by Castle, W. A
After we decided to stay, I was given an old classroom on the second floor on one of the buildings and Trevor and Eli got a room a few doors down. The buildings here are out in the open and if you pretend hard enough the classrooms make great mini living studios. With only one communal bathroom per floor, but you know, apocalypse.
It’s a hot summer day in Wyoming and there are only a few hours during the day that you can walk around without melting into a puddle, so I’ll take advantage and let Diego get some fun in the sun time.
There are children here. Not so much babies but children Eli’s and Patty’s ages. The place is always bursting with movement and laughter and the occasional yelling. This will be a good place for Diego to grow up in.
I settle him into the stroller just as Eli comes barreling down the stairs with Trevor on his heels.
“Are ya’ll ready?” I ask them with a wide grin.
“Yeah! Can we go get some cookies from Mrs. Stein?” Eli asks as he places some shades over his eyes.
“Looking cool, little man,” I wink at him.
“Sure, I think we deserve some cookies today,” Trevor walks over to the stroller and takes it from me.
We walk around the quad for a while, people fawn over Diego every time we stop at a trading station and we chit chat with people. Here, I can erase the shut-in agoraphobic woman I was in the past and be the woman I want to be. I can be…me.
Everyone around us goes silent when Luddington’s High security team runs through the middle of the Quad, towards one of the exits. People begin to whisper and ask what is happening.
“Everything is under control,” Ram comes out to speak to everyone, “There is a horde of Infected in the next town over that was spotted by some of our runners.”
“Runners?” a man asks.
“People who sign up to scavenge so we don’t run out of food and supplies,” someone replies.
When people begin with murmurs of fear, Ram raises his voice, “You all know that you are safe here, no Infected has crossed our town border because of our good men and women who dispatch as soon as there are rumors of the Infected being near. Usually we do this more subtly, but this horde is bigger than we’ve seen in a while. But everything is okay, go on about your business as usual. I will keep you updated.”
Trevor turns to me, the worry crease on his forehead deepening.
I reach out and squeeze his hand on the stroller, “You heard Ram, they’ve got this under control.” Then I lower my voice, “You know Vince can turn them away before they get too close.”
“It’s still alarming to hear about a horde being so near,” Trevor fiddles with Eli’s ear before the boy scowls at him.
“Let them take care of it,” I reach up to kiss his cheek and continue with our stroll.
“A dollar for a cookie, or any little trinket you have to trade,” Mrs. Stein calls out the folks passing by her little booth.
It’s a bit comedic that folks here still accept cash as currency since there are not many jobs here that pay cash. Work here is paid by food, lodge and safety. But the luxuries are bargained for. Like fruits, pastries, sweets, extra clothing, grooming supplies, etcetera.
Trevor hands Eli three dollars and the little man goes running off to get the cookies, too impatient to wait for us to walk there.
“Hey guys,” Ram walks up to us with a grave expression on his face and something in his scent sends a warning chill over my body, making the hairs on my body literally stand on end.
“What’s wrong?” I immediately ask him.
Ram is only slightly surprised at my question. “It wasn’t Infected that the runners spotted.” He gets straight to the point, “They’re people, like you and Vince.”
I feel the ground under me sway. “You- You said it was a horde. But then that means…” That means that there is a horde of people just like me. “How do you know what they are?”
“Vince sent word. As leader of this town I’m heading up there now, I was thinking you may be interested in joining me.” Ram says to me.
“Yes.” The response is out of my mouth before I can truly think the repercussions of going.
“Maddie?” Trevor asks me.
“How can I not go? We must find out who they are and what they want,” I tell him.
“Then I’m going with you. You’re not going without me,” he begins to say.
“You have a shift soon, babe. And we don’t know if they’re dangerous or not. I can protect myself,” I smile up at him, placing my hand on his cheek, “And, I’ll be back soon. Please, please look after Diego. I love you.” I tiptoe and grab unto his shoulders to kiss him on the lips. He snakes his arm around my waist and pulls me closer.
“Come back to me,” he whispers, his lips brushing against mine.
“I’ll always come back,” I whisper back.
We ride in a van for about an hour, I sit in between two women in the security detail and listen in as Ram talks to his head of security who is in our destination. The communication is static-y and hard to eavesdrop from my position, but it seems the group of people are willing to meet with Ram.
“What do you think those people want?” the man driving the van asks Ram.
“It could be anything. It’s best to be prepared for anything that can happen.” He replies coolly.
“Maybe they’re just passing through.” I say.
“Maybe,” the soldier to my right says.
We stop at a seemingly random street in some unknown town and we meet up with the soldiers that left earlier.
“They’re not talking, but they’ve been peaceful,” a soldier walks up to Ram.
“What’s a civilian doing here?” Ram’s head of security asks him.
“It’s fine, Salazar. Who’s their leader?” Ram asks.
“Her name is Cooper,” Salazar replies as they walk towards one of the tall buildings in this block. It must have been a corporate district or something in the past.
“Are you coming?” Ram turns to ask me. Surprised, I hurry and walk in after him.
The building has electricity but there’s an air of stagnation. There are subtle aromas in the air but ever since Georgie had given me that first dosage of the tweaked-up blood, the side effects have been only mild. I can’t discern much with my heightened senses anymore.
“Ram, you’re here,” Vince sounds relieved when we walk into the lobby. He shoots me a confused look when he sees me trailing behind Ram and Salazar but doesn’t say anything.
“We didn’t believe it when Vince, here, told us he knew another Zlatni,” a dark-skinned woman looks at me when she speaks. “We didn’t believe it at all when he said you lived in peace with humans.”
I catch Vince’s nervous glance. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand?” I say.
The group of people do look like flesh eaters at a distance, their clothing is stained, and their stinky body odor is masking another subtler odor underneath, almost a pungent sweet smell that roils my stomach.
“The scientists from the VIO facility kept calling us that,” Cooper wraps her cardigan closer around her body after a chill run through her.
“You were captured by them?” I asked animatedly.
“Yes.” Cooper replies before the question is even out of my mouth. “You?”
I nod.
“How did you escape?” she asks.
“A doctor from the facility got me out. Aided by them,” I point at Ram and his security team. “How did you all find each other?” I point at all the people behind Cooper.
“We escaped together. It was a miracle when the doors opened, we seized the opportunity and we escaped.” One of them answers.
“Why did you ask to speak with me?” Ram comes to stand next to me, interrupting our conversation.
“I asked to talk to their leader. And to his,” Cooper opens her hand to Vince.
“I am the leader of everyone here. Vince’s too.” Ram says calmly.
“We intend to stay in this city. And
, it is obvious you have eyes in the surrounding areas. Yes, we smelled them as we made our way here,” Cooper adds when Ram’s about to open his mouth. “We hope this land is big enough for both our groups to live side by side.”
“Why not keep walking, stay somewhere farther? Safer?” Ram asks.
“This place is satisfactory to our needs.” Cooper replies immediately.
“There’s nothing here. This area has already been picked clean.”
“Don’t be mistaken human, we asked to meet with you two leaders as a courtesy. Don’t rush trouble,” Cooper drawls the last few words.
A threat. Instinctively my mouth lifts in a snarl.
Cooper’s eyes widen and turns to me, “It was not a threat to you, Zlatni. We mean to raise no trouble with you,” she eyes me and Vince, “We are just warning the humans this is now our territory and trespassing will not be tolerated.”
Zlatni? Territory? “We are all humans here.” I say.
Cooper eyes me once more, “You really believe that,” she states after a moment, “Not everyone out there thinks the same. We want to live peacefully. After all we’ve been through, we deserve that. And, I think,” she pauses and gives me a meaningful look, “Out of everyone in your group, you understand that the most if you truly were held by VIO.”
Georgie’s words come back to me, she warned me about people wanting to kill out kind. And Cooper just said there are those that don’t think of us as humans. It just feels like Cooper knows more than what she’s saying. It’s the way she says things that gives her words weight. We’ve never met. I’ve never met any of these people, yet this feels like an important meeting. “Who and what are you?”
“We’re like you,” Cooper begins to say.
“No,” my nostrils flare, the too-sweet smell wafting from them, “You…smell of something else.” I say flatly.
“Do you accept our terms? You leave us alone and we leave you alone?” Cooper asks, obviously ready to end this conversation.
But it’s not up to me. I look in Ram’s direction who has an unreadable look on his face.
“You stay to the borders of this city, and we won’t step foot within city limits.” Ram agrees.
“Now that it’s settled, you can leave. And Zlatni? There will come a time that you will see the distinction between us and them. Hopefully, it won’t be too late when you do.” Cooper smiles at me and walks out of the building, her people following her.
“What the hell was that?” one of the soldier women calls out. “What the hell where they?”
Some turn to Vince for answers but he just shakes his head.
“Are they declaring a war between us and them?” a man asks.
“No,” Ram replies immediately. “They are just asking to be left alone. We will do just that. Let’s leave.”
A war between us and them? It scares me that they even believe there is a distinction between us. We are all the same, we are all people.
“Why did that woman refer to you as a leader?” Ram asks me as we get into the van.
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know what she was talking about.” I breathe in and out deeply to keep from spiraling into anxiety. A war. Even Georgie hinted at such a thing. Now a group of, what is it Cooper called themselves? Zlatni? Now they move just a few cities away from the place we call home. Can it all be truly a coincidence?
“We’re going to set a perimeter around them, keep an eye on them until we’re sure they won’t be a threat,” Ram speaks to Salazar, “Inform the runners that that city is now off limits.”
“You’re going to spy on them?” I ask.
“Only few people outside our security team knows about individuals such as yourself and Vince. Few know that Vince has been keeping any flesh eaters away from our community. But now an entire community has moved next us, and I don’t know about you, but I need to make sure they’re not a threat to us.”
“Why would they be a threat to us?” I ask.
“The world has turned into a peculiar place. It’s imperative we put the safety of those we protect first. Don’t you think the same?” he asks me.
“Of course. But they just seemed to want to live in peace, alone.”
“If that’s all they want, then there should be no problems.”
We arrive back at Leddington a few hours later after half the convoy breaks off and heads on a different direction, Vince with them. I don’t ask questions though, I am too busy replaying the meeting with the Zlatni’s. I have no idea what to make of them.
As we get out the cars, I hear Ram talking to Salazar. “Spread the word that we’re recruiting more security. Interviews to be announced.”
“Maddison!” Ram jogs up to me as I walk away. “I don’t think I need to tell you, but you need to be discreet about what happened.”
“Ram, what does one have to do to be in your security team?” I ask him.
Ram scratches his chin as he considers this. “Interviews will be announced soon. I think you would make a good addition to the team if you’re thinking about it. Your skills could be useful out there.” He says seriously.
“Yeah, I’m interested.” I tell him. I need to talk to Trevor before anything else happens.
When I get back, Trevor is already at his shift in the cafeteria, so I go and get Diego from Sandy. Sandy is the woman that was holding Diego when I saw Trevor for the first time after waking up. Turns out she’s actually a very awesome person who loves watching after Diego.
“Hey Sandy, how was Diego today? Sorry you got stuck watching the kids, and Eli?” I ask her as approach her while she’s making dinner in one of the fires near her building.
“It’s nothing, they’re peaches. Eli has gone to find Mrs. Stein to buy a cookie from her. I told him to be back before the sun went down.” Sandy is cutting up some veggies on a wooden board.
“That boy and those cookies,” I sigh as I sit down next to her. Diego is lying down on a blanket next to Sandy.
Sandy throws her head back and guffaws. “There are worse obsessions to have than Mrs. Stein’s cookies.”
I wipe the laughter tears from my eyes once I get my laughing under control and agree, “True.”
Cookies. I need cookies! Ms. Stein said I can just go to the cafeteria when she’s working there, and she would give me a cookie. I wonder if I will see any of my friends there.
This school is so big, bigger than my old school. Trevor said this was a higher school were the big kids go to school. One day, when I’m bigger, I’m going to come here, it’d be totally uncool to admit it, but I miss school. I miss recess and hanging out with my friends.
Oh, yeah, cookies. I better hurry if I want to get there before they run out. If I cut through the library, I can shave off a couple of minutes.
The library here is lame, too many books with too many words and not enough pictures.
“We need to do something about it! If we just let them move in so close to us, they’re going to kill us.”
I stop walking when I hear angry voices coming from behind one of the doors.
“How do you know? What if they truly do just want to live in peace?”
“They are freaks. They’re infected, everyone that becomes infected needs to be put down. If we don’t do something about it then we have to let the others know.”
“You heard Ram, it would create a panic.”
“Maybe that’s what we need. They may say they are not flesh eaters but everyone that is infected is.”
“IF that’s what you think, why haven’t you killed that doctor, Vince. Or that woman that was rescued from the facility?”
“He’s a doctor, we need a doctor but if we didn’t, that would be my first thing to do.”
Oh. Are they talking about Maddie? They want to kill Maddie?
“Their kind is a threat to us! They are what caused all of this!”
My saliva gets stuck in my throat and I cough out loud. Scared, I take off running.
My heart is poundin
g so hard like it’s never done, but I have to get to Trevor. I have to tell him that Maddie is in danger.
I run into the kitchen, passing a smiling Mrs. Fields. There’s no time for cookies.
“Trevor!” I yell when I see him serving up plates and placing them on the counter for people to get.
“Eli? What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be back here bro.”
I look around us, trying to figure out if it’s okay to talk about this.
“What is the matter, Eli?” Trevor goes down on a knee, putting his hands on my shoulders. I immediately feel better, he’ll know what to do.
“I heard people talking about killing Maddie and the doctor.” I wrap my arms around him and cry. I’m not proud of crying but I know my big brother won’t judge me. Sometimes he cries too. I’ve seen him.
“Not your foot baby boy,” I reach to take Diego’s foot out of his mouth.
“Here, I have a few jars of baby food stashed away for when I watch him,” Sandy hands me a jar of mashes peas. Yuck.
“Your poor boy,” I smirk as I open the jar. I lift Diego up and sit him on my lap and start giving him small spoonsful of mashed peas which he eats as if it was Ambrosia, food of the God’s.
“I’m having a case of déjà vu,” Sandy stirs the pot a few times and then comes to sit next to me. “I can’t believe we’re actually sitting here in front of a fire pit, cooking in a high school. Watching you feed your son. I feel like I’ve seen this before, yet I know I haven’t. Gosh, just over a month ago I was watching television in my apartment and now, here we are. There was a time I thought nothing would ever feel safe again.” Sandy wipes moisture from her eyes. “I always wanted a baby, I never thought I’d see one again.”
I give Diego the last spoon of peas and settle him over my shoulder and pat his back.
“There was a time when I never thought I would make it to see another day. But I’ve had this little man by my side, he’s what’s kept me sane.” I snuggle into Diego and he rewards me by pulling on a lock of my hair. “Actually, I’ve had a lot of people keep me sane along the way. I can’t believe it either that life here resembles somewhat like it used to. I’m not terrified all the time anymore. Not being terrified all the time is new to me.”