Chapter 81
They say you shouldn’t dwell on your mistakes. Well, “they” said that before “they” all died and turned into the unrelenting undead. But that used to be how I operated. I focused on the goal ahead and not on the mistakes along the way. You can’t do that and expect to stay sane. You take the bumps along the road you travel as they come.
Someone needs to keep a level head.
Someone has to lead.
Someone needs to appear like they have all the answers, even now.
I made the biggest mistake by having them come out here with me. Now we’re out in the middle of the country, surrounded by zombies no matter where we go. I wish we had never left Florida. And I keep thinking about how different things would’ve been if we had just concentrated on strengthening the defense of the base. Instead, I left, feeling a sense of duty to find more survivors and discover the fate of the country I loved. It almost got me killed. And for what? America doesn’t exist anymore. And now I have a more important mission than trying to save the remnants of my country.
I have to get myself and my new family back home.
Before my mistake kills us all.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Week Twenty-Five
Kevin was sitting on the couch, trying to plot out their next move. He’d insisted on letting one of the two blondes sleep on it for once; he was sure they’d gotten sick of the floor while he’d been sick. But both of them had refused, saying he needed to be on the couch while he regained his strength. After two weeks of battling a nasty infection, Kevin was finally on the road to recovery, but he wasn’t at full strength yet, and they all knew it.
He knew they were trying to let him rest. But he also knew they were weary and fatigued. Nick had decided to take the night watch, but while Riley slept at his side, he had soon dozed off, as well. So Kevin had grabbed his gun and taken the watch on his own, having not wanted to disturb them. He spent the time planning, carefully trying to analyze their current situation.
The golf course was a good temporary refuge, but they couldn’t remain here much longer. The night before, several of the walking dead had breached one of the back doors, doors that were now blocked off by a large table they’d found. None of them had bothered to clean up the broken glass. It felt like déjà vu to Kevin, who was thrown back to the beginning days at the base, when the undead had broken through the stained glass windows of the church.
He looked back down at the map Nick had pilfered during his supply run yesterday. Kevin had wanted to go with him as back-up, but had been turned down. He’d been told it was so they wouldn’t be leaving Riley alone, but he knew the main reason was because they wanted to be sure he was better. Kevin understood this and knew they were right, but it didn’t help any. He didn’t like letting others do all the work. Nick seemed to have stepped into his shoes with more ease than he would have expected, however. That fact alone was a comfort to Kevin. It was satisfying, seeing the young man become more confident in himself.
A yawn caught his attention, and he glanced over. It wasn’t Nick who had awoken, but Riley. She shifted carefully as she stood, so as not to wake up her boyfriend. She smiled at Kevin as she walked over and sat next to him, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
“Morning.”
“Morning.” Calling it morning was a bit of a stretch, as the sun had yet to peek over the horizon, but the battery-operated wall clock told Kevin it was four a.m. Riley leaned closer to sneak a peek at the map and shot him a questioning look. She traced the route Kevin had outlined on it. Their eyes met again.
“We can’t stay here much longer, you know,” he said, in reply to the unspoken question.
She nodded in agreement, though her brows furrowed as she examined the map once again. He was taken aback by the lack of commentary that he’d come to expect from the former journalist. After a few moments of silence between them, during which they could hear nothing but the haunting, neverending chorus of the undead in the distance, he continued.
“It’s going to take time. The roads, zombies, weather – it’s all going to slow us down. We’ll have to pack up all we can, find us a new vehicle…”
Riley glanced up at him then. “Why? The Hummer works fine.”
“I want as few stops as possible. This trip is going to be risky enough without adding to it. The weather’s going to get bad soon. "It’ll be November before we know it, and we have a lot of ground to cover. So we’re going to have to hurry this road trip along.”
“Road trip?” Nick asked, mid-yawn, as he stretched on the couch. Two heads whipped around in his direction. Neither had seen him wake up. “We’re going back home?”
Kevin simply nodded. He was fatigued and still felt a bit weak, but he didn’t want to tell them. If he did, it would just delay them, and at that point, even a few days’ delay was a risk.
“It just feels like such a waste,” Riley muttered, folding the map up and handing it back to him. Her hands looked in need of something to keep them busy afterward.
Kevin sighed as he looked away from her. He had known this was coming and guessed maybe she’d just been too tired to say something earlier. He was used to her challenging him and had come to expect it since getting to know her. He didn’t mind it. It was simply the type of person she was, very similar to his own self. That goal-driven mindset, that determination to achieve. At times, though, he found it tiring, like he did right then.
“You’re right.” He stared out the window at the stars. He never got sick of the clear view they had of the sky now. It reminded him of his childhood days back in Kentucky, staring up at the sky from his backyard. He’d missed it when his military assignments had taken him to bigger cities, like Tampa. “It is a waste. I wish we’d never come out here.”
“So you think that the rest of America’s like this?” Nick reached for a brush and proceeded to try and comb his hair down.
“It’s clear it spread through the country. I don’t know if there are other survivor camps like ours back home out there or not. Part of me still wants to try and find them if they’re out there. But we can’t try to find out.” He turned to Riley. “You expect us to drive to California?”
Riley stepped back with her hands up in surrender. “I don’t. It’s just frustrating that we went through all this, and we’re not even coming back with any real answers.”
“Frustrating would be an understatement. I just hope the others aren’t paying for my mistake in judgment right now. That they’re still there when we get back home.”
“You don’t think they’ll still be there?”
“Of course they will be.”
Kevin brought his hand up to massage his temple, as a slight throbbing signaled to him what kind of day this was going to be. “I don’t think any of them would try to leave us, but they probably think we’re dead. I would, if I was there. They have no way of finding out otherwise, and we don’t have a way to tell them. The wall may not have worked; they may have had to move on. Or maybe they…” He left the rest unsaid, but both Nick and Riley caught the dark undertones of his message.
“They’re okay,” their perpetually-cockeyed optimist, Nick, said with a smile and confidence Kevin couldn’t quite comprehend. “I just know it.”
***
Several hours later, the sun was high in the sky, though the wind chilled them. The Hummer was parked in front of the first Wal-Mart they had come upon. Packed in the back were the few possessions they had, ready to go into the first vehicle Kevin found acceptable. Of course, they had to also stock up on the basics, so that they wouldn’t have so many stops.
Right then, the three of them stood in the store’s open doorway. It felt odd, being in a Wal-Mart without seeing the oddities of the people within the store. Wal-Mart had once been the Mecca of hicks and white trash, and now it was like everything else: a Mecca of zombies. Nick had his gun ready to go, grinning at Kevin as he got ready to purposely attract attention. This way, there would be less surprise encounters with the ghouls. Riley was loading her gun beside him.
“Hey Kevin, we’re running low on ammo.”
Yet another problem to deal with. He’d have to check the sporting goods section and hope for the best. Surviving would instantly become about ten times harder without guns.
Nick fired a shot off into the ceiling, just to make noise. Kevin gave him a hard look, since they had just been told ammo was becoming scarce.
The smell of the rotting food hit his senses, and he fought the instant urge to vomit. It was going to be like this, no matter where they got supplies. It was easy to forget the rest of the world didn’t have electricity anymore, when the base still had that priceless luxury.
Nick either didn’t notice it, however, or simply ignored it as he sang, “Off with your head! Da-dan-dance-dance till you’re dead!”
A staggering zombie slowly made its way towards them. The decomposition of the undead was increasing, though not at even close to what Kevin would consider a fast enough rate. This one looked bloated, and he wondered if it had rained during his two weeks of “rest.” The zombie had clearly been one of the trashy Wal-Mart type customers, a woman of at least three hundred pounds, wearing a leopard-spotted spandex exercising outfit. Rolls of rotting flesh tufted out between the top and the bottom, maggots thriving happily upon them. Kevin reacted instinctively at the first moan it emitted. A shot was fired and went through the eye dead center. It fell to the ground with a sickening thud.
Riley had grabbed a shopping cart. She thrust it at the next zombie to appear. Nick managed to do a Michael Jackson-esque spin as he fired off a shot at it. That and the cart forced the zombie back against a display of soda bottles. The bullet had slammed through its nose and out the other side of its skull. Soda sprayed everywhere upon impact. Bits of clotted blood, decaying flesh, and bone mixed with the geyser of Code Red Mountain Dew showering the surrounding area.
“Off with your head! Da-dan-dance-dance till you’re dead! It’s close to miiiiidnight, and something evil’s lurking in the daaaark…”
The three of them began to walk forward after Riley took another cart and started pushing it. Immediately, Kevin directed them down the canned food aisle. He looked at Nick curiously. “Okay, I’ll bite – what are you singing?”
Nick stared at him incredulously. “Haven’t you ever seen Glee?”
“No.”
“Okay, I need to find the seasons on DVD up in here.”
Riley laughed. “I love your priorities.”
“Glee must live on! I mean, it’d be like if Kevin said he never saw any of the Harry Potter movies.”
“I haven’t.”
Nick shook his head in severe disappointment. “You’ve been denied so much.”
They headed for the drinks so they could pick up some cases of bottled water. They needed several, as they now had to use it for everything. Kevin sighed; he missed the luxuries they had left behind in Florida.
They turned a corner. Another zombie was standing there, waiting contentedly. This one had no pants, just soiled yellow underwear that revealed a minuscule bulge in the privates area. Its shirt was torn flannel, and a scraggly mullet hung loosely from its skull, as the scalp peeled away. Beetles skittered about its face. Kevin got ready to aim, but Nick shook his head.
“Save the ammo, ‘cause we’re low, right?” He pulled out his axe and grinned at Riley. “Ten points if I can get a hard enough swing for the head to land on the top shelf.”
She laughed. “Twenty if you can get it in the meat department.” She pointed at the counter, several feet away.
Kevin shook his head at the two of them, trying not to chuckle as he tossed some more items into the cart. It was funny how morbid their humor was, but that was just the way they had all learned to cope. It was easier to forget that every zombie they killed had once been a living, breathing, human being, which had, at one point, had a soul. It didn’t bother them as much if they tried to turn it into a game.
Nick ran at the zombie, which let loose an almost deafening moan. He swung hard at the corpse as it slowly slouched toward him. The axe sliced through its neck, causing the head to spin up into the air. As it started to fall, Nick swung the blade yet again at the still-gnashing skull. It was a direct hit, and the head flew across the aisles like an undead kickball. It sailed over the butcher’s counter, and Kevin could hear it hit the ground with a soft thump.
“YES!” Nick fist pumped. “I’m the man!”
Riley giggled as she came up and swatted him upside the head playfully. “The crazy-ass one.”
“Come on, kids.”
They continued picking their way through the store. Once they had stocked up on the dry and canned foods Kevin hoped they could make last for a few states, they decided to go get some new clothes. Kevin took a sniff of his shirt and sighed. It wasn’t the freshest. They’d had to resort to sponge baths again, and their clothes had suffered as a result. He also wanted to grab some jackets, in case they got stranded or stalled due to bad weather. He didn’t know if the other two were thinking of how difficult their journey was going to be, but he was. He knew he’d have to be the one who did most of the thinking.
Riley immediately ran for the clothes, tugging them off the hangers and tossing them into the cart. “Thank God; mine were getting so stiff, they could have stood up on their own. Nasty.”
Kevin and Nick were about to go into the men’s section when they suddenly heard her yelling. “Guys! Come here!”
Thinking the worst, they ran over. But instead, they found her laughing. Her face was turning pink as she continued, trying to pause for air to say why she called for them. Finally, she sighed and led the two men through the lingerie. Nick smirked and, when Riley wasn’t looking, tossed a silky, skimpy, pink number into the cart. Kevin rolled his eyes.
There, in the aisle, once Riley stopped, had to be the strangest image he had ever seen. On one of the motorized scooters Wal-Mart offered was a zombie that had to be at least a good four hundred pounds. Its large, protruding stomach was stuck beneath the handles, keeping the scooter from being able to move. It waved its arms feebly and moaned.
Nick chortled. “That thing is in desperate need of a Stairmaster.”
Taking Nick’s axe, Kevin slammed the blade forcefully into the skull, thus ending the obese corpse’s struggle. Blood sprayed on Nick, and he made a face, taking back the weapon. “Glad we’re getting clothes.”
Kevin nodded. “You two load us up on clothes. I’m going to check sporting goods to see if I can’t find a gun.”
Both were about to open their mouths to protest, but Kevin shook his head. Without a word, that shut them up. Kevin fought back a smirk. It was good to know he was still able to silence those he guided with just the right look. The two blondes disappeared into the clothing department once more, but he could still hear Riley once she discovered Nick’s newest addition to the cart.
“Nick! I am not wearing this.”
“Aww, come on!”
***
As they meandered along the narrow, winding roads of Colorado, Kevin examined the maps again. Nick was driving, as Kevin didn’t trust him quite enough to be the navigator. It was too easy to get lost anymore. There was no music playing just yet, though he knew it was only a matter of time; he had caught Nick stuffing CDs he’d found in a bargain bin into the cart. Kevin feared the day there wasn’t a way to play Nick’s favorite songs. He was sure the man would go into a seizure from that alone.
“Shit!” he heard Riley say, out of nowhere, as she organized their supplies into packs in the backseat.
“What is it?”
“I forgot to check to see if they didn’t have something about Nick’s medication.”
Kevin turned in his seat. “Why?”
“We didn’t bring much with us, and what extra we had was on the plane.”
He saw Nick’s reflection biting his lip in the rearview mirror. He sighed. They had no idea what the medicine was right then, and finding a book to tell them would be difficult. Not to mention, trying to raid a hospital would be suicide. When he had learned of what Nick had done to help him get better, Kevin had immediately reamed him out for such a risky decision. The three had agreed it had been a combination of skill and pure, undiluted luck that had seen Nick through it all right.
“Don’t worry about it,” Kevin finally answered.
“Wait, what?”
“We can’t worry about what we can’t change.” He rubbed his temple again. “We have enough to deal with right now.”
The other two fell silent again, leaving Kevin to his thoughts. He figured he had just shocked them with his answer, but what else could he have said? This wasn’t like before. They couldn’t let Nick be out of commission. All they could do was hope for the best. At least, if he remembered right, the seizures weren’t a common occurrence.
The Hummer slowed to a stop, and Kevin glanced up with surprise. “What is it?”
“Dude, I just found our ride.”
Kevin looked out the window and instantly frowned.
“No.”
“Come on! It’s fucking perfect!”
“I’m not getting in that.”
There, along the shoulder of the highway, sat two luxurious tour buses. On the side, they said: NSYNC + New Kids On The Block! NSYNKOTB 2012. Nick laughed as he read it. Kevin shook his head. Riley snorted.
“Two forgotten boybands trying to reunite for nostalgia. No wonder the world ended. This was a sign.”
“You think they’re still inside?”
“Where do you think they’re gonna go? No windows are broken… doors are shut. I guess they didn’t have ‘The Right Stuff’ to get out of there,” Riley cracked, chuckling at her own cheesy pun.
“Grab the supplies,” Kevin ordered. “We’re going to have to toss them on, then clear it out.” The other two rushed to grab the duffel bags they’d packed with Wal-Mart supplies in the back of the Hummer. Kevin kept a look out, in case they were sniffed out by any roaming ghouls. Once they’d piled their many supply bags by the door of the bus, Riley and Nick nodded at him.
Kevin loaded his gun, and Nick approached the door. He pulled on it gently and was instantly met with the rotting face of Joey McIntyre. He was thrust back by the zombie and struggled to shake it off for a moment before he shoved it back up against the bus. It moaned angrily.
“Heh, he sounds better as a zombie than he did as a singer!”
Kevin shot it in the throat, and it gargled in an attempt to moan, before another shot was fired directly into its skull. It slumped to the ground, and Nick smirked. They carried the bags on, two by two, setting them down in a pile by the driver’s seat. They headed into the bus with their weapons at the ready. The next to run at them was a middle-aged zombie with a head full of braids and beads. It would have been even more pathetic, had the person been still alive.
“Chris Kirkpatrick?” Riley said with surprise. “Ew, you have that hair again…” The zombie rushed at them, and while Riley hesitated with the shot, Nick slammed his axe through the braids and into the skull. Hair flew up around them, and the creature fell.
Nick gazed back at Riley. “Again. How do you know he had that hair before?”
“I grew up in the ‘nineties, okay?”
“You were a fan of ‘NStink weren’t you?!”
“They had catchy music, okay? It was the whole boyband thing… I was a teeny; I didn’t know better!”
“I am so ashamed right now.”
“I can’t believe I’m letting us commandeer a mega-boyband’s tour bus.”
“Just think about how much more comfortable we’ll be. This thing is kick-ass,” Nick replied, with a look around. The bus was huge and appeared to have housed both groups, rather than just one, the way Kevin had assumed. The second bus must have been for the crew. There were plenty of bunks, a kitchenette, and he could see the living room area at the end.
A shuffling sound came from that direction. This zombie opened its mouth, yet didn’t moan even once, though it looked as if it were attempting to. Kevin started laughing. “Wow, he was the one who never sang, and now he can’t even moan.”
Nick laughed. The moment of distraction gave the zombie formerly known as Jonathan Knight the opportunity it needed to grab Nick by the shoulders. Riley shrieked, but there wasn’t enough room to move around them. A shot couldn’t be fired because the likelihood of hitting Nick himself was just too high. Kevin could see him begin to struggle for air, as the rotting hands tightened around his throat. One of Nick’s hands was trying to loosen the grip enough to get air; the other was fumbling for his axe.
While Kevin tried to get to Nick, Riley was left to battle it out with JC Chasez, who must have rolled out of one of the beds. She was slammed back into Kevin, who was forced into Nick. Nick’s hand reached around wildly in the bunks on the side of him for anything useful. It settled on a drumstick. Nick slammed it into Jon’s eye as hard as he could. The stick snapped in half from the force alone, and the boybander fell to the ground.
Riley was still battling the other, struggling more, as she lacked the brawn that Kevin and Nick possessed. Kevin could see Nick’s face go pale. “Rye!”
She ducked from its grip, reaching for a nearby guitar. She brought it down on JC’s head, causing him to fall to the ground for a moment. Riley stepped out of the way to find a better weapon. Before she could, Nick fired a shot off instantly, so that it didn’t even have a chance to rise again. Kevin sighed.
This may not be worth it, he mused. The space is too tight to try and fight in here.
Kevin peeked into the bathroom as they went further in. The undead Donnie Wahlberg rushed at him with only his soiled underwear on. He shook his head and shot him right between the eyes, before the three continued on. Kevin thought he heard something; he turned back to look at the door, but there was nothing there. Not that he would mind if some just left the bus.
They didn’t see any sign of the driver of the bus, which amused Kevin. I wouldn’t have wanted to die with these guys either.
A loud crash brought his mind back to the matter at hand. He kicked himself mentally. He knew better than anyone not to let his mind wander when they had to be on the watch. Kevin found himself being distracted easier than he had been before the infection. He hurried forward to the kitchenette in time to see Nick battling off Joey Fatone. Riley was trying to get in a good shot, but was evidently afraid to fire, in fear of hitting Nick.
“Where did he come from?”
“The fridge, which… I have no idea how he got there… or fit in there… I mean, he was always the Fat One…”
Riley was searching the drawers for a hand weapon, when she spotted the axe swinging from where it always hung at Nick’s waist. She reached for it, but he moved at the last second, and she ended up with a handful of his butt instead. Nick laughed.
“Rye, not the best time!”
“Try to stay still for a second!” Kevin called after them, trying to see if he couldn’t line up the shot himself. But just as Riley had found, it was impossible without Nick possibly getting in the way. It didn’t matter anyway, since Riley finally managed to not only grab the axe, but reach over Nick’s head to slam it into Joey’s. The blade must have just breached the skull, as it slumped up against Nick.
“Um… why don’t we just stay friends there, buddy?” Nick joked, shoving the large corpse off him. It fell to the ground against the fridge, causing spoiled food to topple on top of it. “Just how he wanted to die, I’m sure.”
“You okay, Nick?” Riley asked, trying to sound calm.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine… You know, if I was in a gay-ass boyband, I would’ve been the hot one.”
Kevin chuckled and, maneuvering past the two of them, managed to get further ahead. He looked at the awards on display in the bus and shook his head. It was their tour bus, yet both boybands had felt the need to show off their accomplishments to each other. Pathetic.
He picked up an award off the shelf, an MTV VMAs Moonman. A smirk appeared, as he remembered the days when MTV was actually relevant when it came to music. That had ended long before the dead rose. He went to examine what award it was and who had won it, when a guttural moan reached his ears.
He went to turn, but was slammed up against the wall instead. Bleached blonde hair, unseeing green eyes, and pasty skin loosening from the skull immediately filled his vision. Another groan emerged, as he was hit with the putrid breath of the undead Lance Bass. It jaws were snapping at him angrily, as Kevin tried to shove it off long enough to get a good hit in. He remembered the Moonman he held and swung it up behind the rotting popstar’s head. It smashed into it with brute force, causing the body to fall. Kevin looked back towards Nick and Riley, who had rushed over at the noise.
“See if you can’t get this thing started, Riley. Nick, come with me to make sure no one else is left in here.”
“We need to get the bodies out of here.”
“You’re right, but I think if we stay here too long, we’ll get more visitors.”
The two made their way to the back of the bus and finally entered the small, but luxurious living room area. There was a large couch, a beautiful flatscreen TV and DVD player, and a coffee table. Nick cheered the moment he spotted the DVD player. There was also another reanimated carcass lying in wait for them. It rose, and the two looked into the mutilated face of Justin Timberlake.
Both moved to take him out, but the bus suddenly lurched forward, climbing back onto the road. It jerked all three bodies, forcing Nick and Kevin to grab something to stay steady. The zombie formerly known as Justin just fell towards them.
“He sure ain’t bringing sexy back.”
The bus jerked sporadically again, causing Kevin to fall this time, despite his efforts. Nick tripped back into the wall, but managed to stay standing. Justin moaned in a high-pitched manner, sounding whiny compared to most of the zombies they had encountered.
“What the hell?”
Kevin stood back up, just in time to see Nick punch the zombie dead in the face. It stumbled back to whine again. Nick gave Kevin a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I’ve always wanted to hit this asshole. He annoyed the hell out of me in life.”
“Just kill him so we can figure out why…” The bus stopped suddenly, thrusting them around yet again. “… Riley can’t manage to drive.”
Nick nodded, bringing the gun directly into Justin’s face as he started towards him again. “Hey, hey... Justin… say bye, bye, bye!” The shot went off, and the now-destroyed face of Justin Timberlake fell forward, landing on the ground.
“Was that really necessary to say?”
“Hell yeah! In the movies, they always have that punny dramatic line before they kill pricks like him. Or, ya know, re-kill.”
They rushed back to the front of the bus, not caring that they were traipsing over bodies as they did. The bus started forward again, before stopping yet another time. Nick tripped over the fallen body of JC and tumbled into Kevin’s back. Kevin grabbed one of the bunks for balance, and the two righted themselves again. Once at the front, the two discovered the reason for Riley’s sporadic driving: On the windshield was the disfigured body of Jordan Knight. No matter how she tried to throw him off, the size of the bus made it hard to maneuver fast enough to toss him.
Kevin nodded at Riley, and she let him get behind the wheel. He started messing with the switches and smirked once he found the one that controlled the windshield wipers. They hooked onto the body, dragging it back and forth across the windshield, brownish-red blood streaking the glass. The zombie slammed its hand against the window as it moaned in protest. Finally, it fell off.
“HA! Not ‘Hangin’ Tough’ now, are ya?” Nick quipped, laughing at his pun.
Kevin switched seats with Riley, and she started driving the large bus once again. She glanced over at the two men as it slowly began to pick up speed. “You know, we might have to take side roads if we keep this thing. The highways may be too clogged up to try and squeeze through.”
Kevin nodded. “Right.”
Nick glanced out into the large side mirror, where he could see a zombie attempting to chase them in full pursuit. His eyes widened slightly in recognition. Kevin looked over at him.
“What is it?”
“Nothing – we just forgot one.”
Riley glanced into the rearview mirror with a smirk. “Eh, it's okay; no one remembered that one even when he was alive.”
Their laughter was what carried them as they finally started the journey back home.
