winter.”
John nodded, “Okay dad. Want me to sleep in the boy's room tonight, just in case?”
“Yeah, please. It would make me feel better anyway. Bring Fargo in with you, we'll keep Dopey up here and let him roam the house tonight.” said Bill.
“I'll sleep in Trudy's room too.” said Claire.
“Speaking of which we better try to get some sleep, you two say a few prayers tonight okay? Not just for God to watch out for us, but for our friends who might need it too.” Trisha didn't name Max and his family, however they all knew that was who she was referring to.
After a round of good nights and some long, firm hugs, the children went off to bed and the parents retired to their bedroom. That night Bill and Trisha made love for the first time in weeks, the act had a desperate, fearful tinge to it that neither spoke of after reaching release.
Chapter 5
Spending the night in an abandoned motel was a good change. Max had decided to pull off at the place alongside the highway because they had seen almost no zombies after taking Paul's tow truck. This didn't mean they had made good time, they were still shy of the Nebraska border, and the motel they stayed in was run down and looked like it had seen little use before 'Z-day', everything was dated. With no electricity the air in the rooms was stale and smelled slightly of sweat and maybe mildew. They parked next to doors that were dead center along one side of the building, facing south so they could see the highway. The place was modern enough to use cards instead of real keys, which had required them to break into the rooms. Stewart had pulled a gadget out of her bag of tricks and broken two windows to get in, the logic being that it was easier to defend a window than a door, so they kept the doors intact. The doors did open fine from the inside and the first thing they had done was to prop them open to try and get some air into the rooms. The wrecker actually had a very small generator on it and an assortment of well used power tools, however they did not turn it on. There might not be any zombies in the neighborhood, then again there might be. One thing was for certain; noise brought zombies out of the woodwork.
Outside of the rooms they backed the cruiser up onto the curb until the rear bumper pressed against one wall, then they backed the tow truck in the same manner on the other side, to form a 'U' with the motel doors in the bottom. Stewart and Tom took the van into town to see if they could scrounge some fresh food, but when they parked the van for the night it would go at the top of the 'U', not quite closing it off. It would make a good defensive area to guard from and provide them with a good field of vision. With Tom and Steward gone that left the others to prepare dinner and get ready for the night, Max fired up the grill while Amelia kept the kids busy inside the motel. There was no fresh meat around, but they had found enormous amounts of canned meat. The kids all seemed to like spam, which drove Max crazy when he thought about it, he always considered it a budge meat that poor people ate, and now it was the delicacy that the kids ate without complaint. The kids and Amelia filed out of the doorway from their prospective rooms, it was about an hour before sunset. The kids were all dressed as if for bed, all wearing shorts with the girls sporting thin t-shirts, Amelia was dressed the same way. They all filed in front of Max and stood staring at him.
“What?” Max asked, the kids all looked towards Amelia.
“There is a pool there Max.” said Amelia pointing to the low pool wall about thirty feet away. Max could see the glimmering water from here, it looked clean.
“Oh no, I don't think that is a good idea.” Max began, but then noticed the affect it had on the kids, “Maybe.” Then he wondered,
The children nodded as they smiled, Nick and Cory actually gave each other a high five. After opening the windows, gathering the guns and locking the doors the kids made the short trip to the pool with Amelia. The boys, opting to be 'tough' and go barefoot, were hopping on the asphalt, which was still hot, while everyone else just smiled smugly for taking the time to put on flip-flops before making the short walk. Max had gotten over telling Cory to wear shoes, his family must have been very tolerant. Nick was starting to pick up the habit too, despite Max's growing ire. He supposed it didn't matter that much, so long as neither of them cut themselves. In this new age without electricity clean water was hard to come by and the kids needed the pool as much for its cleansing properties as for fun. Just before leaving the safety of the 'U' Max turned off the grill, the spam would wait. When Amelia turned and nodded to him, Max made his way to the pool.
Once there he scanned the surrounding area. He couldn't see much. On the one side the highway rose up and blocked the view, limiting what he could see to less than a quarter mile. Max could see down the road that led past the main office to the main road through town, the road Stewart and Tom should be coming back on, most likely this was where any zeds would show up too. In the opposite direct he could see alongside the highway for quite a long way, the view was one of scrub brush and barbed wire. Satisfied he nodded to the kids who jumped into the pool with delight. They giggled loudly, then caught themselves and went into whisper mode, playing 'Marco Polo' quieter than Max thought possible. Amelia was right in there with them and her thin t-shirt revealed a rather lot more of her than Max was comfortable viewing.
He felt guilty being aroused by the sight of her, Amelia was not flirting with him, not cognizant of her effect on Max at all, she was having innocent fun. Max kept his gaze moving when he looked over the pool area, never stopping to let it linger.
The boys went to the deep end and took turns jumping off the diving board, Nick lost his shorts during one fantastic dive, which made everyone laugh. The pool, Max decided, was a good idea after all. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning he saw a zed coming up the road from the street. Only one. He motioned to Amelia, who immediately shushed the kids and scrambled out of the pool. Max moved towards the gate, picking up a baseball bat and leaning the rifle he had been carrying against the white fence next to the gate. Amelia picked up the shotgun and leaned low over the fence, using it to brace the gun.
“I'll go brain it. You cover me, yell if you see any more you don't think I can see.” Max said. During this statement he was forced to look at Amelia, hunched over, near naked and Amelia's face blushed as she realized the condition her thin clothing left her in. Saying nothing else Max slipped out of the gate and headed towards the side of the office to get closer to the zombie without being seen.
Amelia didn't yell and Max glanced back a few times to make certain no other zombies were creeping up along the back side of the pool, he was proud to see Nick was already at the opposite corner with the small twenty-two caliber rifle he had been given. The office corner was all windows, Max could peer through them to see the zombie making its way up the road. He looked for a good long time before he checked his revolver and hefted his bat to go out and meet it. Because the zombie was well down the road, Max paused at the side of the building to make sure no other zombies were waiting around the corner to ambush him and to check for other zombies in areas he could not see before. Nothing else moved, just the one who had spotted Max and was now moving toward him with renewed vigor. Max made himself wait by the corner of the building. Some zombies were uncanny, they would send others of their number ahead to test the defenses and lay in wait to view the outcome, the farther Max moved away from the office, the more anyone watching could see, so he waited.
It wasn't a long wait, it took the slow zombie about two minutes to make the climb up the gentle slope of the road and reach for him. Max faked a frontal attack, which made the zombie, who was Hispanic and about Max's age, clasp his hands together over thin air. With the zombie's arms grasping nothing, Max clubbed it in the side of the head, he felt the familiar give of the thing's skull and he knew it was dead. Again. Still when it went down he hit it twice more, to make absolutely certain the thing wouldn't be getting up again. Then he hauled it into the office, which they had found unlocked when they arrived. He dumped the body on the floor behind the desk and wrapped a phone cord around its legs, something that he thought would take a slow zombie hours to figure out how to remove. His paranoia thus satisfied Max looked out the office windows for any other movement. Seeing nothing he made his way back to the pool.
