Zombie Decimation

by Max Lockwood

  “How do you plan on housing all these people?” Melissa asked. “There aren’t that many houses.”

  “That’s an issue we’re currently dealing with. We’re trying to let existing residents keep their homes, so we’re filling the empty houses as full as we possibly can. Sometimes, that means putting several beds in one bedroom. It’s not ideal, but we’d rather have people in cramped quarters than homeless. When we get a room ready, the three of you will likely share a space.”

  “Where do you live, Callum?” Ariel cooed.

  “Over the hill,” Callum said, pointing to the opposite side of town. “It’s just a little cabin, but I don’t need anything too fancy. I’d rather have my people in the big houses.”

  On their walk back to the hotel, a large vehicle came in through the gate, causing villagers to stare at the incoming vehicle.

  “What’s that?” Melissa asked. It reminded her of the vehicles the New Army used.

  “Looks like a military vehicle,” Bobby Dean observed.

  “It’s anything but,” Callum corrected. “We have a small team that drives around the area collecting supplies and picking up survivors who want help. We don’t want to send our residents out to get everyday items like food and clothing, so we try to keep the process as simple as possible.”

  “That’s so great that you’re rescuing people,” Ariel gushed. “If Mike hadn’t told us about this place, I bet you would have eventually found us.”

  “That means a lot,” Callum said warmly. “I guess it’s a humanitarian effort as much as anything. Most people would say that being the mayor is a job, but I think of it more as a volunteer position. I never ask for more goods than I need to survive on. My payment is in seeing happy and healthy citizens every day.”

  Bobby Dean coughed. “Yeah, so, does this humanitarian work apply to all infected people? Are you going around, collecting infected people from the streets and treating them?”

  “We do our best,” Callum said. “We tend to start with the patients who are brought in by concerned family and friends. Then, if we have room, we’ll gather people from outside the commune. It’s a very delicate process. Unfortunately, we don’t always have the resources to treat everyone we find.”

  “There’s not enough room in the town? What do you do then?”

  “Well, I need to see to our new visitors,” Callum said, pretending not to hear Melissa’s questions. “I’m sorry we don’t have permanent housing available yet, but I want you to make yourselves at home in the hotel. Order some food, relax on the patio, or even take a dip in the pool. Our staff is on call twenty-four hours a day to cater to your needs. With everything that is going on here, I recommend you spend most of your time in your room until you get a hang of how things work around Safe Haven.”

  Before Melissa or Bobby Dean could ask another question, Callum was gone. The three of them stood at the entrance of the hotel as they watched him stride off toward the military vehicle.

  “Should we ask the front desk for some swimsuits?” Ariel asked. “Or do you think they’ll be okay with us skinny dipping?” She giggled.

  “Shut up for a second, Ariel,” Bobby Dean said. “If you weren’t kissing that guy’s ass so much, we might have been able to get some useful information out of him.”

  “What do you mean?” she squealed. “He told us a lot about the town. What more do you want from him? He’s a busy man with a lot on his plate. You’re so insensitive sometimes.”

  Melissa covered her ears with her hands. She couldn’t stand to listen to those two argue anymore. She needed to think but her travel companions were making that impossible.

  “If you think Callum is a trustworthy guy, then you’re stupider than I thought,” Bobby Dean fired back. “I don’t trust a thing he says. He’s nothing but a politician, trying to paint a pretty picture for people who are dumb enough to buy into it.”

  “Really?” Ariel said, putting her hands on her hips. “Melissa, do you think this way, too?”

  “Yeah, kind of,” she said absentmindedly.

  “You guys are unbelievable,” Ariel said, throwing her hands in the air.

  “There’s just something about this place that makes me feel uneasy,” Melissa explained. “I’m trying to figure out what it is.”

  “Same here,” Bobby Dean said. “This place gives me the creeps. Callum is straight out of a horror film.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Ariel said. “I think I know what the issue is here.”

  “What?” Bobby Dean challenged.

  She pointed a long fingernail at Bobby Dean’s chest. “I think you’re jealous of Callum. He’s cute and charming. He probably has money, and he’s smart enough to be the mayor at one of the only surviving towns this side of the country. He’s also kind and cares about other people. He’s everything a woman could ever want in a man. And you’re jealous because I like him more than you.”

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think about me,” Bobby Dean spat. “You’re nuts if you think I’m jealous of that guy. He’s a phony, clear and simple. I’m just smart enough not to fall into his trap. That good-boy charm doesn’t work on me.”

  “And you,” she said, turning toward Melissa, “don’t like him because that means you’re not in charge anymore. You like to be the leader and boss other people around. You think that because you’re smart and you come from a good home that you’re better than us. How does it feel to be around someone like Callum who’s clearly a better person than you? You don’t like him because he’s everything you’re not.”

  Melissa frowned. She didn’t think that Ariel was right in her assessment, but she was still a little hurt by her description of her after knowing each other for just a day now. However, Ariel’s opinion of her didn’t mean very much when Melissa liked her best while she was stowed in the trunk of Bobby Dean’s sports car.

  “If you want to laugh it up in the fancy hotel, go ahead,” Bobby Dean said, giving Ariel a gentle shove toward the door.

  “What are you guys going to do? Callum told us to stay in the hotel.”

  “He also told us to relax and enjoy ourselves. I can’t do either of those things if you’re yapping in my ear.”

  Ariel stomped her foot on the ground and turned to go inside. Melissa heard her muttering about Bobby Dean’s new fling.

  “Good riddance,” Bobby Dean said. “Now, do you want to do a little snooping around with me?”

  “God, yes,” Melissa said, a smile appearing on her face. “Should we start at the hospital?”

  They walked away from the hotel, in the opposite direction of the mayor. Melissa wanted to hurry and do some research before the mayor took the newest arrivals on the tour. She wondered if they would also be stuffed full of food and drugged so their blood could be stolen from them.

  “I’ve been thinking about it,” Bobby Dean said, “and if we leave this place, I don’t think Ariel is going to willingly come with us. I love her like a sister, but she’s going to slow us down if she doesn’t get the picture. She’s stubborn and is easily distracted by shiny things, if you know what I mean. I wanted to let you know that if it comes down to it, I’m okay with leaving her behind.”

  “Thanks for telling me,” she said seriously. It was a kinder response than laughing in his face and telling him that she could not care less about what happened to Ariel. As much as she hated seeing bad things happen to innocent people, if Ariel didn’t want to join them, she wouldn’t try too hard to make her.

  “I like this little alliance we have going on here,” Bobby Dean said. “I bet you thought I was crazy the first time we met.”

  “I still do.” She laughed. “But at least you’re a different kind of crazy from Ariel. It’s nice having someone around who thinks on the same wavelength as me.”

  “I still think our best option is to find a way across the quarantine line,” he said, kicking the dirt below his feet.

  “I agree with you there. But I want to make sure we can leave
here without incident. You would think that if they had so many people and not enough room here, it wouldn’t be a big issue to let people go. But Callum seemed very keen on making everyone stay.”

  “My guess is that he has a secret he doesn’t want getting out,” Bobby Dean said darkly.

  When they arrived at the hospital, Melissa and Bobby Dean walked around the perimeter, trying to find a window to peer into. Unfortunately, dark blinds prevented them from seeing inside the building.

  “Do we try to go in?” Melissa asked. She was apprehensive about entering a building that likely housed infected people. But she was too curious to give up and turn around.

  “Hell yeah, we do.” Bobby Dean grinned. She strode up to the front door and pulled it open. The receptionist from the hotel was standing in the doorway, a stern expression on her face.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked. “Are you ill or injured?”

  “No, we—” Melissa started.

  “If you’re not in need of medical attention, residents are not allowed to be here. We just don’t have the time or resources to keep an eye on people wandering around.”

  “We were told to make ourselves at home,” Bobby Dean said. “Callum said so.”

  “The mayor probably didn’t mention this because he didn’t think you would want to wander around a busy hospital. We have a lot of sick patients in there. I think it’s best if you go back to the hotel now. I don’t want Callum to hear that you were causing trouble.”

  “We didn’t mean to cause trouble,” Melissa said defensively.

  “Boys,” Annabelle called behind her, “please take our guests back to the hotel.”

  Two pale children came to the doorway, vacant expressions on their faces. The taller of the two looked to be around sixteen years old, while the other was closer to twelve. They walked into the sunlight with the expectation that Melissa and Bobby Dean would follow.

  “Yikes,” Bobby Dean whispered as they walked away from the hospital. The two kids walked slowly so Melissa slowed her pace, not wanting to be awkward.

  “How long have you guys been here?” Bobby Dean drawled, trying to make conversation with the odd children.

  They both looked back at Bobby Dean but didn’t respond. The younger child’s mouth hung open like he was in a constant state of bewilderment.

  “You’re shy, huh?” Bobby Dean noted. “I wouldn’t know what that’s like. You’ve got a pretty nice town, though. I bet there’s a lot for you to do.”

  Melissa noticed a long scar on the older child’s head. It was visible under his shortly-cropped hair and trailed from the crown of his head to just below his earlobe.

  “Look,” Melissa said, pointing to the kid’s head.

  “I wonder what that’s from. It would explain why he’s so quiet. It doesn’t explain what’s up with the other kid, though.”

  “I feel bad for him,” Melissa whispered. “He must have had some kind of brain injury or something. I mean, he just looks dead behind the eyes.”

  “They probably grew up here. I’m starting to think that this place was originally a cult and the infected just sort of took it over. They kind of seem like weirdos, you know?”

  Melissa furrowed her brow. The kids were strange, but it didn’t seem right to poke fun at them. She couldn’t imagine being so young and having to live through such a terrible disaster. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for them.

  “What’s your name?” Melissa asked the younger child, giving him an easy question. He opened his mouth as if he were going to speak and then closed it again. His big brown eyes blinked at her.

  “Yeah, I give up on these kids. They’re not going to tell us any secrets.”

  “Bobby Dean,” Melissa scolded in a hushed voice. “What if they go back and tell the receptionist that you said that?”

  Bobby Dean let out a deep guffaw. “Girl, I don’t think those boys are going to say a word.”

  Back at the hotel, Bobby Dean and Melissa quietly let themselves into the room, avoiding eye contact with the other guests. Much to Melissa’s relief, Ariel was not in there.

  “I’d say our little exploratory mission was a bust,” Bobby Dean said, sitting on the bed, his dusty boots on the comforter.

  “I disagree,” Melissa said. “If anything, it’s confirmed that my instinctual feeling about this place is not just my overactive imagination. Something weird is happening in Safe Haven.”

  14

  After a short ride in the military vehicle, the car finally came to a stop. Alec tried to look out the tinted window, but it was too dark to catch the full view of the town. While he had expected to be taken into a prison-like building, he was realizing that the place he was being held looked more like a functioning town. It was the unknown that made him more nervous than if he were taken straight back to the military base he had destroyed.

  When the door swung open, an eager face was looking straight back at him. For a split second, his first instinct was to punch the blond-haired guy straight in the face. But not wanting to make trouble for himself, he resisted.

  “Hi, there,” the young man said. “I’m the mayor of Safe Haven. My name is Callum.”

  Alec shook his hand, allowing it to be squeezed by the overeager mayor. Alec stood in the way so Thomas wouldn’t have to shake his hand. He didn’t know if the man’s excessively tight grip would set him off.

  “I’m Alec and this is Thomas.”

  “Awesome, we’re happy to have you.”

  Alec frowned. From the way the men had forced them into the vehicle with rifles, he wasn’t expecting to be greeted so warmly.

  “I’m sorry if you were hassled by our recovery team,” Callum said. “I suppose it doesn’t make for a very good first impression. But if you’d like to give us feedback, we can try to make the process a little smoother for new residents. In fact, maybe you’ll find that you’d like to join our recovery team.”

  “I’m not following,” Alec said.

  “Have you ever heard of Safe Haven?”

  “Safe what?”

  Callum pursed his lips. “Where are you from?”

  “Seattle, originally. We’ve been in Colorado for nearly a week now.”

  “Oh, dear. I suppose our word-of-mouth campaign isn’t working as well as I thought it would. I really felt like everyone would know about us by now.”

  This man was clearly detached from reality. Alec had been living in the woods, more or less, for the past month. When he came into contact with people, they were either infected or dangerous. Never once did it occur to Callum that life in the wilderness was severely isolated and that there was no time to gossip with the neighbors.

  “Well, I suppose I should tell you about what we do in Safe Haven. This former commune was turned into a refugee camp of sorts when the epidemic began. Soon after our creation, we found some of the best scientists in the area to come up with a cure for the virus. Now, as far as I know, we’re the only place in the world that invites infected patients inside our borders for treatment. Pretty neat, huh?”

  While Callum was proud of what he was saying, Alec was concerned.

  “You have a cure?”

  “Sure do.”

  Alec cringed. He knew that Elaina was the only scientist skilled enough to create a cure, and even she was having difficulty.

  “I don’t mean to be rude, but I have a hard time believing that,” Alec blurted out.

  “I know, I know.” Callum laughed. “It seems pretty unbelievable. But just ask anyone. We’ve invited just as many Infected as healthy people in here and there hasn’t been a single instance of infection spreading. “

  “Are we being held against our will?” Thomas asked quietly.

  He sounded weak. Alec hoped he could fool Callum into thinking he was healthy.

  “This isn’t a prison,” Callum said. “Where do you get that idea? We’re just a friendly commune that’s saving the lives of stranded citizens.”

  “We were shoved in a ca
r at gunpoint,” Alec said flatly. “Kidnapping typically sends the message that you’re being held against your will.”

  “I apologize again. Like I said, we’re trying to make this part of the country safer for everyone. When we’re out on the streets, it’s hard to know who is friend and who is foe. We take our chances and sort things out once the new arrivals get settled in. So far, we’ve had nothing but friends once they see what we’re doing here. I really think you’ll fit in just fine.”

  “We can’t stay,” Alec said. “Thanks for the offer, but we have somewhere to be.”

  Callum raised his eyebrows. “Where? From what I’ve seen, there’s no safer place in this half of the quarantine. It would be foolish to keep wandering around when you can wait it out here.”

  “New York. We have a friend there. I promised to meet her there.”

  Callum chuckled. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re not going to New York. The quarantine is too strong. You’d never make it.”

  “Well, we’re going to try anyway,” Alec said politely. He really wanted to tell Callum to mind his own business. What did some preppy city kid know about survival, anyway?

  “Listen, I get that you want to keep moving, but I’m telling you, it’s a bad idea. I’m actually in contact with the eastern part of the country. At the moment, I’m working on getting the government to grant safe passage to all Safe Haven residents. It’s been difficult to negotiate, but I think I’m getting somewhere.”

  “Really?” Alec asked skeptically. “How’d you manage that?”

  “My father had government connections. Before he passed, he started talks with the White House to come to an agreement. They thought it was too risky. I’m currently trying to convince them that it’s not. You see, I can guarantee that anyone within our boundaries is perfectly healthy. If someone falls ill, we treat them so they can’t get anyone else sick. I’m trying to round up as many people as I can to save them. It’s not an easy job, but I think it’s worth it. Unfortunately, I think we’re still a few months out from making that possible. But if you stay, I’ll try to expedite passage for you.”