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

by Lara Frater

  Before I left Hannah asked me if I was a little sweet on Grace. I laughed. The girl was only four years older than Dena, but watching the way she holds that rifle and her fast motion should make any guy drool. When I saw her tied to that pole, her skin burnt, her hair in shambles, and seeing that she wet herself I wanted to rip Joel’s head off and shove it down his neck. Not that I already didn’t want to do it before. He killed my boy. My poor Hannah couldn’t stop to mourn him because of all the other people he shot.

  I knew when the flu and zombie outbreak happened there would be some lawless men. It disturbed me how many of them came together under Joel.

  Some of his men surrendered to us pretty fast. Most of them stayed because it meant safety and once he was gone, they were looking for someone new.

  They ain’t gonna get it from us. Anyone who blindly followed Joel wasn’t welcomed at Harbor. Joel had about fifty or so people he used as slaves, a lot of them women. Three of them got pregnant by a man named Bill who Grace and Annemarie rightfully tossed to the zombies. He had forced himself at least once on every woman there including Grace and Aisha. He wasn’t into kids so at least he left Ariel alone.

  The zombies killed him too quickly.

  I got pieces of the story from the more talkative guards. Bill’s favorite had been a woman named Jackie. No one knew Jackie was married to Howard. Bill found out and murdered him. One of his few female guards Carla tried to help Jackie escape along with help from another guard named Tommy, yes the big movie star Tommy Haldish.

  Joel found out what they did.

  He left the women alone with Bill for three hours.

  He took them naked to the fenced in zombies and got them bitten. Thomas was given four days on the pole. He was only saved when it rained one day. Not enough to hydrate him, but enough to keep him from dying.

  Joel and his murderers came to Harbor the night before the massacre with the two zombie women. Joel knew our schedule because he looked at it while pretending he wanted a date with Grace. He knew Grace took lunch at two and that people went to the beach.

  They released the two women at our beach so we would leave and they could get off the island with Grace without being seen.

  I went into the bedroom upstairs where Dr. Philips, a real general practitioner, was treating Grace and Tommy. Both of them were asleep.

  Aisha identified only four guards besides Thomas who had been kind to the hands sneaking them extra foods, water and medicine when they could. She had known them from the camp and one was a 16 year old boy Joel recruited from the Catholic school Jim had been at. They had gone with him to hunt zombies. A lot of camp people including some of the people who had come to hunt had resisted and Joel randomly tossed five people to the zombies to keep them in line.

  Not counting Joel, we captured eight of his men. They were locked and tied up in the library. I knew some escaped. Dr. Philips said Joel maintained a motorboat he used to get supplies from Connecticut. Tomorrow we would take them by boat and release them on a beach there. They complained about rights. Tanya told them to fuck their rights and if we ever saw their faces, they would be dead. The exception was the electrician Gil. Someone had to replaced Dave and he offered to set up solar panels for electricity and hot water as he had done for Joel.

  Aisha said he had beaten one of the field hands. For now we planned to put him in a house close to the farm, and not give him a gun. The field hand he beat was long dead by Joel’s hand. I let him know that I didn’t care how much talent he had he was expendable.

  “Hey Dr. Philips, came to check up on Grace.”

  “Call me Sam. She’s sleeping. I heard your wife was a medic. She’ll want some training. As far as I know I might be in the only doctor left alive.”

  I didn’t respond.

  “I’m alive because I’m a coward. They were begging doctors to come treat flu patients in the hospital. I didn’t respond to my calls-- I knew this was bad. So I stayed home. My husband got the flu. At least one of my kids did. I had a grandson—when I went to see my daughter. They were all dead. Her, her husband, baby. I went to my other daughter’s house but she wasn’t there, never called, didn’t leave a message.”

  I didn’t say anything. When the flu got bad, I kept my family home. Ironically I would have called people lazy if they called in sick when they weren’t, but that law the government passed allowed Hannah and my son Vincent to call in sick and Dena to stay out of school. Hannah wanted to work but I scared her into staying home. I screamed at her, even thought about tying her up. Eventually she relented.

  “My fellow doctors got the flu,” she said. “Or were killed by zombies.”

  “After we banish those men to Connecticut, we are going back home. I want you to come. We have some wounded and my wife isn’t a doctor. You can bring all the patients with you.” I said, with my eye on Tommy Haldish. Still couldn’t believe that was him.

  The door opened. I looked and saw it was Tanya. I swallowed hard. Unsure if I was ready to do this. I looked at Grace. She had just opened her eyes. She looked at me and smiled.

  We went to the library and opened the door. Annemarie and Dena were guarding it. Joel and the remaining men were tied to folding chairs. One of men must have tried to escape because his chair was overturned and he was faced down on the floor still tied to it. I would have laughed but I couldn’t. I left him on the floor.

  Sam patched up the one shot in the knee and was nice enough to give him pain killers and antibiotics. I would have let him bleed out. The kid that Grace called Broken Nose, because she broke his with a shoe, didn’t look happy. I thought about allowing him to come to Harbor because of his age which he claimed was 17 but Aisha said he never seemed bothered by any of the orders Joel gave.

  I had no idea if any of these men were the ones that killed our people in Harbor. Part of me wanted to shoot them all.

  Joel was tied to a chair as well and in a corner. He hadn’t tried to escape. He looked exactly the same as when I tied him up this morning. We fed them all; scraps like he gave his workers.

  “Hello,” he said to us. “I guess I’m about to get my punishment.”

  I didn’t say anything. Instead I untied Joel but not his hands. I yanked him up.

  “My foot’s asleep.” I let him stomp around. After a minute, I pushed him lightly to move.

  “Follow Tanya.”

  We walked into the meeting room and into the large hall, then out the front door.

  “Not so civilized after all.” Joel said.

  “We’re gonna make it quick and painless, that’s a promise. Better than what you did to our people.”

  Joel laughed. “You’re all phonies—you know that. You think you’re all high and mighty and better than me, but now you’re going to kill me in cold blood.”

  I didn’t want to do it but Joel had murdered nine of my people and countless more at the estate which meant human life meant nothing to him, not only that but he had enslaved free people and allowed a rapist to do what he wanted.

  We walked him to the bunkhouse and made him stand near the side wall. It was empty now, the people in the fields had taken up bedrooms in the estate house, even servants quarters were better than this bunkhouse. It had originally been equipment storage for the tennis courts and swimming pool. It had no heat, AC, or windows.

  “Do you want anything, a cigarette or a drink?”

  “No—just how did you find me?”

  “You left the lights on,” Tanya said.

  “We knew you were close to Greenport,” I explained. “That woman you killed—Carla? She saved Jim and Gwen when they were in Greenport. Jim saw a light from far away, dismissed it as a fire, but it was you. We came last night and followed your light.”

  “Clever—“ he paused. “And what about her?”

  “Who?”

  “Did she tell you what her father did?”

  “Her father didn’t do anything, Joel. It was all in your delusional mind. You’re a murderer.”

/>   “So is she and both of you will be soon enough.”

  “The problem, Joel, is we can’t leave you alive. You’re motivated by revenge and you’ve murdered innocent people, not zombies, not people with the virus. I’m wondering if you even knew the difference.”

  “The government has laws, where’s my trial?”

  “There ain’t no government, Joel,” Tanya said. “An eye for an eye now.”

  I thought about Jim. There was no way he would approve of killing an unarmed man, even a mass murderer. Tanya would tell him afterwards. He would get pissed but it would already be done.

  “Any last requests?” I asked.

  “Just to know that I wasn’t always what you call bad. I had a wife, a daughter and a son. All died of the flu. I held my little baby girl in my arms while she died terrified and choking in her fluid filled lungs--”

  “Please—“ Tanya said, her voice angry. “Every single one of us lost people and didn’t go nutso. The flu killed billions of people, entire families. You ain’t special.”

  I didn’t say anything because of something Grace told me earlier. The flu did kill his family but Joel seemed more upset over losing his livelihood.

  “Do you have any last requests?” I repeated. I didn’t want to talk philosophical. I wanted justice to be served.

  “Please don’t kill me?” Joel said, his voice oddly bright.

  “Do you want a blindfold?”

  “No.”

  He stood against the wall and turned around. “Do it,” he said. “Shoot a man in the back.”

  I aimed. Looked at this unarmed living man. Yes, he murdered my son but I couldn’t pull the trigger.

  Neither apparently could Tanya. We were both fail-safes. I thought one of us could do it.

  Joel turned around, looked at us and laughed. “Cowards.”

  Then I heard the crack of gun fire. A bullet hit Joel straight in the head. Blood and brain matter splattered the wall behind him and his body fell.

  I looked behind me to see Grace standing there with her pretty rifle still wearing her white nightgown, looking like an angel of death.

  “I was worried you wouldn’t be able to do it. I guess I was correct.”

  I didn’t say anything. Neither did Tanya.

  “I don’t think you’re cowards for not being able to pull the trigger. I admire that you can’t.”

  “Grace—“ She walked towards me, stumbling a bit. Tanya and I got her steady. She looked at me in admiration. When she tried to put her hands around me, I stopped her and she pulled away.

  “I think that it might be time to put down my gun and become one with society.”

  Two days later we went home.

  The day before we met with the field hands who stuck around. Tanya told them they had a choice of coming to Harbor, staying at the estate, or leaving. She told them Harbor was a farming town and field work would be expected, but no one would be worked all day. We had three hour shifts, had comfortable rooms to stay in, and we all shared in the bounty. Unlike here where Joel and his men ate their fill and the hands got scraps. Joel worked these people sometimes 12 to 16 hours a day. The only ones who worked less in the fields were seven pretty women who serviced Joel and his men when needed. One of the girls was the same age as my daughter. I should have shot Joel in the back.

  The split ended being about even, but a few upped and left. I gave them weapons and supplies. Some of those who stayed opted to come to Harbor instead. I don’t blame them. Some decided to stay at the estate and finish the Harvest. I hoped everyone would come to Harbor, but the estate did have fruit trees. We left Ryan and Oleana in charge.

  I didn’t know the sum total with the new people but I think we were getting close to a hundred. I worried about how we were going to feed and take care of all these people. I worried about Tanya being able to lead them. I supposed I would have to help her.

  We spent the morning shuttling people back and forth. In the afternoon, we had a service to honor our dead. The bodies had already been buried while we were gone. I had wanted to bury Simon but time was of the essence to rescue Grace.

  The estate house had a chicken coop with a dozen or so chickens, a few horses and one cow that was at least young. Oleana had been a servant originally at the estate. She was a slave like everyone else, but Joel needed her expertise so she had higher status. She gave us two dozen eggs and three bags of apples with a promise of more. I wasn’t as a good a cook as my dad so I hardboiled them. I made a salad from some of our lettuce and cut up a bunch of apples. I put it all in a bowl and left in the parlor for people to eat after the funeral.

  We had the service outside, in the back of the house. Ricky had set aside a small area not far from the cantina where Frannie and he had buried those who died on the farm. Most of the graves were unmarked. Our people had sticks and paper to mark the graves. I didn’t know about masonry but I wanted to carve something for the graves.

  Aisha and her sister came to the funeral. She didn’t cry but I knew she had been close to Simon. I knew she also mourned Maddie and Rachel having just learned of their deaths.

  Jim came, although he still looked weak and pale, his arm bandaged and in a sling while Manny held him up. He hugged Aisha for a long time then hugged Grace. She let him.

  Eric didn’t come.

  Tanya gave a passionate speech about all of our dead. How Dave saved Jim’s life, how Simon was a big brother, how the rest pitched in to make this a community. I only half paid attention. I thought about Simon and how close Dena came to being killed. Tanya was right. My family came first but as I looked around at the people at the funeral and the new people who had come from the estate, I realized the community came a close second. I needed to keep it safe.

  After the funeral I asked Aisha and her sister along with Tanya and Hannah to the comm room. She looked confused but because Tanya told her it was okay, she followed us without a fuss. Everyone was happy to see her, but she looked uncomfortable.

  “What’s up?” she asked when she got there. She stood while Ariel sat on one of the swivel chairs we liberated on a body hunt.

  “Hi Aisha—Ariel. I know you barely know me, but Tanya will tell you I’m a good man. My wife,” I said, motioning to Hannah “and I look after the kids here. We have a daughter Dena about your age. We’ll be happy to look after you and your sister.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” her voice stern and stoic.

  “What?” I looked at Tanya for her help but she looked stunned.

  “Ariel and I are longed past supervision. We’ve been on our own since our mother died.”

  Hannah smiled but I saw heartbreak in it.

  “Aisha, I know things have been hard,” she said. “And it seems like you can live without parents. You don’t have to be afraid to have them again. You aren’t grown up.”

  “No disrespect, but that isn’t it. I looked after myself since the zombies came. Even when my mother was alive, she had trouble coping and I had to be the adult. When she died, I grew up fast. I can’t go back to being just a kid, it’s too late.”

  “Ariel, are you okay with this?” Ariel, a little girl with dark eyes who seemed quiet didn’t say anything, she nodded. I looked back at Aisha.

  “You’re only 15 and your sister is what 10?”

  “I’ll be 16 soon. We’ve been looking after for each other. I can take care of myself.”

  “You’re still just a kid. You went off with Joel.”

  “So did a lot of people. Adults thought he was the messiah. I just wanted to get away from that woman.”

  Felicia.

  I tried Tanya again for help. Finally she spoke.

  “How about a compromise?”

  “I don’t have to, neither of you are my parents.”

  “Yes, but compromises are what mature adults do.” Aisha’s face softened a little. She had been a pretty girl. She still looked like a teen but her face had hardened.

  “What?”

  “You and
your sis won’t have any adult supervision. You’re full equal partners in the farm if you want or you can stay at the estate. Although I don’t think many people will stay after the harvest. You stay here, you get your own space. You work on the farm, sign up to do your own stuff. That includes training in firearms if you want.”

  “What’s the compromise?”

  “You promise you let an adult, me or someone you trust know if you’re having trouble. Like it or not, you’re still a kid, you don’t have much schooling, and some adults know things you don’t. Don’t be afraid to ask. Expect me to occasionally check up on you and your sis. And if we start teaching, your sister joins up and maybe you too. You do that because mature adults know when to ask for help.”

  “Okay,” she said. I didn’t like the idea of a 15 year old being on her own but I wasn’t her father. Best I could do was keep an eye on them. I looked at Hannah, she looked almost relieved. I guess she wasn’t ready to get close to another kid.

  People ate the eggs in abundance as I discovered the nearly empty plate when we got back. I guess it was a hit. I grabbed a half and enjoyed a taste I haven’t had in two years. I should have saved some for later. Grace came without her rifle. Her face was still bright red and her torn hair was tied in a hair tie. She wore a yellow sundress and I could see her burnt shoulders peeling but she still looked pretty. I put my arm around Hannah and held her tightly.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Just need to hold you.”

  Grace looked at me and smiled. I looked away feeling guilty. Reminding myself that I wouldn’t like it if Hannah ogled another man.