by Brown, TW
Jason squinted a bit to make sure that he wasn’t imagining things. “This kid has been bit,” he said. Using his boot, he gave a nudge to the left arm of Hank Reynolds. Sure enough, there was a rip in the sleeve on the back of his arm. A near perfect imprint of teeth could be seen as well as a small rip just below that bite.
Erin jumped back like a snake had just crawled out from under the body. She quickly regained her composure after checking her hands; obviously inspecting them for any of the man’s blood. When she did not see anything, she stood up.
“Watch him. I’ll be right back.”
Before Jason could ask anything, she trotted over to Ken’s truck. Jason watched her with more than a little amazement. She passed two zombies that had staggered up in the last moment or so. With next to no break in her stride, she had a knife in hand and would grab the zombie by the shoulder and plunge the blade into the temple, moving on almost before the body had even hit the ground.
She reached the truck, opened the door and vanished from sight for a moment. When she reappeared, she had a small backpack in her hand. She jogged back, rummaging through the pack as she did so.
“What’s up?” Jason asked as Erin tossed him the pack.
“Grab a set of gloves,” Erin said as she pulled on a set of blue Latex gloves and knelt back beside the unmoving form of Hank Reynolds.
Jason did as he was asked, but his eyes had wandered and he was watching Juanita and the woman who had been hostage just a few minutes ago. The pair were struggling to move Ken Simpson’s rather meaty frame up and onto a couch. They were talking in animated whispers, but the woman was telling Juanita something that was obviously upsetting. She kept looking up the hall with what could only be serious concern and a bit of fear.
“His eyes are clear,” Erin announced, snapping Jason back to the situation at hand. “Maybe the infection hasn’t set in yet.”
“So?” Jason asked, shaking his head.
“I say we tie him up and see if he has anything useful for us.”
“Useful?”
“Jason?” Juanita’s voice called, interrupting before Erin could explain why she did not want to simply kill this guy and be done with it.
“Yeah?” Jason turned and saw the woman standing a few feet away with a drawn expression that made him instantly take a step towards her with the mind to extend some form of comfort.
“My sister and her son are tied up in her bedroom. They both have whatever this is and…” The woman that had been a hostage stepped forward beside Juanita and spoke as she wiped the tears from her eyes. She sniffed before continuing to speak, her hand coming out with an accusatory finger pointed at Hank Reynolds. “That man killed my niece. He stabbed her in the head with that knife!”
Jason glanced down at the man and then back to the woman who was shaking. Whether it was from fear, nerves, or just an overdose of adrenaline, he could not tell. However, the expression of anger on her face was unmistakable.
“Okay, we will take care of things one issue at a time,” Jason finally said as he put his hands up in a placating gesture. “Why don’t you go out and get your dogs while Erin and I get old Hank here secured. Juanita, go with her. No more going outside or anyplace alone. We work in teams from here on. Clear?”
He glanced down at Erin who gave him a nod. She had already pulled out a zip tie and bound Hank’s arms behind his back.
“That pack is like Batman’s utility belt,” he muttered.
“You have no idea,” Erin said with a smile as she stood. “Now let’s take this guy down the hall.” She put out a hand and stopped the woman who was heading out the door with Juanita. “Rose was it? Violet’s little sister. Right?” The woman nodded. “Rose, is it okay if we put this guy in Crystal’s room?”
The woman nodded vigorously and then rushed out of the house to her car. Jason watched just long enough to feel confident that there were no zombies close by before turning back to Erin.
“So, you know these people?” It seemed like a stupid question the moment it came out of his mouth, and he heard Bill Engvall telling him that he was now a proud owner of a sign.
“Actually, they are my neighbors,” Erin said as she grabbed Hank under the shoulders and nodded for Jason to get his feet. “They have a pretty good farm. If we combined my place and theirs, we would be set for…” She trailed off as if lost in thought. After a few seconds, she whistled. “Man, we would be self-sufficient for freakin’ ever. Hell, if the world goes to shit and never recovers, we would still be fine.”
Jason considered the words and let his own mind wander for a moment. Most of the books he’d read as well as the movies and such, all had the people holding up in malls, or even prisons. He had always thought the first idea rather short-sighted. The second had its merits, but he was certainly not eager to return to a correctional facility unless it was the last possible resort.
“Can I ask you something?” Jason finally spoke as they set the body of Hank Reynolds on a bed with some sort of Disney princess adorning it. Glancing around, he saw more of the same on the walls and felt a momentary pang of loss, guilt, and shame.
He had a few baby-mamas out there, and this was the first time he’d even given them a thought. Granted, he had been out of their lives pretty much forever. They did not know him, and he had stopped receiving letters from the last of the mamas when he’d landed in prison this most recent time. He had no recent pictures beyond a few tattered baby pics that were somewhere in his small bag of personal effects that he’d walked out the gate with and, he felt the guilt deepen, that bag was back at Juanita’s place. He thought that he might have brought it in when he first arrived at her house. Honestly, he had not given it much thought with all that had gone on in the short time prior.
“Depends on what you want to ask,” Erin said with what Jason instantly recognized as a guarded tone.
“You spend your life waiting for this shit? The zombie apocalypse, I mean.”
Erin laughed. It was actually a pleasant sound, and he noticed right away that she was very pretty when she wasn’t being such a hard ass and carrying whatever the hell chip she was toting on her shoulder.
“No,” Erin said with a shake of her head. “Honestly, we were not really serious when compared to most preppers. Our concerns where started by my dad way back in the days of it being us versus the Russians. My dad was just sure that some fool would push the button.”
“So you got an underground bunker and everything?”
“Oh yeah, but over the years it became more of a place to sneak away to and make out. Heck, when I got back from college, I actually rented it out as a place to live.” Something changed in her voice and Jason glanced over his shoulder to ensure that they were alone (except for the unconscious guy a few feet away). He felt like this woman was about to tell him something that was some sort of secret. Or at least that was the vibe he got just before she spoke.
“That was all good until I came out.”
That sentence hung in the air for a moment. Jason did not say a word, and he could tell that Erin was waiting for some sort of sarcastic comment. That face that he’d seen when she laughed just a moment ago was gone. It had been replaced by the same stone cold look he’d seen since they’d met.
“I take it your family wasn’t cool with it?” Jason finally said with a shrug. Erin nodded, but her eyes were boring holes into him and her lips were pressed tight. “That must’ve sucked. I can’t say I understand…” her expression started to grow harder if that were even possible and Jason hurried to finish his statement. “I mean about your specific thing. But I can understand when your family kicks you to the curb. I lost everything with my going in and out of prison. But those are so different. My family bailed because I was a screw up. Yours were just stupid.”
Her lips curled up in a smile and some of the ice melted from her eyes. “I think you and I are gonna get along pretty damn good.”
“Probably better than me and that ex-cop out there or what
ever Ken was before.”
Jason shot a look towards the living room and saw Juanita and the woman named Rose coming in with two very excited dogs. He thought they might be some kind of herding dog or something. One of them looked like the kind you would find at a beach chasing and catching a Frisbee. That had always blown him away how a dog could learn to do such a thing.
“Yeah, about that, you guys have to either get along or one of you has to go,” Erin said, pulling his attention back to her.
“He’s the one who hit me first!”
“Yep, and I did not say that you would be the one kicked out, but having two guys at each other in confined spaces like we are gonna be living in is just a recipe for disaster.” Erin joined Jason in the hallway, closing the door behind her.
“You won’t be having any problems from my end, but I won’t take crap from that guy.”
“And I won’t be giving any,” a voice called from the living room causing both Erin and Jason to jump.
The pair walked into the living room to see Ken struggling to sit up on the couch. Both Juanita and Rose were standing just inside the front door and the two dogs were looking around the room as if trying to determine which of the humans was hiding the treats.
Circe sat obediently at her master’s side, but Imp had moved a few feet away, effectively placing himself between Rose, the stranger on the couch, and the two strangers emerging from the hallway. He sniffed the air and his head lowered as he locked on something he did not care for down that same hallway.
“We need to catch our breath for a moment,” Erin said , putting an end to the silence. “But we have some big decisions to make in the next several hours. Also, I need to let the people at my place know that I made it back and that I am okay.”
“Before we do anything or go anyplace, what about Hank?” Rose asked.
8
The First Night of the End of the World
“I say we just kill him,” Jason spoke first after everybody else seemed to stand around and look at one another with the same blank expression.
“What?” Rose surprised Jason by being the one to protest. “We can’t just murder somebody!”
“It isn’t murder.” Jason shook his head. “This would be a mercy killing. That guy is a dead man walking.”
“What do you mean?” Juanita asked, her nose crinkling in confusion.
“He’s bit,” Erin answered before Jason could say anything. “The word I have heard is that people are not making it more than a couple of days. In fact, that is the very reason I wouldn’t go to one of those so-called FEMA rescue centers. They are taking in people who have been bitten. I give it a day tops before those places are nothing more than hives of the walking dead.”
“Being a little over-dramatic, aren’t you?” Ken scoffed.
“Not at all.” Erin turned to face the man who had managed to make it to a fully upright position. She noted that his right eye was swelling nicely and looked like it might be little more than a slit if he didn’t put some ice on it. It’s gonna suck to be him in the morning, she thought before continuing. “That is the reason this is not going to clear up any time soon and we might want to be thinking long term…like forever. People are not going to start to allow themselves to believe what is happening until it is too late. By then, the zombies will already have the overwhelming numbers and our infrastructure will be on its way to being a thing of myths and legends.”
“So we are really going to call them that?” Rose said in a soft voice.
Erin glanced over and saw not so much as a realization as she did acceptance. “Call ‘em what you like. It won’t change anything.”
“Then maybe you should be the one to go and kill that kid in there,” Ken gave Jason a nod.
“Because I’m an ex-con?” Jason spat. “Which I guess you all assume means I won’t have any problems killing somebody. And if this is all just temporary, then the lot of you get to keep your hands clean.”
“Okay,” Ken shrugged. “But I was just going with the idea that since you made that choice, you carry it out. If you weren’t paying attention outside, I put down…”
His voice faded, and a dark cloud of something Jason thought might very well be sorrow crashed down and shone in the man’s eyes. Jason mentally slapped himself. He had all but forgotten those child zombies that Ken had put down. And it had also been Ken Simpson who shot the other two attackers. Sure, they had come out with a street sweeper and been about to mow down anything that moved, but killing is killing. No matter who you are, unless you are a pure sociopath, it stains the soul.
“No, you’re right,” Jason said with a nod. He reached out in Erin’s direction. “You mind if I borrow your machete? I think bullets would be a waste at this point.”
“You gonna cut his head off?” Juanita exclaimed.
“Something like that.” Jason made a “hand it over” gesture with his fingers, but Erin shook her head.
“I am not ready to just kill the guy.” Erin put a protective hand over the hilt of her machete as if she thought that Jason might try to take it from her. “I say we let him go. He was just following his brother and sister. Hank is harmless.”
“He didn’t seem harmless when he was holding a knife to that gal’s throat.” Jason pointed at Rose.
“Or when he killed my niece,” Rose added.
“Your niece was already dead, Rose,” Erin said with a shake of the head. “I saw in your sister’s room when we took Hank down the hall and put him in Crystal’s room. Did you tie Violet and Jacob down in the bed like that?” Rose nodded. “Then you already know something ain’t right. You know because you saw with your own eyes. If anything, he did you a favor. That is one less member of your family that we will have to deal with.”
“Jesus, have a heart!” Juanita snapped.
“We can do all that emotional crap later. Right now we have to do what is necessary to ensure our survival. That will mean plenty of tough choices ahead. I say we just send Hank on his way. He probably makes it home and dies within a few hours, a needle sticking out of his arm if he is lucky.”
“Are you serious?” Now Juanita was getting angry, and her voice was starting to gain volume with each word. “You think he will be lucky to overdose? What is wrong with you?”
“I think it would be better for him than to die sick and turn into one of those things. If he overdoses, then at least he is happy on the way out.”
“I got news for you, anybody doing drugs is far from happy—” Tears were welling in Juanita’s eyes and she had taken a step towards Erin when Ken snapped, cutting her off.
“Can we debate this crap later? We are either killing that kid or we are letting him go. But what we don’t need right now is a bunch of emotional crap or debates on how little Hank is a poor, misunderstood and tortured soul.” Ken pushed himself away from the couch and Jason hid the smile that threatened when the man’s legs gave a little wobble.
“Okay,” Erin agreed. “Then I say let him go. We can vote on it. However, if you vote to kill him and that vote wins, then you have to be present for it, and you are one of the individuals that draws a straw to determine who deals the death blow.”
Jason hid a smile. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he knew exactly what the woman was doing. It was one thing to want a person dead (or at least think that you did), it was another thing entirely to be the person to swing the axe.
One of his many jobs over the years during his time in and out of jail and prison had been in a slaughterhouse. He had always known what it took to turn an animal from a carcass into a meal; his dad had been a typical Northwest sort of guy and never missed hunting or fishing season. He’d field stripped his first deer when he was seven. Still, working in a slaughterhouse was a different experience all its own. And while he never once considered becoming a vegetarian, he firmly believed that more people would if they had to kill, strip, and butcher their own meat. The bottom line was that few people could actually do the dirty b
usiness of taking a life.
“Show of hands,” Erin said, “Who is for killing Hank?”
Jason was the only person to raise his hand.
***
Ken made a mental note. In reality, he was all for killing that punk, Hank Reynolds. He believed that letting him go would come back and bite them in the ass. Keeping him here was out of the question, and he was willing to bet he had that woman Rose’s vote if it came down to that.
Still, he shot a sideways glance at the convict. The guy had to know that the women were not going to vote to execute the Reynolds kid. Yet, he had stuck to his guns. And while that did not mean that they would be enjoying a bro-hug and a six pack of cold ones together any time soon, he had to respect that the convict did not waver in a tough stance.
“Okay,” Erin clapped her hands together, bringing Ken’s attention back to the conversation. “I have to go to my place and check in with my people, but before I go, are we agreed that it would be best to combine our resources and fortify?”
“Wait, what?” Rose asked. “What are we combining? And what is this about fortifying?”
“You are aware of what is happening,” Erin picked up her pack and slung it over her shoulder.
“Yeah…sorta.” Rose gave a weak shrug of her shoulders. Her eyes kept flitting to the hallway.
Ken thought he recalled something about a sister, niece, and nephew. Oh crap! he thought with just a bit of alarm as he realized where they might be and, more important, what condition they might be in.
“We might be in for a long haul. The president has left the White House, martial law is being enforced, and people have already started to loot and go off the deep end. Considering we did not start hearing about this until almost a week ago, and yet, it is already global to the point where places like China have suddenly gone dark, but all air travel is just now being suspended, I say the cat is already out of the bag.”
“And having kittens,” Jason quipped.
“The books and movies ain’t gonna hold a candle to the reality of what we will face. There will be serious problems once everybody has raided the grocery stores and such. Food is going to become more precious than gold, and without anybody to enforce the law…” Erin let that last statement hang in the air, but she glanced from Juanita to Rose. It was clear that all three women were sharing in some deeper meaning.
