A Good Distance From Dying

by David Carroll

  time later to discuss that. Why is it that you don’t want to talk

  about the people you have been traveling with? Is there

  something, or some things, that you feel you need to hide?” I kept a polite smile on my face while I was considering

  my next move and he was letting me have the moment. I had no doubt that even though there were no punches being

  thrown in this little room; I was in the middle of a fight. “What would you like to know about us?” I asked

  deciding to just keep my answers short so he wouldn’t have

  much to spin on me.

  “Honestly, I am just curious what you think of my

  impressions of your companions. I think that I have a good feel

  for who each of them are and where they would be of best use

  in our community. I am curious if your opinion of them mirrors

  my own.”

  In my head I was laughing so hard. This “king” had one,

  brief, conversation and now he thought he understood them?

  Now he wanted me to confirm his opinion? This alone told me

  a lot about him. This is the kind of man that would surround

  himself with a room full of yes men because he believed he was

  always right. I couldn’t wait to hear his opinions about us. “Please, tell me what you think.” I made sure he noticed

  me settle back in my chair as if I was about to hear a good story.

  He flashed a very quick heated look at me, but then put his face

  back on.

  “I believe that we will start with the last man I spoke to.

  The man you call Sasquatch.”

  He paused and looked to me silently asking if I had

  something to add, I didn’t.

  “I was extremely impressed with this man. He is built to

  kill zombies, Tall and strong and very intelligent. I would have

  to say that he is the heart of your group of survivors. I can see

  that he tempers your and Amanda’s anger while keeping the

  madness of Daniel in check. He also makes Shawn and

  Veronica feel more at ease and safe in the group by being what

  would best be described as a big brother figure to them. He is,

  in effect, the glue that holds you all together. Without him, I am sure Daniel would be dead by now. I am sure Judy would have fled the group taking at least Shawn with her if not Veronica as well. You and Amanda would still be together heading towards

  Johnson City, but you would be alone.”

  He paused again. I imagined that he was waiting for me

  to confirm that he was correct and marvel at his insight into

  our group. I was going to do neither. He had some aspects of it

  correct, but at the heart of what he was saying, he was wrong.

  It was my turn to make him wait for the information he was so

  intent on getting from me.

  “Please, continue. Who would you like to discuss next?” The king was quiet. I knew the thoughts that were going

  through his head, they had been going through mine not to

  long ago. He smiled at me again, that fake scary smile of his,

  and he began to speak.

  “Next I would have to address the subject of your

  group’s enforcer, Amanda Asare. Nobody is sure what military

  branch she serves in. I doubt you even know.”

  He raised his eyebrows giving me a moment to

  volunteer any information that I may or may not have on the

  subject of Amanda’s employer. I kept quiet and simply watched

  him sit there.

  “I would imagine that it is a rather specialized group

  that she belongs to. I would also imagine that she travels the

  world doing things to people that will never be reported in any

  news paper. Randy, who was in the Rangers, was very

  impressed with her. He said that he had seen some extremely

  capable people that, as he put it, “lived out on the ragged

  edge”. He said Amanda made him feel more uncomfortable

  than any of those people ever did. He assured me that the

  branch and unit she belonged to would be a group that, ‘took

  out the trash of the world’ for the United States.”

  “This begs the questions, what exactly was she doing in

  Blountville, if she was alone or not, and if she was alone why

  was she alone? It is a good amount of information to consider.”

  The king said.

  “You could have asked her about all of this had you took

  the time to meet with her as you have with everyone else in the

  group.” I commented as if I wasn’t saying anything out of line.

  The king, to his credit, was able to answer for himself in the

  same tone.

  “No. I don’t think that would have done any good. If she

  is in a branch of the military which is that secretive with their

  movements and actions I really don’t think she would have

  answered any questions. I think she would have told me to

  mind my own business or she would put a bullet in my head.” I had to give it to him on this one; he was right about

  questioning Amanda. I could hear her saying that to him. I

  nodded to the king that he was probably correct in his thinking. “The one thing I have discovered about Amanda during

  my conversations with your group is that she seems to be

  completely loyal to you for some reason that I can’t determine.

  If you had told her to put two in Daniels head while in the strip

  club I am sure that she wouldn’t have hesitated. However, you

  didn’t. You let him live so she let him live. That is all I needed to

  know about her. If you decide to stay here and be loyal to me

  then she will do as you do. I think, in her head, she has placed

  you as her commanding officer. It’s her military training. She

  has to have somebody to tell her what to do. She is incapable

  of thinking for herself.”

  In my mind I was slowly shaking my head. He couldn’t

  be more wrong about the lovely Miss Asare. She didn’t wait for

  me to give her the go ahead for anything. Sass was the person

  that stopped her from killing Daniel in the strip club, not me. I may have given the final word on the situation, but had it not been for Sass there would have been a bullet in Daniel’s head long before I could have calmed down enough to stop things. Amanda and I were more like a partnership. We both gave our opinions then talked it out and decided what would be best. If he was thinking she blindly followed my every command he

  was due a very hard and surprising lesson.

  “Therefore, I feel that I don’t need to talk to her. If I can

  get you to see the light then she will as well. I think she would

  be invaluable to us as the leader of the Scouts. She could teach

  my soldiers so much in armed and unarmed combat. She

  would single handedly ensure our safety more than anything

  else. And when we finally arrived at the point where we would

  have to leave Gray she would be instrumental in getting us

  ready to travel. Of all of the people in your group she is the

  most valuable to us.”

  I thought about this. He was right about her helping

  teach the scouts how to best combat the dead. But was she

  truly the most valuable among us? I wasn’t sure about this. She

  was valuable no doubt, but somebody who wouldn’t tell you

  who they are or what they did prior to all of this also came with

  some risks. We could be hooking up with some psycho who will

&n
bsp; kill us all in the middle of the night. Did any of this risk count

  against the reward of having her around? Did the unknown

  diminish her value?

  “And then we head into the bottom half of the roster.”

  The king said as if we were some sports team. I didn’t like the

  comment, but I wouldn’t let my face show it.

  “I would put Shawn’s value just below the midpoint of

  your group. His best feature is that he is loyal if nothing else.

  When the first group arrived, I could see the blood on his bat so

  I knew he had seen combat. Even so, you had sent him on with the others instead of keeping him out in the field with the warriors. When I saw this I could only think of two reasons you would do this. The first reason was that he is young and may have fought when he had to, but he’s not ready to seek out trouble. The other reason that came to my mind was that instead of him being a burden on your group he had instead proven himself to be a boon. This led me to think that you had sent him on with the others as a spy. You had wanted somebody here as your eyes and ears to give you a heads up as soon as you arrived. The more I thought about it and watched

  him interact with the others I was sure this was it.”

  “I treated him as a spy when we spoke. I challenged him

  on every level. I all but attacked him because I wanted to see

  how he would respond. I wanted to see how a boy as young as

  he is would handle himself when a person of my authority

  challenged him. To my surprise, he handled himself

  commendably. He was a rock and he didn’t give anything away.

  His loyalty will make him a very real asset to me when he

  becomes a scout and gives that loyalty to his king.”

  The king was a bit more perceptive than I had thought

  he would be. The Burger King crown and the red curtain cape

  may have been another adventure in misdirection as I had

  done to Randy at the strip club. What was going on in his head

  was defiantly not something to underestimate.

  “Next we have Veronica. What can I say about her? She

  is an example of God’s ability to make art live and breath. She

  has no other usefulness that I can find, but what she is able to

  do, she does to perfection. I will take her as my bride as soon as

  I can find a priest. Mentally I find her un-stimulating and I

  doubt she could fight off a puppy if she had to. However, none

  of that really matters. She is beautiful and I wish to make her

  mine.”

  Another example of a level of truthfulness that I really

  couldn’t believe I was hearing. I kept wondering why the king

  was being this open with me. I just didn’t get it. I was sure that

  he hadn’t been this open with the others.

  “And we find ourselves at the poor doomed couple of

  Judy and Daniel Craig. What on earth can I say here? Judy is all

  but useless. She is a bit attractive I guess, in her own way. She

  isn’t very smart, and she isn’t very physical. All she seems to be

  is a cheerleader for her idiot husband. With her history of being

  a housewife I guess she could oversee food prep.”

  “Her husband is even worse. I was told that he was just

  made a partner in his law firm. To be honest with you Charlie, I

  have trouble believing that. The guy is an idiot. I swear if

  anyone in this building deserves a bullet, it’s him. And do you

  want to hear the real kicker of the situation? He spent every

  moment he could telling me how dangerous you were and how

  I should remove you from power as quickly as I could.” This didn’t surprise me at all. The sad thing was, I’m

  sure he thought that the king had been charmed by his resolve.

  I would bet Daniel thought he and the king had agreed on every

  point of his argument to remove me.

  “I’m almost positive that he wants you dead Charlie.

  What did you do to set him against you?”

  “I saved his life…twice.”

  The king gave another of his loud booming laughs,

  “Yeah, I could see how that would make you public enemy

  number one.”

  I nodded at this comment. I honestly had no idea why

  Daniel hated me so much. I had listened to what Judy had told

  me and it just didn’t seem right. Something else was going on

  other than just him trying to work through his grief. The attacks were too personal. He really did hate me, but I had no clue as

  to why.

  “Either way he is of no use to us here. Either he is a hot

  headed idiot that will eventually get himself killed or he is a

  newly unemployed lawyer which we can use even less than a

  hot headed idiot. In the end, I think he may just have to

  disappear while out with the scouts.”

  “And you would be okay making that call? Ordering an

  innocent man to his death.” I asked.

  “Let’s be grown-ups here Charlie. He is far from

  innocent. That man is going to start drama and churn up

  turmoil wherever he goes. Unlike you, I have the stones to

  make the hard decisions and do what is best for my community.

  I would never let a loose cannon run wild in my house. To that

  end, Daniel would have to disappear.”

  I couldn’t argue with the king’s logic. It was the same

  thing I had told Sass during our time in the farm house. For the

  good of the group Daniel needed to go.

  “Well, that only leaves one question. What are your

  thoughts concerning me?”

  The king sat back in his chair again looking at me

  thoughtfully.

  “Well that is what we are here to discuss isn’t it? Are you

  a man of vision? Will you listen to what I have to say and decide

  that it’s in your best interest to take the job I am prepared to

  offer you? Will you become my second in command? Or are you

  destined to fill a shallow grave?”

  I didn’t for one second think he was bluffing. But that

  fact wasn’t going to stop me from advancing my position in this

  war of words. I looked into his eyes as coldly as I could. “Do you honestly think that you have that much power?

  You really think you could make me disappear and the others

  would just accept it?”

  The king’s smile got larger as I asked this question.

  “Isn’t that answer obvious? Of course I do.”

  C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - F O U R

  The room grew quiet. I had read about the air in a room becoming heavy but hadn’t understood it. Now I had that understanding. It was a feeling that things had just taken that final step towards serious. A decision had to be made and I was the one who had to make it.

  I was perfectly aware of what the king was doing. He had been checking to me since the beginning trying to land a jab here and there, keeping me on my guard. He was finding that this was something he wasn’t having any success with. At last he had decided enough with the finesse stuff, no more dancing around. He had decided to go for what is called “big air” and go for it he did. His goal was to use this threat to scare me, intimidate me, and give him an edge in our conflict. He desperately needed that edge. I desperately needed to not give it to him. Now it was my play. I had to stand up to him. I had to risk my own big move.

  “You sound confident, but I see doubt in your eyes, my king.”

  “Trust me Charlie, there is no doubt.”

  “Then convince me. Give me proof that you are th
at hard person you claim to be.”

  The king laughed softly at me. “I really don’t see how you are in the position to demand anything from me.”

  “Really? You say I join you or you will have me killed, and I call bullshit on that. You want to see who the real king is in this room? I say we stop all of this talking and do this right here, right now. One of us will walk out of here a king. Are you sure that person will be you?”

  “Absolutely sure,” The king said through gritted teeth, but I didn’t think he believed that anymore. I don’t think he expected his move to fail. I think he was under the assumption that without Amanda to back me up, I would simply fold. I bet he got this idea from Randy. I would have to thank him later.

  “Then prove it to me, your highness. Tell me a story.”

  As I said this I sat back down in the chair. I wasn’t sure when I had stood up, but the king was now standing as well. I had an idea that things had been close to coming to blows.

  He stood there looking at me for a bit longer, but I refused to turn from his gaze. He was not breaking me. He was not winning. My will was stronger. After what seemed like a year and a half, he smiled and sat down.

  “Fine. You wish to know who I am then I will tell you. You wish to know the story of today? I will tell you. Afterwards we will end this farce and get to the heart of the matter. I will tell this to you so you can truly understand who I am and the situation you are in.”

  “Educate me,” I said.

  “I won’t tell you my name because it no longer matters. All that matters is who I am now. I am a king. But how I got here involves who I was so I will tell you a bit of my past.”

  “I was born with a decided advantage over everybody else. I don’t mean the money or the connections that my family had. My advantage was even greater than wealth and the network of favors that could be called in on my behalf. I was born with what is known as a photographic memory. Read something just one time, hear something just once, and I know it forever. It sat me apart in school, and in life, from nearly everybody else. I lived a very charmed life. I graduated high school at thirteen and every college in the country wanted me. I won’t bore you with the specifics of my degrees. It’s sufficient for the purposes of this story to just let you know they were in business.”

  “I moved away from home and began working in upper management before I was even old enough to drink. At first, people would look at me like I was the freak of the month. I felt like I had to prove myself so my job became my life. I was amazingly successful. I read book after book on ways to improve not only my job performance but the performance of my subordinates. I became the go to guy in the company. If the board was told it couldn’t be done they brought it to me and I found a way to do it on time and under budget. I was a real life super hero. And I was on pace to be a millionaire by my twentythird birthday.”