The Undead World (Book 10): The Apocalypse Sacrifice

by Peter Meredith

  It reminded her of Emily’s nursery back in Estes Park. Captain Grey and Deanna hadn’t known the sex of the baby, so had gone with both traditional colors. That nursery had been one Jillybean’s favorite places.

  They were at the station minutes later and there was another moment of awkwardness. It was a police station and just seeing it caused the little group to slow down. “We didn’t do anything wrong,” Amy said, leaning into Jason.

  “Right, of course,” Phil said. “You’re not going to be locked up or anything. It’s just a place that has electricity. It’s warm.”

  “Don’t worry, Amy,” Todd said. “It’ll be fine. If they have to trick us into jail, they’re not guys we have to worry too much about. Besides, I’m freezing and the little one’s lips are turning blue. We have to get inside one way or the other.”

  Jillybean touched her lower lip. It didn’t feel like it was blue, though she didn’t really know what blue felt like. She just knew that her lip had been going up and down at the exact same rate that her teeth were chattering which she also knew was the first indicator of hyperthermia. The cold had her hugging herself. She didn’t like the cold much, but she was sort of used to it. What really bothered her were the rocks biting into her stockinged feet every few seconds.

  Along the walk from shore she had been missing her magenta boots badly and had kept an eye out for a place that might carry a replacement for them. Unfortunately, they passed by two banks, a golf store, a place that sold bicycles and half a dozen restaurants, but no shoe stores. Her shoulders sagged at the sight of the police station. It was the last place that would have magenta boots.

  Todd put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Don’t be afraid.” The idea that Jillybean would be afraid of a simple cage had Sadie laughing as they walked into the building. “What’s so funny?” Todd asked

  “If you only knew what she’s been through,” Sadie said, striding through the doors with an easy grace. The station was indeed warm. As well it was brightly lit and smelled of disinfectant. Sadie laughed again and then leaned close to Todd, saying, “Compared to some of the dungeons we’ve been in this is practically the Ritz.”

  The only Ritz that Jillybean knew of were the kind that you spread peanut butter on. But the place was nice and begged the question, “Where do you get your ‘lectricity from?” she asked Phil.

  “Huh? The electricity? Well, there’s, uh, there are places. You know here and there. It’s not something we like to talk about.”

  Todd eased his long form down onto a plastic chair in the waiting room. A groan escaped him. When he was settled in, he said, “What he’s trying to say is that he doesn’t trust us and that’s fine. I wouldn’t trust us either. We look pretty sketchy. God, I feel sketchy. How’s my face? My eye feels weird.”

  “It’s all swolled up,” Jillybean told him. “Here, lean forward.” Even sitting down, he was taller than she was. She touched him gently, still he winced. “Don’t be a baby. Oh, okay, that’s pretty deep. I could put a few stitches in that if you want. It’s okay, I done it before lots of times ask Sa…Sally.” She grinned as if she had put one over on the guards by not revealing Sadie’s name.

  He tipped her a wink. “That’s okay. I don’t need you to be playing doctor on my face.”

  “Oh no, it’s not play. That cut’s awful kinda deep and that’s what means it could get infected, ‘specially since we were in the blecky water. We need to clean that out, but if you are ascared of stitches, I can use butterfly stitches. They don’t hurt, not at all. They’re like tape.”

  Todd scoffed, “I’m not afraid. I just don’t need…”

  “Good!” Jillybean exclaimed, turning her back on him. The out of sorts feeling was now slipping into a low-thrumming anxious feeling. She needed to be doing something. Being active always helped. “Excuse me, Mister Phil, sir? Can I please borrow your emergency medbag? I been in a few of these stations and they always got ‘em. You just have to look. Probably behind the counter?”

  Phil didn’t know exactly where to turn. He had a mid-level bureaucrat look about him and decisions, even simple ones such as this, seemed to have left him stumped. He went behind the counter and a second later held up a large white box that was emblazoned with a red cross.

  “Is this it?”

  This was one of those questions that were so blatantly obvious that it made Jillybean wonder if there was a joke being played on her. “Yeah, that’s it,” she answered tentatively. When no one laughed, she brightened and took the box. It was as well stocked as could be asked for, still it didn’t have butterfly stitches or anything close.

  She said, “Hmmm, I can clean out the wound but I won’t be able to close it up, at least not yet. Is there a hospital on the island?”

  Before Phil could answer, Todd grunted, “Just clean it, damn it. Don’t worry about the rest.”

  Jillybean didn’t mind the gruff talk. She had worked with enough men to know that they were tough when they had to be, but later, when the action died down, they were pain-shy like anyone else. “If we had xylocaine you wouldn’t feel a thing, ‘cept for the actual xylocaine shots that is. Those sting a bit.”

  By his look, she could tell she was skating on thin ice, only she didn’t care. The gash was big and would get infected if it wasn’t dealt with properly, and she really needed to do something. She turned to Phil and waited, expectantly.

  “Sure thing there’s a hospital out past the high school. From here it’s only like a mile or so. You want me to send one of the guys for something? It’s not the biggest but it’s pretty well stocked. Except for the drugs. Almost all the good drugs are gone. Some people, right?”

  “Yeah, people are weird,” Jillybean agreed. “Here, write this down.” By memory she listed off the items she would need. “If they don’t have xylocaine, then get lidocaine. It’ll be in a little bottle. And I’ll need the tiniest needle they got. Don’t ask me why, but the smaller the needle is, the bigger the number. Get a twenty-five gauge needle or higher. And if the emergency room is out, try the baby ward where the babies get bornded.”

  While Phil had been writing, his hand going a mile a minute, his face gradually grew more and more puzzled. “How do you know about this stuff?”

  “Uh, my dad was a doctor and he taught me lots of stuff before all the monsters came. It’s not tough. Do you guys have a doctor here.”

  “We got a fireman and an EMT,” Phil admitted. “They’re pretty good about emergency stuff, though I don’t think I’d want them trying to stitch up my face. Then again, I don’t know if I’d want an eight year-old doing it either. Just saying.” Todd was in complete agreement and the other men around them wore openly skeptical looks.

  Sadie came to Jillybean’s defense. “She’s good. Trust her. Hey, can I go with whoever is making the run? I need to check if your pharmacy has something important.” The men went from skeptical to suspicious in a snap and so Sadie said, “I’m on the pill. I doubt anyone took those.”

  Although this seemed to suffice and Phil said, “Oh, sure, I guess,” Jillybean was very confused. What pill was it? And why did she say “The pill” as if there was only one pill at the pharmacy? And why did she want just one? Even Tylenol was almost always taken in pairs.

  Phil and Sadie left with Jillybean still trying to puzzle out the concept of “The pill.” Asking the others only muddied her understanding. The men, even those from the island whom they had just met turned to Amy to answer. “The pill is a kind of birth control.”

  “Birth control? But she isn’t pregnant and that’s what means there isn’t a baby growing inside of her. And what kind of control does it give you, anyways? Direction?” Amy held up a finger though what it was supposed to signify, Jillybean didn’t know. “I read that some babies come out head first and some come out feet first. I’d want to come out feet first if I could, you know, so I could land like cat.”

  The grownups stared back and forth at each other, a couple with smirks on their faces. Amy
tried again: “It’s to keep your sister from getting pregnant.”

  “Oh, she doesn’t have to worry about that. She doesn’t have a husband yet. What? Why are you guys looking like that?” Even Todd was grinning now. The only one who wasn’t was Spot who had curled up under Jillybean’s chair and was sleeping. “That’s how things are supposed to be, right? You know like the song we used to sing: first comes love, then come marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage. Well, that’s what my parents always said, and they was real smart.”

  “That is the way it’s supposed to be,” Amy said, putting a protective arm around Jillybean’s shoulders. “Oh my, aren’t you cold. Can you guys do something besides sniggering and get her a blanket?”

  Amy had that ineffable power to put men in their place that all beautiful women seemed to be able to conjure at a whim. There were a few muttered apologies as the group dispersed. Blankets were fetched as was hot tea and, oddly in Jillybean’s view, microwavable popcorn. It was odd, but well received.

  She chomped down an entire bowl, happily swinging her feet and crooning to herself: “Amy and Jason, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.” She was just picking out the half-popped kernels, her favorites, when Sadie and Phil came back. It was a surprise that Sadie was even wetter than she had been. Phil was as well.

  Jillybean hopped up to look out the door. “Wow. Where did that come from? Hey Mister Todd, it’s raining cats and dogs out there.” It had been a long time since she had seen such a deluge. The rain was hitting the new puddles so hard that it looked as though it were raining both upwards and downwards. The air itself was grey, saturated with the water. She was so fascinated that she forgot why Sadie had left in the first place.

  Sadie, wrapped in a blanket, came to stand next to her. “They didn’t have any Zyprexa,” she whispered. “Phil said there were other pharmacies on the island. We’ll get you your pills.”

  “I knew it,” Jillybean said. “I knew you didn’t need any of The Pill pills. They didn’t believe me, but that’s okay. Did you guys get the suture kits? They were the sterilized ones, right?”

  “Yeah, we got everything you asked for, but are you sure you want to do this. Think about it, how many eight year-olds know how to stitch up a head wound? They might figure out who you are.”

  Jillybean shrugged. “I think it’ll be okay. As far as people know, Jillybean is a girl who blows stuff up and maybe kills you if you’re a bad guy or if she’s off her rocker. I don’t think very many people know I can be a surgeoner, too. If they ask about bombs, I’ll just pretend that I don’t know nothing about ‘em.”

  “I’m probably just being paranoid,” Sadie admitted. Jillybean didn’t know the word, but assumed it meant nervous by the way Sadie was acting.

  Todd was even more so. Jillybean had him lie on the floor and knelt down next to his head. When she had all the tools laid out, he started licking his lips. “Jason, what do you think? Do I even need stitches?”

  “It’s a hell of a gash, but it’s up to you. Had this back in the day, you would’ve gone to the E.R. for certain. So, yeah, she should do it.”

  “Thanks Mister Jason,” Jillybean said, leaning in closer to Todd’s head. “Besides, I can’t make it look worse than it is.” Todd cursed quietly at this. Jillybean let it slide without comment. Scared people tended to curse and there was really no changing that.

  Once she gloved up, putting on a woman’s small that were baggy on her wrists, she used .02% Lidocaine to numb the flesh around the wound. She apologized over and over as she made little bubbles under his skin with the needle. He said, “It’s nothing,” a few times but he still winced despite how delicate a touch she had. It was simply the essence of needles combined with the burning fluid.

  Once he was numb, she cleaned out the wound using a betadine solution and then she began stitching the edges of the wound together. Of course she spoke the entire time, explaining everything as she was doing it. She wasn’t trying to be a know-it-all, she was trying to allay his fears. If it had been her, she would have liked to know.

  She didn’t notice that as she stitched everyone had crowded around watching her needle work. “Okay, no bulging. That’s what means I would have tied the stitches too tight. Alright, we just have to put a little bandage over it and you’ll be done. If they gots ice, put that on it, but use a baggy and since I won’t be here, have the fireman guy take these out in two to three weeks. It’s real very simple to take them out. All you gots to do is cut next to where I tied off the suture and then pull the knot part with tweezers and it will all just slide out.”

  Jason came closer. “That’s pretty dang good.” He reached out to touch the wound, but Jillybean slapped his hand. Only when the people gathered around laughed did she realize she had an audience. There were a number of people they hadn’t met before among them.

  One, a young woman of about twenty-five, came forward. She was blonde with a round face and eyes that saw too much. The others backed away a step. “Well, this is something. A child with a deft hand at suturing. How very extra-ordinary.”

  It seemed to Jillybean as though she were alone under a spotlight. Instinctively, she nudged behind Sadie who had stepped forward. “And you are?” Sadie asked.

  “My name is Governor Rowe,” she said and then smiled down on Jillybean, “but Jillybean, you may call me Amy if you wish.” When she heard her name, Jillybean felt adrenaline scorch through her veins. She wanted to deny it but Governor Rowe’s eyes, a muddled blue-grey, fixed her in place. She was hypnotized, frozen and her lips only gapped slightly.

  “Her name is May,” Sadie insisted. Jillybean could feel her sister’s muscles bunch, ready to fight overwhelming odds if needed.

  Amy saw the stiffening in Sadie and only raised a soft eyebrow. “Oh really? So there’s another genius seven year-old running around being looked after by a girl still in her teens? A girl with raven hair and smoldering eyes who would do anything for her ward? Really? No, this is the infamous Jillybean.”

  Everyone in the room stared at her as if she were an animal at the zoo and she felt a twitch deep inside where nothing good ever grew, where the world was blackest. The voices lurked down there. She had to focus away from that black pit, however what she saw in the governor’s eyes: the certain knowledge that she could see right into Jillybean’s soul, scared her.

  It was useless for her to lie. “I am eight, and I don’t know that word.”

  The governor’s smile was cold. “Infamous? It means you’re famous for being bad.”

  Chapter 28

  Sadie Martin

  “She’s not infamous,” Sadie hissed, thrusting Jillybean back behind her again. “And she’s not bad. There isn’t a bad bone in her body, so why don’t you back off.”

  Governor Rowe’s cold smile grew into a hungry one. Sadie saw that this woman who was not all that much older than she was, liked to be challenged. “Leave us,” Rowe said. “All of you. The dog can stay. The rest, please go.”

  Without the least argument, nine men and Amy McNea filed out to stand outside the station beneath an overhang. In front of them was a waterfall and beyond that the world was obscured by the deluge. “It gets like this every other day,” the governor said, watching the water coursing off the roof. “The rain will come down like crazy for an hour, maybe two, and then poof, all gone. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “They listen to you,” Jillybean said. “How? You’re small and you’re a girl…I mean you’re young.”

  “You of all people know that doesn’t matter,” she said, settling down into a seat opposite from where Spot was still curled up in a little ball. Sadie had given him one of the blankets and he was mostly hidden beneath it. The governor gave him a long look before she continued, “If you’re smart and determined enough you can have anything, and you can be anything, and you can do anything. The thing is, Jillybean, just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should do it. And that’s where I have a problem with you. There are
a lot of rumors going around about what you’ve done. So much talk, talk, talk. People love to talk.”

  At the word ‘rumors’ Jillybean’s face went a shade lighter than chalk. Sadie put her in the chair above Spot and then sat down next to her. Jillybean clutched her hand and squeezed as she said, “I don’t hear rumors so much. Grode-ups don’t talk in front of kids about bad things, usually. They think it’s bad for them. You know it gives them nightmares and they aren’t so good.”

  “Do you get nightmares, Jillybean?”

  “Sometimes, I guess.”

  “What about?”

  Jillybean was slow to answer, so the governor prompted: “About sinking those ferry boats in New York? The rumors say there were over four hundred people on those boats when you set them on fire. Were there, Jillybean?” The little girl said nothing to this, she only dropped her chin. The governor marked this and went on, “Do you have nightmares about New Eden? Do you dream about the time you raised a zombie army that killed who knows how many people?”

  Jillybean said nothing and did nothing. Her unblinking eyes were fixed on the thin carpet, while the governor stared at her so intently that it seemed she was trying to burn twin holes into the little girl’s head to see what was inside. The silence lasted only a few seconds before Sadie couldn’t stand it and blurted out: “Leave her alone. Jillybean didn’t kill anyone in New York. The only people who died were a few crazies who were trying to start a race war and me. Yeah, I died. I was drowned. And you know what else? Those ferries were fifty yards from shore, tied to a dock. It’s not like they were out at sea or anything.”

  “And what about New Eden?” The softly spoken question took the steam out of Sadie. Hundreds of people had died there and, as much as Sadie didn’t want to admit it, most of them had been relatively innocent. They had been bat-shit crazy and dangerous, but still relatively innocent.