New DEAD series (Book 4): DEAD [Don Evans Must Die]

by Brown, TW

  She set the stick down but held her arms out at her sides as I approached. As I got closer, I could see that she’d had a bit of a fight before she’d arrived. Of course, none of that mattered except for the fact that she was standing here at the edge of our little compound.

  How the hell had she found us? The thought that she had simply shown up here sent a shiver down my spine.

  “I gotta admit,” Lisa said once I’d closed to within about ten feet and come to a stop. “I thought the kid was pulling my leg.”

  “Excuse me?” I managed around the sudden dryness in my mouth and tightness in my throat.

  “Selina?” Lisa raised an eyebrow at me.

  “But she wasn’t even with us when we got here,” I insisted.

  “Yeah, but I asked her once where she and I should try to escape to if we decided to bail on Don.” She smirked. “Kids are so easy to get information from if you go about it the right way. That was just one thing of many that Don had no clue about.”

  “So why are you here?” I asked, trying not to allow my anger or concern show.

  “Because we are finished with Don’s crap.” I gave her my own skeptical look. “I’m serious. None of us knew he was doing that shit out there.”

  “And the octagon?”

  “You were there for the debut,” Lisa insisted. “He hadn’t done anything like that before.”

  I struggled in believing her. And then another image hit me.

  “What about the people in the cages?”

  Lisa didn’t even flinch. She looked me right in the eyes. That was when I thought we had a problem. They were brought in and Don spun this story about how they’d attacked one of our patrols.” She paused and looked away for a moment. When she looked back, I could see that her crystal blue eyes were shining with unshed tears. “The children…that is when I realized what was going on.”

  “It took people in a cage?” I snorted, unable to hold back how incredulous I was at her denial.

  “Look, I was out there on my own those first days. I thought that everybody I knew was dead…or worse…one of those things. When I ran into Donnie, I was trapped in a damned car and nearly dead. I’d figured that he had died days ago. When he—”

  “You knew him before all this?” I cut her off.

  “We had been together almost seven years,” Lisa replied.

  “Was he this big of a dick?” I snorted.

  “He was…different,” she said slowly, drawing out each word. “He said stuff, but I just always thought he had a sick sense of humor.”

  “Such as?” I raised an eyebrow.

  She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. “Like when some disaster would hit in someplace like Mexico or someplace. They would mention a death toll and he would chuckle and say something like, ‘It’s just brown people…they’ll make more.’ Or something to that effect. Then the whole thing with that girl…”

  Lisa’s voice trailed off. I stared at her with an expectant look. I knew she had more to say. But something in her eyes told me that she wasn’t ready.

  “Look, you know he was the guy that your wife got fired, right?” She looked down at her hands and found something under one nail that suddenly needed her immediate attention.

  “I’m aware.”

  “But you don’t know half of it. If you did, you wouldn’t have that look on your face.”

  “What look is that?” I glanced back at my people, wondering how long we had before people on both sides started getting antsy.

  “You are waiting for me to tell you what happened between your wife and Don. That means you don’t really know.”

  “He told me.”

  She stared at me and then shook her head. There was something I was missing. I had no doubts of that at this very moment. I’d been poleaxed by his revelation as it was. Something told me he’d not been entirely straight with me…or the truth.

  How did I not for a moment believe that there was more to the story than what he’d told me? I wanted her to tell me what it was that I could see almost dripping from her tongue and leaking from the glitter of her blue eyes.

  By the same token…I didn’t want to hear one single word.

  “We would like to join you guys,” Lisa said softly after a long silence. “If you’ll have us.”

  “How do I know this isn’t some sort of trick?” I asked, knowing that no matter her answer, I’d made up my mind.

  “Because I know where Don went, and if you give me the chance…I can help you kill him. Today.”

  Fuck me.

  15

  Lisa Speaks

  The group of men and women and even a few younger people in their teens were escorted to what was now officially known as our holding quarantine area. It wasn’t much more than a partitioned off military tent, but we had people posted at all four corners and one person inside who was required to check in with those outside about every ten minutes and used a windup kitchen timer since so few people actually had watches. That was just another reminder as to how much our phones had become an umbilical to everything in life.

  Lisa was allowed to stay back. I wanted to hear what she had to say about Don. She was insisting there was more to this story between him and Steph. I debated on having anybody else present. After all, this could just be a part of some elaborate trap. Don had already shown that he was unhinged and not above anything.

  In the end, I decided that I had to hear this, but that it was part of my personal life and I wasn’t in a place where I wanted to share.

  After we’d seen to Lisa’s people, she and I walked down to the river. I sat on one of the many massive rocks and she took a seat on a fallen tree.

  There was a long silence and I could see that she was trying to focus. I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I was certain that it was not going to be pleasant.

  “Did you know that Don was stalking your wife?”

  That question landed like a lead balloon. That seemed like a stretch to me. And if that was the case, why hadn’t Steph ever said anything to me.

  “And that is the best thing you are about to hear.”

  I felt my stomach clench. My mind was already whirring with thoughts that I was doing everything in my power to shove away and stuff into dark corners where they would never see light.

  “Less than a month after he was fired from the construction job where he’d become obsessed with her, he followed her after seeing her at some party with a bunch of girls.” Lisa wiped her face with her hands and ran her fingers through her hair as she took a breath.

  “Can I ask you something?” I piped up before she could continue.

  “Sure.”

  “How do you know this stuff?”

  Lisa closed her eyes. She let out a long breath that sounded like it held the weight of the world.

  “He and I were together for a long time. I used to be a detective with the Portland Police Department. When he got fired, he lied to me about it. I found out through a mutual friend that it’d happened, but he was acting like he was still going to work every day.

  “And I’d only been told that he’d been let go. I wasn’t told why. So, after I found out he’d been fired, I had to do some digging to find out the reason.” I saw her cheeks flush a bit and had to wonder what she’d done to get that info. Something told me it might not’ve been on the level.

  “When I found out why he was fired, I left him.” Lisa shook her head. “But then he made this big deal about how he needed help and wanted to see a shrink. Like an idiot, I listened.

  “I did what I always told others not to do…I got back together with him and let him tell me all the things that I wanted to hear. Then got arrested for attempted…” Her voice faded and the woman dropped her head into her hands.

  Once more we sat across from each other in silence. I tried to shove away what her unspoken words screamed. For one, how could Stephanie keep something like that from me? We didn’t have secrets.

  �
��You had no idea.” Lisa shook her head. It wasn’t a question. “Do you have any idea how often that happens? More than you would think.”

  “No way.” I stood and started to pace. “She would never keep something so big from me.”

  “The charges were dropped,” Lisa continued, not seeming to hear or understand that she had it wrong.

  “You must be confused…or lying,” I snarled.

  “So many women foolishly blame themselves. They think they have done something wrong or somehow deserved what happened to them.” Lisa followed me with her eyes as she spoke. Not once did she flinch at the looks I threw her way. “And that shame is what makes them do things like…drop the charges. Not tell their spouses or families.”

  “Steph wouldn’t keep something like that from me,” I insisted. “I would’ve never thought she’d done something wrong…how could she…”

  “She didn’t do it to hurt you,” Lisa said with a degree of calmness that I couldn’t believe or understand. “She likely believed that she was protecting you.”

  “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” I spat.

  I stepped up into Lisa’s space, her height had us eye-to-eye. She’d stood as I stomped over but made no move to attack. She simply stood there with her arms folded across her chest.

  “I’m sorry, Evan.” Lisa continued to hold my gaze.

  The fury that seethed inside me began to change into something else. Shame. How could I have let something like this happen. How did I not know? How did I not see something?

  “There is nothing you could’ve done. And who knows, maybe she would’ve eventually told you. But then…all this…” She threw her arms up to the sky as if indicating everything.

  I turned away and walked to the bank of the river. The sunlight danced across the surface sending dazzling white gems of light dancing across the surface. I thought back, searching for signs or indications. Could some of those days when she dropped into a bout with depression be from what she was carrying in her head and for whatever reason, unable to unload it onto me so that I could help her carry it.

  A thought bubbled through my brain and escaped from all the stuff swirling around that was threatening to make me explode. I looked up at Lisa and felt my fists clench.

  “If you knew all this…you wanna tell me what you were doing still following him?” I said in a low whisper that carried every bit of the anger boiling inside. “If he was the monster you claim…and I don’t doubt that he was…what does that say about you? You were still with him. Intimately if I was reading the scene correctly.”

  “I was as good as dead.” Lisa had sat silently for a while before finally speaking. “I’d just left from confronting Don and was heading home when the freeway simply turned into a parking lot. I’d had my radio on and heard the traffic guy say that there was a mob of people on 205. When he said that people were being pulled from their cars, I locked everything up. I could see a mob up ahead as well as one behind me and I was on an overpass, so I couldn’t make a run for it.”

  She closed her eyes and I could see her wincing as she was obviously reliving that nightmare. We all had our own, and I had to imagine hers was just as bad as mine.

  When she finally opened her eyes, they were shiny with tears that I knew she would do everything in her power to prevent from falling. She wasn’t going to cry in front of me.

  Once she was under control, she continued her story. “I ducked down in my car and tried to hide. The screams were coming from everywhere. Children were screaming for…or sometimes at…their parents. It was like what you might expect Hell to sound like. I had my eyes squeezed shut and my fingers in my ears to try and remove myself from what was happening. Sometimes there would be s heavy thud or a scraping sound, but I stayed put.

  “When my phone rang, I almost didn’t answer. I saw Don’s face on the screen. I finally answered when I realized that I might be trapped…that I was very probably going to die. He said that he was calling because of something on the news about riots near my house. I told him I wasn’t there and explained where I was. When I realized that the line had gone dead at some point without me even knowing, I resigned myself to what was going to eventually happen.

  “I slipped up just far enough to take a look and saw that my car was surrounded by those…things. They weren’t paying me any attention, but there were so many, I knew I was trapped. I was going to die here.” She stopped and shook her head. “Of course, we know now that groups of those things move on if they don’t find anything or if a sound distracts them and lures them away. But at that moment…I was certain that I was going to die.

  “At some point, one of those damn things found me. It didn’t matter how. All that mattered was that they were now crowding around and banging on my car. Hands were slapping windows and I knew they would eventually get in. I was about to die. There was no making peace or any of that fiction crap. I was terrified. I was crying and at some point I guess I started screaming. That was why I didn’t hear the first shots.

  “When a bullet shattered the driver’s side window in back, I thought it was over. I didn’t know it was a bullet and assumed they had finally gotten in and were about to rip me apart. I was trying to think of any way out when I heard Don’s voice.”

  Lisa closed her eyes again. This time, she smiled. There was something about that smile that gave me a chill. It wasn’t a happy smile. If I thought about it…it was downright scary.

  “He said that he couldn’t just leave me to die. If I’d listened to his words, maybe I would’ve realized what I was getting myself into. He wasn’t telling me that he was glad to see me. To this day, I have no idea why he came to save me. I think that, despite what he has become, what he was becoming then, there was still a part of him capable of feelings.”

  Lisa slipped down and sat on the sand with her back against a rock. She was looking at the ground. Her shoulders shook and I knew that her emotions had finally won out. Whether she liked it or not…she was crying.

  If she thought that I was holding even the tiniest sliver of compassion for Don Evans…she was sorely mistaken. I was still set on killing that bastard.

  “Look, you have no reason to trust me. But I saw more than enough back there,” Lisa said, her voice still constricted with emotion. “I want to help you and your people because I think you are actually trying to save people…and not based on color. I swear I had no idea he was doing that. And yeah, he used to say things, but I never once thought he was…like that.”

  I considered what she said. Her story made sense. But I still wasn’t ready to just trust her at her word. I could let her and her people come in, but they would be watched until I felt they could be trusted. And if they didn’t ever give me a warm and fuzzy feeling…I could just boot them.

  I’d done it before.

  ***

  The next couple of days were quiet. But there was obvious tension and unease. Lisa and her people were ignored at best, and more than once I had to step in between individuals that were nose-to-nose.

  All that time, I was mulling over Lisa’s story. Could it be possible that my Stephanie had lived with such a horrible secret? I had a hard time believing it, but the more I considered things, the more I found signs that I’d missed.

  I thought about how it must’ve felt…holding something like that in. Our culture and society had done a lot of demonizing when it came to the victims. And the longer they held onto that pain…the more credibility they seemed to lose. Heck…I’d even said things when stories broke on the news. It was offhanded, but now that I thought about it…

  I wiped my arm across my forehead to keep the sweat out of my eyes and plunged my shovel into the ground. I was working with a detail that was widening the trench that now completely encircled our camp. We also had a series of funnels that were connected by PVC pipe. The pipes had four barrels full of kerosene that fed them. If the hand pumps at each barrel were operated, they would send that fuel into the funnels that were
each capped with handmade sprayer fixtures. There would be people in the towers with flaming arrows that could be fired down.

  Of course, the initial idea was that it would be a great defense against a herd. However, most of the living that tried to make a run at us would have to drop into that deep trench as well. Before we lost the backhoe, we’d managed to make it over ten feet wide and around eight or ten feet deep. It was basically a moat without water.

  “Hey, Evan,” Andrew Greene greeted as he came jogging around the corner of the trench. He had been ensuring that the sides were holding and had been building the brick retaining wall that would finish this project off. So far he and his crew were only about a quarter of the way done. Based on the supplies remaining…I doubted we would be able to finish any time soon. Even worse, we were nowhere near where we needed to be in supplies and we’d already emptied the nearby Home Depot. We would need to range out farther. And we would also need to find a fuel source.

  “S’up, Andrew.” I sat on the edge of the trench, my feet dangling.

  “Yeah, don’t get comfortable,” the man said with a frown as he shielded his eyes from the sun that had been holding court for three straight days.

  I sighed. This was a lousy way to start a conversation.

  “We have an individual at the first checkpoint. Says he needs to see Lisa?”

  “That’s new.” With a groan I hauled myself up to my feet and followed Andrew back to the closest drawbridge.

  When I reached it, I arrived to see Alex and Lisa standing in what looked like a bit of a stare down. Both women had their hands planted firmly on their hips. To some, that might seem like a good thing. Those would be the people that had never seen either woman use one of those nasty blades dangling from their belts.

  “What’s the problem?” I asked as I stepped up, making sure to be very careful as I edged between the two women, effectively forcing them to take a step back.

  “I thought that she said she and her people came here without anybody knowing or following,” Alex snapped, her eyes not leaving the other woman’s.