by TW Brown
“What do you mean you won’t know for a week?” Catie grunted as the two untangled themselves.
“Quarantine,” was all that the girl managed to say before a loud gong sounded from the direction of the compound that was to be their ultimate destination. “They see us.”
Any thoughts that Catie had of changing her mind and running for it vanished when a large gate swung open and a trio of individuals on horseback came out at a full gallop. Cursing herself for not having anything in the way of a backup plan, Catie did the only thing she could considering the circumstances; she raised both hands above her head and waited.
***
“You say that yours is the only community in the area that you know of?” Eldon Lindsay asked for what had to be the sixth time during this apparently endless interrogation.
“You might not have been all that familiar with the Dakotas back in the day,” Catie leaned forward and gave the man her coldest glare, “but there weren’t all that many people in those parts before the zombies.”
The door opened and a slender woman with gray hair walked in. “You’ve bored this nice lady enough, Eldon,” the woman said. She made a show of keeping the door open until the man got up and limped out. “You’ll have to excuse him, he doesn’t trust anybody. The last community he lived at was taken down by a bunch of them immunes.”
Catie did not say a word. Her scar had been spotted right away during her strip search. As was her current condition of being pregnant. That had started the first line of questioning.
“Did you know the father?”
“Was he immune as well?”
“Did he die after conception due to infection?”
Seeing no reason to lie, Catie had answered their questions with: “Yes…Yes…No.” Of course that had also been the extent of her reply.
“So am I to be killed as a heretic? Experimented on like some alien species? Or simply killed out of hand?” Catie asked once the woman had sat down across from her.
“Heavens, you have met some interesting people in your travels if those are your first three questions for me,” the woman laughed.
Catie studied this woman’s face, making it a point to hold eye contact. While it was true that most sociopaths could look you in the eye and lie with no problem, Catie still felt that the eyes would be the best indicator if there was something to worry about.
The woman had a pleasant enough face. It was showing the signs of age with a few lines and wrinkles. However, there was a natural upturn to the lips as if a smile might be a real and regular thing with this woman. Her eyes were a shade of blue that verged on gray, just like her hair. She was dressed in a set of denim coveralls and wore a tan shirt that looked like it might be made of some sort of cured animal hide.
“And you haven’t met those sorts?” Catie tried to hide the sarcasm, but failed miserably.
“Oh yes. More than I would have ever imagined.” The woman’s expression darkened. “I have met some of the vilest examples that humanity has to offer since this craziness began a lifetime ago. But I have also met some wonderful and beautiful people as well.”
“So then, what is going to be done with me?” Catie asked. She could have taken the woman’s bait and started sharing stories of people and experiences, but she wasn’t going to give up anything until she felt she was safe.
“Not one for small talk, are you,” the woman said with another good-natured laugh that sounded absolutely genuine.
“You will forgive me if I am not ready to just spill everything like little Kalisha.”
That was the second time that Catie witnessed the woman’s features cloud over just a bit. She was not sure whether it was something to do with the girl in general, or the fact that Kalisha had not only walked a complete stranger to the gates of their community, but also apparently spilled a plethora of information.
“Kalisha is…”
“In big trouble?” Catie finished when the woman seemed to hang up on her next word.
“You could say that.”
“Well, don’t be too hard on her. She was only doing what she felt was right. Apparently your people are content to sit back and let some rival faction snatch up your kids without doing anything about it.” Catie saw something flash across the woman’s expression. She wasn’t sure; however, when the woman’s eyes flicked to the right where the two-way mirror was mounted on the wall and then back with just a slight raising of the eyebrows, she was pretty sure she was being signaled.
“We haven’t actually been introduced,” the woman spoke with what Catie saw and heard as a false cheerfulness. This put her on an even higher state of alert. Yet, she felt that there was something about this woman that she wanted to trust.
“You already know my name,” Catie said, sitting back in her chair and folding her arms across herself as she regarded the older woman across from her with an arched eyebrow.
“My name is Denise DeCarlo.”
“And what is your role here besides coming in as the good cop in this interrogation.”
The woman twitched at the corners of her mouth as if she was about to smile and quickly decided against it. “You are quite the cynic.”
“No, I am a realist. In this world, that requires a degree of cynicism. Maybe you have been behind these walls a little too long and have forgotten what is out there.”
“Yes, I understand that you came all the way from South Dakota? That must have been quite an adventure.”
“So, how long am I going to be kept in this quarantine?”
“Actually, since you are immune, you will be allowed out today.” Catie heard the condition coming in Denise’s tone. “You will have to submit to one little thing.”
“And that would be?”
“Nothing dark or sinister, I can assure you.”
With that, Denise DeCarlo rolled up her sleeve and revealed a metal device. It couldn’t be called a bracelet. It was about three inches long and seemed to be a solid device that could not be simply slid off. The woman rolled her arm over so that Catie could see the underside of this contraption. It had some sort of crimping and what looked like a weld or solder line as a final measure to prevent the red tinted piece of metal from being removed without serious work.
“You?” Catie glanced up at Denise. “You’re immune to the bite?”
“I worked as the manager of a grocery store. I was working the night that a mob of people came and just cleaned us out. I pulled all of my employees up into my office for protection. We waited out the riot, and once it was quiet, we crept out to get a better look at the damage. They had run through the front entrance with a flatbed truck and when they left, well, that allowed the zombies to just wander in. It was still so early, that doctor lady from the CDC hadn’t made the admission yet that these people were the walking dead.”
Catie found herself leaning forward and listening with rapt attention. This was not part of the interrogation. The tears that were welling up in the woman’s eyes came freely, and the sorrow that suddenly filled Denise’s expression convinced Catie that this was a very real experience being shared.
“The little girl couldn’t have been more than four or five years old. She was just wandering down the aisle by herself. She was wearing a little pink hoody top with some Disney princess on it, but the blood…so much. Her face was shrouded by the hood, but honestly, I don’t know if seeing the eyes would have mattered at that moment. All I saw was a child that was in need of help.”
The two sat in silence for a few moments. Finally, Denise pushed away from the table and got to her feet. She waved to the two-way mirror and then turned back to Catie.
“You are free to go. You will need to go to the indoctrination building. If you choose to stay, you need to get one of the bracers. If you choose to leave, then you will be given all of your things and will be allowed to stay a maximum of three days. There are restrictions as to where you are allowed to go without the bracer.”
“Segregation?” Catie almost lau
ghed.
“We prefer to call it safety. While we are still small enough of a community where most of us know each other by face and a stranger is easy to identify, we still do what we feel is important to maintain the health and safety of all our residents.”
“Call it what you want.”
“So, will you be staying?”
“Do I have to make that choice right this second?” Catie asked.
“Absolutely not,” Denise replied with obvious relief. As they reached the door, she leaned close like she was opening the door, but whispered, “You would have been under even greater suspicion if you’d said yes right away.”
Catie allowed the woman to open the door, and then she stepped through to find four armed men and women in the waiting room. They were doing a poor job of trying to act casual. There was a door to the right that she figured must lead to the two-way mirror viewing area, and there was a door just across the room with a single small window. One of the armed women rose and went over to give a rap on that door.
It opened to reveal what looked like every doctor’s office reception room that she’d ever seen. There were a couple of people sitting in the chairs that lined the walls. One was actually reading a book. Nobody seemed to pay them any mind at all as Catie was escorted to the reception desk where a young man around the age of thirteen looked up and opened the ledger before him.
“I will be escorting Catie to the dorm.” Denise reached down to turn the ledger her direction and scribble something on one of the lines.
“Did you really come from way out west?” the boy asked with obvious astonishment.
“Yeah,” Catie said with a smile.
“Did you see a lot of the walkers?” The young man leaned forward, his expression one of obvious amazement and curiosity.
“You say that like it is a big deal.”
The young man’s face flushed. He looked around the room and then to Denise like he was waiting for permission or approval. “I’ve never seen one.”
Catie followed Denise out of the reception room and into the bright sunlight of a beautiful day. All around her, the hustle and bustle of people going about their business made her suddenly homesick. Why had they ever set out on Kevin’s fool quest? He knew damn good and well that they would not find anybody alive.
As they wove through the people, Catie’s mind flitted from one memory to the next. She could hear Kevin’s voice whispering in her ear about how she needed to be paying attention, but she didn’t care at the moment. Her mind had found a special memory from their trip. They were at the lip of some part of the Grand Canyon. The sun was setting and everything looked as if it were on fire. The colors were unlike anything that she had ever imagined.
Kevin sat with his legs dangling over a precipice. He was just gazing out over the vista and his smile was big and broad. He glanced over his shoulder at her and winked. Only, Kevin was one of those poor souls who could not control his eye muscles very well, so it was more of an awkward blink than anything else.
She had walked up and sat beside him. Together, the two of them waited until the sun slipped below the horizon. They did not say a single word, and Mother Nature rewarded them with a near perfect silence. Even the insects had grown quiet, almost as if they wanted to drink in the majestic spectacle themselves.
That night, they made love under the stars. Afterwards, with the glow of the campfire pushing a small circle of the darkness away, Kevin had sat up. He had laughed. When Catie asked him what was so funny, his answer had been simple but honest.
“This is more than I deserve.”
She had sat up beside him and wrapped her arms around his waist. With her head resting on his shoulder, she had drifted in and out. She woke the next day with his arms wrapped around her. She remembered how bad she had to pee, but she did not budge. She wanted that moment to last as long as possible. At this exact second, she was thankful to have made that decision.
“And this is where you will be staying,” Denise said, opening the double-doors to a non-descript, three-story brick building…mostly.
It was obvious that the top floor had been added on, post-apocalypse. The third floor was a wooden structure, and the workmanship was such that Catie had serious doubts as to how it had lasted any length of time.
The first floor was a wide open area, and it took a moment, but Catie finally recognized it as a gymnasium. There were rows of wooden walls that were just high enough to allow a small degree of privacy.
“Take your pick,” Denise said, gesturing for Catie to lead the way.
Walking down the first aisle, she saw cubicle after cubicle, each looking identical with a small bed, a dresser, a desk with a chair, and a small foot locker. She also noticed that each appeared empty as each one had the thin mattress rolled up and situated at the head of the bed with an uncovered pillow.
“Yeah, we don’t get many visitors,” Denise answered the questioning look that Catie shot over her shoulder.
“I would be in here alone?” Denise nodded. “Seems like a real waste of space. You have all this room and an additional floor just vacant?”
“When we started planning this place, we wanted to allow for growth. We over-estimated. Add in the fact that some of the other communities have differing views and have set up accordingly.”
“Different views?”
Denise looked around nervously and then leaned in close to Catie as if somebody might just appear out of nowhere and listen in on their conversation. “We are the only mixed community in the area.”
“Mixed community?” Catie had a feeling that she knew what the answer would be, but she wanted to hear it for herself.
“Immunes. We are the only community that allows both immune and the unknown.”
“Unknown?”
“Can’t very well know until you get bit or something and then don’t turn. Not many folks all that anxious to simply find out voluntarily.”
“So the other communities don’t allow anybody who is known to be immune?”
“Yes,” Denise paused and then added, “well…the Beastie Boys. They are all immune.”
“Kalisha is immune, isn’t she?” Catie asked, suddenly starting to get her mind around the situation.
“Born to immune parents, as was her brother.”
“And you people are okay with this sort of thing?”
“We don’t have the numbers. There are more here who are unknown than are immune. We have petitioned the town council, but they have rejected every single time,” Denise explained.
“How much?”
What?” Denise asked in obvious confusion.
“How lopsided are the numbers?”
“The unknowns have about a thirty person advantage. We have had a few of the first generation children reach voting age, thirteen in case you are curious. But we remain in the minority.”
Catie dropped her backpack inside the cubicle that she had chosen. It was in the very center of the massive “dorm” that had once been a high school gymnasium.
“And none of you think it is odd that the children keep getting snatched by these Beastie Boys?” Catie asked.
“We aren’t stupid,” Denise said with a touch of anger in her voice. “But we don’t have any proof. We can’t just up and leave. None of the other communities will take us, and starting from scratch is a romantic idea until you realize the work involved. We have farms, crops, and livestock here. None of which would be allowed to be taken if we left.”
“So every single animal and farm belongs to one of these unknown types?”
“Immunes are not allowed to be the sole owners of any property.”
Catie opened her mouth to ask what the hell Denise meant when the doors to the gymnasium-turned-dorm flew open and hit the walls with a loud clang. On instinct, Catie’s hand went to her hip where a machete should be but was suddenly very noticeable in its absence.
“Denise, come quick, they took Kalisha to the administrator’s office!” a man shouted.
<
br /> The older woman did not say so much as a farewell. Turning on her heel, she ran for the door. By the time Catie had recovered and tried to follow, the doors had swung shut. She opened them and stepped out onto the little avenue. People were still going about their business like nothing in the world was wrong.
“That was what I was seeing,” Catie whispered to herself.
She went back inside and returned to her cubicle. As she walked through the empty dorm, her mind began to mull through the possibilities. By the time she reached “her” cubicle, she had an idea as to what she was going to do. She didn’t know if it was the smartest idea, but she became more committed to it with every step.
“I sure do miss you, Kevin,” she whispered.
3
Hunter
I slid down the embankment and came to a stop in the shallow creek. My feet were now soaked, but that was the least of my worries. So far, I had managed to stay in the brush. Add in the fact that there were a few hundred thousand of the undead less than a mile away and headed straight for us, and I was the lowest of the priorities.
I peeked through some of the branches that made up my cover and sighed. So far, I had come up empty. I thought that I had a good idea where Jim and Jackson were being kept. I figured it would be easy to make my way to where they were being held prisoner. Of course, from there I had not even the slightest clue as to what I was going to do.
It wasn’t like I was heavily armed or some sort of badass like Jackson. I couldn’t scrounge together a few common items and make them blow up like Jim. Nope, I was flying by the seat of my pants. I was also trying to reason with myself by mentally preparing for the serious possibility that I was going to have to run for it and leave them both behind.
Staying in the tall grass, I got down on my belly and started crawling up the hill. When I reached the top, I wanted to cry in relief. Just ahead of me, I could see the grates over the holes in the ground where I knew Jim to be held. At least that was where he was when Suzi had brought me to see him that one time. I shoved away the thoughts of how he might be gone or even dead.
