by Jake Bible
“I’m sorry,” the man says, “was I not clear on what you are to do right this fucking second?”
The barrel of the large rifle points at me, at a spot just below my belly. Not liking that.
“Weapons and packs down,” Leeds says, moving slowly and complying. I follow suit. “And you are? Didn’t catch your name?”
“Don’t need to,” the man says. He nods at our gear and suddenly two men step past us, pick up our gear, and join the first man. All wear black body armor. Nice, new, body armor. “Follow us.”
He turns and starts to walk away, the two other men right behind. I actually think about laughing and just turning and running, but Leeds can sense this and grabs my arm, nodding over his shoulder. I look back and see two more men and a woman. Black body armor, big guns.
“Who are you?” I ask. “What the fuck is this?”
“Shut up,” the first man says. “Too many zeds around. Stay quiet and you can live to ask questions later.”
“You know, I’d rather we went the other direction,” I say. “I really should be getting home. The wife will worry. You know what I mean?”
“That is not shutting up,” the man says as he spins on his heel and stomps towards me. I back up, but hit a wall of body armor behind me.
Leeds gets in front of me, blocking the man, who looks the captain up and down, and then smiles.
“Fort Bragg?” he asks. Leeds doesn’t answer. “Did my time there. Wasn’t to my liking. I moved on.” Leeds stays quiet. “Fine. Whatever. Your civvie pal here isn’t going to make it for dinner. And both of you will be coming with us. Is there going to be a problem?”
“That’s up to you, mercenary trash,” Leeds says, a smile spreading across his face.
The man is twitching with violence. Calling anyone trash would piss them off, but he seems way too angry for that. Is calling someone a mercenary a bad thing?
“Call me a merc again and we will have a problem,” the man says. “I solve problems. One way or another.”
“Hey, I solve problems too,” I say. “Is your go to solution, duct tape? It always works for me. That and super glue. If you can’t fix it with duct tape or super glue, then it doesn’t deserve to be fixed. Am I right? Huh?”
I smile and look around at the others. They do not smile back. Wasn’t expecting them to, but a guy’s gotta try.
“We won’t have a problem as long as you understand your place, cowboy,” Leeds says.
“Oh, I know my place,Captain,” Cowboy says. “I’m paid very well to know it. Move.”
Leeds nods and starts walking. I follow quickly.
“You said you get paid,” I say. “Paid with what? I really hope you aren’t taking cash. Not sure if you know, but the whole country has kinda gone poopy. That cash isn’t worth much except to wipe your ass. Although I wouldn’t recommend that. It scratches the hell out of you. Like really scratches. I couldn’t sit for like-”
“Jace?” Leeds asks.
“Yes?”
“Please be quiet so you do not get us shot.”
“Oh, sorry. I was doing my jabbering thing to distract them, thinking you have a plan to get us away from Kevlar and the Gang.”
One of the guys behind me snorts. Score!
“I do not have a plan, Jace. We will follow these private contractors until they deliver us to whomever hired them.” Leeds clears his throat. “May I ask if you were looking for us specifically, or did you just stumble on us and are playing it by ear? Just want to know what we are walking into.”
“What you are walking into is a whole lot of shut the fuck up,” Cowboy says. “Last warning. Don’t test me.”
“Noted,” Leeds says, glancing at me. “Understood, Jace?”
“Got it,” I nod. “Whole lot of shut the fuck up. Commencing now.”
Hey, he’s calling me Jace again! That’s a plus. Of course, he’s probably doing that so that the last thing someone calls me before I die isn’t Long Pork. Either way, I do appreciate the effort.
Now, I wonder where the fuck we are headed? And do they have some ibuprofen? Because my hand hurts like a motherfucker.
Chapter Three
The frown on Stella’s face is more from exasperation than anger. She’s getting tired of having to track the two teenagers down and get them back on task. Her son, Charlie, is sixteen, and he should know that by now, when he’s asked to do something, he needs to do it without being asked again. Even if a cute girl distracts him.
And that’s the problem there, the cute girl. Jennifer Patel. Dark and very attractive, she has Charlie wrapped around her finger. Stella doesn’t think she’s toying with him. No, Stella can tell that Jennifer sincerely likes Charlie. But, having been a teenage girl once herself, Stella knows that Jennifer is testing Charlie, seeing how much he’ll do for her before he either stops, or they get in trouble.
Stella doesn’t want to know where the line is drawn in Jennifer’s mind. Social morals and boundaries are a thing of the past for the generation growing up in the apocalypse. Survival is key, and that tends to push some common sense out the window.
Which is why she isn’t too surprised to find Jennifer and Charlie in a shed behind the main barn, half dressed.
“Oh, shit! Mom! What are you doing?” Charlie yells.
“Saving you from a big mistake, young man,” Stella replies as she pulls her son out of the shed. “We’ve had this talk, Charlie. We’ve had it more than a couple of times. You are too young, do you hear me? Too young to be playing with fire like this.”
She spins around, leaving Charlie struggling to get his shirt on, and walks up to Jennifer, as she is busy doing the same. Stella’s finger gets right up in Jennifer’s nose and the girl freezes.
“And you, young miss,” Stella snaps,“you will stay away from my son. I don’t care how much you like him. Neither of you have any understanding of the consequences of your actions.”
“We have protection,” Jennifer says quietly.
This takes Stella aback and she furrows her brow. “You…what? Excuse me?”
“We have condoms,” Jennifer says, “and that gel stuff. I don’t want to get pregnant, Mrs. Stanford. I don’t want children.”
“Not now, at least,” Charlie smiles.
“Not ever,” Jennifer says, pulling her shirt over her head. “Who would? The world is dead, Mrs. Stanford. I can’t bring a baby into this world.”
“Seriously?” Charlie asks. “Like not ever? What about when we’re older?”
“We won’t live that long,” Jennifer says. She pushes past Stella and Charlie. “You’re an idiot if you think we will. Even on the Farm.”
The two Stanfords stand there and watch her go until she’s turned the corner and around the massive farmhouse, that is the center of the Farm.
“Well that sucked,” Charlie says finally. “I didn’t think she never wants kids.”
“You shouldn’t be thinking about that at all, Charlie,” Stella says. “You have to be careful and focused. You need to use your big head, not your little one.”
“Mom!” Charlie groans. “Come on, that’s just gross. Don’t ever say that again.”
“I’m going to have to talk to her father,” Stella says. “I would want him to talk to me if it was reversed.”
“Where do you think Jenny got the condoms from?” Charlie says. “He already knows. His words to me were that if I got her pregnant, he’d gut me in the night and leave me outside the fences for the Zs.”
“Oh, my god!” Stella exclaims. “How dare he say that to my son!”
“It’s his daughter,” Charlie shrugs. “I’m sure dad would gut anyone that got Greta pregnant.”
“Take that back this instant, Charles Stanford!” Stella snarls. “Don’t’ ever say such a thing!”
“You don’t think dad would?”
“Oh, I know he would,” Stella replies. “I meant about your sister getting pregnant. She’s only thirteen and just started getting her period. We do no
t need that bad karma in our family.”
“Jesus, Mom,” Charlie frowns. “I do not need to hear that. Yuck.”
“Oh, grow up.”
“I was trying to before you burst in and ruined my coming of age moment.”
Stella and Charlie look at each other; the intensity is broken as they both crack up laughing. Stella wraps him in her arms and kisses his head over and over.
“I love you,” she says.
“Love you too,” he replies. “So we can keep this from dad?”
“Not a fucking chance, kid,” Stella says. “Your father and I haven’t made it this long by lying to each other. Expect a long talk with him when he gets back.”
“When is that?” Charlie asks. “Isn’t he supposed to be back tomorrow?”
“Maybe,” Stella says, “depends on how much work he has to do at Whispering Pines to get the gas lines up and working. But you know your dad, he’ll figure out the fastest, most efficient way to do it.”
“Great,” Charlie says as they start to walk towards the farmhouse. “I’ll just be stressing over this until he gets here. Awesome.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Stella smiles. “You’ll have plenty of work to keep you busy and your mind off of it.”
“Double awesome.” Charlie starts to climb the porch that stretches across the entire front of the farmhouse then stops. “What’s that smoke?”
Stella shields her eyes and looks off in the distance. She heard something last night just after going to bed, but thought it was thunder. You never know in the mountains when a freak storm will turn up. She didn’t think a thing about it this morning.
“I don’t know,” she says.
“Explosions last night,” a deep voice says from the farmhouse doorway. Big Daddy Fitzpatrick. A huge man of a man. Farmer through and through. “I think that husband of yours may have gotten the gas back on. But I’m afraid the results aren’t what he was looking for.”
“Should we send a team to check it out?” Stella asks.
“I’ll see if my Sweetie Mel will want to go,” Big Daddy replies. “Not that I’m too worried. There’s Stuart, Julio, Leeds, and the rest to watch out for your man and that brain of his. Don’t you worry none.”
“But you’ll send Melissa?” Stella asks.
“I’ll see if her and her scavengers want to go rendezvous with the Whispering Pines teams,” Big Daddy says. “If she wants. Maybe I’ll have her take a couple of her brothers along. I love my boys, but they need to get outside the fence some. And not just to Critter’s to gamble and drink. Which they think I don’t know about.”
“Thanks, Hollis,” Stella says.
He looks down at her and smiles. “Of course, ma’am. We’re all in this together. The Lord didn’t put me here to ignore the wishes of a well meaning lady such as yourself. I see the signs and I follow.”
***
“They’re going towards the explosions?” Julio asks, his eyes scanning the skyline and the columns of black smoke. “Why would they do that? Why not just come back to Whispering Pines?”
“Because the captain likes to have answers,” John says, his sniper rifle resting in the crook of his arm as he studies the scratches in the concrete Leeds left for him. “And he probably wants to march Long Pork around a bit.”
“Why would he march Long Pork?” Elsbeth asks. “That’s not nice.”
“Exactly,” John says. “Captain Leeds isn’t a violent man by nature. He likes the slow torture instead. You should see the man conduct an interrogation. Fucking brilliant.”
“So what now?” Julio asks, looking to Stuart. “We follow?”
“We can’t all go,” Stuart says. He looks about at Critter’s men that came along. “Any idea where your boss went?”
“He took off running to draw away the Zs,” one of them answers. “That’s the last we saw him.”
“So we have Jace and Leeds out there and Critter too,” Stuart says. “How many men went with Critter?”
“Three?” the man replies.
“Counting’s not your strength, is it?” John jokes. The man just glares at him. “Gunnery Sergeant Stuart? What’s the call?”
“Is he in charge?” Julio asks.
“No, but he’s got more training and experience in his pinky than you do in that whole inked body of yours,” John replies. “I’d like his opinion. And so do you since you just asked him for it three seconds ago.”
“I know. Just fucking with you, soldier.”
“Okay, boys, put ‘em away, will ya?” Stuart laughs.
“Put what away?” Elsbeth asks. “What do they have out? I don’t see anything.”
“Kinda my point,” Stuart says. “As much as I’d like to go off on another adventure in Z land, I’m needed at Whispering Pines. We’ll be constructing the stairs and deck to the cliff the next couple of days. That’s going to require some serious supervision.”
“I’ll go with Elsbeth,” Julio says. “We’ll find them.”
“As much as I hate to split you two love birds up, I think I need you with me Julio,” Stuart says. “The folks that came from the Farm listen to you. I can’t run up against egos while trying to stay on schedule.” Stuart looks at Elsbeth, John, and Critter’s guys. “You can track them down; make sure they didn’t get into any more trouble.”
“I’m good at pulling Long Pork out of trouble,” Elsbeth nods. “I do it all the time.”
“We know,” Stuart says. “You cool with that then, Sergeant Baptiste?”
“You got it, gunny,” John says. “I’ll keep everyone on task and in line.”
“We don’t take orders from soldiers,” one of Critter’s men says. “Critter was clear on that. They ain’t in charge of us.”
“No, they ain’t,” Stuart says, mocking the man’s accent. “But if you want to stay alive, then you best listen to John here. He isn’t carrying that rifle around because it compliments his eyes. Got me?”
The men start to protest, but Elsbeth steps forward, facing off with them. They shut up quickly. As much as they may not want to follow John’s orders, they also don’t want to piss off the deadly ex-canny girl. They all look away, shuffling their feet, finding interesting new dirt under their fingernails, watching an imaginary bird fly by.
“Well, that’s settled then,” Stuart says, looking to Julio. “Ready to get back?”
Julio doesn’t look ready. He knows Elsbeth can take care of herself, he even saw her in action back before she joined with the Whispering Pines folks, but their new found affection for each other pulls at him. In the apocalypse, you don’t get many chances at happiness and Julio doesn’t want to lose this chance.
“Be safe,” he tells her.
“Ain’t no place safe,” Elsbeth says. Everyone has to admit to themselves that she’s right.
“I have her six,” John says, “and she has mine. We’ll be cool.”
“Good,” Stuart says as he claps John on the shoulder. “We’ll see you back at Whispering Pines when you find them.”
“Right,” John says and looks to Critter’s men. “Let’s cover some ground, people.”
They all mutter about not taking orders from a soldier, but quickly step in line.
***
He left his men to hide and wait for him so he could move faster and not be detected. He loves his guys, but they aren’t always the most stealthy or intelligent. When he saw the truck, he knew caution was the key to survival this day.
He’s tracked the truck for the better part of the day, wondering what all the decked out wannabe soldiers with their fancy gear want. They just seemed to be driving around in circles. For a minute or two, he wondered if they were looking for him. Sure seemed like they were looking for someone.
So, when Critter sees them march up to the truck and force Jace and Leeds inside, he isn’t surprised at all. There was bound to be fallout from the gas explosions. Critter doesn’t know what part the wannabes play, but he knows it isn’t good. No one needs that mu
ch firepower and body armor if they are just taking down Zs. They’re geared up for human interaction.
The truck, a long black four-door diesel with a covered bed, pulls down the road, heading towards the smoke. Critter isn’t surprised by that either. He’d been hearing whispers through the grapevine that someone was setting up shop in town and making some strange repairs at strategic places in Asheville. If his sense of direction is right, and it is rarely wrong, the smoke is coming from East Asheville right around the former VA hospital.
“What the hell is over there?” Critter wonders. He’d cleaned out the VA a while back. There wasn’t a single supply left on any of the shelves.
He waits until the truck is long out of sight and then works his way along the ridge above Swannanoa River Rd. He puzzles over the smoke every time he comes around a bend and gets sight of it again.
Then it hits him.
He knows what’s over there. And the value it offers with the right planning. He’d even used it himself a few times when other routes weren’t available.
Critter picks up his pace, knowing exactly where the truck is headed.
***
The Zs are thick, but the truck doesn’t slow down; we just mow right through them.
“That’s gonna be hell on your suspension,” I say. Leeds, sitting next to me in the backseat, hands zip tied, just sighs. I tried to be quiet, I really did, but it’s hard.
“Well, I know we aren’t going to see Tersch,” Leeds says to Cowboy who is sitting in the passenger’s seat in front of him. “He died two years before Z-Day. Don’t tell me I will have the opportunity to meet Mr. Foster. Quite an honor since no one has ever met the man.”
“And no one will,” Cowboy grins. The driver nods and smiles.
“Am I missing something?” Leeds asks. “You two obviously have information that makes my statement amusing.”
“Does he amuse you, is that it? Is he a clown to you, eh?” I say.
“Jace?”
“Sorry, I’ll shut up,” I reply. “Carry on.”
