by catt dahman
The neat, orderly dining room was where they ate together, where once George ate meals with his wife, who died long before the infection came along.
Upstairs were tidy bedrooms where they leaned out the windows and shot zombies. Len barked orders and complaints, and asked Mark to get the women trained to shoot their guns.
On the floor was a dog bone that Benny’s dog, Dallas, left. If he went out the back, Mark would see the bodies of people he knew and tried to keep safe, but who died.
Misty wiped a tear away. “George said ‘I suggest we do like in a war, we don’t hate…we do our job, stand by what is right, execute the enemy with extreme prejudice, and move on as best we can. We are Americans, son, and we are gonna damned sure act like it.’ I was so impressed. I remember every word of that.”
“And Len said ‘Beth…unacceptable. One shot, one kill.’ all the time,” Mark said as he walked to the kitchen. He stayed on Beth and Julia about aiming and all.”
“Yeh, he did.”
“Katie looked out a window and saw her mom down in the back with blood on her head. George put her down after she passed on her own terms, I might add. She downed a drink and a handful of pills: a Judy Garland, we used to call suicides when I was training to be a deputy sheriff.”
“You were a law dog?” Carl asked, “no shit?”
“ No shit. Almost. I wanted to be one when I grew up,” Mark said. “Jeri saved Katie when she opened the door, but they got Jeri…tore her apart, and then Tom tried to help, and they got him.”
Misty nodded. “And Mark didn’t think twice; he ran, slid into the middle, and started shooting.”
Mark opened the back door, looked at moldering bodies, and closed the door again. They were rotting and becoming skeletons. Amid all of them, he saw the remains of Gina, who had been Katie’s birth mother; the things prevented them from burying her properly.
“Kim and I finished them off, and we shot Jeri and Tom, so they didn’t come back. I sat down against that wall right there for a long time and almost cried. I felt so sick, and my heart hurt. Len and George told me I did a good job, but all I was thinking about was that I killed two people who went out screaming and scared.”
“When Len got me to shoot the first zombie, it felt unreal. I couldn’t decide how to feel, but I did it. I had nightmares, and all I wanted was to be safe again and not shoot anyone. Now look, we volunteered for this.”
Pan, after a quick search to be sure it was safe in the house, listened closely. “We have the same stories; the settings may vary, but we all had to do the same things…kill, and we do it and go on; but ever wonder how Len does this all the time?”
“He’s the reason I think most of us are alive,” Mark said. “I guess this place just has more memories than I expected. It all began here for me.”
“Me, too. Poor Len,” Misty said. “I’m going to get some food, and maybe they’ll be along soon.” She just hoped that they did make it.
“George, he said ‘I’m gonna go out on my own terms. I refuse to let the cock-knocker win’. We started calling it his terms after that…the right to go out the way we wanted if we could, with some dignity.”
“I like that, Mark, ” Pan said.
“Len said he was gonna steal it, and George said okay, but it was still his own terms.” Mark grabbed some things he thought George might like to have from the house and stashed them in a bag. “I respected George, Len, and the rest so much. I learned a lot about how to do my best from them.”
“You hear that?” Big Bill came into the living room. “Gun shot over that way.”
They moved into place. “Visual. It’s Jules,” Misty called downstairs. “Coming across the street with some more people. Manny, Walt, and Matt are with her.”
Mark sighed with relief as he opened the door; Walt fell forward, so Mark had to grab him before he fell.
“You just scared the shit outta me,” Walt said “damn it.”
“Sorry, Walt.”
“Mark.” Julia hugged him so hard he rocked backwards. He saw lines on her face that hadn’t been there before; she was tired and stressed to her limit.
They shook hands; then, Mark focused, “Sitrep, Julia.”
She blinked. Then it was as if someone lifted a weight off her back and shoulders. With relief, she sighed, “Yes, Sir. We have full teams five by five and no injuries except a scrape on Manny’s arm from a piece of metal. We have four civilians with one of them injured and possibly infected. No confirmation of that yet. He may have been bitten, or it may be a glass wound. We simply don’t know yet.”
“We had information of nine civilians.”
“We lost three to zoms, one to natural causes, and one is missing, presumed dead and infected,” Julia said. She explained quickly how they ended up at the building with the other survivors, were low on food and water, and traveled across part of the city to George’s neighborhood. The story sounded exhausting; running in this heat and humidity with little water and the constant threat was pretty rough.
“Well done, Julia,” Mark said. He was trying to do this like Len would. “You made some excellent choices to get everyone to a place you knew.”
“Well done? She is the reason we lost those people, playing GI Jane and having us run all over the place. And who the fuck are you anyway?” Harold demanded. “This gets more surreal by the hour.”
“Oh, boy,” Big Bill muttered. Pak slapped his own forehead.
“Who the fuck am I? I am serving under Colonel Len Barnhart of the US Militia, and like Julia, I am called Major in rank,” Len said that once, so it worked for him. They didn’t often use rank, but it’s what Len explained anyway since they were all the military left as far as they knew. “Who are you?”
“Harold. I’m…I was…it doesn’t matter. Do you outrank her?” Harold asked.
“Jeez, Harold,” Drake said. The other man, Leo, and Jeff, watched this with interest. How much more of an ass could Harold be?
“I want to speak to her commanding officer,” Harold said again.
“Go on, what’s the problem,” Mark asked.
“She and these idiots with her…they came and demanded to be let in our building, or she threatened she would shoot her gun and make the zombies horde.”
“Were they being pursued?”
“I guess.”
“Did she and the others offer food, water, and first aid once with you? Did she offer to escort you to Hopetown safely?” Mark asked. “Did she take over your…ummm…leadership?”
“Yes, they shared supplies and did offer,” Drake said. “We had nothing and were trapped. They got us through some bad spots. She deferred to Harold often and tried to include him and us with every plan. We had bad situations.”
“Situations where our people died,” Harold said. “Right? Remember we lost the woman, then the man, the other woman, and then the man and one man who died on a lawn chair.”
“The guy had a heart attack. Then, one zom came up from a swimming pool, grabbed the guy while he was washing his hands, and his daughter ran back to be with him. She left us and sneaked away, and the two zoms that fell out of the window got one person, but Matt and Walt got Jeff to safety. But let’s go back to the first person we lost. We lost her because this pendejo not only pushed her, but kicked her, and threw a baseball bat at her, hitting her in her head, so she was killed, ripped to pieces,” Julia sputtered.
“She hit me with her fist,” Harold said, pointing at Julia, “Now, she’s calling me names.”
“She hit you?” Mark asked. “Did she hit him?” he asked everyone.
Matt, then Walt, and then Manny nodded.
“See? Bitch hit me.”
Mark leaned close to Harold’s face. “So she hit you? If it had been me, after you did that to a woman, causing her to be ripped up, I would have fed your fat, mother fucking ass to the zombies.” He backed Harold up until the man sat down on the sofa.
The group was silent.
Misty ran down t
he stairs. “Hey, Jules. Glad to see you guys. Did you all bring enough zombies with you?”
“Huh?”
Misty looked at Walt and shrugged. “Oh, ummm, well, there’s about twenty outside and headed this way.”
Matt fell into a chair. “They followed us? How? I thought we lost them at least a half dozen times.”
“Get clean; you really smell horrible,” Mark told Matt “get some food and water into you…and as for….”
“Jeff, there was glass; we don’t know if I were bitten,” Jeff said.
“I want it watched,” Mark ordered. “I’m going to take a look. Julia, drink some water; you need it. And….” He took a second to give Harold a meaningful look. “You know you have my second here, Julia.”
“Yes, Sir, as always.” She flashed a satisfied glance towards Harold. Pan slapped a high-five at her before he ran up the stairs after Mark.
Misty let the rest go upstairs and get food and water. She wanted to tell them about the siege the night before they got busy or fell asleep on their feet.
“You held off two hundred?” Drake was amazed, “Seriously?”
“It was more of a good time for a drill than a real threat. We took it very seriously and like it was bad….”
“It wasn’t bad?”
Julia laughed. “Two hundred outside the gate? Ha. That’s a good one. Recall I said we hadn’t faced a real dangerous situation? Remember? I said this mission had been a four or so?”
“Last night was like a two.”
“With two hundred of the dead things?”
“It’s what I sadly was telling you; we’ve seen much worse right here at this house,” Julia said.
“I think, if it’s just zombies, that isn’t that bad,” Misty lowered her voice, “you know what is really bad?”
“I guess not,” said Drake as he swallowed hard.
“It’s when the monsters are human,” she said, “that’s when it gets bad.”
1 2
Beth
“I feel fine. It was nothing. Please stop hovering,” Beth told Hannah and Juan as she left the clinic. “I had two cramps, and Doc said that is normal…normal…remember that word? It means that this is usual and fine. I am really okay.”
“You’ll take it easy?”
“Not really, if I did, I would get bored and then stressed which is really bad for me and the baby.” She kept walking.
“Mom.”
“You are as bad as Juan, you know. You never used to be such a worrywart; you’ve turned Hannah into a worrier. I don’t know which of the two of you is a bad influence on the other; Hannah says it’s you, Juan.”
“You said I’m a bad influence?” Juan asked.
“No, I said you worry a lot; and it worries me.” Hannah lost her argument as Juan began to tickle her ribs in mock sternness.
Beth smiled, happy that they were focused on each other and not on her now. “Look, people at the gate, good deal. It’s too bad we have hundreds of dead things out there to greet them though, dead things, deader, deadish. Whatever…dead-dead ones.”
Conner checked in Bill, Jack, and their crew. Ivory Joe and the rest were glad to see the new faces. “Welcome, how did you find us?”
“Kimball sent us.”
“That’s a good thing,” Ivory Joe said, “Kim’s a good fella. He doin’, okay?”
“Yes, he is. Fit as a fiddle,” Bill said.
“Glad to be here; we’ve waited a long time to get here. We are ready to work and help with a real home finally,” Jack said.
“Don’t say that, so loudly; get some rest first. You’ll find plenty of work here, but you’ll see the results, may not be a paycheck, but you will be fed well, can have a shower, and be with some good folks,” Ivory Joe promised.
“And not have those things chasing us…well….” Bill looked back at the bodies.
“We did have some pay us a visit last night, not an injury among us, and there you see a few hundred less of the nastiness. Getting them cleaned up now.”
Conner smiled. “Glad to see you got here safe. Just a few things to make sure we all stay safe, and we’ll be done.” He motioned them to the second paddock where they would be checked for bites.As he turned, he saw a man, a woman, and a child walking to the first gate. The man, wearing a tattered cowboy hat, looked familiar.
Conner just stared.
“Holy shit.” Johnny breathed. “Am I dreaming?”
“If you are, then I must be in your dream, or you’re in mine.”
“Kimball. Kim.” Began the people who were looking. Everyone was saying his name now. The name traveled on the wind, it seemed.
“What the hell?” Beth asked as she walked to the gate. She saw him with the other two. “It really is Kim.”
“Great,” Juan said a little sarcastically. He didn’t hate Kim. At one time he had been his friend; he guessed he still was, technically, but since Kim had been gone, Juan had taken his place. How did that all work? He just asked about Kim, and here he was; he invoked the devil, it seemed, by saying his worst fear aloud.
“I can’t believe he’s back,” Beth said.
Hannah took Beth’s hand. “You okay, Mom?”
“Sure. Just surprised to see him.”
Len came down to see for himself, wondering if it were true that Kim was at the gate. “Come on to second paddock. We’ll need to check you.” Len eyed a bloody bandage on Kim’s leg. “Ummm, Kim, you got a injury, huh?”
“We were at the edge of the fight last night. I took a stray bullet, thought it would be okay, but it’s bleeding pretty steady. So I thought I better get it taken care of. I wouldn’t be here if I were bitten.”
“Well, if you were hiding, then you were shot, sorry about that, Kim.”
“It could have been worse.”
Johnny moved over to him and sniffed. No infection scent. She looked under the bandage, and it looked like a bullet wound, not a bite. “He looks okay, can’t say for sure but no signs of infection. Looks like he got shot, to me.”
“Well, welcome home. We’ll let Doc decide and see about isolation.” Len smiled. “And you brought friends.”
“Carla and Robbie, they kind of hang with me. They follow me is more like it.” He gave Len a wry look.
“He was shot, ” Carla said softly.
“Hi, Kim,” Beth stood behind the fence. They still had to be checked, but she wanted to say something.
Pain and something else flittered across his face as he looked at Beth. His rages and anger was one thing; he still loved her as much as he had months before, and the love rushed over him like a wave he hadn’t expected. Why had he refused to come home for so long? He wanted to hold her, but her body language indicated that wasn’t a smart idea; he would have to go slowly with her and explain what he was thinking. “Hi, Bethy, Good to see you. Hey, Juan,” said Kim.”
“Hello, Kim.”
“Come on, and we’ll get you checked.” Johnny took Carla and Robbie who didn’t say anything, but watched Kim and looked around in curiosity and suspicion. Kim seemed at ease with these people, but Carla didn’t know them and disliked the strict control they had. The fencing was making her claustrophobic.
Carla hated it here already.
Conner sent Kim to Ivory Joe and Ed to be checked. Kim was glad to see a friend. In a little while, Ivory Joe called out, “He’s clear. It sure is good to see you, Kimball.”
“Good to see you, Ivory Joe. How’s the family?”
“Right as rain. We sure like it here with these good people. Velma and Ann help Doc in the medical bay. They like being useful.”
“They’re good nurses,” he said, “I know I’ll be in good hands with them.”
“Clear,” Johnny called.
Len opened the gate so the three could come inside. “I know Andie, Mark, and Earl will be glad to see you, Kim. Mark is out right now on a mission, but he’ll be back with Julia. We added quite a few for you to meet.”
“Earl? He made it
? I thought he was dead. Those asses beat him so badly. ”
“No, I found him. My team dispatched the bastards who beat him so badly. Hannah, in particular, took some revenge…scamp; we got Earl back here to Doc, and he survived. He told us Mark, you, and Andie were prisoners. He’s still hobbling some and working on getting back to normal, but he’s here,” Beth said, “it was just good timing we found him.”
“That’s great. It’s a load off me to know he made it. So those men won’t be beating anyone else, huh?”
“Not unless they do it from hell,” Beth said, “seems my daughter has a mean streak in her.”
“Kim,” said Earl.He still hobbled some, and the pain was often rough, but Earl was on his feet and glad to see a friend. He heard Kim was here. He hugged Kim and said, “I never thought I’d see you again.”
“It’s good to see you. You doing okay?”
“Better than I was. I was half dead when they found me, and Doc said I was like a fish on the line he had to reel in slow, but I made it. Lord, but I worried about you all.”
“Good. Glad to see you Len, Johnny.You’re all a sight for sore eyes,” Kim told them. “We just took a while to find a way to escape. But we did, you know.”
Carla looked from Beth to Kim and back again. She reached out just as he wavered on his bad leg, holding him up. “He’s really bleeding.”
“He needs Doc; it’s not looking too good,” Ivory Joe added.
“I’ve had worse,” Kim said, “this isn’t bad, just still bleeding on me; least there’s no infection.”
Those without gate duty followed at a distance, curious, as Kim was taken to the clinic. He disappeared into the realms of the medical mysteries as the door closed. All over the compound, word was spreading that Kim was back.
“I wish Jules and the rest were here,” Len said. “They’d be so happy to see Kim. I get the feeling we’re going to have a late night trading stories, huh?”
“I bet so.”
Len leaned close to Beth’s ear, “You doing okay, Hon?”
“Yeh, Bit of a shock.”
“I’m here for you.”
“Carla, we can get you and Robbie a place to stay,” Len offered.
“Not too far from Kim?”
