by Mike Staton
“Knoxville?”
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t worry about our companions who went south. I don’t have any doubt that they could handle some Joe-blow army brat, but if those guys got the drop on us?” Krista shook her head. “If they played nice, like you said they did with Percival and his team? Even someone as highly trained as us can’t dodge bullets shot into our backs.”
“And they’re giving us a bad name.” Kat had found it difficult to believe Percival’s story, simply because of her interaction with those of the armed forces.
Krista nodded, but didn’t say anything. Her face twisted for the briefest of moments as though she wanted to voice something, however, but opted not to.
Kat guessed it had to do with something in the vein of classified information. And something that Percival had mentioned to her the day before.
“Are you serious about going after these guys?” Krista asked softly.
Judith’s head turned toward them, then returned to facing what Percival was doing.
Kat glanced at the others in the room. Her gaze lingered on Judith in particular before coming back to Krista. She knew Percival was just as interested in finding the people who’d destroyed their home as she was. Samuel’d stick by his side until he turned, but she couldn’t say if he’d remain afterward. Judith wasn’t quite attached to them, but Kat could see the dark young woman lending her help if asked nicely.
Even if no one else was down for pursuing this pipedream of hers, she’d do it alone. It was one of those ‘pushing back the darkness’ moments she’d talked briefly with Gavin about.
And no one who destroyed communities should be suffered to remain unpunished anyways.
“It’s dangerous. I get it—“ Kat started.
“It’s not what I asked.” Krista glanced past her and brought her dark gaze back to meet Kat’s. “Are you serious about going after these guys?”
Kat licked her lips, bit her lower one, and nodded. “Yeah. They’ve got to be stopped. And there’s…”
“It’s personal. I get it. It’s also a dark path you’re toeing. I don’t want to see you plunge into some well you can’t pull yourself out of. Understand me?”
“I am not going to fall into the abyss.” Kat steeled herself for the lecture she knew was coming. “I’ve done it before.”
“It’s not the same.” Krista’s look got distant. “I assume you’re talking about giving mercy to infected or very recently turned.”
Kat nodded.
“And it’s very different from putting down those who’ve risen once more.” Krista brought her gaze back to Kat. “I trust you when you say you’re capable. Just, know… there’s no coming back from it. Alright? If you get there, there’s no shame in not doing it either.”
Kat pressed her lips into a thin line. She nodded once, not trusting her voice. She knew she’d be able to pull the trigger on the asshats who demolished her home. She couldn’t explain how she knew, just that she did.
“If we come across information, we’ll pass it along.” Krista looked past Kat and Percival, and to Gavin’s backside.
He nodded with something coming through his headset.
“We’ll share information with you. Both what comes over the radio waves and what we may learn privately.” Krista’s gaze swung back to Kat’s.
“Privately?” Kat raised an eyebrow. “You mean you and Bradshaw…?”
Krista nodded. “Provided the satellites haven’t dropped out of the sky, we should be able to send word to our companions and maybe even command. But it’s limited. Burns the battery fast to check and send.”
Kat blinked a couple of times and nodded once more. “I… wow, thank you, Krista.”
“Don’t get me wrong. We’re putting out our feelers for our own purposes too, but… it makes sense to help you out.” Krista smiled briefly. “Being old friends and all. God, when did 25, 23, and 20 become old?”
“When everyone else died?” Kat shook her head. “We’ll be out of radio contact between here and home, you know… Long time between updates. And how’ll you let us know if you’ve got a lead? If we come across your friends, is there something to tell them that we’re friendly?”
“If you run into Lieutenant Tom Goodfeller and Lieutenant Juan Polici, tell them to remember Felucia and the commander there.” Krista folded her arms and leaned against the wall. “They’ll know you’re friendly and more importantly, that I sent you. If they respond with anything other than ‘a sad day for the Jedi,’ it’s not them or the situation’s dangerous.”
“A Star Wars reference?” Kat scoffed slightly.
“What? We’re all dorks.” Krista grinned at her.
“Just hadn’t realized how deep it ran. Thought it was just you and Ian and kinky roleplay.” Kat shook her head.
“Dungeons and Dragons isn’t ‘kinky roleplay,’” Krista snapped. The faintest hint of red touched her cheeks.
“Sure it isn’t…” Kat teased.
“It’s an escapist form of societal community building and storytelling.” Percival called from the table. He didn’t look up.
“Huh?”
“You’re not talking as quiet as you think you are and I ran a group at the college before the shit hit the fan and I had to step up. It’s not kinky, it’s the highest form of interactive entertainment.” Percival drew another circle around Knoxville and thickened the cross through it. A smile spread across his face. “Though… there were some hot personal sessions with Sarah. Got to delve her dungeons, if you know what I mean.”
Kat whipped her head between Krista and Percival several times. “I did not need to know that.” She looked at Judith. “Next you’ll tell me you played too.”
“Moi? Nah. Too busy making costumes for my elven archer LARP.” Judith smiled.
Kat threw up her hands and made an exasperated sigh.
“I preferred Exalted and World of Darkness,” Gavin said over his shoulder. “If we’re talking about games.”
“You all are dorks. Each and every one of you,” Kat groaned. “Only the sleeping man might be the regular one here.”
Krista let out a hearty laugh. “My darling, Katherine, I think in this company you’re the irregular one.”
* * *
Percival circled the small town of Jones and scratched out ‘pain killers, ammunition, minimal canned goods,’ in red Sharpie. Recalling each locale had gotten harder and harder as he worked on the map. He stood up straight and capped the Sharpie. He beckoned Lieutenant Adams over.
“All done?” She stood over the table.
“With what I can remember. It’s not much, but…” Percival rubbed his temple.
“Headache?”
“Slightly.” He closed his eyes and heard the snap on her pistol holster go. “Not that bad. I appreciate your readiness, though.”
“Mmhm. Caution in these days is warranted, I should think,” Lieutenant Adams answered.
“Ma’am?” Gavin’s voice cut through the near empty room.
The others had left near twenty minutes earlier to collate their supplies and generally get ready to leave as he finished work on the map.
“Can it wait?” Krista’s question was clearly directed toward Gavin.
“I’m all done here.” Percival opened his eyes. The headache didn’t resurge. “Just wanted to apologize fo—“
“Lieutenant Adams. You need to hear—“ Gavin cut into his sentence.
“Percival, you’ve given us more than is necessary. No apology necessary. Gavin, what?” Lieutenant Adams snapped and moved across the room toward the radio station.
Percival took two steps toward the door, thought better of it and turned toward the radio station.
Gavin held up the second headset as he depressed the talk button on the mic. “I’ve my military advisor on the line, go ahead Bonnibel.”
Lieutenant Adams lifted the headset to her ear and steadied against the desktop. Her expression flickered to one of excessively brief shock and back to stern profe
ssionalism. In the same moment, Gavin’s face drained of color, replaced by a greenish hue. He looked on the verge of throwing up.
“Bonnibel Actual, I need you to give me the precise location of your homestead.” Lieutenant Adams frantically gestured for a writing utensil and surface. “Slow down. How many?”
Percival moved across the room, snatched a pad of paper from the dead fridge, and practically sprinted back across the room.
He slid it and the red Sharpie he’d marked the map with under her hand. She nodded to Percival and quickly made a few quick notes in shorthand code that he didn’t recognize.
“Can you hold out?” Lieutenant Adams spoke quick and clear into the mic. She paused and jotted another couple of notes down on the pad. “Bonnibel, I need you to hold them off. I’m going to get help to you.”
“Bonnibel? Bonnibel Actual?” Gavin’s voice didn’t have the same gentle calm of Lieutenant Adams’s.
“Line’s dead, Gavin. Get Ian, Cadet Colonel Pull, on the line. Now. Then give the headset to Percival.” Lieutenant Adams didn’t wait for him to acknowledge her order. She just fixed Percival with a steely gaze. “How hard can you push?”
“What happened?” Percival ignored Gavin. He’d started a conversation with Zack.
“Shit hitting the fan at another community. Answer my question.”
“I need to have a better definition of ‘push.’ I took judo, so I know a thing or two about throwing. But I—“
“Fuck you. How many miles in a day can you and your crew move?” Lieutenant Adams’s professional calm cracked for a moment.
“20 or 30. If we press hard and are traveling via road, maybe 40.” Percival didn’t know if he had time to run to the rescue of another community.
“I need you—“
“Ma’am?” Gavin held up the spare headset. He was in the process of pulling his off.
“Thank you, Gavin. Percival.” She gestured to the other headset.
Percival took the headset and pulled it on.
“Hello, Cadet Colonel Pull?” Lieutenant Adams asked into the mic.
Her voice had a slight echo to Percival’s ears.
“Spea… Krista?” Ian’s voice crackled over the headset.
“Don’t have time for a teary reunion. I’m fine. I’m safe. I’m sending your people to,” she paused for the briefest of moments to consult her notes, “Valentine, Tennessee. Over.”
“Ignoring that you’re usurping my orders, why? Over.” Ian’s tone changed in an instant to the competent and collected commander Percival knew.
“There are people in trouble there,” Lieutenant Adams answered. “People they can help. I don’t have the manpower here to send. Over.”
“A few questions first. And one simple request that if it is not met, this will not happen. Over.”
“Go ahead.”
“First: what trouble? Second: will you be accompanying them? And my request: I need to talk with one of my people before okaying this. They won’t blindly do what you say anyways, so you might as well go fetch one now. Over.”
Lieutenant Adams looked at Percival, then back to the radio. “Percival is listening in right now. He was in the room when the call came through. Over.”
“Percival, can you verify her claims? Over.”
“I’m sitting here, listening to you two bicker. That much I can verify.” Percival looked at Lieutenant Adams. “I believe her when she says someone’s in trouble out there, but she’s been sketchy on the details. The kid who’s usually on the horn nearly upchucked his breakfast. Over.”
“The Zombie Whisperer’s from there. Or at least his tale originated with Bonnibel Actual,” Gavin chimed in.
“I’d be willing to believe they’re truthful. Over,” Percival quickly added.
The line fell silent with the slight hiss of static. It was quiet for long enough that Percival wondered if they’d lost Glovers Farmstead’s signal.
“Cadet Colonel Pull?” Lieutenant Adams asked. Apparently she worried for the same reason. “Ian?”
“I’m here Lieutenant Adams. I apologize for my silence, I was getting a map. Percival, I trust your judgment. What do you think? Over.”
Percival never removed his gaze from Lieutenant Adams. “I don’t know the situation. Trouble is vague, but it’s got to be bad if Lieutenant Adams is calling you to send us. I don’t know if this group can be trusted either, that would be a question for Gavin. He talks with them far more frequently.” He closed his eyes. “Ian, I’m closing on a month. I don’t know how much longer I have. I want to take out the assholes who hit us, but that might simply not be an option. If that’s not an option, I want to do as much good with my remaining time as possible. Over.”
Static crackled for a moment over the radio waves before Ian spoke once more. “Understood. Lieutenant, tell me what you know.”
Chapter 16
“You’ll set out from here.” Krista tapped the orange dot indicating the Ranger Station. “And hike southeast, through Danielsville. Take I60 south, if it’s safe, and cut cross country following this county road. Should put you near Valentine in three days if you press hard, four if you take your time.”
Kat wasn’t the only person to nod with the route. It’d be faster if they could acquire a vehicle, but, most were dead. Maybe they’d get lucky, but time was of the essence here, and that wouldn’t precisely lend itself to checking every car they came across.
“When you’re nearby, get on the headset, and get a status report from here.” Krista lifted a bulky, blocky, black headset that was wired to a brick that looked straight out of a World War II film.
“Will it reach that far?” Cooper asked. He stood by the door with his arms crossed over his muscled chest. He still looked pretty, despite a few days’ worth of grime and sweat on him, and it took longer than Kat was willing to admit to pull her gaze away. Anger with him and his forwardness with Lindsey still boiled within her.
“It should. Get up high. Valentine’s not in quite the valley like your Prosperity Wells, but it is lower elevation than here. Climb a tree atop a hill, the signal should reach, but use it only when you need. The battery won’t last long broadcasting at the strength needed to reach back here.” Krista looked among the group. “We’ve seen bad things. Horrible things. The good folk at Valentine reported the largest horde I’ve heard of yet. At least four hundred strong, with raiders hiding behind them.”
“Raiders?”
“I’ve seen that before.” Percival’s voice was quiet, almost lost under Cooper’s: “What, are we Mad Max and the Thunderdome now?”
Krista shot Percival a look that would’ve killed a lesser man.
He met her gaze. “They deserve to know what we’re walking into. And to volunteer for it.”
Kat pulled her gaze between the two for a moment before asking: “What’s going on?”
“I’ve seen a horde that big. Once.” Percival didn’t meet her eye.
“Me too.” Judith’s quiet voice drifted across the room.
Everyone’s gaze snapped to the young woman.
“Is this an ‘I’m Spartacus’ moment? Sure. I’ve seen a horde that big before too. Before the news sites faltered and everything went black. Watched one from a helicopter near… Atlanta I think.” Cooper thumped the table with his fist. “So what? That was way down south and they disperse.”
“I saw it right before I lost a lot of good people. An entire subdivision filled with the walking dead.” Percival’s voice cut through Kat. “With ‘raiders’ at the backside of them.”
“Could be that these are actual raiders, Percival. Not the… individuals you encountered.” Krista smoothed the map out and cleared her throat. “I don’t doubt that this’ll be dangerous. But there’s people out there that need help. If you don’t want to help those in need, feel free to run home.”
Judith shook her head. “I seen a horde this big before too. Right before we got nailed at Prosperity Wells. A giant horde and, given what I seen in the
town after, folk with guns following it.”
“That’s just… It’s stupid. People don’t use zombies like that. It’s, they can’t be controlled.” Cooper folded his arms over his chest and hunched his shoulders, clearly settling on that he’d just finished, and won, the discussion.
“What the hell? I could lure a group of shamblers in a direction, disappear from before them, and they’d keep walking for a time.” Kat might be overestimating her abilities, but she’d certainly theorized it. When she’d been traveling alone, she’d watched a zombie lose track of her and just keep stumbling in the same direction. It was rare, but not impossible. “And, if you’re asking for volunteers, I’m in.”
Krista’s gaze snapped to Kat and her mouth opened.
“I’m in. For the right reasons,” Kat beat her to the punch. She didn’t elaborate on precisely what those ‘right reasons’ were.
“Since we’re skipping to the volunteering stage. Who’s in?” Krista’s gaze drifted around the room.
“You already know I am.” Percival clasped his hands behind his back.
“Ditto.” Kat looked Percival in the eye.
He gave a near imperceptible nod that she returned.
“I go where you go.” Samuel nodded to Percival. “I’m in. I’ve still got my duty to you and it’s the right thing to do. We gotta help one another.”
“I ain’t gonna lie, this frightens me.” Judith let her fingers drift up and down the curve of her bow. “I don’t want to meet whatever, whoever, can swing a horde like some massive club like that. But, it’s not right to leave our fellow man out in the wind.”
Judith planted her bow and looked up at Krista. “Are you going? To help our fellow man? To ensure this isn’t some trap?”
“My duty is here, to thes—“
“Are you going?” Judith cut the Special Operations Air Force Lieutenant off. “It’s a yes or no question. This terrifies me, but I’m going. I volunteer. I want to know if you will walk what you’re talking.”
Krista cleared her throat. “I am. I will need to update my partner, but yes. You will have my support.”
