Dead 09: Spring Read online

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Danny’s voice drifted down with obvious amusement.

  “We don’t work like that,” Jody said.

  However, Selina elbowed past and stepped up directly in front of the woman so that they were almost touching. “You may be okay with pumping out babies over in that kingdom of yours, but here…we actually encourage people to have real relationships, Miss…what was your name?”

  “My name is Margarita Rivera.” The woman was about a foot or more shorter, but she showed no sign of backing down. “And who are you?”

  “Selina…Selina Rafe.”

  Jody noticed that she enunciated his last name very specifically and with an obvious effort to correct the woman’s poorer pronunciation. As an added emphasis, she planted her hand on her hips in some universal female symbol of challenge. This was not going well at all.

  “You are married to this man since before the muerto viviente? The…zombie…the living dead? You were married before they come?” Selina did not answer immediately and the woman steamrolled onwards. “Then it is not counting. I choose him.”

  Margarita stepped past Selina as if she were not there and placed herself directly in front of Jody, arms crossed and chin tilted up at him. She winked, causing him to jump back as if hit with a small jolt of electricity.

  “This is awesome,” Danny snickered.

  “When will you have the men coming forward so that the rest may choose?” Margarita asked.

  “Don’t you want to get situated, maybe take a few days?” Jody replied, shooting a look over the woman’s head at Selina who only had eyes for Margarita at the moment.

  “We are not here for marrying. The more faster you help give babies to us, then we can go home.” She looked around at the surroundings and gave a sniff like she could detect something foul. “This place is small. It is dirty.”

  “Now just a minute!” Selina lunged forward as George walked up. He was just in time to grab her and pull her back. He shot Jody a questioning look, but Jody only shrugged.

  “This is George Rosamilia,” Jody said by way of introductions. “George, this is Margarita Rivera.”

  The woman turned and now it was her turn to take a step back. She whistled through her teeth and clasped her hands behind her back. Slowly, she walked a circle around the large man. When she was finished, she turned to Jody and shook her head. “I am sorry. Mr. Rafe (again it came out as Ra-fee, and there was perhaps even a bit of extra emphasis on the obvious mispronunciation). I have changed my mind.”

  “What’s going on?” George asked, clearly confused by the sudden turn of events.

  “I am wishing to have this one be the father of my next child,” Margarita said with a wicked laugh that was only emphasized as she clapped her hands together.

  “Wait…what?” George looked over at Jody.

  From up above in the watchtower, the sounds of Danny Sullivan exploding with laughter rained down on the scene.

  “Oh, my God!” Danny exclaimed. “This is fuckin’-A priceless!”

  ***

  Sean scooped Deanna up into his arms. There were zombies everywhere. How did she not realize that she couldn’t help anybody? He shoved a zombie away and jabbed his large knife into one milky eye, snatching his arm back so as not to lose his only remaining weapon.

  “Deanna!” a voice screamed.

  Sean turned and saw that little trouble maker Rose standing on the trunk of a car. She had a look on her face that told him she had seen it all. Well that was too bad. The stupid girl was probably going to die judging by what he saw. Besides, she didn’t understand.

  Sean had not knocked Deanna out to hurt her; he had done it because he loved her. He loved her so much that he would do anything for her. If he had to punch a good one and knock her out in order to rescue her, then that was the way things had to be. She would understand when she came to. He would tell her absolutely everything and she would be thankful.

  He dropped his free shoulder to knock aside another zombie. It had one of the other kids from the group held close and was ripping away a chunk from the boy’s shoulder. The kid actually reached for Sean, his scream loud and his eyes pleading. Didn’t he know he was probably pretty much already dead? Sean thought as he brought his booted foot up and planted it in the boy’s chest, sending him and the zombie to the ground in a heap. He had probably just done that boy a favor as five more zombies fell on the kid. He would die faster and suffer less.

  Sean paused to look around. He saw some unfamiliar adults wading into the carnage. Of course he also saw a few adults hanging back by the entrance to that hospital that they had obviously secured. He could understand; if they had worked hard to clear a place, they sure didn’t want a bunch of juvenile delinquents coming in and messing things up.

  “Put her down, Sean!” a voice called.

  Sean searched and he passed over Catie twice before he realized it was her. She was covered in blood and her hair was even matted to her head by the gore.

  He could tell that there was no way the woman could get to him. There had to be a thousand zombies between them, and she was acting like an idiot…trying to save the kids who were running around like they had never seen a zombie before. He watched as one little girl was literally pulled apart; arms ripped out of their sockets as several zombies engaged in a lethal tug-of-war. By the time that crazy Army bitch got to where he was, he would be long gone.

  Something solid smashed into the side of his head and Sean tumbled to the ground. Deanna landed in a heap beside him. Looking up, Sean saw Rose brandishing a tire iron.

  “I said put her down!” Rose snarled. “I saw what you did…big man hitting a girl. She was trying to help Cherry and you punched her in the face.”

  “That girl was dead!” Sean shot back as he scooted a few inches away from Rose. “You can’t save everybody…and neither can Deanna. She said that she loves me. The only problem is that all you damn kids keep taking all her time with your stupid problems. ‘Henry doesn’t like me’ or ‘I miss my mommy,’” he said in a mockingly falsetto voice.

  “You’re kind of an ass.”

  “Yeah…but I will be alive an hour from now and you won’t.” Sean smiled wickedly.

  Somehow the brat knew. Sean watched in amazement as she ducked under the swiping arm of the zombie that had come up from behind. Still, she was distracted now. Rolling over, he scooped up Deanna and looked around. There were several buildings that looked like low-rent apartments just up the street about a block away. He took off in that direction. It was harder than he had thought, and Deanna kept threatening to slip from his grip.

  At last he reached the first five-story walk up. The entry doors had long since been ripped from their hinges and Sean ducked inside. The hallway was long and dark. To his right was a switchback staircase that would take him up to the upper floors. He just needed to get off the ground floor for now; he could worry about all the other stuff later.

  He had intended to go up to the fourth or even the fifth, but his legs said otherwise. He set Deanna down as he put his shoulder into the door that opened onto the third floor. It had been barricaded from the other side…but apparently not very well.

  When he was finally able to poke his head in and take a look, he found out why he’d been able to open the door. Somebody had tried to rip all the stuff piled against this door out of the way. The hall at this end was strewn with all sorts of furniture that had obviously been stacked against this door at some point.

  Once he had pried it open enough to be able to shove Deanna in and then follow, he heaved the door shut and jammed the stuff that was piled up to help barricade it back in place. Deanna started to moan and Sean flopped down across the hall from her.

  Her eyes flitted a few times and then she opened them very slowly.

  “W-w-what happened?” she moaned, her hands going to the left side of her jaw—right where his fist had connected with her face.

  “Zombies came from everywhere,” Sean
said. “I had to get you out of there fast…you would have died.” That last part was simply an assumption on his part. She had not actually been in any danger when he had knocked her out and then “rescued” her.

  “The children…Rose…Catie…” Her voice became strangled and she started to sob.

  “But I saved you, Sean insisted. “And we will be okay.”

  “The others—” she started to insist, but a rage-filled scream came from Sean and caused her to shut her mouth with a click of teeth.

  “WHO CARES ABOUT THE OTHERS!”

  Deanna started to cry. Everybody was gone. If what Sean said was true, they had all gone down under that massive flood of zombies that had hit them just as they were approaching…

  “The hospital,” she breathed. “Maybe they made it to the hospital. Maybe the people there helped them.”

  “They’re all dead,” Sean sighed as he got to his feet. “And maybe I should have left you to die with them.”

  4

  No Geek, Just Girls

  Rose held Aleah’s hand tightly as they walked in the midst of the silent armed guard. She should have trusted her gut, and that is why she was so angry at the moment. She could care less that they had been kicked out of that weird compound.

  They came to a stop in front of a large building with a sturdy wrought iron fence that had obviously been reinforced. There was a sign that was heavily tagged with graffiti proclaiming “Where is your god now?” and “The end came and went…why are you still here?” You could barely make out the words “Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses”.

  “So this is it,” the man who had identified himself as Jordan Cranston said to the pair. “Inside there is a big map on the wall of the area. You can get your bearings and be on your way.”

  “Just so you know,” Rose looked up at the man with absolutely no emotion on her face, “don’t bother looking over your shoulder…you’ll never see it coming when I kill you.”

  The man shook his head and scowled. “You do realize that I could simply kill you here and now. You have a simple machete…oh…wait…” He reached down at his hip and tapped the hilt of a bladed weapon that was sheathed and hanging from his belt. “You don’t even have that yet. Say something else, little girl. Maybe we just leave you two here with nothing but the clothes on your back and see how long you last.”

  “You ain’t—” Rose lunged forward, but Aleah grabbed her and pulled her back.

  “Rose! Enough.” The woman stepped through the gate after one of the men with Jordan untwisted the wire that kept the hasp on the gate secure and pulled the younger girl with her.

  “That punk took Kevin,” Rose yelled as she spun away from Aleah. “Maybe you are okay with that, but where I’m from, we handle our business when people screw with our family.”

  “A real shame you ain’t immune,” Jordan said with a laugh and a shake of his head. “We sure could have used somebody with your spirit. I have no doubt that you will be just fine.”

  A low moan sounded from some nearby buildings. After Aleah and Rose entered the gate, Jordan shut it.

  “If you need some time to get yourself together, feel free to stay for one or two days. If it ain’t too much to ask, please shut the gate and secure it when you leave. And if you don’t, just remember that you won’t be hurting me at all. This is where we bring anybody who is not admitted to the colony. So if you leave the gate open and zombies get in, then you just put somebody in danger…somebody just like yourselves. We simply bring them here for drop off. We don’t step inside this gate…kind of like your own little sanctuary.”

  With that, Jordan handed over a sheathed machete to both Aleah and Rose, then he and the rest of his escort team turned and headed back the way they’d come. Jordan gave a wave which received the middle finger in response from Rose.

  The walk had been almost an hour, but Aleah was already finding herself to be tired. She headed for the doors to the building while Rose secured the gate behind them.

  Inside, there was a distinct smell of human waste mixed with staleness and rotting garbage. The floor was littered with old discarded bandages and assorted trash. The walls had been covered with more quips as well as names and dates and various town and city names that were probably the likely destinations of the authors.

  A few old and weathered photos were tacked up, many with added mustaches, goatees and devil horns scribbled. However, one table stood out from everything else in the dank environment. It was a six-foot long table with a dark sheet spread over it. A bit of dust had gathered, making Aleah wonder when the last time was that somebody had been brought here.

  On the table were a stack of books. The two headed over and took a look. Aleah almost laughed. Written on a piece of notebook paper and inside a plastic page protector was a simple, handwritten note:

  To whom it may concern,

  While the world has certainly come to an end, there is no reason that a few of us can’t try to cling to a bit of humanity. If you are reading this, then you have been deemed unworthy by a group of individuals that seem to be immune to this terrible plague.

  My group was one such band. Well…half of us were anyway. The problem was that when we got here, we had to wait a week for one of our own to heal up from a badly sprained ankle. If you are alive, then you can certainly understand the idea of boredom. Who knew that the zombie apocalypse could be so dull at times?

  Anyway, a few of us ventured out and came across a small, locally owned bookstore. We grabbed all we could carry. We would have grabbed more, but, as with all good things, eventually the zombies showed up and we had to lay low for a bit.

  In any case, we got a few books and ask that, if you do take one, treat it well. It doesn’t look like there will be anymore release dates any time soon.

  Sincerely,

  Paul Cowan

  The stacks of books had obviously been shuffled through, but it was a variety of titles that were scattered across the table: Dying Days 3, A New World: Chaos, Zombie Fallout 6, The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor.

  “Kevin would love this stuff,” Rose chuckled.

  “Actually, not so much,” Aleah said with a wistful sigh. “We found some zombie books one time while out searching for supplies. He said why bother reading about it when we are living it.”

  “Hey…here is something.” Rose picked up a battered paperback.

  “Wuthering Heights?” Aleah asked with a skeptically raised eyebrow.

  “My mom said it was one of the greatest books ever…but I never got around to reading it,” Rose replied with her own deep and sad sounding exhalation.

  “Well, it is here for a reason…take it.”

  Rose wiped at the cover with one hand and got a faraway look. She walked over to a small square of sunlight that was drifting in through a window that had been busted out who knew how long ago.

  Aleah found her own space in a corner and lay down after clearing a place on the floor. She just needed some rest. After a few decent hours of sleep that would come whether she wanted it or not, she could figure out what to do. One thing was for certain…there was no way in hell she could just abandon Kevin.

  As she drifted off, her mind could not stay away from those last moments…

  A handful of men filtered into the room with weapons drawn. It all seemed too surreal for Aleah.

  ***

  Her last memories had been of a terrible pain that seemed to rip her apart from the inside out. Her only thought was that, for some strange reason, the baby inside her had turned into a zombie and was trying to eat its way out of her. She felt warm liquid gush from her and the last thought she had before losing consciousness was that she could not believe that she wet her pants again…but at least Kevin was out cold and would miss the whole embarrassing moment this time.

  When she came to the first time, she had been terrified. Staring down at her were people wearing white surgical masks and tight fitting caps so that all she could see were their eyes as they sta
red down at her.

  “My baby,” she had tried to say, but that was when she was aware of a mask over her own face. This one was plastic and gave a faint smell of bananas for some reason.

  “We need another dose…she is coming out too soon,” a man’s voice said.

  Aleah was aware of a presence beside her, but when she tried to move her head, she discovered that it had been secured in place with a strap across her forehead. She was sending messages to her arms, but they did not seem inclined to respond either.

  Also, there was a sound. It was that sound that haunted her. It sounded like a vacuum. And why did she suddenly feel so empty?

  The next time she opened her eyes, Kevin was there. He’d been holding her hand and talking to some woman, but none of it made any sense. Then the men with guns arrived.

  They were talking about things, but for some reason, she was having a terrible time following anything. It reminded her of when her best friend had taken her to see the movie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. She had sat through the film and been amazed as her friend gasped and clucked throughout the whole confusing thing. She’d had no more idea what was going on when she walked out of the theater than she had when she’d walked in.

  She’d heard things that sounded like Kevin was going to be some sort of living sperm bank…but he would be in a coma…and Heather had a boyfriend? That just could not be right.

  Kevin had squeezed her hand and said something about it being worse than the horror movies. What had he meant by that?

  They had taken Kevin out of the room after a bit of a scuffle, and a moment later Rose came in. She was handcuffed and the man with her had what looked like a busted nose. There had been yelling, and one of the men—the one in the baseball hat who she would later come to know as Jordan Cranston—had backhanded Rose really hard and told her that their “hospitality had its limits.”

  Then she saw the woman who Kevin had been speaking with when she first woke up escorted out in the cuffs that they had removed from Rose. And before she could ask anybody what was going on, the door to the room she and Rose were in had been shut and locked. Seconds later, the lights went out and they were plunged into perfect darkness.