Dead: Winter (25 page)

“Look,” Kevin cast a look at Heather who nodded in understanding, “as I said when we met, I don’t want to stay out long in this weather. However, I am actually out in this with a purpose.” He e
x
plained quickly what it was exactly that he and Heather were doing. He began walking, gesturing that the other two come along as his way of extending an informal invitation.

“You folks have an honest-to-goodness doctor?” Paul asked with undisguised incredulity.

“Technically he was a third-year intern, but for all intents and purposes…yeah,” Kevin said.

“Hell, I imagine you’d have as hard a time keeping tabs on him as you do on that young lady.”

“Actually,” Kevin grew just a bit grim, “he was with that bunch at The Basket for a while.”

Paul seemed to falter a bit in his step. He placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder to bring her to a stop as well. “Maybe you should tell me a little bit more about this doctor of yours.”

“He orchestrated the rescue of two women when he made his escape,” Kevin explained. “And to be fair, he was actually captured by those goons. He was smart enough to do what he needed to in o
r
der to survive. The first chance he got, he bolted. Turns out he did it just in time, because that place was overrun a few days later.”

The party of four resumed their trek through the snow. As they did, the wind began to pick up, making it difficult to carry on much of a conversation. Eventually, the uneven horizon si
g
naled that they were approaching the residential area.

Kevin pulled up and turned to face the others, placing the wind at his back. “You two don’t have any stake in this,” he said. “If you would rather stay here and wait for us, or hole up in one of the houses with a big X spray painted on the front door, that is totally understandable.”

“If you are gonna be so hospitable as to allow us to follow you home and share in your shelter, the least we can do is help. But I gotta confess, you may need to write down that medication you’re looking for,” Paul admitted. “I was a welder back in the days before all this; Mary’s mom knew all the stuff about what a baby needed…” His voice trailed off and his chest heaved noticeably as he stru
g
gled to keep from sobbing. He brushed at his eyes with gloved hands and Mary leaned into a hug.

Kevin stood quietly for a moment to allow the pair to compose themselves. He wondered how r
e
cently they had lost Mary’s mother. While he mourned his own losses, the most r
e
cent being Cary—a second time—he didn’t find himself getting all that choked up any more…mostly.

“Here.” Kevin handed the piece of paper that Peter had gi
v
en them; he already knew what he was looking for.

“And you think that we should search bathrooms?” Paul asked.

“Pretty much,” Kevin agreed. “And maybe the baby’s room. If there were obviously no small children in the house, don’t waste time. Peter said that the child is on a bit of a clock. This is su
p
posed to be an in and out run.”

“Sounds like you folks got quite a system,” Paul said with obvious admiration.

“So weren’t you in a group of any sort?” Kevin asked, realizing that, in all the stuff they had shared up to this point, Paul had said nothing about travelling with others.

He imagined that it was possible to go it alone for this long, but it just seemed unlikely. Besides the fact that there needed to be as many eyes watching for danger as possible, there were simply too many complications for one man to deal with. It wasn’t that he was selling Mary short; after all, he didn’t really know the girl. Still, with what little he’d seen, she was more like Shari and Erin, neither of which would last a single day by themselves.

“We ran with some folks here and there, but, and I think that maybe you can appreciate this, we have found the male-to-female ratio to be very lopsided. It has made for some uncomfortable situ
a
tions,” Paul explained. “The last group got out of hand and it became too much.”

Kevin saw something flash across Mary’s face while her dad spoke that gave much more insight than he was providing with his narrative. And there was something else there…the best guess he could come up with was fear.

“Well then,” Kevin patted the man on the shoulder and realized for the millionth time just how awkward he was when it came to empathy and social situations, “I guess it’s good that we met.” He saw something flash across the man’s face and hoped that he hadn’t offended the guy.

“So how do you want to do this?” Paul asked, putting an end to all of the small talk.

“I say you two go down that side of the street and we will go down this side,” Kevin said. “We can meet at that white house with the red trim when we finish this block. I would su
g
gest that we stay on the same street in case something goes wrong.”

“What could go wrong?” Mary asked.

“None of those houses without the Xs on their doors have been checked. Who knows what you might find inside. Also, there is always the possibility of a herd.”

“Herd?” Paul asked.

“That’s what we call the really big groups of them,” Kevin explained.

“What do you mean by really big?” Paul suddenly seemed concerned.

“We’ve seen them in the thousands just a while ago,” Heather said.

“Th-th-thousands?” Paul and Mary both stammered.

“Where have you guys been?” Kevin asked, somewhat i
n
credulous. Once again he saw something on both Paul and Mary’s expressions that had him wondering.

“Indiana,” Paul said like that should mean something. “Mostly out in the farm country with very little population.”

“Kevin wants to head to South Dakota in the spring,” Heather said. Kevin gave her a look; he was starting to question just how much to trust these two. Something in his brain was starting to thrum.

“Yeah,” Kevin clapped his hands signaling the end to the conversation, “well like I said, we have a bit of a deadline so…”

“Right,” Paul agreed.

The two pairs split up and headed to their respective sides of the street to begin the search. When they reached the first house, they didn’t have to guess if it might be occupied. A young girl about Heather’s age was standing at the living room window. Even as Kevin and Heather approached, she didn’t do anything more than watch them. There was no pounding or slapping at the glass. In fact, Kevin noticed that the window was relatively clean.

It only took seconds to jimmy the lock and put the lone zombie down. On the good side, there weren’t any others. On the bad side, there were obviously no babies.

As they exited and headed for the next house, Heather asked, “What’s wrong?”

Kevin looked around to ensure they were alone before he answered. “Something just seems off about them. It was okay at first, but it was like the more we talked, the more I started having susp
i
cions.”

“Know what I think?” Heather asked as she slid the pry bar in the jamb and popped the door to the next house revealing an empty entry hall and a musty smell devoid of the telltale stench of the u
n
dead. “I think that you are a little bit paranoid. You had something bad happen, and this is really the first male that you have run across.”

“What about Peter?” Kevin reminded her as they worked their way methodically into the house, opening curtains or blinds when needed in order to see better.

“He was with people that you knew,” Heather replied.

Kevin considered Heather’s words. Perhaps she had a point. After all, the man was travelling with his daughter. Paul could have taken them out before they’d even been aware he was there. Maybe he
was
being paranoid.

“So,” Heather chirped, obviously done with the subject, “you were telling me about your sister Sara and her first steps.” She felt a warmth fill her when a smile lit up Kevin’s face at the mention of his sister.

“Yeah,” Kevin opened a cabinet in the bathroom and started going through the contents while he spoke. “It was only a couple of unsteady, very wobbly steps…but they were definitely steps. Literally two days later and she was hell on wheels.”

“Sounds like you were the magic touch,” Heather said as she climbed to her feet with a frustrated huff.

“Maybe.” Kevin shrugged his shoulders. “Anyways, I went back to school, and by the time I came back, my dad had moved out.”

“How come?”

“He and my mom were fighting all the time, and it was too upsetting for Sara. They still loved each other…my folks…but they just needed some time to get their heads straight. So that summer, I took her with me everywhere I went. The guys were great and really treated her like she was…” Ke
v
in’s voice trailed off for a moment and Heather thought she might see some tears.

“Bingo!” Kevin stood brandishing a pair of bottles. “Amp
i
cillin
and
cefotaxime
!”

“I gotta be honest,” Heather said with a shake of her head, “I didn’t think we would find it.”

“Are you kidding?” Kevin snorted. “If there was one thing you could bank on before all this, do
c
tors were prescription happy, and people were becoming programmed to take medication for everything.”

“I guess.” Heather shrugged.

“Seriously?” Kevin pocketed the medicines. “How many types of anti-depressants were there? And my favorites were the ones where the commercial warned that possible side-effects may include thoughts of suicide.”

“I
do
remember that!”

“So I figured we had a good chance.”

They exited the house just as Paul and Mary disappeared i
n
to one a couple of houses down from where they were. They also arrived just in time to see a single zombie stumble out of the open door of the house they had obviously just left. The tiny fi
g
ure took a few steps out into the snow and stopped. It cocked its head and turned towards Kevin and Heather despite the fact that they had stopped in their tracks and not made a sound.

“I hate killing the little ones,” Kevin hissed as he unsheathed his machete and started across the street.

“Apparently so do Paul and Mary,” Heather whispered u
n
der her breath.

Kevin approached, but he watched carefully as he did so in case this one showed any of the pec
u
liar traits of the last few child-zombies he’d encountered. It did pause for a moment, but other than that, it stumbled through the snow like any other u
n
dead sack of rot and filth. He was almost relieved as he brought the heavy blade down on the thing’s skull.

With that done, they hurried across the street, reaching the house just as Paul and Mary were exi
t
ing. The two jumped, and Paul instinctively pushed Mary behind him before he realized who it was.

“Jesus, man!” Paul lowered the arm that held his long-bladed knife.

“Sorry,” Kevin apologized. “I found what we need. If we hurry, we can make it back before dark.”

“That’s great,” Paul said with a sigh that sounded a lot like relief.

The foursome made their way out of the housing develo
p
ment. On their way out, they passed one of the partially built houses that would never see completion. Through all the wooden beams and boards, back in the shadows, something moved. The eerie sound of the zombie baby cry rose above the howl of the wind. Heather detached from the group enough to meet the stooped over figure of what had been an elderly woman. With one quick jab of the spike-tipped walking stick, the thing was put down.