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Nightmare on Route Thirty

Chapter seven

Dean could see the zombies breaking through the back kitchen door and entering into the diner. He stood in front of the open freezer and started picking them off one by one but there were too many of them. He was soon out of bullets and didn't have time to reload or to grab Sam's gun. He was just about to make a dash for the machete which lay on a nearby table when he noticed that the zombies were walking right by him as if they didn't even notice him, but they did notice Earl and the others. Then a thought came to Dean…. maybe the zombies weren't able to detect him because he was standing in the cold. The freezer was throwing cold air all around him and the zombies walked right passed him and headed toward the others in the diner whose body heat was like ringing the dinner bell to the zombies.

"Everybody into the freezer!" Dean yelled as he waited for the zombies to walk by him then made a quick dash to the table and picked up his machete and Sam's gun, plus a box of bullets.

Everyone made it to the freezer except the cook; the zombies had him surrounded and before Dean could do anything they began ripping him to shreds. Dean began firing at them and managed to take the majority of them down but it was too late for the cook. He lay dismembered in an ever widening pool of his own blood. Dean backed toward the freezer and once everyone was inside he pulled the door shut.

"We're all going to die aren't we?" Cindy's little boy asked as he hung onto his mother.

"No buddy, I promise you we're going to get out of this." Dean tried his best to reassure the boy as he wondered how he was going to keep that promise.

"How?" Earl spoke and Dean turned around and looked into his angry face. "How the hell are we going to get out of this?"

"Those things can't detect us in here."

"But we can't stay here forever, we'll freeze to death." Cindy said as she peeked out through the frosted windows and into the diner. The sight she saw made her gag. The zombies were ripping flesh off of the cook's body and carrying the pieces outside to feed on later.

"All of you need to think about what I asked you earlier. Does anyone here know of a Haitian living near the town or of any person with a Haitian background that might have a reason to want revenge on one of you?"

They looked back and forth amongst themselves but no one spoke.

Dean hoped that since the zombies went after Rick and killed him that he was the one they were looking for. But if it had been him then the zombies would have died right after killing him because their quest for revenge would have been over. But then they had killed the cook and they still were wondering around the diner as if looking for someone else. Dean figured that Rick and the cook and someone else must be the reasons the zombies were still out there. But who? Dean had a feeling it was probably Earl but there was no way to prove it.

"Those things out there are going to kill all of us unless one of you speak up."

Finally Cindy took a few steps toward Dean; she shook off her husbands hand as he tried to stop her.

"We're all responsible." She said with tears in her eyes. "An old woman was walking along the back road in all this rain and when she saw our car she got down on her knees and begged us to stop. We stopped at a stop sign and she came over to us and begged us to give her a lift home. You could tell she was poor, but you could also tell she was weak and tired; she shouldn't have been out in this storm. She was no threat to us…..but we did nothing…." Cindy looked over at her husband. "He wouldn't help her. We left her stranded alongside the road. About half an hour after we got here to the diner she walked in, someone must have given her a ride. She only asked for a cup of coffee, or a cup of soup….but the cook wouldn't serve her, she had no money." Cindy looked over at Rita who looked away. "Then he and his buddy came in…" She now looked over at Earl. "The woman got up to leave then tripped and fell in front of them and they didn't even help her up. They called her an old hag and told her to watch where she was walking. They then forced her back out into the storm." Cindy looked up at Dean. "She was an old woman who needed help and none of us would help her." She looked around at the group. "We're all responsible."

"Shut up Cindy!" Earl started walking toward her. "Just keep that big mouth of yours shut!"

Mike, Cindy's husband, intercepted him.

"Don't you talk to my wife like that!"

Dean quickly stepped between them.

"Don't you think we have enough to worry about without you two going at it?" He then looked around at the group. "Does anyone know where this woman lives?"

"She lives about a mile from here…on Sycamore Street, right off of Route thirty." One of the men spoke up.

"Where on Sycamore Street?" Dean knew streets could run for blocks and the odds of finding the woman's house weren't on his side.

"I have no idea. I'm not even sure if she still lives there."

Dean knew if what Cindy said about all of them treating the old woman badly she had probably put a curse on the entire group and the zombies wouldn't stop until they had killed them all. He knew he had to do something. He looked over at Earl.

"Since you're such a wise ass I say you and me go out back and try to distract those things so the rest of them can make it to the cars and get out of here. They can take my brother with them."

"What are you nuts? I'm not going out there! I'm not going to get myself killed to save them!"

"Does anyone have a better idea?" Dean looked around at the group.

At first no one said anything but then Earl spoke up.

"I do." Earl nodded toward Sam. "He's hurt….I say we toss him out back and when those things are chowing down on him we slip out the front."

TBC