Vaccination - 01 Read online

  Dave cursed at me, but he was motivated. He moved his brother’s body into the passenger seat. It took some doing, but he did it, and then he climbed over him and into the driver’s seat. “We’re not going to get very far with a flat tire.”

  “We’ve got to get further away from here, at least,” I said.

  Allison, at some point must have grabbed my hand. I realized it now as she squeezed it a little too tight. “I don’t like this,” she said.

  Sign of the times, I wanted to say. I didn’t. It had not dawned on me until this point. I was worried about surviving the elements, not starving, getting somewhere zombie-free. Never had it crossed my mind, and it should have, holy fuck it should have, to fear other non-infected people.

  There would be thieves and robbers, pirates and bandits, gangs and murderers . . . the streets would be dangerous night and day. From the living and the living dead. There would be no peace. No sanctuary from evil.

  Evil would pulse like a heartbeat, thrive like its own virus. “Get us out of here, Dave.”

  “I’m trying the best I can,” he said.

  A bullet ricocheted off the trunk. “Try better,” I said.

  Then the rear window exploded as a rain of bullets pinged and ba-chonged off the car.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The bullet that killed Josh had been a chest shot. He must have died fast. I’d wager painless. I’d never been shot, and never died, so painless is relative.

  Dave did the best he could. He drove all over the place, making lefts and rights. He managed to get the three of us out of there, out of harm’s way. We wound up on Ridge Road at Fetzner. A hotel to our left, a Five Guys on the right. The mall was further west, past the Five Guys. My apartment was to the left. East of the expressway.

  I was anxious to get to my apartment. I knew my kids would be there. Waiting. Scared.

  Charlene had a key. Cash did too. But I knew Charlene kept house keys on a Miami Dolphins lanyard, one I’d bought for her years ago. It was our team. Cash wasn’t big on football yet. He liked baseball though. His lanyard was a New York Yankees one. He loved it. But he lost it. Regularly.

  Dave stopped in the Marriott parking lot. They called it the Airport Marriott. Airport wasn’t anywhere near Greece, or Ridge Road. It was miles south off Interstate 390, but whatever.

  “Dave,” Allison said. I climbed out of the back seat. I opened the passenger door. Carefully I lifted Josh out, set him on the pavement and stared at his lifeless eyes.

  “Josh,” Dave said. I looked into the car. Dave had a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel. His head banged against the headrest, once, twice. The third time he slammed it back. “Get out of the car, Allison.”

  “Dave, what are you doing?” I said.

  “Watch my brother,” he said. “Don’t you dare leave his body here.”

  “Dave,” I said.

  “I’m going back. I’m going to kill those bastards. Every one of them.”

  “Dave, we don’t know where they were. We don’t know where they were shooting from.” I didn’t have a good feeling. I sensed it. What was coming.

  “Allison, I said get out of the car, out!”

  “Come on, Alley,” I said.

  She moved slow. One hand on her head. She was not well. The car accident we’d been in had shaken her up. I knew we’d both be sore in the morning. No way around that.

  “Dave, if you leave, you are leaving Josh. Because Allison and I, we’re not staying here. We’re not going to wait for you to get back,” I said.

  “You can’t just leave his body here,” he said. “That’s my brother.”

  “Your brother would not want you to do this, David. He’d not want you to go back there and get yourself killed.”

  “He’d want me to kill those fuckers.”

  “I’m sure he would,” I said, “but not if he knew you’d die doing it. He wouldn’t want you to die, to get killed.”

  “Put him back in the car. In the back,” Dave said.

  There were a lot of cars in the hotel parking lot. This car had flat tires. Lots of cars also meant, lots of guests. Lots of guests meant the inside of the hotel had to be crawling with zombies. I didn’t want Dave getting so excited he made a lot of noise. Attracting attention was the last thing we needed.

  “Dave, if you had been shot and killed--”

  “I wasn’t shot and killed!”

  “Just listen to me, all right? Hear what I’m saying. If you had been shot and killed, would you want Josh to go back there and kill those guys for you, to avenge you?”

  “Yes.”

  I shook my head. “No you wouldn’t. You would know that if he went back, he’d get killed, too. You wouldn’t want that to happen. Him to get killed just to avenge your death in a no-win situation like this. Would you?”

  “Would I what?” Dave said.

  He might be confused. But he was listening. Meant a part of him was at least trying to rationalize what to do next. What would be the right next move.

  “You wouldn’t want Josh going back there to die.”

  “Of course I wouldn’t,” he said. “He’s my brother. I’d want him to be safe. If he went back there to kill them, he’d end up getting killed. Then we’d both be dead.”

  I kept quiet. Dave was working this out in his head. I think it was all starting to make sense. He didn’t need me pushing and prodding his brain. He’d get there. He’d reach the conclusion I’d been attempting to draw for him.

  Dave went silent. His head lowered so that his chin touched his chest. “What are we supposed to do now?”

  Get my kids was what I wanted to say, to scream. “We find someplace special to place your brother.”

  The cemetery was just kiddy-corner to where we were, go figure. Ridge Road Cemetery. It was on Ridge and Latona. We had the tools.

  I never liked funerals. Burials. Today I was burying two people. People who, in the short course of time, had become friends. It was the circumstances. In a million lifetimes, our paths might never have crossed. But for the last few days, Josh was more than just a guy.

  “We’ll carry him over to the cemetery,” I said.

  Dave looked where I pointed. “We could do that,” he said.

  “Ah, Chase,” Allison said.

  I stood up. I’d been right. The hotel had a zombie infestation. Or did. Looked like they were filing out of the hotel’s automated doors.

  “Are you going to be okay to run?”

  Allison nodded. “I will.”

  “Dave, we need to get out of here. I’m going to put Josh back into the car.”

  “We’ll drive to the cemetery,” Dave said.

  No point arguing. I lifted Josh by under the arms. Grunting, I positioned him so that his head went into the car. “Got to help me, Dave,” I said.

  Dave leaned over. Grabbed onto his brother and pulled as I worked to get his legs into the vehicle.

  “Chase,” Allison said.

  “Get back in the car,” I told her. It did not seem like a safe ride. If it still drove, it would get us away faster than running. Possibly.

  “We need to go, again, Dave.”

  He saw them then. “They are all coming out of there? The hotel.”

  “Looks that way.”

  Dave shifted the car into drive, and on two flats, we limped back onto Fetzner.

  “Got to do me a favor, Dave, a huge favor.”

  He didn’t look at me. He kept his eyes on the road. He kept his hands on the wheel.

  “I need you to get me to my apartment. It’s less than a mile. It’s right past that plaza down there. Past the Toys R Us.”

  “I know where Stone Road is,” he said, “and we’ll get there, after we bury my brother.”

  Allison was on her knees. She stared out the back . . . could not say window. There was no glass left. She watched as the zombies that had been converging on our car, now aimlessly milled about since we’d left.

  None of them had been fast z
ombies. Had they of been, I don’t think this badly disabled wreck would have gotten us far before getting overpowered.

  Rubber was off one of the tires completely. The sound of metal on asphalt was dangerously loud. We weren’t going to make it further than the intersection. And Dave was not making a left on Ridge. He was headed straight to where Fetzner turned into Latona.

  “Dave, please.”

  “Help me bury my brother,” he said. “Don’t make me do this alone. Don’t make me drive around with his body in the car. I can’t do that, man. I want to help you. I want to see you get back together with your kids. We’re going to Mexico, right? I’m in. I want to be a part of that. But, please, don’t let me bury my brother all by myself.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The car was done. Had it. Finished. The rims rolled on pavement. Didn’t matter. From where I stood on Latona, it was clear even an SUV would never make it traveling up and down Ridge Road. It was congested as fuck.

  Dave threw Josh over his shoulder. Allison and I followed with the weapons. The cemetery gate was open. We walked on in.

  I was anxious. Any spot of grass looked good to me. “What about here,” I said, pointing.

  “I think under a tree would be better,” Dave said.

  Allison touched my arm. It was meant to quiet me. I worked. Instead of talking, I ground my teeth. Felt muscles tighten in my jaw.

  Dave walked to the center of the cemetery -- it was not a big burial ground at all. Less than a street block. Place was old. Full, mostly. But it was peaceful, too, despite the main road traffic on two of its four sides.

  I dug the shovel blade into the ground. Stepped on the rim.

  Dave put up a hand. “I’ll dig this one.”

  I nodded, pushed the handle toward him, and walked to stand near Allison.

  “What time you think it is?”

  “No idea,” she said. “Eight? Nine o’clock? Midnight? Not a clue.”

  I closed my eyes and pressed a fist to my forehead.

  “What?”

  “I had my phone charging in the Lexus.” My phone, the charger . . . gone.

  “Chase, I’m sorry.”

  I wanted to say we’re going back. That I need to get my phone. That would not go over well. Not after my speech to Dave. He’d never understand the difference. Maybe there wasn’t one. “I’m fucked, Allison. If my kids aren’t at my place, if they aren’t there waiting for me, I’m fucked.”

  “Don’t say that. We’re going to get through this.”

  She didn’t get it. I wasn’t going to argue with her. If my kids weren’t at my place, I give up. I’ll totally surrender. Because this life wasn’t worth a shit before. Without my kids though? It’s not even comprehensible why I’d consider staying. She did not need to know that. Not yet. I knew it. It was all that mattered.

  There was nothing more to say. I had a plan. Find my kids and get us all to Mexico, or bust.

  Dave was a beast. I leaned my back against the tree. I felt helpless watching. I wanted to help. Dave didn’t need it. He removed chunks of hard earth with determination, and precision. He’d outlined a rectangle and was now diligently scooping out the center.

  It would not take him long.

  Allison grabbed my arm, pointed.

  The shoveling was a steady noise. The shovel striking earth, scraping rock, dirt landing in a pile.

  With no cars. No horns. No anything -- Dave might as well have been a police siren screaming.

  “Dave, hold up,” I said.

  Three zombies were in the cemetery. They ambled over our way. I looked around the tree. There were more. Outside the fence, groups roaming aimlessly about. They bumped into things.

  All of them seemed slow.

  It was too dark to make out much. The streetlights were on. Must have been timer activated. “We’ve got to be quiet,” I said.

  “Dave,” Allison said.

  I turned around. Dave had stormed off. He held the shovel like a baseball bat. He went at all three zombies.

  “Shit,” I said, “stay here.”

  I snatched Allison’s hedge trimmers and followed after Dave.

  Dave took a batting stance feet from all three of the zombies. He had earned their interest. They moved closer, one sluggish foot-dragging a step at a time.

  He did not wait.

  Before I reached him, his back-up, he’d swung. A head flew off the one zombie on his right. The body stood, arms outstretched for a long five-second count, before toppling over. In those five seconds, Dave had destroyed the remaining two creatures. He drove the shovel blade into the throat of the one standing in the center, and then spun to his right, full circle, and slammed the side of the shovel into the skull of the zombie on his left.

  Once that last zombie fell, Dave used the shovel the way a shovel was intended to be used and dug off the creature’s head, stepping onto the shovel rim with all his weight until the zombie was fully decapitated.

  I stopped a few feet behind him, bent over, hands on my knees. “We need to get out of here,” I said. I whispered. Dave handled these three fine, but the sheer numbers surrounding us was not on our side. The more I looked around, the more I was noticing -- like looking up at a night sky and not seeing a single star, but then all at once you realize the entire sky is starlit. Only, this was way different. “I mean now.”

  “I have to finish burying my brother,” he said.

  “I get that, Dave. We’ll come back. Nothing is going to disturb him where he is. He’s actually safer than we are. But us,” I pointed at him, at me, back at him, “we’re in some shit here. We have no car. Once those walkers realize we’re here -- once they smell us, we’re fucked. Okay? Fucked.”

  Dave walked at me. His chest in my face. “Go if you want. I’m finishing the job.”

  He’d kept his voice down, but the anger and disappointment were clear. Not hidden at all. “Dave,” I said.

  “You don’t get it, do you, Chase? You’ve made these last few days all about you. Where you need to go. What you need to do. I get it, man. I got it. Your kids are important to you. They became important to us. All of us. Even Jason was on board. But you didn’t see it. Never saw it. Thought everyone was against you. Or that every one of us was some kind of obstacle bent on preventing you from saving your kids. Even the way you treat Allison,” he said.

  “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” I said between grit teeth. My eyes couldn’t have been open more than narrow slits. I felt my face grow hot, hotter.

  “You think I’m just some adult dummy, some retarded guy that has to have his brother looking out for him all the time. You might even be right. I suck at math, keeping a job, getting by at most regular things that people like you take for granted, but you know why Josh always had my back? Because if anything, I know people. I have . . . had a ton of friends. Good friends. The reason for that wasn’t because they felt bad for me, because I was slow, it was because I knew what it meant to be a friend. To put other people’s needs before my own, assface. I think once you figure that out, you won’t be such a dick all the time. You might even start to figure out who you really are. I think I caught a glimpse of you here and there. You’re not that big a dick. Be nice to see someday, to meet the real you. Now, excuse me, I’m headed back that way.”

  His forearm swept me aside, and he walked back toward the tree, toward Josh’s corpse, and to where Allison stood with arms folded. She’d been watching the exchange, no doubt. She’d want to know what was said. Someday, if we got out of this, I might even tell her.

  We knelt around the shallow grave. Dave was a mess. His tears streamed freely. He made no move to wipe them away. Somehow, we’d managed to dig quietly for the better part of an hour. The roaming zombies stayed outside of the fenced area. At one point, Allison took out a female monster with her hedge clippers. Stabbed it through the chest, and then spread the blades wide like the jaws on a shark before taking of its head.

  “My brother
could have done a lot with his life. Could have been anything he wanted. I held him back. Because of me, he sacrificed all he could have had. I told him all the time how much I appreciated everything he did for me. I never let a day go by that I didn’t thank him for sticking by me, and he’d punch me in the arm, and,” Dave stopped, lowered his head. He brought an arm up and dropped his eyes onto the sleeve. “He’d punch me in the arm, and he’d tell me he loved me. He always told me he loved me.”

  It got me. His love. His openness about the love they had. It hit me hard. I closed my eyes. I felt like I’d been spying on an intimate and private moment between family. I didn’t belong. Dave made it clear to me, and I realized now how right he’d been, that I was an outsider. Selfish. A dick. This wasn’t about me. I was in it. But it wasn’t about just me. I’d made it that way. Made it appear that way.

  “I love you, Joshua. I miss you already. I still want you to be here. I don’t want you to be gone,” Dave said.

  Allison moved closer, put a hand on Dave’s shoulder. It was all the initiative he needed. He pulled her in tight. His arms wrapped around her. He had his face buried in her neck. I could hear the both of them crying.

  And being the dick that I am, that I still am, I felt left out. This was Dave’s moment. Dave’s time, and I felt left out.

  My apartment was just east of the I-390 overpass. We couldn’t have been more than a quarter of a mile away. We were spent. We had nothing left to give. Walking even a quarter of a mile seemed an impossible task.

  Dave and Allison sat leaning against the tree until they fell asleep, and I let them sleep. I kept watch.

  For whatever reason, not one zombie entered the cemetery all night. Perhaps the smell of death permeated from the ground. Maybe that dissuaded their attention.

  I fisted a small handful of loose dirt. “I don’t know if you’d want this, but I’ll keep an eye on Dave for you,” I said, and sprinkled the dirt back in place over Josh’s grave. “I’ll do my best to see that he gets through this. He’s a pretty good guy. He’s taught me some shit. It isn’t so much a favor to you, or to him as much as I like the guy. I don’t deserve him as a friend, but, in time, I hope to. To be worthy of that.”