by Tracey Ward
“Jordan,” Alissa says firmly, pulling me out of my thoughts, “just come and see. Give it a chance. It doesn’t exactly sound like they take you prisoner once you’re there. We can go in, find out what the deal is with this place and if it’s not something you feel good about we’ll tell them you’re a troublemaker and they’ll toss you out on your rear.”
I grin. “Ear.”
“I’m pretty sure it said ‘rear’.”
“Ear.”
“Whatever body part you want tossing out on,” she says with a smile. “Give it a look. Just a look. No commitment.”
I groan. “It’s the walls all over again.”
“I know. We have to compromise again. Checking it out, that’s the boathouse.”
“I miss the boathouse.”
“You hated the boathouse.”
“It was better than this.”
“Compromise,” she growls at me.
I groan again, not looking at her.
“The aisle in the sporting goods store was my favorite,” she tells me gently, bringing my eyes back to her. “I haven’t slept that well in years.”
“Yeah,” I agree, rubbing my hand over my burning eyes. “I’m not sleeping so well now.”
“I know.”
I frown at her. “How do you know?”
She steps forward, invading my space. “I can see it right here.” She gently touches the space between my eyebrows. “It pinches when you have the nightmare.”
I stare down at her, my breathing going shallow. “I’ve been having it a lot lately.”
“I know. You need to rest. Really rest. We all do. It doesn’t have to be forever, but let’s give it a shot at being just for now.”
I roll my head back on my neck, stretching out my tense, exhausted muscles. I think of how nice it would be to get a break from everything. From Syd, the RV, even Alissa. We’re all together all day every day. I’d like them and myself more if we had some distance.
“Alright,” I agree on a sigh. “Let’s check it out.”
Alissa smiles brilliantly. “Do you think they’ll have working bathrooms?”
I chuckle. “Fifty at least.”
“Can you imagine all that running water? I bet it sounds like a symphony.”
“Bach would be disappointed in the decline of our standards.”
“Screw that guy. I bet he never had to pee behind a bush. Let him try that and see what true beauty is.”
“Interior plumbing?”
“Functioning interior plumbing, Jordan.”
“If you two are done moonin’ at each other,” Syd says loudly, “I’d like to leave. We’re definitely being watched and trigger fingers might be getting sweaty.”
“We’re going,” Alissa says.
And that’s the truth. The horrifying, awful truth. We’re doing this. We’ve really come all this way, fought through all of these cities and run for our lives for weeks, just for this. To walk right back into a town teeming with people. With bodies. With teeth.
When we get on the road again and head north, I’m nervous. My hands are sweating. My right leg is bouncing up and down, unable to sit still. This could either be very, very good or go very, very wrong. We won’t know which until we’re dead.
It doesn’t take long before we hit the fence. It runs for what has to be miles straight out into nowhere. Beyond the perimeter, I can see a plateau with green trees at the base and what might be a few buildings mixed in. This is their town. This is Warm Springs. It’s tiny.
“How do we get in?” Alissa asks, scanning the fence line from her perch between our seats.
“I don’t know. Maybe drive around it? There has to be an opening,” I reply.
Syd steers us west, pointing us back toward the mountains. We bounce along slowly over the rough terrain. It has me thinking about our tires again. We don’t have another spare so we can’t afford a flat. The spider web across the windshield stares at me, dusty and ill-defined but still very much present. It’s still a huge threat that hasn’t set well with me since it happened and it dawns on me then just how much I worry about every second of every day. Just because I’m not actively thinking about all of it at once doesn’t mean it’s not there eating away at me. The idea of forgetting all of it for a while, even for an hour, warms me to the idea of the town.
Not ten minutes later we screech to a dusty halt. There in the fence is a very large, well chained and locked gate.
“What do we do now?” Alissa asks. “Ring the doorbell?”
Syd lays on the horn hard and long three times. No response. I literally and honestly see tumbleweed blow by.
“Maybe it’ll open if we speak to it in Elvish,” I mutter.
“What?” Syd asks.
“Dwarf maybe?”
“What?!”
“Nothing,” Alissa tells Syd. “He’s a huge nerd, ignore it.”
Syd shakes his head, looking away and muttering, “Your taste in men…”
“Nerds are hot. Leave me alone. Besides, you like ‘em crazy.”
He glares at her. “Your mother was not—“
“Yes, she was, but that’s not even who I’m talking about.”
“Who then?”
“Vicki.”
Syd shifts in his seat. He glances up and down the fence line quickly, nervously.
“We should keep moving. We can’t sit here like this out in the open.”
“What was crazy about Vicki?” I ask, not interested in seeing him change the subject. Not now that I’ve seen him squirm. The sight is like adrenaline in my veins, lighting me up with so much happy.
“She made him a quilt.”
“Al.”
“Out of her underwear.”
“What?!” I cry, turning to face Alissa. She has my complete and undivided attention.
Her face is pinched in disgust. “It was so gross. She thought it would be sexy. It was nasty. She gave it to him on Valentine’s Day.”
“Wow.”
“I only took her out three times,” Syd grumbles. “She got too serious too fast. It scared me off.”
“That’s what scared you off?” Alissa asks. “Not the fact that she wanted to swaddle you in her used undies but that she wanted it too soon?”
“That’s the kind of woman that gives you a doll made of her hair for Christmas,” I say.
“Or a cameo of her face made of macaroni and toenail clippings.”
“Someone’s coming,” Syd says suddenly.
“Then they’ve got a sick sense of what’s sexy,” I chuckle.
Alissa and I laugh until we see what Syd sees. Then we fall silent. To the north inside the perimeter is a trail of dust headed our way. When I squint I can make out two vehicles. Both look to be Jeeps.
“We should get out,” Syd says quietly, turning off the engine and unbuckling his seatbelt.
“Wait, no,” I protest, grabbing at his arm. “Why?”
He pulls his arm out of my reach. “To show we’re unarmed, uninfected and no trouble.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for them to get here first? They’ll tell us if they want us out of the vehicle.”
“Like cops,” Alissa says, eyeing the approaching cars.
“Listen up,” Syd snaps at me, “you know zombies but I know people. The sooner you show that you’re not a threat, the better off you’ll be. Get out of the car.”
We all pile out slowly. Alissa and I follow Syd’s lead in removing any jackets or holsters, empty or no. We get rid of anything that could imply a hidden weapon. We even roll up our sleeves to expose more skin and prove we have no bite marks. Then we wait.
When the Jeeps arrive they stop a good distance from the fence. Men and woman pile out, I count 5 total though there may be more inside, and approach the gate slowly.
“Evening!” a woman calls out. She’s tall with chestnut hair hinting at gray and sharp eyes that scan over every inch of each of us. “How can we help you?”
“That’s what we’ve come
to find out,” Syd calls back.
“That depends what you’re looking for.”
“Someplace safe.”
The woman and her crew have reached the fence. They stand about 20 feet from us, each one of them holding a weapon. They’re all pointed at the ground, just as Syd carries his, but I can’t help but notice how comfortable they all appear. Holding these guns, that’s second nature to them. They’re all experienced, which explains why they’re on the welcoming committee.
The woman chuckles. “No such thing anymore. But we’ve got something close here. Close as anyone else out there can get.”
“Just about anything is better than what we’ve got now.”
“Well then you’ve come to the right place. I assume you read the sign at the border?”
“No riffraff, no troublemakers,” Syd quotes with a quick nod. “We’re neither, I promise you that.”
The woman gestures to Alissa and I. “Are these your kids?”
“The girl is. The boy is her… friend.”
I see the woman’s lips twitch but she doesn’t smile. “Anyone else with you?”
“No, it’s just the three of us.”
“Anyone sick?”
“No.”
“You’ll have to go on quarantine anyway.”
Syd chuckles darkly. “I thought we already were.”
“Hmmm,” she hums, not enjoying the joke. “You’ll have to suffer another one inside the fence but outside the city. If anyone runs a fever, we’ll shoot them. On the spot. So I’ll ask again, is anyone sick? With anything at all?”
“No, ma’am,” I say politely. I’m eager to smooth over whatever feathers have been ruffled. Syd casts a glare at me, warning me not to speak again.
“Good,” she says curtly. “Now let me tell me what goes on in here before we let you in. I don’t want to waste my time searching you and your vehicle and setting you up in quarantine if you’re going to turn around and run off. You wouldn’t be the first and I’ve learned my lesson. First, if you come in here you have to work. Plain and simple. Everyone does, no exceptions. Second, there will be no trouble inside these walls. You don’t carry a weapon unless you’re on guard or leaving the perimeter. Any fights or disputes that turn violent in any way will be dealt with quickly, meaning both parties will be thrown out. We don’t care who started it, we don’t have time for that nonsense. Same goes for stealing. We share what we have evenly. End of story.”
When she finishes talking she simply stares at us expectantly. Alissa is the first to break the silence.
“Is that all?”
“For now. There are more rules but they don’t matter yet. These are the important ones. If you can’t follow these to the letter, you’re not making it in this gate.”
“We can follow those rules,” Syd tells her seriously.
“Wait,” I blurt out, feeling my pulse racing. This all feels dangerously fast.
Syd looks at me sharply but I ignore him.
“How many of you are there?”
The woman eyes me shrewdly but eventually answers. “Over 3,000.”
My heart is now in my throat, threatening to make me vomit. “That’s a lot.”
“It is. We’re proud of that number. We’ve saved a lot of souls.”
I nod, my mind racing. “But that’s a lot of people in what I assume is a small town. You must be packed in tight.”
“No.”
I raise a surprised eyebrow. “No?”
“We’re very spread out. We’re careful not to let the area become too populated. I assume you’re worried about an outbreak within our walls. It could happen. But then it could happen anywhere. We’re very careful to keep the Fever victims out. Anyone who goes outside for anything is quarantined for a full day when they return.”
“That’s a long time considering the Fever presents itself within what? Five to ten minutes?” Alissa asks.
The woman cracks a faint grin. “As I said, we’re very careful.”
“Do you have medical supplies? A doctor?” I ask, thinking of the main reason we’re contemplating even doing this; Alissa and her meds.
“We do. Is there something you need to see a doctor for?”
“One of us, yes,” Syd says cryptically. “We’d need a very specific medication. One we’ve had no success finding out here. We were hoping to find it in Madras or Bend but obviously we can’t get there.”
“If you’re looking for pot we don’t have it and we never will.”
“No, it’s not an illegal drug.”
“What is it?”
“I’d rather not say, but—“
“Zyprexa,” Alissa calls out, unashamed. “Olanzapine.”
“Al, they don’t all need to know.”
“Yes, they do,” she tells him before turning back to the woman. “It’s for—“
“I don’t need to know what it’s for,” she interrupts softly. “It’s a medication you’ve been on before?”
“For years.”
“We can get it for you.”
I frown. “How?”
“I’m afraid the answer to that won’t come until you’ve passed quarantine and are on the inside.” She glances between Syd and I. “Assuming you decide to come in.”
“We need to discuss it.”
Alissa nods in agreement. Syd glares at me.
“That’s fine,” the woman says. She gives some kind of signal to her crew and they head back toward the Jeeps. “It’s good to be sure. For all of our sakes.”
“Thank you,” I reply awkwardly. “Sorry to drag you out here.”
She grins warmly, surprising me. “We’re here to help. You folks stay safe out there.”
“We will.”
Chapter Fourteen
“If they hadn’t said no fights, I’d have punched you in the face right then and there!” Syd shouts at me.
I take it all in stride because honestly I’m used to him yelling at me by now. He’s been doing it for weeks. I also remain calm because I won’t be made to feel like a villain for wanting to be sure. It doesn’t hurt that Alissa is disagreeing with him for once, either. She’s not exactly siding with me, but I’ll take what I can get. Syd has been yelling at her as well, probably worse than me, and I’m proud of her for sticking to her guns. Even if they’re not exactly mine.
“We need to talk about it, not yell about it,” she scolds Syd. I watch her pull her coat tighter around herself as she shivers briefly.
We didn’t go far from the fence when we left. We found a good spot beside a small lake to make camp for the night but it’s more out in the open than we’ve been before. We’re surrounded by open terrain on three sides and with the wind picking up across the water it’s getting pretty cold out. Not far off in the distance, we can see a small spattering of lights where Warm Springs lies. In the other direction, down south across the river, I expected to see a huge show of lights inside the makeshift village at the barricade but there’s nothing. Not even a flashlight.
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Yes, there is,” Alissa insists patiently. “Jordan doesn’t want to go in there and I think his reasons are really valid.”
“What? That he’s scared?”
I shrug calmly, my hands stuffed into my jacket pockets. “If worrying about surviving a second outbreak makes me scared, then yeah. I’m scared. I’m terrified.”
“They’ve lasted this long without an outbreak.”
“And they’ve been growing in numbers, increasing the risk. 3,000 people, Syd. That’s a lot of potential in a pretty small area. Have you ever even heard of Warm Springs before?”
“No,” Alissa answers.
Syd shakes his head silently. Grudgingly.
“Exactly. They probably had a standing population of maybe 2,000 before the outbreak. The town has swollen. It’s probably bursting at the seams. I don’t want to be locked in there when all hell breaks loose.”
“We don’t know that it will,” A
lissa argues.
“We also don’t know that it won’t.”
“We can’t know anything for sure,” Syd tells me, sounding surprisingly calm. I take it to mean he’s changing tact. Working me from a different angle since aggression doesn’t rile me anymore. “But if we go in there, we can get Al her meds. That’s the most important thing. It’s the biggest need we have and they can fill it.”
“But we can’t know anything for sure,” I retort, parroting his argument. “They say they can get her meds but how? Where are they going to get it? That woman wasn’t a doctor, she didn’t know what it was. How do we know they can actually get it?”
Alissa tosses a stone in the fire, muttering, “We don’t.”
“The only true silver lining I see is that we would go off these horrible shifts we’re keeping. And we would have space to get away from each other. I think that would benefit all of us, but is it reason enough to go there?”
I’m almost looking for them to convince me. My gut still says no, absolutely not, but I can see the benefits of it. I see the needs we all have, individually and as a group, which this place could fill. But it’s risky. I have to wonder, is it worth it?
“What do you think?” I ask Ali.
“I think,” she says quietly, looking directly at Syd, “that Jordan and I need a minute to talk about this alone.”
“I’m not leaving the two of you alone,” Syd says plainly.
“I didn’t think so. That’s fine,” Alissa tells him happily. “Stick around. We can all chat. Maybe about how you banged my high school English teacher.”
“Did you just say banged to your dad?” I whisper.
She ignores me. “I would love to talk about that. How was that? Did she stay grammatically correct throughout? Was it all ‘oh yes’ instead of ‘oh yeah’?”
“Al,” Syd warns her. The firelight is playing tricks with shadows, but I swear he’s blushing.
“Did she give you an A for effort? Or did you earn that A with extra credit?”
“That’s enough.”
“Agreed,” I say, feeling monumentally uncomfortable.
“She was too young for you. What was she? 30?”
“I’m 42, not dead,” he protests.
“So you admit it?”