An hour passed, then another. It was going to be dark soon, and Cam worried they would have to wait it out in the darkness.
Finally, a car came into view. It was Jean, only something was wrong. The front end of the car was smashed and bloody.
She pulled to a stop and stepped out. She looked like hell.
They all walked over.
“Jim’s going to throw a fit about the car,” Jack said.
Jean just shrugged.
“What happened?” Cam asked.
“You mean after I saved your butts from a trailer park’s worth of zombies?”
“Yeah, after that,” he answered.
“Well, I drove them out of town and left them there. Then came back here,” she said simply.
“No! I mean, what happened to the car?” Cam asked.
“Oh, I hit a deer,” she answered nonchalantly.
“How fast wer—” he was interrupted by a sudden wailing of the siren.
WHHEEEWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!
They all jumped and raised their weapons, startled.
“What the hell!?” Jack said, staring at the car as if it was going to try and run him down.
He backed away.
Cam narrowed his eyes and looked at Jean. The flashers suddenly turned on, nearly blinding them in the darkness.
“Shit! Turn them off!” Monica shouted, covering her face.
“Can’t,” Jean said.
“What do you mean?” Cam wanted to know.
“The car has gained cognizance, Cam, and its quest for power can’t be completed unless the lights are flashing…”
Jean’s sarcastic diatribe was interrupted by another WHOOP! of the siren.
“See!” was all she said.
Cam smacked his face and went to pop the hood. They didn’t need this racket drawing in more Zulus to their location. He jerked the battery cables so the disconnected and shut the hood.
“You’ll have to ride with me. Let’s get this car cleared out and find somewhere to hole up.”
Jean started to go to the passenger side to grab her gear but stopped.
“Can I drive?” she asked.
Angie
Angie sat near Ed in the library.
The sun was rising, and Jim had been out digging for hours. They couldn’t dig down too far, he said, because the water table was too high. It would be a shallow grave.
He was digging it out on the rise overlooking the water, and the parking lot across the water. Ed was leafing through a manual of some sort, but she knew he wasn’t paying any attention to it. How could he?
She didn’t know what to say to him.
Like with Virgil, there was nothing they could say. Nothing they could do to make it better. Only time would help, and that took a while.
She went over to the window and looked out. She could see Jim from the window. Peggy lay nearby, under a tree in the shade. She hoped she was at peace, wherever she was now.
Angie had changed.
She no longer saw this world as an extension of the old one. No longer could she rely on Cam or Jim, or someone in authority to take care of things for her, to solve her problems. She would learn and adjust. She wouldn’t be weak anymore, or a victim.
She wanted to be an asset to this group, not a liability.
She looked over at Ed again. He was still looking at the booklet, so she went out to the lobby and grabbed a notepad and pen.
She wanted to make a list.
First, and most importantly, she wrote down her plan for physical fitness. She would go slow while she was healing, but she would eventually become strong.
Next, she listed weapons instruction. She needed to know how to use weapons. Oh sure, anyone could point and squeeze a trigger, but she wanted to know how to do it right. How to function well under pressure, and how to move with weapons.
Cam and Jim made it look easy, but she knew it wasn’t. It would take time.
She added fighting to her list.
She wanted to learn as much as she could. She came up with some other ideas as well… Surviving outdoors, how to find food, how to treat wounds, and other things. It all made the list.
She would dedicate herself to it, for Peggy’s memory, and for herself.
Jim
Jim had reached just about as far as he could go before water would start seeping into the grave.
He climbed out. He was hot, sweaty, tired, and heartbroken. He went over and stood next to Peggy for a moment, looking down at the blanket-wrapped body. It was hard to believe it was Peggy.
He knew it was going to be harder for the others to have any closure, but they couldn’t witness Peg the way he found her. He didn’t want anyone to remember her that way, instead of how she used to be.
“I’m so sorry, Peg,” Jim said softly.
He heard a motor in the distance and wiped his eyes. He had cried as he dug, and now he was exhausted and calm.
He counted the heads on board and was relieved to find them all there. He hoped nobody was hurt.
The closer they got, the more he dreaded meeting them. He didn’t know what to say, and he didn’t know if he could say anything without breaking down. The boat reached the dock, and he saw Cam staring, puzzled, at him on the hill.
Cam finally realized what the mound on the little hill meant. Jim saw his mouth open in shock, and the panic crossed his face.
Cam sprinted up to Jim, studied the shrouded body under the tree, and leaned down. He put his hands on his knees and squeezed his eyes closed.
He breathed in sharply. “It’s not Angie, is it?” he asked without looking up.
“No. Peggy,” Jim said, voice breaking at the end.
“No! Damn it,” he threw down his gear and paced beside the grave, eyes wandering to the wrapped body.
“What happened? What the fuck happened?!” he shouted.
Jim flinched.
“Gunshot. Self-inflicted.” That was all he said, it was all he needed to say.
Cam lowered his face to his hands and stood still for a moment.
“When?”
“Late last night. Nick and Bradley were both on watch outside. Ed was downstairs. She took his gun from his room. Shot herself in the head in the bathroom.”
“Oh fuck,” he exclaimed. “How’s Ed? Is someone with him? He loved Peggy you know,” Cam said.
“Angie’s with him right now,” Jim said. “I want to get cleaned up, then have the funeral.”
Jack came racing up the hill after figuring out what was going on.
Jim watched Cam stop him and saw the momentary relief on his face before sorrow took over. He shook his head and walked slowly to the lodge.
The others went in.
Monica approached Jim and stood tentatively before him, before reaching in and giving him a quick hug.
Amazingly, he didn’t think she had an ulterior motive behind it. She walked away, and Jim stayed a bit longer beneath the tree, trying to make sense of many seemingly senseless things.
Ed
Ed watched Cam and Jim lower Peggy into the hole with ropes.
She was gone. The body in there wasn’t her anymore.
He remained dry eyed throughout the short service, and while they each said a little about her. He would save his tears for later.
Jessica
Jessica cried in the kitchen. She didn’t really know Peggy, but she had helped take care of her. She had hoped she would come around eventually.
Her heart broke for Ed.
She heard footsteps thudding down the stairs and quickly wiped her face, sniffling. The front door closed, and she was relieved. She didn’t need anyone seeing her cry.
She pulled her hair up into a ponytail and washed her hands. She needed to start lunch. She didn’t really have a plan. She was just going to lay out a quick smorgasbord, and let people take what they wanted.
She found some packaged salmon. It wasn’t going to be great, but they were lucky to even have it. She set out a stack of plates and carried in
a bowl of hard-boiled eggs, some sliced beets, pickles, three cheeses, some olives, dark bread, and the salmon. She made up a quick remoulade and set it nearby.
She wasn’t hungry, but made a small plate up for Ed. She wanted to take it up to him and see how he was.
The others came in, some alone and some in pairs. Cam, Angie, and Jim made up a tray and took it back upstairs to eat.
Jessica supposed nobody really wanted to interact right now.
She walked upstairs with Ed’s tray and knocked on his door.
“Ed? It’s Jess. I brought you some food and some hot tea,” she said to the door.
She heard a shuffling inside, then the door cracked open. He had turned away and walked toward the window, looking out.
“Thanks. Set it over on the desk if you don’t mind,” was all he said.
From the quality of his voice, she assumed that he had been crying.
She didn’t want to bother him, so she simply walked up and set a hand on his shoulder. “If you need anything at all, let me know. Even if you just want to talk.” She left the room without waiting for an answer.
Back downstairs, Jonah and Jack were filling their plates.
“Hey,” she said to them.
Jack turned around and smiled at her a little. “Hey Jess, this looks great. You want to eat with us?”
Jonah didn’t look so thrilled with Jack’s suggestion, and she considered making an excuse to leave, but she wanted to spend some time with Jack.
Her thoughts had strayed to him so often recently, she thought she was obsessed. Perhaps even creepily obsessed. Definitely not stalker level though. Not yet.
Stealing his t-shirt from the laundry just to be able to smell him didn’t count, because she returned it shortly after. A real stalker would have kept it.
“Sure, if you want me to.”
She filled a small plate and assembled an open-faced sandwich, then sat next to Jack. Jonah made a scoffing noise and glared at his plate.
She flushed, embarrassed.
“What is wrong with you?” Jack questioned his son.
“Nothing is wrong with me,” he retorted. He got up and left, taking his plate with him.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Ever since his mom— well, he’s a completely different kid now.”
“I understand. He’s dealing with a huge amount of grief and stress. You both are,” she answered.
Jessica saw Jack’s face become hard at the mention of his grief.
God, he must be in so much pain. He shut down every time they even drifted close to the subject of his wife.
Jessica ignored the knife twisting in her heart. It was senseless and wrong to be jealous of his love for his wife.
They ate in silence, Jessica picking at her food. She shouldn’t have brought up any of it.
“Listen, can we talk later this evening?” Jack asked her suddenly.
“Sure, if you want. When?” she asked.
“After supper. Come sit with me out at the point.”
She agreed.
She knew where the point was. It was a point of land that edged out into the lake a little, over on the western side of the small island. It was a beautiful place, but she hadn’t been there at night. It would be pretty rough getting back in the dark. She needed to make sure to take a flashlight.
The last thing she wanted was a broken ankle or a snakebite.
He finished his meal and went back to work.
Jim had shown him some of the defenses he was setting up, and Jack offered to help. Cam was overseeing everything. The team had come back well supplied with weapons and all sorts of survival gear.
Jess recognized some of it and was completely mystified by the rest.
Speaking of Cam, he came into the dining room as she was cleaning up the leftovers.
“We’re having a little meeting in about ten minutes. Come out to the front porch.”
“Okay,” she said.
One side of his mouth tilted up in a small smile. He was a very handsome man, and she didn’t even think he realized it.
She may be in love with Jack, but she wasn’t blind.
She carried everything to the kitchen and put away what would spoil. They really needed to figure out something for storing perishable food.
◆◆◆
Ten minutes later, out on the porch, everyone had gathered. Even Ed had come down, his normally jovial expression blunted by sorrow.
She sat next to him and patted his hand, her heart hurt for him.
“Ok, we’re going to go over some things now,” Jim called out from beside Angie.
Everyone got quiet.
“I know it’s been a hell of a day. Shit, it’s been a hell of a week, but we need to get going on training,” Cam started.
He looked around, noticing the look of anxiety on a few faces.
“Don’t worry, we’ll start you all out slow, but you guys need to get up to speed soon. It’s vital to our long-term survival, and the entire group from Jonah to Jean, needs to be well-trained,” Jim said, not exactly reassuringly.
“We’ve made some preliminary plans for classes. We’ll cover shooting and weapons maintenance, physical fitness, fighting techniques, small-unit tactics, wilderness survival, and even some medical training.”
Jessica saw Bradley get a little more enthusiastic at the mention of medical training. Maybe he would be a good candidate for their resident medic? She listened as Cam continued.
“I’ve left the schedule on the desk in the lobby area. Each person needs to copy it down and let me know if they have any issues. Questions?”
Jessica spoke up. “What if we have other obligations during the lesson times?”
Cam nodded. “That will probably happen, but it’s a loose schedule and pretty informal. We’ll all get together whenever we can, as often as we can. The key is to take what you learn, and practice it all day, every day. Most of this stuff can become second nature pretty quickly if you repeat it enough.”
“Angie, you and Ed can just do whatever you are physically capable of,” Cam said, squeezing her thigh.
“What if we don’t want to participate in the training?” Monica said, sitting on the porch railing.
“Then you can leave,” Cam said simply.
“You all need to understand something. This group cannot continue on the way it has been. We can’t have a few people providing security for the rest. We don’t have enough trained people to have an effective security team, therefore we need to make one.”
There were no more questions.
Chapter Eleven
Power
Cam
Cam stayed on the porch as the others filed inside, presumably to look at the schedule. He hoped so anyway.
He was certain that some people would take more time getting used to the idea of basically being drafted.
He didn’t like it any more than they did, but he didn’t know what else to do. He, Jim, Jack, Ed, and Nick couldn’t continue being the main security force. The night watches alone were wearing them down, and they couldn’t afford to get run down or sick. He did what he had to do.
Jessica stayed seated as the others left, apparently wanting a word with him.
“Cam, we need to figure out something to do with the food. The coolers aren’t even cool anymore, and the dairy is already starting to turn sour. I’ve preserved what I can, but—”
“We can do without it,” Cam said.
“Yes, I can make do without refrigerated products, but I wondered if we couldn’t use the generator long enough to keep what we have cold. Just until we run out anyway. It would be a shame to waste all that food and milk.”
“Let me get Jim and we’ll see what we can do. Jack looked at it a few days ago and said it was ready to use,” he finally said, after some thought.
“Thanks,” she said and walked inside.
Cam knew that they would eventually have to live without power, at least on the scale they were
n’t used to.
Solar power was great, but they would need way more panels than they had to power much beyond the lighting. Things were going to be rough someday soon, he wondered if they would be ready for that.
He would have to make them ready.
He went and found Jim out back. He was watching Angie practice ready-up drills with the pistol. She was doing fairly well for a beginner, though he saw a few things he needed to correct, and some things would be better once she healed.
“Hey, let me show you something,” he said, coming up to them and reaching for the pistol.
“I was hoping you would take over on this. I showed her the basics, but we were taught differently, and your method will be better,” Jim said.
Angie still had a splint on her wrist and didn’t need to put too much strain on it. He stepped forward and cleared the weapon.
“We’ll need to get some kind of range set up soon. I want at least four lanes. We won’t be able to do any long-range shooting, but we can work on accuracy, speed, and familiarity,” he said to them both.
Angie watched him as he gave instruction, showing her the proper method for holding the weapon. He meticulously demonstrated pushing it forward toward the target, squeezing the trigger, and reloading. He completed the actions slowly several more times, allowing them both to get a sense of the flow and how it should look. Finally, he did it at full speed.
He turned and looked at Angie. “The first thing you usually do when someone hands you a weapon is to check and make sure it’s clear. That means you want to make sure the rounds are not in the chamber. Do that now.” He handed her the pistol.
She pulled back the slide and checked the ejection port. “It’s empty.” She released it.
“Now, turn toward our imaginary target— that shrub out there. Widen your stance. Now, do what I showed you, and make sure you keep your finger along the side of the frame until you are ready to fire. Never touch the trigger until then.”
He watched as she went through the motions slowly.
“Don’t forget to look around. You want to make sure that nothing is sneaking up on you.”
Refuge From The Dead | Book 2 | Dead Summer Page 12
