Samantha's Song

by David Carroll

  TWO

  Sass swung the truck up onto the interstate. The bells had stopped ringing by the time we turned onto State of Franklin. The plan now was to cruise down the interstate keeping watch for anybody making a run for it with a mob of zombies trailing them. All we saw was wrecked cars; a few had their dead owners inside watching our progress with as much interest as a fish watches their owner wander around the living room.

  Sass brought the truck to a stop near the next exit ramp and asked, “What’s the plan?” I had no clue at this point. I knew this entire outing was a long shot, but it was still disheartening to come up empty. I opened my mouth to tell Sass I thought we should turn the truck around and head home when I heard something. In the world we now live in there isn’t all the sounds that there used to be. Very few cars are rolling around on the roads. Even less planes are in the sky. No TV or radio stations. Every now and then you may hear a scream, a gunshot, or an explosion. But most of the time it’s just the moans of the dead. But what we were hearing now was something new. It sounded almost melodic.

  “Do you hear that?” I asked Sass.

  Sass took a minute to listen, “Yeah. What is that?”

  It was a low rumble of a sound. Deep voices rising in octave as each line ended. It was singing, there was no doubt. The closer the sound got to us the clearer the words became. It sounded like a choir singing a church hymn.

  “What the hell?” I said. Sass shook his head and looked around for the noise. “Still no clue where it’s coming from.” He said opening the door to get a better look at our surroundings. I grabbed one of the radios we kept in the truck. “I’m going into the box. I’ll climb up into the gunner’s seat. Maybe I can see them from up there.” Sass nodded at me and got back into the truck.

  Over the ear piece of the radio I heard Sass’s voice crackle into life.

  “We going on into JC, or you want to head back towards home?”

  I thought about it. Which way would our choir probably be? On towards Johnson City would lead us to another main road and as far as I could remember there were no churches that way.

  “Turn us around. Head for exit nineteen, but do it slow. I want to be able to see the side roads.”

  “You got it.” Sass said as he began to swing the truck around, pointing its nose towards home. I watched the local scenery as we crawled down the interstate. We were almost back to exit nineteen when the singing got even louder and I witnessed something that, even to this day, I have trouble believing. On the other side of the interstate, walking towards us, was a group of people singing and holding hymnals. They were singing some song I remembered from my youth spent inside the walls of Indian Springs Christian Church. This by itself was crazy, but when you added in the group of zombies that were following, and gaining, on our carolers it went from crazy to insane.

  “Charlie?” Sass’s voice said into my right ear. I could hear Jack in my head saying, “Don’t you dare bring that crazy to my roof top.” Then Sass’s voice came again. “Charlie? What do we do?”

  “Not everybody is worth saving.” Jack said in my head. “Look at them. They are idiots. They will end up getting us killed.”

  “I think I can swing around and get in front of them. We can drop the gate and get them in while I creep down the interstate in front of them.”

  I felt the truck start to lurch to our left as Sass began turning the truck again. “Sass. Wait.” I said.

  “What? You see something else?”

  How was I going to do this? How could I possibly convince Sass that these people were going to be more trouble than they would be worth? How could I convince him to leave this alone? Leaving them would mean that they would die. All Sass saw was people in trouble. He didn’t see the crazy. He didn’t see the trouble we would be inviting into our camp.

  “Charlie? What’s going on?” He asked.

  “Nothing. It’s just that, well, maybe we shouldn’t interfere.”

  There was a pause then Sass’s voice came back sounding just a hairs breath away from being “punch you in the face” mad.

  “What?” He asked.

  “Look at them Sass, they aren’t even running from the zombies. These guys are crazy.”

  “So, you are saying that since they are not acting rationally then they should die?” I could hear the poison in his words. I was earning no points from the tall one for this discussion.

  “I am saying do you want those crazy people running loose in our camp?”

  There was another, longer, pause before he answered again. “Is this you or is this Jack talking?”

  This was one of his newer phrases and he loved using it. Jack and I had become very close over the last few months. He had taught me a lot about being the man in command. He had taught me a lot about tactics in both combat and in diplomatic avenues. He was my mentor and he was the one that was molding me into the leader I would someday become. Sass said that he was brainwashing me to always see the logic behind what the military peeps wanted. I could see some validity to this claim, but it wasn’t always that way. I stood up to the military as much as I agreed.

  “It’s both. I know Jack would not want these idiots running unchecked on our roof. I don’t think it’s a very good idea either. It has the potential to put us all at risk. Look at those people Sass, they are dangerous. Can you not see that?”

  “What I see is a group of people who are going to die if we don’t do something. Are you telling me your conscience would be okay with that?”

  “Sass, I don’t want anyone to die, but I have a responsibility to the people back home. It’s my job to look out for their best interests. I don’t see how putting these people into the mix is in the best interest for anyone.”

  “I can’t believe you Charlie. This is who you want to be?”

  “This is who I have to be. Want has nothing to do with it. I have responsibilities. I have to consider the group before I can consider anything else.”

  Another long pause before he speaks again. “Fine, tell you what, when Jack goes ballistic about this you can tell him you tried to stop me, but I did it anyway.” I felt the truck roar back to life and swing left as we finished the turn he had already began. Sass aimed to pull the truck onto the side of the road right in front of the group.

  “Sass, please think about this.”

  Sass said nothing. He pulled the truck within ten feet of the group. From where I sat I could see the zombies were nearly in reaching distance. I dropped the ramp down and let the people run up it into the truck. Once the box was closed again and the hymn singing survivors were all sitting on the floor I descended the ladder to check on them.

  “Hello. My name is Charlie Collins. I am the leader of a group of survivors that are living on top of Wal-Mart. We heard your bells and drove out to investigate. That has led us here. I am glad we were able to assist you and you are welcome to stay with us on the roof until you’re ready move on.”

  “Until you’re ready to move on?” I heard Sass ask in my ear. I want to say “Hells yes until they are ready to move on. Just because we rescued them doesn’t mean that I have taken them to raise." A man stood up and dusted off his shirt and the knees of his pants. He stood maybe half a foot shorter than I did. His blond hair was feathered back in a look that was extremely popular in the eighties. He held a hymnal and a Bible in one hand, the other hand he stuck out to me.

  “We appreciate, and accept your offer to help Mister Collins.”

  I shook the man’s hand and looked at the other survivors. They were all looking down as if averting their eyes from this man and myself.

  “That was some risk ringing those bells. That sound most likely brought every other dead body within ten miles to your door step.”

  The man smiled at me.

  “No. We were never at risk. I knew we would be able to escape our pursuers if I did exactly as I was told.”

  “Do what?” I asked.

  “Last night a voice told me to ring the bells then
make my way to the interstate singing hymns that speak of sacrifice and having faith in the lord. The voice told me you would come in this truck. It told me all that are righteous and deserving would be spared, that rescue would be sent from the mountain top.”

  “And who told you this?”

  The man was beyond smiling. He beamed at me saying, “God, mister Collins. God speaks to me in my dreams. He has told me all about you.”

  And that is how I met the man named Jericho.

  THREE

  That evening we put a few tents together for our newest guests and they mostly stayed to themselves. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary. It generally takes a few days for any newcomers to begin to mingle with the rest of us. Everybody understands it’s just part of the experience. We give them their space and nine out of ten times they are happy to have it. With the new batch of crazies down for the night and Veronica finally calmed down from my going with Sass to find them, we settled into our watch shifts.

  Around five o’clock in the morning I heard what was either a couple of the largest mutant bumble bees to ever exist, or two motorcycles wound about as high as they could go. It turned out to be the motor cycles.

  Jane and Amanda parked beside the lift and Jack and I lowered it down to them. By the time we had them back up on the roof Sass and Shawn were with us. I hugged them both and wanted to tell them I was sorry for sending them, but I bit my tongue. Jack had told me that a good leader never shows that he believes he made a mistake, at least not in public. He said that I have to project confidence. “People will trust those that trust themselves”, is what he said to me. As the council and Shawn headed over to our usual area I caught a glimpse of Jericho and the man whom I was already thinking of as his right hand man, watching us.

  “It was harder to find them than I thought.” Jane said as he sat down and took the drink that Sass handed him.

  “Yes. They are in an alcohol distribution warehouse between here and Kingsport. We could hear their engines for over a day before we could narrow down their location.” Amanda added.

  “How many of them are there?” Jack asked.

  “No way to get an accurate count. Most of them stay inside.” Jane said.

  “However, there were over two hundred motorcycles parked at the building.” Amanda said.

  “And you’re sure of that number?” I asked. Jane laughed and nudged Amanda.

  “Yes, I am very sure of that number.” She said.

  “What’s so funny about there being a two hundred man strong army that will soon be coming for us?” Sass asked.

  “Oh, trust me; they won’t be coming any time soon.” Jane said still laughing.

  “What did you two do?” I asked already feeling the evil smile spreading across my face.

  “We spent all of last night popping the tires of every bike in the parking lot except for the two we stole when we left.” Jane said. Amanda nodded and smiled at me.

  “It will take them weeks to repair their bikes enough to make any type of advance on our position. We have plenty of time to prepare for them.”

  “Nicely done.” I said.

  “Preparing for an army of two hundred. That is going to take some planning.” Jack said already thinking about it. I looked from him to Jane and Amanda. Where Jack looked determined and a bit excited the other two looked like they were about to fall over.

  “Hold up Jack. I think Jane and Amanda need some down time. I want you both to get some sleep. We’ll wake you up around noon.” Neither complained or argued about my orders. We all stood, but as Amanda turned to leave we found that Jericho was standing behind her blocking the way to her tent.

  “This must be the infamous council I keep hearing about. The group who pulls the strings of their puppet, Mister Collins.” He looked each one of us over then settled back on me. “Good morning Mister Collins.” He smiled as he said this.

  “Morning Jericho. To what do we owe this pleasure?” I asked.

  “I thought you should know, I had a dream last night.”

  “That’s great. Can’t wait to hear about it.” I said as I attempted to walk him away from the rest of the council, but he was not moving.

  “Oh, they need to hear this as well. Last night I was told in my dream that I have been brought here to make this place a beacon of light in this dark world. I am to lead the children of the mountain. I am to lead by righteous example!”

  I looked over to Sass, but he had suddenly found his shoes to be the most interesting thing he had ever seen.

  “Jericho, you’re losing me here. What is it you’re wanting?” I asked.

  “That’s easy Mister Collins. I am to relieve you of your duty. I am to take control of this group. I am to guide us by the teachings of the good book and protect all that are righteous and believe in the word of our lord.”

  “You want me to hand you control of the group?” I asked.

  “It is not I who wants this. This command has been handed down by holy decree. It is no longer your burden to bear. I have been brought here to take up his standard and shine a light of faith and hope into this world.”

  “A dream told you all of this?” Amanda said.

  “God speaks to Jericho through his dreams.” I said matter of factly.

  Amanda turned all the way around to look me in the eyes. “Really?”

  “Really.” I confirmed. She turned and looked at Jericho.

  “Really?”

  Jericho smiled and stood up even straighter than he had been and answered, “Really."

  Amanda shook her head and pushed passed Jericho saying, “I am too tired for this shit." Jane laughed at her, but followed her lead. After they had left, Jericho fixed his gaze on me.

  “I really do hate to disappoint you and your flock, but I will never turn control of the group over to you. Not even if God himself appeared in front of me and handed me a stone tablet that said 'Thou shalt give Jericho control'. You are a danger to yourself and anyone stupid enough to listen to you.”

  “How dare you…” Jericho began.

  “Do you know how often somebody says those words to me?” I asked. Jericho gave me a blank look. “I dare, I really do. I dare because I don’t care about you or your hurt feelings. I am looking out for my group. I am trying to keep them safe. If there is one thing I am absolutely sure of, you…are not safe.”

  Jericho nodded at me. “I don’t know why I am surprised. Since before the birth of Christ, kings have refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of the holy word. These kings were too hungry for power to accept that our god is in control. Our god is the one who created the power that they so worship. You are no different. You do not want to believe what I am saying because that will mean that you have to give up your power. I understand your reluctance to relinquish your throne, but for the good of everyone here, you need to see the truth.”

  “And the truth is that god told you, in a dream, that you are supposed to come here and take over.”

  “Yes.”

  I looked at this delusional fool standing before me. “Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?” I asked.

  “It does not matter how it sounds. All that matters is that it is the truth. I am here. God has led me here. I was brought here for a specific reason. You know what that reason is. All you have to do is take it on faith that god really is speaking to me.”

  “No. I’m so not going to do that.” I said. Jericho locked eyes with me and we stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

  “I’m not going to change my mind Jericho. I will not relinquish leadership of this group to you. You are free to go.” After another few very uncomfortable moments, Jericho spun around and went back to his tent.

  “Wow.” Sass said, “He’s crazy.”

  I spun on my tall, hairy, friend. “Don’t you dare open your mouth about this. You are the one that wouldn’t listen when I told you that he was probably a crazy person and we should stay far, far, away.”

  “Yeah, I
am.” Was all Sass would say.

  “He is definitely going to be a problem moving forward. We will have to play him carefully. Spirituality is a powerful thing. If he is able to harness enough support with our people, he could become very dangerous.” Jack said.

  “We could always get Amanda to shoot him.” I said.

  “There is always that.” Jack confirmed.

  Sass sighed and looked out across the parking lot. “Do you actually think we can build a good enough defense to protect us from an army of two hundred?”

  “Oh yes.” Jack said. “Two hundred is easier to plan for than fifty would be.”

  “Why’s that?” I asked.

  “Two hundred will be packed in here so tightly that they will have nowhere to go once we spring out trap. It will be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

  “But, how are we going to plan for a number that high?” I asked.

  “Charlie, haven’t you learned by now. Numbers don’t matter. All that matters is superior tactics. Even Batman would tell you with the proper planning there is no adversary that you cannot beat.”

  “Too bad we don’t have Batman.” Sass said still looking down into the parking lot.

  “We don’t even have a cave.” I added.

  NOW

  DAY 123 OF THE INFECTION

  ONE

  “Charlie, this is crazy.” Fred said for the four billionth time.

  “Fred please shut up. I know what I am doing. This is not crazy, this is tactics.” I said in a tone that I hoped made clear how bored I was with this conversation.

  “But Charlie man, shouldn’t we make a run for home tonight while she waits for da sun ta come up?” Marky Mark asked.

  “No.” Was the only answer I gave.

  “Charlie.” Said Amanda. “You must understand why everyone is questioning this. You aren’t being very forth coming about this plan of yours.”

  My god, suddenly everyone had questions. All I wanted was for everyone to shut up and leave me alone. I was the one that was about to tuck them in then go risk my life while they floated away to slumber land. At least if I’m going to walk to my death tonight I will get to do so in peace and quiet. That thought made me smile.