by David Achord
“What’s up, Burt?” I asked.
“There’s a man at the main gate claiming to know you and Kelly. Hop on.”
As we got closer to the main gate, I saw a man sitting on a horse, one leg wrapped around the pommel, his head angled down, like the fatigue of being in the saddle too long was wearing on him. The Stetson hat covered his face, but I would’ve known who it was if I was blind in one eye and nearsighted in the other.
Even so, as we got nearer, I realized I couldn’t feel anything from the neck down, and I think I was actually trembling a little. I jumped off of the cart before it came to a stop and jogged up. My mouth had suddenly become dry and I could barely croak out his name.
“Fred?”
He looked at me a long moment before responding. “I would’ve been here sooner, but those damned zombies made things a little hard on me.”
I nodded in understanding. He looked like he’d aged ten years. Though he had a thick gray beard, I could tell he’d lost weight. His features were drawn into an older, meaner version of the Fred I’d met not so long ago. A lifetime ago.
He handed me the reins before stiffly getting off of his horse and then offered his hand. We shook and then embraced in a hug.
“It’s good to see you, son,” he said huskily.
“I thought you were dead,” I replied, my voice breaking.
“I thought I was too for a while,” he replied. He pulled back and looked at me. “Damn, it’s good to see you.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“You and the kids,” he answered. I knew he wasn’t going to say much without me prying it out of him, and even then, he most likely wasn’t going to talk in front of strangers. I gave him a look of understanding. We’d talk more when we were alone.
“The kids have grown so much I don’t think you’ll recognize them.”
Fred actually smiled now. It was a tired smile all the same. “That’s good,” he said quietly. “That’s good.”
Burt cleared his throat and introduced himself. “If you’re a friend of Zach’s, you must be a good man, and I see you know your way around a horse.”
“That I do,” Fred said.
Burt slapped his side. “Hot damn, we got us another cowboy on the payroll.” He then looked the two of us over and his grin was tempered somewhat. “Well, I imagine you two have a lot of catching up to do.”
I laughed. “That’s an understatement.” I hugged Fred again, not noticing him flinch slightly. “I must have a million questions to ask you.”
“Alright,” Burt responded and looked at me. “You know he’s got to be tested, so I’ll get that expedited, and maybe I can even talk my contrary wife into fixing him a plate of hot food while he waits for the docs to do their thing.”
I looked at him in appreciation. “Thanks, Burt.”
“So, what the heck happened?” I asked. Everyone had gone inside, leaving Fred and me sitting on the ground several feet away from the guard post. Doctor Salisbury had come out, introduced herself, and then drew a couple of vials of blood. Fred waited until she was out of earshot before speaking.
“A sniper shot me,” he said plainly.
“Yeah, that’s what I was told. I looked for you, but it wasn’t until several days later.” I briefly told him of the abduction, the escape, and how Kelly and I found each other. I paused and cleared my throat.
“Did you see the pile of burned bodies?” I asked.
“I was told about it,” Fred replied.
“A Marine colonel was behind it all. He’s dead now; Janet cut his throat.”
Fred gave me a look and I was about to explain, but we stopped talking when we saw a golf cart barreling down the road. It was Kelly and the kids; Kelly had Macie in her lap and Sammy was holding Frederick tight as Kelly drove. Zoe was running close behind and Anne was in a second golf cart.
Fred got to his feet and waited. It was then I saw him favoring his left side. He gave Kelly a hug and looked at the kids. “Holy cow, they have grown.”
“Yes, they have,” I said. “We stopped calling him Rick.”
He looked at me questioningly. “When we thought you were gone, we reverted to his formal name.” I looked at my son and rubbed his head. “Now, he’s Frederick.”
“I like that,” he said and looked over at Kelly and me as Zoe checked him out. “So, you two?”
“Yep,” I said.
He nodded slowly, reached down, and scratched Zoe behind her ears. “That’s good.”
He looked at the kids again, and then focused on Sammy. Fred sized him up and then offered his hand.
“I don’t believe we’ve met, I’m Fred McCoy.”
“I’m Sam Hunter,” Sammy replied. He looked Fred squarely in the eyes, like I’d taught him, and shook Fred’s hand.
“Zach said you were the fastest man with a gun he’d ever seen.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. How about this, when everything settles down a might, maybe the three of us can do some shooting. Maybe I’ll show you a trick or two.”
Now Sammy was wide-eyed, and all he could do was nod his head.
We sat back down and made small talk while he ate, but I got the impression Fred didn’t want to talk in front of the others. Kelly asked a couple of questions, but I gave her a subtle shake of the head. She understood. Soon, the small talk dried up. The phone to the guard post chimed and there was a small conversation.
“The doc said you’re good to go,” the guard yelled out.
“Thanks,” I replied. We all stood and brushed off our pants.
“As soon as we get inside, I’m going to find Lydia and insist Fred gets a room,” Kelly said.
“Good. You go ahead and we’ll be in shortly.”
Kelly nodded at me and took off in the golf cart with the kids. The rest of us walked to the barn. Burt had stripped his horse down, brushed him, and neatly stacked his gear. Fred didn’t have much, a bedroll and saddlebags, but Sammy carried them proudly.
We’d barely got to the door when Kelly met us.
“Piece of cake,” she said with a grin. “Lydia likes me. Follow me.”
“Alright, I’m going to deal with the kids,” she said and gave Fred another hug before leaving.
Fred walked in his new room and gave it a cursory once over. “It’s going to be a little strange sleeping in a real bed.”
I chuckled. “I think you’ll get used to it.”
Fred looked around some more, and then focused on Sammy. “Mister Sam, I’d like to speak with Zach in private. I hope you understand.”
“Yes, sir,” Sammy responded and quickly left, closing the door behind him.
Fred walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. “I suppose I should take a shower before getting in between these clean sheets.”
I nodded and waited. I knew he wanted to talk, but Fred wasn’t one to speak casually. When he had something he wanted to say, he’d chew on it a minute and form it in his head before his mouth moved.
“So, I’m out there in the corn field, just hoeing out the weeds, and all of a sudden, I’m lying on the ground and in a world of pain.” He unbuttoned his shirt and spread it open. There was an ugly puckered scar on the upper left side of his chest.
“I’d say he aimed center mass, but his aim was off a might,” he said. “It went clean through, nicked the scapula, maybe did a little nerve damage. It’s still healing up.”
“What’d you do?”
“I played dead for a while. When I was sure nobody was going to walk up and finish the job, I managed to get my handkerchief into the front hole. My back was caked in mud, so it probably staunched the blood. Then I started crawling through the rows of corn. Bo had been out fishing. He laid low and found me the next day.”
“Bo’s alive?” I asked.
Fred nodded. “He was. Penny was too. She gave birth to a little girl.”
“Yeah, we went to Bo’s place, but nobody was there.”
“We had a spot of troub
le one day. Bo had to kill a few boys, but they had friends. Bo was a proud new daddy and was worried, so we went to a little cabin out in Hickman County.”
“I think I know why, but why didn’t y’all go back to the school?”
“None of us liked those people, and we weren’t certain whether or not they were involved in the murders.”
“Okay, so what happened?”
Fred’s features darkened. “We were doing okay. It was only us three and the baby, but we were doing okay. Then, Bo came home from hunting one evening and complained of a headache. He’d somehow got infected. He turned sometime during the night and attacked Penny. I had to kill them both.”
I shook my head sadly. Bo was a good man and a good friend to Fred. I knew it must have been hard on him. “What happened to the little girl?”
“I came across a group of people led by an overly large man who I had a conversation with once on the CB radio. They said they knew you.”
My eyes widened. “Big Country?” I asked.
Fred nodded again. “Big Country, his wife and sister, and a man with a bad arm.”
“Floyd,” I said.
“Yeah. They told me about the rendezvous and how you were still alive.”
“Wow,” I said. “So they’re doing okay?”
Fred nodded.
“How long ago was that?”
“About a month ago. When they told me you were still alive, I left the little girl with them and went back to the school. Marc, Ward, and Tonya were there.”
I frowned in puzzlement. “What about the rest?”
“Murdered,” Fred answered. He paused to take his boots off. “Some marauders hit them in the middle of the night. They managed to fight them off, but everyone was killed except those three. I guess it happened not too long after you guys had left.”
“Even the kids?” I asked.
Fred nodded somberly. “All but three; Brittany and the two twins.” He scratched his ear. “I guess I’m getting old, I can’t remember the names of those twins for the life of me.”
“Melinda and Melissa. They were Gus’s kids. Brittany was an orphan girl they picked up along the way.”
“Yeah, that sounds right. So, Tonya, Marc, and Ward sat me down and told me everything that’d happened since I got shot. Then they told me about Mount Weather and gave me the map you’d left with Tonya.”
I sat in the lone chair and held my face in my hands. It was sad news. I barely knew some of the people who’d recently come from the CDC, but I liked Rhonda. I even liked the kids. It was going to be tough telling Kelly.
Fred stretched his feet out and wiggled his toes. His socks were heavily soiled and had holes in them.
“Okay, I have to ask, why didn’t you use a car? You could have gotten here a lot sooner.”
Fred shook his head slightly. “Cars are too undependable these days. I’m better on a horse. It’s slower, but I can see and hear things on a horse that I wouldn’t be able to in a car.”
It made sense. Fred was an outdoorsman, through and through. Riding all day on a horse and sleeping on a bedroll under the stars was no problem for a man like him.
“You run into any trouble?” I asked.
“A couple of hordes. I managed to avoid them. Oh, I bumped into some people in Bristol. They talked about y’all, but I didn’t let on that I knew you.”
“Ah, that had to be Joe and his two kids,” I said.
“Yeah, I met Riley, never saw the son, but I knew he was there.” He scratched his head. “I got an odd feeling about them. I didn’t stick around.”
“Yeah, same with me, but they treated us well enough.”
“How’s Sarah?” Fred casually asked. I looked at him, realizing I had not mentioned her.
“She’s good,” I said. “She’s currently out on a mission to Fort Detrick. They’re attempting to get a lab up and running and create a vaccine.”
He looked at me for a moment. “They’ve found a cure?”
“Right now, it’s a definite maybe.” I explained how it all came about and how it turned into Colonel Coltrane deciding he needed to abduct us. Fred listened quietly.
When I was finished, he was quiet for a minute before speaking again. “Tonya said Sarah has gone and hooked up with somebody.”
“Yeah, Rachel Benoit. She’s a sergeant in the Army. She came up from the CDC. She’s nice. Has a zany sense of humor. You’d like her.”
Fred took the news in silence and looked at his toes sticking out of his socks.
“I’ve got extras back in the room,” I said. “I’ll get you a couple of pairs.”
“Appreciate it,” he replied and stood. “I think I’ll take a long shower and hit the sack. What time do you roll out of bed in the morning?”
“How about five? I have guard duty at seven, so we’ll have a little time to get a cup of coffee, and I’ll get Burt to show you around and get you acquainted.” I grinned. “I have a feeling you and him are going to become fast friends. He’s a little bit, uh, loquacious though.”
“Loquacious?”
“He’s a talker,” I said.
When I walked in our room, Kelly had Macie and Frederick tucked in and was reading them a bedtime story.
“Contrariwise, continued Tweedle-Dee, if it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic!”
Frederick laughed gleefully while Macie looked confused. She could barely keep her eyes open, but little Frederick looked wide awake and could stay up all night. He looked up and saw me.
“Hi, Daddy,” he said with a big smile.
I walked over to the bed and sat on the edge. “Hi yourself, big guy,” and gave him a hug. Macie did not want to be left out, and although she was too tired to sit up, she held her arms out expectantly. I leaned over and gave her a hug too.
After we had gotten them to sleep, I told Kelly about the deaths of the others. I then held her in my arms while she sobbed quietly.
“There’s so much death in this world now,” she lamented. “Will it ever change?”
I held her tightly. “I don’t know, sweetheart.”
Fred was awake and waiting for me the next morning when I knocked on his door.
“Fresh socks,” I said with a grin and handed them over. “I got fresh jeans and a couple of shirts too.” He gave one of his famous micro expressions, letting me know he was immensely grateful before he set everything on the bed, took the pair of socks, and walked over to a nearby chair.
“I believe my feet will be pleasantly surprised,” he said as he sat down and put them on. He wiggled his toes in satisfaction before putting his boots on.
“I’m pretty sure I can scrounge up a new pair of boots too,” I said as the two of us walked down the hallway.
“How did Kelly take the news?” he asked.
“About like what you’d expect. First, there was grief, then she started feeling guilty for us not being there for them.”
“Yeah,” he said in understanding. After a moment, he changed the subject.
“Tell me the layout of this place,” he requested.
“There’s some good people here, but I swear to goodness, they should have left the politicians back in DC. They think the best way to solve a problem is to talk about it for hours, weeks even. The people who do the real work around here put up with them for some reason.”
We’d barely made it to our table when Burt burst through the door. He spotted us and quickly walked over. I already had a cup of coffee poured for him.
“Hot damn, I can tell this is going to be a good day already. Are you men ready to do some good old-fashioned farm work?”
“I’m afraid it’s only going to be you two. I’m relegated to guard duty.” I looked at my watch. “I report in an hour.”
Burt looked crestfallen for a moment, but then his grin returned. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s get some breakfast and then we’ll get started.”
Chapter 25 – Melvin’s Re
turn
“Mount Weather,” Melvin announced as they drove up to the main gate. Those zombies had held them at bay for hours before they could get back on the road and didn’t roll in until eighteen hundred hours.
He parked his truck off to the side and killed the engine.
“We’re not going in?” Savannah asked.
“I have to keep my truck parked outside of the compound because of Peggy.”
“Let me guess, nobody wants a zombie inside the fence,” she surmised.
“You’d be correct; they take a dim view of her.”
“I wonder why?” she asked sarcastically.
Melvin gave her a look. “C’mon,” he said and got out of the truck.
“Howdy, Slim,” Melvin greeted the man in the shack. Slim was a skinny twenty year old with a constant grin who could eat all day and not gain a single pound.
There was always supposed to be a minimum of two guards at all times. Melvin started to ask where his partner was, but then decided he didn’t care. He was tired from the road and hungry.
“Well, well, well,” Slim said. “You’ve been gone a while this time.”
“Did you miss me?” Melvin asked.
Slim responded with a boyish grin. “I missed Peggy.”
Melvin chuckled. He liked Slim.
“Anything going on?” he asked.
“We got some new people the other day,” Slim said. “All the way from Tennessee. One of the dudes caught Paul and Priss breaking into his trailer and beat the hell out of them.”
Melvin chuckled. “Sorry I missed that one. Paul is a smart-mouthed punk.”
“Yep, so is his sister.”
“Well, we’re going to hustle to the cafeteria before they shut it down for the night. Keep an eye on my stuff, will ya?”
“Sure, Melvin,” he said. “I’ll take real good care of Peggy,” he chuckled and then focused on Savannah for the first time as the two of them walked off.
“Hey, wait, Melvin. Who’s that? She can’t go in ‘til she’s been tested!”
