by Jack Hunt
“How can you be so sure?”
He rose from his seat and looked out the French doors. Beyond them, I could see the others. Rowan had returned and once again Jess was with him.
“My position before all of this was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We were responsible for personnel readiness, policy, planning, and training of military services. I was an advisor to the president and the secretary of defense.” He paused, taking a deep pull on his cigar before blowing out smoke from the side of his mouth. “Be assured I’m familiar with what they will or will not do. Right now their focus is on the cure. For a time that meant they were picking off civilians and bleeding them in their search for anomalies. Those of you who are immune.”
He turned back towards me.
“It’s my belief that you gave them what they required.”
“I don’t think so.”
“No, you did, otherwise they would have been here by now.”
I shifted in my seat. “How much do you know about the cure? About anomalies?”
He frowned as if I was questioning his ability.
“Only what Annora has shared.”
“Well, it seems the Warden’s views were different to hers. I heard him say myself that I wasn’t enough. That one anomaly wasn’t enough. Which tells me they don’t fully know how to duplicate or develop a cure from whatever it is they are extracting. They are going to continue to hunt down anomalies.”
He stared at me.
“How old are you, Johnny? Twenty? Twenty-one?”
“Nineteen.”
He scoffed a little and shook his head. Maybe I was reading him wrong but I got a sense that he wasn’t used to having anyone question his word on matters, especially a nineteen-year-old.
“Come, let me show you around the place.”
And like that he shifted the topic. I had to say I found it a little strange that he didn’t want to continue the discussion about the cure. Then again, in in his last job he was paid to strategize and see a bigger picture. Perhaps he saw the development of the cure as small beans compared to what he had in mind. Maybe he thought a nineteen-year-old knew nothing. After the shit I’d been through, I thought I knew a thing or two about lunatics. The question was, was he one? Had he been on the front lines being shot at? Had he risked his life in order to save people he didn’t he know?
He led me out of the front door. We entered a courtyard with gravel, and a large water fountain in the middle that was turned off. We got into a small white vehicle that looked like a golf buggy.
“Buckle up.”
I didn’t bother, he shook his head again.
From the outside I could see the home. It was the size of a mansion. It wasn’t just any home. It was an estate. Magnificent but excessive. It was always excessive. What was the deal with people needing to get something bigger? Bigger cars, bigger houses, more of this, more of that? For what? Bragging rights? It was all bullshit. None of it mattered back then, and even more so now. The buggy zipped away making a sound like a remote-control car.
“How much of Long Island have you taken?”
“Everything west of County Road 80 and Sunrise Highway, which of course are the only two ways you can get to this side of Long Island. It’s easier for us to control those access points. You’ll see there is a method to the madness.”
He glanced at me and smiled.
“Eventually we will extend out beyond those two points but for now we are clearing homes, woods, and properties of the undead. It’s a long process but we will get there.”
We zipped along some of the roads and passed a number of armed personnel on the way. I had to admit; whatever he had managed to do here, it was the closest thing to what we had known before the infection.
“So your long-term goals?”
“Restore society, of course.”
Seemed like his work was cut out for him. Had he really seen the mess that New York was in, or even the country? The infection had spread fast. There were millions of infected roaming through cities and towns. Certainly hunkering down on Long Island and the use of a steel wall would give survivors a chance to live, grow crops, and begin new families. But it relied on a lot of factors, some of which went beyond controlling Z’s. That was the easy part. It was the living insane I was concerned about, the ones who might come to steal what they had.
“How many are there behind these walls?”
“The last head count, over one thousand and twenty men, women, and children. Some of which were taken from the Hive, others we found trying to survive.”
We passed by a truck full of regular civilians who were loaded up with AK-45’s, some of them couldn’t have been older than fifteen. What a story they would have to tell their grandchildren. I could hear it now.
So Grandpa, what did you do when you were a teenager? Oh you know, the regular, blowing heads off Z’s, hacking to death some poor loser who got bit, and randomly gorging on food that had passed its expiration date by about two years.
“I’ve got to ask. Do you have any rules?”
This question was right up there with my most common one… How’s your ass for cracking walnuts? Though I hadn’t used that one since meeting Jess, and the last time I did I was slapped.
Now, I knew we weren’t going to get along if he was some hard-nosed version of my father. I fully expected him to be that way, to tell you the truth. It’s not that I think everyone is like that but these military folks tend to have it ingrained in them from day one of boot camp. Order, rules, learning to jump high and not ask questions back, generally was what gave these guys hard-ons. Not me. It wasn’t that I found myself pushing back against anyone who wanted me to go in a particular direction. I just liked to know why? Unless someone gave me a good reason, I considered it bullshit. And to be honest, most of the time it was.
“We have a few. Nothing heavy-handed of course. But as you know, unless you have some boundaries, shit can get crazy.”
A valid point. If the walls were down, Z’s would have a field day with us. If there was no sense of what you could or couldn’t do inside the walls, people would do whatever the hell they wanted. Take Rowan for instance. I grimaced at the thought of him and Jess together.
“So, what are the rules?”
He took a hard right down a street and looked over at me. “Don’t worry, Johnny, I’m not looking to become the next Hitler.”
“I’m sure every authority figure who went off the rails thought that at some point.”
“That’s why there are seven of us. We vote on things. It’s easier. No… one person can determine what needs to be done for everyone.”
“So you see yourselves like the founding fathers of America?”
He nodded slightly. “That’s one way of looking at it.”
We traveled for about twenty minutes in that buggy until we came up on an access point. I learned this was Sunrise Bridge over the Shinnecock Canal.
“Sir,” a guy dressed in civilian clothes with a rifle over his shoulder greeted us.
“At ease. How are things?”
“We managed to clear the last group of Z’s north of here.”
“And how’s it holding up?”
He gestured to the trucks they had parked in various diagonal positions with large sharp posts sticking out of them to catch the majority of the dead that tried to get through. I looked to the left and right and saw others were working on building a wall with corrugated steel. He told me that it wasn’t going to go all around. They didn’t need that much. The way the island was built, the water acted as a natural wall. Besides the two entry points there was no way Z’s were getting across.
“And what about people who want to steal what you have?”
He snorted. “It won’t happen. Once they see what we have here. They’ll know there is more than enough for everyone.”
“Again, you seem sure.”
He put his foot up on a tree stump and looked out across the canal. In the distance we could see th
e harbor. It was still packed with boats. I’d always imagined that people who owned yachts would have escaped to the water. But that wasn’t the case. Most didn’t know until it was too late. Others had to return for supplies and they never made it back.
“Look around you, Johnny. This is the beginning of humanity fighting back. Starting again and maybe this time, doing it right.”
“Do you have any family?” I asked.
His eyes dropped. “A son and daughter. Their mother is dead.”
He introduced me to some of the security they had posted along the wall. They were just your average people. Not military. Just hard-working New Yorkers who wanted to survive. As we drove back to the estate I asked him a question that had been bothering me.
“If you worked for the military at the time when all of this happened, why did you choose to fight back against your own government?”
He hesitated to reply. Perhaps he was weighing his answer carefully.
“I’m a father first, Johnny. I knew about what they were doing with civilians. My son and daughter would have been included. I wouldn’t allow that so I left with other like-minded individuals.”
When we made it back and he parked, he didn’t immediately hop out.
“I’ve heard a lot about what you and your friends have done to help our cause. I would like to see you stay if you would consider it. We could really use people like yourselves.”
I still hadn’t made up my mind where I would go after this. The thought of returning to the fortress lingered at the back of my mind but security here was far better, plus resources were plentiful. They made trips into the towns in the area and ventured into the city for other things. The best chance of our survival was going to be among others who were like us. There was only so much we could do. Maybe it was time to put our roots down. To see what we could offer. This was the safe zone we were looking for. At least it seemed that way.
“Think it over.”
I nodded and he disappeared inside the house. I wandered around the back to find the others. They were gone. I heard Baja laughing about something inside the house. It was good to see them looking relaxed for once. All of us had burnt the candle at both ends since leaving Castle Rock. What had started as a search for a safe zone had turned into so much more. All of us had learned to adapt to a new way of living. A threat that forever lingered at our door.
I looked around taking in my surroundings.
The estate itself was massive. It was situated near Cooper’s Beach.
As I came around another corner of the house I found Jess lip-locked with Rowan. I blinked hard. For a second I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Now you’ve got to understand, we had been together for two years before all of this had started.
I would have given my life for that girl. Several times I nearly did.
Anger clouded my judgment. Something snapped in me in that moment as I rushed towards them. All I wanted to do was go nuclear. Startled, Jess jumped back as the first fist collided with Rowan’s chin and he found himself knocked down. Within seconds he was up and we were in the dirt in an all-out brawl. My shirt tore as I slammed him against the ground only to find his foot connecting with my chest and launching me back several feet.
I coughed hard.
He gritted his teeth, wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand, and sneered.
I came straight back at him, punching him as hard as I could. Brawling hard, he was matching me blow for blow. Each of us gasped as the air was blown out of our lungs. I tossed him into slatted arbor fencing and we rolled down an embankment into a stream. Water splashed as both of us tried to inflict as much pain on the other as possible. All the while Jess was screaming for us to stop. I tried to catch my breath, resting my hands on my knees, but it was pointless. Rowan hit me again with a right hook and then attempted a left uppercut but the second one didn’t connect as he lost his balance.
I fell on top of him and began holding his head under the water with my hands wrapped around his throat. I might have killed him there and then if he hadn’t kneed me in the family jewels.
I was doubled over and spitting blood into the slow-flowing stream that was up to my knees. Then both of us looked at each other with death in our eyes. I was certain we would have kept at it if it wasn’t for Elijah and Ben who came rushing in and pulled both of us back by looping their arms underneath our shoulders and clasping behind our necks with their hands.
“Enough!” Ben shouted.
“Fucking asshole,” I said, struggling to get out of Elijah’s vise grip.
Rowan chuckled. “Yeah, you just don’t know how to treat a woman. She deserves better than you.”
“Walk it off,” Ben said, tossing Rowan away from the crowd that had gathered. He climbed back up that embankment. Jess’s eyes darted between him and me. He scowled, shook his head like a dog drying itself, and then trudged away soaking wet.
I stood still until Elijah was convinced that I wasn’t going to go ape shit again.
“What the hell is the matter with you?” Jess asked me.
“What’s the matter with me?” I asked Jess, pointing to my chest. I shook my head as if I couldn’t believe that she had the nerve to ask. By now a small crowd had gathered at the foot of the embankment. Wren arrived and looked on with a concerned expression.
“Alright folks, nothing to see here,” Elijah said, shooing everyone back to the house. Ben waited a few more seconds then looked back at Jess and me. He slowly followed after the others. Once everyone had gone I trudged out of the water back to the muddy embankment.
Our eyes locked on each other. Still breathing hard, I went to say something and then stopped. For a short while we didn’t speak, then she broke the silence.
“I know about you and Danielle.”
I swallowed hard, my stomach churning within me. I closed my eyes and breathed out.
“Baja told me. Don’t hold it against him. It slipped out in conversation.”
“That’s what this is about? You kissing him? Taking long fucking walks?”
“Yes. No. Well…” she looked away exasperated and sighed before turning back. “Did you?” she asked. She didn’t need to finish the sentence. She waited for my reply.
I blew my cheeks out and ran a hand over my face.
“I didn’t know if I would see you again Jess.”
She shook her head and pursed her lips together.
“Look, I’m—”
“Johnny, save it. I don’t want to hear.”
“But I…”
“No.”
“Come on, Jess.” I took a step towards her and she backed off. She placed a hand over her mouth and gazed down the stream. Fallen leaves drifted slowly downstream, around rocks and disappeared beneath the murky surface. Hedging us in were large oak trees. A flock of herons broke from the trees.
Frowning, I asked the question that bothered me the most, “Why Rowan?”
“Why you?” she replied, dodging the question.
I tossed my hands up, about to walk away. “Fine, don’t tell me. I don’t care.”
She shot back “See, that’s your problem, Johnny. You don’t care.”
“Ha, coming from someone who kissed another guy before you asked me what I had done, I find that quite amusing.”
“Everything is a joke to you, isn’t it? Do you ever take anything serious?”
I cocked my head to one side.
“Why should I? My father is dead, my best friend is gone, and Dax, the only person I really gave a shit about on this fucked-up planet, is gone too.”
I felt my eyes well up.
“Not everyone’s gone.”
Her gaze went through me and for the first time since we had been together I felt like I was looking at a stranger.
I stepped forward again, trying to reach for her hand. “Jess, c’mon.”
“No,” she said, before turning and walking away. She had every reason to hate me. I deserved it. Maybe it would have happ
ened anyway. People drift apart. Others break away. The reasons will always be misunderstood. Sometimes things only last a season.
I watched her amble back to the house. She briefly cast a glance over her shoulder then disappeared inside the home. I stood out there for five, maybe ten minutes looking down the stream, watching the leaves twist and turn as nature intended. Was it that way for all things in life? Life, death, some things grew strong and lasted, others withered under the heat of the sun.
Not everything was meant to last.
I breathed in deeply the ocean air.
“I guess we made it,” I muttered under my breath. “I wish you were here, brother.”
I remained lost in thought. Flashing back and forth between the past and present, unaware of someone approaching. Nearby undergrowth snapped and I twisted around thinking Jess had returned. It was Wren.
So there it is. We had found a safe zone, new people to stand alongside, and a sliver of hope for the future. It definitely wasn’t what I thought it would be and neither was I sure if I would stay. I had changed, all of us had. Love had been lost. For others, found. An ever-present darkness still loomed over our shoulders: The infected, the living insane, and a rogue government bent on controlling survivors. Perhaps sticking around a while would be a good idea. Or maybe tomorrow a new kind of horror would drive us out. No one could be sure.
But until then, we will choose to stand between what remains and all that might come to kill.
We may not be the fastest or strongest.
We might not have what it takes to survive.
But we’re full of heart, and that’s enough.
We are, the Renegades.
A PLEA
Thank you for reading The Renegades 4: Colony. If you enjoyed the book, I would really appreciate it if you would consider leaving a review. I can’t stress how helpful this is in helping other readers decide if they should give it a shot. Reviews from readers like you are the best recommendation a book can have. Without reviews, an author’s books are virtually invisible on the retail sites. It also let’s me know what you liked. You can leave a review by visiting the book’s page. I would greatly appreciate it. It only takes a couple of seconds.
