Dead End Stories From the End of the World

by P. S. Power

  The pregnant one.

  From the House.

  The second body back wasn't anyone he could recognize off the top of his head, but she looked a tiny bit familiar. One of the new women from the police compound. In the trees he found two more, one of whom was even alive. Injured and dying, just not dead yet. Now her he knew immediately.

  Fuck.

  Justine.

  She saw him and groaned a little, her mouth working, as if trying to get him to come closer. He didn't see a weapon in her hands, now, that had been taken most likely. He closed with her, the dark stain of blood marking the white snow beneath her. It had been one of his near blind shots, the second one he thought, based on position. The round had hit high in the chest. It wasn't a survivable wound. Not even if they had a modern hospital to take her to and emergency care on the way.

  Oh, not because she was slated to die from it.

  Jake was just going to kill her. He'd saved her life once, on the condition that she not do things like this. So it was kind of a deal breaker.

  Oops.

  “I'm... sorry. I had to. My baby needed me. Understand?”

  “Derrick?” The answer was so clear it hardly seemed worth asking the question.

  Of course it was him. It got a nod though, which helped a bit.

  “Forgive me?” She sounded really sad, her strong featured face going slack.

  “Sure. Why not?”

  Then Jake shot her in the head, turning it into a bloody pulp. After that he just walked home. He didn't have an axe or machete with him, an oversight. Those needed to be carried everywhere from then on, he decided. He wasn't taking the bodies back with him, so he'd just leave them to freeze and hope that would slow the land sharks down a bit.

  The first thing he did on getting back was check the whole house and the barn, which were untouched.

  Then he built up the interior fire in the kitchen, and set the water heater going, making sure he had enough water for a full bath. First a scrub up, trying to get the death off, then hours in the tub. He didn't eat that night. Instead he just sat in the bath, and cried.

  It was just all too much.

  People he'd risked his life for, over and over again, trying to kill him, for no reason at all? Just because some guy that they knew had the ability to influence them, said it was a good idea? Jake dressed and slept then, locking all the doors, not caring if they came to burn him alive in the night. Not anymore. What was he supposed to do with this? Justine had been his friend, hadn't she? Who else was going to try and kill him now? Carley? Tipper?

  At first light he went back, with a sack, one of his harvesting pillow cases, and his axe. They'd be frozen by now. The heads were collected up, making him feel more ill than usual and put in the bag. It was evidence. Then he walked, slowly, hating every step of the journey. Wishing it didn't have to happen, and knowing it would.

  He just walked in, breakfast hadn't happened yet, but the room smelled good. Like cinnamon and other spices. Oatmeal. With real sugar too. The supplies those people had brought.

  “Nate. A word. Vickie, you too please. Outside.” He kept his right hand free and ready to draw down, but no one questioned that, or even seemed afraid.

  Nathaniel seemed happy enough to see him, but Vickie didn't. She looked at the sack, making out the shape easily enough.

  “Friends of ours?”

  “Some. Here.” He dumped the sack out and righted the heads with his foot until the faces were clear.

  Nate jumped back, but Vickie nodded, not surprised at all.

  “All Holsom's bitches. What happened?” Her tone was matter of fact, a little hard, but practical sounding.

  “Ambush as I walked back last night. There were more of them, most ran away.”

  “What's the plan?” She sounded dead then, flat affected and cold.

  “Plan?” Nate spoke softly, looking at what was in front of him. “To do what?”

  “Nate... think about it. If these women attacked Jake, and others were involved, then we have a big portion of our population that's about to attack us. We have to stop them, for that we need some kind of plan, don't you think?” She sounded exasperated.

  It was common sense in her world. In their leader's, the next step would be talking, probably followed with more talk. That never worked.

  This got a shrug as the back door opened and Tipper walked out. She looked at the heads on the ground, figured out who they were, and went wide eyed.

  “Fuck. You just killed them?” She said, as if that made any sense. Jake refrained from shooting her, but only barely and let Vickie explain.

  “So that's where we are. Whose side are you on sis?” It was a real enough point, but Tipper didn't hesitate.

  “Ours, always. You know that.”

  Nate looked horribly uneasy and sounded like he might cry, “Now what?”

  “Now?” Jake looked at the man. “Head count. Find out if anyone else is missing. Then we round up all the women making false accusations about me and kill them. After that we seriously consider taking out anyone that was ever under Holsom's control.”

  It was a better plan than just chatting about “feelings” at least. Nate didn't like that idea at all, but that was too bad, because nothing else would really fix things, would it?

  That...

  Jake sat and thought for a minute and finally sighed. What if it was just about killing him? Maybe he and Holsom and his harem of would be assassins could deal with it themselves, without punishing people that just happened to get in the way of the wrong chemicals coming from the bastard's underarms or whatever the hell was going on. Yeah, he was sad that Justine had died, that he'd killed her and worse, that she'd betrayed him. On purpose. That didn't really justify slaughter.

  He didn't say anything though. Maybe people would actually not act like huge morons if they thought he was just going to line up anyone that knew the guy and start shooting. There was a certain temptation there...

  It was just evil. That was all.

  And when it came down to it, Jake just wasn't. So he'd find a way to save them, if he could.

  Nate called for everyone to come to the living room. All the tables were moved out and the place was packed, body to body in fact, because half the women hugged the back wall, a few men mixed in, standing by their girlfriends. That was probably a good sign. The women that had a guy, or possibly even a girl, in their life, might just not be currently under Derrick's thrall. Jake could use that, eliminate some people that might otherwise just have to be assumed guilty.

  Vickie took charge, Tipper standing beside her, holding a pistol in her right hand and a large silver knife in the left, looking ready to kill. With a nod and a toss of the head she got Dave to come and stand with her. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but pulled the handgun on his own hip without pause.

  Then the older Val grinned into the room.

  “Fucking Derrick Holsom's back. If you've got a dick get over here, because he can't directly control you. We've been infiltrated already. We need a head count now. Carl? You got that?”

  “On it now.” The muscular black man didn't pause, heading out of the room instantly, eyes wide, whites showing in fear. Or anger.

  A low murmur went up around the room. Still, it didn't take long for people to figure something out.

  All of the false accusers were gone.

  That got a grimace from Nate, who pointed it out first, “so that speaks to that, doesn't it? Well, if we can just figure out who else might be involved then we can, find some way to isolate them or... maybe...”

  From the side of the room, stepping out, looking bitter and angry, came Becky Fines. Since she was kind of the leader of the new people, that made sense. Plus she'd really turned on Jake in the last days, after the whole lying about him thing became popular. For a second he kind of hoped that she'd change her mind about him, since this was proof of innocence, right? She hadn't.

  Instead she pointed at him, shaking, “how do we k
now he didn't just kill them? People could disappear now and no one would ever know about it.”

  It was a good point. For a second Jake wondered if he had done it. After all, it made a lot more sense than a group of otherwise decent people going off and trying to kill him, didn't it? Except, of course, he'd been with himself the whole time. Nope, not him.

  It set a low rumble up in the room.

  People liked that option better too, it looked like. Easier to blame him than anyone else, since they'd already decided on his guilt.

  “No.”

  Everyone turned to look at the speaker, who stood holding her distended belly, wearing a funny looking dark blue dress thing and leggings that were a shade darker. Her hair was limp and tied back, looking greasy and a bit unkempt. Her face was pale.

  Heather.

  Randy wasn't by her, standing across the room, shoulders touching one of the new women, a tall lanky brunette that Jake associated with absolutely nothing at all. If it wasn't for the fact that she clutched the boy's hand while Jake looked on, he wouldn't have even thought anything of it at all. The woman, easily in her late twenties, stared at Jake in horror, then pointed out that he was looking to the red-headed and now more rugged looking guy beside her. Randy turned to him, also a bit scared looking, and nodded.

  Jake didn't have a problem with him though.

  Yeah, he'd shot him, but, well, boo-hoo. Jake had been trying to kill his girlfriend and even if he hadn't been, lying about him wasn't a killing offense, so he'd been in the wrong, going after Heather for it. If the roles had been reversed, it would have been him doing the shooting, only Randy wouldn't have gotten up later.

  So as far as that went, Jake had gotten lucky. He raised a hand and waved to the guy, then motioned him over. The kid came, but looked freaked.

  “Right, so, Randy, could you cover the back door and make sure no one is out and about?”

  “What? I... guess... You aren't going to shoot Heather are you? I don't know why she said that stuff, but...” He looked down at the floor then back up and plunged ahead. “But she doesn't do things without a reason.”

  Jake shrugged, “not planning on it.”

  “OK. Um, if you do, I'll... Um, you know, have to come after you.” It lacked a bit of conviction, but seemed to have its heart in the right place.

  “I know.” Jake did. It was why he trusted the man enough to watch the door. Not a killer, but he wasn't going to let people die in front of him either without at least trying to fight.

  From across the room Heather had gone silent and watched, as if he might just kill her now, but after a few seconds she spoke, sounding resigned to her fate. She took a few slow steps forward at the same time.

  “No, it wasn't that, or I'd be dead too. Probably first. What I said was way worse than the others...” Her turn to look down then, a truly hang dog thing. “I was... making it all up. Because it had to be done. It was the only way it works. I'm sorry Jake, but otherwise... I had to. Please forgive me.”

  Everyone stared at her hard, except Jake, who just shrugged.

  “Figured it was something like that. Sorry I tried to kill you. Luckily for both of us Randy was there.”

  Heather, who really did look horrible and stressed, nodded, not looking at him. Everyone else just seemed baffled, except Nate. He nodded too.

  “Right, because if you'd killed her in your anger, you couldn't have lived with yourself.”

  OK, deep personal moment aside, they still had a problem, so Jake gestured to Heather and sighed.

  “The mistake here is twofold, and based on some incorrect thinking, mainly because people don't really understand the situation. We don't have time to fix all of that now, but the fact is that we have a group of people working against us, and honestly, even though they aren't totally able to help themselves, we have to figure out who they are and... deal with it. Somehow.”

  Jake looked at the room.

  “So, show of hands. Who here loves Derrick Holsom? Be honest, otherwise we'll have to take out everyone and kill them. That would be a mess, so...”

  Low, scared sobbing started then. A lot of it. One by one hands went up.

  Carley was first, but not last by any means. Oddly enough Tipper just glared around the room, and shook her head when she saw Jake looking at her.

  “What? I didn't love him, he was just a booty call. Not even that good really.”

  In all about thirty women had their hands up. That didn't really clear the rest, but Carl noted who'd copped to it, which Jake pointed out would make things better for those women if they'd been working against them.

  All of the girls from his house had their hands up. It was hard to see, but not surprising. They were still in the whole addicted phase even, so it made sense.

  “Jill, you and your people first then,” a sweeping gesture got them to come up to the front, they tried to stand in front of him, like bad school kids sent to the principal's office, but that wasn't the point. Besides, Nate was in charge, not him.

  “If you'd read their minds while we... clear them Nate? One at a time?”

  Jake focused hard and passed the plan to Nate. He was to clear anyone really guilty. Note who it was, but just seem a little baffled when he got to them, like he wasn't very good, but still getting some things. The leader stared at him and then nodded.

  “I can do that, but... I don't get everything. So...” He spread his hands in the air, the brown sleeves of his heavy jacket making a soft rubbing sound.

  The bad part, of course, would be that Jake had to ask questions without knowing who was honestly answering... Which would look bad, like maybe he was setting people up. He glanced around and saw Sammi in the kitchen doorway, a small twenty-two pistol at her side. Guarding the door in case anyone tried to run? Smart.

  “Samantha? Would you ask the questions? I have a... conflict of interest I think.”

  There was a small bow, which Jake returned, earning a smile from her. He didn't know why, he could learn, right?

  “Jill, are you working against us?” The woman shook her head no, a firm thing. “Do you plan to betray us?” Again no.

  “Have you had contact with Derrick Holsom in the last two months”

  “Yes...” The room stirred, but Jake got it and shook his head.

  “They came from where he was inside that time.”

  Sammi nodded, “The last month? The last week? Several days?”

  This all got indicated as no.

  There was a confused look on the older man's face, which made Jake want to vomit, but he held his rage in while Nate asked a few things.

  “Why is there hesitation in the last week?”

  “Um, I thought, I don't know, but off in the woods, someone called my name, across the road by the driveway? I... thought it was just my mind playing tricks. I mean I see zombies that aren't there sometimes too, but... now I don't know.”

  The little blonde girl was a good interrogator it seemed and she covered all of that, until Jill was cleared. Then they did the others in a similar fashion. Everyone stayed in the room, but the kids were clearly getting bored, except the teen girls, who watched it as if they were at a movie.

  It took hours to clear everyone that had admitted to being vulnerable, then they had to move through everyone else, which went faster, but had to be done. Jake went first, but Nate and Sammi both nearly lost it when he said he didn't “love” Derrick Holsom.

  At the end, lunch nearly ready, Nate sighed.

  “All right, as far as I can tell, we don't have any moles left in our midst. So, we can get back to normal. I guess it was just the missing ones that were causing problems. We'll need to be careful though. Holsom has tried to steal from us before and can influence the minds of women pretty strongly, so if you see a strange man, stay away from him and alert someone.”

  Then everyone was released back to their regular lives. That meant doing a lot more now than before, and people scattered.

  “I need the core group,�
� Nate said not seeming pleased at all. “Now. Out by the barn?”

  Jake figured this would be the secret information about who was really working against them, but Nate had something else in mind altogether. It was a lot different actually.

  “So, Christmas is in a week. How is that project coming?”

  Burt smiled and then sighed.

  “Rita hasn't finished the Santa costume yet. She's gone, so... yeah, it may be a little makeshift. Cameron has the presents in though, out in my work shed. One for everyone, including a few extra now. Colleen is working on decorations and festivities, she wants singing. She said that Mickey would be a good person to get on that, but I don't recognize the name. One of the new women? I don't know everyone yet. We've really grown.”

  Jake shook his head, not letting the man in on it. He could do it of course. Even play the guitar, or piano, if they had one.

  “Kara can sew, get with her on that part, if, you know, she's not taking off too?”

  Nate looked around and caught the line, Tipper and Vickie both went still and Sammi regarded Nate coolly.

  “Not her. Not any of your new women. They've... hidden the level of abuse from you Jake. Some of the things Derrick made them do were so... I... don't think he's sane anymore. The man wasn't a good person when he was here, but the image in their minds is of a monster abusing power to a level that doesn't even make sense. I... There are two here that are with him though, that have hidden themselves.”

  He went quiet, not saying anything at all. Jake just waited, figuring he'd find out eventually. After all, they had time, right? Sammi huffed a little though and glared and Lois put a hand on her hip, the dress she wore under her apron shifting, her jacket looking out of place with the rest of the outfit.

  “Who is it? Or is there a reason we shouldn't know? Yvonne or...”

  That would make sense, Yvonne was the third or fourth in charge of cooking now and had been part of the first action against them Holsom had taken. So was Justine. The other survivor of that had already been killed, when she and her boyfriend had tried to take over. Jake had killed all those people.