Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

"Sure I'll go with you, let's take Jen too, she is feeling useless up here, grab the janitors and lets head back down."

"Janitors?" Juan asked.

"You didn't know? Yeah they work here, the doctor played them off as nursing staff, which I guess they are, that was the only thing that kept them from being killed by the zombies. The zombie leaders thought they were professionals or something. They are though, aren't they?"

Juan nodded, "Well that explains how they always know where to find the cleaning supplies. I'll get them."

They went downstairs and this time Juan asked the janitors if they knew were the fresh food was kept. They went to another door that Juan thought led to a deep freeze, but was, in fact, just a giant walk in refrigerator. The janitors also knew which door led to a pantry full of dried foods. Soon enough the group was back with a bag full of crackers and fruit, the new moms ate first, but all the former captives had a couple pieces of fruit, the group from Mike's Club shared their granola bars around and they waited for word from the caravan while they watched the sun creep steadily towards the mountains.

Back at the Mike's Club they were keeping close track of the caravan, which was creeping along at very slow speed towards the hospital, maybe making twenty miles per hour, so it would take them about forty five minutes to reach it. Among the riders on the caravan were the most hurt people from the club, those who needed medical attention the Doc could not provide for them. There weer also several non-combatant women, a couple of children and of course, Nanci. She was in the first car of the caravan, urging her driver to hurry and be cautious at the same time.

Finally getting irritated he turned around and told her to keep her eyes on the sides of the road around them and stop being a back seat driver, even if she was in the back seat. Disgruntled, Nanci sat back and did as she was told, fingering the shotgun safety as she prepared to blast any zombie stupid enough to get in the way as she made her way back to the man she loved.

Back at the Mike's Club warehouse Hank was not happy. The doc told him he was going to have to lay low for a couple weeks, take it easy and concentrate on mental tasks while his body repaired itself, however with his best friend out running around clearing zombies from a hospital he could not 'rest easy'. One thing Hank had learned in his years was that good friends, truly good friends, could never be replaced. It had taken Juan and his family a long while to convince Hank that just because he had been through hell once, not everyone was like that. The funny thing to Hank was he didn't think all people were bad, or evil, only that a very small percentage of people were, maybe one in ten thousand. No, the problem with Hank was not that he believed most people were good, his problem was he no longer trusted implicitly his ability to tell the good people from the bad ones.

When he was a young pup he was more than happy to choose and stand by any of his friends and family, until death if need be, he was that sure of himself and that sure that he was bullet proof. Then came his ex-wife, after that mess it was a wonder he didn't spend some time in a sanitarium somewhere. Not that Hank ever would have admitted anything in so many words, hurting was not something he had been raised to share around. Now when he was stuck sitting in a lazy boy discussing work shifts of the people at the club with the Doc, or reading the kids stories, or snoozing like he was supposed to be.

When he woke from his nap and found that Juan had gone without him, well that made him feel…lost, almost. He and Juan had been together for a long time almost inseparable for the past three or four years and now Juan was gone, and Hank might not ever see him again. Nancy was on the edge too, and Evaine was trying to keep both of them sane, but really only made matters worse. Hank had to give her credit, because she then did the only thing that could have helped, she backed off and left them to stew alone. Cage and Sylvia came by, Sylvia had their shoes, Cage wouldn't put his on, he said the other boys weren't wearing them and he liked the way the concrete kept his feet cool in the hot warehouse. Hank held on to both of them for awhile, shoes or no, but they only stayed with him for a little while before being caught back up into the pack of tweens running wild through the warehouse. Well, not quite true, they were still being shadowed by a group of older girls, who were quick to step up when any of the kids tried to do anything the adults wouldn't like.

This left Hank alone to think, old man Gonzales was handling most of the current moment to moment things. Everyone could tell Hank was in a funk, heck, Hank figured they could even have handled the rotating shift problem without his input, but he thought they wanted to make Hank feel a little better by giving him something to do. Feeling useless was new to Hank and didn't care for it. Worse his side itched, under the bandages, itched something fierce, but every time he moved around to scratch or touch the wounds, he writhed in pain. The Doc just told him to pop another pain pill.

Finally Kevin stopped by. He plopped into the seat next to Hank and said, "I think we feel the same way. You stuck on your chair, not out bashing heads with your friend, me not able to do much outside, Doc ordered me inside, said to rest. So I have to rest, but Juan can go shoot zeds? What is up with that? I mean, we all three came in together and only you were really busted up a bit. I was just tired and slept most of the morning away. Been playing video games with some of the other teens."

"Winning?" asked Hank.

"Sure, I schooled em good, an old timer like me, that surprised 'em too." Kevin snorted, "Me! An 'old timer'! Still I got their respect at video games. Probably the last generation of games out now, huh? I mean we ain't gonna be seeing a new Playstation or Xbox anytime soon now are we?"

Hank slowly shook his head, "Even if I knew what you were talking about I would have to say, 'No, I guess not'. So you even beat old man Gonzales's grandson? I heard he was pretty good."

It was Kevin's turn to shake his head, "No we haven't played yet. And yeah the dude's practically a legend, the older boys all talk about it and want me to play him, to see who is better, we are gonna do five matches tonight, ten minute rounds, go three out of five. They have some system worked out, like, so if I own him most of one match it counts as more or something. I don't care, I play the game, I win the game, plus this Al, right? He is like old, twenty or something, his reflexes gotta be giving out by now."

"Twent..twenty or some… Old!" Hank sputtered.

Kevin started laughing, "Gotcha! See your girl, she is good for something, told me to come over and wind you up a bit, take your mind off Juan being gone."

Hank laughed, "Oh, okay, I get it now."

"I did want to go with them though, the doc told me to stay here and get some rest, he said I was beat down hard and needed a break to recover, at least a day, maybe two. You know what the worst thing is Hank?"

"No, what?"

"The stupid doctor is right. My legs are sore, my back is sore, my mind is still running at a hundred miles an hour, I can't stop thinking about my mom. My family. Everything that happened. I don't know that I ever will. You're lucky you know, you got your best friend and your neighbors, who care about you a lot." Kevin held up one hand in front of him in a stop gesture, "No, I ain't going down pity road or telling you to 'man up' or anything, I just think you are lucky and I am happy to know you. And thanks, really, thanks for giving me a hand up with I was just spent. I wouldn't have made it without you and Juan."