Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

Henry and Sarah joined them along with the two guards from the jeep. Bryan sent the two men from the jeep to watch the road and make sure no Zombies were loping down it after them. The two men pulled machetes out of their packs and went to stand guard. No one wanted to shoot a gun here and bring a ton of Zombies to hang out at the place where people came to get to the processing center.

  Launching the canoes was done quickly and with way less confusion than Kyler had anticipated. He guessed it had to do with everyone being familiar with boats at this point. The kids had climbed right in and sat down without even needing to be asked. They were paddling straight across a narrow channel to another dock. About halfway across Bryan held up a flashlight and started turning the light on and off. Kyler assumed it was some kind of signal to let the people on the other side know they were coming. An answering light flashing on and off from the far shore confirmed his guess.

  It only took about twenty minutes from shoving off to landing on the far shore. They beached the canoes under the watchful eye of the men who’d been on guard duty on the far shore. Kyler got the hardest looks considering he was being brought over in cuffs. He was hopeful he’d be exonerated once they were able to communicate with someone in charge. Kyler was just hoping this crazy road trip didn’t end up with him being locked up for much longer. He was getting sick of having his fingers permanently numb from being in cuffs all the time.

  Chapter 29: Processed

  The leadership of the settlements had tossed around the idea of coming up with a name for them to unite under. They’d given up on that since they really just wanted to rebuild the USA. To restore it to some semblance of what it’d been like before. Most of the people in charge were senior military. All of them had sworn an oath to dedicate their lives to the defense of the constitution of the United States of America. It felt like a betrayal to them to try and change that now. It didn’t help that the Senator putting together the decidedly anti-American state to the south of them was calling his attempt at nation building the “New America”. All of this just led to everyone being kind of vague about their identities in this new normal.

  The processing center for this vaguely named nation state turned out to be a lot less intimidating than it’d sounded at first. It was a small collection of buildings surrounding a large warehouse in the middle of the woods. They were given cots to sleep on in a partitioned off section on the floor. The large wooden building with an aluminum roof had been used in the past as a combination winter boat storage and tourist season bait and gift shop warehouse. The whole place had been reorganized to serve as an intake center for refugees wishing to join up with the settlements. This warehouse was the closest to South Carolina and Tennessee so had processed hundreds of people recently. It was currently almost empty except for guards and staff. The flow of refugees had slowed down substantially enough in the past week to be ominous.

  Kelly and Caitlyn worked to get the littles settled in while Randy held a whispered conversation with Henry. There were lots of cots in the building. It looked like they’d all been used recently. They were the only ones in the refugee area of the warehouse for the time being. Partitions made out of cubicle walls spread around on the floor provided for some privacy. They also separated the warehouse into distinct sections. Kyler had been taken away to an interrogation room and locked up while Bryan worked on verifying that he was who he said he was. If Kyler wasn’t the kind of man that Kyler was then nobody would’ve even taken his claims of being a double agent seriously. It seemed pretty far-fetched even to the people who knew him.

  Kelly sat on her cot and watched as Doreen, Ali and Zoey all tried to get in the cot with Caitlyn to go to sleep. When that proved geometrically impossible Zoey wound up squishing herself onto the bottom of Kelly’s cot. Randy solved the potentially dangerous sleeping positions issue handily by quietly pushing all the cots together once he’d wrapped up his conversation with Henry. Once all the cots had been organized so the kids could still all be around Caitlyn and their sisters like a bunch of puppies Randy sat down on the cot beside Kelly.

  “How come none of the kids are trying to get on my cot?” He asked her with a big grin on his face.

  “You’re a boy. Boys stink. Boys drool. There’s a lot of reasons really. You’re lucky we let you hang out with us at all.” Kelly said to big smiles and words of encouragement from the girls.

  “Ha ha ha. A few days on the road and you guys aren’t smelling like cotton candy and perfume either.” Randy replied while holding his nose.

  “What did Henry have to say?” Kelly asked after the girls and their dad finished happily trading insults revolving around the worse smells they could think of. The familiar game had become a lot more graphic in the aftermath of the apocalypse. They’d been exposed to some serious stink.

  “He’s with us if something bad goes down. So far everything seems legit to him. Now as long as Kyler really does know people on this side of the state line, we should be good to go.” Randy replied.

  “What if he doesn’t?” Kelly whispered leaning forward to keep the conversation as private as possible.

  “Then we’ll have to play it by ear. There’s always the chance he’s telling the truth but everybody he used to know is dead.” Randy held up his hand with the palm out to prevent Kelly from asking any more questions. He’d just noticed someone walking towards them. The warehouse was lit mostly by cheap solar powered lights. The lights weren’t super bright to begin with. As the night wore on and their batteries drained, they got even dimmer.

  The shadowy shape quickly coalesced into Bryan striding towards them. He squatted down to talk to them.

  “We reached out to the people Kyler says sent him down south. Neither of them has responded yet. Chief Presly is out on patrol. He may not check back in for a few weeks. Or, he could check in tomorrow. Rover patrols aren’t super predictable. Commander Hartsfield’s alive. We left a message for him to call us concerning Kyler. They said they’d pass the message along and let us know. I’m hoping they get back to us by tomorrow.”

  “Thanks Bryan. That sounds fair. Can you let us know as soon as you hear back?” Randy asked.

  “Absolutely. Tomorrow the plan is for you to meet up with a coordinator who’ll help you figure out your next steps. For tonight you can just relax. I’ve been ordered to do one more thing though. I need to take a quick look at each of your backs to make sure none of the rest of you are branded.” Bryan finished up apologetically. He seemed embarrassed to be asking them, but he wasn’t the type not to follow through on a lawful order. One by one they all showed their unbranded backs to Bryan. Once he’d checked them all he wished them a good night and strolled off to do whatever rovers did when they weren’t busy roving.

  “What now?” Kelly asked.

  “I guess we get some sleep.” Randy said stretching out on his non-child infested cot. Glancing over at how Kelly had to contort herself around Zoey and Doreen to get comfortable he was suddenly very thankful that they thought all boys smelled bad. Snuggling with the girls in a chair or on a couch was one thing. Trying to sleep next to one of them was an exercise in frustration. They all liked to dream about taking karate lessons when they slept. He remembered waking up in complete pain one night after Zoey managed to kick him in the crotch hard enough to bring tears to his eyes. He’d woken up Kelly to complain but she’d just thought it was hilarious.

  He woke up the next morning before the rest of them did. Large, dusty windows lining the top of the wall around the warehouse were letting the early morning sunshine stream in. Sitting up Randy saw that the cots had turned into some sort of battleground over the evening. The kids were sprawled out all over the place. Myriah had retreated to a cot away from everyone else so she could sleep in peace. Caitlyn and Kelly both had various limbs dangling off the edges of their cots. It looked like Ali had her foot shoved directly into Caitlyn’s face.

  It would’ve been more amusing to take in the chaotic aftermath of the slumber party if he didn’t kn
ow the reasons the kids clung to them so much. Nightmares were a constant in their lives now. Nightmares you weren’t allowed to scream through for fear of attracting the real nightmares. The fear of losing each other was constant. The constant and very real fear that monsters were going to start beating on the walls trying to get in at any second. These kids had all been through hell. They’d seen death and disease and murder. They’d been at the mercy of psychopaths and tyrants. Seen through that lens the desperate need to physically touch each other while they were sleeping was completely understandable.

  Distracting him from of all that was the smell of coffee brewing somewhere. He wasn’t clear on the rules around moving around the warehouse, but he wasn’t going to just sit there wishing he had coffee. He chose to go with asking for forgiveness if it turned out he wasn’t supposed to wander around. He walked out of the walled off section they’d been sleeping in and down the main aisle in the middle of the open floor. He saw a small group of men congregated around a door leading to what looked like a breakroom of some sort. Recognizing some of the men as the rovers who’d brought them to the warehouse Randy headed in that direction.

  The strong, bitter smell of coffee had him drooling by the time he made it to the door. One of the men standing outside the door recognized him and nodded.

  “Morning. They used to have a place setup for settlers to grab breakfast and stuff but since you guys are the only ones here feel free to share ours. Mi casa es su casa.” The soldier said smiling.

  “Same with officers’ quarters.” Bryan said walking up behind Randy.

  “Good morning. Any word?” Randy asked. He didn’t want to be too specific since half the men here were already convinced Kyler was nothing more than a scum bag Brotherhood spy who should be dragged out back and shot.

  “No word yet. I was just over at the comms room checking in. It’s still early though and the guy we’re waiting on runs pretty much everything so he’s a pretty busy guy. I wouldn’t sweat it. If we haven’t heard anything by tonight, then we can try leaving another message. We’re not planning on rolling out of here for a few more days anyway. Feel free to grab some coffee and a tray of food for the wife and kids. We had some people come through not too long ago with an entire big rig loaded down with Little Debbie’s. Breakfast has pretty much been oatmeal pies or those delicious fake twinkies for a while now.” Bryan said while picking through a large box full of random snack cakes.

  Feeling out of place Randy poured some coffee into a couple of Styrofoam cups and picked up the offered box of snack cakes to take back with him. The kids and Kelly were all still asleep when he got back. He sat down and ripped the plastic wrapper off an oatmeal pie. The snack cake looked pretty good considering how old it must be. He took a big bite of the sugar stuffed preservative enriched treat and washed the delicious mixture down with a sip of hot coffee.

  “You going to share any of that?” Kelly asked. The smell of coffee had woken her up as well. She shoved Zoey off of her and sat down on the cot next to Randy. He handed her a cup of coffee while she dug through the assorted snack cakes looking for something good.

  “You used to be such a health freak.” He joked when she pulled out a big pink snowball to eat.

  “The running for your life workout coupled with sometimes not eating anything for a few days diet plan allows for the occasional cheat day.” She responded smugly before taking a big bite of the gooey pink ball of goodness.

  They let the kids sleep while they enjoyed their coffee. Sarah walked over and said good morning while eyeballing their coffee. Randy noticed her staring and told her where he’d gotten it at. She told him thanks and left to get her and Henry some as well. Before too long the kids were all awake and fighting over the selection of snack cakes. Caitlyn had to step in and take control when the only pack of Zebra cakes almost instigated a full-on fist fight between Zoey and Doreen.

  They were able to finish breakfast without any serious injuries. Kelly decided that was a pretty good accomplishment and worthy of lying back down to nap for a bit. Randy sat on his cot staring around at the storage system for the boats. There were still plenty of boats actually tucked in the warehouse for safe keeping. He was contemplating how they might be able to snag one and use it to escape out into the lake if needed when Kyler walked into their little sanctum.

  “They hear back from the commander guy or do we need to lock and load?” Randy asked without getting up off the cot.

  “You should always be ready to go full auto in this day and age. One of the commanders aides got back to them and confirmed what I told him. They want me to report back to HQ immediately to debrief. I just wanted to tell you guys goodbye before I took off.” Kyler answered.

  “Did you want to tell us goodbye or Caitlyn?” Myriah teased. To everyone’s instant amusement both Kyler and Caitlyn immediately turned bright red. Randy was loving that even with all the death and horror they’d waded through these last few years there was still something about them that was full of innocence.

  “All of you.” Kyler mumbled awkwardly over everyone’s laughter. He looked over at Caitlyn and noticed her blushing too. Everyone noticed the look which made them all laugh even harder.

  “I have no idea how you people have survived this long.” Bryan said from behind them. They’d all seen him walking up and were working to tone the laughter down. He stood there smiling at them until they’d finally settled down.

  “Kyler told us the command people finally got back to you. So, he’s all good to go now right?” Kelly asked Bryan.

  “He’s good to be gone in about twenty minutes actually. It turns out they were pretty excited to hear he was back. We’re going to be taking him over to command now before we go back out on our regular patrol. We should’ve already left but he insisted on saying goodbye and I didn’t want you to think there’d been any funny business. I’ll leave you to it. Kyler, we need to be rolling out in five.” With that Bryan waved and walked back towards the soldiers section of the warehouse.

  “You can’t leave now!” Caitlyn said. She looked embarrassed when everyone looked at her. “It’s daylight you can’t drive around during the day.” She finished up a little lamely.

  “It’ll be ok. We’ll be driving fast down cleared roads. Unless we run into a herd crossing the road it’ll be fine.” Kyler said. He looked around at everyone. “Ok. I’ll see you all later. Be safe.” He muttered obviously at a loss for words. Big emotional speeches were definitely not his thing. They hadn’t actually known each other for all that long as far as the calendar went. The time they’d spent together had been incredibly intense though. It’d formed bonds that were deep. He spun on his heel and started walking out to follow Bryan towards the soldiers section.

  Myriah nudged Caitlyn and she walked quickly past everyone with her head down. She followed Kyler until he turned around. As soon as he did, she threw her arms around him and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. She smiled really big when he whispered something in her ear. Then they both remembered where they were and broke the embrace. Kyler waved at them all with a big grin on his blush reddened face and headed out. Cailyn ignored all questions throwing herself on her cot and pulling a blanket over her head. Kelly sat on the floor beside Caitlyn to try and talk to her. When it was obvious talking wasn’t going to happen, she settled for rubbing Caitlyn’s back. She sat there rubbing her back until she stopped sobbing into the thin military style pillow that’d been on the cot.

  Randy took the other girls with him to get more coffee. He didn’t necessarily want more of the bitter coffee, but he did want a break from the drama. Plus, he figured Kelly and Caitlyn could use a bit of girl time to talk through whatever had just happened. He filled up their coffee cups again while the girls rooted through the snack cake box searching for Zebra cakes. Once they’d found everything that they needed they walked back over to where they’d left Kelly and Caitlyn.

  An older woman wearing a set of green coveralls with a small revolver holstered a
round her waist was chatting with Kelly while Caitlyn kept her head under the blanket. That didn’t look awkward at all. Randy considered turning around and walking the other way to avoid the whole mess when Kelly saw them standing there. The look of relief on her face was instantaneous. Randy knew he’d missed his window to sneak away.

  “Hi. I’m Randy. Are you one of the coordinators we keep hearing about?” Randy asked walking forward and extending his hand to the lady. She reached out and gave him a solid handshake.

  “I am. I’m Janet. My job is to help figure out where you’d best fit in and explain to you how everything works in the settlements. There’s been a lot of changes happening lately that we’re trying to keep up with. We can head over to my office if you’re ready to get started.” Janet offered.

  “Lead the way.” Randy said. They worked together to quickly gather everyone and everything together. Janet didn’t bother telling them to leave their stuff behind. That’s just not something you did in the middle of an apocalypse where you may need to take off running for your life at any second. Randy was relieved to see Janet recognized this. It meant it wasn’t her first rodeo. For some reason that made him feel a lot better about this whole process. Feeling kind of like they were fixing to be sold a timeshare him and Kelly dropped the kids at the play area outside Janet’s office. Then they went in and sat down to hear the pitch.