by Jack Flacco
Pursing her lips, Matty’s thoughts of saving them disappeared.
“Likewise.” Trish said, “I’m not going to abandon him.”
Eddie slid the concrete block to the side and opened the door to let Trish go first. Then, he said, “Come with us. We’re heading away from the city. We may even hit Oak Ridges.”
“We’ll be fine right here. If our paths cross again, we should share a meal together. I know how much you like the family atmosphere.” Matty shook her head.
A slight smile floated on Eddie’s face as he caught her sarcasm. He huffed at her decision to lay low for a while. He couldn’t understand it and didn’t want to understand it. His goal to stay alive and get back to his home took over his logic. He didn’t have a clue about what Matty wanted to tell him because he didn’t give her a chance to finish her thought. It didn’t stop Trish, though, from pulling his sleeve jacket wanting to leave.
When they left, Matty and Jon moved the concrete block back in front of the door where it belonged. The siblings then looked at each other and turned their attention to Charlie who sat in the corner on the bed alone, shaking.
Chapter 7
Later that evening, the new prisoners settled into Barracks 13 on the sparse bunk beds provided by Logan Airbase. Other than a few bulbs hanging from the rafters, the light pouring on the faces of the prisoners remained dim throughout. A little boy crunched into his mother’s lap as she pulled the blanket to keep him warm. The father sat leaning his shoulder against them. They didn’t have any of their books they had brought with them, nor did the soldiers permit any change of clothes. This caused many of the prisoners to wonder if their stay in the camp would be temporary.
A group of young men, however, had formed a huddle in one of the corners overlooking a window with closed shutters preventing them from enjoying the desert stars. They sat and scanned each other as if they knew they needed to discuss something, but no one wanted to go first. That was until a prisoner in his early twenties, somewhat handsome, mostly on the heavy side, but fit, took a breath, then said, “How many do you think are in here?”
“In the barracks or the camp?” Another prisoner with dark hair answered.
“In the camp.”
“I figure six hundred. Fifty per truck. A dozen trucks.”
“Are we counting soldiers, too?” Another in the group raised his hand. He sat with his free arm leaning on his knee, and had a soft voice. If his eyes could talk, they had a lifetime of stories to tell.
“Only us.”
Many of the others forming the circle stood and listened. They chose to talk when spoken to rather than throw in a few thoughts of their own. For the most part, the huddle sat quietly perhaps waiting for good news from anyone who may have seen anything to lend them hope. Hope away from the nightmare. Hope to live as they once did, in peace.
“I’m Harold.” The heavy one who started the conversation said, as he stuck his hand out.
“I’m David.” The dark-haired one said, and shook Harold’s hand.
“I’m Billy.” The one with the soft voice said, then pumped hands with Harold and David.
“Where are y’all from?” Harold asked.
“Houston.” David tapped his chest. “The military hauled us out of the city a few nights ago. I haven’t seen my family since.”
Harold nodded, then said. “Austin. They picked me up at the pool hall, spoiling a perfect game. I could have won three hundred bucks.”
Billy gazed at the floor past his feet not volunteering any information.
“What about you?”
“Me?” Billy asked, giving himself time to think. “Fort Worth.”
“They must have been cleaning out the state when everything turned crazy.” David said.
“Must have.” Harold stretched his legs in the center of the crowd. “You came by train, too?”
“Yeah, then they tossed us in the back of the truck to send us here.”
Harold crossed his arms, he thought better that way. “They’re looking for someone.”
“I noticed. A couple of the soldiers asked for my name and compared my face with a photo they carried with them.”
Billy held his gaze on the floor, and Harold noticed. “You don’t talk much, do you?”
“I don’t have much to say.” Billy broke from his stare to concentrate on Harold.
“What happened to your family?”
Billy crossed his arms, but unlike Harold, he didn’t want to reveal what happened, even if it meant feeling better for telling someone. The young man had blue eyes, brown hair and when standing, he could tower over everyone.
“Look,” Harold said, “You don’t have to say a word. We all have our stories. I mean, we don’t even know how long we’re going to be here.”
It took a moment or two of silence in the group before Billy uncrossed his arms and ran his hands on his thighs to relieve his tension. Harold had a point, and Billy knew it. He had to let go if he wanted to feel better. If he didn’t, the events of his life would consume him. He cleared his throat, then said, “I was sleeping in my parents’ basement when I woke up and heard the squeal of trucks stopping in the middle of our street. Morning wasn’t for a few hours, so I knew something was wrong. I peeked through the window to see the military heading to our door. By the time I got my pants on, they were already knocking. My mom and dad answered and I could overhear them talking about relocation because of a virus infecting the population. I heard about these relocations. Some of my friends, who I haven’t seen since leaving, had said once someone checks into one of these camps, they don’t come back.”
“We don’t have much hope, then.” David said.
“I tried to crawl through the basement window into my backyard, but someone grabbed me from behind and smacked me in the head. The next thing I know I’m on a train traveling West with strangers. I still don’t know what happened to my parents. We stopped for a few minutes because of engine troubles, or at least that’s what one of the soldiers said. But no one had admitted that someone had placed a barricade in front of the tracks. We sat there a good twenty minutes before we heard a commotion in the car ahead of us.”
“Cattle car?” Harold asked.
“Yeah.” Billy rubbed his temples. “So I stuck my head out of the window to see what was happening. That’s when the shooting started, and I ducked. They weren’t shooting at me, but an armed group shot at the military car ahead. The group had blocked the tracks and wanted to hijack the train.”
“You mean save the people on the train.”
“Right, although I didn’t know that at the time.” Billy stopped for a moment to notice everyone staring at him in fascination wondering what came next in the narrative. “When the shooting was over, I crawled to the window and gazed at the field from where the shots came. Bodies littered the countryside. Those who surrendered had raised their hands hoping they’d get throw in the train with us. They didn’t. The military lined them up against the edge of a crevice and asked them to turn around and look into the valley. They looked as if they were all praying. The soldiers let off a volley into the survivors and they fell forward, disappearing into the canyon. That’s when I knew they were trying to save us.”
The crowd sat without as much as a whisper, allowing all the words to sink in. The women wore sad faces thinking they were hours away from death. Why else wouldn’t they have their possessions and their change of clothes on hand? They knew how the story went and they didn’t like the ending.
“I don’t understand?” One in the crowd said.
“I don’t understand either.” Another said.
And the murmuring among them continued. Some thought they would die. Some thought whoever tried to hijack the train would also try to save them from the camp. Others wanted to leave while others held them back from doing so. Yet no one asked anything about whom the military sought.
“Calm down.” Harold rose from his place and patted the air with his palms facing out. “Calm
down.”
The prisoners listened. Harold’s cool voice reassured them they had nothing to fear. They returned to their places with the expectation someone had the answers to their questions.
“Now, the way I remember it, the whole state was under lockdown for months before the military decided to move us here. Believe me, I tried to leave, hadn’t the military blocked all the roads in and out of the city.”
“They did the same thing with us. Did they cut off all communication? You know, TV, internet access, phone?” David asked.
“Yeah. We didn’t know what was happening out there.” Harold said, and paced in the circle with his hands stuck deep in his pockets while scanning his audience.
“Same here.” Everyone spoke as one voice.
Harold once again used his hands as dampers to ease the crowd. “We’ve got to get out of here. We don’t know what’s coming next and I don’t want to hang around to find out. We’ve got to find a way out of here. I mean, we’re six hundred people. We can take this place and get to somewhere safe.”
The group looked to Harold for direction. He became their natural leader.
“We need a plan.”
* * *
The trauma of having seen his sister ripped apart by one of the creatures had left his body in torment. His mind had become a prisoner. He stared into the abyss without any way of escape.
Matty crawled to her knapsack, hoping to find something inside that might bring Charlie back to them. When she slipped her hand in one of the pockets, she didn’t know if it would work, but she needed to try anyway. The smile she had tucked away for a long time returned to brighten her face. Jon smiled, too, knowing his sister had saved something special to share. He just didn’t know what.
She retrieved the prize from its secret place, cupped her hand around it, and hid it. Jon became all the more curious of Matty’s possession that once again ought to spark life into Charlie’s brain. She rose and sneaked to the edge of the bed where the teen sat, rocking. She didn’t want to startle him nor did she want to cause him to scream in a way that would either alert the undead or worse, alert the others responsible for humanity’s plight.
As Jon drifted closer, Matty bent to one knee. The dim light behind her cast a shadow on the wall, rendering her figure all the more ominous. Yet, her intention to appear friendly guided her to stay quiet. Charlie rocked on the bed until Matty extended her arm and slowly opened her hand. She revealed the secret treat she had hidden for so long as one of the chocolate bars Ranger enjoyed eating. Who doesn’t like chocolate? It would brighten anyone’s day.
Jon smiled knowing she must have saved the treat from one of those nights when he had given it to her as a gift for being his sister. Ranger loved those candy bars, and Jon would have done anything to see Ranger eat one again. It didn’t upset him she gave it away, though, he knew how good they tasted and he would have shared one with Charlie himself if it meant he’d get better.
As she edged the bar closer to him, she noticed his pale skin, his dilated eyes and his drawn face. If he needed nourishment, the chocolate would give him strength enough to fight the compulsion to withdraw further into his prison. The terrible death of his sister, Amber, pushed him into denial, but his stomach gave way to opening his mind to want a positive resolution. That resolution consisted of tasting what Matty held in her hand.
The darkness had disappeared from his eyes, and Charlie snatched the candy bar from Matty’s hand. He had done it so quickly that Matty jerked her arm not knowing if Charlie would eat that too. He tore through the wrapping, threw it on the bed and inhaled the entire thing in three bites. Licking his fingers and lips, he dropped a gaze on Matty as if he wanted to thank her for looking after him. She cared enough to want to place her hand on his arm to let him know nothing would hurt him for as long as she breathed. He thought something else.
From the bed, Charlie sprung on Matty and toppled her to the floor. His hands landed on her neck as he straddled her. He squeezed tight not letting go. Had she been one of the eaters, he surely would have had the advantage. She was not. She was Matty. And because she was not an eater but his sister, Jon sprinted and tackled Charlie, wrapping his arms around his neck, which gave Matty enough time to crawl several feet and draw her gun from the small of her back. She pointed it at the struggling boys, still shaking from the attack.
As it happened, Matty’s attention soon floated upward. She scanned the ceiling from one corner to the other. The sound had returned. She scuttled to the boys, and placed her gun over her lips to shush them. Charlie and Jon stopped squirming. They heard it, too. How could they not? It got louder and more powerful by the second.
With her gun as her lead, Matty used it to point under the bed. No one argued. The trio vanished. Their heads formed a line stuck from under the blankets. They lay low and calm. Their breathing shallow, their hearts racing, they stared at the door. Matty had her gun drawn while keeping her lips slightly parted to allow the air from her lungs to pour on to the floor.
A bright white light suddenly blasted from under the door, flowing halfway into the room. Like a scanner on a photocopier, the light traveled from one side of the door to the other. It then turned purple. Matty and Jon very well knew the consequences of falling victim to the light. She’d seen it before, and didn’t want to experience it firsthand.
Within a minute, the light had turned white and switched off. Jon dropped his forehead to the floor, thankful for not getting caught outside during the scan. He knew what would have happened, and he didn’t want it ever happening to anyone he knew.
Matty turned to Charlie and whispered, “Are you okay?”
Charlie nodded his head quickly, realizing Matty might have saved their lives by not going outside like Eddie and Trish did. All of a sudden, Amber’s death meant something more. He didn’t want to die in vain. He finally understood that he needed to trust those next to him. Maybe Matty was right after all. Maybe she did have the answers.
“We have to find Ranger.” Matty whispered, holding her gun as if she held her security blanket close to her chest.
“Halleluia! You’ve decided to come to your senses.” Jon said.
“Shh, not so loud.”
“Who is Ranger?” Charlie asked.
Matty didn’t answer, instead crawled from under the bed and hid her gun. The boys followed her to the table where she rummaged through her knapsack.
“Who is Ranger?” Charlie asked again, thinking Matty hadn’t heard him the first time.
“Are you finished with blaming me for your sister’s death? Because if you’re not, I’m taking Jon and leaving you right here where the zombies, and maybe even the aliens, can find you. I don’t have time to play games with you.”
A smile washed over Jon’s face. He knew his sister well. She wouldn’t leave Charlie there. If anything, she’d try to convince him he had no choice other than to follow them. That’s what she did with Eddie and Trish.
“I’m sorry.” Charlie rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m scared.”
“I’m scared, too.” Matty said with a look on her face that would have frozen a pond. “Toughen up, will ya? We have a long way to go before, and if, we find Ranger.”
Charlie didn’t ask the question again, but gazed at her, wondering if she had forgiven him.
“Okay, look, Ranger’s this larger-than-life character who thinks he can wipe out all of the undead. Did you hear about Worship Square, and what happened there? Ranger did that. Along with me, Jon and Randy.” She stopped a moment, thinking about Randy’s warm smile and intense eyes, but continued not wanting to reveal her feelings about the teen. “We parted on bad terms. I said we should’ve found a safe place to live, and he said we had work to do. I told him to drop us off here in Provo where I thought we’d be safe, since the change had already taken place. From there, me and Jon made our way here, in the middle of the—”
“We should have stayed with Ranger.” Jon interrupted.
“I got the mes
sage. Let’s make the best of it and try to find our way back to where he dropped us off. Maybe he’ll come back.”
“He will come back. That’s what Randy said.”
“Wait a minute. What?”
“Randy.” Jon took a step back, and his shoulders collapsed, waiting for Matty’s thunder. “Randy said that if we’d ever change our mind he’d try to convince Ranger to drive to where he dropped us off and we’d be a team again.”
With a scowl on her face that would have scared away the toughest of zombies, Matty had her arms crossed, and stood there motionless.
“And,” Jon gulped, taking another step back, “I said I’d try to convince you to change your mind.”
Matty’s jaw dropped two sizes larger than her head could hold. Had she known of Jon’s little conspiracy when he kept pressing her to change her mind, she would have probably hardened her heart and not want to have anything to do with Ranger or Randy ever again. As it turned out, she had to realize on her own that she needed them just as much as they needed her. For that reason, she wrapped her knapsack around her shoulders and tossed her brother’s his.
“You’re not mad?” Jon asked, flinging his knapsack on his shoulders.
“No. I’m not mad. I would have done the same thing.” She headed for the door.
Jon ran to help her with the concrete block, but before he could lift it, Charlie nudged him aside to help her instead. He noticed she didn’t make a big deal of the whole thing. He wanted to make sure she knew he didn’t blame her for anything and that she’d recognized he had changed. He didn’t want any bad feelings, also appreciating how she helped him come back with the aid of a candy bar.
