by TW Brown
“So what?” I finally said.
Billy’s head snapped down to me and his eyes were wide. His mouth opened and he looked like he started to say something three or four times before his mouth finally figured out what to do.
“You were there, would you be okay with going back there?” he asked.
“If I drew the assignment,” I said with a shrug.
“And you don’t have any problem with it?”
“Why would I?”
Billy scrubbed at his stubbled head with both hands and let his breath out in a loud sigh. Then he looked at me and smiled weakly.
“I guess I am just being silly.”
“How?” I asked honestly.
“I just thought we were past all that. I remember the days when we had to sneak in and out of houses to try and find each and every scrap of food. It always seemed so wrong…so disrespectful of the people who once called those places home. It always felt like stealing to me. I did it because we had to do what it took to survive. Only, things are pretty good here. I just don’t see why we need to go and pick through the remains of the dead anymore.”
I thought about his words. I guess I could see his point. The only problem that I had was that he grew up in a world that I could not relate to or fully understand. He had told me about things like movies, video games, and this thing called the Olympics where people from all over the world would come and run races and stuff. Some of the events sounded kind of weird. But the even weirder part was that people would stop everything and watch these events, and all the countries made a big deal about whose athletes won more.
He talked about being able to speak to somebody by just pushing a few buttons on a little device smaller than my fire starting kit. And you could actually talk live with somebody on the other side of the world right then and there if you just pushed a few buttons.
I’d seen cars and that sort of thing for myself now that I had made a field run. It just did not seem possible, but I had seen the proof for myself. And then there was the whole thing about flying!
“So let me and Paula make the run,” I said. Billy opened his mouth, but I was too fast and kept talking. “We make the trip, use it as a chance to just scout the area and search for any possible survivors. We come back and say that there was nothing salvageable. It ain’t like Dicknose is gonna go check for himself…and he sure won’t argue with Paula.”
“How old are you, Thalia?” Billy asked.
He knew darn good and well how old I was. “Gonna be sixteen in a few weeks.”
“Jesus,” he breathed. “Has it really been that long?”
I decided to keep my mouth shut. It was obvious that Billy was going somewhere with his thoughts. I could not help but be curious to see where it would lead.
“I was about your age when all of this started. Maybe just a little older, but not by much.” He let out one of the saddest sigh that I think I have ever heard in my life. “Hell, when I was your age,” he paused and looked at me with a smile that I had not seen on his face in a long time. “When I was your age, girls were not like you.”
He paused again, but this time I saw him frown. He shook his head slightly and took three tries before he actually spoke again.
“Girls were interested in boys, malls, tweeting selfies, and Facebook.” He made that statement like each of those things held some sort of deeper meaning.
I knew about boys, and sometimes they were even interesting. I had a few that I liked to go on walks with when they asked. I wasn’t like Kayla, but I had at least kissed a few. As for malls, of course I had heard the stories. It still seemed so far-fetched. At least it had until my field run. I could imitate a few birds, but I had never heard of a selfie, much less knew what it would sound like to tweet like one. As for Facebook…I had no idea what he was talking about.
“So are you gonna let me go on this or not?” I pressed when I realized that neither of us had said a word for at least ten minutes. In that time, we had managed to walk all the way around the moat and were at the bridge.
Billy stopped and turned to face me. He was all serious, so I made sure to put a lock on my mouth so I didn’t say anything stupid that would mess things up.
“I am gonna do you one better.” Billy shot a look over my shoulder. “But you have to promise me to do what I tell you and to follow my orders.”
I nodded. This was gonna be good, I thought as I listened to Billy lay out his plan.
***
“So you are saying that it is okay for a fifteen-year-old girl to make this trip, but not you?” Billy leaned forward on the table with both hands.
Dorian Watkins had a good four feet of space between him and Billy, but it was apparently not enough. He leaned back in his chair, his own hands resting on the lip of the table like he was going to push himself back. He had certainly gone a few more shades of pale since this little impromptu meeting had begun.
“Are you certain that we can risk something like this?” Cynthia asked.
“My p-p-point exactly.” Dorian was now showing a bit of pink to highlight his already pale face. He already reminded me of the belly of a fish when he wasn’t scared for his life. Right now he barely resembled the Dicknose we all knew and hated. I almost felt sorry for him.
“We risk you, a medical person,” Billy countered. “We risk Paula, our most experienced hand-to-hand fighter. We risk Jim, our explosives expert. And we sent our newest and youngest boot camp graduate on that last run. Besides, since this request came from his desk, I think that perhaps Mr. Watkins should be on hand to prioritize the haul.”
I was impressed. You could not even tell just a little bit that this had been rehearsed.
“I c-c-can provide you with a detailed list,” Dorian stammered. He was actually wringing his hands. I could even imagine the clammy coating that I just knew I would feel if he were to touch me with those gross mitts of his.
“Things change in the field.” Paula shook her head and pressed her lips tight. Her almond-shaped eyes held a glitter that I knew Dorian was missing. Of all of us, I thought she might actually be the one to give us away if she did not wipe that smirk off her face.
“I think it would be great to have somebody so smart to come along and tell us what we needed,” I added when Billy shot me the slightest raised eyebrow.
I needed to be careful. I was having such a good time watching Dicknose squirm that I was forgetting my lines.
“Then it is settled.” Billy slapped one hand on the table making Dorian jump. “I will submit this list to the gate unless anybody here can give me a good reason not to do so. Show of hands?”
One by one, the council gave its approval by raising his or her hand. Dorian “Dicknose” Watkins was going on a field run. I could not swear to it, but I thought I saw the tiniest hints of satisfaction creep into the corners of the mouths on more than one council member.
This one was going to be different than before. We would be hitching a pair of wagons. Wagons meant noise. Noise meant zombies. Also, if there were any bad people, they would hear us coming from a mile or more away when we entered the pass. Sound carried in those winding, narrow cuts through the mountains.
I rose to my feet with everybody else who had been in attendance at this little impromptu meeting. On the way out the door, I heard Dorian pleading his case, but I could tell that even he knew it was pointless.
I stepped outside and pulled my cap from my pocket. I was going to need to get my hair trimmed before we left. It was not all fitting under my hat. Maybe Stevie could take care of it if he would tear himself away from the gardens for a few minutes.
I turned that direction when a voice called my name. I bit my tongue to keep my mouth shut. What in the world was Kayla doing here? And even more important; why was she carrying a field pack?
I watched the girl jog to where I stood. She had to be more oblivious than I imagined if she did not see the look of annoyance plastered on my face that I would absolutely not make an effort to con
ceal.
“Thanks,” Kayla gulped as she struggled to catch her breath.
Okay, so I had been at the tip of one of the entry berms and made no effort to go down and meet her. Those berms are awful steep, and with a full field pack, I imagine they were difficult to climb. Maybe her weight in front helped offset the pack, but it sure didn’t look that way when she almost toppled over backwards twice.
“What do you want, Kayla?” I finally asked.
Kayla was still bent at the waist with her hands on her knees, taking in great gulps of air. I had things to do, so she could either get to whatever it was that made her actually speak to me in public without it being some sort of nasty remark about confusing me for a boy, or I was going to go about my business.
“You are going back out.” Kayla stood and brushed the hair from her eyes.
The straps of her field pack squashed her boobs together so that they were jutting out from her in a way that made me want to poke them with my knife and see if they would deflate. It was only made worse by the fact that her shirt was a few inches above her belt line, exposing her tanned and well-toned tummy with its perfect little belly button.
“Yeah,” I said with a shrug, turning to go find Stevie.
“You are bringing a full foraging team.”
So far she was not telling me anything that I didn’t know. Yeah, I knew what she wanted, but I was going to have the satisfaction of making her ask me out loud so that I could tell her “no.”
“That’s what they told me.”
I could hear her grunting a little as I started my hike up the switchback trail that led to the massive garden where I would find Stevie. I waded through a few low-lying branches that were just about shoulder height, making no effort to keep them from whipping back into place after I passed.
“You gotta tell Mr. Haynes to assign me to this run.”
“I gotta?” I spun to face Kayla. She came to a stop suddenly and actually staggered back a step. “I don’t gotta do anything!”
Her face was as smooth as a doll’s for just a fraction of a second before the façade shattered. I was ready for her to yell at me. I was ready for her to belittle me and shift into her bullying tactics. I was ready for anything except what I got.
Tears.
Seriously? She was crying?
“What the…” I started, but my voice tripped up on the way out and I stood there with my mouth open and a stupid expression on my face. I was beyond confused.
“Nobody takes me seriously,” Kayla managed through a sob that caused her to shudder. “They think I am some big joke. You don’t think I have heard the cracks about how I would only be good for a river trip where my boobs could be used as flotation devices?”
Actually, I had probably started that one.
“You are like every field runner’s wet dream,” Kayla said with a sniff. She could have said it to sound snotty, but it actually sounded like she was envious. Of me? “You are the youngest person to graduate Paula’s hand-to-hand school, you have been on a field run, and now you are going right back out. Please,” her voice cracked, “please tell them to add me to the team.”
“Kayla,” I started, but that sense of smug satisfaction was gone, “I don’t think I have that kind of pull.”
“If you ask, tell them that you want me on the team, I just know they will listen. I will do anything you say, I swear. ” She was actually begging.
A thought hit me, and I could not stop the words that came out of my mouth. “Do you have any idea what is out there? And you are nowhere near the regs with that long hair of yours. No hot showers, no warm beds. It ain’t your kind of thing.”
I turned to walk away. A hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. A part of my mind was actually impressed. I did not think she had that much strength. However, the majority of me was finally able to enjoy some righteous indignation.
“I can do this!” Kayla insisted.
I was about to rip her a new one and tell her that if she ever touched me again that she would pull back a bloody stump. The only thing that stopped me was the great big knife in her hand. Before I could say anything, she grabbed her braid and sawed it off, flinging it to the ground.
“I’ll shave it all off if that is what it takes!” Kayla wailed, tears streaming down her face.
“You’re crazy,” I whispered.
“Please, Thalia.” Kayla sniffed and grabbed my hands in hers. She looked me in the eyes and suddenly I didn’t feel so righteous.
“I will ask.”
Kayla’s arms went wide and then wrapped around me. It took me a few heartbeats before I realized that I was just standing there like a doofus. Slowly, I brought my own arms up and hugged her back. That didn’t necessarily mean we were going to be friends, but I was seeing a new side of Kayla. Maybe I was actually seeing the real person, not the version of her that I had built up in my head.
She had actual human feelings and emotions; who knew?
***
“Absolutely not.” Billy shook his head without even looking up from behind his desk.
“Why not?” I pressed. “If this is my team like you say, then shouldn’t I get some say in who comes?”
Billy looked up at me. His face was empty of anything that I could read. I had no idea if he was angry, annoyed, or simply curious. In any case, he was giving me all of his attention.
“I’m not an idiot,” Billy said as he folded his hands in front of him on the desk like he was some sort of model student. The question was if he was studying me. And if he was, what did he see? “You and the Brockhouse girl have hated each other for as long as I can remember. And, in all honesty, she has barely squeaked past her field tests. She is not an asset. This mission is—”
“This mission is you rubbing Dorian’s nose in it and giving him a long overdue kick in the ass,” I interrupted.
“And that is what you want to do with Kayla?”
“Actually, no.”
There had been something so real in Kayla’s plea. By the time it was over, I had gone from despising every fiber of her being to feeling sorry for her. But now that I was standing here in front of Billy, pleading her case, I had to wonder what I was doing.
“You have been out there. You know very well what it is like and how fast things can change. And this run is perhaps more serious than I think we were giving credit. Going in to buildings is scary and dangerous business.” Billy’s eyes sort of clouded over and I could tell he was remembering.
“Everybody has to pull their weight.” I knew it was risky, but I took the chance in parroting one of his mantras back to him.
The door flew open and Paula stormed in, interrupting everything. She shot me a look as she strode past and actually went around Billy’s desk to get as close to in his face as she could; considering she was barely five feet tall and he was over six feet tall, it wasn’t all that close. Good thing Billy was sitting.
“You can’t be serious, Haynes!”
“About what?” Billy always amazed me at how calm he could be when things got nasty.
“Kayla Brockhouse?”
“What about her?”
“She is telling everybody that she is going on this operation.”
“Actually, that has not been determined.”
“Then let me help…no!” Paula spun to face me. “This is not a time to settle some petty score or grudge.”
“Unless you are an adult?” I snapped back. “And just what are we doing with Dorian?”
“That is different,” Paula insisted.
“Is it really?” I saw it in her eyes. I would not have to press this issue. Both she and Billy knew good and well what this run was about. It had nothing to do with scavenging. They were putting Dorian in his place.
“Thalia, I need you to step out for a moment,” Billy said, finally breaking the silence. I could hear the seriousness in his tone and knew this was not really a request. He was being very grim.
I stepped outside and let the
sun bathe me. Closing my eyes, I shut out the angry voices on the other side of the door. My mind was drifting when it suddenly grabbed hold of a memory.
I was at the entrance to an apartment complex. A woman was pulling me along when a zombie reached out from the bushes and grabbed her, pulling her to the ground. Two more clawed their way out of the thick bushes that looked black in the night. The woman was screaming for me to run...then she was just screaming.
I was helpless. The zombies looked like giants—I was just a little girl! I was terrified, but my feet refused to move. All I could do was stand there as the woman, my mother, was torn open. I saw dark clumps of her being ripped from inside her body.
I found my voice and screamed.
There was a bright light, and then a man appeared.
He was the only source of light in the darkness and seemed to glow brighter than the silver moon above. He took my hand and scooped me up. He carried me to a truck and put me inside with a gentleness that belied the horror of what was unfolding around us—
“Thalia!” Billy’s voice snapped me out of the dream.
“Huh?” I shook my head to clear it, but that didn’t do a thing for the lump in my throat and the tightness in my chest.
“Go tell Kayla to get her gear.”
I started away, but Paula called after me. “She is your second. You two will be joined at the hip. This is all on you, Hobart.”
Wow. I graduated to last name status. I knew from being around her so much that she reserved that as a show of equality. She saw me as one of the team. I was no longer her student. That made my stomach tingle.
I was one of the team!
Crap! That meant she would not be watching over my every move and jumping in to save my ass!
Yep, I was one of the team.
11
Vignettes LVIII
“What the hell were you thinking?” Juan snapped. He was kneeling in front of Mackenzie, losing the battle to keep the tears from his eyes.
