The Deadfall

by Lilly Black

  "I do," she agreed.

  "And what if I said I brought you someone who knows what to do with all this technology?" he asked, and Olivia's eyes lit up because they needed someone like that almost as much as a doctor in her mind. Alek motioned for the person in the passenger seat of his car to join them, and a girl in her early twenties dressed all in black with blue hair stepped out. "This is Rena."

  "Hi," Olivia said, surprised as Rena fearlessly reached out to pet Evil. The other new people had all frozen the second they saw the great cat, but Rena recognized a kindred spirit.

  "Yo," she said to Olivia with a crooked smile as the cat rubbed up against her. She was awkward around people, but she had a way with animals and was an absolute genius with technology. Near the beginning, she and her friends had broken into the Radio Shack to loot the place themselves only to get trapped by a herd of the dead. When they ran out of food and water, they tried to fight their way out, and she was the only one who survived, forced back inside by the cannibalistic throng. By the time Alek's group found her, she had been working on using the technology in the shop to plan her own escape, but she was so depleted, her plan B had been suicide.

  Deciding to leave the unloading for the morning, Alek took Evil to her room while Olivia worked out sleeping arrangements for Rena and other new members who had been picked up along the way. When she finally made it to her bedroom, she found Alek and Evil in bed, the cat sprawled out in the middle.

  "She wouldn't take no for an answer," he explained.

  "I think she missed you," Olivia said with a smile, wondering if Evil was doing the same thing she was; clinging to the small victory of Alek coming back alive, which allowed her to temporarily suppress her anxiety about Reid. If she allowed herself to think about him for more than a few seconds at a time, she feared she'd lose all semblance of sanity. Her mind kept going back to the gypsy's spell and telling her that she was responsible for whatever was happening to Reid. It wasn't really the spell itself that caused the guilt though. It was the way her body had reacted to Alek on the street in front of the Kemp Hotel in Pittsburgh. It was the fact that she never told him she was married when they were drinking together in the bar the night the world went to shit. It was how much she wanted him in this moment while her husband was probably fighting for his life to get back to her.

  She thought she was a horrible person undeserving of the comfort Alek could bring, and though the cat didn't smell the best after chewing on the face of a corpse earlier, Olivia didn't run her out of the bed, instead letting her sleep between them as penance for her selfishness.

  Day 14

  It had been two weeks since the dead rose. At Olivia's compound, they were still able to pick up the occasional broadcast on the satellite dish, but very few bothered watching it because all it served to do was reinforce the hopelessness. Though only American journalists were openly reporting that the dead were eating the living so far, it appeared that there wasn't a corner of the globe that had not descended into utter chaos, and not a single government had managed to find a successful means of protecting their people. Everyone assumed that the U.S. federal and state governments were operating from underground bunkers, but the truth was that most of them had already fallen, having retreated to their safe havens at the very onset out of fear. Without understanding the plague, they took the wounded with them, and once the first person died in these facilities, it spread throughout as quickly as it did in any isolated population that hadn't figured out the pathology. The majority of governments were eliminated, and those that remained were in no position to govern. Even the largest military in the world was no match for the hungry dead as it spread through their ranks like wildfire.

  In just two week's time, the population of the United States had been cut by more than 90%, and though June couldn't possibly know any statistics about the governments or the populace, it was the momentum of the total societal breakdown that she saw as proof positive that there were biblical forces at work. While she and Jobe both suffered through their share of the labor to make the compound a defensible fortress, they spent their evenings praying for an end to the curse. If the dead would just stop rising, they could ultimately clear the planet of the corpses and start building a new civilization. June was convinced that atoning with God would bring that end about.

  Dani disagreed, and as she, June, Olivia, and Liana discussed the future plans for the compound in Olivia's office, she made it clear. She thought they should prioritize working on a cure. Of course, they didn't have anyone qualified to do so, and it frustrated her that June, the only one among them with any sort of medical background, was the one who also had a total disregard for science.

  "So what do you suggest we do, Dani?" Olivia asked. "Start looting research facilities?"

  "I don't know. Maybe."

  "It's a waste of time," Liana argued. "Even if we found a lab and a how-to book, you really think any of us could figure that out? What we need to be doing is recruiting and training an army."

  "An army?" Dani asked, incredulous.

  "Yes! An army. Do you not realize what's going to happen next? Right now everyone is just trying to survive, but they'll start banding together. Look at all the people we've brought in already? There will be more and more groups, then they'll come after smaller groups because the more people you have, the more productive you'll be. We'll get power hungry assholes exploiting people's fears just like we did before this happened, and if we're not ready, we'll end up losing this place and everyone in it."

  "We're preparing for that," Olivia said. "We're building up our defenses. Once the wall is finished, we'll be able to start developing defensive strategies, and we're already training everyone with guns."

  "It's not enough. We need to teach them hand to hand combat. We need to teach them how to fight as a unit."

  "So you think we're going to end up having to fight the living and the dead? I'll just die, thanks," Dani said, overwhelmed by the very idea of it.

  "That's easy for you to say. You don't have any children," June said. "If you did, you'd know we have to fix this world for them."

  "So how do you suggest we do that?" Olivia asked June, who gave her staple answer of prayer, infuriating Olivia.

  They began to argue, and Jobe rolled his eyes as he waited outside the room for June. He wanted to be a part of the oversight of the compound, but he realized that being pushy with Olivia wouldn't get him anywhere. He knew how to read people, and he had learned what not to do by watching how June dealt with her. June was constantly pushing her buttons and getting nothing accomplished, and Jobe had things he needed to get done in order to find his place in this new world. He didn't care about the church June wanted to start because he gave a shit about having a church; he cared about it because he wanted the power he lost when the apocalypse came. He used to have hundreds of thousands of followers, and now he had one - June. Her kids didn't even seem to give him much credence.

  Jobe was frustrated.

  "What's going on?" Alek asked as he walked down the hallway toward the office, looking for Olivia to show her some of the things Rena was designing in the workshop they set up for her.

  "Women," Jobe said, wincing.

  "Is everything okay?"

  "I'm sure it'll be fine. They're just arguing about all of our futures," he said. Then he added something that made Alek's skin crawl. "Things would be a lot more rational if we were in charge around here. Maybe you need to put a baby in that woman to keep her busy."

  "You're joking right?" Alek asked, disgusted, but Jobe read something different in his expression.

  "You're not getting any, are you?" he asked. "Yeah, I'm not getting any from June either...not yet anyway. Never had so much trouble sealing the deal before, especially with a woman with such itty bitty titties."

  "If you aren't attracted to her, maybe you should move on," Alek said.

  "Come on. You know why I'm with June. It's the same reason you're letting Olivia drag your dick thr
ough the dirt, my friend," Jobe said as he patted him on the back, and Alek cringed, assuming Jobe meant he was with June because she was as close as he could get to being in power in the compound. "Can't believe I've been reduced to this when I used to make women's morals and panties go right out the window at the mere snap of my fingers. But you're famous too. You know what it's like."

  "What's it like?" Alek asked, suddenly curious to know just how much of a prick this guy really was.

  "You know, the little sluts let you do anything you want," he said, his eyes flashing and his fists clenched with excitement as he reminisced. "I had to be more careful than someone like you because I had a public image to protect, but as long as the cameras weren't rolling? Shit. I could just walk up and grab their titties or shove my hand up their skirts. Goddamn, I miss it! Yesterday, I'm trying on vaginas like hats, but today, the pussy well's gone dry."

  Suddenly Alek had had enough. When Jobe looked up at him, he could see that his blood had begun to boil, and he started to inch away as Alek began speaking, his voice dripping with disgust.

  "If that's how you think about pussy, you don't deserve any," he said, looking down at the smaller man with repugnance. "In the future, if you want to swap stories about trying on vaginas like hats, maybe try Jax, but let me just make one thing clear to you right now; if I ever see you just walk up and grab a woman's breasts or stick your hand up her skirt, I'll remove the offending appendage. Do you understand me?"

  "Hey, no offense, man. I didn't know you were like that."

  "Like what exactly?" Alek demanded, then out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dani. She was standing in the office doorway staring at him with wide eyes, and he immediately backed off, not wanting to have to repeat this conversation in front of all four women. They deserved to know what an asshole Jobe was, but if he were to say anything right now, he felt like he'd look like the asshole wanting credit for putting him in his place. He'd tell Olivia later and let her decide what to pass along.

  Dani's Journal

  Day 14

  Jax is going to cheat on me. I know it. I can feel it. It's only a matter of time. He's used to having a different woman every night, but now I'm the only woman he's had in two weeks. I see how he looks at other women, and I just don't know what to do. I don't want to lose him, but I could never be like his wife. I don't know how she handled the humiliation of knowing he was out on the road every night fucking around on her. The thought of it makes me sick.

  It also makes me kind of sick to know he has a wife out there, but she's three thousand miles away. He's never going to try to get back to her, and she doesn't know where he is. When he tried to call her the night it all went down, she didn't answer, so maybe she's dead already. I'd say I hope so, but I don't know what difference it would make anyway. I feel like my time with him is going to be short.

  Hell, he may be cheating on me already. This afternoon when I was coming out of a meeting with Olivia, Liana, and June, I overheard Alek telling Jobe that he needed to have a conversation with Jax about "trying on vaginas like hats." I don't know what he meant by that, but the look on his face when he saw me spoke volumes. He knows something.

  Or maybe it's nothing. Maybe I'm just losing my fucking mind. I finally have the man I've always wanted, but it had to happen in a world I don't want to live in. Sometimes I wish we could build that stone wall ten feet thick and twenty feet high and just forget about everything outside. That's what I would do in Olivia's position. I would never go out on scavenging expeditions like she does, and I wouldn't make Jax work on the wall. We could both just live in our inner sanctum making all the plans and decisions, and I'd be sure that we were surrounded by only men and old women so I would never have to worry about him cheating on me.

  Or maybe I need to suck it up and start offering him threesomes. I don't fucking know. I just don't fucking know.

  Day 25

  When the actual compound oversight meeting took place without June, they decided to consider everyone's strategy, and over the course of the next eleven days, they built up a good portion of the ten foot stone wall that would ultimately surround the five acre inner ring of the compound. They still had a lot of work to do, but with the entrances complete, two strong gates, and a deep trench around it all, they were beginning to feel secure from the dead and the living. Once finished, getting into the mountaintop compound against the will of the people inside would be like a castle siege, and when corpses strayed up the mountain, they were already falling into the pit where they were left as a deterrent for any potential intruders considering making the jump over it to scale the wall.

  After enough stone had been collected, the scavenging groups began to loot doctor's and dentist's offices, looking for anyone or anything that could help in Dani's quest to find a cure while satisfying Olivia's desire to stockpile medications and medical equipment. Of course, Dani's interest had begun to wane as she became more and more convinced that Jax was cheating on her. She had begged Olivia & Liana not to send him on any missions so he would not be out of her sight during the day, and she was now sleeping so lightly, if he got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, she would bolt upright and demand to know where he was sneaking off to. Able to blame that behavior on dreams since it only happened at night, she was careful not to let her intense jealousy and paranoia show during the day, but now that Alek's comment to Jobe had festered inside her mind for nearly two weeks, she decided she had to know what he meant regardless of how it made her look.

  Early one morning while everyone was going about their daily chores, she asked Alek to help her move a dresser, but once they were walking together up the gravel road away from the lodge, she told him the real reason she wanted him to come to her cabin.

  "I don't actually have anything to move," she confessed as they approached the driveway before hers, and Alek stopped, turning toward her with a sigh. He didn't know exactly what was coming, but he was sure it had to do with her suspicions about Jax.

  "I know you think I'm crazy," she began, "but a couple of weeks ago, you were talking to Jobe about Jax, and I heard you say he was trying on vaginas like hats..."

  "Dani," he said impatiently, rolling his eyes behind closed lids.

  "I just need to know what you were talking about," she said. "That's all. I promise."

  "I'll make you a deal. You tell me why I keep overhearing June say you guys caused the apocalypse, and I'll tell you about trying on vaginas like hats."

  "Deal, but I asked first," she said, planning to make something up when her turn came because Olivia would kill her if she told him about the spell.

  "Fine," he said, then he relayed the conversation he had with Jobe. "I was really just trying to tell him to fuck off. I don't have a lot of stories about one night stands, but being a rock star, I figured Jax would have plenty. That's all it was, I promise, and if you would just talk to Jax about how you're feeling..."

  "I can't do that. He'll think I'm pathetic...or crazy."

  "You're not pathetic," he said with a wink, "and I think you'll be surprised by what he has to say."

  "Why? Do you know something?" she asked, and in fact, he did. He and Jax had had a long conversation while building the wall one day, but Alek wasn't going to be the one to tell Dani how he felt about her. She needed to hear it directly from the source.

  "Just talk to him" he said. "Now, about you ladies causing the..."

  Alek froze as he heard a scream coming from the direction of June's house. He grabbed his gun with one hand and Dani with the other, pulling her to stay close behind him as he ran up the driveway. Then they heard it again when they were standing right outside the cabin.

  "That's June," Dani confirmed, and fearing that the dead had somehow found their way into her home, she and Alek hurried inside and down the hall, where they could now hear June's muffled cries along with other, softer sounds that made it clear that the dead had nothing to do with it at all.

  Angered, Alek kicked open the be
droom door to find Jobe pinning June on the floor beside the bed. He saw Jobe's hand covering her mouth, the other hand pressed into her back, holding her down, and as soon as she was aware that others were in the room, June started begging for help behind Jobe's hand. In a rage, Alek rushed over to Jobe, picked him up, and threw him against the wall as Dani helped June to her feet. She pulled a blanket off the bed to cover her nakedness and held her head against her chest while Alek beat Jobe until his face was an unrecognizable, bloody mess.

  "Alek!" Dani yelled as he continued even after he lost consciousness. "Alek. He's out cold!"

  He stopped abruptly, standing up and looking at them apologetically, ashamed that his anger had taken him over.

  "Did you...kill him?" June asked. She was shaking, but her expression was completely blank.

  "He's not dead," Alek said. "Dani, can you take June to your cabin while I drag this piece of shit to the lodge?"

  "What are you going to do to him?" June asked.

  "I'm going to put him under guard and talk to Olivia about it," he said

  Dani guided June up the hill to her cabin as Alek stayed behind to deal with Jobe. He wasn't sure what Olivia would decide to do with him, but he was sure of his own judgment. He wanted Jobe dead. There was no place in this world for a rapist.

  In the small office behind the lodge desk, John Vincent stood guard. Inside, Jobe Stricklan lay, handcuffed to a cot, awaiting his sentence while the community leaders discussed his crime and punishment.

  "We should kill him and be done with it," Alek said.

  "I think he may be right," Jax agreed.

  "What is it with Americans and the death penalty?" Aiden asked, earning dirty looks from everyone but Liana, who was torn between her faith saying that it was wrong to kill and her feminist inclination to jump on board with the executioners. Alek, though not American, didn't bother to correct him because it didn't matter anymore. Unless this plague was restricted to North American, there were probably no more countries anyway.