“The city is dead,” she told them. “You can smell it from miles away. I'm not kidding. No power. No water. Rats everywhere. We got out after two weeks. There were six of us, but we ran into a group of three guys riding bikes just east of Trenton. Something about them just gave me the creeps.”
“As soon as we relaxed they made their move. It was me, Lisa and Lani they wanted. But not all of us had let our guards down.” She took a breath, blew at her coffee and then sipped at it...
“They just shot Kevin. Lani tried to grab one of their guns. The rest of us just opened up on them. Lani died right away. She was just a kid too, you know? Kevin hung on for two days. Not a goddamn thing we could do for him,” she hung her head and shook it. She looked back up and stared off across the lots of parked cars and trucks.
“Lani came right back. We had known about the dead, the zombies. And we knew dead were coming back. I remember watching a man that had lain dead in the street for three hours come back. Another guy shot him. He was dead. Three hours later he got up and walked away.”
“So we knew it happened, but Lani came back so fast that I thought for a few moments that she hadn't died... I tried to lie to myself, and she almost got me.” Her eyes moved back to Conner's own and then away again. Her eyes were over bright when she finished. But she seemed strong. Filled with resolve. Conner liked her, she reminded him of Katie. The same kind of straight forward honesty... Real, he decided. Zero bullshit. All real.
“So,” Debbie finished. “I,” she looked around. “I am ready for sane.”
Adam cleared his throat and Debbie turned toward him. “I came from the City myself,” he said. It was more information than Conner had had about Adam. He was not talkative. “Harlem had power when I left... Gangs did take it over... Sealed it... We came from the projects.... Stayed awhile in... Well, it doesn't matter. I saw it... Central Park was a horror show when we left, but Harlem was still kicking.”
“Somebody told me that... Saw a glow in the sky but we didn't go up that far. It was so bad we just concentrated on getting out,” Debbie said.
Adam nodded, but stayed silent.
It was over that quickly. The five commandos, as Conner had come to think of them, begged off right after breakfast. They just got in their truck and left. The other two groups stayed and they were seventeen.
“Not for nothing,” Debbie said after the others had left. “But those are the kind of people you should be wary of... I didn't like being around them. I'd catch Melendez, or maybe it was Roberts, who can tell, looking at Lisa... It was just a bad look, you know? I mean, I know she's a looker, used to be an exotic dancer, men are gonna look, but this was different. It wasn't that kind of look, you know?”
Chloe who was sitting next to Conner as Debbie spoke said, “I know exactly what you mean... Several of us do... Like real creeps, and I've seen where it goes from there. Believe me. No man is going to do that to me again,” Chloe said.
They small-talked back and forth for a few more minutes over coffee and Conner filled them in on what their plans were. The morning moved on and they got back to what they had started to do. The reason they had come there in the first place.
They decided to take two more of the electric four wheel drive vehicles since they would have two more trucks to pull them. They also decided that, although it was probably overkill, they would go back up the highway together, get the tow bars and then come back and get the six electric four by fours ready to go. There had simply been too many bad things going on. There was no reason to get lax now, and every reason to stay cautious. They had all agreed.
They were back at mid-morning with the six tow bars they had wanted, and an hour after that they were on the road heading back across the state toward what had once been Kentucky, and the flock of sheep Josh had seen about sixty miles past the campgrounds.
They stopped in the late afternoon. Aaron had a good sight on a doe calmly feeding in an overgrown garden off the side of the road. He squeezed off his shot and the deer dropped. The garden provided the rest of the meal.
They made dinner and then posted a guard. Those who weren’t on guard duty sat and talked quietly, getting to know each other as the evening came down.
The Nation
Two men and two women, but what they had taken to be an overly large pack on the one man's back turned out to be a woman he was carrying on his back.
They had stopped at the bridge by the bend and waited for the fourth member to catch up. That was when they had seen it was a woman he carried on his back.
The man was huge, muscular, but even so it was easy to see that he was exhausted. They continued past the houses. The houses, Katie supposed, were hidden in deep shadow, they may not have seen them, but they had to have seen the barns, and she wondered what they had made of them. She had watched them walk right past them though, as if they hadn't seen them at all, Katie thought.
“Doesn't make sense,” Amy said.
The four walked on, their eyes on the ground. As they got closer Katie could see that they were stumbling, the big man looked up, his lips moving as he walked along. They made it to the bottom of the ledge that came up to the ridge. The sun was bright fire in the sky, directly in their eyes. The big man stumbled and went down on one knee. The woman, who was not much more than skin and bones, slid off his back and onto the ground. She released her hands from around his neck. The big man leaned back, kicked his other leg out and collapsed back against the rock wall.
The three people in front, the two women and the man stared at the other man for a moment then slumped down to the ground themselves. One of the women walked to the pool, knelt carefully, and drank deeply. She spun the cap off a military style canteen and began to fill it in the pool.
Lilly spoke, breaking the silence and the spell the five strangers held over them.
“They look half starved to death,” she said.
The woman at the pool looked up at the sound of the voice above her. The sunset painting her face a deep fiery red.
“Let me get Sandy and Susan,” Katie said, but before she got to the entrance way Sandy was poking her head around the corner, a question in her eyes. Janna had already started down the sloping ledge, Sandy and Susan were only seconds behind her.
~
The heard the story over a fire in the main cave area, heating soup, which Sandy thought was all they would be able to handle.
“Go easy on the water too. Their stomachs have shrunk... They need what room there is there for nourishment along with the liquid intake,” Sandy said.
The big mans name was Craig. He had come around after a couple of cups of the rich broth and told them their story.
They had come up country from Louisiana, crossed Mississippi and then trekked into Tennessee. From there they had headed into the wilderness.
They had come on horseback into the mountains, but they had planned poorly. Carl, the man that had been leading them had been dead for over three weeks now.
It had been Carl's idea to settle in the mountains to the south, and he had taken them up and up, further and further into the mountains, but nothing had met with his approval, finally there had been a show down. Of the thirty of them who had come, six banded together to overthrow Carl who was controlling, and in their opinion, hoarding the food.
They had ambushed Carl, shot him and thrown him off a cliff. Then they had found out the truth. The wagons Carl had guarded were nearly empty. There was no food. There was very little ammunition as well. The group had taken to fighting among themselves. Craig and the other four had escaped the fighting only to find themselves coming down out of a high mountain pass with very little to their name. They had never seen any of the others again.
They had shot a deer two weeks before, a duck five days after that, and then they had run out of ammunition for the two rifles they had between them. They had subsisted on water since then, and some venison Craig had managed to smoke in the first few days. Three days before, the last of the ven
ison had gone and they had been reduced to only water. Sissy, the one he had been carrying, had gone first. Her legs had just given out, sometime yesterday, or maybe the day before.
They had headed in this direction because last night Roberta had seen smoke that had seemed to be coming from the side of the mountain. She had insisted that it had to mean there were people there, even though it seemed very unlikely. Craig had looked as well, but he had seen no smoke, just the blue gray stone of the mountains. Even so, north east was a good direction to be heading in any way, Craig had decided, and so they had come.
Craig, Sissy and Roberta. Bonny and John were the other two.
Janna had called James on the radio. He had been prepared to come back then, but Janna had convinced him that they were in no danger and he should stay. Finish what they had set out to do. The days were already growing colder, and who knew if there would be time again this year for any other trips. Besides, she had told him, he could meet them all tomorrow afternoon or evening when they returned.
She had no sooner finished talking to James than Annie's voice had come over the radio. They were less than twenty miles out and they would push to be there in a few hours. They had the woman, Annie said, who had lost an arm. It looked like the wound had gotten infected. She had lapsed into unconsciousness and they were concerned she might not last through the evening.
Janna came out after speaking with James and Annie, and let the three women who were still on the ledge, staring down the valley, watching the sun finish setting, know that Sissy had passed away and that Annie and the others would be coming in just a few hours.
“James says probably Arlene will be here... Or him if not, to take care of her,” Janna had said quietly.
Sissy had died just a short time earlier, she told them. Her heart, Sandy had said. Too much stress. Sandy had her other patients on bed rest and liquids, she told them, and thought that most of them would be fine within a few days.
“I can take care of it... No sense in making Arlene come all the way back for that,” Katie told her.
“No, Kate... Too much stress for you... The baby,” she said quietly. “Let Robert worry about it.” She stood for a second longer. “Might lose one more,” she said quietly and then walked away.
Katie looked back out over the valley after Janna finished speaking. That's the truth, she thought. Too much stress. It is a stressful world out there. She surprised herself to tears over how readily she could accept that senseless death was just a part of life. Amy held her and stroked her hair as they watched the sun set, waiting for Annie and the others.
~
James told Janna that he loved her, signed off and then set the radio down.
“It's not the others come back hurt, is it,” Sharon asked.
“No. It's not them. Not any of us. It's a new group of outsiders that arrived nearly starved to death... Lost one of them... I guess they got most of the others resting comfortable now though. Another is bad off...”
“Someone will have to take care of the one,” Arlene said thoughtfully. She stood from the fire, James watched her.
“You,” James said. “I can... It doesn't have to be you.”
Arlene nodded. “I'll take a horse, be there in just about a half hour or less.”
James nodded. “Okay. We'll be back tomorrow.”
“Didn't say anything else?” Arlene asked.
James shook his head. “A girl they're bringing in... Lost an arm to one of them. Might not make it... Be there in a few hours, so...”
Arlene nodded. “So, maybe three.” She bent and kissed David quickly. He stood and walked away into the gathering darkness with her.
James sat and listened to the early evening. A few minutes later he heard hoof beats as Arlene headed back to the valley. David came back a few minutes later and sat back down by the fire. The silence held.
~
“Just head back,” Arlene told the young man who had helped to carry the body out past the barns to a small cave they had set up to isolate the dead. They had only used it a few times.
The kid looked doubtfully up at the night sky and then back down at Arlene. Arlene patted the gun on her hip.
“I'll be fine,” she told him. “Go on... Head back before they start to worry about you.” The kid started to turn. “Billy, thanks for helping,” she told him. She smiled to reassure him. He smiled back, turned, hesitated briefly, and then started back along the path to the main cave.
A thick wooden door was set into the cave opening. But she wouldn't actually need to get in there. That was only to lock them in if they could not take care of them quick enough. To have a place to isolate them. She was here. This one would never get the chance to turn. There was a small grave already dug a little further down in an area they had chosen for just that purpose. There were, in fact, three graves dug. She would use one tonight, maybe more than one, but tomorrow she would come out and open another two or three to be ready.
The body was inside a sleeping bag. Zippered up. She knew without looking that the arms were tied down to the sides of the body. Sandy would have made sure. They had rules. They had all decided, and none of them had any wish to break their own rules. There would be no dead outbreaks in the Nation.
She walked down to the iron gate that closed off access to the small cemetery hidden away in the rock, fitted the key in the lock, and swung the gate open. She walked back to the body, reached down, grabbed one edge of the bag and dragged it down the rough path and into a small hidden side area where they had buried the few they had needed to bury.
This place had been a natural fault in the rock, a crevice, nearly three hundred feet wide and twice that in length. The stone walls reached away to the moonlit sky far above. Arlene switched on her flashlight and continued down to the first grave in line. There were four others close up and mounded over. The other two open graves, both of which she may need later, were off to her left. Plywood covered them, just as it covered the one she intended to use now.
She let go of the bag, grabbed the edge of the plywood in one gloved hand and tugged. The plywood came away easily. She reached down and grasped the bag once more, her hand feeling the outline of the woman's head beneath the thin layer of cloth, and she very nearly lost the tips of her fingers as the woman's mouth bit down through the fabric. The zombie ended up with a mouthful of glove instead. Arlene swore as she stumbled back, a little unnerved for a moment.
One finger throbbed, she quickly held it up to the flashlight beam and turned it back and forth. Pinched, it was already bruising, but the skin was not broken. The heavy leather glove had saved her. She looked back at the bag where the zombies head whipped back and forth beneath the cloth. The leather glove held between its teeth like a prize. She stepped forward, pulled her pistol and thumbed off the safety. A new rule, she thought now, tie the mouth shut somehow.
She bent lower and pulled the trigger. The gunshot roared within the stone walls and then echoed off down the valley. Arlene returned her gun to her holster, retrieved her glove, picked up one edge of the bag and dragged it over to the hole.
Sandy's Journal
It's late, maybe close to morning. I laid my watch down somewhere and then lost it. That was hours ago. I just can't remember where I put it. It will turn up, but for the most part, watches are pretty much useless. They can only count twenty-four hours and the days and nights are more than that. Half the time we just look at the sky anyway.
This has been a long day. We have new members. We have some new people that walked right in out of the wilderness. One of theirs died right after they got here. Another is not doing good and I expect he'll be gone by morning. Then Annie came back, Conner sent her back, with a woman that was bitten by a zombie. They took her arm off. I think she's safe from the bite, but the wound itself got infected. I guess maybe the dead could get her after all, just delayed. It's going to be touch and go. We have our own cultured penicillin. I took the rest of her forearm as well. They had left a stub bel
ow the elbow. There is no way to know if she will make it or not. We'll have to wait and see. I'm glad Annie is back, but what she had to tell us has everyone worried about the rest.
The other one of the new ones that came in from the wilderness that is bad off got bitten. Looks like a snake to me, maybe a few days back. How he could keep walking is beyond me. The leg is gangrenous, and it looks to me like the infection is up into his stomach, lungs. His heart has about had it.
I'm glad I know what I know, but sometimes, like this, I feel next to useless. The old world is gone. Neither one of these people would’ve died in the old world.
On a personal note. Susan and I have decided we will follow Molly's lead. Susan will go first this time. I'm next. I want Conner to be the father, so does Susan. We talked it over. I don't know what he will think, hopefully not that we're crazy. This way our children will be close to the same age. Molly is, after all, just pregnant. They'll be able to grow up together.
EIGHT
Conner
On The Road
September 22nd
It was mid morning when they passed the couch in the road with the overturned Harley. Conner took a few seconds, from the window of the truck, trying to spot the woman, or what was left of her. She was nowhere to be seen, but snapping and snarling from the nearby trees told them the bodies Debbie had seen had not gone far. And a large pool of blackened and sun-cracked blood told a story of its own. She must have been good and dead, if it was her blood, his, both.
Conner didn't allow the trucks top stop completely. He sped up again after only a cursory glance. What ever had happened was over. There would never be a way to tell for sure if it had been the man they had passed. And even if there were it didn't answer the why of it and couldn't. You couldn't know what motivated another man or woman. You just couldn't, and it would do Aaron and Chloe no good to pick at the wound it had caused.
Conner had, had the window down. He rolled it up tight as they passed and switched on the air conditioning, but the scene remained in his head anyway as he drove along.
Earth's Survivors: box set Page 92
