by Hamrick, R M
“Who’s next on shift?” she asked. She hoped she had timed it perfectly to avoid another awkward encounter with Dwyn.
“Marcos and Gordon,” Ziv reported.
Audra gave him a pat on the shoulder as thanks as she began to slow her breathing. She’d look for them in the mess hall. They were probably preparing for their shift, and if not, Audra could use a snack. She jumped onto the short walls of the fountain and skipped along its border.
Previously the mess hall was the designated corral in the industrial park. Now, the front room served as a place to gather and eat if one so desired. And one mostly did, since their rooms were isolated and boring. The back room served as a food pantry and limited kitchen.
Their diet was primarily a mixture of farmed, found, and hunted food. Late summer berries gave way to mulberry leaves and dandelion greens. These were supplemented with what meat they might have on hand, typically made into a stew to make it go further. They also traded for Lysent food blocks with some townships that were willing to keep it on the down low.
Audra entered the mess hall, which had a collection of eclectic tables and chairs, including the large conference table from the laboratory. She spotted Marcos first. His head was bowed, leaving his dark hair swinging low and covering his face. He was lining up his berries in size order on his plate, or maybe it was in order of ripeness - Audra couldn’t tell.
“Yo Marcos,” she said swinging her leg over the bench across from him. She grabbed a handful of berries from the bowl on the table as well.
Marcos looked over at her haphazard way of eating berries. She dared to put more than one into her mouth at a time. He disapproved by saying nothing in return. While amusing, she knew that his orderliness balanced the other scientists’ absentminded messiness in the laboratory.
“Can I take your guard shift?” she asked.
“Uh, sure, but it’s a double... I traded with Dwyn, something about he had plans.”
Audra smiled at Dwyn’s failed attempt. Her plan had become ironically perfect as long as Dwyn did not catch whiff of it. Then, she’d be stuck in awkward silence hoping for a zombie attack just to ease the tension.
“No worries. I got it.”
Audra sat next to Gordon, whose thin-framed woman’s glasses barely fit on his nose. Audra still had not mustered the courage to tell him what had happened to his original glasses. These did match his prescription, allowing him to work unimpeded in the laboratory and as guard, but they for sure didn’t match his face.
They both sat cross-legged on the scaffolding and looked into the dark distance.
“How’s the search going?” she asked.
Gordon had a daughter and an ex-wife he hadn’t seen since before the outbreaks. She worked for Lysent; maybe they had survived. Eliza would be eight years old now.
Gordon scoffed. “I don’t know. Still going, I guess.” His voice broke at the end.
Audra wasn’t sure what to say. She had known it was a long shot. She should never have scanned his DNA with her reader. She had told herself that there was no harm in trying, but there was harm in the false hope it had given him.
Audra had scraped the reader as lightly against his shoulder as she could, but the scientist had winced all the same. Audra had always wondered how much it hurt. It didn’t bother most of her targets. Turns out, that was because their bodies were dealing with too much internal pain. Nothing external signaled as loudly, possibly why they kept going even when falling apart or torn apart by physical weapons. Nothing told them to stop.
*BING*
“What does it say? What does that mean?” Gordon had asked from his perch on the metal table in Satomi’s office.
A single *BING*. Audra had known what that meant right away, but she’d pretended to read the display anyway. In her tagging life, almost no money had ever come from a single *BING*.
Inquired, but no deposit paid.
The logistics of finding the family, the family still wanting the individual and suddenly having the means to cover the expense? It always meant milling around until you gave up and found a better zom. Gordon had waited for her answer.
“It means ‘Inquired’. At some point, someone asked about you.”
“They’re alive.” His voice had rasped with all the possibilities. He’d jumped up as if he had somewhere to go.
“Gordon, it doesn’t mean that at all,” Audra had said, touching his arm to slow him. “It means at some point, someone looked you up. The tagging program has been running for nearly four years now. Your family could have checked and then moved on. And to be honest, I bet Greenly inquired for all the scientists in this laboratory once she realized its strategic importance.”
“But if it was my family, they’ll notify them now, right?”
“They’re supposed to. But, I imagine all employees of this facility are marked. They’re not going to help us.”
“Then, I’ll look on my own. This is hope.”
Audra had kept to herself what the single *BING* meant to her.
“Do you think they’d head south or north?” she asked now, hating herself for encouraging him.
“North, definitely. She had family up there.”
Audra nodded into the deep darkness. Gordon ran his hand through his hair and adjusted his glasses.
There wasn’t much hope, but Audra knew she would search too if she were in his place. Besides, what else was there to do but look?
* * *
After a few hours of sleep and the promise she’d return in time for the meeting, Audra was back out with the coolness of the morning. She couldn’t comprehend how anyone could stay cooped up in that industrial park. The padding of her feet and the soft dew greeted her like an old friend. Soon the dew dried, leaving the crunching rhythm of fall.
A rhythm that was being cut into.
Audra paused, but all of the crunching did not. She looked ahead toward the noise that approached and the figure that made it. Audra pulled out her knife and held it ready. Who was here so close to Osprey Point?
The figure did not change pace, so Audra stood and waited. It was a zombie. Or was it? Its feet shuffled but its back was straight as if the infection had started from the bottom and hadn’t quite reached its way to the top. Even from this distance, she observed its drained color, that sandy gray that overtook flesh - a veil over humanity. It had no damage, no gouges, no weapons protruding from its torso. As much as it looked like a zom in excellent condition, Audra’s mind refused to accept it.
Something was off.
Its movements weren’t quite right. Its limbs moved with more coordination than what felt familiar. Audra swore it was making small corrections around obstacles. She watched its left foot rise slightly higher, avoiding a root.
As he got closer, Audra could see that he could have been a healthy survivor this morning. He was built. His muscles hadn’t atrophied. His spine didn’t droop in odd directions. He had all his hair, unlike scalped Curly.
He wore a loose burlap sack, not something people would choose for themselves. Audra remembered the dagger in her hand as her eyes searched the forest for the wardrobe designer. No one else around. None of this felt good or safe. He hadn’t seen her yet, even though she was close to his direct trajectory.
“Hey you!” she dared call out.
He looked at her. Audra expected him to attack. She waited for him to spring, launch himself, and reach out with his strong arms. He was much taller than she was and she wondered how much his improved condition would be to her disadvantage. But he just looked at her, then turned his head ever so slightly back to its forward position as he continued his march.
“I’m talking to you! Are you OK?”
He did not answer.
A zombie that did not want to bite people? Or a trick, a man in disguise?
Audra wasn’t sure how close to let him approach.
“Look, you can’t go that way. I need you to go back where you came from. I’ve claimed all these woods. It’s my
hunting ground. You can’t get to wherever you’re going from here. You’re going to have to go somewhere else and start from there.”
No response. Not even a side-eye glance at her joke. Whether he knew it or not, he was making a beeline to Osprey Point. Maybe he’d keep walking right into one of their walls. Audra wasn’t sure what the deal was, but she needed to redirect him like she’d redirected hundreds of zoms before.
He was almost to her and Audra could see the dark gray of his eyes. No one could fake that. He wasn’t there. This wasn’t a disguise; this was him. Whatever him was. Audra shoved his left arm. His right leg came out to stop him from falling. It was a reflex but usually not a successful one for his kind. He adjusted his trajectory ever so much to correct for her efforts.
If his instincts weren’t strong enough to chase her on sight, then she’d have to become more enticing. What else drew zombies in?
Audra cringed. Blood. Blood drew zombies in. The smell, the sight, the crying that often accompanied it. She looked around, even though she knew it would do no good. There were no convenient animals or reservoirs of blood to grab on a whim. The only thing that had delicious blood was her. She looked down at her dagger, which she hoped she had cleaned more recently than she recalled. The zom brushed past her. She gave a little slice to her hand near her thumb before she could change her mind. He didn’t immediately turn around so she recovered the distance. In a move that she considered only as she got there, she offered the knife with the blood on it rather than her bloodied hand. His head turned at the smell and his lip sneered upward. She had him with the scent of blood. But how much of him did she have? Not enough - something still drove him forward. He did not stay.
Audra pulled on his arm. When she refused to let go, a fist swung toward her. She let go before his fist followed through. Instead, she ran in front of him and dived for his legs. He did nothing to avoid her and fell over. She escaped him and he reoriented himself to his original direction, the direction to Osprey Point, before pulling himself up. She kicked him in the back, causing him to fall again. He just moved to get back up.
What was wrong with him? What was this?
She would not let him reach her community. He was a threat, an unknown infection. She pulled out the rope from her bag, the second time in two days, and swung it onto her shoulder. She’d kick him down again, but this time in a more opportune place.
She waited until he neared the right tree, then she drove her foot into the back of one of his knees. Down he went. Audra worked quickly but carefully. She wasn’t sure what he would resort to when he realized he was being subdued. She dragged him close to the tree. So far so good. She tied the rope around him and then around the tree. Around and around it went. The zom began fighting at this point. Pulling, struggling, trying to get his hands free. He finally resorted to opening his mouth to bite.
Audra secured him with a knot and looked around to get her bearings. She would bring Satomi and the scientists here to examine him and treat him if they could.
She thought of the cure stashed away in her bag that Dwyn had given her. No. She didn’t even know if it would work, or what he had. She would save hers for a rainy day. For that rainy day.
Audra started off in the same trajectory as the zom intended. Was it a coincidence that he was heading in the direction of Osprey Point, or something Audra shouldn’t ignore? She was lucky to have found him. If they awakened him, would he be able to explain how he’d gotten sick and with what? He couldn’t have cared less that she was there. Audra wondered how the virus spread if insatiable hunger didn’t drive him. Maybe he was a one-off; Audra hoped he was a one-off.
Audra raced through the gates to Satomi’s office. She’d oversee the treatment, possibly in the lab. The conference room hadn’t been used for quarantine for so long.
Satomi was seeing someone on a stretcher behind one of the movable walls. Audra shifted from one foot to the other waiting impatiently. Yes, he was tied to a tree, but something felt off. Audra wanted to know what was going on. She knew zombies. Even if Satomi and the others refused to call them that, Satomi knew them too. This wasn’t a zombie. This was something else. And the sooner they figured it out, the better.
Right as Audra was considering interrupting the office visit - probably some ingrown toenail or toothache - something interrupted her.
“HEY OOO!” called someone from outside the fences.
Chapter Five:
Jack & Jill
“We’d like to talk!” they said unnecessarily. Of course, they wanted to talk; otherwise they’d have attacked already. About what and on whose terms, was the concern. The infected in the woods quickly disappeared from her mind as she peered through the reinforced front gates to see an armored man and woman with a handful of support behind them.
“Invite them in?” asked a squeaky Ryder, sidling up to Audra. Lionel, one of the guards on duty, had found her.
“No. You don’t want them to gain any easy knowledge about us. You want them to suspect that we are more powerful, more numerous, and more guarded than we are. You want them to doubt whatever moves they make,” Audra said in hushed voices to her leader, her eyes glued to the group outside.
“Oh, right...” Ryder said. In a louder voice, she said, “let’s meet them outside the gates where our guards can watch overhead.”
By this point, Dwyn had emerged from the mess hall to join them. Others flooded from the community buildings and funneled into the residence quarters. At least they’d be out of the way.
As the gate opened, the doors further revealed the duo. The woman had long, blond hair that swept around her shoulders and into a braid that went down to her waist. She wore flexible leather armor tucked into her boots, and a sliver of skin showed that her suit was two pieces at the waist. Her wrists, hands, and neck – all popular and vulnerable spots for zombie bites – were covered and guarded. She stood of equal height to the man, whose blond hair was spiked with gel and styling. He wore heavy strips of leather on his forearms and on his shoulders. He carried a short, pointed sword and she carried a glimmering hand-axe. Their weapons showed that they liked close combat, and their being alive provided evidence of their ability.
The two looked similar, maybe siblings or just that weird thing where people start to look like each other when they are in relationships. Either way, it was obvious by their body posture that they were the power couple of the group: clean, pretty, and confident. The others stood a few feet behind them, their hands on weapons as well.
“Hello!” said friendly Ryder, although her voice wavered just a bit at the end. “I’m Ryder. This is Audra and Dwyn.”
The woman raised her eyebrows and the man made no gesture. For people who wanted to talk, they were not quick to do so. The pair sized up the crew visually before the man spoke.
“I’m Jack. She’s Jill.”
Ryder held out her hand to shake, but Jack and Jill made no movement to do the same.
“Where are you from?” asked Ryder as she lowered her unreceived hand.
“New Tennessee. We came to escape the winter. We like it warmer, although we imagine your zoms stay active year-round?”
“They slow down up there? We haven’t really noticed a difference. Well, they get a bit smelly during the summer,” remarked Dwyn.
Jill giggled, but it was a bit of a dark humor giggle. Audra didn’t trust it or Jill.
“New Tennessee?” asked Audra.
“Yes. I guess it was Virginia?” answered Jack. “But a group migrated up there from Tennessee and renamed it for their own.”
So, there were more survivors, at least on this side of the Mississippi and south of the Mason-Dixon line.
“So, this place,” Jack started. “Looks like it used to be an industrial park - offices and such.”
Ryder nodded.
“Did you wake up anyone from here?” he asked casually.
“Yes, we sure did.”
Were they trying to reunite with family?
Ryder answered before Audra could signal her to shut up. “Oh yes!”
“Good. We want them. Doctors too.”
“What?” choked Ryder at their demand.
Jack and Jill gave a cold stare. Their minions behind them tensed and seemed to grow larger.
“We won’t give you people,” Audra said, her patience thinning. Dwyn touched her wrist, a sign to be careful. Audra pulled her arm away. She was not going to be cajoled by him out here. Or anywhere. She shot him daggers and he backed off.
“We’re stronger than you,” said Jill simply.
“Then there must be more of you?” suggested Audra. “Because you’re just five here and you don’t look any stronger.”
Jill laughed at her, like Audra had just told a joke.
“You’d be surprised,” she murmured, “but yes, there are more. We could take over, but we might not want to. So, what do you have?”
“Audra’s right, we don’t deal in people. But if you’re interested in scientists, we might be one step ahead of you.” Audra closed her eyes and deeply inhaled as she listened to Ryder’s mistake. “We have an antiviral for the pandemic. It works. We can trade it with you.”
“So, you do have scientists. Good ones too. Bring them out to trade.”
This wasn’t working.
“We’ll do no such thing,” said Ryder, crossing her arms.
Jack and Jill turned heel and ominously walked away.
“Well good riddance,” muttered Dwyn.
As the duo reached the forest line, Jill raised her arm. With the snap of her fingers, dark figures emerged from the brush in a long neat line. Audra flashed back to Greenly’s attack with shredded and weathered zoms. These were not those. They walked purposefully rather than shuffling. Like the zom she’d met in the woods, these looked strong. It would be unlike anything they’d ever encountered before, and Audra suddenly wished they had done more to fortify their community.
