“You can't break them?”
Max shook his head 'no'.
Red clambered into the room, sitting the window carefully up against the closed door to the hallway. The door did not have a way to lock it from the inside. Moving over to Max's hands he took one of the hand cuff chains in both hands and pulled until one of the links broke, then he did the same with the other set.
“Let's move the table over in front of the door.” Red said.
“It is bolted down.”
“C'mon, just help.” Red squatted by one side of the table and lifted, the mechanical groan seemed as loud as a drum to Max's ears, making him wince at the fear of discovery. Red moved around to the other side and pulled the table loose there too, then they lifted the heavy table and put it up against the door. Max went to the medical cabinet and pulled out a long strip of gauze and wrapped it around his head, hiding the paint there.
“Now let's go.”
Red led the way, “I can sense the people around so follow my lead.”
“Me too, remember? That is what got me into this mess.”
“Really? Wait, tell me later, let's get out of here first.”
They shinnied down to the roof, Red stayed below Max and let the other man use him as a support when he clambered out of the window. They waited on the roof for a few minutes until they thought no one was looking then hung and dropped from the gutter. A moment later they were walking along the sidewalk back towards the park Red had come in from, Max sipping the coffee from a cup that Red had retrieved from a bench along the way. Red paused long enough to open a parked car's door and filch a stocking cap off of the dash, which Max put on over the makeshift bandage on his head.
“We gotta get the others.” Max said.
“You were isolated, the police woman is in with a bunch of other people. I doubt they would keep quiet for us to break into the room and get her out.”
“I don't want them rotting in there.”
“Did you tell anyone about the horde that is coming this way?”
“Many times, they tossed us into the holding cell because we might be infected, they stopped listening after that.”
Shaking his head Red said, “So they know and won't do anything? Stupid.”
“I thought the zombies would be here by now?”
“No we managed to lure them off the main highway, they move even slower in the fields where the simplest barbed wire fence slows them down for awhile.”
“So how long until they get here?”
“Maybe tomorrow night. It really depends, they are all strung out now too, so it should be easier for the soldiers to cut them down.”
“They are supposed to move the others out tomorrow afternoon, they are evacuating south to get to a train. Stewart! They said they would send her and I east by car to get her to Des Moines by tonight.”
“Okay.” Red said, “You will need a vehicle anyway…. I got the perfect way to get out of town without being seen.”
Chapter 23
Max and Red were crouched in a ditch along highway twenty just outside the town of O'Neill. It was mid afternoon on a sunny day in July and Max was sweating profusely in the heat. Red, of course, was fine. He looked over at Max and said, “It isn't the heat, it's the humidity.”
“That doesn't help much. Is she moving again?”
“Yeah, she is Max. I think she is heading this way. I am not going to move the car until I know for sure.” The car Red was speaking about was on the side of the highway where there were a couple of others that the two of them had gotten from nearby farms. They had arranged them to almost block the road, all that was required was to shove the last car into the hole when the time came. Other cars had driven by, however as long as they were able to pass the staged wreck, none of them seemed inclined to stop and clear the road completely.
“Why don't you go take a dip in the river and cool off?”
“I don't want to miss them. Besides the river is more like a stream right now, hardly worth getting all muddy for. Red?”
“Yeah?”
“How sure are you that my kids will be okay?”
“Max…I know the train is running, the locals were talking about it when I bought the coffee. The whole town is clearing out and one of them said she was glad they were finally moving somewhere safer. They know we are coming. As for your kids…well I presume they are going with everyone else. I think they will be fine, we are holding the zombies west of Lincoln, so the buses should make it through, they will get to the train, after that I can't say. I wasn't keeping track of them, they were lost to me among the other living people. I can recognize you from far away because I memorized the way your colors look, you and that woman of yours. For all I know your kids are already in Iowa. The trains have been running all day. If you don't tell someone important about what is happening it won't mean anything. We are only waiting for Stewart because she should be able to help you, help us both, I mean. Otherwise I would just have you drive one of these beaters to Iowa alone.”
“It won't do any good you know. The authorities didn't listen to me here, they won't listen to me in Iowa.”
Red turned to Max, “For your sake, for your kid's sake, hell for everyone's sake, you better make them listen.”
“I want to take Stewart and go after my kids.”
“I figured that. You won't make it, if they went down to catch a train they will be gone before you get there. Take highway twenty into Sioux City, tell someone there what is going on and get your kids after that, it will be quicker.”
“You have kids Red?'
The zombie shook his head.
“Then you don't understand.”
“Can you see the number of zombies that are gathering around Iowa Max?”
“You know I can't.”
“Then you don't understand either. Look, the decision is easy, you can go after your kids, you will probably miss them, but you can chase the train all the way to Des Moines, if that is where it is stopping, and get your kids back. If you do that it uses up valuable time, time that the military could be making plans to deal with this by sending someone after the guy in Chicago. So you can get your kids and die with them or you can tell someone who could make a difference and maybe, just maybe you could make a safe haven where you and your kids, eventually will be able to live. That is your call.”
“It is hard Red. I just lost my wife…”
“I lost everything Max, including my own life. I lost the ability to ever have kids of my own, my entire family went to feed Sentry and his men and my reborn brothers and sisters. I lost it all, so don't tell me what is hard.”
Max thought about that for a minute, sweat beaded up and ran into his eyes and he wiped it off with a bandana he had picked up out of one of the cars earlier. Visibly he sagged and nodded, “I am sorry. I just didn't think of it like that. To me it is like…”
“I am a monster? Not human anymore and that I never had any feelings or family or history. That is easy enough for you to think. The curse is I remember everything and I know what I gave up and it hurts. Don't pity me. I am making a difference now and playing the cards I got dealt. You will do what needs to be done, this time you won't fuck it up either. I can't go much further east than this Max, I just can't; the call is too strong. I will do what I
