Dead (A Lot) by Howard Odentz

Author:Howard Odentz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BelleBooks, Inc.
Published: 2013-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

41

WE FOLLOWED BACK streets that paralleled the main road to get out of the center of town. There were poxers everywhere, although not as many as we thought there would be. Jimmy was finally the one who came up with the idea that maybe a lot of them were too stupid to figure out how to get outside.

Just like the mother and daughter in the used closing store, they probably didn’t have the brains for door knobs, and unless there was meat to eat on the other side, smashing windows was past their intellectual capabilities, too.

“We really got to be careful when we go inside places,” he said. “There’s always a chance that we’ll run into the hungry dead.”

I thought about it for a moment. “Well, if they don’t have anything to eat, won’t they eventually just waste away?”

“Great,” said Prianka. “Anorexic zombies.” She sat in the middle seat with her hands in her lap, peering out the window as we drove past a particularly tacky house decorated early for Halloween. Sanjay stared into space, his eyes glazed. Andrew had chosen to leave the front of the minivan and now sat on his shoulder. He gently rubbed his head against Sanjay’s cheek like a dutiful dog.

It was selfish of me, but I couldn’t help thinking that we were lucky we got the directions to Aunt Ella’s house from Sanjay before everything happened. I could understand a little kid being upset about losing a stuffed animal, but Poopy Puppy was far more than just a toy to Sanjay. Like Prianka said, Poopy Puppy was Sanjay’s mouthpiece. Without him, he was mute, and none of us knew for how long.

I drove a few more blocks before taking a right and joining up with Main Street again. Finally, we were out of the center of town and away from Fall Fest.

“I know where we are,” said Jimmy. “I’ve been up this way before.” He directed us down a hill, which was a little harrowing considering there were a few pileups along the way. At the bottom, we passed a Chinese food place and a big white church.

Off in the distance, I could see the highway. An endless stretch of cars still marred the landscape in both directions, and there was movement everywhere, which meant that there were poxers.

My mind drifted back to the lady who was stuck in her car on Route 116. I bet when she woke up last Friday morning, the last thing she could have guessed was how the rest of her life would be. The look of horror on her face when she realized we weren’t going to save her will always be with me, like a piece of movie popcorn stuck in my teeth.

I frowned. Let’s not forget the movies. They were gone, too.

As we approached the underpass directly below the traffic jam, dozens of poxers on the highway above twirled their heads around and tracked the minivan with their dead eyes. There were more on the side of the road and in the underpass.

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