"Of course."
She followed Jenny as she led her out the back of the cafeteria and through the hallway on the ground floor leading to the back of the building.
"What's going on?" Sarah asked.
"It's Mark," Jenny said. "Ever since that night with Hank, he hasn't been able to get any sleep. He's starting to get paranoid."
"Paranoid? Of what?"
They stopped at the end of the hall just before the door leading outside. "I've never told you this, but Mark was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a little over a decade ago. He always coped with it okay back then, but with the way the world is now, I've been seeing him have a hard time dealing with things from time to time. And him being accused of stealing really put him over the edge, I think. Sometimes he's okay, but other times he spirals out of control, worse than I've ever seen him before."
"Where is he?" Sarah asked.
Jenny looked out the window in the door. "Out here."
They left the building and walked out to the graveyard at the back of the camp.
Mark stood in the middle of it, staring blankly between the gravestones.
"How long has he been here like this?" Sarah asked.
"All morning," Jenny said. "He won't come inside, and he won't even let me put a coat on him."
He stood between the loose dirt of two fresh graves, wearing only a short-sleeved button-up shirt and a pair of jeans.
Sarah exchanged a silent look with Jenny, then cautiously walked up behind him. She gave him a wide berth so she didn't scare him.
"Hey Mark," she said.
His head jerked to the side and looked at her, his eyes tense. They mellowed after a few seconds, then he replied hello back.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
He stood with his hands shoved deep into his jeans' pockets. "No," he said, staring blankly again at the ground. "No, nothing. I'm just out for a walk."
She looked down at his bare feet standing in the dew-soaked grass. They were pale white, even starting to take on a shade of blue.
"Why are you out for a walk?"
His eyes darted around. "I... I don't know."
"Do you want to come inside?"
"No."
She walked up to him and cautiously put her hand on his wrist to comfort him. His skin was freezing and she knew that he would have frostbite before long. "What are you afraid of?"
He was silent for a long time, but she waited. "I don't want to be like them."
"Like who?"
He said nothing, but she looked around at all the tombstones surrounding them and knew what he meant.
"I don't want to be like them," he whispered, a tear rolling out of his eye. He didn't bother wiping it away, and it quickly froze on his cheek.
"You won't be," she assured him. "You're going to be okay. But you need to come inside. Your family is worried about you."
She held onto his wrist and started to turn him around to face the building. He was reluctant and slow, but he turned.
"I can't go in there," he said.
"Why not?"
"They're in there."
"Who?"
"They think I'm a thief. They don't want me there. They'll kill me."
"No one's going to hurt you. And no one thinks you're a thief. Everyone knows that was a lie."
She grabbed his shoulders and gently started to push him forward. Again he was reluctant, but his feet moved. Jenny waited by the door, a half smile on her face. None of them said another word, and Jenny opened the door as Sarah led him inside. They both helped him up the staircase at the back of the building to the second floor and walked him to the family dormitory.
Sarah asked Jenny if it would be better to bring him to the infirmary and let Noah know what was going on, but Jenny asked her in a very hushed voice to keep all of this just between them; Mark was worried enough as it was and she didn't want him to get even more spooked from people keeping an eye on him. She said that with rest and time, all of it would pass. Sarah obliged her and they laid him down into bed. He looked exhausted just like Jenny, and his eyes quickly closed when his head hit the pillow. It rolled around and he muttered things under his breath, but eventually he settled down and rested.
"Thank you," Jenny said with a look of tired but extreme gratitude on her face.
"No problem," Sarah said. "If you need anything at all, just let me know."
"I will."
Sarah said goodbye and left the both of them to rest. She walked the length of the hallway toward Noah's office, passing the lounge on her way and seeing Sam and Jake playing in the corner.
She hoped that Noah was finished meeting with Wayne and Kenny and that she would have a moment in private to find out what was going on. She knew she wasn't always going to be entitled to every operational detail of what Noah had planned, like every other person in the camp, but she enjoyed being in the inner circle more than she thought she would. But more than anything, she just wanted to see him.
Just as she approached the door to his office, it opened. She stopped and waited for Kenny and Wayne to come out, but it wasn't them at all.
It was Kathy.
They exchanged a brief look, Sarah's one of surprise, and Kathy's one of sheepishness with that same hint of judgment. She walked past Sarah briskly and headed for the ladies' dorm.
Sarah peeked into the office and saw Noah reclining back in his chair, his hands resting behind his head. "Sarah... hi," he said with a grin.
"What was that all about?" she asked, jerking her thumb over her shoulder.
"What, Kathy? She just popped in to say hello, nothing major."
Sarah studied his face, trying to tell if he was hiding something. If he was, he didn't show an ounce of it.
"So what do you need?" he asked.
"Oh, I don't know," she said. She turned around and closed the door then walked up to him. She bent over and put her hands on his thighs then leaned in and kissed him.
He was taken by surprise and couldn't help a big stupid grin when their lips pulled away. "Mmm, it's nice to see you too," he said.
She wrapped her fingers around his wrists and gently pulled on them. He slowly got out of the chair, confused by what she was doing. She just smiled at him and batted her eyelashes, then led him over to his bed in the back corner of the room.
"I thought you wanted to take things slowly," he said.
"I do," she said, sitting him down on the bed and cozying up beside him. "But that doesn't mean we can't have an intimate moment."
His eyes went back and forth between hers, then traced down to her lips and back up. His pupils were like big black eclipses. He slid his fingers through her hair and held the back of her head as he put his mouth on hers, their tongues immediately greeting and tumbling around each other. Their hands started to run all over each other's bodies, and Noah slowly slid a rough, warm hand over her left breast, pausing for a moment, but she was okay with it and guided his hand over the crest of it as he started to brush her nipple through her clothes. She let out a moan and he gently laid her down onto his pillow as he started kissing her neck and worked his way back up to her mouth.
They made out for a few minutes as she ran her hands all over his back and he groped her breasts. He didn't want to go further than that in case she protested, and after a few more gropes and a few more plunges of their tongues, they separated and lay beside each other in bed, catching their breath and smiling as they stared into each other's eyes.
After resting for a couple minutes without a word, she finally spoke up. "So what happened this morning?"
"Well, it seems we have a problem."
Her eyes widened, a knot of tension rippling in her solar plexus.
"It's a big problem, but we can handle it."
"What is it?"
"Zed told us this morning that there's a big congregation of zombies a couple miles east that could wander toward us and flatten this camp if we don't do something about them."
"How big
are we talking?"
"About a thousand was the number that Zed gave us. I had our scouts head out there and check when we got back and they confirmed it."
"A thousand?" she said in disbelief. "How did that happen?"
"I don't know," he said. "Zombies seem to clump together in groups a lot of times, and when you have a big group together, any stragglers wandering around near them seem to join, so you can get a group of them that gets bigger and bigger, like rolling a snowball. But I've never heard of this many before. There would've had to have been a huge group of them to begin with, and I don't know how that would've happened in the first place."
Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh my God."
"What?"
"It was David," she said, blankly staring off into the distance.
"Your son?"
"Yeah. When you found me that day. We were in the carnival and we were ambushed by bandits. Then the zombies came."
"Yeah, you told me that," he said, uncertain where she was going with this.
"But I never told you how many. There were hundreds of them, at least. Maybe more. We got away from them and made it to the back of the carnival, and that's when you... when you found me." Her eyes teared up and her throat tightened.
He wrapped his arms around her. "It's okay. We're okay."
"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her eyes.
"Don't be." After a moment of silence, he added, "We only saw the few zombies that were... there. We heard screams and gunfire in the carnival, but I had no idea there were that many. I guess they must have headed east after that." After another moment of silence, thinking about all of it, he became confused. "But what did all the zombies have to do with your son?"
She tried to think of the best way to word it without sounding like a lunatic. "I don't know how to say this, and this is something that only me and David knew, but... he had a gift. It was a unique ability that no one else had."
"What kind of ability?"
"He could affect the zombies. Move them around just by thinking about it."
"I don't understand."
"I don't know how you could. I didn't believe it at first either, but he said he could do it, then he showed me. On our trip to get here, he made zombies do strange things. Sometimes there were close calls where we were trapped and about to die, and suddenly they would just stop and walk away, like we weren't there at all. When the bandits grabbed us in the carnival, David was concentrating really hard. I could see him. And then every zombie in town, it seemed, came running in and attacked the bandits.
"I know you don't believe me," she added.
"Well, I don't know how I can," he said, "but then again I never thought I would ever live to see the fabled 'zombie apocalypse', and here we are. You said you saw it with your own eyes, so how can I say anything otherwise? But... that can't be true, can it? I mean, it's too bizarre to be true."
"We can both agree on that one," she said, reflecting.
"But if your son could do that," he said, "how could he... I mean, why did the zombies..." He trailed off, thinking that he had said too much, as vague as he was.
She started to cry.
"I'm sorry," he said, hugging her again. "I shouldn't have asked that."
"I don't know," she said. "The bandit grabbed him and he was going to kill me. He did it to save me, but... but he couldn't get away. The bandit had his arm wrapped around his neck, and... I don't know. He was too tired and too upset to do anything more. If only we'd gone a little further."
"Don't think about that," he said. "I'm a friggin' idiot. I shouldn't have asked that."
"It's okay," she said, starting to calm down. "I shouldn't keep beating myself up over it."
"You're right, because it wasn't your fault. It was no one's fault."
"I'm sorry, this isn't your problem" she said, wiping her eyes. "Tell me what the plan is for those zombies."
He hesitated, but she seemed okay. "Well, if we don't do anything about them, they could find a way to any of our camps, and we might be able to survive, but not without heavy damage. Because of that, Zed offered a truce so we can all deal with the problem together."
"A temporary truce?" she asked, her voice still shaky.
"He says a permanent one."
"Do you trust him?"
"No. But we have to take the chance. If he actually means it, I don't want to be the one to throw it all away, even if they are a bunch of savages. But I talked it out with Wayne and Kenny, and we're all on board with a backup plan in case Zed and Delroy aren't true to their word."
"So how are you going to deal with the zombies?"
"We only need a handful of people from each group. I'll be going with Wayne and a few other men to take care of the problem, and Zed and Delroy will each show up with a few of their men as well. We're going to be setting explosive charges around the zombies and funneling them to a certain spot so they all get wiped out. It's a good plan, and it'll work as long as we execute it properly."
"Are you worried about that last part?"
"I am. But we'll see how they play it. Wayne has my back if anything goes wrong."
"Can you rely on him?"
"Sarah, Wayne is the most loyal man I have. That's why I'm bringing him with me; if anything happens, he'll pull my butt out of the fire."
"That's good, because I don't want a single thing happening to that cute butt of yours," she said with a grin.
"Not a chance," he said. "Oh, and one other thing."
"What?"
"I want you to take care of a small task for me with Kenny while me and Wayne are out dealing with the problem. It's nothing major, but Kenny will fill you in on the details when you go."
"Sure," she said. "So when is all this happening?"
"Tomorrow."
13
Bombing Run
The next day came too early for Sarah, and when she was woken up just before dawn, she was groggy and her muscles had a slight soreness to them that she couldn't explain. She got out of bed, freshened up, and put on some clothes, then she went out to the front of the camp where everyone was waiting.
Noah and Wayne were getting ready with a small group of five men going on the excursion with them, and Kenny was there too, bringing a set of four small black boxes to the front gates.
Sarah was given a bulletproof vest and a Sig Sauer pistol, and she wished Noah good luck. She hugged him and told him to be careful and he promised he would. His group picked up some duffel bags filled with explosives and slung them over their shoulders while the guards stationed at the gates opened it for them.
Noah pecked her on the lips, not wanting to delay or put on a show for anyone. She wanted so much more in that moment, but she knew she would have to be patient and wait. And it would be another reason for him to come back alive.
He flashed her a wink and left the camp with Wayne and the five other men. They started walking east and disappeared from sight.
"You ready to go?" Kenny asked her.
"Yeah," she said.
"Let's get 'er done, then."
He handed her two of the black boxes and she grabbed the handles and held them by her sides. They were heavier than she would have hoped, and she only could have guessed what was in them. He picked up the other two boxes and they left the camp. They headed east as well, but as soon as they were clear of the north wall of Noah's Ark, they rounded it and headed south, walking through the path between the east wall and the woods.
She glanced at the loose section of wall that Barry had showed her, trying to see how noticeable it was from the outside, but she could hardly even see it until she was up close. They passed it without a word and walked out into the field, skirting along the tree line and heading southeast.
"If you have to put those things down for any reason," he said, "put them down gently; the stuff inside's fragile."
"What's in them?" she asked.
"I'll tell you when we get there," he said.
"Where are we going?"
"I thought Noah said we were just doing a simple task."
"We are," he said, looking over his shoulder at her. "Won't take but an hour or so. Simple stuff, no trouble."
They took a more indirect route to Zed's camp than she and Noah had done before, and as they traveled she would occasionally glance to the east and wonder where Noah was and how he was doing. She knew she would arrive at Zed's camp long before Noah got to where he was going, but she couldn't help but worry about him.
Kenny led her through the suburbs, occasionally pausing at certain corners and scoping the area before moving on.
"Keep real quiet as we get close," he said. "They can't know we're coming, and we absolutely can't be seen."
"So I take it this isn't a friendly visit?" she asked.
He shook his head. "If you see anyone or anything at all, tell me. But don't make a noise if you can help it. That gun on your hip is more for show than anything; let me do the talking. And again, if we get into any kind of pinch, don't drop those boxes. If you break 'em, that's on you."
"I got it," she said quietly. "What are you going to do if we do come across someone?"
He stopped for a moment and gently put down one of the boxes on the ground. He gripped the hunting knife sheathed on his belt and slowly pulled it out a couple inches to show her the blade. She saw the seriousness and the intensity in his eyes, and they said more than his words ever could. He slid the knife back in and picked up the box, returning to a brisk pace.
A couple minutes later they turned a corner in front of a convenience store and spotted a zombie stumbling around down the street. Kenny looked around quickly and saw that the coast was otherwise clear just as the zombie spotted them. It shifted its momentum and came for them, its milky eyeballs bulging in delight.
"Watch these," Kenny said to her, setting down the two black boxes he was carrying. He marched out for the zombie and met it in the middle of the street, pulling out his hunting knife. The living corpse lunged at him and swung an arm out to grab him.
Kenny stepped out of the way and deflected its arm, spinning the corpse around on its feet. He closed in behind it and wrapped his thick arm around its neck, yanking it toward him and pinning its back to his chest. The blade of the knife glimmered in the early morning light before he plunged it deep into the zombie's belly. He dragged it all the way to its sternum, letting its guts spill out. It tried to thrash around under his grip, but it was powerless against his sheer strength.
A Rising Tide (Zombie Apocalypse Series Book 2) Page 12
