by TW Brown
I was just getting to my feet when somebody shoved me hard in the back. I turned to see Maddy standing there with three of the men. They did not look at all happy now in contrast to that braying laughter of mere moments ago.
“Why did you do that?” Maddy demanded.
It took me a moment to know what it was that I had supposedly done. One of the men was holding Hunter’s head. Apparently that was the thing I had done that had them so peeved.
“He deserved better than that,” I said with a shrug.
“He was dead!” Maddy snapped. “And part of our instructions were to deliver this to your camp with our message.”
“So deliver it.” I sounded cool and calm, but inside I was shaking just a little. None of these people were something that I wanted to tangle with in a fight. And while I was confident that they were instructed to bring me to Platypus Creek alive, that did not mean I couldn’t show up with a few cuts and bruises like poor Jim.
“You are on the verge of really pissing me off, little girl,” Maddy growled.
“Look, folks,” Jim came up and put an arm around my shoulder, “I won’t tell. Thalia won’t tell. And unless that comes up in conversation, who is to know?”
“Suzi will know,” one of the men said, his voice holding a hint of awe like he believed that she would appear out of the darkness and punish them on the spot.
“What, does she have some sort of magic powers?” Jim teased. “Is she some sort of zombie apocalypse Randall Flagg?”
I had no idea what Jim was talking about, but it was clear that Maddy and one of the guys beside her did. They looked over their shoulders and then back to Jim. They actually appeared afraid. Personally, I was having a hard time not laughing.
“There is something about her. Nobody can say a word about one thing or another, but she finds out. She always finds out.” Maddy looked at the men beside her who were nodding vigorously.
“You guys are being a bit silly,” Jim finally said, but I could tell that he was being swept in by whatever the heck had these guys spooked.
“Just go to bed,” one of the men finally barked.
They all went back over to their side of the camp, leaving me alone with Jim who had a look on his face like he was seriously concerned about something. I waited for a few minutes before I could not hold it in any longer.
“Who the hell is this Randall guy?”
“Huh?” Jim looked up at me, and it was clear that he had been lost in thought.
“You mentioned some guy named Randall something or other.”
“Randall Flagg.” Jim put his hands up to warm them in front of the fire. “He was a guy in a book. Don’t worry about it.”
“You obviously are,” I quipped.
“People can convince themselves of anything if they try. That is why there used to be telephone psychics and horoscopes. Something nice and vague can become prophecy if you want it to be. This Suzi is obviously cultivating some sense of mystical power. It’s absolute fiction, but the whole zombie thing has folks regressing to a Dark Ages mentality. Pretty soon we will be creating gods and all that nonsense…the sun will cross the sky in a chariot and crap like that.”
I had no idea what he was carrying on about. Perhaps we just needed a good night’s sleep. I went to my bedroll and climbed in. As my eyes drifted shut, I could see Jim still sitting by the fire. He was mulling over something in his mind.
***
We were actually making pretty good time. Jim was the biggest hold up as he limped along and had to take breaks way more often than our escorts liked. Chick looked like he had been beaten in the mouth with an entire forest of ugly trees. Still, it was easy to see his scowl. That expression had no trouble making its way to his eyes that did not ever seem to drift from me.
A few times, our scouts would return and they would swap out. Sometimes they would tell of a few zombies seen ahead and if they had been taken care of or might still need to be dispatched. I was actually surprised when Chick’s turn came. I thought he might be excused, but that was not the case. It felt nice not to have him glaring at me for a while. However, we came to a stop beside a small runoff creek to refresh, and apparently it was also time for him to swap back in, only, there was no sign of him. We waited a while longer, and eventually Maddy made us get up and push on. She had one of the other men run ahead to find out what the deal was.
I glanced at Jim when we were ordered to come to another stop. It was obvious that our escorts were rattled. They kept huddling together in little groups as we walked. They were not talking loud enough for me to hear, but I did not need to hear to know that they were upset. When I glanced over at Jim, he had just the slightest hint of a smile on his face.
I went and sat beside him, took a drink from my canteen and offered him one. He took it, and while he drank, I whispered, “Okay, spill it. What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t have any idea what you mean, cupcake.”
Jim shrugged and tore off a bite of some of the dried meat and stale travel bread that we’d been given. Two more of our escort spoke briefly with Maddy and then jogged off in the direction that we were headed.
It was not ten minutes when they returned with the one who had left earlier, and I could tell by the looks on their faces that the news was not good. Again there was a conference that consisted of everybody except me and Jim. Finally, and after many instances where they would stop talking and glance our direction, Maddy broke away from the group and came over to stand above me and Jim. I had taken his lead and was currently chewing some unidentifiable meat that had been turned into jerky.
“How far are we from your compound?” Maddy asked.
I am certainly no expert in reading people, but the sweat on her upper lip and the way her eyes seemed to dart everywhere, rest on us for a second, and then look around frantically again, had me pretty confident in my assumption that she was scared out of her mind.
“Still another day and a half.” Jim looked up, shading his eyes as he did so; although the sun was actually a bit behind us, so I had no idea why. “Probably two with my legs being the way they are. I am walking as fast as I can, but you guys did a number on me back in camp.”
He was still talking when she simply turned and walked away. Jim looked at me and shrugged. I kept waiting for us to be rousted to our feet and pushed ahead. After all, we still had a few good hours of daylight, and time was a factor. Suzi had given me three weeks. I would not abandon Jackson.
As the sun set behind us, it became clear that we were not moving on any more today. A fire had been built, but I noticed that this one was actually quite large. They even went off the road and cut down a couple of pines that were about eight or nine feet tall. The problem with the fire was that all the sap from the young trees popped and made noise. It wasn’t much, but if there were any zombies in the area, they would be coming this way.
We didn’t have to wait long for that first moan. I already had my machete in my hand and was deciding that I would likely not be sleeping tonight in any case. Something was strange. I climbed out of my bedroll and glanced at Jim’s. He was sleeping just fine. I was going to give him a piece of my mind when this was over. If I didn’t still feel so bad for having thought that he might be some sort of spy, I would have woke him right away. However, I could at least hold off until the zombie threat proved to be something worth worrying about.
I positioned myself so that I could intercept anything coming in from the direction we had traveled. So far, the moans were in the direction that we were headed. Maddy had sent two people out with torches as a precaution. They had laid them on the road at about ten and then twenty or so yards out. That would give us plenty of heads-up if this was a mob.
It only sounded like one, maybe two. A few zombies are really no big deal; but it was also clear that these guys were spooked. They obviously wanted to be ready for the worst case scenario. None of us were ready to see our missing scout come shambling into view.
Chick
was a mess. His belly had been ripped open, and a zombie had taken a pretty big bite out of his face. It was almost unrecognizable. In fact, the only reason I knew it was Chick was the clothes he was wearing. However, there was one more disturbing thing about the Chick zombie. He had an arrow jutting from the back of each meaty thigh. A shot like that would make it hard to walk, much less run. This indicated that somebody had brought Chick down so that the zombies could get him. Of course, if the crossbow bolts jutting from his legs did not give it away. The ball gag in his mouth certainly did the trick.
“What the…” I heard one of the men gasp as we got a good look at Chick—what was left of him at any rate.
He and another zombie stumbled to the first torch, seemed to regard it for a minute, and then headed for the second. Once they passed that one and approached our camp, I figured that his buddies would take them down. Instead, they spread out a bit, took down the stranger, and then just observed him as he would go for first one of them, and then another.
I started to get up, but Jim grabbed my arm and pulled me down. “You don’t learn very well,” he breathed.
I turned to see Jim standing there, but my eyes darted to his bed. There was a Jim-shaped lump in it. I looked up at him and he pulled me back while easing down beside his bedroll.
“Okay, Biff, take him down,” Maddy finally barked.
A large man that looked like a shaved gorilla with a blond crewcut stomped forward and drove a large knife into Chick’s head. The corpse toppled and then his friends, or whatever these people were, moved in and gathered around the body. They started pointing and mumbling to each other.
Meanwhile, Jim was taking pine branches from his bed roll and just sort of feeding them into the fire or tossing them into the shadows. I watched him and then turned back to our escorts. They were engaged in their own thing and did not seem to be paying us any attention. I guess that was a good thing for Jim. He had all evidence of his little ruse disposed of and they had not been any the wiser.
That night, Suzi’s people split themselves in half and kept watch. Apparently they were not content with just one person keeping lookout. I wanted morning to hurry up and get here.
It didn’t.
Morning eventually came with a harsh toe to my side. I rolled over on the defensive to see Maddy walking away. She did not even glance back as she went to her gear and shouldered her pack. She did say that things would be different from here on when we traveled.
I still wanted to talk to Jim about last night. I would have asked him then, but the sentries were walking the perimeter of our camp which had been condensed significantly. Maddy wanted us all in close for pretty obvious reasons. I was still amazed that they did not suspect us of this attack.
Jim and I started shouldering our gear, but one of the other women came over to me. “You and me, kid.” She stood with her hands on her hips and an expectant look on her face.
Did she mean we were going to fight? I glanced at Jim who currently wore no expression at all as he looked from me to the she-giant.
“Umm…” I started, but then the last of the saliva dried up in my mouth and no more words would come out.
“We have first scout patrol. Give your pack to one of the guys, keep just your canteen, your knife, and your machete.”
I am pretty sure my look of relief gave me up, but for added measure, I let a huge sigh escape my lips. “Thank God,” I whispered.
The woman gave me a strange look and then walked over to her own gear. I noticed that she was strapping on some extra protection in the form of shin guards and even a helmet with a flip down visor. None of that for me, though. I had jeans and a heavy shirt with a leather jacket and gloves.
I was given a tin cup of lukewarm and watered down oatmeal and then we were told to get started and that Maddy and the rest of the group would be heading out in about an hour at best. With that, the big woman gave me a little shove and we were on the road.
I remember the first time I had walked this pass on the way to Island City. I recall how amazed and overwhelmed I was with seeing the world. Now, as sad as it seemed, I just wanted to be home. I wanted to see Melissa and Stevie, Billy, and Dr. Zahn. Hell I would even be happy to see Kayla Brockhouse.
“Name’s Sylvia,” the woman muttered as we climbed over a section of the road that had buckled.
“Thalia,” I replied.
A grunt of some sort was her only response to that. We had not gone on another ten minutes when we came across what had obviously been where Chick was ambushed. Sylvia motioned for me to stop as she made an inspection of the area. I looked around and tried to figure out what might have happened by what I saw.
The only thing that I was certain of was that Chick had taken down three zombies. The area where that little scuffle took place was a dark stain on the asphalt. One of the zombies had both arms ripped off. I was admittedly impressed. Eventually, Sylvia either had enough information or decided to give up and motioned for us to resume.
I wanted to talk to this woman. I wanted to ask her how she could feel good about living the way Suzi ran things. The only problem with that was the fact that this woman scared the beejeezus out of me.
“Hold up!” she whispered all of a sudden.
I had been walking along minding my own business. I had not really known why I was chosen to join on this little venture, but I quickly found out.
Sylvia moved over by me and I assumed that it was so we could have each other’s backs if another ambush came.
Nope.
Her arm whipped out and coiled around my neck so fast, that I barely had time to blink, much less make any attempt to get away. She pulled my body against hers and then turned to the left. I could feel her hunch down to use as much of my body for cover as she could. Sadly for her, it wasn’t much.
I heard a sound and then felt Sylvia’s arm sort of tighten for just a second and then go completely slack. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t exactly go slack in time to keep her from dragging me off my feet. I rolled over as quickly as I could and found myself looking into her dead eyes. Oh…and there was a knife sticking out of one eye socket. I guess she should have pulled down that visor.
I pushed away and was trying to get to my feet while drawing my machete. My eyes went to the crossbow, but it had actually slipped from Sylvia’s shoulder and skittered a few feet away. I was stuck out in the middle of the wide open highway with the nearest cover much too far for me to have even half of a chance of making it.
“Thalia Hobart!” a voice called.
I wanted to cry. Never in my life had hearing Paula Yin’s voice sounded so good. When she stepped out from behind a derelict and rusted out old car, I could not help it. I did cry. The tears started and I wondered for a few seconds if maybe they might not ever stop. At this point, I might have had the same reaction if it had been Kayla. Probably not…but maybe.
Several more figures emerged from the woods on both sides of the highway, but my vision was too blurry for me to make out faces. However, voices were no problem.
“Thalia!” a familiar voice boomed. A second later, I was scooped up and spun around in a huge circle.
“Billy!” I squealed, although I seriously doubt anybody could make out my words between my throat being a pinhole and Billy squeezing the little air I did manage to get into my lungs right back out in a whoosh.
“You look like warmed over crap, kiddo,” Billy said as he put me down.
I started babbling incoherently as I tried to tell him about everything that had happened to us in the span of one or two actual breaths. He held up his hands and told me to slow down. It took a lot of control, but at last I was able to tell him, Paula, and the others gathered around a good outline of my story. I know I left a lot out, but I was pretty sure that I had given them all of the important bits.
“So Jim will be coming this way soon?” Billy asked.
“He should be with the rest of our escorts. The thing is, they were pretty spooked by whatever ha
ppened to Chick. They might pull up again if Sylvia doesn’t check in. I have no idea what their system is, but it would seem likely that they will not just keep moving. As it was, our scout rotation seemed to be every few hours,” I offered.
“I think Jim has them pegged for about half the norm,” Billy said.
“What? How do you know that?” I gasped.
“He slipped out of camp the first night and got a message to us. He has a network of runners at communities all over. They sent a guy on horseback. We rode most of the way here and then left our horses at one of the trading posts a ways up the road.”
I was floored. My thoughts of how I had been suspicious of him started to creep up on me and I stuffed them. I really should have known better; Jim was one of the greatest and most wonderful men I knew. How could I have ever thought him capable of being a mole? I knew now that I would have to come clean with him some day, otherwise my guilt would eat me alive.
“I owe that mop head a freaking bucket of beer,” Paula groused, snapping me back to the situation.
“A bucket of beer for what?” I asked.
“I told him that you would have known that he slipped out. He said that you were clueless and had bought into him being injured just like your escorts,” Paula grumbled.
“We can worry about that later,” Billy said, sounding all business. “Give me the rundown on this group. I want numbers, weapons, and how they travel. We probably have about ten minutes to get in place, so be quick.”
“Didn’t Jim tell you?” I asked.
“Yes, but it always helps to use an old carpenter’s trick…measure twice, cut once. I just want to be as sure as possible.”
I gave them the report, was handed Sylvia’s crossbow, and then joined Paula where she would be waiting as we set up this ambush. I was just getting into my spot when a thought hit me hard.
“What about Jackson?” I turned to Paula.
“One thing at a time,” the woman said as she brought her binoculars to her eyes.
