The Dead Lands Diary Vol. II)

by S. David Staggs

  ME: Those other two will start heading back this way soon and see their friend in the street.

  JIM: And they’re walking side by side. I don’t think you can drop one and then draw on the other fast enough. He’ll spot us…maybe.

  TODD: Maybe we wait for them to spot him. They’ll run for him and check on him. If one is faster than the other, take the one falling behind out.

  JIM: I’ll lock onto one of them just in case.

  ME: If you have to fire, then be ready to get the fuck off this roof and out of here fast. We’ll need to be out of here quickly as possible.

  Suddenly they split off. The one went back to staring at the fire. The other was walking toward the parlor we were atop of.

  [in whispers]

  ME: You take the fucker down across the street. I’m climbing down to get this one walking past.

  JIM: Are you nuts?! Just wait for him to come back.

  ME: He’ll spot the other before we can get a clear shot. He might just take off or start shooting around. He looks a little jumpy. No time to argue, I’m going.

  JIM: Dammit, Jack…

  I climbed down the ladder quietly and slid my crowbar from my belt. I was mere feet now behind him. He looked like he hadn’t washed his dusty blonde hair in weeks and smelled something awful.

  I heard the sound of Alexis letting an arrow go. Then a cry rang out. She didn’t hit his head…he yelled out again. The man in front of me spun around to run back and stopped in his tracks, eyes widening, as I swung the crowbar at him. I connected with his jaw. Blood and teeth flew from his mouth and he dropped his rifle. He let out an agonizing scream. He was off balance and wobbling. I lifted the bar again and brought it down on the back of his head, sending him face first into the sidewalk. He convulsed and twitched wildly. I hit him twice more and back away. He was dead. I was ill. I backed against the wall and then walked quickly to the main street.

  The other was face down with two arrows in his back; blood pooling out around his corpse. I heard Alexis wretch on the roof. Didn’t blame her.

  We carried each body to the vehicles, including the Jeep and rusted beater. We put two in the beater trunk and the other two with Gary’s body in the other car. Others would come soon. Cars would be gone, no bodies. Just pools of blood in random places. They’ll be scratching their heads and begin to rally and search. How far out they would search was unknown…hopefully not far enough to find Haven. We’d have to up normal defenses and put more people on watch duty at a time.

  Likely the first thing they would do is go over and cover every inch of Ravenna. They would spend maybe a day or two doing that. Once they couldn’t find them or their vehicles they would start looking further out. It was going to be dark soon and they wouldn’t get much searching done. In the early morning hours we’d head out and plant these vehicles around.

  We had killed five of them and captured another that wasn’t loyal to them. Six men we didn’t have to worry

  about now. At the very least a dozen and a half left.

  On the way back we started to spot small groups of Roamers heading in the opposite direction. They began to form larger groups. We’d never seen that many in that area before, and we’d been out this way a lot to scavenge. We knew that Bolters’ had a keen sense of smell, but could Roamers smell blood that far away? They were swarming like sharks to chum.

  When we pulled into Haven with three new and unfamiliar vehicles, we drew some curious eyes. When we pulled Hank out we got a lot more attention.

  ME: Nothing to worry about, everyone. We’ll speak with everyone in a few hours.

  We took Hank into Todd’s house and sat him at the kitchen table. He sat nervously without a word. To try and ease his nerves a little, Todd handed him a bottle of water, to which he accepted and offered a forced smile and nod.

  HANK: Thank you.

  TODD: Don’t mention it.

  JIM: I gotta go check in on Kelly.

  TODD: Check in on or check in?

  JIM: Ha, fuck you.

  TODD: She’s a scary woman [laughs]. Just ribbing you, buddy. She gets pissed cause she cares. Anger covers fear at times. Remember that.

  JIM: I try.

  ME: I’ll come with. She can vent more of it toward me like she likes to do. Which she will when she sees we brought home a stray.

  TODD: Reggie and I will hold the fort here with our new friend. We’ll interrogate when you return.

  HANK: Interrogate?! What are-

  TODD: Chill out, we ain’t gonna water board your ass.

  Ben was happy to see us. Kelly was also happy, as usual, with relief. This time she didn’t jump our asses for anything which was a nice change.

  KELLY: Scared to ask but what happened?

  BEN: See anything? Take any out?

  KELLY: Ben, stop being morbid! Maybe you shouldn’t be in this conversation.

  JIM: He’s pushing 16, babe. I think you forget all he has seen and been through.

  KELLY: Easy to do after being here for so long…

  ME: Anyway…to answer the question, yes.

  KELLY: Answer to what?? That you saw something?

  ME: That their numbers are slightly smaller.

  KELLY: What the fuck happened?

  BEN: Yeah, tell us!

  ME: We killed five of their men. We have six less to deal with later.

  BEN: WHOA!

  KELLY: Five!? How did you do that??

  JIM: We just waited for a-

  KELLY: Wait a minute, back up a second. You said you killed five and then said that’s six we ain’t gotta deal with?

  JIM: We took one alive to interrogate.

  KELLY: You what?!?

  ME: Okay, please calm down-

  KELLY: Where is he? You tie him up somewhere between here and there? Who’s guarding him?

  ME: He’s, um. He’s with Todd and Reggie at uh…Todd’s house.

  KELLY: I…WHAT?! Are you batshit crazy? This is our home! You’re putting us at r-

  JIM: You ain’t got the whole story, hon. Let us explain.

  KELLY: Please do!

  BEN: Intense…

  ME: You know how well we watched and listened. This guy is basically a kid. He’s harmless. He was stuck in that shit hole.

  BEN: He was one of the slaves?

  ME: No, but he didn’t want to be there. I bluffed and said maybe we’d leave him there to go back home or wait for his guys to pick him up. He went white in the face and freaked out. Said he couldn’t go back. If he went back they’d kill him just for coming back without who he left with. He swore he’d take his chances on his own alone before going back there. Hell, he was terrified to come back here with us and thought we were about to kill him. Understandably, but he risked coming with us instead of going back there to what was familiar and technically his home. He wasn’t enslaved but might as well have been. He was living in constant fear.

  KELLY: Shit…now you kinda got me feel sorry for him…

  JIM: That’s why I love you, tough as nails but soft when it counts.

  KELLY: Shut up. How you know he ain’t bullshitting?

  JIM: Oh, believe us. He’s not. He’s terrified. We just brought up the word “interrogation” and he acted like he was about to be tortured and went into a panic.

  KELLY: So, what’s next?

  ME: Well, we interrogate him. I can tell he’s gonna tell else everything and anything we need to know about these sick fucks.

  BEN: Can I come?

  KELLY: No.

  BEN: No offense, but I wasn’t asking you, Kelly.

  ME: You’ll meet him later. We’re going to speak to him for quite awhile first. Kelly, I need you to do me a favor if you would.

  KELLY: Name it.

  ME: People were looking anxious when we got back. I told them we’d meet in a couple hours, but I’m gonna be grilling this guy for longer than that. If you don’t mind, can you go around and tell them who they saw was nothing to worry about and that I’ll speak to them tomorr
ow afternoon?

  KELLY: Yeah, I can do that. No problem.

  ME: Thank you. I wanna get back and start talking to him.

  JIM: I’m gonna talk to people with Kelly and Ben.

  ME: Okay, we’ll convene later tonight.

  **

  When I got back to Todd’s place, Hank seemed to be in a much calmer state. He was slightly smiling but still cautiously nervous. I assumed Reggie’s sense of humor was working on him. Directly or indirectly I have no idea.

  ME: I miss anything?

  TODD: Nope…just shooting the shit waiting on you.

  REGGIE: I was just telling him about how we came to be here and ease him up…mother fucker is tense as fuck, man.

  ME: Under the circumstances tense is a normal reaction I suppose. Let’s get to it, shall we?

  TODD: Let’s cut to a real basic question…how many other assholes are there? You’ve been there awhile, so you obviously know them all.

  HANK: Oh, Okay…um, let’s see. Subtracting the five men you killed and then including Victor and his right hand…that makes…………..twenty-one left. Yeah.

  ME: It looked like more from what we observed.

  HANK: Slaves. Some of them have the job of walking around looking like guards. Unloaded weapons. Give the illusion that there’s more of us. Victor is clever that way. Paranoid a tad.

  TODD: Who’s his right hand?

  HANK: Harry…yeah, he’s a charmer.

  REGGIE: Ah, the douche we saw hit that woman. Dark haired motha fucka.

  HANK: Yeah, that’s him. That was Beth he hit. She’s a good lady. Always felt bad for her. Harry paid for that though.

  ME: How do you mean?

  HANK: Victor had witnessed it from one of his windows. He doesn’t believe in hurting women. Harry is his right hand man, but he had no problem having his personal bodyguards give him a little beating.

  REGGIE: Wow…okay, that’s unexpected.

  HANK: Victor is a little erratic though. I mean, he can be very unpredictable. People walk on eggshells around him. Except Harry and his two guard goons. Well, Harry will never hit a woman again, but he still isn’t nervous around him. I think they go way back. All four of them I think. Can’t say for sure.

  ME: His two personal guards…what’s their story?

  HANK: Duke and Will. They just stick close to him. I personally never spoke to either of them. They seem to be the silent type. I’ve only seen them talk to themselves and Victor and Harry. They don’t even interact with other guards. Harry is the spokesman for Victor. Shit needs to get around, Harry makes sure everyone knows what’s up.

  TODD: Victor himself ever make appearances?

  HANK: Every now and then he’ll speak to everyone from either the roof…if he feels like making a big deal out of himself. Other times at the entrance of his building.

  TODD: Guy has an ego then?

  HANK: Some days he seems to, others not as much. I donno. He’s eccentric, man. Like I said, unpredictable. For instance…how I said he doesn’t believe in hurting women…but I know a couple of them ended up as chained dead heads on the outside. Only a couple, though.

  ME: Any idea why?

  HANK: Well, one tried to kill him. Fashioned a shiv from a piece of wood and when he came out to speak she rushed him. Before she got close, Duke put a round in her leg.

  REGGIE: How’d she get infected?

  HANK: Further down, toward Kent…there’s a little fenced in area they set up. There’s some dead heads inside. When someone fucks up too bad, one of two things happens. One, he might just have you killed or kill you and you get your head on a pike. The others, well. They get taken to the fenced in place. They call it the Bite Pen. There’s a hole cut in the fence. Their arm is forced inside and they get bitten and shit.

  Reggie: Sick fucks! That’s fucked up!

  TODD: They don’t just throw them on the wall from the start do they? As Bolters?

  HANK: Bolters?

  ME: How they are when they’re first infected…newly turned, I should say.

  HANK: Fast, yeah. No, they go to a building inside our place. In a plaza.

  ME: The place where it’s all boarded up in the front?

  HANK: Yep.

  TODD: Where all the tents are…

  HANK: You guy’s really did your homework! Slaves sleep in the tents there. One’s that have proved to be better workers have some inside realty in a smaller plaza closer to the front.

  ME: We noticed. So the building?

  HANK: Yeah…the infected has its throat cut open and thrown inside from a back entrance. Slaves in the tent zone…that’s what Harry and the guards call it…they can hear it in there thrashing around day and night. It’s an effort to you know, scare the slaves. Make them wonder what’s going on. It’s noticed when one of them go missing. They know of the heads of pikes, but not the dead on the walls. When they hear inside the building, they don’t know. Some think people are being fed to infected.

  ME: Has that ever happened?

  HANK: Not to my knowledge, but I’m not in the inner circle.

  ME: Right. How many slaves?

  HANK: As of last time I was just there, maybe thirty? Was thirty-one but two have went “missing” recently. So twenty-nine? Shit, man, I don’t know. A lot.

  TODD: How many you reckon he’s had killed?

  HANK: Overall? Since day one, I’d say around forty give or take.

  REGGIE: Forty?!

  HANK: Yeah. Some people just refused to submit to servitude, ya know? He’d make an example out of them to persuade others to stand down. Public killings.

  ME: Give some examples.

  HANK: If I must…I hate thinking about it.

  TODD: We just need to know everything…what to expect. You wanna help these poor people, don’t you?

  HANK: Yes! More than anything!

  ME: Then tell us everything that will help make that happen.

  HANK: Okay. Well, Harry and some of the others came back one day with two men they captured. Buddies I guess. Both were headstrong and ready to fight. Well, one of them are still there. Name is Wayne. He’s a quiet man now. Speaks to a few other slaves but other than that keeps to himself. He’s not so much headstrong anymore. He was beaten and broken. They still keep an eye on him though…probably Victor’s order. Some feel he’s putting on an act and just biding time.

  REGGIE: What do you think?

  HANK: I really don’t know. If it’s an act, then he’s good.

  ME: What happened?

  HANK: The man he was with when they brought him in, I can’t remember his name now. He said he’d never be some bitch to a scumbag piece of shit. Victor was there…face to face. Mere feet apart. This was last year. The guy spit at Victor and told him to go fuck himself. Wayne was just as outspoken. He managed to punch a guard out before being restrained. Anyway, after his friend spit on him and told him that, it was game over. He wiped spit off his coat and part of his face. He looked at the man and smiled casually, it looked. He even laughed. After that, he shook his head and nodded to Harry. Harry sucker punched Wayne in the stomach and he hit the ground. Harry kicked the shit out of him until he knew he wasn’t getting back up.

  REGGIE: Shit…

  HANK: Victor is a little tall. Six-three I’d say. He’s tough, too. He walked up and bashed him in the face a good one. Duke and Will had him by the arms. He ordered them to drag him behind him and inside the building. After while, they appeared up on the roof of his building. The guys hands were tied in front of him and Victor brought him to the ledge. He shouted down to Wayne…and every slave in general, something like “this is where that kind of behavior get’s you” or some shit like that. Fuck. He just pushed the guy. He fell face first. Hit the sidewalk hard. Shattered skull, broken neck. Arms. Wayne…he never stood up for himself again.

  REGGIE: What the fuuuck!! Man is a fuckin’ lunatic, man!

  ME: Yeah…he is. We’re going to do what we have to do. That is, we’re going to liberate thes
e people and put the others down. Question is, will you help us?