No Room In Hell (Book 2): 400 Miles To Graceland Page 21

  “You seem to know a lot about this place already,” Mary observes.

  “I don’t think so. I’m not saying there is a hidden bunker of weapons, but I’m sure there’s a hidden bunker. I thought maybe if you spoke to her she’d realize I don’t want to bring her harm.”

  “You speak about this right in front of her. She’s never going to trust me,” Mary says.

  “It’s a challenge for you, not an impossibility.” Kale marches away from the stall.

  Mary slides down the wall opposite from where Lindsey cowers. “I don’t even know where to start. I could give you the ‘we are both women trying to survive in this new world’ shit, but you’re too smart to buy into such a cheap line.”

  “Get me out of here.” Lindsey’s voice wheezes as if she just recovered from an asthma attack.

  “You’re much safer in here. If they’re feeding you,” Mary says.

  “My price is a doctor for my wound, gear, and I want out of here.”

  “I don’t know if they have a doctor. I certainly will see you’re released,” Mary promises.

  “I want the gear and clothes first.”

  “Do you know where you’ll go? I’ve been in…five groups, I think. Luckily, I’ve never been raped, but a few times I opened my legs in order to live.”

  “Kade took me in ways I never thought possible.” Lindsey’s eyes widen, but she no longer has tears.

  “He’s dead. Some hotshot gunmen took him down and some twenty of his men single-handedly. Or so the story circulating around here is. They have a living witness or did. They actually—” She halts in mid thought. “They must have a doctor. Kale wants his brother’s killer. There was a survivor from Fort Wood who was caught in the explosions when the base was scuttled. He was being cared for.”

  “Boats are scuttled,” Lindsey corrects her.

  “You still have spirit.” Mary smiles at her. “You’ll need it out there if you want to live.”

  “About this doctor?” Lindsey asks.

  “The burns were third degree and put him in a coma, but they kept his henchmen alive. No field medic or nurse accomplished such a task,” Mary speaks to herself. “I know you have no reason to trust me. I’m going to help you. Only to help me. Just so you know…I don’t want there be any illusions between us. I’ll see you off this farm with enough supplies, if what you provide improves my station.”

  “No good faith offering?”

  “I’m going to show you good faith.” Mary gets to her feet, brushing off the hay from her white dress. “I have to locate this doctor first.”

  DUSTY POINTS THE rifle barrel at Mike as Danielle bandages his filleted side. Even with his hand secured by cuffs, none of them understand Mike’s situation.

  He notes his saviors seem well-equipped, as if they were part of the caravan, but he never saw any of them before now.

  Darcy checks the unconscious girl’s pulse. “Should we tie her up, too?”

  “Someone sure cut the fuck out of this guy,” Danielle adds.

  “You should kill her and her companion. He’ll be back soon,” Mike warns.

  “None of the evidence points to either of you being innocent. You were in the throes of passion when we found you.” Tom patrols the edge of the campground, never taking an eye off Mike.

  Dave sniffs at an open canteen.

  “Don’t drink it. She’s drugged them,” Mike warns. “It’s how she caught me.”

  Dave pours out the water. “It’s a good canteen. I wonder how much washing it will take to remove any residue.”

  “Are we going to steal these people’s stuff?” Dakota asks.

  “Those are my pants.” Mike cranes his neck toward his camo pants on the clothesline. “Just give me my M16 and I’ll leave.”

  “You tried to murder that girl,” Danielle says.

  “You’ll find me in her digestive tract. She was keeping me alive to eat me. Saving my liver for last,” Mike says.

  “Keep your voice down. No way the rotter herd completely vacated,” Tom orders.

  “What do we do with him, Tom?” Dusty asks.

  “We can’t leave her here unconscious,” Darcy says, “but if she’s developed a taste for human meat, I wouldn’t want to fall asleep around her.”

  “Is this a real-life prisoner’s dilemma situation?” Dusty asks.

  “Not quite,” Tom says, “but it’s the biggest conundrum I’ve encountered.”

  “Why save either?” Dakota asks.

  “What?” Dusty glances at his friend.

  “We don’t know these two. Both are trying to kill each other. Shoot them and be done with it.”

  “Because we just don’t kill people,” Dusty says.

  “There are no rules anymore,” Dakota says. “If we can’t trust them, just give them mercy and we move on. We do whatever necessary to keep our family safe. Us.”

  “Are you discussing this? We don’t just shoot a sleeping girl,” Darcy protests.

  “You six debate all you want, but she and her lover eat people. Cut me loose and I’m gone,” Mike orders. He won’t plead. “Or cut me loose and I’ll finish her, and her mate, who knows when he’ll return. He’s not going to be happy.”

  “Keep your eyes open, Dave,” Tom says. “Granted, your wound indicates torture, but why would you fuck a woman who was going to cook your liver?”

  “Short version, she wanted a baby and her lover was working the pull and pray method. I convinced her to let me have a go.”

  “During the process, you got a free hand and went to snap her neck,” Tom believes this part of the man’s story. He did allow Danziger to break his arm so they could escape.

  “Guys,” Dakota calls from the far edge of the camp.

  Downwind of the camp in a ravine, Tom finds seven bodies. All rotten as if dead from the screwdrivers in their cranium—not infected. Parts of each body have been gutted and stripped of meat.

  Tom marches back, tearing the camo pants from the clothes line. “Cut him loose.”

  “You’re picking a man over her?” Danielle questions. “I don’t want him in my plane.”

  “You have a plane?” Mike asks.

  Dave jerks Mike to his feet.

  “He was abusing this girl. Even if she was a cannibal. I say we leave them both,” Darcy votes.

  “We haven’t decided what to do with him,” Danielle protests.

  “Discuss it all you want away from here,” Tom says.

  “What about the girl?” Darcy asks.

  “Shoot her or leave her, but she eats people. From the signs of this camp she has friends. We need to move,” Tom commands.

  “Why are we bringing this guy?” Dusty asks.

  “I won’t leave anyone to be eaten. We take him out of here and cut him loose. Where he goes after I don’t care.” Tom jerks the M16 from a blanket pile and sticks a second pistol he discovers into his belt.

  “Tom, we need to discuss—” Dusty’s eye explodes. White goop laced with blood showers Tom’s vest as the spent round splinters a tree behind him.

  BECKY JUGGLES A machete. She catches the weapon in her opposite hand, twirling it like she’s in a karate movie. “It has balance. Find me another like it.”

  “You fancy yourself a swordswoman?” Chad asks.

  “I took ballet for years. It’s all about balance with a sword. I’m not fencing, I’m stabbing. I don’t need lessons for that.”

  Becky straps a second machete behind the gun holster on her left hip. In the shorts and mid-calf hiking boots, she has the appearance of Lara Croft. Her costume would excite Chad more if she had a single front curve. Disappointed, he’s in the company of such a pretty girl with a shapely bottom but no chest. He’s yet to change next to her, but the shoulder holster she adjusts proves she has less of a chest than he has.

  Becky finishes her attire with yellow tinted shooting glasses.

  “Shooting goggles?”

  “Safety first, Chad.”

  Nick places two
cans of gas in the bed of the truck. Barlock puts two shotguns in the car.

  Tony climbs into the back sporting black BDU pants, boots, and an oversized 2Pac t-shirt.

  Kelsey unloads her rifle, placing it in the bed along with a single strap canvas rucksack.

  Danziger places a backpack and a rifle in the truck bed. He notes Tony’s military-issued boots. “Maybe you two shouldn’t be going outside the fence at all. It’s not a Resident Evil game out there.”

  Tony laughs. “We’ve fared a lot better than the military led group to the feed store. They weren’t trained for this kind of war.”

  “Most of the soldiers were on the base and not in the field. I respect your skills,” Danziger says.

  “I’ve been living outside as part of a special defense squad. My time with you is my ticket inside the fence,” Tony says. His arrangement with Ethan remains complicated.

  “I was never in the military. Austin won’t miss me. While I’m gone, he’ll be the best marksman at Acheron,” Kelsey adds.

  “Having second thoughts, Danziger?” Wanikiya asks.

  “Not about seeking my friend, just these kids as part of my team.”

  “No one is a kid anymore, Danziger,” Wanikiya says.

  “There’s just no coming back from getting your ass handed to you out there.” Danziger notes how clean his team is.

  “We know people are desperate.” Karen tosses her bag in the truck. “We’ve seen how desperate people are. It’s not just the undead who have been munching on people’s liver.”

  “With some fava beans and a nice chianti?” Tony rapidly sucks in his lip like Hannibal Lecter.

  “You’ve encountered cannibals?” Danziger asks.

  “We saw evidence,” Karen says.

  “I thought we were all infected. Wouldn’t the meat be tainted?” Tony asks.

  “Only one way to test. We have too much beef to cut up a person,” Wanikiya agrees.

  “There are still untouched stores. Why would people find it necessary to resort to eating each other?” Tony asks, second thoughts racing through his mind. He wants of the chain gang, complete his deal with Ethan, and get inside the fence but he had no idea how safe wrangling biters was.

  “I don’t want to know the answer.”

  “I’m up for visiting Memphis,” Kelsey says. “I’ve never been anywhere.”

  “We aren’t going to Graceland. We’re going for Major Ellsberg’s brother,” Ethan says.

  “Does his research mean it is sickness?” Tony asks.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to Memphis for a cure or to see Elvis. I’ve made a promise to this group to save family when possible,” Ethan says.

  “You don’t believe there’s a vaccine?” Kelsey asks.

  “My medical training is limited, but for there to be a vaccine they need to know the cause,” Frank says.

  Becky shakes her head.

  “Colonel Travis implied Fort Wood was the last operational military base. We need to know if there are more active troops,” Ethan says.

  “You think he lied?” Becky asks.

  “No. The government may not have reported to him about other operating locations. Memphis is too far to travel for supplies, yet.”

  “You want to build a fence all the way to Memphis?”

  “No, but eventually we should be able to open trade routes with locomotives over long distances.”

  “There are no trains.”

  “There have to be. Just none close. Actually, works for us. Fewer groups scavenging for the same supplies prevents conflict,” Ethan says.

  Danziger hops into the truck bed. “It’s going to be cramped back here.”

  “Only for a while. Nick and Barlock will take us down the road to as close to the Christopher S. Bond Bridge.”

  “Where’s that?”

  Ethan says, “Hermann. Where I first met Danziger.”

  WANIKIYA WAITS FOR the truck to disappear from the ground view of the sally port. Major Ellsberg and Austin both remain vigilant beside him.

  “She’s going to get a lot more practice popping biters out there without me. I’ll never be able to outshoot her now,” Austin muses.

  “You seem distracted, Wanikiya,” Major Ellsberg notices.

  “Just a feeling.”

  “They’ve all come back before,” Austin says.

  “None of them have traveled this far into the unknown before,” Wanikiya says.

  “It’s not unknown. Even I went to Memphis once,” Austin says.

  “Son, everything’s unknown now,” Major Ellsberg says. “Something else is bothering our Native American friend.”

  “Maybe Ethan should have explained to Danziger about Tony and his deal,” Wanikiya considers.

  The brakes on Dr. Baker’s truck squeak. He hops out, a bottle of pills in hand. “Damn. They’re gone.”

  “Just over the hill.”

  “I made up some pain pills for Ethan.”

  “He wouldn’t have taken them anyway,” Wanikiya says.

  “They would have helped with the swelling,” Dr. Baker adds.

  “None of us would have stopped him even if he isn’t fully healed,” Austin says.

  “I was thinking, one of the reasons I wasn’t caught in the infected pool was I was working research and not at a hospital. I want permission to try something. Next time we slaughter a steer I want to collect the blood and leave it outside where I can watch it with a microscope,” Dr. Baker says.

  “That will attract biters,” Austin says.

  “We’re safe. We have food, water, shelter, a community. We’re safe enough to have a library. I want to study the undead. We must study them,” Dr. Baker pleads.

  “Never will you bring one inside,” Wanikiya commands.

  “I agree. That’s not what I want to study. I want to understand them in the wild. There’s a draw bringing them toward the living, and it doesn’t seem to be basic human scent.”

  “Go on.”

  Dr. Baker explains, “We know noise attracts them. We’ve used loud sounds many times to draw them where we want them. I want to try blood. You just add it to the compost.”

  “How will witnessing them attack a bucket of blood help?” Ellsberg asks.

  “I start with blood. I want to test a variety of sounds and scents. If I learn enough we might be able to build a decoy. Say a scent attractor to place it out beyond where the fence teams work. You put a guard watching the attractor and as biters gather he warns the group,” Baker suggests.

  “They do so now, doctor.”

  “They do and are experts at it but based on what happened at Orscheln’s, it might give the team more warning. Those biters were on them before the guards sounded a warning.”

  “Until more people arrive and need certified to carry, Simon and Nick will set up whatever you want to observe outside the fence. You’ll not be allowed outside and never will an undead be brought inside,” Wanikiya says.

  “Acceptable,” Dr. Baker says.

  “I never thought we’d want to attract those damn things,” Ellsberg says.

  “I DON’T GET why you want to spend shoe leather?” Nick shifts into park. It seems to be his assigned task at Acheron.

  “Boss finds hiking is safer and faster.” Barlock rolls down the window and opens the door with the outside handle.

  “The world has lost all ambient noise, kid. The sound of a running engine travels much further than people realize.” Ethan has to scoot to the edge of the tailgate to step down.

  “Why not get some bicycles?” Nick asks.

  “They don’t travel too well over land,” Danziger notes.

  “You can cover three times as much ground on a bike than hoofing it, and even weave around the permanently gridlocked traffic on the interstate,” Tony says.

  “They would weave in and out of abandoned cars with ease, but those same vehicles are ripe for traps. Ride a bike if you want. I prefer to stay off the road,” Ethan says.

&nb
sp; Barlock pours gas into the truck tank from one of the two cans.

  Ethan unfolds and refolds a map before placing it in a waterproof map sleeve for hikers. “Danziger, you follow Highway 100 into Washington. Then from there to I-44, I would run parallel to the road. Keep over land. Prospective assailants are less likely to have booby traps in the middle of a field than in the middle of the road.”

  “You’re the expert. Any other advice?”

  “I travel different paths even when I return to the same location. I don’t trust anyone I find out here. And even then, you witnessed what a second of trust cost me.”

  “You sure you want us to head to the train station first?” Danziger asks.

  “Any survivors from the caravan not knowing Fort Wood is gone will head west. Your friend may be among them. Could be a longer trip to backtrack. We need train info.”

  Danziger nods.

  Kelsey joins him. “We’ll find what you need, Boss.”

  “Don’t let me down, Tony,” Ethan says.

  “I want us to be even.” Tony flashes a gang sign Ethan doesn’t understand.

  Ethan folds another paper map. “Karen. You’re an expert at this.”

  “You’re going to run out of maps if you want us to take a new one each trip,” she says.

  “I’m still interested in hiding our location. New maps have less wear. From my folds a smart someone might figure out the lake location and suspect we have electricity.”

  “I’d miss it,” Kalvin says.

  “I’ll miss you showering, and no beans. His farts are so loud they bring the biters.” Karen smiles.

  Frank does a final check on his medical gear. “Any more advice for us, Ethan?”

  “Every devout group we’ve encountered have been a danger. But so are those not preaching the undead only bite the unworthy. Just be careful. I want this train plan to work.”

  “We’ll make all attempts not to offend the faithful.”

  “Hell, I’ll convert if means not getting bit,” Frank says.