Fred nodded and handed a farrier knife to Nikki. “Check my work, spray it and wrap it.”
“And put on a block,” Nikki added. Fred gave her a nod and walked out with Zach.
They retrieved Ruby and took her to the small conference room that was generally used when there were only a couple of people present. Zach patted one of the guards on the shoulder as he walked by.
“You two can take a break,” he said. “We’ll call if we need you.”
Ruby’s face was white as a ghost when Fred walked in and sat in the chair opposite her. Zach closed and locked the door before taking a seat beside Fred. He stared impassively for a full minute before speaking.
“I’ll make it simple for you, Ruby,” Zach said. “We want to hear all about it, we want to hear everything, and we want the truth. You can choose to be forthright or you can lie to us. That’s up to you, but we’re going to get the truth, one way or another.”
Ruby had no doubts of what could happen. She moved some of her red hair out of her face with a shaking hand and nodded. “Where do you want me to start?”
“How about when Gil first started going off the deep end?” Zach replied.
Ruby gave a nervous nod. “Well, I guess you could say it started with you, Zach. Back before Rochelle was even elected, she’d tell Gil all kinds of stories about you and how you told her you were out to get her.”
“And he believed this?” Zach asked.
“Yeah. He seemed to believe everything she said. So, she gets elected and then she gets murdered. He believed from the bottom of his heart you did it. He thought everyone would rally behind Rochelle’s death and hunt you down and kill you. When that didn’t happen, he came up with the idea to put you on trial.”
“Who suggested he do that?” Zach asked.
“He thought it up on his own. I think he saw it in a movie once. One of them senators told him there was a Supreme Court case that made it illegal, but he didn’t believe him.”
“Crosby versus United States,” Zach said absently.
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Keep going,” he directed.
“Well, he was always doing odd little things, but when the trial didn’t go like he thought it would, he kind of went a little crazy, I guess.”
“Before you continue, whose idea was it for Tory to testify as an eyewitness?” Zach asked.
Ruby had been staring at her shoes while she talked. They were Danner half-boots, and somebody had done an awful job of resoling them. Now she looked up at Zach, intentionally avoiding eye contact with Fred.
“We knew he made it all up,” she said. “He came to me and D-Day one evening in the party barn and said if the price was right, he’d tell a story so convincing there’d be no problem getting a conviction.”
“What kind of price?” Fred asked.
“He um, he wanted a couple of women to take back to his place. One for him, one for his brother. Anyway, we set him up a secret meeting with Gil.” She leaned forward in her seat and stared directly at Zach.
“I knew he was lying. I tried to tell Gil, but he wouldn’t listen.”
Zach was unsympathetic. “I understand you were on the jury.” He waited for Ruby to nod before continuing. “You should have disqualified yourself, yet you didn’t.”
“I know, and I really feel bad about that,” she said.
Zach stared icily. There were people here who had done him wrong. Ruby was one, and Tory was another. He decided he’d deal with both when the time was right.
“Alright, keep going,” he directed.
“Well, after they threw out the murder case, he got a little stressed, and when he was kicked out of office…” Ruby sighed and then, to the men’s surprise, she wiped away a tear. “I tried to talk him out of it, but he said nobody here deserves to live.”
“How did he know about the zeds?” Zach asked.
Ruby shook her head. “He didn’t know anything about them. Not that I know of anyway. His plan was simple. Lock everyone in the bunker and they’d eventually starve to death.”
“What about the dozen or so people who were topside? What was he going to do with them?” Zach asked.
“Him and D-Day were going to kill all of them. Gil was going to keep Trucker Joe occupied while D-Day went around to each guard post and killed them. He had a silencer on his gun, and he seemed to think he could ride up to each post under the pretense of checking up on them and then shoot them in the back of the head.”
“What was your role in the whole thing?” Zach asked.
“I cut the phone wires,” she admitted. “And I stood guard while he flipped the circuit breakers, and then he messed up the lock.” She took a deep breath and grabbed her knees. The two men noticed her hands were shaking.
“We were walking to the TOC and I saw them on the outside of the fence. I pointed them out and started to yell, but Gil stopped me.” She drew a deep breath before continuing.
“I gotta admit I was scared, but when I looked at Gil, he wasn’t scared at all. Just the opposite.”
“How?” Fred asked.
“He got this weird smile on his face and said something really strange.”
“What’d he say?”
“He said something about his dreams coming true,” she replied.
Zach and Fred glanced at each other.
“Ruby, what exactly did he say?” Zach ordered. “Repeat it word-for-word.”
“I don’t remember exactly. All I remember is that queer smile and saying his dreams had come true. Then he told me to go hide somewhere and he’d find me later. I didn’t hang around. I ran.”
“What was the plan after he’d killed everyone?” Zach asked.
Ruby shrugged. “He never told me. I asked, but all he said was it’d work out like it was supposed to. I had no idea what he meant by that, and yes, I asked, but he never answered.”
The questioning continued for another hour. As they finished, Fred, who had been mostly quiet and letting Zach do the questioning, leaned forward and fixed her with a piercing stare.
“Who else was in on this?” he demanded with a tone so ominous that Ruby jerked and shrunk back.
“Nobody that I know of,” she said.
He pressed it. “Not Nelson? Not Rhinehart?”
“No, I swear to God, I don’t think anyone else knew what he was up to. If they did, he didn’t tell me or D-Day.”
After the interrogation, the two men walked into the president’s office, where Rhinehart was sitting, watching the monitor.
“Do you believe her?” he asked.
Zach shrugged.
“She might know a little more about what his plans were for afterward than she’s admitting to. He probably told her something like they’d live happily ever after, but yeah, she’s telling the truth,” Zach said.
“What do we do with her now?” William asked,
“Leave her be,” Fred said. Both William and Zach stared in surprise. “She’s been through enough.” He stood. “You got bigger problems around here you need to take care of. Zach and the others can take care of most of it, but you need to step up and reassure everyone. Tell them you are going to fix the problems this nutjob caused. Marcus Hook is one of those problems. I’d suggest you get Zach to help you out.”
Chapter 58 - Reunion
Zach had several things he wanted to question William Rhinehart about, but after a few minutes the man concluded the meeting with an upraised hand.
“I believe I want to record a few notes while they’re fresh in my memory and then I’m going to turn in early,” he said. “These past few days have drained me. Perhaps we can meet again in the morning.”
He then thanked them for their help and bid them a good evening.
“Let’s head to the cafeteria,” Zach suggested after they had walked out of William’s office. Fred gave a slight nod and waited until they’d walked some distance down the hallway before speaking.
“He wasn’t looking so good.”
/> “I was thinking the same thing,” Zach said. “I think the stress of the past few days has been hard on him. He’s about to be sworn in as president. I hope he’s up for it.”
“We’ll see I suppose. You know he’s going to need your help.”
Before Zach could respond, they turned to the sound of footsteps. Flash was running down the hallway. He stopped when he neared them and took a second to catch his breath before speaking.
“I’m glad I found you. You’ll never believe who’s at the front gate and they specifically asked for you.”
Zach wasted no time and hurried to the front gate. Fred ambled along behind him. Johnny G and Riley were sitting in a truck that Zach recognized as belonging to Marcus Hook. A tanker was hitched to the back. He walked over as they exited their truck and gave them both a fist bump. Fred stood off to the side and watched without emotion. Riley smiled but Zach sensed a little aloofness in her.
“It’s good to see you two,” Zach said.
“We brought some diesel as a peace offering. We aren’t going to be arrested, are we?” Johnny G asked with a sardonic grin.
“No, absolutely not,” Zach replied. He glanced around. There were several people outside performing clean-up duties. A few had paused in their work to listen in on their conversation.
“Come on, let’s go sit and talk,” he suggested and motioned for Fred to come with them.
The four of them ended up in the horse barn, which made for a decent confidential meeting place.
“We might get a little privacy here. It’s a little chilly, but those people who used to wear suits for a living tend to avoid any place where they might get manure on them,” Zach quipped.
Johnny G chuckled. “Zach, it’s good to see you back,” he said.
“Yeah,” Riley agreed.
“I admit, I’ve missed this place, but it’s only temporary,” Zach replied. “As soon as the inauguration takes place we’ll be heading back to Oak Ridge. Before I go, is there anything I can do to help things?”
“We hope so. Now that VanAllen is gone, we would be more than happy to resume relations with Mount Weather, but we must insist on stipulations,” Johnny G said and explained. They discussed it for several minutes, but it was amicable. Zach assured them all their requests would be agreed to.
“Leave it to me,” he promised.
He found most of them rather quickly. The senators and a few others had gotten together and were cooking up a big meal for everyone. They weren’t fooling Zach. The kitchen was warm, and they did not have to deal with any stinking zed corpses. William was located in his room. He reluctantly agreed to attend.
“Alright, for those of you who are not aware of it, Johnny G is here,” he told them.
There were a couple of head nods, but there were also a couple of concerned expressions. He explained their terms and stipulations for resuming normal relations with Mount Weather.
“It sounds like they want autonomy,” Connie remarked after Zach had finished speaking.
“They don’t want meddling from your people,” Zach said. “Everything they are doing is done for survival and improving their way of life.”
“Despite our late president’s lack of tact, our input would be invaluable to them,” one of the senators said. This set off a chorus of agreements. Zach stared a moment before answering.
“They do indeed need valuable input, but in the form of manual labor. Are you interested in volunteering?”
This started several people arguing at the same time, which served nothing more than to drown each other out. It continued for a full minute before Zach rapped the table with his knuckles several times. He waited until everyone had stopped talking.
“Let me clarify the situation for you, ladies and gentlemen. You people need Marcus Hook more than they need you.”
“They seem to forget they need food,” one of them said.
“Not anymore,” Zach replied. He received a few puzzled stares. “It’s taken them a lot of hard work, but they are now self-sustaining. Their farming operation is going strong. In fact, they now have four fishing boats up and running. Let me ask you people, when is the last time any of you had lobster for dinner?”
There were a few murmurs, but the complaining had stopped.
“Exactly,” Zach said. He did not tell them about the one and only time he had lobster. He was thirteen and the church his grandmother attended had a seafood feast one Wednesday night. It was wonderful. The thought of fresh steamed lobster made his mouth water.
“If you guys work it right, they’ll supply you guys with diesel and seafood. You guys either agree to their terms or they’ll go back home and that’s the end of it.”
“What about the roadblocks?” Bob Duckworth asked.
“They have agreed to dismantle all the roadblocks and restore the telephone system. They have also agreed to assist in refurbishing the roads between here and Hook when the weather warms and after the spring crops are planted.”
Zach paused and looked around before settling on William Rhinehart. “Mister President, you haven’t had much to say.”
William looked up and a glimmer of a smile passed across his lips. “I’m not officially the president yet, but I’ll go ahead and propose we take an informal vote. All in favor of accepting the terms presented by the representatives of Marcus Hook signify by a show of hands.”
Zach watched as almost all raised their hands. The two holdouts looked around and slowly raised theirs. It was unanimous. William nodded in satisfaction.
“The proposal passes. Mister Gunderson, since you have acted as the mediator in this matter, would you please do the honors of passing along our decision to them? Oh, and tell them I am extending an invitation for them to stay for the inauguration tomorrow after the funeral services. It’s my understanding a rather festive celebration is planned.”
He started to say more, but suddenly grabbed a napkin and coughed hard into it. When he was better, he clenched the napkin in his fist and looked around apologetically.
“I believe I’m coming down with a cold. If you all will excuse me, I’m going to get a refill of tea and head back to my room.” He then smiled slightly. “I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow and need my rest.”
His quip got him some ingratiating chuckles. Everyone stood when William stood. Although Mount Weather was far less formal these days, it seemed as though they wanted things to go back to where they once were and were depending on William Rhinehart to make that happen. Once he left, Zach addressed the table.
“It’s up to you guys, you know,” he said.
Bob Duckworth held up a finger. “Zach, we all know how to get things done, but we can certainly use your expertise.”
Zach did not respond, instead he motioned toward the door.
“Johnny G and Riley are waiting outside. Let me go give them the good news and invite them to join us. You guys need to make them feel welcome. Resuming relations with Marcus Hook is a win-win for everyone.”
Chapter 59 - Funerals & Inaugurations
At zero-eight hundred, there were only a few people in the conference room. They were cleaning and getting it ready for the funeral services that were going to occur later. The rest of the Mount Weather population was actively working on disposing of the rest of the zed corpses, but when the whistle blew, most of them stopped what they were doing and headed inside. When the clock clicked to zero-nine-hundred hours, First Sergeant Crumby stood and began the debriefing.
“It isn’t going to be easy to explain the last seventy-two hours, but I will give it my best. Three nights ago, a couple of things happened simultaneously. First, there was this man by the name of Gilbert VanAllen, who became president after his wife was murdered. His craziness manifested itself and thanks to Senator Duckworth, he was ousted from office.
“He then really went crazy. He sabotaged the blast door to the bunker trapping almost all of you inside. He then compromised the guard detail, killing Trucker Troy in the process.�
�
The first sergeant paused as there was some angry commentary in the audience. When it was over, he continued.
“During this, we were invaded by a horde of zeds. From the looks of it, it was a planned, coordinated attack involving several hundred of the no-good bastards. I don’t know how and why they chose that moment to attack, we’ve had random attacks the entire time we’ve been here, but like I said, it had the appearances of preplanning and coordination between them. For example, there were several zeds who appeared to be the Chinese soldiers Clay Fleming had originally reported.
Zombie Rules | Book 8 | Who The Hell Is That? Page 33
