by Brown, TW
With that, Tina took off. Ronni felt a pang of remorse for not telling the woman that it wasn’t zombies. That last comment especially had her thinking that Tina would certainly not be part of that group of crazies. Still, a person had a natural reaction to hurry when they thought that the zombies were coming.
Once the woman had vanished from sight, Ronni turned to the door. She tried to twist the knob and cursed; the stupid thing was locked! If Tina had a key, she had not given it to Ronni.
Removing the black semi-automatic pistol from the holster, Ronni was a little surprised at the weight. It sure seemed heavy. She gave the weapon an inspection; it was loaded. Gripping it with both hands, she raised it to about where she figured the doorknob to be and let her finger curl around the trigger. Squeezing, she felt her arms fly up a bit as if somebody had just smacked the bottoms of her clenched fists.
Taking a moment to inspect, she was disappointed to see that there was a nice hole about two inches to the right of the doorknob. She took a step closer and tried to aim like her dad had taught her with a rifle. She fired a second time and was elated when the doorknob practically fell off.
Ronnie shoved the pistol in the holster and stepped into the long, dark building. She did a mental slap of her forehead.
“Crap,” she breathed, “forgot to bring a light.”
She took a few steps in and felt her entire plan seep from her. There was just no way that she could feel around and find what she was looking for and then hope to get back in time to be of any help.
Ronni spun in frustration and felt her heart leap. Hanging on a hook just inside the door was a lantern. To make it an even better find, there was a lighter sitting on the shelf right beside where the lantern hung. She did not know why somebody had thought to do this, but she wanted to give them a big hug right at that moment.
In a matter of seconds, she had the lantern lit and was moving in among the boxes. She thought back to when Dustin had taken her and her dad on a tour of the place. Whether he had been showing off, or was genuinely just proud, he had made a bid deal of one box in particular.
“M320 Grenade Launcher Module,” she read the lettering stamped on the green metal case.
Opening the lid she pulled it out. Picking it up, Ronni pulled out several of the strangely shaped rounds and shoved them in every pocket.
Hurrying outside, she stopped to fumble over the thing. It took her a lot longer than she expected to figure out how to get the damn thing loaded and ready. She hoped that she had done it right. Even more importantly, she really hoped that she would not have to actually fire the weapon. She didn’t want to blow anybody up, and unlike a gun, she knew that she would not be able to direct her fire at one person. The only way that this would work is if there were a group of Brett’s people together without anybody that was not on their side mixed in. Still, it could not be helped.
Ronni took off at a run. As she drew nearer, she heard a lot of yelling and cursing. The one thing that she was grateful for was that there were no gunshots.
Rounding the corner of the last house that she could use as cover, Ronni saw a scene that made her almost want to be sick. From the big beam that came out from the loft, they had Dustin hanging; only, he wasn’t dead. He was kicking his feet and his hands were trying desperately to get between the rope and his neck. There was a circle of people around him and they were all yelling and screaming.
She didn’t see Scott anywhere, so she had to figure that he was somewhere in the midst of all those people. She also did not see Tina. She pushed aside the guilt that tried to rise up. That was all stuff that she would have to deal with later. Right now, she had to stop this.
She looked down at the weapon and then back at the crowd. An idea came and she ducked back behind the house. The first thing that she would need to do was to ensure that she could reload this thing quickly. She went through the steps to remove the round, and then reload it. That seemed easy enough. She still had no idea if she had done it right. The only way she could be sure was to go ahead with her plan.
Ronni stepped back around the corner of the house. Her eyes scanned the area for someplace open. She really was hoping that she would not have to actually kill somebody.
Bringing the stock up to her shoulder, Ronni looked through the funny shaped sight and hoped. She squeezed the trigger and heard a disappointing “thop” sound. She dropped the barrel end of the weapon in frustration just as an explosion came, sending a puff of dirt into the air.
***
“Listen, I am sorry about the theatrics,” Sergeant Pitts said as he took a seat across the table from Jody. “But the reality is that we have had some pretty bad luck with other survivor groups.”
“And you thought that we might be like them? Jody scoffed. “I got news for ya, we have been on the level with you from the beginning. All of the crap…all of the games? That has been all you, so don’t give me a line about how you had to be sure that you could trust us. You basically blackmailed my people into sending our women to act as breeding stock.”
“You don’t understand!” Pitts smacked his hand on the table. “If humanity is going to have any chance at survival, we have to reproduce. And if we can add some depth to our gene pool, then so much the better. Otherwise, we may not last another decade.”
“And did you ever stop to think that maybe we weren’t supposed to?”
“Don’t get up on some kind of high horse with me, Rafe.” The sergeant sat back in his chair and raised an eyebrow at Jody. He waited patiently for the man to catch his meaning. When it happened, a visual flush of red came to Jody’s face.
“We were doing what we did under orders, the situation was fluid and things went bad fast. We couldn’t start questioning or else we would have fallen like so many of the others that we were in contact with,” Jody said, his voice barely a whisper as if he might be replaying some terrible event in his mind.
“Don’t try to sell me. And that excuse about following orders stopped being valid around the time of Vietnam, you know it and so do I.”
“So…what…you were being some sort of moral compass for the unit when you went AWOL?”
“They were going to send her to some medical facility to use as a lab rat. And I don’t know about you, but I have not seen any sort of miracle cure appear. Hell, I bet those places fell just like anyplace else. This wasn’t some cold or flu bug. This was the stuff that horror movies were made of…the kind of unreal scenario that lots of people talked and joked about, but nobody took seriously.”
“Still, those first weeks…how could we know?”
“We torched an entire town and shot anybody who tried to escape!” Pitts slapped the table again and rose to his feet. “We were murderers…we were the bad guy!”
“Everything okay, Sarge?” a man stuck his head in the room, his rifle in his hands.
“Fine, Stallings…just rehashing some old times…reliving some emotional memories.” Pitts gave a dismissive wave of his hand and took his seat. Stallings disappeared from the doorway, but he eyed Jody first as if to perhaps remind him that he was being watched. “We were supposed to protect…and how did things go in Bald Knob?”
“And I did the best I could to stay as long as I could and help those people,” Jody shot back. “What did you do? Oh…that’s right! You LEFT!” Jody was done trying to keep civil. If Pitts was going to kill him, then so be it, but he was not going to play games with this man anymore.
The sergeant stared at Jody from across the table. For several long moments, the two men said nothing. Then, Pitts nodded and got up. He turned away from Jody and looked out the window.
“Listen, Rafe,” Pitts sighed, suddenly sounding tired, “if we are going to coexist, then I have to know that I can count on you and your people.”
“That street runs both directions, Sarge,” Jody said, putting a distasteful spin on the man’s title. “You talk a good game, but the way I see it, you are pushing us around, holding the threat of being wiped ou
t over our heads. How do you think we feel? And this latest stunt…it was childish and could have gotten one or all of my team killed.”
“How do you figure? My men were under strict orders and they follow them.”
“Maybe you haven’t been paying attention, but there are zombies out there. They don’t follow anybody’s orders. They just sorta do what they want.”
Pitts sat back in his chair. He regarded Jody for a moment and then leaned forward. “Perhaps you are right. What you need is a show of faith on my part. Despite what you believe or what you think of me as a person, I do actually want our two communities to live in peace…grow…heck, even prosper if that is possible.”
“You got a messed up way of showing it.”
Pitts nodded and then laid out a few things for Jody to take back to his people. When it was all said and done, Jody was almost to the point of allowing himself to feel optimistic. If the sergeant really meant what he said, then there was a chance that things might improve. He knew that it would be impossible to please everybody, but this was a good start to bring in the most people…on both sides.
He exited the house where they had been meeting for the better part of two hours and took a look around. He hadn’t paid much attention when they first arrived. His mind had been focused on Pitts and the situation he and the others back in Hope were facing. Now, he was able to really take in this settlement.
It was small town America. Visually, you would be hard pressed to know the world had ended. There were shops open and folks drifting in and out of them. The only real giveaways were the obvious lack of women and children and the fact that everybody he saw was carrying at least one weapon.
“Maybe we can make this work,” Jody said to himself as he waved for Danny who was sitting on a bench in the park across the street.
“So are we going to be executed?” Danny chuckled as he walked up to Jody, making a point of flipping the bird as he crossed the street to the guard who was standing on the second floor balcony.
“Nope,” Jody answered as he started up the street to the hotel that the rest of his people had been sent to while he met with Pitts. “Actually, it looks like things are going to be okay. We are heading back to Hope where we will fill everybody in and see what folks think.”
“Think about what?” Danny asked suspiciously. “Don’t tell me that Pitts got you to drink the Kool-Aid.”
“Nothing like that,” Jody said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I will fill you in when we are all together, I don’t want to have to repeat myself a dozen times.”
The two men reached the hotel and stopped at the door where George and the others were being held. There was a single man posted outside the door with an M4. Jody handed the man a slip of paper. The guy read it, nodded, slung his weapon over his shoulder, and walked to the door that led to what had been the office and disappeared inside.
“You got it like that now?” Danny joked, but Jody ignored the jibe and entered the room.
“We free to go?” Jess Gandley asked, her irritation clear.
“Yep,” Jody said with a nod.
With that, the woman suddenly became visibly disheartened. A tear welled in her left eye and spilled over down her cheek.
“But first, Sergeant Pitts thought that you might want to check in on your daughter. Also, apparently a couple of you have friends here?” Jody looked around the room. He shouldn’t have been surprised that all but Danny and George had somebody here that they were close to—of course Danny had Kat as well, but he hadn’t so much as mentioned the girl during their trip over, so he was not sure.
“We can see them?” One of the men stepped forward. “I’ve lived next door to the Jones family all my life, and when Helen lost her husband to cancer, she just sort of became one of the family.”
Jody felt that sickness in his gut start to return. It was bad enough that he’d allowed this to happen, but he had managed to avoid the personal stories. That had made it at least close to tolerable. All he had to worry about had been Kat.
“Yep, we can see them now before we head back to Hope,” Jody confirmed.
Everybody filed out of the room except for George and Danny. Both men looked like they had something on their minds.
“Yes?” Jody looked first at one man and then the other. Neither would hold his gaze.
“You mind if I tag along to check on Kat?” Danny finally asked.
Jody rolled his eyes. “Really? You think you need to ask about something like that? Man, you are such an idiot.” He turned to George. “And you? What’s your problem?”
“I was wondering if I could stick around here for a bit? You see…Margarita…umm…” the big man mumbled in a voice that was barely audible.
“Fucking hilarious!” Danny crowed as he left the room.
16
The Geek’s Last Leg
“Bill, Jane, Jose and Manuel,” Kevin whispered, “you go left through those trees and come up at the edge of the field this place borders. Try to see what we are dealing with and do what you think needs to be done based on what you see. Barney, Heather, Aleah and Jill come with me. The rest of you move down by the brush alongside the stream. You should have a perfect view of this clearing in case anybody gets through.”
“What about Cherish?” Shauna asked.
“Leave her…she can act as bait or a distraction.” Kevin turned to lead his group into the darkness. Behind him he heard somebody—he thought it might be David—whisper, “That’s some cold-blooded shit, man.”
He didn’t have time, nor did he care to debate his decision. He moved through the thick foliage and emerged just below where the interstate ran past. He was thankful that there was a bright and silvery moon tonight. It cast a bluish glow over everything and allowed him just enough vision to make out the four or five figures creeping across the highway and almost directly toward his camp.
He waited a few heartbeats until he was certain that this represented all of these potential “bad guys” that Cherish had encountered. He was only a little mad that she’d brought them straight to their camp. However, it looked like he had the advantage in numbers and surprise. Kevin signaled his group by pointing to his eyes and then the direction of the creeping shadows. He held up four fingers and then five to indicate how many he saw. Then he gave the signal for everybody to stay put.
He returned his attention to the approaching forms. By the way it looked, they would be coming within a few feet of where he and the others waited. Drawing his pistol, Kevin curled one finger around the trigger and continued to wait. Even with the element of surprise, he did not care to engage with blades against living humans; it was simply too risky.
When the figures were in the middle of the two lanes that were on their side of the highway, he held up one hand and counted down with his fingers.
Five.
Four…he took aim on the person bringing up the rear.
Three.
Two.
One.
Kevin fired. A split second later, shots came fast and furious. Bodies spun and staggered. One fell, then another. A couple tried to turn and run, but another volley of shots came from Bill’s group. Just that quick…it was over.
Kevin and the others converged on the downed bodies. One was still crawling on his belly, but Jose moved in and finished him off with a swing of his machete. After spiking each corpse in the head just in case, and then searching them for anything useful, they returned to camp.
“It’s us…all clear,” Kevin called.
They stepped into the clearing and waited for those who had stayed behind to accept that it was really okay. Everybody came together in a cluster around Cherish.
Dr. Miriam Reno bent down and checked. “She’s still alive.”
“So what do we do now?” Jane asked.
“Nothing has changed,” Kevin stated matter-of-factly.
“What about Cherish?” Selma asked.
“What about her?” Bill spat. “She left…made her o
wn choice. Then, when things got bad, she brought it back here to us. She ain’t our problem.”
“That seems a bit harsh,” Barney said.
Kevin looked around at all the faces. The dim glow from the fire made them all seem a bit sinister. He could tell that this was a potential group divider and needed to solve it before things escalated.
“Since we are a group, I say we put it to a secret vote. Everybody has to agree ahead of time to accept the outcome. Can we all be okay with that?” Kevin let his eyes drift to the faces of every member of the group. One by one he received a nod of confirmation.
With that, he searched around the camp for a few minutes. Eventually he found what he needed. Holding out his hand, he presented sixteen pebbles.
“Everybody take one.” Once they had, he continued, holding up a small pouch. “If you think we should take Cherish back and find a place for her to recover until she can either travel with us or once again go off on her own, then place your pebble in the pouch. Once you have voted, walk down by the river, count to ten and return.”
“Okay…” David looked around the group and then back up at Kevin. “I get the pebble in the pouch, but why the going to the river part?”
“If you keep your pebble, and thus vote for Cherish to be left behind, you will be able to toss your pebble without anybody knowing. That will prevent anybody from having their vote revealed unless they do so of their own free will,” Kevin explained.
“Where do you come up with this stuff?” Heather snorted.
After Jane had translated everything to Jose and Manuel, everybody was ready. Kevin had the entire group sit on the far side of Cherish with their backs to her prone form. He hung the pouch from an overhanging branch.
“I will go first,” Kevin said. “And I will say to you all that I am voting to leave her behind. After I vote, I will remain by the pouch to ensure that everybody simply drops his or her stone in and then proceeds to the stream. I don’t want anybody handling the pouch to try and see who votes how. After each person votes and departs, I will call you one at a time until everybody has voted.”
