“I probably hit it more than I needed to, but I was upset, it had been a traumatic morning. When I finally stopped I was splattered with blood and had broken yet another club. I stood up and looked at my victim, he had been a soldier, but I didn't recognize him. His unit insignia wasn't one I was familiar with either, but he had a pistol on his belt and bars on his shoulder, which means he was an officer. I picked up the pistol and checked it out. No ammo. And none in his pockets either. Any thoughts I had that I might have killed a living guy and not a zombie were dispelled by the ends of his blood stained sleeves, both arms had blood scabs on them and one hand was missing three fingers and oozing the blood of the undead. I kept the pistol, I figured I might find bullets for it and went and got another club from the downstairs closet, in fact I raided both closets and got two of them. At the rate I was using clubs up I would need them. If I had been thinking I might have figured out that the guy had somehow seen me through the walls of the house right then, but I didn't make that connection until later.”
“I went to the next house over, it was locked up front and back, none of the windows were open either. I couldn't find any obvious fake rocks hiding a key or anything so I just moved to the next house. I found a fake rock in the back yard of that house that had a key hidden inside it. The key let me into the door on the side of the garage and in there I found a key to the house hidden on the top of the trim over the doorway. I locked everything behind me and made sure the place was empty before raiding the kitchen. I wasn't hungry, but I thought I should get a bag of stuff to take with me when I left. I made up two bags, one I left in the fridge to grab when I walked out the door and the other I brought with me upstairs and put beside the bed. I took a quick shower, washed and wrung out my uniform and went into the bedroom. I opened the window a bit and a breeze blew in, so I rigged up my cloths on a hanger in front of it. I didn't see any zombies on the street outside, but there were a lot of trees in the way so I couldn't see much. I then pushed every piece of furniture up against the door and piled a lot of the stuff from the closet on there as well. This house's closet was filled with the wire shelving crap, like I have in my place. Tucked into one corner of the closet was this little plunker.” Bill patted the rifle he was holding, “and there was a brick of bullets to go with it.”
“A brick?” asked Max.
“Yeah, like a case, ten boxes of fifty bullets each, five hundred shots. A twenty two is still a gun, even if it is about the smallest caliber out there, anyway it is better than a closet rod any day of the week. At longer range this rifle doesn't do shit, but close up, like twenty feet or so, it works pretty well. And it is a semi automatic with a ten round magazine, so I can afford to take a few shots if I need to. It won't get me out of a crowd, so I have to be careful never to get mobbed. Anyway, I felt a lot better after finding the rifle and lay down on the bed to get a nap in while my clothing air dried a little. I kept thinking of that woman though, laying in that tub, never getting out. How long will she be there? Days? Months? Years? How long will they last? I fell asleep trying to find an answer to that question, but I never found it. The last three days have pretty much gone the same, I run around looking for a safe place to hide in during the day and hunkering down at night.”
“Where did you sleep?”
“After that first nap on the second floor of a house, well, I got woke up by zombies breaking in the front door. After that I figured out these things have heat vision or something, they can see me right through the walls, so now I stick to basements. The last two nights I have slept as low as I can get, that seems to work better.”
“What were you doing up here by the highway?” asked Stewart.
“I thought I would see if I could get across, but I've been that way and there are way too many of them, I can always swim across if I have to. Before I saw you I thought I would keep heading north and see if I could…” Bill stopped talking and put his head down into his hand.
“Find John?” Max asked softly.
Bill nodded glumly and wiped his arm across his eyes.
“Are you sure he…that he didn't make it? Your men could think the same thing about you and they would be wrong.”
“I don't know Max, I know John, he is a good kid, but he, well he isn't much of a fighter. Or wasn't before all of this.”
“I think we should cross over and see if we can find him first. See if he came in over the last few days. Is the army checking people as they go across?”
“Yes. We strip them and check them, anyone with bites or wounds has to be detained.” answered Bill.
“Then we have a problem, Stewart and I.” Max went on to explain about their various wounds, going so far as to lift up his shirt to expose the almost completely healed cut across his stomach where the bullet had hit him less than a week ago.
“That happened a week ago?” Bill asked skeptically.
“Well nine days ago, yeah. I told you some weird things have been happening. It happened to you too.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, how sure were you that you busted your leg when you fell off the bridge?”
Bill nodded, “As sure as the sun rises in the east. I see your point, I am walking around on it now without much pain and it has only been three days. That is fast, compared to” Bill gestured at Max's exposed wound, “that. Why am I healing faster than you?”
“HellifIknow. It affects people differently. Stewart can move like a cat, fast reflexes and, I think heal faster too. Nothing like you, if your leg healed up in a couple of days. Have you noticed anything else?”
“Not really, well, maybe. The dark doesn't bother me so much now, it is like I can see really well with just a little bit of light. I thought I was just used to the dark, but when I think back to the past, I dunno Max, it could be better. And this is from killing the zombies?”
“The fast zombies.” Stewart clarified. Looking over the cell phones behind the counter, she chose one and took it out of the packaging while the men watched. Plugging it in, she said, “Well it can't hurt, maybe there will be coverage. The place has power, so maybe the towers are still working.”
The men also picked out cell phones and plugged them in. These were inexpensive models, designed to be used for the short term with prepaid phone cards, which the station also sold.
“We gotta activate these somehow don't we?” Max asked, holding up a bundle of the cards.
“Yeah, I think so. Go for it, I hope you can scan them, if the worker signed out before he left we might not be able to activate the cards for use.” Stewart said.
Max approached the cash register, which was a touch screen with a scanner on the counter. He held the first card up to the scanner and the red laser hit the bar code, turning the terminal on. To his surprise it prompted him to run the card through the slot in the keyboard, and asked if he wished to authorize the card, which he did. Stewart handed him a dozen more cards priced in the fifty dollar range. After handing her the first one she went back to where her phone was plugged in and entered the code from the card onto it.
“I got a signal!” she said after a moment, “Who do we want to call?”
“Home.” Bill said, she handed the phone to him and he dialed in his home number. To his surprise Trisha did not answer, in fact the phone was picked up by someone completely outside his family.
“Can I help you sir?” came a crisp militant voice.
“Uh, yeah, I just got phone coverage, I can't believe I got someone! Who is this?”
“Sir your calls are being routed through South Sioux City, in Nebraska, is this your location?”
“Yes! Yes! I need to get out of here, do you know somewhere that is safe?”
“Sir, are you close to highway one twenty nine? Or can you get there?”
“I am on highway twenty now! It turns into one twenty nine. What do I do? Is the way clear?”
“How many are in your party?”
Bill looked at Stewart and Max, who were both following his side of the conversation intently, “Uh, I am alone. Just me, Bill…uh Bill…uh Card, Bill Card.”
“Are you on foot or driving?”
“I, uh, found this car along the road, I am from Colorado and this car is a police car from Colorado. I didn't drive it from there I started out in a minivan, but had to abandoned it…”
“Calm down sir. You are in a police car heading east on highway one twenty nine, is this correct?”
“Actually I am stopped at a gas station. I saw these phones so I thought I would give one a try.”
“Okay, good. Do you have a weapon?”
“Yeah, an old rifle.”
“Sir were you bitten or injured by any of the zombies?”
“No. I am fine, not a scratch on me.”
