Midnight (Adrian's Undead Diary)

by Chris Philbrook

  Lenny grinned, “I like the cut of your jib Mr. Donohue. What’re you? Marine? I’m a squiddy.”

  “Ground pounder here. Three tours of the paddy ending in ’71. Mind if I come on the porch with ya? Might cut down on the breeze out here.” Gilbert rubbed his shoulders to emphasize he was freezing.

  Lenny let him onto the porch and the two men sat down in what looked to be rocking chairs. Lenny puffed his pipe and after a bit Gilbert finally asked a question, “You like coffee Lenny?”

  “I have a cup in the morning Mr. Donohue. Same as most men who wake with the sun.” Lenny smiled.

  “Call me Gilbert. I thought you might want some of this here in my pocket.” Gilbert slowly reached into his pocket, and produced a small container of Maxwell House instant coffee. He handed to Lenny like it was a gift of epic proportions. Lenny took it and smiled. Parlay had begun.

  “Thanks for having me out here Lenny, I appreciate it.”

  “My pleasure Gilbert. We’ve got a Sean problem your friend Adrian is fixing to take care of for us. I think I’d like his help, but it ain’t gonna be easy.”

  “Nothing worth doing right is easy Lenny, you know that the same as I do. I can assure you this though, that boy means business about Sean. If we don’t figure this out right quick, it’ll get a lot uglier before it gets better. I mean ugly for everyone. I don’t want this to happen, and I am telling you, you do not want that boy any more motivated. He’s lost friends over this, and he wants Sean’s head on a pike. He deserves justice on this.”

  Lenny just nodded. I got all goosepimply when Gilbert said all that. I felt like such a tremendous bad ass. Hearing a Green Beret say that about me was one of the most flattering things anyone has ever said about me.

  Lenny nodded in response to Gilbert’s veiled threat. Lenny wasn’t scared, that much I could tell through the scope. He was however, worried. “If Sean dies the National Guard man will take over, and those two are cut from similar enough cloth. You’ll need to find a way to deal with that man as well. Otherwise this might just get worse. He’s got far more skill in raising hell than Sean did. You know Sean spearheaded that dunder-headed attack on you people right after Christmas right? The Lieutenant wanted nothing to do with it. He was pissed though, you guys took out half the men who had skill with guns that day.”

  Gilbert took it in. “What’s this soldier’s name? What’s his story?”

  “Tell you the truth I don’t know his first name. The guardsman that served under him still answer to him, and they call him Lieutenant Daniels. I believe deep down he’s a good guy, early thirties. He lost his family when it all went down, and he’s kinda scared of everything now. He plays hardball with everyone. Very no-nonsense now, and not always in the good way, if you get my meaning.” Lenny tipped his brow at Gilbert.

  Gilbert nodded. “Can he be brought to bear? Can we show him we’re not the enemy?” Gilbert leaned forward in his chair.

  “I dunno. He’s got his men thinking he’s GI Joe and the savior of mankind. Apparently he served in the 10th Mountain in Afghanistan for a tour and apparently that’s enough to get you voted man of the year down at the school. He’s smart enough, but I think he’s scared yellow, and there is a fair chance he would be more ready to go to war than sit down and talk things over. We’d need to sell him hard that Sean is dangerous, or that standing up to you guys is the worst idea imaginable.”

  Gilbert sat back and chewed it over. The two of them sat in silence and thought it over. Gilbert broke the moment of quiet, “What if we take his ability to fight from him peacefully?”

  Lenny looks all kinds of confused after that. I bet he had the same expression on his face I did. I had no idea what the fuck Gilbert meant by that. Lenny responded, “What the heck does that mean? Take his ability to fight peacefully? Ain’t that a whole lot impossible without fighting?”

  “No, not necessarily. Are there men under this Daniels kid that don’t like Sean?”

  “Yeah a bunch. He doesn’t have that many men left and I’d say most would go against Sean if they could. Ollie’s buddies with a bunch of them.”

  Gilbert seriously looked like he blew an old guy load. I think I saw dust fall out his pant leg, “What if we were to get one of the guys against Sean to make a daily farm run with some extra gear in a day or so? You tell Ollie all about it. We set up a fake ambush with everyone in on it, and we take everything. Ollie and the soldier return to the school, and tell them we’re big swinging dicks, and we’re the next best thing since Sophia Loren and a jug of Crisco?”

  Lenny got a laugh out of that. “So we make Daniels think that you guys can take whatever you want, at will, unless they give up Sean?”

  “Exactly. At the very least the fact that the people here will find out that Sean’s blunder in attacking is now coming back on them. We do it in two days so you can organize here. Really, we don’t even have to be here, or take anything. Your guys can just leave all the stuff we’ve stolen right here. Of course, the risk is that Daniels decides to come to us and go to war, but if your boy Ollie can find us someone close to Daniels, then we can hope that he can persuade him to either meet with us and talk civil, or that we are too powerful and well organized to mess with. If they give us Sean, or put him to justice and prove it to us, we disappear. Simple as that. No war required, no more blood of the innocents shed for this idiot.”

  Lenny looked at his watch. “You all going to be in town tomorrow?”

  “We can have a presence here if you need it.” Gilbert nodded reassuringly.

  “Well, lemme talk to my boy when he comes back tomorrow. If he thinks we can do it, then I’ll radio you all again same as yesterday, only at about 5 in the afternoon. If we’re a go, we’ll do it the next day and we’ll figure it out.”

  “That sounds perfect Lenny. I appreciate your help in all this. Hopefully we can finish this with minimal people getting hurt. There’s far too many of us dead now to make more of us dead for nothing.” Gilbert stood, Lenny joined him shortly after.

  The two men shook, and Lenny looked out over his property before letting go of Gilbert’s hand. “So how many guns you got pointed at me right now?” He smiled at Gilbert.

  “Just one Lenny. But it’s real big, and he’s a real good shot with it.” Gilbert pumped his hand and grinned. It was friendly.

  “That’s smart. I like the way you all think. Let’s get this all done and call it a day.”

  “Sounds good. If you don’t mind, I’m gonna take a walk in your woods. Try and find my way home.” Gilbert motioned to the door, and Lenny let him out. Gilbert walked away at a 45 degree angle from me, heading to where we could meet, towards the snowmobile. Lenny turned and headed inside.

  I covered the house until Gilbert was safe in the trees. I high tailed it to the machine and trudged it along to where I thought he’d be, and I picked him up. We didn’t say anything until we got to the truck, but Gilbert was on cloud mother fucking nine Mr. Journal. He’s convinced we’ve got this all but sewn up. I’m a little more apprehensive, as you might understand.

  So the ride back was fine. Had to remember to stop and move the nail boards out of the way and whatnot, but all in all, it was a quick ride home. Abby moved the vans for us, and we got back into Hall E and had some food, and talked everything over. Hopefully it’ll all go well, and we can make our case to this Lt. Daniels guy.

  If he’s onboard either through fear, respect, or what the fuck else, we can form a plan to kill Sean. With any luck, this Daniels character draws his Beretta and puts it to Sean’s temple and does the dirty work for me. I’d rather I had the satisfaction of doing it myself, but politically, it makes a lot more sense to have someone on their end do it.

  I’m headed to bed early again. I’ve got to go back to Westfield once more tomorrow to make sure the fake ambush is on for the day after next. Talk about exciting shit! I’m super nervous, and super excited. I might have to take something to sleep tonight just from the excitement. Huzzah bitches!r />
  -Adrian

  February 18th

  I wish I had a cigar to chomp on. Strictly so I could say “I love it when a plan comes together” at the same time.

  Things are moving along just swimmingly. Who the fuck says that? I know I don’t. Why the hell would I type it? Guessing I’m channelling Queer Eye for the post zombie apocalypse. Did you see that zombie’s outfit!?!? OH MY GAWD! SO TACKY! *insert flaming moment* Gotta love the gays.

  Wow that was off track.

  Our Westfield problem seems to be coming closer and closer to becoming a Westfield asset. Yesterday I beat feet to Westfield at about 10am. I didn’t need to get there for recon purposes early or anything, and I really just wanted to be there for noon and the house beyond. I did wind up taking a Lunesta that night and I tell you what, I slept like a goddamn baby. The women have been soldiers about taking up guard duty and doing campus patrols. Patty’s rib seems to be more or less set and mended. She says she’s all better, but I see her wince now and again. She’s off the Advil regimen for the most part, and I think she’s more sore than in pain. Tough chick. Abby has been doing some pretty ballsy solo patrols of campus, which is saying something because we’ve had a lot of undead up here.

  We’ve gotten them at the bridge pretty much without exception, thank God. Between them getting stuck on the nail boards or not being able to get around the vans fast enough, we’re getting it done. I’ll lose my mind if the girls get bitten though. I’ve fully adopted them as family.

  Anyway. We’re reasonably safe, and on my trips out from campus Auburn Lake Road has been reasonably clear. Almost every day I have to stop to take one or two out with the hatchet. Sometimes if I think I can get away with it I just hit them with the truck, though if I can, I get out and kill them manually. I’m still waiting for something really loud to happen on campus to lead the huge pack right up the fucking hill. It really makes me want to do something about fortifying the campus immediately, but we’ve got too much going on.

  On the way to Westfield yesterday I set up a small resupply cache. About five miles from town before the turn off roads I found a small house right on the side of the road. I backtracked, went on foot into the woods, and made a straight line to the house so I didn’t leave any visible foot prints in the snow. The house was wide open and exposed to the elements, and I cleared it out quickly and safely. I dropped off a backpack with my Sig and the magazines, as well as the Remington 870 shotgun. I let a change of clothes, some food, some water, a spare radio, and some medical supplies. If the shit hits the fan in Westfield, we’d at least have weapons and basic supplies. I looked for salvage in the house, but with the windows open, everything edible was ruined. Actually, there were a few cans of food that I snagged, and they had some consumables like laundry detergent and soap and shit like that.

  I got to Westfield and got myself set up in the woods near the farm. I had a good angle looking right down the barrel of the road we did our ambush on the other day, as well as a good field of vision to the door and porch of the farmhouse. Good killing field, and great visibility.

  There was no radio traffic at noon, and when the truck arrived at the farm early at 2:30 I knew something was up. I recognized Ollie and his stout frame and red hair, and with him was another military looking fellow. He was also a little thick, but he had a solid look to him. Sort of a police officer-esque stance. They got out of the truck, and headed inside.

  They were still inside the farm when I got the call over the radio a little after that. It was Lenny. “Hey anyone out there yet?”

  I responded, “Yeah Lenny, we’ve been here all day. What can I help you with?”

  “Is this Adrian?”

  “Yessir.”

  “Nice to talk to you again young man. I need to ask a favor of you if you don’t mind.” He seemed in good spirits, but I caught a hint of skepticism in his tone.

  “What can I do for you Lenny?”

  “My boy Ollie is here, and he’s brought a good friend of his, Staff Sergeant Mike McCarthy. Ole Mike here is on board with your plan, but ain’t willing to do anything without a man’s handshake on it. I told him you’d be a hard sell on that, but he’s pretty much insistent on it. Any chance you’d be willing to talk face to face?”

  Now I put some serious thought into this. If I said fuck you go to hell, then Sgt. Mike goes back to the school and tells them everything. Or, he goes against us and says no fucking way and we’ve lost everything. I can say sure, I’ll be right there, but don’t try anything funny, and then he feels like he’s at gunpoint. No one wants any part of a shotgun marriage. I played it bold. Big swinging dick bold.

  “If he doesn’t mind being outside when we meet, then I can be there in ten minutes.”

  After a minute, Lenny came back with, “He says that’s just fine. Where at?”

  “Your porch okay? Private and whatnot, plus you can fire up that big old pipe of yours.”

  “Now that’s thinking. We’ll see you in a jiffy.”

  And I was mobile. I stopped and watched them come out on the porch a minute or so later, and before I came out of the wood line I checked every single spot I saw for snipers. If I was one, it was reasonable they had one too. I came out behind the barn so they couldn’t see me, and came around the corner with the Savage on my shoulder. I got to within maybe 30 feet of them before they saw me. My white sheet camouflage was apparently very effective.

  Sgt. Mike jumped up and the cigarette fell out of his mouth. He dropped his hand to his pistol and then jerked it away and looked around. He totally knew there were other guns pointed at him. I had to hide a laugh because… there wasn’t any. Power perceived is power achieved Mr. Journal. Write that shit down.

  “Good afternoon gentlemen.” I smiled.

  I could see Mike taking my measure, and he seemed to assess me as dangerous. He nodded and I got the “that’s a good soldier look.” Sergeants, the good ones at least, can usually assess a soldier as shit or shine almost instantly. There’s a way you walk, a way you talk, and a weight good soldiers and cops have. I have it.

  I nodded at Ollie and Lenny, and greeted them. Ollie seemed a little nervous, but much better than our first meeting. Mike didn’t look scared much, but the whole time his big brown eyes kept looking for shooters.

  I shook everyone’s hand once Lenny let me on the porch. We talked about kind of generic stuff, then I squared off and just asked them what was up. Mike spoke up first, “Look Adrian, we’ve got a pretty good thing here. As long as we put up with Sean’s shit, we eat good, we sleep good, and we’re safe. I’m all for kicking his ass off the pedestal he’s put himself on, but there’s a lot of shit that could go down. If we get rid of him, how do we know you’re not gonna make a power play on us?”

  “You don’t. I can say this though; I’ve got zero interest in telling you people how to live your lives. I’m trying to live my own. Sean keeps fucking with that, and that’s just unacceptable.” I saw Lenny flinch when I dropped the f-bomb, and made a mental note not to swear anymore.

  Mike nodded. “I ‘spose you’re right there. We were thinking of doing a run tomorrow. And we return empty handed. We go to Lt. Daniels, and tell him straight up that your people ambushed us, didn’t hurt anyone, and said that you guys wanted justice for the gas station attack. I can tell him that all you want is Sean. Sean and only Sean and you’ll be square, and walk away. I can sell him on a story that you guys are insanely well armed and smart and all that, and hopefully the L.T. will just toss Sean out like rubbish.”

  “Do you think that’ll work? That’s risky, he might see us a huge threat and decide to attack us instead? Plus after our failed ambush when your woman Tera got shot?” I was a little apprehensive.

  Ollie chimed in real quick. “Adrian I kind of lied about that. I went to my dad after you guys left, and we decided to play dumb. I told them we got jumped by a zombie and Tera got bitten. I told them I shot her.”

  I thanked Ollie for that, and Mike nodded again.
“Yeah that’s true that he might feel threatened. But, Daniels is kind of a pussy fundamentally. He went out on skis the day of the Christmas attack and hid in the fucking woods when Sean’s assault on you guys went to shit. He wound up skiing the entire way back here over twelve hours that night.”

  Captain Snowpants revealed. Turns out he’s Lieutenant Snowpants.

  “Harsh. Funny that Sean left him like that to die. If we had found your Lieutenant, we probably would’ve killed him though. That assault went bad on our end too, one of my guys accidentally shot a few of your men when they went to surrender. Sucked.”

  Mike nodded. “Part of the job right? Those guys were all big time Sean people. Few of the local cops, some hunters who thought they were bad mofos. To be honest, they were as much a danger to us as they were to you guys. Fuck em.”

  I grinned. “Mike they weren’t much danger to us. That ain’t saying much. Keep in mind as well, Sean torched a building in town the other night that had at least a hundred and fifty people in it, and I lost friends. You can tell that to Daniels too.”

  “I don’t think he did that.” Mike shook his head.

  “What? He had to have done it. The place completely exploded. Lit up the night sky like a roman candle for hours. This is right after the gas station explosion. Can’t be a coincidence.”

  “He was here in town that night, all night. He was trying to get everyone at the school all motivated to go after you for a final assault. He almost had Daniels sold on a full frontal attack a few days ago, but Jeff balked, said it was logistically impossible not knowing what kind of force you guys had. Shit we’ve got less than forty people now and Sean said you had as many as thirty.”

  We talked more about it, and the more we did, the more it seemed like Sean didn’t have anything to do with the explosion. Mike and Ollie both said that everyone was at the school that night. Everyone was present, and accounted for. Which meant… STIG was hit by someone else, or there was a terrible accident. I don’t know. I guess if Sean is off the hook for that, that’s sort of good. But… He still tried to have me killed, and he still blew up my fucking gas station. Justice or gtfo.