A Very Good Man

by P. S. Power

  Using fire to take out the zombies made sense, in an insane, end of the world, it just doesn't matter who gets hurt, kind of way. Like using a claymore mine on a mouse. It worked, but you destroyed a lot of other things in the process too. They'd calmed down a little as far as Jake could tell, or maybe died when Jesus didn't come to save them. Not that he had a problem with people being religious if that helped them get through. If Jesus was really telling these morons to burn the world down, then Jake wanted to have a word with the man however. At the end of a gun.

  Somehow though, Jake couldn't see the guy ordering anyone to burn little kids to death. It didn't seem like what the stories said at all.

  Without waiting he washed up and changed to his other set of clothes, cleaning the old and reeking pair worn into town at the same time. He made a tiny pile of seeds on the wood stump next to the outdoor wash stand before he scrubbed. They still had soap, somehow.

  A few of the people had mentioned early on wanting to have some and the stores weren't looted of it back then, so they'd taken all they could get. That and toilet paper. That had been a lot harder to find, being the second or third thing to go.

  Making sure to get them all Jake carefully took the seeds to Jose who showed him where they were being kept, complete with little tags or marks on the outside of the plastic food containers they were being stored in. Jake marked out apple and pear carefully and spread them all in separate containers very flat on the bottom, so they'd be able to dry. Jose couldn't tell him to do that, not with the language barrier, but the other containers were like that. It didn't take a genius to get the idea. For some reason they needed to dry, probably so they didn't rot. Some had probably died already, but if even a few could be turned into trees it would be worth it.

  Dinner was simple enough, featuring more deer meat, which Carl had gone and gotten with his team the evening before. The man looked to be their best hunter by far, even if his team of cleaners shouldn't be doing it while they had guard duty. It could leave them too tired at night. Jake wondered at that. Should the man's group be sent hunting instead? They lost a person per month on that group, almost one every time they cleaned a place.

  Hunting kept them all fed and maybe they could figure out other stuff if they had the time? Fishing and things like that? They were brave, no one denied that. Maybe braver than the other cleaning groups. Jake wouldn't have wanted to go and take on zombies if he thought that Dave or Tipper would die each time after all. Not even Molly, and face it, she'd be the one to buy it first.

  They'd go and get the stuff done too. Not lazy by any means. Nodding to himself he decided to get with Nate later and see about suggesting it. That meant more work for the other two squads, but the frequency of nests had been slowing a lot. Maybe two teams could handle it now? They could always get Carl's team to run backup if needed and guard duty.

  At dinner Heather found herself a place at one of the other tables early, sitting between Sammi and Ken, which was a good place for her. Cleaned up and closer to people he knew to be young he understood that she wasn't the nineteen or so he'd thought, closer to sixteen. Maybe younger. Trying to make her feel welcome he smiled and waved at her and got return waves from all three of them. That Ken bothered was a good sign. The silent boy even had a half smile on his face, his dark skin clear and eyes focused more than Jake had ever seen them. Maybe he liked Heather? Well... why not? It was the freaking zombie apocalypse for God's sake. Why shouldn't the guy get a girlfriend, even if he was a little young? Or a new sister if that's what he was after. Heather seemed alright. Insane maybe, but a survivable kind of nuts that wouldn't get them all killed.

  It was a little disappointing that the girl didn't want him, but if she was going to pick someone else, Ken was a good guy. He worked hard and kept to hard line noise discipline all the time. What wasn't to like?

  Taking a moment to think Jake grabbed the chair next to Tipper and pulled it out, which got a slightly nervous and hopeful look from the woman. Her hair had been trimmed somehow in the last days, so it looked short and sharp, nearly a military feeling to it, about two inches long all over. He'd look ridiculous with the same thing, but decided to try it anyway. After all, he wasn't there to look good, just kill things and maybe get firewood. That didn't take long hair. It wasn't like he was planning to be a rock star any time soon. He pulled the chair out and started to walk away with it, which made her face fall.

  “Jake...” She said, sounding a little sad.

  He looked at her and shook his head.

  After all, if she didn't want him, that was fine, no one did, but she'd still lied to him about it. Not even a lie that would have left him any hope or anything, or leave a chance for her to change her mind later. She hadn't claimed that she had someone, or that she even just had her eye on another person, just that she didn't like men, when, apparently, she just didn't like him. Taking the chair he walked next to Nate, who sat next to Carl with Lois, Burt and Mary nearby. The important people.

  “Hey, um, can I squeeze in between you and Carl for tonight? I have an idea.”

  They all looked surprised, but not displeased. Well, Mary looked displeased, the woman was in her late thirties and still had a slightly “survivalist” air to her. Smart in the kitchen and good at a lot of low powered things like collecting roots and saving food without industrial equipment, she really disapproved of Jake.

  Probably because he killed people. Her boyfriend being one of them, if Jake remembered correctly. That seemed fair enough, but the man had flipped back when doing so was nearly certain to bring the undead down on them. He had, actually. After Jake killed him, they'd had to fight off a small hoard. If the man had kept screaming it would have been a lot worse. Still, Mary had almost no use for him since then.

  Her hair was dark and long, a little greasy looking and she wore an apron over her puffy plain shirts and pants most of the time. She didn't glare at him, showing her disapproval by not looking at all, focusing on passing bowls around for people to get food.

  Their leader looked a little rougher that day than most, unshaved, eyes a little hard. On his hip he had the pistol he'd worn a few days before. That was a good sign, since he'd proven himself willing to shoot a man to protect the others. That had to leave them all feeling better, knowing that someone like Nate would back them up when it came to it. People trusted him.

  They all shifted a little to let him move in, his chair, a heavy wooden thing that had come with the house, made a slight noise on the floor as he sat. A plate appeared in front him, from Lois, who gave him a dark smile. It seemed sad for some reason. Nate just grimaced.

  “What's on your mind Jake?” He said softly, as if he thought he knew.

  Jake looked at him and then the large and powerful black man beside him, a bit of gray showing in the beards and hair of both of them.

  “Um, Carl and his team.” He spoke softly, trying to keep his voice warm. Carl kind of glared at him, but didn't say anything.

  “I... They're the only ones successfully hunting and I think that they should move into doing that full time. It means more work for the other squads, but food is going to be important too. At least as important and maybe a lot more come winter. The rest of us should try to go with them and help when we can, but we need someone doing it as a real part of things and they're the best at it.” The words came out roughly, hesitantly. They weren't an insult but who knew how anyone else would take them?

  After looking down for a while, no one speaking at all, Carl nodded.

  “I have to agree. My group... Great people, but I keep losing them. I know it's my fault. I've been wanting to do something else for a while now, but I didn't want to leave anyone in the lurch, if you think the rest of the crews can handle things.”

  Everyone looked at Jake as if he had an answer for that, so he shrugged.

  “I don't know, we can try. Things have slowed way down lately and I wasn't attacked in town at all. That doesn't mean things can't change, but food has to be ou
r first or second priority right now. Water, food and warm shelter. Then what... hygiene, weapons and morale?” Everyone stared at him again, as if he'd been cussing at the table. Jake was just trying to get up to speed, not tell these people what to think.

  Burt made a soft noise and smiled at him gently.

  “That's about the right order. So what ideas do you have toward getting those other things?”

  “Um... well, we should see if we can capture some livestock from some of the abandoned farms. Goats or something? And we can build that greenhouse maybe. We have water and are getting firewood. Send out teams to hunt and fish now, maybe can or dry the meat? I don't know if that's possible, but it seemed like a good idea. If we can we need to get more weapons in too, bullets especially. So far we've done alright, but no new ones are coming. We need to be able to make our own, if that's even possible. So that smithy of Burt's should go up too.” So much work to be done and so little time before winter came.

  He started to eat slowly, taking small bites and enjoying the food as he could while everyone else talked. Carl gave him hard looks, but didn't seem angry with him really, a bit relieved to tell the truth. The others seemed happier with the suggestions, especially Mary and Lois, who apparently had been lobbying for animals for a while. They just didn't have any way to go and get them, or so they said. Jake shook his head at Lois.

  “Bull. Sammi and Ken can help in the kitchen while you or Mary come with us to get animals. I won't promise perfect safety, but the zombies like to stay near people, which means in town for the most part, going to a farm, armed, to lead animals back here shouldn't be too much for you. I know it's scary, but now we're starting to get to the point where that fear isn't totally rational anymore. People need to be willing to go and do work out and about. Everyone does. Afraid or not. We can't afford to have half our people hiding still.”

  He gave Lois a look.

  Not a glare, not a smirk, just a steady thing that made her sigh and shake her head, she started to say that she couldn't do it, but then stopped.

  “Alright. Once we know where to look, I'll go with you. You're right. My fear shouldn't keep me penned in here.” She looked uneasy, so did Nate and Burt. Mary just kept on not looking at him at all.

  They couldn't afford to lose the woman. But then, that's why she needed to go, along with a big chunk of the other homebodies. At least on safe tasks out in the light of day. That and outside for the harvests. People started to look uneasy again and the room had gotten quiet. Everyone stared over at him and most of the faces weren't smiling or happy. Then... who was ever all that happy with him anymore. Ever really? Even Back Before no one had liked him all that much.

  A woman he barely knew spoke from the back of the room, her voice tight and scared sounding, “What if we can't? Will you... kill us?”

  That made him blink. Kill them for being too afraid? Why would he do that? Did they all think he liked to kill people or something?

  “No, not if you really try and keep working as best you can. Going out during the day to the fields isn't that big of a deal though. We'll have armed people ready and it's out in the open if zombies come. I don't think anyone will attack then, other groups and stuff, since they'll want us to collect the food first anyway. If that comes it will be later in the year and most of us will probably be inside anyway. But the answer is that if you try and do your best, but fail, I won't kill you. If you don't try at all... Well, then we'll see, we don't need dead weight. Alright? Maybe we should set a group now to work with Jose in the mornings?” He looked around and about half the people were looking down.

  Heather smiled at him and raised her hand, a little tentatively, which looked adorable. Everyone looked at her and Nate spoke just a little louder so everyone could hear him speak.

  “Yes Heather?”

  “Um, what does Jose do?”

  “He's in charge of the crops, we have harvest coming, he doesn't speak much English though.”

  “Oh, that's alright. I'll help him, if that's OK? It really is a lot safer here than a lot of places and Jake's right, food will be important. Heat too. And weapons. We need a lot more of those. The cannibals have to be stopped and they're coming in the winter. There'll be snow then, so we need to be able to eat and protect ourselves. We'll need extra for the others too. The neighbors that are coming.” Her voice had an airy, singsong quality to it that sounded totally insane, which got Jake to smile grimly.

  “Don't worry too much, cannibals die too, we just want to make sure we're ready for them if they come here.” He didn't really doubt that there would be something, maybe not cannibals, but raiders or even burners that just took exception to them not praising the lord for their bounty enough or something.

  A few other people slowly raised their hands to volunteer to work with their farm boss. A couple of the more timid guys and two of the older women that had been nearly useless so far. They weren't lazy, but had that helpless air that begged to be protected instead of fighting for themselves. Now they were standing up a little and everyone who didn't seemed a little ashamed. Good.

  On both counts.

  If shame got people moving Jake would use it without hesitation.

  “Great,” Nate said, looking at the volunteers as if they'd just defended the world on their own, pride shining in his eyes that no one who knew the man would doubt as legitimate. No one ate even, for a minute as he looked around.

  “We've all known that we couldn't hide inside forever. The world got scary, but we can deal with it, with hard work and perseverance. Inside a month everyone will be needed for the harvest, so get yourselves mentally ready. We can do this.”

  People murmured, but no one cheered. Mainly because Jake would have shot them if they did. Just before he tried to move off to the kitchen to help the kids with the dishes Nate touched his arm lightly.

  “ A word? Outside maybe?” He spoke softly, but then everyone did, so about half the people heard him, their ears attuned to even the softest sounds now. It probably had to do with survival instincts. Jake knew he sure paid a lot more attention to the little things now himself.

  They walked without another word to the front porch, and then to the side, the right one, away from the door. Burt followed them, so whatever the conversation was about, it probably wasn't his personal hygiene being called into question. Good, he tried to keep up with that.

  Burt spoke first.

  “Jake, we think there's a problem. Some of the women have been talking about leaving with Holsom... which is their right, but they want to take their “share” of what we've got and made. The problem is that they all want an even share, but the seven people talking haven't done that kind of work at all. Holsom... Well I can see why he'd want to leave. But the others think that just by being here they deserve an equal portion of what we've managed to come up with.” He sounded worried.

  The leader nodded and patted the gun on his hip, a small thing, possibly a twenty-five? Good enough to kill a person but not a zombie, not fast anyway. Jake didn't think Nate was up to consistent head shots yet. So it was to keep these people in line? That made sense. A horrible thing for Nate to even have to consider, given his peaceful mindset, but that the man had thought about the idea would make it easier when Jake had to kill them. If it came to that.

  “The thing is, we can't stop them from leaving and they have done some work, so keeping them from having anything wouldn't be fair either. At the same time, they seem to feel entitled to nearly half of everything, like it's a divorce or something, rather than a few people getting in a snit. Worse, I'm pretty sure that going off with Derrick will get them all killed before the end of winter. We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow night to talk about it. Derrick asked for it when you didn't come back on time yesterday. I think he's planning to grab things and run tonight. I don't have proof, just a feeling...”

  Jake sighed.

  “Right, well, I need some sleep, I stayed up last night, but I can do with just a few hours if I hav
e to. If he's smart they'll make their grab just before dawn anyway. If we wait for them just before first light, that should work. We need a guard set. Um, not to be a prick, but we can't trust the women. They all seem to think Holsom's some great guy or something. I mean I get it, he's good looking and all that, big, which given the situation probably resonates as being safe to them, a kind of caveman complex thing, going with the biggest brute around for protection. The other option is that I just go in and kill him now. That would probably be the easiest way. Though if it ever comes up in the future, or if they don't try something creepy tonight, my vote goes with them getting an even part of things. Not half, that would be stupid, but we got the stuff for them, so they should have it, even if they didn't do the work themselves. But right now I think shooting Derrick is the best option.” That was the one Jake hoped for himself, but the other men shook their heads.

  Killjoys.

  “No, if we kill people just for talking about leaving then everyone will panic. We need to have rule of law, even if the laws are harsh sometimes. We shouldn't kill if we can avoid it.” Nate's face was lit only by the pale moon above, it was waxing, so it gave more light than a few nights before, but wasn't at that full moon brightness that seemed almost like a cloudy day so far as what could be seen.