Jake held the doors for the others and followed them as they went towards the front of the store, 'Bad deal? Do tell? You don't think I am up to getting you to Des Moines.'
'Oh you will try, but we may have forget to mention we are surrounded by super zombies, who are keeping us pinned into a few square blocks and probably won't take kindly to their livestock trying to leave.'
They turned and faced Jake when they got to the showroom floor, seeing how he would react.
He laughed, 'I'm pretty sure I had that figured out. I'm not too worried about them.'
'Not even a pair of little girls so cute you could just eat them up when you see them?'
Jake's face fell a little, 'Oh, them.'
It was Dora's turn to laugh, 'Well we didn't want to make it too easy on you!'
'Well, it is time for my little surprise in our deal, I won't have to get you to Des Moines. Not if you are looking for safety.'
'No?'
'No, when I checked last week the Iowa National Guard was fighting at Bethany, in Missouri. Only about a hundred miles from here. Unless you want to go to Maryville?'
'So who got screwed on this deal, Steve?' Dora asked.
'I think both parties bartered in bad faith and came out about even, objectively I have to say Jake is getting a worse deal than we are. What do you think Jake?'
Jake grimaced, 'I lost on it, but at the end of the day I still get my blood, even if I have to kill the albino twins.'
'We call them the wonder twins.'
Jake nodded, 'Good enough, the problem is they have a lot of super zombies. It's no wonder I hadn't seen you around, I steer clear of their area, I tangled with some of their boys before.'
'Yeah? Who won?' asked Bob.
Jake looked at him and didn't say anything. Finally Dora said, 'Bob, he won, he's here.'
Bob laughed and said, 'Yeah, right, I put my foot in that one, huh?'
Looking back to Dora and Steve Jake said, 'I heard you had questions, I am willing to answer them, if I can.'
'Can you read the other zombies minds?' asked Steve.
'Minds? I wasn't aware they had minds as such. But what's there I can't read.'
'How do you communicate with them?'
'It's mental, I press my will against theirs, if mine is more powerful I win and I get to make them do what I want, which is why this place isn't crawling with the dead right now. Now I have made a zombie or two in my time and with those I can actually get what they are seeing and hear what they hear. I would know if they lied to me too.'
'Shit. Do you remember who you were before you turned?'
'Yes.'
'So if someone had created you, they could asked you questions and compel you to tell the true when you answered?'
'Yes, I suppose so, why are you asking?'
'Well most of our group knows we are leaving, so if the wonder twins kill any one of us they will be able to figure out our plans.' said Steve.
Jake thought for a moment, 'Maybe, but not right away. You would have to approach the level of being able to think and answer questions again. If you were just a newly made zombie, you would not be much good to them. Do you think they keep tabs on you like that?'
'No, how much flesh does it require to gain your thoughts back? A whole person?'
'I don't know, I never brought any of my children back to that level, in fact I don't bring anyone back at all, if I can help it.'
'Why is that?' asked Dora.
'I never liked kids.'
'Oh.' looking towards Bob, Dora said, 'Why don't you go get the others and bring them in here, leave the juniors out by the trucks as lookouts.'
'Okay Dora.' said Bob, grateful to be of some use.
After he left through the window Jake said softly, 'Not the brightest bulb in the pack is he?'
'No. He is still alive and he survived this long so he has done something right.'
'Fair enough, there ain't anyone alive these days that doesn't have some trick up their sleeves. I think the last of the lucky ones died a couple of weeks ago; luck can only carry you so far.'
'I agree.' said Dora, rubbing the stock of her gun. The other adults came into the showroom, they were uneasy and Dora kept herself between Jake and them until she could explain the situation. Once she was done, she opened the floor for comments.
'I feel…well Dora I feel a little awkward about paying the price. It's like we are conspiring with the enemy, paying that blood. I don't know if I can do it.', this was spoken by an older woman named Melinda.
'No problem, Jake here is giving us credit anyone who doesn't want to pay, I will pay for. I wouldn't want anyone to do anything against their morals.'
'Why don't we just kill him and be done with it?' asked another man.
'Well, first there is no guarantee that we would be able to. If you don't believe me I think Jake has some used cars you should look at behind the building. He says he handled their acquisition all at once. There were more in that group than we have with us now.'
'But we have been through a lot, they might have been inexperienced, everyone here is, well, tough.' said another man.
'Okay that brings up the second point, Jake is going to help get us to the Iowans. How long we been here Bob?'
Startled Bob looked at his watch, 'Um, twenty minutes?'
'Yeah? And how many zombies have caught up with us from the mob back there? Or gathered around us from the area? None. Jake claims he can push them away from us and he has agreed to get us to the front lines. Without him we might have to fight every zombie we come across and risk losing a lot more people.'
The group grumbled a bit, but finally one of the men, a younger man named Colton stepped up and said, 'I'll pay my pint, you won't have to pay for me.'
One by one the other ones, even Melinda agreed to pay the price.
'So now that we are down to the brass tacks, why don't you choose some of the buses and we can get going?' said Jake.
'Well alright, that is what we are here for. Is there a shop here Jake? We need to take some of the seats out of the back to make room for the supplies we plan on bringing with us.' said Steve.
'Yeah they have a collision center, the bays all have buses in them right now, but the tools are free, if you just need ratchets and wrenches there are plenty to go around.'
'Okay, good, what about gas stations? Any that sell diesel in the area?'
'You won't need them, there is a tank and pump out back. Its gravity fed too, above ground, you should be able to drive the buses up to it and fill them from there.'
'Our day just got easier.' Steve said happily. Jake showed them where the keys to all the buses were and offered them the weapons he had taken off of the people laying behind the building as a bonus. The arsenal was fairly extensive, with everything from small twenty two caliber derringers up to a large fifty four caliber black powder carbine. All of the guns had ammunition ready for the taking.
Steve set Bob to choosing the best of the guns and then had him wrap the rest of it in some plastic sheeting and tuck the bundle into the furnace room out of sight as a cache. Removing the seats took the longest time, there were enough tools to go around, but it was a lot of work to take the last three rows of seating out of each of the three buses. About an hour and a half after arriving the buses were fueled and ready to go, the diesel tank was sufficient to fill all of the extra gas cans they had earmarked for that purpose. This left them with just a dozen empty cans to fill with unleaded fuel for the motorcycles and other vehicles.
Bob agreed to have Jake ride in the front truck with him, he put Seth into one of the buses with Ken to make room and the caravan set out back to Mark's Motorcycles.
