by Brown, TW
We reached the now familiar bus that acted as a major landmark, and I saw Kayla’s pace slow. I was about to say something when she suddenly sped up, grabbed my hand and led me to the side of the road. We had just climbed over the old guardrail when I finally heard the clopping of horses that she obviously had already detected.
I slid into the scrub brush, willing the gravel that was skittering down with us to come to a merciful and silent stop. I heard voices now and they did not sound happy…or familiar. I glanced at Kayla and saw that she was at least as scared as me. Her jaw was clenched so tight that you could almost hear her teeth breaking.
“…don’t care what you thought you saw, Zeke. Ain’t nobody on the road. Damn sure ain’t no two kids,” a man said with a lazy slur and drawl.
I was still looking at Kayla and saw her mouth the word “kids” with her nose wrinkled and eyebrows furrowed. I could think of worse insults.
“Yeah?” I had to guess that was the unseen Zeke now talking. “Well one of them kids had titties out to here!”
If the kids comment had struck Kayla wrong, that last one had absolutely pissed her off. She reached over her shoulder to pull her crossbow around. I grabbed her arm and gave a curt shake of my head.
“Looked like one of ‘em was a young boy, though. That oughtta suit you fine, Merle,” Zeke hooted.
I had not even realized that I’d grabbed for my own crossbow until Kayla’s hand clutched my wrist. Now it was her turn to shake her head at me.
The voices grew faint and the topic of conversation turned to some woman named Marybeth who could apparently “suck the chrome off a trailer hitch” for whatever good that might do. I noticed Kayla blush, so I had to imagine they were hinting at something dirty.
Once they were gone and then we waited a while longer, I finally crept up the little embankment and glanced in the direction the men had been heading. I caught sight of them just as they rounded a distant bend in the road.
We stood up and dusted ourselves off and resumed our trip. At last we came across a small pack of zombies. I almost welcomed the break in what had been a long and uneventful day. Yes, I knew it was foolish to invite trouble, but a few zombies would allow me to get out some of my frustration. Also, I could see how well Kayla could handle herself.
The head count came to seven. No problem. I could take that many by myself. I darted in and stuck the first one in the head and then jumped back. Kayla was just moving in on her first target and I was admittedly impressed with the way she came in and stuck the thing in the eye without hesitation or appearing even a little bit awkward.
In no time, she had gone through the small group all on her own. I had stepped back and simply watched. To me, that was actually another plus in her book. She had focused on the task that needed to be done instead of worrying about where I might be at the moment.
“You didn’t think it might be easier if we both took them down?” she asked with just that slightest hint of annoyance creeping into her voice that reminded me of the old Kayla.
“You want an honest answer?”
“I don’t think so.” Kayla wiped off her blade and gave it a quick inspection for any nicks before putting it away. “You wanted to make sure that I would not need you to babysit me. I get it.”
And then she walked off, continuing on in the direction we’d been going. I stood there like an idiot for a moment before I realized that she was not going to stop or wait for me. She was irked. I guess she had a good reason. I was being a bit of a bitch and could admit as much. It was time to accept her help graciously and treat her like she was my partner on this little mission.
***
We had spotted the camp while we were still in the foothills. It was massive and only seemed larger now that I’d been back to Platypus Creek and seen how tiny we were in comparison. Kayla, to her credit, had not even suggested that perhaps we abandon this foolish quest that was certainly doomed to fail. Instead, she had simply shrugged her shoulders and followed me down to the creek that would bring us to the walls of Island City.
We had entered through a grate that allowed the creek to flow through. When we came out of the creek bed, we got a bit of a scare as a lone zombie had just apparently been sitting up against a tree. It had stringy hair and was so old that it looked like just another nearly rotten corpse that was slowly decaying away into oblivion. Also, the grass was tall enough that we basically walked right past the thing unaware until it reached out and grabbed Kayla by the leg. She let loose with a shriek that echoed in my ears like an alarm bell. It was hard for me to be mad at her since it had scared the hell out of me as well. Plus, I noticed just the slightest dark stain in the crotch of her pants, so I figured that she had suffered enough. She also managed to impress me once more by spiking that pathetic thing right on the top of its head.
When we reached the first street, that was when Kayla got her first look at one of the massive piles of corpses. Also, now that I was looking again, I was very cognizant that there were no children. Suzi had made a point of asking me about that when we’d first met.
“They destroyed this place,” Kayla said, her voice muffled from the rag she held over her nose and mouth.
It had been a while, and the flies were thick on the mounds of corpses. Some had been burnt, but even those had not been tended well, and so there were plenty of bodies that did not get devoured by the flames and were providing a disgusting layer of putrefying flesh under the charred skeletal remains. Various rodents and skittering creatures were burrowing amidst the carnage, some trotting away boldly with one prize or another.
One rat in particular actually stopped and faced me. It was holding a huge gray piece of something that I did not want to even try and identify in its mouth. Apparently it had not been around people enough to fear them. Considering its size, I imagined it to be the rat bully of the neighborhood. That might explain why it dropped its prize and made a sort of ratty growl at me before reaching back down, picking up its offal reward and trotting away with its long tail dragging in the dust.
“We need to be on our guard,” I whispered.
“Why? It looks like they took down most if not all the zombies. Although why they would bother is beyond me.”
“Unless they plan on inhabiting the city,” I offered.
Kayla seemed to consider it. “If that was the case, why not move in yet?”
“You know…” I started as I climbed up onto the porch of one of the homes and then used a tree to reach the overhang so that I could see the area better. “I think you have a good point. Why hasn’t Suzi moved her people in? They are living in tents on the plains when they could be sleeping under roofs and on actual beds.”
“Maybe they keep losing their scouts and they are scared,” a voice said from some neat hedges that made a natural fence between this house and the one next door.
“Cricket?” I asked.
I saw Kayla bring her crossbow up to her shoulder and turn in the direction of the voice. Good for her, but I recognized the old man’s rasp in an instant.
“Girly? What in tarnation are you doing here?”
Sure enough, Cricket emerged, but he was not alone. Four more people came out; each of them was dressed in camo gear including hats that had nets over the faces. As an added effect, some had branches and such jutting from their clothes. Each had a scoped crossbow in hand. Kayla might get off one shot, but she would not likely survive to see if the bolt even struck her intended target.
“It’s okay, Kayla,” I called down. “Lower your weapon.”
“Them first.”
“She’s a spunky one,” a young woman said with a laugh that was not teasing or mean. If anything, she actually sounded impressed.
“Weapons down, kids,” Cricket said to his companions. “These ain’t from that army out there.”
There was not the slightest argument or hesitation. All four crossbows dropped almost as one. A couple of the new arrivals even went so far as to remove their Panama h
ats so that we could see their faces. I was only a little surprised to discover that both were women. They didn’t look much older than Kayla or me.
“Well they ain’t locals,” one of the girls said, the same one who had commented on Kayla’s spunk from the sound of her voice.
“No, Nat, these here gals is from up the hill,” Cricket said.
Nat was a stocky girl with curly brown hair. She had brown eyes that were bright and crinkled around the edges from her seemingly perpetual smile. She had a crooked nose that looked more cute than anything else and had a generous sprinkle of freckles for added measure. She could give Kayla a run for her money in the cleavage department for sure. That much was apparent even with all the heavy clothing. It was further accentuated by an unfairly skinny waist and equally curvy hips.
The other girl who had removed her hat had dark brown skin and thick, full lips. Her hair was worn in several braids that had been coiled and tied into a knot that would impress Medusa as it looked like she had a nest of snakes on top of her head.
“What brings you back here, Girly?” Cricket asked as the rest of his little band sauntered over to the porch of the house I’d been using to scout the area.
I was not quite ready to trust this man. It wasn’t that I thought he might be one of the bad guys so to speak, but I was still just a bit leery.
“We came down to see if that army had moved on yet,” I lied. I saw Kayla shoot me a quizzical look, but she quickly wiped all expression from her face and pretended to search for something in her pack.
“I don’t see that as likely,” Cricket said. He climbed up on the porch and took a seat, patting the spot beside him as an indication that I should join him.
“Been a lot of strange things since I saw you last. You ain’t been the only ones skulking around Island City. Been a group of real suspicious types the past few days coming and poking around. They only come into the place when it is dark.”
“Were they from that camp?” I asked.
“Nope, we got eyes on that camp. They have not been back inside the walls for quite a while. Kept losing too many foot patrols for some mysterious reason.” That last statement was greeted by a few titters from his group.
There was a long silence that began to become more than a little uncomfortable. The other two members of Cricket’s little band had removed their head gear. Both were men. One of them looked to be about Melissa’s age, maybe close to forty. He had a nasty scar on his face, but it did not look like a bite. It was more like a burn. The skin of his right cheek was all lumpy and puckered. He had dark brown hair that was turning gray, and his eyes could not seem to find any one place to settle. We made eye contact once and he almost looked embarrassed by it.
The other guy was perhaps in his twenties. He was Hispanic and I could see the hint of a tattoo peeking above the neckline of his jacket. His black hair was buzzed down to just stubble, and he had an oddly well-trimmed beard. I say oddly because they all looked like they were living in the wilderness where things like shaving or trimming a beard to such precision takes time and a few minutes in front of a mirror. He smiled when we made eye contact and now it was my turn to blush just a little as I realized that I had been staring. He was perhaps the most attractive man I think I have ever seen in my life.
“We should be going,” I blurted, catching just the hint of a smile on the man’s face as I took one more look before forcing my eyes to tear away from him.
“Rodrigo!” Cricket snapped. “Quit it!”
“Quit what?” the young man asked in confusion.
“Put your damn hat back on, you’re getting the young lady all twitterpated.” Cricket winked at me and made me blush so hard that I felt like my ears might catch on fire if this continued.
“Thalia? Are you okay?” I heard Kayla ask over the rushing of blood echoing in my ears and my thudding heart that had somehow moved up to my throat instead of staying in my chest where it belonged.
“F-f-fine,” I managed. I hopped from the porch and turned to face Cricket. “I would love to stay for a while, but I have to get going. I need to make some observations and then report back.”
“Oh my!” Cricket laughed. “Girly, you are perhaps the worst liar I have ever seen in my life. If I ever get the old gang back together for our regular poker night, I absolutely must invite you.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” Even I heard how fast I was talking. The lie was leaping from my tongue and waving its arms for everybody to see.
“Please tell me you and this other young lady are not out here by yourselves?” Cricket jumped down beside me and leaned down to where he could look me in the eyes.
I wanted to tell him that the rest of my group was around someplace, but I knew that he would see through me. While I did not have to actually tell him everything, I felt that maybe I could share part of my reason for being here.
“A couple of us got captured by those people.” I hiked a thumb over my shoulder to indicate the sprawling camp. “We got away, but there is concern that she might try to hunt us down and attack. I was just trying to check and see if they showed any signs of coming after us.”
“You escaped from that place?” Nat asked, sounding impressed.
“I had help,” I said, deciding that I was still being truthful enough that I would not give myself away.
Cricket seemed to consider my words for a moment. At last, he clapped his hands together and stood up. “Okay, kids, we should move along. It is obvious that this girl don’t want our help. Trust is a thing earned more than given. She don’t want us meddling in her business.”
I looked around and saw shrugs, but nothing much more than that as the four fell in and began to follow Cricket away. I looked at Kayla for any clue as to what she felt and got nothing but a raised eyebrow.
“Wait!” I called.
Cricket turned around and motioned for the others to stop. He said something to Rodrigo and then broke away from them to return to where I was still trying to figure out exactly what I was doing.
For better or worse, I took a gamble and told most of the story to the old man. I left out little things like how I had actually run away to do this and that it would be very probable that somebody might come looking for me since it would not be a mystery as to where I had run off.
Cricket was silent for several seconds. I looked over at Kayla and saw that she was not entirely pleased with my revealing all that I had to these strangers. Then I scanned the faces of Cricket’s little team who had strolled up during my account. They appeared to be interested in what the old man might say and kept glancing back and forth between me and him.
“I guess we know what we will be doing today, kids,” Cricket finally said, rubbing his hands together for emphasis. “We will need to be extra careful. That group over yonder is nothing to take lightly. We already seen how they done our people. And I still ain’t heard good reasons one way or the other to make me believe them folks is here for any reason but to take what ain’t theirs. This Suzi woman is feeding you a yarn, pure and simple. She rolled into this valley and destroyed everything that she saw fit to mow down. The smaller communities were not her target. She wants Island City. We got walls and farms and proper houses. Hell, even gots a power grid once somebody that knows how to fix it can come in and take care of the damage.”
“So what do you suggest?” Kayla asked. “You seem to be all fired up to do something, let’s hear your plan.”
Cricket smiled and gave Kayla a wink. “You are a spunky one, I’ll give ya that much.” He turned back to me. “You say that terrible noise we heard was something they did to lure the zombie mob away?”
“Yep, they had noisemakers. A bunch of them went out on horses and actually changed the path the zombies were taking. Led them south, back down the valley and away from La Grande,” I explained.
“Well then, seems to me like we need to bring them back, only, we gotta do it in such a way that they won’t be able to just send out a
few people on horseback. If we plan this right, we can split that herd into smaller groups. Once we do that, we bring those groups in from different sides. If they use the noisemakers, it will only serve to lure in some or all of the other groups.”
It sounded like a good idea. The only problem that I saw with it was how we would manage such a feat. We would have to get close to that herd for one thing, and that was not something I was all that excited to do. Then there was the whole thing about trying to split the herd into smaller groups and bring them along until they were positioned just so.
Cricket had already come back to the porch and tossed his knapsack on it so he could rummage through it. Eventually he produced a very worn and tattered looking map. He unfolded it and spread it for us to see. It was hand drawn, but I could tell that great pains had been taken to ensure that it was not only detailed, but very accurate.
He showed us where everything was in relation to our current position. He traced a path with his finger in the direction that the zombie herd had been taken. The land to the southeast had all been farms way back in the old days.
“Seems likely that they will move along the La Grande-Baker Highway. Zombies ain’t much in the way of brains, but they are a lot like electricity and follow the path of least resistance,” Cricket explained. “If we can break them up into smaller groups, we can actually come in from the north and the south. The hard part will be keeping that group moving up from the south from getting too far away. This will rely on timing, and without any form of communication, that will be tricky at best.”
“Bicycle.” Rodrigo stepped up and I felt my heart do a flip in my chest as he placed a hand on my shoulder to make room and squeeze in. “If one of us travels with each team and has a bicycle ready, we can give updates.”
“Something moving like that is bound to draw attention,” Cricket warned. “It ain’t like runnin’ in the shadows or the tall grass. Whoever does that will have to be using the roads. How do we know that Suzi woman ain’t got patrols out there?”
