about him trying anything since Charlie was there.
“Hey,” I said, looking hard at the man.
He looked up and I found myself looking into my mother’s eyes. Only they didn’t belong to my mother. They belonged to my brother. I had found him. By all that’s holy, I had found him.
“I found your note,” I said. “You were supposed to be looking for me at Eagle Cliff.” I took off my goggles and balaclava and at the moment of recognition, threw my arms around my brother. Charlie stepped back and I had a hard time keeping the tears from my eyes as I held my baby brother.
Mike drew back, wiping his eyes. “Thank God. You came. Oh, thank God,” he kept saying over and over.
We stood up and Mike motioned us to follow him. We went through the doors and into the gift shop. There, hiding in the corner, was Mike’s family. Nicole was there, holding a whimpering Annie, and Logan was bravely standing in front of his mother, tears down his cheeks, trying to protect her from the bad guys.
I knelt down in front of Logan and said, “Hi, little buddy. Your cousin Jake misses you.” It took a minute for him to recognize me, then he threw his little arms around my neck and hugged me tight. I held on to him as I stood and gave Nicole a hug as well.
I put down Logan and introduced Charlie to everyone. Logan was as impressed as a three year old could be and asked to touch Charlie’s gun.
I spoke with Mike and Nicole for a few moments and realized that they had holed up in the visitor center when the cougar first came stalking. After that, it was touch-and-go as they finished their supplies and worked their way through the stores kept in the cafe. Once those ran out, Mike had been making runs to the lodge, bringing back what he could from the restaurant. Those runs became more dangerous as zombies from the town across the river began to cross the bridge and realized food was nearby. They had actually run out of food three days ago and were on the brink of collapse. When they heard us, they thought we were zombies at first, but when I had opened the door, they thought we were looters. Mike was actually out of bullets, so he had been hoping to surprise whoever had come in. When that didn’t work, he had just reached the end of his string.
I took off my pack and handed out the food and water I had in there and Charlie did the same. The family gratefully accepted the stores, making sure their children ate first. We had more in the boat, so I wasn’t concerned. Besides, we were going back to Leport as soon as possible.
I spent the next several minutes talking about what had happened to me since the Upheaval and Charlie jumped in as necessary. When we had finished, my brother looked at me with new eyes. “When did you become such a dangerous person?” he asked.
“‘Bout a year ago, give or take a month,” I said. “Believe me, if I had a choice, I’d have kept things the way they were.”
After the family had assuaged the worst of their hunger, I started to head for the front door, nearest the parking lot, when my brother grabbed my arm.
“What are you doing?” he hissed, looking furtively out the window. “There’s at least six zombies out there!”
I shook my arm free. “I just found my brother after thinking he was dead for over a year. I’m taking you home and if you think six zombies will stop me, you have no idea what your brother has become.” I signaled to Charlie and he came over, standing on a chair and looking out of a high window overlooking the parking lot.
“There’s seven by the front door and five more out in the parking lot. Two just disappeared around the corner, so I’m guessing they’re checking out the back.” Charlie stepped down. “How do you want to play it?”
I thought for minute. “Let’s wait for the two to get to the back, deal with them quietly, then we’ll hit the front like we did with the trailers at Coal City.”
Charlie nodded. “You want to go first again?”
I shook my head. “You can this time.”
“What about the ones in the lot?”
“One on one, I’ll take the left side.”
“Deal.”
My brother just stared at me with an open mouth as I readied my gear. I topped off my carbine and loosened my pickaxe in its holder. Charlie checked his gear, then signaled he was ready. I repositioned my balaclava and goggles.
I motioned to Mike to come over and Charlie handed him his gun back. “It’s fully loaded now, so you can defend your family if it comes to it. If something happens to us, take the trail to Horseshoe Bend. The boat is beached there. Take it and get your family to Leport. Don’t stop at Joslin, and don’t hesitate. Clear?”
Mike just nodded and Nicole just stared at us with wide eyes.
“Ready?” I asked Charlie.
Charlie nodded.
Pushing open the door to the information center, I headed towards the back door. The two that had headed that way from the front were just ambling past the doors, not finding anything of interest to them. I stepped to the back door and nodding to Charlie, burst out onto the sidewalk. The two zombies turned as one and came at us.
I didn’t waste time and planted my pick into the skull of the first one, a heavy man with grey skin and deep gashes on his shoulders. Charlie crushed the skull of the other Z with a well-placed blade to the temple. We wiped off our weapons and split up with me taking the left side and Charlie taking the right. I unslung my carbine as I moved, making sure I stayed close to the walls to avoid having my shadow reveal where I was.
About twenty feet from the corner I stopped and shouldered my weapon. I walked out away from the wall and kept my eye on the corner. I moved until I could just see part of one of the zombies and stopped. When Charlie opened up, I wanted to be out of the way, but in position to support him if needed. Out in the parking lot, the other zombies saw me and started in my direction. They were about two hundred yards out and not yet a threat.
I waited for about five seconds, then heard Charlie’s rifle bark. He was very methodical and four shots rang out. I waited a second, then stepped forward and faced three zombies whose backs were to me. At the first shot, I dropped a teenage girl who had moved quickly to the corner. The other two, probably her parents, turned at the sound and headed for me. I shot the father first, then the mother, both of them falling beside their daughter.
The fusillade of shots stirred the Z’s in the parking lot to move faster and both Charlie and I took a moment to shoot the ones nearest to us. Mine seemed to be whiter than usual and as I ran to engage the remaining zombies I noticed that the reason he was white was because he was covered in maggots.
Charlie reached a zombie first and jumped high into the air to bring his tomahawk down on its head. I reached my second one and, ducking under its clawed hands, swept its feet out from under it, slamming it onto the pavement. Stepping up to it, I drove my pickaxe into the top of its head before it had a chance to recover.
The next two were going to present a little bit of a problem because they were close together. They were two women, dressed in tank tops and jeans, with lank, filthy hair hanging down their faces. Deep scratches covered their arms and one had a tear in her shoulder. The other had a hole bitten in her thigh, the opening torn and bloodied. Their hands and arms were blackened with dried blood and they moved in an almost coordinated fashion. They advanced with their arms outstretched, allowing very little room to maneuver. This was going to take some timing. I waited until they got close, then I swerved to the side, placing one behind the other. I shoved the head of the pickaxe into the face of the blonde one, knocking her into the brunette and tumbling them both to the ground. I moved around again and slammed the heavy blade end of my pick into the top of the blonde. She lay still as her companion crawled towards me, standing up on unsteady feet as she faced me. Her arms came up again and I kicked her back over her friend again. I moved and slammed the pick down more forcefully than I had intended and caved in half her skull. Her reaching hands immediately fell to the side and she looked like she and her friend were now sleeping.
Charlie came over after he finished his zombie. “All done with your threesome?” he asked, wiping off the ‘hawk.
“Yeah. Wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be,” I said, scrubbing my pick on the grass.
I looked around and didn’t see any threats. I knew the cougar was still out there, but that was a danger I could live with if I had to.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get the family moving. I want to show you something before we go.”
We went back to the Visitor Center and gathered up Mike and his family. They watched with wide eyes as Charlie and I dragged the bodies to the parking lot and set them on fire. I used the opportunity to cleanse my pick
