by catt dahman
Carl said, “And that nut, Norman Pope took the title of that and named his stupid commune Popetown, but the movie was….”
Charles knew. “Hopetown. The name of the movie was Hopetown.”
7
Mine Eyes Have Seen…
From the cliffs, they could see in all directions. There was Popetown land, now called Hopetown, that sprawled for as far as the eye could see with bluffs, pastures, rolling hills, ponds, the small river branch, and more. And outside the fence, were roads that led to all kinds of places. Inside was a protected place; outside was the rest of the world.
Using binoculars, one person within the compound looked out at a truck while the men from the truck looked right back at the compound. It was only guessing to think why the men stared or what mission they were on, but it was a testament to their being up to no good: they wad four people bound and gagged in the back of the truck, all of them bruised from beatings and exhausted.
What made this sight the most interesting was while three of the people were lying down in the truck or looking away, one was looking towards the compound with longing: Kimball.
But the person watching them didn’t tell anyone else and distracted the rest well enough that no one else saw.
It was best, for now, that no one knew about that.
And it would take some deep thought to decide what the situation meant and what might come of it.
The possibilities with this knowledge were staggering.
8
Hopetown
Len found that the people of the compound worked well together, considering they were strangers not too long before. In a way, it was strange how they managed to do the chores needed and still enjoyed target practice or swimming and get-togethers with time still left over.
Losing technology gave them back their time to do things in a day. For all the technology and work-savers invented, it was now clear that they had been time-wasters. People also felt, looked, and acted healthier.
Right now, because the weather was warm, they spent most of the day on endless chores for sustainability of the community and security, sleeping when it grew dark to save on candles and fuel.
In the winter, Len thought people would sleep more since it was dark more.
After a day of making sure the vegetable gardens and fields were prepared, over-seeing the guard patrols, getting the security detail busy with projects, and seeing that all their programs were set up and implemented, Len was ready to pull his hair out, so getting out and leading the team on search and rescue was almost a pleasurable outing for him.
An important meeting was called which he had to attend.
“Okay, Misty is going to take some notes, but we need to get this going. Thanks for being here,” said Len as he tried to seem friendly and warm, but it just wasn’t in him, and his smile was more of a grimace.
George looked a little creeped out as Len grinned.
“You look very uncomfortable, Len,” Julia pointed out, looking at him curiously, “what are you up to?”
“Not a thing. We are getting people coming in…trickling in, but I think we’ll get far more refugees.”
“We are growing.”
“At this point, I can’t do it alone, folks. I mean, I am a bastard enough to run security and our US Militia force, but I can’t run a whole compound.”
“So we need leadership and a way to check all programs we have going. Len is right,” Misty said as she made notes. She didn’t look up or at Len, but everyone knew that whatever this was about, Len had hedged his bets, and she was complicit.
“I propose a governor,” Len said.
“You,” Beth said.
“Oh, not me,” Len said. “I’m muscle, not brains. We need someone brainy who is already with us, tight.”
“Huh? You mean whom we all get along with?”
“I think Len is saying he has someone in mind and that it might be, shall we say, fortuitous for us to decide on that person and vote him or her in,” George said.
“So you accept the nomination?” Len asked, “that was easy, George.”
Julia laughed to herself. She knew what Len was about and why he had gotten Misty to help him. They needed George to accept as governor, and this allowed them to look surprised at the proposal.
“Me?” George chuckled, “I can only think you are joking since I’m only a dumb, former cop and an old man. Ask someone better educated than me.”
“Since we met, you have been the one person who advocated each person’s rights to decide if he lives or dies and how. You have stood for each making choices and to, and I quote, ‘live or die on his own terms,’” Beth said. “And you are better educated than most of the people here. You have your eye on the prize and a sense of looking at the bigger picture than some do.”
Len spoke quietly, telling them about having to kill the unborn child or rather the dead-born child, and how he had vomited. “ Would it not have been easier on me to simply walk away? It couldn’t harm anyone. I would have taken that choice a million times over having to shoot those kids, but George, you have made us all do some things that made us really miserable, but were right.”
“You can’t legislate morality,” George scoffed.
“You can teach by word and deed,” Misty quipped. “Besides, George, you told us about what kind of seeds to plant for the gardens, and you understand justice, why not you?”
“Because I’m old? What do I know about a younger generation?”
“I’m young, and I think you have a good handle on things.” Misty shrugged.
“George, when you talk, people stop and listen, and they quote you. I quote you. Isn’t that what a good leader is? Someone people listen to?”
“How do you know they listen to any good sense? Just because I say something, doesn’t make it a right or good idea.”
“George, you’ve said a million times that if you ran things, we’d have the country on the right track,” Benny said.
“He sure has,“ Thurman agreed, “didn’t he outline all his ideas to us once? I would swear that was when I was having to sit on that blow-up donut for my rear, and I was having to sit there….”
“Had the hemorrhoids?”
“Yeh, Do you remember?” Thurman asked, “That was misery.”
“I do, and George said to take a bath in that herbal stuff; you did, and it helped, didn’t it?”
“It did help; I was getting tired of that butt-cushion.”
“When my backside was sore, I used that stuff, and it did the trick,” Benny said
“Boys, why are you talking about hemorrhoids during this meeting?” George fussed at them.
Benny slapped his hand down on the table. “I wish you’d pay attention, George. We were talking about how you knew what would help us and how you had ideas on running the country.”
Len was somewhat flummoxed, but he shrugged at George. “Umm…see?”
“ I see I am with a bunch of certified lunatics. Okay. Fine. So I am elected, and then what?” George gave up since his friends had already decided for him, and he knew the next conversation might be about his own hemorrhoids or something worse if he didn’t just go with the flow.
“You appoint me as your second in command and Head of Security and the Military,” Len said smugly.
“No problem with that.”
“I will then appoint my people,” Len told them “we have Medical, Supplies and Food, Grounds and Planting, and Activities teams that will report to my assistant, Beth.”
“What? No, Len, I simply can’t….”
“I will keep you on horseback and on guard duty, but this is a no-argue plan to have you as one of my seconds in command.”
“Whatever, Len, seriously? No way,” she said as she fumed.
When she thought of Kim kissing her goodbye in the parking lot while they were surrounded by zeds, she shivered. She hadn’t wanted to leave him but literally was picked up and carried away. How was she capable of being second in com
mand of anything?
How she knew he was still out there and that there would be a time when he came back to rejoin them, she didn’t share. She kept on going for her adopted daughter and the group while she was waiting for him. She kept busy until then, keeping her mind off of some things.
“Do you really want Benny to tell stories about your rear?” Len asked her with a grin, interrupting her thoughts
“I don’t think Beth has ever needed the donut pillow, but I saw her once in medical…” Benny began.
“Okay,” she cried out, blushing about what he might say, true or false. “I agree to do it,” she said as she narrowed her eyes at Benny who secretly gave her a wink.
Len said, “Jules will be second in command for Security and Military, which will cover security projects, supply runs, our supplies, patrol, and transportation. She can put people in charge of those things, have them report to her, and stay organized.”
Misty held up the chart she had drawn showing the different branches of command Len had explained. Beth traced her branch thoughtfully and nodded she understood.
Julia looked at her branch of command, “So people fix the cars and report to the head of that, and he reports to me. I report to Len and George. Got it. I am agreeable so no one talks about my butt.”
Everyone laughed.
“If Beth gets a report that we need more medical or food supplies…horse feed…whatever it is…books, then Julia, you, will help arrange supply runs with the proper people. It should flow into good communication,” said Misty.
“The new fences and gates are set up, and we are working on all of the details about how to operate them,” Julia said.
George leaned in. “I want one thing, Len. I will have you all to advise me, but I wouldn’t mind a few more people to bring up new ideas and keep the meetings open and fair.”
“Agreed. Think about who, I bet we are thinking the same people, and as we grow, we can add to the committee,” Len said. “Don’t forget to consider the new people: Pan or John; just keep everyone in mind.”
Beth hoped he also meant Andie, Mark, and Kim who would return. Just because they and Earl had vanished, didn’t mean they were dead or infected. Their remains hadn’t been found. But she didn’t argue.
“I guess I will say it because no one else will; we are busy with things, but a day will come when we face that army that’s building: the bad guys,” George said.
“We’re taking in new people and building fences, getting security straight….”
“And we keep running into people who have some ties with the RA; we can’t ignore them now; we need to fight back when we find them.”
“We will,” Len promised.
“But we know the RA is building a bigger army, right?” George asked.
“Yes, we do, but it’s not all straight yet, is it? I feel like pieces are still missing from the puzzle,” Beth said.
Misty nodded, “Like we’re waiting for some parts to fit.”
“Okay, good, we think alike.” George was satisfied.
After the meeting, people were tired, yet a lot of talk continued about how well projects were going, and new ideas were tossed about.
Len’s people began mentioning that a governor should be elected, and many immediately mentioned both Len and George as possibilities. Julia and Beth pulled a few members aside to get the voting rolling: Johnny, Alex, Juan, Conner, and more were quickly on board. They would vote someone in the next evening after dinner.
9
Life As We Know It
A van’s horn began blaring in short toots like a sick goose, what an annoying noise. They could plainly see the van of people who wanted into the compound, but a bunch of zeds faithfully followed the van because it was barely running and was on its last breath anyway.
Juan motioned them to be patient, and he opened the gate when he was sure the others were ready.The van drove in slowly, which allowed the zeds to come in with it.
Beth sighed and shot one in the head, watching the gore explode and the zed crumple; it was a Red Zed complete with feces and blood covering it. In her head, she always heard Len’s demand for one shot, one kill.
Now, it felt like another day, another dead zed. The Zombies reeked.
“Need some help?” John joined Beth, along with Jet and Johnny. Hannah stood back with her bat, ready to hit the zeds.
Since he had come inside the compound, John worked on things, meeting people, and joining in; he volunteered often.
“Take the ones on the left; I’ll get the ones on the right,” Beth said.
Jet managed a shot to the knees that took the next zed out: a woman, shredding her kneecaps and lower legs in blood jets and tatters of flesh, and once she was down, he saw her with the familiar, torn bites and infection of yellowish pus all over her arms and neck. He shot her.
She had been terribly mauled before being infected enough for her attacker to finally stop eating, but then no one knew what the rules were that the zeds followed: how much of a person should they consume? They killed the Reds and the other ones that seemed like nothing but walking corpses. John fired, Juan fired, and Beth fired.
After a few minutes, the Reds were all down, and Beth walked among them, adding an extra shot to their heads to make sure.
The security team’s worst nightmare was while they were moving the corpses to the burning pit:a zed would start biting, fighting back, and infecting one of them. She had nightmares sometimes that a corpse she was moving would suddenly start biting and fighting, and those dreams never failed to make her awaken, sweaty and terrified.
Juan then motioned to the driver, a small Hispanic man who spoke in a flurry of Mexican to Juan, to get out of the van.
“What did he say, Juan?”
“Why you asking me? Just ‘cause I’m Mexican doesn’t mean I speak it; my parents were born in the U.S.,” he said as he smirked at Beth. “Everybody is always assumin’.”
“It was more like I was hoping,” she said as she smirked back, “that you might have taken Spanish in high school or something.”
“I took German but have forgotten it.” He laughed. “Still assuming the Mexican guy took Spanish in high school? So unfair.” He enjoyed making Beth laugh at him
“Are you bitten?” Beth made a biting motion, acted out checking for bites, and pointed to the man.
“Ah, no,” the man said, showing her his arms and legs in return. He pointed to the van, “Mi familia y yo nescesitamos un lugar para vivir.”
“We need Jules,” Beth said, but her friend was riding the perimeter today. And in all honesty, Beth had never heard Julia speak the other language except for occasional obscenities. “Ummm, No hablo espanol.” She hoped that was the right way to say it.
“Familia,” he said, pointing to the van, “family.”
“He has his family in the van,” Jet suggested.
“Really? Wow, we have some real help here, glad you could translate. Gee.” Beth rolled her eyes, and Jet started laughing. “Yes, family. We need to check them.”
Beth again acted it out, and John and Juan by now were laughing hard at her. She ignored their laughter and kept explaining, vowing to get both back for this in the future.
The man said something, and a second man got out of the vehicle, looking unsure of himself, but interested in the people of the compound; he couldn’t disguise his excitement at finally being there and safe.
“English?”
“Yes, I speak English,” he said, “I am Manuel…Manny.”
“I was explaining that everyone needs to get out of the van and that partition there…everyone must be checked for bites…for us to be safe from the infection,” Beth told him.
The man spoke rapidly in Mexican, and both men sighed and opened the van doors. Two cats ran out, and someone cried for them in the van, but the two animals were glad to be free.
“I have this.” Alex materialized, going to scoop up both cats. After a few soft words and some petting, he walked aw
ay with them to check them over, but they would be an asset to the compound, needed for the mice that hid around in buildings and the barns. The black and white cats looked scared but okay.
A woman got out next, and everyone noticed she was stunningly beautiful with big dark eyes and pretty skin. Her hair fell in brown-black waves around her shoulders, her nose was very sharp as were her cheeks and jaw, but her full mouth softened her look. She smiled gratefully at everyone, and it was a smile that could light up a room. “Gracias. Thank you for letting us inside.”
Next out were a pretty teen girl and a small boy who held her hand. Their mother joined them, thanking everyone for allowing them into the compound. An older man climbed out and nodded to those who watched.
“That everyone?” Juan asked.
“Abuela,” the pretty woman said, “ummm, grandmother.”
The old woman was helped out, but the team tensed immediately. She had a clean bandage on her hand where a finger seemed to be missing, and she was pale and sweating, with dark circles rimming her eyes.
Johnny went over to her and smiled, pointing to the bandage, showing the woman that she, too, was missing a finger.
The abuela held out her hand, and Johnny examined it gently, unwrapping the bandage someone had lovingly put on for her. The index finger was gone from the second joint down, and her hand was purple, going blackish. The area near the wound was pus-filled and had the familiar stench. “Does this hurt?”
“ʖ Te duele?”
The old woman shook her head that it didn’t.
“When was she bitten?”
The pretty woman’s lips trembled. “A few hours ago. Can you please help her?ʖ Por favor?”
“She’s infected.” Johnny gently replaced the bandage as carefully as she could, smiling at the old woman.
A thin young man was the last to come out of the van, and he carried a young girl wrapped in a blanket. “Milagro.”
