A Very Good Man

by P. S. Power

  Nate gestured to Carl and Vickie. Tipper stood back in the doorway watching him for some reason. It didn't look mean or angry, but she was probably hoping he'd still die from his wound or something. Oh, possibly not, but he wasn't disposed to like her at the moment still. It would take a while to move past things. He probably would eventually, given enough time.

  “Bring them in please.” No one had to ask who, they all knew why they were there. Everyone had the facts already even. Nate waited until the women sat before he spoke, his voice calm, but sad sounding.

  “You stole things that weren't yours, knowing that it would hurt a lot of people if you did. Two of your group fired on our people, injuring one of you, Justine here. You also helped to steal valuable equipment and personal valuables from almost everyone here. We aren't here to establish guilt, that's already done. Do you have anything to say for yourselves before we pass sentence?”

  The girl with the bandage shook her head and looked down, tears running in twin rivlets down her face. No sobbing though, a good sign, Jake thought, maybe even redeemable? Moving his attention to the next woman over, the older one that had been in the armory itself. Her hair had gray in it, mixed with a mouse brown color. The face didn't have a lot of lines yet, so the color might have been a little premature. She might even be younger than he'd thought. About thirty? Her tan pants had been mended several times, and there were faded stains on the blue shirt she wore. She looked at the other two and spoke slowly, as if praying some reason to keep her alive would pop out of her mouth.

  “I... I know it was wrong, but we needed those things. We... we earned them! We've all worked and were only trying to get what we knew you'd keep from us if we didn't just take it and leave, that was all.”

  Jake nodded tiredly.

  “Half the food, all the gold and silver people had? That had to have taken weeks or longer to collect, which means a long term plan to steal from everyone.”

  “Be we didn't do that! That was him, Derrick. We just-”

  From the audience Tipper spoke her voice harsh and tight, “near cleaned out the armory, leaving us defenseless? Greatly weakened at least. You personally were in on that Yvonne. I helped collect half those weapons and a third of the ammo myself, and Jake did most of the rest, how do you figure that you and your group were “entitled” to most of it?”

  The woman cringed, probably because there couldn't be a good answer to that. What she said didn't help her case at all.

  “I... Derrick said we needed them to keep you from coming after us, that Jake would kill us if we got caught and... and Tracy's pregnant!” She added as a last ditch to try and save herself. Or maybe just the woman next to her.

  If that was the case it was braver than Jake would have expected from any of them. Stupid, but kind of noble in a way. If it wasn't just about saving her own bacon.

  Hmmm.

  Bacon.

  Jake shook himself and focused on the scene again.

  The girl to her left, a mid-twenties woman that had spurned Jake so hard and fast he hadn't even gotten past “hello” before she shut him down cold, started crying. She did sob a bit. Quietly though, she looked at him through her eyelashes with fear. Good. Jake didn't want to be a bully about it, but attracting attention would get them all killed if they weren't careful. If she had to fear him to make that happen so be it.

  They didn't have any babies with them for a reason. Mainly because they were zombie bait. Delicious undead snack food, tender and moist. They cried all the time and the land sharks came to them like magnets attracting, even shamblers would try to run fast in order to get tender baby flesh. The girl tried to use it as a plea to leave her alive... Insane really, because no one in particular wanted Derrick Holsom's kid bringing the hordes down on them.

  But...

  Things really were safer now and if they built that underground nursery he'd thought about, sound proofed it somehow, maybe just by putting it deep enough, and made sure they kept a good guard going all the time, they could possibly pull it off. Maybe.

  A lot of women in the room looked worried for some reason, a couple stared at him and held their stomachs. Heather looked down, then up at him and nodded. It wasn't just one or two babies coming.

  Fuck it all.

  “Ah.” He said quietly. “And how many pregnancies have been left on us by Derrick “Wonder prick” Holsom then?”

  Six hands went up. Six. Jesus wept.

  They couldn't handle that many, and all single mothers too. He felt like screaming at them for being fickle sluts too stupid to at least find a guy that wasn't fucking half the house already. Morons. He had to grind his teeth to keep from talking. The next bit surprised him as well. A lot really. No one at the table looked at him, but he did finally figure out what they'd talked about in the kitchen. Him.

  “All of us here are too soft to put you to death if you need it. Except Jake.” Nate said sadly, morosely.

  “To that end, we're leaving your fate in his hands. Jake?”

  “Wait!” The grayish one in the middle spoke fast, panic taking her, she nearly yelled the word.

  Jake pointed his nine at her and waited while she quieted down. She did though, so he nodded at her. Smart in a way. Stupid in a lot of others. He took a deep breath and looked at the women; Justine the simp, Tracy the pregnant one and miss “old before her time”. He just didn't have a name for her. Good enough. He'd learn.

  The easiest thing would be to just kill them all. They couldn't lock them in the closet forever and prisoners were just a drain on everyone. He knew that his judgment was supposed to be death, what the others had planned on, or it wouldn't be left to him. But... they weren't doing anything wrong right now. Everyone messed up sometime.

  Still, he couldn't let them do it again.

  “Alright. I get the idea. Before I execute you all, let me ask you one question first; if I leave you alive, are you willing to really put your all into helping everyone survive here? Are you willing to do what you're told, when you're told, to the best of your ability? No matter what that is?”

  The pregnant girl nodded, her head jerking rapidly.

  “Yes!” She whispered, a stage whisper that almost verged on too loud.

  On the other side of the woman, the doe eyed Justine, big boned and tall, nodded without speaking. OK, Jake realized, not all that dumb, then. Only the woman in the center didn't answer. She stared at him, almost angrily. It wasn't helping her case with him, but after nearly a minute she nodded too.

  “Fine,” She said finally, looking down. “Being a slave is better than being dead.”

  Slave? Intriguing thought, but not exactly what he had planned. Not at all really.

  “Alright. So, instead of death, you all promise to be good, helpful, honest and brave, not whine or complain, all that good stuff, including things to be added later at Nate's personal whim?”

  “Yes.” It came from three voices, all quiet, all subdued.

  “Then I won't kill you. Justine, you're injured so you stay with me for the day. You can walk?” It wasn't a trivial point, she'd come into the room on her own, but that didn't mean the wound on her side was up to cross country hikes. Her arm was bound too, so that could mean a wound there as well.

  “Yes sir.” She said meekly.

  Being called sir nearly made him lose it and start laughing. Him a “sir”? Well, it was a start.

  “Good. You two, um, Tracy and...” He stopped looking at her. The woman just looked down, but Nate bailed him out, thankfully.

  “Yvonne.”

  “Tracy and Yvonne. For right now and the foreseeable future you work backup kitchen duty. You answer to Sammi and Ken and if you don't do what they say instantly then the deal's off. If any of you works less than hard all the time and I see it or hear about it, I won't correct you, I'll shoot you in the head when you aren't looking.”

  OK, the threat was a bit much, but everyone smiled. More or less everyone. The panel people with him all smiled and Sammi
did. Ken didn't, probably not trusting the women. The day before he would have, but now they were scary and strange. Thieves that could have cost them their lives possibly.

  Well. Kind of the point.

  Jake wanted them watched and it had to be by someone not afraid to tell him what was going on. The kids fit the bill.

  Everyone broke up then, back to work or pretending to work, whatever they did inside the house all day. That the kitchen didn't have twenty helpers already was a mystery to him. They'd need people there soon, for canning and all that, he guessed. Lois smiled at him, a bit dryly.

  “Putting them in the kitchen?”

  Jake explained, waving the women over and the kids.

  “Yeah. I know it's not fair, but really, I don't think Yvonne and Tracy are bad people. They just went down the wrong path. Punishing them for it now is a waste. The kids are solid leaders and no one will hassle them in the kitchen if there are hard feelings. Besides, I may need Sammi and Ken on guard duty soon or running one of the wood teams. They're not afraid to go and do things outside. That makes them as valuable. Though Yvonne at least will be on outdoor stuff too sometimes.” Everyone nodded as if it actually made sense, even Yvonne and as an afterthought, looking scared still, Tracy.

  Justine sat unmoving, looking both pained and scared. She probably thought they'd go zombie hunting right then or something.

  It was an idea.

  Not then, injured like that, but Molly really shouldn't be out in the field anymore. She was doing better, but Jake didn't trust that totally. He'd test the bigger girl out and see how she handled things later. Right now they had stuff to do.

  “Burt? A word, out back I think. Justine, if you'd join us?” Jake kept his voice conversational. Not happy, but not harsh either. The words were polite. Still Justine looked like she expected a beating.

  Like he beat people.

  Silliness for sure.

  The older man had on a great looking forest green pullover sports jersey, it had the number zero on the front and he wore yet another pair of shorts under it. This time green if in a darker color than the top. He walked with them slowly to the back door and held out his right hand to aid Justine down the steps. She took it gratefully, then looked at Jake again, afraid. As if getting help down some steps would be an issue?

  “Right, so... I have an idea, I don't know if it's stupid or not, but maybe we can do it. I want to build the nursery under the greenhouse. Uh, a nursery for babies I mean, not plants. We need a strong enough shelter under the ground to hold several feet of dirt, to cut the noise, I... know it's a lot of digging, but I don't know what else to do. We need the cellar for food. I-”

  Without saying anything Burt turned and went to get some sharpened sticks and string from inside his shed, jogging back quickly. He looked at the house carefully and then walked to the left hand side.

  “Over here. We can use the house as one wall above ground and there shouldn't be anything running under the ground here. The septic system is roughly between the back porch and the windmill. The well is actually several hundred feet over that way, this is just a pump here, to get the water over to the house for ease of use.”

  Then the man paced out a space way larger than Jake thought they had time for, nearly fifty feet square. It would have made a decent swimming pool, but digging that out by hand in a month or less? Not if they were going to do anything else. After a few minutes of discussion Burt relented and cut the size by three fifths. It would have a low ceiling and not be that comfortable, but zombies wouldn't hear the babies if they did it right. They'd need to be born there too. Women screamed when they gave birth, didn't they? That was in all the old television programs. Maybe their women wouldn't now, but trusting to that seemed kind of optimistic.

  Jake would have started digging right then, but his arm wouldn't let him. Instead he went back to the armory with Justine and properly signed out a weapon for her, a double barreled shotgun.

  “So, today I'm on guard duty for the wood crew, being too lazy to help with the real work, with my arm and all. You're in the same boat. This is for you, if any zombies try to eat you or anyone we're guarding, then shoot them in the head. Practical range is about fifteen feet for stopping one with a single blast. Closer is better, too close is dead. Got it?” He grinned.

  “And for the record, don't let the barrel point at anyone not a zombie at all. Even by accident. If you do, I'll have to shoot you first, and I won't be able to stop and ask polite questions about intent. Things are a little tense, you understand that, right?” He showed her how to carry it, and reminded her several times to control where the barrel went.

  When Carley saw the situation her eyes flew open wide, but she didn't say anything, just kept a hand near her side arm as they all walked. Nate helped pull the cart over and gave him a sidelong look.

  “Um, Jake?” He said, eyeing the girl meaningfully.

  “She's on our side Nate. Worry about her missing maybe, but she won't attack us. People mess up sometimes. When we can, we help them fix it. Not always possible. This time it is.” He said this confidently, as if it were real, even as he half expected the girl to turn on them at any moment. Justine nodded though, nervously, but a big enough motion that everyone could see it.

  Things went fine, until the third round of getting logs, deeper into the woods than they'd gone before. The zombie heard them talking, since someone had gotten a little too loud. Tipper and Dave were already there, ready to shoot the former man, shirtless and nearly naked below too. The stench made his stomach hurt and the look of rot would have made him hurl Back Before.

  He'd thought that all the video games would have toughened him back then, but they didn't include the smell that came off the long dead. It made a difference. Jake already had him in his sights, a very slow shambler that couldn't even walk anymore, a crawler. He signaled the other two to hold up with a wave and smiled grimly.

  “New girl, Justine, you're up. Just like we talked about, aim carefully and try to hit the brain stem. Go ahead now, just move in behind it carefully and stay out of arms reach. This one isn't fast, but they can surprise you sometimes.” He spoke calmly, wondering if the girl would just freeze. A lot of people did. Zombies weren't people anymore, but they had been. That could make it hard.

  She started breathing, deep and rapid, nearly panicked for the second or third time that day. She glanced at Jake, and then the form on the ground. Closing her eyes she fired, a solid shot. The shut eyes were a problem, but the aim had stayed true. They could work from there.

  “Good. Next time go ahead and keep your eyes open if you can. Go ahead and reload like I showed you... Please.” He smiled at the woman, trying to reassure her. It was easier to play it all blasé than to deal with her freaking out, worried about moral implications.

  She looked pale and shaky, but got another shell in place quickly enough for the moment. Not fast enough for a cleanup job, but again, they could work on that. Practice helped with most things as long as you had the basic ability to begin with. It seemed she did.

  “Now, since everyone else has to do real work, let's you and I walk a spiral around them, just to make sure old skittles over there didn't have a buddy. Someone else gets to bury him though, because we can't right now. Yeah?” This got said to the group and surprisingly Molly answered him.

  “I'll do it. Shallow grave, take off the head first?” She sounded almost competent for a moment. Jake nodded.

  “You'll need equipment, shovel and machete, all that. You know the drill, when we go back, let's pull some of the others to come help. They can dig or get wood, whatever, but I don't think we're really doing them favors letting them hide any more. Nate, that's your call, of course. I just work here.”

  The man looked around, everyone else staring at him and then shrugged.

  “Like pulling teeth, but sure, let's see if we can get a few people out.”

  It took a while and when they got back Jake nearly passed out. Not for real, but all th
e shovels were in use digging out the new nursery Burt had just lined out. All of them. The sight was a miracle. The older man took his own turn on a shovel and so did Yvonne, who worked next to Ken. They kept going as the wood got offloaded too. No one slacking at all. Nate smiled hugely at them all and applauded lightly. Clapping he could have gotten away with, but the idea was a good one, monitor your sound at all times. Jake approved and nodded to himself about it while Nate spoke.

  “Wonderful everyone. Really excellent. What are you doing?” He asked softly to the older man who smiled and walked over to them, a good way away from the pit.

  “Jake's nursery. His concept at least, underground reinforced log construction, so it will take several extra logging days, but we won't have to split all the wood. The door will lead into the big cellar, so it should be fairly close to sound proof. It's a good idea. We have to hustle on it, but the babies will come anyway, so it has to be done. That or abortions all around.” Burt shrugged. “I don't know how to do that. So this looks like the best option. It really is a solid plan.”