by Russ Watts
Jonas didn’t touch her. He wanted to tell her that it was all right, there was nothing she could’ve done, life was shitty, and that the dead weren’t going to be in control forever, but he knew he had to let her get it out. When it was all over, he would hold her, and he would promise to love her and take care of her as long as he had breath in his body.
“He told me something else too,” said Dakota. “He said I should take care of you. He said you had it rough back in the garage; that you all did. He said he felt bad about not being able to help those that had died, and that he hoped God would forgive him.”
Jonas looked at Dakota. Her voice wavered as she spoke, and it broke his heart. She was pouring everything out now, holding nothing back. It would be good for her, and good for them. They needed to clear the air, so they could move on, and they would be better for it. Tyler had nothing to feel guilty about. He was so young. He was too young to die.
“I told him that God was looking over us, and he shouldn’t worry about it, but then, Tyler told me that He should be looking over you most of all. Before he died, Tyler told me about everything that happened in the garage. He said you tried to save Anna, and Mary, but it was impossible. He said you were amazing, that you fought off so many he thought you must’ve been killed too.”
Remembering the garage brought back nothing but bad memories for Jonas. He didn’t feel like a hero. He had tried, but he had lost. The dead had won that day.
“You know what else he said?” asked Dakota.
Jonas shook his head. They were close to the others now. A few more feet and they would be at the turn in the road Erik had mentioned. More of the dead in the fields were approaching. They had to find a way into the golf course soon, or none of them would see the evening. He heard Erik shout something, and then Mrs Danick cried out. Jonas instinctively reached for his axe, but whatever was happening up ahead was not his problem, not yet. He could sense Dakota reaching the end of her story. She was ignoring the others too, looking intently at Jonas with those crystal blue eyes of her, the eyes he had fallen in love with so many years ago.
“Tyler told me you saved us all,” said Dakota. “He told me how Cliff led you into that death-trap, and if it wasn’t for you, we’d probably all be dead right now. He said Cliff had deserved to die. He told me that you had done the right thing by killing him. I remember Tyler smiled, briefly, and then he died.”
A shiver ran the length of Jonas’s body as they stopped walking. Dakota had finished crying, and was staring at him. Jonas looked back, looked for the love in his wife’s eyes, looking for the woman he loved so much, and yet he saw nothing. A strange woman looked back at him, as if seeing him for the first time.
“You killed him, Jonas. You murdered him. You lied to us, to me. He wasn’t bitten. You killed him in cold blood.”
“But, he...he was... You weren’t there, Dakota, you don’t know what it was like.” Jonas heard him saying the words, and they sounded pathetic, even to his own ears.
“You had a choice, Jonas, and you chose to kill him. It’s as simple as that. I have a lot to think about.”
Jonas watched as Dakota walked toward the group. Her face showed no emotion as she left him, and she walked confidently, her head held up high instead of staring at the ground as it had been for the last twenty four hours. Jonas wondered if she was about to go and tell the others about Cliff, and then he realised he didn’t care. It was the truth after all, and if it came out, then so be it. He did care about Dakota though, and the way she spoke to him was like nothing he had experienced before. She had been so cold and ruthless, that he didn’t know she had it in her. They had been married for years, and he couldn’t bear the thought of her being angry with him. This was dangerous territory. This was more than anger. This was a test to her faith, to their marriage, and to everything she believed in. He had to talk to her. He had to make her see reason, and to make her see that he hadn’t had a choice. He refused even to contemplate leaving for Janey without Dakota by his side. Christ, he hadn’t even thought about Janey. It felt like he was being crushed. There was so much to do. He couldn’t do this alone, that much he knew. He didn’t want to do this alone. Erik was still shouting, while Dakota was walking away, Janey was all on her own, and now he had potentially ruined it. Had he made the right choice? He had to explain to Dakota what had happened, and make her understand.
Before he could say anything, Dakota paused and turned around. She looked at him, her eyes distant. The storm over Jonas’s head burst, drenching him with fear as shards of icy electricity burned through his temples.
“You’re on your own from now on, Jonas,” said Dakota. “I need to think. There’s more to this than you and me. From now on, I think you should stay away from me. We need some time apart.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Rose, stop!”
Ignoring Javier, Rose launched herself at the zombies amassed by the gate. Her first kill was a young black man, dressed in a white shirt and black jeans. His shirt was stained with blood, and he was missing a large part of his shoulder. Rose stabbed him quickly though the temple and he dropped like a stone. Another zombie filled his place and lurched toward Rose, followed swiftly by another.
Javier felt helpless. He had literally nothing but his bare hands with which to take them on. It was pointless letting Rose do all the fighting. There was no way she would be able to take them all down, and it wouldn’t be long before she would be overpowered. It looked like she was already surrounded, and he was going to have to do something before they got on top of her. He rushed forward and pulled a zombie back just as it was about to latch its teeth onto Rose’s arm. He swung it back into the others, sending them falling like dominoes. With his back to Rose, he hit out at another, smacking it hard with his fists. Rose slashed wildly with her knife, and he heard her cry out in pain.
“You hurt?” he asked as he pushed back another zombie.
“I’m fine,” said Rose. “Cut myself.”
A dead old man, dressed in blue and brown chequered pyjamas stepped up to Javier, his long grey beard covered in blood, and his teeth chewing on something red and fleshy. The zombie’s arms reached out and one hand got hold of Javier’s shoulder. He tried to shove the old man away, but at the same time, another man was approaching from the other side, his white eyes staring at Javier’s.
“I can’t hold them,” shouted Rose.
Javier saw arcs of blood spraying around him, and felt Rose’s back pressed against his, sweaty and hot. He scoured the ground, looking for something they could use, but all he saw was long grass and dead zombies. He tried pushing the old man back, but there was now another behind him, and there was nowhere to go. Everywhere he looked, he saw the dead. He saw cold fingers reaching for him, lifeless eyes vacantly staring at him, and heard the growing moans of the hungry dead. He knew they were finished, and cursed himself for getting into this situation. He had been weak. He had let them get cornered, and it was going to cost them their lives. Rose would go down fighting, of that, he was sure, but he had no energy left for the fight. It was hard to breathe, and flashing stars kept dancing in front of his eyes, obscuring his vision and making him feel light-headed.
“Rose, I’m, I...I can’t…” Javier wanted to tell Rose to fight, to run, to do whatever it took to live, but he couldn’t. She didn’t need his encouragement. She would keep battling until she was drawing her last breath. Normally, he would do the same, but the crash had wiped him out, and he realised that no matter how much he wanted to live, he simply couldn’t do it anymore. His arms were shaking, and his legs were about to go. Keeping them back was getting harder and harder, as more joined the fight.
“Rose? I…”
Three quick pops rang out, abruptly followed by more. At first, Javier didn’t recognise what was happening until he saw the head of a zombie explode in front of him. The old man who had hold of him fell back when his skull was blown apart, and the ones behind him began to fall too.
“Ge
t down!” screamed Rose. She pulled Javier down, and he collapsed onto the ground with her as more gunshots rang out, taking down the dead. Javier and Rose lay on the ground holding each other, as one by one the dead fell around them.
“Who’s doing the shooting?” asked Javier, but Rose returned him with a blank expression. Her face was covered in blood and he hoped none of it was hers.
As the gunshots slowed, and then finally stopped, Javier poked his head up and looked around. There had to be twenty or more zombies scattered around them, all with their heads blown apart.
“Get up.” The command came from a man’s voice, but Javier was unable to see from where.
Summoning up his last reserves of energy, Javier stood, and Rose joined him. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly.
“Are you bit?” It was the same man’s voice again. Whoever it was, they were close, yet invisible.
Javier looked for the man who was talking, but there was no one there. He had to assume whoever it was had been the shooter, which meant they were probably friendly. They could’ve left Javier and Rose out there alone, with a guaranteed ticket to Deadsville, and yet they hadn’t. They were also armed though, and Javier knew he couldn’t assume anything at this point.
“No, we’re not bit,” called out Javier. He wasn’t sure what else to say. Talking to a faceless voice was unnerving, especially knowing there was a gun trained on them. He was going to take this carefully.
“Move over to the gate, slowly. Tell the girl to drop the knife.”
“Better do it, Rose,” said Javier. “You don’t want to piss off anyone who’s as good a shot as this guy.”
Rose reluctantly dropped her knife, and they both began walking over to the gate in the fence. Javier watched the dead on the ground, making sure they were dead, not wanting to get a nasty nip on the ankle, which would surely be followed by a bullet to the head.
The gate swung open, and Javier got his first look at what lay behind the fence. There was no grand entrance, no red carpet or champagne waiting. As he walked through the gate, he saw a small hut and a pile of white, plastic chairs, neatly stacked beneath an old shingle oak tree. Beyond lay the fairway, the pristine grass now a little long, the sand pit littered with fallen leaves, and a lone golf cart, abandoned on its side by the ninth hole where it had been left. The driver was trapped beneath it, and their head was cracked open, brains spread all over the beautifully manicured green.
A man ushered Javier and Rose in, and then locked the gate once they were clear. He slid a bolt across, at both the top and bottom of the gate, and all three stood looking at each other in silence.
Javier remembered the unlocked padlock on the outside of the gate. Locking it from the outside would’ve been impossible, so this man kept tabs on it from the inside. He looked like a security guard, dressed in a dark blue uniform with a small badge on his left chest in the shape of a star. He wore a cap too, and a belt that housed a radio, a baton, handcuffs, and an empty holster. The man was overweight, and his portly belly hung over his belt.
“You sure you’re not bit?” asked the man.
Javier raised his hands as if in surrender. He didn’t want to scare the man, or risk any misunderstanding that might end with him and Rose being shoved back out the gate.
“We’re not, I promise you,” said Javier.
The man took off his cap, wiped his forehead, and then put the cap back on. “You look like shit, my friend.”
Javier smiled. He was grateful that the man had helped them, but was starting to feel irritated at the gun still pointed at his head. “You think you could put that away? Happy to stay here and talk as long as you like, friend, but it’s a little disconcerting with that pointed at me.”
The man shrugged. “I ain’t taking any chances. We don’t get many visitors to Saint Pauls’, and the last time I let someone in, they wound up dead. Told me they weren’t bit, only turned out they were hiding it. Next thing I know, they’d got Dave, and I had to put them both down.”
“I see,” said Javier. “Well you’re in charge.”
“Look,” said Rose exasperated, “thanks for saving our asses back there, but we aren’t bit. Our ride crashed, we’ve had a long fucking day, and if you ain’t gonna shoot us, put the fucking gun down.”
“Can I get a please?” asked the man.
Rose looked at Javier, and he shook his head from side to side just an inch, just enough to tell Rose to stay her ground. He could see she was fired up, and armed or not, she would take the man on. She was probably still fired up from earlier, adrenalin still coursing through her body, and she needed to calm down.
The man started chuckling, and then erupted into full on laughter. His belly wobbled as he laughed, and he holstered his gun.
“Jeez, I’m sorry folks, I gotta remember my manners. Look, come on in, I’m sorry about the whole gun thing. It’s gone, see, you’re good.” The man waved his empty hands in the air, and Javier hoped that Rose wouldn’t do anything foolish.
“This is Rose, I’m Javier, and you are?”
The man stepped forward holding out a sweaty hand. “Gabe McAllister. Gabriel to my mom, but she’s with the boss upstairs, if you know what I mean, so just call me Gabe. I’m chief of staff here. You gotta understand - it’s been a while since folk came knocking at our door, and we’ve got to be careful. Our place is probably the safest place to stay around here for miles. Shit, you do look banged up. Where’d you come from? Not Louisville, surely? We ain’t had anyone come from the city in weeks. Last I heard it had been overrun by them dead fuckers. Not a soul left is what I heard.”
Javier noticed that Gabe called it ‘our place,’ which likely meant he wasn’t alone. They would do well to find out exactly who was here, before deciding what to do next. Staying the night was not a question. He desperately needed to rest, and once Rose calmed down, she would crash. After the night though, how long would they stay? How long could they stay? If Gabe and his friends lived here, there must be a decent supply of food and water. Maybe they could take a few days and rest up before moving on.
“It wasn’t pretty. That’s why we look like shit,” said Javier. It was easier to go along with Gabe’s pre-imagined story than explain where they had really been. Telling him about the diner and Jeffersontown was probably not a good idea, and sometimes the truth was just a hindrance. Best to go with the flow, and let Gabe’s mind fill in the gaps. “If you don’t mind, Gabe, we don’t really want to talk about it. We lost a lot of people in Louisville, a lot of close friends, and we barely made it out with our lives. My girl, Rose, she lost her mother only this morning,” said Javier putting an arm around Rose. “God rest her soul.”
Rose coughed, and buried her head in Javier’s shoulder to stifle her laugh. He could feel her shaking against him as she let her laughter be swallowed up by his body.
“She’s finding it hard,” said Javier to Gabe. “She’s still grieving and well, you know how close a mother and daughter are.”
“My God, look, let’s get you inside. We got some rooms set up you can stay in. Clean water, whatever you need. God bless you both,” said Gabe. “Follow me. We’ll get back to the clubhouse, and get you two sorted out.”
Gabe began to lead Javier and Rose toward the clubhouse. “You’re lucky I was here. My shift was about over, and I was just about to head on back in. I saw you from the TV tower. Wasn’t too sure at first, but couldn’t leave you out there could I?”
“TV tower?” asked Javier.
“Just over there, next to the 18th. Best vantage point over the course, and easier than climbing a tree that’s for sure. See?”
Javier saw the structure nestled between two Silver Birches close to the fence. Composed of scaffolding and a thin platform on top, it didn’t look too strong, as though it might collapse at any time.
“Almost blew down in that storm we had a couple of weeks back. Pleased it didn’t, ‘cause there’s no way we were getting it back up. Mara can cook a mean roas
t turkey, but she leaves the heavy stuff to me. Truth is, I like it that way. I’m traditional, you know? I’d rather be out here keeping an eye on things while she’s the boss inside. It works for us.”
Gabe evidently had no problem opening up to strangers, and Javier wondered if this Mara was his wife or mother. Were there more tucked away inside the clubhouse?
“Will this Mara be as welcoming as you, Gabe?” asked Javier. “I mean, you probably don’t get strangers turning up unannounced like we did. I’m afraid we’re not in the best condition. After what we’ve been through today…”
“Oh Lord, Mara will love you, don’t you worry about that,” said Gabe. “She’s not a woman you want to cross, I’ll give you that. She’s got a temper on her, but you’ll find she’s fair. Sorry about the interrogation earlier, but you understand we gotta be careful these days. If you’re up front with me, then we’ll have no problems. You play ball, and you’ll find I’m all sweetness and light.” Gabe chuckled, as they passed near the upturned golf cart.
Rose looked at the body inquisitively, and Javier looked around the course as the fairway opened up. He couldn’t see anything else around, just a few flags fluttering in the evening breeze.
“Trust me, you don’t have to worry now. I can’t imagine what you poor folk have been through, but you got me and Mara to look after you now. There’s just us, and we got plenty to share. I got this place tucked up tight, and I got more where this came from to make sure nothing untoward happens to us.” Gabe patted his gun, smiling.
Javier said nothing. He was tired, and wanted to get to the clubhouse where he could sit down. Rose was fading too. He noticed she was dragging her feet, and there was something about Gabe’s relaxed nature that put them at ease. Javier felt more assured about the place too, knowing there were only two of them. He wasn’t comfortable that Gabe had all the weapons, but that was only a matter of time. He just had to get some strength back.
