Zombie Road: The Second Omnibus | Books 4-6 | Jessie+Scarlet Simpson, A. (pride and prejudice read txt) 📖

were staying. Mixed in with the motorcycles, Hummers and Raptors were the cars they’d abandoned in Mexico. Gunny’s ’55 Chevy, Scratch’s Skylark, Hollywood’s Cadillac and Griz’s old panel van were there. Shot up, dented, dirty and bloody but someone had fixed them. Someone had a status symbol, the captured cars of their enemies.

“Any ideas yet?” Griz asked as they eased out of town and started making the miles long circuit around the mountain plateau that jutted straight up from the desert floor.

“Thought about finding a horde to pull in but they’re so slow, it would take them a month of Sundays to get here. Casey will have the cliff top in another week or so, even if he follows the same plan. It’ll be a war of attrition and from what I can tell, he can afford to lose a lot more men than they can. Every time he makes a run at their defenses, he’s probably able to kill a handful of them. Pretty soon it’ll be old women and kids manning the wall.”

“Yep.” Griz agreed. “Wish we had some way to communicate with them. Some way to get a Ham Radio up there.”

Gunny cut off the dirt road he was following and wound his way through the desert, heading to the backside of the mountain.

“Yeah. That needs to be a priority for all the rest of the settlements.” he said. “I don’t know why I didn’t insist on every outpost having one installed.”

“Right.” Griz said. “We’ve been goofing off for the past six months.”

Gunny snorted. “Okay. Point taken. Still, if we had a way to let them know things…” Gunny trailed off. If wishes were horses…

“We know they listen to Radio Lakota.” Griz said. “The retrievers told us that much. Maybe we can call Bastille, have him give them a message.”

“Casey’s goons might hear it.” Gunny said. “I know he doesn’t like them listening to it but they still do.”

“Yeah.” Griz said “But they’re Indians and so are Dutch and Joey Tallstrider. They can be like the Windtalkers in World War two.”

“The Navajo code talkers?” Gunny asked “Do they even know the language?”

“Dunno.” Griz said. “But it’s easy enough to find out and even if they don’t, they’ve gotta speak some kind of Indian. They both have accents like English is their second language.”

Gunny laughed. “I don’t think it works like that but it’s worth a shot. Give HQ a call.”

106

Jessie + Scarlet

Their trip to Cascade was mostly uneventful. One of the RV’s broke down, probably a clogged filter or fuel line but everyone packed tight into the other one and they were rolling again before the mob stumbling after them caught up. The gate guard recognized the Mercury and sounded the bell, letting everyone know new people were arriving. They had a setup similar to what they had at the lodge; tall spiked logs sunk into the ground palisades style. Once they got though the check-in process and introductions were made, Jessie didn’t want to stay. There was still an hour of daylight left and Scarlets new wound in her shoulder was still blood spotting the bandages almost a day after she’d been stabbed. It should have stopped long ago, should have already been scabbed over. Colonel Norris wouldn’t hear of it, though. It wasn’t often they had visiting dignitaries bringing him dozens of new citizens and he insisted on a feast.

“It will be much better than the last one.” he promised.

Scarlet heard him declining dinner, saying they really should be hitting the road, and interrupted.

“Jessie is an uncultured beast.” she said as she looped an arm through his battered leather jacket and smiled graciously at the Colonel. “Of course, we will stay for dinner. We would be honored.”

It was settled. The men and women from the high rise hadn’t had a good meal in months and had to force themselves to eat slow. It didn’t the ladies long to cook up an extra fifty plates, the community was still small and everyone usually got together for the evening meal at the Inn. It was a rambling hotel with a dining hall big enough to seat everyone and plenty of empty rooms for the new comers until they had a chance to explore and pick out any of the hundreds of empty houses. The Colonel was right about the food. It was much better than the bland freeze dried that had been served the last time he’d been with this group. They had crappie and perch, beaver and caribou, peas and potatoes and plenty of spices for everything.

After the meal, the Colonel insisted on showing him around, proud of their defenses and greenhouses and fish farms. Scarlet declined, said she was tired and asked to be shown to their room. Nefertiti went with her and Bob trailed around after Jessie. The people had worked hard once they convinced Norris to leave the lodge compound and the town was growing rapidly. Bastille had started spreading the word on Radio Lakota about the new outpost and more survivors came down from the mountains to join the community. With logging equipment and utility company diggers, they had built a formidable wall in a matter of weeks. The food from houses, grocery stores and restaurants along with a few loads of live cattle from Tombstone had sustained them until they had their fish farms up and producing. Carl and Tina had ridden up with one of the convoy’s and spent a week at their hydroelectric plant and trained a few men on how to operate it. The electric lights and the promise of hot showers had probably done more to attract the mountain men and their wives than the security of the walls.

They rode around in an electric golf cart as the Colonel pointed out various cottage industries. Night had fallen but the town was well lit with street lights and there were plenty of other carts zipping around, waving hello as they passed.

“In that barn”