The Apocalyse Outcasts

by Peter Meredith

  “Why haven’t we considered checking that out?” she asked. “Smoke means fire and fire means people. Besides we could be there and back before dark.”

  “It may not mean the right kind of people,” Neil replied. “It could be another trap.”

  “It could be Sarah sending out a signal for help,” she countered. Neil continued to look skeptical and Nico joined him, so Sadie turned to Jillybean and asked, “What does Ipes think about the smoke?”

  Rather than answering the question, Jillybean purposefully stuck a Nutter-Butter in her mouth and turned it sideways so her cheeks bulged. As she chewed she held up a small finger to forestall them further, hoping they would go on to another subject in the meantime.

  Ipes was decidedly unhelpful on the subject of helping Sarah. It was disconcerting…no, it was a little frightening to Jillybean. Ipes had always helped her in everything. Sure, he would make his jokes or be stern like her father had been, but lately he would tell her things that weren’t true or things that were partially true and partially lies. That wasn’t how it was suppose to be.

  “Well?” Sadie asked. Her smile held a reserve of worry that showed through even beyond the last of her sickness.

  Jillybean finished chewing her cookie and then took a sip of her tea.

  I don’t think we should investigate the fire, Ipes said. I agree with Mister Neil, it’s probably a trap, and if it’s not, then it’s someone in trouble. As much as I’d like to help, we can’t even help ourselves, Jillybean. The grode-ups have only the one gun between the three of them.

  The little girl turned slightly away from the grownups and whispered, “What if it’s Miss Sarah who’s in trouble?”

  It’s not, Ipes replied. Miss Sarah wouldn’t try to signal us in so blatant a manner because she knows it would also attract every bounty hunter within miles.

  That made sense. It was perfectly logical, however it wasn’t the entire truth. Somehow she understood that either Ipes knew more than he was letting on, or he had a very good guess concerning the fire. “Anything else you want to add?” she asked, sounding cross and very much like her mommy used to when Jillybean had done something wrong. With the adults watching her she did not wait patiently and when half a minute passed, she tried something new: she attempted to read the zebra’s mind.

  It had always been the other way around. Ipes seemed able to read her mind at will. Now, she strove to find his thoughts in the thimble-full of fluff he used as a brain—and was shut out. The zebra closed his mind in a way Jillybean couldn’t.

  It’s for your own good, Ipes told her. I’m sorry.

  Shaken, she turned to the adults. “Ipes says west is ok,” she said, wearing a false smile.

  “We wanted to know what he thought of the smoke,” Sadie reminded her.

  “Oh, that. It’s a trap, one way or the other.” Even as she said this, Jillybean didn’t know quite what she meant by it. It was as if her words had come from a part of her mind she didn’t normally use. Her blue eyes flicked to Ipes, however he pretended to be deep in conversation with the Velveeta Rabbit.

  Before she could question anything more about what happened, Neil jumped on the statement as if it was all the proof they needed. “You see? It’s a trap. I know Sarah…not as well as I thought, but I know she wouldn’t set a fire like that. It would attract bounty hunters like crazy. It’s probably where those army guys went.”

  “Then we head west?” Nico asked.

  Sadie rubbed her head before answering: “Yes, tomorrow.”

  Only Neil chaffed at the delay. “She’s been gone for five days,” he said. “She could be in Atlanta by now and we’ve barely gone fifty miles!”

  Nico dropped to one knee next to Sadie and then lifted her as if she was made of feathers and down. “We endanger Sadie too much as is,” he said to Neil gruffly. “She will be strong enough to travel tomorrow.” The Russian put her in the Explorer and drove her back to the ramble house, as Jillybean called the trashed out place they were staying in.

  “Well, how do you like that?” Neil asked. “They just left us here.”

  “I don’t know,” Jillybean answered. “I think I’m ambigalus about it. That’s what means I don’t have an opinion. Which means I don’t mind walking.”

  “I think you mean: ambiguous,” Neil told her. He drank down the rest of his tea and stowed away the remains of the tea-party in his pack. As they started the trek back, he added, “That’s a big word for a little girl.”

  “I know lots and lots of big words. Mostly thanks to Ipes. He usually helps me out, though he’s being a pain today.”

  Neil seemed only partially focused on her; the other part watched all around them for zombies and he answered vaguely, “Oh, yeah? What words?”

  “Like terrapin. That’s what means turtle,” Jillybean said. “Or a type of turtle. I know lots of kinds of turtles. There’s a box turtle, and the snapper, and the red-eared slider, and the…

  Ask him what he’s going to do with Miss Sarah when he finds her, Ipes suggested, interrupting. Jillybean cleared her throat and, deciding to ignore the unruly and rude zebra, went on listing the turtles that fell within her ken. Neil always let her go on-and-on without judging, which was one of his best traits in her eyes.

  “Isn’t there one that sits in the mud?” Neil asked when she paused for a breath.

  She giggled and said, “Yep. It’s called the mud turtle. That reminds me there’s also the sea turtle, but for some reason there isn’t a flying turtle.”

  Before she could think of another type of turtle, Ipes asked, What happens if he finds Sarah and she still wants to go after Abraham and the Believers? Did you ever wonder what’s going to happen to you if that happens? We both know Neil won’t let her go a second time. He’ll try to help her break into New Eden and rescue Eve.

  With Ipes in her mind she couldn’t think of any type of turtle or anything for that matter. “I like Eve,” was all she could think to say. Neil heard this; only raising an eyebrow but not saying anything.

  That’s not what’s important here, Ipes said. We all love Eve, but she is beyond our help now, only they don’t see that, especially Sarah. When we find her she’s not going to stop and that means Neil is going to go with her and that means Sadie will also. And that’s fine, but what isn’t, is that they’re going to want you to try to help them. I know it. In fact, they’re going to make you help them.

  “Why shouldn’t I?”

  Because Eve is their daughter, and Sadie is her sister and you…you’re nothing but a weird little girl. That’s what Sarah thinks of you. She doesn’t care about you and she doesn’t love you.

  “But what about…”

  What about Neil? Is that what you were going to ask? Sure, Neil likes you. But we both know he loves Sarah and he loves Sadie and he loves Eve. Don’t you get it? He loves them more because they are his family. Where do you fit in?

  “I don’t know,” she said in a whisper.

  You fit with me, Ipes said. I’m your family. These other people don’t love you like I do. They won’t protect you. They’ll use you because you’re smart and resourceful and…

  A couple of little sounds behind them, a scuff and then a scrape, stopped the zebra’s vile words. It was a monster; a townie as far as Jillybean could tell by its mullet haircut and the tattered remains of a Walmart wardrobe. It only had one arm.

  “Mister Neil?” she said.

  He smiled down at her. “You’ve been quiet for a long time. I take it you and Ipes had a lot to discuss.”

  “Yes, but…”

  “You were so deep in conversation that you almost seemed to be sleep-walking,” he said with a laugh. “I bet a zombie could’ve snuck right up on you and you wouldn’t have even known.”

  “Yeah, maybe. Speaking of zombies, there’s one behind us,” she said.

  Neil jumped and let out a squawk of fear, something Jillybean thought he did for her amusement. “Stay behind me,” he ordered, brandishing his ax
e. “This is why you should be more careful. Daydreaming out here could get you killed.”

  As the zombie advanced, Neil took a step back, tripping on a branch and landing, hard on his butt. Without thinking, Jillybean leapt in front of him and waved her arms.

  What are you doing? Ipes cried.

  Since it was obvious she didn’t answer, instead, as the monster was missing his left arm, she darted to her right. He turned slowly, reaching across his body with his one arm—in this way he had an effective reach of eight inches. It was nothing for the quick little girl to keep away from him until Neil came up and split its skull.

  “Now that is how you kill a zombie,” he said, working the axe out of the dead beast.

  He thinks he was saving you, when it was you who was saving him, Ipes said. You see? He can’t protect you. It’s only going to get worse when we get to New Eden.

  “Mister Neil? Can I put Ipes in your backpack? I don’t feel like carrying him right now.”

  Chapter 21

  Sarah

  Easton, Maryland

  “Don’t,” Sarah said, her lips cracking. The air coming up through her blistered throat was like acid. “Don’t call.”

  The mayor of Easton sneered through his wild beard, “You would like that I bet. You would like to see my appointment with destiny canceled. But I can’t trust you, liar. You’re not the Queen of England and you’re probably not even Sarah Rivers. You are a spy. I know a spy when I see one. You’re a spy, a spy, a spy! A spy with the shadow-government. I know.”

  “Don’t,” she whispered. He didn’t seem to hear. With his index finger pointing up, a gesture of some importance to him, he left the room.

  Sarah almost swooned again, but she fought the sensation. She had to stay awake if she had any chance to talk the crazy man into letting her go. This led to a series of questions: How do you talk sense to the senseless? How do you reason with the unreasonable? Despair hit her like a truck as she realized she was doomed. This crazy person was crazier than most and crazy was the only language he spoke.

  “Here it is,” he called from somewhere in the house. There was the sound of footsteps banging down stairs, heavy breathing growing louder, and then the mayor was back in the room carrying a CB: a squat, rectangular box with dials and buttons and a small hand microphone. He plunked it on a table and left again.

  “Need juice. Need electricity, but don’t get it on me. Can’t get any on me or they will know. I know.” Seconds later, Sarah heard the whirring sound of a small generator. “Careful! Careful! Can’t get it on me,” he said in a carrying whisper. Now he came in holding an extension cord near the end; he had it up in the air as if there was something fluid in it that he didn’t want to spill. When he plugged it in he breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I’m clean,” he said happily. “No waves, no cells, no advanced alien technology. I know. He told me.”

  “He lied to you,” Sarah said. It was clearly the truth, which meant the crazy mayor wouldn’t believe it for a second. It almost felt like a waste of breath, but the statement triggered something in her mind. The bounty hunter had found a way to talk to this crazy man. He must have spoken the language of crazy to him.

  “You are the liar,” the mayor said matter-of-factly. He then flicked on the CB which instantly began to warble and scritch erratically with static.

  “Turn it off before it’s too late,” Sarah cried. Just that little outburst had her seeing the world through a hazy filter. She was about to pass out. “They can hear you,” she said before the world turned black.

  Again she had water splashed in her face to revive her. This time she had the wit enough to keep her eyes closed so that he splashed her three times before he started to shake her. The water was wonderful, but the shaking sent waves of pain down her arms which were still tied behind her back.

  “Who will hear?” he demanded. “Are you lying to me? Can someone hear? Don’t you know this isn’t cell technology. There aren’t beams coating us, damn it. I know. That means you’re lying…right? Answer me!”

  “Water,” she begged. “Can’t talk.”

  He had a big plastic jug which he poured directly into her mouth. She drank until the jug was half-gone and then he grew angry again. “Who can hear? Who? That’s a CB. That means citizens band and I’m a citizen! I’m the mayor of Easton. I won that election fair and square. And before that I was…Artie. Me and Beth always did those block parties on the Fourth…and I bowled on Wednesdays at the King’s Pin? Remember that? I told you all about that. Remember on Thursdays we’d stay home because…because Beth always liked her shows on Thursdays. That’s right. On Fridays we’d go out to the Megaplex.”

  “I remember, Artie,” she said.

  “Yeah, so that makes me a citizen. I can use the CB. I should be allowed to….but not if someone can hear me. Who is it? Tell me, please, who can hear?”

  “The, uh, the CIA.” It was all she could come up with. Sarah Rivers wasn’t exactly conversant in crazy.

  Artie was confounded by the answer. He went to the CB and looked it over very closely. “It’s not bugged. You’re lying!”

  “No, I’m not. You have to open it up,” Sarah said. It was her hope that he would break it in the process. She was a little too transparent.

  “You are sneaky,” he said in an evil whisper, his eyes slits in his dirty face. “You want me to break it don’t you? You think you’ll be able to get away. You’ll go back to the shadow-government and make your report. I won’t let you, because I know the truth!”

  He turned the CB back on and the static was loud. Within the heavy fuzz there were strange echoes and high pitched noises as if birds were using another CB somewhere close by. Every once in a while there was an eerie voice that spoke only a word or two; it barely seemed human.

  “They can’t hear,” Artie said. He seemed to be trying to convince himself.

  “Not only can they hear,” Sarah whispered. “They can also…send out beams…to control your mind. Listen. Did you hear that? It’s in the static. There it is again.”

  The mayor pulled his hands back from the CB in fright. “I-I heard that. It said Cutter. And that! Was that ice or eyes? Those are real words. Did you hear that too?”

  She hadn’t actually. There had been something that sounded like “nice” but that was about it. Still, she wasn’t about to admit that. “Turn it off!” Sarah cried. “They want you to cut your eyes out. I heard it, too.”

  His face stricken by terror, Artie scrambled at the machine hitting every button and eventually turning it off. He then just stood there in silence looking at the ceiling as if expecting, at any moment, that jack-booted thugs would burst into his home and drag him away. “Are they coming? Did they hear us?”

  “I don’t think so, but you better unplug it just in case.”

  This time his fear of the plug was so great that he ran and got a towel which he wrapped around his hands before pulling the extension out. He then hurried to where the generator was, sweating in his fear of the electricity. When he came back, he brought more water. Sarah’s mouth came open thinking it was for her, but he didn’t give her a drop. Instead he poured it on the CB.

  “Gotta get rid of the residuals,” he explained. “Everything has residuals but this is really dangerous. I bet the beams are all over us.”

  “There’s some on me,” Sarah said. “Can I have some more water?”

  She groaned in pleasure as he doused her with water. Every part of her felt blistered and raw. “Thank you. Now, can you untie me? I’m afraid for my hands. I haven’t felt them since the fire.”

  Artie took a step in her direction, but then his paranoia came back full force. “No. You’re with the shadow-government! Obviously, I can’t trust you. I can’t trust anyone from either the government or the shadow government. You’re all evil.”

  Sarah felt ten times better now that she had a belly full of water. Her head was finally clear enough to deal with one crazy person. “Think about it
, Artie. Who gave you that CB? The man from the government, that who. He’s the one that’s evil. Can you trust him? Can you trust his words?”

  “No! He tried to control my mind. But I can’t trust you either.”

  Sarah tried her best to give him a compassionate smile, however she could feel the blisters on her face begin to weep fluids and she had to wonder how horrible she looked. “You can’t trust me, because you believe the man from the government,” she stated.

  “Yes…I mean, no.”

  “That’s right. He told you a lie. I’m not from the shadow-government. I saved you from that CB. I kept your mind from being controlled. I’m on your side Artie.”

  “Who are you with?” he asked in a small voice.

  Sarah could tell this was going to be the most delicate question she would have to face. The wrong answer would bring his crazy exploding out of him. “I’m all alone,” she said, hoping the truth would suffice. His narrowing eyes told her it wasn’t.

  Who could she say she was with that sounded believable? The PTA? The Teamsters Union? The freaking Girl Scouts? It had to be someone that the “Government” would see as a possible enemy. Nothing sprang to mind at all except the image of little Jillybean. What would Jillybean do in this situation?

  No answer came to her, only another question: How had she ever come to bastardize: What would Jesus do? into: What would Jillybean do?

  The very question offered her the answer she was looking for. “I’m with…I mean, I’m a Christian. There’s a prophet down south that supposedly had a vision of everything that has happened to us: the zombies and the black zones and all the death. His name is Abraham and he built himself a new civilization called New Eden. I think that’s what that hunter was after. I think, maybe the government is trying to stop it.”

  Artie stared at her for a long time, trying to discern the truth in his addled mind. “Why would they be up here? If you say it’s in the south why aren’t they looking for it down there?”