The Rising

by Eli Constant

  Like the fact that if we didn’t stay here in this safe place, then I might not get another glorious meal like the one I’d just eaten.

  After serving Marty, Hunter piled two steaks on a second plate and started cutting huge chunks. “So, y’all are headed to Albuquerque Station near Kirkland?”

  “That’s right,” AJ said, taking a drink of water.

  Ice water. It’s something I’d really taken for granted before this all happened. I was never a fan of room temp.

  “Last we heard, they were still up and running. Kirkland Base. Rich Jones has a cousin there. Got a call through before the cells stopped working. Not sure about the station, though.” Hunter talked around a mouthful of steak. It was juicy, liquid pushing from between his lips to dribble down his chin and cling to the ends of his handlebar mustache.

  “That’s good news,” AJ spoke again, looking at Juan for a moment. He gave her a small smile of encouragement.

  It was then that I really noticed a spark between them. Just a little smoldering beneath the layers of self-protection they were both wearing.

  I knew something had changed between Juan and me. It’s trite sounding, but the experience at the truck stop had…altered my perspective on the world and on myself. Shit, like killer kids and fighting for my life wasn’t enough to do that. Perhaps I’d already started changing ever since Izzy and Sam and fleeing my shop. The truckers had just been the final nail in the coffin. They’d forced me to realize that I couldn’t be the same person I was in regular life. Here, now, I had to be tougher and smarter.

  Yet, if I was honest with myself, I knew that wasn’t the real reason that I looked at Juan differently.

  He wasn’t able to protect me. He hadn’t protected me.

  How bad is that? How totally crappy is it that I somewhat blame him for what happened to me?

  I’d always looked at him as this invincible, rock-solid man who’d be my knight in shining armor if we were dating. I’d fantasized about getting mugged after a movie and him using his ninja skills on the bad guy to get back my fancy purse whilst also protecting my honor. He’d have knocked the attacker senseless, called the police, and then whisked me into his arms for a deep, romance-book kiss.

  But that was a dream. That was a concoction in my mind that took on a life of its own. Maybe that’s why I’d never asked him out. Maybe I didn’t want the reality of him to ruin the fantasy.

  God, I’m so fucked up. No wonder I’m single, overweight, and generally unsuited for surviving. Escaping town alive was a total fluke.

  I’d dropped off into my own thoughts for a while, but I came back to my surroundings now. Hunter seemed to be relaying his story; how he’d survived and gotten this makeshift fort established.

  “…the folks here were at my retirement ceremony at the courthouse when the outbreak started. Except for the Stevensons over there at the coffee bar and a large family of fifteen that were far enough out of town to escape the initial wave. That family, the Gilmores, owned the ranches where the cattle came from. Anyway, the virus or whatever the hell it was, hit us hard and fast. Seemed to break out all over town at the same time. Damn brush fire from hell. Del Rio had almost 35,000 people when it started. I figure about 1,000 made it out of town.”

  “Only a thousand,” I forced the words out and they dropped like lead weights from my lips to the ground. They laid there like shadows, not letting me forget that 34,000 people probably died. Or…became those undead things. That did make me wonder…beyond this homemade compound was like a ghost town. A few smoldering pyres. Not nearly enough to indicate the disposal of 34,000 people. So where were they? Where were the child monsters and their adult counterparts?

  AJ and Juan didn’t say anything. They both looked at Hunter, but also did not look at him. They looked through him, like he was the ghost of a man who couldn’t have possibly survived the carnage. Only Marty seemed immune to the Texan’s story, continuing to plow through the steak like he had a second stomach.

  “Yeah. Don’t think the gravity of that hasn’t settled on me a time or two,” Hunter replied to me, even though what I said wasn’t actually a question. “Fortunately for us, almost everybody at the ceremony was packing. Lot of law enforcement, couple retired military where there, even some typical Texas homeboys concealing. By the time we knew there was a problem, there was screaming and chaos throughout the whole town. Bill Cody was a good friend …”

  “Was?” I asked, before I could stop myself. I knew what ‘was’ meant. I didn’t need him to voice the obvious.

  “Bill didn’t make it.” Hunter’s voice didn’t tremble. It didn’t break down. There was barely a hint of sadness. I didn’t know him well enough to know whether that was just a front. “But he put up a good show and got us the fork we used at the last stand. He owned a heavy-equipment rental place right down the street from where we were. Was his idea to pull the wagon train stunt with cars.”

  “Smart move. Sorry to hear that he’s gone.” AJ reached across the table and touched Hunter’s forearm. It was only for a moment and then she leaned away again. There was a vibe to it; one that I didn’t feel like I could really relate to. They both spent their life in service relying on a brotherhood. I’d spent my life organizing racks of kids clothing and redesigning my store windows. Real world saver I was.

  But I did have a sisterhood of sorts. I had Susan. And she had me. I loved her.

  And I missed her like crazy.

  “Bill was a good man.” Hunter took a big bite of steak and continued the story, forming the words around the meat as he chewed. “He stood on top of the fork lift with it raised, sort of like our own watch tower. Cracker jack shot, took one out from a hundred and thirty yards away. And, damn, those things are fast as hell.”

  “Fast as hell is an understatement,” AJ sighed, shifting in her chair and crossing her arms over.

  “Think you and I are gonna have to swap some war stories, AJ.” Hunter looked at her, one eyebrow crooked up.

  “I’m sure nothing I say could surprise you.”

  Hunter chortled at that, rocking his head back, the wrinkles in his face coming to stark life like the Grand Canyon across his skin. “That might be a fact.”

  “What happened after your wagon train move with the cars?” Juan was playing with his glass on the table, tipping it side to side to make the ice clink against the inner walls.

  “We tried to save people. Call it an innate law habit. Useless though. Too much chaos. I’ve been in the center of a lot of storms, but nothing like this. We fell back pretty fast, leaving Bill and a few others to buy us time to set up the next barricade. After a while, after we’d killed a bunch of the bastards…they started leaving. Don’t ask me why. We couldn’t have lasted forever, but maybe they didn’t know that. Who the hell knows what those things are able to process and think now.”

  “They seem smart to me,” Marty mumbled around a second plate of dessert. He’d picked a slice of what looked like peach pie this time. I’d have to remember that he liked fruity sweets.

  “I tend to agree with you, son, but we can’t be sure.”

  “So, they left? Just like that?” I moved a few remnants of cake around on my plate. I’d so blown my diet. Then again, we’d been on the move, eating very little. Shit, maybe I’d lost a few pounds. And I hadn’t had to drink any damn chalky shakes.

  “Just like that.” Hunter pushed his plate away and leaned back in his chair. “Martha’s going to bring out that mac and cheese and I’m going to be stuffed to the gills already.”

  I don’t know if it was just me hearing it, maybe my mind playing tricks on me, but I heard a false note in Hunter’s voice for the first time since meeting him. It was possible that recent experiences had left me a little less inclined to trust strangers, or maybe Hunter was hiding something.

  “So, anyway, we made it to the bridge. Over a hundred of us to start and the rest we’ve picked up along the way. We lost fifty-six people trying to establish this place. A few
outlying monsters that didn’t get the evacuation memo. Ran out ammo for a while, but was able to salvage more across town. Damn sight more effective than nine irons and putters, but that’s about all the country club had in the way of weapons.” Hunter broke out into a smile at the sight of Martha pushing through the double doors and into the dining room.

  “Think this mac and cheese takes me longer every time I make it,” Martha spoke with a smile in her voice, all light and life. She put me at ease. Hunter had also, up until my gut had twisted and my imagination had started hearing falseness in his voice.

  “The day you can’t make it anymore, is the day we finally divorce, sugar lips.”

  “The day we divorce is the day I plant your tired old butt in the ground.”

  “You better not live long without me.” Hunter tickled Martha’s side gently as she bent in front of him to set the large mac and cheese bowl down.

  “I don’t plan to,” she replied, leaning over and kissing his forehead.

  They were too sweet. Too affectionate.

  It almost felt practiced to me now.

  “Everything seems so calm here now. Like nothing’s gone wrong.” I felt my stomach rumble at the new smell of the mac and cheese, even though I knew I couldn’t be hungry.

  “Biggest excitement has been the Gilmore’s prize Brahman getting loose and making it into the pro golf shop. Damn funniest thing I’ve ever seen.” Hunter’s chuckle was deep, this time genuine-sounding. Honest. Maybe my mind was just dicking with me. He was a good person. This was a good place.

  Not everyone was going to be like those truckers.

  “I could do with that version of excitement versus what I’ve experienced lately.” AJ had her arms crossed, looking as casually beautiful as a model on the cover of Vogue. She was really too damn pretty to be what she was. It bugged me.

  Probably because I felt inferior.

  “On that note,” Hunter concluded, chewing a mouthful of macaroni, “you still wanting to head down the road or you feel like settling?”

  AJ, Juan, Marty, and I stayed quiet. We looked at each other, around the room. We thought. AJ was the one to speak. And I didn’t like that she was the one to voice some sort of decision for the rest of us. She hadn’t been with us since the beginning; she didn’t get to come in and just become the leader because she was a government employee.

  “Offers tempting Hunter, but we need to head on and figure out the big picture. And I want to find my partner’s wife and kids. I want to know if they’re alive and, if they are, I want to make sure they stay that way. I owe him that.” AJ sounded sure.

  But, dammit, I wasn’t.

  My best friend was sailing towards God-knows-where. I took responsibility for Marty. Juan was supposed to be our protector. We didn’t have any reason to go to Albuquerque.

  “Why couldn’t we stay here, Juan?” I looked at him as I said it and he looked at me.

  But then his gaze flicked to AJ. He looked to her to help him decide how to respond to me. And that was it.

  The final indication that there was no spark left.

  “I think AJ’s right, Sherry,” Juan spoke slowly, looking at me again. I could see the way his eyes were tensed around the edges. He knew what I now knew. It wasn’t just me that had changed over the days since fleeing town, since the truck stop. He had too.

  “Think about Marty. Think about how safe he’d be here. We don’t have anyone where AJ wants to go. We were just heading with her, because she somehow became our de facto leader.” I didn’t want to argue, but I had to. I had to. Here we were, in a relative paradise placed right in an inferno, and Juan didn’t even want to consider staying.

  “She saved our lives, Sherry. She’s helped you learn how to better handle yourself. We should stay with her and support her. We’ll keep each other safe.”

  “Juan, I—”

  “Please don’t fight,” Marty’s voice was timid. “You guys shouldn’t fight.”

  I had flashbacks to the marina, to arguing with Juan and upsetting Marty. What followed felt like the exact same apologies from me and Juan.

  A few minutes of awkward silence followed our apologies to the boy until Hunter filled it. I was grateful he did.

  “Well, if that’s your decision, you might as well bypass the base. Haven’t heard hide nor hair from them since they lost the roadblock a few miles up the road. We found it while we were collecting supplies. Borrowed a few of them fancy black rifles from the dead and took out a couple of them undead freaks while we were at it. Looked like they got hit hard from the rear and never saw it coming. We didn’t explore more, figured the base was wiped out. Lot of families up that way. Lot of kids.” Hunter stood up. Martha was standing behind him, hands in her pockets, hidden beneath her lace apron.

  “We passed that roadblock. Unless there was a second one. Had to go around it through town to try and circle back,” AJ gripped her left shoulder with her right hand in a half hug as she spoke.

  “That’d be the one,” Hank confirmed with a slow nod of his head.

  “I wonder how other bases have fared.” AJ didn’t say it like a question, more of a voiced thought. “I worry that if our military forces are down, other countries might smell the vulnerability on us. I don’t know how far this thing has spread. If other powers are still operational, still untouched…”

  “Hadn’t really thought about that,” Hunter said, his face looking thoughtful, “but, I tell you, if the US has it this bad, I reckon most places do.”

  “If it’s vaccines, we definitely aren’t the only ones going through this,” I said, something dawning on me for the first time. Everyone turned to me and I was a bit offended that they’d look so surprised that I might know something they didn’t. I explained further. “Susan, my best friend, used to say that the global vaccine market was like a spider web. Exporting here, importing there. Low income countries would corner the market on vaccines that didn’t cost a lot to manufacture. They stayed out of the research game, sending out their product at whatever cost. It’s like us sending our meats out to China and then buying their meats at a higher price. Economies supporting economies and, in the end, it’s the consumer that suffers. Organizations like UNICEF get their vaccines from everywhere. A kid in Uganda could be getting the same thing our kids got. A kid in any third world country could have been injected with the same stuff by a good Samaritan. Someone could trace this, find out all the patient zeroes all over the world and link the manufacturer. But, I’d bet anything that the majority of the world is living through just what we are right now.”

  “You aren’t just a pretty thing now are you, girl?” Hunter was looking at me with an appraising eye. All I’d heard was that he called me pretty. Grade A loser beef, I was.

  “Thank my friend Susan for the knowledge, not me,” I mumbled.

  Hunter was going to say something else, but Juan cut in. “Hunter, would it be alright to stay a day or two while we plan. We can bunk in the RV and we’ve got our own food.”

  “Y’all stay as long as you like. More than a few days and we’ll put you to work, though. Fair warning. Breakfast is at 6am, unless you’d really rather eat whatever canned shit you’ve grabbed on the road instead of my Martha’s cooking.” He moved back a fraction and put his arm around Martha again. They were the perfect picture of long term marital bliss, so why did I keep getting an odd feeling every time I looked at them now? “Hell, maybe you’ll get comfortable and choose to stay.” Hunter looked at me when he said it. I think he was feeling sympathetic that I was the weaker chain in my group, destined to be dragged around the country with decisions made for me.

  I didn’t like being pitied.

  “Thanks, Hunter. You’re really good people.” AJ smiled, standing up and patting her stomach. “I wouldn’t mind a few more days of that food.”

  “Well, duty calls. And not exactly the duty I’m most looking forward to,” Hunter let his arm lower against Martha’s back and he must have pinched her butt or so
mething, because she jumped a little and giggled. The high school sweethearts at it again. “You folks can leave the RV where it’s parked. Just come in here and let Martha know if you need something.”

  “Thanks so much, Hunter.” Juan reached out his hand to Hunter and they shook, a good solid up and down of firm grips.

  I watched as the retired Ranger walked away from the table and a gun in a leather holster caught my eyes for the first time. It was gold-plated with ivory grips as white as a Hollywood actor’s teeth. It glinted in the bright lights beaming down from the overhead lights in the ritzy club house. AJ had taught me enough to know that the gun was a working one, not just for show. The hammer was locked back and ready to fire. He paused before walking out of the door to talk to another survivor, a bearded man that was as tall as he was wide.

  Standing there, his face relaxed in conversation, his hand rested on the grip of the gun. Like, even in a casual setting, he was ready.

  AJ would say that was his training. A tough Ranger always at the ready.

  But to me, there was something else there.

  Back in the RV, I waited until AJ had gone into the bathroom to say something to Juan about my misgivings. “Juan, don’t you think this place is…a little too perfect?”

  “I think they’ve worked hard to make it that way, to keep the ugly shit out.” Juan was sitting on the couch, Marty already dozing next to him. He’d kept saying how full his tummy was and how good that felt. It was sweet and also a little gut-wrenching. I wanted him to have enough food all the time. To be able to raid a fridge and munch away like a trash compacter. To be able to eat like a growing boy should.

  “It doesn’t feel right to me, Juan.”

  “Sherry, you’re the one who wanted to stay here. You even started arguing with me in front of Hunter and everyone else eating in there.” He lifted his hand and indicated the club house that we could actually see from where we sat in the motor home.

  “Yeah, I know. This would be nice. I want to stay here. I want to keep Marty safe, but this still feels weird. Hunter says the zombie kids and adults just toddled off into the sunset. Just like that. They saw enough of their buddy monsters die that they hit the trail,” I walked my fingers across my thighs, my knees too high to the ceiling because my thighs were too thick to sit cross-legged properly.