Fortunes & Failures - 03

by T. W. Brown

  Just before sunset, Jason caught up with us. I didn’t ask him about Lee and he didn’t offer. Personally, I’m relieved the guy is gone. I don’t wish zombie-induced death on anyone, but that man had worn out his welcome as far as I was concerned.

  “Good thinking with that hydroplane,” I said, offering him my newly acquired canteen.

  “Actually,” Jason said after a long drink, “you sorta clued me in on how stupid those things are. They’re mindless robots. The way they locked onto you as you ran through the woods was incredible. I had no idea just how simple it would be to fool them. Watching you lead that big-ass herd, I knew I could get you out if they didn’t eat you first.”

  “Thank God for small miracles,” I said with a laugh. It felt good to laugh. That was something else I hadn’t done in a long time.

  I looked from one face to another: Jamie, Aaron, and Jason. They weren’t joining in. Something was up. Maybe they’d had those looks the whole time and I was just noticing it, but I don’t think so.

  “What?” I asked.

  They all began looking immediately at the ground. None of them wanted to make eye contact with me. My mind began to race. There was no mistaking the signs. Something had gone wrong in my absence. I could count Thalia and Emily off of my list of worries because of Jamie’s earlier comments. Also, I felt fairly confident that Teresa was okay because Jamie would not be this together if it were otherwise.

  “Randi hung herself,” Jamie blurted.

  “Out in the woods,” Aaron added.

  I sat there stunned. I thought of all the things that I had been through with her and Barry. I knew she’d not taken her husband being bitten well at all. I also knew she’d seen her and Barry’s daughter torn apart by a pack of those things in their back yard. In fact, it was days…maybe even weeks before I heard her speak. Then, slowly, she began to open up and become a solid presence for everybody. I just couldn’t reconcile what she’d done. But what the hell did I know? I’d never been in a relationship that lasted longer than half a year. I’d often watch those two together, and I tried to figure out how two people could be so obviously in love.

  “Who found her?” I asked with no idea why the answer mattered.

  “Chloe,” Aaron said.

  “She and Sunshine were picking mushrooms or something,” Jamie explained. “They’ve been going out regularly and coming back with all kinds of leaves and flowers and such that they use when making dinner.”

  “Some of it’s even good,” Jason added.

  “I guess Chloe found her and freaked,” Aaron continued. “Never heard a deaf person cry, she scared the hell out of Billy and me. We were on watch when she and Sunshine came back to camp. I thought the stiffs had come up with something new to lure people…like that creepy baby cry sound.”

  “Then Teresa and Sunshine and Melissa got into a big catfight because Teresa and Melissa wanted to give some pills to Chloe,” Jamie picked up the story. “Sunshine went mental about all the weird drugs probably being why zombies happened in the first place. Fiona and that funky black chick with the shaved head—”

  “Jillian,” Aaron piped up.

  “Yeah, her,” Jamie agreed. “Those two had to physically separate them.”

  “So it’s been pretty rough?” If nothing, I had a firm grasp on the obvious.

  “Toss in Thalia and Emily arguing over who misses you more, and I think we have it covered,” Jamie said.

  I leaned against the tree at my back; my stomach full for the first time in days. It was getting dark. There would be no fire obviously, but I was so happy to be out of that smelly recreation center that warmth was of little concern. Besides, it wasn’t terribly cold, even this high up in the mountain…or hills…or whatever. Jamie, Aaron, and Jason were whispering. It sounded urgent.

  I didn’t care. That was my last real thought as I drifted off to sleep.

  

  My body felt like crap. Sleeping while sitting up was bad enough. And even though somebody had been nice enough to cover me with a sleeping bag in the middle of the night, there’s a certain coldness that seeps up from the ground and tightens every tendon in your body. It felt as if I had been compressed twenty or thirty percent overnight. When I stood, I swear I could hear creaking. The stretching sounds of protest that came from every joint or moveable part of my body just seemed to amplify the pain.

  “Coffee?” Jason offered me a hard plastic trucker-sized mug.

  “Thanks.” I took it, breathing deeply the smell of wood smoke. A small pit had been dug at some point and a fire started. A metal cooking pot was dangling from a branch that had been shoved into the ground over the tiny fire.

  We had instant oatmeal, instant coffee, and a handful of wild mountain blackberries; all of which were delightful. Deprivation really has a way of changing your prospective. Once we were done, and the fire doused, stirred, stomped, and buried, we got moving. The rest of the morning we walked in silence.

  Food, water, and the lessening of the feeling that I was going to die soon helped clear my head. That’s how I began to notice a few things. The biggest was that something was definitely bothering Jamie and Aaron. The second thing being that Jamie kept glancing at me with a look that told me he wanted to say or ask something. Yet, each time, he would get no further than allowing his mouth to hang open for a few seconds before he would snap it shut and continue hiking.

  I didn’t remember the trip back being this steep either time that I’d made it before. On and on we hiked through the woods. I figured we would arrive around midday providing that I didn’t slow them down too much. I even considered protesting when we stopped for lunch, but my body made it clear to my mouth that the only need it had to open was for taking in more food.

  After a light lunch of jerky and some sort of unleavened bread-type things, we were on our feet and on the move. More than once, I felt that there was something just not right with everybody. My mind kept puzzling over it. It couldn’t be simply due to my own awkwardness after being away from people for a while that was making me hyper-sensitive.

  A couple hours—that’s my best guess—after we’d stopped for lunch, Aaron whistled. One long, two short. Weird, I thought, when did we start doing that?

  I wasn’t two steps into the clearing when I heard a little girl’s squeals.

  “Papi!”

  Thalia was running down the hill that our communal house sat perched upon. Well, really it was the parks and recreation building that the caretaker of what had once been a large campground resided in. The best feature of that building was the giant stone fireplace that hadn’t, as of yet, been put to use. At least as far as I knew.

  I handed my stuff—what little there actually was—to Aaron and knelt down ready to catch the tiny Hispanic girl. My eyes darted around, searching for Emily. I saw Ian and Billy come out onto the porch, but no sigh of Teresa, Melissa, or Dr. Zahn. These people were the core of our original group and I realized I actually felt a spike of anxiety with their absence.

  “You’re back, Papi,”Thalia laughed as she plowed into me, sending me onto my back.

  I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the top of her head. She snuggled into my chest for a moment, then her head popped up. Her smile was brighter than the summer sun, and her dark eyes sparkled.

  “You made it in time.” She grabbed my scruffy face in her little hands and wriggled up into a sitting position on my stomach.

  “In time?” I asked confused.

  “Mañana es mi cumpleaños.”

  “What?”

  “Teresa said tomorrow is August 2nd”

  “Okay.”

  “I will be six!”

  “Wow!” I struggled to sit up and she climbed off of me. As soon as I was on my feet, she had my hand and was leading me up to the house. “So, where is everybody?”

  “Teresa and Emily are picking blackberries with Chloe, Sunshine and Jillian. Melissa, Finona,” she paused and took a deep breath. “Fee-oh-naa.” She enunciat
ed very slowly, “and Molly are washing clothes with Curtis and Paul. Brad, George and Dr. Zahn are in the house with Buster.”

  “Buster?” I asked after I shook my head at how fast she had rattled all that off.

  “A Border Collie,” Ian said as he walked across a narrow wooden bridge that extended over the now complete trench that circled the hill our residence sat atop.

  “I’m teaching him to sitstay,” she ran the words together as one.

  “Welcome back, Steve.” Ian gripped my shoulders.

  “Yeah, man,” Billy added. “We thought we’d lost you.”

  “Told ya.” Talia glared up at the sixteen-year-old.

  “Yep, you did.” He nodded and mussed her hair playfully.

  “Everybody should be back soon.” Ian led the way as we headed to the house. “Dr. Zahn said you were to be brought to her as soon as you returned.”

  “If she’s worried about whether I got bit or not,” I tried to joke, but Ian shot me a look. It was the same kind of look I’d seen on Jamie and Aaron’s face. That expression that told me something was wrong.

  “Yep,” Billy blurted as if just remembering something. “That reminds me, Thalia, I promised Melissa that you and I would go get her as soon as Steve got back, so c’mon.”

  “I want to stay with my Papi!” she insisted. I felt her hand squeeze mine tighter.

  “But I promised,” Billy insisted. “Plus she said she had a surprise for your Papi that she needed your help with.”

  I could hear the improvised lie in his voice. It was official. There was something being kept from me. I was certain that, whatever it was, it would be bad. The question was…how bad?

  Thalia turned, pulling my arm bringing me down to her level. She threw both arms around my neck and squeezed. For a moment, I wasn’t sure if she was going to let go. Then, she drew back and rested her forehead against mine.

  “I love you, Papi,” she whispered. “Don’t go anyplace anymore.”

  “I love you, too,” I said and kissed the tip of her nose. “I’m not going anyplace.” I glanced up at Ian and Billy to be sure. “Right guys?”

  “Nope,” Ian said. “He’s staying put Thalia.”

  “We need him right here,” Billy added.

  With obvious reluctance Thalia let go and followed Billy around the campground to where all the blackberry bushes were located. I watched for a second fighting down a lump in my throat and the tears that started to well up in my eyes.

  I waited till I knew they were out of earshot. “What the hell is going on?” I asked as I followed Ian.

  “Doc won’t tell us mere mortals,” Ian said with a shrug. “She said that if it was a sure thing that you wouldn’t be making it back, then she’d have to decide what to do.”

  “About what?” I asked, trying not to let the frustration and annoyance show.

  “Maybe you’ll be able to tell me,” Ian replied, and I could tell he was having a battle maintaining tone himself.

  I reached the large porch of the building that we called home—at least for now—and took a look around. The crew had been busy. Besides the sheer-walled, six foot deep, four foot wide trench around the hill, I saw that the dirt from the trench had been put to good use. It created a berm that cordoned off the road leading into this place. This also allowed for additional barricades to be put up. Anybody that arrived here in a vehicle would be forced to stop well away from our residence and in full view of the guard tower on top of the building.

  “Who’s been running the show here as far as these security measures?” I asked. “I’m impressed.”

  “Who else?” Ian laughed.

  “Teresa?”

  “Duh!” Ian said and opened the door. “Hey, Doc!”

  “Do you have to yell?” a voice called back. I swear, you’ve been spending too much time with those hooligans Billy and Aaron.”

  “I brought you somebody.” Ian stepped aside so I could enter the big open visitors’ center. An older woman with her grey hair pulled back in a bun so tight that I marveled that it didn’t cause her eyes to slant was standing there with her hands on her hips.

  “Steve,” she gasped and broke into an enormous smile accompanied by…could it be…tears?

  “Francis.” I stepped in and hugged the normally stoic woman. I was the only person who dared use her name. Everybody else called her ‘Doc’, or more likely ‘Dr. Zahn’.

  Dr. Francis Zahn had accompanied us when we left Serenity Base the night it fell to invaders. I could count the number of times I had seen her laugh or smile on one hand…even if I combined the total. She was a very no-nonsense lady.

  After less than ten seconds, she pushed away, wiped her eyes, and announced, “Can everybody please excuse us? I want to give Steve a check-up and there are a few sensitive matters that I need to discuss with him in private.” She may have sounded like she was asking, but it really wasn’t a request.

  “You smell,” Dr. Zahn—that’s who she was again in the blink of an eye, no sign of emotion—said. “Get out of those clothes and clean up in the basin we got in the kitchen. We can talk in there.”

  “Glad you’re back, Steve,” I said in a poor impersonation of the clipped tones of our dear doctor.

  I did as I was told; stripping down as I went, modesty no longer a concern, and tossed the filthy ball of rags into a garbage can. I noticed a curtained cubicle and stepped inside. The floor was tilted so that the water would flow out through a grate that I assumed emptied outside. A section of PVC pipe was sticking out through a cutout in the wall. It had a flex joint, and as soon as I pulled down, gravity allowed the sun-warmed water to pour through an improvised shower head that looked suspiciously like a pasta strainer.

  “I assumed you heard about Randi Jenkins,” Dr. Zahn said as she thrust her arm through the curtain and handed me a bar of soap.

  “Heard she hung herself and that Chloe found her,” I replied.

  “Yes, well I am sorry that I have to tell you this, but I don’t think that is entirely accurate.”

  “What do you mean, Doc?”

  “I mean I examined Randi.”

  “You telling me what I think you are?”

  “Steve, Randi Jenkins was murdered prior to being hung up in that tree.”

  I let the water rinse away the filth and stink that I could still taste in my mouth. I looked down at my feet, remembering the bliss of that hot shower the day we arrived at Serenity Base. I tried to let my mind wrap around just exactly what it was that the doctor was saying.

  “Are you certain?”

  “Rope doesn’t leave handprints. The damage to the throat was not consistent with what you see when a person hangs themselves. Also, Randi was found on a low branch above a campsite picnic table.” Dr. Zahn was speaking in that detached clinical way that used to irk me when we first met. That was before I realized that that was her way of dealing with her emotions. “All she would have needed to do was step off the edge of the table. There would not be a big drop, simply a choking. She was strangled and her throat was crushed; so whoever did this was strong. Randi Jenkins died a violent death.”

  “And you’ve told nobody?” I reached out for a towel. After drying off for the most part, I wrapped it around my waist and stepped out.

  “Not one single person. In fact,” Dr. Zahn raised her eyes to meet mine, “I did the autopsy one afternoon when everybody was setting up one of those heavy barricades on the entry road. I don’t think anybody knows I even did it. That night we had the burial, and I had already dressed Randi and wrapped her in a tarp.”

  “So,” I accepted a stack of neatly folded and clean clothes that the doc had waiting, “what were you going to do if I didn’t make it back? You told nobody so…what?”

  “Jason and Jamie were confident that they could bring you home.”

  “But what if they’d been wrong?”

  “I probably would have told Teresa.”

  “So everybody else is a suspect?”

 
“Within reason…yes.”

  My mind tumbled over what little I knew about everybody. Outside of our small core group that I’d been with the past few months, we’d taken in an assortment of stragglers and, right or wrong, I was certain that whoever had done this had to come from those new arrivals.

  “Well then, what do you want me to do?” I pulled on my clean shirt.

  “We need to…” Dr. Zahn’s voice faded. “I don’t know. That’s the problem. It’s not like I can gather forensic evidence. Steve, we’re stuck.”

  “Perhaps,” I nodded, “but there is a possibility that the person who did this will do it again. So what we have to do is decide just exactly who we can trust and bring them into our circle. Then…we watch and wait.”

  “Okay,” the older woman agreed. “I think Teresa is a given.”

  “And Melissa,” I offered.

  “What about Ian and the boys?”

  I thought it over. My mind went back to our first meeting. Ian had been in a farmhouse with a man named Dillon that I’d been certain had spent time in prison. I had my doubts that Ian’s past was all that spotless, but I had never made a big deal about it because neither Ian nor the other man, Dillon, had given me reason for concern. As it stood, I felt confident that Ian was not our man. If Dillon was still alive, I was certain I would feel the same about him.

  “Ian.”

  “Fine,” Dr. Zahn said after a moment’s hesitation. “But that’s it.”

  “Not Jamie, Aaron or Billy?” I asked a little curious.

  “Each for different reasons,” Dr. Zahn explained. “With Aaron, that boy’s a little bit gung ho. Saw that with a lot of young soldiers. They get so into being a soldier that they don’t know when to quit. Billy can’t keep a secret two steps away from the source, and Jamie…well, I have my reasons.”