by Dziekan, PJ
He was biting his bottom lip, bursting to talk. “No, thanks,” he said.
Sarah sighed. “Go ahead. What is it?”
“Claire and I saw some people on the other side of the south gate yesterday.”
“How many?”
“About half a dozen. They were studying the barricade. Claire and I were watching them through the second floor of that bar right there?”
“What do you think?” Sarah poured the hot water into her cup. Her voice was even, trying not to influence Jack.
He was silent a moment, then he sighed. “They looked hard, Sarah. It was all guys, heavily armed. One of them was bigger than Ben.” He looked up at her, his eyes wide. “I got a bad feeling about them.”
It was what Sarah was afraid of. Instead of the last survivors banding together, there always had to be a group that wanted it all. They had run into one such group on their way to the cabin. Luckily, they didn’t do more than fire weapons at Sarah and her group. Maybe she could meet with this group, see if their intentions were the same or if they were interested in something more peaceful.
“Were they in a vehicle or on foot?” She asked as she dunked her tea bag.
“We didn’t see a vehicle. Heard something a bit after they disappeared.” Jack shrugged. “I don’t know for sure.”
“Did you see which way they went?”
He shook his head. “Sorry.”
“It’s OK, Jack.” She pulled the tea bag from her cup and used her fingers to squeeze the excess liquid from it. She set it carefully on the piece of plastic she used to wrap her tea bags. She used them twice then they went into the compost pile. She took a drink of the hot liquid. She knew it was psychosomatic, but as soon as she swallowed the caffeinated beverage, she felt clearer.
“I want you and Claire at the north gate today. Make sure you take a rifle.” Jack’s eyes widened. “Just to show we can hold our own. Don’t fire unless you feel threatened. I’m going to send Ben and Annie to the south.” She took another sip of tea. “I’m sure they’re harmless, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
“Why can’t we be at the south gate?” He asked. “We saw them first.”
“Would you be more wary of you or Ben?”
Jack nodded. “You have a point.”
“Get something to eat first. I’ll be down around lunchtime, OK?” Jack nodded again. She didn’t like the look on his face. “Nothing to worry about, Jack. I’m sure they’ve moved on.”
He looked her in the eye. “Don’t bullshit me, Sarah.”
She smiled. “You’re right, I shouldn’t bullshit you.” The smile faded. “We’ll have to watch them and see what kind of people they are.” She took another sip of tea. “Now go on.”
She watched him go, her mind already working. If the group wasn’t hostile, maybe they could join forces, like her group did with Annie’s. They would all vote on it, as they did on any major decisions. The final say, however, would be hers. Reluctantly, she had become the leader of both groups. Most times, she agreed with the majority.
But if they turned out to be hostile, she’d do what she needed to do to protect her people, to protect her family. She had done it before.
When Mick came out, he found her pensively staring at the wall, her hands cradled around her cup. “Babe?” He called.
She was startled from her thoughts. She turned and smiled. “Hey, Mick.”
He shivered in the cool morning air. “Got some more tea?”
“No coffee?” Sarah asked with a smile as she started water to boil.
“Nah, I like to keep you guessing.” Her smile was brief. “What’s going on?” He knew her well enough to know there was something on her mind.
“Jack and Claire saw some people hanging around the south barricade yesterday.”
“Really?” Mick got a mug from the cupboard and one of Sarah’s precious tea bags. “And?”
“And he thinks they may not be friendly.” She finished the last of her cold tea. “I’m putting him and Claire at the north barricade and Ben and Annie at the south.”
“Is that wise?”
“He’s not a child, Mick. He’s an adult, or I guess he is. He was 17 when this shit started.”
“Yeah, but…” He didn’t know how to finish.
“No buts, Mick. He’s part of the good and the bad. Hopefully, this is just the mediocre.”
“You’re right, babe.” He poured the boiling water into his cup. “I just can’t forget the first time we saw him, like a deer in the headlights standing in front of the Jeep.”
“He’s changed. We all have.” She tapped her fingers on the counter. “I want everyone to stay close. At least until we figure out if this is a threat or not.”
“I wanted to finish clearing that hardware store just out of town. Ryan needs wire for the heating system and it’s closer than the Home Depot.”
“It can wait.” She poured a small amount of water in her mug to rinse it out then set it in the dish drainer. “I’m going to tell Annie and Ben they’re on the barricade.”
“Be careful.”
“Always.”
♦
The day passed quickly. After Sarah explained the situation and asked Annie and Ben to man the barricade, she went to visit Missy and Louis. A few months earlier, she had found a stuffed black and white penguin wearing a red scarf. She presented it to Missy. “I heard that babies see black and white and red first,” she said as she placed the small toy in the bassinet. “And penguins are cool.”
Missy smiled as she cradled Louis to her breast. “Penguins are cool.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Tired. Sore. Happy it’s over.”
Sarah smiled. “It’s not over. You still have teething, poopy diapers, sleepless nights, terrible twos…”
“Please stop!” Missy laughed. Sarah laughed with her.
Sarah visited with Missy and Louis for an hour until Louis fell asleep and Missy’s eyes got heavy. She said her goodbyes and headed outside.
It was warming up, but still a bit of chill in the air. The streets were empty, devoid of vehicles, corpses, and zombies. They had spent the summer cleaning the streets and buildings until everything was zombie free. They were hoping to eventually spread out through the whole town.
She walked down to the north barricade. Jack and Claire had commandeered the second floor of a three-story office building. Sarah called to them as she walked up the staircase. She didn’t want to get shot.
Claire appeared at the top. “Hi, Sarah.” The teenager had dyed the tips of her hair bright pink over the summer. It suited her pixy like features. Jack seemed to appreciate it. They had been a couple for the past few months.
“Anything happening?” Sarah asked as she stepped into the office with the best view of the barricade.
“Nothing.” Claire led her to the spot where she and Jack had set up an observation nest. They had made a nice seating area with cushions from the office sofa and a low table. There was a deck of cards and a scattering of books on the table.
Jack turned from the window when he heard Sarah’s approach. “Nothing going on. We haven’t seen a living person. A couple of non-living ones and a mangy dog, but no living ones.”
Sarah bent and peered out the window that they had cleaned of a year’s worth of grime. They had a perfect sightline of the school bus and tractor trailer that comprised the barricade. She saw nothing on the other side but a corpse and a burnt-out car. “All right,” she said, straightening from the window. “Stay here through dinner, OK? I’ll send someone out with lunch.”
“No problem.” Claire flopped down on a cushion.
“Don’t get into any trouble.” Sarah winked at Jack. She laughed when he blushed.
She walked the length of the town to the south barricade. Ben and Annie abandoned Jack’s original observation point for the roof of a fast food restaurant. Sarah waved as she walked over and climbed the ladder to the roof. “Sarah.” Annie nodded.
“See anything?”
“Nothing but a couple of things walking by.”
Ben stood up from the lawn chair they had appropriated. “No people at all,” he said, stretching his big frame.
“OK.” Sarah looked at the barricade. Just like the one on the east side of town, a bus and truck were end to end. The fronts of the vehicles were covered with metal welded by Bobby, as well as the bottoms of both vehicles to the road. It took six of the guys to put the pieces in place. She was sure no zombies would get through and pretty sure no people would get through. At least, not without serious effort. She turned back to Annie and Ben. “I’d feel better if you stayed until dinner.”
“Sure,” Annie answered. “I have some books to read.”
“Gets me out of hauling pipe,” Ben quipped.
“I’ll send someone out with lunch.” She started walking to the ladder but stopped. The sound she heard was commonplace a year ago, but now sounded wrong and out of place. The throaty roar of a diesel engine. She whipped around, wondering if her face held the same shocked look as Annie and Ben wore. The three of them walked to the edge of the roof and watched as the big Chevy pickup roared up the road, breaking to a stop in front of the barricade. Nobody moved. Whoever was in the truck sat there, revving the engine before shutting it down. The driver’s door opened slowly, a booted foot stepping onto the road. “Shit,” Sarah whispered.
The driver stepped around the door. He was a little taller than average height with dirty blonde hair and a neat beard. His eyes were covered by mirrored sunglasses. He angled his head up and a smile appeared on his blandly handsome face. “Well, hello there,” he called.
“Hello,” Sarah answered.
“Name’s Pete. Looks like a nice town you have there.”
“Yes, it is.” She didn’t offer her name.
“Would it be somewhere we can stop for a bit?”
She couldn’t see his eyes. The smile looked fake, but she couldn’t see his eyes. “Who’s we?”
Pete made a motion with his hand and the passenger door opened. The guy that got out was bigger than Ben. Tall, bearded, bulky, he wore two bandoliers crossed over his barrel chest. On his hips were two pistols. The two backdoors of the truck opened and a pair of guys stepped into view. They were smaller, a little grimy, with a weasel-like, subservient demeanor. All four men were well armed, ready for trouble. She looked back at Pete, to see him staring at her. She flashed back to Austin. A shudder ran through her.
“I’m sorry, but no,” she said brusquely. “We’re a little tight on space and supplies.”
“But there are only four of us.” His tone was genial, but there was an undercurrent of malice.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “There’s another town about thirty miles down the road.” Her hand drifted to the gun on her hip.
“Well, maybe we’ll be neighbors then.” He tipped an imaginary hat at her
She nodded, but didn’t respond. They watched as the group piled back into the truck. Pete started the vehicle, revved the engine again then pulled away, making a U-turn before driving back the way he had come, towards the next town.
“Shit,” Ben muttered as they lost sight of the truck.
“Yeah. Stay here.” Sarah turned and walked rapidly across the roof. She took the ladder down and jogged across town to the apartment building.
She raced up the steps, stopping in their first apartment. “Do you know where Ryan and Mick are?” She asked Donna.
“No, I haven’t seen either of them today.” She paled at the look on Sarah’s face. “Is there trouble?” Her hands, full of neatly folded clothing, began to tremble. A pair of socks tumbled to the floor.
“No. I don’t know.” Sarah shook her head. “I have to find them.” She left, trotting down the hall to the other apartment.
Dominic jumped when the door opened, slamming against the wall. “Sarah?” He picked up on the fear in her eyes. “Is everything OK?” He stood up, slowly walking towards her, not wanting the kids to hear what she said.
“I need Mick and Ryan. Do you know where they are?”
“I think they’re up on the roof.” He barely had the words out before she turned and ran down the hall to the roof access.
Bobby, Steven and Grant were at one end, doing something with tools and pipe. April was in the garden, checking the ripeness of the peppers. Sarah didn’t see Mick or Ryan. “Bobby!” She called as she walked across the roof. “Where’s Mick?”
Bobby stood, a pipe wrench in his hand. “He and Ryan went out for wire.”
“What?!?”
“They went to the hardware store just outside of town. We need a lot of wire for…” He trailed off when he saw the anger come over her features.
“Son of a bitch!” She exclaimed. “I told him to stay close.”
“Mick said it could wait, but Ryan wants to get the wiring done before the end of the week,” Steven said. “Is there a problem?”
When she heard the growl of the diesel again, an icy finger climbed her spine. “Yes,” she said softly. “I think there is.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Sarah was on the stoop in front of the building by the time the truck arrived. With trepidation, she noticed a black Cadillac SUV following the truck. Standing behind her were Bobby, Steven, April, Troy and Donna. All were armed with their guns either concealed under loose shirts or in pockets or leaning against the door, in the case of Steven’s shotgun. Dominic and Michelle had Elaine and the kids in the apartment with Missy and Louis, everyone but the youngest children armed as well. Grant, the only person Sarah could spare, slipped out the back of the apartment building to check on the people at the barricades. She could only hope that he didn’t stumble upon a scene of carnage.
He got out of the truck as if he had all the time in the world. “Remember me? Pete?” he said, a smile plastered on his face.
“I told you we didn’t have room here.” Sarah kept her voice even despite the fact that her heart was pounding.
He shrugged; the smile gone. “I think you do. Plenty of room for me and my friends.” He lowered his head and peered at her over his sunglasses. “But I don’t think we have room for you. There’s another town about thirty miles down the road.” He smirked as he threw her words back at her.
“I don’t think so. This is our town. We cleaned it up. We did all the work. We’re not leaving.”
“I could make you leave.” He put a hand on the gun at his hip.
Sarah laughed. “You think you’re the first man to threaten me?” She spat. “The last one, I stuck a screwdriver in his thigh and watched him bleed to death.” She tilted her head. “No, my mistake. The last one I shot in the forehead.” She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t scare me. You don’t scare my people. Get the fuck out of our town.”
He shook his head. “I tried asking nicely.” Sarah barked out a laugh. “I guess we do it the hard way.”
Sarah’s hand moved to her gun. She looked into his sunglasses, seeing her reflection, the determination on her face, as she pulled the weapon from her holster. He whistled and the front doors of the Cadillac opened. A pair of guys she hadn’t seen before yanked open the back doors and pulled two figures out. They were wearing hoods over their heads, their hands tied behind them. They struggled but it was ineffectual. The bandits pulled them along, pushing them to their knees in front of Pete.
Mick and Ryan? She thought maybe, from the height of the captives. What was Mick wearing this morning? Why couldn’t she remember what he was wearing?
“Found these two at a hardware store a few miles away, loading wire into a green Jeep.” She flinched as his words sunk in. “Your people, I presume.” He grinned, but she could see the evil lurking behind it.
Her heart threatened to burst from her chest. She swallowed, but she kept her mouth shut. She was afraid she would beg for Mick’s life. But there wasn’t just Mick and Sarah to think about. Not anymore. There were others, from Elaine to
baby Louis. There were others.
“Well? Are they yours?” He kicked the one on the right in the back. He went down with a muffled groan, his forehead smacking off the road. They must have been gagged. Pete pulled him up by the back of his shirt, but he remained slumped over in pain.
Sarah flicked the safety from her gun. She should shoot him. End it now. Without a leader, his underlings would either scatter or panic. But if they panicked, they might start shooting. They might hurt her people. She might lose more than she would gain. She swallowed again, even though her mouth was dry.
“I guess if they’re not yours, then no one will miss them.” Before Sarah could react, he brought his gun up and shot the one on the left in the back of the head. She screamed and her gun was pointed, her finger pulling the trigger over and over.
Her fear, her anger knocked off her aim so her bullet missed his chest but instead ripped through his shoulder. He ran behind the truck door and dove inside. She fired at the door, missed, hit the tire. A bullet whizzed past her head and she turned, her bullet finding the chest of one of his underlings.
In her peripheral vision, she saw the second kneeling man topple over and she screamed again, aiming her gun at the windshield of the truck, where Pete ducked to hide. She was vaguely aware of the gunfire around her, the grunt of pain as someone behind her was hit. Her eyes kept landing on the two men prone on the ground. Tears blurred her vision.
The Chevy moved forward, carrying Pete and two of his henchmen in the cab, one in the bed of the truck. Sarah took aim on the guy in the bed, shooting him in the head just as he brought his rifle up to bear on her. He toppled over, the rifle clattering over the side of the truck as it careened down the street.
She could hear vague noises, smell the blood, the gunpowder, the stink of death. But the loudest thing she heard was her heartbeat echoing in her ears as she slowly walked to the bound men lying on the ground. She dropped to her knees in a puddle of blood and set her empty gun on the ground. She reached for the hood of the man Pete had executed. Her head felt like it would explode from the sound of her heartbeat. She slid the hood over the bloodied head.
