Beyond the Barriers

by Timothy W. Long

  “What’s the meaning of this?” Liz asked when we were all in the room.

  Someone had a pistol pointed at her head. He was standing close to her, but with the sunlight pouring in from the window behind him, I couldn’t make out any features.

  “The meaning of this? Oh. You fell for our pretty little trap. Ain’t that a bitch?” That voice was familiar.

  “We came to help!” Liz looked furious, with her mouth set in a hard line, eyes daring the gun to waver from her forehead.

  “And help you did, darling. You helped us to some shiny new weapons, a new truck, and whatever supplies you have in said vehicle. I bet you have food out there, don’t ya. Never enough food to feed all us hungry men that are just trying to keep the peace in the new world.”

  That voice!

  “Son of a bitch!” Daniel said.

  “Now now. Just call your friends in; don’t give us a way. I would hate to paint the walls with this one’s brains.” The man gestured at Liz with his gun.

  “We aren’t going to hurt you. Just fuck you over. If you run back really fast, you may be able to avoid any creepers in these parts.”

  A couple guys holstered their guns and patted down our crew. They took their time going over Liz with their hands. She was stiff as a board as they handled her, but her eyes were livid.

  The speaker shifted to one side, and I caught a flash of brown that didn’t look like military boots to me. Snakeskin. That’s when it hit me.

  “Lee! What the hell!” I said before I could help myself.

  He turned to regard me. His eyes were tired, red rimmed. They sat in sockets that were almost skeletal. I nearly took a step back when I saw the change. What happened to the man that was planning to guard his post? To protect the innocent? His motivation may have been mixed up when we first met, but this was insane.

  “I know you?” He squinted his eyes as he considered me. He kept the gun in a steady grip, though.

  “You were setting up a road block months ago. I thought you were one of the good guys.”

  “Good guys. No such thing anymore.”

  “Come on, Lee, we’re both ex-military. Why don’t you let us go, and we can just forget this happened. We’ll leave, and you can slink back to your shit hole.” Damn my mouth.

  “Ex-military. Let me tell you something about this world, son. I left my family in the care of the military, and do you know what they did?”

  I stared back, waiting for the answer to his rhetorical question. One of the men shifted, lowered his guard as we went through the motions of dropping our gear on the floor. I set my rifle down then slowly lay my pistol next to it.

  “They left. They didn’t even bother to stick around and protect them. They just up and left. Now I don’t know about you, but is that any way to treat women and children? They left fifteen families in a big school gym. Deserted them. When I found my wife, my Margaret, she was dead. Eaten away. But she wasn’t. See, I had to watch her get up and stagger toward me.”

  Lee stepped toward me. The space between us was only a few feet, but he made it seem immense as his enflamed eyes bore into me. He took a step, mimicking one of the dead. His gun was leveled at my forehead. I was pretty sure he was completely unbalanced and about to splatter my brains all over the entryway.

  “I just watched her walk up to me. I let her into my guard, felt her arm around my neck. She didn’t smell like my Margaret any more. Not by a long stretch.” He stopped right in front of me, gun leveled at the space between my eyes. I didn’t stare into it. Instead I used my peripheral vision to study his men. The rest had lowered their guard as we dropped our guns. Even the man on the floor above was no longer pointing his weapon at us.

  “I held her back. Kept my hand on her neck so she couldn’t bite me. I looked into her undead eyes and wanted to see some spark of life. You know what I saw instead?”

  His eyes were huge as he cocked the gun.

  “Nothing. I didn’t see a damn thing.”

  On the word ‘thing,’ I flowed. I kept my eye on the weapon even as I moved to the right. If he fired, it would go past my forehead. My left hand was already moving. I slammed the barrel away from my face, wrapped my hand around it, and wrenched it toward his chest.

  My foot swept around his legs, so we looked like we were in a weird half-embrace. If I wanted to, I could have swept his legs out from under him with a sharp twist of my hip, but that would get me nowhere. Lee was at my mercy. I wrenched the gun up and put my finger over the trigger guard. I might not have been able to force a shot, but I did twist the gun so the barrel was under his chin. I pressed up, just so he was aware that I was a few foot-pounds of pressure away from putting a bullet through his brain.

  “Hey, HEY!” one of his men shouted.

  “Tell them to back off or I put a bullet through your head!” My voice came out raw and broken. I was mad, and adrenaline was making me even more volatile. I had always trained to remain calm under pressure. Keep my head down, assess the situation, and then react. I had tossed the first two rules out, and if I kept up on this path, I was likely to get us all killed.

  “You think this is some kind of television show? Huh? Think I’m going to just say the word and my men will back down? It ain’t that easy, son. My boys are hungry and trigger happy, so why don’t you just drop the hard-ass act and lower the gun.”

  “Out! Everyone out! Get to the truck. If any of the others follow I WILL kill him!” I didn’t look around. I didn’t meet anyone else’s eyes. I didn’t wait for confirmation. With Lee still bent, back arched, I marched us to the door. He didn’t struggle; he seemed to take it in stride, and even smiled at me.

  The gaping spot where he was missing a tooth showed in his skeletal grin.

  The rest of the crew filed out as I stood in front of the door. Liz tried to meet my gaze, but I had it firmly on Lee. I didn’t want any mistakes. If any of them flinched, I was going to kill him.

  O’Connell snatched his handgun off the floor, but kept it low as he went out. I backed out last. It was awkward to hold him like this and walk to the truck. Words were whispered back and forth between the folks we had left outside and the reconnaissance team, as I now thought of them.

  “It’s not personal.” I said as I hauled him into the cab with me.

  The others dropped down low in the truck bed and scrambled for weapons. I didn’t know the drivers name but he nodded at me once then started the truck.

  It groaned as he shifted into reverse. He gunned the engine and we shot backward. Lee was half hanging out of the truck and I didn’t have any choice but to let him go. He fell to the ground as we went around the corner. I slammed the door shut, but not before I got a full dose of hate from Lee. If looks could kill, I would have been six feet under.

  * * *

  We returned with less than we had left with, but we were alive. The driver had radioed ahead, and when we pulled into the compound it was to a small army. The men and women came out in force and looked ready for war. I saw every kind of weapon, including long blades. A couple even sported what looked like Asian swords.

  Thomas met us as we came through the gate.

  When folks simmered down and went back inside, I was left with just the crew that had gone out on the “rescue mission.” Thomas listened to the story again and thanked me with a handshake.

  As we headed home, Liz turned to confront me. Her eyes were angry, and I could understand a reprimand. I could have played it cool, given our weapons over, and maybe they would have let us go just like they said. Maybe they would have used us as hostages or even tried to get info on our forces.

  “Christ, Tragger.” She sighed loudly. “I’m not going to say that was a stupid fucking thing to do.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  We walked in silence for a few feet. Daniel turned and winked at me, then sped off into the Walmart. The others kept pace. I guess he had a hot date.

  “You know you just made an enemy, right?” she said. “Le
e isn’t going to forget that nor forgive you.”

  “I know.”

  I would like to report that was the end of Lee, that I never saw him again. That, sadly, is not what happened in the coming weeks.

  * * *

  I went to the gym again that night, but she didn’t show. I worked away some of the tension I had built up during the stand off in town. There was no way I would be able to sleep, as amped up as I still was, so I worked out until I was beyond exhausted.

  I planned to ask Thomas about Katherine, but it seemed prudent to mind my own business. I’m sure she had her reasons, and they were none of my concern.

  The next day, Thomas showed me the communication room where they were picking up a signal from Portland on a low band radio. There had been communication for a few weeks, although sporadically, about the work on the city to keep out the undead and the ghouls. I listened intently, because Allison might be there, if she was still alive.

  They had been formulating a way to leave the compound.

  I was taken aback at first. They had shelter, a way to protect themselves, and they had food and water.

  “This won’t last forever. We have held out pretty well, but the supplies you see are all that’s left for miles around. A lot of people in the store don’t want to be isolated anymore. So many rumors out there about the cities being free of the dead. About the government being in control. They just want a chance at a normal life.”

  Plans based on rumors. I wished I had a better idea on how to proceed.

  The strategic exit was pretty basic—they didn’t need something with a million steps to get out. The hard part would be the distraction. Someone was going to drive a small tanker to the end of town, near the barricade through which I had blasted, and detonate the truck’s gas supply. The gas station in the parking lot meant we had a good bit of fuel for all the trucks, so we could spare a few hundred gallons to light up the day. When the ghouls went to investigate, the convoy would leave and head for Portland.

  The problem was that someone had to be the bait to set off the distraction.

  “Who might that be?” I wondered out loud. The other men in the room turned as one and looked at a form that had slipped into the room.

  “That would be me.”

  I turned and met Katherine’s eyes. She didn’t offer a smile, just a stony wall of non-emotion, just like her voice when she said she was going to create the distraction. I don’t know what was more surprising, her speaking up or my next words.

  “I’ll go with her.”

  “Not necessary. We have a capable guy. In fact, it’s Pat here, the guy who spoke up for you the other day.”

  Pat was nervous, and looked away when I met his eyes. He nodded once to Katherine, and then crossed his arms, staring at the map laid out before the planners. They had a crude drawing of the Walmart compound as well as the street leading out of Vesper Lake. There was a line of cars and trucks drawn over it in red, with stick men manning guns on the back of trucks and SUVs. I saw some of the innovative things that the engineers in the group had created for the cars. Sunroofs turned into gun ports and one pump truck with a nozzle that spat gas. Probably a flamethrower, but it would also work well to lay down a stream of gas that could be lit.

  “I have no doubt that Pat is a good guy, but don’t you need someone with some combat experience?”

  “You are looking at a roomful of men with combat experience,” Thomas said.

  “He can go if he likes. The more the merrier,” Katherine spoke up. “Besides, I hear he did good things yesterday.”

  “The jury is still out on that one.” I whispered.

  “Fine. We’ve run this place from the start with the help of volunteers. You want to go with, be my guest. But I want to say that a guy like you is very valuable, and I would prefer if you stayed with us. We may need your expertise later on.”

  “You make it sound like a suicide mission.”

  “What else would it sound like?” Katherine asked.

  * * *

  That night, we met and went over the plan. Then Katherine and I worked out in the gym. She told me she had been ‘busy’ the last few nights and unable to make it. I took her at her word. After we were covered in sweat and walking toward the shower room, she thanked me for volunteering to go along.

  “I know you’ll be a big help.”

  “Why do you want to be the one?” I asked her, looking out the corner of my eye to see her expression. It didn’t change.

  “Someone had to do it. I have nothing left to live for. My children were …”

  I let her trail off and didn’t say a word. I escaped relatively unscathed. Sure, I lost things, but I didn’t know the fate of Allison, so I assumed she was alive and safe in Portland. My own reason for going was the inescapable feeling that my fate was somehow tied up with Katherine’s. I’ve never been one to believe in a god or a destiny, but somehow it felt right when I was with her. Emotionless or not, she was the first woman to whom I had been attracted in years.

  “I wish I could say I understand, but I don’t. I didn’t really have anyone before the event, and I don’t have anyone now. If I die, then it won’t be a great loss. Who will look for me years from now when the world is right again?”

  “Is that why you agreed to go? Some gesture of futility against an insane world?”

  “No. I volunteered because I wanted to be with you.”

  She stopped walking and turned to stare at me.

  “I’m not good at this kind of thing. I don’t know how to feel, anymore, so just …” She paused and looked past me for a few seconds. “Just watch my back and I’ll watch yours.”

  I nodded, and we moved on down the hallway. At the shower room, we parted, and I went into the quiet space and shut myself into a stall. I tossed my clothes in a heap and wondered where I could get them washed. There was an abundance of pants and shirts, thanks to the store’s supplies, and people took from it freely when they needed items. I would raid it tomorrow and find something else to wear.

  I splashed lukewarm water over my skin and shivered in the cold. A little soap went a long way toward making me feel human again after the brutal workout I’d had. I was washing the last of the water away when there was a tentative knock at the door. I turned to look, and a pair of slim calves was all I could see under the door.

  “Huh?”

  Katherine opened the door and gave me the first smile I had seen from her. It was tentative at best, and then it fell. She was dressed in a towel that covered her body from chest to thigh. She was pale, and goose bumps stood out on her skin. Her nipples poked out behind the light cover.

  I rose and took her hand in mine and drew her to me. Her towel fell aside, and we kissed for a long time.

  * * *

  Morning was quite a shock compared to the last few. I woke to a dimly lit tent and the touch of a woman’s body against mine in the sleeping bag we had zipped together the night before. She stirred against me, her hand over my chest, her body curled against my back. Her hand slipped down and found that I had the typical guy’s reaction to waking up in the morning, so we made the best of it. Why not. We were probably going to die in a few hours.

  * * *

  We had a huge breakfast of pancakes, powdered eggs and powdered milk mixed with metallic water. Thomas felt that we deserved it, since we were going to have a strenuous day. At least fifty gathered to eat the fine meal. There was laughter and a hint of excitement that rippled all along the group. They were ready to move on, to get away from the constant danger, and head to town.

  For my part, I felt a big goofy grin keep touching my lips whenever I caught Katherine’s eye and she smiled in return. Thomas looked between us a couple of times, but just shook his head as if he had seen something beyond his ability to comprehend.

  * * *

  The caravan assembled behind the giant store. Some had spent all night loading the trucks, which comprised some eighteen wheelers and a few UPS delivery trucks.
>
  The tanker itself looked ridiculous. It was covered in flowers on one side. Someone’s weird sense of humor at work. The Walmart must have had a lot of cans of paint. This seemed as good a use for it as any. It had a lot of weight, and they had welded on a scoop like you see on the front of a train engine to move things off the tracks.

  There was a lot of activity behind me. I was more concerned with inspecting my newly tricked out Honda. It now had a set of galvanized metal plates over the windows with holes cut in so I could see out the front and sides. The sunroof had part of a big oil barrel on top of it that latched from the inside. I could stand up and use a handgun, but a rifle would never fit. The windows had been removed on either side, and the slots would provide good firing ports.

  Pat would ride with Katherine, and I would follow close behind. If we ran into trouble, I would slow the car and take out any threats. Thomas produced a couple of hand grenades, one of which was phosphorous—nasty stuff. Got into the skin and kept burning, because it didn’t need oxygen. Two were frags, and there were a couple of smoke grenades. I was leery of the last, because it would just confuse the field of battle.

  A pair of ‘tanks’ would escort us to the end of the street and provide covering fire as we ran with the horde behind us. One had a fire nozzle on top, and the other had a couple of hard-looking men armed with hunting rifles. Our snipers.

  A side gate was opened, and Katherine roared out of it, into the icy morning in the souped-up wrecking truck. On the back was a large gas tank filled to the rim with a mixture of premium fuel and soap flakes. There was a canister of compressed air under it that would inject the mixture with enough oxygen to make the explosion count. It would all come down to timing.