100 Days of Death

by Ellingsen, Ray

  While it was a sensible precaution, we were all so amped up that we only barely tolerated it. David Kester was waiting for me when I was released. When he asked me what happened I told him he could read it in my report. I went to our team room and made everyone fill out an after- action report. Matt cornered me and asked who had turned on the music. I told him what happened and he turned angry. William, one of our casualties, had been his friend.

  I managed to get out of going to church and stumbled toward the men’s dorm dead tired and ready to hit the rack. Alison, Albert, Grace, and Chloe were all waiting for me. It was probably just my exhaustion, but I felt tears roll down my cheeks when I saw them. It was good to have friends.

  We walked back to the commissary and sat down and talked. I downplayed what happened for Grace’s benefit and listened to everyone else’s stories about their day (although to be honest, I can’t remember any of it).

  When we got back to the dorm a little while ago, Albert asked me how long we are going to stay here. I didn’t pay much attention to him, but as I write this I am rethinking his question. Tomorrow, I will talk to everyone in our little circle about how they are feeling. I have been pretty self-absorbed once again. I need to start paying more attention to my friends.

  DAY 84

  I just got back from giving my report to David Kester.

  I need to get this down to vent a little bit before I go see Alison and Albert. I delivered our paperwork to Kester and sat in front of his desk while he read it. Ron Dietz hovered behind him and reviewed each page after Kester, frowning deeper with each sentence he read.

  Finally, Kester looked up at me and asked if anything could have been handled differently. Dietz chimed in and reminded me that I had been responsible for everyone in our party. I held my tongue and listened to Dietz tell me that the National Guard unit wasn’t to be taken lightly and that I should have avoided a confrontation with them.

  I finally lost it and said, “Ok, Asshole. Why don’t you tell me how you could have handled things any better!”

  Dietz sputtered and tried to think up a reply. Kester put up his hand, stopping the confrontation before it got out of control.

  “We’re not blaming you or accusing you of mishandling the situation. It’s just that the loss of our members is deeply saddening.” Kester said.

  “Really? Were you this sad when Cody’s parents got killed? How did that happen again?” I asked.

  Dietz and Kester looked at each other. Kester told me that it was an “unfortunate mistake” and that they couldn’t open the gate to let them in for fear of infected people getting inside the compound.

  When I asked how it was that they got caught outside the gate in the first place, neither Dietz nor Kester replied. I got up and walked out of the office. I’ve heard enough from other people to piece together the story about Cody’s parents. They had been part of a foraging party that was attacked. They had been left for dead and abandoned. Everybody was pretty shocked when they showed up at the gate with the undead hot on their heels.

  I don’t know if they had been bitten or not, but I guess nobody wanted to take a chance so they left them outside the gate and the Infected got them.

  I’m pretty disgusted with these people. Their hypocritical religious unity just pisses me off even more. I’m going to see the only people I trust right now. I don’t feel any better after writing this down.

  Well, that settles it. We are leaving this place.

  I don’t know exactly when, but we are all in agreement that this place is not for us. Earlier, I went to go meet with Alison and Albert. On my way across the compound, I was intercepted by Ron Dietz. For some stupid reason I thought he might actually be stopping me to apologize for his behavior. I should have known better.

  He informed me that I have been hording supplies. The vehicles we came here in have been parked in the stables since we got here. All of our extra weapons and supplies have been locked up inside them. A few days ago, Albert and I actually talked about donating everything to the community, but when Dietz demanded them, any charitable thoughts I may have had went out the window.

  I listened to him drone on and then grunted non-committally. He also informed me that “my stinking mutt” could no longer stay in the dorm with me and needed to be kenneled with the other animals. When I asked him who had complained about Chloe, he just blustered and told me it didn’t matter.

  I told him I’d think about it. I could tell he was staring at my back as I walked away. I met Alison in the commissary and she led me out behind the gardens and away from everyone else. We walked into a small clearing and found Albert, Jim, and Marion all waiting for us.

  I was a little surprised to see Jim and Marion, but it was a good thing. I won’t bother with all the details of our two-hour pow-wow, but suffice it to say, we are all feeling the same way about the community. Jim and Marion asked to come with us when we leave and we all heartily agreed. I have been so wrapped up in my own bullshit lately that I didn’t even think that everyone else was having issues here.

  The short version of it all is that Alison has been working with Janie Potts in the infirmary and has had to fend off advances from eligible bachelors every day. She is tired of hearing what a sinner she is for not being properly married to a good Christian man.

  Marion has been working in the gardens and overhears gossip regarding us constantly. The gist of most of it is that we are outsiders and that if we didn’t have skills to offer, we would have never been allowed to stay. The one piece of chatter that really pissed her off was that Jim is useless to the community and is wasting good food and medicine by being here.

  Jim seemed to take particular pride in hearing that. As for Jim, most of the men on his maintenance detail are afraid of him and avoid speaking to him, which suits him just fine.

  The shocking news to me was Albert. He seemed to fit right in here from my perspective. I didn’t realize how unhappy he has been until now. Apparently, he is the only minority in the entire compound. I didn’t even notice it until he pointed it out, but he is right.

  He and Marion have both overheard comments about his race being an issue here. One of the guys in the machine shop (Charlie) actually said to Albert that unless some “gook” woman shows up at the gate someday, he’s never going to be able to marry. They made it clear to him that there was no way anyone here would ever allow Albert to be with a white woman.

  I was so furious when I heard this, that I turned to go find Charlie to kick the shit out of him. Jim had to actually physically stop me.

  We decided that we will wait until Sunday to leave. Everyone will be in church and it will be easier to slip away then. It’s not like we are feeling guilty about leaving, but it will just be better to avoid any kind of confrontation. As we discussed the details, I started to feel like we were planning our prison break in secret. I feel a little like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.

  We have agreed not to mention this to Grace until we actually leave on Sunday. Besides, her Birthday is tomorrow and I have heard that there is a pretty big celebration planned (I guess any excuse for a holiday is a good excuse).

  We broke up our meeting and all left separately. When I got to the Clubhouse, everyone stared at me solemnly. “Now what?” I thought. It turns out that we have to recruit six more men to fill out our ranks and to start training new foragers.

  Also, Kester had talked to Roger and told him that we need to stock up on supplies, weapons, and food as soon as we can, as he feels that a confrontation with the National Guard unit is eminent.

  The recruiting process was not as horrible as I thought. Roger Holtby summoned potential candidates to the Clubhouse and I interviewed them. My reputation as “the guy who shot it out with Karl Jackson” really helped to draw volunteers. I was surprised when Danny Beckett showed up. He is the kid that Jim gave the codebook to.

  He acted a little
paranoid and as soon as no one else was around, he asked me if anyone knew he had “the book.” When I told him it was his business, he relaxed. He really wanted to be on the teams, so I accepted him.

  We are going out tomorrow to hit a cannery in Winters. I told Holtby that it is a bad idea and that the National Guard unit will have probably already claimed it, but it’s what Kester wants, so…

  Tonight I unobtrusively wandered around the compound just to get a sense of the overall mood. My observation skills have really turned to shit over the last few weeks and it’s time I start seeing what’s really going on again.

  I stopped by the campfire (a nightly social event) outside the barn and listened in on the discussions. Marion and another woman seemed to be holding most of everyone’s attention with a rapt debate over God vs. science. I wanted to kick Marion, as we were supposed to be lying low until our departure.

  Still, it was a pretty interesting discussion. The essence of it was that God and religion offer hope and promise of salvation. Science only offers harsh facts and reality. All hypocrisy aside, it’s no wonder people abandon science for religion during dark times like these. I have to say, I was actually siding with religion until I remembered what assholes religious nuts can be. I think faith and belief in God are fine if not taken in excess and to the extreme.

  There was a lot of talk about the party tomorrow. Everyone here seems to adore Grace. That’s not necessarily a good thing, as it may cause problems when we take her away. It’s funny, but there was never even a consideration by any of us that we might leave her here. I guess we all feel she is better off with us. I don’t want to over think that decision.

  I was just about to call it a night when Cody found me and started following me around. He wanted me to tell him about our foraging “raids” and kept asking if I would teach him to shoot. Nobody else here pays any attention to him. I feel bad for the kid, but have enough to worry about without dealing with him.

  I can’t wait to get out of here.

  DAY 85

  Not much to write about today.

  This morning we worked with the new guys on our foraging team. Roger Holtby said something about it being good to have full teams again. I’m sure he’ll be cursing me after we leave this weekend.

  It turns out that the “big party” today was for more than just Grace. It is another girl’s birthday today as well as two other people, whose birthdays are this week. Everyone here kind of took it easy in preparation for the party. I almost forgot why we’re leaving until Alison approached me looking seriously pissed off.

  She told me that Janie Potts asked her how she felt about Grace being baptized this Sunday. Alison was able to cover her outrage and apparently smiled and grunted appropriately enough to satisfy Janie’s question. I’m pretty impressed with Alison’s ability to keep her cool. I probably would have punched someone in the face and said something wildly inappropriate.

  At the party, Grace seemed pretty happy. I could tell though that after a while she was getting pretty sick of being fawned over so much. She and Cody stuck close together the whole night. Dietz came up and gave me a key to the dog kennels so I could “kennel my bitch” whenever I was ready. As soon as he left, I tossed the key in the nearest latrine.

  We are definitely getting out of here soon.

  DAY(S) 86, 87, 88

  Things have finally settled down enough for me to catch up with this journal.

  First off, we are now 170 miles away from David Kester and his nut jobs and just north of a place called Redding. We all got out safe, although it was a little dicey for a while there. Our escape didn’t exactly go as planned, but I’ll get to that later.

  It is scary being back out on our own. I think we all started to take the relative safety of the compound for granted, but it’s too late to go back now.

  The morning after Grace’s party, everybody got back to business as usual. Roger Holtby and I decided to take the six new recruits out for a training mission outside the compound. We took four other veterans with us and drove south, away from where we knew the National Guard unit to be. We went to one of the remote farmhouses we had already cleared and foraged at (but didn’t tell the new guys we’d been there before).

  We knew it would be a dry run, but I wanted to see how they’d do outside in the real world. There were still the bodies of the undead lying around from when we’d killed them before. The smell was horrid. We left one team on watch and cleared the farm with the second team. Seeing the undead carcasses kept everyone alert.

  Danny Beckett was my partner. When we were away from everyone else he told me he wasn’t going back. I looked around to make sure no one could hear us and then asked him where he was planning on going. He seemed surprised that I didn’t object. I didn’t tell him of our plans, but instead just said that I understood how he felt.

  He decided to take the codebook back to the Guard unit in exchange for joining back up with them. I didn’t offer any comment, but didn’t think much of his plan.

  “Why don’t you just tell Kester you’re leaving?” I asked.

  Danny laughed at me and told me I was stupid if I thought that Kester and Dietz would let anyone leave. He told me that several had tried but that Dietz put them in the kennels until they came to their senses.

  When I asked him about the others that had left before, Danny told me that the only people who ever left were the ones that Kester banished. No one who could potentially benefit the community was ever allowed to leave.

  I wanted to tell Danny that I didn’t believe him, but instinctively knew he was probably right. I told Danny that I would call the other team to the farm so that it would be easier for him to slip away in the confusion of more people.

  We went back to our vehicle and I pulled the spare car battery and a can of gas out of the back and covered them up with some loose boards. There was an old Toyota in the barn that Danny could come back for after we left.

  We brought in the other team and ran clearing drills for an hour. It was still early, but I wrapped it up and told everyone to load back into our two trucks. When I looked around I didn’t see Danny anywhere. I guess everyone assumed that he was in the other vehicle on our trip back.

  When we got back to the compound I told everyone to go grab some food and meet back later to debrief. Roger Holtby looked at me funny, as this was a breach of protocol, but didn’t say anything to me.

  I met with Jim and Albert and told them about what Danny had said. They looked as worried as I felt. I think it was then that I realized we weren’t going to be able to just slip out the back while everyone was at church.

  I avoided going back to the clubhouse to debrief. Instead, I went to the armory and scrounged up an empty ammo can. I went to my Land Rover and retrieved some supplies that I had hoped I would be able to save. I asked Albert to build me a timer and went to the machine shop to rig the ammo can.

  Remy was pretty curious as to what I was doing so I told him I was building something to take with us on our next foraging mission. He studied my work from over my shoulder and at one point said, “Huh, looks like you’re making some kind of bomb.”

  I ignored him and finished up, thanking him for the use of his shop. I met with Alison, Albert, Jim, and Marion and told them we were leaving that night. I told Alison to go get Grace and Chloe and to keep them close. Albert, Jim, and Marion all went to the stables to keep an eye on our vehicles and make sure they were gassed up and ready.

  I issued radios to everyone and told them when they got the call to bring the vehicles to the main house. I had one more thing to take care of before I put everything into motion.

  At 4 p.m. I holstered my .44, strapped on my carry bag, and walked across the courtyard to the main building. I saw Roger Holtby and Dietz talking over by the Clubhouse. When they saw me they started walking toward me. They didn’t look happy. I managed to reach the house before
them without looking like I was rushing. As I opened the front door I heard Dietz and Roger rushing up behind me.

  “We need to talk to you, now!” Dietz demanded.

  “Get in line.” I replied casually, and closed the door in their face.

  I locked it behind me and mounted the stairs, taking them two at a time. “Hey, damn it!” I heard Dietz yell as he tried to open the locked door.

  When I reached the top stair, I crossed the landing and walked into Kester’s office without knocking. He was sitting behind his desk reading. He looked up and smiled at me, asking what he could do for me. I stopped in front of his desk and stared at him for a second, trying to think of how I was going to start the conversation.

  I heard feet rushing up the stairs so I just waited, knowing that I would be interrupted in a moment anyway. Sure enough, Holtby and Dietz burst into the room, angry and out of breath. Kester and I looked over at them, unimpressed. If anything, Kester seemed a little annoyed with them.

  “This boy’s got some explaining to do about Danny Beckett.” Dietz exclaimed.

  When nobody said anything, he continued. “He let the kid get clean away from us. I told you we should have taken that book when we had the chance.”

  Kester considered this and looked at me.

  “Do you know what Ron is talking about?” he asked. I nodded.

  “Did you assist Danny Beckett in…?” he began. “Escaping?” I finished.

  Kester looked down at his desk and smiled. He asked Roger Holtby to wait outside and, when he was gone, looked back up to me, all business.

  “Danny had something that would have been very helpful to our continued survival. I would have liked to speak with him about it before he left.” Kester said carefully.

  “Well, it really wasn’t any of my business. And I wasn’t aware that you were holding him hostage here. If that was the case, maybe you shouldn’t have let him join the foraging team.” I said.