by Lara Frater
“Everyone’s got a different method,” I smiled to lighten the mood. “We can have lunch in the dining room. You don’t mind rice and beans?”
“That’s all I’ve been pretty much eating lately,” he said and laughed.
Joel was charismatic, I’ll give him that, but something about him seemed off. I figured he was here to recruit. I couldn’t imagine any of my people leaving and Joel had already passed on the people from the camp and the lighthouse.
Lunch was small. I wanted to get all the council people together. Only Manny and Rose showed from the camp, but Manny didn’t look like he wanted to be here. He said he was representing Felicia. Dave, Annemarie, Gwen, and Frannie also came. I think Annemarie and Frannie took one look at Joel’s leather pants and were enthralled. I asked Grace but she laughed at me and said she was on patrol.
Joel had two men with him, Big Bill and Chris. Bill was the one who came by the lighthouse. When Manny first looked at Bill, he got a look like my friend Tyrell used to get when he saw someone he didn’t like.
Both had rifles. I had my handgun holstered as did Dave and Mike who also had a rifle. Joel did all the talking. Big Bill and Chris never said a word.
“Hello, Manny,” Joel said and shook his hand before sitting down.
“Joel,” he said, his voice monotone. He took a seat on a folding chair Jim had gotten from the cantina.
“Didn’t expect to see you again.”
“Likewise. You too Bill. Did you ever find any carriers?” Manny tried to keep his voice calm. He was a normally an easy going guy but he looked like might jump over the table and choke him.
Bill didn’t respond. Didn’t look angry or surprised.
“Told him it was a myth,” Joel responded. “Immunity yeah maybe, but no carriers except the zombies.”
Joel smiled and looked over to Rose. “Rosie. Looking good.”
Rose smiled and blushed. She tossed her long brown hair back. “Thank you, Joel.” I didn’t know what was going on between them and didn’t ask.
“Hi, Joel,” Frannie said, twirling her hair, “I’m Frannie—nice to meet you.”
Joel nodded at her then looked back at me. “I’m here to talk trade.”
“As I said, we’re growing food. Dave’s an electrician.”
“Don’t need much electricity. Long Island doesn’t have power plants. We’ve been stealing solar panels when we can. What do have is water. There’s several aquifers in the area. We can find the one that belong here and get it up and running. I got a plumber keeping the filtration plant running. How’s that sound?”
“Sounds like you’re gonna be earning your vegetables.”
Joel smiled. I understand why people followed him, but I also got why his cocky attitude turned people off. Jim always told me that sometimes you gotta smile and make nice.
“I’m sure there are other things we could trade,” he said.
“If you have anyone who wants to farm, we can use them. We got plenty of room in outlining houses. We’re clearing them now. A small island easier to patrol. Less worry about zombs.”
“All good points,” he said. “But I think my people will stay on the main island. We’re hunters first and foremost. Still plenty of can food and game to live on for a while. You get rid of the zombies on Harbor, we’re going to do the rest of the island. Maybe even go west.”
“We’re doing that on a smaller scale. Eventually we may have to expand outside of Harbor, it would be good to have zombie free areas. Right now people have to eat.”
“The thing with less zombies is people stop being afraid. Even one can start an epidemic.”
“Not many humans for them to kill anyways,” I said.
“I think they might die out,” Mike brought up. “They don’t decay as fast as us. Something in their bodies still live, but they are decaying. In 15 years or so if we don’t get new infections, they’ll just crumble to dust or won’t have mouths to bite us.”
“I’m not going to wait 15 years. I want to get rid of as many as possible. Time we get this country back to normal.”
Dave looked like he was in love. I didn’t think normal was coming for a real long time but what Joel said was good to hear.
“That’s amazing, Joel,” Frannie said. “I have some hope for the future.”
Joel didn’t respond. She was trying too hard. Gwen who was sitting next to her, rolled her eyes.
“Next month, we’re gonna to clean out a nest in Harbor Heights,” I told him.
“You tell me when you plan to do that. I’ll come with. Give you some hunting pointers. We got to kill as many of those fuckers as possible. We don’t want any new infections. And they won’t starve to death for a while, they’ll get desperate and go after themselves, the freshly dead, even animals,” he paused. “I heard that if they bite a dead body without a hole in the head, it can reanimate the corpse, though I’ve never seen it. I burn the bodies of flu victims or at least gave them a hole in the head.”
That unnerved me but before I asked Joel where he got his info, I got interrupted by bells-- Our early warning system. We got bells in three places: Outside the cantina, at the edge of the fields and outside the front door. These sounded like the cantina. Grace was on patrol. Two bells ringing meant two zombs. It went up to five. After it was a massive a ringing and lock down for everyone but the shooters. Two was a lot, usually we find only one.
I wasn’t fearful of the zombie but what Joel said. There are billions of dead bodies out there and if the zombies got hungry enough. The thing was—in the two years since the zombs came, I ain’t seen anything like that.
“What’s that?” Joel asked.
“Two zombs.”
“Can I watch?”
I hunched my shoulders. “It might already be too late.” Although, I hadn’t heard the gunshots yet.
Joel, Jim, Frannie and I got there in time to see Grace take out two old ones, I think both were male, one for sure, but the other one was too decayed to know. Their clothes were in tatters decaying long before their owners. The only thing still visible was the mouth. They don’t decay normally otherwise they wouldn’t be a problem. The skin on their decayed mouths showed shiny teeth and jaws which stayed pristine. They were stupid but seem to know how to rip someone apart.
Grace shot them rapidly without hesitation: one, two. Both clean headshots and they went down, falling backwards and crashing to the ground where they would never get up again. Someone would burn them later. She looked around for a moment, I guess to see if more came. I looked around myself but I didn’t see anything. Finally I saw Grace point the rifle down.
Joel stood next to me, frozen in place, his eyes wide, staring at Grace.
“Who is that?”
“Grace. One of our shooters.”
“She’s amazing.”
“She’s just lucky,” Frannie said and she sounded mad but she was actin’ stupid.
“Luck has nothing to do with it, that’s natural talent.” He walked over without talking to me. I followed, didn’t think there would be any harm. Frannie was wrong. Grace was a natural. She loved her rifle but she got good at every weapon put in her hand.
Grace looked at us with her usual amused face.
“Hello Grace,” I said. She didn’t respond. “This is Joel.”
“Please to meet you, Grace,” he said, putting out his hand.
Grace looked like he put out a zombie hand, but she reluctantly shook, only holding the tip, like he was poison.
“I have to finish my patrol,” she said, pulling her hand away as quick as she could.
“Wait. Please stay for a few more minutes. I would love to talk to you.”
Grace looked at me for help but I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t her handler.
“Grace, I must say, that was some amazing shooting. How did you learn to shoot so well?”
“Practice.”
“That’s natural talent too.”
“I know how to shoot,” Frannie said.
“I have to go,” Grace looked annoyed at having to spend even one minute being social.
“We’ll talk again, right?” Grace didn’t respond, she walked away without another word. I guess she was not impressed with Joel as the others.
“That’s a stubborn one,” he said when she was out of earshot.
“A stubborn what?”
“Woman,” he said and then smiled. “Why don’t we get back to talking trade? I think we can work together rather well, don’t you think?”
Frannie had been admiring Joel all afternoon looked mad. With her pretty looks, she was used to getting attention, but Joel ignored her and Rose all through the lunch but Rose didn’t seem to care. Frannie needed to give it up, Joel wasn’t interested. I saw the way he looked at Grace.
After Joel left, I head upstairs to my room, beat. Lunch tired me out and I wanted to rest. I had to be on weeds today from 4 to sundown and I really wanted to skip it but wouldn’t. Unless you sick, you do your work. The others worked really hard, sometimes to a point where Hannah had to say they were overdoing it and I told them to stop.
Figured I could crash for an hour. Just lie down under a fan. Jim’s got a windup clock. Could use that to wake me.
I walked from the communications room to the stairs and found Felix sitting on one of the couches. He got up when I walked over.
He smiled. He did that a lot, probably to keep his spirits up.
“The man with Joel—Bill. He was one of the hunters who came by the lighthouse. They didn’t give us any trouble, but they didn’t help us. They were looking to recruit, sort of looked at Justin, and none of us looked our personal best, but they asked if we knew anyone who was a carrier. I heard your conversation about your former leader. I don’t know if these carriers exist— But Bill seemed intent on finding them.”
“There are none here.”
Felix smiled. I don’t know if he realized I was lying.
“Look we can talk about this later? Got a work shift later and I wanna relax.”
“Sure thing,” then headed towards the outside. I was glad he didn’t ask any more question about Rachel.
I climbed the stairs. The house wasn’t so hot but as I went up, my forehead and neck began to sweat.
When I got to my door, it was closed. It usually wasn’t so Idiot and Chinakitty could use the litter boxes. I tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. It felt like something heavy was keeping it shut.
“Who’s in there!” I yelled out. A moment later I heard things being moved, scrapes on the floor. I opened the door and found Keith sitting on my bed looking terrified. Chinakitty next to him. When the door opened she jumped down and ran out the room. Idiot was still on the bed, asleep. Guess the noise didn’t bug her.
“Keith,” I said, confused. “What the fuck?”
“Is he gone?” He said, his voice shaky. Not just his voice, his hands too.
“Who?”
“The hunter. He’s here because of me. They always seem to know where I am—“
I sucked in my breath. I thought about what Felix said. I moved to the bed and sat next to him.
“You mean Joel?”
Keith shook his head. “The one with him—the little guy. Tanya, I can’t kill another person--”
Chris was a short guy, shorter than Dave. After what Felix told me, I got worried. Manny said Bill was the one who asked about carriers but Keith just said it had been Chris.
“Only Manny and Felicia know you’re a carrier. I know they won’t squeal. Felicia got no love for Joel. And my people won’t talk.”
I didn’t like what I was saying. I understood wanting to eliminate every fucking zombie but ain’t no reason to kill humans unless they get bit.
Even though Chris was with him, didn’t mean Joel hunted carriers.
“He don’t know you’re a carrier, right?”
“He’ll figure it out. He’ll remember me from the other house.”
“Here’s the problem, Keith. I think I might need Joel.” It was true. I needed his expertise, possibly his trade. I also needed him ‘cause he was my only link to Aisha.
He didn’t respond right away. He looked at me with large brown eyes, like I just said something nasty. “So you want me to go?”
“No, if you want to go I ain’t gonna stop you but I want you to stay. If you do I promise I won’t let anyone hurt you. You make yourself scarce when they come around. Go to the beach, a walk or something. Go talk to that crazy ass writer. If Chris recognizes you, just say you fled during the great pull. No reason to let him think you’re more than a regular refugee.”
He still didn’t say anything. His face looked betrayed. But in this world, we gonna have to occasionally make a deal with the devil.
Chapter 15
I was reading on the porch about windmills, enjoying the coolness of the shaded porch, when I heard a bell ringing. It wasn’t our alarm but a bike bell, a distinctive ding-a-ling. I looked up to see Steven Jack on a Cannondale bike I knew was expensive since I’d ripped off bikes before. He carried a yellow messenger bag around his chest. He pulled right to the porch, put up the kickstand and headed towards me. No need to lock it up. Plenty of bikes around town we already helped ourselves to. The house got a massive garage and barn. We got ourselves a Prius, a van, a mini-van, and about 10 bikes. Enough to get everyone to the Renewal in case we got to leave. I hope we don’t.
As he got closer I saw that his yellow messenger bag had the fourth amendment written on it. I remember learning the amendments in school. When I got busted I loved bringing up the fourth amendment, but the cops just thought I was a smart aleck.
“Hi Tanya,” he said. He wore blue jeans and a t-shirt with a picture of a dinosaur. I was in jean shorts and a tank.
“Steven,” I said and put my book face down on a small table next to the four chairs we had on the shaded porch. I put out my hand and he shook it.
“Ever get a chance to read one of mine?”
“Nah,” I said, feeling embarrassed. “I only read non-fiction. Jim read everything you wrote. I’ll read some when I got time. In the winter, maybe.”
“I would like to meet him. Annemarie said I could come by anytime to charge up.”
“Why don’t you come on in?”
I took Steven inside. I haven’t seen him since we first met but some of the others on body patrol have. We cut down on body patrol for the summer for farm work and ‘cause it’s fucking hot, but Steven has been good about marking houses with solar panels. We added two more to our array. This was his first visit to the house unlike Joel who had already been here two times. Most of the time he spent checking out Grace with Frannie and Annemarie drooling over him. Annemarie didn’t seem to care that Joel had eyes for Grace but Frannie got annoyed. I thought she was acting like an idiot.
“Jim!” I yelled. I’m not sure where he was, I didn’t know the schedule by heart like he did. A moment later he raced down from upstairs. His eyes widened at seeing Steven.
“Hey, Jim, this is Steven Jack.”
Jim played calm but I knew he was freaked.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir— I’m a big fan.”
“I’ve heard,” he said, shaking Jim’s hand. “And don’t call me sir. I think we’re done with formalities. Call me Steven. I’m here to charge up my laptop.”
“We can keep charging it up when you need to.”
“No need. I got eight hours of power. That should be enough to finish. I was almost to the end. When I finish I’ll need your power again to print. After that I think I’ll stick to the Royale.”
“No problem,” Jim said.
“Then you can be the first to read it.”
Jim looked like he was going to explode. I thought he might jump around screaming like a nutjob but he managed to control himself.
“Oh my god, thank you,” he said, shaking Steven’s hand vigorously.
“Afterwards can you pass it around.”
“But it will b
e the only copy,” Jim said. “Don’t you want it?”
“When everyone is finished, but what’s the point of a book without a reader. Even if I went from millions to 40. Or print out two copies if you want.”
“Join us for lunch.”
“I would love to.”
‘Cause Steven wasn’t like Joel, we took lunch in the cantina with everybody else. Lunch ran from 12:30-2:30 every day and we got five cooks, three of them old ladies, Joyce, Emily and Carol who couldn’t work in the field but loved to cook. They each worked in the kitchen four days a week. Most everyone had KP duty once a week. Some volunteered to do more days. Mine was Monday night. I hated it.
Because it was after 1:30, we got the introverts. Grace and Felicia sat at two separate tables.
“Hi Joyce,” I said when I came in. We considered Joyce the head chef because she was a retired cafeteria lady. Her food was edible but boring. She got nothing on Maddie. “Anything left?”
Joyce, a white lady with long white hair tied up in a bun, raised a large spoon. “Plenty. if you like rice and beans, but there’s some salad too.”
I didn’t, but planned to eat it anyway. Food was self-served. Next to the vat of rice and beans with a lovely bowl of salad greens we grew ourselves. “After we grab food,” I told Joyce but I meant it for Emily and Carol too. “Why don’t you join in?”
“Sure,” Joyce said. “Let me clean up first.”
“Dig in,” I told Steven who looked over the rice and beans with a weird face. “Rice and beans is pretty much our staple ‘cause we got a lot of it.” Steven didn’t reply but I was sure he hadn’t been eating steak and potatoes the last two years. I grabbed some grub, some salad and headed back to the table. I stopped by Felicia.
“Care to join us, Felicia?” Felicia looked at me, then Steven Jack. I knew she was hesitant, a loner out of guilt. I asked her to not be left out but she still bugged me.
I was She surprised when she grabbed her food and got up.
While I asked her, Jim got Grace to join us as well. She had the pouty look on her face because he interrupted her being anti-social.
“Looks like a party,” Steven joked when we got back to the table.
