.

"I'm sure it will be ok, it's hard to believe we're back here getting reading to fight these things again."

Before Charlie could reply, music began blaring from the loudspeakers. "Wow! That is loud!" He turned to look over his shoulder. He could hear the music echoing out into the surrounding area. "If that doesn't draw them in, nothing will!"