by catt dahman
With a friendly welcome, an old fisherman and his wife took them in. For weeks while they were staying with the couple in their weathered but sturdy house, the old couple taught them how to gather food from the sea, so they enjoyed crabs, squid, fish, oysters, and shrimp. The old people had a lemon tree that produced the tart fruit that was so delicious on the seafood.
The man said a settlement was not far away, which lived off of this type of food. So when they were ready to visit the settlement, they were able to trade for salt to take back to Hopetown. The settlement was well setup and busy but had an air of lawlessness and felt temporary even if it were ten years old.
In the other direction was Houston and Baytown, both were destroyed by several bombs. Zombies from there were flash burned and mangled by the radiation, and no one had any desire to see any of the remains of those places or the rubble that were left behind. The only positive point was that the zombies that survived the bombs looked to be eroding faster, maybe from radiation.
Pinky finally showed interest, but it was in a hammerhead shark that they drew pictures of, so she could understand how it looked beneath the waves. She was a little disappointed that it wasn’t something she could bring on land to examine in detail.
“The Zs want to eat us. People think we’re disgusting and want to kill us. How are we supposed to inherit the world?” Adam asked one evening.
“They don’t know you’re inoculated unless you tell them and explain it,” Lance snapped, “unless you bite them.”
“I think they can look at us and know,” Adam said quietly. He had lost the carefree, hopeful attitude and now had frown lines on his face.
They took the other horses they caught again and loaded bags of salt, which would hopefully last years, on their backs.
They stayed off the major interstate highways and went along the back roads that were in somewhat better shape. Some towns were burned, and one had been hit by a tornado that left a swatch of rubble a mile long.
They traveled in the Angelina National Forest for a while, enjoyed the peace and good hunting, and then traveled in the Sabine National Forest where it was less populated and quieter.
Then they went back in a northwesterly direction to avoid Shreveport, Louisiana. They avoided people as much as people avoided them. Adam and then Hannah scrutinized the people that they shared a campfire with so relentlessly that the guests all moved on as soon as possible.
They rode back to the house in Jefferson where they stayed before when Robbin was bitten by the snake. Some came down with what looked like influenza, so they rested and regained their strength.
Adam, Neal, and Pinky found the house just as charming as the rest had, and it was a good place to stay as they made plans for the future.
A few days later, they rode into the Hopetown area after having been gone a half a year.
Someone called Beth and Kim, and they were at the gate, waiting for their children. “I don’t see Anthony, Robbin, Sadie, or Ricky,” Beth said.
“That girl must love pink.” Mark marveled as he saw the girl.
“Information?” Johnny did her job although she was excited to see Hannah, Lance, and Jet.
Jet reported, “We merged with another group when we were surrounded by Zs that were hiving. Then five civilians opened fire on us, for what we presumed was a tactic to save themselves from the horde. All five of the civilians were killed.
From the other group, either gunshots or Zs killed the ten people; only three are with us; all are hybrids. Of our group, three of us made it out alive, and the other four died in combat.”
“We’ll need you to step behind the screens for body checks and tattoo checks.”
“They aren’t marked; they found the inoculations and used them,” Jet said.
“Okay. This way.” Johnny and Conner were curious.
“Hey. Where’s Ricky?” His grandfather Ivory Joe worked the gate and asked about him.
“Sir, he lost his life in combat. He was shot off his horse. Those who shot at us are dead, however,” Lance added.
“My grandbaby?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Oh, Oh, I sure didn’t need to hear that.” Ivory Joe slumped. Some people filled his place, and others helped him walk to his wife, son, and daughter-in-law to give them the news.
“What’s in the packs?” Matt asked as the horses were led in.
“Salt,” Jet said, “we went to the coast. It’s salt.”
“Good job. Damned fine work, Jet.”
As soon as they came though the final gate, Beth embraced her children, asked questions, and fretted over their weight loss.
Hannah hugged her mother and said, “Mom, I have to stay in the quarantine houses with Adam and Pinky. All those who had the inoculation do.”
“Of course,” Beth said. She was shocked to find her daughter already revealed her secret.
“John Ponce is here. He brought in a few people last night, so you can see him.” Kim ignored Beth’s pleading look to break the rules for their daughter, but obviously, Hannah’s secret was out.
“Oh, is he?” Hannah shrugged, “okay.”
“Get cleaned up, and we’ll bring dinner down, meet your friends, and see you in a little while, okay?” Kim wondered why Hannah didn’t care about seeing Ponce.
“Sounds fine, Dad.”
Lance hugged his brother, Matt, tightly before going to see their father and the rest of the family. “Tons to tell you,” he whispered.
Jet Looked around. “Is Len here?”
“He should be back in a few days. He was here a few weeks ago. He has helped to train people in other places in security.”
“Okay.” Jet looked at his parents with concern and made a little nod towards Adam and Hannah.
Kim and Beth led Jet to a table off the path, and Jet waved for Matt and Mark to join them. Others watched but knew it was private. “What’s wrong, Jet?”
“Everything,” Jet quickly explained about meeting the other group members that were all hybrids.
Beth frowned. “I tried to see them as just regular people,” Beth said and nodded, but they aren’t, are they? Worlds apart.
“And Hannah wanted us to give them a chance ‘cause she was infatuated with that guy, Adam, so she blurted out her secret.”
“I see,” Beth said, “I suppose the news will be all over the place fast.”
“I understand why it was a secret.”
“Good. Others may not.”
“No one has to know she was always one, Mom. Those people didn’t get their inoculations from the military personally; they found the papers and meds and chose it for themselves. Sadie and Robbin took the shots.”
“They still have them? The medical protocol?”
“Adam does. I already warned Conner to confiscate that bag so it could go to Doc and Steve and protocol could be decided on from there.”
Kim patted Jet’s shoulder. “He’s a smart one.”
“You did the right thing, Jet,” Matt said, “I’m proud of you.”
“While the girl Yuki or Kee Kee was dying, Hannah and Adam disappeared a few days. They found the five who shot at us and tracked them back to where the rest of their people were holed up. What those people did was cowardly and wrong. They were nothing but murderers, but they were scared when they did it.”
“They deserved to die for it.”
“And they did, Matt. But Hannah and Adam also tracked the people from where they came from: back tracked, and there were more people. I don’t know about the rest and what they thought was right or wrong.
Adam and Hannah didn’t either. They went in and shot every one of them: men, a few women, some kids. I don’t know how I feel about it, but I wouldn’t have done it.”
“They shot them? Why?”
“Because of what the five others did. They said they were all evil, whatever that means to Hannah and Adam.”
“Damn,” Mark said.
“Then you went on south?”
Adam isn’t a bad sort, but he’s got her wrapped up with him, and she likes him. He’s just one pissed-off man.
Len would have a field day telling Adam about real anger and what justice is. He is more about revenge and fury than justice.”
Beth held her son’s hand. “That bothers you. Hon, you know I have gone that way before, had my mind so clouded with anger and hatred that I was brutal; it happens.”
“But you came back out,” Jet told her, “and Dad did, too.”
“Yes.”
“Hannah doesn’t laugh anymore.”
Mark rubbed his hand through his hair. “You can’t reach her now? You have always been her best friend.”
“No. Adam is the only one she responds to at all. Sometimes she listens to that girl, Pinky, who is crazy as a loon. The nut begged us to get her a shark and let her keep it. She has no sense of reality, really.”
“A shark? What the hell?” Matt broke in.
“No kidding.”
“But back here with her family….” Beth began.
“She has already said she wouldn’t go with us but would stay with those like her. She’s done something….”
“Put a wall up,” Mark said, “she’s drawn a line between us and them.”
“Exactly. She’s one of them. She talks about being the weapons that will take back the world. But twelve hybrids died on that highway. They didn’t do so well after all,” Jet said bitterly.
“I can only try with her,” Beth said, “maybe Ponce can get through to her.”
“Adam won’t let him,” Jet said. He stopped speaking as Andromeda walked over to them purposefully. He sighed, not wanting her to interrupt the conversation and not wanting to deal with any drama.
“Beth, your daughter….”
“What Andie? She just got here.”
“She’s staying down in quarantine with the hybrids that came in.”
Matt nodded. “We know, Andie.”
“I know,” Beth added.
“Why would she?”
“The group the others ran into had some military supplies, and they used the inoculations on themselves. Twelve of them died anyway of gunshots or being heavily attacked by zoms. Only Hannah, the leader Adam, and the girl they call Pinky had the inoculations and survived the attack.”
Andromeda thought that over. “What about Robbin, Anthony, Sadie, and Ricky?”
“Ricky didn’t get the shot. He was perfectly human, just like Lance and me, Anthony, too. Robbin and Sadie are two of the hybrids who died anyway,” Jet said. No one had lied yet, but truths were held back.
“I think Ivory Joe will be thankful Ricky didn’t take it,” Andie said.
“Maybe so,” Mark told her.
“So, Hannah has to stay down there with the others. She knows that, Andie,” Beth said.
Mark and Matt nodded in agreement. This mollified Andie somewhat. “So we aren’t going to have hybrids running around potentially infecting anyone? “
“Nope. No reason for a panic. They are isolated.”
“Why would they do that? Get inoculated?” Andie asked.
Kim stood. “I guess each has his own reason, but since it’s too late to take it back, does it matter? They’re isolated, and they came clean about it.”
“I’ve told you before. No one hears me. Hannah is not right; it’s more than just this. That girl changed into something ten years ago, or maybe she was always that way, but you all ignored it. She’s dangerous. She’s an angry person.”
Andromeda noted that no one brushed her off. While they didn’t agree with her this time, no one told her she was being foolish and to shut up. “I need to go share that much with Ricky’s family, that he was human and didn’t do anything abominable.”
Beth made a request to Mark and Matt before she and Kim took dinner to the quarantined area. Jet went to see his siblings, glad to be home with his family and friends.
They picked at the food. Pinky was the only one, besides Ponce, who enjoyed the variety and asked what each thing was. “How long will the quarantine be?” Adam asked.
“For as long as you’re here.”Beth said.
“Really?”
“I trust John Ponce fully, and he’s here as well, so why would we let you walk around our settlement?” Beth asked.
“I’m not a threat. I don’t bite,” said Adam as he chuckled.
“It’s also for your safety,” Kim said. Johnny, Conner, and a few more he knew well were close to the table with guns. “They are protecting you as much as enforcing the quarantine.”
“Why?”
“People don’t like hybrids. I’m sure Hannah or Jet told you that.”
“Except you like Ponce’s being here.”
“I do.”
“And your own Hannah.”
“Indeed, I do.”
“It’s Pinky and I who are in danger from your people then, right?” Adam felt cornered now.
“You got it,” Beth told him, “my daughter could sleep in her room, I imagine, if not for this situation.”
“Mom….”
“Hannah, I am only asking you to spend a little time listening to Ponce and hearing what he thinks; he knows you.”
“I know her better,” Adam said. His feelings were hurt by this reception.
“I speak my mind. What I’m saying is this: Ponce and Hannah have not let a day go by that they didn’t curse the men who gave them the inoculation. Every day they wish they could go back and not be changed. They had no choices.
You had a choice twice: once you did the right thing, and then you did the wrong thing. You had no right to offer that inoculation to other people, but let’s ignore that for a second. You had absolutely no right to entice two people from here, Sadie and Robbin, to take the shots or give the inoculation to them.”
“They made that choice,” Adam said softly.
“And it was a wrong choice. You weren’t forced to have it, and you weren’t bitten, so why in the hell would you decide anything like this by yourself? It makes a mockery of good people who didn’t want it but were forced to such as Ponce and Hannah. How dare you make such a foolish choice? How dare you offer it to others and play God?”
“But we’re the hope for the world. We’re the bridge between the infection and you. We’re supposed to make things right and….”
“Inherit the world?” Kim asked, “You are the new species?”
Ponce coughed, “We aren’t stronger, Kid; we’re weaker. They lied. We have the weaknesses of the infected and of the uninfected.”
“You’re an idiot,” Adam said.
“Perhaps,” Ponce agreed calmly.
“My daughter didn’t get a choice. You did,” Beth said, “and what now? You want to play superhero; kill all the Zs, all the bad guys, and a few good ones; and go on as if all were fine?” Beth laughed harshly.
“Honey, I’ve already been there, done that, and I’ve done it far better than you could ever dream of. We fought the Zs against all odds; we fought the Reconstruction Army and won. I have had to shoot good people who didn’t ask or want to be infected, and I have watched a woman and child beg for their lives right outside this gate. I heard them ask for mercy, but they were hybrids and spilled innocent blood, so I blew their heads off,” Beth told them.
“Guess that makes you worse than I am morally,” Adam said, making Hannah cringe.
“Nope, it means I do things on my terms. I do what I believe in my heart is right. And I believe that we humans will inherit this world and we are fine with a few good hybrids such as my daughter and Ponce with us. We don’t want anyone with us inheriting anything if he made a dumb ass choice to join those damned things.”
“You don’t get it, and you never will,” Adam said. How could she understand that he wished he hadn’t made
that choice, but he was now so angry that he could hardly think.
“The snake should have never been allowed into the garden of Eden,” he blurted. The temptation had been much bigger than anything else.
“Well, if you see a snake, it’s best to kill it or get away from it, not pick it up and embrace it.”
“Hannah, Pinky, we’re going. Get what you want to take, and we’re going now. I don’t like it here.”
“Now?” Hannah asked dully, “didn’t we just get here?”
“How long before they come down here and put a bullet into us?” Adam asked.
Johnny scowled. “We don’t do that shit to people.” But she knew it crossed her mind to shoot this kid.
“I want the medical stuff we brought, so we can leave now,” Adam said.
“The inoculations and notes?”
“Right. It’s mine. That asshole took it.” Adam pointed to Conner.
Beth shrugged. “I spoke to Governor Mark and Head of Security Matt; they agree it doesn’t need to be out there for people.”
“It’s mine.”
“It’s burned up by now. I asked for it to be destroyed.”
Adam grabbed for Beth’s hand, intending to pull her across the table towards him, but Kim drew and placed his pistol against Adam’s head. Conner and Johnny both raised their rifles. “Reach for my wife again, and you’re dead,” Kim said.
“Hannah, will you stay a while and talk to us and Ponce?”
Hannah looked at her parents, loving them so much, but she felt connected to Adam now as well. Together, they tried so hard to clear the earth so they could have space of their own. Jet and Lance wouldn’t look at her. If she stayed, Adam would go, and she’d never see him again and might never find any man who was like her, who would love her.
She didn’t belong here. She was a monster.
Taking Hannah’s silence for acceptance, Adam got Pinky up and threw everything into their saddlebags, filling Hannah’s for her.
“You say we don’t belong here. Okay. That world doesn’t want us either, but we’ll carve out a place for ourselves. You could have bridged the gap, but instead, you’ve cut the ropes.
One day when people tell stories, and they will, children will ask why humans and hybrids couldn’t work together and get along; they will say one name. Beth,” Adam said.
