by M. E. Betts
Shari crossed the room to the entertainment center. "Give me a hand with this thing," she said.
"Oh, of course," Hugo said, hurrying over. "Sorry." He pushed the heavy piece of furniture clear of the closet door, seemingly with very little effort.
Damn, Shari thought. He's strong, at least he's got that much going for him.
"Yes," Kandi said, "and let's face it, this group was a taco fest. We could use a bit of sausage, eh, princess?"
Shut up, Kandi Kane, Shari retorted. He's underage, and he's a little quirky.
"Oh, and you're never quirky, not at all," Kandi said mockingly. "Who are you to discriminate based on neuroticness? I'm just saying, this posse will be better off with at least one Y chromosome thrown into the mix, and of course Princess Shari can't help but think of sex. Who's real the perv', huh?"
Shari paid Kandi no mind. She waited for Hugo to retreat to the opposite side of the room, then threw the door open. Daphne lunged down, plunging her titanium gut hook into the base of the woman's skull as she tried to use her arms to pull herself out into the room.
"It's over," Shari said gently. "You can come get whatever it was you needed from her."
Hugo crossed the room reluctantly, his eyes wet with tears and his lower lip trembling. "Goodbye, mom," he said, his voice cracking, as he knelt down beside her lifeless body. His tears began to fall, much as the rain had earlier, and were absorbed by his mother's copper hair as his fingers fumbled with the clasp of the necklace around the woman's neck.
"This was her mom's," he said. "And her mom's before that. It was important to her. I happened to think of it the other night after I locked her in there. I decided to get it off of her when...or...if I ever opened the door." He kissed her forehead, then smiled momentarily as he placed the necklace in the pocket of his flannel shirt, buttoning the pocket closed. He walked toward the front door. "Well, we should probably go, uh--" He groaned, slapping himself lightly on the forehead. "I forgot to ask your names!"
Shari grinned. "It's okay, we forgive you. I'm Shari."
"And I'm Daphne."
"Well, Shari and Daphne," Hugo muttered, "let's get outta here."
He picked up his backpack and bedroll, following Daphne out the front door. Shari led Eva out the door and down the ramp.
Daphne started her ATV as Shari mounted her horse. "You go ahead and ride with Daphne," Shari told Hugo. "I'd rather put the wear and tear on the ATV than my horse." They crossed the parking lot to the highway.
"He can put the wear and tear on you, eh princess?" taunted Kandi with a smile, unnaturally elongated, stretched slyly across her face.
Shari shielded her eyes from the glaring, neon red light of the setting sun as she headed west, away from 57. They were in Mount Vernon, about sixty miles northeast of Carbondale. She led Daphne and Hugo as they left the fringe of town and headed out into the country. After about five minutes, she reached what she was looking for. A blinking radio tower sat to her left, along with a small concrete building enclosed by a twelve-foot chainlink fence. A pickup truck sat empty inside the gate. Shari signaled to Daphne behind her to make a left. She hopped down from her horse and tried the gate.
"It's locked," she informed Daphne as she pulled up near the gate. "You two wait here. I'll climb the fence and break into the building." She reached her arms above her head, pulling herself up the fence. "Hopefully the key's in there somewhere." She quickly reached the top of the fence, then swung her legs over, dangled briefly over the other side, and dropped down to the ground. She jogged over to the building and tried the knob, which turned freely in her hand.
"Building's unlocked," she informed Daphne as she armed herself with a flashlight in one hand and an assault baton in the other, then swung the door open. "Good grief, it smells like death and asscrack in here," she croaked, gagging and coughing. She pointed the beam of light into the one-room building, illuminating the grotesque, wrinkled and discolored face of a balding, fifty-ish male zombie. The undead man gnashed his teeth, lunging in Shari's direction as she whipped her baton toward the floor to fully extend it. She kicked the zombie in the chest, knocking it onto its back. She came down to one knee, bringing the assault baton down through its eye and to the back of the skull in one smooth motion. It was a practiced, deliberate lunge not too different from the ones she had done in her yoga practice less than half a year ago, when the world was still normal. She stood, wrenching the baton free from the zombie's eye hole. She wiped the soft brain and eye matter from the baton onto its putrid, filthy jacket.
That reminds me, she thought, reaching into the undead man's pocket, I'm in here for a reason.
"Yes, besides desecrating the undead," Kandi said mockingly.
She searched both of the outside jacket pockets, then wrinkled her nose and felt around for a breast pocket. Bingo, she thought, her fingers closing around a keyring with two keys on it. Now are these the right ones? She stood, clutching the ring, and walked out of the building to the gate where Hugo was explaining to Daphne how the radio tower worked.
"Found these on him," she said, jingling the keys lightly. The second one she tried slipped into the padlock. She pulled on the lock, then slid it free from the gate. Daphne restarted her ATV, driving it into the enclosure. Shari led Eva inside, then replaced the padlock on the gate.
"Well," she said, slipping the keys into a zippered pocket on her backpack, "we're safe in here for tonight, but well--due to the stench factor, I'm not so sure we want to sleep in that building. That guy smelled like he's been locked in there, zombified, since April. Unless it starts raining again, I'm content to sleep under the stars. We've all got sleeping bags."
Daphne nodded. "You know I'm not one to argue in favor of sleeping indoors," she said. "I'll get a fire going."
"I heard you talking radio theory to Daphne," Shari said, turning to face Hugo. "That's useful information these days. How did you learn about that stuff?"
Hugo shrugged. "I saw a show about it on the Discovery channel, and I was kinda interested in it. I watched a few videos on YouTube after that."
Shari nodded, both impressed and surprised. She took her portable ham radio from her pack, handing it to Hugo. "Then you'll probably wanna have a look at that," she said. "You might as well learn to use it. It's what I've been using to contact people in different settlements. Try the different bands, see if you can find anything being broadcast."
He retains knowledge, Shari thought. This kid's gonna prove to be more worthwhile than I expected.
"I could have told you that," Kandi said, popping up mere inches from Shari's face. "But you're generally in the habit of ignoring me these days."
Only when you're being a pig.
Kandi sneered, then smiled sarcastically. "Yes, surely that's all me, never the high and mighty princess." She sighed, rolling her eyes, and disappeared from Shari's view again.
Shari unhooked the small campfire coffee pot from its usual spot on one of her saddlebags, then fished around in her backpack until she found her water filter bottle, which she had filled before they left the motel earlier.
"I'll take the first shift," she told Daphne, nodding toward the percolator. "I'll have the energy for it pretty soon." She took a folded bag of coffee from her pack, scooping heaping spoonfuls of dark ground coffee into the basket.
Daphne sat down cross-legged in front of the fire, opening a large bag of beef jerky and a box of cereal. "Whole grains and protein," she said as Shari and Hugo sat down beside her.
"Pretty balanced, all things considered," Shari said, grabbing a handful of cereal. She turned toward Hugo. "So...was it just you and your mom? Do you have any other family?"
"Me and my mom," Hugo confirmed, closing his eyes and sighing as he pressed his hands into his eyelids. "It was always just me and my mom. Even before this. The two of us, we were...we were all the family we had. My dad left when I was a baby. After that, it was just the two of us. We were on our way to U of I in Champaign...." He trailed off, his eye
s taking on a distant look, before he continued. "I was going to be starting the fall semester there. I was gonna major in geographic information science with a minor in history. I guess college doesn't matter now, huh?" He looked at Shari and Daphne, snorting in mild amusement. "Mom was so worried, so worried about me going away to live on my own. I could tell that she didn't think I could handle it...she tried to hide it, but I could tell. And now I can't help but to think...." He grimaced, his face twitching slightly. "I can't help but to think, you know, if she didn't think I could make it on my own in college, then what does that say for the situation I'm in now?" He uttered a muted, dry laugh. "Now that I'm on my own with the undead." He drew his knees up to his chin, then lowered his head against his chest.
"Well," Shari said, "you're still alive, aren't you? Obviously, you have some kind of will to live. And while I won't deny the importance of weapon use, staying alive depends on more than being able to shoot. It's obvious you've got some useful skills."
Hugo looked skeptical. "Like what?"
"You've already got a pretty good grasp on radio theory, which comes in handy on a regular basis. That's how we interact with other survivors. We warn them of coming danger, and they warn us."
"And that's how we know which guys are the bad guys," Daphne said. "And then we can go after them."
"What bad guys?" Hugo asked.
"Bad guys," Shari said. "Sadists. Big, traveling groups of looters that aren't content to loot , but instead find it necessary to fuck with random survivors. They steal, rape, and kill. People are using radio to warn one another when they see...or have the misfortune of coming in contact with...one of these groups. Communication, limited as it is, is a huge part of survival for a lot of people nowadays, so the more people who know how, when, and where to use it, the better for everyone involved." She snuffed out her joint, taking her coffeepot off of the fire. "I'm sure you'll find somewhere to settle down, somewhere that could use your skills and help you develop new ones, like shooting a gun." She saw the look of concern on the young man's face. "Don't worry," she said, "we're not going to just dump you at the first place we find. But the longer you stay with us, the more danger you're in. Dealing with sadists is what we do...and it's a dangerous business."
"Yeah," Daphne said, "especially after the last encounter we had, when one of the sadists got away."
Hugo winced. "That can't be good."
"No, it can't," Shari agreed. "We can't rule out the possibilty that it might come back to bite us in the ass. But if it was just Daphne and me, we wouldn't be too concerned. We're pretty good with our weapons, and we generally get through the fights pretty easily. We don't like to try to bite off more than we can chew, so if the group is too big, we don't get into it with them. Traveling with you, on the other hand...we wouldn't want to put you in harm's way."
"What we're saying," Daphne said, "is that with you around, we can't do what we do. No offense."
Hugo was silent for a moment. "Will you at least consider teaching me how to shoot?" he asked.
"We'll start with the bow and arrow," Shari said. "Less waste that way. If it seems like you have decent aim, maybe you can get some target practice with my revolver." She reached into her bag beside her, taking out a book to read by the firelight. "But we'll talk about that tomorrow. You two get some rest, alright?" She turned to Daphne. "The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner I can wake you up to take my place."
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you," Daphne grumbled as she unrolled her sleeping bag.
"I can take a shift, too," Hugo offered.
"Don't worry about it for tonight," Shari said. "Just make sure you get enough rest. We've got a lot more traveling to do tomorrow."
"Where are we going, anyway?" Hugo asked.
"Daphne and me are going north," Shari said. "Quite a ways north, actually. Like, probably Wisconsin."
"Where at in Wisconsin?" Hugo asked.
Shari shrugged. "We don't know, exactly. Somewhere cold."
"The coldest part," Hugo said, "is the far northern part of the state, within a hundred miles or so of Lake Superior."
"You used to live there or something?" Daphne asked.
"No," Hugo said, shaking his head, "I just remember seeing it one time on one of those climate zone maps."
"Do you remember everything you saw one time?" Daphne asked as she settled down into her sleeping bag.
Hugo gazed toward the sky, mulling the question over. "Pretty much," he said. "I mean, most things I see...faces, pictures, phone numbers, names...well, most written words...." He nodded. "Yeah, pretty much everything." He laid down, zipping his sleeping bag closed around him. "Good night, ladies."
"Night," Daphne muttered, already nearly asleep.
"Good night, Hugo," Shari said, laying her head on her rolled-up sleeping bag. Maybe we should keep him around, she thought. His hyperactive memory would be an asset. Plus, he's kind of a lovable kid.
She kept watch until two o'clock in the morning, sipping her coffee and reading from a wild mushroom classification guide by the light of a flashlight with a red setting, which preserved her night vision. She had thumbed through the book a few times, but she didn't yet feel qualified to make the distinction between an edible fungus and a poisonous one. She figured that, with some practice, the skill would come in handy, since the book covered all types of mushrooms, including culinary and medicinal.
After about an hour of reading, she laid back and stretched, gazing at the clear, moonless night sky. The glow of the August Milky Way was intense with no other light around to compete with it, and she beheld the abundant streaking lights that were a result of the Perseid meteor shower, which had been in its peak for the past few days. As she lay there, entranced by the surreal night sky, she thought again of the mushroom classification guide, and of the various ways in which a connection to and understanding of nature could be beneficial. It's time for us survivors to get back to our roots.
As Shari settled into uneasy slumber, having been relieved of her post, she was plagued by a disturbing dream that repeated itself throughout the night. She walked into an Old West town with a wide dirt street, rows of buildings flanking either side. She walked down the street, eying a saloon to her left at the end of the road. She strode toward the saloon, realizing to her horror that the sides of the street were lined with severed, rotting human hands.
Upon reaching the saloon, she found that the door was locked. She looked down at her hands, realizing she was holding a fifteen-pound sledgehammer. She gripped the implement tightly as she swung back, then forward toward the ancient wooden door. After reducing it to splinters, she entered a dilapidated building. She passed a broken bar, its stools littering the floor. At the rear of the building, she found a staircase leading beneath the building. She descended the stairs, leaning heavily on the railing, and found herself outdoors beneath a black night sky illuminated only by the brilliant light of the full moon. She saw the hurried, blurred movement of a human form to her left.
"Hey, wait!" she called as she started after the unknown figure. I don't want to be alone in this place, she thought. She ran full-tilt, catching up with the figure.
"Hey!" she said, reaching out to touch the shoulder of the unknown person in front of her, whom she realized was a woman in a straight jacket. As she did, the woman fell to the ground, convulsing as she laughed maniacally. Shari knelt down beside the woman, rolling her over onto her back to see her face.
"Mom," she whispered. "I should have known it was you." Her mother continued to laugh, then rolled away into thick brush about twenty feet away. Shari pursued her, attempting to breach the thorny bramble. Just then, she heard rustling to her right. She turned in the direction of the sound, coming face-to-face with a grinning male figure about six inches away from her own face. His black hair gleamed in the moonlight, his sable eyes glittering with malice.
"Remember me?" the man taunted. Shari shook her head. "No? Well, maybe you oughtta learn to finish what you start, bitch. Thi
ngs have a way of coming back to you."
Shari screamed and shrank toward the ground as he pointed a gleaming revolver at her, sneering as he pulled the trigger.
Shari squeezed her eyes shut as she unzipped her sleeping bag, pulling it down from over her face. The morning was predictably bright, and already hot at six a.m., just as virtually every morning had been over the summer.
"It's too bright for someone who only got three hours of sleep," she complained to Daphne as she reached into her bag for a spare bottle of water that she had poured into an empty bottle after filtering it. After she had woken Daphne to take her place keeping watch, she had laid awake for around an hour, unable to sleep until three o'clock. "Oh coffee," she said as she picked up the percolator, "what would I do without you?"
"Maybe we'll find somewhere secure where we can all nap later on," Daphne said.
"I hope so," Shari said, reaching for her bag of coffee, "because I can only drink down so much of this stuff."
"And by only so much," Daphne teased, "do you mean only a gallon at a time?"
"No," Shari said in a tone of exaggerated defensiveness, "I only drink one cup at a time. It may be several times throughout the day if I can help it, but it's still only one cup at a time. And considering the circumstances," she added, "it's a worthy vice. Anything that keeps me awake, alert, and on my toes is a good thing in my book."
"I'm just busting your chops," Daphne said.
Shari started toward the far side of the building to empty her bladder in relative privacy. "I forgive you," she called back over her shoulder, "since busting chops seems to be your only vice." She quickly relieved herself, then stood. As she zipped her pants, she looked out past the fence into the overgrown corn field that lay beyond the radio tower. As her eyes scanned the horizon, her face fell.
"Oh, fuck, can't a woman piss in peace?" she uttered, already jogging back around the building to the camp site. "We have to go," she blurted out to Daphne and Hugo, who were seated around the fire, eating protein bars. "Now," she added with more urgency.
