by catt dahman
“Henry and Niki, no surprise there. Ohhh, Natalie is in deep convo with that new woman on Pan’s team, Judy?”
“Judith,” Beth corrected. She cleared her throat loudly.
“What?” Alex asked.
She motioned to his hand that was barely touching Kevin’s hand.
“Oh.” Both laughed. Alex grinned and took Kevin’s hand to hold. Both were such good looking, tough men, and those women who didn’t know Alex was gay always flirted with him. Any one seeing two of the best looking men in the camp holding hands would know she didn’t stand a chance. Neither knew it, but they oozed sex appeal. Beth, Julia, and Misty often laughed about that.
“About time,” Misty snickered. “Rev has a thing for Rae, and she has a thing for him, but they don’t know it.” She watched the couple dancing. “Come on, Cowboy, come dance with me. Mind my knee and hold me up,” she said as she pulled Mark along.Since Misty told him she was pregnant a few hours before, he hadn’t stopped grinning.
“Ohhh…lookit that.” Alex poked Beth.
Conner danced with Johnny. On the other side, Carl was dancing with Maria, who was the most beautiful woman in the compound. Alex looked perplexed. “Carl? Redneck Carl. I like Carl but…wow. Go figure. Must be his big truck.”
Beth poked Alex back. “See Steve? We’re all nuts.”
“Good. I need some good old fashioned insanity.”
“Doc will no doubt send someone to get me soon. I went AWOL on him, and I can’t move too good with the knees all skinned, but ya wanna dance?” Matt asked Julia.
No one, even Alex, knew what to make of that, so they didn’t say anything, but Matt’s younger brother said he was going to see their dad in the medical bay, and he was laughing and grinning at his brother.
“Dance, huh?”
“Well, I did impress you with my valor, so Len said,” Matt told Julia.
“True.”
“I finally impressed you, so there. And I am pretty cute, yanno, for a redneck.”
“I think I will remind you that I am almost ten years your senior,” said Misty.
“Mark is ten years older than Misty. She’s just sixteen.”
“Seventeen next month. And I am an older chica.”
Matt held her a little tighter, “Don’t let old prejudices ruin the new world. And I’m quoting George and Pan.”
“Hmmm,” Julia mused, “well, what about the fact that I am hot headed and unreasonable most of the time?”
“I hadn’t noticed.”
She laughed. “I’m pretty self sufficient and independent, too.”
“That part I caught,” Matt told her, “Aahhh…whatever. I don’t look worried, do I? Besides, you can think it over since I still need to get my knees and arm back in working order. I only have a few minutes left before Doc finds me and I am strapped to another IV.”
“I see Velma at the door looking around.”
“No way. Is she looking for me? Don’t let her see me.”
Julia waved. “Too late.”
“Get yourself right back to medical bay, Matt. I don’t wanna hear a word out of you. If Doc finds out you got away, he’ll be furious; now get moving,” Velma said in an angry hiss. “Julia, you fainted today from dehydration and exhaustion, so you either get right to bed, or go back with me to medical bay.”
“You have to wave her over….” Matt complained.
Julia was about to make a smart remark, but she saw the pain of his injuries in his eyes. His jaw was tensed, face white with pain, and he still smiled at her. This crazy kid, ten years younger than she was, was the difference in getting her team and her back to safety. He was cocky, brash, and smart, damned if he wasn’t cute, too.
“I’ll hit the bed right now. I give my word.”
“Come back to medical bay with me,” Matt teased her, “share my IV.”
“I know you did not just say that,” Velma admonished him.
Maybe they could have fun, but nothing more; love and a relationship were not on Julia’s agenda when people could vanish or be killed in the blink of an eye. She didn’t want any more losses in her life. She leaned close to his ear, “Get better soon. I told you I was a handful. Why don’t you get well and find out for yourself?”
Velma pulled him along. “Why do you have that goofy grin on your face? Did you mix alcohol with those pills? I’m gonna beat you, boy….”
19
Delivery Details
Beth would have checked on Kim in a little while, but she was called down to the gate. Her team was on patrol, but it really didn’t bother her much since she was able to ride horseback, checking on everything in the compound. It was a beautiful day, and she was on a horse; this was a great day.
“What’s up, Conner?” she asked. He hadn’t told her on the radio.
She thought he looked as confused as she felt. “I don’t know, Beth. They asked for you and said they had orders to speak directly to you. They asked your rank, I guess Major, like me, and any heads of teams?”
A Humvee sat in the first gate, and two men dressed like soldiers were in the second gate and started through to her. Outside the gate, she counted a dozen eighteen wheelers, idling, and another four or five Humvees. Seems they ran just fine on treated gasoline.
“Major, if you remember, I was here a few days ago?”
“Yes. How may I help you?”
“I’m John Ponce, and this is Dee. I go by Ponce.” They shook her hand. Conner and Ivory Joe kept guns ready as they watched the exchange, not threatening, but reminding them they were in power here. She waved them to join her as she spoke to the men, wondering why they asked to see her.
“Colonel Davis said I was to speak to you directly.”
“We have a governor and Head Security whom you have met….”
“Yes, ma’am, but the Colonel said I was to come to you.”
“Is there a reason?” Beth didn’t know what was going on.
“He told me to see Major Beth who had all the hard questions and tell you why we are here and to answer any questions. I think as we explain why we are here, you’ll understand more of why we were told to speak to you.”
Beth pondered that. She asked some pretty hard questions, but that explained nothing so far. She rubbed her hands on her jeans. “Ok, I’ll bite; why are you here?”
Ponce handed her a sheet of paper. She skimmed it and then started reading again, taking her time since no one seemed to be rushing her. They moved, at Conner’s suggestion, to a picnic table, and he radioed for some lemonade to be brought down to them. The pitcher and glasses were there before Beth finished reading everything a second time.
She handed the paper to Conner and Ivory Joe.
“Impressive list,” she said to them.
“That’s what is in there.” Ponce pointed to the trucks lined up. “ Colonel Davis said to share this with you. We are moving camp. We will establish a free zone in Arkadelphia, Arkansas and collect residents and supplies from surrounding areas. This will put us between the RA and your camp.”
“I see. You plan to engage them?”
“No, Ma’am.”
“Colonel….” Beth remembered to use titles around these men as Len walked up with George and Misty. All the military talk still made her head buzz as she tried to remember it. “They demanded to speak to me. I haven’t gotten to why yet.”
“With all due respect, Sirs, my orders are to make transactions with the Major here only.”
Len looked amused, but curious. “By all means, may we observe?”
“Yes, Sir,” Ponce said “we will not yet engage the RA but will have intel. The Colonel stressed their fight is with you and not us, but we are allies and will engage if they head this way. We do know they have sent various teams out and are watching you at some distance.”
“We expected that,” Beth said, “we all know we are their opposing force for whatever reason…if you dreamed….”
“Most of us did, Ma’am,” Dee expressed.
“Exactly, we are just a small portion.”
“Ma’am. Our intel is that you have the largest facility still safe. There are other safe zones, but surely you’ve noticed people drifting here from all over?”
“We do have some from California, Massachusetts, Florida, I guess so.” Beth wished she didn’t have to do this and still wondered why. What had her big mouth gotten her into beside military stuff that she didn’t understand?
“The Colonel says US Militia and RA are the largest factions with us, and several more of the leftover military and civilians dot across the country. And then small groups, of course.”
“It’s what I said long ago. Them, us, and those who are waiting to see who wins,” George said. “Didn’t we discuss this? I guess we were right.”
“The dreams. Yeh. We discussed it. I think you were right, George.”
Dee and Ponce nodded at Len and George. “Ma’am, as I said, we have run heavy supply gathering, and we have not had it easy. In every case, the areas we gathered from were heavily populated by the zombies.”
“I can imagine. We have found that as well.”
“And you have taken casualties? We have, too but not very often.”
Beth thought about Hagan and Bryan being bitten and blowing up themselves and about the zombies in the hospital parking lot for heroic reasons. “You haven’t had many infected on missions?” she tried to figure this out.
“No, Ma’am. We were attacked but not infected at all. Zero instances.”
“That’s…well…amazing to hear,” said Beth as she looked at the rest. “Sadly, we have lost friends and acquaintances to the infection.”
“If I may….” Ponce rolled a sleeve and showed them his arm. From elbow to hand were scars of bite marks; a large piece was missing from his forearm but healed. Like a flash of lightning, Beth drew her sidearm as Ivory Joe, Conner, Len, and George did the same. Peripherally, Beth saw a dozen more guns level at the visitors. The wounds were healed, yet, he had been bitten; it was an automatic response.
They were right there in front of them and were been bitten.
Ponce and Dee raised their hands but didn’t seem particularly alarmed by the guns pointed at them. It was an expected action.
“You’ve been bitten.”
“Yes. I have a scar on my leg, too, and if you want to see my lower neck….” Ponce moved his collar to show a scar of a bite as well.
Dee showed his hand to them. They hadn’t thought about the fact he was missing the pinky and ring finger of one hand. Conner missed a hand and Johnny a finger, but neither of them were bitten: they were mashed by rocks.
“That’s how you lost your fingers?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Beth lowered her gun as the others did. “Old scars, not new.”
Ponce turned around. “If you see there…back of my neck under my collar….”
“193”
“Mine is 87,” Dee added.
“I’m lost,” Ivory Joe admitted, “why do they have number tattoos like a concentration camp?”
“Not a concentration camp, numbers though. My God, you aren’t human,” Beth said.
“What are you talking about, Beth?” Ivory Joe asked, eyes wide, “we got aliens besides zombies?”
“Not aliens, either. Remember what we all talked about? What the Colonel said to us in that meeting we had? We told everyone what he said. Vaccines, part human and part zombie: hybrids. Unnatural things.”
“Awe, hell, no. No. Naw, uh-uh, I am not sitting here with no zombie half breeds.” Ivory Joe stood, backing away in alarm. “You call me if you need me, but I ain’t about to share no lemonade with a zombie. Hell no.” He walked away, spitting and shaking his head, looking back a few times in disgust.
“I told the Colonel it wouldn’t be a popular thing,” Len said,”our people find the notion offensive. Those creatures are horrific to us. Abominations.”
“But you were here with us before, and we didn’t know. Wow,” Beth said.
“Exactly. Until we told you, did you think we were any different?”
“No, just usual dumb ass military.No offense Len and Conner.”
“None taken.”
Conner chuckled.
“Like you, we fought those things while getting supplies. Unlike you, we weren’t as lucky or took unnecessary risks. We were both bitten on several missions.”
“Did it hurt?” Hannah plopped down and poured a glass of lemonade.
“Major….”
“My daughter. Her IQ is probably double all of ours who are sitting at this table. Did it hurt? I mean that has got to be the best question I’ve heard.” No one else was brash enough to come over and butt in the conversation but Hannah; Beth needed a little more support.
Ponce frowned a little, remembering. “Somewhat. Not more than a cut, I suppose. It was more a psychological thing…seeing it…the bastards biting and chewing; that got to me.”
“You felt…consumed…literally…by that,” Hannah said like a psychiatrist might: rolling the words out, tasting them. “They had a weapon; you didn’t. It had to bother you to see your body mutilated…to have the scars. It must have been emotionally devastating.”
Beth cocked her head to remind them that she had warned them Hannah was bright. Next time, would they have orders to speak only to Hannah because of her terrible questions?
“It was psychologically painful, the first times. Now, I don’t know…not as bad. I was glad I wasn’t going to die or become one of those things. That was the good part. I wasn’t going to be one.”
“Ummm. But you are…in part. Yes?” Beth asked, “You have the same…what? Prions? You share those?”
“Semantics. We weren’t infected. We didn’t die. We healed. Like you, if we are eaten, we are gone, devoured. If we lose too much blood, I think we die. Just…die. I never saw it happen personally.”
“I’m not sure that’s so,” Hannah said, expressing how they all felt. “It isn’t semantics; it is RNA changes, isn’t it? Recombinant DNA? I would have to research Dr. Diamond’s findings, but it seems so.”
“Was the vaccine easily done?” Beth asked.
“No Ma’am, but I am not at liberty to discuss that. It was a great adjustment, but we will never in danger of being infected. The Colonel will know more than I do.”
“Is he a hybrid?”
“No, Ma’am.”
“Then I doubt he knows more than you. Only you know how you handled this vaccine,” Beth said. “Why isn’t he vaccinated?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay. So you and Dee are hybrids. Angels, weren’t it? And you all…at least a hundred and ninety-three of you have gathered supplies. Now you and your group will move to Arkadelphia. I have it. What does that have to do with your trucks and seeing me personally?” She was finished with this part, arguing and beating a dead horse.
“As you read, there are enough medical supplies for a decade or more, along with food, canning supplies, household items, educational material, clothing, boots, seeds and trees, supplies for pregnancy and child birth, as well as for babies, hygiene items, sanitation supplies, ammunition and weapons, treated fuel, tools, building materials, fencing, and solar panels. As you can see, there are twelve trucks. We will also leave one of the Humvees with treated gasoline.”
Twelve. Beth looked at Len. With those things, they could stop foraging and be sustained with their gardens and what they had amassed for many years.
“Mom?” Hannah was shocked as well. It was a huge gift.
“And you brought it to us.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“But I suspect there’s a catch,” Beth said.
“The Colonel wants to remind you that…hybrids…Angels…monsters? They are the ones who gathered all these things. We have plenty and can gather this much in days again.”
“I see.”
“This is yours if you keep in mind that those of us who are monsters gathered it.”
20
Kimball
“Is it better today?” Carla asked Kim.
“Yeh. Don’t tell though; I like the painkillers.”
She caught him up on everything she saw and heard, explaining how security at the gate was, the dining hall, the auditorium and chapels, the storage, dorms, gardens, orchards, stables, and other buildings. “
There were a lot trained for these teams, a team at the gate, both night and day. They put our name on a team just like we were staying here. With Andie and someone named Johnny running it.”
“With Johnny, you said? She’s cool. I like Johnny; she deserves it.”
“But they put you there. It’s like it’s permanent; we aren’t staying are we?”
“Why do you hate it here?” he asked. He thought this place was fantastic.
Carla shrugged. “It’s not like wandering around, rules and everything in place. I don’t see how we fit in.”
“They have a good thing here. Showers…hot and cold water and food…it’s good food.”
“It’s okay.”
“I didn’t want to come back. I was so damned mad. I wanted to kill them all, make ‘em hurt, and I did. Then, I felt like I was a horrible person, a rabid killer…worse than those Zs, but I told Beth, and she felt bad for me, not angry with me. I talked to Len, and we spoke about anger and revenge and how we never know what we’re going to do when we are stressed to our limits.”
“You told her?”
“Yeh. I knew I could tell her anything. Jules was the same, Len, and Mark; none of them condemned me. I told them all. They understood and did not condemn me. I feel good back here. I feel at home, I guess.”
“Beth moved on without you; she’s pregnant and with that Juan person.”
He didn’t correct Carla. It wasn’t her business. “I noticed that. Things change. Nothing is ever set in stone. Haven’t you learned that?”
