The Zombie Plagues Dead Road: The Collected books. by Geo Dell Page B

hang
in the air.
    As she finished, Candace raised her
weapon from her side to let the group know she had also seen them,
and had been ready for them. They smiled uneasily at one another.
The woman held out her hands, and the others in the group did the
same.
    “ We don’t want a problem,”
she said softly. “I’m thinking you are part of the group that took
care of those kids from the north side the other day. We heard
it.”
    “ If you could hear it, why
didn’t you join in to help us?” Tom challenged.
    “ Good question,” Mike
echoed softly.
    The woman who had spoken first nodded.
“We have two guns between us. One’s a twenty-two rifle, the other
is a Three Eighty which we only have eight bullets for. We didn’t
realize how things were going to go bad so fast,” she looked up at
the sky where the sun continued its curving, staggering climb. She
looked back at Mike. “We just want to talk for now.”
    Candace got to her feet, holstered her
gun and walked towards the small group.
    “ Candace,” she said,
holding out her hand.
    “ Patty,” The young dark
haired woman answered. She turned to the others behind her. “Sandy,
Nell, Tim, Lilly and,” she pointed to a young dark skinned man who
was standing slightly back and apart, “That’s my man,
Ronnie.”
    As she finished the introductions, Bob
and Janet came to the cave opening. Candace made the same
introductions ending with Mike and making it clear he was also not
available.
    As her eyes caught Mike's, he seemed
slightly amused by it. As she turned around, she poked her tongue
out slightly at him and made a silly face as she walked towards
him, inviting the others to sit down.
    “ Does that make me your
bitch,” Mike whispered as she sat back down
next to him.
    “ Ha, ha,” she whispered back. “…Bitch,” she giggled, but she didn’t
allow the giggle to pass her lips. Mike stifled a laugh, but a
smile rose to his face. He turned to the small group.
    “ We’ve got water inside,
maybe some more coffee made, bottled soda.”
    “ Some coffee would be
nice,” Patty said and smiled gratefully. Mike left for two cups of
coffee and some bottled water as everyone began to sit down. The
party had been traveling with backpacks and gear, and it came off
now, making a small pile as they sat down. When Mike returned just
a few minutes later, the silence still held. He handed out the
water and coffee and sat back down next to Candace. All eyes turned
to him. He glanced over at Tom, but Tom seemed to be studying the
small patch of asphalt at his feet. Mike found his
voice.
    “ So…” He let the question
hang, picked up his still warm coffee and took a reassuring
sip.
    Patty seemed to hesitate, so the girl
she’d identified as Lilly spoke up. She flipped loose blond curls
away from her face before she spoke.
    “ We want to join you,” she
said finally in a quiet yet firm voice.
    Patty, whose hands had been
clasped tightly together, parted them and raised them to her
shoulders palms up in a ‘there you
go’ gesture.
    Candace was amazed at how much Lilly
looked like Lydia. She even sounded like her. It must be that age,
Candace said to herself. Everyone acts alike. She looked over at
Tom to see if he had noticed, but his eyes were already locked on
the young woman. Patty continued.
    “ We’ve been living in a
collapsed apartment building over off State Street. We couldn’t
find anything better. Now that’s come the rest of the way down. To
be honest, we’re afraid to go into any of the buildings. There’s a
lumber shed over there, just a roof really. We spent most of last
night under that trying to stay out of most of the weather. Not
much to it. We figured we could get out quick enough if it came
down.” She took a deep breath. “That’s where we’re at,” she
finished.
    When the girl finished speaking,
Candace’s head was bowed as if in thought. She raised her head, met
Patty’s eyes, and then the others one by one. She let her