Teddy watched them walk to the door and looked to Timo.
‘Should I…’
‘You should,’ Timo said.
Teddy hurried to catch up to them.
Outside, Gideon made it to the hand pump on the corner of the street next to the town hall. He dropped down on his good knee and yanked the handle five times until the water spluttered from the tap into the bucket below.
He reached in and collected some water from the ladle inside, pouring it over the back of his fat neck and head to cool off and wash away some of the sweat.
He dipped the ladle again, this time bringing it to his mouth to take a sip. He then offered some to Salty, but he shook his head.
‘You got a pretty good set-up here,’ Salty said.
‘We’ve come a long way,’ Gideon said, using the solid structure of the pump to help him to his feet. ‘Still too reliant on fuel for the generators, but we’re in the process of building a solar farm and a wind turbine. Hopefully we’ll be fully self-sustainable by the turn of the year.’
‘That’s smart.’
‘It’s a consideration not entirely motivated by pragmatism,’ Gideon said.
‘What do you mean?’
Gideon smiled and continued walking with the aid of his cane, turning left onto Main Street and waving to the odd resident passing by.
Teddy hung back from them but remained in earshot.
‘If it’s true that The Children have the rest of your group, they’re going to try to convert them to their cause. They’re myopic in their belief that they’re doing God’s bidding,’ Gideon said.
‘My guys won’t go for that.’
‘Then I’m afraid they would serve no further purpose. Unless, of course, they were kidnapped with something else in mind.’ Gideon looked at him as if he were hoping to catch Salty off guard, but he didn’t tell him what he knew, or rather what he thought he knew.
‘We live with their imminent threat every day. Their encampment is virtually on our doorstep, and although I have even met with their leader to try and reach some form of truce, he believes it’s God’s will for us to be swept aside, and no appeal to his rationality has been successful.’
‘You’re talking about The Father,’ Salty said.
‘That’s what he calls himself. From first impressions of the man, he may have appeared calm and in control on the surface, but I sensed a deep fear and insecurity beneath. I know it’s pretty obvious to suspect some mental instability when someone thinks God is communicating directly with them, but this man is suffering from severe trauma… There’s something else too. He and his followers are not well. I mean they’re physically sick, almost as if they’ve been infected with…’ Gideon paused to shudder at the thought.
‘The virus?’ Salty said.
‘They have the same distortion in their voices as someone in the latter stages of infection. I’m sure you’ve heard it before,’ Gideon said.
‘Yeah, I’ve heard it all right. Gideon, this Father character, describe him to me,’ Salty said.
‘He’s reasonably old. His hair is grey but thick. His skin is weathered like dry leather. Sound like someone you know?’
Salty drew a breath, and in that second, he decided to lie again.
‘No, it’s no one I know. Why does he want to destroy this place so badly?’
Gideon smiled again. The sunshine broke out from behind the lookout post in the east corner, illuminating his face and highlighting the silver flecks of his stubble.
‘This might surprise you, shock you even, but this community and theirs do see eye to eye on what’s happened to the world ultimately having positive implications. It’s just the how and the why we disagree on that has put us at odds.’
‘Nothing much surprises or shocks me anymore, Gideon. Go ahead. I’m listenin’.’
‘When I was sixteen years old, I grew up in Queens in one of the worst neighbourhoods. Using violence to solve problems was simply part of the landscape. You showed any kind of weakness and that environment would swallow you whole. In trying to solve one of my problems, I gunned down a kid a year younger than me over twenty dollars. That’s what the old system was already very good at—seducing the poor into killing each other over a few scraps from the table.
‘Although I didn’t accept responsibility for the life I took back then, I certainly paid the price for it, and I was sentenced to thirty-five years hard time. I had lots of time to think in prison—and to read. I discovered philosophy, and it fundamentally changed the way I viewed the world and myself. I was also introduced to the Gaia Principle by another inmate. Are you familiar with it?’
‘I’ve heard of it, but I can’t say as I know much about it,’ Salty said.
‘I’m sure on your travels recently you’ve noticed how much the natural world has begun to thrive again. Vegetation grows undeterred. The dead don’t care much for animals, so many species are thriving from the reduction in the human population. But most importantly is the death of industry, of the economic imperative to produce and consume. You see, Jake, I formed a sort of cult of my own in prison. I prefer to call it a communion. We believe each organism on Earth forms part of a symbiotic, self-regulating whole, and the only element dramatically interfering with that synergy was us.
‘When I was eventually released, I made it my life’s work to grow our group and our influence. We used to pressure local officials into making positive environmental change. After the outbreak brought on the fall of society, most of us happened to be together, and we survived that way in a larger group. We made it here, picking up others along the way. Now some people find us, as you did. They either buy into our way of life or they at least understand and tolerate it.’
‘So, what’s your end game?’ Salty said.
‘We’re determined things are not going back the way they were. Something good has to come from this. If human beings truly rise up from the ashes, we won’t allow a society like the one we lost, where greed and individual desires come before the well-being of everything that lives and breathes around us.’
‘Even if your stance results in conflict?’
‘Even so,’ Gideon said with a tone of resignation in his voice that told Salty the man knew conflict would be inevitable in such circumstances. ‘Now we live off the land, but we build around it, as a part of it. We take only what we need rather than whatever we want. The exchange of goods and services will be about cooperation for a shared goal. It will no longer involve monetary gain or personal ambition, at least not here in North Dakota.’
‘What about the rest of the country? It’s an awful big place to communicate a shared philosophy without modern technology,’ Salty said.
‘We’ll expand as much as we can eventually. As long as the dead still walk, our wishes will be protected enough.’
‘I think I get it. You don’t want the outbreak to be over, do you? That’s where you share common ground with The Children, but they don’t want you in the way of their progress either. I don’t know, Gideon. Two groups at war because of conflicting ideologies sounds a lot like the old world to me.’
‘You’re an insightful man, Jake. Nevertheless, we intend to keep things how they are for the sake of the natural world, and those who try to challenge that be damned.’
‘Fair enough,’ Salty said.
Gideon stopped to take in the tranquil atmosphere of the community he’d helped build and then beckoned Salty to follow him.
‘This way. I want to show you something,’ he said.
He led him a little farther along Main Street and took a left turn through a wooden archway surrounded by climbing vines. It brought them into an isolated grove. The location was an effective suntrap. The grass was greener, the flowers blossomed with more vigour, and the water in the fountain centrepiece sparkled as it circulated through its four stone tiers.
Over to the right-hand corner, beneath the shade of an apple tree, twelve children around
the ages of five to eight sat watching their female tutor.
The young woman was performing some kind of mime with her arms and facial expressions, and the delighted children were only too happy to copy her actions when asked to.
As Salty observed them, he was struck by how much they were living in the moment, seemingly oblivious to the nightmares just beyond the walls of the town. It reminded him of certain moments in the FEMA camp, but there was an element of purity about this scene that he’d not witnessed since before the outbreak.
One particular child stood out from the rest. The little girl was quite chubby, her hair in pigtails. She had bubblegum cheeks when she smiled.
His heart sank with a sense of failure. If only he had managed to get the Grahams this far, that little girl could have been Emily.
‘Is this what you wanted to show me?’ Salty asked.
‘This is the thing about preservation. To truly make it work, you have to build something precious enough that it’s worth preserving with every breath you can muster. For you to come all this way through the danger you must have faced, to find and rescue your group, I know you feel it too,’ Gideon said.
‘Stop it, Gideon. You’re gonna make me tear up,’ Salty scoffed. As he twisted his body to head back to the road, he tweaked the crude stitches in his shoulder wound and instinctively reached up to it.
‘We have an excellent doctor here. That should be our next port of call. You can’t retrieve your friends with one arm,’ Gideon said.
As much as Salty wanted to grin and bear it, he realised it would be foolish not to accept his offer.
‘OK, let’s go,’ he said.
Before they left the grove, it was too tempting not to glance back to the children and their enthusiastic faces.
4
Aside from what crept through the gaps in the boards, the three remaining prisoners hadn’t seen daylight or felt fresh air since the ceremony. Their lips craved water, their bruises from the previous capture now fully developed into purple and yellow hues.
O.B. lay on his side and watched a spider in the corner building the intricate threads of its web.
Foster sat cross-legged, rocking back and forth, just waiting for the disciples to come for them again.
Raine, as always, was pushed against the side of the barn, peering through the largest crack she could find. She could see a guard sitting on the porch outside the church, keeping a close eye on the barn.
O.B. averted his gaze from the spider’s web to observe Foster’s monotonous motion. Her hair stuck out rigidly from her head like straw, and the angry bruise on her face overwhelmed her delicate features.
‘Foster,’ he whispered.
It was more than loud enough for her to hear, but she didn’t respond.
‘Foster,’ he said again.
She said nothing.
‘Geraldine!’
This time she stopped rocking and turned to look at him, her eyes still glazed over.
‘You lost the right to call me that a long time ago,’ she said.
‘I was just making sure you were still in there,’ he said.
‘Maybe it would be better if I wasn’t. It might help with what’s coming,’ Foster said.
‘I won’t let—’
‘What? You won’t let what?’
O.B. longed to come back with something to reassure her he could prevent what happened to Jason happening to her or any one of them, but he couldn’t.
‘That’s what I thought,’ Foster said.
Outside, Samuel tried to hurry past the barn carrying two buckets full of soapy water and leather cloths. The buckets were so full and awkward to handle that he struggled to move by the barn as swiftly as he’d intended.
In his haste, the handle of one of the buckets slipped through his fingers and the bucket hit the ground, almost spilling over. It forced the young boy to stop to gain a grip on it again.
‘Samuel!’ Raine called through the gap in the boards.
At first, he pretended to be deaf to her plea and lifted the bucket as the water sloshed inside.
‘Samuel, please. Wait just a minute.’
‘I have to wash the motorhomes before lunchtime,’ he said.
‘You haven’t been to visit us since the ceremony. Is that because you know what happened?’ Raine asked.
Samuel froze in place as he was about to set off again.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ he said.
‘I think you do. If you don’t know exactly what they’re doing in that church, you know the end result. They cut Jason open and bled him like a pig, just so they could satisfy their bloodlust.’
Samuel shook his head violently.
‘T-They told me he was trying to escape.’
‘You’re too smart to believe that, Samuel. Come on. If you stay here with these people, you’re going to end up infected like those disciples, or dead. They are not your family,’ Raine said.
‘Why are you saying this?’ he asked, fighting back the tears.
‘If you help us escape, we’ll take you with us. I can’t promise we’ll be safe out there, but at least you’ll have a chance. There’s no future for you here. There’s nothing but death.’
Samuel dropped the buckets again, succumbing to his emotions.
‘I can’t. They’ll know. They always know. They’ll catch me, and they’ll—’
‘I’ll protect you. Just get the key tonight and we’ll go together.’
‘It’s just not possible. There’s another ceremony tonight. Owen is going to be welcomed into the order,’ Samuel said.
‘Hey, Samuel!’ the man on the church porch shouted, noticing the boy was lingering alongside the barn. ‘Those trailers aren’t gonna clean themselves.’
‘Yes, Andrew. Sorry,’ Samuel called back. He hauled the buckets up to balance them on the tops of his thighs. ‘I have to go,’ he said before waddling off to the living area.
All Raine could do was slam her fist against the wood in frustration.
‘Why are you even wasting your time with that kid? Can’t you see he’s terrified?’ Foster asked.
‘Yeah, just terrified enough to help us,’ Raine said. ‘Not that it matters now anyway. They’re coming for us again tonight.’
Her remark caused O.B. to sit up to attention.
‘There’s no point in trying to bide our time for the right moment anymore,’ Raine continued. ‘As soon as they open those doors, we make our play.’
O.B. nodded.
Foster knew it was suicidal, but she would choose that over being led back inside the church again.
‘Do me a favour,’ O.B. said. ‘Leave Crane to me.’
5
Fresh from the medical centre, Salty headed along Main Street, rotating the stiffness from his shoulder.
The wound still stung, but it felt cleaner, and the new stitches, unlike his own, didn’t seem like they would burst open at any moment.
Some residents stopped what they were doing to watch him walk towards the fenced-off basketball court where he’d been told his travelling companions would be.
Teddy and Kaos were so involved in their three-on-three game with some teenagers from the community, they didn’t notice Salty’s arrival.
They were stripped to their t-shirts, and their skin, dampened with sweat, glistened in the sunlight.
Anna, who had been observing the basketball being tossed around, caught a familiar smell on the air and quickly located her best friend. She let out a short bark of recognition and raced across the court to get to him.
The players had to stop momentarily to allow her to run by, alerting Kaos and Teddy to Salty’s presence.
Salty got down to his knees to greet his dog, and after giving the antiseptic solution on his shoulder a quick sniff, she licked his face in appreciation.
Kaos and Teddy made their excuses to the other breathless players and jogged over to the sidelines.
‘I’d need to lose a few pounds before that could happen,’ Teddy said, puffing and blowing hard.
‘Anyway, we got somewhere else to be,’ Kaos said.
‘What do you mean?’ Salty asked.
Kaos and Teddy looked at each other.
‘We’ve both discussed it, and we’re coming with you,’ Teddy said.
‘There’s no need. Gideon is gonna give me a detailed map of the area and a vehicle.’
‘We ain’t just talking about pointing you in the right direction anymore,’ Kaos said.
Salty stopped petting Anna and stood up to face them.
‘Kid, trust me, you don’t wanna get involved in this shit. People are likely gonna die, and I wouldn’t want either of you dragged into that.’
‘Hey, man, these days no matter what you do, life’s always a battle. You just gotta choose which ones are worth fighting for,’ Kaos replied.
‘We wouldn’t even be breathing if it wasn’t for you, never mind enjoying a ball game,’ Teddy said. ‘Everyone I’ve ever known is most likely dead now. Who else am I gonna help if I can’t help you? Besides, I know you’ve been holding back on us, and I’m curious to meet these friends of yours.’
Salty shook his head. ‘Jesus Christ.’
‘You’re not gonna be able to pull this off on your own and you know it,’ Kaos said.
‘All right then. I still have to make it clear this is your funeral, but I appreciate the help, even from you, cupcake,’ Salty said.
Teddy and Kaos smiled and followed Salty and Anna back to Main Street.
Once they’d showered and made their way to the front gate, they were greeted by Gideon and five other residents, including Timo. They all stood around a black minivan.
‘This should have enough space to transport your friends if you’re successful,’ Gideon said.
‘Thank you. I don’t know how I’ll be able to return the favour,’ Salty said.
Everything Dies | Season 3 Page 20