He lay there feeling more relaxed and at peace than he had in a long time. He ran a hand thru her hair and smiled. He could still almost smell the water and feel the light wind kiss his skin before he drifted back into the first peaceful dreamless sleep he’d had since the dead had risen.
CHAPTER 12
Seth sat on the roof of the old courthouse watching the zombies mill around down below looking for a way into the building. “ Not going to happen, you stupid shits.” He yelled down at them. One or two actually looked up at him. No doubt trying to get their body to obey the command to give him the one finger salute.
“Got me plenty of food, and water,” He said to himself, so far he hadn’t started arguing with himself, but no doubt that would come later. He was really starting to get on his own nerves. “Has to be the lack of sleep, okay lack of good sleep” lately he had been having a lot of nightmares. The kind that left him feeling flayed alive, and they didn’t fade out when he woke up. No these fuckers hung around for hours pushing him closer to the edge.
“Well its feeding time.” he said, then rose and headed to the door.
His footsteps echoed off the walls, as he made his way down to the basement of the old building past Deputy McDougal. Seth nodded to the deputy who ignored him “damn stupid asshole. Think being dead is an excuse to be rude,” he said rounding on the corpse in the chair. “Maybe you want to go outside and be with your buddies. Oh, that’s right their better than you aint they. They get to move around. You only get to sit there.” He spit on the body and kept walking to the old civil defense shelter.
“At least they used the Federal funds they got after 9/11 to actually stock this place with modern stuff. “ he said refusing to look at the old cases of civil defense Spam stacked against one wall. “You hungry yet honey,” he asked as he dug thru a case of MRE’s and pulled two out. “Enchilada dinner, or Steak” he asked holding first one then the other up.
“Steak it is for you then” he said as he opened the pouch and began to lay the contents out on a tray. “ I knew you liked steak, you have that kind of look,” he said as he carried the tray over and sat down on a chair and studied the girl taped to the chair across from his seat. He smiled as he pulled away the duct tape that covered her mouth. “Who knew that at the end of the world me and you would be here, with the man who tried to keep us apart “ he said motioning to the doorway beyond which lay the Deputies body.
“You’re a fucking nut job” she hissed, hatred flared in her brown eyes.
“Now, now, if you want to eat you’d better be polite” he said offering her a Spork full of rehydrated steak. Honestly, I think the enchiladas are better. But not by much”
“You could at least untie me. Its not like I can run out side” she said resentfully.
“You might try any way and I just couldn’t bear losing you.” He paused and made a show of looking thoughtful. “but I guess, if I put you in a cell. You’d be safe enough.” He said finally then smiled again, a smile that chilled her blood as he studied her nude body. “But then it would be hard for me to do the things you want me to do” he said a hungry tone in his voice. she slumped in her seat, without saying a word. Obediently opening her mouth for the food he offered, shame and rage tearing her apart.
Once she had finished eating to his satisfaction he disposed of the trash and then pulled out a wrapped package. “I got you something. I know you’ll love it,” he said. “Here, I’ll open if for you. I know how you hate to do the little things for yourself” he said he opened the package and pulled out the “ gift.” A black leather strap with a buckle on one end, and a rubber ball mounted in the center of the strap. He giggled as he held it up for her inspection. “ Found this in one of the deputies desks, he was a naughty boy in private I guess.” He said as he walked to her side and force the ball into her mouth then buckled it into place gagging her. He smiled happily as he gazed into her tear filled eyes.
“Your so beautiful” he said. “Tonight, we are having company, I hope you get to meet him. He really likes you. Thinks we are a great couple” he said as he grabbed her chair and wrestled it up onto a furniture dolly and carried her into the Her “bedroom” which was nothing more than a Closet he had set aside for her. The door shut leaving her, still tied to the chair, in blessed darkness. At least on the nights he had company, he never touched her.
At first she had thought his company was just part of his obvious insanity. But one night a month ago she had begun to wonder after waking up and hearing voices. She wasn’t sure, but she could have sworn that there had been two voices. But the conversation had stopped a moment or two after she had woke. God she wished she could just die but what she feared more were those things outside getting in and she would be sitting here tied to a chair like a thanksgiving turkey all ready to be eaten. But maybe she should start being more worried about Seth’s company.
♦ ♦ ♦
Jared had dreaded going down to breakfast the next morning, knowing they were going to get shit from everyone. He wasn’t wrong either, though everyone expressed some form of appreciation for Jill being so patient while wondering if she was perhaps touched by a bit of heat stroke. They were not so gentle with him.
He chuckled as he remembered pappy’s complaining about being kept awake by a pack of howling monkeys covered in motor oil playing Tarzan. The fact that he rarely slept wasn’t mentioned, nor the did any one ask how he knew what a pack of motor oil smeared monkeys have sex while playing Tarzan sounded like. No doubt it happened during the war on some remote island while pinned down and pissing himself.
Odd dreams aside, he was in a decidedly good mood which didn’t make a lot of sense all things considered. he stepped out onto the porch of the main cabin and looked over the camp while waiting for today’s team to get the lead out. They were going into town today.
They needed clothes for the kids, food and drugs. Especially drugs, at the moment three people were sick. And the whole group was worried that it might sweep thru the camp. It was getting cramped too.
If they found any more people he didn’t know what he was going to do with them. Already the area they had planned to use to grow food was now being used to park trucks, a camper and an Rv on. Not to mention the steadily growing pile of material they were collecting to build with.
Jill fairly glowed as she walked up and flashed him a smile. On impulse he reached out and pulled her close, then kissed her. Ignoring the few catcalls and one rather descriptive comment from Pappy. Something about Lard, a water hose and Herbert Hoover.
Chris appeared, trying not to grin every time he looked at Jared. He had taken to shaving his head like Steve but had grown a goatee that was currently still pretty short but well maintained.
“Is that the new Apocalypse fashion, combat vest with no shirt.”? Jared asked lifting a golden red eyebrow.
“Depends on if you or Jill are planning on adopting it” Chris said, as he ejected the magazine in his rifle, jacked the slide and snatched the ejected round out of the air.
“Oh its for me, I kind of like it” Jared said
“In that case no it’s not the new style.” Chris said as he checked the magazine load then slapped it back into the well of his weapon.
It was a nervous habit he had developed, making sure he had a full magazine. Which normally was a good thing. But he was starting to do it all the time.
“Now if Jill were to …” Chris started but Jared cut him off.
“Don’t you have a wife” Jared asked.
“Well yes, but I cant get her to dress like this.” Chris said with a half smile, as Jill laughed softly.
“I tried to tell her that since we can’t just go out and buy new clothes, she should try going naked around camp to conserve her clothing. But she thought that I was being overly pessimistic.”
“I’m sure she did.” Jared said, as Mark joined them still yawning.
“Shelly and Sharon want to go too” Mark said tilting his head to indicate the two heav
ily armed women walking towards the trucks.
“Why not makes us the dirty half dozen” Jared said. “the dirty quartet just sounds like a barber shop group gone bad.”
“Sounds more like a gay porn musical” Mark commented with a grin. “Remind me to ask Rob if he has ever seen it.”
“kind of like that time we had that lay over in Chicago” Jared said with a smile that was completely genuine.
“oh god, don’t remind me” Mark said with a laugh then rubbed at his hazel eyes with a knuckle.
“wait, what? I wasn’t there. Spill the beans” Ronny said emerging from the kitchen with a cup of reconstituted milk.
“it was during that expo Me and Jared went to,”
“oh, yeah the one we paid a fortune to run a booth at. So what happened.” Ronny asked.
“let him stew Mark, remember he and Steve made the Vegas conference.” Jared said “besides we have a shopping trip to make. “
Mark chuckled and nodded “the park remember?” he said to Jared who laughed.
“your both wrong you now that” Ronny stated.
Once the small team had assembled by the trucks Jared outlined the plan he had come up with. This would be their first trip as a group into town since their arrival and he didn’t want it to end in disaster. Other than a few extremely covert scouting trips they had steered clear to keep from drawing the undead in town out into the country side after them. “ …. That’s pretty much it and after we hit Wal-Mart, we head to the fuel supply yard and then the pharmacy down the road.” Jared said finally wrapping up the mission outline. “Everyone got it” he asked. There were nods all around then everyone headed to their vehicles and climbed inside, while the trucks blocking the gateless gateway were moved out of the way.
✽✽✽
Wal-Mart had if anything more undead in the parking lot than the last time Jared had scouted the place out a month ago. “Odd how they gather sometimes, like maybe they remember shopping there or something” he commented as they stopped on the feeder and looked across the road and down into the parking lot.
“at least we only need two trucks to block off the doorway “ he said as he put his truck back in gear. “with three trucks it will be easy as pie” Jared commented.
The road was higher than the parking lot of Wal-Mart, and ran parallel to it at the traffic light they turned down the narrow entrance road. As the entrance road entered the curve into the parking lot, Chris pulled up along side Jared’s truck and side by side they ran over the zombies at the parking lot entrance.
Jared went straight down the aisle while Chris went to the left and down the next aisle. Mark went right. As gross as they found the procedure they cruised the parking aisles running over zombies. As they made a turn at the front of the store they would sweep past the entrance and run over any that were coming out of the store then down another aisle of the parking lot running down undead stragglers.
Jill was looking green at the gills by the time Jared was satisfied with the work so far. They turned onto the lane that fronted the store and as they approached the doors Jared swung up on the sidewalk and drove between the Crash poles right up to the open door. A moment later Chris then Mark pulled in and parked bumper to bumper. Two trucks could have blocked off the door, but with three nothing was coming in or out of the store.
At least not without climbing into the truck beds or through the cabs and the undead were not the most coordinated of creatures. Jared took a deep breath before throwing open the drivers door and jumped out slinging his commando across his back and grabbing his crossbow. The space between the vehicles and the doors was not huge but it was big enough for the small group.
The plan such as it was, had Mark and Chris standing guard out here with the trucks, they would load the supplies that Jared and the others brought out.
Unless a huge crowd of zombies began to gather in the parking lot they were not supposed to start shooting. At that point the sound of gunfire wouldn’t matter since the zombies would already know they were here.
Shelly looked nervously around as she hefted the fire axe she carried then nodded at Sharon who took a practice swing with the old Louisville slugger she carried and gave a reassuring smile to the other women.
From the looks on their faces they would much prefer to use the rifles they carried slung. Jared thought. He felt the same way, but Gunfire would draw far more undead and from much further away than the truck motors would.
No if they kept the noise down it would keep the number of undead down and give them longer to strip the store before a huge horde descended on them and forced them to leave.
“okay we stick together, if there’s to many inside we get back to the trucks and make sure you take your day packs,” he said softly. The women nodded silently, they were scared but holding it in check as well as any combat vet could have. They donned the small packs that had been carefully packed with enough supplies to last them a day or two if they were separated from the vehicles and had to run or became trapped by the undead.
He gave them a moment to steady themselves then said “Lets go” as he stepped through the open door. Dim light spilled in from the opaque skylights leaving the majority of the place in shadow between the racks and shelves.
The floor was littered with items that people had dropped when they had fled the store. As dim as it was, Jared had no problem spotting the huge dried bloodstains on the floor. A crusty molding Teddy bear lay in the middle of one blood stain, a small hand covered in leathery skin lay nearby.
The smell was almost overpowering, between the rotted food smell from the grocery section to the right of the entrance and the zombies it was enough to make even hardened vets want to hurl. Jared fought down the bile but Jill doubled over and hurled chunks.
Embarrassed and sick she glanced at Jared then hurled again. Sharon her face wrinkled in disgust knelt and took off her pack long enough to pull a shirt out then tied it around her mouth and nose to try and block the smell. Jared and the others continued to scan left and right for threats till she had finished.
“King Jared and his faithful amazons go to Wal-Mart “ he whispered. Jill glared at him for a moment, but there was humor in her eyes. Which was far better than the fear that had been lurking there just moments ago.
They had a list and Jared was determined to get that list filled first, once they finished the list if there was time they could head back into the stock room. At least there was a serious absence of undead in here, which hopefully meant there would be few to none in the stock room as well.
“lets go” he said starting down the main aisle that divided the grocery side from the normal store. From what he could see there wasn’t a lot left in the Grocery aisles. Food would have been the first thing on peoples minds as the crisis had spiraled out of control. So they had raced to the stores to buy up supplies. Jared wondered how long it had taken before the undead had gathered outside the grocery stores around the nation
to the left of the Grocery side was the children’s clothing section and the jewelry counter. Jared’s plan was simple walk the main aisle and drawing out any zombies that might be hidden by clothes racks or shelves.
There was no need to increase their danger by actually moving through the sight obscuring racks and shelves where a short zombie hiding in the half price shirt rack might surprise them.
Reaching the end of the main aisle they turned left to follow the back aisle, baby clothing on one side, office supplies on the other. AS they passed into the electronics; camera and DVD section Jared saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Something in the shadows to the right of the music cd shelves had definitely moved.
He swung around just in time to see a heavy set zombie in a blue work apron step towards the small group. It moved with that unsettling fast walk or a slow jog that some of the undead used its pudgy legs rubbing together with a oddly unsettling noise. Jared lifted the crossbow and fired. he cursed as the bolt missed the zombies head by a hair, a damned h
air.
Jill’s shot was much better and the thing fell over onto the rack spilling cds onto the floor. Damn it he thought “cover me while I get the bolts back” he said starting forward, Jill nodded nervously looking around ready to fight more zombies. Jared reloaded as he jogged quietly down the aisle to the back wall where his bolt was stuck in a flat screen tv. He looked both ways at the connecting aisle then down at the floor before stepping forward and pulling the bolt free. He slipped it into the clip, then pulled Jills bolt from the zombies head then jogged back.
“Contact!, straight ahead, two’ Jill said tersely as he stopped at her side. They had been paying attention to his brief he thought amazed. He had explained how to call out threats but had figured they wouldn’t remember it.
“ Contact! one at our rear, near the household cleaning supplies” Shelly whispered.
“ Come on” He said and began to walk towards the two zombies ahead of them. They were just passing the shoe department on the left and computer stuff on the right when, a thin, pasty white, zit faced, teen aged zombie nerd lunged out, latching onto Jill. Before she could react it bit down on her arm.