Tobias rubbed the tip of his cleft chin. "Who did you speak to?"
"I'd rather not say, sir." Eli stared at the rug again.
"You'd rather not say?" Tobias chuckled. "You've come here to present yourself as the superior watchman, I presume. To influence a change in the councilors' assignment. You want to move up in the world, work security, yes?"
Tobias' eyes grazed the length of Eli's body, appraising him. It was what he wanted — to be a watchman and not a Parasite hunter. To be respected, trusted, to keep this place safe. But not this way.
"I just want the diggin' stopped. That's all." Eli stood and walked to the door. "Thanks for your time, sir."
Tobias followed, grabbing Eli's muscled shoulder.
"I don't respect the way you've come here tonight. Stealthy, underhanded, behind the back of people who've been protecting this town since its inception." He let Eli's arm go and opened the front door. "But I'll take a look myself. If it is as you say, it'll be taken care of this evening."
Tobias closed the door, leaving Eli on the front steps facing a street sheathed in shadow. Eli breathed a sigh of relief, but Mrs. Sharpe's words echoed in his mind.
What good had he done? Squirrel had protected his people from the herd. He'd built the wall, taken in orphans, and nurtured a family. Eli tried to name one thing he'd done that had truly helped this place survive. The past three years was a blur of repairing roofs, chopping wood, fixing hand pumps, and unclogging septic tanks. Dead animals and dead Parasites.
It wasn't enough to impress or get respect. To convince the others to let him stay.
There are just a handful of people left on this Earth, probably. People wonder when you can't get along.
Eli strolled down the street back to his house on the edge of town. On his way, he peered into the windows he passed, looking at the families inside. New families built from the shattered pieces of others. The world around him was recovering without him. But the wall everyone lived behind was a thin, delicate barrier, and the wilderness would eventually break in. The thought of it all ending — even as he stood on the outside looking in — was terrifying.
He had to do something.
Chapter 5
On Friday night, they partied in the center of town. People danced in the intersection under the dead streetlights. A small band played old rock tunes from memory on a wooden stage near the old Key Bank. Hard cider was passed around and they ate roasted pig and venison.
It was a beautiful night with a warm summer breeze and a clear sky. Frank and Eli stood on a street corner, watching the dancers and shooting stars sparkling silver against the dark blue.
"I believe these must be the Perseids." Frank dropped his head back to stare at the sky.
"What's a Perseid?" Eli asked.
"Meteor shower. Tiny particles broken off a comet, floating through space. The Earth passes through it every year. The Perseids come in August."
Eli shook his head in wonder. "There's one!" He pointed at the trail it had cut across the sky.
Frank spotted his wrapped wrist. "Jane's work, I take it?" He grinned.
"She forced me."
The doctor was dancing barefoot to "Beast of Burden" under the streetlights, her fourth cup of cider sloshing in her hands. Eli stared at her all night, the sweat blooming across her back and shining across her cheeks, her T-shirt hanging damp down one bare, freckled shoulder.
"I'm sure she did. Only because she's sweet on you."
"Jane isn't sweet on anyone."
"She'd never admit it." Frank jabbed him in the arm with his elbow. "Maybe you should help her along..."
Eli shook his head. "She thinks this place'll fail. Seems to think it'd be for the best."
"Can't say I agree with that."
"Which part?"
"That it would be for the best." Frank took a swig of his cider. "I like to think we're not bad people."
The song died down and Jane hooted and hugged her dance partner. In the silence, the Parasites' howls swelled and echoed into the night. The music kicked up again, drowning them out.
"I agree with her a bit," Eli said.
"Which part?"
"That this place won't last."
"You worry too much."
Across the street, Eli spotted Derek standing in a cluster with the other watchmen. The man sneered, whispered to his friend, and kept talking.
"Although," Frank said, "there was a bit of a drama at the gate last night. Apparently some zombies dug a hole at the wall. Guards knew about it. Did nothing."
Eli's stomach hollowed — with both relief and dread. "What happened?"
"Hell was raised, that's what happened. All of them were punished with a week's cut in rations. Squad went out and killed the diggers, filled the hole."
Eli couldn't help himself — he grinned.
"Do you know something about that?"
"Nah." Eli hid his face. "Why?"
"'Cause I know you, and you have that look you get when you're hiding something."
Frank slid in front of him and examined his face.
"I saw the Parasites digging that morning. From a watchtower," Eli admitted.
"You broke a rule?" Frank chuckled. "You're going to get yourself in trouble, doing another man's job."
"Yeah, yeah." He rammed his hands in his jeans pockets and studied the buttons on Frank's shirt. "I reported it. They brushed it off."
"And ...?"
"I went to Tobias' last night."
Frank took a step back. "Good job, son. Risky, though. They're gonna have their eyes on you now."
"Yeah." Eli gnawed at a thumbnail, pinched off unsightly hangnails.
"What is it?" Frank said.
Eli shook his head and gazed off at the party — the musicians at their old and handmade instruments; the watchmen and their sneers; and Jane, who had closed her eyes and now danced with her face to the sky.
"Nothing."
"Eli..."
"Worried, is all. More so since Squirrel." He paused for a hard swallow. "We're trapped behind these walls. What if there's another sickness, a blight, a drought. What if next time they finish digging the hole?"
"Trapped ..." Frank rubbed his whiskers and watched his neighbors talk, laugh, dance, drink. "I understand what you're saying, but that's a lot of ifs."
Eli stared at his feet. The music dwindled, the howls rose over the wall and vanished when the band began to play "Small Town."
"It's too comfortable here. People are forgetting what it's like."
"No, they aren't. They remember. But they don't want to think about it."
Eli didn't, either. But no matter how hard he tried to push the thoughts from his head, they stuck. They gave him a stomachache. "Something has to change. Or Jane's right and this place won't last." The words sounded worse coming out of his mouth.
Frank opened his mouth to say more but stopped himself, his eyes shimmering behind scratched glasses. "People don't want to hear that."
"Sure, sure. But the Parasites ain't going away." Eli pictured Squirrel, the way the creature had held him tight and nuzzled his neck. "People just see them from the wall. It's not the same."
Frank stared at him for a minute, waiting for Eli to share more. Eli worked on trimming his index finger, spit the skin and nails onto the ground.
"I know, I know," Frank said softly. "I forget how much you're out there with them. Squirrel never liked to talk about it, either."
Eli's gaze wandered over the crowd, found Simon. For most of the night he'd sat in front of the town hall down the street. Only a few people sat with him. Most townspeople passed by with a quick glance, whispered to their friends, and then moved on. Jane had been right: the stranger was very young. Small, animated, with a childish smile, thick brown beard, and sad eyes. Eyes that had seen too much.
Being on the other side of the wall did that to you.
"I hear he's seen other survivors."
Frank's eyebrows shot up over the rims of his gla
sses. "How many?"
"A few, here and there."
Frank narrowed his eyes at him; his lip curled. "What's your point?"
"I want to talk to him, Frank. He knows what's out there. Who's out there. If there are more survivors, we gotta find each other."
It may be the only way we can survive.
"And how do you suppose we do that, with miles of wilderness and Parasites and God knows what else between us?"
"I've no idea," Eli said. "We'll have to figure it out, I guess."
Frank rubbed his bristly chin again. Beneath the whiskers, he smirked. "Is this your way of finding another job for yourself?"
Eli glanced at the dance floor, found Jane's bobbing body. An older man took her hand and pulled her into his chest; they danced with their arms wrapped around each other, laughing and smiling.
"I know you're right." Frank sighed. "Worried about it myself a few times. But we've already lost everything. Now we've built something in its place. Don't expect everyone to fall behind you."
"I won't. But it's worth a shot."
He wished his friend a good night with a thwack on the arm and cut around the intersection and its dancing partners. He passed clusters of neighbors, smiled at each group, got nods in return. Smoothed his hair, fixed his shirt. From the corner of his eye, Eli spotted Derek following his movements down the street to the town hall.
Eli found Simon leaning against the building. Lily and her boyfriend, Ben, and two others about their age created a small audience. Simon had just finished a story, and in its wake, they stared at him with wide eyes, particularly Lily. In her meek voice, she asked what the Parasites' camps were like.
"Filthy," the young man said. "Absolutely disgusting. I didn't see one of them until they'd abandoned it, of course."
Simon kept one hand in his pocket and gestured with the other. He talked with a husky, older voice that didn't suit him.
"After the sickness?" Lily asked.
"I think so."
"So what was it like inside?"
Simon simpered mischievously. "Dirt everywhere. Dry mud on the floors. Smears from their hands all over the walls, staining the sofa. Bare mattresses all over. Stunk to high heaven. In one place, an old animal carcass they'd gutted was left in the kitchen, and the dried blood and guts had stuck to the counters."
Lily scrunched up her nose. The girl was a contradiction: she had a cherubic face, with curly black hair, large blue eyes, and deep, long dimples, dainty even in a plain brown plaid camp shirt and cut-off shorts.
"Are there a lot of them out there?"
He nodded slowly. "Towns full of them. Hundreds in each."
"Did you ever see one of them up close?"
"Yup. A few times."
Lily fidgeted, stared at her hands, chewed on her lip. Eli knew what she was going to ask.
"Do you think they can be fixed?"
Lily had asked Frank and Eli this question several times, and everyone in town at least once. He often found her standing atop one of the buildings near the wall to watch the Parasites. She'd wonder about their names and who they used to be, not really expecting an answer.
Simon's deep-set eyes, framed with premature wrinkles, became unfocused, and his face drooped.
"I don't know." He crossed his arms and leaned forward. "What's your name?"
"Lily." She smiled, eyes wide to take in the new face.
"Never mind it, Lily." Simon's voice was cold and soft. "Those things are as good as dead."
The little girl's face flickered and darkened. Ben put an arm over her shoulder.
"What are you doing out in the wilderness, anyway?" he asked.
Simon stared at Lily blankly a few seconds before answering. "Adventure." A smile brightened his face but wilted quickly. "I lived behind walls, too. But I didn't like it. Felt suffocated. Before all this, I wanted to be an explorer. The world out there is so wild again, seems a waste not to go out and enjoy it."
Eli snickered quietly at this. There was little to enjoy outside the walls. Only danger and death and hard choices. Something in Simon's weak smile told him the young man knew this, too.
"What's the most dangerous adventure you've ever had?" Ben asked.
Simon nodded, running his thumb and forefinger across a messy brown mustache. "I think it'd have to be the time someone tried to kill me over a can of green beans."
The mood around the circle shifted. Lily peered up at Eli; he offered a little smile. Simon leaned against the building and buried his hands in his pockets.
"I was with this group of shady people. We'd holed up in this old cabin. I found these beans in a cupboard no one checked. I hid them. It was shitty thing to do, but these were shitty people and I didn't want to share. Well, they found it and beat me half to death. Ate the beans. Left me for dead."
Everyone grew quiet. Simon kept his head down and seemed lost in his thoughts. Eli was lost in his own — he had similar stories, ones he wasn't proud of. Ones he'd never tell any group, no matter how many questions they asked.
"Say, Lily," Ben said, startling Eli and Simon out of their gloom, "how'd you like some of that roast pig?"
He cupped her face tenderly. The two walked off and shortly, the others did, too. Simon studied the ground.
Eli stepped forward. "Hey. You got a minute?"
The young man's heavy-lidded eyes flickered back to life.
Simon shrugged. "Who are you?"
"Eli Stentz." He held out his hand, but Simon didn't take it. "I hear you've seen other settlements."
"I have."
"What can you tell me about them?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Curiosity."
Simon huffed and pushed himself off the side of the building. "There aren't many, just a few. Most about your size, a couple bigger."
"Where?"
"All over, but far apart."
"And the people?"
"Like yours. Just people. Some more unfriendly than others." Simon glanced around the party.
"Do the other groups know about each other?"
"No." Simon snickered. "Everyone thinks they're the only people left on Earth."
Eli imagined it. Pockets of survivors, miles apart, dangerous wilderness and ruins between them, Parasites crawling across every square mile, like Frank said.
Time running out.
"Would these settlements want to unite, you think?"
Simon's face changed, as if woken suddenly from a dead sleep.
"If we could find the others, somehow," Eli continued, "we could be stronger together, against these things —"
A red flush bloomed on the bare cheeks above Simon's beard and he shook his head like a madman, as if trying to shake out voices.
"One day, you may be sorry you wanted such a thing," he said. "There's nothing out there, man. And no hope. Trust me."
He stared at Eli with quivering eyes, ran dirty hands over his face, then stormed off. Alone in front of the town hall, Eli watched the young man's figure disappear down a dark side street as the howl of the infected echoed into the night.
Gloom settled in Eli's chest. The band played quieter songs and most of the dancers broke up and strolled off in different directions. He found Jane's figure, wobbling away into the shadows, headed back home. Frank was already gone. Derek was still in place across the street.
No hope. Eli dwelled on Simon's words, fearing their truth and how they verified his own worry.
The Parasites' haunting animal voices shrieked beyond the wall, like they were singing along to the music. Eli listened and gazed up to search the sky, where stars splashed across the black like ice sparkling in the sun. Among the endless pinpricks of bright light were dim ones, blinking and fading into nothing. It made Eli think of people fading away, too, as a sea of predators closed in.
Eli imagined hundreds lived in each Parasite camp and only dozens in these scattered settlements. If they ever united, that didn't mean much, either. Eli hoped his fears were wrong. Ot
herwise this place would disappear, like so many others.
"You can't see the stars with your eyes closed, silly."
Eli opened his eyes to find Lily, strolling up beside him on skinny legs with knobby brown knees. Derek's narrow eyes leered over her shoulder in their direction.
Eli turned his eyes away. "I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"Nothin'."
Lily turned to the stars, too. Her face drooped in a frown, her eyes looking but not seeing.
"Help me out, here, Lily Bear," Eli said. "I can't remember my constellations."
She brightened and lifted a thin, pale arm to the sky. "That's the Big Dipper." She traced the shape with her finger. "And Pegasus, and Draco, and Cassiopeia."
Eli imagined distant lines connecting each tiny light. He smiled down at her.
"Are you sure it's not cornucopia?"
Lily giggled. "I'm sure."
Her laugh faded; the cherubic face darkened. They stood for a while in silence, listening to crickets and the murmurs of their neighbors' voices, watching for meteors. Across the street, Derek's voice erupted over the background. He wanted Eli to hear — something about unwelcome outsiders and rules.
"Uncle Eli," Lily said, studying her shoes, "do you think Simon is right? Are people that awful out there? Like he said?"
Eli's memories of the wilderness beyond the wall lived as dark, bloodied flashes of smells and sounds and sensations, snapshots of scenes. He'd tried very hard to forget them all. He didn't want to tell her the truth.
"Some, but not everyone."
"What was it like?"
He remembered hunger. Weedy yards and empty houses. Twisting hallways. Dead eyes. Angry voices and desperate screams. Bruised knuckles. Gunpowder.
"It was scary. A lot of Parasites. A lot of scared people."
"Do you think it's like that now?"
Derek's voice interrupted again. "… who the hell he thinks he is … tattletale …" His small, mean eyes burned through the dark.
"I don't think so," Eli said. "I think it's quieter, probably."
"Do you get scared when you go outside the wall?"
"Not really. If I see a Parasite, I just jump over them when they get too close." He raised his hand in the air and pretended. "Right over their heads."
The Human Wilderness (A New America Trilogy Book 1) Page 4
