Chapter 27
Jimbo guided Fred towards suburbia; a car sped by as they had left the parking lot, a few minutes and a block later another car sped by in the pre-dawn light. Jimbo thought a minute, he was not really that good at thinking just yet, it took effort and usually required that he stop moving. After figuring out that two cars went by, well maybe if that bitch Nancy and the gang were not dead, and he could feel it in his bones that she was not, they might, just might come looking for him. After all they only went back to the building for Fred in the first place. Jimbo pushed Fred faster along the sidewalk, following it as it became a bike path. He peeked out the other side and spotted where the path diverged into two directions, one path led towards more office buildings and stores, the other looked to run between two houses into a residential area, about a quarter mile away. Jimbo shrugged his cold shoulders and said, “I’m a little stiff this morning.” Laughing a dry, husky laugh he grabbed Fred by the hand and pulled him towards the houses as fast as he would go.
Surprisingly no four wheel drive suburban jumped onto the bike path to run them down, the most excitement they had was when they flushed a rabbit out of the bushes. Once they were in among the houses Jimbo stopped to evaluate the situation. The first couple of houses had broken windows, even a corpse in the back yard. No good. He needed something still locked up. 'Kind of like a Twinkie.', he thought, 'If you can see the cream filling it probably means someone else has already bitten into it.' So he had to find the Twinkies that were still all yellow. He scanned the houses from the back, looking, looking, yes; there were several options, almost a six pack of them in visible range. That one, the one with all the kid toys scattered all over the yard. That meant mom and dad had a kid, more than one to look at the place. Jimbo felt a momentary twinge of guilt, then it passed, after all a man’s gotta eat. Anyway a mom, a dad and two kids? Maybe three? Maybe they were Mormons or Catholics, four kids? Oh yes the day could hardly get better than that, he led Fred up to the gate surrounding the house and pushed on it, it was locked. He could not get it open, 'Stupid, fucking gate!' he thought as he moved Fred next to the fence. He pushed Fred onto the ground, where he immediately started to get up again, but Jimbo was faster he hopped onto the other zombie's back and tilted himself over the fence. Then he turned and opened the gate and grabbed Fred who had gotten to his feet again.
Pulling the gate shut he latched it, no need to make it easier for anyone else after all. He led Fred up to the back patio door and tried to open it. It was locked. This delighted him. Locked doors met someone had locked them. He looked around and saw a flat cinder style block under the water faucet near the house. Fred was wandering the back yard and Jimbo reflected that it was good that he had latched the gate after all. He reached the faucet and pulled up the stone, then brought it back to the patio door where he threw the rock through the window. Then he reached through the glass to unlock the door. In he went, the glass crutching under his reliable old work boots. He heard movement upstairs and smiled, the Twinkie had not been bitten into by anyone else…
Chapter 28
Nancy and the girls circled the business park in the van several times and found no sign of Fred or Jimbo. Nancy was becoming increasingly irritated at their lack of results and was not paying attention when they turned a corner a little too sharply and hit the corner of a purple-ish Hyundai which seemed to be parked in the middle of the street. The Van lurched sideways and over the rear bumper of the smaller car before righting itself and barreling into another car near the median of the road. Nancy took a hard punch to the chest as she slammed into the steering wheel, the other girls were pulled forward into their seat belts before the van stopped completely.
“Fuck. Yeah, fuck. Well it was not that much faster anyway, all these dumb fucking cars everywhere. I mean did all the zombies decide, ‘Hey lets go grab the people in cars’? Dummies. Out girls I need protein now and V is still looking famished, lets head for the houses over there and see what we can find.”
The gang stumbled out of the van and into the suburban neighborhood where Nancy was happy to see the power was still on. As they stood at the end of a driveway the garage door started opening, not one to waste an opportunity, Nancy motioned to Trish and Julie to get into the garage while she and V moved sideways off the driveway. The opening door was stopped as Trish scampered under the door and broke the connection between the electric eyes designed to prevent the door from squishing small children, pets and do it yourself garage door hangers.
“Oh good God Trish, that was a brilliant move!” she whispered, “C’mon V, we gotta get in there and help if we need to.”
They moved up, following Julie under the door, which was stopped about two feet off the ground. Trish had a passenger side door open and was pulling a screaming woman out of the car by her hair, a man in the car had a handgun and as they watched he pulled the trigger several times, hitting the woman and Trish, nothing fatal for Trish and Nancy hoped the same could be said for the woman. Two kids, in car seats strapped in the back were screaming, “Mommy! Mommy! Mommeeeeeeiiiiiiii!” Nancy approached the driver’s side door and wretched it open, surprisingly it was not locked. She lurched in and grabbed the man’s arm just below the elbow, then brought it forward into the steering wheel hard enough to shatter his wrist. The man punched her in the face, hard. Nancy staggered back, but, as always V had her back and stepped in and clocked the man with a punch of her own, sending his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Nancy got up and told Trish, “Finish that bitch Trish, all the way, no keepsies, share her with Julie.” Turning to Veronica, she said, “Well V, it is your lucky day, I get him, you get the kids, okay dear?” Grunting with effort she pulled the man out of the Subaru and lowered him onto the ground, where to start?
She started on one arm, the non-broken one, the man regained enough consciousness to start to struggle again, and when he eyes took in the scene of his garage he almost got away. However when the first of his children stopped screaming “Mommy!” the fight went right out of him and Nancy was able to enjoy her meal more. She made sure to tell V not to make any zombie babies either, before she drank in the last essence of the man she had. She gorged herself on him and the other were done long before she was, she stood up and looked at her posse, once again all restored to almost full health and beauty marred only by their distended bellies. Veronica looked sullen and pouty.
“What? Out with it V.”
“That was fucked up, eating kids, I mean I am a fucking monster!”
“You didn’t have to eat them, you could have gone without, your choice. Don’t get all moral on me now missy. In for a penny, in for a pound.”
“Stop that, stop it. These could have been OUR kids! You have kids? I don’t. Julie? Trish? None of us?” Veronica let out a sharp, ironic laugh, “What a bunch we make, designed to give life only to be the ones who end it even for the smallest child.”
The three other women did not share Veronica’s view point, that much was obvious from the way they were looking at her. Veronica could see any more comments would be more nails in her coffin and said bitterly, “Alright, I can see I am not going to win anything with any of you. I give in, but I don’t want to eat any more kids or babies.” Turning towards Nancy, “Is that okay with you?”
Nancy weighed the options a bit, she knew she could still reasonably force Veronica to do whatever she wanted, but she would rather have her as a willing partner than an unwilling one, so she said, “V, you are right. I am sorry and I won’t force you to do that again. I won’t force you to eat anyone you don’t want to eat. You know we can’t let them go though, right? I mean if we come across more families and the choice is to kill them or leave the kids alive, we will kill them all, right?”