by Burgy, P. J.
“I dunno yet,” Hooper replied.
“Let the dogs go then,” Renshen said.
“Yessir.” Hooper nodded. He whistled. Then, just as the dogs began to pad over to him, forming their tight pack, their eyes on Hooper as they neared him, he waved his hand out toward the town and yelled out, “Find folk! Find folk! Wide!”
The dogs dashed out into the fort, over to the houses, toward the farms, out to the left and right. Each one of the five dogs knew to spread out to cover more ground. Kara saw one of them sniffing around an open door to a hut a hundred yards to the right. The dog found nothing of interest and bounded off to the next house. She could see the dogs running back and forth, stopping to investigate doorways and then sprinting off.
Renshen ran off toward one of the houses. He pushed the door open the entire way and shined the UV light in, searching back and forth briefly before taking a step back. When nothing happened, he stomped on the ground a few times and called out, “Hey! Hey!”
No response.
Miranda and Hodges went off on their own, the third guard following after the dogs. Pleasant Tree was a large fort with a lot of ground to cover, and many houses to search.
“I don’t think anyone’s here,” Hooper said, turning to Kara.
She made her way for the grass, avoiding a thick puddle of bile. The smell of it was horrible, and Kara wished that her mask had been installed with better filters. “They could be hiding.”
“Or they run off,” Hooper said.
Renshen was trying another house. He called over his shoulder, looking back at Kara and Hooper, his gun aimed into the dark recesses beyond the open door. He shined the UV around, took a few steps in, and then came right back out. “No one.”
Kara’s eyes widened. “Ash.”
She broke into a hard run, making a beeline for Ash’s hut, passing by Renshen. He saw her, and stumbled back from the doorway of the house, trying to intercept Kara but failing.
“Yusha! Hold! Stay back!” Renshen yelled at her.
She reached Ash’s shack and found the door opened. Carefully, she entered his house. Turning on the UV light on her pistol, Kara shined the light around, seeing only his small kitchen. She went in, searching, and found his bedroom, empty. His closets, empty. When she stepped out into the light of day again, Renshen was there, heaving from the run he’d made chasing her.
“Dammit, Yusha…” Renshen tried to catch his breath, a hand on his side. With his gun pointed down at the grass, Renshen shook his head. She couldn’t see his face behind the mask, but he sounded winded, frustrated. “Don’t… go runnin’ off.”
“He’s not here…”
Renshen grunted. “Generators’r down, but nothin’s cut. No damage that I can see. Come on, Yusha. We gotta do a sweep. People might be hidin’. We gotta check the bunkers. Gotta be someone left to tell us what happened here.”
Somewhere nearby, Kara could hear the dogs barking. Renshen held a hand up, palm out, and straightened up. The dogs were going mad somewhere, yowling and baying their lungs out. Renshen stomped off, pointing his gun briefly in his direction of travel.
“What I tell yah?” He muttered.
Kara began to follow after Renshen when she heard the scream. Miranda. They ran in the direction of the sound, Kara easily outpacing her father and reaching the source first. She came to the side of a house, and she could see two of the guards standing there, looking at something just beyond her field of vision, something around the corner of the house. The dogs were there too, barking up a storm.
The smell hit her first. Rotting flesh. The sound of buzzing insects grew louder in her ears. She rounded the side of the house and came to a dead stop next to the two guards. Hoop was there too, having been just out of sight. They were staring, transfixed, at the three corpses on the grass. The black flies were just beginning to swarm. The bodies had been ravaged, one was missing an arm, the other bent in half and left gawking with wide, dull eyes, his mouth hanging open on a broken jaw. Their riot gear had been torn apart like paper.
One corpse in particular, with spots of blood on his placid, sleepy face, caught Kara’s eye and her throat clenched sharply, painfully. She slid her helmet off, letting it hang at her side, and she slowly approached the body of James Kalamon.
Kara felt something inside of her stomach threatening to rise up, like she would vomit. Whatever it was inside of her escaped, and she cried out, shaking her head. Her friend had been left on the grass, body contorted. The way his limbs were bent were wrong, completely wrong. He had been broken in half. His insides had been pulled out, ropes of intestines pooled beside his open abdomen, below his gaping, fleshy rib cage. While the other two guards had a look of terror frozen on their blanched faces, her friend appeared almost calm.
His eyes were heavy lidded, staring off and away as if daydreaming. He had never let go of his rifle, not even when they tore him apart.
Her voice wavered. “Jim? No. No. No.”
She felt arms grabbing her and pulling her back.
“Yusha, put your mask back on. Com’on.” It was Renshen and he was grabbing her upper arms, giving her a gentle tug toward him. “Com’on, girl. Com’on. I’m sorry, baby.”
“He’s dead. Jim is dead.” She put her mask back on, eyes burning with the few tears that she’d allowed to get past. Despite the curdling sickness in her belly, she squeezed a fist tight, holding her pistol at her side, and forced herself to look away. She had to take a few steps to the side, prying herself away from Renshen.
“What the hell happened here?” Renshen asked.
“Wailers got in,” Hodges said.
“Wailers leave more bodies than this,” Renshen stated. “Ain’t no one here. And where are the dead Wailers? Eh? What in the hell is this?”
“Maybe they, they took ‘em with,” The third guard spoke. Kara recognized it as Sam, a young boy from the fort town. His rotation usually had him up in the tower. He’d really lucked out this time. He shook his head.
“What'd you say? Speak up, boy,” Renshen said.
“Maybe they took ‘em with them?” Sam repeated himself.
“Wailers don’t do that,” Renshen snapped. “Wailers eat ‘em where they fall. Search the bunkers, the rest of the houses. Come on. Gotta be someone here left.”
“He was my friend,” Kara said, looking at the grass around her feet.
“I’m sorry, Yusha.” Renshen stepped up to Kara, grabbed her shoulder, pulled her around and pressed her against him again. He squeezed her, her mask creaking against his chest plate. It was an awkward gesture, well meant, but uncomfortable. He let her go and she backed away. Renshen watched her swaying in place for a few seconds before turning his attention back to Hooper. “This the only thing the dog’s found?”
“Yep. Just… just these poor souls,” Hooper replied.
“Annie!” Kara said, and then bolted again.
“Hey!” Renshen called out at her.
She ran toward the center of town, toward the house with the apple tree. As she ran, she saw one of the tiny safe houses, the metal front door torn off of the hinges. She dove in, shining her UV light at the open underground hideaway, the twin hatches pulled away and tossed to the side of the room. Only shadows. There was no one down there.
Renshen was yelling for her, but she was running again, continuing on to Jim’s house. When she got there, she saw the apples on the ground and an overturned wicker basket. The front door was hanging wide open. Once again, she shined the UV light back and forth, entering the dark kitchen. The table was cleared off, the chairs pushed in. “Annie! Ramona! Lena! Hello?”
Kara entered the sewing room, saw the spools of thread on the floor, a wooden chair toppled over in the corner, some candles that had been knocked over melted into the rugs. She checked the bedrooms, one at a time, until she had checked all four. The beds were unmade, blankets spilling over and hanging off of the sides, as if the occupants had been rudely awoken and rushed out of the room. She could
see it in her mind, she could imagine the sound of the Wailers in the fort, in the dark of night, their pale bodies glowing in the red lights.
“Yusha,” Renshen said, standing behind her. “Nobody’s home.”
Kara turned to look at him. He was a silhouette, the daylight from the kitchen behind him flooding in around the shape of his body. Renshen held his rifle downward, taking a step back.
“Where are they?”
“Dunno. Not here,” Renshen replied and ushered her out, making his way for the kitchen.
“The central bunker was torn open,” she said, breathless. “The doors were ripped right off. They were here, Dad. Wailers. They got in, and they took everyone.”
“The Infected don’t take people,” Renshen said, “We’re gonna check the storage shack.”
“You don’t think it was them?”
“I did. But maybe we’re wrong ‘bout this one. It doesn’t add up,” Renshen said to her. They both went back outside into the sun, standing out in the grass along the front of the empty house. The air was getting warmer now, the breeze not as cool or refreshing as it had been the day before. He stood there, one hand on his side. Kara came up alongside him, and he faced her. It was his turn to reach up and remove his mask. Gun in one hand, mask in the other, he scanned the surrounding area, the houses, the pebble paths leading around the fort. He glanced over to the farm, his face red from exertion. “I got a look while chasin’ after you. Nothin’ left. Pigs’r gone. No dogs. Even the damn horse is gone. All the animals. Taken. Wasn’t the Wailers. It had to be the Brethren.”
Kara took her mask off, beads of sweat forming on her brow from the heat of wearing the thing. Her hazel eyes searched her father’s face, trying to read his expression. “The Red Brethren? But, the bodies, you saw the bodies, the bodies look like Wailers got to them.”
“Yeah, but those things don't do this. They’re animals. They kill. They eat. They run off when the sun comes up. No. This inn’t them.” Renshen lowered his head, eyes shut. He grimaced, letting out a low, aggravated groan. “The Brethren did this, an’ made it look like the Wailers done it.”
“There was bile on the grass.”
Renshen shook his head. “They could’a dumped it there.”
“Why? Why would the Red Brethren do that? They take pride in raiding forts. They’d be calling on the radios, bragging. Why?”
He frowned at her. “I dunno. We had t’change. Maybe they did too.”
“If it was the Brethren, then where were the tire tracks?” she said, nodding fast, eyes burning into his. “They only travel by rover. If they took everything, they’d need more than one. And why would they come at night?”
He shook his head. “I dunno. I don’t. It don’t make sense. We’ll getta look at the storage shed, see if they took anythin’ from there.”
The two walked down from Jim and Annie’s home, and Kara got a look at the Mayor’s house. She saw the sign on the side of the building, the sign warning residents to obey sound curfew, and her chest ached. The path they took went right, the pebbled little walkway leading them through the middle of the empty town. House after house with open doors. Turned over carts. Barrels near the well were busted, the wood shattered across the earth and grass. They continued on until they walked over to a large, metal shed with a pointed roof near the wall. Big enough to hold two rover vehicles the size of the Bella, the storage shack appeared untouched, not a dent in her closed doors. They weren’t alone when they got there. Hooper, Miranda, Hodges, and Sam had beaten them to the supply shed and were currently standing near the double doors. Renshen put his mask back on, as did Kara when he indicated to her to do so.
“Well?” Renshen asked.
Hooper stepped forward. “Nothin’. No bodies, ‘cept the guards. Been in the houses, as many as I could. Nothin’ there either. Signs of struggle, but no blood. It’s almost like everyone just up and left in a big hurry.”
“Or were taken,” Kara said.
Sam nodded.
Renshen shifted his weight. “How ‘bout the stores? Supplies stolen?”
“Nothing’s touched, Ren.” Hodges said. “It’s full.”
Kara extended a hand toward the shed. “They would’ve emptied this.”
“Maybe they was in a hurry,” Renshen said.
“Red Brethren would have taken everything in there. Everything. The food, the water, the supplies. The guns, the ammo, even the screws holding the damn building together.” Kara’s voice was growing louder as she walked to the doors and slammed her fist into the metal frame.
“All right, so what then?” Renshen raised his voice, but maintained his composure, one hand out and to the side, the other still clinging to his rifle. “Maybe the Brethren broke in, thought it was secure, an’ some Wailers got in too? Maybe the things run off before dawn, an’ the Brethren skipped out quick, knowin’ that the fort got an SOS out?”
“Then where is everyone?” she asked.
“I dunno, Yusha.” he said. “Maybe they ran.”
“Ran where?”
“I dunno! Dammit, girl! Why are y'askin' me?!” Renshen’s voice boomed as he turned on her.
Her reflection showed dim in the eyes of his mask, and for a second, she caught a glimpse of his frustration before he turned away.
“I don't think they broke in. I think the gate was opened for 'em,” Hoop said. “No damage.”
“That don't make no sense,” Renshen muttered. “None of this does. It stinks.”
Kara was heaving when she holstered her pistol and took her mask off, staring at her own reflection in her father’s visor. She bared her teeth at him, waving around at the fort with her free hand. “They wouldn’t have run. They were forced out. Taken. That means, they’re still alive.”
“There’s nothin’ we can do now,” Renshen said.
“We need to go after them.” Kara came to stand in front of Renshen, and took a step back when he took his mask off and met her eyes. His gray eyes narrowed, the heat behind them betraying Renshen’s cold expression. She swallowed, blinked at her father, and then straightened her shoulders. “Dad, we need to track them. No tire tracks. They were on foot.”
“If the Brethren took ‘em, we aren’t gettin’ ‘em back,” Renshen told her. “Look around. There’s more Brethren than there are us. No, Yusha. We’ll burn a pyre fer yer friend, for these guards, an’ then we’ll say a prayer an’ leave.”
“We can find out where they took them. We can go there, and we get them back,” Kara said. “We can pick up reinforcements in Blue Lagoon, we can call the other forts in the region-”
“No one in the region wants t’start a war with the Red Brethren, Yusha!” Renshen hollered. “Not on their own turf, girl! They come to us, we shoot at ‘em, drive ‘em away. We got the walls to protect us. We go to them, and we get killed. They got hundreds of men with guns!”
Kara found herself stammering, her cheeks hot. “So do we!”
“They got strongholds all over, dozens and dozens of rovers.” Renshen leaned toward her. “Listen to me, girl, listen. We can’t. They’re gone. I’m sorry.”
Kara glared at him. “You would come find me.”
Renshen nodded. “An’ I’d die, most likely. But I would’na ask anyone else t’die with me. No, what’d take to save them isn’t possible. The Brethren are too many, too strong. I can’t risk the lives of the men’n’women of Blue Lagoon. I know the other forts would say the same.”
“Hoop, you know I’m right,” Kara implored Jensen Hooper, taking a stride toward him, and found that he couldn’t remain facing her. He pivoted around, his shoulder to her. “Hoop?”
“Kara, I gotta agree with your old man on this one. I’m sorry. We can’t waste the resources on a ghost hunt. We don’t know how far they gone or where they goin’. I know it’s hard. I know you’n’Ash was a thing. We just can’t, Kara.” Hooper sighed and looked down at the grass, his brows furrowed.
“I wanna go. I wanna get outta here.” Mir
anda was swaying gently.
“We’re gonna hit the road momentarily,” Renshen said. “I’ll call home from the Bella. Whatever happened last night, happened quick. We gotta get the dead out, an’ I wanna pull anythin’ we can from the stores an’ load the Bella. We can come back an’ start t’scrap ‘er tomorrow, assumin’ the Brethren don’t beat us to it.”
Kara glared at Renshen. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this.”
“Forts fall, Yusha Senshi,” Renshen told her, meeting her eyes. As he spoke to her, he turned to face her fully, shoulders squared, face drained of emotion. “Folks die. The survivors move on. No use tryin’ t’hold on or go on ghost hunts. You ov’all people should know that. I’m sorry ‘bout Ash, baby, ‘bout your friends, but whatever happ’nd here, it’s done, and they’re gone. We take what’s left behind, an’ keep their memory. That’s what they’d want fer us. You know that.”
“They could be alive,” Kara said.
“Or they could be dead.”
“We should, we should at least take the dogs out and see if they pick up a trail.” Kara clenched her jaw. “Come on. How far could they have gotten in five hours?”
“Far enough. We dunno where all their strongholds are,” Renshen replied. “They could be anywhere in a twenty-mile radius. I know it hurts, but let it go.”
“Like you let go of Isabella?” Kara asked.
“Yeah. Jus’ like that.” Renshen turned away suddenly, putting his mask back on. “All right. Okay. You wanna waste your time, risk your life? Fine. Hoop?”
“Yessir?”
“I’ll ask yah. Y’can say no. Will y’take the dogs an’ go with her?” Renshen asked.
Hooper appeared to think. He looked up. “Yessir, I will.”
Renshen nodded. “Okay. Hoop, go with Yusha here. See if the dogs pick up anythin’, and if they do, take an hour or so, get an idea of a direction if we got one. If it gets dicey, bring ‘em back in. Me’n’these three can take care of things here, an’ load up the Bella. We’ll light the pyres when y’get back, and send ‘em off.”
“Thank you,” Kara said.