“Morning Luke. Is there something wrong?”
He gave me a sad smile, “I’m sorry, but there has been a small… hiccup with your team.”
“We can postpone if that will help.”
“I have a feeling that this will be a chronic hiccup and no amount of waiting will help.”
“What’s the problem?”
“Let me get your team, and I’ll show you,” he said calmly, “William,” he called out. A small boy, probably ten years old, came into the office.
“Yes, Luke?”
“William, could you please tell the five people by the fire that it’s time for them to leave and for them to come to my office.”
“Sure Luke,” said William as he darted out the door.
I glanced out the window and saw him running in the direction where the bonfire is usually held. “Who’s that?” I asked.
“One of our runners. We haven’t been able to find enough radios for everyone, so we use some of the children as runners. They actually enjoy it. They sometimes race to see who can deliver their message.”
“I see. Well, I guess that’s a simple solution.”
“It is the best we can do,” he said smiling.
It didn’t take long for the team to reach Luke’s office. I was talking to Luke with my back to the door when I heard exactly what I didn’t want to do. “Good morning James,” I heard a snide voice say behind me.
I didn’t react. I didn’t hang my head, I didn’t hunch my shoulders, and I didn’t hit the fucker. Should I have? Maybe, but I couldn’t let him know that he bothered me. “Morning Adam,” I said with false cheer, “What are you doing up so early?”
“Oh well, you see Kelly and Robert were feeling a bit sick, so Carl and I volunteered to take their place.”
“I see. And I suppose no one else volunteered.”
“Well not everyone likes to play hero,” he replied sarcastically.
“Alright then. I just need to talk to your dad for a minute, and then we’ll go,” He didn’t move. “I meant in private,” I said coolly. He sneered at me before turning around and leaving. After I finished talking to Luke, I left him with his head back in his hands and walked back to my truck. Uh oh, I thought as I saw my group and what had become Adam’s team having a faceoff in the parking lot. Everyone in my group was glaring at one person, Adam. Adam, in turn, was just basking in their hate for him. “Alright, everyone back in the trucks. You five, I hope you have your own vehicles to bring supplies back, there’ll be no room in mine.”
“We do,” said Liam.
“Good, go get them.” They turned to leave, “Adam and Carl, could I have a quick word?” They both stayed and walked over to me. Sarah and the rest were already back in the trucks so the only people who would hear what I said would be the two in front of me. “Adam, Carl, I just wanted to let you know one thing before we leave.”
“Oh yeah, and what’s that?” interrupted Adam.
“That if you fuck around, if you endanger any of my people, I’ll kill you,” I said smiling. “This is my operation, you do what I tell you to. Period.” I climbed into my truck, not giving them the time to argue.
It took only a short time before they met us in their five small trucks at the front of the camp. We took off to take on Fred Meyer and cross a few things off our list.
We stood in front of the store, and we could already see a few Walkers struggling to rise to their feet. “Alright, those with shotguns, take out those windows.” Liam, Jason, and Justin stepped forward and blasted out the doors and windows. “Back in formation.” We spent the next half an hour mopping up the mobile Walkers who came at us. Luke’s people stood to the side, using small caliber weapons to take care of anything that seemed to slip by. Samantha, John, and Liam were doing their jobs, Carl and Adam were standing behind everyone laughing and joking. Neither even had a gun in their hand.
After the flow of undead ceased, we moved in five, three-man teams to clear out anything we could find. Twenty minutes in we had killed everything we could find. “Load it up,” I yelled.
We dedicated a single truck to just clothing while using the other eight to other supplies. We had one truck filled to bursting with canned goods and another half filled with outdoor supplies when I heard a huge crash and a scream. I ran towards the scream which came from the appliance aisle near the bedding. I ran through the store which was lit by dozens of glow sticks towards some unknown danger. I saw Carl and Adam laughing their asses off as Hannah and Christina sat on the ground with Thomas glaring at Adam and trying to help the two girls up. One of the aisles was leaning against another, pots, pans, and other dishware spilled across the floor. “What happened?”
“That motherfucker knocked an aisle down to scare the girls. I almost shot him,” said Thomas angrily.
“Oh come on, we were just messin’ around,” said Adam defensibly.
“No, you weren’t. I warned you, Adam.”
“What are you going to shoot me?” he said sneering, “I don’t think my dad would like that.”
I quickly pulled my pistols and pointed one at each of them, “You were so busy fucking around that you don’t even have a gun out. While I have two, so guess what? You’ve made your second mistake,” I said moving in close.
“What was our first?” asked Carl dumbly.
“I’ll let you think about that while you’re out.”
“Out where?” he asked again.
I knocked Adam out with the butt of my gun and Carl had the time widen his eyes before the butt of my gun slammed into his temple. They both dropped to the ground like a sack of rocks, and I holstered my guns. “Jason,” I called out.
Jason came running up, and after taking in the scene, he asked, “Everything ok James?”
“No, but it’s getting better. Help me tie these fuckers up and get them in the back of my truck.”
“Sure.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Sarah who had appeared just before I knocked out the two.
“I’m going to take them back to Luke’s, and then I’m going to keep my promise.”
“What promise?” she asked.
“I’m going to kill Adam.”
She didn’t smile or frown, she barely reacted. All I got was a nod before she went back to loading the trucks. We filled eight of our nine trucks as well as all five of Luke’s. Since they were absent two drivers, they would have to come back to get them. We finished up with the store and stood with my group before leaving. “Alright, I have to go back to Luke’s to deal with a couple problems. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” asked Sarah a little worried.
“Yeah, I have a feeling this is going to take a while. If you guys feel up to it, feel free to come back to the store for another couple truckloads, but I don’t want anyone to come here as it gets dark, and I don’t want anyone to come to Luke’s. Just wait until I get home,” I finished looking straight at Sarah.
“Fine,” she said unhappily.
I kissed her and said, “I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Be safe,” she said hugging me.
“Aren’t I always?” I said grinning at her. She rolled her eyes before climbing into the truck. I waved as they took off and I climbed into my own truck. “Let’s go,” I said to the remaining members of Luke’s team. We reached the camp and Luke was standing with a group of people ready to unload their trucks. I parked my truck and went to talk to Luke.
“Why are there only three trucks?” asked Luke.
“Well, Carl and Adam are napping,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“They didn’t take things seriously, and so I was forced to incapacitate them,” I said coldly.
“I see. And what do you plan on doing with them?” he asked concerned.
“I don’t care what you do with Carl, he’s a follower. Adam, on the other hand, thinks he’s a leader and he’s causing problems. So I’m going to do what I told you I would this
morning.”
“Are you sure?”
I softened my voice, “Luke, your son is dead either way. My plan will at least give him a chance.”
Luke bowed his head and walked away, and I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. He looked like a broken man and who could blame him. He had the weight of this small world on his shoulder, and now he had to deal with this. I shook my head and focused on the task at hand. I opened the back of my truck and found that the two were still out cold and I called to Liam who was passing by, “Liam!”
“Yeah?”
“Luke has to have a prison of sorts or holding cells, right?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Great. Can I get someone to help me get these two locked up?”
“Yeah no problem,” he said and took off to get me some help.
I smiled as Robert approached me to help unload the two. “I see you’re feeling better,” I said grinning.
“James, you seem like a good guy, so I’m not going to lie. I have two daughters, and Adam approached me last night. He said it would be a sad thing if they lost their mother or one of them went missing. I had to back out, I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok, I understand. Family comes first.”
We dumped the two in some holding cells in the MP’s office, and I headed into the surrounding woods to find the right place. It only took ten minutes of walking before I found what I was looking for and another twenty or so before I had everything set up and ready for that night. Back at the MP’s office, I grabbed a syringe and a small bottle out of my med kit. Adam was awake, and he was delighted to see me. “Let me go you fucker,” he said.
“Now, now. That’s not very nice,” I said drawing some of the clear liquid into the syringe.
His eyes locked onto the needle as I tapped the air bubble to the surface and gently pushed the plunger down to remove it. “What the fuck is that?” he asked nervously.
“Just something to keep you asleep until tonight.”
“What? What’s happening tonight?”
“Shhhh,” I said plunging the needle into his neck and pushing down the plunger, “I don’t want to give away the surprise.”
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” he slurred, struggling weakly against his bindings.
“No Adam, I don’t think so,” I said patting his cheek, “Now shut the fuck up.” His head dropped, and I felt his neck for his pulse. I picked him up and slung him over my shoulder and headed the spot I prepared. I passed Luke as I exited the MP’s office and I saw the sadness in his eyes. I looked at him with hard eyes and nodded at him. He returned my nod before walking away.
Several hours later I slapped Adam a few times to wake him. His eyes snapped open, and he looked around at his surroundings. I’m sure I looked like an imposing figure, standing in front of a fire which cast wavering shadows across the trees. “Good morning,” I said smiling at him.
“Where are we?”
“Well, we are in the woods.”
“Why?”
I crouched down in front of him and reflected the firelight off of my Bowie knife, “I told you, Adam,” I said still smiling, “I’m here to kill you.”
Chapter 3
“W…what the fuck? It was a joke man,” Adam said nervously.
“No,” I said still smiling, “It wasn’t just a joke, but we’ll get to that later. Now we’re going to have a little talk. Actually, I’m going to talk, you’re going to listen. So…”
“Fuck you,” he spat.
I backhanded him, not too hard, just enough to get his attention. “I was going to say that if you decide to yell or scream or even speak, I’ll hit you and it will get harder each time.”
“You hit like a girl,” he grinned.
I hit him again, “You forget, it was a girl who took you out. We’re going to talk about that too if you decide to start listening that is.”
He took a breath, “Fuck…”
I punched him, causing him to grunt and spit out a little blood. I frowned, my hand didn’t hurt at all. I glanced down, I had forgotten about the hard-backed knuckles. I sucked air in between my teeth, “Ooooh, that looked like it hurt a bit. You ready to start listening?” He spat out some more blood and nodded. “Good,” I said still smiling. I stood and started pacing in front of Adam. I already knew what I was going to say to him, but I also knew that if I kept him waiting it would make this much worse. “You know Adam, the thing about life is that it can end so easily. It’s so short, and all we really have are our choices. Not the small choices, not what am I going to have to drink or for dinner, but the big ones, like how I will I treat so and so, what will I say in response to this. I’m going to hazard a guess that you’ve made the wrong ones. Earlier today you told me that not everyone likes to play hero. I figured that you were trying to get to me, trying to say that I liked the role of leader and hero. But let me ask you something, is that what you’re doing? Are you playing hero? I think you’re trying, but you’re just not doing a very good job. In fact, I think you’re playing at a lot more. You think you’re a man, but you’re a scared little boy. You think you’re a warrior or a fighter, but really, you’re just a bully. You think you can be your father, but you don’t deserve to stand in his shadow.”
“My dad’s weak.”
I punched him again, probably harder than I should have, “I’ve only known your dad a short time, and I already know him better than you. Your dad is compassionate, and you mistake that for weakness. It’s funny, I was told that your dad and I are similar, at least in the way we think morally. I saw his handy work on the bridge.” I saw something flash across his eyes, recognition and then anger, but not at me. “Did you know those people hanging on the bridge?” He glared at me “You can answer, I won’t hit you. Did you know them?”
“Yeah. They were some of my friends.”
“A rapist, murderer and a thief, you seem to have bad taste in friends Adam. I guess it goes back to the whole choices thing huh? Anyways, your dad and I are in fact similar, except for one thing. Your dad has faith that you could be a good man, that you could be better than what you are. I don’t share his faith, so here we are,” I said waving my arm at the surrounding woods. “This isn’t about what you did in the store, no, this goes back further. This is because you threatened the lives of a family to get your way, this is because you put a gun in my face when we first met. This is because you tried to rape the woman I love.”
“Fuck you and your bitch.”
I didn’t hit him this time, in the blink of an eye, I had my hand around his throat, and I was squeezing, hard. I got very close to his face, “Don’t you ever speak like that again,” I growled, slamming his head into the tree, “I know what you told her and it’s only because she told me not to that I didn’t kill you earlier.” I waited until he was just about to pass out before I let go. He gasped for air. “No, you’re not here for even that. You’re here because you’ve made the wrong choices and because you don’t respond to reason. You’re a bully, so you respond to strength. So how’s this for strength, I knocked you and your buddy out, tied you to a tree in the middle of nowhere and told you that I’m going to kill you. So what are you going to do about that?” He glared at me. “Good, you’re learning. I could kill you now, I could slit your throat, I could put one in your skull, hell I could even shatter your windpipe and watch as you slowly suffocate, but I don’t think you’d learn your lesson.”
“So what? You’re going to torture me? You don’t have the balls.”
I laughed and smiled at him, “You don’t even know what I’ve done. But maybe you should.” I sat down in front of him. I still had my Bowie out, and I was slowly twirling it in my hands. As I sat there in silence, I saw Adams eyes glued to the knife. I took a long breath and began. I told him about each one of the gangbangers that I tortured for information and then killed. I told him how I slaughtered everyone that was holed up in the hospital and finally, I told him what I did to Cole. “So I left him there. I left h
im with the knowledge of what he was going to turn into. That was a punishment worse than death, but it was still more than he deserved. I did those things to people who I didn’t even know. Sure, they were scum, and I’m sure many of them deserved to die, but I needed information from them because they had people I cared about. You can see how you doing what you did to Sarah was a bad idea. You made the wrong choice,” I smiled at him, “I didn’t hate those idiots that I killed, I hate you. I’ll gladly skin you alive for what you’ve done, but you wouldn’t learn your lesson,” I said standing. “So here’s what I’m going to do,” I sheathed my knife and wiped my hands on my pants, “I’m going to leave you here, tied to this tree, and I’m going to let you go over the choices you’ve made in your life. Not just recent ones either. I want you to think about everything you’ve ever done. I want you to decide whether you deserve to live. I’ll leave you with the fire, it should keep away most of the wildlife.” I shrugged on my pack on, preparing to leave.
“You can’t just leave me here. Someone will come looking for me, my friends will.”
“Really? Will they really?”
“Why wouldn’t they?”
“That’s something you can think about isn’t it?”
“I thought you were going to kill me?”
I smiled, “I am, but it will be your choice. Either you become a better man like your father thinks you can be or you don’t, and I put a bullet in your brain. Either way, you are going to die,” I said stepping out of the firelight and heading back to the camp. I hadn’t taken more than a dozen steps before I heard Adam start yelling, calling for help. I shook my head, he would either realize that no one was coming and that yelling would only bring him the wrong kind of attention or he would yell his throat raw.
I met a patrol who was heading towards the sound of Adam’s yelling. “Leave him,” I told them.
“But…”
“What’s your name?”
“Ben.”
“Well, Ben. Why don’t you head back to camp and you’ll learn why you’re going to leave Adam where he is.”
Survivors Series (Book 2): Heroes Never Die Page 3