by Brown, TW
“Things have been a bit crazy and I was really letting my emotions get the better of me. I am sure that you had your reasons for leaving me behind, just as I am sure that you knew what you were doing with Gable.” Okay, she was seriously overestimating me, but I was not going to stop her while she was on a roll. “You are a good person, Billy.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “And I love you.”
Huh?
I at least had the sense of mind to keep that thought inside my head and not blurt it out. I’d never said those words to anybody that wasn’t family, Jamie, Joseph, or Aaron. I’d had sort of girlfriends in school. But I just had never been able to let those words fall out of my mouth. It had cost me a few times when whoever I was dating would say it and I would just stare back…or worse…say something like, “That’s good.”
“I love you, Katrina.” My mouth felt funny, like it was not used to forming that particular combination of sounds in a string. For a few seconds, I was not actually certain that I’d really said them out loud. Then Katrina launched herself at me and started kissing me and I felt pretty sure that I had, in fact, spoken.
With a sudden push, she shoved away from me just enough to look up into my face and lock my eyes with hers. I was hit by how pretty she was in that exact instant. Red puffy eyes be damned, she was the most beautiful woman in the world to me at that moment.
“Don’t do anything stupid out there.” I gave a nod of understanding, but she shook her head almost violently. “No, I’m serious. Don’t you dare hesitate, or not do something because you think I might not be okay with it. All I want for you to be certain of is that I love you with all my heart and want you to come home. Show no mercy out there. You have said it, but I don’t think I have been listening. This is not the Old World. The rules that we knew all of our lives are gone…pushed aside…buried…dead.”
I nodded and felt a surge of relief now that I was sure she understood. I thought back to that woman in the medical center that would have killed me if it were not for somebody else stepping up. If I needed any clearer example of how fatal the act of hesitation could be, I needed to look no further than that one moment.
“I want you to come home to me, Billy Haynes. I want us to spend the rest of our forevers together. I want to face this new world with you beside me, so do what you have to do and then come back to me.”
“I will.” Of course the voice in my head was telling me that I was writing checks that I had no assurances of being able to cash.
I pulled Katrina close and kissed her. It was the most wonderful kiss I’d ever experienced. I would not hesitate in the field. I would do what needed to be done in order to come back home to her.
At last, we separated. I finished putting on the rest of my gear and giving myself one final check to ensure that I had everything. Satisfied, I reached for the door, but Katrina grabbed my arm.
“Here.” She reached inside her shirt and pulled out a necklace. There was a tiny silver heart dangling from the chain. “My dad gave me this for my sixteenth birthday. It means the world to me. He died two weeks later from cancer.”
“Katrina…I can’t…” I didn’t know what to say. I could see so much raw emotion in her eyes.
“I need you to bring this back to me.” She reached up and hooked it around my throat. When she finished with the clasp, she tucked it into my shirt. The metal felt warm against my chest.
“I will bring it back and place it around your neck where it belongs,” I promised. The voice in my head was screaming at me, but I ignored it.
She needed to believe I would come back. That meant that she was not the only person who felt that this was different somehow. This was not a run against a few camp guards, or some mindless zombies. This was a preemptive strike against living human beings who probably had similar mindsets as we did about their right to be here. This was an attack against people who had fought for a year to survive and, for whatever reason, saw this compound as a threat.
We headed down the stairs and I was not surprised to find all of my people there waiting. I am not a guy who likes long goodbyes, so I held my hands up and got everybody’s attention.
“Listen, I know that you probably all have something to say, but how about if we make a deal.” I looked around the room and saw nods. “Save it for when I get back. When I return, you can each tell me how great…” I glanced at Dr. Zahn, “…or stupid you think I am.”
With that said, I headed through the small throng and out the door. I felt Darla and James fall in step behind me. I’d already told them both that we would remain together throughout this entire mission. We would watch each other’s backs until this was done and we were strolling up the sidewalk to the house. I actually managed to reach that sidewalk before a voice called out to me.
“Billy!” It was Dr. Zahn. I turned to see her striding purposely towards me. “One word in private before you go.” The doctor had that normal hard expression on her face.
I nodded for the others to go ahead. The doc was not the emotional type, so I was not expecting some heartfelt well wish. If anything, I was curious.
“You called me Billy,” I said with a smile. “You never call me that. This must be pretty important.”
“It is,” the doc said. “I want you to keep your eyes open on this run. If you see anything at all that is suspicious, I want you to promise me that you will break everything off and return here, young man. I will have the house packed and ready to move at a moment’s notice.”
“I don’t get it. You think something is fishy?”
“Grady says that the two people who tried to kill you…Jessie and Joshua I believe were their names?” I nodded. “Yes, well he says that they have revealed that there are others who share their desire to be rid of Graham and Carol. It may all be just talk, apparently Grady refuses to utilize more coercive methods to get them to give up information.”
“You mean torture?”
“I mean doing what it takes to get information to save the population.” The doctor’s face was even more grim than usual. I had a feeling she was saying a lot more than I was picking up. “Just watch your back. Are we clear?”
“Crystal,” I said with a curt nod. I turned to go, but I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and Dr. Zahn pulled me close into a fierce hug. And just that quick, she stepped back, turned, and walked back to the house.
“Son of a bitch,” I whispered.
***
We had arrived at the school as requested to discover what had to be at least two hundred people decked out in enough camo gear to make your eyes hurt. The thing is, most of that stuff had a well-worn look to it. Yep, I thought, welcome to Redneck Country.
Carol had us split into four units. I had one, she had one, Graham had one, and I was not surprised to see that Tish had one. The section leaders gathered around a table with a huge map of the area spread out. It had all sorts of things marked on the plastic overlay that covered it. Each of us was given a specific location to hit. My target was a place called Bernie Park.
“They have tents set up here and we have been told that one of their warlords will be present,” Carol said, pointing to the spot on the map.
“Warlords?” I muttered. “Really? We are calling them warlords?” I ignored the dirty looks shot my direction.
One by one, each of us was given our target. The plan was to slip in and hit hard. I had been informed that every single person had been given an allotment of three grenades—the entirety of the stash scooped from the armory. They were not going to hold anything back.
The briefing was short as far as briefings go. The basic idea was to come in fast and inflict massive damage—basically the same thing that had been done to us the other night. The big difference was that we would be hitting them at just about midday. The idea was that this was a time when they would least expect us to attack. Also, since the report had them most likely coming for us after dark tonight, there was a high probability that they would be in a sort of
stand down mode.
Each of the section leaders was given a watch. The time had been set to 8AM. Our objective was to be in place by noon and attack at that exact moment. It all sounded good as far as plans go, but I’d just had a plan go exactly as designed without a single casualty or incident. I was due for some major clusterfucks.
I returned to my group to discover Darla and James had them ready to go. I told them exactly what had been related to me at the briefing and produced my own small, hand drawn copy of a map of the area.
“We have the greatest distance to cover,” I explained as I pointed out the other locations that would come under attack. “I want everybody to stay close and alert. The one thing we have going for us is the element of surprise. I would prefer that we not give that up.
“I will be sending out a single two person scout team. Your job is to make it to the waypoint I give you and then wait for our arrival. If you find something, I do not want you to engage. Instead, one of you will keep eyes on the target and the other will hurry back with the information.
“Ideally we will not use our firearms until we launch our attack, but I don’t want somebody dying in the process. Your life is just as valuable as everybody else. I get the whole idea of sacrifice for the greater good, but I also do not want you to be in a life or death situation and bite it because you hesitated.”
I saw grim faces staring back at me. For the first time, I noticed that Doubting Thomas was in my group. Swell.
“Any questions?” I asked, making one more scan of everybody’s faces. I knew that getting names was pointless since I would not remember them, but I wanted to know their faces. For some reason, that felt important. When it was clear that there were no questions, not even from Doubting Thomas, I selected two people at random and pointed to a spot on the map where they would hold until we arrived. I made it clear as to where we would come from provided there were no problems.
The pair gave a nod and took off at a jog to get some distance between the main body and themselves. I took a few seconds to get a visual inventory of the firepower we were loaded out with. Everybody had some form of pistol holstered at his or her side. Everybody carried a rifle; it varied from military to your standard hunting rifle. A few had shotguns and over half were carrying bows or crossbows. I saw a wide variety of bladed weapons, axes, and even a few bandoliers of throwing knives. Last but not least, each person had three grenades somewhere on their person.
When we reached our target, the plan was for us to all lob one into the midst of the camp we were hitting. We were to follow it with a second one, and the third grenade was to be used at our discretion. The hope was that we could take out most of these folks in the initial two blasts and then sweep in and eliminate the remainder of the targets with our firearms. It sure sounded easy on paper.
The first half hour went by with almost nothing worth batting an eye at. The few zombies we did see were either creepers or far enough away not to be of any consequence. I did make it a point to tell my group to keep an especially watchful eye out for child zombies.
It was coming up on the end of the first hour when we saw the first one. To be more specific, my scouts located a cluster of three. I signaled for Darla to move on to the next waypoint while I took James and three others, who carried crossbows, with me. We followed the scout to where she had spotted the children. I realized that I came across as a bit overly cautious, but I was also very aware that the people assigned to me other than James and Darla were clueless as to how the zombie children differed.
Dr. Zahn was now of the firm belief that it had something to do with the fact that a child’s mind is still in a highly developmental stage. She feels that the children exhibit more cognizance due to the fact that some aspect of their brain is as strong or stronger than whatever is causing the zombie to become the mindless eating machines that we know so well. All I know is that they give me a massive dose of the creeps.
We reached the corner of a little blue building with some of the letters still hanging on the side that labeled this the La Grande Small Animal Clinic. I peeked around the corner and felt my blood turn to ice. Sure enough, there were three zombie children. However, they were clustered around a huge tabby cat. The cat did not seem the least bit bothered as she lay on her side while her litter of kittens fed. The zombie children were acting like…
“It’s like they are freaking living kids,” one of my soldiers whispered. “Are they petting that damn cat?”
I looked closer. Nope…it was far worse than that. One of the children had a hand extended and the mother cat was nibbling on one ragged digit. I’d seen zombie dogs, but I had not seen any zombie cats. Maybe cats were immune. I had no idea, but I also knew that Jamie had been immune and he passed the disease on to Teresa when they had sex. Whatever this was, it could be transmitted.
“Kill them all,” I whispered.
“Even the cats?” somebody asked.
“Especially the cats,” I snarled. I made a mental note to share this most recent discovery with Dr. Zahn.
In the end, it was pretty anticlimactic. I had been concerned that the zombie children were just bait and that another much larger bunch was waiting to spring the ambush. Instead, it was just so much creepier. We caught up with the rest of the group at the next waypoint. I did not miss the looks of confusion on the faces of the three locals who had been with me on probably the strangest kill that I had been a part of so far. Also, I’d had to be the one to kill the kittens. Just add it to the list of things that I will have nightmares about for the rest of my life.
Everybody else was too squeamish when it came down to just the five little pods of mewling fur. I took no joy in it, but I also could not risk letting them run free if there was even the slightest chance that they carried the zombie disease. I just hoped that the sick feeling in my stomach would go away soon.
I’d had a black and white cat when I was growing up. Her name had been Stockings. My mom had wanted to call her Socks, but I said that was too boring and normal. Stocking slept in my bed at night and was the coolest cat ever. She would sit up on my windowsill and wait for me to come home. As soon as she saw me and knew that I’d seen her, she would leap away and I would find her at the front door. I must have cried for a week when she had to be put to sleep.
We had only gotten two blocks when they came out from what seemed like every dark shadow, crack, or crevice. By my best guess, there were at least fifty of the zombie children between the ages of five and eleven. They did not rush us; they simply stepped out and made their presence felt. One of them crept out from under a pile of garbage that, on second glance, seemed a bit out of place.
“You have got to be kidding me,” somebody whispered as the one that emerged from the garbage pile cocked its head and let loose with a soft groan.
This one was a little girl. Her clothing was rotten and in tatters; it looked like the next rain would wash it away. A rip across her throat and a few chunks out of her arms gave away her cause of death.
“Everybody keep your hands clear of your weapons,” I said just loud enough to be heard.
“Say what?” somebody yelped.
“I said keep your hands away from your weapons. Keep your eyes on them, but let’s move past.”
“Are you sure about this?” Darla whispered.
I wasn’t. Every instinct in my gut was telling me to put these things down. However, they had not yet made a move for us. I’d seen enough of their behavior and actually paid attention to some of the things that Dr. Zahn said.
“They are more afraid of us than we are of them,” I said as I began to walk, my head on a bit of a swivel. If one of those things so much as moved in our direction, the gig was up.
Maybe I was still feeling the mental hurt from just having killed a batch of kittens. I was not quite yet ready to lay into a bunch of little kids unless I absolutely had to do it. I heard a few people muttering curses that I was pretty sure were directed more at me than the zombie children. Stil
l, the kids stayed put.
We made it to the other side of the gauntlet and I pulled up, ensuring that every one of my people had made it past before I fell in. I glanced back just as we rounded the next corner and made our turn south. The little girl was standing in the middle of the street. From this distance, she could be just a regular kid. I was pretty sure that I imagined her hand rising in the air as if to wave goodbye.
Once we were clear, I let my breath out as quietly as possible. I had told myself that I would not hesitate. Katrina had urged me not to show any mercy. I knew I would have to be on my toes when we went into action against living human beings. Only…this seemed different somehow. I would have shown no such mercy towards normal zombies, but Dr. Zahn insisted that there was something abnormal when it came to the child zombie. I had seen it with my own two eyes. I was not about to invite one to come live with me, but I honestly believed that I did not need to attack them until given a reason.
“They could have torn us apart,” a voice said from beside me, shaking me out of my thoughts.
“What?” I asked, blinking my eyes and glancing at the female scout that had led us to the first cluster of zombie children that had been playing with the cats.
“Turk and I walked right down the street where all of those other kids were. I passed within a few feet of that garbage pile.” The woman shuddered at the thought of how close she had come to death. “We got him to the waypoint before I doubled back to warn you. It was only a couple of blocks further and seemed like no big deal since it was only the three…or so we thought.”
Yep, I had a lot to tell Dr. Zahn when I got back. For whatever reason, the zombie children had left us alone and let us pass. Of course that would probably mean another trip out to try and capture one of the little monsters, but one problem at a time.
