This Land of Monsters

by Tim Gabrielle

  Halfway through the book, he was startled by the sound of a ringing bell outside. He panicked for a moment before realizing it was the dinner bell.

  “Good book?” asked Dietrich.

  “Yeah, actually. Are we ready to go?”

  “After you,” said Sullivan as he opened the door to the wet world outside.

  The three of them entered the already busy schoolhouse to find the lavish buffet of food that the girls had spent the day preparing. Spanning the front of the schoolhouse was a wide range of dishes, finished with different kinds of pies and cookies to end the meal. Melissa placed a plate of hot pasta on the table and joined Nash.

  “Thanks, it looks great!”

  “The amount of non-perishable food they have is staggering,” Melissa said. “Honestly they have enough boxes of dry pasta that we could build a fort.”

  “He read all afternoon,” whispered Sullivan with a grin.

  “Oh? How nice for him,” she whispered and nudged Nash firmly with her elbow before she let him put his arm around her.

  People continued to file into the schoolhouse, filling it quickly as they all sat with each other and ate. The meal was loud, as usual, but much less than it had been on other nights. Paxton’s death hung heavy over all of them. Sally finished first and made her way to the front of the schoolhouse. She stood behind a lectern and pounded her fist on the top to get the group’s attention.

  “Thank you all for coming tonight. I know I said it was mandatory but it means the world to see all of you here. What I’m about to discuss might seem too early but it’s important enough that we can’t worry about the standard rules of mourning. We need to appoint someone to run this place and I propose it be Dietrich.”

  The group sat silently and listened to Sally as she gave her recommendation. Dietrich stood and joined Sally at the front, feeling everyone’s eyes on him as he moved.

  “As many of you know, I became quite close with Paxton over the past few months. We talked daily about this place and the nature of what it means to lead in a world like this. If it’s your will, I would be honored to serve in that capacity.”

  “This does feel a bit rushed, Sally,” said a man who sat at the front of the schoolhouse.

  “Do you really think Paxton would want this drawn out? We’re safe, and we’ve been safe for a long time, but the last thing he’d want is for us to be so comfortable in that safety that we wait too long to get the town back up and running,” Sally said.

  “I don’t know how many of you have spent time out on the road, but it’s dangerous,” Dietrich chimed in. “Before coming here, my group used to live in a walled-in town, surrounded by the dead. We didn’t go a day without seeing one of them and since we’ve been here, we haven’t even seen one of the slow ones. This place is an anomaly. We’ve been safe for so long but we can’t get too comfortable in that. It just takes one group of those monsters to come wandering down the road and they could dismantle everything we have here.”

  “I think that Dietrich’s experience makes him the perfect person to take charge,” said Sally. “If there are objections, please make them known.”

  There was a small moment of silence, followed by a round of applause. Dietrich stood awkwardly in front of them all, giving a nervous wave as the group continued to applaud.

  “Ok, everyone,” said Sally with a smile. “Settle down and have some pie!”

  The rest of the night was dedicated mostly to people stepping up front to share memories of their time with Paxton. The schoolhouse was filled with tears and laughter as people took their turn up front. Most everyone left the schoolhouse just before midnight and each of them took the time to shake Dietrich’s hand before they headed off into the dark.

  “You’ll do great,” said Sally as she held Dietrich’s hand and kissed him on the cheek. One of the town’s younger men escorted her back to her house, which left only the Mansion group alone in the schoolhouse.

  “I’m glad it’s you,” said Nash as he patted Dietrich on the back.

  “Thank you. I supposed we should get some sleep.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” said Jessica, Courtney curled up beside her, barely awake.

  “She worked us to the bone today,” said Melissa who could barely stand from exhaustion.

  “Party-poopers,” said Sullivan. He got up to turn off all the lanterns around the schoolhouse

  Sullivan hardly slept anymore and spent most nights sitting in front of the window as he watched the darkened street below. He’d doze off periodically, have a dream or nightmare that involved Dianna, and wake up to his dark reflection in the window. The guilt ate at him, daily. Knowing what he sentenced Dianna and the others too threatened to tear him apart. Each night before bed he pictured Dianna’s face; the way her eyes crinkled at the corners when she smiled, her deep rumbling laugh, the way her face would flush when he caught her staring at him. Tonight though, he felt tired, and stretched out on his bed for a long, dreamless sleep. Dianna’s face barely fluttered in his mind before he drifted off.

  Dark clouds blotted out any chance of morning light as the wind tossed leaves and stray branches through the street.

  “We haven’t seen a storm like this in months,” Melissa said, staring past him out the window.

  “I know. It’s pretty bad out there. Way worse than yesterday.”

  ****

  The group stayed in their rooms for most of the morning as they watched and listened to the storm as it pounded the small village. Sometime after eleven, Sullivan got up and went downstairs into the kitchen to get food ready for the group.

  “Some storm, huh?” said Sullivan.

  “That’s putting it lightly,” said Melissa as a flash of lightning illuminated the kitchen.

  Nash watched Sullivan, standing in front of the window and felt sad for him. Sullivan had been different since they left the Mansion. He was still the strong, steady protector he’d always been, but Nash and Melissa could tell something had been left behind that day at the Treefort.

  A flash of lightning touched down in a field across the street from them, which made everyone jump. After the initial shock of the crash of lightning, Nash realized Sullivan hadn’t moved an inch, but simply stood idly in front of the window and held the now empty pie plate.

  “Something is coming,” whispered Sullivan.

  “What do you mean?” asked Dietrich as he stepped up beside him and looked outside. “Do you see something?”

  “Just a feeling I get,” said Sullivan as he lifted a bottle of water to his mouth and took a sip. “I can’t explain it.”

  Dietrich stood next to him, arms crossed over his chest, as they looked through his reflection out to the rain.

  Chapter 40

  By midafternoon the rain had completely subsided as the residents of Hillcrest came out into the muggy afternoon air and surveyed the damage from the storm. Trees had fallen down throughout town, covering the road, which made parts of it impossible to pass. Dietrich, Nash, and Sullivan worked together on one of the trees, sawing at it before they cast the branches in a pile by the roadside. A man wearing army fatigues ran up to them from down the street, his long shaggy hair wet from working in the rain.

  “Dietrich,” said the man as he brushed the hair away from his face.

  “Hi, Derek,” he said as he turned and shook his hand. “What can I do for you?”

  “Well, seeing how you’re in charge now, I should probably show you something. Do you have a moment?”

  “Of course,” he said with a smile and brushed his hands on his jeans as they walked down the street.

  Derek led him to the schoolhouse, which was narrowly missed by a large tree that now lay alongside the building. Dietrich smiled at the group of people working to remove the tree as he followed Derek inside.

  “I think you’ll like this,” said Derek as he reached the lectern at the front and moved it aside to reveal a closed hatch underneath.

  “How did I never notice that?” a
sked Dietrich with a grin.

  “Guess that means it’s in a good spot,” said Derek and pulled open the hatch to reveal an area underneath.

  The space underneath the lectern was filled with handguns, loaded and ready to fire, as well as a collection of large knives. The two men stood overtop the open hatch, looking down at the hidden collection of weaponry.

  “We don’t advertise that we have an armory, but here it is,” said Derek. “It’s not very big, but it’ll do in a pinch.”

  “That it will,” said Dietrich as he stared at the weapons beneath them. “Let’s just hope we don’t ever have to open this hatch again.”

  “We’ve never had to fire a single shot here,” said Derek as he closed the hatch and replaced the lectern. “We’d prefer to keep it that way.”

  “As would I,” said Dietrich, patting Derek on the back as they walked out of the schoolhouse together.

  Sullivan joined him outside the schoolhouse as Derek returned to the tree he’d been helping remove. The entire town was outside working diligently to restore the town.

  “This place doesn’t need a leader,” said Dietrich as he watched everyone work together to clear the streets. “Paxton was a figurehead; someone to point to. I think it’s the same for me.”

  “You’re wrong,” said Sullivan. “There’s going to come a day when they’re all going to need us, and we’ll need them as well. I see you found their armory.”

  “I did. Derek showed me. When did he show you?”

  “He didn’t,” Sullivan said with a smile. “I eagle-eyed that hatch day one. I snuck in there one night and saw for myself.”

  “You’re a good man to have around, Sully,” said Dietrich, smiling as he watched everyone move about the village.

  It took the better part of the afternoon and early evening for them to get Hillcrest to look and operate the way it had prior to when the storm came through. Nash and Melissa went with a group of others to inspect the farming fields and made sure their crops hadn’t been destroyed during the storm. Save for a few areas that had been uprooted by the wind, most of the farmland remained intact.

  After having spent the previous day creating the elaborate meal for Paxton’s memorial, Sally advised the town that there would be no dinner at the schoolhouse that night. The townspeople prepared their own food at home, which left the town quiet as the sun began to sink below the horizon. Dietrich sat with Emma in the schoolhouse, going over a census Paxton had commissioned that had been made available to Dietrich after his death.

  “That man was all about procedure,” said Dietrich as he looked through the pages of information he’d collected on the residents. “I feel like a vice president being ushered in after an assassination.”

  “It’s kind of like that, I guess,” she said with a smile as she sat in a chair and watched the sun go down through one of the windows. She took his hand from the census papers and interlocked their fingers.

  “Did you hear what Sullivan said earlier this morning?” asked Dietrich, putting the papers down as he took her other hand.

  “About something coming? Yeah, I heard that. He has nothing to go by to say that, but I trust him.”

  “Me too,” he said, thankful for what was underneath the lectern. “We’ll all just have to stay vigilant. Keep our eyes open. Maybe we should have some patrols around here. What do you think?”

  “Probably a good idea,” she said, watching as the sun descended outside. “I’m really surprised nobody here thought to do that before we showed up. Seems pretty basic.”

  “Paxton was comfortable. He was comfortable, and very lucky. It could have been anyone who had strolled in here. That’s not going to happen on my watch.”

  “You’re a good man, Dietrich Campbell,” she said as she leaned in and kissed him on the lips.

  A loud, coughing sound echoed forth from the street as they both shot away from each other. They were still trying to hide their relationship from the rest of the group. They watched as a lantern bobbed slowly down the damp road toward the schoolhouse, moving slowly and methodically.

  “We don’t have anyone here that moves that slowly,” said Emma as she watched intently. “Not anymore.”

  The cloaked figure reached the schoolhouse and stopped for a moment. It turned and walked toward the open doors, the lantern revealing a man wearing a long jacket who hobbled toward them.

  “Hello there,” said Dietrich, trying to decipher who it was that was joining them in the darkened schoolhouse. The man stepped through the open door and placed the lantern on the floor before he flipped the hood off of his face.

  “Hello, old friend,” said Fletcher Crawford, as Emma and Dietrich looked at him in horror.

  Chapter 41

  Dietrich pulled a handgun from the back of his waistband and trained the barrel on Fletcher.

  “Come on, my boy. Do I look like I care if you kill me right now?” he said, standing in the soft lantern light as he coughed wildly.

  Fletcher let the jacket fall to the ground, which revealed that his left arm was coated in dried, angry crimson. His foot was also covered in thick blood as he stood looking at them with sunken eyes and shook softly as a fever ravaged his system. His skin looked pale behind ragged burn marks that cast shadows across his tired face.

  “Emma, would you please go get Nash and Sullivan?” asked Dietrich, not breaking eye contact with Fletcher. Emma disappeared out the back of the schoolhouse.

  “I always thought the two of you would make a wonderful couple,” said Fletcher before he broke into another coughing fit.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” scathed Dietrich, still pointing the handgun at him.

  “You’ve already sent Emma to get your friends,” he said. “Why don’t we wait until they get here?”

  “I’m not so sure you’ll have much time to say anything at all once they get here.”

  Emma returned quickly with Nash, Melissa, and Sullivan who filed in through the back of the schoolhouse where she’d left. Sullivan walked forward without question and Fletcher’s eyes met his fierce gaze as he walked.

  “Sullivan, I presume?” said Fletcher who kept his eyes locked on Sullivan’s as he moved toward him.

  Sullivan frisked him quickly and checked to make sure he was unarmed as he winced. Nash and Melissa flicked on more lanterns, which gave the schoolhouse an eerie glow. They all stood together and stared at the shadow of what had once been one of their biggest adversaries.

  “Hello, everyone,” he said, the usual bravado in his voice having melted away as his temperature continued to rise from the infection inside him.

  “Tell us what we want to know,” said Sullivan as he rejoined his group and crossed his massive arms in front of him. “The way I kill you will depend on how helpful you are.”

  “Fair enough,” said Fletcher. “I expected that much when I came here.”

  “Where are your men?” asked Dietrich.

  “I’m alone,” he said. “I drove here with a truck, which broke down a few miles away from here. You can check for yourself.”

  “Why are you here? How the hell did you find us?” asked Dietrich.

  “For about a month after you left, we searched for you. We checked every area around the Mansion, day in and day out. Obviously, we didn’t find you. I grew tired of the chase and called off the search, which in retrospect is why I’m here now in the shape I’m in.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why you’re here,” said Nash.

  “I’m here because of your manipulative bastard of a stepfather.”

  “What does he have to do with anything?” asked Nash.

  “He’s a pain in the ass, which I guess you could have told me from the start. I should have picked up on his bullshit along the way. Didn’t think he was smart enough to pull his shit.”

  “Get to it,” said Sullivan.

  “About a month ago, Duncan went on a supply run and didn’t come back for days. Turns out, he was searching for you, and
he found you. He came back and reported where you were and to be honest, I couldn’t be bothered. I was on to new things, but he was like a dog with a bone. He begged me to go after you, and I just kept saying no. It wasn’t long after that he took the Mansion from me.”

  “Fuck,” whispered Emma.

  “Fuck, is the right word, yes,” said Fletcher. “He rounded up a posse in the middle of the night and killed off my guards, knowing it was the only way to get my attention. Before I knew it, Duncan was living in the church and I was stuck in the house where Nash and Melissa used to live. I know you thought it was horrible when I was in charge but you have no idea what it was like under him. People were taking communion left and right. The entire place became a hedonistic playground. I couldn’t stand seeing it any longer.”

  “You firebombed the Mansion, didn’t you?” asked Melissa when she saw the burns on his face.

  “Indeed I did,” he said. “He basked in his own glory for a while, running the Mansion as he saw fit. Once he finally started making plans to come after you, I decided to act. I’ve had a bit of a change of heart in regards to how I see the world. Having your kingdom yanked out from under you by a psychopath will do that.”

  “I know the feeling,” said Sullivan as he stared at him with an emotionless scowl.

  “Yes, I suppose you do,” he said. “I thought I’d be able to topple the Mansion when I set those charges, but I’m afraid I’ve only quickened their approach.”

  “They’re on their way?” yelled Emma.

  “Honey, they were always on their way,” said Dietrich. “I’ve thinned their numbers, and without me, you’d have had no warning.”

  “Why are you doing this? Why come all this way and warn us?” asked Dietrich as he stood behind the lectern.

  “My hatred for Duncan exceeds anything I ever felt toward any of you. You’re my best chance at seeing him dead. Who knows; maybe I’m feeling a little sentimental due to this damn infection.” He erupted into another string of coughs.