Eli backed away and climbed down the closest ladder as Karen Gray, Robert Lassiter, and several other men crowded around him.
“Do you think these are the marauders we’ve had to deal with before?” Karen asked.
“I have no idea,” Eli said.
“It’s got to be them,” Lassiter said. “Who else could survive out there and come through this strong?”
“We’ll know when Don gets the prisoner here,” Eli said. When he looked up from Karen, he saw that very thing happening.
Don was thirty feet away, pushing a tall and broad man with dark brown hair in front of him. The man’s name was Austin, and it was clear that his hands were tied behind his back.
Del and Jo had taken him hostage after a shootout on the road to the Sanctum. It took a lot of persuading to keep him alive as Donovan’s people wanted him dead. Some of the men in the attack with Austin had killed one of their own. Cooler heads had prevailed, and they had taken Austin as a potential bargaining chip.
Fortunately, they hadn’t had to cash in that chip, but that meant that Austin came along for the ride. For a while, they had basically forgotten him, but it was in that moment that he might be worth something.
“What the hell do you want from me?” Austin said as Don shoved him along.
Jo and Del went to meet him. Del looked down from the wall at Austin and said, “Remember us?”
Austin scowled up at Del, but that’s all he could do.
“Don, we need him up here,” Eli said.
Austin made a show of pivoting to display his bound hands.
“I ain’t climbing a ladder with my hands behind my back,” Austin said.
“You’re lucky we don’t put a noose around your neck to yank you up here,” Mason said.
Donovan shot Mason a heated stare, and Mason remained quiet.
“Cut him loose, Don,” Eli said.
Don’s brows furrowed for a moment or two, but he pulled a long hunting knife from the sheath on his belt and said, “You try anything, and I’ll use this for more things than cutting a rope.”
“Whatever,” Austin said and waited as Don expertly cut through the rope.
Austin rubbed his wrists and looked to Eli and asked, “What do you need me for?
“I think we may have some of your old friends up here,” Eli said. “We just want to make sure.”
“I’m not sure I have any friends anymore,” Austin said.
“Get up here and find out,” Eli said.
Austin grabbed a rung on the ladder and started to pull himself up. Mason moved to the opposite of the ladder to greet Austin when he made it to the top and then led him over to Eli, Jo, and Del.
As soon as Austin came into view, the man standing beside the SUV shouted, “Austin!”
Austin’s shoulder slumped a little, and he said, “I don’t know that guy.”
“How the hell does he know your name, then?” Mason asked.
The man shouted again, “Austin, we thought you ran out on us.”
“They seemed to know you,” Eli said.
“I ran up against him and his men on the road,” Austin said.
Jo stepped into the narrow space on the scaffold near Austin. “You know what I think? I think you’re bullshitting us because you don’t want us to give you over to them. Maybe it’s an old grudge, or maybe you like your odds inside these walls.”
“They were a nasty lot of people,” Austin replied. “I had to join up with them.”
“What’s your real story?” Del asked from a few feet away. “First, you don’t know them, then they made you be in their gang. When we came across you, you didn’t look to be all that unhappy. In fact, you were about to kill me and Jo.”
“Enough!” Eli said, his voice sharp, and he turned toward the vehicles outside the wall. “Was this man with you?”
“He sure as shit was,” the man said with a broad smile.
Del whispered, “Well, at least that bullshit is wiped off the table.”
“Let’s cut to it,” Eli shouted to the man beside the SUV. “We know who you are and what you’ve been up to. You’ve been terrorizing anyone who drives on the roads in this area and taking what you want from them. We have people in here who have had runs in with you and your people. We don’t have room inside these walls for the likes of you.”
“Hey, I already said, we can help you out,” the man said, and there was a pleading tone to his voice. “We know what’s headed this way and can help you fight it.”
“No deal,” Eli said. “After we survive what’s coming this way, we know you can’t be trusted. Let’s just not go there in the first place.”
The man put his hands on his hips, and it was easy to see he was contemplating his options.
It took him a few seconds as he looked down at the ground, but when he looked back up, he asked, “What if we just decide to force our way in? We’re a lot more crafty than the dead, you know.”
“You don’t want to do that,” Eli said. “This place is a fortress, and with what is coming, we have people with guns to cover every angle. You won’t win.”
“What if we try?” The man asked as he cocked his head defiantly.
“Then you will just waste ammo and men,” Eli said. “Both of which you will need to defend yourself against what is coming.”
Again, the man stared contemplatively for a long five seconds, then he said, “Well, you’re just a real son of a bitch, now aren’t you?”
“I’m a helluva a lot nicer than you and your people. I think if our positions were reversed, you’d just gun us down. Consider us not doing that to you as a token of our generosity.”
The man sucked in a long breath, let it out, and then yelled in the direction of his caravan of vehicles, “Let’s head out.” He stuck a hand in the air and twirled it around.
“What about him?” Jo asked, looking at Austin.
Almost unnoticed by the others, Mason slid by Eli and Jo, getting in behind Austin.
Austin’s eyes went wide, and he blurted out, “I want to stay here.”
“Sure you do,” Del said. “Where it is safe.”
“I say the hell with that,” Mason said as he placed his hands against Austin’s back and shoved him over the short lip of the wall. From below, Karen Gray let out a gasp.
Austin let out an abbreviated yell that was cut off when his body hit the ground below with a hollow thud.
Donovan said, “We could have used him.” He did not try to disguise his anger.
“Fuck him,” Mason said. “He’s the reason Terry is dead.” He turned away and walked down the scaffolding and away from the group.
It took several seconds for Austin to recover from the fall, and when he got to his feet, he looked a little shaky, wobbling back and forth while holding his shoulder. He looked up to the wall with panic in his eyes and then to the caravan, slowly driving away.
Del said, “You’d better get going now, or else you’ll never catch them.”
Austin’s head jerked back and forth, looking up to the top of the wall and back to the caravan. It took him five seconds to get the message as he started at a slow trot to catch up to the backend of the caravan. Within ten steps, he broke into a run as he shouted for the caravan to stop.
The people on the wall watched him until he disappeared from view. No one knew if the caravan stopped for him, and really, they did not care. All they knew was that he did not come back.
Chapter 12
Coalition Building
“We have got to see if we can get those people inside the walls,” Molly said.
“Don’t you ever let up?” Henry said as they moved along one of the side streets inside the Sanctum. There was very little activity along the street as most of the people were at the walls.
“They are toast out there if that horde swarms this place,” Molly said. “You were out there, and you know that.”
“And Eli is not changing his stance on letting those people back inside the walls.
”
Two men pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks huffed and puffed as they passed in front of Molly and Henry. The men’s faces were red from the effort, and each of them grunted like farm animals.
“Since when did we have to listen to him?” Molly asked.
“Since they let us stay here, safe and secure,” Henry responded.
“Yeah, we are, but those people outside the walls are screwed.”
Up until that moment, they had been walking aimlessly with Henry just wanting to get Molly away from the scientists and the smart zombie, but he suddenly picked up that Molly had a destination. They were heading toward the front of the Sanctum.
“Wait a second,” Henry said. “Are you taking us toward the front gate?”
“Well, yeah,” she said, shaking her head as if Henry were dense.
“Eli says they are safe out there,” he said.
“Then why doesn’t Eli and his men volunteer to take their place?” She asked and paused, then said, “Check and checkmate. Geez, Henry, you can be thick?”
“But what can we do?” He asked, his voice rising. “We risked our lives by going out there, and nothing has changed.”
“We have to convince Eli that those people need to be brought inside the walls,” Molly said.
“How the hell do we do that?”
Molly skidded to a stop so fast that Henry nearly collided with her.
She slowly turned toward him, her eyes narrowed and shaking her head, “Tsk, tsk, Henry. You don’t know anything about politics, do you?”
“What?” Henry said, tilting his head.
“You have to build a coalition,” she said.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
She looked at him slyly and said, “We have an important and influential set of new players in the game now. We just have to convince them to be on our side.”
“Who are you talking about?”
“Just follow me,” she said as she turned away from Henry and started marching toward the front gate.
Five minutes later, they had threaded their way through the chaos of movement near the front gate. People swarmed in and out of the area, carrying weapons, tools, and pieces of lumber. A sense of urgency pulsed in the air in an almost palpable way.
“You know this guy better than me,” Molly said. “Help me pick him out.”
“Well, he’s on crutches, so he’ll stick out,” Henry said.
As he scanned the crowds around the front gate, he spotted Jo and Del climbing down from the scaffolding that sat inside the wall.
Henry reached out and tugged at Molly’s arm, then said, “Come with me.”
They navigated through and around the people surging into and out of the area. As they got close to Jo and Del, Henry let out a half-shout, “Jo, Del.”
Despite the swarm of people, the two duets were able to cut a path to meet.
Jo put out her arms and enveloped Henry in them. “It’s good to see you, Henry.” When she broke the embrace, she stepped away and said, “It’s been less than a day, but it sure feels like years.”
“You’re telling me,” Henry said.
“What’s going on with the smart zombie?” Del asked.
Molly took that as her cue to speak. “The scientists are doing all their voodoo science shit on him.”
Del raised an eyebrow and then asked, “Are they learning anything?”
“Not much, other than he is a nasty little fucker,” Molly said.
Del turned his attention on Henry and asked, “Anything useful?”
Henry let out a breath and said, “He’s pretty much like the undead in a lot of ways. Impervious to pain, but he kept his intellect. Oh yeah, he’s strong as hell.”
“That’s stuff we already know,” Jo said.
“Those two mad scientists are going to work their dark magic on him to see what might work,” Molly said. “They said they were going to try different poisons, then gases and nerve agents. They’re pulling out all the stops and seem to be enjoying themselves. If you ask me, they’re really just a couple of ghouls about to get their rocks off torturing that thing. Not that it bothers me.”
Two men carrying long pieces of lumber bisecting the little gathering, and after they passed, Jo asked, “Then why are you two here?”
Henry nodded toward Molly and said, “Somebody needed some distance from the smart zombie.”
Molly lowered her eyebrows and shot Henry a scowl. “What are you saying?”
Again, Henry sucked in a long breath and let it out. He took a step closer to Del and Jo and lowered his voice. “We’re not here about the smart zombie. We want to talk about getting the people outside the walls inside before the horde gets here.”
Jo closed her eyes. This wasn't something she wanted to take on but knew it was unavoidable. About a third of their people had been shuttled to the outside dormitory. While they weren’t deemed expendable, putting them outside the protective walls pretty much said that they were. While Eli continually said the dormitory was hardened against attack, that was based on the assumption that they would be facing run-of-the-mill zombies and not smart zombies. The last encounter with this smart zombie proved that the dormitory wasn’t as safe as people would like.
Plus, no one knew how long the horde might remain in the area. If they came to stay, all bets were off. That is if any of them survived the first wave.
The last thing Jo knew was that Molly would never let this go. She could get on your nerves, but Jo liked something about her defiance of authority, but Jo admitted that might say more about her than Molly.
“Eli isn’t going to want to hear this?” Jo said. “Not now.”
“There might not be another time if that horde arrives and kills everyone in that place,” Molly said, spreading her legs out and putting her hands on her hips.
“Molly does have a point there,” Del said.
“Listen, you guys almost died out there,” Jo said. “We can’t risk you being sent out there again if you rile Eli up another time.”
“Why does he have all the say?” Molly asked.
“Well, because we are guests here,” Jo replied.
“I’d say we are a lot more than guests here,” Molly said. “We are allies and damned important ones. If we decided to pull out, they would be overrun.”
“And we would be dead, too,” Del said. “That doesn’t work for me and anyone else we know.”
“You guys are forgetting that we have more power here than you’re giving us credit,” Molly said. “We have an important new political block on board.”
“I’m thinking you spent too much time in civics class,” Del said. “This is the real world with all the chips on the table.”
“Yes, they are all out, but they are all out for everyone,” Molly shot back. “More for the poor bastards outside in that dormitory than for anyone. We need to force their hands.”
By then, Molly’s voice had risen in volume and in pitch, and her face was filled with color.
“Keep it down,” Jo said, taking a glance up to where Eli stood on the wall. When she looked back to Molly, she asked, “How?”
Henry put a hopefully calming hand on Molly’s shoulder and said, “We need to ask Sergeant Jones and his soldiers to weigh in. I’m certain that they’ll come down on our side.” Henry focused on Jo and said, “You know him better than any of us. What do you think?”
Jo considered Henry’s question for several seconds and said, “I think you’re right, but I’m not sure that will change Eli’s mind.”
“You’re getting that wrong,” Molly said. “We shouldn’t worry about him. We need to convince Karen Gray.”
Once again, Henry and Molly pushed their way through the pulsing crowd of people, only this time, Jo and Del were with them. Sergeant Jones’ men had taken up a temporary camp in a grassy mall between two of the large halls north of the main entrance. The space was necessary for the two helicopters and all of their military vehicles. The larger vehic
les, including the fuel trucks had to be placed on the perimeter of the Sanctum, close to the north wall.
Sergeant Jones sat with the helicopter pilot, Garver, having an in-depth conversation when he spotted the quartet of people headed his way. Everything in his expression said that he saw trouble coming. Had he not been on crutches, he might have made a run for it, but, as it was, he had to just wait for trouble to come to him.
“Sergeant Jones,” Jo said, “Could we have a moment of your time?”
Jones' expression was that of a man who had just eaten an entire lemon.
“What do you need? He asked, then added, “Make it fast. We’re getting ready to go up in one of the choppers to get a status update on the horde.”
“Okay,” Jo said, “I’ll cut through it. As you know, there’s a contingent of the population that is in a dorm outside the walls. We feel they are at risk with what is headed our way.”
“And what do you want me to do about it?” Jones asked, and it was easy to see that he was annoyed with being brought into this whole matter.
Jo gauged his expression for any clue that he might be open to what she was about to ask, but she saw a poker face looking back at her. Just as she was about to speak, Molly stepped in front of her.
“We want you to go with us to convince Karen Gray that we need to move those people inside, or else all the fucking zombies headed our way will kill them,” Molly said. He stared back impassively, but to her credit, she didn’t blink.
Jones brought up a hand and rubbed it across his shaved head, then held Molly in a hard stare for several seconds before he responded. “You know, like you, we are guests here. Karen and Eli allowed us to come in and land here. They provided us safety.”
“But, the people outside are totally screwed!” Molly said. “We need your help. Between your group and ours, we match what they have, and with the hardware you and your soldiers brought, that tips the scales in our favor -- big time.”
“So, we’re going to war with our allies?” Jones said as he narrowed his eyes and fixed them on Molly. “We’re going to fight people we’re going to need to help us survive the shitstorm coming our way.”
It was Molly’s turn to blink. “Well, I...I...thought...well, we have to do something, but I’m not saying we have to go to war with them. I just thought we could talk to them.”
The Deadland Chronicles | Book 4 | Siege of the Dead: Page 6