“Okay,” she breathed out. She was more than willing to give him all the time he needed when even the brush of his mouth turned her blood molten and her legs weak. “Should we go on watch?”
“Probably a good idea,” he said, straightening up and letting his hair fall back down to shadow his face. “See ya later?”
She nodded. “See you later.”
She watched him walk away, a small smile teasing her lips. So, it wasn’t exactly the movie version of a love confession, where he dipped her and kissed her like his life depended on it, but she hadn’t really expected that. This was Jackson, after all.
He was right, he wasn’t typical boyfriend material but she was realizing that she didn’t want typical.
Subject File # 742
Administrator: Tell me about Port Meyer.
Subject: It went better than I ever could have expected.
Administrator: You came back with quite the haul.
Subject: It wasn’t just the supplies we got. What we found there...well, it was just the shot in the arm I needed. That town showed me that the Director’s plans for the future are actually possible.
Port Meyer was a bizarre town.
It was the only word Malcolm could think of to describe the place. The town was different than the other smaller towns they had passed by on the way here.
Their trip over to the mainland had been easy. They had docked at the marina in Auburn and found the SUVs right where they left them. As they headed towards Port Meyer, they’d passed the other towns and each of them had showed signs of destruction and looting. Smashed storefronts, smouldering rubble that had once been houses and corpses in the streets.
And that’s what made Port Meyer so bizarre. The roads were clear of bodies and abandoned cars. The buildings were intact, the stores they passed still standing with their solid windows reflecting the sun.
He had made them stop in front of a convenience store so he could take a look through the window.
All the shelves had been picked clean, which wasn’t exactly a strange sight. What was strange was the fact that the clean out had been methodical. There were no signs of panicked scrambling that would leave non-essentials scattered around the floor and shelves. The place was neat as a pin, the shelves swept clean, and that didn’t sit right with him.
They continued on but Malcolm was on high alert as they closed in on their destination. According to Elaine’s maps, the shopping centre was only ten blocks away and he directed them to pull the SUVs behind a pizza place on the corner. They’d go on foot from here, scout out the area and come back for the SUVs if it was all clear.
As they walked down a treed street with simple split level homes on either side, Malcolm felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. All the homes were picture perfect. Doors and windows all closed, no vehicles in the driveway, no bicycles or toys left on the overgrown lawns. No signs that there had ever been people who had lived in these houses.
When the first black husk appeared down the street, Malcolm found himself relieved and then immediately guilty.
The scent of smoke still drifted on the air from the stretch of homes that had been burned down to their foundations. It might make him an asshole but the sight of those burned out houses made him feel better. It meant that this town was just like all the others they had seen.
The burned out section stretched for three more blocks before the houses that had escaped the fire appeared again. As they turned the corner, Malcolm spotted a familiar orange sign on the horizon.
“Alright, let’s take cover over there,” Malcolm said, pointing towards the house at the end of the street that had a row of hedges blocking their lawn from the street that ran parallel to the mall. It would give them the perfect view of what they were walking into.
The Builder’s Yard was part of a much larger shopping centre, large enough to have its own street named Port Meyer Mall Road that routed traffic off the main road and into the large parking lots around the buildings.
Two large buildings stood on either end of the centre, the Builder’s Yard to the south and Smith Brands Store, to the north. Between the two buildings stretched the mall, the doors that faced the plaza boarded up.
The most surprising sight was the ten foot chain link fence that circled the entire shopping centre. It clearly wasn’t part of the original build and Malcolm called for the group to stop, cautious about what that fence could mean.
Nas took up his binoculars and did a sweep of the buildings. “There are people on the roofs. They’re armed.”
Well, that put a wrench in their plans.
“Should we go somewhere else?” Quinton asked.
Malcolm shook his head. “According to Elaine, the next viable place is fifty miles west. We don’t have the fuel to get us there and back.”
“What about approaching them with the offer of a trade?” Kim suggested.
“Problem with that is the only thing we have of value is our weapons,” Nas said, “And they could just as easily use them to kill us when they have them.”
Nas was right. They should have thought of the possibility that they would need to trade. Maybe if they had brought some food from the island they could have negotiated with these people. Then again, with the way that store had been cleaned out he had a feeling that this group had picked clean everything of use in the town and kept it behind that fence. Add in whatever food was in Smith Brands, they were probably set for a while.
“We should watch them,” Nas said. “Get an idea of how many people are in there, the pattern of their watch shifts. If we find a blind spot, we could sneak in.”
It was a possibility, probably the best they had right now, but Malcolm wasn’t sure it would work. That fence was new and meant it was built by the people inside the shopping centre. That would require a lot of hands to get it up. He had a feeling that the guards on the roof were only a small number of the people in the shopping centre.
“The problem with sneaking in is how do we sneak out with what we need?” Malcolm said, thinking out loud.
“Seems like our only option is to take what we need with force,” Trey said with a frown. “I don’t want to do that.”
The others nodded in agreement.
“Neither do I,” Malcolm told them, “And I don’t want to steal from them either. That’s not who we are.”
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
Malcolm whipped around at the sound of the strange voice. He looked around, his gun at the ready, but found the lawn and street empty.
“Hey, I thought you don’t use force,” came the voice again and Malcolm realized that the person was hiding behind the other side of the house. “You aim your weapons at the ground and we’ll come out.”
“We don’t use force to take but we will to defend ourselves,” Malcolm said. “You come out with your weapons down and we’ll put ours down.”
“Fair enough.”
A rifle appeared around the side of the house, the barrel pointed at the ground and the hand that held it wrapped around the stock. The man that emerged after the rifle looked to be in his forties, his brown hair streaked with grey and thinning at his temples. His skin was ruddy after too many days spent out in the sun but it made his green eyes stand out. He was dressed in a camo pants and Budweiser t-shirt. If Malcolm had been asked to describe a person that embodied salt of the earth, it would be this man.
“Name’s Darren Moore,” the man introduced himself and then nodded his head back towards the side of the house. “That’s my son Jed.”
Another rifle appeared around the side of the house, followed by a teen boy who was the spitting image of his father. His brown hair was longer and thicker but he had the same green eyes and freckles that covered his face.
“Malcolm Evans,” he told them. “That’s Kim and Trey Hastings, Nas Haddad, Quinton Alpert, Adam Banks and Marisol Mendez.”
“Nice to meet you all,” Darren said. “Welcome to Port Meyer.”
�
�So you guys are set up at the shopping centre?” Malcolm asked. “Looks like you’ve done well for yourselves.”
“We have. Now, I know you guys aren’t from around here and having listened to your conversation, I know you came here to get something from these stores. What are you looking for?”
“Building supplies,” Malcolm told him. “We have a camp and we want to make it safe like you did with that fence there.”
Darren nodded. “Smart thinking. You talked about making a trade. Now, we are set for weapons so they aren’t worth much to us. What else do you have to offer?”
Malcolm looked around at his group, trying to figure out what exactly they could bring to the table. It was clear with the way Darren and his son had snuck up on them that his and Nas’s experience in covert ops wouldn’t be a tempting offer. It would be pointless to offer their vehicles. Without them there was no way to get any supplies back to the island.
“I notice you got a wound on your arm,” Quinton said and Darren glanced down at his left forearm where a bandage was taped over it. “Even from this distance I can see that the skin around the bandage is red. That means it is infected. Did you not clean it properly?”
“Cleaned it just fine,” Darren said. “I’m on antibiotics too. It’s just that the stitches aren’t the best. Had to use sewing thread.”
“You might as well have cleaned it with raw sewage if you were going to use thread to stitch it up,” Quinton said, his mouth twisted in disgust.
“Well, you gotta work with what you have. Ain’t like we’ve can go see the doctor anymore,” Darren replied a bit defensively.
Quinton smiled. “Good thing I’m here then. I’ve got proper sutures in our first aid kit. I can fix you up. What antibiotics are you taking?”
Darren looked a bit perplexed. “Not sure. We’ve got a pharmacy in the centre. One of our people used to work at it so she gives out the meds.”
“She the one who stitched you up?” Quinton asked.
“No, that would be Mrs. Doyle,” Darren said with a tiny smile. “She was a lifelong quilter and good with a needle.”
“So I’m guessing if you’ve got a quilter and a pharmacy tech in charge of your medical care, there might be some others in your group that need a doctor,” Quinton said. “Today is your lucky day then because you’ve got one right here. You want to trade? You give us the construction supplies we need and I will treat all your people.”
Darren rubbed a hand over his chin as he considered the offer.
“Now, that sounds like a deal we could work with. Only problem is we don’t let strangers in. We learned that the hard way. What we can do is bring people here. You set up shop in the MacGregor’s living room and we’ll bring them to you.”
“And how do we get what we need?” Nas asked.
“You give us a list and I’ll have it brought out to you,” Darren said. “After I go tell my people what’s happening, we can go back and bring your vehicles here.”
Malcolm realized that these two had been following them every step of the way here. They were very good at tracking and staying silent and admiration sparked inside Malcolm for Darren. He also felt some trust for the man. They could have gunned them down at any point but instead they had stayed back to observe. They didn’t want this to turn violent either.
Still, he didn’t trust the man completely. There had been too many mistakes in the past for Malcolm to let his guard down completely.
“Sounds fair but I’d be more comfortable if you stayed here with us while your son goes to relate the plan to your people,” Malcolm said. “While you seem like you are on the up and up, I can’t chance you coming back with a bunch more people to take us out.”
“Smart,” Darren said. “I’d do the same thing in your shoes. Jed, go ahead and tell Martin the plan, then get Annie and Winston to come out first. They need the doctor the most.”
Jed nodded and Nas handed him the list of supplies before he took off towards the shopping centre.
Darren shouldered his rifle. “You ready to stitch me up, Doc?”
Quinton nodded. “Let’s go inside and set up.”
Malcolm led the way into the house with Nas and Trey behind him as they spread out to clear the bungalow. By the time they had swept through the empty house and came back to the living room, Quinton had already taken out a suture kit and was filling a syringe with Lidocaine.
“Lucky for you, Darren, you won’t feel a thing this go around,” Quinton was saying as he prepped the syringe. “I’m betting it hurt like a bitch the first go around.”
“Near about passed out,” Darren replied, flinching slightly when Quinton stuck him with the needle.
“When we’re done here, I’ll leave you guys with the suture kits and Lidocaine in case it happens again,” Quinton said as he grabbed up a bottle of alcohol and poured some onto a sterile piece of gauze.
Darren hissed as Quinton began to clean the wound, gritting his teeth together.
“Sorry, but I have to make sure it’s flushed clean before I sew it up,” Quinton said. “The Lidocaine will numb it soon enough.”
“Alright, someone distract me ‘til it kicks in,” Darren said. “You got Kentucky plates on your cars, that where you guys came from?”
Malcolm nodded, figuring he could tell half the story without revealing too much. “Things got bad there. We got jumped, they took almost everything we had. We ran from there, just started heading north. Figured we could find somewhere safe up here.”
Darren laughed at that and it ended in a hiss when Quinton poured some more alcohol on his wound. “There’s nowhere left that’s safe. What you’ve gotta do is find a place to stake your claim and then make it safe.”
“True enough,” Malcolm said. “We’re looking at putting in a watchtower at our camp.”
“Where you guys camped out?” Darren asked and Malcolm hesitated. “Come on, it’s only fair. You know where we are camped out.”
He was right. They were in a tenuous position of building trust and sharing information would help that endeavour. Still, he was going to be careful exactly how much he told him.
“Down in Auburn,” he replied. “A marina there. Figured best to have the water at our backs.”
“Smart,” Darren said, eyeing Quinton as he took up the suture needle. He took a deep breath just before Quinton pierced his skin, letting it out in a long rush. “You’re right, Doc, not as bad as the first time.”
“So what happened here in town?” Malcolm asked. “Seems like it’s pretty much cleared out.”
“The infected did that. Once it showed up, most people ran. Those of us who stayed moved into the mall and built the fence. It was the easiest way to protect ourselves from the infected and people looking to take what we have.”
“Has that happened?” Quinton asked.
“A couple times. We’ve also met a couple groups who were like you guys, willing to trade. Got ourselves some chickens from a group that came in from a farm looking for medicine. Fresh vegetables from another group who needed ammunition. Now we’ve got ourselves a doctor for lumber.”
The sound of a motor drifted in from the street and Malcolm moved to the window to see two quad bikes pull into the driveway. Jed sat on one, a young woman behind him, and an old man sat on the other one. “Jed is back with a young brunette and an old man.”
“Annie and Winston,” Darren replied. “Annie is four months pregnant. Poor thing has been puking almost every morning this month. Winston’s got high blood pressure. He takes pills for it but he says he’s been feeling a bit off lately.”
Jed led Annie and Winston inside the house, the two newcomers looking around cautiously. Darren gestured for them to come into the living room. “Annie, Winston, this Dr. Alpert. He’s going to look you over, okay?”
“Nice to meet you,” Winston said. “Martin and Scott are gathering the supplies on the list for you. Sarah is going to bring the children out as soon as Annie and I go back.”
; “Good,” Darren replied. “Jed, you stay here with them while Malcolm and I go get their vehicles. If that’s alright with you?”
Though Malcolm knew that there was the possibility that Darren could have others waiting out there to get the jump on him, he figured if that was his intention, he wouldn’t leave six of Malcolm’s own group here to face off against Jed, an old man and a pregnant girl.
This would be the real moment of trust between them and Malcolm was willing to take that step.
It wasn’t just about getting the supplies. He needed to know that there were good people trying to build something in this world. The island had been about keeping civilization alive but it was pointless if it was only going to be their small group on that tiny spit of land.
They couldn’t do it all on their own. He needed to trust this man and hopefully he’d be proven right for doing so.
“Let’s go.”
Subject File # 749
Subject: Has Jenny seemed okay to you in her sessions?
Administrator: I can’t break patient confidentiality.
Subject: Sorry, I don’t expect you to, I’m just worried about her. I know what it’s like to be a widowed mother. I know that we’re all here to support her but I worry it won’t be enough.
Janet stood next to the garden, admiring the progress that they had made on their little patch of earth. The seeds they had planted were already bursting through the dirt and the sprouts that they had planted were already growing into sturdy plants. With all their planting done, their time in the garden had been taken up with weeding and watering the plants.
The kids had been valuable in both tasks, enjoying the chance to dig in the dirt and then playing in the water and mud. Janet was pretty sure that half of their enthusiasm came from knowing that once they were covered in mud from the garden, she would take them to swim in the lake to get cleaned up.
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