“Let me see to your wounds.” Sasha said. “I’ve learned a lot about nursing, we need to get you cleaned up.”
“So have we.” Swan said coldly and took the kit from Misty. “Mostly because of your gang.”
There was a moment of awkward silence.
“We weren’t part of them.” Trish said. “Maybe at first, in the beginning, but not since Gordon’s been in charge. It’s been hell.”
“Then why didn’t you leave?” Swan asked dismissively. “Why stay?”
“We couldn’t.” Misty said quietly. “We’re not like you. We’re not warriors.”
“Some tried.” Sasha said. “We don’t know if they made it or not. It’s dangerous beyond the gates.”
“Look, would you guys like something to eat?” Trish asked, changing the uncomfortable subject. “There’s some frozen beef in the freezer. I could make spaghetti.”
The cloud of mistrust lifted for most of them and they answered with a chorus of enthusiastic yeses.
Misty looked at the children and the animals spread around the large room. They were covered in blood and gore and stunk.
“There’s a pool out back if you want to clean your friends up a little. Maybe let them take a swim? Get some of the gunk out of their fur?” she asked hopefully.
“Also, there’s water if any of you would like a shower,” she said. “There’s four bathrooms in this house with body wash, shampoo and conditioner in all of them. The big garden tub in the master bath has a Jacuzzi. How long has it been since you’ve had a hot bath? You need to get cleaned up before you get patched up.”
Vanessa, Analise and Harper looked like they could kiss her and ran for the stairs.
“She’s right.” Harper yelled over her shoulder at the boys. “After you get your animals cleaned up, get all that dirt off of you before you get infected!”
“Dibs on the Jacuzzi,” she hollered up the stairs and she was gone.
“I need to get this smelly strawberry crap out of my hair,” Swan said, acting like she wasn’t all that excited about a hot shower, but she hurried up the stairs, too. She was sticky with blood.
Landon, Clara and Caleb had found some coloring books and crayons as they ran from room to room and were trying to color while the capuchins chattered, fought over the crayons and tried to eat them. Their foxes were still exploring, poking their sensitive nose into corners and hunting the mouse that had left his scent behind.
Tobias sniffed his arm pit, shrugged and relaxed into the deep comfort of the plush sofa. He wasn’t that dirty, he’d clean up in the pool with Popsicle.
Sasha sat at the other end of the sofa and looked over at him. “Thank you,” she said softly.
Tobias was tongue tied and couldn’t respond. She was actually talking to him! He tried to be cool and casual, but his pale skin burned red with embarrassment. He nodded, like vanquishing his enemies and freeing their slaves was no big deal. Just another day at the office, then turned to study the artwork over the fireplace as though a painting of flowers in a vase was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen.
“Who did your tattoos?” she asked, as she took in the ink on the wild boy.
“We did them ourselves.” Tobias said proudly. He flexed his skinny arm to make the Nordic runes stand out.
They were crude, some of them were a little crooked, but Sasha complimented them anyway. She was free for the first time since the end of the world and this savage kid was part of the reason why.
“They aren’t bad. I could get my kit and clean them up some for you if you like.” she offered with a smile.
Tobias studied the ink that covered nearly every inch of her exposed skin. It was flawless. The lines clean and sharp. The colors vibrant and alive. The serpent on her forearm looked as it could strike at any time. Nothing like the crude ink he and his sister had done.
“Did you do those?” he asked.
She nodded. “Some of them, yes.” She pointed to the ones she had inked on herself with pride.
“Ok, but you’ll have to do my sister too,” he said.
“I’d be happy to. I’ll just head over to the old place and get my stuff,” she answered.
“I’ll go with you!” He jumped to his feet. “Just for security and all, since you aren’t armed.”
The older girl smiled at him and led him from the house. Tobias followed her. Admired the sway of her hips and felt mighty satisfied with his life at that moment.
She turned to catch him staring at her backside and winked. “You’re gonna need a bath first, hero. You smell like a wet bear that’s been rolling around in road kill.”
Misty tried to clean Kodiaks and Donny’s cuts and scrapes with peroxide as they waited for the girls to finish their baths and showers. They were taking forever. They sat at the dining room table and stomachs rumbled at the smells coming from the kitchen. The women needed to get to a safe place because they wouldn’t last much longer in Smiths Landing. If the undead kept coming they’d overwhelm the fences and there were already too many to kill.
“Gordon burned down our home.” Kodiak said. “He killed Murray. Our crops and livestock are all gone. We worked all year chopping wood and it burnt up with the house. There’s nothing here for us now and we don’t want to spend another winter up north. We’re going to Lakota, the walled city in Oklahoma. It’s a long way but we can make it.”
Donny nodded in agreement.
“Do you think it’s real?” Misty asked wistfully. “It sounds too good to be true.”
“It’s real.” Kodiak said. “I trust the man who told us about it.”
“I’m in.” Trish said from the kitchen. “I don’t want to stay here. We can all go together.”
Kodiak shook his head. “You have a heavy vehicle and plenty of fuel. We’ll be traveling by foot with the animals. Even if you could drive a semi-truck, I don’t know how we’d move Bert, he’s too tall.”
“But you can’t walk that far!” Misty exclaimed, slapped her hands on the table and leaned forward in her chair. “That’s halfway across the country! What would you eat? What about the zombies? It’s too dangerous! You’re just kids! My God, how old are you, fifteen? Who would take care of you?”
Kodiak stared at her. Grownups never thought kids could do anything but he kept his silence, he’d learned a thing or two from Donny. He let her think about her reaction. It would have been right a year ago. It would have been unthinkable. This wasn’t a year ago, though. She looked back and forth between the two children. Their faces were still painted and drying blood was splashed on their battered armor. They were scarred and both had fresh wounds they ignored. Her eyes filled and threatened to spill over as she really saw who they were for the first time.
Child warriors.
Savage, feral children who had just ran nonstop for thirty miles, had killed a dozen men and injured dozens more to help their friend. They commanded thousand-pound beasts and rode them into battle. Wolves and panthers obeyed them and protected them. They weren’t little kids. They might look like it but they weren’t. They were more grownup than most grownups. Her shoulders slumped and she sat back. The boy was right. They could take care of themselves.
“We can teach you a few things about avoiding the undead,” he continued “but if you stay to the backroads and take turns driving, you won’t have to stop except to refuel.”
“What about the little ones?” Misty asked. “We can take them. You have to agree, they’re too young.”
“She’s right.” Trish said from the kitchen when Kodiak hesitated. “You know she is. We’ll take care of them.”
Landon and Caleb were giggling and chasing after Mr. Ringtail. Elmo clung to his back and chittered happily until the fox ran under the coffee table and knocked him off.
They watched them play and wished they could put the whole episode behind them as easily.
“Maybe.” Kodiak said. “We’ll have to talk about it.”
The girls started trickling back down s
tairs. Harper was the first, her skin glistened and her hair shone after the first real bath any of them had since the world ended. She had on boys’ pajamas a size too big, but he’d never seen her more radiant. She came over and sat by Kodiak. He was suddenly self-conscious about the blood and dirt that covered his own body in front of the freshly scrubbed beauty beside him. Her hair was down and hung limply, water still dripping from the ends and she smelled like cucumbers and strawberries. She took his hand under the table and held it in her own.
Swan bounced down the stairs three at a time and she was almost unrecognizable. She immediately went to her wolves and dropped to her knees, ruffling their fur. It was comical to watch them tilt their heads from side to side as they sniffed her hair, almost as if they didn’t recognize her without a layer of dirt, grime and war paint covering her.
The rest of the girls returned from their baths and started ragging the boys on being so smelly. Analise pushed Tobias out of the way and sat down in front of Sasha when she saw her holding the tattoo gun. “Go bathe and use soap. You don’t want to get an infection.”
“I already told him that, but you know how boys are,” Sasha said with a laugh, and began the process of sharpening the lines and edges of the crude ink that covered the girl’s body. Analise didn’t flinch as the needles pierced her skin. She stuck her tongue at her brother. “Go!”
“You three with me!” Vanessa shouted at the triplets. “Bubble bath in the jacuzzi. Chop chop, right now.”
The food was ready by the time they were all cleaned up. The three women seated the children around the big table and huge bowls of spaghetti were brought out. They were grateful for what the kids had done. Each of them knew they would have died or eventually ended up in the pool if Gordon had won.
The tribe gorged themselves on the meal. Trish kept cooking until they were stuffed and made sure their companions each had a bowlful. She asked about Ziggy and Bert, she had no idea what to prepare for them. Harper and Vanessa assured her the two were just fine as long as the bug and leaf supply held out.
Eyes grew heavy and bellies were full. The adrenaline had worn off and fatigued muscles ached for rest. For the three women, it was the first night of hope they’d known in almost a year. Things were good and they were going to get better.
For the wild children, it was the first night they didn’t have to worry about Gordon anymore. In their fashion, the children drug mattresses and cushions from the bedrooms to the living room and nestled up with their animals. They weren’t too concerned about Gordon’s goons trying anything. Many of them had probably died from their wounds. The tribe hoped so, anyway. Donny and Yewan took the first watch and kept an eye on the fences. Even though this place felt safe, one of them would stand guard while the others slept. It was their way and it had kept them alive all this time.
41
Goodbye
They awakened the next morning to the smell of reconstituted powdered eggs, pancakes and warm maple syrup. Swan was the first to the table. She had last watch and was back in her armor and war paint. She felt naked without it and wanted to make sure any of Gordon’s gang hiding in the shadows knew who she was.
The others drifted in, wiped the sleep from their eyes and feasted on the breakfast Trish had prepared. Their clothes were clean, actually washed in a machine and dried with softening sheets. Otis sniffed at the twins and sneezed.
“Sorry, there wasn’t any bacon or sausage in the freezer to go with it,” she said. “There hasn’t been any since the outbreak.”
They didn’t know how lucky they were that it had all been eaten. The infected breakfast meats were why every time the residents of Smith’s Landing thought they had the virus eradicated inside the walls, another family would turn.
The day was spent showing the women defensive moves with weapons scrounged from the slaughterhouse. They couldn’t get in the gun safe, the secret combination died with Gordon. When Kodiak and Donny entered the big house, they surprised some of the older boys scavenging through the kitchen. They were ragged and unarmed, badly bandaged wounds seeped blood and their eyes grew wide when they saw the children. They backed slowly for the door and ran as soon as they cleared it.
Storage sheds, basements and closets were ransacked and a collection of shin guards and pads became improvised armor for the women. They should be able to drive straight through, only stopping to top off the fuel, but Kodiak wanted them prepared for anything that might happen on the road.
The day went by too fast and after another meal of steak and lobster from Gordy’s private stores, the group sat scattered around the living room and shared hopes of what Lakota would be like. They’d put the battle behind them, it was the past and they were focused on the future. No one would shed a tear over Gordon or his gang.
Swan volunteered for first guard watch and Kodiak was annoyed when he woke sometime in the middle of the night. She hadn’t got him up for his shift. He threw his clothes and armor on then stormed out, he was going to give her a reaming if she fell asleep. Didn’t she know how dangerous it was? There were zombies at the gate and Gordon’s men were still out there. They were beaten but they could still be dangerous. He stomped out to the end of the driveway when he didn’t spot her snoring away on the porch and glared in both directions. The clouds were heavy as they moved across the night sky, the moon was hidden and the stars were spotty.
“Looking for me?” Swan asked and a black figure stepped out of even blacker shadows, her wolves silent beside her.
“You didn’t wake me up,” he said.
“Wasn’t sleepy.” She answered curtly. “Go on back inside. I’ll let you know when I am.”
“Okay,” he said. He knew not to argue when she was in one of her moods. “But wake me up as soon as you get tired. There’s still a few of Gordon’s men hiding out.”
“Not as many as before,” she said under her breath when he was out of earshot.
She wiped the gore from her tomahawks and reached down to scratch Zero behind the ears. His muzzle was also wet with blood.
The next morning there were arguments, tears and tantrums. The triplets didn’t want to go with the women, they wanted to stay with the tribe. They finally agreed when Kodiak told them he really didn’t want them to go, the tribe could really, really use their help but what about Mr. Ringtail and the rest of the foxes? They couldn’t keep up. Their poor little paws couldn’t take it. They had to ride in the car and he needed the triplets to keep them safe.
Harper hunkered down to their level.
“The ladies are nice, but can they be trusted to take care of your foxes or Murray’s monkeys?” she asked. “They don’t even know what to feed them. What if Mr. Ringtail or Kuma Lisa run off and get lost? You have to take care of them, they need you.”
The triplets reluctantly agreed and started gathering fox food to add to the already loaded Hummer.
“I’m gonna miss those little boogers.” Tobias said. “it’ll be months before we see them again.”
“They deserve a chance at a normal life.” Kodiak replied. “they need to be with other kids.”
He didn’t need to add that their journey would be a lot more dangerous than the car ride.
The Hummer was pretty full with three women, three children, three foxes and three monkeys but they would be okay. They could be there in a few days. They went out of the back gate and left it standing wide open. The little kids waved until they were out of sight, then the tribe turned south, back towards the zoo.
42
Lakota Bound
They stood in the shade of the tree where Murray rested. It was a peaceful spot that overlooked the river and fresh flowers were laid on the cairn. They had spent the morning at the grave, reminiscing and telling stories while Donny worked with the chisels to carve a headstone. It was simple but it said a lot.
Murray Sanders
Brother
Friend
Hero
“We just wanted you to know that Gordon ha
s been dealt with and he’ll never hurt anyone again.” Harper said. “You’d be proud of us, we saved some girls and they’re on their way to Lakota with the triplets. Elmo, China and Ernie, too. We’re going, so this is the last time we’ll be stopping by. We miss you every minute of every day and we’ll never forget you.”
Swan and her wolves were the last ones to leave the grave as the procession started the long walk to Lakota. When they faded out of sight, she pulled Gordon’s bloody scalp from the inside of her hyena cloak and dropped it next to the flowers.
“Proof,” she said. “That bastard died hard. Broken, bleeding and crying.”
She didn’t have to hurry to catch up, the bears were slow. They left the gate open for Millie, she could follow if she wanted. If not, the old rhino would be fine. Like the children, she could take care of herself.
Epilogue
Diablo sniffed at the bloody piece of hair on the stones by the river. It had his brothers’ smell on it. It also had hers, the human child with the steel claws who had taken Demonio from him. The wolf girl who had slashed his shoulder, torn his mouth and split his tongue. Pus oozed from the infection in the roof of his mouth where her tomahawk had cut him. He raised his fanged maw and cried out his barking hyena laugh. The pack of followers answered with chitters, grunts, howls and hisses.
The child would be easy to follow, her scent was strong.
Afterword
The Feral Children will return in The Feral Children 3: Nomads
Author’s Note from Wesley:
If you are still reading, then you’re probably mad about Murray and Sage and glad that Bert and Gordon finally resolved their differences. I hope you are as excited as I am about what comes next for our heroes. Don’t worry, we’ll be working hard on the next story very soon!
There’s a lot of miles left to travel on the Zombie Road and I’m thrilled to be here. From a last minute submission in the Long Haul Anthology, to having my characters from that story incorporated into the main storyline, writing the fan club Christmas story, having a shady Colonel named after me and finally, being asked to co-author the Feral Children, it’s been one wild ride. That brings me to the people who made it happen.
The Feral Children (Book 2): Savages Page 23