by Won, Mark
She said, “Welcome back Paul, we weren’t sure that you’d make it. Y’all come on in.” Once all sixteen of us had passed her by she leaned out the door, looked around some, and then made sure to slide home the bolt on the door.
“Things seem to have changed a bit from our last visit,” I began. “I’m guessing a ghoul came to town.”
“You guessed right, Paul, how could you tell?”
“We visited the Barrow place first and found the window smashed in. An ogre, we told you about those, right? would have just smashed the wall in. I figure that we would have seen some sign of zombies wandering around if a horde had shown up. Tell me about the ghoul.”
“Well, the way I heard it the thing must have either climbed over some roadblock or came down out of the hills on the 29th of December. Anyhow, it started in on people and no one could hit it, leastwise not in the head where they needed to. The thing tore up a lot of folks, and no one in Shallow Ford knew what to do. Mostly it was a surprise. The folks on one side of town might have heard some gunfire but instead of getting organized like you told us, they would all just go to see what the fuss was.
“When we heard guns going off every now and again we all hunkered down and posted watch. It’s a damn shame that we can have electricity but the phones don’t work, except for playing games and such. We decided that if we saw anything unchancy, whoever saw it would fire off a shot. Who knows? Maybe kill it.
“The thing did show up, eventually. At the Hudson place. They saw it coming through their back way and put it down pretty quick. I don’t think that ghoul creature knew it had eight shotguns aiming at it or surely it would have been a bit more jumpy. So that’s what come of it, anyhow.”
I told her, “That was good work. Do you know what things are like in Shallow Ford these days? Has anyone been there since the ghoul showed up?”
“No. Everybody’s too scared. What if there’s more of them? Why doesn’t anyone from there come here to pay a visit?” She had a point.
“You’re not wrong, Luann. Maybe I’ll do a little light scouting later, but we’ll see. What’s everybody doing in the fields?”
Luann replied, “Why, planting, of course. What else would they be doing? Don’t worry though, they all got their guns with them.”
The distance to the buses was short enough that I was able to radio back and inform Jake of our situation. I told them to hold down the fort while we tried to get some negotiating underway. I made sure to remind them to remain vigilant. A ghoul wouldn’t be a threat for them, but an ogre might ruin a bus before they put it down.
We had a nice chat while waiting for everyone to come in from the fields. By the time the ‘menfolk’ had returned and washed up it was time for supper. We broke out our rations and shared everything around. Mason had his youngest, Jethro, say grace and after supper we were finally able to get down to business.
Right off I made a gift to Mason of a box of shotgun shells. It seemed like a good idea to make a solid first gesture. Then I told everyone to sit tight while some of us went to spread the word that we were in town and looking to trade.
Mason offered to drive me around, so I only took two of the guys with us. First we picked up the doctor. I’d hoped that his presence would expedite matters. Then we pulled up outside a house and I walked up to the door and knocked. With Doctor Cooper at my shoulder I told them to head on over to Mason’s place if they wanted to trade anything. They would invariably want to open negotiations right then and there, and I’d have one hell of a time extracting myself in a timely, yet polite, fashion. Eventually, we made the rounds. It helped that the village only had three dozen homes in it.
It was about seven o’clock by the time everyone had shown up. I had already decided how much we’d part with for a pound of sulfur but I needed to know what folks would be willing to pay. There was quite a bit of dickering, but it quickly became clear that it was a sellers market, and I was the one doing the selling. We off loaded four tons of produce for four tons of sulfur. That would be enough sulfur to make enough bullets for our militia for a year (assuming we could overcome our potassium nitrate shortage). I made sure that the doctor got his hands on some antibiotics like I’d promised, and I handed out a few more boxes of our dwindling ammunition supply.
We’d brought twenty tons of produce with us, and I could have just given over the lot of it. The trouble with that kind of generosity was the people making sulfur wouldn’t bother to fill up our cargo space in the future. By charging a higher price folks would be encouraged to generate more product.
It was after dark by the time everyone went home. That southern roadblock had proved to be quite an obstacle. The crane used to create it (and which we could use to get rid of it) was no where to be found. I had to suppose that it was somewhere in Shallow Ford. People had still been able to use their cars and trucks to haul stuff but all the gasoline was going bad. Without access to motorized transport, trade was going to take significantly longer the next time we came through.
When I explained this, many people from Flag Town seemed skeptical. They seemed to think all they needed was access to the larger town’s gas station and everything would be fine. I had Lou, our mechanic, try and explain to them how to convert a gasoline engine over to a vegetable oil burner, but they lacked both the mental capability and interest to make the effort. That was unfortunate.
My crew and I were invited into the homes of Flag Town but I was unwilling to abandon our transportation. Therefore, we slept in the buses, as was our usual way.
Come morning, I had a decision to make. Either I took a look around Shallow Ford or we called it a win and simply left. I didn’t care a shuck about the mystery of what happened, but I did care about keeping our supply line for explosives materials open. Also, I admit to a certain amount of concern for the good people of Flag Town. I decided to take a look around to see what might be going on.
First thing I did was get ahold of Jake, “I’m going to take a look around Shallow Ford. With any luck they’ve managed to take care of their own problems, but we need to know one way or another. I want you to take your bus to the west roadblock. Have Albert take his around to the southeast roadblock. Henry will stay where he is, guarding the semi and acting as a reserve. Stay there until morning. That way if I get run out of town hopefully I’ll have a place to run to.” There was no way to get to the north roadblock without going through High Quarry, and although it was supposedly cleared out, it didn’t seem worth the risk of sending a bus.
Jake didn’t like the idea, “How do you plan on staying in touch? And who are you taking with you?”
“I’ll keep a line of communication open by taking Sam with me. He did a pretty good job last time. I’ll want to take a couple others as well. That way I can string them out and cover at least three miles. Do you have any recommendations?”
“Tisha has a lot of experience with radio communication and Max is our best shot,” he told me. “So that’s who you’ll want to cover your communications, who will actually be with you when you enter Shallow Ford?”
I said, “I’ll think I’ll just take a quick peek alone and then call back.”
Jake looked at me with a certain measure of scorn, “Who do you think you are? Some kind of starship captain?”
Nonplussed, I answered, “What does that mean?” I liked science fiction as much as the next guy, but I didn’t get the allusion.
Jake continued, “You know. The captain shows up at some new planet that nobody’s ever heard of, and for no apparent reason, decides that he just has to be part of the exploration team. We’re not a bunch of redshirts!” He seemed upset.
“What’s a redshirt?”
He explained in an increasingly agitated manner, “The guys who go down to the planet’s surface with the captain are always wearing red. Those are the guys who always get eaten or infected or vaporized. I’m saying we can handle ourselves. You going off alone says that you don’t trust us. It’s insulting.”
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nbsp; I had no idea that me taking the chances might be bad for morale. In my experience the guys giving the orders were more than happy to let folks like me take the risks, and I’d occasionally resented it. They’d set me up with bad intel, short shrift support, or no exfiltration plan. I didn’t want to be just another officer rolling the dice unnecessarily with the lives of those under my command. My intention had been to lead from the front.
The worst part was that Jake was right. I didn’t trust my people. Don’t get me wrong. Their integrity was above reproach, their common sense sound, and their courage unquestionable. It was their training, physical strength, and endurance I found to be insufficient. They weren’t incompetent by any means, just not good enough to keep up with me. And I didn’t want to watch them die.
“Let me ask you a question, Paul. When you and Tisha and Sam came up to the Barrows’ house, would you have gone in if you’d been alone? I bet you would have, just to see what you might have learned. You held back out of fear for them, am I right?”
Jake was turning out to be far more perceptive than I’d previously given him credit for. I found it to be extremely inconvenient. He was going to make me do something I really didn’t want to do.
“Okay, Jake, you’ve made your point. I’ll take three with me. You pick. Remember, I plan on remaining unseen, a ghost. The mission is to go in, look around, and leave, got it?” He said that he did.
He chose the three who were in the best shape: Jace, Adam, and Austin. I approved. Since we weren’t going in to fight or talk what we needed was a strong running team. I still wanted Max on the walkie talkie transponder team as the first one in line. That way if we had to retreat back the way we came he’d be able to offer some decent covering fire. I thought about stripping even more militia from Henry’s command but decided against it. If anything did come his way I didn’t want to risk him being undermanned, especially since he was responsible for guarding the semi.
My new team and I traveled north, on foot, through Flag Town, and from there we went off the side of the road. By continuing north using the trees for cover I hoped to remain unobserved by any potential hostiles. We reached the southernmost extent of Shallow Ford without any difficulties and were able to survey an outlying structure for signs of violence.
The building in question was an old rundown looking house. A simple two floor home made of wood with aluminum siding. We didn’t see anyone wandering about but that was what I had come to expect. There was a car parked in the driveway and the lawn was entirely overgrown.
I motioned for us to approach. I was a bit concerned about what might be lurking in the weeds. They were about two and a half feet high, and for all I knew were concealing the combined armies of Genghis Khan.
Through the tall grass, onto the porch (it seemed that every house in both Shallow Ford and Flag Town had a big old porch, usually covered, with some chairs or a swing on it), and up to the door. I tried the doorbell. The people of both communities were fortunate to have access to such a reliable power grid.
We heard sudden movement from inside the house which caused us all to back off about a yard or so. Suddenly the door opened and I saw a man in his sixties holding a shotgun and looking around frantically. The old guy was little more than skin and bones.
Keeping his voice down he said, “Get in here, you damn fools! What are you doing out and about for, anyway?! Dumb kids!” I assumed that last was directed at my three compatriots.
We stepped inside and I took a look around. It was a typical front room with hardwood floors, a couple of easy chairs, a couch, and a TV. There was a cross hung on one wall and some picture of Jesus with a bunch of little kids on another. Sitting in one of the chairs was an elderly woman cradling a deer rifle across her lap. She was very thin as well.
I said, “Hi, I’m Paul. I hear y’all got a problem with a monster running around. Any idea where we might find it?” Not that I wanted to find it just yet, quite the reverse. Knowing where a problem is, however, is a great way to avoid it, at least until I had the odds more in my favor.
The old guy introduced himself and his wife as Mike and Liz and then he said, “It ain’t just one monster. There must be at least four of them damn things runnin’ around, all over creation. They’re pretty smart, too. They learned fear of guns damn quick. I’ve been here waiting to see if one of them might try to poke its snout in through a window, so as I could blow its damn head off. So far no luck. If you want to find them so bad just go outside and walk around. They’ll find you pretty damn quick.”
I shared out some of our canned goods, then asked, “What about the mayor? Why hasn’t he organized some kind of hunting party?”
Liz chuckled, “I heard you met Mayor Callow, Paul. Does he look like the man to hunt a monster? When he goes duck hunting I bet the ducks flush him!”
Mike added, “He’s probably hidden in his cellar, waiting for someone else to do something about it.”
I said, “You two look like you’re going to starve if things don’t change. What’s your plan?”
Mike answered, “You’re looking at it. Hold on and hope. I do thank you for the beans though. The larder was pretty lean long before the monsters came to town.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“At first we ate up all the beef. Then the pigs and chickens. About the last time you came through we were waiting on the crop. After it came in the mayor rationed it out, and we ate all that up, too. Now we got nothing. Folks have gone out hunting but that didn’t last long before all the game got ate or moved away. So, anyhow, we need to put in a new crop but nobody can do nothin’ with them monsters roaming the streets.”
I said, “I’ve seen your crop area, north of town. That should be plenty of acreage to feed Shallow Ford, though you do need a new crop in the ground. You just might also need a new election.”
Liz asked, “What makes you say that, Paul? Not that it ain’t true.”
“Because there’s no way your town ate all that corn. I saw the fields and I know how many people a piece of land can feed. Unless you had a fire or something there should be plenty left, somewhere.”
Mike said, “Well, we can still buy corn, if were willing to risk the monsters. It’s just that it’s so darn expensive! The mayor charges an arm and a leg.”
I asked, “How’s that work? What do you pay with? It’s not like money has any value.”
“We gotta pay in service, somehow,” Liz replied, “and two old goats like us ain’t got all that much work left in ‘em, if ya’ see what I mean. The mayor prefers to sell to younger folks.”
My guys were looking at each other like they’d like to have a brief talk with the good mayor. I was of the same mind, but first things first.
“Jace, Adam, Austin, Keep watch.” While they moved to the windows I contacted Max and had him send a message along to Henry, apprising him of the situation.
“Let’s go,” I told the guys.
They looked disappointed. Jace said, “I think we can handle four ghouls, Paul. We’ve been killing them up and down the country whenever we find them.”
I had to nip that hubris in the bud, “Our single greatest advantage over the enemy is our ability to think, to strategize. What’s your plan? Go out there and ring the dinner bell?” That’s what we called luring a bunch of zombies into a kill zone: ‘ringing the dinner bell’.
One look at them and I could tell that’s exactly what they had been thinking. Morons.
“What we’re going to do is go back and pick up some reinforcements. Then come back set a proper trap. And then we’re going to ring the dinner bell. Now let’s go.”
We took our leave of Liz and Mike and made our way back to Flag Town. I’d made sure to call ahead to make sure everything would be assembled by the time we reached Tisha’s position (She was stationed in the second floor of a farmer’s home).
Henry had to drive around to get within radio range of each of the other buses in order to recall them to their original
position. Then he led fourteen more fighters to my location, leaving the rest to stand guard over all our supplies and to act as reinforcements as necessary.
Albert called with some pertinent news, “The southeast roadblock had a lot of zombies running around on the side away from the town. I saw a couple of ogres, too. We killed those. I don’t think the zombies realized there was a town nearby.”
I called back, “Did you lead them off?”
He answered, “Yeah, of course. If you came running I had to have the way clear. Everything went just like normal, no problems. I’m not sure if the zombies will come back or not, though. It should stay clear for another half hour at least.” That was the trouble with leading zombies off. Most often they came back. The time spent leading them away was about as long as one could expect them to remain absent.
I greeted the farmer who was letting Tisha use his second floor, “Ethan, do you know if your car still runs?” It had been about a year since the Change and the gas hadn’t all gone bad yet.
He said, “It still runs but I’m down to fumes.”
“I’d like to buy it, if you don’t mind. I’ll give you twenty pounds of potatoes for it...”
We negotiated over it for a while. I don’t think Ethan knew just what a deal he was getting. In another year the vehicle would be undrivable. While I was at it a couple others were out buying gasoline from the neighbors.
Once I had ownership of the car we used some welding supplies we’d brought along (just in case a lucky ghoul pulled a bar off a window) to put some armor on it. Then we were ready to go.
I had Sam, Gavin, and Max in the car with me while everybody else brought up the rear at a walking pace. That’s how I reentered Shallow Ford that afternoon. Once we got there I honked the horn and waited. Usually the Changed try to attack whatever’s closest, so my plan was to draw them out using the car and then shoot them dead. Simple.
