My Zombie Summer (Book 1): The Undead Road (7 page)

The three of us nodded in unison.

Dad rolled his window down. “Where do we go?”

“I’ll catch a ride on your back.” Cody passed my door and went to the rear of our car. It jostled when he climbed onto the bumper. Chloe made a little growl in her throat when Cody slapped the roof a couple of times. “Head down this road. I’ll tell you when to turn.”

We drove east, away from the lowering sun. Some quiet time would’ve been nice, but Jewel couldn’t wait to ask Kaylynn about Mr. Blond-Rambo. Mom asked about the Vector that he’d left in the road, and then she lectured me—and Kaylynn—for leaving the group. I chose not to listen. It was Kaylynn’s fault, anyway.

We passed a few houses and vacant lots. Many of them fit the narrow stereotype of what I thought a small country town was like: laidback, rundown, faded siding, weathered porches. Some had their doors smashed in. Others had broken windows. Not the work of Vectors.

“Turn right,” Cody said. “Head down this road!”

Dad took the turn slowly and we headed south on 9th Street. The pavement was almost white. It had more cracks, lines and tar sealant than I’d ever seen. House after house and tree after tree, Dad checked all of the intersections before crossing them. If this was a safe place with plenty of people around, maybe we could stay. Or we could drop Kaylynn off and move on, but the idea of leaving her alone with a vulture like Cody leering at her body, exposed to his constant ogling—

Yeah. I pretty much hated that idea.

The east side of town was as plain as the west. All the buildings were sandwiched between the two routes. I didn’t bother to look. I couldn’t think straight. Jewel was going on and on about boys from her school. She said they were stupid, as if they were still alive and well back home. None of us knew anything to the contrary. It was her way of keeping the world sane. She didn’t let the horrible truth weigh her down at every turn. I gave up thinking that way. No sense in lying to myself.

“Another block,” Cody said. “I’ll wave us in.”

It was at Nebraska Street when things got interesting. A semi-truck blocked the east road. On top of the freight, sitting in a lawn chair under a beach umbrella—with a rifle in his lap—was a man in a checkered hunting shirt. They’d made a barrier of trucks and construction equipment. Dead Vectors sat slumped against the walls. Other bodies were left sprawled in the street. Cody whistled. A door of plywood opened.

My first reaction was to reach for my .45 when I saw the people walking around. A few boys looked at me. They had school backpacks on. An officer saw us coming and directed us down the street. Men and woman followed as we passed. Some ran off and came back, holding rifles or shotguns. We were soon guided to a partially fenced, car-barricaded health care center.

The place was a fortress. They had a sniper on the roof. The second we stopped in front of the entrance, half a dozen people surrounded our Explorer with their weapons drawn. Cody jumped off. The car bounced.

Chloe growled again. “Put those guns down, people!” Cody told them. “You’ll scare the kids.”

I glared at him. Who was he calling kids?

“Cody, get Sam,” one of them said, a man with a black bandana around his head. He was as old as my dad, with a lot less hair. “She’ll want to talk to them.”

Two thoughts ran through my head right then:

Who’s Sam?
and
Sam’s a she?

We waited. Each of us did our part to stay calm—except for Jewel. She was listening to her music again. With no A/C running, it was a tense sit in the crowded car. From what I could tell, these people hadn’t bathed in some time. Their skin had a grimy, grungy look to it.

Dad leaned his arm on the window. “Nice place you have here.” No one said a word to him.

They just kept staring at us.

“Are we in trouble?” Mom asked.

“Nah.” Dad shook his head. “We’re strangers. They have every right to be cautious of us. I’d be disappointed if they didn’t have some kind of protocol.”

Moments later, Cody came out with two people: a short, redheaded woman in a collared shirt and large sunglasses, and a tall black man in a sheriff’s uniform. The woman walked right up to the front of our Explorer without looking at any of us first. She then came back around to Dad’s door, put on a friendly smile and leaned a suntanned elbow on the side mirror.

“Illinoise, huh?” she said, smacking gum. “You’re a long ways from home.”

I had to glare at Sam, for she had triggered one of my many pet peeves. The
s
in Illinois is silent!

Dad laughed. “Chicago’s not exactly the best place to raise a family these days.”

“It never was . . .” Mom uttered.

Sam, or who I assumed was Sam, gave the rest of us a glance through the windows. She chewed on her gum like a cow’s cud. “Two adults, three kids, and a dog . . . I’m surprised you made it this far.” She leaned on Dad’s door, stowing away the wad in her cheek as she flashed a bigger smile. “What’s it like beyond the state line? Seen any others hunkered down like us?”

“One man in Iowa,” Dad said. “He turned on us.”

“Come out. Keep your hands where I can see’em.”

Like a hostage, I opened my door and stepped out. Kaylynn and Jewel followed, only my sister took the instructions a little too far. She stood on her toes and stretched both hands as high as she could, just like a desperate pupil waiting for a teacher to pick on her—holding her 30.06. Dad came around, retrieved her rifle and stowed it inside the car through his open window.

“
Hand’s up
means
unarmed
, Jewel,” he said.

“I didn’t want to leave without it,” she replied.

The weight of the .45 in my pocket came as a reminder that I still had my weapon. I was almost compelled to pull it out, but I was never so happy to see so many survivors at once—and never so terrified to see so many survivors at once. Black Bandana man had a weird, unyielding scowl, and this one large lady with a big fedora had her pudgy finger on the trigger of a double-barreled shotgun. We weren’t in Illinois anymore, and this sure as hell wasn’t Munchkin Land.

“You gave your kids guns?” Mr. Law Enforcement had a deep voice. I could barely see the name
Mason
above his Deputy badge. “That’s a mighty big risk.”

All my dad could do was shrug. “Don’t blame a guy for wanting to save his family.”

“A man with half a brain would’ve done the same. That’s how we’ve kept this city free from the Dead.” Sam paced in front of us, hands on her hips. “We have the county under control. It’s a matter of time before the military comes. Until then, we hold fast.”

Most of the people within earshot of us gestured their agreement in one form or another. Some of them nodded. Some of them shrugged. Sam was their leader. Nobody had to point this out to me.

Kaylynn had her arms crossed, cool as a cucumber. She also had a frown on her face that said
are we done
?

Sam’s blue-gray eyes stopped short at Chloe.

The dog ruffed. Her cheeks puffed a little.

“Keep that dog on a leash,” Sam said. “Barking mutts attract the Dead.”

“No worries, ma’am,” Kaylynn said without skipping a beat. “She’ll do nothing unless I say.”

“Good. Best keep it that way.” Sam turned to Dad. “It’ll be dark soon. The Dead tend to stay away if we turn the lights off at night and keep the noise down. We have no choice but to let you stay the night.”

“You can expect no trouble from us,” Dad said.

“Under one condition,” Sam added.

Dad cocked his brow. “What condition?”

The look in Sam’s eyes unsettled me. Her smiling at me didn’t help. “Your kids must hand in their guns.”

“Hand in our guns?” Jewel cried. “Are you out of your mind, lady?”

That was exactly what I was thinking. I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or call Sam a nut, so I flipped a coin in my mind. Guess which side it landed on?

“A certifiable nut . . .” I added.

Sam didn’t take that well. Her face went a shade of red that matched her hair. Even her freckles stood out like sunspots. I turned to my dad, hoping that he would have my back. That’s when his eyes told me to shut up. He hadn’t given me that look on this trip yet. Those who had guns raised them and aimed right at us. Jewel’s eyes doubled in size, her arms reaching for the sky.

I did the same. But not Kaylynn. She didn’t move an inch. She wasn’t afraid or concerned at all. So cool.

“Want to run that by me again?” Sam asked.

I swallowed. And I think my sister did, too.

Dad faced us. “I’ll handle this, capeesh?”

Silently, Jewel and I agreed. You don’t mess with Dad when he does his Italian mafia bit. The sooner he talked us out of this place, the better. From our close encounter moments ago, it was clear to me that some Vectors were still lurking around town—no thanks to Cody. He smiled one of his cocky smirks while clinging to his bowstring. How come he had a weapon?

“Will you stop pointing at my family?” Dad said.

Sam nodded. “You heard him.”

The others lowered their arms. Creepy. No dictatorship had ever run so smoothly. The others pulled back as Sam stepped in, both of her hands on her tight jean hips. I lowered my hands and breathed easy.

“If you want to stay, collateral’s a good way to start,” Mason said.

So that was their game. If they took possession of our weapons, we wouldn’t be a threat. They could order us around and do whatever they wanted to us, and we couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

“If you have spare gas, we’ll trade,” Dad said.

Sam and Mason shared a considering glance.

Dad handled people well. Being the owner of a hunting goods store, he had to. It looked like he was measuring the situation, checking for anything he could use as a talking point. More people had gathered around then I’d realized. Each of them were staring at us like we were a newly arrived circus act—a bunch of skeptical adults and excited kids pointing fingers.

“I hear you’re on your way to Colorado,” Sam said. “What’s out there?”

Dad put his serious face on. “The mountains.”

Jewel laughed through her nose while I did my best to hold back a snort. The woman had fallen for Dad’s secret weapon, the pinnacle of his super powers.

Captain Obvious had stuck again!

Sam’s cheeks flushed. “You think it’s safe there?”

“Not yet, but we’re hoping to find out,” Dad said. “We have a place in the mountains, but let me put it this way—by taking the high ground, with winter later on, the elevation and cold will keep them away.”

“I see,” Sam said. “Smart. Foolhardy, but smart.”

“What do you mean
foolhardy
?” Mom asked.

“Let me put it
this
way . . .” Sam spat her wad of gum on the curb. “We have radios. We’ve been listening for weeks. And we’ve heard
nothing
from Colorado. We’ve met
no one
from Colorado. Truth is we’ve heard nothing from anyone.” Sam slowly stepped behind us. “You’re the first group of survivors we’ve seen out of Nebraska. If you’re to reach the Rockies, you’ll need an army to get through dozens of overrun cities.”

The woman came back around and joined up with Mason again. I was fuming, my eyes locking with Sam. No one likes to have their plans mocked—case in point, mine—except I couldn’t ignore the sound reasoning behind her logic. If we were the first they’d seen out of Nebraska, the pandemic was far worse than we thought. Was David City the last refuge left in the world? I glanced at the hygiene-less people. It depressed me.

“If you’re set on leaving, what do you have to trade before you go?” Mason asked.

“Guns mostly,” Mom answered. “And services, if you need them—if you’re willing to let us stay.”

Sam scowled at her. “We need food and fuel more than anything. What
services
can you offer?”

Mom furrowed her brow. You don’t mess with my mom. That’s just a bad idea. “I’m a nurse.”

“And I’m a National Guardsman,” Dad added. “And I know a thing or two about guns.”