“Morgan,” the man said in a heavy accent.
Victor looked to the side and walked out of view. Kyle pointed down to where the remaining bits of Morgan’s body lay.
Machete Man sighed. “Wait der.”
“I have nowhere else to go,” Kyle replied in a low voice.
The three of them entered the house with their guns drawn. A few shots were fired, followed by heavy heaves of machete hitting bone. Not two minutes passed when Ricardo and Machete Man walked out of the house carrying a two-storey ladder. Virginia followed with her weapon still drawn. After she realized there was no longer a threat, she let the rifle swing around her shoulder by the strap.
The two men began to unlock the ladder, making it long enough to reach the top. All the while, they spoke to each other in Spanish.
“Aqui,” Machete Man said. “No quiero molestar el cuerpo de Morgan.”
The two men began to set up the ladder a good ten feet away from where the body of Morgan lay.
Kyle began to go down the ladder, telling Victor to follow him. The boy didn’t listen. “Come on, Victor. It’s time to go.”
Victor stood and walked toward the ladder. He peered over the ledge and saw the remains of his mother. “Would I survive if I jumped?”
Kyle looked above him quickly. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“If I jumped, would I survive?”
“Stop talking like an idiot and come on.”
“What if I jump?”
“Then I’ll kick your ass for jumping when I reach the ground. It’s a two-storey drop, you’ll survive.”
The thought of jumping did cross Victor’s mind, but something else did. He began thinking of what his mother would say about his thoughts. Nothing. His mother was dead.
“Come on,” Kyle said as he continued to descend the ladder.
Victor turned and put his foot on the ladder step. He began to climb down.
Kyle reached the ground and was searched by Ricardo.
“What the hell are you doing?” he said looking at the tall man.
“Searching you. We don’t know who you are. All we see is the eaten remains of our friend and you,” Ricardo said, his brown eyes completely focused at what he was doing.
Virginia had her weapon trained at Kyle as Victor stepped off the ladder. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Are jou Bictor?” Machete Man asked.
Victor nodded with a stern expression on his face.
“Este es el hijo de Morgan,” Machete Man said to Ricardo, who had taken the Glock away from Kyle. That was the only weapon he could find on him.
“What happened to Morgan?” Virginia asked as Ricardo gave the signal that meant Kyle was clean.
“Last night we were going to bed. The streets started to fill with them. Sometime during the night they came into the house.”
“How did they get into the house? We secured it so they couldn’t get in.”
“They broke in through the window.”
All of them stared in the direction of the window. The broken glass littered the ground below. They didn’t understand how they could have not noticed that before.
“I guess the mustard doesn’t work anymore,” Virginia said, looking at Ricardo.
“God, these fucking things are morphing way too fast. As soon as we find one thing that works against them, they turn and it no longer matters,” Ricardo said, clearly agitated.
“What are you talking about?” Kyle asked, trying to get some questions answered.
“Cuidado,” Machete Man said. “Careful.” He stood motionless after telling Ricardo to be careful. The man was on the shorter side and a little soft around the edges. His shaved head seemed to glow in the sun’s rays.
“Careful? About what?” Kyle said, getting tired of secrets.
Machete Man sighed. “Kyle, si?”
“Yeah, I’m Kyle.”
“I’m Ignacio. Do jou know what’s happening to the Existing Dead?”
“I don’t have a fucking clue. I’ve been watching them ever since they fell to the ground a day or so ago. There’s so much crap going on and no one seems to know what’s happening to them.”
“Kyle, please,” Ignacio said with a slight grin. “They’d been doing dat for about a week now. I’m surprised jou’ve only see them do dat since yesterday. Come here.” He turned to face the door of the house. “You see der?” He pointed to a few flowerpots that were near the door and windows.
“They’re just potted plants. Mustard I think it is.”
“Si, Kyle. Dey don’t go near the mustard. Dey don’t like it. Dat’s why dey never enter this house. This is why it was a safe house.”
“So you’re telling me that these things came back to life and started eating everyone, but mustard makes them sick?”
Ignacio nodded. “We think is because the color. They have bery good night visions.”
“It did at least,” Ricardo said.
“Why?”
“Why did the dead decide to come back to life? We don’t know. All we know is that it worked and now it doesn’t,” Virginia added.
“Do you at least know why most of them don’t come out in the sunlight?” Kyle asked.
“Der changing,” was all that Ignacio said before walking down to the sidewalk. “Come, we go to Embassy. Many questions, doctor have answers.”
“Okay,” Kyle said. “We’re not all gonna fit in my truck. You can ride up front with me and everyone else can go in the bed.”
Kyle walked toward his truck, avoiding the bodies on the ground, and reached into his pocket for the keys. As he approached, he noticed a large puddle of black liquid dropping from under the pickup. He looked closer at the front bumper. Three large bullet holes stared back at him like dark hollow eyes.
“You shot my truck,” he said.
“Dats okay, we can walk,” Ignacio replied.
“Yeah that’s great, but how the hell am I going to get to California?”
“You’re going to California?” Virginia asked.
“I have someone waiting for me there.”
Victor snickered.
“You know it’s a thousand times worse there than here, right?”
“Yeah. That’s why I need to know everything I can before going there. I’ll need transportation now.”
“We have a ton of cars at The Embassy. You can take one of those,” Ricardo said.
“Victor, help me carry some of this stuff,” Kyle said opening the door. He grabbed the robot backpack and flung it over his shoulder, then reached for the bloodstained Winchester. Victor opened the passenger side door and began grabbing anything he could.
“Let’s go,” Ricardo said.
Kyle used his hips to close the door to his truck and kissed it goodbye. That truck had been very good to him over the years. He was sad to finally have to see it go.
The five survivors studied the road in front of them. With Ignacio leading the way, they began their journey to The Embassy.
Chapter Twenty-Four
They had only been walking for a few minutes when Victor opened a bottle of water and chugged it down in three gulps. The Nevada heat was really starting to kick in.
“It’s hot. Wasn’t it just raining a day ago?” Victor said.
“Did you just move to the desert, kid?” Kyle said.
“Shut up.”
They continued walking with Ignacio taking point, followed by Ricardo and Virginia on opposite sides of Victor and Kyle. Everyone was silent, slowly walking out of the small neighborhood.
“Where do they go?”
“What?” Virginia said.
“The Existing Dead, where do they go during the daylight?”
Virginia and Ricardo both stopped walking. They turned to face Kyle and pointed to one of the houses with a large window. Kyle and Victor squinted at the glass until their vision began to focus.