by David Peters
The three riders finally cleared the last bend and could see the improvised barricade ahead. What they couldn’t see from the other ridge was the fact that the men standing on the wall were extremely well armed, “Hold it right there folks!” the man shouted.
“Howdy up there. I’m Dylan Murphy and this is my wife Niccole.” He suddenly faltered as he realized they had never asked Erica her last name. “We also, uh, have my daughter Erica with us. We are here looking for Daniel Murphy,” Dylan shouted back nervously.
Both Niccole and Erica looked at him. He looked back and shrugged, “Sorry, I didn’t feel like getting into details right now.” Erica smiled back.
A second head appeared behind the wall standing next to the first man that shouted. Dylan could hear them arguing, “How do you know they ain’t Sappers?”
“Because they are on horses you idiot, you ever seen a Sapper on a horse? Did your momma shake you too much? It scares the crap out of me that you carry a gun,” said the first man. He then turned and yelled back to Dylan, “How do you know Daniel?”
“He is my brother,” Dylan yelled back.
The first man yelled again, “Getting Daniel, be just a minute, just stay put if you would please.”
Niccole looked at Dylan, “I guess it’s safe to assume they know the rest of the world has gone to crap, and what the hell is a Sapper?”
Dylan looked down at the blackened pavement under their horse’s feet, “sounds similar to the exploding Corrupted we keep hearing about judging by the fire damage. I guess they could be using gasoline bombs or something, but I would think fuel up here is like gold.”
Daniel appeared on the wall, “Dylan? Oh my God, is that you? Open the damn gate, now!”
The barricade slowly swung open while Daniel climbed down the inside of the wall and ran out to meet his brother.
The younger brother dismounted and Daniel savagely attacked him with a bear hug. “Oh my God, I thought for sure I would never see you again! Come on in, welcome, welcome! Oh, Niccole too, sorry, I haven’t seen you for, God, how long? Something like eight years, at least!” He was barely containing his excitement and it eased most of Niccole’s original concerns before they had even set foot in the town.
Neither Dylan nor Niccole missed the fact that Daniel had smelled them as he hugged each one but they couldn’t blame him either.
Dylan smiled, “Um, where is my brother? You are obviously an alien imposter.”
Daniel hugged him again, “Isn’t it amazing what the end of the world can do for a relationship that dwelt on such petty differences as you and I?”
Dylan hugged him back, “Ya, couldn’t have put it better myself.”
“And who might this young lady be? Rumor has it you two skipped the whole baby thing and popped out a teenager,” Daniel asked as he approached Erica.
“Daniel, this is Erica…” He paused as he looked to her for help.
“Johnson.” She said with a smile.
“Ya, Johnson. Erica Johnson. She has been traveling with us. A fellow refuge if you will. She has more information about the Corrupted than anyone I’ve met yet.”
“Corrupted, I like it. We’ve just been calling them the Stinkers. Doc will like your name better, more sophisticated.”
“What was the ‘Sapper’ they were talking about on the wall?” Niccole asked as they entered the compound. The heavy barricade slowly swung closed behind them making a small thump when the two sides met.
“Started seeing them two days ago, come in two ways so far. First day we saw someone laying in the road looking like they needed help. No cries or anything but at one point it waved its’ arm so we knew it was alive. We sent someone out to help and boom! Flame everywhere, nothing but ash left of both the Sapper and Jonny, the guy we sent out. The second group just charged the barricade and blew up on it. They made one hell of a fire. You could feel the heat all the way into the town square. Doesn’t make any sense, it doesn’t accomplish anything unless they are just trying to burn us out.”
“I’m becoming fairly convinced that these things are smarter and more organized than we are giving them credit for. They seem to have a reason for just about everything I have seen them do.” Dylan gave a quick synopsis of what the military had done in Pendleton.
“That does sound like they work as a group. I was really holding out hope that the military would roll in and wipe the things off the map” said Daniel.
Dylan looked at Niccole, “Daniel, you have somewhere the ladies can tie up the horses, set up our tent?”
Niccole knew Dylan needed to talk to Daniel without Erica nearby. “We won’t need much and we can certainly bring a lot to the community,” she said.
Daniel laughed, “Tent my ass, I have a spare room at my cabin and I would love the company. It’s the cabin with the blue door off of the main square, can’t miss it. The Cat’s name is Doug. He thinks he’s a cougar, so don’t break it to him that he’s just a fat cat.”
Erica snickered “Doug, I like it.”
As Niccole and Erica walked the horses towards the town square, Dylan walked with Daniel the other direction, explaining what all Erica had told him.
“Holy crap, I had no idea. I figured I would have you meet with Doc later but you guys should have a talk now” Daniel said with an air of concern. “I don’t think he has slept since this thing started. With his background and experience he was born for this.”
“Doc? That the same Doc I met last time? He went by Eric then didn’t he?” Dylan asked.
“Ya, he probably didn’t have a white beard and wear the same wool sweater all the time either. This place will change a person. People would move here and realize maybe the suit and tie didn’t mean a hill of beans to folks here. Status symbols don’t carry a lot of weight if you can’t supply your family with food you can’t buy. I’ll be honest. We have had a lot of people leave simply because it was too hard to live this way. They like to get their morning coffee and not care where it came from. Money has no meaning here and a lot of people can’t cope with that. Even the evening news doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot when you spent the day literally putting food on your family’s table.”
“Daniel, listen. Before we get there I just want to say, last time I was here, we didn’t part on the best of terms. That was over two years ago and a million miles from where we are today, I-” Daniel cut him off.
“Dylan, you are my brother. That is far more important than what we argued about in the past. We can both agree that it meant nothing then and means even less now. As far as I am concerned the slate is clean. There is no good, no bad, just brothers. Where we go from here is up to us. I have learned more about what is really important in the last week than I had realized. I thought I was alone again until I saw you alive and well. If we are going to talk about the past then let’s talk about the good times only. We had a lot of them if I remember correctly.”
“Daniel,” Dylan looked into his brothers’ eyes, laughed and hugged him, “I’m right there with you man. All jokes aside, it’s really good to see you alive and well. I had a lot of fears heading here. Thought for sure we would come over that last ridge and see nothing but a burned out and smoldering town.”
“It’s damn good to see you too little brother,” Daniel said, hugging him back.
--1--
“Doc, this is my little brother Dylan. Good man, he and his wife just came in from Pullman and he has a ton of information you may find both valuable and interesting.” Daniel said as they stepped into the doctor’s office.
Eric ‘Doc’ Alderman was a tall, slim built man in his late fifties. He had a short graying beard and a smile that was contagious. He looked like he had stepped out of a fifties era family magazine. Right down to the small wire rim glasses he kept perched on the end of his nose.
Dylan shook his hand, “Glad to meet you. We met briefly last time I was here but I wouldn’t expect you to remember me.”
“Of course I remember you. Wasn’t all t
hat long ago Dylan. So, our beloved Mayor says you have information. Please, do tell. Be sure not to leave out any of the details.” Doc said as he pumped his hand.
Dylan looked at Daniel and mouthed ‘Mayor?’ Daniel smiled and winked back. “You and I need to talk. You are holding out on me.” he said to Daniel.
Eric took Daniel and Dylan into his back office, “This is where most of my research has been taking place.” Eric pointed to the small laptop and to the whiteboard, “so far, my knowledge is fairly limited but I have a vast pile of speculation and theories.”
“We have come across three distinct variations of Stinkers…“ Daniel interrupted Doc.
“Dylan says they are called Corrupted” he said, looking to Dylan for an explanation.
Doc nodded and looked at Dylan, “Oh really? Where does that name come from? Is it generally accepted now?”
“Well, the Police Chief in Colfax was in communication with quite a few groups, and that was the name they settled on I think, it worked for us anyway. We met a small group of military troops and they had settled on that name also so I would say that is the common name.” Dylan said sheepishly.
“Good, that stinker name was just stupid, felt like an idiot every time I said it. Anyway, we have come across three distinct types of Corrupted. The first type, is a Hunter, do you have a different name for it Dylan?”
“Nope, same thing we called them, always look like they are hunting,” Dylan answered.
“Fantastic, sounds like you are familiar with them. The second type we have seen is what we call a drone or Packer. They appear to do most of the society’s heavy lifting.”
“Society? Have you actually seen enough of them to call it a society?” Dylan asked.
“Oh most definitely. They are very organized in their attacks on the town, there is no doubt there is intelligence there. I would go so far as to say it may be on par with our own. The Packers are like worker ants, they take things back to, well, wherever they live. The few kills we have made were carted back by the Packers, if not consumed there. They leave very little behind.”
“Consumed? They eat their own? How pleasant” Dylan stated flatly. “What do the Packers look like?”
“They look the most human of the three we have seen. Although saying they look human is a stretch. They are extremely slow and a light blue or nearly grey in color. They walk with a noticeable hunchback so they can easily be distinguished from long range.”
Dylan explained the story Erica had relayed to him and Niccole, “Not sure what you would call their home, a hive maybe? They appear to operate like insects.”
Eric put his finger to his chin and nodded as he thought out loud, “Yes, yes, you are right, very insect like, although their bodies don’t match our standard archetypes of known species. But yes, their order and methodology is very similar, very well defined purposes. Very clear class make up.”
Doc continued as he made a note on the whiteboard behind him, “The third and final type of Corrupted we see is the Sapper. These poor bastards have two large glands in their body cavities filled with two, as yet unknown, volatile chemicals. When these chemicals mix, they detonate like napalm but burn at a much higher temperature, somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Going with the insect theme, it would be like a honey bee stinging, knowing it is a fatal move.”
“I haven’t run in to any of those up close but I have seen their work from afar. They seem to be the ones that are always playing injured,” stated Dylan.
“Yes. We have seen that here once. It is absolutely fascinating behavior. That blast mark on the pavement out front and on the sheet metal on the outside of that wall was made by them. We had to replace what sheet metal wasn’t sitting in melted puddles on the ground. They would have gotten through if the gates hadn’t been so thick.” Daniel added.
“They have attacked in some form or another the last two nights. Although I am not sure where they come from, it has to be close to Sumter. It is the only population center anywhere near here but it is still well over ten miles walking to get here from there.” observed Doc.
“They carry the bodies off that don’t completely burn up, so it is difficult to get a count. If I took a guess based on the guards inflated numbers, there must be millions killed every night” Doc said almost patronizingly, looking at Daniel.
Daniel rolled his eyes, “We have people that have little or no training whatsoever with these weapons. Can you blame them for getting a little excited when they finally hit something and it lights up the entire valley when it explodes?”
“How are you stocked for weaponry?” asked Dylan, “I noticed the guys on the gate seemed to be pretty well armed and fairly modern weapons at that.”
“Doc, if you don’t mind, we are going to continue our tour,” Daniel said as they excused themselves.
“Not at all, I have a feeling you and I will be talking at length Mr. Murphy” said Doc, turning back to his laptop.
“Mayor? Are you kidding me? What the hell?” asked a surprised Dylan as they walked out of the office.
“A few years ago we had a fairly big issue around how to handle outsiders and contributions and the likes. We didn’t have any central leadership and everything up to that point was kind of just unwritten rules. A few people got upset because they felt some of people that passed through abused our charity. As we continued to grow, town meetings just couldn’t be kept on track without leadership. At one point Doc moved that I be declared Mayor. It was decided that maybe a leadership role was required after all just to make sure we were all on the same page and to have a single entity to blame when the wrong decision was made. There were several seconds and thirds and even a fourth. So now I pretend to run the show while the people with the real talent make things work,” Daniel added with a wink.
“What other surprises do you have in store?” Dylan asked as they walked through the small town.
“Well, let’s just say we won’t have weapon issues for a while” stated Daniel.
“Oh come on, give me a break. You guys were a bunch of tree huggers knitting hemp rugs and eating dirt. Why on earth would you have weapons?” asked Dylan incredulously.
“We were a bunch of tree huggers that knitted hemp rugs and realized the world was going to swirl down the proverbial toilet bowl. When our neighbors realize we have food and water and really nice hemp rugs, they may want to come and just take it” Daniel said as he lifted the door to a cellar under the town hall. “Did you stop to wonder why that front gate is nearly two feet thick? We did that to keep a truck from being able to get through it. Or anything else that decided it wanted in and we wanted it out.”
Daniel waved his hand in front of him as he turned on the light, “So we started establishing this a few years ago. We made deals here and there. Traded for some things or outright bought others. But we always stayed under the radar. We didn’t want to actually have to test our gate when ‘The Man’ came calling.”
The small room in front of him was covered from one side to the other with racks of weapons and ammunition, “Grenades. You have grenades, what the hell would you need that for?” asked Dylan.
“Ask yourself that question knowing what you know now. We wanted to be prepared, and damn it, we are.” Daniel said sounding almost hurt. “I can show you several rooms just like this with canned food too, at least a year’s worth, and that’s even if more people show up. We are prepared, so there isn’t much anyone can say about what we have. It may have looked crazy a few weeks ago but look at this room now and tell me you think it’s too much. We planned right. It may have looked like pure crazy a month ago. It don’t look that crazy now though, does it?”
Dylan continued to walk around the room amazed at the number of weapons.
“We struggled to be prepared from something that we didn’t think would happen, but it did, and we are in a better position because of it. We are completely self sufficient now, for the most part. That is something else that has
kind of changed. Being self sufficient in a modern society isn’t the same as being self sufficient with no society at all. We have some tasks that we relied on outsiders for so we have to make at least one more trip into town before winter or there might be problems.”
Dylan put a large automatic rifle back in the rack as Daniel put his hand on his shoulder.
“Dylan, the real question is have I sold you on staying? We need someone with your expertise and experience. We can always use another gun hand too” Daniel said, looking hopefully into Dylan’s eyes for an answer.
