by David Achord
“If you want cold air, you’ll need to start the generators, but I haven’t run them in a while and the gas might be bad,” Lee said.
While BC got reacquainted with his aunt and uncle, Lee volunteered to show Blake and me around. It was a nice marina with several boats still in good shape. There was also the campground section with several RVs and campers.
“You can live in one if you want, or pick you out one of the empty houseboats.” He pointed. “Me and Jinni live in one, Gavin and Leslie live in another. Shane and Jolene share another one. Big Bear and Kathy Ann live in that RV over there,” he said as he pointed.
“Now, I’ve got to warn you, some of them had dead people in them, and a couple had zombies. We pulled them all out maybe a year ago, but there might still be some smell. So, y’all pick whichever one you want to call home. You can all live in one, or each of you pick one for your own. It don’t matter to me, there’s plenty of empty ones. Oh, none of them have any water in them. We have drinking water over there.” He pointed to the main office. “But, if you want to take a bath, you need to go down there on the bank and clean yourselves up with the river water. It ain’t too dirty,” he said with a grin.
“Do you have much of a problem with zombies?” Blake asked.
Lee scratched his head. The question seemed to confuse him, though I didn’t know why.
“Well, we’ve killed off a bunch, but every once in a while, one or two or three or four will come around. Gavin says they’re like bears. Bears don’t have good eyesight, but they sure can smell food.”
“Blood too,” Blake said.
“Oh yeah, especially blood, and they can hear decent, so we try to keep quiet. When we hunt close, we use compound bows instead of guns. We only use guns when we, uh, well, when we go on huntin’ trips.”
He looked a mite nervous when he said that and I wondered why.
“What about fishing?” I asked.
“Trolling motors only,” Lee said. “A charged-up battery can last all day. We have to use a jenny to charge them, but you can’t have everything. Oh, by the way, Gavin’s already told me I need to do some fishing tomorrow. We ain’t got all that much food. So, maybe one or two or three of you will go with me,” he said with a big grin, revealing a few missing teeth. “I know where all the best fishing holes are.”
We opted to share an RV for the night, both for convenience and security purposes. It also allowed us to talk in private.
“What do you think?” BC asked. After the sun went down, BC joined us. We walked over to a semiprivate area and washed down while standing in ankle-deep water. We were now sitting in our new RV, wearing nothing but underwear, trying to stay cool and not break a sweat.
“It’s a pretty good set up,” he said.
“Yeah,” Blake replied. “There are some improvements they could do; their defense works are awful, and with this readily available water supply, they should be able to produce at least a hundred gallons of clean water a day, but we can help out with that.” He then turned to me. “You haven’t said much.”
“Your uncle doesn’t seem to like the color of my skin,” I said to BC.
“Yeah, he’s an old Tennessee redneck, but while you two were walking around with Lee, I set him straight. He’ll be alright, you’ll see.”
We talked about it for a few more minutes. Finally, Blake looked pointedly at the two of us.
“Alright, let’s not beat around the bush here. BC, I know you want to live here with your aunt and uncle, and I’m willing to live here as well. But, True, if you aren’t comfortable here, BC can stay here and the two of us can leave in the morning.”
To tell the truth, I was what you’d call conflicted. A couple of them seemed like decent people, but I got a bad vibe from Gavin. I guess what decided it for me was that smile from Sandy. She was a fine-looking woman and I couldn’t stop thinking about her.
“I guess we could stay here a while and see how it works out,” I found myself saying.
BC gave a whoop. “Awesome!” he said in nearly a shout.
Chapter 4 – Humboldt
“You see ‘em?” Lee whispered. I was sitting back beside a triple loader, watching them through binoculars. There were four of them, but the rest of their group a couple of miles up the road. That’s where they lived. Lee and I were sitting in an abandoned laundromat, watching the four of them load up their truck.
“You see ‘em, right?” Lee asked again.
“Yeah,” I answered, handed him the binocs, and retrieved my rifle.
The stench was horrible in this place, a combination of zombie stench and old, backed-up sewage, but it offered the best view. When we set up in it, we had to kill two zombies that had been nesting in it for some time. We couldn’t make a lot of noise by shooting them, but that was no problem. Lee got their attention and held them off with an old mop while I snuck up behind them and bashed their brains in with a crowbar.
“Don’t get too close to the window,” I admonished in a whisper. It wasn’t really a window anymore, more like a window opening with shards of glass around the edges. Lee stepped back until he was once again hidden in the shadows.
We were on the outskirts of a town called Humboldt. We’d been on the road for three days before we found this group and started stalking them.
Our job was to cover them in case it all went bad. The plan was for Gavin and a few others to wait for them to finish loading their trucks, bum-rush them, and convince them at gunpoint to give it up or else. We’d done it once before on a group of survivors outside of Jackson, Tennessee and got a pretty good reward out of it.
I sometimes wondered how these little groups of people had survived for so long. When you stepped out beyond your little hidey-holes or your fortified encampments, you always had to have a plan and needed to have people posted up to guard your sorry ass from zombies or marauders when you’re scavenging. Just because you haven’t seen either one in weeks didn’t mean they weren’t around. This group, like the group in Jackson, had no lookouts and had lingered around a little too long. If they’d been quicker, we probably couldn’t have been able to set up on them.
Anyway, it went off without a hitch, up to a point, and then it went bad. I don’t know what. I was watching them through a rifle scope and I didn’t see nothing but those boys raising their hands. Gavin shot first, which caused the rest of them to open fire. Like I said, there was only four of them and they didn’t stand a chance. I heard Lee inhale sharply and glanced over at him. He had been watching them through the binocs.
“Oh shit, not again,” he muttered.
“This shit happened before?”
Lee stared a moment longer before lowering the binoculars and looking at me. “Well, sometimes people don’t want to go along with the game plan.”
I didn’t respond. Wasn’t no need to. Any false beliefs about the people we’d hooked up with, this right here cleared it all up. These folks were marauders, murderers. I found BC and looked at his face through the scope. He was smiling and laughing with the rest of them. All of ‘em were.
I didn’t say nothing when they came and picked us up. What could I say? You people are nothing more than cold-blooded killers? Maybe once we got home, I’d pack up and sneak away. That sounded pretty good. I did the same thing back in Manchester and I could do the same thing now.
“You ain’t saying much, brother,” Lee said.
It was dark in the cab of the Chevy Suburban. Blake and BC were chatting away up front. It sounded like they were bragging about our haul, but I wasn’t paying much attention. I couldn’t see Lee’s expression, but I could tell by his tone he was worried what I was thinking.
“Ain’t got nothing to say,” I replied.
“Are you okay?” he asked after a moment.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, although I didn’t want him to answer. In fact, I didn’t want to talk to any of them.
It was an eighty-mile drive and by the time we got home, there was only a smudge
of moonlight left in the sky, and since we were the last vehicle in the convoy, it was our responsibility to make sure nobody followed us. Lee and I jumped out of the Suburban five hundred yards from the entrance to our little compound. We took up positions on either side of the road, rifles at the ready, and waited while BC drove away. Aside from crickets and cicadas, there was nothing.
“They must have done something,” Lee whispered, referring to the people back at Humboldt. He waited for me to answer, but I didn’t. “They must have, right?”
He wanted to talk about it, he wanted me to speak my mind. And, more importantly, he wanted me to say something to make it seem okay that we murdered some people.
“What’s done is done,” I replied.
He probably wasn’t through talking, but realized I had nothing more to say. We stayed there for a solid ten minutes before I stood. “We ain’t being followed, let’s go.”
They’d left the gate open for us. We closed it in silence and pulled the barbed-wire barricades across before rejoining the rest of them. There was supposed to be a guard on duty, but I imagine whoever it was wanted to join the group and admire our spoils. I could hear them laughing and joking, like they’d done something worthy enough to celebrate.
“See you tomorrow,” I said to Lee and peeled away from him, heading to the RV I was now living in.
“You don’t want to look over all of the stuff?” he asked.
“Tomorrow,” I replied and kept walking.
I stopped long enough to start the generator I shared with a couple of others and flipped the circuit breaker to the little water heater in my RV.
I sat on the steps in front of the door and fished out a pack of cigarettes I had hidden in a crack between the steps. Cigarettes were hard to find these days and even when you were lucky enough to find a pack, the tobacco was stale. Didn’t matter to me though, I needed a cigarette to help me think. I lit one in the dark and waited for the water to heat.
I’ll leave tomorrow night. Not tonight though. Tonight, I wanted a hot shower and a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow, I’d act like everything was normal, eat a couple of big meals, and claim my share of the loot. After it got dark and everyone was asleep, I’d take one of those trucks we’d stolen and head out. My two friends would understand. Or not, I didn’t care.
I finished the cigarette, flicked the butt off into the dark, and went inside. All of the lights were off, but that didn’t matter, I knew every square inch by memory. I made my way back to the bathroom, turned a solitary light on, stripped, and got in the shower.
I washed four days’ worth of grime off me in less than three minutes. After drying, I wrapped the towel around me and brushed my teeth. I then went outside and turned the generator off before heading to my bedroom. I probably should’ve turned on more lights, because when I crawled into bed, I realized I wasn’t alone.
“Took you long enough,” she said. I jumped.
“Damn, girl, you scared the shit out of me.”
She pulled me down onto the bed and kissed me passionately.
“Where’s Blake?” she asked.
“He’s probably wondering where the hell you are about now.” There was a moment of silence which told me my answer wasn’t good enough. “He’s out in the parking lot with the rest of them, talking and bragging about what we did.”
“That means we have fifteen minutes. Twenty tops,” she said and pulled me on top of her.
I knew better. I really did. She’d been hooked up with Blake for over a month now. But, my will was weak.
It was hurried, intense, feverish. We held each other in our arms after we’d climaxed, but it only lasted a minute before she slipped out of the bed, gathered her clothes, and went into the bathroom. A minute later, she emerged and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“We can’t keep doing this,” I said. That smudge of moonlight was peeking through my window blinds now and it made her look like an angel standing over me. She stood there, staring at me for I don’t know how long before kissing me and slipping out of the door.
Despite my fatigue, I lay there a long while, staring up at the ceiling before I finally fell asleep. When the sun came up, I did everything I told myself I was going to do, but when midnight of the next night rolled around, I was sitting there on my steps, smoking my last cigarette. When I’d finished it, instead of getting up and walking to the truck, I went inside my RV and straight to bed. When I sat across from Sandy the next morning at breakfast and she flashed me that smile of hers, I knew I was never going to leave.
Chapter 5 – Prairie
And that’s how it went for the next three years. Sandy and Blake were a couple, but we’d find ways to see each other on the sly. Sometimes, we’d go for months, and during those times, I would convince myself that it was over. But, then she’d sneak out late at night and softly tap on my door. And, I always let her in.
I don’t know why I did it. I’m a grown-ass man, but I acted like a teenage boy sniffing around his first piece of tail. The truth was, I was lonely, and I was in love. If I was to discuss it with one of those therapists, they’d probably say something like I allowed myself to be treated like this because I had self-esteem issues, or something like that, and they’d probably be right.
I knew what the cure was. All I had to do was leave. I’d thought it over hundreds of times. I had my packing list memorized. I had the plan memorized. In fact, I had two plans. One was with our truck and the other was with a boat. I’d often thought about going up to Kentucky Dam. Gavin once let it slip there were some people living up there. That was a hydroelectric dam, which meant they probably had power.
I’d actually packed the truck a couple of times. I waited until after breakfast, told BC I was going hunting, and took off. I got as far as the city of McEwen, which was almost halfway to Nashville. But, I stopped. I stopped in the middle of the damn road and sat there, unable to force myself to go any further.
I parked the truck and killed the engine, right there on the oldest state road in Tennessee, State Route One, and got out. I started walking around through the neighborhood. I had no idea why; it was like I was in a daze.
I eventually found myself walking through the parking lot of self-storage units. A zombie charged at me from around the corner. I pulled out my bayonet and stabbed him through the mouth. I knew I’d stabbed the brain stem when he dropped like a lead balloon. It was then I realized two of the storage units still had undamaged padlocks on them.
Retrieving some bolt cutters, I popped both locks. The units contained your standard household items. Furniture, mostly, but there was also bedding and cookware. There were even some sheets still packaged. I let out a long sigh and began loading up the things we could use.
I got back home later that afternoon. Gavin chuckled when I told him I hadn’t bagged a deer, but Leslie was overjoyed with the items from the storage units. When we sat down for dinner, Blake thumped his glass with his spoon, silencing the room.
“We’re going to have a kid,” he said with the biggest shit-eating grin I’d ever seen. Everyone congratulated them, including me. I guess I was really happy for him. During all of this, I caught a look from Sandy. I couldn’t decipher her expression, but it didn’t matter. The moment Blake announced he was going to be a daddy did something to me and I knew I would never be with her again.
Dinner was filled with happiness. Everyone was laughing, and smiling, and congratulating the two expecting parents. Of course, they’d seemed to have forgotten all about those people they’d murdered back in Humboldt.
After dinner, I took a pair of those new sheets and tossed them into my RV before heading down to the boat docks. I grabbed a Coleman lantern, fishing pole and a tackle box, and then went to the dock the furthest away from everyone. I didn’t want company, I wanted to be alone with my thoughts, but within minutes, I heard somebody walking down the wooden dock. I turned to see Lee heading my way. He had a couple of poles and a bait bucket. When he got close, I could see a fr
iendly grin.
“Great minds think alike,” he said. “I told Jinni I was going to do some night fishing, and here you are.”
He started to sit down, but must have seen something on my face. “You don’t mind some company, do you?” he asked.
“Did you bring anything to drink?” I asked, figuring he probably didn’t. To my surprise, he pulled out a pint of sour mash whiskey from his waistband and gave me a grin. It looked like he’d lost another tooth, although I couldn’t be certain. I nodded at the empty chair sitting a few feet away.
“What are you fishing with?” he asked me.
“Grub worms,” I said.
“Real ones or fake ones?”
“Fake,” I answered.
He nodded. “I got a bunch of live worms here. Let’s experiment and see what they hit on. We’re fishing for crappie, right?”
I nodded.
“Good.”
He got himself situated, baited a hook, and dropped his line. He then settled back, took the top off of the bottle, and took a pull before handing it to me.
“I thought you was going hunting today,” he said.
“I lost the mood and ended up finding some storage units.”
“Ah,” he said. “I know you can take care of yourself, but the next time you get the urge to go out, let me know. I’ll go with you and watch your back.”
“Okay,” I said, and took another sip of the whiskey before handing it back to him.
Lee was naturally a talker and the whiskey loosened his lips even further. He couldn’t help himself. If someone were to tape his mouth shut, he would’ve farted himself to death. I guess that’s why he took a liking to me. He believed my silence meant I was listening intently to everything he had to say. I knew he was going to talk all night.
“You know, back when all this shit started, you had to be careful coming to fish out here,” he said as I hooked up a trolling motor to a battery and we headed out of the cove.
He threw the line out and waited for me to take the bait. Sometimes, I’d intentionally ignore him, which gave him fits, but today I decided to play along.
