by Dawn, M. K.
Many on the porch began to cry, their anger replaced by overwhelming sadness of losing so many, so unexpectedly.
“Please,” Sloan rested a hand on Sam’s shoulder, “postpone leaving. At least until we have a chance to figure out how the infested got in and why the small gas tank exploded.”
Sam wiped a lone tear from his cheek and threw back his shoulders. “Fine. We’ll take a couple of days, but if we still decide to leave, I want you to promise me that we will be able to take the food and supplies we need. The food and supplies we deserve.”
“I’ll speak with the Council about it.”
Sam’s nostrils flared. “Fuck the Council. We’re tired of them, of you, making decisions for us.”
Sloan took a slight step back, surprised by his outburst.
“Hey!” Britney stomped her way up the porch steps. “You are the ones that decided that we needed a council, remember? It’s not like we appointed ourselves.”
“Well, we want to un-appointed you.” Sam matched Britney’s tone.
Britney rolled her eyes. “Why does it matter if you’re leavin’ anyways?”
“Enough.” Sloan got in between them. “This childish behavior isn’t going to solve anything. We need to stand together, work together, if we want to survive.”
Sam’s eyes locked on to Sloan. “Why do you say it like that? Do you know something that we don’t?”
Sloan ran her hand against the pocket of her jeans that held the bullet she’d pulled from Jesus’ chest. “Nothing definitive.”
“You don’t think last night was an accident, do you?” Sam asked.
Distant commotion caught Sloan’s eyes. Archer, Axel, and the others who had gone with them had returned. By the grim looks on their faces, the news wasn’t good. “I’m not sure, but I think we’re about to find out.”
***
They congregated at the supply barn, waiting to hear what Archer had to say. This was no longer the Council addressing the town, but two highly trained soldiers conducting a debriefing on their findings. Sloan hung off to the back in an attempt to gauge the crowd’s reaction, worried what another bout of bad news might bring.
A heaviness crushed Sloan’s chest as she took in the smaller group. In all, twenty-nine people had been killed last night.
The only ones not in attendance at this gathering were the children, watched over by Diego, Juliet, and the twins. Rainey had taken to her bed after the wedding ceremony and had not gotten up since. Her health had taken a turn for the worst the past week, and it was only a matter of time before the cancer overwhelmed her frail body. Sloan had seen this downward spiral more times than she could recall. Each death hurt a little more than the time before. After her mother succumbed to the horror that was cancer, Sloan knew she wanted to heal the sick to ensure they didn’t suffer the same agonizing fate.
“If you’d all settle down,” Archer’s voice brought Sloan back the present, “we’ll get started.”
A hush fell over the crowd, everyone anxious to hear what they had found.
“First of all,” Archer started, “we don’t want anyone to panic. It’s important to remember what kind of world we now live in. The past few years, we have lived in a bubble of sorts, not affected by the outside world. But we knew that bubble wouldn’t last forever. The fact is, there have always been monsters—infested and humans—just outside our walls. Last night—”
“What!” The first, of what Sloan guested, of many interruptions. “People broke in last night?”
Archer held up his hand as the conversations picked up. “Can you please just let me finish a damn sentence?”
Everyone stopped talking and stared up at Archer. He rarely snapped but when he did, it caught people’s attention.
“I apologize.” Archer yawned. “Lack of sleep is taking a toll. Anyways, as I was saying.... What was I saying...oh yeah. The explosion. Appears as if a rat or something chewed on the hoses. We found a piece not far from the destroyed tank. It caused a leak. Add that to fires we have scattered around and the wind...boom.”
Sloan glanced over at Britney, who had her nose scrunched up. “What’s wrong?”
Britney shook her head. “I’ll explain when they’re done.”
“What about the infested?” someone yelled.
Archer’s gaze flickered upward. “The infested got in through a large opening in the fence near the road. And before you ask, yes, we believe the opening was intentional.”
People gasped.
Sloan covered her face with her hands. Guess they were no longer sugar coating the situation. Or discussing the best way to handle this sort of news with the Council.
“We don’t know who did it or why this happened,” Archer shouted over the growing commotion. “But everyone needs to stay calm!”
“We need to get out of here!” a woman wailed.
Others shouted out similar sentiments, until no one could be heard.
Sloan brushed her hand over her pocket and knew she had to reveal her own findings to the town. “There’s more!”
It took a minute, but everyone settled as they turned in her direction.
“There’s more,” Sloan repeated, sure most of the people in front, including Archer and Axel, hadn’t heard her. “Jesus turned into an infested last night. Without being bitten. I examined him myself before he died.”
“Impossible,” Sam said. “He must have healed before you checked him.”
Sloan shook her head. “No. He and I spoke, and his last words were how he happy he was to be dying from a gunshot wound and not an infested bite.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Mac said as Angie moved closer to him. “Those things gotta bite you to turn you.”
“I pulled the bullet from his chest this morning. It was homemade, not like anything I’ve ever seen before. The tip was hollowed out, and I found traces of the black substance that comes from the infested.”
“It seeped inside,” Sam threw up his hands and turned back around to face Archer, “big deal.”
“I don’t think so. It appears someone created the bullet to infest its victims.”
Britney gawked at Sloan. “Are you kiddin’ me right now? Why would anyone want to create more infested?”
“Biological warfare,” Axel said. “Turn our own people against us.”
Fear blanketed the crowd. Many huddled closer, eyes darting in every direction.
“Why would someone do that?” Britney asked. “And how? You said there weren’t any other intruders besides the infested here last night.”
“That we found.” Archer ran a hand through his hair. “Shit.”
“If someone or some group is doing this to us,” Sam addressed the group, “killing us in such a brutal way, then we should pack up all the supplies we can and leave.”
“Leave?” Britney asked, eyes wide. “What about everything we’ve built? The home, the community we’ve created. You think we should just leave it all behind and what, start over somewhere?”
“It’s better than being dead,” Sam countered.
Terrance, who had been standing quietly next to Makayla, joined in on the conversation. “I think we’re jumping to conclusions.”
“People are dead!” Sam yelled.
Terrance puffed up his chest. “Including my oldest friend. But if this attack came from the outside, how the hell does it make sense to leave?”
Sam threw up his hands. “They want the farm! Let them have it! It’s just stuff. Lives are more important.”
Sloan blew out a calming breath before retorting. “We have no idea what they want. And this stuff that you are so eagerly willing to throw way, keeps us alive. We’ve already had several inches of snow fall and that’s just the beginning. How long do you think we’ll survive out there? Without shelter, without extra blankets and clothing and food. All those things we’ve spent two years gathering and you want to just hand it over to some strangers?”
“I don’t want to see any more of my
friends die.”
At some point, as Sloan spoke, Archer had made his way to her side. “Neither do we.”
Sam looked Archer dead in the eyes. “How do we fight an enemy that we’ve never seen?”
Archer scratched at his chin. “We go on offense. Try to catch them in the act and put an end to it. It’s going to take a day or two to come up with a plan. In the meantime, we all need to stay as close to the house as we can. Stay together, watch out for each other. No one goes anywhere alone. No one leaves the homestead.”
“What about sleeping arrangements?” Maria called out.
Archer’s eyes fell on Britney, who nodded. “The RV park will be under twenty-four-hour surveillance. Guards, touch base with Axel; he’ll be creating the schedule. We’re going to get through this. Give it some time.”
People made their way to the RV park, heads hung and flanked by the guards.
“Looks like a damn war movie,” Britney said.
Sloan, Axel, and Archer had hung back at Britney’s request.
“You wanted to tell us something?” Axel asked.
Britney held up a finger and waited until there was no one else around. “Sorry, I didn’t want to alarm them with even more bad news.”
Axel cocked an eyebrow. “You mean worse news than some outsiders trying to kill us and run us off our lands.”
“I wish this was only about some outsiders.”
“You think someone on the inside is doing this?” Archer asked.
Britney bit at her bottom lip before answering. “I know there is. That hose you found from the small gas tank, the one chewed up by rodents, Shifter changed that out two days ago.”
“Are you sure?” Archer asked.
“Yes.” Britney scrunched her nose. “Speaking of Shifter, has anyone seen him today?”
Sloan thought back and tried to remember if she’d seen him in the crowd. “He wasn’t here. I don’t remember seeing him last night either.”
“When’s the last time anyone remembers seeing him?” Archer asked.
Britney shrugged. “The wedding ceremony. He walked me down the aisle.”
“Was he at the reception?” Axel asked.
Archer clicked his tongue. “No. He volunteered for guard duty.”
“Did he say why he volunteered?” Sloan asked.
“I don’t know...he might have mentioned something about the twins not being there and wanting to check it out. But he was always going on about them, so I really didn’t pay much attention.”
“But no one saw him when the attack started?” Sloan asked. “So, where did he go?”
“To be fair,” Axel said, “it was chaos. I really couldn’t tell you who was out there fighting and who wasn’t.”
“Should one of us go check on him?” Britney asked. “Make sure he’s okay? Now that we know infested-filled bullets were being fired...what if he was shot and went back to his trailer thinking it wasn’t that bad.”
Sloan wanted to argue how ridiculous of an idea that was but kept her opinion to herself. “Shifter might be one of the toughest men here, but I feel like he would seek out medical help if he were shot. Still, I think since no one has seen him since late afternoon yesterday, it wouldn’t hurt to check in on him. It could be, that after the fighting, he went home to get some rest. He’s not one to let people know what he’s doing.”
“Brit and I will go check on him,” Axel said. “If you’re good with that?”
Britney nodded. “Of course. What about the hose? How should we handle that?”
“I don’t know. We’re not exactly in the position to start accusing people of being a traitor.” Archer sighed. “We’ll talk to Shifter first, see what he has to say and go from there. As far as we know, he might have never got to changing the hose. Unless, you actually saw the hose after, Brit?”
She shook her head. “No. He just told me he was going to do it. I assumed he did. He isn’t the kind of person to put things off.”
“Still, better to know for sure.” Archer lifted his chin to Axel. “You two head over there, and I’ll start trying to come up with a plan to keep these bastards from attacking us again.”
“We’ll meet you back at the house. Come on, Brit.”
Sloan and Archer headed back to the house in silence. Sloan couldn’t help but notice the stained ground as they passed. Even if they could find a way to stop whoever it was that had declared war on their small community, the town would never be the same. Death had tainted this place, and though she didn’t believe in ghosts, she feared the memories of what she witnessed last night would haunt her for the rest of her days.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Britney and Axel waited out of sight as the last of the people made their way into their campers. They didn’t want to go barging in on Shifter, with so many eyes on them. The matter they wanted to discuss, if he was home, had to be kept under wraps. People were already scared and didn’t need to worry about an insider trying to kill them.
Axel knocked on Shifter’s door, gun in hand. “Hey, man, it’s Axel. You in there?”
Britney hung back and kept her eyes open for any movement and her ears tuned into unexpected noises. They were close enough to the main road that any sort of sound could be heard. Not that she expected there to be activity on the main road. They had guards stationed at the gate twenty-four seven and had seen nothing since that crazy group showed up.
“I don’t hear anything?” Axel said over his shoulder as he jiggled the handle. “Door’s locked. Not sure what that means.”
“Knock again.” Britney’s foot twitched. She hated silence; the RV park was usually bustling. “Then, break it down.”
“Break it down?” Axel chuckled and knocked. “Shifter, you in there?”
“Where the hell could he be?” Even though she had said the words out loud, it was more to herself than Axel.
“There’s no answer, no movement or sounds that I can hear. I’m going to try to break in.”
Britney’s eyes fell on the mat beneath Axel’s feet. “Did you check for a hidden key?”
“You think Shifter, as paranoid as he is, would keep a key hidden?”
“I don’t know, but it’s worth a look. Check under the mat.”
Axel stepped back on the step below him and lifted the mat. “How the hell did you know he had a key under here?”
Britney snorted. “Lucky guess.”
Axel shoved the key into the lock and turned the handle. “This feels too damn convenient.”
“Fine. Shifter once told me he kept an extra key under the mat. Said he really didn’t care if anyone broke into his house. He didn’t keep anything important in there anyways.”
“Walk you down the aisle, tell you secrets about his house. I didn’t realize the two of you were so close.”
Britney shrugged. “Neither did I.”
They entered in the middle of the tiny camper. There wasn’t much to the place. A queen bed to the right, small bench table in front of them, and to the left, a dinette kitchen and door which led to the shower-toilet combo.
Axel moved into the narrow walkway. “This shouldn’t take long.”
Britney came up behind him, already feeling cramped in the small space. “You see anything out of the ordinary?”
“Nope. Looks pretty clean to me.”
Britney scrunched her nose. “A little to clean.”
“Too clean?” Axel said with a chuckle.
“Don’t make fun of me.” Britney took a big whiff of the air. “Smells clean, too.”
This time, Axel didn’t bother holding back his laughter. “What are you talking about?”
Britney swatted him on the arm. “Stop. I’m bein’ serious. You’ve known Shifter for longer than I have. Have you ever known him to be a hygiene-oriented person?”
Axel narrowed his eyes. “Well, no. But I’ve also never been to his house.
“Pretty sure he rarely baths or washes his clothes. Even at the wedding, even though he had cle
an clothes on, his hands were still covered in dust.”
“All of that is true but doesn’t mean that he didn’t keep his house clean. Some people are like that.” Axel ran a hand down her arm. “We should get going. There’s nothing here.”
Dread filled Britney’s belly. “A few more minutes. I have a really bad feeling about all this.”
“What are you expecting to find?”
Britney pulled back the sheets of his bed. “These are clean. How can someone who never bathes have clean sheets?”
“So, he changed them.” Axel took a seat on the bench. “You’re reading into things, Brit.”
“No, I’m not.” Britney got down on her hands and knees and crawled along the floor in search of anything that might explain where Shifter had gone.
Axel huffed as he lifted his feet to give her more room. “Do you know how ridiculous you look?”
Britney sat back on her legs and scowled. “You don’t have to stay. It’s not like you’re doin’ anythin’ to help.”
“That’s because I think we’re looking in the wrong place. He’s probably out there on the farm somewhere, doing whatever it is Shifter does all day.”
“After an infested attack?” Britney couldn’t believe he was arguing about this with her. “You know Shifter, probably better than anyone. Do you really think he just disappeared after we were attacked? That he wouldn’t show up, checkin’ to make sure everyone is okay? Or that he wouldn’t have been there, when you and Archer were tellin’ us about what you found?”
Axel rolled his head back on his shoulders. “No. But—”
“Exactly!” Britney ran her hand over the carpet near the bathroom. “This is damp.”
“Maybe he spilled some water?”
Britney glared at him. “There’s no running water connected.”
“People drink water.”
“Do you see a damn cup around here?” Britney snapped.
Axel pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know why we’re fighting about this.”
Britney blew out an audible breath. “Because you’re not listenin’ to me, and I don’t understand why.”
