End of the Line (Book 2): Stuck in the Middle

by Lara Frater

  I pulled into the parking lot, wishing for Grace’s gun in case they were hostile but I had to rely on Manny.

  I walked to the door closest to the window with the candle and found it locked. I looked at Dave who stood beside me. I knocked.

  Unlike the airport I didn’t want to break in. I knocked again, this time harder.

  "Tanya told me how to jimmy a lock. Do you want me to try?"

  Dave didn't have to. I heard the door unlock, a barrel of a shotgun came out. I saw it was attached to a middle aged man, white, slightly bearded wearing all black. He looked over all of us and at the children the most.

  "What do you want?”

  "We need a place to stay."

  "Plenty of other places to stay."

  "We're a big group, with children,” I explained, hoping he had a soft spot for kids. "It's only for one night. Promise.”

  "What's your name?"

  "Jim."

  The man's features softened. He put the gun down.

  "You aren’t Jimmy, are you?"

  I had never seen this man before in my life, so I assumed he knew me from Bob Bam.

  "I prefer Jim," I explained. "My dad never understood that."

  "Which one of you is Tanya?"

  "She's not here. This is Dave," I said, pointing him out.

  "Hey," Dave said and waved.

  "And this is Gwen," I said pointing her out. “And this—“

  "Come on in." He said, interrupting. “We can do introductions inside where away from those devils.” He moved aside to let us come in. The school was chilly but not freezing.

  "We're having dinner in about 10 minutes. You're welcome to join us."

  “We have some canned food to donate. How many are you?”

  “A few,” he said and wouldn't elaborate. I guess he wasn't sure yet he could trust us. Of course I had no idea if we could trust him. For all I knew he could be a cannibal.

  "What's your name?" I asked as we walked a long hallway. Classrooms on each side, empty of students and filled with faded drawings of happy places. I tried not to think of all the kids in this school and how many were dead.

  "Victor. Everyone calls me Father Vic, but that's only an honorary title now that God has left us to the demons."

  "Father--" this came from Dave. "You shouldn't say that." I never saw Dave as religious but I knew he was raised Catholic.

  "Sorry my son," but he didn't argue. “I still believe in him, but he has left us.”

  Dave didn’t argue. We went through another series of hallways before we reached a room with double doors that read cafeteria. Vic opened the door to a room bathed in candlelight, even though light still came through the window.

  There were many cafeteria style tables but two were put together in the center of the room and had more candles and some lanterns. Sitting around the table were eight boys of various ages from about 8 to 15. There was one adult woman at the table who wore black slacks and a white shirt. Some of the boys wore blue uniforms and others were in tees and jeans. All but three were white. The others were black, Hispanic and Asian.

  “Hello boys,” Vic said.

  “Hello, Father Vic,” they said, together in unison. It was eerie.

  “This is Jim, you know Jimmy from the radio program.”

  Some of the boys got excited like I was some famed celebrity. It’s not like I’m a regular guest on the show but I’m glad they remembered me.

  “You can call me Jim.”

  “Please,” he said. “Take a table. Rubin, Seth get more candles, and bring out food for our guests.” Two boys got up, grabbed a candle and went through some double doors.

  I took a seat in the table closest to the big one. Dave sat next to me and Gwen went to the other side. I opened my pack and took out the two cans of food and placed them in front of me.

  I looked to Dave and then his pack. He opened it and counted out mini milky ways until there was enough for everyone.

  The others didn’t have packs like ours but they foraged and came up with another 5 cans. I handed it over to Vic.

  “Not a lot.”

  “The kids could use some variety,” he said, taking it. “And a piece of chocolate will make their day. We have a lot of canned and boxed food here,” his face got sad. “Enough for 300 hundred students for a month-- That’s our normal enrollment. We also have a community garden and a home-ec room. We have a lot of propane.”

  “You’ve been here since it began?”

  “Yes. Me, the kids, Mrs. Jones,” he said, motioning to the woman who I assume had been a teacher. She said nothing.

  I didn’t want to ask what happened to the other kids.

  “Most of them died,” Vic said, knowing what I was thinking. “The flu hit the campus. It killed about 270 students. At least I think it did. The first ones we shipped to the hospital. Others went home with their parents. Some of them we had to bury because no ambulance or parents came. Two or three of the students became those devils and attacked the other students before we took them out. Now it’s just us. Sometimes one of them comes along and I send it to hell, but it’s been quiet lately which is helping Mrs. Jones and the boys.”

  It was helping us too.

  I had just met Father Vic but I liked him. For all I know he was diddling these kids at night and was batshit insane, especially when he talked about demons. I looked around at the kids. Despite all that happened, they seemed cheery and didn’t seem to be hiding anything.

  “We’re starting a farm on Harbor Island. You are welcomed to come. I don’t have space in the cars, but someone could come back with a van.”

  Vic didn’t say anything for a long time.

  “Not that safe out in the open.”

  “We can clear the bodies. It’s an island so there’s some safety except for the floaters.”

  “Floaters?”

  “Sometimes zombies fall into water and float. At least we can see them. This place isn’t ideal but we have to start getting back to some normalcy. I’m not seeing a lot of new zombies, mostly old ones who are easy to take out.”

  “Now we just have to worry about man.”

  “I know you just met us. We aren’t here to harm you. We’re survivors, that’s all.”

  “I want to trust you Jim, but there were others.”

  “What others?”

  “Men came to the school. Said they were hunters and looking for strong people to recruit. I thought theirs eyes were going to pop out when the saw the boys. I told them none of these boys were hunters and they were safe here. I could see the anger in the leader’s eyes because I refused. Two of my older boys went with him. They slipped out in the night. I think if they hadn’t gone, he might have tried taken all of the boys by force. After he was gone, a zombie got inside. I don’t know how because every door is locked. We managed to kill it before it could hurt us. We found one of the doors with the lock broken from outside.”

  “We’re not those men,” I explained. “We hunt zombies when we have to but what we really want is a community.”

  “I’ll have to think about it,” Vic said, changing the subject. “Truth is—it’s safe here and with the garden, and the rations, we have enough for a while, but on the other hand. I’m sure the boys would like some open space and other people—other children?” He looked at the three children with us.

  “There’s a few,” I said. “Let us know in the morning, this way, we can send a car.”

  “We have a school bus. I’ve been keeping it running, going out some times to other houses to scavenge food and siphon gas—“ He paused. “Sorry, Jim I can’t move the boys until I know that I won’t be sending them into danger. Tell me on the radio when it’s safe to come. We all listen to Bob every Friday and sorry Jim, your conversations with your dad aren’t so secret. Please forgive me.”

  “You have a radio? Why didn’t you contact Bob?”

  “I can hear but I can’t talk.”

  “I forgive you, but until we can get some priva
te communications up, can you consider not listening?” I wasn’t mad, even though both my father and I had cried during our conversations.

  “It gets a little boring around here but I’ll try to stop. I’m happy you reconciled with your dad. On a personal note, I never really gave a rat’s ass, excuse my language about gay people. God decides about heaven and hell. I’m sure the pope will excommunicate me, but I have to wonder if I’m the last priest on earth.”

  “You probably aren’t. I’m not the last gay person on earth. There are at least three of us.” I looked over at Gwen but Manny who sat next to her looked at me.

  Vic laughed, a hardy, sidesplitting laugh.

  “Sorry. That came across funny. I guess we’re all a little funny after what happened. Some of us are going to come out haha funny—“ he paused. “And some are going to come out dangerous. Those are the ones we have to be careful about.”

  Having recently met a dangerous one, I knew what he was talking about. I thought about Brian and the woman at Costking who deliberately infected a young girl.

  “I can see from your face that you know what I mean.”

  “A man went crazy, murdered someone to get a boat, then he drowned. I don’t know what set him off. ”

  “Loss of authority,” said a voice. I turned around to see it was Manny who spoke. “I think that’s what happened. Brian went from a nothing to someone with power. Changing leadership meant he would lose authority. I shouldn’t have trusted him.” He looked at Felicia but she looked like she was trying to melt into the chair.

  “Vic,” I said. “How do we know who these people are? Manny didn’t think Brian would go crazy. People need our help but we don’t know if they are good or bad.”

  “The problem is you don’t. You’ll never know who you can trust. You have to have faith”

  I wanted to ask if he meant in God, but didn’t.

  “At least look out for bullies.”

  I laughed and then hit Dave on the shoulder.

  “I’m not a bully,” he said.

  The two boys came out with a cart filled with steaming plates and put one down in front of each of us. Spaghetti with sauce. It made me think of Maddie. Her jar sauce tasted like it belonged in a restaurant. I missed her, her bubbly personality and complete honesty. She had been the one to start calling me Sweet Jim. I didn’t like it originally, but now I’d do anything to hear her voice say it again.

  Before eating Father Vic prayed with the boys as did Dave, Manny and a few other people. I wasn’t religious but I believed something was out there. Maybe not the Judeo-Christian god.

  Cam was Christian, I was raised Christian but didn’t practice. I knew he had trouble dealing with the anti-gay aspect. He had a regular church nearby I refused to go to when he admitted there was occasional anti-gay rhetoric. Every once in a while, I would go with him to a gay friendly church on the Island but Cam refused to switch, even when I told him I would go to church more if he did. He liked his church, but I felt he was being a hypocrite because he couldn’t introduce his own spouse. Many people in the church knew he was gay and had even come to our house. We argued about it occasionally. He thought I was attacking his faith.

  During dinner, I found out the boy’s ages. The youngest Seth was 8 and the oldest, Graham was 16. Miss Lesleigh Jones was from Sioux City and had no family on the Island and wasn’t married. The most talkative was Max whose parents died in a car accident before this and he lived with a wealthy aunt who either died or didn’t care what happened to him because no one called or came for him. Felicia was silent through the whole dinner.

  I woke up to a loud pounding on the door. My heart was racing. I was certain 10,000 zombies were right outside. I sat up, as did Dave who I shared the room with. After dinner Father Vic had settled us in the dorm rooms and we all took one roommate for safety. I saw Dave in the faint candlelight with the snore strip on his nose. He looked reluctant to open the door. Of course zombies don’t knock.

  “Jim— It’s Manny. Something’s happened.”

  I got out of bed, glad I was still dressed. My change of clothes was on the boat and I was starting to smell. I opened the door. Manny was there along with Felicia. His gun wasn’t out but he looked disheveled. She looked unfazed and her red hair looked normal.

  “Harry is hanging in the bathroom,” Felicia explained.

  “Jesus,” Dave said.

  With sleep in my brain I thought Harry was hanging out in the bathroom and then I realized what she meant.

  “Is he dead?”

  “Yes. I think he did it right after we went to bed.”

  I thought about Harry, how he seemed like he was getting better and even volunteered to kill a zombie. He gave no inclination of being suicidal.

  “Did he leave a note?”

  “I didn’t see one, but it’s not like his girlfriend broke up with him.”

  “It’s been almost two years, why now?”

  Manny hunched his shoulders. With the zombies almost gone, I guessed people realized just how bad things were. There was no structure, no government, no daily job, no TV, internet, and almost everyone they’d ever known was dead. Maybe that was what happened to Annemarie last winter.

  “I need your help getting him down.”

  “Are you sure he’s dead?”

  “Absolutely,” Felicia said.

  “Then we should do it in the morning when we have light.”

  “It’s only an hour to dawn,” Manny said. “Let’s just do it now and get it over with. I don’t want to leave him hanging there.”

  “Okay,” I slipped on my sneakers as did Dave. He realized he was still wearing his snore strip and pulled it off. On the road there wasn’t time for pajamas.

  The bathroom, he used was not far from my room. I felt sad I slept through his death.

  Gwen, Carl and Paul were waiting by the bathroom door. When we got there, no one said anything. Manny opened the door.

  Father Vic was on the other side. He hadn’t said anything when we came in. Not a word or a prayer. I knew that suicide was against his religion. Was he thinking Harry was in hell? Or was this hell?

  Harry looked horrific after several hours. His corpse was blue and bloated and the sheet he used had left a blackened mark on his neck.

  “Father Vic?”

  He looked distracted. His focused on Harry’s corpse.

  “Father Vic,” I repeated a little louder.

  “Yes, Jim.”

  “Is there a place we can bury him.”

  “He won’t come back right?”

  “No, only a zombie bite can make you come back.” I realized how sheltered both Gwen and Father’s Vic’s group was. They knew so little of the virus and the zombies.

  “There’s a little park nearby. We buried our victims there.”

  “Do you have shovels—“

  “Why did he do it, Jim,” Vic said, interrupting. “The zombie threat is nearly over, and things were beginning to become normal again.”

  I shared my theory with him.

  He was quiet for a long time, then instead of staying something about it, he said: “Let’s cut him down.”

  It didn’t take long for us to bury Harry. Dave, Paul, Manny and I dug a hole about three feet down. We wrapped the body in a blanket and dumped him in, then put the dirt back on top. Gwen found some rocks to mark it. Father Vic said a prayer then made us promise not to tell the Pope. No one from the school came. Father Vic didn’t want to burden them.

  When I got back in to my dorm room, wondering if there was any way to shower as I was covered in dirt, I found six people from the group in my room: Joan and Carl, and an older woman who’s name I didn’t remember and the three kids. Carl had vanished after we cut Harry down.

  “Hi Jim,” Joan said, with a strange look on her face.

  “Something wrong?” I asked, worried there had been another suicide.

  “No—I mean other than Harry’s passing and that you may not like what I’m about to te
ll you.”

  “What is it?” I asked, confused thinking they didn’t like going after zombies.

  “We would like to stay here.”

  I wasn’t upset. I felt relieved that I would be responsible for fewer people. “Did you ask Father Vic?”

  She shook her head. “Not yet, we wanted to run it by you.”

  “He seems nice but we’ve only met him last night. I can’t tell you if he’s trustworthy or not. I think he is--”

  “We’re Catholic,” she explained. “We want to stay here and help look after the boys.”

  “Sorry, you seem like a sweet boy,” the older woman said. “But I’m tired, old and sick of moving from place to place. This is a good place to stay until the town is ready.”

  I didn’t say anything, not that I was upset that they were staying. I was happy she called our new home a town.

  “Mrs--”

  “Call me Dawn,” she said.

  “Dawn, if Father Vic is okay with it, I don’t have a problem. What about Felicia?”

  Dawn didn’t respond. I have a feeling no one respected Felicia’s leadership. They didn’t seem to hate her but they knew she couldn’t lead.

  “Carl and I adopted these children,” Joan explained. “I used to have five of our own, Carl had four, all gone—“ her voice tried off. “But these boys here, the father will need help taking care of them. Felicia will understand.” I didn’t ask Vic what role Mrs. Jones had in looking after them.

  “You don’t have to explain. You stay here if you want. No one is a prisoner.”

  “Thank you,” the woman said, she took my hand, “And bless you.”

  “Would you talk to Father Vic on our behalf?” Joan asked. “He likes you and you have a good rapport with him.”

  I guess celebrity had its privileges.

  “Father Vic, any chance I can talk to you alone?” I caught him heading to the dining room where we would grab a quick breakfast and go.

  “Confession time?” He said and smiled. “I already gave Dave his.”

  “I’m a lapse Lutheran.”

  “No one is perfect.” I liked Vic. Before this happened he was probably the wise cracking priest. “Come to my room.”