Dead End (Book 2): A Very Good Neighbor

by P. S. Power

  “Easy Moll. Darla has this.” He thought so at least. If not, he did. He aimed and waited, the girl scrambling to get the rifle into place. He thought he could hear her muttering.

  “Safety off... Stay calm, aim for the head...” Then a shot rang out and the shambler that had closed on Colleen fell down. It still moved, of course, since they didn't die, but it wasn't walking anywhere for the time being. Not having a big chunk of brain could do that.

  Jake nodded.

  “We need to behead them and bury the bodies. They don't have to go deep, but you should never leave them on the surface, at least three feet. It's why we carried shovels with us. And machetes for taking the heads. I'll do mine, to demonstrate, everyone else can draw straws to see who gets the others. Only people that haven't done it before, the rest of us will dig.”

  In his jacket pocket Jake had a face mask, a piece of cloth that had some oil rubbed in, and smelled like french-fries, since they'd used old vegetable oil for the purpose. Way better than the old motor oil they'd had before that. It didn't take him long to take the zombie's head, explaining what he did carefully, avoiding the hands, since a scratch could infect a person too. It wasn't a hundred percent, but bad enough that they quarantined scratch victims.

  A bite was a sure thing. Everyone getting one of those just died. As in they either stuck a gun in their mouth, or one of the others did it for them. That was normally his job.

  Becky Fines took over when he asked who was next, the whole thing clearly distressing to her. She shook, trembled and suddenly was sweating enough that even in the cool November afternoon her clothing was getting drenched. She did it though, all the way through. A bit of red tinted the black, which made the hook nosed woman gasp when she saw it. Fear on her face.

  “Red...” She pointed at the blood seeping from the neck wound.

  “No.” Jake said simply, shaking his head. “An uninfected person is all red, that's black. It takes time for a person to turn, sometimes even old ones like this will have some red left. It doesn't mean anything. If they keep moving after death like this, then you know for certain.”

  As if it was hard to tell...

  But these women hadn't been out doing things like this, he remembered. It was all new to them.

  No one else wanted to go next.

  Looking around, Jake sighed. It would be easiest in the moment to do it himself, or get Molly or Dave to step in, but that wasn't the point. He pointed at Rita.

  “You're up. You've taken zombies before, this is part of the job. You do the first half, Darla, you finish it?” He made it a question. He was not going to force the little girl to cut off something's head, but if she could, it would show these other people a lot.

  And shame them into acting like grown-ups.

  God, you'd think they all failed their zombie killing classes in school or something.

  Rita managed a good and healthy ten chops to the thing's neck, a lot less than halfway through, before she had to go and get sick. The odor would do that to you. Darla took the machete and a face mask and got to work. It took a while. Little girls didn't have a lot of upper body strength.

  Sue threw up too, while Colleen shook and looked miserable. Becky Fines looked fierce though, hard again, like she normally did. It was, Jake figured, why the other women let her lead. She looked like a badass. It didn't hurt that she hadn't lost her breakfast too.

  Neither did Darla.

  Jake had the first time he even shot a zombie, and again when he took one's head off. They really reeked, so it wasn't hard to do. A scent of rot and decay so strong that he occasionally gagged anyway, even after hundreds of kills and beheadings. No shame in it, as long as you didn't let it get you killed.

  The digging was done by everyone else, with Jake helping, since he didn't count when it came to special privileges regarding work. It was a rule. Molly and Len situated the first head in the little, extra deep, hole they had for that, mouth down. Then carefully they dropped the body on top of it. Jake did his and helped Darla with the one she'd gotten.

  As they walked away Jake covered all the mistakes they'd made. But with a smile.

  “Molly, you and your team should have been on a low level threat like this instantly. Good reflexes on your part personally, but we need to practice as a group before you start standing guard duty. Rita... It's natural to get sick like that. Next time finish the job. Zombies don't care if you throw up on them. A little slow overall, especially you Darla. Good job for a first time, but we'll practice as far as speed goes. Maybe take you to clean a few houses with one of the current groups for fun.” He was kidding about that last part, but the girl just nodded, riding in the little cart thing.

  “OK. I can go faster. Cutting that head off was gross.”

  “No doubt. I think it's gross too. But it has to be done. Next time we'll make Colleen do it for screaming like that. A sad day Becks, a sad and sorry day.” He shook his head and smiled for a second, before he realized what he'd called her.

  Becks.

  Oh, it was her last name, so not some huge scandal, but he'd always called Rachel that. Her older sister. In fact he was the only one that called her that. Colleen turned around as she drove, but only for a moment, her eyes going wide. Then she put her eyes front and nodded somberly. Half to avoid looking at him, the other to keep her course straight.

  “I don't even know what happened to her. She was with us at the compound, I only got in originally because she worked at the station, taking calls. One day she just, vanished. No one would tell me what happened.” She said, softly enough it was almost lost in the sound of the engine.

  Jake kept walking for a bit, no one else said anything, paying attention either to their surroundings or to the conversation. Grand.

  Fuck, really.

  He took a deep breath and dove in. She deserved to know.

  “I... Rachel turned and was in the first wave of super-z, type-B, that was sent against the House, several months ago. I... I... shot her and then took her head off. She won't be coming back again.” He sounded bad, he knew. Too casual. Too... bored, with the whole thing.

  It wasn't how he felt, the memory of it burned through him. In all the world he'd only ever loved one person really. Rachel. Back in high school. They were close then, he was a giant mess of awkward and spaz, and she was popular, funny and cool, but that hadn't changed his feelings. They'd been best friends, they were going to start a band and tour, until he ruined everything by telling her how he felt.

  Stupid emotions anyway.

  Colleen didn't say anything for a long time. When she did there were clear tears in her voice.

  “Fuck... I'm so sorry Mickey. That's... I know you were friends. She used to talk about you. After what happened. All this I mean.”

  That was news to him. He kept walking. Good to know she'd at least thought something of him, when the world had pretty much ended. It... well, it didn't help now, did it? For all he knew Colleen was lying to make him feel better, but why would she? When he glanced over there were wet tracks running down her cheeks. Yeah, he could see that. Of course anyone that went missing was dead now, but knowing about it for sure, that changed things, didn't it?

  For a few seconds Rachel's face hung in front of him, the way she was, Back Before, years ago. Then it changed to something more grim, the way he'd left her, head off, and body face down in a pit. So much for love.

  Jake didn't talk for the rest of the journey back to the compound.

  When they got in they were met by a pretty large group of people. It wasn't like they had television after all, though these lucky folks did have a radio. Technically the House could too, with just a radio, a large antenna and electricity. It sounded impossible, but thanks to the windmill and generator that Justine and Burt had built, that might actually be something that could happen now. As long as people wore head phones. Zombies probably didn't care about whether the voice they heard came from a box or not.

  Not until they tried to eat it
at least.

  They'd be happy enough with the tender listeners sitting next to it no doubt.

  They got a lot more help with the cows now, since everyone was back already. Carl and his hunting team, the largest group by far, since the muscular black guy was popular with the new women. Very much. Almost comically so, really. They were back from their own hunt, with three nice deer, and Carl was giving a class to a group of women and kids that watched carefully, but also seemed a bit grossed out. They hadn't been eating a lot of anything that didn't come from a can for a long while.

  “So work the edge towards you and point down, making sure you just take the skin with it, you want those as close to whole as possible, for curing later, so go slow and be careful. Use two fingers to hold the flesh up, so you don't accidentally puncture the stomach wall. Remember that. Take the time to do it right.” The man looked up and smiled at the new group, a large toothy thing that seemed a little lazy.

  “Cows? Well, those are basically the same. The hide's a bit thicker. Let's get Jake to do one for demonstration next, we'll just hang it up next to this one for a side by side comparison.”

  It took a while to set up and then Carl, not being an a-hole, actually talked him through all of it. It was harder than doing a smaller animal, but the basics really were the same. He just followed along as attentively as he could, nearly ignored by all the women watching. Except Colleen and oddly enough, Molly, who observed as if actually trying to learn something. Rita watched Carl too, with a lot more intent than Jake had seen from her before. She'd been one of the women that Derrick Holsom had slept with and addicted to some freaky hormone or chemical he gave off. The thing there was that Rita already had a boyfriend, Chris. Technically half a boyfriend, since she shared the guy with Nate, the House's leader. Maybe she was looking for someone to take his place? Or at least keep the bed warm when it was Nate's turn?

  Jake didn't know and wouldn't be asking. Maybe she just wanted the eye candy? Or maybe, just maybe, she was trying to learn something too. The next two animals got done by other people and Jake took a turn just watching himself, trying to make sure he had it all down. Killing was easy enough, even animals weren't hard.

  But making sure you saved the meat, that took a bit of knowledge and they'd need everyone here to get up to speed. Everyone at the House too. It was a real point. The reason they hadn't moved people yet wasn't just a lack of food or space, it was because Jake wanted the new people to come in with good habits already started. It would influence everyone if they were lazy on arrival. Everyone needed a job.

  So hunting groups, but maybe they could add some more scavengers too? That and some people to dig and build the new shelters? That should be close to enough, since they'd need wood for that too. Jake watched, his head nodding a bit as he did.

  Then they moved on to preserving the meat. One thing that the police had that the House didn't, was salt. Not just a little bit either, tons of the stuff. Meant for the roads in winter, but it hadn't been treated with anything else, so they could eat it. Or use it to preserve food. That was cool. Drying everything worked, and they could just freeze everything soon, a simple shed would do for that, but yeah, salting did the trick too.

  The dinners were interesting, since they didn't have enough tables for everyone, most of the people sat on the ground with a plate instead. It wasn't as nice, but they ran the generator, so they had electric lights for it, meaning you could see the food. It was pasta, with red sauce and canned green beans that night, along with real bread. They had that at the House too, bread, thanks to some flour the military had given them, but so far these people just hadn't had to go without almost anything. It was going to come as a shock when they did.

  Jake found a spot on the floor with his plate, eating slowly, not waiting for everyone else. It was what people did here, going through a line to get food, then eating as soon as possible, since they didn't have plates for everyone. The cops had been too lazy, or scared, to just go and get plates, once they realized they didn't have enough. That or they just couldn't bother to care that some people had to wait for food at each meal. It didn't take long for him to understand that the police of Westwood, no matter what they'd started out as, hadn't remained very nice people at all. Not when it mattered.

  It was odd, because Back Before they'd actually done a good job. No one ever spoke of them roughing people up or being corrupt. Not at all.

  People were spreading out along the walls or in little groups near the center of the nearly empty dining room. Carl and Molly were given a place at one of the few tables, along with Becky Fines and a bunch of women that didn't mean anything to Jake yet at all. Sue was one of them though and she meant something. Mainly annoyance. Her voice was... lovely actually, her British accent sounded smart, and as far as he could tell, she really was. Almost brilliant in fact. But only about completely useless things. She was a computer designer by trade, as in someone that used to actually make up the next generation of what he was going to have played video games on. Really high tech and interesting stuff.

  The problem was that she thought her college degree and decently important job Back Before should mean she got a say in how things were run now. It wasn't a horrible idea on paper, she was clearly a genius after all. One with the common sense of a goose. With its head removed.

  After turning z.

  She complained about everything being too hard. Her feet hurt, Jake had threatened her with a gun, a zombie had almost eaten them all and tried to kill little Darla. The room went silent at that announcement, which got Jake to clear his throat and speak finally.

  “I know your feet hurt, they will until you get into shape. Sometimes they'll hurt even after that if you have to walk for days at a time. I wish I could make that easier on you, but it's just something you have to live through. We'll try to get you something else to do every other day or so to give them a chance to heal.” He shrugged and smiled, still sitting against the wall.

  “As to almost shooting you... It wasn't a threat. I was actively pulling the trigger. Dave saved you with his reminder. I'm glad of it, because I hate killing people. But as you saw later, there are still zombies around. Human voices call to them. Get too loud and one of use will have to stop it. More, once outside the fence here, some of your own people are going to have to step up and do it if need be. So noise discipline all the time now.”

  Everyone stared at him as he took a bite of food, chewed and swallowed, the tangy sauce almost magical as it hit his tongue it was so good. Canned, but... Yeah, truly wonderful. So much so he wondered if they could plant tomatoes next year. He'd have to find seeds somewhere and get with Julio on that, in case they needed an extra greenhouse or something.

  “As for the zombies we encountered, the one in question was going for Colleen, not Darla. It just seemed like it wanted her because she moved in front to shoot it. A very nice head shot by the way. Then she helped take the head off and bury it. That part's important, so try to remember that. It shows that by paying attention and staying calm you can protect yourselves.”

  Also that the seven year old was a total badass.

  People stayed quiet as he continued to eat and finally went back to their own discussions, which constantly bordered on too loud. It was all he could do, not to draw down on some of them, especially the kids. He looked around to find the ones that weren't making that much noise, there were four that didn't. Darla was one, also two boys, each of whom sat alone and a girl that looked about sixteen, who didn't have a plate at all yet. It reminded him to eat faster, so he could wash this one and get it to someone else.

  The kitchen was in use already, trying to get things cleaned again, a group of kids chattering as they washed and dried things, working in a fairly industrious fashion. There were six of them, so when Jake came in he handed his plate off to one and watched what was happening. The kids worked quickly, until they had enough for each of them to eat and then took off. It was, he understood, a working group. Like the cleaning cre
ws. But for dishes.

  Then another one came in, almost instantly, this one made up of teenage girls, five of them, who all stared at him with something that spoke of both fear, and near open hostility, even though he hadn't done anything to them at all. Then, some of them were pretty.

  That meant that someone had done things to them. Most likely at least.

  It made Jake glad he'd killed most of those a-holes. Not that anyone else in the world seemed to care, or if they did, they weren't happy about the men being dead. Not a huge thing, but it hurt a little that all the pretty girls were glaring at him. They left quickly, which made room for another group, this one with Darla and the other quiet kids in it. When she saw him the little girl actually smiled though and took a place in the wash line.

  One of the boys, brown haired and similar enough to Jake that they could have been related, even with the same roman nose, stared at him for a bit. Finally the kid moved into the line and whispered to the black haired boy next to him.

  “Doesn't look so tough...”

  It made Jake smile. He remembered being that young, thinking things like “tough” actually made a difference. Most of the world's strong men were dead already for a reason though. Not all of them. Carl counted, but he, for all his muscle, was decently smart and gentle by nature. It had saved him more than once.

  “My dad could have taken him...” The kid continued.

  “If, you know...”

  Jake did know. His dad... It made sense. That super-z had looked a whole lot like Jake and the kid in front of him. As it turned out then, his dad couldn't take him, even with extra powers. He held his tongue though, leaving the boy his illusions. It really didn't matter now. The kids got their dishes pretty quickly, but waited. After about three minutes of this he smiled and just had to ask.

  “Why are you waiting?” It could be anything, maybe just their group's turn to do dishes or something?

  The oldest girl, one with dark black curly hair and a slightly square jaw sighed a bit.