Wake the Dead 2 (Wake The Dead Series) (6 page)

Weeks passed and finally, there was only a few feet of earth left between the trench and the river at the rear of the castle. They had dug into the bottom of the trench even further in the hopes that once the onrush of water started at the top of the mound, it would collapse the bottom along with it.

The group was exhausted, complaining of stiff joints and sore backs, but none of them missed a shift of digging at all.

Alex was coming back from checking on Shadow, the wolf having been feasting on zombie parts these past weeks. He had contemplated dropping the dynamite into a hole in the ground, but ultimately Nick had talked him out of it. Instead, he spent his time helping Kelly make a makeshift ‘boat’ in between his shifts of digging.

Alex was impressed that they had been able to dig out all of that soil in the time they did, but they had certainly achieved that end.

They were collectively tired and hungry, and generally sore as could be. But that did not deter them from accomplishing their task. Nick had said on many occasions that he was proud of each and every one of them.

It was in this last day that Hannah got sick.

She was coming down with something the last few days, but wanted to try to work through it, but it seemed that whatever she had was viral. She took antibiotics and got plenty of food and rest on her ‘off times’, but it still did not help. Now she was bedridden, and the need to get to the hospital for supplies was first and foremost on their list of goals.

Alex felt a hand on his shoulder as he stared at the remaining few feet of earth that stood in their way and spun around at hearing someone approaching. Selina was beside him wearing a terrible expression on her face.

“Hannah is getting worse,” she whispered to Alex so that no one else could hear.

“Does Nick know?”

“Yeah,” she answered sympathetically. “We need to get her an IV and a bunch of other meds,” Selina continued to explain.

“I know. We’ll be getting out of here soon enough,” Alex replied, trying to comfort her. Selina had grown close to Hannah these past few weeks. In passing discussions one of the past few nights, Selina had expressed that Hannah was a third part Indian in heritage, which explained her tanned skin.

During that discussion, Selina had voiced to Alex that her mother was African American and her father was Italian-American, which in comparison, had explained the nature of
her
complexion as well. That was something which Alex had considered in the past, but meant nothing to him in any other way. He wasn’t the slightest bit of a bigot and had always distanced himself from those who had been in his past. Either way, it was something that she had felt comfortable enough in telling him, which strengthened their relationship in his eyes in the very least.

He felt the wallet in his back pocket and absently recalled the photo of Sara he kept there, and remembered that Selina had found it and asked him about it a few weeks ago. He felt that sooner rather than later, he would want to tell Selina more about his past. It was getting to be that time, as he could not deny his feelings for her. He believed that he was in love with her. The only thing that was stopping him from totally giving himself over to her was this odd guilt that he carried for the women in his past—those he’d had to kill—especially Sara. She, as always, remained a legitimate presence in his mind, and someone for whom he still loved, and would until his dying day. He felt in some odd way that when he was with Selina, that he was somehow cheating on her. It was irrational, he knew, as she was deceased. But, he needed to get that off his chest and he needed to be okay with moving on. He wanted this relationship with Selina to have a real chance at succeeding, and it seemed that talking about Sara was the only way to do that.

“We ready to finish this boat?” Kelly asked, pulling Alex from his daydreams. He stood only a few feet from the two of them. Alex looked from Selina to Kelly and nodded. They had built a simple flat-bottomed boat from some plywood, using screws and gorilla glue. Having to do most of the screw turning and pre-drilling with hand tools was making Alex’s hands sore, but he did not complain. Everyone was in pain from this endeavor.

“Only a couple feet of digging to go until pay dirt,” Alex said, holding up a shovel, and trying to sound encouraging. “As soon as we finish the boat, I wanna take ‘er on her maiden voyage upstream.”

 “And I wanna take that voyage with you,” Selina said. He grinned at her response and she crushed him in a tight hug.

“Let’s go over this one more time,” Kelly said, looking to all of them. Everyone was sitting or lying on the mound in various states of exhaustion, drinking bottles of water or sitting and eating from the pot of pasta that Kelly had cooked and brought up here not five minutes ago.  “Start to dig from the top down. Once you get it low enough, the water will start to trickle in. Once that happens, stand to the side and keep on digging. Get it to start really flowing in and the force of the river will do the rest.” He turned and began to walk away, then stopped. “And don’t forget to wear the harness!”

“We will for sure, taskmaster!” Selina called back teasingly. “And when will that boat be ready to go?”

“We are putting the final touches on it right now,” Kelly answered with a smile, rubbing his strawberry blonde goatee and pushing his glasses further up on the bridge of his nose.

“What about oars?” she asked, this time to Alex.

“We’ve got one, believe it or not. Shouldn’t be hard to make another if we have to.”

“Let’s get this finished so we can get out of here in the morning,” Kelly called back.

“Let’s do it then,” Alex agreed. The pair went back into the castle, ready to finish their project. Alex was confident that what they built would float, but it wasn’t going to cut through the water with any ease. That was for sure.

He and Kelly spent the rest of the evening into the wee hours of the morning finishing the boat.

Chapter 5

When Alex awoke the next morning, he found himself lying in the fetal position on the hard floor. He sniffed at his armpits beneath the plain black tee shirt he wore, and grimaced. He stunk.

He recognized that he was still in the room that Kelly used as a workshop, which was close to the entrance, along the right side of rooms down the hall from where they ate. Alex also noted that Selina was standing over him.

“We did it!” she exclaimed. “The river is into the trench and its holding fine.”

“That’s a relief,” Alex said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and standing, wiping soot from his cargo pants. “I was a bit worried it might overflow. Looks like the sloping theory was correct—it
is
higher on the south eastern side.”

“It sure is,” Selina said, hugging Alex and pulling him along to have him inspect their work firsthand.

“Did anyone get hurt?” Kelly asked, stopping the two in their tracks.

“Not at all,” Selina answered. “Your post came in handy. Phil was tied off and stayed on the mound longest. He kept digging more even after the water started to come in and got caught in the river when it really came through. The rope probably saved his life as the water came through pretty fast, but he was able to hold onto that rope until the water filled up and then he climbed out.”

“I'm glad it worked then,” Kelly mentioned absently as he dragged himself up off the floor.

“We need to get upstream to a car and to the hospital for Hannah. Here,” she said, handing each of them a protein bar. “I brought you something to eat. Now, c’mon!”

“We’re gonna need to carry this thing out and place it into the water,” called Kelly, stare at the two of them over where the boat rested on a table.

“And hope it floats, right?” Alex said with a spirited smirk.

It wasn’t long after that the group managed to carry the smallish boat out of the castle, lower the drawbridge once again, and then place it gently into the water of the surrounding moat.

They then pushed it along as far as they could toward the mouth of the moat where it met the river and Alex stepped inside to test its buoyancy. He was pleasantly pleased to see no water entering from the sides or bottom.

“Not bad for having little to no power tools,” Alex commented. “Now hand me my weapons and backpack and let’s get upstream.”

Phil handed him his gear, along with Selina’s pack and her sword, which she had prepared for them late last night. Selina climbed in after him. He caught her and helped her to find a seat beside him.

“Anyone else?” Alex asked.

“I’m in,” said Alexis as she stepped into the boat without a second thought. She looked a bit more haggard than everyone was used to seeing her. She still wore a very tight shirt that accentuated her breasts and a very short pair of shorts that exposed her shapely legs. But she also wore a bandana over her normally immaculate hair, and a pair of work boots covered her feet instead of the usual stylish leather boots. As she carefully climbed into the boat, Alex was relieved that no water seeped in through seams.

“And so am I,” said Bryan, stepping onto the boat gingerly. His button down shirt was soiled with dirt as was his jeans and sneakers, but his spirits seemed high as he immediately plopped down beside Alexis. He carried his mace gingerly in one hand and a backpack was slung over his shoulder.

“I think we’re at capacity then,” Alex said with a chuckle.

‘You’ll be needin’ these,” Kelly said as he stepped up beside the boat and handed Alex and Selina the oars.

Nick suddenly appeared from behind Kelly and knelt low to stare at Alex. “Remember, the hospital first. We need IV bags and as many meds as you can get your hands on.”

“You got it,” Alex said with a nod.

“And take this,” Nick said, handing Alex a folded towel, which Alex grabbed and looked at peculiarly. “Open it.”

Alex unfolded the towel to find one of the sticks of dynamite inside the folds, tucked neatly in a zip-lock bag. “Just in case,” Nick said. “Only use it as a last resort.”

“Obviously,” Alex agreed. He fished inside his pack and found his Glock along with the silencer. He checked his quiver and bow and made sure there were extra clips and his first aid kit in the pack. He placed the towel inside the pack, too. “Ready?”

The group waved goodbye to them and shoved the boat off. Once they exited the moat, Alex and Selina placed the oars into the water and began to row in unison. They were clumsy at first, but a few moments later, they were working in tandem to guide the boat up the river.

Alex took note that the undead were certainly out in droves still, even finding some along the riverbank. It was an odd thing to watch as one of them, upon seeing the boat, wandered right into the river and disappeared in the water a few minutes later.

They kept moving upriver for a long while until the riverbank was clear of the undead and guided the boat toward the riverbank at that juncture. They saw a few abandoned vehicles all gathered up, too. They had actually gone in a northerly direction for the most part, following the river’s gait, and the gas station and the shopping centers they visited were to the east.

As they came up to the bank of the river, they pulled the boat up and behind a copse of trees and shrubbery, along with the oars. Alex took out his bow and stepped a few feet back, nocked an arrow and launched one into the tree.

“That’s our mark.” He proceeded to cut a few low hanging branches and placed them over the boat. Moments later, he had it covered enough to where he was satisfied. “We ready?”

“Yeah,” Bryan said, holding his mace and testing its weight again. He also removed a huge knife that was in a scabbard around his shin and handed it to Alexis. “Just in case.” She nodded to him as Selina was waving her sword around, too, running a few drills and familiarizing herself with her weapon once again.

Alex felt bad that they had to leave Shadow at the castle, but he could not risk bringing the wolf along for so many reasons. He still felt bad about it no matter how he rationalized it.

“It’s okay, I'm sure he misses you too,” Selina said, resting a hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner. It was amazing to him that she could read him so well already and knew where his emotions were guiding him just by reading his expression.

“Thanks.”

“Now let’s find us a car,” she said, slapping him on his rear end.

They crept up from the riverbank to the highway quite easily. When they arrived to the side of the road, there were a few abandoned vehicles pulled off the side. There were also three zombies wandering about, and as soon as they made it to the road, the trio of undead began heading their way. Alex nocked his bow and let them get closer.

He waited until they were twenty paces and fired the first, content to see that his skills with the bow had not diminished.

Like riding a bike.

He watched in satisfaction as the arrow struck true, dropping the first. He nocked a second arrow and fired it, this one finding the onrushing zombie’s eye, dropping it to the asphalt, too.

The third one made into their ranks where Bryan and Selina stood. It rushed toward Selina and so she was the one to act as Bryan stepped back. She didn’t even step back, but simply swung the sword in a downward chop, splitting that one’s head in two. Its baseball cap, along with its skull, separated easily, stopping the creature’s momentum straight away. It fell to the side as Selina asked Alex to spin around for her. He felt her fishing in his pack and when he turned to face her again, she had removed the towel and wiped the gore from her face, spitting and cursing under her breath.

“I’ll have to do that different next time,” she mentioned casually, as Bryan and Alexis were smiling, amused by her sense of humor.

“So, let’s see what kind of vehicles we’ve got to work with,” Alex said, moving to the first one. After an hour passed of testing and inspecting vehicles, they finally came across a gold painted Ford Explorer that was in decent shape with good treads on the tires, had the keys in side, and had a little over half a tank of gas. Alex turned the key and it started up. “This one it is.”

The four of them piled into the vehicle and Alex pulled away, heading west on the highway toward the hospital. They passed several more zombies, usually in small groups that chased after them relentlessly until they were out of sight. They also drove through several accident sites that they had to drive around or, in one case, had to get out and push vehicles off to the side in order to get by them.

They were doing so at yet another vehicular barricade when a zombie emerged from one of the vehicles and had Alex not acted quickly, would have taken a huge chunk out of Bryan’s arm.

They rode for about an hour all told, and when the hospital was in sight, they did not like what they saw in the distance.

“Hand me my pack,” Alex said to Selina, who grabbed the backpack, unzipped it and held it out for him. Alex pulled the SUV over and found the binoculars in the backpack. As he placed them over his eyes, in the detailed view, he tallied countless of the undead wandering around the fenced in area of the hospital grounds and parking lot. “Not lookin’ great.”

“I can’t let her die, Alex!” Selina said sharply, regarding Hannah, staring back at him intensely.

“There’s gotta be pharmacy’s around here, or even the supermarket, that have IV bags and meds, right?!” Alex asked incredulously, as he stared back to Bryan and Alexis in the rear view mirror.

“Well, there are pharmacies of course, but we’ve checked out most of ‘em, cleared out what little was left in ‘em, too. Which wasn’t much. Ya gotta understand that when the dead started to walk the earth and the chaos started, people raided pharmacy’s first,” Bryan explained, removing a cigarette and lighting it. “Needless to say, the hospital is chock full o’ goodies, an’ you can see why, right?” he grinned madly at Alex in that moment before blowing out a lung-full of smoke.

“Shit. Well, what is there left for us to do but go on a suicide mission to get the medical supplies?” Alex asked, hopeful that someone would have an alternative answer. Silence ensued. “Let’s park this thing off the side of the road here and get a little closer on foot. Maybe we’ll find a way in that isn’t straight through that front gate.”

“There’s always another way in, right?” asked Alexis, removing her bandana and slapping it against her leg to remove some soot, then wiped her face with it. She slowly tied it on, looking back to Alex and the others for an answer.

“I have no idea. But, I hope there is,” Alex admitted. “Let’s stick to the tree line there,” he added, gesturing to the row of trees that ran along the western side of the hospital and all the way around the back before stopping.

“Good idea, might give us a different vantage point to scope things out,” Bryan said. He removed his pack of cigarettes and shook the box and then looked inside. “Shit. Only two left.” He dumped one out into his hand and then put it back. “Save’em for later. Let’s roll.”