The Aftermath: Parts I and II

by Megan E Pearson

  No, had they known that all the surviving and fighting was for this outcome they would have stopped a long time ago.

  Yet they couldn't stop now. That seemed to be the thing that truly terrified and astounded them. It would have been one thing to give up during the first outbreak, or even in the year or two that followed. It would have been preferable they all knew it. However, to survive for four years in this hellish world and quit now? That just didn't make any sense. Their nature wouldn't allow them to do something like that.

  There was no such thing as scavenging anymore. Food was either collected or spoiled beyond being edible. It wasn't just that it tasted bad, it would be counter productive at this point. Hunting could be done, and it was as often as possible. The risk with hunting though is some animals still carried the infection. Being bitten by one of the massive hordes of undead was no longer much of a risk. They saw a 'zombie', if that's what they should be called, maybe once every month or so. Animals didn't really change much if they had the infection, but they were damn dangerous to eat.

  Sometimes it was obvious. Someone would take out a buck and when they went to dress it the organs wouldn't look right, or the smell would be a clear give away. The blood was usually the most telling sign, they would hang it up to bleed it and instead of a red liquid, blobs of nearly solid mud like blood would fall out. They would know that that buck had been dead for awhile.

  The scariest times were when an animal had just picked up an infection. Everything would seem fine then the next day some poor person from the group would be sick and showing signs of turning.

  Hunting had to happen, and it had to happen often it was just a huge risk. Most people would wait after an animal was brought in until just before the meat went bad. They waited as long as possible to see if someone else died first. They would tell themselves 'someone is more desperate than I am and they will be the 'guinea pig'. Of course most of them were right.

  Farming was really the best option. Everyone knew it. Farming was sure to be safe, it would give good food, it was something that they could keep doing. They had tried to farm from very early on as a matter of fact. The problem was the outbreak was more than just an outbreak of illness, it was the complete and total break down of the world. Farming as people knew it before the outbreak was nothing like it was now. People had been spoiled by the ease of getting clean water, power tools, and vehicles. Even the acquisition of land was a different story now.

  Since there were few 'zombies' they could leave their little safe haven to farm, but it didn't make the job of finding unbloodied and safe soil much easier. Once a place to grow was discovered the next challenge was how to get water to that place. It was hard, it required many filters, the desperate attempts to understand how to set up wells, and ultimately farms depended mostly on the natural elements to provide water and nutrition. The natural elements in a world that was already being systematically destroyed by humans weren't that reliable.

  More crops died than were harvested and finding ways to replenish crops was a struggle. Take away refrigeration and any other form of preservation and simply put the little community was screwed.

  Yet they still kept pushing. They wished that they had died long ago but kept pushing to survive now. They farmed as much as they could, hunted often, still scavenged despite knowing it wouldn't be a success, and learned to live in a constant state of hunger. It was safe to say they truly missed the days when man eating monsters were their biggest concern. Hunger didn't take away the constant fear that they had been living with, it was now just displaced on something else.

  Conversations were vague, attachment to one another had ceased, it wasn't living in any sense of the word. They wanted the others to die so there would be more food.

  “Maybe we should move to one of the cities,” someone said.

  “There are two problems with that. One, the cities have likely been picked clean. Two, while there are few of the 'zombies' around here we don't know what it would be like in the cities,” an answer came.

  “Yes but if there are people that have cleared the cities out, they might have found a better way to eat,” a different person argued.

  “Then leave,” came a reply. They all knew the unspoken part of the reply, 'if you leave then we can have your food'. Despite the fact that everyone was thinking it, and everyone knew everyone else was thinking it the words were never spoken. It would break the tentative peace of the village.

  After that conversation no one had a conversation for at least a week. The only words spoken were names at what their rations were for the day and jobs for the week. More than once someone would wonder if the group would simply forget how to interact with one another using words. The emotional and human part of them would lament over this possibility. A much larger part of them knew that it simply didn't matter.

  The village kept functioning though. They found a way. They struggled for it, but they found it.

  Finally one day they saw it. A group for three people walking down the road. Three relieved and happy faces looked at what was clearly a safe village. The guards for the village looked through their scopes. The people were fairly healthy, though had clearly been on the road for sometime. They weren't coming from another safe haven looking to combine communities. They were lost and wandering on their own.

  “Hopefully they have some food,” a person said.

  “And maybe some tips on where to get more.”

  “It will give us some meat at least,” someone said sadly.

  “Yep, let them in,” came the disgusted reply.

  It was certain that in those moments they were all knew they wouldn't have pushed to survive to end up like this. Like this group of three people they had all survived the hordes of undead. Unlike these three people though, this village was willing to replicate those very monsters to survive.

  The Vote

  Tess turned and looked out at the four faces in front of her. They were each picked as part of the voting council for this little town they were building up. William and Edna, an older man and woman. They brought their wisdom and years of experience. William of course also had medical experience and Edna had been married to a politician. It was no secret that she had actually been the real politician in the marriage and her husband had merely been a puppet. Matthew was a middle aged man with a science background. He was very shy which made him an odd choice for a member of the council. When he did speak his opinion was always clear and concise, the fact that it was rare added a certain power to it. Last was Emma, she was pretty young, only about twenty-five. She was in the military, medical discharge, but before that she had been a sharp shooter. Her knowledge was in safety and training.

  Tess was really the odd man out. She had been a high school teacher before the outbreak, though given that she was barely thirty-two she hadn't had the job for very long. Many questioned why she got so many votes to be on the council, everyone questioned why the council had put her in charge. That was until they realized that dealing with classrooms full of teenagers wasn't much different than dealing with a group of people with conflicting view points put in a position of authority. Tess in her own right was the perfect tie breaker. Generally the votes came down two to two. Tess was a good listener, strong willed, and calm when pressure hit.

  They were in a small house that had been converted into their meeting lodge and another storage facility. Since it was such a small house no one in the town really missed it. They living room had a clear space for the council to have meetings. The rest of the house had various necessities stored all around. Clothes, weapons, ammo, even a bit of food. Since an inventory was taken before and after each council meeting there was little risk of the five of them stealing. Honestly they were all well enough taken care of that the temptation never really crossed their minds, even if there wasn't such a high risk of them being caught.

  Tess knew this vote was going to be a hard one. Each of their faces was mostly covered in shadows because they were using candle
s tonight. It was going to be a long discussion and no one was willing to waste the oil for the lamps, or gas from the generators. The candle light seemed to reflect the somber nature of the discussion they were about to have. Mostly shrouded in darkness no one felt comfortable, this was now their reality.

  “We have to decide what to do about this situation,” Tess finally spoke. No one was looking back at her. “It won't be an easy vote, and it's certainly not one that any of us ever wanted to take. Enough people in the town complained about it though so we can no longer ignore it.”

  “This isn't what I signed up for,” William said pointedly, still refusing to look up at her.

  “No but it is our job,” Tess replied.

  The faces didn't respond. Tess sat down in the chair beside her. She didn't want to force them to start talking it was a delicate issue and they needed their time.

  “The people that want us to do something aren't wrong. The noise has gotten out of hand, and it has more than once brought the dead to our door,” Edna finally spoke after a tense few minuets. Tess nodded at her to give her thanks for getting the discussion going.

  “Look there have always been noise problems, that won't stop if we take care of this one problem. It will however change the town. It will change us,” William retorted.

  “Were it winter again I would agree. They would be slowed down and it would be just one or two. It's the middle of summer though, they are more active than ever. And with the days being so long they stay active longer. I can't say for sure that I disagree, but it's worth considering just how many dead the noises bring now. We can barely repair the walls without bringing a whole horde down on our head,” Emma countered.

  William interrupted her, “What is your point?!”

  “That noise is a bigger problem right now. A rather serious one,” Emma answered, almost in a whisper.

  “We can't just approach this as a defense problem!” William snapped.

  “But we can't forget the defense aspect of this problem either,” Edna answered.

  Tess cleared her throat. “We all realize what the right answer is defense-wise. We also know what the answer is morality-wise. It does us no good to fight about that, we just have to decide which issue is more pressing.”

  “Wouldn't the best solution be to find a way to block the sound?” Matthew questioned.

  “Of course the entire council would be more than happy to hear a solution of that sort. The problem is we don't know if that solution exists. The problem is in the center of town equal distance from all the walls basically. We have people watching it constantly to make sure the noise stops as quickly as possible. So what is the next step?” Tess posed the question calmly.

  None of them answered. Tess was not surprised by this, neither were they honestly. Everyone had been discussing the problems for weeks, if a solution other than this vote were possible they would have come up with it already.

  “How much effort have we put into blocking sound from leaving the room?” Matthew pushed.

  “As much as we possibly could,” Emma answered then let out a large sigh.

  “That's not good enough!” William demanded.

  “Then give us a suggestion!” Emma yelled back.

  “Have we tried to block the sound?”

  “We've boarded up everything we can possibly board up. We drape blankets over his bed.”

  Tess could see the way the room was shifting. Emma and William knew how they would vote, she was almost certain nothing would change their minds. Edna and Matthew were very conflicted though. At their core they each agreed with William, but neither could deny the importance of safety; especially not Edna after all she had lost.

  It was safe to say each of them had lost something. These days the degree of loss was something much more apparent though. It wasn't that people sat around and had contests over who suffered more, rather the loss of loved ones was something that everyone was constantly measuring.

  Matthew had been very distant with his family. To be honest he didn't know where most of them were. It was safe to assume they were dead but there was no confirmation. His shyness was due to years of emotional and physical abuse, whether or not his family was alive or dead meant nothing to him. It had meant nothing long before the outbreak so why should it mean something now? Even if they did have a moment of clarity about the way they had treated him he didn't know if he was ready to forget it. His heart was empty of hatred, but was not welcoming to what they might do again. What he did have was a fiance.

  Someone that understood why he was so shy and distant. A man he had met that had enough patience to keep pursuing him, despite how often Matthew pushed him away. A man that got it wasn't about Matthew needing to come to terms with his sexuality, but rather his broken past. The people that were supposed to love him the most had hurt him the worst. Why would he ever let someone else in? Matthew had found the best type of patient, loving, and supporting partner though. He had been Matthew's best friend, and a lover that waited while Matthew struggled against their love. He eventually broke Matthew's walls down one by one. Then he was gone. There were no happy endings in this world.

  William had lost very little after the outbreak occurred. A few of his friends had passed but no one he was very close to. Many people envied the lack of suffering William faced after the dead had risen. Those that stopped to think about it realized William lost so little after the outbreak because it had all been taken from him before. His wife, daughter, and son had all been long gone before the world fell apart. He had moved far away from the memories he created with his family and met new people, but people he kept at a distance.

  Even William admitted he had a certain amount of luck though. He had talked about the fact that he never had to see his beautiful family turn, or worse he never had to prevent that from happening. It was a nice way to look at it but it begged the question, what kind of world did we live in that he had already lost so much before any of this happened.

  Emma had no lovers, and she was from a small family. On the surface it might seem like she was lucky she only lost her parents. However, since she had so little to lose she took the loss pretty hard.

  Edna was Emma's opposite, she had many children and grandchildren. They were all gone now. Edna not only felt the pain of a parent burying her children but of a grandparent burying her grandchildren. She had nothing left when she found the town, including hope.

  Tess was a mystery. She didn't share, they couldn't force her to either. She was calm, smart, and collected, how could they force her to talk about her past.

  They sat in silence again. Tess looked down at the candles as they lowered bit by bit. Every one was glancing around at one another, but their faces were still turned down if they thought anyone might make eye contact.

  “The reality is we are deciding whether or not to kill someone that has no idea what they are doing just to save the group,” William said, choking on the last few words.

  The entire groups looked at him, he said the words they had all hoped to avoid. He made the gravity of the situation a clear cut reality.

  “No one is unaware of what is happening William,” Edna snapped.

  “Well they sure as hell are acting like it!” He screamed back.

  “Look I understand your perspective, but you have to understand ours. We know the stakes, but we can't focus on those,” Emma responded quietly.

  “Some of us can't separate the two,” William grunted.

  “Which is good, as long as we eventually reach a decision,” Edna said patting his hand.

  “There is a reason you were voted in, your varying ways of seeing the world is part of that,” Tess said softly. “They don't want you to make this decision easily, but the last thing they want is for you not to make it.”

  “There is no way to make this easier, someone dies or we all remain at risk.”

  Silence filled the room again. Tess knew they would keep reverting to this. No matter how passionate William and Emma we
re, even they didn't want to vote.

  The shadows on their faces became darker and darker. Tess sighed and slowly walked around the room lighting a few more candles and setting them down. As she passed them she handed them each a pad and pencil for voting. Edna opened her mouth to protest, but Tess held her hand out to stop her. She took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly while walking back to her seat.

  “When this all began I knew what was going on. I was enough of a horror freak that I got it. Of course I didn't see the signs until it was too late, but when the news first started making reports while still denying I understood,” Tess said then paused to sit down slowly. “Now I am going to tell you the rest of my story and we're going to take a few votes. I feel this might help us as a group decide for the real vote.”

  The faces looked up at her a bit confused, but one by one they opened their pads and waited.

  “The only family I had that was close was my grandfather. He was of course not a healthy man, but he had meant so much to me for so long. I had to go back for him. I did, and we grabbed some supplies and hit the road. He didn't protest too much. I don't know if it was because he trusted me, loved me, or just didn't know better anymore. Either way we hit the road together.”

  William coughed and slouched in his seat. He was clearly annoyed, but Tess didn't care. They weren't going to make a choice any time soon no matter who was babbling about what.

  “It was fun being with him before things got worse. We could pretend nothing was that bad, and just enjoy having time together. Naturally of course it didn't last. More of them started to show up, survivors got more hostile. The world fell apart, I don't need to remind you.”