by T. W. Brown
“Can you tell me why?” Kevin asked, leaning back in his chair.
“Why what?”
“Why are you people so set on wiping out those who are immune?”
The woman sat for a moment, and after a long silence where Kevin was almost certain that she would not answer, Darlene spoke.
“It started a few years ago for us. We had a nice place just north of what used to be Parkersburg. We had the Ohio River on one side giving us all the water and fish we could ever want. It was really something to see. We even had lights after these really smart ladies came and helped build some sort of solar thing with all these panels and stuff. It was all going so nice.”
Darlene closed her eyes and smiled. For the first time, Kevin could see a regular person sitting across from him, not an ignorant being that sought to kill what she did not understand.
“Folks started getting back to normal. Yeah, sometimes we lost somebody, but that was rare. Then this group of folks showed up. We let them in, they all seemed okay, and we didn’t mind. The more the merrier. Plus, when you have a lot of people, some of the roving raiders tend to leave you alone.”
Kevin almost laughed at the irony of her sentiment. However, she was starting to get on a roll, so he kept quiet, nodding for her to continue.
“One day, a few of our people got sick. They hadn’t been out, and they was all in relations with folks who weren’t infected. Everybody knew that you had to keep to your own, infected and not infected. That was why it was so strange. They turned and we had to put ‘em down. Folks was really upset, then the kids got sick.”
“The kids?” Kevin asked, unsure of what she meant exactly.
“Every single kid in the community…well, most of ‘em. Of course a few turned out to be immune, or at least that was what we figured eventually.”
“You are saying that these people came in and basically started poisoning you all for no reason?” Kevin asked with a hint of skepticism.
“That is what happened whether you believe me or not,” Darlene shot back. “They would have gotten away with it to…”
“If not for those meddling kids,” Catie quipped just loud enough for Kevin to hear. He shot her a dirty look and then returned his focus to Darlene.
“They didn’t give any reason?” He leaned forward, his hands firmly planted on the table.
“They said that we was the weak link in humanity’s chain or some such nonsense. They said that, for humans to have any chance of survival, the ones who could not withstand the sickness and then change into the walking dead needed to be eliminated.” Darlene stared up defiantly, a tear welling up and then leaking from the corner of her eye. “I went through hell that first year…but I saved my boy. He was only three when his own daddy come in the door and tried to eat us. I beat him down with a frying pan and then ran. That year was…” Her voice trailed off and sobs began to wrack her body.
Kevin reached across the table to take the woman’s hand with his but she threw herself back, eyes wide in terror. Kevin flushed as he realized he was still sporting an open and bleeding wound. Making a show of pulling the offending arm back, he patted her hand with the other.
“So you people basically flipped their idea and started hunting down those who were immune.”
“It wasn’t like that.” Darlene shook her head, but Kevin could see the look of doubt in her expression.
“How is it any different?” Catie blurted. “You people are hunting and killing folks. In what world is that not exactly the same thing? If anything, you are worse.”
“How so?” Darlene’s voice changed to angry in an instant.
“You are taking the bible and perverting it so that you can give your cause some sort of holiness that it does not deserve. You are destroying the image of Christianity by becoming some sort of twisted stereotype. You all are no better than those old television evangelists that always seemed to be getting caught in seedy hotels with hookers that ended up in Playboy or Penthouse once the story broke.”
Catie stalked around the table and stood over the woman. Kevin noticed that, even sitting, Darlene was almost as tall as Catie was standing, yet Catie seemed to tower above the woman at the moment, her anger seemingly adding to her appearance.
“Go ahead, mock our beliefs,” Darlene shot back.
“Your beliefs!” Catie exploded. “Did you have these before? Or did they get instilled in you after that tragedy. Yes, I feel sorry for you and your people. What those others did was wrong, but for you to turn around and do the exact same thing? Where does it end? When there are none left among the living?”
There was a long silence. Finally, Darlene looked up at Catie. She made no effort to brush the tears that were now flowing freely from her eyes.
“My boy died…became one of those…those things. Not because he got bit, but because some people decided that he was not fit to survive. Do you have children?” Catie shook her head. “Then you wouldn’t…no, you couldn’t understand. They stole a part of me that will never be replaced. They did it based on no belief other than some sort of natural selection mumbo jumbo. Go ahead and see how you feel after that baby you are carrying comes into this world and relies on you to protect it.”
“So you do it based on twisting the words in the bible to fit a belief that you know in your heart not to be true,” Catie whispered. “I could actually respect you a lot more if you were just doing this for revenge. That I could understand.”
“How far to your people?” Kevin asked, breaking the conversation up. “I would like to get you there as soon as possible.”
“They will probably kill you.” Darlene looked up at Kevin, and he could see that she was not trying to threaten, she was being perfectly honest.
“Well, maybe you can talk them out of it. Either way, this has to end. We can’t keep doing this or there won’t be anybody left.” Kevin turned to the door, not surprised to find Clint and Cap waiting on the other side.
“You sure about this?” Cap asked.
Kevin looked at the man. Things had happened so quick that he really hadn’t had the time to get a reading on the guy. It only took him a moment to realize that the man looked like a young John Travolta. He suddenly had the urge to ask the man to say, “I’m so confuuuuused.”
“I want to stay here,” Kevin admitted. “Something about this place makes me feel like I am home. That can’t happen if we are at war.”
“But you do realize there will always be another group,” Clint spoke up. “That has been the way of things since we settled here. Fortunately, we have taken in enough folks that we are still here. Add in the other two…err…I guess one now. But add in the other communities and some of the outlying ones, and we have been able to fend for ourselves pretty well.”
“That is all fine,” Kevin gave a nod of his head, “but there comes a time for peace. I think that is in the bible also, right?” He turned to Catie for confirmation.
“Ecclesiastes,” Catie confirmed. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”
“Wow,” Kevin breathed. Catie blushed.
“I had to memorize a scripture verse each month in school,” she admitted.
He suddenly realized that, with all their conversations and debates, the one thing they had never discussed was religious beliefs. He knew where he stood. He was not a believer in God, and he did not try to scrape his way along by saying that he believed in some “higher power” or some of the other nonsense that peo
ple used when they tried to skirt such an awkward conversation. He simply had no belief other than you were born and then died. In between, a bunch of stuff happened based on other stuff that you did or did not do to set things in motion. In a nutshell; life was random.
“I thought that was a song by The Byrds,” Clint said, breaking the spell of the moment with a chuckle that died on his lips when Cap gave him an even darker glare than the one Darlene was shooting his way.
“It sort of was, that is actually why I initially picked that one. However, the teacher wouldn’t let me sing it, so I got marked down.” Catie admitted “Sort of like the alphabet.” When curious glances shot her direction, she raised an eyebrow in return. “How often do you say the alphabet without sort of sing-songing it the way you learned as a child?”
“Ever since that cop that failed me on a field sobriety test. Bastard told me I had to say it and not sing it to pass. Damned if I could do it,” Clint admitted. Now it was everybody else’s turn to laugh.
“Anyways,” Kevin spoke up, trying to steer people back to the situation at hand. “If I am going to stay here, I need to deal with these people. I have a feeling that they will be coming back once their little band of riders does not return.” He glanced at Darlene who nodded in confirmation.
Twenty minutes later, Kevin, Catie, and Darlene departed through the main gates of Falling Run. Once they were about ten minutes away, Kevin came to a halt. Reaching inside his leather coat, he produced a knife in its sheath.
“Here,” he said as he handed Darlene the blade. “If we get separated for any reason, you shouldn’t be without your weapon.”
The woman looked at him with confusion. “What’s to keep me from sticking you the moment that you turn your back?”
“Nothing,” Kevin replied with a shrug. With that, he turned and resumed walking. A few seconds later, he heard Darlene rushing to catch up.
***
“Just beyond that bunch of trees you will probably be able to see it,” Darlene said as the trio hiked up the gentle slope. “It is on the outskirts of what used to be Lexington.”
“Kentucky?” Catie asked.
“West Virginia,” Kevin and Darlene said in unison.
“The Virginia Military Institute was there along with another university that I can’t recall.” Kevin paused for just a moment to wipe his brow with his sleeve. The sun was directly overhead, having burned away much of the early morning clouds.
He didn’t care what anybody else did, he refused to remove his leather jacket when they were out and about. He and Catie used to argue over it—Kevin insisting that she wear hers—but eventually he had given up.
“There is an island that looks like it used to be a big park,” Darlene said. “That is where we have settled in.”
Kevin had been surprised that Darlene’s people were not mere nomads. From what he had learned, they had been happy and content in their last settlement before the incident. They had eventually moved because the painful memories were too great. Also, everybody was afraid to drink any of the water or eat any of the food.
For the past few years, they had tried one spot and then another. He had been surprised to learn that their reason for moving the past few years had stemmed from hostilities between other settlements. These people wanted much the same as he: a life of peace.
Despite Darlene’s warnings, he felt that he had at least a small chance of reasoning with these people. He had also learned that their leader was a woman named Erin Crenshaw.
At last they reached the crest. In the distance, he could see the crumbling remains of Lexington, West Virginia. They would have to cross a lot of overgrown fields to reach their destination. He hated those the most because it was so easy for zombies to be hidden within. Many times over the years he had encountered zombies that had, at some point, wandered out into a field and apparently just stopped. Whatever had driven them obviously long since gone, it was as if they simply went into a sleep mode like a computer, waiting for a living person to come by and jiggle their mental mouse to put them back in motion.
“There is an old road to the south of us,” Darlene offered.
Kevin was tempted, but the reality was that they were still venturing into enemy territory. It was possible that this Erin Crenshaw had a form of picket sentry in place around their position. He did not want to be captured and brought in as a prisoner. He wanted to walk in of his own free will and offer Darlene back as a show of good intention.
“We can cross to the north. See that mound?” Kevin pointed. “From there we should be able to see your camp. We can stop there for the evening and build a good fire. They should see it and hopefully send somebody to investigate.”
“Does your mind always work like this?” Darlene asked.
“Yes,” Catie answered before Kevin could say a word.
Kevin shrugged and they started down the slope. At the bottom was an expanse of high grass; just the sort of place Kevin hated. Fortunately, it was bisected by what had once been a major highway. They would have two such breaks as they made their way for the hill Kevin had pointed out.
It was not long into their journey through the high grass that they encountered the first zombie. Standing naked, its clothing long since deteriorated into nothing or simply ripped away over time, the zombie was as still as a scarecrow until the trio actually got to within a few feet. Its head turned, but the tendons and tissue had tightened to the point of that action being almost impossible. Instead, the zombie actually had to turn its entire body to face them.
It opened its mouth and something fluttered from it and vanished. Spiders scurried across it as webs were torn apart by the creature’s movement. Catie moved in and spiked it in the forehead, ending a pitiful mewling sound; but seconds later, the grassy field was alive with echoes of the responses of other zombies.
“Damn,” Kevin breathed.
“I told ya we coulda gone south to the road,” Darlene whispered, unconsciously moving a step closer to Kevin.
“And be captured? No, that was not how I wanted to meet your people.”
“Better than being eaten,” Darlene quipped.
Kevin nodded agreement to her point, but he had no intention of being eaten. They would simply need to be at the ready from this point on. It was easy to get into a state of mind where you almost forgot about zombies. They were slowly gathering into larger and larger herds. The few singles out there seldom posed a threat…unless you were in a field where the growth was a foot or more above your head and so thick that you couldn’t see more than five or so feet in front of you at any given time.
“Everybody stay close,” Kevin said needlessly.
“I have our back,” Catie announced, turning around and reaching back with one hand to hold on to Kevin for a guide.
Darlene drew her blade after casting a questioning glance at Kevin who simply nodded. They started to make their way through the tall grass. The biggest problem besides the lack of visibility was the fact that it was high summer and the grass was dry and starting to get crunchy. That, coupled with the newly “awakened” undead, and it was almost like back in the early days.
A zombie stumbled through the grass just ahead of them and Kevin drove his blade forward and through its head just as he heard Catie grunt as she swung her machete in a downward chop. With both of them engaged, Darlene had the perfect window of opportunity to make a run for it. She was considering just that when five more zombies emerged through the thick growth that surrounded them on all sides.
In an instant, she made her decision. With a low sweep of her left foot, she took the legs out from under the closest zombie, sending it tumbling into one of its brethren. Stepping forward, she twisted her wrist at the last second, driving the sharpened tip of the hilt of her big knife into the eye socket of the next zombie still standing. Snapping her wrist back, she twisted her arm out like an exaggerated gesture of a hitchhiker to plunge the blade into the temple of another.
She was freeing her
weapon as Kevin swept past and dispatched the pair she had sent to the ground. A hand clasped her shoulder and Darlene turned to see a wispy haired zombie that brought to mind the Cryptkeeper from the old Tales from the Crypt television show. Its mouth was so close to her face that she wondered only briefly why she could not feel its breath on her cheek. Just then, a blade came down from behind it and split its skull.
“Zombies don’t breathe,” Darlene muttered.
“What?” Catie shot her a quizzical glance.
“Nothing…thanks,” she quickly added.
The trio bunched up once again and picked up the pace. By now, moans and cries could be heard from all sides.
“I don’t understand,” Darlene huffed as they jogged along the uneven ground, each one trying his or her best not to turn an ankle. They had to keep Kevin’s limping pace, but years of practice had made him pretty adept at moving with his prosthetic.
“Probably the remnants of a herd that passed through. They reached this spot and eventually slowed to a stop. With nothing to draw them, it is like they are on pause until something activates them again,” Kevin explained.
“We’ve actually seen an entire herd parked in one spot on a huge open plain,” Catie added. “Where was that again, Kevin?”
“Probably Wyoming,” Kevin replied. “We were…oof!” His sentence was cut off as he tripped and landed hard on his stomach.
A creeper had snagged his foot and tripped him. He only had a second to be grateful that it was his good foot that got snagged. Had he caught on the zombie with his other foot, it might have unseated his prosthetic or even yanked it off. Even at his fastest, it took a few minutes to put it on and secure it, and that was time they did not have at the moment.
The creeper reached out with its claw-like hands, clutching at Kevin’s sleeve and pulling his arm to its mouth for a bite. Darlene kicked it in the temple, causing the teeth to clack as they missed completely. The half-torso flipped over, leaving the thing momentarily helpless as it struggled to flip back onto its stomach. As its arms flailed, Catie moved in and chopped.
