by David Rogers
Milo said something to the woman, and they both kept rowing until the boat beached itself in the sand at the water’s edge. Milo stepped out and dragged on the prow to pull it further inland. The woman didn’t leave the boat until she could put her feet on sand and not water, and her head kept jerking around as she stared at her surroundings with wide eyes.
“Over here.” Jessica said, gesturing again at the vacant house. She saw something cross Milo’s face, and he glanced at the other house; where the fire and its faint trail of light smoke swirling up into the sky was visible, but he said nothing and just nodded.
“Come on Renae.”
Jessica went up the stairs to the vacant house first, trusting Austin to cover what was going on behind her; but she didn’t sit. As the others followed, she simply turned and leaned against one of the pillars near the stairs. With her left shoulder, so her right hand was free to go for her gun if necessary.
Then she realized what she’d done and sighed mentally. From arguing with Brett about even owning a gun, to being appalled at shooting first one zombie, then too many to count, and even that bastard back in Georgia so she and Candice and Austin could escape … and now here she was ready to draw on two people who she sort of even knew, who clearly were looking for help.
“I hate this.” Jessica told herself. But she didn’t change her position, and she even acted casual as she kept her attention on the visitors.
The woman, Renae, was right behind her, still obviously skittish, and moved immediately to get behind the deck’s railing as if that bit of wood was a refuge against the grounds surrounding the house. Milo came after her, and sat down in the closest chair. Austin came up last and pulled a chair close to where Jessica stood, turning it to face down the deck toward the two newcomers.
“I’m, uh, Milo.” Milo said, looking at Jessica. “We haven’t met.”
“Jessica.”
Milo sort of waved a hand in the direction of the woman behind him, who was still staring around the landscape with more intensity than even Candice ever had; and Candice had been charged by Jessica more than a few times to be the primary lookout in some pretty bad circumstances. “This is Renae.”
“Hello Renae.”
“What?” the woman said, startling and turning her head. “Oh, hi.” She sort of bobbed her head slightly, but then looked back at the landscape.
“What happened to Byron.” Austin asked, while Jessica studied Renae. She had a hard time not understanding the woman’s nervousness; she herself had been that nervous before. But she’d dealt with her fears of the new world those still breathing found themselves stuck in a lot better than Renae apparently had. Jessica decided she wasn’t sure how she wanted to react to the other woman, even though she understood, but disagreed with, how Renae was handling the apocalypse. September had been months now, and that was a lot of time to have gotten over shock.
“I don’t suppose he or any of the others have been by in the past couple of days?” Milo asked in return.
“No.” Austin said, glancing up at Jessica.
“No.” she confirmed. “I mean, I guess you could try asking Happy, but that might take a few minutes.”
“Once he wakes up.” Austin interjected.
Jessica glanced at him with a nod. “Good point, he’s got to be passed out, or he’d probably have yelled something when he saw the boat. Anyway, I doubt they’d swing by and talk to him without at least waving at us. They always do.”
“Yeah, I know.” Milo said unhappily. “They like to keep tabs on how things are going ashore, and talking to you is part of that.”
“When did they go missing?” Austin asked.
“What?”
Austin shrugged. “There are some fairly obvious reasons why Byron and his team are the ones who come ashore, and the rest of you never do. If you two got up the courage to leave the boats, he must be missing.”
Milo nodded, his expression still discontent. “A week. Well, a week tomorrow.”
“Doesn’t he normally only stay out overnight, maybe two sometimes?”
“Yes, and never longer. But they set off headed to the south end of the lake and … they haven’t come back.”
“Well we can keep an eye out—” Jessica started, but Milo spoke quickly and broke into her comment.
“We were wondering if maybe you’d help look for them.”
Jessica made herself not react, letting a few moments go by while she worked to keep from saying no out of hand. An instant no, she knew, would invite argument. Better to frame the rejection as if it were more measured and considered. Even though she could think of fewer things she’d rather get involved in than traipsing around South Florida looking for four people who were, in all likelihood, zombies or zombie meals if they’d been missing for a week.
“That’s kind of a big ask.” Austin said calmly while Jessica was thinking of a way to decline as politely as possible. “I mean, that’s a lot of ground to cover even if we’re willing, which I’m not saying we are.”
“We know where they are.” Milo said. “I mean, where they were going anyway.”
“Where’s that?” Jessica asked.
“Belle Glade.”
“That’s not just on the south side of the lake; it’s on the east side too.” Jessica objected. She’d had plenty of time in the months since settling here to review and study the maps she had on hand, eager to familiarize herself with the area in case knowledge of the geography would be useful. Which, with zombies always looming and threatening, could easily become life-saving information to have readily available.
“I haven’t been scouting over there,” Austin said, “but Byron and the others had. And what I have seen makes me believe them when they said east of the lake is heavily infested.”
“They weren’t going east, just to the south. Only to Belle Glade.” Milo said. “Because it’s an area we haven’t scavenged in yet. He wanted to scout out some fresh supplies, and start moving them to the shore for retrieval. To build up a bigger stock, so he could take time later to work on other things.”
“Even putting the zombie issue aside for just a quick moment, Austin’s still right.” Jessica said. “They could’ve ended up anywhere, and South Florida’s a pretty big place.”
“Lot of swamps.” Austin agreed. “If they haven’t turned up, there could be a lot of reasons why, and most of them mean we could spend months looking full time, even with everyone in your boats, and a hundred more besides, and still not find them. Especially not even their bodies.”
“They got to Belle Glade.” Milo said, flinching a little at the last part of Austin’s statement. “I found their boat.”
“Where, at the city?”
“At a dock, in the canal just north of the town.”
“That really doesn’t change the problem any.” Jessica said as calmly and neutrally as she could. “I mean, there’s a reason the rest of you stay out on the water while Byron’s group comes in to get supplies. It’s dangerous.”
“You guys are making out okay.” Milo said.
“We’re careful, and we don’t take unnecessary risks.” Jessica said before she could stop herself.
“Neither do we.”
You—” Jessica started, but Austin spoke first and kept going.
“Nothing personal, but I’ve been around with Byron and Carlo, Arcelia, and even Nate some, for a bit now. I know them pretty well. They’re just regular people, not a group of Rambo zombie killers. The only thing that marks them out from the rest of your people is they’re willing to come ashore and bring stuff back.”
“What’s your point.” Milo asked, but as harsh as the words might sound on their face, Milo sounded more desperate than negative or hostile.
“My point is what they do for you is dangerous. What we, me and Jessica, do is dangerous too. But we do it because the alternative is starving or taking worse risks when we get desperate from hunger.”
Milo sighed, and rubbed his hands across the sides
of his hair, ruffling it up untidily. “Okay, that’s fair. I mean, it’s a conversation we’ve had out there more than once. It’s just … we’ve got a … look, a number of our group are kids or retirees.”
“How many?” Jessica asked.
“About half. And yes, I’ll admit, for myself if not the others in that second half, that I’m scared as fuck to be out here. It actually took us most of yesterday to argue about what to do about Byron, and Renae’s only here because I insisted I wasn’t coming ashore alone. She lost the draw.”
“You … oh.” Jessica said.
“You said ‘help’ look for Byron.” Austin said. “It’s just two of us, and we can’t be gone very long—”
“Austin!” Jessica said, alarmed.
“—even if we agree.” Austin finished, looking at Jessica. She read a number of things in his gaze, chief among them resignation and understanding. But there were also some of those other bits and pieces that she loved about him; only now they were working against what she actually wanted. His courage and loyalty, so often to her benefit since all this hell started, was clearly pushing him toward at least considering some sort of help for the Houseboaters’ predicament.
“Yeah, help.” Milo said weakly. “I mean, I’ll be looking. If we find them, if they’re just lost or maybe trapped somewhere and can’t move, and we can get them back, I can — I mean, things can go back to normal. But I could really use some company, you know?”
“You’re kidding.” Jessica blurted out.
Milo switched his eyes to her. “What? No, I’m serious; I’m going looking for them.”
“I mean, out of your entire group, you’re the only one willing to …” Jessica said, before trailing off, unable to think of how to phrase the remainder of her thought without being negative.
“Things were bad down here.” Milo said miserably. “We all come from around here, and, well, you’ve heard how messed up it got before it all finished falling apart. A lot of us went through all sorts of hell to end up here.”
“Everyone has.” Jessica said, unable to help herself, though she kept a firm grip on the lid of her box of horrific memories so they didn’t spill out. Now was definitely not the time.
“Maybe so. And maybe that makes us, I don’t know, weak or something.” Milo said with a resigned shrug. “But it is what it is. Byron was our leader, and not just because he was leading the scavenging team. He … even after he lost his family, and Carlo with his, and Arcelia and Nate … they just dealt with it better than … than the rest of us.” He shrugged again. “Like you. They’ve handled it like you two.”
“Like us how?”
“Like, you know … like how you’re living here and doing so well.”
“I don’t know how to say this,” Austin said calmly, clearly making an effort to pitch his voice reasonably and without letting accusation ring in the words, “but it pretty much looks like this is how things are going to be. For a good while anyway. You either get on with living, or you’re just waiting to die.”
“I’m not disagreeing. And I’m here, and I’m going to Belle Glade.” Milo insisted. “But, look, we’ve got two people who are still basically catatonic; we can barely even get them to eat and change their clothes. Two more refuse to go out on deck, they just stay indoors and freak at any suggestion they should come out. Another guy had his arm crushed during the outbreaks, he basically only has the one left now.”
Jessica sat very firmly on her automatic response, which wasn’t pleasant regardless of how true it might be. “What you’re asking is … it’s a lot.”
“I know. Believe me, I know.” Milo said. “But we’re — I’m — desperate. We’ve got maybe a couple of weeks of supplies left. Hunger and circumstance might change some of our peoples’ minds when we get there, but waiting that long means that there’s no hope for Byron.”
“There might not be hope now.” Jessica said quietly.
Milo’s expression twisted into something sick and tormented. “I know.” he said in a small voice. “But if there’s a chance.”
“A week’s a long time.” Austin said. “We’ve had zombie problems before, gotten cornered and had to hide, but a week’s an awful long time for the situation to stay that bad.”
“I know they might be dead.” Milo said. “I know. I’m not saying it’s not a possibility. And I’m not asking for, I don’t know, like heroics or miracles or whatever. But they were pretty good at what they do, and had good things to say about you. And you too Jessica.” he added, looking at her pleadingly before shifting back to Austin. “If there’s a chance, it’d … it’d really help.”
Austin glanced at Jessica. She almost shook her head right there, but she felt Milo’s eyes shift to her when Austin’s did. Instead she settled for trying to pour her decision into a blank face, hoping he’d read her as well as he so often did.
“You, all of you, need to prepare yourselves for what you’re going to do if they’re not coming back.” Austin said.
“I’m trying!” Milo exclaimed. “But if there’s a chance ...”
“Even if we go looking, it could only be for a day or two.” Austin said, looking at Jessica again. Now she did shake her head, just the tiniest fraction. “Tops.” he said, meeting her eyes before looking back to Milo. “Tops. Even constraining our search to Belle Glade, and even if it’s not overrun like things over that direction are supposed to be, the odds of finding them or their bodies are pretty low.”
“I … we need them.” Milo said.
“This is—” Jessica said, before forcing herself to stop and reorganize what she wanted to say. “You said you all had a meeting before you and Renae were sent to come talk to us. Did any of you talk about what happens if we say no? Or if Byron doesn’t turn up?”
“We tried. A little. But with supplies still on hand, it was hard to get past the … the—”
“Fear.” Jessica supplied.
“Yeah, fear.” Milo agreed unhappily. “But I did some thinking about it on the way over here, and if it comes down to that, I was wondering if maybe we couldn’t work out some sort of trade deal or something. With you.”
“Trade?”
“Yeah. Like, fish or labor for canned goods, stuff like that, maybe.”
Jessica sat on her impulse to … several things, actually. Laugh in his face. Dismiss it outright. Or even offer a simple pitying sigh. “What labor can you offer if you won’t even come ashore?” she said after a moment.
“Boil water I thought, and deliver it.” Milo said uncomfortably. “Pick up your clothes and stuff, bring them back washed. Maybe pick up wood from the shore and keep you supplied. You know, that kind of thing.”
“Milo, there’s not a lot of daylight left today.” Austin said as Jessica held her tongue and struggled to find words that would end this whole crazy notion without leading the conversation into something ugly and unpleasant. “And it’s generally not the best idea, even for an already bad one, to be puttering around in the dark these days. I’m not saying we’ll help, or even that I’ll help, but I’m not saying no either.”
He received the sharp look Jessica shot at him with a patient expression, and stood up. “Give us the night. To consider it. But I’m telling you, even if either of us help even a little with this, you guys need to come up with a hell of a better plan for the road ahead than praying Byron comes back or that you can trade us some fish and clean water in exchange for the volume of other food that twenty or thirty some odd people eat.”
“I … I understand.” Milo said. “But you’ll think about it?”
“We’ll talk about it, yes.”
“So tomorrow morning?”
“Don’t hold your breath.” Jessica thought, firmly even though she felt a flash of guilt about it.
“Come by tomorrow morning if you want an answer. But I’m not kidding; you really need to have another meeting, and see how many of your people are ready to keep living.” Austin said.
“Okay.” Milo n
odded unhappily. “I, uh, thanks.”
Jessica stepped back from the stairs as Milo got Renae’s attention, which took a lot longer than it really should have before the woman ceased her intense scan of the surroundings and realized they were leaving. Then Renae all but ran back to the boat, and helped shove it into the water before climbing aboard with him. As the two of them turned the craft with the oars and started rowing, Renae digging against the water with her oar with far more eagerness than she had on the way in, Jessica fixed an intense look at Austin.
“You have got to be kidding me.” she exclaimed.
“Jessica—”
“I like Byron, but it’s been a week. If they’re gone, they’re either dead or they decided to strike out on their own.”
“No, I’ve spent some more time with him than you.” Austin disagreed. “He might very well be dead, one way or another, but I’d be more than even a lot surprised that they’d gone ashore and just kept going. Some of them have family on those boats. Byron’s sister is aboard, and Carlo’s wife, and Nate’s cousin.”
“What did you say to Candice last night. Everything’s a risk, and we have to manage them because sooner or later we won’t beat the odds?”
“I just think we should talk about it.” he insisted. She struggled not to glare at him, and he shrugged and put on a contrite expression. “At least a little? Please?”
Jessica sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, then stepped past him to sit down in the chair Milo had vacated. “Austin, I love you. And one of the million and one things I love about you is your good-guy streak. But this isn’t a movie. The heroes don’t always win.”
“Byron’s helped us a lot. He’s been friendly and fair, he’s never been an ass or not taken the time to help us when we asked.”
“We asked if he knew about things like hunting, how to preserve the meat, where the worst of the zombies in the area are, if he’d seen any good spots that hadn’t been ransacked yet.” Jessica protested. “We never said, hey, come with us into a zombie infested town and roam the streets looking for—”
“I know.” Austin interrupted gently. “Honest. But he’s been an ally, a friend. The least we can do is maybe spend a day or two looking a little.”
