by Mark Clodi
The man grinned and hopped back into the truck, they unloaded eight bags of puppy chow and four bags filled with raw hide other chew toys for the dogs. Scott said, “I knew you would take them! I put in plenty of chew toys, these guys are going to want them soon and you aren't going to want them chewing up your shoes and stuff. Here is some medicine for them too, don’t you got a doctor here?”
“Yes, Mary, she isn't a vet.”
“No but she can give them shots.” Scott pressed a brown bag into Dora's hands, “This should be enough for rabies and heart worm for the first year, she can figure out the doses and get them taken care of.” The man grinned again then went back to the truck.
“He like dogs or what?”
“Yeah he wouldn't let me put these down, the mother was nowhere around, most of the time we kill the dogs when we see them, so they don't go feral. He thought you could use them and convinced me of it.”
“Well I guess it is too late to refuse them now, if we end up staying here we can always eat them this winter.” said Dora looking as the kids of the town started playing with their new acquisitions.
“I don't think it will that bad. The Guard will help keep the zombies off of your back, I will push hard for that, and if they don't we will unofficially be doing some heavier patrols around the town.”
“That is good to hear. Now we just need manpower to complete the hall and scavenge, plus larger vehicles to do it. Maybe a semi or a bus...yeah a bus would be good, we could take out a bunch of seats. I will get the scouts looking for one.”
Tiller shrugged, “There are a few schools around, it shouldn't be too much trouble to find one. I would get a truck if I were you, maybe a U-haul style with a box on the back.”
Dora thought about this for a moment and said, “Maybe, but the problem is getting the manpower to the area we need to loot too. With a bus we could hold ten people to act as guards and laborers once we got to where we were going.”
“That makes sense. Well I gotta get these grunts back to base before they start worrying about us. Good luck, Dora! It was a pleasure to meet you. We will try and stop by sooner than in a week if we can.”
“Good, thanks Sargent. Keep your heads down out there!” Dora said with a smile.
After the military truck took off Dora adopted one of the puppies for Mike and let the kids distribute the others, when they started to bicker over who would get the puppies Dora stepped in. She thought Mary would not like to have more than one in her house so the kids staying with her only got to choose one for the residence, then she split the others up more or less by area. Finally to all the kids who were crestfallen about not getting a dog, she said they could come by and play with hers anytime they wanted, in fact she told them to set up a walking schedule among themselves, leaving it to the older kids to be fair.
“You work well with them.” Paige said.
“They aren't mine. I can just send them home when they start to bug the piss out of me.” The nine kids who would be watching Mike's dog were in the front yard with the puppy arguing about the walking order. Dora stepped up to say the dog could probably use more than one walking a day, and maybe up to three and anyone not holding the leash could go along for the walk. After that the debate among them got down to brass tacks and Dora stepped back to stand with Paige on her porch.
“So, what do you think about our super zombie soldier friends?” she asked Paige.
“Think? I think they are using us for a breeding ground like you think. I think they may have protected us from the worst of the horde that came through here a month ago. I think those two little girls are at the head of it.”
“Pure speculation, but why not? They have to have a reason to keep us, why not as cattle, they just cull the herd as they need to and protect us like any good shepherds would from predators. We could live like that you know.”
“Survive like that, are you serious? Knowing that we are cattle?” Paige shook her head, “No, not us. Maybe somewhere someday, but not here, not now. We would know that at some point someone was just going to disappear and we couldn’t live with that. How many do they need a month to live? God knows we can't produce enough babies to make this work. Do you think this is why they are giving us all the kids they find and no adults?”
“Honestly?” Dora asked, Paige nodded, “Honestly I think that kids can survive this better than adults. How many of these kids have stories of watching zombies eat their parents and siblings?”
“Pretty much all of them.” It was one thing most of the children had in common, other than Peter not a single child here had their real mother or father with them.
“Okay, now, of the few adults we have here, how many of them watched their children eaten alive by zombies?”
“Well no one...” Paige's voice trailed off.
“See? A mother or father would not stand by to watch their kid devoured, but a kid? No, kids are a different kind of creature altogether aren't they? I hope you were not wondering what they would do if the zombies were coming for you and they were standing around. I know I wasn't. Hell I am not even related to any of them, I know where I stand and what would happen in that situation.”
“Damn. You think of the strangest things.”
“You didn't say I was wrong, or that you disagreed with me.”
“What? Haven't I been telling you that you are right enough lately? Do you really need me to say it more often?” Paige asked.
Dora laughed and said, “No three or four times a day is enough.”
“Dora, do you think your baby would fight for you?”
“No. No I don't. And I wouldn't want him to. I would want him to run and live, to make my sacrifice worthwhile. See? Kids suck; they will get you killed.” Dora patted her belly, which was not showing her pregnancy at all. “Well on that positive note we better gather up the rest of the council and have our little talk early today, so we can plan what to do.” Dora called out to the kids in the yard and sent one after each of the council members.
The council convened for their afternoon discussion in Dora's house, about three hours earlier than normal.
“We may have a problem.” Steve said as soon as everyone had sat down.
“Gee, no call to order or anything, no 'Howdee do'?” said Dora, she waved at Steve disgruntled look, “Oh fine, go on then, what is the problem?”
“What may be the problem.” Steve said, emphasizing 'may', “Is the scouting parties that got back. They know something is up. They went beyond where our visitors have been telling us the front lines are and discovered there are no front lines. We should have told them not to talk about it sooner. This is my mistake, I didn't have a sit down with them until after those zombies left this morning. And by now they have all mentioned it to the others, the whole town has got to know at this point. Well the adults anyway.”
“Shit. That is not good Steve. I thought I told you to keep it on the down low?” Dora said.
“You did. It was my mistake. What do we do about it?”
“Are the people talking?”
A chorus of 'no' went around the room, except for Leon, who raised his hand. “Yes. Tim came to me and asked me directly.”
“Fuck, we haven't moved him out to the water tower yet?”
“It was just two days ago, Dora. After we got hit so hard we didn't move him out there.”
“So what did you tell him?”
“That I would ask the council. I am not a good liar, but that was not much of a lie. I need to ask you what we are going to tell everyone.” Leon said.
“Well I think we are fucked now. All it will take is for the zombies to catch one of us who knows and beat it out of us, or kill us and bring us back and beat it out of us.”
“Or maybe not even that.” Steve said.
“What do you mean?” asked Mary.
“Well when I spoke with Peter...”
“Peter is awake?” asked Dora.
“Yes he woke up around noon, hungry, I am pretty sure h
e has a concussion, a small skull fracture, but his eyes are normal and his vital signs are good. Steve wanted to talk to him, so when Peter said he felt up to it, they chatted for a few minutes.”
“I debriefed Peter and he told me that when the scouts went out yesterday Jeff told them to not kill any zombies, to try and sneak by them. He told me there were, well, what I can only describe as pickets, guards, out in the wasteland where everything was bombed out. There were pairs of them, one slow zombie with one slinker. They were not moving, just watching, with the slow zombie up and visible and the slinker under cover. What does that sound like to you?”
“Guards.” admitted Dora.
“Slow, mindless zombies as guards. And remember the tape, they brought that poor man in from the dumpster and when they pushed him out, the told him he was going the wrong way. Like they expected the slow zombie to do what they said. And the zombie started to do it too.”
“Until it noticed Jeff.” said Paige.
“So they have control over them somehow. What if that control is some sort of mental control? What if they can read the minds of those that they kill?”
No one in the council said anything, Dora broke the silence by laughing, “Sorry, but that is pretty far-fetched. We can't prove it. But what you are saying is they wouldn't torture us, but would just kill us and read our minds if they caught us?”
Steve's face had flushed a little, in anger or embarrassment, “That’s my theory, yes. Look I know it sounds strange, but just keep it in the realm of possibility okay?”
“My mind is open. What you’re saying is they don't need a spy in Doraville, they just grab one of us whenever they want to know what is going on. If what you say is true, and I am not buying into it, but you handle security, right? So if what you say is true, how do we go about getting stage two ready without letting them know?”
“Here is what I thought of, first we call all the adults together, just the over twenty year olds, tell them what is going on and of the need for secrecy.”
“Wait, wait, when we lose people the over twenties are the first to go!” protested Dora, “Telling them is like telling the zombies, if what you say it true.”
“Just let me continue. If what I suspect is true, the zombies will find out anyway. So we tell the adults, we wait a day or two, see if the attacks lessen like we all think they are going to. In two days, we get the buses, day three we gather the fuel and four days from now we get the fuck out of Doraville. Four days to evacuate. Two buses should be enough if we only pack fuel and food.”
“And dogs. Do we have enough bus drivers? Can we get fuel?”
“No certified bus drivers, but how hard can it be to get one moving forward and drive? They take diesel, we don't have a lot of diesel, but that is good, because we have not been scavenging it from the nearby areas, so it should be easy to top off the tanks and get another fifty or so gallons for each bus.”
“What else do we need to do if we leave in four days?”
“We’ll get the buses, take out a few seats in back, load up the supplies and that’s it. If we can meet that goal and keep anyone from being taken for four days, we can get out of here before even Sargent Tiller comes back.”
“Okay I like this. I agree with it. I think we will need a few extra vehicles too, we can take my Suburban and another larger vehicle to go ahead and behind the buses as guards and maybe a motorcycle or a couple smaller cars to roam ahead and scout the roads. What about a wrecker to move vehicles out of the road if we need to?”
“Good idea. That would be good. So let’s say, three motorcycles, two Suburbans, a wrecker and two buses. That should give us even more room in the buses, if we have four to each suburban and three in the wrecker.”
“Jesus, do we have that many drivers?”
“Some of the older kids can fire rifles or shotguns from the Suburbans, and we can take one in the wrecker, the third man in the wrecker will just be there as a lookout for the other two when they are hooking up the truck.”
“Do we have anyone who knows how to use a tow truck?”
Steve looked at Dora, “Yeah, me.”
“I have been on a few hook ups too.” said Alex, “Maybe if Peter is up to it, he can be the scout with us?”
Mary did not look pleased with this, but merely said, “We’ll see.” She knew Peter would have to be somewhere and if not with her then with his dad was the next safest place.
“Any of the kids ride motorcycles?”
“What?” asked Mary, “Dora you can't think about putting them on a motorcycle, they would be alone!”
“I can think it and I am. Just check around. A guy on a motorcycle is going to be vulnerable, he can't steer with one hand and shoot with the other, so we want people riding them that will run away if they hit trouble. The kids are ideal for it.”
“I just can't...that is too much risk.” said Mary.
“Just ask, let’s see what we get. Try the fourteen and over crowd first, okay?”
“Okay. I will, if Mary will not. I can see your logic.” said Alex.
“Is everyone agreed that we follow Steve's plan?” The council nodded, “Then it is unanimous, let’s get the word out that there is a town meeting tonight, and we need to speak to the adults first at a pre-town meeting, say it is about drinking alcohol or vaccinations or something that no one would want to attend. Make it boring. Can you handle that Paige?”
“Sure, no problem. Sterilizing wounds.”
“Good! I knew I kept you around for a reason. Other than the good loving, of course.”
The other council members scoffed at this, but said nothing.
“So, Steve you get with everyone about what we need to gather up. I think putting it in my garage until we leave would be best, out of sight, out of mind and if the 'National Guard' finds out we just tell them we are making a supply storage area for the winter.”
The meeting was not adjourned right away, they all stayed and worked out what they thought they would need for the journey and there was a brief debate on whether to send another group out scouting to the north east where the Iowan's hopefully were still fighting.
Chapter 33
The town pre-meeting with the adults went about as well as could have been expected. The town meeting afterwards was a little bit hostile because of the rumors floating around about the Iowan's not being where they were supposed to be. Dora addressed it with the bare truth; no one knew where they were. She mentioned that the council was trying to make plans about what to do and if anyone had suggestions they should contact her or another council member.
Tim, who had been at the earlier meeting, then got up and told the whole town that the council was concealing things from them, that they knew the national guardsmen who came to town were zombies and that they were all planning on leaving as soon as they could. Dora looked on with amusement, while he spoke, she thought Steve was going to shoot the man. When Tim was finished with his little speech, which ended on a high note of him calling for new leadership and implied he should be the man in charge, Dora took the floor back and gave her own speech.
“Well thank you Tim for repaying the trust we had in you. You see ladies and gentlemen and kids of all ages, what he said is essentially true, he left out the little important details, like we think the zombies will torture to death anyone they capture to find out our plans. Which is why the people who did know everything, include Tim, agreed to keep their mouths shut. What you younger people and kids didn't know could not be beaten out of you before you died.” She let her words sink in for a moment and continued, “Now many of us know Tim has been angling for a council seat for the past couple of weeks, he seems to have it in his head that this is some sort of a Democracy or something, really folks you are living in a dictatorship, I have never made any bones about it, the council, in theory keeps me in check as a balance of power, that is it. The only difference here is that you are all free to come and go as you please and we can kick people out too.” She stared at
Tim as she went on, “In fact that very thing has come up a few time recently when discussing, well, hell, let’s just get it out there; You Tim. And how you don't work worth shit.” The meeting turned frosty, but several of the people looked on with amused attention, this would be another meeting to remember.
Dora went on. “Yes, I’m calling you out, you don’t do your share around here and we are sick of it. Like how you excuse yourself from patrolling the perimeter and how you make more progress on report writing, which we don’t need, instead of on getting a building finish, which we do need. Do the people around you look like they need a god damned report to keep them warm in the winter? No? It’s no surprise you are not the most popular guy, getting to the top of the food chain is not going to endear you to anyone and bringing up privileged information had to be about the number one way to make every other adult in town hate you. You just put the rest of us at risk. I am half tempted to shoot you myself.”
Three of the nearby adults offered Dora their pistols, handle first, while a couple of the older kids near Tim and some of his few supporters, backed away from him.
Tim looked around nervously, obviously he had not anticipated this turn of events. Dora thought that he probably was expecting a common uprising from the people to toss out the council and make him the new dictator for life. “You had no right to keep that information from everyone! It was not fair, everybody should know what is going on so we can decide what to do!”
“Really? Why didn't you say anything at the meeting before this one? Why didn’t you speak up then?” Dora waited, but Tim said nothing, “Oh? So it was politics. Well Tim you got your wish now, everyone knows. Can anyone think of anything to do about our situation now that you have this added information? Here is our plan in a nutshell...unless you other council members think I should keep it under wraps?” Looking around none of the council members tried to stop her, so Dora continued, “Okay then our plan is this; We find a couple of school or city buses, we load them up with supplies and we head towards Iowa. There may still be someone left up there. The plan is to get the buses and fuel tomorrow, then load up and leave within four days. I think it would be better if we left sooner now. The sooner the better. Any suggestions?”
