A young woman with long blond hair moved in beside Carla. She said her name was Monica and had nothing but smiles for us as she helped Carla out of the chair. Carla moved as if she were about to go to sleep on her feet as the woman guided her across the room. I blinked away fatigue as I watched their progress.
I looked over to Jay and Jane and Jay had his usual glassy-eyed stare, while Jane looked mellow, her eyes half closed as she held Jay’s hand.
“I’m sure you’re all very tired from your ordeal,” Jeb said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll have my people show you to your rooms?”
“Sure,” I said, feeling a lassitude seep into my body brought on, no doubt, from gorging myself. It didn’t help that I had lived on adrenaline the past few months.
Clint helped me up from my chair and I nearly stumbled, but he steadied me as I let out a little laugh. “I’m guess I’m more tired than I thought.”
“We’ll get you taken care of,” Clint said as he led me toward a door at the back of the room. I saw that others were helping the rest of my folks along, too.
It had been a hellish couple days and the shootout on the road must have been the icing on the cake that had collectively wiped all of us out. They all moved like sleepwalkers as we left the building. Each one had one of Jeb’s people shepherding them along. The night air was cool when made we it outside, waking me up a little as Clint walked beside me.
“Your generosity is so appreciated,” I told him, but my voice came out thick and I almost slurred my words.
“It’s no problem, Grant,” Clint said. “We are so glad we came upon you on the road.”
It was then that I heard a loud voice from behind me.
“I’m okay,” the voice said. “I can make it on my own.”
I turned and saw Robbie walking by himself. Beside him was a very tall and broad man with a bushy beard. The man wore a scowl as if he were offended.
“But I’m just here to help you to your room,” the man said.
“You can just show me,” Robbie said. “You don’t have to carry me.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Jeb said coming alongside Robbie and the giant. “You all looked so tired, we just wanted to make sure you found your quarters with no trouble.” Jeb took a glance at the giant who immediately stepped back.
“I’ll show you where you’re bunking, if you don’t mind?” Jeb asked with a broad smile.
“Sure,” Robbie said. “Sorry for being crabby. It’s been a long day. No, make that a long month.”
“I’m sure it has,” Jeb said in a consoling voice. “I’m sure it has.”
I yawned loudly and Clint clapped me on the back and said, “Brother, it looks like you could use some rest.”
“I second the motion,” I said, yawning again.
Clint led me to a long single story building with set of small rooms lining a single hallway which spanned from the front of the building to the back. The hallway was dimly lighted and our group stumbled along with our escorts. Each of Jeb’s people spoke in quiet and calm voices as they moved us along.
Clint guided me to a room halfway down the hall. I took a glance into one room and saw Mo sprawled across a twin bed, fully dressed with his boots still on, and I could swear he was snoring.
My room was eight by six would be considered Spartan in how it was equipped. It had a twin bed with clean, crisp sheets and a night stand with a small metal lamp on it. The light from the lamp gave the room and, more specifically, the bed a warm and inviting feel.
“There’s a communal bathroom down the hall if you want to clean up before you settle in,” Clint said. “Sorry we can’t give you all private bathrooms.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I’m just happy to have a place to lay my head.”
“Well, let us know if you need anything,” Clint said.
“I will,” I said, then added, “Thanks for everything.”
“Don’t mention it,” he said making a dismissive gesture with his hands and he disappeared from the doorway. I sat on the bed and discovered pulling off my boots took a Herculean effort as my eyelids felt like they would slam down at any second. I stumbled up, shut the door, and nearly fell on the floor as I tottered backwards, but maintained enough balance to end up on the bed. I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. My last thought was that I hoped I wouldn’t snore as loudly as Mo.
My head felt heavy and thick when I awoke the next day. I wasn’t sure how long I had slept, but it wasn’t nearly enough. My eyelids felt pasted together with glue and it took an enormous effort of will to even open them.
When I finally opened them, I saw a shadowy figure just inches from my face. Despite the cloudiness in my head, I jerked back and bounced my head off the wall, sending dull waves of slowly radiating pain around in my skull. I shot out hand to push the figure away, but I seemed like I was moving in slow motion.
The figure moved out of the shadows and I could see it was Robbie as he grabbed my weak jab. He was down on one knee next to my bed. His expression was etched with concern.
“Shhhhh,” he sounded as he put his index finger to his lips in the universal ‘be quiet’ sign.
Through my grogginess, I managed to right myself to a sitting position with his help.
“Grant, we need to talk,” he said in a half whisper.
“Wha?” I mushed out of mouth.
“Something’s going on here,” he said leaning in close to me.
“Wha?” I asked again.
“Are you on drugs? he asked.
While the answer should have been ‘yes,’ but I didn’t know what was going on, so instead, I just said “Wha?” again.
“Snap out of it, Grant,” Robbie said. “While we slept, Jeb’s people came into our rooms and took our weapons.”
That woke me up. Not fully, but I was nowhere close to being in the land of the comatose. I looked to my night stand and saw that my pistol was missing. I marshalled all my strength and slowly tried to sit up. It was a multi-step process with some ground gained and some lost, but I finally made it up.
Past Robbie’s shoulder, I saw someone move and Jay’s face appeared.
“Hey Grant dude, I’ve never seen you this mellow,” Jay said with a conspiratorial wink.
I started to say “Wha?” again, but knew that wasn’t helping matters. I closed my eyes, mustered my senses, opened them, and very deliberately asked, “What - did - you - see?”
“At first, I heard doors opening and closing,” Robbie said. “The noise seemed to be moving from room to room, getting closer to me. They talked in whispers. I didn’t know what to do, but just hide some of my stuff under my mattress and acted like I was asleep.”
He paused for a moment and looked over his shoulder to the hallway, then turned back to me and started up again, “They came in and the first thing they took was my two guns. Then they took some of my gadgets including my solar chargers. My phone was under the mattress.”
“So, you didn’t put one of your guns under the mattress?”
“You’re talking about my cell phone,” Robbie said as if he were talking about his left arm.
I felt a wave of wooziness roll over me and nearly fell back onto the bed, but caught myself. “Why does my head feel like it full of cotton candy?”
“They dosed us,” Jay said.
“Then why are you guys okay?” I asked.
“Man, it’s going to take a whole lot more shit to mess me up,” Jay said. “I’ve worked up a tolerance.”
Robbie said, “It must have been in the chicken. I didn’t eat any of that. Meat is murder.”
“I’m a vegetarian, too,” Jay said.
“Hey, I saw you eat bacon back at the school,” Robbie exclaimed
“Yeah, I’m a vegetarian except for bacon,” Jay in defense.
“You can’t be a vegetarian and eat bacon.”
“Well, that depends,” Jay said crossing his arms across his chest.
“And you ate chicken las
t night,” Robbie said accusingly.
“I was taking a break,” Jay said.
So, I had committed gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins, and I was paying for it, but I was now caught up in a pointless debate over meat eating when much bigger things needed our attention.
“Fellas,” I said, “Can we table that debate for later?”
They looked at each other for a long moment and then back at me.
“So, what do we do now?” Robbie asked.
“Well first, we need to find out what’s going on,” I said. “Are any of the others awake?”
“Jane’s sort of awake back in the room,” Jay said. “She’s a lightweight.”
“Any others?”
“Not that I’ve seen,” Robbie said. “Grant, these people are bad news. I did some searching on my phone and found some info. I can…”
I rose a hand in the air to tell him to stop for a moment as I tried to rise off the bed. My brain was having trouble keeping up with what he was saying.
“The first order of business is to get a lay of the land,” I said, trying to push off the bed and failing as the room spun and my arms felt they were made out of pudding. They saw my predicament and both of them helped me off the bed. It took almost thirty seconds for my legs to find the strength to keep me standing. I walked shakily to my door and it was only three steps. How I’d make it down the hall was beyond me.
I gripped the door knob and slowly pulled the door open only to find Clint, Jeb, the giant that had escorted Robbie from the dining hall along with two other guys standing in the hall. All of them had guns with the exception of Jeb who smiled, but there a sense of malice behind his eyes that didn’t speak well for us.
“We didn’t expect you guys up so soon,” He said.
“I bet you didn’t,” I replied and then added, “What’s the deal with drugging us?” A wave of dizziness came over me, but fortunately I was able to sway into the doorway for support. Hopefully, my motion looked relaxed and easy instead of the swoon it was.
Jeb put his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender and said, “We have to take precautions. While we think you had good intentions, we had to make sure.”
“By drugging us and taking our weapons?”
“Would you have surrendered then voluntarily?”
“Maybe in time,” I said.
“So, you would have stayed with us?” He asked.
“Probably not,” I replied. “We’re headed for the east coast. Maybe North Carolina.”
“From what we’ve heard, it’s not safe to travel east,” Clint said.
“Well, we plan on going that way at the first possible opportunity.”
“Will you do this on foot?”
“If we have to,” I said trying to put all resolve my addled mind could muster.
“I do think you should plan on staying with us for awhile,” he said, still smiling. “At least until you’re people are all in good shape.”
“So, you’re keeping us here against our will?” I asked.
“Maybe a better way to put it would be for your own protection,” Jeb said. “Now, if you two gentlemen would return to your rooms, you could get some rest.” He pointed to Jay and Robbie.
“I’d like to stay with my bro’ Grant,” Jay said.
“And leave your lady friend alone?” Jeb asked raising his eyebrows.
“Oh yeah, I’d better check in on Jane,” Jay said and pushed past me into the hallway. The men separated to let him pass.
“And what about you?” Jeb asked addressing Robbie.
Robbie was quick on the uptake and knew the writing was on the wall. It was return to your room or be dragged there.
“I’ll guess I’ll go back to my room,” Robbie said in the tone of a small defeated child. As he passed by me, I felt something hard and flat slide into my back pocket of my pants. I acted like nothing had happened, but it took a supreme effort of will. Having a man play with your ass is hard to ignore.
Just as he entered the hall, a room just three doors down burst open and Dave stumbled out, shaking his head back and forth and blinking his eyes. “What the hell happened?”
Clint and one of the armed men moved down the hall to intercept him.
“Sir, could you please return to your room?” Clint asked.
“The hell with that,” Dave slurred out. “You bastards slipped something in the food or gassed us or something. I know what it’s like to be drugged and you sons of bitches did something to us.” He had to put a hand on the wall to keep from falling over. “My kids and wife won’t wake up.”
That gave my heart a jump start as I thought of Joni and the kids. I started into the hall, but the giant bought the barrel of his rifle up and pointed it right at my chest.
“No, no, no” he chided, his voice was deep as if it were coming from a cave. “Stay in your room.”
Despite my emotional need to get down the hall, my physical abilities were nowhere near any state to even walk down the hall, let alone fight my way there. I stepped back into my doorway and looked down the hall.
“Grant, what are these people doing to us?” Dave said.
Clint stood in front of Dave, blocking Dave’s progress.
“Get back in your room, sir,” Clint said forcefully.
“Go fuc--” Dave started to say, but was rudely interrupted when Clint thrust the butt of his rifle out into Dave’s gut. Air exploded out of Dave’s mouth in a large gasp that sounded like a whale breathing out it’s spout. He doubled over immediately and staggered for a few feet before vomiting an extraordinary amount of last night’s dinner on the floor.
Clint jumped back, but not before getting his boots completed swamped in a thick coating of viscous goo. Some would call it poetic justice.
Clint didn’t see the irony, but I could see he was tensing for another swing of the rifle butt.
“Clint, why don’t we take it down a notch?” Jeb asked.
I could see Clint vacillate between action and inaction for a couple seconds and then he selected inaction, relaxing his stance. He turned to his other men and said, “Joe, Pete, get this man back to his room.”
They did as they were commanded and after side-stepping around the puddle of vomit in the hall, grabbed Dave by an arm and dragged him back to his room. The lock snapped loudly as they set it. Why I didn’t notice that all the rooms locked on the outside, rather than the inside, last night was beyond me. Of course, I was drugged, but that excuse offered little consolation.
The giant nudged his rifle barrel toward me. I took the cue and stepped back in my room and watched the door slam shut in my face. The lock clicked loudly. I grabbed the handle, but it was locked in place.
“Why don’t you just take a rest, Grant,” Jeb said. “We’ll talk later.”
I listened intently for the next minute or so as Jeb gave the order to make sure all the doors were locked. He stationed to men at the end of the hall to guard us and the rest of their party dispersed.
I checked the door, the walls, and even the ceiling for any opportunities for escape, but found none. The window that I had failed to notice the night before was heavily barred. It would take a welding torch, a small bomb, or an industrial strength hacksaw to get through those bars. Unfortunately, I had none of these.
Surrendering for the moment, I sat on the bed when I felt something in the back pocket of my pants. I reached and retrieved it. It was Robbie’s coveted iPhone.
I pressed the on button and the screen came to life After getting past his main screen, I was taken to the last thing Robbie had been looking at on the phone. It displayed a web page. It was a site that chronicled doomsday cults around the world. Front and center was a photo of Jeb standing on a stage, his arms were spread wide and his mouth open wide and his face sweaty in zealous fervor, and in front of him was a group of people facing away from the photographer. Their arms were in the air in a gesture of exaltation.
The website called this group, The People’s Haven, j
ust as Jeb had, but while Jeb had meant it to be welcoming and flattering, something about this website said that Jeb’s people were neither. Before reading in depth, I went back one page and then forward. The People’s Haven was bookended on each side by the Branch Davidians formerly of Waco Texas and Jim Jone’s People’s Temple in Guyana. This was a very, very bad omen. Nothing good ever came out of those two groups. In fact, it was decidedly bad. Jones group committed mass suicide and nearly all the Branch Davidians died in a fiery stand off with the FBI. I paged back to the People’s Haven and started reading. None of it was good news.
Jeb and his people had been run out of several states by the authorities for illegal activities, ranging from the sexual abuse of children to the ritualistic slaughtering of livestock along with other major and minor crimes. The site went on to state that they had also been suspected of several scams of defrauding elderly members out of the life savings. All-in-all, they looked like they were not upstanding citizens and we were now their unwilling wards.
I paged back in Robbie’s browsing history and found some more information about The People’s Haven and dramatic change in the tone of the beliefs and actions. The website was a fringe site and I doubted it had much credibility, but if any of what they were saying was true, this was a very scary group. Where they had once been dramatically fundamental, they seemed to have shifted away when Jeb joined the group and things had gone decidedly darker. Their posts included comments from former members of the cult and they said Jeb had changed the direction of the group, but the comments were vague and veiled. One mentioned a Satanic influence while another one said that Jeb had twisted the word of God in a terrible way.
I could have gone on reading for another half hour or so, but history wasn’t going to change our situation. We had to do something soon because my gut was telling me that Brother Jeb was practicing some bad mojo that would be very bad for my people. The question was; what could I do? I was locked in a small room with a solid wood door and a window with bars, so it looked like there was little I could do, but wait for an opportunity. I was good at waiting, so I powered down the phone, stuffed it into my boot, and checked the room for any weaknesses and after thirty minutes found none. I tried to get myself into a zen-state of calmness, then busted my knuckles up trying to find a way to pull the bars off the windows to no avail.
Forget The Zombies (Book 3): Forget America Page 5
