by Poe, S. B.
“Yeah.”
“I think I have a better one now.” He smiled.
Bridger had sat in the corner watching after helping Charlie to his hut. Jennifer had sat down on the bed and softly sang for her father. Bridger eyes drifted. He felt himself dozing off. The room grew quiet except for the soft sound of Jennifer’s song. His eyes closed. He felt himself drift away. He bolted upright in the chair. The sun was gone. It was the dead of night. His eyes started darting around the room. They had not adjusted to the dark yet and he couldn’t wait. He reached down and toggled the flashlight on his rifle and brought it up. It landed on Charlie’s face. He smiled.
“How you feeling Charlie?” Bridger asked.
“Surprisingly good. She fell asleep right after you did. I can’t sleep. Or maybe I can and I just don’t want to.” Charlie said.
“Why not? You need to rest.” Bridger said.
Charlie laughed out loud. He waved his hand at Bridger.
“Not laughing at you. I just thought about that old “I’ll get all the rest I need when I’m dead” trope of tough guys and druggies. Except now I kinda get it. I don’t want to miss anything. It’s weird. My whole life I seemed to be waiting for it to get started. Even when we had Jennifer I still felt like I was waiting on the starters pistol to let me know when to go. I thought there would be some magical moment when I would hear a bell telling me ‘Ok, now pay attention to the things around you because this is why you’re here.’ Then her mother died and I started trying to listen for the bell telling me it was time to get off this ride. Now I just want to watch her. I don’t want to leave her. Will you promise me something?” Charlie asked.
“What’s that?” Bridger asked.
“Promise me, when I’m gone, y’all will look after her.” Charlie said.
“Of course.” Bridger said.
Charlie smiled and leaned his head back against the wall. He closed his eyes. Bridger kept his open.
When the sun broke above the horizon, the light filtering through the trees glanced sharply off of the metal roof of the saloon and directly into Evelyn’s eyes as she made her way across the compound. She passed the saloon without stopping and walked down to the next to last shack on the left. She knocked on the door. Bridger opened it up.
“So how is he?” Evelyn asked.
“See for yourself.” Bridger said as he stepped aside.
Evelyn didn’t know what to expect. She had seen them put JW into the back of the SUV and he was in pretty bad shape. That was only a few hours after he had been bitten. Besides Bridger, only Kate and her boys had seen him right at the end. She had not expected to see what she saw now.
Charlie was sitting up with his feet off the cot. Jennifer was sitting in the chair next to him. They were laughing.
“Oh hey Evelyn.” Charlie said.
“Hey Charlie, how you doing?” Evelyn asked.
“Well, I get another morning with my daughter. That’s pretty good.” Charlie said.
“It sure is.” Evelyn said. She turned and quizzically looked at Bridger. He just shrugged. They both stepped outside.
“I don’t get it.” Evelyn started.
“I don’t either. Maybe it just takes longer with some folks.” Bridger said.
“Well, at least they get a little more time together.” Evelyn said.
“Yeah, this is going to be hard on her.” Bridger said.
“Especially since the only other person she knows is gone too.” Evelyn said.
“Yeah, he told me about her mother.” Bridger said.
“I was talking about Lori.” Evelyn said. “What happened to her mother?”
“He said she died. Before all this.”
“That sucks.” Evelyn said.
“Yep. Listen if you could go and get Raj I would appreciate it. He can stay with him for a little while and check him over.” Bridger said.
“What are you going to do?” Evelyn asked.
“Just get a little rest.” Bridger said.
Evelyn walked back towards the other end of the compound and saw Raj and Tilly coming out of their building. She broke into a jog and caught up with them.
“Morning y’all two.” Evelyn said.
“Good morning Evelyn. What is the hurry?” Raj asked.
“It’s Charlie.” Evelyn said. Raj and Tilly’s eyes grew wide.
“No, no. Not that. He seems fine. That’s why I came to get you. Bridger would like for you to come sit with Charlie for a bit and check him over.” Evelyn said.
“Sure. Let’s go.” Raj said. He and Tilly turned with Evelyn and walked back towards Charlie’s.
Raj ducked inside the saloon briefly to retrieve the first aid kit. He met them back outside and they went to Charlie’s. Evelyn walked up to the door and knocked. Jennifer opened it. Bridger nodded at them as they came through the door and stood. He gathered his jacket off the back of the chair.
“Charlie, I’ll see you later. Ok?” Bridger said.
“Oh yeah, but no hurry.” Charlie said. He smiled at the others in the room, proud of his gallows humor.
Tilly took the chair Bridger had been sitting in. Raj sat down on the bed next to Charlie. Jennifer sat back down in her chair. Evelyn walked out the door with Bridger. Bridger glanced at Tilly and gave her the ‘You know what to do if you have to’ look. Tilly nodded at him.
“So Charlie, how are you feeling?” Bridger heard Raj start as he closed the door behind him.
Bridger started walking towards the other end of the compound. Evelyn fell in with him as he walked by his own shack.
“I thought you were going to get some rest.” Evelyn asked.
“I am. I just want to make a quick walk around the outside to make sure we don’t have any more of these things lurking.” Bridger said.
“I’ll go with you.” Evelyn said.
Bridger looked at her and began to object. He had not known Evelyn Collins for long but he knew her long enough to know that it wasn’t really up for debate. He smiled at her. They approached the gate and Bridger looked back over his shoulder at the top of the saloon. He waved. Ed waved back. They stepped out of the compound. Bridger walked back down the road to where they had been cutting the trees down. He retrieved the axes they had dropped.
They turned and walked back to where they met Charlie in the road and Bridger went into the woods the way Charlie had come from. Evelyn followed. He navigated a few yards before he could see a flash of color through the trees. He went to it and lying on the ground was the deadun. It was a young girl. Or had been. He knelt down beside it and looked at the wound in the side of its head where Charlie’s knife had found home. He reached down and rolled the body over. Finally he took his knife and slowly plunged it into the things belly. He drew it out and smelled the blackness oozing down tip. He winced. He wiped the blade on the things dress before sheathing it. He stood and wiped his hands on his pants.
“So, you find what you’re looking for?” Evelyn asked.
“I guess.” Bridger said. “Let’s go.”
They walked for a few more minutes and Bridger made a cursory attempt to act like he was doing what he told her he was doing but Evelyn wasn’t buying it.
“You know, we can just go back inside. You don’t have to pretend like the only reason you came out here wasn’t to check on that deadun.” Evelyn said.
“I just, I don’t know, wanted to make sure.” Bridger said.
“Make sure of what?” Evelyn asked.
“I don’t know, make sure he was bit by..”
“Bit by what? A deadun? Did you think he got bit by someone out for a walk in the woods?” Evelyn asked.
“I don’t know. I mean he hasn’t turned yet and I was hoping maybe it was some mistake. That he really wasn’t infected. That he was going to live. We’ve just had so much dying. I was hoping… I don’t know” Bridger said.
“But he is infected. And he is going to die. I think we know that.” Evelyn said.
“Yeah.” Bridger
said.
They walked back into the compound and Bridger went to his shack to get a few minutes rest. Evelyn went into the saloon where she found Kate, Scott and Dottie sitting at one of the tables.
“This seat taken?” Evelyn asked as she sat down.
“How’s he doing?” Kate asked.
“ Oh, he’ll be fine after he gets some rest.” Evelyn said.
“Charlie will be fine?” Kate asked surprised.
“Oh. I thought you meant Bridger. Sorry. But actually when we left Charlie an hour or so ago he was in good spirits and looked pretty good too.” Evelyn said.
“But it’s been almost a day now. How is that possible?” Kate asked.
“I don’t know. But like Charlie himself said the other day, ‘we don’t know shit about these things’ ” Evelyn said.
6
Footprints
Josh stood in the garage and looked inside his jeep. Lying in the back seat floorboard was a box of ammunition that his father had given him. Josh had forgot to put it in his backpack. He held the box in his hand and thought about that day. He had seen his father’s reaction to the images on Scott’s computer. He remembered thinking about the fear in his eyes. He remembered thinking his father was overreacting. He remembered thinking a lot of things. And how wrong he had been. Now he knew that the fear in his father’s eyes wasn’t misplaced, it was honest. He should have known it. He had never seen his father afraid of anything. Not really. He could feel his cheeks getting wet. He missed him so much now.
“Whatcha got there?” Martin said as he walked through the door from the kitchen.
“Oh just a box of ammo. I dropped it here by mistake when we left.” Josh said as he hurriedly wiped his eyes.
“The others are in. They think somewhere away from everything is a good move. Are you sure we can get there?” Martin said.
Here it was. The chips were on the table. Josh knew that his answer would determine what the next move was. Just a few months ago he would have haphazardly answered and moved on. Maybe it was the fact he was just lost in memory of his father or maybe he had grown up just a little, but whatever it was he measured his words. Probably for the first time in his life.
“I know the way. I know what it was like when Lori and I came back here. But I have no idea what the road is like now. I don’t know why it would be worse than before but I can’t make any guarantees.” Josh said.
Martin nodded at him. For the last hour or so he had been talking with Jahda and Devin about doing this. At the end they all agreed.
“Ok. I think we should go. We can spend the rest of today rummaging around the neighborhood for supplies. I would hate to show up empty handed.” Martin said chuckling.
An hour or so later Jahda, Devin and Josh stepped through the front door. Martin closed it behind them. They climbed into the truck. Josh turned to Devin.
“So we slow roll all the way out and see what follows?” Josh asked.
“Yeah, like we talked about. Just see what shows up. We can work our way back.” Devin said.
“So I should use the horn?” Josh said smiling and raising his eyebrows mockingly.
“If you do I will shoot you myself.” Jahda said. Devin laughed.
He put the truck in gear and they climbed the hill crossing over into the neighborhood. The day started out warmer than the day before but the clouds began rolling in as they slowly made their way through the neighborhood. They watched the road in front of them and Josh would check the mirrors to see if anything crossed behind.
“There’s one.” Jahda said.
She pointed at a stringer walking across the lawn just ahead of them to the left. They stopped and watched. It acted odd. Its gait was stilted and stiff. It was looking straight down and each step seemed increasingly harder than the last.
“Looks like an old Frankenstein movie.” Josh said.
“Looks more like the Wizard of Oz tin man before he got his oil.” Jahda said.
They slowly rolled on. They made it all the way to the end and slowly turned around. They started back through the neighborhood. When they got to Charlie and Jennifer’s house they stopped.
“We’re starting here?” Devin said.
“Yeah. The folks who lived here don’t live here any more. You’ll meet them when we get where we’re going. We can see what they left.” Josh said.
“Works for me.” Devin said. They climbed out of the truck. Josh took the keys and put them in his pocket.
They walked down the driveway and across the yard. Devin and Jahda both stopped to notice the lumps in the yard. What had once been infected corpses were now just disorganized piles of bones wrapped in strands of rotted ligaments and tattered clothing. A large black spot of decay marked the ground around it.
“Lori was in here?” Devin asked.
“Yeah, her and a few others. It was a pretty intense day.” Josh said.
“Looks like it.” Jahda said as they stepped over the last few piles.
The front door was standing open and Josh tried to remember if it was open the last time he was here. He couldn’t. Jahda stepped in front of him and tapped her machete against the open door. They waited. She tapped again. No sound came from within the house. They stepped inside. They found a little bit of food but Josh spent his time looking through the closets gathering clothes and blankets.
“We’ll need this I think. Not sure what they found at the compound but most of the stuff we brought with us was lost in the fire at our first campsite.” Josh said.
“I’ll help” Devin said and they loaded up all they could find in the back of the truck.
They moved down the street going from one house to the next. They only encountered two other stringers. One was trapped between a bookcase and a wall and the other had fallen into an empty swimming pool and couldn’t get out. Devin took care of the one behind the bookcase. They left the one in the pool.
They came from between the houses and started walking back to the truck. Jahda looked towards the street and stopped.
They ducked down behind an abandoned car. They watched as a woman slowly made her way across the lawn and towards the street. She would take a few steps and stop. Ever so slightly she would tilt her head one way and then another before moving on. She repeated the process a few times until she reached the sidewalk. They watched as she reached up and opened the mailbox. She retrieved a package.
“Hey.” Devin stood and called out.
The woman turned to the sound of his voice and froze. Then she hurriedly ran back the way she came. She turned in the doorway of the house, looked at them and slammed the door shut.
“What the hell?” Devin asked as he started towards the house. Jahda reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Leave her. Just leave her. It doesn’t matter. Let’s go home.” Jahda said.
They walked back to the truck. The bed was almost full. Mainly clothes and blankets but they found a lot of food too. Devin had found several walkie-talkies and a pair of binoculars from one house and Jahda found several more handguns in some of the cars parked in driveways. They siphoned gas from them into two metal gas cans they found in a backyard shed. They also found three axes, two hatchets and a half dozen machetes. It had been a good haul.
Back in the cul-de-sac Martin, Ham and Lori stood in front of the house next door. It once belonged to the Menendez’s but they never came home. Lori looked in through the window. She could see into the living room and partially into the kitchen. She tapped on the glass and waited. After a few minutes she repeated the process a little louder.
“I don’t see anything.” She said as she stepped away.
“Ok.” Martin said as he put the crowbar against the doorframe.
He wedged it into the space between the striker and the latch. As he pried against the door the sound of splintering wood filled their ears. Lori briefly looked back inside the window. Nothing moved. Ham watched the road behind them. Nothing moved there either except for the leaves. The door final
ly gave up the fight and swung open. They stepped inside.
The air was stale. The house had been untouched for months and their movement stirred the settled dust. Martin closed the door behind them and grabbed a chair from the dining room to prop against it. They made their way into the kitchen. Ham looked at the pictures adorning the hallway wall. She stopped in front of one showing an older couple, a younger couple and two children. They were all wearing mouse ears in front of a big castle.
“I went there once. When I was little. Didn’t I Papi?” Ham said as she looked at the picture. “I like the duck more.”
Lori smiled down at her. She had always liked the duck too.
“Yep. We went for your fifth birthday. That was fun because you were too little to ride most of the rides. And I was too old.” He smiled at her. “But we did get to meet some princesses and one duck.”
“They weren’t real princesses.” Ham said looking at Lori. “But they were nice.”
They went through the house and found an almost fully stocked cupboard and lots of clothes. They took it all. Martin found several duffle bags full of gym clothes. He tossed those out and filled the bags with food. He went into the garage and found several rolls of duct tape and a toolbox. Lori found the storage closet in the spare bedroom and took several boxes of batteries and candles. Martin stepped back outside and pulled the garden cart they found outside of Evelyn’s house into the living room. They stacked the duffle bags on top. They had already been inside the other houses. They were empty. They rolled the cart inside Josh’s house. They loaded all the duffle bags into the back of the jeep in the garage.
“Now what?” Ham asked.
“We wait for them to get back. Once they are here, we eat and try and get some sleep. We’ll leave first thing in the morning.” Martin said.
“Can we eat now?” Ham asked. “We found lots of food.”
“That food probably has to last us a while.” Martin said. “But I don’t see the harm in a little snack.” He reached into the back of the jeep and retrieved box.
“I found these. They supposedly last forever.” He said as he handed each of them a Twinkie.