by Bible, Jake
“I was passed out until you showed up,” John says. “I was about to make my move when you took care of the Zs for me.”
“Yeah, you were,” Stuart laughs. “No offense, but you wouldn’t have made it ten feet before they would have taken you down. At least in the state you’re in now.”
“No offense taken,” John smiles. “You’re probably right.”
“Hey, dude, why ain’t you using your own rifle?” Shep asks from behind Stuart, looking at John’s M110.
“I’m out of ammo,” John says. “Critter has some back at his holler, but doesn’t do me any good out here.”
“Carry that,” Stuart says to Shep. “He’ll want it later. That M4 he’s holding will just piss him off.”
“Already has,” John says. “You guys come for me specifically? Or is this just a happy accident?”
“On our way to scope out the entrance to the Grove Park,” Stuart says. “See what they are up to there.”
“They are up to a lot,” John replies. “I’ll come with and fill you in.” He looks past Stuart at Shep and then Harlan’s face. “You trust these two to be stealthy? We’re gonna have to go in full silent or we’ll be spotted before we hit the main road.”
“Why? What do you know?” Stuart asks, looking over his shoulder at the carnage around them. “I’m guessing all of this is connected to the Grove Park?”
“They have Elsbeth, Long Pork, and his family,” John says. “And I think the President is there.”
“What?” Stuart exclaims.
“Help me out of here and I’ll fill you in,” John says. “And please tell me you have some water.”
NORMALLY, I WOULD BE glad I’m not the one in the fight cage, but tonight there is no normality or gladness to be fucking found. Not when I’m looking at the terrified faces of my family pressed against the chain link, their eyes darting to the crowd, to the Zs moaning inside the cage, and at each other. The floodlights that shine down on the cage make it impossible for them to see me, and I have been told that if I cry out to them, they’ll die right there, so I have to just sit here, my hands tucked away, my mouth shut, and watch in horror.
“Look, Mr. Stanford,” Mondello says from my side. “I’m a fair man. Tell me why Ms. Foster needed you with her and I’ll let them go.”
“I already told you,” I reply, “she wanted me to draw in my friend.”
“This Elsbeth woman?” Mondello asks. “Why her?”
“I don’t know,” I say, “honestly, man, I don’t.”
“I can’t believe that,” Mondello says. “Do you believe that, Mr. Jameson?”
Cowboy is standing two feet from us, his rifle in the crook of his arm, his eyes tracking the Zs inside the cage.
“Could be he’s telling the truth,” Cowboy says. “Foster did have his family. Now we do. I say we send them in one at a time. I’m sure once he sees that little girl of his go down as zed chow, he’ll remember a few things. But if he doesn’t, then we’ll know he’s not lying. Ain’t a father in the world that will stay quiet after watching his daughter get torn apart.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I snarl.
“I will dare,” Mondello says. “But I’m not cruel like Mr. Jameson here. I’m going to put them in there together. The family that fights zeds together, may not die together.”
“Come on!” I say. “Charlie is sixteen! Greta is thirteen! Don’t do this! You can have the Blue Ridge Parkway. Do whatever the fuck you want! Make it your slave highway and move supplies back and forth from Charlottesville to Hotlanta! Fuck if I care. Just let my family go. We’ll slip away and you’ll never see us again.”
“Right,” Mondello says. “Do you think you’re the first man to beg in front of me? You’ll say anything. But as soon as I let you go, you’ll crawl back to your subdivision, regroup, and make my life difficult. I didn’t just come here to secure the Parkway. You seem to forget that. I came here to secure a labor force. This Foster business is just a distraction.” Mondello leans in close to me, his eyes intense and hard to look at. “I am not a man that has time for distractions. But I’m also not a man to let loose threads unravel everything. I need to know what Ms. Foster is up to. And you will tell me.”
“I don’t fucking know!” I shout.
Even over the loud chatter of the crowd, Greta hears me. I see her elbow Stella and point up towards where I’m sitting.
“Dad!” Greta calls out. Stella tries to hush her, but she keeps it up. “DAD! HELP US!”
“Dad! Help us!” the crowd starts to mock until it becomes an unbearable chant.
Dear God, people are fucked up.
“Oh, now look what you did,” Mondello says. “Mr. Jameson? If you will.”
Cowboy lets out a long whistle and guards open the cage, shoving my family inside. They toss in a few weapons as an afterthought, and then secure the cage and step back, ready to watch the show with everyone else. I want to close my eyes and let it just be over, but I can’t. I have to watch. I have to do something. I have to think.
“Have you talked to Elsbeth?” I ask.
“What’s that?” Mondello replies, turning from the cage. “The canny woman? Of course we have. But she refuses to say anything. Just keeps asking to be fed.”
“She what?” I ask, my eyes tracking my family’s movements. The Zs have spotted them, but Mondello obviously put slow ones in there.
“She keeps saying she wants long pork,” Cowboy laughs. “How fucked up is that? Like we’re going to feed her human flesh to get her to talk.”
There it is. I smile.
“What?” Cowboy asks. “What did I say?”
“She’s not asking for long pork to eat,” I say. “She’s asking to see me. I’m Long Pork. That’s what she calls me.”
“She calls you Long Pork?” Mondello frowns. “Do I want to know?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I say, trying to keep my anxiety under check as I watch the Zs get closer to Stella and the kids. Stella is holding a cracked baseball bat while Greta has a length of rebar and Charlie holds a 2x4 with a nail in it.
Are you fucking kidding me? They actually gave him a fucking board with a nail in it? What the fuck is this? A Simpson’s Halloween special?
“Let them go and I’ll talk to her,” I say. “Do it now. If they are harmed one bit, then fuck you.”
“I don’t think that will be the case, Mr. Stanford,” Mondello says. “I’m fairly certain that you’d still help if only two of them are left.”
“Take them out of there,” I say. “The only way Elsbeth will talk is if she knows my family hasn’t been harmed. She loves them. Got that? She may want to talk only to me, but she won’t say shit if she knows I let them get hurt. She’ll blame me for it. Trust me on this shit, man. Don’t fuck up your chance.”
Mondello studies me for a moment then nods. “Tell you what, Mr. Stanford; this is what I’ll do.” He looks at Cowboy and some hidden communication passes between them. Cowboy starts to speak into his com while Mondello turns back to me. “I’ll have the young canny woman join us here and she can decide your family’s fate. She talks to you and they are set free. She doesn’t and they have to fight. I will make this very clear to her in simple terms she can understand.”
“She isn’t stupid,” I say, “she’ll understand complex terms too.”
“No need to get ahead of ourselves,” Mondello says.
He stands up and raises his hand. Instantly, the cage is opened and guards rush in to separate my family from the encroaching Zs. The Zs are secured with catchpoles and my family is pushed back against the fence. For a split second there, I swear Stella is going to bury the broken baseball bat in the skull of the guard that grabs her, but luckily, she restrains herself.
The crowd boos and calls out, aiming their disappointment at Mondello. He takes it in good nature, but guards step forward and the crowd quiets down.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please,” Mondello says. “Not to worry, tonight’s entertainmen
t will commence shortly. In fact, we’ll add to it.”
The cage is opened and Critter and Ms. Foster are pushed inside. No extra weapons are offered to them. But, from the other side of the cage, guards with several more Zs enter, adding to the numbers of undead.
Critter looks about, his eyes taking everything in. He looks pretty badly beaten, but he holds his head up and doesn’t even flinch as some of the guards let a couple Zs get close to him.
Ms. Foster, on the other hand, looks like she’s had better days. Just as beaten as Critter, she hangs her head, refusing to look up at the crowd or over at Mondello. She just lets a guard lead her to my family and stays still as the restraints on her hands are cut loose. Critter walks up to Stella, but he’s told to shut the fuck up by one of the guards.
This is getting better and better by the second. Fuck.
“Long Pork?” Elsbeth asks as she’s brought over to us. “Why are they doing this? Are they gonna eat us up? Those people look like cannies.” Her hands bound in front of her, she nods towards the crowd. “I’d know that crazy anywhere.”
“Please, Ms. Elsbeth, is it? We do not feed human flesh to our labor force,” Mondello says. “Too much of a chance for the spread of disease. A sick worker is a useless worker.”
“This man says you want to talk,” Elsbeth says, looking over her shoulder at Cowboy. “What you want to talk about?”
“You see that woman down there?” Mondello asks, pointing towards Foster. “She was very keen to get a hold of you. I’d like you to tell me why.”
“I don’t know her,” Elsbeth says.
And for the first time since I’ve known her, I think Elsbeth is lying. Or at the very least, unsure of the truth of her answer.
“El,” I say. “I know you’re mad at me right now-”
“I’m hopping pissed as shit at you,” Elsbeth says. “This is your fault.”
“I don’t’ know about that,” I say. “I was taken prisoner. I haven’t exactly had freedom of choice the past couple of days.”
“You messed with the gas,” Elsbeth states. She leaves it at that.
Fuck. She’s right. I did mess with the gas, which led me to get captured by Cowboy in the first place, and taken to Foster. It did all snowball from that moment where I thought flipping switches would fix things. I officially fucking hate switches and swear on my soul I’ll never flip them again.
Unless I have to.
“I need to know why that woman wants you,” Mondello says, focusing on Elsbeth. “You tell me and Mr. Stanford’s family is set free. Don’t tell me and they start fighting some zeds. Even with Ms. Foster’s help, they won’t survive.”
“Please, El, if you know her, just tell him how,” I plead. “Think of Stella and the kids.”
“I don’t know her,” Elsbeth says. “I’ve never seen her before.”
Again, I don’t believe her. Mondello doesn’t either.
“That is just too bad,” Mondello says. “Mr. Jameson?”
The whistle again and the Zs are set loose. Stella and Critter get in front of the kids, but Foster just stands there, looking at her feet. The Zs shamble their way across the cage; eager for the free meal they’ve been offered.
“Don’t’!” I cry. “Please! What else do you want? How about the Farm? I can get you in there! I can take you to some of Critter’s caches! There has to be something else! PLEASE!”
“You’ll do all of those things eventually, Mr. Stanford,” Mondello says. “Mr. Jameson is very persuasive.”
“You won’t get fucking shit from me if my family is harmed!” I yell. “Stop this now or you get nothing!”
“Is that your only family, Mr. Stanford?” Mondello asks. “Or were there more of you on Z-Day?”
“There were more,” I answer. There were, but Stella and I don’t talk about it. It’s too painful what happened and what we had to do.
“Then you know what it is like to see family turned, don’t you?” Mondello says. “I know what it’s like also. I know the conflict that sticks in your very soul as you watch what used to be a person you loved turn into a flesh eating monster. I know that conflict very well. I also know the pain of having to make the decision of what to do with them.”
Fuck.
“Did you make any of those decisions?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say very quietly.
“What was that?”
“Yes, I made those decisions,” I reply.
“Do you want to have to make those decisions again?” Mondello asks. “I can arrange that for you. You see, Mr. Stanford, your pain won’t end when your family dies. It will just begin. You’ll watch them turn, then you’ll watch them suffer as zeds in this very cage. Night after night, I will make sure you are forced to witness them fight humans. And I’ll make sure they win. I’ll make sure you see your beautiful little girl eat the intestines of a worker that strayed from the rules. I’ll make sure your son’s first taste of a woman is her bloody throat. I’ll make sure your wife eats the privates of every man that is put in there. You’ll get to watch her chomping cock and balls for the rest of your life.”
“No, no, no,” I say, shaking my head, “don’t. Please.”
“Pleases get you nowhere,” Mondello snaps. “Nowhere! I only want answers, not pleases!”
“El?” I ask. “Tell him what you know.”
Elsbeth shakes her head. “I don’t know anything.”
“But you’ve seen that woman before, right?” I ask. “Be honest. Just tell the truth on that. I know you’ve seen her before.”
Elsbeth looks from me to Mondello and then down at the cage. She starts to get fidgety and shakes her head.
“Elsbeth!” I shout. “Please! For fuck’s sake!”
The Zs are almost to Stella and Critter. They are ready for them, but there are too many. I count twenty Zs. No way Stella and Critter can fight off that many, even if Greta and Charlie help. Maybe if Foster joins in the fight, but she isn’t looking useful right now.
“Elsbeth!” I shout again.
Her eyes lock with mine and I see nothing but fear. This is a woman that I have personally witnessed kill fifty Zs by herself. She’s saved my ass more times than I’m proud to admit. She stuck with us, with the people of Whispering Pines, even though Stuart killed her father. Which may or may not be her actual father. But, that’s beside the point.
The woman I know as Elsbeth, is one badass mother fucker. She’s a killer, through and through.
But the young woman I see before me isn’t that Elsbeth. She looks ten years younger. Her fear is almost coming off her in waves. Whatever she knows terrifies her. But I have to ignore that. I have to think of my family. I have to do whatever it takes to help them.
“You have to tell me, Elsbeth,” I say, getting up and walking down to the chain link fence.
“Whoa there!” Cowboy shouts.
“Let him be,” Mondello says as I get to the fence.
I start to climb it, getting to the top and swinging a leg over. The crowd, which had been cheering and yelling, goes silent as they watch me do something very stupid.
“Elsbeth, tell him how you know her,” I say, “or I jump in with them. You’ll be alone again, El. I’ll be dead, Stella and the kids will be dead, everyone you’ve come to know will be dead. Just tell him the truth.”
“I don’t know her,” Elsbeth replies.
“But you’ve seen her before?” I ask.
There’s a long pause, but then she nods.
“You have? Where?” Mondello asks. “Where have you seen her?”
Elsbeth stays quiet, her eyes locked on mine. I nod. She shakes her head. I nod again. She shakes her head. I swing my other leg over, wincing at the pain in my fucked up hand. She better answer soon or I have totally fucked myself. I can’t hang on much longer, even with my feet wedged into the holes in the chain link.
“Just fucking kill her,” Cowboy says. “We’re wasting everyone’s time. This chick is not part of the job. Who fu
cking cares if Foster wants her? Foster’s done. Look at her. None of this shit matters.”
“It matters to Ms. Foster so it matters to me,” Mondello says. “And you work for me so it should matter to you, as well. Got that, Mr. Jameson? We’ll waste as much time as I’d like.”
Speaking of wasting time, I can hear my children whimpering behind me. I’d love to turn and look, but my balance on the fence is pretty fucking precarious. If I even turn my head, I’ll fall in there. Which does no one any good. As long as I’m in Mondello’s good graces, I have a chance of saving my family. I just don’t have much time.
“Where have you seen her?” Mondello asks Elsbeth. “Tell me. Tell me now!”
“In my dreams!” Elsbeth says.
That’s not the answer any of us are expecting.
“What was that?” Mondello asks.
“Huh?” I say.
“See? Fucking waste of time,” Cowboy states.
Mondello looks from Elsbeth to Foster and back. “Your dreams? Why do you see her in your dreams? What is she doing?”
The Zs are getting closer, I can tell from the sounds. In just seconds, Stella and Critter will have to start fighting. I have seconds to fix this shit.
“Elsbeth, tell him about your dreams,” I say. “Tell him everything.”
“We’re gonna listen to some wackjob’s dreams? What the fuck?” Cowboy complains. “Maybe we should get a psychic up here. Do a tarot reading or two. Fucking A...”
“Mr. Jameson, I won’t warn you again,” Mondello says. He reaches for Elsbeth, but she shrinks back. He smiles at her and if I didn’t know he was a total asshole, I’d think the smile was genuine. “Ms. Elsbeth-”
“Just Elsbeth,” she says.
“Okay, Elsbeth,” Mondello says. “What is Ms. Foster doing in your dreams?”
“I don’t know,” Elsbeth shrugs.
“I think you do,” Mondello says.
“Jace!” Stella calls out. Elsbeth looks down there immediately, her face filled with concern. Mondello’s smile widens.
“Tell me, Elsbeth,” Mondello says. “And all of this can be over. Tell me what Ms. Foster is doing in your dreams.”