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

by Lara Frater

  “That and loyalty. I can’t stand disloyalty—“ he paused. “And your attempt to unnerve me about the previous house won’t work anymore. It doesn’t bother me.” He took my face in his hands.

  “I burnt it down because it was time to move on and I couldn’t convince all the others to come with me.”

  “You burnt them alive, didn’t you? They weren’t zombies at all, were there?”

  He smiled, but didn’t say anything. He grabbed a cup and went to the bathroom and filled it with the stale water. He didn’t throw it in my face, instead he held it up to me to drink.

  “Grace, I will break you,” he finally said.

  “That’s what this is all about. Did it start when I first said no to you?”

  “Someone had to pay for the virus. And everyone but you was dead.”

  “How did you know I was Grace Hamilton Sinclair?”

  He laughed. “I heard it on the radio.”

  I didn’t respond. I should have never given my name to Bob Bam. I had some weird fantasy that my mother was alive.

  Joel untied me, but as I tried to stand, I realized my feet and legs were sleep and I fell to the ground. Joel didn’t laugh but his men did. He put his hand out to help me up, but I wouldn’t take it. Instead I pushed myself off the ground. I walked around feeling the pain of pins and needles as my legs came back to life. The four men who came with Joel kept their guns on me wherever I went.

  “Eat your breakfast, go to the bathroom, drink as much water as you can. Sorry you’re going to piss yourself today. No bathroom breaks on the pole.” He placed a plate of eggs on the table near the chair I had been tied up in.

  I didn’t respond.

  “That’s the first punishment, Grace. Do you know what the second one is?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, “Murder by fire?”

  Joel looked unfazed, I was annoyed I could no longer disturb him. “The second one is death by the zombies in the trenches. An ingenious idea, don’t you think? I don’t need anyone to watch the perimeter when I have the undead. They’re better than guards with their death moans.”

  I didn’t say anything. Instead I rubbed my legs and walked slowly to the table. I sat in the chair and ate my eggs, slowly, knowing that would annoy Joel. I sipped the water.

  “Finish in five minutes,” Joel said. “Or don’t finish at all.”

  He won this one. I didn’t want to go out there hungry. I ate the eggs which were scrambled and runny were still delicious. I gulped down the water and went to the bathroom to get more. I wasn’t going to let this bother me. I went to the tap and drank water until I couldn’t anymore. I went to close the door to use the toilet, but Joel held it open.

  “Leave it,” he said.

  “It is not like I can squeeze through the bathroom window and if I could it’s a long way down. Or perhaps seeing a woman pee turns you on.”

  Joel didn’t look mad. He actually had a smirk on his face which made me want to punch him.

  “I don’t care. Pee here or pee in your pants.”

  The smell of unwashed humans and the dead greeted me as I was led through the courtyard to the flagpoles. My hands tied behind my back and no shoes on my feet. I felt more humiliated by looking like hell. No make up and I was wearing a cheap orange tank top probably taken from a Smile-Mart.

  People in the field stopped what they were doing and stared at me. Aisha not only stopped what she was doing but let out a slight gasp and dropped her hoe. I looked at her and winked. She stared at me like this was some kind of dream. I couldn’t read her. She was surprised to see me but I couldn’t tell if she was upset or angry. To her this was probably surreal. Her sister, who looked like a mini version of Aisha, looked at her, then at me.

  The fields were enormous and the flagpoles near the entrance seemed a good half mile away. Soon Aisha was out of sight. Hundreds of different vegetables were growing and some fruit trees. The people in the field were around my age, but there were some in the thirties, a few teens and Aisha’s sister looked to be the youngest. There were even two pregnant women standing and looking hot. There were men as well but mostly women. I guess Joel thought they would be easier to control. No one looked over 40. They all looked hot, overworked and miserable.

  Right by the fence were five flag poles that stood two feet apart. Only one tattered American flag remained. Less than a foot away stood the fences that held back the zombies. I felt a shiver down my back but I tried to not show my fear. I remembered the time one broke through a window and touched me with its cold dead hands that felt like stripped paint and ice cold broken skin. The idea of their hands touching my back made me flinch and wish that I did go down in a hail of bullets. I thought about running now. I looked around to see if I could get a gun.

  Instead of taking me to an empty pole, Joel took me to the man tied to one of them. He had his head down but what I can see was terrible, his shirtless skin was bright red and his blond hair ragged. Several of the zombies had gotten their hands through the chain link fence but he didn’t flinch when they touched him.

  “Tommy?” Joel said. The man put his face up. I couldn’t fucking believe it. It was Tommy Haldish.

  “Joel—please I’m sorry. I can’t take another day of this. You said I would be done, you said I would be off yesterday.”

  “You helped people escape, Carla was the bad influence.”

  “You killed her you bastard.” Tommy said, his lips cracked and parts bleeding.

  “She betrayed me. I gave her a home and a gun. Besides it was nice and wet yesterday. One more day Tommy. By the way, this is Grace. She’ll be joining you.”

  Tommy didn’t acknowledge me. He wouldn’t know who I was. My brother teased me merciless that I had a crush on an actor, an actor that was now tied to a pole burning to death.

  Joel dragged me away from him to a pole at the end.

  “What have you done to him?”

  “Didn’t know you liked actors? He’s just a regular person, right? Isn’t that what you said?” He shoved me against the pole. I fell against it because my hands were tied.

  The kid with the broken nose stood next to the pole with a bullhorn. He handed it to Joel.

  “Attention!” he yelled through it. “This is Grace Hamilton Sinclair. We have found that her father Timothy Sinclair and her brother Joseph Sinclair guilty of spreading the Hell virus and she is guilty by default. She will spend three days on the pole. If she survives, she shall become pure and renewed and will join our collective.”

  I giggled loudly, so much that I actually snorted like common folk. This annoyed Joel so I kept on doing it until he made a move to hit me.

  The men untied me. I went limp, so they dragged me to the pole. They forced me to sit then tied me to the thin pole that was solid enough not to break. They similarly tied my legs to stakes in the ground. The zombies behind me began to moan. I heard the chain from the fence rattle, I worried it would break. Tied up with no gun made me no match for the zombies.

  Joel looked at me and smiled. He touched my cheek which now had a bruise from when he hit me. “Have fun Grace, you’ll might be defiant today but the next day you’ll beg for everything.”

  “Never.” I said. “I won’t beg. I’ll ask.”

  For the first few hours the only issue was boredom and listening to the stupid moans the zombies made. So far none of the zombies figured out how to get their hand through the holes in the fence.

  I looked over to Tommy who was leaning forward with his head down and his medium length hair covering his face. That beautiful hair I used to wish I could rub my hands through. I lost interest in him when I went to college but I never forgot my girlish crush.

  Three of the zombies had gotten their arm through and were swatting at him.

  “Get away!” I yelled but they didn’t listen. Tommy didn’t move. I thought he was dead but his chest moved up and down.

  “Tommy,” I said. I didn’t want to yell but I didn’t know if he could hear me. H
e looked up, stared directly at me and put his head down again.

  Something yanked my hair hard enough my head tapped the pole but not enough to hurt that much. I pulled forward but it had my hair strongly in its grasp and began to pull back again. It moaned loudly as if it captured a prize.

  I pulled my head forward as hard as I could and felt the pain and heard the sound of ripping as I freed my beautiful now damaged hair from the creature. I tossed it forward and my blond hair fell in my face. Now I knew why Tommy had his head down.

  I tried to imagine myself at the beach getting a nice tan, but then the fingers began touching my back, almost caressing but the skin felt cold and dry. I flinched every time. I tried to move forward but the rope was too tight. I didn’t dare move my head back. The hand tried to move my shoulder back with a surprisingly strong grip, but it didn’t realize I was tied to the pole.

  I felt the urge to use the bathroom from all the water I drank, but I didn’t act on it yet. I looked over to Tommy keeping my hair to the side wishing that I had cut it short but I always loved that it was long, slightly wavy even without my weekly hair stylist. My father said I would win beauty pageants just for my hair. He always said I could win anything I wanted.

  I flinched again when one of them ran his fingers down my back. It was missing one because I felt a gap between the middle finger and pinky. I flinched and cried out. I don’t know if I could do this all day. The heat was one thing, but I couldn’t stand feeling the dead fingers on me.

  “Grace,” the frail voice that belonged to my father said. He used to have such a strong voice. He reached out and stroked my face with ice cold fingers.

  “Daddy,” I said, taking his hand. “Joe is calling for a helicopter.”

  “It’s not coming,” he said. “Nothing is coming, I’m sorry Grace.”

  “Sorry for what?”

  I opened my eyes because something had my hair again. I felt roasted and I had wet myself. Joel was wrong. I wasn’t going to be defiant in the morning, I was going to beg to be freed, admit to anything. Tell him I released the virus for fun and profit. I pulled my head forward felt the pain of more strands ripping as the zombie did not want to let go. I didn’t know how I fell asleep with their moaning and pawing or maybe I passed out. I lifted my head and looked around but it was hard as the sun was directly in my eyes. At least that meant it was afternoon. The sun would be going down and the temperature would drop.

  I felt hot, thirsty, sick and my neck hurt from leaning over, I held down the nausea. I knew vomiting would be a bad idea. I wished they would stop touching me.

  People were working in the field. They didn’t stare at us but occasionally when a guard wasn’t looking, one of them would look at us and look away. I wanted to yell at them to overpower the guards and free me. Give me a rifle and all their problems would be over but they looked hot and overworked. I noticed that the guards were the ones to bring them water and it wasn’t very often. I didn’t see Aisha. I felt blind. I looked away from the sun and towards Tommy who was still looking down, still breathing.

  “Tommy,” I said. He didn’t look up.

  My legs were asleep I tried to wake them up by moving around but the restraints kept me from real movement.

  I thought about daddy, about what Joel found, and why daddy said he was sorry when he was dying.

  I knew I was sunburned and another day of this I might have some serious burns. Did Joel plan to put me right into the fields the day after or was he going to give me a chance to recuperate. When I slept would I get an occasional visit from Bill?

  I thought about Tanya. Were they looking for me? Would they find me? Or did they decide I wasn’t good enough to look for?

  Night helped until I started to feel the burning. Before the light was gone, I could see my legs were bright red and I assumed every place the sun touched was the same color. I guess Tanya was right about me being white bread. Now I was toasted.

  Then I started crying.

  “Grace I’m sorry,” he said, again. His skin felt dry cracked and cold. He was a zombie who could still talk but all he kept saying was sorry.

  “Sorry for what, daddy?” Sorry for killing the world? Killing Joe? Putting me into this ridiculous situation?

  “Psst, Princess?”

  Did I fall asleep or pass out? Was I still at Costking, safe from people like Joel. I didn’t know what day it was or time, but I was blinded. It took me a moment to realize it was dark, I wasn’t in Costking and I was still tied to a pole to be roasted alive.

  “Psst, Princess, can you hear me?” I could barely hear over the hunger moans of zombies desperate to get passed the fence and to my flesh.

  Something was raised to my lips. I tasted the outer rim of plastic and the delightful taste of that stale water. I drank it all, gulped it down so fast I got cramps. I did not care. When I was done the cup moved away.

  “More,” I said, surprised how hoarse my voice was.

  “I can only carry two, one for you, one for Tommy.” The voice belonged to a kid.

  “Who are you?”

  “Ariel, Aisha’s sister.”

  “How did you get out? Can you free me?”

  “There’s a floorboard in the bunkhouse. I’m the only one who can fit. When people are out on the poles, I try to sneak out and give them water. Sorry, I can’t free you. We tried once. That person was caught and tossed to the zombies. Joel wanted to know who freed him—I wanted to speak up but the adults said no. They needed me because I was the only one who could get out. Daria, who we knew from the camp, who kept an eye on us after our mother died took the blame and Joel killed her.

  “It wasn’t your fault. It’s all Joel’s fault. Remember that always.”

  I felt Ariel come closer. I could barely see her. She felt warm and alive. I only saw lights from the house.

  “I’m going to put something on your back. It’s a scarf. You won’t feel the zombies that much through it. Oleana is the forewoman. She gets up just before dawn. She’ll come take it off before the guards can see.”

  “Can you push my hair up front?”

  Ariel didn’t respond but I felt her warm hands moving my hair upfront then she messed it up a lot. I felt her in the back, swatting away the zombie hands as she placed the scarf around my neck.

  “Sorry,” she said. “The rumor is Joel is really enjoys watching the zombies pull your hair. I gotta make it look like you did yourself.”

  “Ariel, can you get off the estate? My people are on Harbor Island.”

  “I don’t know. We haven’t found a place without guards or zombies. Tommy and Carla tried to help someone off, but they were caught.” She stopped talking for a moment. “We’re planning a revolt.”

  “Tonight?”

  “No, we don’t know yet. We weren’t sure what to do. We’re figuring after you do your time on the pole and recover, we can plan something. Aisha said you can shoot anything and you’re fast.”

  “Get me a rifle, one with lots of bullets and I’ll shoot whoever you want, starting with Joel—“

  “Worry about that later. I gotta give Tommy a drink. I don’t wanna be gone that long. Listen, Aisha wants to know how everyone is.”

  I didn’t respond. How do I tell a ten year old that so many people have died?

  “She’s says don’t sugar coat. Our momma died, Daria died, Joel is working us to death. We don’t need to be sheltered.” With so many dead, I tried to think of who Aisha was close to.

  “It’s not good. Tanya’s alive but Jim might not be. Rachel and Maddie have been dead for a year. She’s going to be hurt about Maddie.”

  Ariel didn’t respond to what I said, instead she said. “Gotta go.” I heard her move off. She was quiet and her voice was so low I couldn’t what she was saying to Tommy. I couldn’t hear anything over the moan of zombies.

  Chapter 23

  Oleana, a middle age pudgy white woman with short brown hair, took my scarf as light appeared in the sky. She didn’t say a word
to me or Tommy who also had one. She walked passed us, yanking it off and putting into a large basket, probably meant for fruit. Tommy was still breathing but his head was down.

  Later, I don’t know how long. The light finally came up along with the heat. The sun streamed through a cloudless sky. No protection from it except for the shadows of the zombies behind me and my own hair. I could feel the zombies on me again; their dry fingers moving over my sunburnt skin. But now like Tommy, I no longer flinched.

  Joel, Bill and Broken Nose went to Tommy first. When Joel tried to talk to him, he didn’t respond. I knew he was alive because his chest was moving. Joel talked louder but it didn’t make a difference.

  I giggled and Joel gave me a funny look. He nodded to Bill to cut him loose. Tommy crumpled to the ground and didn’t move. Joel said nothing and I watched Bill and Broken Nose drag Tommy away. After they were done, Joel walked over to me.

  “Morning, Grace, how are you feeling. I see you peed yourself. I can’t believe it of a nice lady like you.” He was trying to get a rise out of me but I wasn’t going to give him the pleasure.

  “I’d spit on you, if I had any saliva left. How’s that for lady like—“ My voice was slightly less hoarse because of the little water I had last night.

  “Ready to beg, Grace. If you beg, I might cut you loose right now.”

  “I don’t beg. Not today or tomorrow. I would appreciate if you freed me.” I said, thinking of that cup of water and the people in the fields were thinking of revolt. I had to survive.

  “Thomas has heat stroke,” he said. “I’ve seen it before. He might survive, but I don’t know how much damage the heat did. Not like there are a lot of hospitals around. I would hate for that to happen to you, headaches, vomiting, fever, cramps and death. ”

  I didn’t respond.

  “Tomorrow you’ll beg, because if you don’t, I might just decide to leave you another day or two out here. Gonna be a hot one today. I see the zombies like you—a lot.”