“Dad,” Charlene said, “how do we get back down?”
My eyes widened and I exhaled a puff of breath. Wasn’t exactly a sigh. “One problem at a time,” I said. I smiled.
We made our way along the roof, toward Ridge Road. “Stay close to the side,” I said. Worried the roof might not hold our weight. No reason it shouldn’t. Winters were brutal. Snow weighed a lot. But roofs also collapsed during winter storms. Why risk it?
We didn’t need to move slowly. We didn’t need to hide, really. We just had to walk, and made it to the end of the plaza.
Below us, I didn’t point out, but noticed, were more zombies. Too many. I couldn’t count them. We hadn’t attracted their attention yet. I didn’t think we’d been spotted.
Charlene was right, though. We were up here. No easy way down. And no reason to climb down anyway, not with that many monsters lurking. There had to be fast ones mixed in. They’d pick us off one at a time as we got off the roof.
I’d said one problem at a time.
It was time.
This was a problem.
“Everyone, sit,” I said.
We sat.
I needed the time to think. No ideas came to mind. I pulled the radio off my waist. Stared at it. I strained to look across the street. Olive Garden blocked my view, as did the footbridge over Ridge Road.
I listened.
I did not hear any vehicle engines. No gunfire. Nothing.
We were stuck. Stranded. I had food in my pack, we could stay up here a while. That wouldn’t get us rescued. It might buy us time though, until the zombies were gone.
I set my face into cupped hands. I knew I looked hopeless, but right now, I just was at a complete and utter loss.
“We’re going to be all right, Dad,” Charlene said. She sat next to me.
Cash came over, too.
Sitting on either side, they both put an arm around me.
It was hard not to smile at them. “Yes. Of course we are.”
“There it is, Chase,” Allison said.
I had not heard it, because it was not loud.
The huge Humvee was pulling onto Hoover Drive, headed toward Ridge Road. It maneuvered around abandoned vehicles effortlessly. “Will they see us?” I said.
We all stood. Arms waving. Cash was yelling, “Over here!”
The Humvee turned left.
Not right.
Headed west onto Ridge Road.
Not east.
“No,” Allison said. “Where are they going?”
They must have a schedule, I thought. I touched Allison’s shoulder. “We’re going to be okay.”
Maybe not. Our yelling had excited the zombies below. Agitated them. Possibly reminded them of just how hungry they really were.
We were now the blue light. The bugs coming at us from all directions.
I looked across the parking lot.
Son of a bitch, was about all I could think. Son of a bitch.
We were safest up top. For now. There were ways into the stores from up here. I just didn’t like the idea. Not at all. For now, we’d wait it out.
“Get down everyone,” I said. “Stay low. Keep quiet.”
Cash had gone from looking victorious to crushed. His lips quivered. He buried his head against me. “We’re going to get away from here, little guy.”
We all laid flat on the rooftop.
Cash was pressed tight against me. “I do have a plan,” I said.
Allison looked at me, eyes wide.
I winked, and pursed my lips.
Her expression deflated. She knew I’d just lied.
I needed to. It felt necessary.
“What is it, Dad,” Charlene said.
“First, we need to wait for the zombies to forget we’re up here.”
“Will they?” she said.
“They lose interest fast, dear. Or they have short-term memory problems. Whatever it is, in a few minutes, they’ll all wander off, toward some other sound,” I said.
“They will?” Charlene did not sound confident in my assessment.
“We’ve done it to them before,” Allison said, almost beaming with pride.
It made me smile. “Yes, we have,” I said.
But would they? Only thing I ever seen them do was eat. Humans. Non infected people. They didn’t feed on each other. Why? I had no idea. Made no sense. Way it looked, the four of us, up here on this roof, we were it. The only meal for apparent miles in any direction. If I were hungry, I wouldn’t move from the food source. We were that source right now. Would they eventually all starve to death then? Would they naturally die off? Or would they adapt. Start eating cows and horses and dogs and cats and birds and vegetables. I had no answer to any of these stupid, stupid questions. We were--
Rumbling.
Distinct rumbling.
I shot my hand out. Allison took it.
We all rose to our knees. Cash pointed first. He knew.
No one spoke.
There wasn’t a need.
The Humvee was traveling eastbound in the westbound lane. Less stranded cars clogging the road. The fucking thing had to make a U-turn. A fucking U-turn.
They weren’t leaving us.
The radio came to life. “Hey buddy, hang tight!”
I held the radio in both hands. I stared at it. My smile was too big to hide.
“You’re crying,” Allison said.
I wiped tears from her eyes. “I’m not the only one.”
We had to resemble flood victims, huddled close, arms wrapped around one another watching help approaching.
A gunner on top of the Humvee appeared. He fired into the cluster of zombies. That thick black goo that must be blood flew like popping water balloons. The creatures fell onto the pavement with destroyed skulls and amputations.
“I love you, Alley,” I said. And I kissed her.
Cash clapped a hand to his forehead, but he wore a smile that matched mine. Charlene just hugged me, tight. Possibly a bit possessively.
“We’re saved, Dad,” she said. “We’re finally going to be all right.”
“Everything is going to be fine now, honey. We’re going to be all right.”
Epilogue
The Humvee was crowded. I had a kid on each lap, even though it seemed to humiliate Charlene. She was, after all, fourteen. Too big to sit on her daddy’s lap, no doubt. I was loving it. Allison was on my side, sharing no space at all, and flattened against the door.
Dave and Sues sat across from us, practically on each other’s laps, too. The gunner stayed up top. There was nothing more to shoot at. There was just nowhere inside the military vehicle for him to sit.
“We thought you guys had left us,” I said. It was loud inside the Humvee. Not a quiet ride like Donald’s Lexus. It was quite honestly one of the best sounds I’d heard in a while. I didn’t mind.
“They wanted to,” Sues said. “Something about a tight schedule. But Dave wouldn’t let ‘em. Especially not when the Lieutenant up front spotted you guys on the roof across the street.”
“We were coming for you, if I had to take the wheel,” Dave yelled.
The passenger in camo, and holding an assault rifle looked back at us. Even with sunglasses on, I read his eyes. No Fucking Chance, Dave.
Whatever.
“Where are we going?” I said.
Dave opened his mouth.
The passenger spoke. “That’s classified, sir.”
“Is there one of those camps nearby?” I said.
“Classified, sir,” he said.
“Are there a lot of healthy soldiers? I’d just assume that most of you were forced to be vaccinated. You guys gotta get like every shot there is, don’t you.”
Silence.
I didn’t like it. It wasn’t that I was being ignored, it was that they weren’t sharing information. Keeping us civilians in the dark. We needed to get past that. Work together.
“Excuse me,” I said.
He turned his head. The sunglasses kind of annoyed me now. It all seemed like part of a mask.
“Are we staying in Rochester, can you tell me that much? I mean, we’re not blindfolded, so I assume it can’t be that far above my pay grade for classification,” I said. I hoped the bite in my sarcasm wasn’t lost. Doubt it was.