Apocalypse Asunder (24 page)

Jessica kept her voice level, carefully making sure she didn’t let her anxiety and concern over Austin’s ‘plan’ color it further.  She’d already overreacted enough in front of Candice about this.  “He might not be able to get rid of them all.  I’ll shoot any that need to be handled, but when there’s time, I’ll be busy transferring all our things into this truck.”  She patted the dashboard.

“And then we’ll leave and go wait for Austin.”

“Yes, but while I’m loading everything, I’ll probably be too busy to keep a good watch for zombies.  That’s what I need you to help me with.”

“I can do that.” Candice said solemnly.

“You’ll need to watch very carefully.” Jessica said, still working to keep her voice level.  “In all directions.  If you miss one, and let it get in close, that’ll be very bad.  You understand?”

“Mom, I’ll watch really carefully.” Candice said.  “I’ll stand on top of the truck and watch real good.”

Jessica blinked at the utter assurance in her daughter’s voice, then smiled.  Yesterday, without any sign of a plan, Candice had lost it.  Today, with a clear goal and way to achieve it, the ten-year-old continued to find ways to surprise Jessica.  “Okay.  So that’s the deal.  You’ll watch for zombies, I’ll shoot anything that needs shooting, and load the supplies.  Then we’ll drive off together and find a place to wait for Austin to get done being a hero.”

“We’ll be okay.” Candice declared.  “It’s a good plan.”

Jessica bit her lip, but she nodded back with what she hoped was nothing but reassurance.  Keeping an eye on the dashboard clock, Jessica circled around the area – dodging zombies and weaving past abandoned or wrecked cars – until it was time.  Then she swung back on course and headed east for the neighborhood that had caused them so much trouble.

This time, she noted immediately the roads were clear.  Well, not
clear
, but effectively so.  Only a handful of zombies were still wandering around as she neared the wrecked SUV; the vehicle sitting forlornly in the middle of the intersection where it’d been left.  There was a fairly large scattering of dead – really dead, now – zombies in the area that showed signs of having recently been shot.  And more that looked like they’d been run over or dealt other massive trauma that left them unable to move.

“You crazy stubborn bastard.” Jessica muttered.  It could only have been Austin.  She saw at least a couple of magazines worth of shell casings on the pavement, showing that he’d done some shooting.  What else he’d done to wreak so much havoc by himself, in such a limited amount of time, she could only guess at; but whatever it was, it’d worked.  There was an excellent window to get at the SUV’s supplies now.

“Okay, I’m going to shoot.  Get up on the roof and be
careful
.” Jessica told Candice.

“You too.”

“Both of us are going to be careful.” Jessica said as she neared the SUV.  She pulled the truck right past the black SUV, running over several zombie bodies, then backed up and put the rear of the truck right next to the rear of the SUV.  She stepped on the parking brake and double checked that she had the transmission in park, then opened her door and stepped out.  The purpose and need to not waste time was helping her override her tension and nervousness.

The Taurus seemed to fill her hand almost without her having to reach for it.  There were five upright zombies within thirty feet of where she stood.  She brought the heavy stainless steel pistol up in both hands and watched the sight dots slide into view as she looked at the first corpse.

It was a woman, and an old one by the look of what was left of the face and body beneath all the dirt and decay and damage.  Long hair that was matted and tangled, though almost half of it on the left side had been pulled free somehow; only stubble and stray strands remained on that side of the zombie’s head.  It wore the tattered remains of a polyester pants suit and blouse, though the blouse had been ripped enough to effectively be useless as covering.  The flesh beneath the top’s remains was dried and wrinkled, gaping in several places from splits and tears that showed dried blood.

Steeling herself, Jessica looked past all of that as she lined the Taurus up on the zombie’s face.  The jaw was making chewing motions, and the deep set eyes were locked on hers as she looked through the pistol’s sights.  Jessica exhaled like she’d been taught – by Austin – and squeezed the trigger back.

The heavy forty-five caliber round went right where she wanted it to; through the zombie’s silent expression and out the back of its head.  In between it shattered the creature’s skull and took whatever was left of the brains and dried blood inside with it as it exited.  Jessica saw the zombie crumpling to the ground, a lumpy ruin where its head had been a moment before, and swiveled slightly to face the next.

The second zombie was younger and had suffered a lot more damage than the first, but seemed no less dangerous for it.  Massive head trauma was the only thing that stopped a zombie for good; but equally massive trauma to the rest of it could disable it.  The creature might not be truly dead afterwards, and it might not care; but a limb that didn’t work anymore, or that was missing entirely, couldn’t be used.

This one was down an arm, but the remaining hand was reaching out toward her as she put her sights on its face and exhaled again.  Another smooth trigger squeeze, another heavy round rumbled down range as the pistol kicked against her hands and wrists and forearms, and another zombie died for good.

“Some at the ends of the blocks are starting to look this way.” Candice said as Jessica swiveled her aim to the next zombie.

“Keep watching them.” Jessica said, firing again.  She rushed this shot and merely opened a rather disgusting looking wound along the side of the next zombie’s head.  Even though she could see the inside of its skull, see what was left of the dried and shriveled brain within that skull, the shot hadn’t been a kill.  Jessica commanded herself to ignore the gore, corrected her aim, and fired again.

The fourth was another old one, and toppled over backwards when she shot it.  The last of the initial wave was a bald fat one.  The blubber and flesh had wasted away between whenever it had died and converted, and now; there were disgusting pieces of flesh hanging from its torso, flapping around and from its arms, waving and rippling as it moved towards her.  But it went down as easily as the others when she put a bullet through its skull.

“Nothing close.” Candice announced.

Jessica ejected the magazine, hesitated for a moment, then stuck the Taurus in the holster and reached for loose rounds in her pocket.  As quickly as she could, she stuffed fresh bullets into the magazine to replace the ones she’d fired off, then loaded the pistol.  The SUV’s key came out of her pocket next, and the rear hatch of the black vehicle unlocked and rose as smoothly as it ever had when she inserted the key.

Everything within looked untouched, hardly even strewn about too much from the brief but damaging drive through the ditch that had destroyed the wheel and disabled the vehicle.  Jessica clicked the safety back on her pistol and holstered it once more, then started heaving things into the back of the truck.

“How we doing Candice?”

“Three, two, three, and one coming.” the girl answered.

“What?”

“Three from that way, two from there, then three and one.” Candice said.

Jessica looked up to see the girl pointing in different directions.  “Oh.”

“They’re not close yet.  Keep loading.”

“You sure?” Jessica asked, risking a quick glance to either side, at the roads that stretched away from where the SUV and truck were.  Sure enough, she saw two zombies in one direction, and one in another, and they weren’t that close.

“I’m sure.  I’m watching.  I’ll tell you when they’re too close.”

“Okay.” Jessica said, reaching for the next box.  This one was most of the chlorine bleach she’d collected, and beneath it was the first case of nine millimeter bullets.  There was plenty of room in the back of the pickup for everything, and time was of the essence.  As quickly as she could, she pulled things from the wrecked car and threw them into the truck.  Neatness didn’t matter; only speed.

Jessica straightened a little in the pickup’s seat as she saw what was ahead.  She considered it critically as she approached, then shrugged mentally and decided it was worth checking out.  She started slowing down.  It took Candice several moments to realize the truck was losing speed, but then she turned to Jessica.  “We’re stopping?”

“Maybe.” Jessica hedged.  “That RV there might be a place we can spend the night.”

The girl craned her head up so she could see over the dashboard better, looking at what was ahead of the truck.  “RV?” she asked after a few moments.

“Recreational vehicle.” Jessica clarified.  “That big thing there.”

“Oh.” Candice said, staring at it.

Jessica was watching it too, though she did let her eyes sweep over the rest of the area several times.  The scene looked quiet, though not necessarily without a story.  Unfortunately it wasn’t likely anyone was around to tell it.  The RV was a big brown one, maybe twice the length of a full sized truck.  The front end was mangled into the back of a little two-seater BMW, and Jessica thought ‘mangled’ might be the understatement of the day.

Both vehicles seemed merged as if a very sloppy and impatient greater deity had simply picked both up and jammed them together with great force.  The front seat of the BMW, or where the front seat should have been, was about where the front seat of the RV would normally be.  Pieces of both vehicles were strewn all over the southbound lanes of I-75, all over the shoulder, and even in amid the sparse trees bordering the shoulder.  The tires were in five different places, doors and fenders and bumpers in a dozen others, and pieces of the engines, other formerly internal mechanical bits, and most of the interiors from seats to floor mats scattered in between.

But the RV’s camping section, or living portion, or whatever the part where people could recreate was called . . . that part seemed basically intact.  There was a little crumpling and rumpling of the side panels, but it otherwise didn’t appear to have suffered too badly in the wreck.  Whether the accident had happened in the grass, or the force of impact had carried the vehicles clear of the pavement; the RV was a good ten feet off-road.

Jessica stopped the pickup several car lengths short of the scene.  “Okay, you stay here and keep your eyes open and head moving Candy Bear, you hear me?” Jessica said, turning to her daughter.  “Don’t worry about me.  I don’t want you to let anything sneak up on you.  This truck isn’t like the SUV; the windows break.”

Candice nodded once, turning to look behind them.  Jessica checked outside her own side of the vehicle carefully before opening the door and stepping out.  With her hand on the Taurus, feeling like she was a cop approaching a criminal, she turned in a slow circle and examined the area again before walking toward the RV.

Nothing moved, just a few birds up in the sky and some overgrown grass on the side of the highway; but nothing hungry.  Well, except her.  She was hungry.  The snack crackers and cakes from ‘lunch’ had been hours ago.  A proper meal, something more filling than junk food, would be welcome.  She knew Candice had to be starving.

But nothing dead appeared to molest her as she approached the accident scene.  She crouched down to look beneath the RV, but nothing there was a problem that she could see.  When she got closer, she started a slow circle of the wrecked vehicles, staying a good distance from them at all times, so she could see everything better and not get surprised easily.  The knee-high grass tugged at her legs some as she walked, and swishing noises followed her progress.  When she completed the circle, she steeled her nerve and approached the RV’s side door.

It had a lift up latch, like on a steamer trunk her mom had back in Dalton.  Jessica was wondering what she’d do if the RV was locked, but the latch lifted at her touch.  Thrusting sadness over her dead mother, and possible contingency plans for breaking into the RV, out of her mind, Jessica swung the door back and stepped clear in case anything was inside.  Nothing seemed to be, or at least, nothing that could lunge at her.  After several seconds she leaned forward and used the door like an oversized knocker – swinging it against the side of the RV repeatedly to create a loud banging noise – then stepped back to wait some more.

Still nothing appeared.  Jessica drew the Taurus and eased forward cautiously, starting to take looks inside the RV.  She angled her way back and forth, moving to get different views, and then finally stuck her head inside for several increasingly longer glances, but it seemed quiet and deserted.  Eventually she stepped up into it slowly and investigated more directly.

The interior of the RV was surprisingly neat.  At the front she saw a lot of crumpling and twisting in the walls that faced where the driver’s compartment had been, but other than some opened cabinets, several drawers and cabinets worth of miscellanea that hadn’t kept their places during the crash, and a layer of dust, it was empty.  Jessica took her time, examining the little bathroom, the rear bedroom area, and opened every cabinet for a peek before she decided the RV might be what she wanted for the night.

It wasn’t as good as a proper two-story house, but as long as she and Candice stayed away from the windows, they were out of sight.  The windows were all small ones anyway.  A child might fit through, but an adult never could.  She wouldn’t put it past a zombie to manage to batter its way inside if it decided to; but it would take a while, and raise a lot of noise.  The important thing was she and her daughter would have shelter and warning.

And considering the look the sky was taking on, they might welcome the cover in a minute.  Dark clouds were beginning to form.  Rain was imminent.  Stepping back outside, she returned to the truck and gestured to Candice.  “Candy Bear, hop out and keep watch for me.”

“What are we doing?” the girl asked after she opened her door.

“I’m going to see about covering up some of these supplies, then we’re going to camp in the RV.”

“All night?”

“Maybe.” Jessica said.  Holstering the Taurus, she put her hands on Candice’s waist and boosted the girl up onto the truck’s hood.  As Candice climbed up onto the roof, Jessica rummaged in the jumbled mess in the truck’s bed until she found one of the boxes of garbage bags.  She started dumping stuff into bags; taking care not to slam anything breakable around, but otherwise once more going for speed over neatness.

She was mostly concerned with the boxed food – pasta, some instant rice, and some instant potatoes primarily – but the clothing also got shielded by plastic, as did the box of assorted miscellany that included batteries, tools, and other bits and pieces that might appreciate a little protection from the elements.  The wood and charcoal she didn’t bother with; that would all dry out just fine.  And the gas and water would be okay in their containers.

Just as she finished stuffing Austin’s clothes into a bag with a pang of emptiness spiking through her, she felt the first drops.  Tying the bag closed, she quickly grabbed a few cans of food, the little camp stove they’d turned up a few weeks ago, and enough utensils to work with.  When she straightened, she realized her arms were a little fuller than she was comfortable with.

“Candice, come down.  Here, take some of this for me.”

Her daughter slid down the windshield, then off the hood to the ground, and took some of the load from her mother.  By the time Jessica was down to just the camp stove clutched against her chest one handed – leaving her right free for the pistol if necessary – the rain was really coming down.  “Come on, let’s get inside.”

Jessica led the way over to the RV, forcing herself to not hurry even though they were seriously getting soaked.  Blinking water from her eyes, she double checked that nothing hungry had appeared near the RV while she’d been futzing around with the truck, and also that the interior was still safe.  The rain on the RV’s roof was like a multitude of hammers, pattering and pounding hard enough to make normal conversation difficult.

“Stay here.” Jessica said as she put the camp stove on the counter next to the RV’s sink.  “Keep the door closed.”

“What are you doing?” Candice said, dumping her armful on the little table.  Two of the cans promptly rolled off and hit the floor with dull thunks.

“Moving the truck.” Jessica said.  “Stay here.”

Ducking her head, she went back out into the rain and closed the RV’s door behind her.  Jogging – not running, so she had time to watch her surroundings – she made it back to the truck without incident and moved it to the far side of the RV; putting the camper between the truck and the interstate.  It wasn’t completely out of sight, but for anyone coming south it effectively was.  And it was only ten feet from the RV.

“Okay, let’s see about some real food.” Jessica said when she got back into the RV.

“Beans and beans?” Candice asked, though to her credit she sounded hungry rather than skeptical.  The cans Jessica had taken at random from the truck were lined up on the table; refried beans, black beans, and green beans.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Jessica said with a chuckle.  “Sorry, I just sort of grabbed.”

“It’s okay.  Which do you want?”

“We can share if you like.” Jessica said as she leaned to the side and started gathering and squeezing her hair to wring the water out of it.  “Or you can have first pick.”

“Sharing is cool.” Candice said agreeably.

Jessica did what she could to get the worst of the dripping out of her hair, double checked that the RV’s door was fully latched and locked, then started fiddling with the little stove.  Fed from a propane bottle, she managed to get it ignited with the spark-striker that was attached to it with a long leather cord; setting it on the RV’s built in stove.  The vehicle’s windows were all ‘open’ – in the sense that most of them were broken out – so she wasn’t too concerned about problems with the burner.  It wouldn’t take long to heat the food up.

For the cans, she simply stripped a few of the labels off and opened them before crowding them around to heat directly on the little burner.  Her planning ran out when she realized she hadn’t figured out a way to manipulate them without getting burned, but some scrounging around in the RV’s drawers turned up some hand towels that served as suitable stand-ins for oven mitts.  Five minutes of stirring, and the cans’ contents were reasonably hot.  The stove got shut off, and she transferred the meal over to the table.

Candice was hungry enough to not care about the lack of effort that had gone into the cooking, or – despite her earlier comment about the depressing lack of variety – what was on offer.  Jessica was too for that matter.  They dug in with spoons and forks, sharing the refried and black beans back and forth, while each ate their own can of green beans.  Jessica realized she’d forgotten water, and had to brave the rain once more to retrieve several bottles, but twenty minutes after stopping the two of them were on the outside of a hot meal for the first time in days.

“Yum.” Candice said, sitting back after she’d scraped up the last of her green beans.

“Yum?” Jessica laughed.  “Never thought I’d hear that about beans and beans and beans, straight from the cans.”

“It’s the thought that counts.”

“Well, I’m thinking I saw a real bed in the back of this thing.” Jessica said as she chased the last few black beans around in the can with her spoon.  “So barring any sudden surprises, I think spending the night here might not be a bad idea.”

“Austin will be looking for us on the interstate.” Candice declared.  “Staying here will help him find us easier.”

“Yes it will.” Jessica agreed.  She thought she’d done a reasonable job of concealing her anxiety at Candice’s mention of his name, but either she hadn’t or Candice was reading her mind unprompted.

“He’ll be okay.”

“I hope so.”

“Austin’s tough Mom.  Like us.”

“Just between you and me, I think he’s probably tougher.” Jessica said around the last mouthful of black beans.  “And that’s a good thing, because being alone out here can get real—”

She was interrupted by a knock on the door; the sound cutting clean through the steady and rapid pattering of rain drops against the RV’s roof.

The spoon rattled in the can, then tipped it over so the utensil skittered across the table and hit the floor followed by the can itself, as Jessica dropped both.  She ignored them, though she winced at how
loud
the clattering was in the RV.  On her feet and with her hand on the holstered pistol at her side before she remembered consciously deciding to do either, Jessica found herself staring at the door like it was possessed.

A silence stretched for several seconds as Jessica stared at the door, feeling more than seeing Candice glance from it to her several times.  The knock was so normal, and yet so out of place, that she found herself paralyzed with indecision.

“Hello?” a woman’s voice called from outside, followed by several more knocks.  “Hello?  We’re looking for some help.”

Jessica wrenched herself out of her fugue state and snapped her fingers at Candice.  The girl’s eyes fixed on her, and Jessica jerked her thumb sharply at the bedroom section of the RV, behind her.  Candice blinked at her for a moment, taking long enough to interpret the gesture that Jessica started to repeat it; but then the girl lurched up from the table and squeezed past behind Jessica.

With her daughter semi-safely out of the way, Jessica hesitated a moment longer, then drew the Taurus.  Better safe than sorry.  Gun naked in her hand, she eased toward the door and stood to one side of it.