by David Achord
“I’m going home,” she said in a childlike voice and walked out.
“We’ll take care of this,” Fred said, gesturing toward Rowdy. I nodded gratefully and ran after Andie. Once I caught up with her, I put my arm around her shoulders and we walked together back to the house. She explained as we walked.
“He turned about three hours ago. I used some scrap burlap to muffle the sound of the gun,” she looked up at me. “I didn’t want to wake anyone up. There was nothing anyone needed to lose any more sleep over,” she then burst out sobbing. I held her tightly as we walked into the house and sat on the couch. Everyone began waking up then and filtering in the den. Janet was the last person to come in and scowled at Andie.
“What the hell is she crying about?” she asked nobody in particular. Before I could respond, Andie lunged off of the couch with a shriek and all five foot three inches of her attacked Janet with the ferocity of a raging pit bull.
By the time Julie and I were able to pull Andie off her, Janet’s face was a bloody mess.
“What is wrong with you, you damned psycho!” she shouted between breaths.
“Rowdy told me what happened, you bitch!” Andie shouted back. All of us looked at her questioningly. She pointed at Janet. “When the zombies opened the door to the bus, she pushed Rowdy in between herself and them. That’s how he got bit.”
All of us looked at Janet now, lying on the floor, a pathetic bloody mess. I glanced around at the room.
“Rowdy turned. Andie had to put him out of his misery.”
There was a collective gasp. It had been a long night and the day wasn’t starting off any better. Jessica appeared to be faint and grabbed the couch to steady herself. Wanda came to her aid, maneuvered her around Janet, and got her seated at the kitchen table. I let go of Andie and Julie gently coaxed her to her bedroom. Making sure she was okay, I went back into the den and stood there staring at Janet, still lying on the floor, breathing heavily. Julie walked back in and stood on the opposite side of Janet, glaring at her mother, maybe seeing her in a new light. She finally squatted down and checked on her injuries.
“How bad is it?” I asked without any empathy. One of her eyes was already swollen shut and she was bleeding profusely from her nose, but in spite of the obvious pain, Janet glared at me.
“Get that bitch out of my house immediately!” she snarled. I shook my head.
“No, this is Andie’s home, not yours,” I responded, “you’re only visiting.”
Janet looked at me in astonishment, but it quickly turned into an expression of pure hatred.
Chapter 38 – Rick’s Hill Revisited
We skipped breakfast in lieu of burying two close friends, Rowdy and Curly. There was a good spot on the hill with Rick, Macie and Macie’s infant child. We all said a few words in tribute to him and how his life enriched ours. Janet chose to remain in the house. I guess sleeping with Rowdy did not enrich her life one iota.
Afterward, we loaded up and went to the school. Fred remained outside as the rest of us went in. They were sitting down for breakfast when we entered and seemed surprised to see us.
“Good morning,” Benny said, “are you joining us for breakfast?”
“No sir, we only wanted to see how you guys were doing. After going on alert status last night, we couldn’t raise you on the radio.”
I heard Tonya scoff and looked at her. “Have I said something wrong?”
“You seem to think when you say jump we’re supposed to say how high on the way up. You certainly are an arrogant prick.”
I looked around the cafeteria. Marc and Ward were avoiding eye contact. Gus was already on his second plate, ignoring his whining children and us. Carla eyed all of us with something between sadness and contempt. Kelly and Rhonda were nowhere to be seen. Benny was the only one who would make eye contact with me.
“Zach, we had a very busy day yesterday. Everyone was dog tired.”
“I see,” I said after a moment.
“I see,” Tonya mimicked me and scoffed again. I saw Julie’s expression turn to anger. I caught her eye and shook my head slightly.
“We’ll be going then,” I responded.
“Yeah, get out of here. Maybe you can find someone else to murder.”
“Why, is there another piece of shit like your brother wandering around?” Julie asked sarcastically. Tonya’s eyes widened and she went for the handgun in her holster. We responded as a team, drew our respective handguns and leveled them at her head. She froze and her face paled. It was a standoff of sorts, but Tonya had four guns aimed at her and she had not even cleared leather. The tension in the air became thick within seconds.
“Lady, get your hand off that gun before I send you to hell with your brother,” Julie snarled.
“Honey, please,” Benny begged. Tonya eyed Julie and reluctantly let go of her revolver. Terry quickly strode over, took it out of her holster and unloaded it. He leaned forward until his face was inches from hers.
“Your brother was a rapist and a murderer. We all know it. Denying it won’t make it go away.”
He glared at her a moment longer and shoved her revolver back into her holster. He then walked out with Andie a moment later.
I holstered my handgun and stared at the woman for a long minute before looking at Benny. “So, is this how it’s going to be? Has your wife turned into some sort of psycho who’s going to pull a gun on us whenever we visit?”
Benny said nothing. It looked like he wanted to say something for a second and his mouth started to move, but then he looked at his wife and remained quiet. I started to walk out, but stopped and turned.
“We welcomed you guys with open arms. We had no idea there was a sociopathic serial killer in your midst, maybe y’all were unaware of it as well, I don’t know,” I stared pointedly at Tonya and Carla a moment before looking the rest of them over.
“Do y’all even talk about what happened to the Thompsons?” I waited for an answer but all I got was a chilly silence. I resisted the urge to sigh in futility, although futility accurately explained my state of mind with these people.
“Anthony murdered Geoffrey in front of his sister and mother. He then chained up Janine and Jessica like they weren’t even human. He raped them, tortured them, you name it,” I took a deep breath before continuing.
“You talked about due process, Benny. You were right. Anthony deserved due process, but the truth of the matter, Benny, you people would have turned a blind eye to it, just like you did when two of your own were strangled to death.”
My palms were sweating and I could feel myself getting more disgusted by the minute. I paused for a moment to get my emotions in check and looked at all of them.
“Tell me the truth, all of you. If we had any kind of trial and he was found guilty, what would you have done then? Sentence him to some kind of intensive therapy? Is there any of you who would have done what needed to be done?” I looked around. Nobody answered.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“What makes you think he would have been found guilty?” Tonya suddenly demanded. I gritted my teeth before responding.
“Your question implies you think I’m lying about the whole thing and Jessica is either lying too, or she’s identified the wrong person who held her captive and committed all kinds of sickening things to her,” I said evenly, “and that, my former friends, is very sad indeed.”
Julie stepped forward. “Maybe for some idiotic reason you thought Zach was lying. All you had to do was listen to what Jessica had to say. Oh, wait. None of you pieces of shit even bothered to visit her. I don’t even recall if any of you asked about how she was doing,” she said and spit on the floor. “You people disgust me.”
There was a muted silence now. Even Tonya had nothing to say. I looked at Julie.
“I think we’re done here,” I started to leave, but remembered the black plastic trash bag I had brought in.
“Oh, I brought you guys a present. Consider it a parting
gift,” I walked over and put the bag on the table in front of Marc and Ward. Marc peered inside and shrieked like a little girl.
“It’s pretty obvious that you people don’t give a shit about what happened to us last night, but I’ll tell you anyway,” I gestured at the bag. “That monster, the same one you guys went g00-goo over, did something downright scary. He organized a group of fellow zombies. Somehow he figured out where we live and orchestrated a planned, methodical assault on our homes. We lost one of our own because of it.”
“Who was it, Zach?” Benny asked. I stared at him in disgust.
“You’re just now asking?” I looked around. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Kelly caught up with us as we walked through the parking lot. She looked at us and then focused on Andie.
“Can I please come back with you guys?” she pleaded. “I can’t stand it here. I promise I won’t be a problem.”
Andie didn’t answer. Kelly looked over at Julie and me. “Please?” she begged.
“Well,” I said, “Andie is…”
“No, it’s okay,” Andie interrupted. “I’m going to move in with Terry, she can have my bedroom.”
Julie and I looked at the two of them in surprise before looking at each other. She shrugged indifferently. “Okay, go get all of your stuff. We’ll wait for you, but make it quick, and tell Rhonda she can come too.”
“Alright everyone, load up in my truck,” Fred ordered. “We’ve got a lot of equipment to move and a lot of work waiting for us when we get home.” Everyone moved with a purpose. Fred pointed at me questioningly.
“Y’all go ahead,” I responded and motioned for Julie to ride with them. “I’ll drive over as soon as I get Kelly and Rhonda loaded up.”
“Are you going to be okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, none of them are stupid enough to try anything.”
He nodded again. I leaned up against my truck and watched as my friends drove across the street as I waited for the two girls. Benny walked outside a moment later. I tensed up until I saw he wasn’t armed. He looked across the street at the radio tower and saw everyone walking around the heavy equipment.
“What are you guys doing?” he asked.
“We’re going to move most of Mac’s toys back to our house. That includes the tanker.”
“May I ask why?”
I looked him over. “Take a long hard look at yourself, Benny. A girl had terrible things done to her at the hands of one of your own. When informed of it, how did you guys react? When we were under attack last night, how did y’all react? Last night was rough, Benny. We came very close to being overrun. When we lost radio contact with you people, we thought you had been attacked too and were worried to death. When we arrived here this morning, we stood in the parking lot looking things over,” I waved my hand around. “You people weren’t attacked, you weren’t overrun. So, what do y’all do? You say to yourselves how tired y’all are and go to bed.”
I took a few breaths before speaking again. “We talked about you guys while we were burying our friend,” I said and looked hard at the man. “I had infected my friends with the hope of creating a thriving, harmonious society. When you guys arrived, I believed it was the start of something good, but look at how it turned out. If you guys had expressed one little ounce of regret about Anthony and what he had done to the Thompsons, it might have been enough. But no, you guys go into denial and then make us out as the bad guys when we took care of the problem. Before we came over here, we had a little group meeting. I listened intently to what my friends had to say. They were all disappointed and angry, and it was my fault.”
“Rowdy,” Benny observed quietly, “is he the one who was killed?”
“Yes,” I answered. Benny grimaced.
“He was a good man. I’m sorry,” he said, “I’m sorry for everything. Things have been rather tense since Anthony was – since Anthony’s death.”
I nodded, but did not respond. Hell, there was nothing else to say. I watched as Kelly came out with a couple of suitcases. I gestured at her questioningly.
“Rhonda said she’s going to stay here.”
“Kelly is going to move back in with us,” I said in response to Benny’s unasked question.
Benny watched as I loaded up Kelly’s suitcases in the back of the truck, and then got in without shaking his hand or saying goodbye. He looked downright sad as he turned and walked back into the school. Kelly and I watched him as he closed the door. Suddenly, she leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.
“Thanks, Zach. I’ve really missed y’all. These people aren’t the same as you guys.”
I started the truck and began driving across the street. “Yeah, all of us had high hopes.”
Kelly and Julie drove the trucks while everyone else jumped on a piece of machinery and we formed a convoy back to the farm. It would take us a total of three trips to get everything and it was late afternoon before we had it all lined up on the road leading to our driveway. Fred motioned everyone to gather at the gate.
“We’re going to need to leave everything parked on the side of the road for now until we can make some room,” Fred said while making a sweeping gesture toward the farm at all of the corpses. He pointed at Terry. “Why don’t you bring the dump truck in, and Andie, you bring the front loader in, we’ll use it to load up the bodies.” Everyone agreed without comment.
Julie and I jumped in the truck with Kelly. She was wide-eyed with amazement.
“Oh, my God, they’re everywhere!”
“Yeah, it was a close one,” I said.
“What did those idiots say when you told them we had called?” Julie asked.
Kelly made a face. “Benny and Gus walked around the fence with flashlights. They said they didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so everyone went to bed. They didn’t seem too worried.”
Julie frowned as I shook my head in disappointment. We had discussed this possibility at length and had established a basic contingency plan. Apparently, they didn’t think much of it, or us.
We used the front loader and piled all of those nasty things into the dump truck. Even though it was a cool April day, we were all sweaty and dirty by the time we were finished. Julie walked up beside me as I looked at the dump truck. The corpses were stacked almost to the top edge.
“How many were there all together?” Julie asked me.
“About three hundred, give or take,” I answered.
“Holy shit,” she said while looking around and wrinkling her freckled nose. “I hope we get a good rainfall soon, the smell is awful.”
I looked up. The sky was a deep blue and the air was muggy. “Yeah, a good soaking rain would be nice, but I’m not feeling it in the air. Once we get the corpses hauled off, it should help with the smell.”
“Where are you taking them?” she asked. I grinned wickedly.
“I think I know of a really good spot where certain people will not be able to deny we were attacked.”
Julie looked at me quizzically, but smiled when I explained.
Fred and I drove to Concord Road. I stopped at the entrance to the old Publix parking lot and then backed the truck to the middle of the nearby bridge.
“I think this is a good spot,” I said. He grunted in agreement as I activated the hydraulic dumping mechanism. The bodies formed a large pile in the middle of the bridge, effectively blocking it of anything larger than a bicycle from getting through. If Benny and his group wanted to visit this neck of the woods, they’d either have to clean up this mess or be forced to take a long detour.
Fred stood by and kept a lookout, while I threw some old tires on top of the pile along with a combination of gas and used motor oil. Fred and I watched the fire for a minute.
“Are you sending a message?” Fred asked.
“Yep,” I answered. He nodded his head slightly in approval. The heat became very intense, so we loaded up and headed back home. I looked in the side view mirror at the burning pyre as I drove.
/> “What are you thinking?” Fred asked.
“I’m thinking that it’ll take a couple more fires to burn all of those corpses, but I don’t think I’ll do it. Maybe we should just leave them there, rotting in the sun.” I glanced at Fred to see if he had anything to say on the matter. He merely grunted. I took that as his way of agreeing with me.
Neither Terry nor Andie joined us for lunch. I suppose they were getting reacquainted. Janet didn’t make an appearance either. Instead, she chose to brood alone in her bedroom. Julie fixed her a plate and carried it to her room. Personally, I wouldn’t have been so nice. So, lunch consisted of Julie, Kelly, Jessica, Wanda, and yours truly. Personally, I thought the company was quite nice, but it would have been nicer if Julie was playing footsie with me under the table like she used to do.
“Tell me what’s been going on at the school?” I asked Kelly as we ate.
She frowned and poked at her food with a fork. “Everything was going really good for a while, and then it seemed like the mood of the whole group changed overnight. It was tense. Social conversation stopped and people only spoke to each other when they had to. Rhonda and I were worried we’d done something wrong.”
“How was Anthony?”
“He never said anything that would creep you out, but looking back, I remember several times I was doing laundry or something and I would look up and he’d be there staring at me. I thought it was odd, but it never unnerved me.”
“He never said anything creepy?” Julie asked. Kelly shook her head.
“He was always on the quiet side, but he’d stare. Except when Carla was around, and then he mostly stared at the ground.”
“After we left, when we told them about Anthony, how did they react?” I asked.
Kelly frowned. “After you guys left they hurried into a back room. Rhonda and I weren’t invited. When they came out, I tried to ask them what they had talked about, but nobody would say anything to me.”
“That figures,” Julie muttered. I saw Wanda staring at me.
