Floyd & Mikki (Book 1): Zombie Hunters (Love Should Be Explosive!) (17 page)

Ah, well
, thought Floyd, as they sailed up the ramp to a future unknown.
Beats getting’ bit in bed by a zombie rat.

Freedom landed hard and bounced at least twice, but Mikki managed to keep the truck under control. Apparently, the road
did
continue on the other side of the barricade. When they stopped bouncing, Floyd said, “That’ll do, Mikki. That’ll do.”

Mikki watched the temperature gauge climb higher and higher. Then she saw an exit sign that said, “Emerald Valley Campground.” She figured this was as good a place as any to get off the highway before the engine seized up. Floyd agreed.

Freedom was built to take extreme punishment, but this was beyond anything Floyd had ever planned on. He would have to make more modifications as soon as possible. Not to mention repairs. He was already calculating the weight-to-gas-mileage ratio in his head to decide how much armor plating he could add—assuming the truck didn’t completely fall apart on him within the next few minutes.

For now, he was busy wiping the snot out of the inside of his helmet with tissues. He kept coughing as well, and his head felt twice its size. If he had taken a bullet, the raiders would have done him a favor.

The entrance to the campgrounds was blocked with barbed wire, spiked logs, trashed cars and anything else the locals could find. Mikki complained, “Oh, come on, now! Ain’t nobody friendly in these parts?”

“Well, one good thing,” Floyd remarked. “At least we know we ain’t the only non-brain-eaters left on the planet.”

“Oh, great! We get to decide whether we wanna get bit or shot.”

“I choose shot.”

“Yeah, me too. But let’s try to avoid both.”

“You have no idea how funny it is to hear that coming from you, Mikki.”

With her helmet on the seat beside her, she stuck her tongue out at Floyd. He just laughed. Then he coughed again, hacking up a bunch of phlegm, which he spit into a tissue.

“You don’t look so good, Floyd.”

“I don’t feel so good. Pull over there, between the two cars in that barricade. Just tuck Freedom in between the barbed wire.”

They pulled on all their gear, loaded Bonnie and Clyde with the shot shell drum mags, and stuffed some MREs into their backpacks. Floyd poured water into flasks so it wouldn’t slosh around and make noise when they were half empty. They put only ammo and a few other odds and ends into the backpacks, leaving plenty of room in case they found something useful to bring back.
Like a new radiator
, Floyd thought, wryly.

Floyd took the last swig of his cough medicine and threw the empty bottle away. It made his head a little woozy, but kept his sneezing and coughing in check. Then they grabbed several fallen tree branches and shrubberies and threw them over Freedom to hide her as best they could. Finally, they climbed on top of the truck and made their way over the barricade.

The two walked along the edge of a dirt and gravel road as silently as possible, listening for anything anywhere around them. Just because someone had built that barricade didn’t mean they were still alive. The forest was pretty overgrown beyond the road and anything could be hiding in there. They walked on the left side of the road with Mikki next to the forest.

Floyd tapped Mikki on the shoulder and pointed to the road ahead. It only took a few seconds for her to recognize what he was pointing at. A bear trap semi-buried in the dirt with some leaves thrown over it for good measure. Whoever had done that must still be alive or very recently dead, or the leaves would have blown away long ago. Scanning ahead, they saw a few more traps set in different areas of the road. Fortunately, they didn’t trigger any of them.

There was an old guard shack ahead where a ranger would have charged for parking. It seemed empty now, but the gate was down on both sides.

They came out of nowhere. Two simply stepped out of the forest into the road behind them. One came out of the guard shack and two more stepped out from behind trees ahead and on either side of them. All had firearms of some kind pointed right at Floyd and Mikki.

“You both want to turn right around now, and head back out the way you came,” came an authoritative voice.

The man who spoke wore an old ranger uniform, complete with Smokey Bear hat and a badge on his shirt. He carried a double-barreled shotgun. The rest seemed like regular folk, dressed in jeans and various types of shirts. Again, the clothes were old but clean, not ragged or torn. Most importantly, everyone was breathing and no one was moaning.

“We don’t want no trouble,” Floyd said, lowering his shotgun and holding up his left hand.

“Then, turn around and head back on out!”

“My friend is sick!” Mikki explained. “We just need a place to stay the night.” She pulled off her helmet.

“Geez, she’s just a baby!” said the man on the ranger’s right.

“Quiet, Bob!” the ranger ordered.

“I ain’t no baby!” Mikki protested. “My friend is sick, he just needs to rest.”

“Sorry, ma’am, but we seen what happens to people who get sick nowadays,” said Bob.

“He ain’t bit and we ain’t no zombies! Don’t you got no hospitality?”

“I’m really sorry, Miss,” the ranger spoke again, “but we got family in here and very limited resources. We can’t afford hospitality. Never turned out too well in the past. We learned our lesson the hard way. Now, please turn around. We really don’t want to shoot you, but we will. No outsider gets into our area.”

The men were all clearly scared. Scared but determined. Mikki was more than pissed, but Floyd understood. Why should anyone trust them when they came walkin’ in outta nowhere with high-power shotguns, wearing black body armor and helmets. Once again, he had planned for a zombie encounter, not a run-in with living people.

“It’s OK, Mikki, they’re right.” He coughed a pitiful cough.

“What do you mean they’re right? Whole world’s gone to hell and you can’t help someone who’s sick? Hell, we might be the last people alive on this whole freakin’ planet and you gonna kick us out?”

“Ma’am, please, just go,” said one of the men off to the side. “We
will
shoot you. We ain’t got no help to give.”

Floyd turned around to go and stumbled on back up the road, but Mikki wasn’t finished. She started crying, but her voice was strong despite the tears. “OK, fine! You turn us away! But we help people! You just remember the next time you need help with something that you sent us away! Hell, we just took out a whole freakin’ camp o’ raiders on the interstate. I bet you run into them assholes, haven’t ya? Well we just took a bunch of ‘em out for ya! So thank you all very much for nothin’!”

She turned away to join Floyd when the ranger asked, “That was you?”

“Damn right that was us! Nearly got our asses shot off in the process, but that was us!”

“Hold on!” The ranger called the others over and they spoke for a couple of minutes. “You sure your friend hasn’t been bit by anything?”

“Ain’t nothing can bite us through these suits,” Mikki explained. “Stopped more than one bullet a time or two as well.” Floyd removed his helmet to show he wasn’t undead, although he looked and felt half-dead.

“How many raiders are left?” the ranger asked

“I don’t know. Not as many as they was when they started shootin’ at us. We were pretty well armed ourselves…but we used up just about all our ammo in the fight. Only got what’s on our backs now.” Mikki lied just to be safe. They might seem like a few scared-as-shit yokels, but she didn’t want them knowing about the firepower they still had in the truck, just in case.

“Those raiders have been giving us a hard time. That’s why we fortified our position. Well, that and the…things…that live in these woods. We bloodied the raiders’ noses the last time they came, so they’ve pretty much left us alone lately. We keep an eye on everything from the ranger tower there. Bob and I saw what you did. Pretty impressive. Where’s your truck?”

“Truck didn’t make it,” Floyd explained, following Mikki’s unspoken line of thinking. “That’s why we’re walking. You know, if you let us stay, we can help lead an attack on the raiders camp. There can’t be too many of them left. With you and your men, we could put an end to them once and for all. We just need a place to stay.”

“Alright,” the ranger said after a long pause. “But even if you aren’t bit, we can’t let you in with the others. Not yet, anyway. We don’t have a proper doctor and we can’t allow any infection inside the camp. You can stay in the guard shack here. It’s not terribly big, but it’s got a cot and a toilet and it keeps the weather out. You stay there until you get well,
if
you get well. If you set one foot outside of there, you better be headed back down the road. If we see you anywhere near our camp, we will shoot you, and you’ll never see it coming. Understood?” Floyd and Mikki both nodded.

“You got food and water?”

“We got enough rations for a couple days,” Floyd asserted.

“OK, then. We’ll leave you for now and I’ll check in with you tomorrow. You will be watched until then.” Defensively, the ranger added, “We’re good people. We’ve just seen a lot of bad people come through here. If everything works out…well, that’ll be great for all of us.”

The two thanked the ranger as he walked away and his men disappeared back into the woods. Floyd sat in the guard chair and told Mikki she could have the cot, but she would have none of that. “You are sick! You get on the cot!”

Floyd was too tired to argue. Mikki helped him out of his gear. He laid down on the cot wearing just his pants and a T-shirt, dripping with sweat. Seeing him there so helpless made Mikki want him again, but he was in no condition for her to jump his bones, and she knew they had no privacy.

She pulled a blanket up to his chin and tucked him in. His forehead was burning up as she stroked his hair. “Don’t you go dyin’ on me, Floyd. Seriously.”

He managed a short laugh before erupting in a coughing fit. “If you haven’t killed me yet, I’m not gonna die here. Seriously.” He flashed her a feeble smile.

Placing her face close to his, she tucked in the top of the blanket and said, “Night, night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the zombies bite.”

“Oh, yeah, that’ll get me right to sleep.”

“Well, bedbugs ain’t much better. Besides, harder to shoot bedbugs. Good night, Floyd.”

She gave him a long, soft kiss on the forehead as he faded into sleep. For the first time in more than a year, he had no bad dreams.

Floyd was out of commission for two days before his fever finally broke. At least once or twice a day, the ranger would come over and ask how he was doing. He kept his distance and never entered the guard shack while Floyd was ill, but he did bring bottles of water. As he explained to Mikki, there were other diseases to worry about besides the Undead Disease. There was cholera, meningitis, and a hundred other nasty bugs that could spread through a small community like wildfire, and they had no cure for any of them.

Mikki grew to like the ranger, whose name turned out to be John Martin. He was the strong, silent, no-nonsense type. He was a kindly man, carrying the burden of his entire community on his shoulders. Mikki didn’t know how many people were actually in the compound yet, but if this man was their leader, they had to be good people.

Bob was just the opposite. Fairly tall and skinny, he was a chatterbox. He would have stayed all day talking to Mikki—or talking at Mikki—if Ranger Martin would have let him. He was clearly smitten with Mikki, and closer to her age. He was about 27 and was heartbroken when she told him Floyd was her husband. She would have to let Floyd know they were “married” the next time he woke up.

Bob seemed like a nice guy, but she didn’t want him drooling over her all the time. She supposed that was one reason she liked Floyd so much. He never seemed that interested in her as anything but a fellow Zombie Hunter. She knew that inside, he did want her, but he never acted on it. That made things a whole lot simpler. And besides, he really did care about her. That’s one reason she was actually glad he was sick. She got to take care of him and show him that she really did care, too. Besides, he was so cute lying there like a little boy, staying at home, sick from school.

Floyd moaned and sat up. Mikki jumped to his side and felt his forehead. “Finally!” she said. “Fever broke.”

“Water?”

She handed him a bottle of water the ranger had dropped off. As he drank it, he noticed a piece of paper on a clipboard.

“What’s that?” Floyd asked.

“That? Oh, that’s us. When we first met.”

Mikki showed him the clipboard with a sketch she had drawn on a blank piece of paper. She explained that she had drawn it while watching over him the past couple of days. It was a pretty good likeness of Floyd in his paintball armor and Mikki with her football helmet.

“You aren’t that tall,” Floyd commented.

Mikki snatched the paper away, saying, “Hey! It’s my picture! I can be as tall as I wanna be!”

She sounded hurt, but Floyd laughed. He took the picture back from her.

“Seriously, you did a great job, Mikki. I didn’t know you were that good with anything that didn’t kill people.”

“I can kill people with a pencil if I have to,” she countered, nonchalantly.

Floyd was truly impressed. Not that Mikki could kill someone with a pencil. He knew that. But she was quite the artist! Mikki seemed to have a lot of hidden talents. And their outfits had certainly been upgraded since then. He asked if he could keep the picture and her face lit up. She was truly flattered. He folded it carefully and tucked it into the inside pocket of his jacket.

Mikki filled him in on the ranger and his crew. Some of the men were very interested in taking out the last of the raiders, but the ranger was nervous. He said they couldn’t afford to lose even one man. It seems everyone but Bob and the ranger had a wife and probably some kids in the camp. The menfolk wanted to eliminate the nearby threat to their families but their families were too afraid the menfolk would be eliminated, instead. Stan was the local sniper.

Neither Floyd nor Mikki knew what to do. On the one hand, they wanted to be sure the raiders never bothered anyone else ever again, and Floyd was still pissed that they had shot up his beautiful truck. On the other hand, this wasn’t their fight. They were on their way to California and had their own problems to worry about. The smart thing was for them to patch up the truck and head on out. Then again, what was the point of waking up every day if you couldn’t do something good for someone along the way?

Ranger Martin showed up in the evening and had one of the women with him. “I’m Marjorie,” she said, holding out a hand.

Floyd shook it gently and said, “I’m Floyd. This here is Mikki.”

“Nice to meet you. We don’t get many travelers through here that don’t try to shoot us up or steal everything we have. In fact, you two seem to be the first. Mind if I look you over?”

“Marjorie used to be a Registered Nurse,” the ranger interjected.

Floyd let her take his pulse, look down his throat and flash a small flashlight into his eyes. She tested his reflexes by tapping his crossed knee and felt his throat asking if there was any pain. “He’s fine, John.”

“I’m certainly feeling a lot better,” Floyd agreed.

“Good, then I expect you two will be on your way, then,” urged the ranger.

“Come on, John. They haven’t been any trouble. From what I heard, they have some pretty impressive firepower. They could have come blasting in here like they did with the raiders, but they didn’t. We have no reason to suspect them of anything.”

“We have no reason to trust them, either,” John countered.

“Look, you don’t have to trust us,” Floyd interjected. “I understand. If I was in your shoes, I wouldn’t trust anyone until they proved themselves, either. And we really aren’t planning on staying anyway. We’re tryin’ to make it to New California Haven, if it exists, but the raiders shot up my truck. I just need a way to make repairs.”

At the mention of New California Haven, John and Marjorie’s eyes lit up. They looked at each other, wondering if they dared to hope. “How do you know about New California Haven?” John asked.

“I heard a broadcast on the radio a couple months ago now. Some kinda automatic looped message playing over and over. Then I drove outta range and haven’t heard it since. But I reckon it’s worth checking out.”

“We heard about it on our ham radio,” John explained. “Bob’s our technician. Pretty handy with gadgets. We get power and running water from a small dam upstream. We were talking from someone who claimed to be there, giving us directions. But then the radio went out and we have no parts to fix it.”

“As for your truck,” Marjorie offered, “the raiders have a whole machine shop in their camp. You must have seen what they did to their vehicles. They’ve got welding gear, power tools, everything. They tapped into our power lines so they have electricity, but like us over here, they’ve been smart enough not to put any lights on at night so they won’t attract…anything.”

“We understand that, well enough,” Floyd agreed.

“They drain a lot of power from our camp, but we decided it’s better to just let them have it,” the ranger added. “If we cut the power off, they’d be over here in a flash to figure out why. Best to not give them a reason to come back.”

“Tell you what,” Floyd said, coming to a decision. “If I come up with a plan, and you help us wipe out the rest of the raiders, we all win. I’ll be able to get my truck fixed proper and if I find this place in California, I’ll let them know about you. Hell, I’ll come back myself and tell you all about it if I have to.”

“That sounds right by me,” Marjorie agreed.

“I still don’t like it,” John said to her. “It’s a risk.”

“Staying here and doing nothing is a risk, John. If we sit here, they’ll just build their numbers again somehow. Or someone else will find what they built and take it over. If these two are willing to help us, I say let’s make a move while we have the extra guns. From what Stan told me, they practically took out the whole camp by themselves, anyway.”

“Call a meeting for after supper,” John decided. “We’ll meet in the ranger office and take a vote.”

“You got it. Well, I gotta get back to Stan, anyway.” Marjorie laid a hand on John’s cheek tenderly before heading out. John watched her with worry and concern as she went.

“Stan’s my brother,” he explained to Floyd and Mikki. “Marjorie’s my sister-in-law, but she acts more like my mother ever since…my Lucy died. This camp is my family. I will do anything to protect it. Anything. You two understand?”

“Better than you know,” Mikki answered.

“Alright then. You and your husband stay here,” John said.

Floyd was about to say something when Mikki kicked him in the side of his leg, unobserved. “Oh, we will, Mister Ranger Martin, sir!” she said, jumping up and smiling big at Floyd.

“Good. We’ll let you know what the camp decides.”

The ranger turned and was gone.