by Brown, TW
I scooted back and realized that I had lost my machete when I went flying. As I patted myself down in a frantic search for a weapon, I was coming up empty until my hands found the knife I kept at my side for that “last ditch” emergency. Apparently this was it.
When the first one leaned down, I caught it in the eye. I brought my leg up to kick it away and my foot felt like it was going to snap off at the ankle. This was gonna suck.
I was moving back, trying to see through the tears that had welled up in my eyes from the most recent explosion of pain when somebody stepped past me. I let go with a heavy sigh as I watched Shelly come in and save my ass.
“You okay?” she asked after taking the top half of the skull off of the final zombie in this little bunch.
“Not really,” I admitted. I pointed to my left foot.
She knelt and peeled back the pants leg to get a look. I heard her whistle through her teeth. That is never a good sign.
“That must really hurt,” she said as she looked back over her shoulder at me.
“Is it busted?” I asked.
“I don’t know about that, but the piece of metal sticking through can’t be doing you any favors.”
“Say what?”
Or at least that was what I was about to ask. She turned back and I felt a vibration right before a searing pain exploded with enough force to make the whole world go dark.
***
“Billy?” a voice called from down a long hallway.
I didn’t really want to answer it right this moment. For the first time in I can’t remember how long, I felt at a peace of sorts. I knew that if I answered that voice, all this warmth and calm would shatter and I doubted if I would ever be able to reclaim it.
“I know you can hear me,” the voice said more sternly. “Your eyes are tracking to my voice and squeezing your eyes tighter is not going to help.”
You can always count on Doctor Zahn to toss a little cold water on your warmth. I sighed and slowly opened my eyes. I was in a room…or a cell. The minimal furnishings kept me from figuring out which one at the moment.
“How do you feel?” the doctor asked, taking my face in her hands and turning me to her.
“I don’t know.” That was an honest response. “Where am I?”
“In the infirmary,” the doctor replied matter-of-factly.
“So we took the town?”
“Hardly,” the doctor said with a chuckle. “However, we do have this section of it secure.”
“The others?”
“Lost a few.” I could see sadness creep into the doctor’s eyes. “Besides Jon we lost three more of your group. Also, since we got here and have begun seeking out all of the traps, we have lost eight more.”
“What!” I started to sit up, but my head bloomed with a flash of pain that rippled through my entire body.
“Easy, kiddo.” The doctor placed her hands on my shoulders. “You took a nasty bit of damage yourself. A severe concussion, three cracked ribs, a couple busted which led to your collapsed lung. And then there was that nasty wound to your leg.”
I felt my heart thud and do something funny in my chest. Please don’t be gone, please don’t be gone, I chanted in my head as I began to let my hands drift down my leg.
“Your leg is there,” Doctor Zahn consoled, obviously able to read my face and my fear. “It was touchy for a while and we still need to be careful about possible infection.”
“Shelly?” I asked.
“She stayed with you until help arrived. I guess she stacked up quite a few zombies in the process.”
“Jake?”
“Right here, soldier,” a voice spoke from off to my right. I turned to see Jake standing in the doorway. He looked like crap. His eyes had dark circles and the normal smile that he used as a major part of his “easy-going persona” was non-existent. “You look awful.”
“Said the pot to the kettle,” Dr. Zahn whispered loud enough so that Jake could still hear.
“You got someplace to be, Doc?” Jake asked as he stepped into the room.
“Actually…I do, otherwise I would sit here out of spite.” Dr. Zahn got up. She placed a hand on my chest and gave me the warmest smile that I think I can ever recall seeing from her at any time since I’ve known her. “We all saw what you did with Jon. That was a very brave thing. Stupid…but still very brave.”
I watched her leave the room. Jake stepped aside when she got to the door. There was a whispered exchange and then he gave a nod and came in to sit beside my bed.
“So…you are the big hero,” Jake said with an easy laugh and his phony character firmly in place.
“Hardly.” I brushed the compliment aside. “And what is the deal with the act?”
“Listen, kid,” Jake whispered, leaning in close, “I got no designs on being the guy to run stuff around here. I got a nice deal going where folks just leave me be. If I start acting like freakin’ G.I. Joe, it wouldn’t be long before they started dumping crap on me like they did Jon. And here is a heads up, there is talk of creating a council. Seems that with all the new folks we got in our fold, a single person just ain’t gonna be able to run the show. We are making the slide back to the old ways in a hurry.”
“So?”
I didn’t see the problem with having a few people keeping things running smoothly. If we all just ran about in our own direction, nothing would be done. Also, there was the whole deal about having to make some agreements with these other local factions if we were actually going to secure the entire city of La Grande.
“Your name is on that list.” Jake let that hang in the air for a few seconds. “I guess everybody watched you try to save Jon. They even saw you put him down.”
“Even Sunshine?” I gasped. Crap, that must have sucked.
“Yep…I guess she has been asking about you almost every hour since the doc finished patching you up.”
“Why?” I was not too sure that she was one of the people I wanted to see right away.
“You took care of her man,” Jake said with a shrug. “Best I can figure anyways.”
We sat there quiet for a few minutes. I was trying to let all this stuff sink in. Then a thought hit me almost like that blast that had knocked me for a loop.
“Winters?”
“That bastard had this place set for self-destruct.” Jake shook his head, but I could swear that I heard admiration in his voice. “He had walkers, partials…hell, one spot he had nothing but a bunch of heads that dropped from above when you tripped the wire.”
“And is he…” I let the question hang in the air.
“Dead?” Jake snorted. “Damn straight. I put the bullet in his brain myself.”
“I just don’t understand.”
“Can’t really say anybody does. He managed to survive because he was immune…go figure. I guess the bastard was trying to build a secret army of immunes. Only problem that he ran into was that his cohorts were not on board with whatever sick master plan he was scheming.”
“Cohorts?” I said with a raised eyebrow. “You say words like that in front of the others and your cover is blown for sure.”
Jake actually seemed to consider what I had just said. He grimaced, nodded, and then continued with the narration.
“We found two survivors, but they were chained up in a locker and on the verge of death. They haven’t been able to say much, but we will see what we can get out of them once they come around and are more lucid.”
“Jesus,” I breathed.
“Yeah, I guess Winters was one of the bad guys.”
“So how did you and Jon know him?”
“By reputation mostly,” Jake admitted. “He pulled some pretty hairy shit in Afghanistan…rescued like a hundred guys who were caught in a nasty fire fight. I guess he rolled in solo in an APC. Came out like freakin’ Rambo or something.”
“So the guy was a war hero.”
“Yep, except he was part of a Spec Ops team. He wasn’t supposed to be there and I guess
his CO busted his ass over the deal. Endangering the mission or some such nonsense. He was all set to retire just before this crap went down. If you believe the scuttlebutt, the Commander-in-Chief called him at his home and asked him to join some secret detail that was supposed to go in and extract his daughter.”
“So what the heck is he doing way out here?” I asked. “Last I heard, the president’s daughter was in Ohio or Iowa or some such place.”
“He told the president to go screw himself.”
I tried to imagine the stones it would take to tell a normal boss something like that…much less the President of the United States. I wasn’t sure if it was bold or stupid.
“I still don’t really get why he was way out here.”
“Actually, that was something that Jon and I couldn’t figure out either. Maybe if one of these people he had in his little gang comes around enough to be questioned, we can find out.”
Jake got up to leave. I was already feeling a little tired, but by the same token, it was kind of nice to have somebody to talk to for a while. It sure seemed like a lot was happening at a pretty fast pace.
“Could you do me a favor?” I asked as Jake shook my hand and turned for the door.
“Sure.”
“Could you maybe come back tomorrow and update me on what is going on around here?” I asked. “I feel like I am missing out on stuff.”
“Lots of cleaning…not what I would be all that excited to be jumping in to after getting almost blown to bits.”
Jake left and I sunk down into my pillow. He had a point. If all I was missing out on was the clean-up of this place, maybe I could lay around a bit longer. Besides, I hadn’t been in an actual bed in almost a year. Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.
***
“How ya been?” Shelly sat down on the chair next to my bed.
She was dirty and grimy and—I guess you really notice it once you have been cooped up and kept relatively clean—she had some serious funk going on. Whoever said that “women don’t sweat…they perspire” never counted on the zombie apocalypse.
“Can’t really complain,” I said with a shrug as I pushed the tray with a few bits of today’s lunch off to the side.
“Good, then you need to get your ass out of that bed pretty soon and get out here where you belong.” She reached over and plucked the corners of my sandwich that I’d left and popped them into her mouth. “We got a lot of work to do, and the number of people that can actually do a half-assed job are greatly outnumbered by those who can’t do squat.”
“I don’t get it,” I said as I sat up straighter.
It had only been three days since Jake’s visit. I kept hoping that he would show himself again, but so far…nothing. The only other person that I had seen since then was Dr. Zahn. She came in twice a day to check on me, but they seemed perfunctory and there was not even a little small talk.
“This place covers a lot of area. That bastard Winters was making it unlivable…sort of the “If I can’t have it, nobody can” approach from what it looks like. He rigged traps and destroyed a lot of stuff. Jake has been going almost non-stop, and that guy Simon Paul has been there step for step with a few of his people, but most everybody seems to be in a daze and has to be told exactly what to do.”
“And me being out there is going to make what sort of difference,” I joked.
“Listen, Billy, I think you underestimate your pull here. After that little stunt with Jon, which I maintain was absolutely stupid, you are like some sort of damn rock star. The entire community saw it and they all know who you are now.”
“But I didn’t do anything,” I insisted.
“And every single one of us who has been out in the field knows this…but most people have been sheep it would seem. They are led and do what they are told but can’t be expected to go out there and actually be a part of the solution.”
“So then why all the fuss?” I asked in absolute confusion.
“Because…they saw you do what you did with their own eyes. Zombies coming…bullets flying, and there you are carrying one of our own to safety. Then…the guy dies and you have to put him down. Meanwhile, the fight is still going on all around you.”
“I just did what I thought needed doing at the time.”
“Sure, but for most of these people, that was like watching a real life action hero movie.”
I shrugged. It didn’t make sense to me. I suddenly got it when the news used to come on back in the old days after some crazy event. There would be a person who pulled a child or helpless animal out of a river or burning building. That person would often seem so perplexed by the attention. They had simply done the right thing. It was never for the accolades or the attention. It was simply because they were in the right place and acted.
“Well I don’t need a bunch of folks making a fuss.” I laid back and closed my eyes. “Perhaps if I stay here long enough, something else will come along and they can fixate on that while forgetting all about me.”
“Then I have just the thing for you…but there is no way that is going to happen if you don’t get out of that bed. That Dr. Zahn is no joke.”
“Huh?” My eyes popped open again.
“They are assembling a group to go meet with the other factions holding different parts of this city. Plus there is talk about a team going into some local college. I guess nobody has had the sack to take the place yet because the rumor is that it was a pretty crowded FEMA center that fell early on before anybody really knew what was up. Supposedly, there is a huge cache of weapons, ammo, and medical supplies. But nobody who has ever climbed that fence has made it out.”
“That sorta sounds fun,” I admitted.
“Well, I don’t know that I would use the word ‘fun’ to describe it. Still, it would be nice if even half of what they say that is supposed to be inside there is true. And the icing on the cake is that there was apparently a fairly in depth agriculture program. That means the possibility of serious farming stuff. It would be just in time for this coming spring.”
“I am definitely interested.”
“Oh…and did I mention that the local National Guard Armory is right there as well,” Shelly added wistfully.
“How has that place not been hit?” I asked with more than a hint of dubiousness in my voice.
“That’s the thing,” Shelly said with a shrug, “Jake thinks that is where Winters and his flunkies got all the stuff they had in their lockers. But it is inside that fortified wall. We need to at least see for ourselves. The general belief is that the main haul will come from the college, but while we are there, we just cover all our bases.”
“It must be pretty bad if nobody else has tried to hit this place in strength.”
“That is the other thing, Jake believes that the other factions are much smaller. He believes that they number less than fifty bodies total,” Shelly said.
“So how have they managed to last this long?”
“Probably by running and hiding,” Shelly said with a non-committal shrug. “They were not really a threat to Winters and his gang, so there was probably no need to waste resources to root them out.”
“But they were hitting those other folks in the surrounding area.”
“Which is another reason that Jake feels these other factions are small potatoes. Winters was probably prioritizing the threats and dealing with them accordingly.”
“Sounds like a lot of guessing and supposing.”
“Jake feels pretty confident about it.” Shelly looked at me funny. “You thinking that there might be more to it?”
“Have the prisoners that we managed to find come around enough to be interrogated yet?”
“No, in fact, one of them finally died. The one that is still alive might make it, but Dr. Zahn isn’t giving up too much information.”
“That is who we need to get our information from,” I said. “We are getting ready to mount major operations here with little to no real intel.”
“In
tel? What world are you living in, Billy? Those days are long gone. These days, we do almost everything by the seat of our pants.”
She had a good point. I guess I didn’t come to that conclusion until that very moment. We were constantly in a state of reaction. Everything that we did was in response to somebody or something that set us in motion. Perhaps that was what we could eventually find here in La Grande.
“Go ask Dr. Zahn if she has a minute?”
Shelly nodded and left the room. I sat up and my ribs immediately punished me for my hastiness. Once I regained my breath, I eased very gently out of the bed. When my feet touched the floor, my legs initially buckled just a bit. I had not been on them for a couple of days and they did not enjoy this new dynamic.
I went over to the small pressboard closet with the handle that was hanging on by one partially stripped screw and opened it to see if there might be clothes inside. Luck was with me. A pair of coveralls, boxers, socks, gloves, and my boots were waiting.
I had to go sit in the musty cloth-covered chair to dress, and by the time Dr. Zahn showed up, I was dressed and sitting there waiting for her. Fortunately, she had taken a few minutes and I was able to get my breathing under control. My ribs were going to be a problem, and the armpit-to-waist shrink wrap Spandex corset or whatever this fresh torture device might be called made breathing a real chore.
“Mr. Haynes,” the doctor said by way of greeting. “I see that you have decided to listen to all of the knuckleheads and get out of your bed far too early.”
“Seems to me that a lot is going on out there,” I said. I braced myself for the poking and prodding as the doctor leaned down to examine me. I even managed to bite back the first few winces of pain.
“And what do you hope to offer to this circus of insanity?’ the doctor chuckled as she peeled down my overly snug rib protection and looked at the various shades of blue, purple, and green that swirled together to form some hideous bruising.
