Reggie knew he’d never know the answers and it would trouble him until he laid down in the dust to die. He smoothed back his damp, red hair. The windows were down but the air was warm streaming into the vehicle. The prevailing wind brought the stench of rotting bodies. He pulled onto Highway 72 West. Around him were empty vehicles along the road. He slowed down and looked into the windows. He saw movement in one and pulled over. Getting out, he walked to the SUV and peered in. There were children moving and shifting over the seats. They were zombie children and his heart broke once more, thinking of Jeb and Hunter.
The heat of the Alabama sun had nearly cooked the zombies inside the SUV. He walked back to his truck and grabbed a can of fuel. He sloshed it over the top of the SUV and walked around several other vehicles. Walking back to the SUV he looked in again.
“I’ll send you babies to heaven, you’ll not hurt anymore,” he said softly and pulled out a lighter. He walked forward and squatted down and lit the puddle of fuel on the ground. The invisible flame licked along the ground and then orange flames moved up the SUV. The fire spread all over the SUV as black smoke filled the air. The fire moved onto the next vehicle and Reggie got back into his Jeep and pulled away. He heard the roar of the fire, well caught now. Then he heard an explosion behind him but he didn’t look. His mouth thinned out into a hard line.
He drove slowly and noticed a group of staggering corpses in a field and slowed down. He picked up his AR-15 from the passenger’s seat and stopped. Peering through the optics, he stroked the trigger and felt the slight recoil. The shell pinged off the dash and the walking dead walked no more. Onto the next and the next and a baker’s dozen were put down. He saw more of the creatures wandering out of the tree line and got out and grabbed the gas can. He walked along the edge of the road and soaked the ground in a twenty-foot swath. Going back to the Jeep he grabbed his cigarette and took one last drag and then flicked the butt to the gas-soaked grass. A soft whoosh and the fire began to eat up ground.
Reggie moved along, stopping periodically to set his world ablaze and kill what he could. Turning onto Dug Hill Road, he moved slowly, looking at the small homes and communities. This was also farming land as well and there were fields, deep green and they moved gently in the wind. Ahead, he noticed another child staggering along the road. It was a little black girl, he thought maybe about Jeb’s age, seven. He pulled his Beretta APX from his waist holster; he would just shoot her in the head as he past. He wasn’t sure if he could just set her little body on fire right now. He swallowed hard. She was lurching along, one shoe on with pink socks. Her legs and arms were thin with knobby joints. Half her head was braided neatly while the other half was pulled out wild and long, as though that part of her head was blown out.
“You’re doin’ that mite a favor,” he convinced himself. The Redmond Klavern had always joked about eradicating the lesser races but killing children was something he’d never thought about. You just didn’t hurt children. When he’d set the SUV ablaze, those creatures were half rotted out. They didn’t look like children, just miniature zombies. This little girl was a zombie, but she was more than likely recently turned. As he drew up near her, he slowed down and aimed his pistol at her head. She turned and looked up at him with large luminous golden eyes, the color of warm honey and his hand jerked back. Her face was dirty with tear tracks running down but this little girl was human and not a zombie.
Her face didn’t register him, she was in shock. He well understood that feeling.
“Baby, where’s your momma?”
The little girl stopped and looked around her, as though trying to find her mother in a crowd.
“Momma?” she said and her voice was rough and cracked. Then her face crumbled and her mouth opened in a silent cry and large tears rolled down her face. Something pierced Reggie’s heart so painfully that it staggered him. He put the vehicle in park and got out. He gathered the little girl in his arms in one swift scoop and her thin arms wrapped around his neck. He held her to his chest, her body shook with sobs, vibrating her little frame. She repeated mommy over and over. Reggie’s lips trembled and the world around him blurred suddenly and he crushed the child to his chest tightly. He rocked from side to side, her thin legs bumping his thighs. He carried her to the truck and opened the back door. Reaching in, he pulled out a bottled water and sat while cradling the child. Her small fists were now latched onto his shirt and he opened the water.
“Here baby girl, you need some water. What’s your name?” he asked her softly as he pulled the child back. She was crying in a hiccupping fashion and she nodded her head. He held the bottle up to her mouth and she gulped at the water. Reggie noted that her lips were cracked and chapped. He wondered when she’d eaten last or drank?
“Darlin’, what’s your name?” he asked her again.
“Shay Belvier an’ I’m seven years old,” Shay said, holding up seven fingers, then latched back onto his shirt.
“That’s a mighty pretty name, Shay. Are you hungry?” With her nod, he looked behind him, Reggie shifted and rifled around in
