Jason Campagna - White Ash on Bone - A Zombie Novel

“Jack, are you all right?” Donna asked.

“Yeah, I just want to get out of here if it’s all right with you,” Jack said.

“I’m ready to go, look behind us,” she said.

In the distance, came five of the undead crossing a field a quarter-mile away.

Donna slid back over into the passenger seat holding Naomi while Jack got back in the truck.

“What creeps me out,” Donna said, “is how I can’t fault anything she said about our generation.”

###

"This is it, turn right here," Brandi said pointing at the driveway leading off route 68 to her parent's house.

Alison's head pounded with a headache from stress. Getting out of Butler had been a close call. What Rex couldn't drive around he had smashed through to make it out of Butler. Red handprints smeared the windows of the vehicle where the undead managed to reach the sides when Rex was forced to slow down for too long.

Alison didn’t want to think about the family they had come across, but their faces were fresh in her mind.

A couple carrying their two young children ran out into the street as the truck was passing them by. Three times as many zombies were chasing the family. Rex slowed down, and the father had pushed his wife and children onto the back of the fiberglass covered truck bed. A zombie grabbed the man by the back of his shirt and yanked him to the ground.

Alison opened the back window and shouted to the woman, "Get the kids inside.”

Two more zombies came at the truck from the passenger side, and the one creature's hand caught inside the woman's shoe. The shoe went flipping in the air, but the vehicles momentum was enough to send the woman and one of the children sliding off the back of the truck.

Alison reached out the back window of the vehicle to try and grab the last child, but inches away from her lunge the child jumped off the vehicle to go to its mother.

"No," Alison screamed and pounded the bed cover as she watched the undead tear into the family. A zombie picked up one of the kids. The child kicked and punched out at the ghoul with no effect. Alison felt hands grab on to her from inside the truck and pull her back in. She closed her eyes to the family's fate.

At Brandi's house her parents turned out to be alive. Her father had stepped outside of the white vinyl-sided home with a shotgun at the ready.

Brandi threw her door open before the vehicle stopped and greeted her father. "Daddy, it’s me, where is Mom?" A woman rushed out of the inside of the house and the couple ran to meet their daughter. Everyone exited the truck and exchanged introductions with Brandi's parents.

"I'm Carl and this is my wife Sue. I can’t thank you folks enough for bringing our baby home."

"Ginger and Alison helped me get out of the mall,” Brandi said. “Without them I wouldn't have made it home."

"Your Dad wanted to go looking for you," Sue said. "But I made him stay home in case you made it here. We’ve been watching the news, and it's starting to get real sketchy. They’ve been showing footage of refugees at the stadium in Pittsburgh. They’re surrounded by thousands of them."

"What about the army?" Rex said.

"Confused," said Carl. "The media’s having a field day with the government’s response. Most of our combat units are overseas in Afghanistan so they’re working on what they have left. They’re talking about it taking weeks to months to pull the troops back home. The State and Federal government was in the process of sending help here, but then it started happening in Pittsburgh. They got some units in there, but the President has since ordered that they redeploy to the bigger cities that are having problems."

"So we have been triaged," Alison said.

"Basically," Carl said.

"What about the County Airport?" Rex said.

"They’re still there," Carl replied. "Are you thinking of heading that way?"

"Yep," Rex said. "You and your family are more than welcome to join us. I don’t think you want to be hanging around here when those things show up. If they’re after someone in a house they keep at it till they break in or another opportunity presents itself. They’re cracking open houses like crab shells. We've seen it hundreds of times this morning. I suppose you could fort your place up if you had enough time and if you had the supplies to hold out.

Carl eyed the AK-47 in Rex's hands. "No, I'm afraid I’m not as well prepared as you seem to be.

Rex smiled, "Just as Obama said, some of us cling to guns and religion.”

"We should eat first," Sue broke in. "While you load up the SUV, Carl, Brandi, and I can fix some food. We don’t know when we’ll get another chance."

"Good idea," Ginger said, "Just give me something to keep busy with."

The group broke off to cook and pack up. Alison stayed behind at the truck with Rex. "What are you doing?" Alison said.

"I'm going to watch the road," Rex said. "I also want to break up a few of these ammo crates into pouches."

"Do you need some help?" she said.

"Sure, these crates marked with 7.62 are the ammo for the AK-47s and the SKSs. Some of the crates have ammo that is pre-packed in stripper clips. Those can be used to fast load an SKS. Drop those in these pouches here. If the ammo is loose, you can load into these magazines here in this bag. We should have done this last night, but I was afraid that the doors would come bursting open at any second."

Alison opened a box of ammo full of the stripper clips and grabbed a handful to push into a pouch.

"Do you think your wife is okay?" she asked.

"Looks like she’s trying to keep busy; I suppose it’s a good thing," Rex said. "I shouldn’t have let her mom run into the house last night."

"It's not your fault, Rex," Alison said, "And you don’t need to second guess yourself right now."

"What about Ginger?" Rex said. "I can deal with my own ghosts, but I don’t know if I can handle it if she blames me."

"She's a lucky girl, Rex. Even if it does take her some time, she is going to remember that."

"And if she doesn't remember?" Rex said.

"Then I’ll remind her of the fact," Alison said. "I’ll also tell her about my life having a husband that cheats on me. I don’t know if you remember, but last night they had a doctor they were interviewing at the airport."

"Your husband?" Rex said.

"And his special assistant," Alison replied. "While I’m out here struggling for my life, she's with him."

"I'm sorry," Rex said.

"Don’t be sorry for me,” Alison said. “I’ve made my own choices in life. I did this to myself."

"What are you going to do when we get to the airport?" Rex asked.

"Do you think it's even worth it at this point?" Alison said. "I mean the world is ending and he is a piece of shit. At best, I can't say much better for myself. I loved him yes, but I stayed in the marriage because of the money he makes as a doctor. What does that say about me? I'm not much better than a whore. But I can’t even feel bad about that cause I let those poor kids get killed with their parents."

Alison's knees buckled and hit the gravel on the driveway. She lowered her face to the ground and dug her fingers into the rocks and squeezed until it hurt.

"He never would give me kids," she sobbed.

Alison felt soft warm hands lift and separate her face from the ground and she looked up into Ginger's face.

"I came out to see if I could help with the ammo," Ginger said. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I didn’t know what else to do."

Rex knelt beside Alison and took one her hands clutching the stones. He eased her hand open letting the gravel to patter against the ground.

"I really need to thank you Alison," Ginger said, "You reminded me that we’re all going to be dealing with things. I’d rather deal with them together than to lock myself apart. If you want, you can be part of our family and we’ll deal with whatever comes."