by David Smith
The same way that I loved them and couldn't see the evil in them because they were my brothers, they could not see the evil in our mother and turned their anger and their hatred towards all other women besides her. Sean could see it in them and secretly, silently he killed them before they could ever do me harm.
You see, you love the way Sean loves me and the way I loved my brothers. You are a protector, but you cannot protect people from themselves. You cannot love someone who has no understanding of love. You cannot lift someone up who was only put here to cause others to stumble. You cannot protect someone who is in love with their own demons.
Chapter 24: Into the Heart of Darkness
I found these pages in Dane's backpack and since he can't write anymore, I decided to continue from where he left off. After the beating he must've taken before I arrived, he should've been in a hospital bed for a few days but since hospital beds are a thing of the past, not to mention resting a few days, I didn't even know how bad he was hurt till I noticed it took him all the way from Magnolia Ridge to Pearl River to catch his breath. A broken nose and two black eyes are one thing. You can go on fighting like that but busted ribs are a different story.
We got back to the warehouse at Pearl River in fifteen minutes but there was no sign of the bikers or the fuel truck, just a few zombies walking up the road and the bodies from the battle the day before, still lying where we left them. I drove all the way around the building and even rammed through the big roll up door so DeMarkus could check inside but the place was empty.
"There's nobody here. Any other ideas?" I asked Dane.
"There's a fishing camp down the river from exit 5. Kara told me about it but I've never seen it. I think she said it was couple miles." He was taking a breath between every sentence, short and shallow.
Sure enough, when we got off the exit and took the left down the service road to the boat launch, there sat the fuel truck, all their motorcycles and about twenty infected, five already down and fifteen or more that must've followed the noise here after they had already floated down the river. I killed the engine and coasted down the hill in case they had left anyone watching the truck from the woods. The dead who were still up and about slowly turned toward us as they heard the tires stopping in the gravel. Dane was already standing beside me holding a bat and looking through the windshield slot, ready to bust some heads.
"James! LaDarius!" I shouted to the two sitting on the top bunk. "I need you two to come out with us, take care of these dead." I said as I reached back to take Dane's bat.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"I want you to get up there. Mount one of the 240s and watch the woods."
"You need my help out there, don't you?" He argued.
"Nope, if this is a trap I need you to lay down cover fire." I explained. "Just keep your head low and spray."
Once the other two were ready we jumped down and started busting heads. They were pretty dried out and weak so it only took a minute, then we walked on down to the fuel truck. I couldn't believe they had left it unguarded but that just spoke to the fact that it was probably Spider who had brought it there. I hadn't had a chance to speak with him but he didn't look too bright.
I also hadn't had a chance to look at the fuel truck either and it was in sad shape. The headlights were busted out, along with the grill. The fenders were cracked and hanging in by the rear brackets, almost rubbing the tires. The only thing holding the radiator in place were the hoses and the fins were caked up with dried blood, skin and hair. That's what worried me the most.
"How far you think it'll make it?" I asked DeMarkus.
He shook his head and let out a worried breath. "I don't see any leaks but all that blood and hair could just have it clogged up. That shop across from the bikers' warehouse could have one but if they come back and it's gone..."
"That could be trouble." I finished for him.
"What's the plan?" Dane asked. I hadn't even heard him walk up on us.
"Who's manning the gun?" I asked, a little frustrated.
"Beth, my sister. She's a better shot than I am. What's the plan?"
"Ain't nobody listening to me today." I said and looked at DeMarkus who just smiled and shook his head, looking at the radiator. "We're gonna take this truck and hit the road, get as far away from here as we can before dark." The sun was already touching to tops of the trees.
"What about Kara?" He asked.
"What about her?"
"Aren't we gonna go find her?"
I looked at DeMarkus for backup and he was still smiling and shaking his head. "Look Dane, I know you've got a little crush and I don't blame you, she's a pretty girl. But there's other fish in the sea that..."
"It's not about that." He interrupted. "She's not like them. We leave her there and one day, maybe she will be. They'll make her just like them and that's if they don't kill her or she doesn't kill herself first." He was getting mad and already out of breath again.
"That's not my problem." I explained calmly. "It's not yours either. You want to start a war with these people just to save one little girl, not even to save her life but just to save her from a life that you don't think she deserves when it ain't none of your business." Looking at him, I could tell he was about to argue more. "This is just what Chontelle was trying to tell you. She'll be fine. Some day she'll die too young just like the rest of us."
He stared at me for a moment. "So, you're really not going to help."
"I'm really not." I said as I stared him right back in the eyes. I could see he meant it. He was not leaving with us, not without her.
"Then let me take one of the 240s. I'll go get her myself." He wasn't backing down and he was stupid if he thought I was going to give up one of the big guns.
"Okay, number one, G.W. would look stupid with only one gun. Go ahead, look at it." I pointed and he rolled his eyes. "Number two, how are you gonna get two miles down river carrying it?"
"I'll put it in a canoe and when I get there I'll set up in the woods and just take them out."
"Three, that's a half-assed plan and you know it." I said and started back toward the truck.
"You said you wanted to find a place to settle down!" He said, following me back to the truck, yapping at my heels like a little dog. "You said it's been twenty years on the road since you've seen home! There are people on that island who haven't seen a single infected dead since this whole thing started. There are no fences, no walls, no dead, no scumbags trying to kill each other."
I stopped and turned to face him. "And you think those bikers are gonna be okay with us just moving in and we'll all be neighbors?"
"No. You'll have to take it from them."
"I told you, we don't take things from people that have a rightful claim. It doesn't matter if they're bad people, good people, it doesn't matter. If we go around just taking what we want, we're just as bad as them. We'll find our own place, maybe out west somewhere."
"You're taking the fuel truck." He was taunting me now.
"That's different. That wasn't their's to begin with and the rightful owner is dead."
He stopped and thought for a moment and I started to walk away again but he followed me again. "The rightful owners of that island are still there, slaves. Choppa and his gang took it from them and make them work to feed the gang. If you leave, they're not gonna stay out there and work for a living. They're gonna find someone else to terrorize. They might even find you one day if you take that truck."
He could see the wheels starting to turn in my head. "What you're talking about is, like radical Islam, passing judgment of people and eliminating them because their way of life doesn't agree with yours. It's unAmerican and It's not our place."
"You've got kids with you, probably gonna have a few more. Do you really want to explain to them why they had to grow up in the back of a hot semi-trailer? Do you want to try to explain to them that their parents are dead because you didn't feel it was your place to punish the guilty? I didn't fi
gure you for a liberal, Dave."
"Don't you say that!" He got under my skin with that one and I put my finger in his face, my own face right behind it so I could look directly into his soul and he could see into mine. "I went to war. I served! We could've won and this could've all been avoided but by the time Trump took office, it was too late." I put my hand down. "Those liberals you talk about, they had already brainwashed the entire country. They wanted to mock anything that was right and accept everything that was wrong. What you're saying is right, but some of those men are my brothers. They're old soldiers just like me, who fought and bled for this country just like me."
"Just because they fought, don't mean they're just like you." Mac said. He had snuck up behind me and I spun around to face him. "Just because they fought, doesn't mean they understood what they were fighting for. Trash like that, they just do it because they want to be a big shot, glory seekers. Dane," he said, looking past me. "I'll go with you."
With that, they started walking to the gas station up the road, Mac still walking on his heels. There was a big wooden sign that was barely legible anymore from years of sun and rain, pointing the way to a canoe rental place out back.
Dane was just a kid. He wasn't around for the last decade leading up to the infection. Mac though, I could tell by his demeanor, he was there. I had met guys like him in the service. I had met even more that were like the ones he talked about. You just never want to accept it when your in. They're your brothers. You trust them with your life and they trust you with theirs but he was right. I knew a lot of them who got out after their time was done and went right back to doing what they had done before; selling drugs, doing drugs, stealing and womanizing, living on welfare and using PTSD as their excuse for all of it.
Dane was just a stupid, idealistic kid and I was pretty sure Mac had brain damage so I decided I had to help. "DeMarkus!" I yelled to him from the truck and he looked at me. "Come here. We gotta have a talk with everybody." I said and he nodded.
I walked to the back of the trailer and knocked three times. As the others from inside the truck walked to the back to meet me, followed by Dane and DeMarkus, the door slide open and everyone else climbed out. The top of the sun was just barely above the jagged tree line as the everyone gathered around. There were the two young lovers, Ethan and Julie, Dane and his sister, Beth with Nicholas' son, Vladimir and his daughter with her three suitors, Eli and Maria with her young daughter, Terrence and his family of four, Mac and Chontelle, James and LaDarius, and the loner, Michael, twenty-five of us in all.
"I wanted to talk to all of you about something." I started. "I've told every one of you, at one time or another, that if you ride in my truck I take responsibility for your safety and your family's safety, so what I say goes and you go with it or get left behind. And we've always talked about finding a place where it wouldn't have to be that way, a place where we could park the truck for good, where we could all have our own space and make decisions for ourselves. Well, that time has come and that place is here." I looked around at all their faces to make sure I had their attention...and I did. "Dane says that down this river, there's a fishing camp. It's an island in the middle of the swamp, two miles in and only accessible by boat. That's two miles of alligators, hogs and quicksand. No dead have ever made it out there and nobody but us and the people who are already there know about it. It's a place where we can live without worrying about where our next meal will come from or about being a meal for the dead. That's the good news."
I didn't know how I was going to convince them. I really wasn't convinced to the point of doing violence myself but I really didn't see any other way it would work out. Even if we were able to come to some peaceful compromise, I knew it wouldn't last long. They all were just staring in silence, waiting for what they knew was coming but not the nature of what it would be.
"Here's the bad news." I continued. "There are people living there already."
"I'm guessing," DeMarkus said. "The reason you said bad news is we don't have an invitation to this party."
"You guess right." I answered. "It's The Vultures."
There was a collective sound of disapproval.
"Hold on now, listen." I waited for them to stop grumbling. "I don't have all night to convince you. That's why I said it's your choice. Anybody who wants to come with me, we gotta do it tonight. Anybody that don't can stay here and we'll come get you when it's done. If you have a problem with living there because of what has to be done, you can have G.W. and take her anywhere you like. But, if we take this place, our running is over. Eli, you promised to give Maria and Rosemary a safe place to live. This is your chance. Ethan, do you and Julie want to have kids some day? Do you want to have 'em in that truck, bouncing down the highway, maybe getting shot at, running from some banditos? Vladimir, you know you're getting too old for the highway life anyway. Terrence, your kids have spent their entire lives on the run. This is your chance to stop running."
"Why are we still talking about this?" Michael said. "Lets go get it already. They've got what, ten or so of them left? They're the bad guys, right? Let's finish them off." Michael had always found it easy to kill, a little too easy I thought, but it kept the others from having to do it so much and had saved us numerous times.
"I want to go." said Terrence's oldest son, Demetrius.
"Son?" Terrence looked at him with fear driven disapproval.
"I'm tired of being in that truck, Pops. Man's gotta be a man."
"Okay, count me in then." Terrence said and his wife nodded and smiled proudly.
"We're in." said the beautiful Lucia and her father nodded quietly.
"Count me in too." said Ross
"Me too." said Will, always quick to follow Ross when he was following Lucia.
"I'm in." said Joshua, another of Lucia's admirers who was not as aggressive as Will or Ross.
"Okay, let's do it." the tall cowboy, Eli, said.
"James, LaDarius. Y'all going or staying?" I asked.
They looked at each other then James looked at me. "I didn't think we had a choice, Boss."
I wasn't sure if it was sarcasm or not. "Every man gets to decide for himself here."
They looked at each other again then looked at me. "Alright, let's get it."
"Alright, every third man, grab a canoe." I said and waited or DeMarkus to start past me, then grabbed his arm. "Hold on." He stopped. "I want you to stay here with the others. If we come back running or if we don't come back at all by morning, get far away from here as you can."
"Okay. You think it'll be that serious?" He asked, looking suddenly more worried.
"It might be. I don't know how many guys they got out on that island or how many guns. Maybe teach one of the others enough to drive the fuel truck too so you can take it with you."
His eyes got big enough to show all the white. "Okay." He said with a deep breath and an apprehensive bob of his head.
Mac was saying goodbye to Chontelle. He could barely walk but I knew he'd still want to go. I'd have to have a good reason for him not to.
"Mac, I need you to stay back and keep guard." I said and he looked at me with his one eye, insulted.
"Don't give me that bullshit. You need my tactical experience." He said, kissed Chontelle one more time then walked off toward the boat launch.
I knew there'd be no convincing him and he was right anyway. All our years on the road, we'd been in some scrapes but never something quite like this. Judging from his age, I had more experience in the military than he did but my experience was mostly turning wrenches. I could tell by the way he carried himself that the only tool he had ever used was a gun.
By the time we had gotten all the canoes to the boat launch it was almost dark. There were a lot of stars but no moon at all which was actually better. They wouldn't be able to see us by our silhouettes breaking the shine off the water. We had almost enough assault rifles for everyone and Terrence and LaDarius would be carrying the 240's to insure fire superiority, as
we used to call it.
"Listen up," Mac began and cleared his throat. "We don't know exactly how far down the river their camp is so we're gonna keep it quiet. Let the current control your speed and only use the paddles to steer, no abrupt movements in the water. Keep your distance from each other, at least fifty meters. If they see us before we see them, we don't want to all get caught up in an ambush. If we do make contact in the front, the rear boats pull to the side of that contact and flank them on foot. Don't talk, don't smoke if you got 'em, no flashlights. You get my point.
Once we find any sign of them, we pull to the side keeping our distance from one another and myself or Dane will investigate and report back to the rest. If the situation requires or allows, we will rally at the rear canoe and make a plan from there. Any questions?"
Everyone was silent and I couldn't see their faces anymore but I could feel the tension, the nervousness, the fear, the excitement. I, myself, had made it forty-six years and from I figured, that was six more than the average life expectancy now. So, being right with God, I wasn't afraid of dying. I was only afraid of what I had always been afraid of, being wrong.
We put the boats in one at a time to get our distance. I was in the first one, with Mac and Dane. The rest followed behind us. It was so dark that the only way we could navigate was by the gap in the tops of the trees, a jagged line on each side of the river where the darkness ended and the stars began. In the silence, the next forty-five minutes seemed to take all night, all of us staring hard, trying to focus our eyes with nothing to focus them on, concentrating to pick up any movement in the darkened woods.
I was at the front of the canoe and suddenly, something hit the front of my brain through my nostrils and before I even knew what it was, I knew what it was. The smell of marijuana brought back a hundred memories of my youth and I went through them all in the brief second before I slid my paddle deep into the water to slow us down and Dane drug to pull us to the right.
