The Deadfall

by Lilly Black

  June had been taught that it was an egregious sin that could buy her an eternity of damnation, but she wanted to have sex with Jobe because through their conversations, she had become convinced that he would be the lover she had always longed for. She wanted desperately to know what her friends loved so much about sex. What she didn't want was to have to deal with the guilt that would accompany it, and despite what she told Alek, she had many times hinted to Jobe that perhaps it would be best if he just took what he wanted.

  They had had another conversation about it right before it actually happened. No one used the term rape fantasy, but the offer was clearly on the table. It was a sort of unspoken agreement that none of her friends could ever fully understand, but one thing she was sure of was that Jobe thought he had permission.

  "Then why were you screaming?" Dani asked. "That's why Alek and I came into your cabin in the first place."

  "It hurt," she said. "I didn't realize there would be that much difference between one man's privates and the next, but I guess Jobe's is really big."

  "You guess?" Olivia asked, incredulous.

  "I didn't actually see it. He was behind me, and when he put it in, I screamed." Jobe had shushed her and paused for a second, then when he started moving again, she had the same reaction.

  "If it hurt so bad, why didn't you tell him to stop, June?" Dani asked.

  "I didn't think I could," she said, and the looks on her friends' faces showed her that what she had said was as foreign a concept to them as the idea of asking him to stop had been to her. She sincerely believed she had set the wheels in motion and had to endure it until it was over, which she expected would only take a couple of minutes anyway based on her experience with her husband.

  As Olivia and Dani listened, they realized that the situation was not as black and white as it should have been because of June's complete lack of sex education coupled with all of the misinformation she had been fed all of her life. They weren't even sure if they could lay the blame on Jobe because they had made assumptions about June's understanding of the world themselves, not even realizing it could be so different from their own.

  Jobe probably thought the same thing. Perhaps he should have been more considerate. Perhaps he should have asked her if she wanted him to stop when she was screaming, but when he instead chose to put his hand over her mouth to muffle the sound, he may have thought it was part of the bargain. June admitted that she gave him no indication that anything was wrong beyond those initial cries until Dani and Alek burst in.

  "Wait. I'm confused," Dani said. "If he wasn't really raping you, why did you cry for help when we got there?"

  "Because I had to! I didn't want to be a whore. Whores go to..." she paused, the word Hell lodged in her throat until finally, it came out in a shaky whisper, and she completely broke down, sobbing in Dani's arms. As Olivia watched, her pity and anger jockeying for control, she didn't even allow herself to be offended by the fact that June had basically just called all of her friends whores because she was more worried about how Alek was going to cope when he learned that he had beaten Jobe bloody just for having consensual sex. Then there was the mess they were going to have to clean up with the community because they couldn't very well exile or kill Jobe now. Of course before they did anything, they had to find him.

  Leaving Dani to comfort June, Olivia went in search of Alek. She called him on the walkie talkie then went to catch up with him where his group was sweeping the partially constructed vacation cabins in the middle ring. He and Olivia sat down on the porch of one of the cabins so she could tell him what June had done, but his reaction was not what she expected.

  "If you're hurting a woman, you don't cover her mouth to silence her cries," he said. "You stop."

  "I know. I agree, but she didn't tell him to stop. She didn't struggle. She didn't say no. And then she admitted that she only started calling for help when you all came in out of shame."

  "Let's forget about that part for a minute and look at what happened before. You're putting June in your shoes. You need to put yourself in hers. If I just walked up behind you, pushed you over, and stuck my dick in you, what would you do?"

  Come instantly, she thought, but knowing what Alek meant and how seriously he was talking this situation, she forced herself to approach it with that in mind, glad her jacket hid what the thought had done to her nipples.

  "I guess I'd scream and fight," she said.

  "What would June do?" he asked, and she sighed.

  "Okay, I get it. She'd probably just submit, but how can you expect Jobe to know that?"

  "I expect him to know to stop when a woman screams in pain," he said.

  "They didn't want anyone to know what they were doing, so he put his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. Maybe he couldn't tell pleasure from pain."

  Alek shook his head. "I understand that sometimes people falsely report rapes, and I get that June's story sounds exactly like one of those cases - she got caught, regretted it, said it was rape. But are you sure there's not more to this?"

  "Maybe, but as much of an asshole of a human being as Jobe is, we can't hold him responsible for not knowing that June has some seriously convoluted ideas about sex."

  "So, you're comfortable with him being loose in the community? You'd be comfortable with him being around Savannah?" he asked, and she couldn't answer the question. There were plenty of reasons she wouldn't want her daughter around Jobe, but on this particular issue, she just didn't know. Alek was certain he did. "You didn't see him, Olivia. He wasn't just covering her mouth, he had one hand on her back pinning her down."

  "I know what it looked like, but if June hadn't called for help when she saw you, could it also have just looked like rough sex?" she asked.

  "I don't know. I guess," he said, and though she knew it wasn't right, she saw an opportunity to end the conversation. She wanted to ask Jobe some questions before she delved any deeper, so she took the low road.

  "Lots of people like rough sex, Alek," she said, then she smiled. "Like me, for instance."

  He laughed and shook his head. "You don't get to do that, Olivia," he complained.

  "Do what?" she asked, feigning innocence as she noticed a stray corpse wandering toward them from across the field. Alek glanced at it then back at her, staring into her eyes with a smirk.

  "One of these days, woman," he began, leaning in until his lips were so close to her ear she could feel his words as he spoke. "I'm going to fuck you, and no matter how rough you like it, there will be no question that you wanted it because you'll be screaming my praises so fucking loud, every corpse within a hundred miles will be standing outside the gates when I'm finished with you."

  He sat back in his chair and watched the visceral response as her eyes flashed and her cheeks turned rosy. Desperate to escape, when the intruder in the field caught her eye again, she decided to go take care of it lest she drag Alek inside the cabin and break her vows this minute.

  "You're killing me," she said with a smile as she backed away from him then turned and hurried toward the corpse.

  "You're killing me," he whispered sadly as soon as she was out of earshot.

  Alek held his gun aloft, covering Olivia until she safely took the zombie in the field down, and while she stood wiping the rancid blood from her blade, Liana's voice came over her walkie talkie.

  "Hey Olivia, can you meet me at the lower gate when you have a chance?" she asked, trying to sound breezy, but Olivia knew her well enough to realize that it was something serious.

  "Be there in a minute," she said as she stared at the cabin porch, and having heard the conversation on his own walkie, Alek gave her a smile before going inside.

  As Olivia walked down the road toward the main entrance, she radioed for a body removal in the field because they had begun burning them, and the crew put on their homemade hazmat suits and jumped on their four wheelers. Then Olivia arrived at the lower gate and found Liana frantically pacing back and forth.

&nb
sp; "What's the matter?" she asked as she approached, and Liana pointed in the direction of the main road. Olivia couldn't quite see it until she climbed over the gate, but when it came into view, it stopped her in her tracks. Liana's team had found Jobe. He had been crucified, and now he was reanimated.

  He thrashed and jerked, his hands and feet nailed to a pair of trees, one stripped of its branches though still rooted to the ground, and the other cut down and tied with rope to form a cross. There was a cropped branch beneath his crotch, holding him aloft so the nails didn't rip through from his weight, and the sign around his neck said one word: Adulterer.

  "Take him out," Olivia commanded with a look of disgust on her face, and one of Liana's men raised his weapon and put a bullet in Jobe's brain. His body slumped over.

  "I think it's fairly obvious who did this," Liana hissed.

  "Jimbo," Olivia sighed. "Wonder how he found out?"

  "I have no idea," Liana said. "Everyone knew not to tell him."

  "I think I might know the answer," Ravi offered, approaching them with Noah, June's eldest child. As Liana's team cut through the ropes that held Jobe's body to the cross, Noah had shown up, walking toward the entrance to the compound on the main road. His hair was a mess, and both of his eyes were black and puffy.

  "Oh, my God!" Liana cried, reaching out and hugging him. "Are you okay? What happened?"

  "My dad happened," Noah scowled, then he told them how he came to be wandering the main road and how Jobe came to be crucified alongside it.

  "We were eating dinner last night, and my little brother, Jeremiah, started talking about how Pastor Jobe didn't like it when mom cooked greens because he hated the smell. We all tried to cover it up. I said he was the minister who came to check up on us and have dinner sometimes, but our dad didn't believe me.

  After everyone went to sleep, he took me out in the woods to make me confess. I didn't want to tell him, but he just kept hitting me over and over until I did. I didn't mean to get anybody hurt. I just wanted it to stop," he said as tears started streaming down his face, and Olivia put her arm around him while Liana wiped them away with the sleeve of her shirt. Noah winced when she touched the bruises, but he pressed on with his story, wanting everyone to know what his father had done.

  "I swore Pastor Jobe never slept with mom. I told him I'd swear it on the Bible, but he didn't care about that. He said it made a fool of him in front of the whole world, and then he said he was going to kill Pastor Jobe for trying to take what was his."

  "Why didn't you tell someone last night?" Liana asked.

  "He hit me over the head with a rock, and I was out cold until right before the sun came up. I've been trying to find my way back home all morning with dead people following me around."

  "Come on, let's get you something to eat and have your mom take a look at your injuries," Olivia said.

  "Can't I just hide out in the lodge and you tell my mom you can't find me?"

  "Sweetie, we can't let your mom think you're missing. She'll worry herself sick," Liana said.

  "Better than my dad knowing where I am," he protested.

  "He's right," Olivia said. "He can stay in my office for now. Does anyone know where Jimbo is?"

  "No idea," Liana said.

  "Dani," Olivia spoke into her walkie. "Dani, are you with June?"

  "No, she went home a little while ago," she replied. "Is everything okay?"

  "Everything's fine. Just wanted her to take a look at a rash," Olivia lied because she didn't know if Jimbo was within earshot of any of the walkie talkies. She made a mental note to speak with Rena about setting up a more private communication system, then as she and Liana began walking back up the drive toward the compound, she asked her to have her men have Jobe burned separately from the dead.

  "Why?" Liana asked.

  "Because we don't burn community members with zombies," Olivia said, and Liana nodded in agreement, looking back over her shoulder to give the order when she saw a small herd of corpses approaching from a driveway across the main road. There were at least twenty of them, and the men carrying Jobe's body were completely unaware.

  "Behind you!" she cried, and though they immediately dropped Jobe to protect themselves, one fresh, faster-moving corpse outran the herd and bit Brent, a twenty-year-old kid they picked up in Princeton. As another man took the attacker down, Blood squirted into the air from Brent's arm, riling up the other corpses, and the group raised their weapons. But realizing that gunfire was probably what drew them in the first place, Olivia pushed Liana's weapon down.

  "No," she said. "I have an idea."

  She opened the gate and ushered everyone through. Brent was the first, holding himself at the bite site, and the others followed as quickly as they could while trying to hack away at the dead with razor-sharp machetes and long, thin swords. When they were all on the other side, Liana started to push the gate closed, but Olivia stopped her.

  "We want them to follow us," she explained, then she turned her attention to the youngest member of Liana's team. "Hey kid, run through the woods to the second gate and open it, then tell whoever's on duty at the inner gate what we're doing."

  "What are we doing?" Liana asked.

  "Stocking the pit," Olivia said, and though Liana questioned the timing, she didn't argue. She had six people with her, one already sent as messenger, and she asked two more to hurry ahead with Noah and Brent.

  "Make sure they're inside the inner gate and close the door before we get there," she instructed. "I'll have Dani meet Brent and take care of him."

  They ran ahead as she, Olivia, Ravi, and Phil, who had been with them since the I-77 toll plaza, made noises to keep the horde focused on them so they wouldn't wander off into the woods after the runners. Except for the one who bit Brent, this group of corpses looked like they had been dead for a while, and though they weren't as slow as Olivia would have liked, they weren't sprinters either. As long as they kept up their pace, they could stay ahead by a comfortable distance, making it a safer option than standing and fighting at the entrance to their compound, which could draw unwanted attention from the dead or the living.

  Olivia made an announcement over her walkie talkie that everyone was to stay away from the entrance road and surrounding area until the herd was safely in the pit, and as soon as she finished, Liana took over, speaking directly to Dani.

  "Brent got bit," she said. "I need you to execute plan X-ray Tango Charlie. He'll meet you at the inner gate."

  "I'm on it," she replied. "Over and out."

  "What's X-ray Tango Charlie?" Olivia asked Liana.

  "X-T-C. Ecstasy? We got a shitload of Demerol vials when they started hitting doctor's offices. She's going to shoot a hundred milligrams into him, and once he drifts away, she'll have someone put him down."

  Olivia was a little pissed that they'd made the plan without consulting her, realizing they needed to keep tighter security on the medicine cabinet, but she had to admit it was a good idea. Brent was going to die either way. At least his last memory would be extremely pleasant. There was just one thing.

  "Dani, you're going to want to add twenty-five milligrams of Phenergan to that cocktail so he doesn't vomit," Olivia said, and Liana gave her a surprised look.

  "Why?"

  "Demerol makes a lot of people puke. If you'd told me about X-ray Tango Charlie, I could have told you that," she said. "And if you're shooting it into his veins, Phenergan burns."

  "Dani doesn't know how to do the veins. She'll put it in his hip. That's why we're doing a hundred instead of fifty," Liana clarified. "How do you know so much about drugs?"

  "Maybe some time when we're not leading a herd of cannibal cadavers up the mountain, I'll show you my appendix scar...or my gall bladder scar...or my salpingo-oophorectomy scar..."

  Liana laughed. She didn't even know what the last one meant, but she was thankful for Olivia's scars. Without the benefit of her experience, she would not have known about the vomiting, and the last thing she w
anted X-ray Tango Charlie to do was make Brent start throwing up on top of an injury that he already knew meant certain death. She was starting to understand why Dani was prioritizing a cure, though it would be much easier to train an army to make sure that what led to Brent's death never happened again. They needed more people. If they had more people, Jimbo Connors would never have been able to kidnap Jobe, his son would not have been lost in the woods to unintentionally lead a herd of corpses back to their home, and Brent would never have been in the position to get bitten. As soon as they got these corpses in the pit and caught Jimbo, she was going to start working on a recruitment plan.

  When Olivia's group was nearing the top of the mountain, Alek radioed her to say that they still hadn't found Jobe, and though she wanted to tell him to call off the search, she was afraid of putting that information out on the open airwaves where Jimbo might overhear it. But he wasn't even listening because he had no intention of paying for his crime. Although he may not have been known for being the smartest of men, he had carried out Jobe's crucifixion at the end of the drive for a reason. He knew that once they discovered the pastor missing, everyone would be scattered as they searched, but he figured the main road would be the last place they looked, giving him the opportunity he needed to take his wife and kids and get far away from the heathens of Olivia's compound. He had seen how they were corrupting his family, enticing them with the sins of the secular life, giving his wife a sense of self outside of being Mrs. Jimbo Connors, and he knew he had to get them back to North Carolina where their church had set up a safe zone of their own. It didn't have electricity or running water yet like this one, but he thought it would be a much better place for his children's immortal souls.