They crept through the ruin of the mezzanine, picking their way through televisions, VCRs, speakers, and smashed boxes. The store remained eerily quiet, the silence was punctuated by the battle taking place over at the high school.
“Do you think they’re okay?” Lena asked.
“Yes.” Dal wouldn’t let himself believe anything less. “Leo knows how to kick ass.”
They were nearly to the stairs when Lena stopped. “Look at this.” Using her foot, she pushed a dented piece of black plastic aside. Beneath it was a wide, flat box about six feet long.
“Is that a TV antenna?” she asked.
Dal knelt down to read the box. “Yeah. It’s not as big as the one we just used, but it is an antenna.”
“You know, there might be other messages people need to hear in the future.” Lena studied the antenna box. “You still have the transmitter. If we take the antenna, we’ll be able to broadcast.”
“It will be risky,” Dal said. “If we aren’t careful, the Russians will be able to track us.”
“So we’ll be careful. Come on, help me.” Lena pried at the box with her hands.
Dal helped her tear it open and pull out the antenna. Out of the box, it didn’t weight more than fifteen or twenty pounds. Lena was so lean that she was able to fit between the rods. The antenna balanced easily on either side of her.
“I should be able to balance it on the bike like this,” Lena said. “We should take it.”
She was right. It was good to have the antenna. Who knew what other important information they might come across? They needed to do whatever they could to help win this war.
“We should take it,” Dal agreed. He gathered up the cables that came out of the box, dropping them into his backpack.
They crept down the stairs and through the ruined superstore. Oddly enough, their bikes were still just outside the entryway. The street beyond was quiet. There was no sign of zombies or Russians anywhere.
Dal helped Lena arrange the antenna across her bike. With her being able to slip between the middle rods, it was fairly well balanced.
“If we have to make a run for it, drop it,” Dal said. “It’s not worth dying over.”
“Agreed.”
A huge boom went up from the high school. Dal and Lena turned reflexively toward the sound. It wasn’t anything like the explosions they’d heard up until this point. Something big had just gone off.
“Think they’re okay?” Lena whispered.
Dal squeezed her hand. “Yes. Come on, let’s get the hell out of here.” He wasn’t about to waste the opportunity Leo and the others were giving them to escape.
Side by side, he and Lena rode out of town.
Chapter 45Not Special
IT WAS ALMOST DAWN when the Cecchino farm came into view. Dal was so tired he could hardly see straight. Had it really only been forty-eight hours since the first Russians attacked? It felt like forty-eight years. He was used to functioning on little sleep, but this went beyond anything he’d ever experienced before.
He focused on his bunk bed back at the cabin, and what it would feel like to lay down. He might sleep for three days if Nonna allowed it.
The sky was a dark gray, the stars on the eastern horizon beginning to fade. The bike tires crunched on the gravel road that led to the Cecchino farmhouse.
Dal struggled to keep his eyes open. It was too dark to see clearly. It was cold, too. His breath fogged the air. The apple trees were wet with dew.
He jerked as a long, low growl rolled through the darkness.
“Zombies,” Lena whispered. She still had the antenna balanced across her bike.
They both stopped and looked toward the Cecchino barn. The sound had come from that direction.
“Don’t they know it’s time for bed?” Dal let his bike drop softly to the ground.
“I don’t think they sleep.” Lena shouldered her rifle, jaw set. She left the antenna on the ground next to her bike.
“Come on, let’s get this over with,” Dal said. “It doesn’t sound like there’s more than one or two of them.” The sooner they got rid of the zombies, the sooner they could get back to the cabin.
“I hope we don’t know them,” Lena muttered. “I didn’t like shooting Mrs. Caster.”
Mrs. Caster had been the second grade teacher at the elementary school. She’d come after them when they fled Bastopol.
Dal locked away that memory. It was too much to deal with on top of everything else.
The Cecchino farm looked untouched. Jennifer’s white car still sat in the driveway. Everything else was quiet and undisturbed.
They went around the far side of the barn in the direction of the growling. As they rounded the corner, Dal felt his breath leave his lungs. He was abruptly wide awake.
There were only two zombies in front of them. Separating them from the infected was a chain-link fence, the boundary between the Cecchino and Granger farms.
At the sight of Dal and Lena, the zombies let loose that strange barking sound. They attacked the fence with gusto, throwing their full body weight at the metal. The fence rattled under the attack, but held.
It wasn’t the two crazed zombies and their dirty clothing that disturbed Dal. What froze his insides was the fact that his parents didn’t look much different than they had before the virus took them.
Get out, Dallas! Get out and don’t ever come back!
His mother’s face was twisted into a snarl of rage as she threw herself over and over at the fence. She looked just like she had the day she kicked Dal out of the house when he was fourteen.
There was blood all over her shoulder. It soaked the front of her shirt. His father had once thrown her into the family curio cabinet. She hit so hard the glass broke. She looked then just as she
