by Mike Staton
“You’re full of yourself.”
Percival held up a finger. She let out a sigh.
“I don’t say that lightly. And when it comes down to hunting down the raiders around Bonnibel Actual? I will heed every word you have to offer. Especially if they happen to be the same folk I encountered before.” He took a breath and let it out slowly, steadying himself. “Until then I’m in charge of this team. This is My Team. My orders. Do we have an understanding? I’m not undermining your authority as a member of our armed forces and you’re not undermining my authority as a civilian leading a team of survivors.”
Lieutenant Adams looked away for a moment, then brought her hard gaze back to his. “If you do something truly stupid, I will call you on it. And I won’t wait for the privacy of a dark room to do so.”
“I’d expect nothing less.”
“One question. Ian trusts you?”
“Cadet Colonel Pull trusts me.”
“Good.” Her hand moved back to the knob. “We’re done here then.”
He let his hand drop away from the door. “Good talk, Lieutenant.”
* * *
Samuel flinched away from Kat’s hand.
“Hey. Thought you were some tough guy and now you’re not man enough to sit still while I clean goop off you?” Kat’d found rubber gloves underneath the kitchen sink, surprise, on the second story of the duplex and donned them to help clean up Samuel. While he’d gotten most of the gunk off in the street, some stubborn bits clung to his skin.
“Yeah, well, maybe you shouldn’t make it sting.” Samuel shook his head.
“Hold still.” Her tone came out far harsher than she’d intended it to. If the wound stung…
“Sorry, wrong phrase. Stop pinching me.” Samuel did his best impression of a statue. “Seriously.”
“Wimp.” Kat plucked the smaller bits of zombie gunk off his neck and dropped them into a waiting plastic sack. She wet a wad of paper towels, also pilfered from the kitchen and set to wiping away residue.
“Ow. Really? You’re not done pinching me.”
“I’m not pinching at this point. All the big chunks are gone.” She pitched the damp wad into the sack and wet another small wad and dabbed at his neck. The paper towels came away with thin red streaks. “Shit.”
“What’s shit?”
“Good news.” She dabbed the paper towel again. It came back with thin red lines once more. Bright red, not the dull red or brown of dried blood and rotting meat.
“Good news doesn’t start with ‘shit.’” Samuel pulled back from her.
“Well, uh, you didn’t let me finish. Good news: you’re not quite the wimp I was making you out to be. I mean, you are a wimp, but not as much of one as I was originally making you out to be.” She reached out and snagged his collar. “Let me finish. I mean, I know I wouldn’t flinch from little scratches like these.”
“Scratches? Let me see.” He started to twist away from her and she wrenched his collar back with the sound of ripping fabric.
“Sit still. Look.” She held the soiled paper towel out. “See? You can stare at the mirror later. Let me disinfect this.”
“Disinfect it?” Samuel’s voice pitched higher than she’d ever expected to come out of a man his size. “Fucking disinfect it? It was coated in zombie blood and guts and…”
“I know,” Kat said quietly. He was likely infected. All it took was a single drop in a miniscule break in the skin. The thin scratches on Samuel’s neck had been fairly coated by the globule of gunk thrown by the spitter. Hell, the scratches might have been caused by whatever’d been in the gunk.
“So you know th—“
“There’s the chance, Samuel. And if you would like, I will exercise your option. I…” She swallowed back bile and closed her eyes.
“Fuck that.” Samuel slammed his fist onto the counter. “No, seriously. Fuck it. I’m not… I’m fine.”
She nodded, slowly, and took out her first aid kit. “Sit still and let me clean and bandage you then.”
“It’s going to sting, ain’t it?”
“Always does.” She brought out the antiseptic cleaning pads and opened one. She pressed it against the small angry scratches that’d hidden beneath zombie bits.
“Kat?” Samuel flinched again as she cleaned the scratches.
“Yes, Samuel?”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone. Will you keep an eye on me? You know, just in case I’m wrong.” Samuel’s voice dropped three octaves and faltered.
“Of course.” Hers was solid and strong, even if she didn’t feel the strength of her words. How many more friends was she going to have to kill? “Of course. It’d be my honor to do that for you.”
Chapter 19
“Not meaning any offense, Krista, but there wasn’t anything Percival could have done different that would’ve spared him this possible fate.” Kat didn’t look up from cleaning her .22. She knew Krista well enough to know that the woman was shooting death lasers around the room. The conversation’d opened with the Air Force Lieutenant trying to wrest control from Percival.
Kat had just shut that down.
“I’d not have had us in the middle of the street.” Krista’s voice deepened and darkened.
Kat shrugged, lifted her rifle’s barrel and peered through it before she ran the brush through it once more. “I don’t think that was a bad decision given we’d just rounded the corner into zombie heaven. Adjusting to the middle of the road gives less chance to… are you still listening to me or patiently turtling your head up your rear?”
“He doesn’t know military efficiency like we do, little Katherine.” That almost sounded like a whine if Kat didn’t know Krista.
“No he doesn’t. You don’t know zombies like he does.” Kat sighed and put her rifle parts down for a moment to focus on her friend. “Seriously, friend to friend, Krista. How many towns have you scouted that’re infested? How many have you cleared?”
“Half a dozen.” The answer came far too quickly.
“Infested with zombies, not insurgents.”
“That’s beside the point.” Krista shook her head and refused to settle her gaze on Kat.
“I hate to be the adult here, but I need to point out the differences in your experience. If we need to raid somewhere where the bad guys have guns, I’m following you. If their main weapon is teeth? Percival’s the ass I’m following.” Kat sighed.
“Since when did you get all logical on me?” Krista brought her gaze back to Kat.
Kat shrugged and picked up the pieces of her .22 and began putting them back together. “Couple… wow, has it only been a couple weeks? When I had to put down my first infected. Puts a new perspective on things.”
“It’s never easy.” Krista’s gaze became distant. “You’re sure you want to continue this path?”
“If I can shoot a friend before they’ve turned, I can shoot some fucking asshole who truly deserves it.” Kat slammed the bolt home on her .22 and rechecked the full assembly.
“And if they don’t deserve it? And what qualifies you to judge?” Krista asked quietly. “Before you leap to genocide and murder, make sure you know just what shit you’re jumping into.”
“They deserve it. I’ve no doubt about that.” Kat shook her head. So many dead friends littered the streets of the town she’d come to call home. “You speaking from experience?”
Krista met the question with silence.
It was all the answer Kat needed. “I need to go relieve Judith. It’s my duty to watch over him and Percival now.”
“A burden you needn’t bear.”
“I offered, and I’m going to follow through with it. No matter how hard it’ll be.” Kat pressed the magazine for her .22 into its place. “You should know about duty. Just… get us to Bonnibel before our martyr’s time runs out.”
* * *
Percival heard Judith leave and Kat arrive. Or possibly the other way around. He’d spent the last half hour trying to get to sleep, but An
drina’d taken up the call that Morrbid had let down.
At least the fallen teacher wasn’t calling for blood, just a steady tactical analysis of the defensive structures in town. He sat up after a few silent minutes.
“Going to say something or need I shoot you?” Kat asked quietly. She kept her rifle balanced over her knees.
“Let’s not wake Samuel. He’s had a hard day.” Percival pushed himself off the carpeted floor. He moved toward her.
“We’ve all had a rough couple days and they’re going to get harder before they get easier.” Kat glanced up at him, then dropped her gaze back down. He assumed it fell on Samuel.
“Truer words have never been spoken. Am I good to wander for a moment?” Percival stopped in the doorway. He patiently waited for her reply.
After a lifetime of silence her head twisted his way. “I dunno, are you?”
“Yeah. I think so.” Percival continued to ignore the soft voice of Andrina in his head. Besides going mad, he felt fine. Tired, but well enough to walk around.
Kat waved him off. “Come back when you’re actually ready to sleep then.”
He nodded and moved away from her and into the hallway that connected two bedrooms and a hole in the wall that led to the second part of the duplex. He moved down the hallway and climbed through the hole and into the living room of the second duplex. He moved forward and sat down on a couch.
“Thick walls, brick, hard to smash through. Weak points: boarded windows, plate glass, doors. Garage door. Mister Polz, this place would hold for a while, but we’d get in eventually.”
Percival dropped his head into his hands.
“Headache?” Judith asked quietly as she near silently appeared from the shadows.
“Not right now.” Percival didn’t look up at her.
“It won’t your fault, you know.” Judith’s boots moved into his line of sight.
“I know. I’ve done stupider things that got more people killed in the past. This wasn’t really one of them.” He sighed and looked up at her. “Shit happens. It sucks. But this one, at least, wasn’t my fault. It was a bad happenstance of circumstance.”
“Why hang your head then?”
Percival shook his head and dropped it again.
“That’s not answering the question.” Judith turned and sat down next to him on the couch.
“I’m going crazy,” he muttered. “Surely a sign I’m careening toward the end.”
“Flashes of anger? Uncontrollable bouts of rage?” She shifted slightly on the couch. “Think they made a movie about that a few years back. Got that part of the zombie virus surprisingly accurate.”
“Do I make you nervous?”
“Hardly.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “You don’t seem to be exhibiting the classic signs of a ravening corpse about to assault me and you seem to have full control of your faculties.”
“I wonder about that some days.”
“Why?” Judith asked quietly.
“I…” He shook his head and let out a chuckle as he looked up at her. “I know the zombies are out there, in this town, because I hear them.”
Judith furrowed her brows. She frowned slightly. It was the look he imagined he’d given Roy Joy several times when the man had rattled off talking with friends. Had his mind broken in the same way Roy Joy’s had?
“I told you I was going crazy.” Percival looked away.
She reached out and lightly patted his knee. “No… No you’re not. See, crazy people don’t realize they’re crazy. You’re just… eccentric.”
He cocked his head to the side and looked at her with a dry chortle. “Eccentric?”
“Yeah. Like my Great Uncle Dylan. Saw fairies all the time, but knew they weren’t actually there. But knew, like down to the minute, when a storm was going to blow in because ‘the fairies would swarm’ the house first.” Judith leaned back on the couch and laced her hands behind her head.
Percival furrowed his brow and squeezed his lips into a thin line. “You’re fuckin’ with me.”
“You’re infected, so… No.”
Percival rolled his eyes. “Not what I meant.”
“Yeah, I know. But it distracted you for a moment, didn’t it?” Judith’s bright toothed grin almost lit the room.
Percival shook his head and let out a genuine chuckle. “Yeah you did.”
“What’s the plan, boss?”
“As far as what?” Percival twisted on the couch and lounged against the armrest to better look at her in the darkness. She truly melded well with the shadows.
“Everything. Vague, I know. Okay, how about this: the immediate future. What’s the plan for, say, tomorrow?”
“Check the street for zombies, set out at daybreak, and make our way south along the route described by Lieutenant Adams. Should reach Bonnibel, Valentine, within a day or two if we don’t hit snags. Be a rough hike and I intend to put us on a pretty harsh pace.” Percival closed his eyes and let his mind wander along the route laid out on the map. It was a lot of miles to cover, but he had faith they could do it.
“And the plan for Samuel?”
“Play it by ear. He’s not exercising his option yet. I’m not going to force him to. I’m not exercising my option yet. I’m pushing on hard as I can until the very end.” Percival opened his eyes, leaned back, and studied the intricacies of the shadows on the ceiling. “I suspect the harder thing will be to keep him from doing something stupid and dangerous. You know? Going out with a flash of glory or some such shit.”
“Is that what you’re planning to do?” Judith’s words were soft and warm in the inky darkness of the room.
“Is that concern I detect in your voice?”
“Yes. Are you looking for the grenade to leap upon?” she asked.
Percival shook his head. “No. Not precisely at least. I… I don’t want to die. Not any more at least. I’ve gotten over that part of my life, but…”
“But you’re a dead man walking anyways,” Judith finished for him quietly. “You’re valuable for more than a bullet soak, you know?”
“I know it. Enough people keep saying so, so, it’s got to be true. Right?” Percival didn’t entirely believe the words coming out of his mouth. Or, more accurately, he didn’t want to believe the words. He knew he was important to a good number of people, including those in the duplex with him at the moment. But what sort of vacuum would that leave when he did finally kick it? He shifted on the couch and rested his forehead against his palms.
“Headache this time?”
“Has this turned into the universal sign of ‘I’ve got a hurting head’ while I was on the road?” Percival asked.
“No… But folk tend to cradle the cranium when its hurtin’.” Judith shifted next to him. “Would you believe me if I told you everything was going to be alright?”
“Not particularly.” Percival drew in a deep breath and let it out in a quick sigh.
“Well, you should.” Judith laid her hand on his shoulder. “Look at me.”
He sighed again and lifted his gaze from the dark, carpeted floor, and to her. “Yeah?”
“Everything is going to be okay.” She took his head in her hands. If it’d been Sarah, he’d have expected a kiss to follow. “Everything will be okay. People will survive long after we’re gone, but until then, we’re going to do good. You get me?”
Despite every effort to remain dismal, her words touched some kernel in his core. “I get you.”
She bumped her forehead against his and let go of his head. She rose without a sound.
“Judith?”
She froze.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, Percival.”
Chapter 20
Kat hovered near the middle of the pack. She didn’t know why she was in the middle, they were taking turns keeping an eye on Percival and Samuel, but wasn’t about to complain either. She’d taken way more responsibility in the past couple days than she’d wanted to in possibly her life
time. It was a position of pseudo-safety. She didn’t have the responsibility of guiding them through the rough terrain to Valentine- that fell to Judith right now- nor to protecting their rear.
Krista brought up the chain. She drifted well behind them doing double duty of covering up their passage as well as making sure nothing crept up behind them. At this point in their journey, they were getting close enough to Valentine to warrant the additional caution.
They hadn’t seen Krista for the past hour, but it wasn’t precisely worrying. Kat certainly trusted the woman to do her job and do it damned well. Nothing would creep up on them while she was on the task. That being said, it didn’t stop her from double checking every crack of a branch, rustle of fallen leaves, or creak of the forest they were in.
While the plan, right now, was to scout the area and move cautiously forward, that sort of plan only lasted until first contact anyways. And first contact could come at any moment. She hadn’t felt this sort of anxiety the day prior.
Of course, the day prior hadn’t seen them in enemy territory. They’d traversed quickly, sticking to roads when appropriate. This morning had seen a change of leadership. Percival had pseudo-officially passed off the reigns to Krista.
She drew a deep breath, sucking in the scent of pine and damp rot of fallen leaves. She let it out with a shallow, but delighted, sigh. A few minutes later, they caught up with Judith. She hunkered down next to a tree and gestured for them to assume a similar position. Kat dropped to a prone position and looked over at Percival.
“Can’t risk shouting if she’s stopping us like this.” His helmeted head twisted between Samuel and Kat. “Ladies first.”
“You just want to stare at my ass as I crawl ahead of you,” Kat quipped. She flipped her .22 over onto the back of her forearms and crawled ahead of them. She did her best not to disturb the leaves as she moved and felt every painful burst of noise from the fallen energy collectors.
It took her a couple minutes to cover the scant distance to Judith. She wasn’t surprised when she looked back and saw that Percival and Samuel hadn’t moved. She hadn’t heard anything and felt certain that they’d have caused a far larger ruckus than she had. She wasn’t quite as sneaky as Judith, but she was light years ahead of the men. She brought her gaze back to Judith.
