by Geo Dell
“Bear don't waste many words. We lost people yesterday like he said. He took it personal,” he sighed. “We'll be working our way to you.” He turned and walked away.
Mike stood for a second watching the two men and then turned to Molly and Tim. “Are we all three okay... I mean nothing got you? Nothing got me.”
“No,” Tim said.
“Just what splashed on my face,” Molly said. She was hunting through her side pack. She came out with a pack of disinfectant wipes. She worked on her face and then looked at Mike and Tim.
“Looks fine to me,” Mike said.
“You feel alright, right?” Tim asked.
“Yeah... Yeah. I was worried about that.” She tucked the wipes back into her side pack.
“Come on,” Mike said. “They'll be worried.”
~
Cammy held her head as she sipped. “I feel like shit,” Beth croaked. She cleared her throat and took a deeper sip. “God... Feel like a baby... Bad... Disconnected.” She looked at the stump of her forearm where it ended in bandages. “Hurts a little.”
Cammy laughed in disbelief. “It's me and you, if somebody chopped off half of my arm I think it would hurt like hell.”
Beth let a crooked smile cross her lips. “Yeah... I figured it would. I expected it to. But it doesn't. That's not bullshit. Maybe it will later on. My head is still all fuzzy though.”
“That's the morphine,” Cammy told her. “It'll wear off later on.”
Beth nodded. “Did we get all of them?”
Cammy nodded. “All but one. Bear said one got away...” She looked at her speculatively.
“What,” Beth asked.
“Some newcomers... Came from someplace deep in the woods, Bear said. Guess they have been hiding out all this time or something... He and Billy are helping to move a bunch of cars the dead blocked the road with. An old logging trail.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah... Bear said it looks like they have been ambushing people here for a while. Taking the cars and dumping them back in the woods so no one suspects.”
“Christ.”
“Yeah,” Cammy agreed. “Christ is right... So, anyways, they're out there in the frigging woods moving cars around so these people can get into here... Bear says they're gonna sit down and talk then.”
Beth pushed herself up with her one good arm. Her face turned pale.
Cammy eased her back onto the pillows. “I told you, Baby... Hurts now, huh?”
“Jesus,” Beth breathed.
“Yeah... You want Morphine... Got plenty of it,” Cammy told her.
She took several deep breaths and most of the color returned to her face. “No... I don't want to be all fuzzy... I'll sit here a bit and get my breath back. But when they talk I want to be there too. Just give me some aspirin or something,” Beth told her.
“Jesus, Beth. You don't take a goddamn aspirin when you get your arm taken off.” Cammy said.
“You do if you want your mind to be right,” Beth disagreed. “Besides, it wasn't even half my arm... Come on... Aspirin... Non aspirin... I don't care which. Just something to take the edge off.”
Cammy snorted. “Jesus... You and Bear, the toughest goddamn people in the world. You sure you don't have balls too?”
Beth looked at her and burst out laughing. “Ow. Ow. That hurts too.”
“Here,” Cammy said.
“Better make it four or five... God... Don't make me laugh no more either.”
“Sorry,” Cammy told her as she gave her a handful of aspirin. “Six,” She said.
“Sure it won't make me fuzzy?”
“I think it will take more than that to make you fuzzy,” Cammy told her.
Beth laid back into the pillows. “Back in the woods hiding, huh?”
“I really don't know... But what else would they be doing back in the woods?”
Beth nodded. “I guess we'll know in a little while.”
Cammy nodded. “I guess we will,” she agreed.
~
It was late morning by the time that the cars and trucks were moved or pushed back far enough for the three Jeeps to get past and travel the rest of the way down into the old campgrounds.
Molly had fired up the radio and called Josh when they had got back to the Jeeps. He had been there wondering about the gunfire and she had told him what they had run into along with promising that they would still like to meet them but that it would probably be later in the day before they did. They gathered together in the camping area to talk before they went to talk to the others.
“Doesn't look the same at all,” Tim said.
Mike nodded. But to him it did look the same. It was imprinted in his mind. Maybe in ten years it would begin to look different to him.
“So it's not the same people for real,” Ronnie said.
“Guess not,” Mike agreed. “I don't know about these people at all... I suppose we'll go through the same feeling each other out thing with both parties then.”
Molly raised her eyebrows.
Mike shrugged. “I guess I hadn't thought about how it would be... I mean, I did think how it would be but this isn't it.”
Molly laughed. “Honey, nobody every really has it figured out, do they? So we fall back a little and take it slower. Play it by ear... We did discuss bringing others back... Meeting others... It's just sooner rather than later.”
Mike smiled. “You should be in charge of this mess instead of me. You handle it much better.”
She laughed again. “Uh huh. But I handle it a lot better because I'm not in charge, you are. It's your ass on the line, not mine. Makes it a lot easier... But it sure would have been nice to just take your compliments and run with them.”
“So we go in and sit down and we talk, but we all decide later. And if you have a question… If I don't ask something, bring it up, okay?” Mike looked around from face to face.
They walked across the short distance to the road leading out of the park and then uphill to where the others trucks were parked. Bear stood, arms folded across his chest waiting for them. His eyes locked on Ronnie's. “Brother,” Bear said.
“I'm not down with that shit at all,” Ronnie told him.
“What shit are you talking about?” Bear asked him.
“That Brother shit... Mike can't be your brother? Wrong color? No. I'm not your brother just because we wear the same skin. I don't work that way at all.” He leaned closer to Bear. “ And I don't really fuck with people that are on that shit... Just so you know. So we don't have any confusion or mystery about it,” he said in a low voice.
“Suit yourself,” Bear said. They glared at each other.
“I usually do,” Ronnie told him.
Mike came closer to them and looked from Ronnie to Bear and then back to Ronnie. “I guess we came over to say thanks... I appreciate the help you gave us getting out of there... I guess I never really thought about running into something like that.”
Bear finally broke his eyes away from Ronnie. “Why is that... I mean, where have you been for the last six months where you didn't have to deal with the same shit the rest of us have out here? It makes no sense to me that you would just come driving out of the woods, I mean that road don't go anywhere else that I can see... So, what, you went camping and woke up to a changed world or something?” He refolded his arms across his chest once more.
Mike looked around the clearing, which was really not more than a wide spot in the road that lead down into the campgrounds. A few hundred feet back a truck sat closer to the side of the road. A tarp was draped across the top, fallen over the windshield. The people they lost, he thought. He leaned back against the bumper of the truck he stood next to. “We have been back in the woods... But there isn't anybody here who didn't go through some shit to get where we are. We built ourselves a place back there. It's a little more complicated than that, but we made a safe place... We came out now because there are a few things we need. We expect to grow, we have already added a few
to our ranks that have found us on the VHF, FM and CB bands and walked in to us. I expect that will grow. In fact, when we left, I know there were a few parties on the way in to us. So I would say we'll grow more while we're gone.”
He paused for a second. “We were up north... I'm sure there were dead there too, but they didn't bother us, or we didn't see them. We had no run ins with them until we were just about here. In this very park and had a problem with some people that came at us... Another long story. But then we lost some of our dead... We had heard about the possibility. Even then it was on the CB bands. We just didn't believe it, since we've been out there we've heard a lot more on the radios... New York... Houston... LA.... bad stuff.”
“It's worse than just that,” Bear said. “They're everywhere. I mean you hear about those larger places, but everywhere you go they're there... Die? You come back on their side of it.”
“Head shots,” Billy said. He had wandered over from under the hood of one of the trucks. He wiped his hands on a rag as he talked. “That's all that will kill them. You don't want to make a mistake with that, or wait, or anything like that. Head shot.” He nodded.
“You can't go anywhere in this country where they aren't,” Bear said.
Mike nodded. “Well, that doesn't change our position... We still have to come out for supplies... The larger we get the more often we'll have to come out too.”
“Then they'll kill you eventually. Or other factions will, because that's the other problem. It isn't just the Dead you have to contend with. You think I have a hard edge to me? A little cynical even. Well you're right. I do. But I'm alive. I'm alive out here in the world too, not back there in the woods hiding out somewhere.” Bear said.
“Uh huh,” Mike said. “So you're just gonna stay out here until they hunt you down and kill you? And you consider that smart?”
Bear laughed. A heavy rumble in his wide chest. “Is that an invitation?”
Mike shrugged. “It could be.” He turned and looked at Ronnie. “But you'd have to get along with Ronnie.”
“Right hand man,” Bear asked. He looked at Ronnie.
“No,” Mike said. “Just my friend whom I happen to discuss everything with and to me that's more... A right hand man can be replaced. Ronnie can't be. And you make it sound like shit on your shoe or something. Just the way you say it.”
“I see what I see,” Bear said.
“I think you see something that it isn't there,” Mike said.
The silence held long enough for the bird noise to seep back in to their consciousness.
“Bear, what did you do in the old world,” Molly asked.
“Steel work,” Bear said without hesitation.
“You walking around up there thirty stories in the air,” Nellie asked. “Sorry,” she added. “But you're a big man.”
Bear nodded. “But I'm light on my feet... You should dance with me some time.”
Nellie laughed and then Molly joined in. A second later Annie and Tim joined in. Bear grinned back at them.
“I did it since I was a kid... Come off the reservation and had an in through my uncles. I was eighteen out of school walking steel.”
“So what was all that shit then?” Ronnie said.
Bear just raised his eyebrows.
“You know this whole thing, what we're doing back in there, it all started because Bob, one of our people, Robert Dove, wanted to go back to the land... Rebuild the Nation,” Mike said. “We're back in there about seventy miles... I have to tell you it's a pretty good life. Maybe we, some of us, have to come back out here sometimes, but this doesn't touch that.”
“Hasn't,” Bear said. “You mean you've had dead and they haven't turned?”
Mike shook his head. “Yes... We have dealt with that... Not much though and we're prepared if it happens again.”
The silence fell again. The bird calls working their way back in.
“Sorry you lost some of yours,” Annie said. “But I'm glad you helped us... We would have come right into that if you hadn't... I mean it could've been us.”
“Yeah.” Bear sighed and looked down at the ground. “Had to shoot my friend... Nearly had to shoot two of them. Beth she lost her arm. I took the chance, took most of her forearm, and she didn't turn... If she had I would have done for her too. Sat there at the bed," he looked up to the open door of the van where Beth lay propped up and listening. "Sat there with a loaded 9 MM for about eight goddamn hours. Would have done it too... Was glad I didn't have to” He looked away from Beth. “Down to seven. Just Billy and me who can fight. Lost three of my company. Beth with one arm, Mac and Scott dead.”
“Maybe it's time to throw in with us,” Nellie said. She looked around after she had said it. “I can't make that offer on my own,” she added. “I think you'd be wanted though.”
Bear shook his head. “Can't travel with Beth right now. At least not fast or far. She needs to heal.”
“Can't stay here alone,” Molly said. “I mean if it's like you say you'd be like... Bait, I guess.”
“It's about seventy miles straight back in,” Ronnie said.
Bear looked at him.
Annie Spoke. “It's a straight shot, nearly. You follow the logging roads and you'll come to the reforestation... Maybe a hundred years back, anyway... Trees are in nice straight rows... You can drive between them like a road... That will take you in. Follow that until you reach a long valley.... I mean like miles long... Drive that right to where we are. Can't miss it. Or they won't miss you anyway.”
“And what if I was a bad guy that might find my way in there and cause problems,” Bear said.
“Then I wouldn't have told you,” Annie said. “But they would kill you anyway if they thought you were.”
Bear had started to smile, but the smile fell from his face. It came back after a moment. “Guess that's fair enough,” He said.
“It's what there is to give,” Mike told him.
A small woman poked her head out the back door of the huge converted van and stepped down to the ground. She stopped at the bottom of the steel steps that were there and then folded her arms across her chest. The door swung partway shut behind her. Bear looked over to her.
“Cammy,” Bear said.
The woman pushed a strand of her blonde hair aside and smiled. “Beth wants to meet you all,” She said.
Bear's arms came off his chest and a look of alarm came onto his face. “She should be resting... The last thing she needs...”
“Bear.” The voice was not raised particularly high, but it cut through his own voice and stopped him. “I want to meet our company.” Cammy walked back and once again opened the rear door. She looked over at Bear who seemed at a loss for words.
Bear walked over and looked in the open door. “You should be resting, Beth.”
“I should be talking to our company. I've heard most of it anyway. I want to meet them,” she told him.
Bear waved them over to the open door and made the introductions.
“I want to go to this place you're talking about,” Beth said. She looked at Bear. “Don't let his gruffness put you off. He didn't get that nickname Bear because of his size or the mean streak he pretends to have. He got it because he's really an old teddy Bear.” She looked at Bear as if challenging him to say differently. Bear just rolled his eyes. Cammy laughed lightly.
“Do you think we could get there in a few days? I could take a few days of hard travel if it means I can heal better. Not have to be a burden on the rest.” Her eyes were bright.
“We made it here in just over a day. You'll need the four wheel drive... It's a rough ride part of the way... Rough country... I don't know how your arm will take that,” Molly said.
Beth nodded. Her face was white. Too white. Her dark brown hair framed it, making her look soft and vulnerable. “I'm tougher than I look,” She said. “I know it may be tough, but I can take it. It's a matter of whether Bear will come with me or not.”
“What the hell's that me
an,” Bear asked.
“It means you could send me and Cammy back with Billy... You don't have to come back yourself. We take the kids with us. You can be a help here... Come back later if you really got more you got to get out of your system. But without me, you're down to you and Billy. That isn't gonna cut it and you know it,” Beth finished. Her face was even whiter.
“Honey, You need to rest,” Cammy told her. “We'll settle this, believe me.” She rested her hand on the door and looked up at Bear. She seemed about to speak and then turned and walked up the steel steps, closing the door behind her.
The morning was heating up. Mike looked up at the sky and then back down. Bear's eyes were on him. “Might make sense,” Bear said.
Mike looked around at the others. “I don't know about everyone else and how they lead. I do lead this... The Nation” He seemed a little frustrated. “It doesn't come up much. It's not that kind of thing. So I lead this way. I talk to everyone and get their opinions. Usually the right things come across... Give us a few minutes and we'll come back and tell you... You see? It's a different thing sending you back there and having you throw in and travel with us... It's not a personal thing... It's a group thing, where you fit, where we fit together.” Mike looked up and Bear nodded at him.
Molly walked away and they followed back to their own vehicles. Mike stayed silent. He had been around Molly long enough to know she would speak once she had her thoughts completely together. Ronnie went first.
“I don't get the guy,” he said. “Comes off racist and then turns out to be... What? Was he testing us with that stuff to see how we are?” He shrugged.
“But would you be comfortable with him?” Mike asked.
Ronnie shrugged. “I think he'll fight with us. That's really what you're asking. I'm not comfortable too often. Grow up black in the south and that is gonna be part of who you are.” He seemed to think a moment. “But I know I trust you guys... I know that. And I think that's a big deal... This guy? I think he'll fight. He'll have reasons to. I think he may change a little as we go too. I...” He shrugged.
“I like him,” Annie said. “I think he's just afraid... Men never say that they are, but I think he is. I would be if I had that much responsibility.”
