They started driving again. Mrs. Randolph opened the small sliding window between the cab and the bed as they drove along.
“Change in plans!” Michelle raised her voice to be heard over the engine of the truck.
“It’s bad up ahead. Quentin here has told me that Verde Acres is completely overrun!” Verde Acres was a low-income community a mile out of town. It was built to settle the many migrant workers that flocked to the area, looking for farm work.
“We’re going to turn at the next intersection and head down to Billy McAdam’s place.” Michelle yelled. Romy had no idea who Billy McAdam was.
They took the next right, and another right at the next range road.
Feels like we’re heading right back to where we came from.
“What the...” Romy heard the statement from the cab and strained to look through the little window to see what they were heading towards. There was a zombie on the side of the road. Michelle swerved slightly to get around it. It was a guy in full camo gear, with the exception of the Clemson baseball cap. Michelle drove away as the lone zombie started to follow.
“That was Billy.” Michelle told her passengers.
A couple of minutes later they pulled up to Billy’s place. Michelle turned up the driveway to the red single-story dwelling. They had gone about a third of the way up the driveway when there were loud bangs and the truck shuddered. Michelle stopped the truck.
“Tire strips? What the heck, Billy!”
Romy was getting down off the truck bed when Michelle suddenly yelped. “Oh shit! Run! Get away from the truck!”
Everybody scattered. Romy got about twenty feet away, when there was a boom of an explosion. She felt the rush of air pressure hit her and almost toppled.
When she turned, the truck was on fire.
“Everybody to the house! The truck is going to blow!” Nobody needed a second invitation as they all ran up to the front door. The door had been left wide open. The companions quickly entered the house, closing the door behind them.
THEY STOOD AT THE ENTRYWAY for a few moments, breathing hard. Romy pulled out her gun. She had no idea where her Glock went, but she still had her trusty mini desert eagle. Nobody else had a weapon though.
There was a living room to their left. The Randolphs made their way to the couch and sank into it with loud sighs. The kid stayed at front door. Romy took it upon herself to check the place out. There was a kitchen immediately to her right, and a hallway ahead of her. Romy walked down the hallway and checked each door. All the rooms were clear of people; living or dead.
When she got back, she saw Michelle leaving the kitchen carrying cans of pop. They all gratefully downed the sugary liquid, although Romy noticed that her pop seemed to taste a little stale. Michelle told them she had found a couple of cases of pop and water bottles in the pantry. Mr. Randolph and Quentin immediately went to the kitchen to get some more drinks.
Romy followed Michelle into the kitchen. The large woman stopped at the kitchen window and was watching her truck burn. “Michelle, what the hell was that?”
Michelle rolled her eyes and guffawed. “That damn Billy McAdam!”
She flinched as the first of many bullets cooked off in her truck. “He’s my cousin.”
She frowned.
“Was. He was my cousin. Anyway, he’s always been into government conspiracies. One of those nut-case, survivalist types.”
She nodded, half smiling to herself. “Funny guy though. Always good for a laugh. Anyway, it looks like the paranoid prick put down a trap on his own driveway!”
She pointed in the direction of the truck. “He lined the driveway with tire strips. Not regular tire strip either – some home-built strip with what looked like metal shark teeth. As if that wasn’t enough, when I looked under the truck, I saw some kind of explosive device. The truck had landed on it and skidded over it, so it was all busted up. It hadn’t gone off, thank god. But then I noticed the hot oil dripping out of the bottom of the truck. I figured burning oil and explosives don’t mix well. Guess they didn’t eh?!” Michelle cracked a smile.
The sound of bullets exploding in the truck sobered her up. “I figure we got very, very lucky.”
Romy shook her head in disbelief.
She turned and walked to the fridge. She was starving. As she ate some cheese, she noticed that she had not cramped up anymore since early that morning. Instead she felt a dull pain in her gut. She shrugged and reached for a package of pepperoni sticks.
They hung around in Billy McAdam’s house for a few hours as the truck continued to burn. They hardly even flinched anymore as bullets exploded. A couple of thousand rounds cooked off over the next hour or so. And for a finale, the gas tank exploded.
The new companions got introduced. At least, Romy got their first names. Mr. Randolph and Mrs. Randolph were Edward, or ‘Ed’, and Sandra. Quentin did indeed come from Verde Acres. He wanted everybody to call him ‘Q’. When Sandra asked him about his family, he moved from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable. He ended up simply saying that they were all infected and died. He was oddly unemotional about the whole thing, but Romy suspected that this was an act.
Nobody said much for the next little while, and Romy drifted off to sleep on the couch.
SHE WOKE UP WHEN MICHELLE ran into the house.
“We got problems!” That got everybody’s attention.
“I’ve been looking for Billy’s bunker but haven’t found it. That damn bugger hid it too well. But now we’ve got company. The noises must have attracted them...” The look in her eyes was clear enough for all to understand just whom this company was.
They all wanted to see for themselves and stepped out onto
