by Brown, TW
Catie looked around the room and then back to the pair standing in the doorway. “But you said something about a meal? And what about if I have to use the bathroom?”
“Back behind that partition is a bucket…and we will have a plate brought to you. Just like room service,” Jordan said over Latricia’s shoulder. Catie saw something in the man’s expression that had her deciding that, no matter how tempting it would doubtlessly look and smell, she would not be eating the meal.
And then the door closed leaving her in the gloom of the day’s fading light that trickled through the window. Sure enough, about an hour later, a pair of men arrived with an actual cafeteria tray that was heaped with some sort of hot vegetable stew over rice and a big slice of fresh bread.
Giving the stew a longing look, she picked up the bread and inspected it. She doubted they could bake knockout drugs into a loaf of bread, so she decided to allow herself the one luxury.
Biting into the chunk of warm, crusty bread, Catie could not help but allow a soft sigh of pleasure escape her lips. She savored each bite, allowing it to almost melt on her tongue.
When she finished, she went over to the shelf on the wall where rows of bottled water sat neatly under a sign that read: Please, take one, but save the rest for the next person.
After inspecting the bottle’s seal and giving it a good wipe down and then squeeze to ensure to the best of her ability that nothing had been injected into it, Catie took a drink.
It was seldom that she enjoyed the luxury of drinking water that was not rain water or something filtered through a carbon insert. While it did not compare to the piece of bread, it was still very good.
After dumping the rest of her meal into the toilet bucket, Catie climbed into bed and decided to take advantage of the chance to get some rest. She knew herself well enough to know that she would not sleep through somebody entering the room; her senses were far too aware for that to be a likelihood.
As she drifted off to sleep, she almost felt guilty about Aleah and Rose out there having to fend for themselves. Still, this was the calm before the storm; she had a feeling it would be a rough next couple of days.
5
Battle
“I think you all need to hear what Mister Perry has to say,” Carol huffed, her hands on her knees as she fought to catch her breath.
I glanced over at Mister Perry. He looked like the stereotype of a high school science teacher. He was tall and skinny and an unhealthy looking pasty white that made his obvious nervous perspiration look like a greasy coating. He wore some of the thickest glasses that a nose could support, and his hair was slicked down on his head in probably the dorkiest hairstyle I’d ever seen in my life. He had huge eyes that were magnified to cartoonish proportions due to his thick lenses.
It was very apparent that Mister Perry was not comfortable with all of the attention suddenly directed his way. He fidgeted and started wringing his hands and had to almost be physically dragged into the living room where everybody sat. Graham was looking at Carol with a raised eyebrow, but she tilted her head towards Mister Perry and gave a curt nod.
“He smells funny,” Thalia whispered loud enough for everybody in the room—Mister Perry included—to hear.
Somebody shushed her, but I don’t think the man was paying any attention. He looked…scared.
“Mister Haynes did not do anything wrong,” Mister Perry blurted so quickly that the words all ran together.
“Tell them what you told me, Gerald,” Carol urged with a softness in her voice that actually seemed to put the man at ease.
After a loud gulp, Gerald Perry began to recount the events of the run. For the first part of his story, I was nodding along. It was almost my account word for word. He even mentioned how it seemed like I was being ignored or frozen out by the group. When he got to the part about the child zombies, I could tell that he was visibly shaken by what had happened. I was also surprised to discover that he and a few others on the team had witnessed exactly what had gone down with me and Frank.
“After Mister Haynes vanished into the building, Jessie called everybody back and said that we were aborting the mission. She said that there was no point in making this run, and that we should use the current distraction to assist in our escape.”
Great, I thought. I did not like the idea of being referred to as “the current distraction.”
“The only problem was that a few of the others balked at just leaving Frank to possibly turn.”
This was getting better by the second.
“Things got a bit heated and there were even a few weapons drawn. Sheldon and I sort of guided the other guys from the engineering team back just in case it got violent. Fortunately, Jessie backed down. She and Joshua agreed to put Frank down if there was enough left that might come back and to at least check on Mister Haynes.”
“Excuse me,” Dr. Zahn interrupted, “but we pretty much know this already. Do you have anything that would be considered useful?”
Leave it to the doc to get to the point.
“Actually…” Carol Wills spoke up, shooting a bit of a nasty glare Dr. Zahn’s direction as she spoke, “he does. Go ahead and tell them, Mister Perry.”
“The night before we made the attempted run on the Güstav-ödeen warehouse, I was having trouble sleeping.” Mister Perry blushed and looked around with a sheepish expression plastered on his face. “I don’t do well outdoors…never was much of a camper and the ground was so uncomfortable, I think I was sleeping on every sharp rock in the area. But anyways, I got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. I found some nearby brush and was going about my business when I heard voices. They were whispering, but not very well if keeping quiet was their goal. I heard Jessie, Joshua and three voices that I did not recognize in a very heated conversation.
“Jessie was telling somebody that she would only be able to keep our teams out of this place for a few more weeks at best. She said that Graham was becoming insistent, and that she felt he would mobilize a much larger force to make another trip if this one failed. At some point, Joshua suggested that these strangers that they were talking to bring in one of their herds. He said that they would need to lose a few people to give their story some weight when they returned to La Grande. He also said that they could blame the losses on Mister Haynes. They were still talking, but I did not want to get caught, so I slipped back to my bed.”
“And you didn’t think to say anything to…I don’t know…ME!” I snapped, jumping to my feet and wanting nothing more than to smash this geek right smack dab in the mouth.
“I was…” Mister Perry looked to be on the verge of tears. “I was scared.”
“Lot of good that would have done if—” I shut my mouth so hard that my teeth clacked. I was not going to give up BP, Grady or his group.
I noticed Dr. Zahn’s sideways glance; it was really only a flick of her eyes, but I could tell that she was wondering what I might reveal if I started blabbing. I had never been a good actor, and my mom knew if I was lying before the words had finished spewing out of my mouth. I took a deep breath and tried to pretend that I was attempting to get my anger back under control.
“A lot of good that would do if I had ended up being ripped to shreds by that zombie herd. As many as there were, at least there would not have been enough of me to come back.” I saw the slightest of nods from Dr. Zahn.
“I think we have heard enough for you to know that William was at no fault,” Dr. Zahn said as she turned all of her attention to Graham. “I suggest that you assemble your council, or whatever you call it here, and decide how to deal with your people.”
“I-I-I am—” Graham started, but the doc was done listening.
“Please, show yourselves out.” Melissa had gotten up and moved over to open the door.
“This is just—” Graham was still trying to apologize or plead his case, but nobody in this room cared to hear it.
“Go away, you bad man!” Thalia said with a stomp of on
e tiny foot and her arms crossing her chest. It would have been cute and comical if I had not suddenly remembered the day that she had me step back so that she could kill the zombie version of her dog. That serious look on her face was in no way meant to be cute or comical; she was as serious as a heart attack.
Graham, Carol, and Mister Perry all left. Sunshine stood at the window to ensure that nobody else was coming; at least that was what I had to assume she was doing. After a minute or so, she turned back to face everybody.
“They left, but Graham said something to his little goon patrol and two of them are still hanging around,” she reported.
“They can do what they want,” Dr. Zahn said with a shrug. “Tonight I will meet up with this person from Grady’s group. Perhaps we need to be packed and ready to leave.”
I heard and saw the disappointment on pretty much every face. I know that I was sick of scraping and struggling and hoping to God that some larger group did not come and either raid us, take us prisoner, or just plain wipe us out. Here in La Grande, I had almost believed that we would be able to settle down and start in on the business of trying to get some sort of normal life going; or at least as much as a person could in the middle of the zombie apocalypse.
***
“You think we will have to leave?” Katrina asked as we lay on the bed. I was staring up at the ceiling while she lay snuggled in close, running one index finger over my chest in some looping pattern.
“I think it is a big possibility,” I said with more sadness in my voice than I wanted her to hear.
“We could go back to that camp you guys had set up.”
I had given that some serious consideration. I still did not really understand why we had left that place to begin with. After all, we had worked hard to make it defensible. Sure, we were at risk if a large band of raiders came through, but that would be the case no matter where we called home.
However, there was something to be said about making La Grande our home, but I was not sure that we were all that welcome. Despite my name basically being cleared of what had been reported, it seemed like I was being watched by Graham’s security force. The trio that had posted up just down the street was still there the last time that I looked.
“I bet we could pull in a few stragglers. And you said that Grady has a nice, small group,” Katrina said around a big yawn.
And that was another thing bouncing around in my head. What was the deal with Grady? He seemed like a nice enough guy, but he was pretty skittish when it came to letting people know about his existence. And Dr. Zahn obviously wanted him and his people kept a secret.
Too damn many secrets, I thought with annoyance. Maybe it is my youthful inexperience, or perhaps I am just stupid, but all of this secrecy seems senseless.
I was just dozing off when the door opened. Dr. Zahn stepped in with Sunshine in tow. I realize that privacy is almost extinct, but for crying out loud, the door was shut!
“Get up and get dressed, William,” Dr. Zahn whispered.
“Why?” Hadn’t I done more than my share the past few days? And what does a guy have to do to merit some rest around here?
“And bring Katrina,” Sunshine added as the doctor exited.
“Umm…” but I was talking to the back side of a shut door.
I woke Katrina. She was just as puzzled as I was as to what this could be about. I picked up my clothes, not at all happy about putting on the smelly gear. Funny, but back when I was playing high school football, I had become accustomed to a certain degree of funk. It used to make my mom crazy. But the stink from my field gear with its flecks and bits of zombie had a stench that was beyond anything I had ever smelled in my life.
I slung my M4 over my shoulder and opened the door once Katrina was finished getting dressed. Dr. Zahn and Sunshine were whispering something and looked pretty grim. Whatever this was, it was bad.
“So what gives?” I asked in a whisper. I didn’t really know why I was whispering since we were inside our own house, but it felt like the thing to do.
“My watch was cancelled,” Sunshine said with a snarl. “I have been told to take a few days off.”
“Did they say why?” I asked.
“They did, but it was just a load of malarkey. The watch captain said that there were still a few things in my training packet that I needed to cover before he could put me in a tower.”
“So what do we do?” Katrina asked in her normal voice which seemed incredibly loud and scared the beejeezus out of me.
“After we scrape William off the ceiling, the four of us are slipping out to meet up with this Paisano person,” Dr. Zahn said with a bemused smirk on her face. “We will see what he has to say to me, and then we will make our decision as to how to handle things. We won’t be sharing this with Darla until we have a concrete decision made.”
Great…more secrets, I moaned inwardly.
“Melissa has opted to stay here with Thalia, Rabia, Levent and the baby. She said that she understood our choice, and if we did leave, she would be sad to see us go, but she believed that the baby would be safer here.”
I had to say that I felt just a little ashamed at the sense of relief that hit me when the doc said Melissa and the baby would not be joining us if we decided to leave La Grande. My only regret would be leaving Thalia behind. I could not explain it, but I felt a real affinity for that girl. Maybe it had something to do with that moment that we shared when she put Buster down.
“Do you think it is wise to tell Darla at all?” Katrina asked. I felt her grip on my arm tighten a little as she spoke.
“The young lady is an asset, and I believe that she wishes to remain with us. If she decides that is what she wants to do, then we will allow her to do so.”
“Damn right you will,” a voice came from a dark corner at the end of the hallway. A shadow pulled away from the wall and came our direction.
“Darla,” Dr. Zahn said with a stoical tone, “I believe that I asked you to keep watch from the roof.”
“I was, and that is why I am here now. I thought you all might like to know that a small team of about a half dozen just left the compound. They are probably off to check out the blazing fire that started up about ten minutes ago just to the south of Tower Ten.”
“That was the tower that I was supposed to be at when I had my watch this evening,” Sunshine said.
“Then I say we go now. The focus is obviously going to be on that fire for a spell. If anybody tries to stop us, we give them the choice to step aside. If they insist on stopping us, then we take the necessary actions.” There was a tightness in the doc’s voice that made it clear she was not above taking a few lives if it came down to such things. Dr. Zahn was obviously ready for whatever might be ahead.
I had to give her credit, for an older lady, she was pretty damn tough. Honestly, I hoped it did not come down to us having to fight our way out of here. I was really crossing my fingers that we would have a few things go our way.
Heading down the stairs, I heard at least two weapons have their safeties clicked off. The coppery taste of adrenaline was filling my mouth, and the fatigue that I had felt only moments before was erased. I knew it was only temporary, and that I was going to be exhausted when the effects ebbed, but I welcomed it for the moment.
My hand had just touched the doorknob when I heard voices from right on the other side. I let go like it was molten metal and stepped back. I felt more than heard everybody behind me bringing their weapons up. I barely had time to wonder where Dr. Zahn had come up with that cannon of a rifle she had shoved against her shoulder before the knob turned slowly.
“…when you wake them, I don’t want any trouble,” a voice that I recognized as Graham’s came in a hushed whisper as the door began to swing open slowly.
“Too late,” I said in my normal tone. The need for any more whispering was gone now.
Even in the dark, there was enough ambient light to see Graham’s eyes go wide as he turned his head forward and discovered
he was looking down the barrels of three rifles and two handguns. He froze, but the people behind him were still playing visual catch up and plowed into his back, sending him stumbling another step closer.
“Everybody freeze!” I barked. It was time to try and take control of this situation before it turned nasty.
“Whoa! Whoa!” Graham was sputtering.
I reached out and grabbed him by the arm, yanking him in hard and flinging him to the floor at my feet. His crew was not very good, and I noticed that they all stood there with open mouths and idiotic expressions of surprise on their faces. These people would not last one day outside the walls of this compound, I decided.
“We don’t want any trouble,” Graham was pleading.
“Which is why you were sneaking into our house fully armed?” Katrina said with a bit of a kick to Graham’s ribs. It wasn’t hard, just with enough force to cause him to cough a bit.
“Actually,” one of the people who had come with Graham spoke up, “we came to check on you all and make sure that nobody had been harmed.”
“And why would you need to do that?” I was just a little surprised to hear Darla pipe in. She sounded as angry and indignant as the rest of us.
“A group of individuals snuck in about an hour ago, best we can tell. They killed at least one of our tower watches. We think they deliberately set fire to an old farmhouse to distract us. Sadly…it worked,” Graham said from where he lay on the floor at our feet.
“Still not sure why you are here,” I snarled, giving him a none-too-gentle nudge with the toe of my boot.
“I was afraid that it might be those individuals that Mister Perry had mentioned. Perhaps you were followed.” Graham kept his hands up in a symbol of surrender, but very carefully rolled over onto his back. “So…I know I am not in any position to make demands or requests, but might I ask why the five of you are suited up and obviously preparing for some sort of excursion?”
