They headed out shortly after. The way down was bumpier than she remembered, and the highway was worse. The last time she had been on a highway it had been a bloody mess, but at least it had been a lively mess. It had seemed like no one had been there in living memory. Now the highway was cold and covered in snow. They made the only tracks, and the abandoned cars sat like white crypt stones. Even the zombies had left this place. Time passed slowly and quickly at the same time. It seemed like they weren't making any progress, but each time she glanced at the clock she was shocked by how much time had passed. Gerald's pout was timeless though; he just seemed to get madder and madder the farther they went.
Meghan understood a little of what he was thinking. It seemed impossible that civilization in any form existed in this empty land. No snowplows, not even any tracks to indicate that there were other people. For all they could tell they might be the last people alive. They would get to sleep in freezing cars and stand guard in the ice to head to someplace that seemed as impossible as Shambhala. Vinny didn't seem to care much either way. Meghan had begun to suspect he didn't care about much these days. He went through life waiting for it to end. Janet wasn't the only person to lose a child, and at least Janet had someone left.
Diane–Diane was a mystery to Meghan. She felt like stone most of the time; neither happy nor sad. The water ran around her, and she existed. But there were depths beneath that outer shell. Meghan would have thought that those depths held immense grief, but that didn't quite explain it all. Meghan was a little frightened of Diane, even though Diane had never done a thing to deserve it. Diane sat in her seat and looked outside, scanning, checking the mirrors, again and again, without emotion.
Tabitha was killing herself with worry. She sat, as quiet as Diane, but with an ashen face. She nibbled at her fingernails and stared out the windshield.
The soldiers were relaxed and alert. They were used to being out in this. They much preferred this emptiness to the alternative, which was danger.
They rode that way until an hour before dark, when they left the highway and headed into a forest. After a bit of back and forth on roads that were well on the way to losing the right to call themselves graveled, they arrived at a dark cabin. Yellow tape sealed each entrance. Sgt. Davis jogged around the building and gave a thumbs up. He went to the front door and moved a dead potted plant and grabbed the key. One of the soldiers, she couldn't tell which one, headed up the hill a bit, rifle in hand. The rest of them went inside. Sgt. Davis was already starting a coal fire. Soon the cabin was almost too hot, and she was sweating. They each got a can of chili and a cup of white rice with kidney beans. It might not have merited a Michelin star but it was hot and it was delicious. Vinny was sent out to deliver a serving to Paul, who would be standing guard for the next three hours.
The rest of the group turned over in their sleeping bags without so much as a word. Meghan had a deep sleep. If she dreamt she didn't remember it.
They were on the road before Meghan really knew what was happening. She ended up with Diane and Sgt. Davis in the rear truck. Tabitha and the rest were about a quarter mile ahead. Their truck was bouncing up and down on a road that was more pothole than road. The dead winter grass stood three feet high. Tabitha's truck nose-dived into a hole; her rear wheels spun, swinging in the air.
Meghan covered her mouth, and Diane sat bolt upright. Sgt. Davis slammed on the brakes even before the zombies stood up, appearing out of the grass like ghosts. They swarmed the truck.
"Mayday, mayday! They are all around us!" Private Paul's voice screeched over the radio. Meghan looked at Sgt. Davis, and could tell he was shocked, as she was. She couldn't understand what was happening, because it sure looked like an ambush. But zombies were too stupid for that. She'd never seen, and never even heard, of something like this. He was as confused as she was. But there was only one thing to do. She opened the door and put one foot on the rail. She wasn't going to get out, not all the way. And it took longer to roll up the window than to close the door. She fumbled her rifle up and started firing. Sgt. Davis followed her lead. They had to be sure of their shot; they didn't want to hit anyone in the truck, so they took their time whittling down the swarm. Only a few stragglers tried to approach their truck, but Meghan dispatched them. They had maybe thirty zombies down when Davis gave out a gurgling scream. Blood sprayed into the truck and he fell to the ground. She slid back into the truck, confused. She could still hear shots coming from the other truck. She reached across and closed the driver door, hit the locks, and pulled herself over to the driver's seat. She looked in the side view mirror. She didn't see Davis, but she did see–something. It was some kind of thin limbed monster, staring right back at her. She looked down. Davis was on the ground, holding his throat and squirming. The thing gave some kind of chirp. Diane screamed and pointed. Meghan turned her head. The zombies were turning from Tabitha's truck and coming for them. The thing disappeared behind the truck, out of her line of sight.
Her instincts took control, and she slammed the truck into reverse and gunned it. She caught the thing, she could feel it crunch beneath her wheels and it let out the loudest scream she had ever heard. It wasn't human, and it never had been. That scream was not human. The zombies freaked out, getting even faster and more excited than before. She kept it in reverse at twenty miles an hour, slamming the suspension and bouncing so hard her head hit the roof a couple of times. Diane just stared at her and kept one hand on the roof and the other on a handle. Once she gained some space she turned the truck around and kept going. Zombies were coming out of the trees now, frenzied, dozens more added to the ones chasing her in the distance.
Meghan looked at Diane. "Did you see that thing?"
"It has big claws."
"They're all chasing us; I think they've got the best chance if we stay away."
Diane looked around at the zombies milling after them from all directions. "Don't talk, just drive," Diane said. Diane grabbed the radio. "Aunt Tabitha, we're getting chased by them all now, if you can run while they are gone. We have to leave."
The static crackled suggestively, but they got no response they could understand. The zombies were close now. Meghan hit the gas and went south. They had half a tank of gas and no idea where to spend the night.
It took them close to an hour to satisfy her they had lost the zombies on their trail. She turned to Diane and pulled out a .38 revolver and holster from her pocket.
"Don't point it at anything you don't want to kill." She hopped out of the truck and climbed into the bed. Five ten gallon containers of gas, a box of MREs, two gallons of water, assorted weapons and ammo. She grunted, satisfied. She hadn't had any idea what was back here, and she was worried they'd had all the dirty clothes and toilet paper. This was workable, as long as she figured out where the hell she was supposed to go. She grabbed a gas can and popped open the gas tank. Her arms burned from the effort of holding the can up as it seemed to take forever to drain. She scanned for the undead, but none appeared. She drained the can and tossed it back in the bed. She sprinted back to the truck and gunned it. Soon they were going through Iowa City. Aside from a few shambling figures it seemed empty. She knew it was foolish to go anywhere near a city of any size, so she tried to work her way through back alleys and edge away from the city. That was how she ended up catching someone robbing the computer store. As she drove through another nameless alley, she saw movement to her left. It was a man pushing an iMac box into the back of a truck that was loaded with white boxes. She slammed on the brakes, and he startled and ducked behind the truck. His head popped up, and a rifle followed. Time froze for a second as that barrel pointed at her, but then the rifle dropped and he waved. She rolled down the window.
"Well, hi there. You scared the shit out of me," the man said. "I'm Canyon."
"I'm Meghan," she said, still frazzled. Canyon bristled when he saw Sgt. Davis's blood coating the truck. When he craned his neck and saw Diane staring at him his eyebrow raised.
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you had a bad day," Canyon said. Meghan realized he might be all of five five in his boots. His eyes had a sort of maniacal friendliness above his sandy lumberjack beard. He was one of those guys that everyone liked, she could tell.
"Without a doubt. Our group... well, we got ambushed by all these zombies, and there was some kind of Gollum thing with claws that I'd never seen before, and it cut the Army guys throat and then I killed it and we have no idea where to sleep."
"Well, good thing we met then," Canyon. "You're more than welcome to stay at my place for a while."
"Why do you need that many computers?" Meghan asked.
"Why does he need ANY computers?" Diane put in. Canyon smiled.
"You'll see. Now follow me." He hopped in the truck and started off. Meghan followed.
"He must have electricity," Diane said.
"He must have a lot of things to be worried about laptops," Meghan said.
Diane nodded, smiling. "Somewhere safe."
They wandered over worse and worse roads until they were bumping on some rough double track that petered out into nothing. They kept going until Canyon drove into a cave. Meghan hesitated, but went in.
"Is he Batman?" Diane asked.
"Maybe," Meghan said, as they went inside. She saw a gate roll closed behind them, and after a quick turn she saw Canyon parked.
"Now this is a bit awkward, so I wouldn't mind the help," Canyon said as he popped out of his truck. He dropped the truck bed, and went over to a hatch. He put his thumb up to a glowing red cube, and there was a metallic chunk. He grabbed a wheel that stuck out of the ground and started turning. After a few turns he lifted the wheel and a hatch opened. "Come hand the computers down to me." They did, and they saw the inside; it was a concrete hall. Even though it had no features it felt old, and those thick subterranean walls were inviting. She had to restrain herself from crawling down and just sealing herself in. Staring at that dull concrete was like the night before a Hawaiian vacation.
"What is this place?" Meghan breathed.
"Old nuclear missile silo. I've owned it for years," Canyon said, breathing a bit hard.
"You have power!" Meghan sighed.
"Oh yes. Solar for the residential stuff, diesel generators for the serious stuff," Canyon said. "Yup. This setup is ludicrous."
"Why?
"Why what?"
"Why this?"
"Just luck really. I swear I didn't buy it for this shit, I swear! Just... some personal and career choices that just happened to also be perfect for the Apocalypse. Come on down. Janice will be ecstatic and we're just in time for her to start cooking for four."
They climbed down the ladder. Canyon scrambled back up and grunted as he brought the hatch down with a clang. He screwed it tight and hit a button. A metallic chunk locked the hatch in place.
"Follow me," he said. They went down the concrete hallway for a few hundred feet to a heavy steel door. He punched in a code and engines hummed to life to pull the door open.
"Blast door," he said. On the other side of the door–Meghan almost fell to her knees. It was a finished room. Leather couches, huge TVs–it was like something you'd see on Cribs. Diane cackled in delight and dived onto a couch.
"I don't think I got your name," Canyon said to Diane.
"What do you have?" Diane asked as she inspected the five remote controls.
"Ummm...
Finding Nemo
?" Canyon said.
"Perfect." Diane grabbed a blanket and dug in. Meghan looked at Canyon and shrugged.
"Sure thing, darling," Canyon walked over to the blu-ray player and grabbed a disc from the cabinet.
"She'll be fine here. She won't be able to get to the other levels or outside. Not that I think we have to worry about her leaving," Canyon whispered to Meghan. "What's her name?"
"Diane," Meghan said. All she wanted to do was watch the movie too, but as the adult she felt like she needed to be responsible.
"Diane, if you want any food, the kitchen is through there. There's fruit in the fridge, and some crackers and cheese," Canyon said. Meghan's stomach lurched, and she found herself in the kitchen without deciding to go. Canyon followed, looking like he wanted to cry and smile at the same time. Diane followed.
"Please forgive my manners, I should have known," Canyon said. He hustled, slicing fresh apples and cheese, and breaking out what appeared to be home-made crackers.
Meghan could not remember the last time she had fresh fruit, or fresh anything. It was so delicious she started crying. Diane remained dry eyed but ate voraciously. Canyon nibbled on some cheese and watched. Finally they were full; so full they felt like bursting.
Diane took Canyon's hand. "Thank you, mister." She shook his hand and wandered back into the living room.
Canyon smiled one of those true smiles that Meghan had seen or felt only once or twice in her life. He radiated happiness.
"Truly strange, don't you think? How life just throws moments like that at you, even in this dark age. Do you want the tour or would you like to sleep for a while?" Canyon asked.