"Only if you threaten us."
I turned my attention to the last people. The two appeared as a couple, mid forties, he thickset but not fat, she slender and stark looking. He was close to six feet tall, she about five feet six inches. Both had dark completions, he with curly black hair, her hair straight and long, hanging down inside a winter coat. We never saw fat people anymore; most humans were closer to starving than well fed.
Shane said, "We need to get a move on, we've a long drive ahead of us. We're from Iowa and have a total of thirty-one people in our camp. Do you want to stay here or come with us? Make up your mind quickly because we're leaving."
They all looked relieved and said yes or nodded.
I looked at Vince, "We can't take a chance of putting them in the cabs with us until they've gone through the waiting period. There's room in the trailer you're pulling alongside some of the pallets, and it's warm inside. Let's get them situated back there and then move out." The snowfall had thickened slightly, and a half inch layer had accumulated on the concrete pavement. As we spoke, several more shots rang out as Martin and Elsie spotted and shot approaching single zombies.
We encouraged the people to empty their bowels and bladders, gave them food and water and locked them in the darkness of the semitrailer with the piles of blankets and pillows we'd used the night before. I silently bet they'd be grateful for a safe eight to ten hour period to sleep.
Hours later as he drove, Ed was still talking guns, his favorite subject. "It's still hard to believe the number of premium brands of guns Walmart stocked back there. I saw S&Ws, Berettas, Glocks, and most of the other top of the line handguns. And those were in addition to a dozen cheaper brands. I didn't know they carried so many high dollar firearms. A lot of the rifles stored there were .22 caliber, but we did find some decent ones in 5.56 and 7.62 millimeter."
I'd had my fill of gun talk. Although I was a sniper in Delta Force, I'm not a certified gun nut. To me they're tools, not a love affair.
I changed the subject. "Reports of changes in the zombies, in addition to those we've seen previously in the fast runners, are becoming more frequent. In the last month, three crews have documented seeing the same subtle differences; there are more undead that aren't rotting like the original ones have. The one that came up onto the hood on the way here hadn't started to rot and many we stopped this morning hadn't either."
"But those could be," Elsie injected, "recently infected bodies that hadn't turned long enough ago to start deteriorating."
"It could be, but the vast majority of humans have been dead for quite some time. We seldom see even a few human stragglers when we travel. That bunch of ten today was unusually large. At the compound tonight we'll learn what brought them together. Most of the people who are still alive have done as we have and banded together for safety in numbers. And I'll bet most of those groups that are still alive have left the cities for the rural areas where zombies aren't as plentiful.
"Of course, there's no sure way of knowing for certain when a zombie turned. But Ira agrees that a new mutation has possibly taken place and we're only now seeing it as more undead migrate from the population centers out to the rural settings. The three sightings this month and four in the prior two months were scattered across the entire range we frequent. Plus, there were at least twenty yesterday besides the twenty-five or more this morning. That indicates it's not a local phenomenon, but something widespread. They're the same fast runners, only they haven't begun to decay. Their bodies are remaining intact except for where they were bitten and infected. Also, they're quiet most of the time. It's easy to turn a corner and find them standing there waiting for you with arms and mouth opened wide."
Ed grunted. "Yeah, that's what happened to Jerome Watters last year. He walked right into them and died because of it. So it's not a new thing."
I continued, "Something else I noticed today was a strange way they ran. If you see them at a good distance running toward you look for a peculiar gait as they run. I don't know how to describe it, something like a half step or a slight stumble every few steps.”
Kira turned onto our gravel lane when we reached Deliverance at eight that evening. I called the guard towers on the radio and the gate slowly jerked opened. While on the radio I told them to get Ira Sparrow, our doctor, down to door nine because we had five new potential members. Vince parked the tractor and semitrailer against the fence as far from the compound as he could and let the diesel engine run to keep the food in the trailer from freezing.
While Ira and our nurse Marcie Tanka saw that the new people had baths, meals and then were examined, Kira and I did the bath and meal thing too. Close to midnight, the last of the five people were put in the holding cells where they would remain for three weeks to ensure they weren’t contaminated by the undead. If they transformed while in detention they would be exterminated like any other zombie. Sometimes even I cringed at the harshness of our new lives.
After the last cell door closed on our reticent new recruits, I found Ira in his office. He'd waited for me to finish locking our guest away. He looked tired and haggard. I sat
