by Gillian Zane
A large group of soldiers and troopers were congregating in the main area. I spotted Romeo and walked over to him.
“What’s going on?”
“The radios are working. They got the tower up last night and the solar is working now. It was nothing but static all today, but they heard something.”
“Come back, this is the 199th, out of New Orleans,” a soldier sat at the com system and spoke into the microphone.
“199th, holy shit, I mean, come in 199th,” a tinny voice said over the radio.
“199th here, identify yourself,” the soldier said.
“199th, this is Fort Polk, glad to hear you’re back in the game.”
The entire room erupted in cheers and laughter. People were hugging each other, and a few of the tough guys and girls were caught wiping at their cheeks, embarrassed.
First contact.
There was no going back to bed after that. I knew I would only toss and turn. I was worried about Rebel. I was worried about him being exiled. And now if he was, he would be out there with that sociopath. Exile was certain death. I couldn’t think about that.
It was close to six in the morning, so it wasn’t that tough to stay awake. Reid’s trial would start in a few hours. Everyone around me was buzzed with excitement about making contact with the large base in Central Louisiana. Conversation continued between our base and Fort Polk, mostly logistics. They wanted to know what kind of operation we were running.
Fort Polk was now a hub for the Gulf South and housed two senators from Texas and the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, who was now technically the governor since the Governor hadn’t been heard from since it all went down. Polk was also in contact with the Capitol, which was now in rural Texas, since the president, who was still alive, had been on a visit down there when shit hit the fan.
We learned all this in five minutes. Our world expanded and became a national landscape again.
I sat there and listened to it for as long as I could. It was surreal. A President of the United States? A governor? Those terms seemed so outdated, so vintage. I couldn’t process them. It was only a word. I wouldn’t believe it until I could see it. Until I could walk out from behind high walls and feel safe.
I didn’t think that was anytime soon. I noticed the guard from Reid’s door had joined the madness, so I slowly slipped away. Romeo noticed where I was going and shook his head, but smiled. He too had heard the rumors, obviously.
I slipped into Reid’s room and onto his cot. He didn’t flinch as I gently woke him.
“Is this a dream?” he mumbled, but he was too aware of me to be asleep, the faker. He was also too ready as his body covered mine. His mouth trailed a lazy pattern down my neck.
I sighed with contentment as I felt his hand at my waistband.
“Yes,” I moaned.
SIXTY-FOUR | It's All Over Now
She slipped out right before it was time for my trial. Hopefully no one noticed her. She said she would be fine, no one was paying attention to this room. Something about the radio working now and getting in contact with a base up in Central Louisiana.
I got dressed and sat on the edge of my cot to wait it out. It was only a few minutes before there was a knock on my door and Graf came to collect me.
“I’m not going to restrain you, don’t make me regret it,” he said gruffly. I didn’t deign to answer him. I had been nothing but compliant this entire time, his stupid words were only said to reinforce his dominance.
He led me downstairs and across the open yard. The day was warm, truly warm, not a chill in the air at all. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue and I could go without a jacket and only do shirtsleeves. It felt like it was over seventy degrees. It was one of those days when before the world went to hell, I would have gotten on my bike and driven out of the city just to get on the road and feel the warm air on my skin.
I looked up at the sun and blinked from the brightness. My gaze was drawn to the corner of the lot where a few of the biters pushed against the fence.
“You better take care of that,” I said. “They build up, they’ll push the fence down.”
The fence wobbled under their onslaught. It wasn’t reinforced, they needed to do something about that too.
“You need to worry about your own stuff,” Graf responded and led me to the far building that used to be a drug store.
The room was nowhere near as packed as it was for Junior’s trial. Hannah was in the front row next to a stoic Alexis and the guy people called Romeo. Felicity was in the second row, sitting with a woman I assumed was her mother. They looked similar. Her hair was still shorn tight to her head and I regretted doing that to her, since it wasn’t necessary. Bad timing as usual.
Jazz was back and a few other women, including one I recognized. I winced, she wouldn’t have anything good to say about me. I remembered what she had gone through and it wasn’t pretty.
I was seated as the guest of honor and the judges filed in.
“Reid Gauthier, street name Rebel, you’ve been charged as an accessory to a human trafficking ring, accessory to rape, accessory to murder and assisting known traitors to the United States of America,” Poche said.
They were getting more formal now that they had made contact with the chain of command.
“Your actions will be judged by this panel. Once a verdict is given, we will sentence you immediately. Do you understand this?”
I nodded. Yup. Got it.
“We are asking for anyone in the crowd to stand up and speak for the accused.”
It didn’t take long. A woman in the back stood up. I recognized her as being the woman Eagle had claimed.
“I’m Sarah Lake, I was considered Eagle’s property. Rebel escorted me to Eagle who was organizing the stores, or something. They didn’t tell us anything, so I don’t know what he was doing, really. The only thing I knew was that he liked to rape me. Eagle, not Rebel,” she stuttered and I felt terrible for her. I knew what Eagle was capable of.
“But, Rebel,” she went on, “He took me off base and brought me to one of the houses, because Eagle requested me. He could have let me go, but he delivered me to that sadistic bastard. I asked him to let me go, but he didn’t.” She sat back down gruffly and I frowned at her statement.
I had done that. Guilty. No excuse.
Felicity’s mother stood up. I braced for impact.
“I’m Vivian Barrow, this is my niece, Felicity Barrow,” she motioned for Felicity to stand up and ran a hand over the girl’s shaved head. “She’s only fourteen. We were reunited after you took over the base and I was shocked to see her dressed like a boy with her head shaved. When I asked her what had happened, she told me Rebel made her do it. My first thought was that he was some kind of pedophile and liked little boys or something.”
Ouch. I shook my head, I didn’t like where this was going. I was screwed. Fucked.
“But she told me the story, about how a man had come in and gave her too much attention. Rebel had told her this was a bad place to be pretty and he had made some of the boys shave her head and give her boy clothes to wear. This isn’t a world for pretty girls, was what she said. He saved my niece from my fate. I will be forever grateful to him.”
I had been sitting forward in my chair and I sat back with a whoosh of air. Stunned.
The aunt sat back down and the woman I was worried about stood up. This was all going so fast. I wanted it to slow down, to delay the inevitable. I looked over at Hannah, our eyes met. She stared at me, nothing but compassion and feeling in her eyes. Our gazes remained locked. And suddenly the stress of this ordeal faded from me. If she could look at me this way, everything would be okay.
“I’m Tina, I testified at Eagle’s trial. I was his property too, Eagle’s, not Rebel’s. Rebel was actually the one that brought me in, to the base.” Everyone kind of gasped as one. It was what I was afraid of. Not an accessory. Talk about regret.
“It was before the Brandons had killed the National Guard
sman, I thought it was a good thing. I thought I was saved. I don’t know if Rebel knew about what was going to happen. I can’t tell you that. He told me I would be safe. I doubt Rebel knew what the bikers planned, though. Eagle always joked about Rebel, how he was – well, he liked to call him names a lot. I never blamed Rebel. I just wanted to say that, I never blamed him. He said it was safe and it was. I would have died out there alone. I lived. I’m alive. It was rough going at first, but I’m alive and that is all that matters.”
She sat down and a girl next to her hugged her. I was in shock. I broke my gaze with Hannah and looked over at the woman who had given me too much credit. Sure, I hadn’t known Senior would start forcing the women to have sex, but I should have. I should have known what they planned. I was one of them. But she had spoken for me. I suddenly felt lighter. I had a chance.
I was still in shock when Melinda stood up.
“My name is Melinda Lemoine. I was at this base from the very beginning. I don’t even know what it’s like out there. But, I know what it’s like in here. I know that to pay for a night with a girl, the bikers used to accumulate food credits. This was earned by doing certain undesirable chores, or going on food runs and bringing back supplies. One of the biggest ways to earn food creds was by being a scout or lookout. Rebel was both, he had a lot of food creds. When he wasn’t on lookout, he liked to use his food creds on me.” Again, a gasp from the crowd. But I knew what was coming. Melinda wouldn’t let me down.
“He had a sleeping bag in his cubby and he let me sleep on his cot, while he slept on the floor. He never touched me, he hardly even talked to me. Said he didn’t want to make me feel obligated to like him,” she laughed. “He saved me because Spider had voiced his interest in me. That was all it took, and most of my nights were spent with him in relative safety. All because of one comment from that sadist. I owe my sanity to Rebel.” She sat down, but then stood up abruptly. “And yes, when he was sick with the flu, I wanted to sneak him out of this place. He doesn’t deserve to be tried like the rest of these animals. He’s a good person. If you want to look at me like I’m guilty too, so be it. You’ve got the wrong man up there.”
Everyone sat in stunned silence, even me. I looked around at the crowd and everyone was regarding Melinda with respect, not suspicion.
No one stood up after that and everyone looked at each other. They were probably thinking, was this it? Nothing juicy. Nothing worth getting worked up about. Would they give a judgment now? Was I guilty? Poche went to get to his feet when the screech of a chair on the linoleum had my head shooting up.
It was Hannah.
“Hey.” She gave a wave of her hand. “Hannah Klink, street name Baby,” she smirked and Alexis barked out a laugh. “Y’all might remember me, I was the one that helped you get this base back from the evil bikers.” That smirk again.
“I was the one that brought Rebel in. He was protecting the children when I found him and he came in without a fight, he even wanted to help when he found out we were with the military.” She put her hands on her hips and glared at the judges.
“I was also the one that risked life and limb, with Rebel, lost a good friend, almost died, all to get you power. I might add that when we lost Murphey, Rebel was right there. He saved my life. Got me to safety and made sure we still finished the mission. Then he came back here and taught y’all how to install the equipment. To bring electricity to this place. Without him, you wouldn’t have gotten in contact with Fort Polk. Oh, and then you stuck him in a cell and then put him on trial for human trafficking. Does that about cover it?”
The judges were staring at her like she was insane. I could have gotten up right there and kissed her. She was amazing.
“And yeah– one more thing. I’m pretty sure I’m in love with him, so if you exile him, or worse– consider me gone too.”
SIXTY-FIVE | More Conviction
My speech worked. They didn’t spend thirty-seconds locked away behind closed doors before they came back and said simply, “Not guilty.” It was Zach who announced it and he smiled at me as he said it.
“I’m pretty sure we would have voted not guilty without you shaming us,” Zach said as he patted Rebel on the back as if they were old friends. I glared at him.
“Then why the charade?” I asked.
“It wasn’t a charade. We said before we knew about Rebel that we would try all of the Southern Clan members. If we went back on it for any reason, others could get out of it for this reason or that. We didn’t want to give any reason for someone to call into question our judgment. We plan on doing things like this from now on. If we go back on our word in the first pursuit of justice, what precedent would that set?” He said it earnestly. And he was right.
“We also would like to invite you to join our group,” Blake added as he walked up to us. “We could use someone with your talents and well, Baby, she’s indispensable,” he laughed.
“Where she goes, I go,” Rebel said and he caught my eye. “Just, are we leaving anytime soon?”
“No, we still have a few more trials and then we’ll head back,” Blake said.
“Good, so I can go back to my cell?”
“You – you’re free to do whatever you want, Rebel,” Blake said confused. “Why would you want to go back to your cell?”
“It’s got four walls and a door, better than anything y’all got.” He looked at me and winked. I shook my head and smiled.
“Yeah,” Blake laughed and looked at Zach like they could relate. “It’s all yours.”
“Thanks,” Rebel said as he dragged me away.
“So, you think you love me?” he asked when we got to the stairs. He hadn’t let go of my hand.
“Something like that,” I replied.
“Not a very assertive statement. You would think if you were going to declare your love for someone in front of a crowd of people, you would do it with a little more conviction.” He turned to me as we got to the second floor, a smile on his face.
“I didn’t want to scare you off,” I smiled back.
“Nothing you can do will scare me off, Hannah Klink, street name, Baby. I’ve been in love with you since you told me to put my hands up and called me a fuck face.” He pulled me to him and brought me to my knees with one of those leg-shaker kisses.
I came up for air and realized we were in the middle of the lobby which was being used as the communication room. Everyone was staring.
“Now, you have to admit, that’s how you do it,” he chuckled, grabbed my hand and pulled me into his cell.
Gillian Zane
Gillian Zane is the author of the NOLA Zombie series. Zane is the pen name of a prominent blogger in the publishing industry, which will remain a mystery unless you Google it. Since she can remember her goal has been to become Master of the Universe and has decided to focus first on the literary world. Things are progressing nicely.
Zane has been a freelance writer for the last ten years and has published a few non-fiction works, none of which was very exciting. Zombies are much more exciting and a way for her to combine her two current obsessions, hot boys with guns and Doomsday Prepping. When she isn't stockpiling MREs (Meal's Ready to Eat) or researching how to build a cistern on a budget, she's taking care of her little family and exploring the city that she loves, New Orleans.
Get Insider Information & Alerts! Join Gillian’s Mailing List
Follow Gillian on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/GillianZane
Stalk Gillian on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorGillianZane
