Dead Life (Book 5) Read online

  “Are we okay?” I asked.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Al asked.

  “You haven't said two words to me since we got done eating.”

  “I'm sorry honey. I didn't mean to neglect you.”

  “I'm being serious here. Are you pissed off at me because I saw Cindy in her underwear?”

  “You're kidding me, right? I know you didn't do that on purpose. It's been a hard day.”

  “That's for sure. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

  “Everything's not okay. There's fucking zombies everywhere. Everybody we run across is trying to kill us and one of our group died today. Not to mention Cindy nearly got raped and Gina's dad was shot right in front of her.”

  “You're right. I don't know, it just seems like that sort of shit has become almost normal. You know what I mean?”

  “I understand what you're saying. That doesn't mean it doesn't bother me.”

  “It bothers me too. I feel like I'm shutting down though.”

  “I've seen that happen to guys in combat. They get so used to all the death that surrounds them nothing fazes them anymore. Believe me if you're worried about me being mad at you for looking at Cindy in her underwear you're going to be okay,” he said, then smiled at me. “Just don't make it a habit.”

  “I'll try not to. By the way. How's your back?”

  “My back is fine. I never hurt it. Cindy's a nurse, she likes to take care of me. I gave her something to think about besides all the bad shit that happened to us today.”

  “You surprise me Al. You're just an old softy.”

  “Well I do get a nice back massage out of the deal. Speaking of which, she's waiting for me right now. I need to get in there before she falls asleep. See you in the morning.”

  “Are you sure we don't need anybody out here on guard.”

  “Nah, we'll be fine. The trucks are high enough off the ground that the zombies can't get at us. Lock the doors and keep a gun handy. If someone comes down that road we'll hear them and if anybody comes to the door of the truck, shoot 'em.”

  “Alright then. I'll see you in the morning.”

  When I got in the truck Gina was still awake. I crawled into the sleeping bag and held her in my arms. After a few minutes she fell asleep. Twice during the night she woke me. The first time she was sobbing in her sleep. I woke her up and she told me she was dreaming about her father. In the dream she was a little girl sitting on his lap. A man came up behind him and shot him in the head. She told me his blood was all over her and that when she looked at the man it was Rick. The second time she woke me screaming. This time her father lie dead on the ground, a zombie bent over him eating from his torn open mid-section. When she went to kill the zombie with her sword it looked up. I was that zombie.

  Chapter 2

  Lily slept next to me in the front seat and John was asleep in the backseat of the Ford Explorer we’d commandeered a few hours after we’d left Edgar. I hoped the poor bastard was still alive but it really wasn’t my problem. If you cut to the truth of the matter he’d nearly got us all killed back there. He’d turned out to be kind of a badass for someone that seemed so mild mannered at first. Whatever Edgar had been up too had gotten his wife and daughters killed. Just goes to show looks can be deceiving.

  We had been driving all day stopping only when we needed to fill up on gas and oil. The oil light came on constantly in this old piece of crap we were driving. Fill the tank, add two quarts of oil. When we drove down the road it looked like we were spraying for mosquitoes. Only instead of a white cloud we trailed a thick black cloud behind us. It was a shame the Escalade’s windshield had been shot out by those bastards last night. That would have been a fine ride. Instead here we were in an old Ford, waiting for the engine to explode. I shouldn’t complain. At least we were still alive and making fairly good time.

  It was time to wake these two up. We would have to decide where we would be spending the night. I was in favor of sleeping in the truck. The way things were going at least it would be easier to make a fast escape the next time somebody comes along and tries to kill us.

  “Lily, wake up.”

  “No. Let me sleep a few more days.”

  “It’s almost dark. Do you want to sleep in the car or do you want to find a bed?”

  Lily finally opens one eye and looks at me. “If you find us a bed I promise you won’t be getting much sleep.”

  “Hey. I don’t need to hear that shit,” John said.

  Lily sat up and turned to face John. “Sorry Sarge. I didn’t know you were awake. Did I embarrass you?”

  “I don’t get embarrassed.”

  “Let’s see about that,” Lily said, sliding over next to me in the seat.

  “Captain why don’t you pull over and let me out.”

  “Lily leave him alone,” I said. “The oil lights on already and we’ve still got half a tank of gas.”

  “Shit, it’s getting worse. You should pull over. I’ll add some oil.”

  “Alright. We also need to decide what we want to do tonight. I’m voting for sleeping in the truck.”

  “Fuck that noise,” Lily said. “I need a bed, we need a bed.”

  I stopped and John started to get out. “She’s right but not for the reason she’s thinking about.

  We didn’t get any sleep last night and sleeping in this thing won’t get us the rest we need, sir.”

  I opened my door and got out with John and followed him to the back of the Explorer. “I just don’t want to have to fight our way out of another house. If we’re in the car we have a better chance of avoiding trouble.”

  John opened the back and got out two quarts of oil. “We screwed up last night. No more sleeping on the second floor. Finding that car in the garage was the only thing that saved us. We should find a house with an attached garage to park the truck in. We do that and we’ll be fine. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find a new ride.”

  “I agree,” Lily said, before John could close the back of the Explorer.

  “We all need to relax, sir. The best way to do that is get a good night’s sleep.”

  “John I mean it, I want you to call me by my name.”

  “It’s not easy. I’ve been in the service for a long time. Old habits die hard Tim.”

  “See you can do it.”

  “I’ll put the oil in. Why don’t you go have a look at the map see how far it is to the next town?”

  As soon as I got back in the Explorer Lily was all over me.

  “I mean it Tim. I’m not sleeping in this piece of shit. Whoever owned this thing was a smoker and it stinks like shit!”

  “John already talked me out of sleeping in the truck. We’ll find a house to spend the night in. You know I don’t want to sleep in here anymore than you do. All I want is to find a nice cozy house with a big comfy bed in it, pull the sheets back, the two of us crawl in, snuggle up, and go right to sleep.”

  “If you think that’s the way it’s going to go then you need to rethink that whole scenario.”

  “Why don’t you tell me what you have in mind?”

  “I can hear you out here,” John shouted, from behind the opened hood. “I hope you’re looking at the map while you’re trash talking in there.”

  “We are,” I answered. “Get the map out.”

  “Don’t need to. There’s a town two miles north of here.”

  The hood to the truck slammed shut and John walked over to the driver’s side. “I’ll drive.”

  “That’s okay John. The next town is only a few miles from here. I’ll be fine.”

  He turned away and walked over to the other side of the truck. I wasn’t sure but it sounded like he was mumbling something about letting the two of us get in the back. After that I couldn’t really tell what he was saying but I’m sure it wasn’t anything favorable. I thought to myself that it would be nice to find him some older sex starved lady to come along with us. Kind of even things out. I almost laughed out
loud at the thought of the whole thing. “John meet Mildred. She’s alone, horny, and looking for a crabby old bastard to sleep with. Mildred meet John, the crabby old bastard you’ve been searching for. Have fun you two.”

  John climbed into the truck and I looked at him in the rearview mirror, a big smile on my face.

  “What’s so funny? Did I miss something?”

  “No, you didn’t miss anything. Just glad everybody’s okay, looking forward to a good night’s sleep. All that kind of stuff.”

  “Yeah, whatever. Let’s go.”

  Lily was looking at me kind of funny. I guess, like John, she was wondering what I was smiling about. I just looked over at her, shook my head, and mouthed “I’ll tell you later.”

  This drew an even more confused look from her. “I don’t read lips.”

  “I’ll tell you later.”

  “Tell her what?” John asked.”

  “Just tell me now,” Lilly said.

  “Let it go.” Lily started to say something. “That’s an order.”

  “And that pulling rank crap is bullshit,” she said, turning to look out the side window.

  Every once in a while pulling rank still came in handy.

  Finding a house to stay the night in turned out to be fairly easy. The first likely candidate turned out to be clear with a fully stocked kitchen and a new SUV in the garage. The keys to which were hanging on a peg by the door. After the way things had been going the past few days I felt we were entitled to a little good luck. John obviously didn’t feel the same as I did. He kept looking for something to go wrong. After we got settled in he finally loosened up a bit and was able to relax. Just as we were about to start dinner the sat phone rang.

  “I thought you took the battery out of that thing,” John said.

  “I did but I put it back in a few minutes ago.”

  Lily was closest to the phone and picked it up and brought it over to me. “I think it’s your dad,” she said.

  I looked at the display on the caller ID. “Yeah it’s him.” I sat the phone down and it stopped ringing.

  “Why didn’t you answer?” Lily asked.

  “Because he knows General Simmons will be listening in,” John said.

  “Really? You think so?”

  “Yeah Lily I do. He’s had plenty of time to set up shop. With almost every other form of communication down he’ll have nothing better to do than monitor satellite calls. Besides he knows this number and the number of the phone I sent my dad. I’m sure he’s looking for us. He’ll want to know what happened with Dr. Parks.”

  The phone started to ring again.

  “Just answer it,” John said. “What’s the worse he can do?”

  “Triangulate our position and send a chopper to round us up.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “I’ll tell you why. Because he’s a prick but mostly just because he can.”

  “It doesn’t make sense,” John said. “He has nothing to gain from us. It would be a waste of resources.”

  “He wanted us to bring him the good doctor. We failed. He’ll want to know what happened and want us to try again.”

  “I don’t believe that. If he wants Parks he’s got plenty of other options. Hell they’re sitting off shore on that battleship. If he wants him that bad he can send a Seal unit out after him.”

  “Where would they start looking?” I asked. “We blew up the missile silo, he won’t be there. I guess they could search the woods, but there’s an awful lot of woods to search out there.”

  “That’s exactly my point. The whole thing would be useless. Dr. Parks is in the wind. He could be anywhere.”

  Just then the phone rang again. The caller ID told me it was my dad. If he was still trying to get ahold of me there was probably a good reason. I answered the phone. We only talked for a few seconds. I was actually surprised that he called. He really didn’t have much to say other than they were still headed to Fort Leonard Wood. The only useful information I got was that Simmons was looking for me. The bastard had called my dad’s phone trying to track me down. That left him only one other option. I was taking the back off the phone to remove the battery when it rang again. This time it was a blocked number. I was sure it was General Simmons.

  “Is that your dad again already?” Lily asked.

  “No it’s a blocked number.”

  “You know who it is,” John said. “You should answer it.”

  “To hell with that. I’m done being his errand boy.”

  “We should at least hear what he has to say,” Lily said. “That way we’ll know what to expect.”

  “Do you agree with her?” I asked John.

  ”Yeah, I think so. Find out what he wants. Maybe he’ll give away what he knows about us, if you piss him off enough.”

  Suddenly the prospect of talking to the General didn’t sound so bad. I held the phone out, looked at it for a second, took a deep breath, and pressed the accept button.

  “Madame Wong’s carry-out,” I said in my best Chinese accent. “Today’s special, cream of some young guy. If you no want that we get you an order of who flung poo.”

  Silence from my mystery caller. Lily looked at me with the strangest look on her face. John just shook his head and smiled.

  “What you want? I no have time to play game with you. Many zombies waiting at door. You make up mind, call back.” Then I hung up.

  “What the hell was all that?” John asked.

  “That’s what I call a reverse prank phone call. When I was a kid we used to do that shit all the time to telemarketers.”

  “Reverse prank phone call?”

  “I got busted a few times making prank phone calls. Caller ID took all the fun out of being a kid.”

  The phone started ringing again. I answered right away this time. “You make up mind?” A moment’s hesitation was all it took. “I told you. Call back when ready.” I could hear the General shouting as I hung up the phone.

  I resumed my story. “So anyway, whenever a telemarketer would call the house I would turn the tables on them. You know since they couldn’t really do anything about it just give them a rash of shit then tell them not to call this number anymore. Had a great time doing that. Then my mom got on the no call list. That was the end of my career as a prank phone caller.”

  “I used to love doing prank phone calls when I was a kid,” John said. “Has anyone seen Mike Hunt? Is your refrigerator running? Those were the classics.”

  “Him it doesn’t surprise me,” Lily said, referring to me. “You though Sarge, I’m shocked. A couple of juvenile delinquents, the both of you.”

  The phone rang again. “You are going to have to stop calling this number,” I said, dropping the Chinese accent. “We don’t want any Chinese food. Besides, this is a military frequency. I need to keep this line clear.”

  “Captain Downs, is that you?”

  “Yes sir General. Sorry sir. We have been getting calls from some crack pot trying to get us to order some guy cream or something like that.”

  “Let’s cut the crap Captain.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about sir.”

  “I don’t believe that for a second Captain.”

  “Honestly sir.”

  “That’s enough Captain. In a few seconds a helicopter will be flying over your location. On board is a highly trained Special Forces unit. Whether or not they land and round the three of you up depends entirely on how this call goes from this point forward. Do I make myself clear?”

  I could hear the chopper in the distance. “Yes sir.”

  “For starters I want the full story on what happened with Dr. Parks.”

  “Dr. Parks is dead. Well I think he’s dead. When we got there he had already been infected with the virus. Except he was different from the rest. He was still kind of alive.”

  “What do you mean? If he was infected then he’s dead and of no use to me.”

  “From what he told us.”

&nb
sp; “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he interrupted. “Are you telling me that we now have talking zombies?”

  “Just the doctor, sir. He had one of his assistants keep him alive somehow through the transformation.”

  “So he’s not a zombie then.”

  “He’s a zombie alright. The only difference is he can still talk and think. Other than that he’s just like the rest of them.”

  “Tell me Captain. When you left the missile silo was your whole team together?”

  “Yes sir we did all escape together, but our helicopter crashed the next day. Our pilot died in the crash.”

  “Yes we found the wreckage. Was there anyone else with Dr. Parks when you arrived at the facility?”

  “No just him. He’d already killed everyone else.”

  “Then I’d say it’s safe to assume he’s somewhere in your vicinity.”

  “He’s what?”

  “Yesterday we found one of the jeeps from the medical facility about fifty miles west of your current location.”

  “How do you know Dr. Parks is the one that took the vehicle? It could have been someone else.”

  “From everything you told me it all fits together. The interior of the jeep was covered with blood and my men reported there were body parts littered throughout the vehicle.”

  This was insane. We barely escaped Parks just a few days ago and now here he was, hot on our trail. That is if General Simmons was to be trusted. Why was he accepting my story so easily? At best the scenario was something out of a low budget B horror film. It was hard enough wrapping your mind around the whole zombies taking over the world thing. Now we were throwing in talking, thinking zombies on top of everything else. If I was the General I wouldn’t have believed my story for a minute.

  “Sir if you don’t mind me asking; what do you want from us?”

  “I like that soldier. Straight to the point. I want you to do your duty man. I sent you on a mission and I want it completed.”