by Brown, TW
“New world…new rules,” I answered with a shrug.
Don smiled wide and for a moment, I took it as him liking my answer. “Easy to say when you are the worm on the hook. But I’m not sure I am buying it. Last I saw, you was running with some undesirable types.”
It was getting more difficult to keep my expression neutral. In fact, I had no idea if I was even close to pulling that off.
“Tonight, I think I will give you a chance to show me this new leaf you claim to have turned over,” Don whispered in my ear.
Just his proximity made my skin crawl. I wanted to slam my forehead into his face and hear the crunch of his nose shattering.
“Can’t wait,” I said flatly.
“And if things turn out well…I might have a special reward for you.”
I was confused. What could he offer? I was considering that when I almost staggered as one of the men working on the odd contraptions stood up and turned to face me.
Carl Higgins, one of my original group stood up and dusted off his hands. His eyes passed over me and I didn’t see a hint of recognition. The man walked over to where a toolbox sat and put away whatever he’d been using before coming over to Don.
“These babies are all done. I’m gonna head over to grab some chow,” Carl said.
He walked off and my throat tightened with the swirl of emotions coursing through me. I was certain that was Carl. He looked a little different with his woodsman’s beard shaved off and hair buzzed away, but it was him. I was as certain as I could be about anything.
I hadn’t known him but for a few days; meeting him on my first day at my new job of being a teacher which just happened to coincide with the zombie apocalypse kicking into full gear. That was also the day I’d lost my Stephanie.
If Carl was here, I had to wonder if the others might be as well. And if they were, was it possible that they were staying of their own free will?
“Until our little demonstration, I am gonna have to return you to your cell.” Don’s deep voice broke my train of thought and I turned to look at him.
I felt my face grow warm as he looked at me with a raised eyebrow. Had I been obvious as I’d watched Carl walk away? The others were heading back to the school as well, so technically, I could’ve been looking at anybody.
“Last time we were together, you did me dirty, Evan,” Don said as he pulled me away from my initial escort. Obviously he was going to see me back to my cell personally. “I just don’t think I am buying that you are really ready to join our cause.”
“To be clear,” I glanced over at Don, “what exactly is our cause?”
“Restore the proper balance,” Don said casually. “The damn bleeding hearts did everything but throw the white men in chains the past few years. Hell, the damned illegals had more rights. You tell me why the fuck I gotta press ‘one’ to hear some automated message in English! Damn homos being treated like they’re normal instead of the sick perversion they really are. Whole country done went and shit all over itself. This here…” Don waved his arms out toward the fences where I could see a few of the undead had gathered. “This is a reset button. God Almighty has had enough.”
As he spoke, I felt my stomach turn. I’d always known about people who had leanings towards racism, sexism, and homophobia. Never before had I seen it on display so prominently and voiced so openly. It was almost impossible for me to actually believe he could feel these things at his core. Surely he was putting on an act to at least some degree.
Right?
“Way I see it…we got a chance to put things back to the way they belong.”
I continued to walk alongside Don as he went on preaching his perversion. Every step only convinced me that I had to kill him. This was a sickness that had to be put down. And while perhaps not all of his followers shared his views to the extent he claimed as he informed me of how it had been so easy to find others that knew the “truth” as he called it, they were complicit. I would not feel a shred of remorse for any of the deaths I would cause if given the chance.
I discovered that my cell was nothing more than a stripped janitor’s closet according to the small placard above the door. To maintain its total darkness, some sort of black padded insulation had been applied all the way around the frame.
As the door shut, I thought over everything I’d seen. The one thing I determined was that, despite him being a total creep, and a disgusting stain on humanity, he was no idiot. I’d noticed that there were roving guards inside the compound. That meant he was either very careful or didn’t trust all the people he’d managed to bring under his thumb.
Also, even as minimal as something like some insulation strips around the door frame to block the light meant he used this cell and that it wasn’t just where they happened to throw me. Another thing I noticed were the women.
It hadn’t hit me at first. Maybe I was in shock, or perhaps just so fixated on my hatred for Don, but they were absolutely not dressed for the apocalypse. If anything, they looked like they’d stepped out of an old Van Halen video. Many of them were wearing an abundance of makeup and jewelry. Their clothing was either very skimpy, very tight, or a combination of the two. And they were all sporting well-coiffed hair in a variety of styles.
That made no sense. Unless the women never left the relative safety of the compound. And as odd as that seemed, it was not beyond the realm of possibility with somebody like Don Evans.
Sitting down, I rested my arms across my knees, let my head droop, and went to sleep.
***
I heard the door being unlocked and jolted awake. My neck was stiff and my whole body felt like I’d been beaten with a baseball bat. Once more I had to wait for my eyes to adjust to the searing pain of light after being in the pitch black for so long. I climbed to my feet and was met by Don Evans, Natasha, and a few others including Carl who was carrying a rifle over his shoulder. I looked at him and saw not even the slightest glimmer of recognition in his eyes. Was it possible that I had changed that much?
“So, Mister Evan Berry, you probably had no idea that you’d arrived on such a special night. It almost seems like fate.” There was a cryptic tone in his voice that told me something very wrong was happening.
I stepped out and waited for somebody to grab or shove me. Instead the group actually stepped back and made room for me to limp over to where I was being beckoned by Don to join him.
“And tonight, we will see if you are all talk and no action…or a bona fide badass set on making the world right.”
I had no idea what he could possibly mean, but the laugh in his voice was as cold as the grave and devoid of any humor. I stole another look over at Carl. Was he deliberately ignoring me?
As we continued outside, I saw people all emerging from the various doors of the school. They were all headed for the ballfield. Some seemed extraordinarily excited. However, I noticed some looking very reluctant.
As my eyes scanned the people, I spied a group of what looked to be teenagers. Hanging in the back of the crowd was one kid in particular. The loose clothes and a baseball cap pulled down low made any identification impossible as to if it might be a boy or girl, but the woman in her twenties that had to keep pushing her forward was seriously pissing me off.
I had no idea what was going on, but these people obviously did. It was clear that more than a few were unhappy, but that child was being physically forced to partake.
“What exactly is it that we are about to embark on?” I asked.
Don stopped and turned to face me. His eyes were glittering with an evil glee and I was reminded of one of those famous Charles Manson pictures where he is staring into the camera and doing his best to display his particular brand of crazy. I’d never been around somebody that exuded evil until now. There was an actual physical sensation just by being in his presence.
My stomach churned and the hair on the back of my neck felt like it was standing on end. It had nothing to do with my situation because I realized that I was not real
ly afraid. Simply resigned. Everything I felt came in a wave the moment that I was in his presence.
I wanted this man dead so badly that I seriously doubted my ability to hide it. Yet, as he looked at me, there was no sign that he felt any of the contempt I held for him.
“I realized that the hangings weren’t the best way to send the message.” Don came to a complete stop, and his crowd of weak-minded sycophants did as well. “What I needed was to take things to a new level. To use the tools provided and send a message that left no doubts as to who is welcome.”
“Uh-huh.” I just had no words for him. Even worse, as I looked around at the people in our little group, I saw a lot of heads bobbing in agreement.
One person in particular caught my eye. She was one of the only women that I’d seen not dressed like she fell out of a Madonna or Wham video.
Her long blond hair was straight. Blue eyes sparkled, but not with madness. Instead, she was eyeing Natasha with a vehement hatred that she made no effort to hide. She was dressed like something out of “Road Warrior” with a sawed-off shotgun stashed in a holster on one hip and a pair of wicked blades strapped to her forearms. Her leather attire would make any fetish fan drool with envy. It was a series of straps that crisscrossed her lithe frame. And while it covered everything, it left nothing to the imagination.
While I could not tell if she was on board with what was going on—or about to—it was clear that her eyes never left Don…unless they shifted to Natasha. My mind raced with all the possibilities as to how that might be used against Don Evans.
“Hey, Carl, why don’t you take your old buddy down to the VIP box,” Don said. It wasn’t a request or a question.
“Sure thing, Big D.”
I hadn’t heard the man’s gravelly tone in a long time. I’d always hoped that I would find my people and bring the ones managing to survive out from under the thumb of the living monster, Don Evans. It was now clear that at least one of them would not be joining me.
I recalled how he’d abandoned us in the early days. He’d gone on some rant about being practical and wanting to survive this. It seemed that he’d found a group more to his liking.
And I would kill him too if given the chance.
“Let’s go, Evan,” the man snarled, grabbing me by the arm and yanking me forward and then shoving me toward the ballfield.
The VIP section ended up being one of the dugouts. A foul stench hit me hard as we drew near; it was a mix of rot, undead stink, vomit, and human waste. Basically, the worst smells possible all swirling around.
As we opened up distance between us and Don, I waited to see if Carl would whisper something dramatic like he was just going along with things until he could save what was left of the people I’d left behind that dark morning.
Nothing.
To make it worse, he’d even jabbed me a few times with the barrel of his rifle as we’d walked along. Once was hard enough to make me yelp in pain.
He opened a sturdy metal gate that sealed the dugout and shoved me inside. I was stunned to discover that I was not alone.
A young girl in perhaps her late teens was huddled in the corner. I didn’t even notice her until Carl had chained and padlocked the gate, sealing me inside. When I first realized she was there, I was sure that she was one of the undead and I scanned the area frantically as I searched for a weapon to fend her off. I’d come to the conclusion that my only choice was going to involve slamming her head into the concrete floor or wooden bench that lined the back wall.
When I heard her sniff and bite back a sob, I realized she was one of the living. At least for now.
“You can do this, Karasinda,” I heard the girl whisper. “That damn thing is slow and stupid. You just gotta knock him off his feet ‘fore he gets them teeth into you.”
“You think I’m a zombie?” I whispered. I’d done my best to keep my voice low so as not to startle her…but I’d failed horribly.
The girl screamed and jumped to her feet, pressing her back to the wall she’d been leaning against just a moment before. Her scream prompted me to scream as well.
I threw myself back before I’d realized it, but quickly recovered from my scare. The idea of what had just played out made numerous scenes from a variety of movies flash in my mind. And that made me start to laugh.
I wasn’t sure if it was delirium, relief, or simply my mind not being able to process everything that was happening. Whatever the case, my laugh began as a chuckle. When the girl started to laugh as well, it was like the flames were being fanned. Soon, both of us were near hysterics.
“Well,” the girl said as she wiped the tears from her eyes, “if I’m fixin’ to die…least I got me one more good laugh. My gan-gan always said that laughter healed the soul. Not sure if my soul is healed, but that sure felt good.”
I nodded. “Not exactly sure what is going on, but whatever it is seems bad. That coupled with all the horror since this began…not sure I’ve laughed like that since it all started.”
I had to admit that, despite how odd it had been, and the desperate and hopeless situation we seemed to be in, laughing had felt amazing. Now that things were settling down, I examined the girl and was sickened by what I saw.
“How long have you been locked up in here?” I asked softly, casting a wet blanket on the situation.
I could see her discomfort cast a dull sheen over her eyes. I didn’t have to specify. There were two buckets by my feet. Now I knew where some of the stink emanated.
“Four days.” She looked away, her eyes not able to meet mine as embarrassment washed over the both of us.
A dirty water bottle sat on the bench beside her, and I could see a few paper bowls with some sort of crusty substance that looked like oatmeal dried to it scattered on the ground.
“So, what is the deal?” I asked.
“I don’t know. That man and his people caught my mom, baby sister, and a few friends as we were digging through the slim pickings at a Safeway. They split us all up and I don’t know who is alive if anybody. I hear…” she stammered as she tried to speak, and her voice cracked from the strain of trying to get the words out. “I hear screams at night. Sometimes I am sure it’s my mama. But at night…this place is a whole new kind of scary.”
“Scary? What do you mean?”
“The sounds…the laughter that ain’t laughter…not like from something funny at least.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Mean laughter…like the kind an evil person would do. And it is usually around the same time that terrible screaming starts.”
That didn’t need an explanation. Anybody still alive this far into the apocalypse had heard it. Most of us on the first day or so. But once you heard it, you never forgot it.
I hated that I was running her through all these terrible questions, but I had to know what the hell was going on. As I stared out of the dugout into the field, I studied the structure that had been built in the center of the diamond.
I’d watched my share of UFC fights. I knew an octagon ring when I saw one. This one was much larger than the ones I knew of by about three times. In fact, it extended past the base paths. Also, it didn’t really have a raised ring area. It was simply an octagon-shaped steel cage. There were two entry gates and a catwalk above that had access ladders on the outside.
“What is that?” I asked, almost afraid of the answer.
“Don’t know. But they built it over the past few days. A few of them guys came over to me a few times and just stared, whispered, and then started that mean laughing.” The girl gave a shudder and hugged herself.
I considered moving closer and seeing if I might be able to soothe Karasinda’s unease, but we were still strangers and she had no reason to trust me other than I’d just been thrown in here with her.
It was also about the time I started noticing a rise in the noise outside. Because of being closed in, I couldn’t really see, but I knew the sounds of a crowd filling the bleachers.
I could detect a degree of anticipation and excitement. Despite not being able to witness the growing crowd, that feeling was carrying on the snippets of conversation I could catch as well as the tone of the buzz.
Eventually, a group of men—Carl among them—went around and lit a series of Tiki Torches that had been planted around the octagon. They cast flickering shadows that only added to the peculiar vibe.
I watched Carl as he finished his task and studied him for anything that would show me he was not really part of this. When he fist bumped one of his co-workers and then broke into a deep laugh after the man pointed to the octagon and said something, I grew more convinced that this was his choice.
I slumped down on the bench seat and let my head drop. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised or let it shock me. In truth, how much had I known the man? We’d been thrown together under duress. It wasn’t like he was some lifelong friend that was now betraying me. It was what it was. Pure and simple.
This was all about survival now. And everybody would go after that goal in his or her own way. I’d been telling myself that the old rules no longer applied for quite a while. And while, I’d made steps toward changing how I went after things, there was still so much about me that resisted this new ideology.
My mind replayed the last couple of days, and I had to wonder if maybe I was fooling myself. Didn’t we all have a certain degree of self-defending rationalization? And now, wasn’t that exactly what I’d been doing?
I’d killed people without remorse within the past twenty-four hours or so. And yet here I was looking at Carl with condemnation for trying to carve out his own path.
The fact that we were going about it differently made it a personal issue. And while I could certainly never condone or accept what Don Evans believed, how many of these people here were simply doing what they had to do to survive?
I shook my head to clear it from all the ideas cluttering it at the moment. I glanced at the girl who appeared to have retreated back into her own thoughts. I wondered what reason Don might have for putting this girl here by herself. I knew for a fact that it couldn’t possibly be anything good. If anything, it was probably so much worse that she would wish that she’d died rather than serve whatever sadistic plan she was no doubt going to be featured in. And judging by the crowd growing right outside our enclosure…that would be sooner rather than later.
