Apocalypse Asunder Read online

  Apocalypse Asunder

  By David Rogers

  Apocalypse Asunder

  Copyright © 2014 by David Rogers

  [email protected]

  All rights reserved

  Cover Copyright © 2014 David Rogers

  All rights reserved

  Cover Art created by Jeanine Henning

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you’re reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased or lent for your use, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of original fiction. Some real locations and businesses have been used to set scenes, but all such trademarks are the respective property of their owners. All depicted characters are fictional and not intended to represent specific living persons.

  Table of Contents

  Foreword

  Chapter One – Moving Day

  Chapter Two – Winter is Coming

  Chapter Three – Surprise

  Chapter Four – Good Fences

  Chapter Five – Road Trip

  Chapter Six – Gas and Go

  Chapter Seven – Best Laid Plans

  Chapter Eight – The Waiting is the Hardest Part

  Chapter Nine – Pit Stop

  Chapter Ten – Now what?

  Chapter Eleven – On the road again

  Chapter Twelve – Moving on up

  Chapter Thirteen – Strange Neighbors

  Chapter Fourteen – Now it feels like home

  Afterword

  Foreword

  Zombies

  Chapter One – Moving Day

  “Mom, your hair is still crooked in the back.”

  Jessica set the box of food next to the other one in the back of the SUV, then turned with a smile and swept her daughter up in a hug. “Ooof, you’re getting so heavy.” she said as Candice giggled and draped her arms around her mother’s neck.

  “And my hair is crooked because neither you or Austin know how to cut straight.” Jessica added as she bent her face close, rubbing her nose across Candice’s a few times to punctuate her words.

  “I tried.” Candice protested, still giggling.

  “I know Candy Bear. It’s just something I’m going to have to put on the list to teach both of you.”

  “Teach both of us what?” Austin asked as he emerged into the garage carrying a backpack.

  Jessica swiveled slightly and shifted Candice, so they both could see the man better. Candice really was getting heavy, she had to be nearly eighty pounds now. Before much longer she’d be too big for Jessica to pick up, even though her sprained knee was fully healed. Even now she could only hold her up with Candice helping to hang on.

  “Teach you and the giggler here how to cut hair straight.” Jessica told him.

  “Hey, I was shot you know.” Austin grinned as he walked gingerly to the SUV.

  “Still milking that one for all it’s worth.” Jessica sighed, rolling her eyes dramatically at him.

  “Twice, plus the ribs. Don’t forget the cracked ribs.”

  “You’re tough.” she sniffed. “If you weren’t going to make it, you wouldn’t have by now.”

  “Just because I’m healing doesn’t mean it feels good. Tough guys can’t cry when it hurts?” he demanded cheerfully.

  “Everyone cries.” Candice said, her voice so matter-of-fact it momentarily startled both adults into silence. The girl looked from Jessica to Austin, then back to Jessica again. “I mean, don’t they?”

  “They do.” Jessica confirmed, though she kept her tone light. She had resolved to not place the burden of her sorrow on Candice, and was determined to keep that silent promise. No matter how much it hurt sometimes. “But some tough guys enjoy crying a little too much.” she continued, sticking her tongue out at Austin as she covered the dark thoughts swirling behind her impish manner.

  Austin shook his head sadly. “Still enjoying this I see.”

  She smiled at him, unrepentant. “I need to enjoy it while it lasts. Soon you’ll be back together and I won’t have any advantage on you.”

  His eyes crinkled merrily. “Don’t be so sure about that Mom.” Then he winked, holding his head in profile so Jessica was fairly sure Candice hadn’t seen it. Jessica blushed lightly, but the girl seemed to miss the byplay between them. At least, she gave no sign she’d noticed anything beyond the ‘normal’ back-and-forth.

  “Austin, we’re a team.” Candice declared. “Mom just likes teasing you.”

  Jessica laughed and bounced Candice once more on her hip with a groan of effort. “I do, almost as much as I like having crooked hair.”

  “We’ll get better.” the girl protested.

  “Sure about that?”

  “It’s like Austin says, practice, practice, practice.”

  “If I let you two practice on me much more, I won’t have any hair left.” Jessica said wryly. Her hair was actually a little shorter than it usually was, just above the middle of her back. The cutting and recutting as both Candice and Austin had tried to keep it even had taken a toll that left her more amused than anything else.

  “Can’t have that. Maybe we can find a tasseled rug or something at the next house to spare you some inches while we learn how to cut properly.” Austin said as he set the backpack in the backseat of the black SUV.

  “It’s not hard.” Jessica pointed out. “Take the scissors, cut straight across, presto, done.”

  “Sure, make fun of us now.”

  “Is Candice’s hair straight?” she demanded, bumping her head against the girl’s. “Yes. Is yours cut straight? Yes.”

  “Mine is a crew cut.” Austin pointed out.

  “I could just slip with the scissors the next time you need a trim and leave you with bare spots.”

  “Mean. Girlie-girl, you hear how mean mom’s being to me?”

  “It’s because you like it.”

  Both adults burst out laughing again, and leaving Candice to look at them curiously.

  “Okay, I’ll practice.” Austin said, still chuckling. “And hopefully girlie-girl will too. Between the two of us, we’ll get you straightened out.”

  “Finally, some good news.” Jessica said, turning back and rubbing her nose across Candice’s a few more times before leaning down to deposit the ten-year-old on the floor. Straightening, she flipped her crookedly cut hair behind her shoulder and looked in the back of the SUV critically. “What else is left?”

  “The water jugs from the bedroom, and the other two bags of clothes.” Austin replied. “Kitchen, dining room, bathroom, back porch are all clear.”

  “Hmm, okay then. Candy Bear can manage the clothes, and I’ll get the water.” Jessica nodded. “Think you can hold the fort here for a minute?”

  “The garage door is still closed.” he observed, his tone grave but amused irregardless. “I can shoot just fine even if I can’t move around all that well.”

  “I’ll take that for a yes. Good thing the door’s closed though; I guess hurt tough guys need all the help they can get.” she teased him.

  “Just for that I’m definitely not going to help load anything else.” he said, folding his arms and sticking out his lower lip like he was pouting. The mischievous gleam in his eyes spoiled the effect though.

  “Hah!” Jessica laughed. “Come on Candice, let’s save Austin another trip up the stairs.”

  “I was shot you know.” Austin called after her as she led the way back inside, heading for the stairs to the house’s second floor with Candice in tow.

  “I know.” she called back.

  “Austin is getting better though, right?” Candice asked as the
y went up the steps; once they were out of earshot of the big man.

  “He is.” Jessica confirmed, glancing around automatically. The habit of checking constantly, of never assuming something dangerous hadn’t appeared even though the house was closed and locked up tight, was almost second nature to her now. She had a lot riding on making no mistakes. Candice might be holding up well, but Jessica didn’t want to put the girl through losing her mother on top of everything else.

  And Jessica knew she wouldn’t come through losing Candice well, at all. Honestly, there wouldn’t be much point in . . . anything . . . if she lost Candice after everyone else who had been ripped away from her by the damned zombies.

  “Good. It’s fun teasing him, but it’ll be more fun when he isn’t really hurt anymore.” Candice said as they went up the stairs.

  The second floor was as empty as they’d left it. Jessica checked down the hallway toward the one bedroom that was ‘behind’ the top of the stairs, then headed for the big bedroom at the other end of the corridor where they’d been living for the last five days. “He’s getting better.” she repeated. “He’s tough. He just likes being teased.”

  “Good, because I like it when you tease him.”

  Jessica paused a few seconds in the bedroom doorway to make sure the room was still quiet – still empty of anything hungry and dangerous – chuckling as she looked around. “You do?”

  “Yup.”

  “And why would that be?” Everything was fine; nothing malicious had materialized in the couple of minutes since she’d last been in the room. Jessica crossed to the corner where the ‘water stick’ waited; a pair of shovel handles duct taped together with six gallon jugs attached to the combined length with pieces of two foot long rope. The plastic jugs – both the jugs themselves as well as their handles – had been strengthened with more duct tape wrapped around them to lessen the chance of their breaking or splitting when they were full and hanging from the stick.

  “Because . . .” Candice fell silent. Jessica glanced at her curiously. The girl was picking up the two backpacks stuffed with folded clothes. She caught her mother studying her, and shrugged awkwardly. “I just do.”

  Jessica considered, then left the water stick where it was and crossed to the bed. “Sit with me a minute Candy Bear.”

  “But Austin’s waiting.”

  “Austin’s fine down there.”

  “But he was shot.”

  “He’s tough and he knows what he’s doing.” Jessica said, stifling the urge to chuckle at the way Candice echoed Austin’s favorite way to pull a rise out of mother and daughter these last two months. “Come over here and sit down.” she said, patting the bedspread next to her as she sat on the corner of the bed.

  Candice brought the backpacks with her, piling them in her lap as she joined Jessica.

  “Sweetie, is it because me and Daddy used to tease each other?”

  Candice squirmed, looking at the packs held in her lap, then finally nodded.

  Jessica smiled sadly and put her arm around her daughter, hugging her to her. “I miss Daddy a lot you know.”

  “So do I.”

  “I miss everyone who’s gone.” Jessica went on, keeping her voice level. She’d shed many tears over Brett, Joey, Sandra, and mom and dad, but she had shed those tears. It still hurt. Brett had been dead for over two years, and she still missed him fiercely. Her other two children, and her own parents, had been dead going on seven weeks, and that pain was still sharp enough to cut deep when she let it.

  But with everything that was happening, with all there was to do just to get by as the days went on and the zombies refused to go away and end all the chaos they’d caused; she’d had a crash course in emotional pain management. She’d shed her tears, more than once, where Candice couldn’t watch her mother disintegrating into a hysterical pile of sorrow. The girl had enough to deal with without needing to feel like she had to prop up Jessica as well.

  She knew Candice had done some crying as well, but she continued to amaze Jessica with her emotional resilience. A few sad moments, some other periods of morose moods, and a couple of mild nightmares seemed to have been the extent of Candice’s sorrow. Jessica envied the ten-year-old’s ability to keep going despite all the pain and horror they were stuck in the midst of.

  “But they’re gone, and we’re still here.” Jessica said, giving no sign of what was flashing past behind her level tone and calm expression. “The people we love wouldn’t want us to give up, and they wouldn’t want us staying sad forever.”

  “I know.” Candice nodded again. “We’ve got to keep being brave.”

  “That’s us, brave.”

  “And tough.”

  “And tough.” Jessica agreed. “I’ll let you in on a secret. A mom secret.” Candice looked up at her, and Jessica smiled quietly. “I like teasing Austin too.”

  “Why?”

  Jessica considered how to handle that one. After a moment she shrugged lightly. “Austin is the kind of man who likes to laugh. And I like to laugh too, especially now, when there’s so much happening that isn’t so funny.”

  “No, zombies aren’t funny.”

  “No they aren’t. But just because they’re so scary doesn’t mean everything else has to be scary. I mean, not all the time anyway. When Austin and I tease each other, it helps us remember that.”

  “Is it because you like him?”

  “I like Austin quite a lot. You do too, don’t you?”

  Candice nodded, but while the girl was ten, she wasn’t so young to have entirely missed the building signals the two adults had been trading for weeks now. Her observations of her departed older sister, back when everything had been normal, had given her enough of a basis in how relationships worked to not be completely naïve about it. “I think he likes you too.”

  “That’s okay isn’t it?” Jessica asked calmly.

  Her daughter put on a serious expression, clearly thinking the question over. Jessica waited patiently. Finally the girl nodded. “Sure. I don’t want him to leave.”

  “I don’t want him to leave either, but that’s not why I tease him, or why I want him to like me.”

  “You like him because . . . because he’s Austin.”

  That was as good an explanation as any, Jessica realized. “I do.” She’d long since realized Austin was a good guy. He was interested and patient, but he wasn’t play acting about his feelings just to buy time to heal. And before he’d gotten hurt, he’d been helpful and solicitous with just as few strings; namely, none. He was just a nice, helpful guy.

  She’d known a lot of men – a lot of people – who would’ve tied their help to favors. Or, at least, some form of quid pro quo. Austin hadn’t, and wasn’t now, and showed no signs of shifting to that in the future. Every read she made on him seemed to indicate he was genuinely interested in sticking around, in staying as a trio with her and Candice, simply because he wanted to. Not because he had to, or because he thought it might lead somewhere, or even because he felt guilty about what might happen if he struck out on his own.

  But simply because he wanted to stay.

  That counted for a lot in Jessica’s book. That he didn’t give the slightest indication of expectation for his continued presence sealed it as far as she was concerned. She liked him. Quite a lot.

  “Then I’m glad.” Candice decided.

  Jessica shook herself out of her thoughts. “It doesn’t bother you?” she asked her daughter.

  Candice shook her head. “No, I like Austin. I’m glad he likes us.”

  “Okay then.” Jessica said, hugging the girl. “So let’s get downstairs. We’ve kept him waiting long enough I guess.”

  Candice slung the backpacks over her shoulders, and Jessica carefully lifted the heavy water stick with its six gallons of boiled water into place across hers. Austin had told her a gallon of water weighed something like eight pounds, which put the stick’s total weight around fifty after all the rope and wood were added in.
/>   She wouldn’t want to carry it far, but the water was critical, and she’d gotten used to fetching it about as the weeks had gone by. There were a lot of things she was used to now; physical exertion was probably the least of them these days. She was still grateful for the thick padding of towels taped around the stick that cushioned the load. Even though the last two months had been hard, carrying six gallons of water was quite a chore for her.

  Maneuvering down the stairs required walking mostly sideways as she eased down between the wall and railing, but she was used to that too. When she got back to the garage, she found Austin had opened the big rolling door in preparation for departure. He had a pistol in his hand though, standing next to the big SUV and watching for any sign of trouble.

  “You two okay?” he asked without turning as she set the water stick in the back of the SUV with the rest of their supply cache.

  “Fine.” Jessica answered as Candice went past and put the backpacks in the back seat. “So, let’s see, three boxes of food, six gallons of water, one box of toiletries and bleach, three bags of clothes, weapons, ammo, gas cans, tools and miscellaneous stuff . . . is that everything?”

  “Sounds like it.”

  “Okay then.” she nodded unconsciously, pulling the back hatch down and making sure it latched properly. “We’re off.”

  They took their seats; Jessica driving, Austin in the passenger seat, and Candice climbing into the back seat behind Jessica. The SUV started as smoothly as ever, the big engine rumbling to reassuring life. She adjusted the holstered pistols on her belt – the stainless steel Taurus on her right hip and the black M&P Shield at the small of her back – so she could sit comfortably, then pulled slowly out of the garage.

  “Which way?” Austin asked as they bumped down the dirt driveway of the rural house toward the paved road. She was trying to avoid the worst of the potholes in the poorly maintained drive, but the going was too bumpy for her to give him a completely smooth ride. He gave no sign the jouncing and juddering was bothering him, even though she knew it had to be causing him pain.