Story Zombies Aren't Real ... Are They?

[Kathy in FL]

Part Twenty-One

The girl Sammy told the guy, "She's clean." Her tone though said she wasn't happy about it.

"Geez, you really want this guy to have someone to put out of their misery don't you?" I wasn't feeling too charitable towards Sammy. She'd gotten pretty personal space invasive checking to make sure I wasn't infected. It was like she enjoyed trying to humiliate me which was really creepy since she was a girl and close to my age.

The guy sighed. "I don't need another snarky girl so knock it off."

I looked at him and then at the gun and then back at him. I wanted to say something but he had the gun so I kept my mouth shut. "I don't need your water. I'm outta here. Just tell me if I'm going to run into anyone else's turf going north."

The guy - I still didn't know his name - shook his head. "It really is getting too dark to travel. You can stay with us."

Sammy shrieked, "Oh no she can't!"

The guy was snake fast and grabbed her and shook her pretty hard one handed. "Will ... you ... knock ... it ... off. We need information. She comes from the city."

Sammy spit, "You came from the city and said no one else would be coming from that direction."

I asked carefully, "You were ... you escaped from the city? Six months ago? How? The ... the bridges ..."

"Not St. Louis, I came out of Springfield."

Slowly I said, "I came through there. Springfield is still pretty infested. Where did all the people go? They left a lot of good stuff behind."

The guy relaxed but he still had the gun so I didn't relax. He didn't seem to notice ... or maybe it was that he didn't seem to care. "A lot of them just got infected."

Risking it I said, "Uh uh, something is off. The city had a lot of puss brains too but there was still people and the food got scarce fast which made people do crazy stuff like risk the bridges even though they got shot trying to cross. Springfield still had food but no people."

He looked at me and then glanced at Sammy who was starting to look interested. "Let's go grab something to eat," he said.

Uh huh. There was a story and he didn't want Sammy to know what it was. I wasn't too sure I wanted to be part of whatever their damage was but the guy didn't give me any choice; he shooed me along with the rifle.

We went around back of the store and then into it. The guy said, "This was my uncle's place. He went off about three months ago. He said he was going to get help. We haven't heard from him since."

I shrugged. "I haven't seen anyone running loose or claiming to have kids they were trying to get back to if that's what you were wondering."

He shook his head morosely. "He's dead."

Sammy hissed, "You don't know that."

I looked at the guy and he knew alright. And I think he knew it literally as in he knew something the girl did not. As my English teacher would have said, "The plot thickened."

I looked at Sammy and said, "I'll give him 99.9% of being right. Lone people don't last long."

She sneered. "Jace did. You say you did."

So the guy's name was Jace. "I don't know Jace's story but you heard part of mine. Up until a couple of weeks ago, give or take a few days, I was with a group of people. And even hitting the town where I grew up there was a whole thriving community of people. I'm not alone by choice - well except for the ..."

Jace asked suspiciously, "For the what?"

I sighed. "Long story. Bottom line is the people that are kinda in charge of that town either didn't - or didn't want to which amounts to the same thing - believe me about coming from the city. They don't want to believe the puss brains are going to figure out a way out of there and run amok like they did in the beginning. They were looking to shut me up and I didn't want the few friends I had there to get hurt because of it. So traveling alone is a choice I made ... it just wasn't my first choice. Get it?"

Jace nodded slowly. "Yeah. OK. I'll buy that. You look like the kind of girl that would do something that stupid."

"Hey!" I said while Sammy and her little brother snickered at my expense.

Jace said, "You're a girl. You're a little girl ..."

"I'm fifteen." I may be "little" but that didn't mean I was young. I really wish people would understand the difference.

The guy shrugged. "You're what Uncle Simon called tea cup sized. Puny and little. It might have worked to draw all the guys before ..."

"OK. Ew. You can stop that right there. Even if I had been inclined to do the gross, my dad was a cop and would have blistered my backside and that after he had decapitated anyone dumb enough to risk doing it with me."

"You're dad was a cop? What happened to him?" Jace asked.

"What do you think happened? Now who is being stupid?"

Sammy was on me with her claws and the only thing that saved me was Jace was just a little faster than her. He all but threw her against the wall. "What is your problem?!" he yelled.

"She insulted you."

He shook his head. "Will you stop acting like a psycho off your meds?! Go take John-John upstairs and get him down for a nap or something. He's starting to act weird again."

Sammy looked like she was about to bawl and I was getting even more creepy vibes. After she went up the stairs I looked at Jace. "This better not be about ... about ..."

"Relax. It's all over you that some guy has been at you."

"That is none of your freaking business."

"No it's not so don't waste my time trying to use it to make me feel sorry for you. I've got enough on my plate taking care of those two. All I'm saying is that that's not what I'm after. Come into the front of the store so I can shut the door or Sammy will be nosey."

I hunched my shoulders to resettle the pack that I still wore and allowed him to mush me along to where he wanted to go. "Did you really live in St. Louis for a whole year?"

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Twenty-Two

"Don't call me a liar Jace."

"I'm not. I'm just asking."

I didn't see the difference but let it go since Lee could sometimes be that kind of guy stupid too. "Yeah, everything I've told you up to this point has been the truth."

"But there are things you've left out."

I shrugged. "Of course. Just like you left out how you know that your uncle is really dead."

He looked at me sharply then looked quickly towards the door at the back of the store. "Yeah. But don't you dare say anything to Sammy. Uncle Simon was Sammy's step dad."

"John-John's too?"

"No, a his, hers, and theirs."

It took me a sec to understand he meant a blended family. "OK. So you understand that I've got my business that you don't need or want to know about. You respect mine, I'll respect yours."

"Fine. But ... look ... you really can't say jack to Sammy about it or ... or ..."

"She'll go crazy?"

He sighed. "I think she's already crazy. Her mom could be bat shit ..."

"Hey!"

He made a face but then said, "Her mom could be crazy too. Bipolar, but she was fine so long as she stayed on her meds, and that's the way that Sammy is starting to act."

"Her little brother too?"

"No, John-John is ADHD. Basically he just does things off the wall to see what happens when he does. And he hardly sleeps and won't stay still. He's just a handful but basically harmless."

"Yeah right. Whatever you say."

"Don't," he said warningly.

"Look, they're your family. That's cool. But that little kid ... he just poked my skinned up knee like he was digging for gold or something, like he wanted to see what I would do because he knew it would hurt me. That's really, really bent. And Sammy? I am not even going to tell you how much she seemed to enjoy looking to see if I had any bite marks."

I shuddered in remembrance of the icky feeling she'd given me and Jace looked troubled. "They haven't been around other people for a while. They've just forgotten how to act. Kinda gone feral maybe."

I shrugged but wanted to say keep telling yourself that. Given the people that I had had to deal with in the city I knew crazy when I saw it and it was written in day glo spray paint all over Sammy and John-John even then.

Out of left field he asked me, "What's your plans?"

I looked at Jace and giving him the face that the question deserved. "And why should I tell you?"

"Like you said, being alone isn't any good. You gotta sleep sometime."

"I'm doing alright."

"I could have shot you."

"And sometimes people die. It was my choice to sit on that bench. Sometimes even little choices like that get you dead ... or infected ... and having people around doesn't stop it."

He quickly came back with what I thought was a random question. "Why did you jump like that when you saw John-John for the first time?"

"Have you ever seen little puss brains?"

He sighed. "Not many ... but ... but a few."

"Yeah, so wanna pick another question?" I asked him since if he'd seen other little puss brains the answer was obvious.

He sighed again and I was getting kind of tired of hearing it. "OK, how about this one. Why don't you stay here? At least for a while?"

"Are you as crazy as they are?! You don't know me. I don't know you. And Sammy ... geez ... I don't have a death wish you know."

"I'll take care of Sammy. I'll tell her it is because there will be someone else to help take care of John-John."

I shook my head. "No. Uh uh. I've done my fair share of babysitting but ..."

"I didn't say it would be the real reason."

I looked at him suspiciously. He scowled. "And not because of that either. If I wanted it Sammy has been all but tying me down trying to force me for the last month."

Then I saw him shudder and realized something. There might be more guys out there that didn't like weirdness than I'd been thinking there might be. "You don't want me to stay for Sammy," I said carefully. "Or John-John. You want ... want ... I don't know ... like a ... a ... buffer. Between Sammy and you."

Slowly he admitted, "Something like that." Looking at the door one more time he added quietly, "If there were more people she might ... might stop."

I felt sorry for him all of a sudden. "Once people go weird they usually keep going that direction. At least that is what I saw in the city."

"Maybe. Maybe not. I just can't take this anymore. And the weather is about to change."

"How do you know?"

"Uncle Simon's barometer. He didn't trust the weathermen," he grinned sadly. "He had his own homemade weather station and was pretty good at it. He taught me to use it when I would come here to spend the summer with my grandparents. They owned this place before Uncle Simon took over."

"You can't make me stay."

He looked like he wanted to deny it but then he shoulders slumped and he finally put the rifle all the way down. "No. I can't. But ... I'm asking you to stay ... for a ... just a day or two ... something ... I feel like ... I feel like they are driving me ..."

At that moment there was a deep rumble of thunder and I ran up to the front of the store and looked out the window. "What they heck?! Where did those clouds come from?!"

And when it picked that moment to start raining huge dry weather drops Jace said, "I told you a change in the weather was coming."

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Twenty-Three

Sammy was still staring morosely into her empty bowl and said for the umpteenth time, "You cook good."

I felt like grinding my teeth. She acted like it was something to cry about. John-John and Jace however were acting like Christmas had come early. I looked at Sammy and said, "It's no big deal. I'll ... I'll show you if you want." Trying to find common ground I added, "You don't have to but it'd be better than giving those two any more ammunition. I swear, they are such guys."

She looked at them and then all but spit at me. "I don't want you for a friend."

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Tell me something that isn't obvious. I just have this thing about guys acting all ... guy-ish. Even when they are little guys. Girls can't help we are born girls. Guys don't need to rub it in while we are still learning how to be girls. They sure as heck don't like it when we laugh at them for being stupid guys."

"You're weird."

"Not weird ... I'm ... I'm eccentric ... unique." To me the word weird was reserved for stuff that was really weird and shouldn't be used for anything else. I wasn't about to explain why to her though.

"And bizarre. Really, really bizarre."

I'm surprised she didn't use the word crazy but I guess she might have been as sensative to crazy as I was to weird.

I shrugged since my point had been made. "Fine. Whatever. So do you want to know how to make this or not?"

"Or not. John-John and I have things to do."

Jace growled, "You aren't going out in this weather Sammy so forget whatever scheme you've got going."

Sammy looked mutinous. "You don't boss me Jace."

"Yeah. I do. And I'll lock both of you up if I catch you trying to go out in the middle of the night again. You know I will."

Sammy's look turned cautious but rather than rebell more she grabbed John-John by the arm and practically dragged him up stairs ignoring his wails and complaints all the way. The sound stopped at soon as I heard a door slam.

I shook my head and muttered to myself, "This is no going to end well."

"Wish I could deny it," Jace muttered back like I'd been talking to him.

He surprised me by helping to clean up. "Relax. Usually I am the one doing the cooking and cleaning. Sammy nearly poisoned me the few times she tried to cook ... and one of them ... literally you know? I think she was trying to make it so I'd let her do ... the stuff she wants. I was in a cloud for a while until she went a little overboard with whatever she was using and I puked for 48 hours and it pretty much cleared my system. That was right after ... Uncle Simon ..."

"Died?"

He looked at me and then leaned over to make sure that Sammy was still upstairs with her brother. "He didn't leave to go look for other people. He left because he got infected. I don't know how it happened because all of the infecteds around here have been euthanized. I figured out what was wrong when I caught up with him. He'd left a note and it didn't make much sense. He'd been acting strange and I had already started to worry about him. He said it was just a little scratch but that he could feel infection crawling around his head and that he was leaving so that he couldn't hurt us. He asked me to look after Sammy and John-John. That I had to watch them really carefully and to not let them wander any place anymore like they had been, that it wasn't good for them."

I nodded realizing what must have happened. "The smaller the dose of infection you get, the longer the change takes. I've seen it take days but that is a really awful way to go. Sometimes you don't even realize someone is infected until it is too late." I stopped for a moment to weigh my words then asked, "Have you seen any puss brains lately?"

"No. I took ... I ...," he stopped like it hurt to tell me. It didn't take an Einstein to know why. "I fixed Uncle Simon. Before that I saw a few when I went hunting but none here in the village. Uncle Simon had this hypothesis that the infecteds can sense if there are people around and that they avoid places that don't have people in them."

I shook my head not really agreeing. "Not so much from what I've seen. The puss brains go where they can get stuff to eat. Maybe there is nothing around here worth eating ... or not enough to draw their attention. But they'll eat almost anything that used to be living. I've seen them eat leather off an office chair."

He made a face then nodded. "Maybe Uncle Simon didn't know everything he thought he did. I saw Infecteds eat some weird stuff in Springfield before I left. As for this place, every little bit of food that is left from the village is in this store. We went through all the houses and stuff after Uncle Simon ... left ... and brought everything back here and organized it. There might be enough to make it through to spring if I can get some hunting done. I just haven't been able to because ... well, you see how they are," he said referring to Sammy and her brother.

"Yeah," I admitted carefully.

"If you'll stay I'll be able to hunt and bring in more meat and it will make the food we have go a lot farther."

Thinking it over cautiously since it had been one of my concerns about going to Singing Waters on my own I asked, "You know how to do that? Hunt and then do what you gotta do to make it stay good to eat?"

He nodded. "Yeah. My parents are ... were ... divorced. My dad was Uncle Simon's brother and kinda ... well ... most folks would have thought him strange. He wasn't ... he just liked to live life on his own terms. But he still had to have money to do it so he was a college professor. History. He was big into re-enacting and demonstrations of pioneering skills and stuff like that. His student's loved him according to what I heard from people. He'd teach the fall and spring semesters and then we'd come here during the summer and Dad would ... would do the things he'd like to do without having to worry about hauling me around with him."

"Your mom?"

"Not in the picture. Not really, not for a while anyway. When I was little I had the mandatory holidays with her like Thanksgiving and every other Christmas but she remarried this guy that couldn't stand my guts because I reminded him of my dad for some reason. I don't even look like him ... I look like Mom. And they started a new family plus the guy had a couple of sons from his first marriage that he had custody of that I was constantly fighting with. Anyway, right before I turned sixteen we all just agreed to stop playing games and totally went our separate ways. Lots less stress for everyone involved."

He sounded like that had all happened a long time ago so I asked him, "How old are you?"

"Nineteen."

Surprised at his answer I squeeked, "Seriously?!"

He snorted. "Seriously."

I muttered, "You're older than Lee."

"Who's Lee?"

"A friend. His dad was the sheriff and my dad was a deputy." We got off track sharing mutual stories from our pasts then I asked, "If you had this place to come to why didn't you leave Springfield sooner?"

"My dad and some other people had taken a stand at the community college. It was a sweet set up. Or at least I thought so at the time. There was a working radio and people who were growing gardens ... it was a real viable operation. Then someone got stupid and brought in some spoiled food that our cooks didn't catch. Three quarters of our group went down and security got lax and ..."

"And that's all it takes."

He nodded sadly. "Yeah. Food poisoning got Dad before an infected could."

"It was a drunk that took my dad. That first morning of Z-Day. Only I didn't know that until the sheriff told me. I still don't know what happened to Mom but ... but there are some things you just don't think about if you can help it."

"Yeah," Jace agreed softly.

We sat there quietly and I tried to not nod off though with the nice fire in the wood stove and a full stomach it was a losing battle. Jace said, "I better go check on them." Them being Sammy and John-John.

I was rubbing my eyes, trying to wake up, when I heard a door crash. "Dammit! Dammit dammit dammit!!"

I jumped up and was looking around for the threat when Jace came tearing into the room. "Those two little sh ... dammit! They are out in this crap!"

Fully awake again I asked, "You mean they've run away? In this weather?"

A rattle of thunder was my answer until Jace said, "Not run away. They just take off a couple of times a week and wander around for a couple of hours but they always come back. They haven't been able to get away for about two weeks now because I've practically kept them tied to me. They keep trying to go back over to their old house ... Sammy's old house I mean before she came to live here at the store with Uncle Simon. I don't know what the deal is. I told her next time I caught them anywhere near the place I would burn it down. She was scared enough that she ... or at least I didn't think she was ... Dammit! I really will burn it down this time!"

I was at a loss as to what to do but then Jace said, "I ... dammit."

"You've already said that."

"Yeah. I know. Look, I need some help. It is going to take everything I have to deal with Sammy and not hurt her until she calms down. I need some help with John-John."

My automatic response was, "No way."

He turned to me and grabbed me by the shoulders and I didn't want to see how desparate he was but I didn't have a choice. "You're dad was a cop right? You understand that sometimes you gotta do things you might not want to so that everyone can be safe. Sammy and John-John ... they aren't ... aren't responsible enough to take care of themselves, to make good choices. I can't just ... can't just walk away. But I can't do it alone anymore."

He was on the edge of cracking. Unfortunately I made the mistake of looking at his side of things before I could stop myself and then folded. I wish I hadn't. I really, really wish I hadn't. I swear I am such a girl. I've really got to get over that.

"Take your hands off of me," I told him. "You do that and I'll help. You try and make me and Sammy isn't the only one who is going to fight."

He turned loose of me like I was a hot skillet. The relief on his face made me sick to my stomach. I knew that I'd need to get away fast after I was done helping him. The whole situation was too messed up for me to deal with. If I had only known.

 

[nancy98]

Thanks Kathy.

 

[Hickory7]

Thank You, Kathy.

 

[juco]

Oh Noes! Cliff!

 

[Bps1691]

Thanks Kathy.

This one is every bit as good as your "Mom's Journal of the Zombie Years" .... one of the best Zombie tails I've ever read. But frankly all of your stories are excellent and I really enjoy all of them.

It is always a happy occasion when you find the time and energy to update any of your stories.

Hope things straighten them selfs out for you and yours.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Twenty-Four

I left my pack behind the store register area. I didn't leave my bat or break in tools however.

Jace glanced at me and said, "You won't need those."

I shook my head. "Don't tell me what I'll need and what I won't."

"Fine. Just don't scare or hurt the kids with that stuff." I rolled my eyes, borrowed a baseball cap from the rack of tourist junk near some t-shirts with the village's name on them, and then followed him into the dark and very wet night. I had a feeling that scaring Sammy and her brother wasn't going to be the problem; hurting them either. I was pretty sure I needed to be more worried about being on that end of the stick.

As soon as we got off the porch the rain started running down the back of my neck making me shiver. I turned my coat collar up but that didn't help much because it kept rolling back down. Eventually I got used to the sudden temperature drop as I did my best to keep up with Jace who seemed to fail to comprehend that his legs were about a foot longer than mine and therfore could cover a lot more ground in a single step.

I finally wound up chucking a wet branch at him and he turned around sharply. "Slow down or I'm turning back," I sniped at him.

Turns out he really hadn't thought about it and surprised me by saying, "Sorry." Then he looked at me for what seemed like the first time. "Are you sure you're fifteen? You're awfully short."

Ready to chuck another branch at him I spit out, "Height challenged. And none of your business."

He bent over and said, "Short. And ... and not a problem. I was just asking."

I blinked. "Oh. Well, I was ... was born early. The docs said it stunted my growth."

"Didn't stunt your mouth any," Jace said, standing back up.

"You aren't the first one to make that observation Sherlock. So how much further do I have to jog?"

He turned and looked back down the street in the direction he'd been leading us. "Not too much farther. But the house sits back a ways. They won't hear us coming through this rain but just in case I'll take us around the back way. If you'll stand by the back door I'll try and flush them through the front."

Thirty minutes later we were standing in the bushes beside a little bungalow house. It had one story and a detached garage that was almost bigger than it was. The place was even smaller than my house had been so I was guessing it was only a one or two bedroom place. Jace leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Go ahead and go up on the porch. I'm going to work my way around the front. When they run out just stop them ... don't hurt them." The warning was well taken and we did as planned.

But when I got up on the porch I could sense that no one was home. But something about the detached garage was giving me the heebies. Sherry taught me to listen to my instincts in the city. I left the porch and inched my way over to the other structure. It had shutters on the outside covering the windows but they were loose. Everytime they flapped in the wind I noticed a little bit of light showing. I grabbed one of the shutters and opened it but left the other ones to keep up the banging so whoever was inside wouldn't notice.

I used my finger and cleaned off small square in one of the glass panes and froze when what I saw started making sense. Ha! Making sense, that's a good one.

Sammy was fussing quietly at John-John who was holding his hand, in obvious pain. "How many times have I told you not to do that? Now look at what you did!"

"Gotta owie Sammy. Baby bit me."

"Duh. Shut up. I gotta figure this out. You can stay here with Momma and Baby. I'll have to tell Jace something but maybe now we won't have to hide anymore 'cause he'll have to understand."

I was backing away from the building when something big came up behind me. Before I could scream or fight there was a hand over my mouth and I was locked tight by a strong arm. I was still gonna fight but then I heard "shhhhh" in my ear.

I was still considering fighting when I felt Jace go rigid in shock. If he hadn't been holding onto me I'm pretty sure his knees would have give out. As it was I had to elbow him because he was cutting my air off. He stumbled back a couple of feet then fetched up against a tree. The look on his face was pure horror. I knew then that I'd really seen what I had thought I had seen.

Jace started shaking but then stiffened when Sammy gave a gasp of pain. "Why did you do that you stupid, stupid Baby?!"

We both looked back into the window and Sammy was hoping around holding her calf which even in the dark we could tell was bloody. Something skittered out of the dark and she kicked out at it sending it into a pile of blankets in the corner where something ... someone ... was tied.

"Momma, I told you last time you had to make Baby behave. Now he is in sooooo much trouble."

I felt my dinner wanting to exit at both ends. Jace's shaking had stopped and he brushed past me with real purpose. Fool me followed him. There was just something so wrong about what was happening that it had to be stopped.

Jace yanked open the wooden garage door and started shooting as soon as it was out of his way. The chained up skeletal puss brain was dead in two shots, one brain and the other blew her chest open. Jace then started shooting at something that had run into the other corner that I couldn't bring myself to look at. I turned just in time to see Sammy's face change. She must have gotten a pretty good dose in her bite because she went to the dark side just about as fast as I've ever seen anyone turn.

Her trajectory made it easy and one swing was all it took to crack her skull. She was way too new to heal fast enough to survive. I kept John-John at bay until Jace secured him with some bike chains that had been hanging from the wall beside a couple of old bikes.

The little boy had indeed been bitten and Jace looked like he wan't to collapse in on himself. I didn't blame him, I was going there myself. Then John-John piped in his little sing song voice, "You are in soooo much trouble. Wait until Daddy comes home. He's gonna whup you good."

"He's not coming home," I choked out.

"Oh yes he is. Sammy says so. People said Mommy wasn't coming home but she did. We took care of her ... and Baby too when he came. We fed them and everything. You're just mean. Daddy is going to whup you too."

Jace was starting to rock and I didn't know what to do. The change was starting to show in John-John's face ... it kept twitching and stuff like it does when the infection moves from the blood to the brain. I was raising my bat to put the poor kid out of his misery when a hole appeared in his forehead and he slumped dead in his chains.

I turned to look at Jace who was there on his knees with the rifle still aimed. Then his hands must have gone numb and I caught it before it hit the ground. Looking into his eyes I realized no one was home in Jace-land. I guess I stood there fifteen minutes waiting for something. I don't know what but if there had been other puss brains in the area I would have been chomped and not cared a single bit.

Then I slung the rifle over one shoulder and slung Jace's arm over the other shoulder. I stood up and had to drag Jace up with me. Slowly he started putting one foot in front of the other and was aware enough that he kept me from making a wrong turn trying to get back to the store. We got in and he just sort of puddled in front of the stove. I was shivering and went looking for towels or something to dry off with. Found what I needed in a closet under the stairs. I came back carrying a load and Jace was feeding wood into the stove.

He looked at me but neither one of us could stay a word. He took the towel I handed him but it was like he forgot how to use it. I told myself that if Lee found himself in the same situation that I prayed someone would help him so I just did what had to be done. I got Jace out of his wet clothes and wrapped in a bed spread. Then I brought a pillow out of the same closet and made a place for him to lay his head. He looked at me just once and then let me push him over.

I don't know how long he laid there with his eyes open but it was for a long time. I went and changed in another room but was shivering really hard before I could get back in front of the heat from the stove. I made sure all the doors were locked and then just sat until I took out this notebook and stated to write. And now it is all out on paper but I'm not feeling any better about it. I don't think I ever will.

I'm going to lay down too now that Jace's eyes have closed. I ... I checked to make sure that he hadn't been bitten when I took off his wet clothes. I don't think he noticed. I don't think he even cared. I tried not to notice more than I had to. It isn't like it was with Cochran who wanted to show off what he had. Jace was just a lump and it is wrong to go all googly eyed over someone when they aren't trying to make you that way. I wouldn't want anyone doing that to me.

I don't know what to do. But I'm going to have to figure it out. In the morning. After I get some sleep. After the nightmares come and go. I just hope these don't have sound and color like some of the other ones do. I don't ever want to hear her scream or his little boy voice saying such crazy things ever, ever again.

 

[robb1313]

Kathy,

As always, thanks for the time you put into these works. It makes me smile when I see a new chapter!

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Twenty-Five

I've heard people say that morning light makes things better. Bull poopy. There are things that happen that nothing is ever going to make better.

Jace was up and gone when I woke up and I could have kicked myself. I wasn't sure what to expect but suicide and other nasty things went through my mind based on what had happened to some of our group members in the city. I scrambled up and then tripped over the blanket I had wrapped myself in the night before and went down to my knees. I tried to untangle my feet and then a voice said, "You ... you ok?"

I jerked my head up and Jace stood there in the door way. He put the rifle he had obviously been carrying down against the wall and then offered me a hand.

"Yeah," I answered carefully. "Are you?"

He thought about it a moment then said, "No. But ... but I'm not feeling like I was."

"Oh. Uh ... good."

He looked around rather than at me and then mumbled, "Thanks."

I mumbled, "You're welcome."

We couldn't seem to find anything else to say then Jace said, "It is too wet. I couldn't get the building started."

"Started? Oh ... oh you mean ... hmmm ... well, it might not be the best thing. Woods and stuff. Forest fire. Could attract more ... er ... puss ... er ... infecteds. Might spread and burn your village down too."

He grunted an acknowledgement. "Not my village. Not anymore. Burn the whole place down for all I care."

"Might not be the smartest thing to do until you can find some place else to live and a plan to get there."

"Got one. Owe you. I'll ... I'll teach you the stuff Dad taught me. Then we'll be even."

That was a little strange. "You don't owe me."

"Yeah. Yeah I do. Been thinking about it."

"Kinda soon to be thinking about that kind of stuff. You just ... I mean the ... the shock and all of that ... last night ..."

He winced and tried to not let me see it. "Yeah. But that's why I owe you. Last night ... and then it was you who ... and then here ... and ..."

I looked at him and his shoulders were all hunched like he hurt. And he had reason to. I tried to think about how Mom might handle things. She was always better at handling Toddie than Dad had been and Jace was about that age. "Jace. Just let it rest for a bit. You've got this store and all of this other stuff. You aren't going to want to leave it. You said yourself you have enough food for the winter. You can ..."

"I've got a truck."

His statement caught me off guard. "Huh?"

"I said I've got a truck that works. And it has a camper top too. It's how I got here from Springfield. Uncle Simon was going to take it to run off but halfway out of the village I guess he started to forget how to drive. That's why I didn't let ... let ... Sammy know about it still being around. I've given it some thought. I ... I think Uncle Simon might have known about ... about what we found in the garage. That that is how he got infected. I can't imagine Sammy, as scatterbrained as she is ... was ... setting the place up like it is. I can't believe she would have been so secretive without giving herself away in the beginning." He bent over like he was going to be sick. "Oh God ..."

Jace had started shaking again. I stood up and shivered in the cold store but at least I wasn't in jammies. I pulled him over and made him sit down; then lit the fire and got it going again.

After watching me he asked, "You know how to use a wood stove?"

I nodded to him and explained, "It was the only heat we had in our house. Oil and gas were too expensive and our house was little so the fireplaces and stoves could make it almost too warm sometimes."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

I looked around the store shelves and grabbed the ingredients for Russian Tea. I made it hot and sweet and he sipped on it. He gagged for a minute like his stomach didn't ever want anything in it again but then the warmth and the sweet took the edge off the shock he was feeling.

I tried to drape the bedspread around him again but he shrugged it off. "This is good. I'm ... I'm fine now. Get too warm and I'll get sleepy. Need to think and plan."

I let him go after that, realizing he was an action person. You try and stop an action person and they only get more depressed or out of sorts.

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure." He shook his head and I thought for a minute that he'd changed his mind but then he said, "I know that it has just been one bit of crazy after another since you got here but really ... I'm not bad. I won't ... give you the kind of problems you've had with other guys. I'm ... I had a girl ... we were engaged. I had to ..." He shook his head. "I'm just not looking for that. Clarey and I ... we were good together. We understood each other. She was sweet, gentle. That made it both harder and easier. But she ... she got bit on the way here ... then ... then had to ... die." He shook his head again and I realized there was a lot more to his grieving - and his story - than he'd let on. "But I won't let the same thing happen to you. Clarey ... Clarey was ... was soft. You don't strike me as that type."

Quietly I said, "Used to be. I only survived ..." I couldn't explain it in only a handful of words. "Geez ... I just got lucky. The guy who ran the group I was in, and the woman who had found me in the beginning and taken me in, were both hard people ... they just made me get ... get not as soft as I was I guess. I was still bottom of the pile though, the weakest link. They left me you know. At least you can say you didn't leave your people ... Clarey or Sammy or John-John or even your Uncle Simon. Sometimes people leave us but at least you can say you never left them."

He glanced at me from the corner of his eye and said, "Maybe. Doesn't make it feel any better."

As matter of factly as I could manage I told him, "Nope. Probably never will. But at least you can say you did the best you could and didn't run away even at their end. I saw a lot of people leave without caring enough to put folks out of their misery. That's just wrong. You didn't do that. You did ... what you had to. What they didn't give you a choice about doing, not if you really cared enough."

We sat there not talking until it was pretty obvious the rain wasn't going to stop any time soon. Jace turned to me and said, "I'm serious. I ... I don't want to stay here any more ... I won't one way or the other. You seem like you have a place you are going to. I'll help you get there."

I shook my head more depressed than I had been in a long, long time. "I don't even know for sure if there even exists anymore."

"My guess is that it is one of the vacation areas north of here." Sometime must have given me away because he then said, "Yeah, I can see it in your face. You really need to work on being a better liar. But anyway, it's actually a good idea. I thought of doing that too. I always wondered why Uncle Simon was so against it and now I think maybe I know. I guess he might have found that Sammy's mother didn't run off like people said. Maybe he was even helping Sammy ... take care of her ... quarantine her or whatever you want to call that sick crap they were doing. It was probably over the baby. She was preggers ... they spent a ton of money on fertility treatments and stuff. I guess her being pregnant and then infected ... Oh God, I just don't know, don't know if I want to know." He swiped at his eyes like he was trying to scrub away what he had seen.

Knowing the feeling I told him, "Then stop wondering about it. It was what it was. I heard stories in the city that people tried to do the same thing ... supposedly until a vaccine or treatment could be found to fix the people that got infected. Thing is there is a reason why we called them puss brains."

"Yeah," he almost groaned. "Yeah, I get it. It fits. Which is why I don't understand why Uncle Simon would do ... I mean Sammy I can put down to crazy 'cause she was a little bit. John-John sorta kinda the same thing, or too young to really understand what he was doing was so crazy. But Uncle Simon?"

"Who knows? Love does stupid stuff to people. Makes them try crazy things."

He slowly nodded. "Yeah."

We were silent for a while more and then I heard my stomach growl real loud. He made a face at me and I sighed. He wouldn't let me be embarrassed though which was unexpected. He said, "Gotta eat or we aren't going to be able to stay warm when the weather gets seriously cold."

"Who said I've agreed to this plan you supposedly have?"

"You haven't. Yet. But it makes sense. I need ... need to ..." He looked at me. "I owe you. And ... and I need to pay that back. It doesn't matter whether you think I owe you ... I know I owe you. For Sammy ... and stuff. Let's just leave it at that."

Oh I think I've finally got it after thinking about it for a while. When I first met Jace he struck me as a guard dog for some reason. I'm pretty sure that is exactly what he is. He needs to be a guard dog ... kinda the same way that for my dad being a deputy was the only job for him. If Jace isn't a guard dog he won't have a purpose and without a purpose he won't know how to go forward. So I figure that maybe I'll let him be a guard dog, so long as we get a few ground rules set up first. And then maybe I'll find him someone new to guard and that will be ok. It sounds selfish but at the same time I'm thinking a guard dog might not be a bad thing to have from here on out.

 

[cheyennep]

Dang, Kathy! You sure do know how to weave a story. I am in awe of your talents! Thank you for sharing your gift with us.

 

[Lone_Hawk]

Very good Kathy, looking forward to more!

 

[juco]

Good reading Kathy, thanks for the new chapter.

Now I'm gonna go see how Leah and Mateo are doing. I met them over the Christmas vacation.

 

[AlasKen]

Kathy, Another great story. I like the direction and the new style. Similar but different from your Mothers Journal of Zombie Wars. I like the explanation of Puss Brains as "plausible". I only have one complaint, and it is the same as your other stories. It starts impacting my work. I find myseff staying up late reading instead of sleeping. Please keep up the good story and I hope things in your life settle out. I can relate and your stories help me as well. Your virtual friend from Alaska, Ken

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Twenty-Six

"First we need to go through your back pack."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously. Only time anyone ever wanted to go through my stuff was so that they could "share" or "borrow" it.

"I need to make sure you have all the gear you might need. Plus it looks way too heavy for someone your size."

I told him, "I'm stronger than I look. I can carry my stuff."

"Maybe you can, but there might be some better equipment you can exchange your old stuff for. Uncle Simon carried some really good gear and down the street is a shop that catered to campers and backcountry hikers. At least let's look to see about cold weather gear. Let's start with socks ... and you need better shoes. Those canvas things won't do anything but let your feet get wet, cold, and from there it only gets worse."

I finally gave in. It just made more sense. Jace had something to teach me and it was stuff I needed to learn. I learned last winter to make it in the city when it was cold. Insulation and layering was the big thing I learned about. And fighting for my share of the food. But I'm thinking that surviving winter in the woods is going to be a lot different if I'm thinking of it right. Dad would have said don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Jace wasn't a horse but he was a guard dog. If I was going to have a guard dog I might as well let him do his job.

Within a couple of hours I had several changes of warm clothes - from the skin out - three pairs of new shoes plus two pair of hiking boots, a couple of hats, and a lot of personal camping gear. Jace had also picked out sleeping gear, a tent, ground cloth, and I don't know what all else. He said we are going back tomorrow with some empty crates and grab a bunch more stuff. When I asked why he said that even if we don't use it on the road we have no idea how well set up the cabins at Singing Waters will be ... assuming we get there and they aren't already occupied.

He was also making a list of tools like bolt cutters to remember and pack. "Dee Dee, why do you keep asking why?"

"Because I want to know why. If I don't ask then how do I know that I'm understanding the reasons for stuff?"

He sighed. "OK, but how's this? How about you save your questions until later in the day? The more you make me stop and explain things as we go the longer it is going to take."

Trying to decide whether to be insulted or not I asked, "Are you saying I talk too much?"

I'll credit him with at least thinking about it for two seconds before answering. "Let's just say you could slim back the number of words you use a little and it wouldn't hurt anything."

That night, after I had thrown together a vegetable stew, he told me, "I didn't say you had to shut up completely."

"I didn't," I told him.

"Might as well have."

Sighing in irritation I told him, "I ... look ... I'm either on or off. I don't know how to be both at the same time. I like to ask questions because I like to get answers so I understand stuff. I don't like feeling stupid. I really don't like being stupid."

He shook his head. "It isn't stupid or not stupid that I'm talking about. And it's not being on or off, whatever that means."

"Then what?"

"We don't have much time to try and go through everything around here to see what all you might need ... not just on this trip but in your new camp. You don't know what might or might not be available to you there."

"OK, I'll admit that Singing Waters isn't exactly in the middle of a shopping district but ..."

"No buts. Whatever was there last time might not be there this time. You might even have to pick a new spot if it has been taken over by people that don't want to take you in."

Stung I told him, "I don't need anyone to take me in. I don't want to be at the bottom of the pile anymore. You get stepped on too much down there."

He nodded. "Fine. But you still need to go prepared for there to be either nothing, next to nothing, or for a potential change in plans to a place that there might as well be nothing. And there is a limited amount of space to haul stuff with, and even then the truck could break down and you'll only have what is on your back."

"Can I ask you something?" He shrugged after rolling his eyes. "You said you would teach me stuff. I'm asking because you aren't explaining. You said you would but you aren't, you're doing everything for me. You said you would teach me how to do things and yet ... yet it sounds like you either don't want to or you aren't even going to stick around. So which is it? I kinda need to know."

He looked uncomfortable but nodded. "I know I said I would teach you things and I will; but, I also want to get out of here. Winter is going to come down hard sooner rather than later. No one knows what is coming in the next hour much less tomorrow so I'm trying to hurry and get set for what might be coming down the road.. The sooner you really understand what it is going to mean to be self-sufficient the better off you will be. And it will be easier to teach you that stuff from a secure place so I can see what you have to work with ... and you say the place you want to secure is Singing Waters."

 

[nancy98]

Thanks Kathy. Hope the coming year is a big improvment for you and your family.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Twenty-Seven

"Jace ..."

No response.

"Jace ..."

Still no response.

"Yo ... Jace!"

In a groggy only half-listening kind of voice he answered, "What?"

Finally. "That fire is spreading pretty fast."

"Good."

I sighed beginning to get concerned. "Earth to Jace. That tree is now on fire and it might fall over. If the tree falls over it is going to be on fire. If it falls over on fire then the fire might jump that big ditch thingie over there. From that point there is nothing to stop the fire from running all the way to the road. You know ... that flat concrete path through the forest and hills where we need to drive the truck and trailer?"

Jace was still staring at the flames when suddenly he stiffened and looked at me. "Dammit! If the fire crosses the gully ..." Partially coming out of his daze he snapped, "We have to get out of here and right now."

Hadn't I just said the same dingity dang thing? For someone that is supposed to be older than me and going to teach me things Jace was acting like he'd been hit in the head really hard ... more than once or twice. He started running and pulling me along with him. If I had locked my knees I would have just skiied along. The leaves on top of the path we were using were damp and slippery from the recent rain and were perfect for sliding, but the leaves underneath were very dry. In fact there were a lot of dry things for the fire to burn now that the sun and cold and low humidity had sucked the moisture from everything again.

An hour later the smoke from the fire was still visable which meant that the fire had definitely grown. When the wind blew from that direction you could even smell it. Jace said, "We aren't stopping until we cross the state line."

That was a change in plans. "Wait, I thought you said you didn't want to do Rockford at night. If we don't stop until we get into Wisconsin that's exactly what is going to happen."

"I know what I said but I changed my mind."

"Why?"

He slammed on the breaks so hard the trailer fish tailed. "I told you ..."

He turned to look at me and I had my big screw driver up and ready which shut him up. "Don't scream and yell," I told him quietly using the tone of voice that Sherry did right before she would slap the bejeebers out of me. "Just because you are in the driver's seat doesn't mean I don't have a right to ask which way you are driving. I want to know why you changed your mind. I'm beginning to wonder if ..."

"Don't," he said quietly. "I ... look I'm just not used to somebody asking me why all the time and ... and I've never had to explain things before. It's irritating and I don't have a lot of patience right now. Clarey never did. And as cracked as Sammy was she didn't ask why as much as you do either."

"I don't care. I'm not your crazy cousin and I'm not your dead girlfriend," I told him in a voice that told him just how dangerous my not caring could be. "You lay one hand on me, even try it, and I'll do whatever I have to to make you stop. In fact, just let me out here and give me my pack. This isn't working."

"DeeDee ... I ..."

"Say it or not, I don't care whether you're sorry. I lived a full year being stomped on by people. I'm tired of it."

Rather than stop he put the truck in gear and started driving again. I growled, "I said let me out."

He shook his head and kept driving anyway. "No. Just because I acted like a jerk is no reason for you to get stupid." He was quiet for a minute while I contemplated how badly hurt I would be if I jumped from a moving vehicle. He must have sensed it because he hit the electric - and childproof - lock button. I turned to give him a warning look when he started talking again. "The reason why is that I've been thinking about our route. We picked the fastest way which is straight up the interstate. When I was still in Springfield we heard radio reports about how the military concentrated on clearing the interstates and major highways so they could move large convoys around more easily so I'm pretty sure we aren't going to hit road blockages or anything like that unless it is something that has happened in the last six months. But I was looking at the map last night and there are too many larger towns and cities along that route. We need to move through quickly and since we've got the clear roads we might as well take plenty of advantage of them."

"But Rockford ..."

"I know. It will be the biggest of them. The interstate skirts the city and if ... when ... we get around Rockford then the state line and Beloit are just a hop, skip, and a jump beyond that. We've got plenty of gas in the trailer ... or at least plenty enough to get close to Singing Waters. What we don't know about is the weather. We need to take advantage of decent weather while we have it. Right now it is looking fairly ok ... tomorrow might be a different story. October weather this far north can be changeable. I looked in Uncle Simon's almanacs and the average temp in south Wisconsin is 50s and 60s during the day and 30s and 40s at night. That's good weather. On the other hand where you want to go is way north of there in the Nicolet National Forest. You know how cold it is going to get there? We need to get there soonest and get you set up."

I let him continue to ramble. What I hate is when he is constantly saying things like where YOU want to go, where we need to get YOU set up. It isn't like I'm looking for company or anything but he said he'd be around long enough to teach me how to do things that I need to do. By always talking about me, never about himself as part of it, it makes me wonder just what is going on in his head.

 

[sssarawolf]

Thank you Kath, things have been so up side down here that I just discovered yesterday you had this story going. Recovering fort he death of our daughter, other daughter in Afghanistan being let go and having to find her way home herself (she;s finally in Kuwait). Hubby;s sick, daughter and myself and 4 yr old grand daughter running around ( not at all in the least a calm child, just like her mom was). Your story is helping me be somewhere else for a while.
I know you are in need of some blessings with what you have going on. Thank you and May the Lord Bless and keep you.

 

[nancy98]

Thanks Kathy. Hope your new year started out calm.

 

[Nature_Lover]

Sara and Kathy, it's hard to hear of your struggles without being able to help you.

I'm sending healing energy and positive thoughts your way.
I'm hoping you can find your center and achieve peace.

Here's a quote from The Desiderata, it helps me put my trials in perspective.

"...Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its shams, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy."

Thank You both for sharing your stories, they have helped me detach and escape some hard times lately, too.

Liz

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Twenty-Eight

"So much for making it through Rockford," Jace snapped while he threw the tire iron back into the truck.

I kept my mouth shut. I could literally see the steam coming off his skin where the hot sweat met the cool afternoon air; and, his eyes looked a whole lot like they had that first day I'd accidentally entered his world.

Jace snarled, "Get in the truck."

I got in the truck but hid my screwdriver within easy reach. Something very, very wrong was going on in Jace's head. Doc might have called it something like PTSD. I'm not sure. He said a lot of people in the city were suffering from it because of the "mental and physical trauma and deprevations" we were all dealing with. Moses just called it getting crazy. Having the crazies isn't necessarily a deal breaker as far as getting a lift from Jace to where I want to go but it definitely makes me more careful. So long as what he says and what he does mostly mesh we'll be fine even if he gets a little crazy. But when he starts saying one thing and doing another I'm going to move on all on my lonesome and he can go take his crazies some place else.

Besides I don't even think Dad would have been happy to have had to change three tires in one day. The first two were on the truck and we had them. Jace drives me nuts saying things like, "Two is one and one is none." But I think I'm beginning to be a believer. What that means according to Jace is "redundancy is key to survival." In other words, not just having one extra of something but having several extras of everything. Hmmm. Don't know if I would go that far but it sure doesn't look like it hurts any at all.

The third tire was on the trailer and we had to plug and refill that one with that canned foam junk but to do it we had to take it off which was so not fun. Jace wasn't the only one with wracked knuckles that time.

We finally got to a place where we could pull off the interstate, called Hwy 38, and tried to get some rest. Before we went to sleep Jace insisted on "discussing the day's progress."

He started, "Look, about earlier ..."

"Forget it. You cracked your knuckles a couple of times. Guys don't like that kind of stuff," I told him trying to distance myself from him. Sherry had warned me about guys that apologize all the time. If they were really sorry she said, they wouldn't have to apologize more than once or twice instead of going back and doing the same thing over and over.

He gave me a searching look but I refused to look back. "You don't believe me do you," he said. Problem was his tone said his feelings were more hurt about me not believing him than they were about how he'd acted in the first place to get me that way.

I shrugged. "I don't know you. How should I know whether you act like this all the time or just when you get stressed out? How do I know your apology is worth anything?"

"That's harsh."

I shrugged again. "So's life."

He looked like he wanted to get mad but then he shrugged his own shoulders. "True. And that's what we need to talk about."

"Lesson time?"

"Yes and no. Let's call this preschool and see how fast you graduate."

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Twenty-Nine

"Oh goodie. I like school," I told him in a lispy little girl voice. Then snorted and stuck my tongue out at him. It made him smile. It was a small smile but at least it was real and the corners of his mouth turned up a little.

He asked, "OK, what did you notice when we got off the interstate?"

I looked at him and wondered just what he was asking about. "You mean what did I see?"

"Start with that."

Start with that he says. "Hmmm. OK, the road was clear like you said it would be. There's been a few wrecks along the road but they looked like they had been pushed to the side even if they happened in the middle."

"Good. What else?"

"Those signs. They looked ... I don't know ... they weren't just homemade and junk. They looked like someone that knew how to make signs made them; like they were real signs and not something someone just used spray paint and cardboard to make."

"That's right. What did the signs say?"

"Different things ... Stay away from x, y, and z. Where evacuation points were. Prepare to stop for inspection and if you don't stop expect to get shot."

Jace nodded. "OK. What about when we got off?"

"You mean that this exit ramp was harder to get off on compared to some of the other ones? We had to push that car out of the way to get passed and under the overpass. The highway looks kinda all tore up too."

Jace nodded again, this time with some approval that made me feel better even if I didn't really want to fall into that trap. "Good eye. So what do you think it means?"

"What do you mean what does it mean? How am I supposed to know that? It isn't like they've hung a sign explaining it all."

He flicked a piece of gravel at me. "Don't act stupid Dee Dee. Go back to how you survived in the city. You'd see something and it would be a clue that told you something could be around the corner or what happened or whatever."

I didn't want to tell him in the city I was used to other people thinking about that stuff for me so I tried to put the two and two together that he had handed me. "The military or someone like the military uses these roads ... or did for a while. Up to six months ago anyway when you had to leave the radio at Springfield."

Jace nodded. "Now those signs tell us that at least for a while someone was patrolling the roads too because they were stopping people like they had the authority to do it. A couple of those wrecks might be where people didn't want to be stopped and whoever did what they said they were going to do which was shoot. But I don't think they were total scumbags about it because there are plenty of warning signs."

I said, "They also give places to stay away from and it looks like some of the place names would get added to whatever the sign said when it was first put up. Some of the evacuation points were X'd out so they didn't get people's hopes up or kept some information going current. Some of the exit ramps were also destroyed with warning signs saying that it was dangerous to enter that area."

Jace flicked another piece of gravel at me but this time it was with approval. I guess it was a guy thing. "Good catch on how they are/were adding names to the list of dangerous places. Which leads us to here. The exit ramp ... it isn't clear but it doesn't look intentionally blocked does it?"

"Not on purpose, no."

"But the cars have been here a while. The cars are covered with dust and debris and so are the scortch marks where that truck caught fire that we tried to move but couldn't. Which kinda goes against the rest of the wrecks and ramps."

Beginning to see it I said, "You mean that whoever 'they' is for some reason isn't taking care of things anymore."

"Or at least not in this immediate area for a while. You probably didn't hear much where you were but the military did a lot of what they called pulling back. It is like they were ... uh ... consolidating their positions. That's a term they used alot. A formerly secure site would fall and they would pull back and reorganize, tighten up their defensive lines. Sometimes that meant abandoning evacuation points, towns, and other strategic locations. Sounded like a real mess when you were listening and there was a lot of armchair quarterbacking by people in my group. The professors were always trying to out guess what the military and government would do next and complain and criticize it."

Thinking about it I told him, "This doesn't look like a mess, not like some of the messes that I've seen. This just looks ... I don't know ... forgotten, like it is a place that doesn't matter enough anymore to bother with it."

Jace nodded slowly, "Good way of describing it." He gave me a closed look and said, "I know I bitched - geez that look could scare an infected ... fine I won't swear. Geez you're picky. Anyway, I know I 'complained' about not making the state line earlier so this is going to sound pretty crazy. I want to check out that town down the highway ... Rochelle or whatever its called. I want to see what kind of condition it is in."

I gave it two seconds of thought before looking right at him and saying, "Why?"

He knew I was picking at him because of his earlier complaints about me asking too many questions. He rolled his eyes but responded, "Because the shape it is in will give us some more clues. Might also see if there are some tires for the truck. Kill two birds with one stone."

"Fine." After a moment I added, "Is that the last of preschool? 'Cause I gotta tell you I don't feel like I'm getting that educated."

He snorted. "No, that's not all for tonight. But I wanted to see how fast you got a concept."

"What concept?"

"It is called situational awareness. It's something you need to have whether you are in immediate danger or not. That means getting clues from what you see ... and sometimes what you don't see."

"You mean like missing pieces of a puzzle."

"Yep. And since you seem to at least understand that I want you to make sure you practice it. It's important Dee Dee. You ask why so much. Well, what if someone isn't there to answer your question?"

I nodded understanding what he meant. "You mean if I just shut up and watch and listen and look for clues I might be able to answer the question before I have to ask it."

"Yeah, exactly. It's not that ... that you shouldn't ask questions. Its just that you ask so many ... and half of them you wouldn't have to if you'd just take a few moments to think for yourself."

My feelings wanted to get hurt but since Jace wasn't the first person to point that out to me ... Toddie used to say roughly the same thing ... I tried to just accept it. Thinking about it I do realize that getting stuff from books like I used to was fine as far as it goes but there isn't exactly a manual on how to survive what the world has turned into ... or at least I haven't found one yet. I'd been depending on other people. I'd even kind of been looking forward to going back to my old life, until I finally accepted that my old life was gone forever and so were most of the people from it. Then I accepted Jace's promise to teach me stuff so I could depend on myself for real. But if I am going to do this, I need to do it right.

"Earth to Dee Dee."

I looked at Jace. "I was thinking."

"Didn't look pleasant."

"Wasn't but that's life. So ... what's next Teacher?"

 

[sssarawolf]

Very Good thank you.

 

[nancy98]

Very nice Kathy. Thank you.

 

[Dosadi]

first zombie story I've read that I really enjoyed. Moar please mam?

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Thirty

"Planning."

"Planning what?" I asked Jace.

"Everything. You have to have a plan before you need one. And for everything you will eventually need a plan." Out of the blue he shoots a question at me. "What are the basic elements of survival?"

"Huh?" When he just looked at me I put my brain in gear and slowly answered, "Water. Shelter. Food."

In a really stupid fake voice Jace said, "Very good Grasshopper."

Toddie used to do the same thing and I hated it then too. "Oh shut up."

He bowed from his waist while sitting on a camp stool. He looked like a dork but it still made me smile even while it brought back memories I would rather not have thought of. Getting serious again he said, "There are actually more elements than that but those are the most important. You can't live without food and water and in many cases you can't live without some kind of shelter either. The most important of course is water."

I started ticking off what I'd already learned. "Canteen. Filter. Buckets to catch rain and snow. Something to boil water in. Bleach. Those little pill thingies you packed that decontaminate the water. And at the cabin there is a well house with two hand pumps in it for potable water."

"Know what potable water is?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not a complete know-nothing. Potable means you can drink it, cook with it, and that sort of thing. I also know how to prime the well. I learned how from the people that ran Singing Water. There was this old guy named Mr. Svenson ... he was some kind of uncle or something like that to the people that ran the place ... and he used to like my questions because it gave him somebody to talk to. Mom didn't mind because it kept me out of trouble. Toddie didn't mind because it meant he didn't have to babysit me all the time. Dad didn't mind because he said I talked so much I ran the fish off."

He snorted and said, "I can see that."

"You wanna cook from here on out?"

"No. But that's a good enough segue into the next survival element and that is food. This one is going to be harder."

"No kidding," I said sarcastically. "First lesson I learned in the city was how important food was and that no one was just going to give it to you for no reason. You have to fight for your share."

"Uh ... well ... maybe not quite that where you want to go but you are going to have to be real serious about finding and preserving your food so you'll have some on days you don't find any new stuff. We've got a lot in the truck and trailer but we still have a long ways to go and we are eating up more than we are adding to the supplies. That's another reason I want to check out that town. Any little bit that we can add back in is going to make it easier to give you time to figure things out once you get settled in at the cabin."

He was doing that 'you' thing again and it was still just as irritating as the first time he'd done it. I let it go but just barely; I didn't want to sour his disposition again ... or at least that's what Mom would have called it. "I know how to fish. I did it plenty every summer."

"Did you catch anything?"

"Sure."

"Every time?"

"Of course not. That's not how fishing works."

"Well at least you're honest."

"Smarty pants ... I can also bait my hook and clean my catch. Dad made me learn how. He said it wasn't fair to expect him and Mom to do everything if I was going to eat it."

"Well," he said surprised. "Count me impressed. Maybe this won't be as hard as I thought it would be."

"Thanks a lot," I told him three-quarters disgusted that he was acting like such a guy.

"No. Seriously. This really isn't going to be bad. I've got more to work with than I thought."

Well, doesn't he know how to flatter a girl? "Alright already. We both agree I'm not a complete doofus in the food department. Guess what? I can also make and bake bread, garden a real vegetable garden, and clean and cook chickens. So there."

Slowly he asked, "Seriously?"

"Yeah. Seriously. Mom didn't work which meant the only paycheck was the one Dad brought in. We lived in a little house with a little money. Mom did what she had to so that Dad wouldn't feel like a little man. She figured one day I might get married so she taught me the way her mom taught her."

"Wow."

"Yeah. So what else?" I asked suddenly depressed.

He nodded. "Well, you can fish but can you hunt?"

"Uh ... no."

"Well, at least I have something to teach you. There will be time to get into more details but since you've already said you can't hit the broadside of a barn I think we'll start with snares and traps as opposed to a gun or bow. When we get where we're going I'll look around and see what kind of wild foods there are to forage. There won't be much this late in the year but I'll try and mark off areas that might be worth something come spring. Now for the last thing ... shelter."

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Thirty-One

"You've told me a little bit about Singing Waters but I want you to see it in your mind's eye and really describe it for me this time."

"Seriously?" I asked him sense it sounded kind of stupid the way he said it.

"Yeah. See it and think about the place in relation to water, food, and shelter."

I sighed. And felt kinda dumb but decided to try it his way. "OK ... the place isn't really big ... I mean the national forest is big of course but the campground is only like about forty acres from the entrance gate to the lake. The only fence is up near the gravel road where you come in at; after that it is all open and stuff but there are boundary markers to tell you when you've left the campground and walked into the USFS land. Dad's been - had been - going there since he was a boy and the cabins have been in the same family all that time. It is some kind of leftover something or other from pioneer days back before there was such a thing as a national forest. Actually, it used to be a logging camp in the beginning, then it was a some kind of hunting club thing, and then the owners started getting families in back around the early 1900s so they converted it to a kind of tourist place. There were more cabins when Dad was a kid but a fire that happened right before Mom and Dad got married burned down half of them. The family took the insurance money and refurbished the remaining cabins, built a nice well house, built chamber toilets onto each cabin, and added a central dining hall where they would have cook outs and stuff a couple of times a week and where you could get the kind of junk food campers sometimes buy ... that freeze dried stuff that tastes like used matches. Last time we were up there they were in the middle of adding outdoor showers to the cabins too but I don't know if they ever finished them. They'd built solar cisterns - some 'green energy' project a grandson was doing his doctoral thesis on. Dad said Benji - the grandson of Mr. Svenson - was a hippie wannabe and didn't like me going near him because he said his friends felt a little off to his spidey senses."

Jace had a look on his face like I'd given him a whole lot more information that he wanted or needed. I guess I do kinda talk alot once I get going. He was a good sport though and didn't say anything except to ask, "How close are the cabins to the woods? To the lake?"

Trying to ease back a little on the carbon dioxide I was expelling I told him, "Closer to the woods than the lake though you can see the dock from every cabin's porch."

"Animals?"

"What? You mean like pets? No ... no pets allowed. Forest animals. Yeah. Kinda, I guess. It depended on how many cabins were rented out and how many people were hanging out on the lake and if everyone remembered to pick up their trash the right way."

He got it in one. "You mean bears?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Not so much when we were there in the summer but the owners said they could be a problem later in the season. They close the cabins down by the end of October."

He got a concerned look on his face. "Describe the cabins."

"Why?"

"Because I need to know if these cabins are even set up for winter."

"Oh. Gotcha," I said understanding what he meant. " A lot of the cabins around the lake are just frame and stuff but the cabins at Singing Waters are the real deal. They are made of real whole logs, not just split wood frame. They used to rent them out for ice fishing and cross country skiing when I was little but they stopped that the year I started middle school. The owners said they just didn't want to bother hiring someone to stay up there year round when it was easier and cheaper to hire college kids to do it for the summer alone. After Labor Day it was only Mr. Svenson and his wife that stayed up there and he said they were thinking about shortening the season even more because of Mr. Svenson's arthritis."

"Well that's a relief ... about the cabin walls anyway. Can you remember what kind of roofs they have?"

"Sure. Insulated metal roofs. The owners were real big on fire prevention and stuff. Each cabin had fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, and carbon monoxide alarms because of the wood stoves. Every night program they put on there were presentations about fire safety. Once a week they would have a real forestry ranger come and do a Smokey the Bear kind of thing for the little kids. In fact, if you were a kid and learned all the rules and some other nature stuff while you were there you got a little something from the gift shop as a prize. Usually it was a mini compass, magnifying glass, or some other thing with the camp logo on it - Mom called it free advertising and was always telling me that if she found it just lying around she would throw it away as junk. I have a whole box of those little things."

Looking surprised he said, "Have? You don't mean that's what is in that old raggedy bag you wouldn't let me look in?"

I shrugged. "None your bees wax what is in that bag." A girl has to have some secrets. I also keep this notebook in that old raggedy bag and he doesn't need to know that either. He doesn't need to know about my personal stash of girl stuff for that matter.

"OK. Whatever," he said rolling his eyes. What about the kitchen?"

"Well, there isn't a kitchen." Before he could say something snotty I told him, "You can sorta kinda cook on the Franklin wood stove - my folks heated their coffee up that way or Mom would boil water for oatmeal - but the main cooking was done outside in the fire ring or on the grill thingie. And Mom used to bake biscuits in a reflector oven that caught the heat from the Franklin."

Looking skeptical he said, "We'll need to think about that one and see how it goes. So what about windows?"

"Uh ... well there are windows but they aren't glass. Dad said they were made of Leann or something like that."

He thought for a second before snorted at what he probably thought was my stupidity. "Lexan, it's a kind of plastic."

"Yeah, that's it. The window is sandwiched between two sets of shutters."

"Huh?"

Remembering how Toddie had liked to scare me by dropping the inside shutter real fast and then catching it at the last second before it squashed me I shook my head. "There is an inside shutter that is hinged at the top of the window opening. You pull this chain and the shutter opens toward the ceiling and then you put the chain on the hook on the wall to keep it open. Then comes the window and you can open it by lowering the top part into the bottom part; it lets the heat out that is rising ... Mom called them a transom window and said it creates a good cross breeze. Next is the screen ... real ones, not those flimsy plastic things that tear if you swat a fly on it. And on the outside are regular looking shutters that open and close like bifold doors. And before you ask, the door to the outside is really heavy and everything too and has a screen doors on the outside. The door opens onto a porch that is screened in to keep the mosquitos and flies out - sometimes they can get really bad right as the sun is going down - and that's about it."

"What about the inside? How many bedrooms?"

"There isn't a real bedroom with a door and all ... there's like this partition that gives it a little privacy but still lets the heat from the wood stove in. There is a clothes line wire that you can hang a curtain on if you want to ... Mom did that ... but Toddie and I slept on bunk beds in the opposit corner of the main room. Some of the cabins are bigger but we always reserved the same one each year. It was like Dad's tradition. Mom put up with it because it made Dad happy. Toddie didn't come with us the last time we went because Dad made him get a job and he 'accidentally' asked for the wrong week off. Yeah right. Wish he was here so I could kick him. He really hurt Dad's feelings that time."

After a moment he asked, "Are you set on having the same cabin or would you be interested in one of the bigger cabins?"

I shrugged. "I hadn't really thought about it. I guess it depends on if there is anyone else there ahead of me. And if there's not ..." I shrugged again. I really hadn't given it any thought but I suppose I had better.

"I guess that can wait til you get there."

"'Til I get there?"

He sighed. "Figure of speech Dee Dee. Now let's get some sleep. You sleep in the back and I'll sleep in the cab. I'd prefer to sleep out here but there's no security and ..." He slapped his neck. "And the bugs are getting pretty bad."

 

[nancy98]

Thanks Kathy.

 

[Dosadi]

Got my morning zombie fix LOL Thanks.

 

[sssarawolf]

THank you very much.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Thirty-Two

Well we got tires for the truck and some for the trailer. Picked up a few other odds and ends too though I suppose it didn't seem like much compared to what Jace had decided to leave back in his village as being "too cumbersome and not worth the trouble." Some of it was still nice stuff. I even sneaked a couple of snowglobes into my pack that I didn't tell him about. Found one in Rochelle too; maybe I'll start collecting them. But to be honest, what we mostly got was depressed.

Jace looked like something was eating him up from the inside out. He was lucky I was covering his back or he'd been chomped on about three times. It reminded me too much of the way some of the people in the group used to act. I didn't like the wiggy feeling I was getting off of him so I tried to start a conversation by saying, "That town was another one of those refugee centers where they evacuated uninfected people to."

Jace nodded grimly as he sipped some bean broth left over from the pot of beans that I'd made for supper. "Yeah," he grunted. "FEMA signs up all over the place."

"Don't you mean down all over the place?"

He looked at me and I could tell he was bound and determined to stay in a foul mood. "This is no joking matter. It looks like they were overrun by infecteds."

I shrugged. "Not necessarily. I know there were quite a collection of puss brains in that place but compared to some places I've been caught in, it wasn't all that bad. Besides in the city, at least in the early days, you were just as likely to be taken out by a riot as by a flock of puss brains."

"A flock? Didn't I just say ..."

Trying to stop the runaway train that Jace's temper could turn into I told him, "I'm not making fun Jace. It is just what we used to call them if the group of puss brains were too few to be considered a horde and too many to be a bunch or ... or whatever. You know what I mean."

He shook his head in disgust. "Those people you hung out with messed you up. You just ..."

"Just what?" I asked not sure I wanted to know.

"Don't you have any ... any ... finer sensibilities ... like a real girl? You act ... completely ... totally ..." He shook his head again apparently at a loss.

I looked at him and said quietly, "I survived. Maybe I didn't survive as the same person I was to start with. Maybe I'll never be the person I could have been. Maybe Mom and Dad and Toddie wouldn't think I was a nice girl anymore. But I survived. You don't like it. Tough."

I guess he realized he'd been a little harsh because he tried to backtrack by saying, "Dee Dee, I didn't mean ..."

"Yeah you did. You just can't find the right words to use to say it. Well I don't care. I didn't ask you to babysit me. I don't need a babysitter. And I sure don't need someone to try and teach me manners or ... or finer sensibilities ... or anything else that just might get me killed. But since you're so disgusted I free you from this promise you made. Just give me my pack and ..."

He growled and said, "OK, that's enough. You're starting to sound like a Drama Queen." I nearly threw my bowl at him but he didn't notice because he was in the middle of spewing it out. "Fine. I hurt your feelings. Let's not get all stupid over it. I'm tired. You're tired. This day has sucked. Rochelle was bad enough but then Rockford, where I'd hoped to maybe see another camp or military base, was a burned out shell. We had no choice but to drive through there the best we could and still managed to do the one thing I didn't want to have to do. Here we are outside of yet another f ... uh ... messed up hell hole, this one with too many infecteds for me to feel comfortable, but we had to stop because it is too dark for me to see to change another damn tire because of that mess in Rockford. I'm sick of this. Let's just clean up and try and get some rest."

He did look kinda bad. In hindsight maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. "Don't you ever look on the bright side of things?"

"You've got to be kidding me! There isn't a bright side to this nightmare!"

"Sure there is," I told him. "We made it across the state line only one day behind your schedule. We found the tires we needed so we don't have to dig around in this place ... Beloit or however you pronouce it. We found those two cases of water and those big cans of food in that FEMA truck. We found all those packages of condiments in that other big truck. You got some camouflage pants that are long enough and I actually found some jeans that will fit without having to cut a yard off in the leg but weren't little kid clothes so they fit my butt too which is a major bonus from a girl stand point." All he did was roll his eyes so I continued, "And then there is some of that other junk we picked up and it all fit in the trailer even though you said there wouldn't be room for it. We also found some more of those clues you were going on about last night ... being situationally aware to what the big picture is. Using those clues we mostly figured out what probably happened to make the military pull back and abandon the town. And to top it off you learned how to break into cars without having to break a window and make a lot of noise. Courtesy of yours truly thank you very much."

He shook his head. "You are so freakin' strange. Demented even. How does that nearly worthless crap balance against all of those dead bodies?! They used to be people ... real live people ... just like my dad, Clarey, Uncle Simon, Sammy, John-John ..."

He was really getting wound up so I told him calmly, "I didn't say it balanced things out. Nothing is ever going to balance things out. But we are still better off than we were first thing this morning. It counts. It might not count for much in your eyes but in mine it is a heck of a lot better than most days in the city. Close to Disneyland even."

He opened his mouth to shout but then seemed to decide not to for some reason. He just kept looking at me then asked, "It was really that bad in the city?"

I shrugged and responded, "It was really that bad. People died every day. You had to get used to it or you'd be the next one dead. The people weren't always in your group but someone was always dying. And not just from the puss brains. Trust me, if you don't already know, most people are animals at heart, especially guys. But girls aren't always all the way human either. Sometimes it wasn't the puss brains that were the most dangerous. Other stuff made it hard too. Food was getting really, really difficult to find. We'd heard rumors that some people were going cannibal ... no one in our group but some of the inner city gangs were pretty nasty. Clean water was scarce too ... everything was getting contaminated. Then there is all the things people used to be able to go to the doctor for ... simple stuff like cuts and bangs on the head ... only now it can kill you from infections and bleeding that you can't stop quick enough." I stopped, caught up in some of my memories then jumped when I felt him touch my shoulder. I turned to look him in the eye and said, "People die Jace. And sometimes they are the lucky ones."

 

[Nature_Lover]

Great story, Thank You!

 

[Siskiyoumom]

How nice to come home from work and find new chapters.
Thank you so very much.
I read your other zombie story over at Zombie Squad and I really learned a lot there.
Love the recipes at that story.
Hope your week is going well.
Sis

 

[nancy98]

Very good chapter Kathy. Thanks

 

[juco]

"People die Jace. And sometimes they are the lucky ones."

That has been true at different points throughout history and will be the case again in the future. (Hopefully not due to puss brains, though I do believe the term could be aptly applied to many of our elected officials in DeeCee. Lord knows they act like they have brain rot or something)

 

[sssarawolf]

Your such a great writer

 

[Dosadi]

Morning fix. Thanks.

..

 

[Kathy in FL]

Part Thirty-Three

We didn't talk much after that, just enough to pick up what needed picking up. I climbed into the back of the truck inside the camper top and tried to get comfortable but wound up using my nifty night goggles that we found inside an overturned military cargo truck to write in this notebook. Then when I was finally tired I laid down and slept. I assume Jace did something similar but he hasn't looked too good all day today.

Around mid-day I asked him, "Teach me to drive?" I figured if I knew how to drive he wouldn't have to do it all and could maybe get some rest. So much for my trying to be nice.

He looked like he suddenly got sick to his stomach. "Are you kidding?! You'd need a booster seat to see over the steering wheel. I doubt you can even reach the pedals. I said I would teach you what you needed to survive, not how to kill yourself and me along with you."

I could have handled it if he had been kidding but he wasn't. He was completely serious and I got completely hacked off. I gave him the silent treatment but the jerk didn't seem to mind at all. I probably would have made more of a point if I had refused to cook but since I wanted to eat someone had to do it and that someone seemed to be me. Sucker.

As we drove along the interstate was still pretty clear though there were more signs of neglect the further north we went. When we hit Madison you could say we hit what looked like the end of the world. The interstate literally just disappeared. I don't know what blew up but it was huge. We had to turn west and then tried to pick the interstate back up by going across that piece of land betweent Lake Mendota and Lake Menona but we got half way across and it turned out to be the western boundary of whatever had gone boom.

We back tracked again and after looking on a map decided to just go around Madison completely by following the loop highway. Geez. It was bad. Really bad.

We saw people ... uninfected people ... but I'm not sure they were still all human. They looked like the homeless people in the city during the middle of winter after gang members had messed around with them. They scurried around pushing carts and wheelbarrows, digging through what remained of the city; human cockroaches feeding off of anything they could find. It was like having a flashback of St. Louis.

As bad as I felt I could tell Jace was shook. I think it was the kids that did it. Shades of Sammy and John-John and all that carp. It was kinda strange but everyone ran from the truck instead of towards it like I expected.

Before I could ask why Jace said, "They must have had a bad experience with people that still have vehicles. Maybe the military. Maybe gangs."

I snorted. "Or maybe someone is just trying to set themselves up like some kind of warlord or king. Get a load of that."

I pointed to what I had seen and Jace looked ready to hurl. His knuckles were blue white where he was gripping the steering wheel but he kept going and never slowed down.

A handpainted sign had been nailed up near the hanging corpses that were swinging in the rancid breeze and it read, "By order of the Mayor of Madison." Each corpse had a sign hung around its neck. Most of them said "Looter" though one of them said "Treason." The one that got me though was the one that said "Necrophilia."

"Jace? Does that mean what I think it means?"

He shuddered. "Stop asking so many questions DeeDee and just keep your eyes open for trouble."

I took that as a yes. Its not like I don't know there are some sick people in this world. I pal'd around with a few of them in the city. But there is sick and then there is sick.

It took hours to get out of Madison. We kept having to back track and try a different road. It was like being in a disaster movie; whole buildings had fallen over blocking roads and making them impassable. Overpasses and bridges were just rubble like somebody had upended a bucket of lincoln logs. Radio and cell towers were like scattered tinker toys. Eventually though we made it to this place called Devils Lake State Park. We were several miles north of Madison and needed to go east to hook back into the interstate but it was too dark to go on. Jace was frustrated and walked off to ... uh ... water a tree ... and left me to watch the truck. I guess someone had been watching us because a girl came out of the woods and said, "You missed them. Everyone left last week."

 

[nancy98]

WhooooHoooo
Sometimes being an insomniac pays off.

Thanks Kathy

 

[Hickory7]

WhooooHoooo
Sometimes being an insomniac pays off.

Thanks Kathy

This. Thanks.