by Poe, S. B.
She watched as he stood. He turned and walked out the door without looking back. She stared at the door until sleep overtook her.
Whatever it Takes
11
The flicker of light from the fire danced off the side of the tractor-trailer. Bannon glanced up at the faded and stained blue and yellow logo.
“Welcome to Walmart.” He thought to himself and smiled a whiskey smile.
The Humvee was backed against the fire with the canvas canopy pulled open. The big diesel truck from the campground sat at the edge of the parking lot. He sat in the bed of the Hummer soaking up the heat and slowly sipping on the bottle. Things had been dry at the lake for a long time.
“Mam, we’re the US Army.” Sal laughed.
“We’re gonna take you to a safe zone.” Braveheart, Corporal Welsh, joined in the laughter.
The four soldiers, Braveheart, Sal, Token and Marsh, had been with Bannon since the airfield. He had always been straight with them. Survive. That had been the goal they all agreed to as they followed the Hummer carrying the doctor and the girl who was going to ‘save the world’ through the darkness away from the airfield. The set up at the lake had worked for them as much as it had worked for the doctor and her patients. As long as Bannon’s men brought in a few ‘test subjects’ nobody even bothered to ask them about what else they encountered on their runs to the interstate. The stockpile of liquor had grow fairly extensive. The boxes of liquor and food were scattered around the campfire.
“You think they believed your bullshit?” Marsh asked.
“Maybe.” Bannon smiled.
“So you think they’re going to be waiting for us to take them away?” Token asked.
“I hope so. That woman talking behind the fence sounded pretty good. Like to see what she looks like in the flesh. All the flesh.” Bannon laughed.
“You think she’s the only one back there?” Sal leaned forward and grabbed the bottle.
“Why, you afraid we gonna have to share?” Marsh laughed and took a swig from the other bottle going around.
“Nah, but you should be. When I get done, they gonna have to tie a rope to your ass to keep you from falling in.” Sal stood and grabbed his crotch. All the other laughed.
The fire was beginning to subside so Braveheart grabbed one of the bags from the back of the big truck. He dropped it on the ground and opened it up. He reached in and grabbed four neatly bundled stacks of hundred-dollar bills and tossed them into the fire. He drunkenly stumbled back as the flames grew.
“I guess I finally got it made. Just burning money for fun.” He laughed.
“We all gonna have it made soon.” Marsh said.
“What’s the plan Bannon?” Sal asked.
Bannon leaned back in the bed of the Humvee and looked at them. His head was hurting from too much liquor and he couldn’t focus his eyes. He blinked hard.
“Shit, I’m drunk.” He laughed. “What did you say?”
“What’s the plan?”
“If they’re still there, we’ll see if they’ll open their gate. We’ll even say pretty please.” Bannon said.
“And if they won’t open the gate.” Marsh said.
“We’ll open it ourselves. I don’t give a rat’s fuck. I want those walls. That place is just what we need. I bet they got a bunch of women behind them walls too.” Bannon looked across the parking lot at the store.
“What the fuck?” He stood.
“What?” They all stood.
He looked around at the others and then looked towards the store again, blinking his eyes hard. Whatever he saw was gone.
“Nothing, I guess. Probably just another eater out there.” He grabbed the bottle from Sal and took another swallow.
“So women?” Sal sat back down.
“Yeah, I bet there’s more than just the bitch that wouldn’t open the gate. Tomorrow we’ll open it for her.” Bannon smiled.
“So what now? We just wait?” Marsh asked.
“Wait, drink, shit, sleep, I don’t care. Just be ready tomorrow morning.” Bannon said.
“I thought we weren’t going back for twenty-four hours.” Braveheart said.
“Don’t worry, so do they. We’ll show up at first light, rattle their cages and this time tomorrow you’ll be drinking their booze. And rubbing your pathetic dicks up against their women.” Bannon turned up the bottle. “Now if y’all will shut the fuck up. I’m going to sleep.”
He climbed into the back of hummer. The bed was narrower than a pickup truck but it fit his sleeping bag. He reached up and grabbed the canvas flap and swung it shut. A flicker of light from the fire came through the small opening where the flap didn’t quite close. It shifted slightly in the breeze. He thought about having one of those dumbasses tie it shut but figured as drunk as he was, he’d probably piss himself trying to get out to take a whizz. He leaned back and drifted off.
The little beep of his wristwatch caused his eyes to open. He didn’t need a mirror to see. He knew what hung-over, bloodshot eyes looked like, and felt like. He pushed himself up with his back against the cab and rubbed his face. He could see someone standing at the end of the Hummer, under the canopy flap, but he couldn’t make out the face.
“What the hell do you need?” Bannon asked.
“Just taking things off my list.” A voice that Bannon didn’t recognize.
His eyes widened and focused just as the shadow ducked out of sight. He reached for his pistol but the holster was empty. He jumped through the opening and landed on his feet, looking around for the stranger.
“What fucking list, asshole?” Bannon yelled.
He felt the knife slice through the tendon above his ankles. The pain shot through his legs like fire and he crumpled to the ground. He looked around just in time to see the stranger roll out from under the Humvee. Sweat broke out on his forehead and he turned to the glow of the dying fire. He could see the others. Marsh, Token, Braveheart and Sal. Each of them had a large dark stain below the gash in their throats, their eyes were glassy and they were all slowly walking towards him. He heard a voice behind him and turned his head as the stranger hunkered down beside him.
“I have a woman I love. And the hell of it is, she loves me too. That’s at the top of the list.”
“What list?” Bannon said, as he nervously looked at the dead coming towards him.
“And a friend of mine is going to have a baby. That definitely has to go on the list. You threatened all of them today. That put you on the list. I’m just here to take you off.”
“WHAT FUCKING LIST?” Bannon screamed as the first deadun fell on top of him.
The stranger stepped back and watched the deadun tear into the Bannon’s flesh. Bannon screamed as the dead bit into his leg and tore into his abdomen.
“The list of shit I worry about.” Bridger stood and backed away, disappearing into the darkness.
The mist hung in the air as the fog grew thicker. The houses on either side of the road were blanketed in moonlight. Wispy tendrils drifted between the dark spots. He could barely hear his own footsteps on the asphalt. He stopped. The moon drifted behind a passing cloud and dimmed ever so slightly. Everything was perfectly still. He just stood in the middle of the road and listened. Nothing. Not a sound. No birds, no voices, no deaduns, nothing. He knew that a few hundred yards ahead was the door with the little window that led to the office on the other side of the barricade. He started walking. He paused at the house across from the gas station. He walked up on the porch.
He stood there for another minute before he knocked. The moon provided enough light that when the door cracked Bridger could see the pale yellow eye staring back at him.
“Who are you?” Ramey asked.
“Bridger Preston.”
“Did you receive my message?” He asked.
“I did. I went looking for the soldiers.” Bridger said.
“Did you find them?” Ramey asked.
“I did. It wasn’t hard. They were a few miles up th
e road. I could see the glow from their fire in the parking lot.”
“Was it the ones I told your friends about?”
“It was. I listened to their plans.”
“And now?”
“And now they don’t have any more plans.” Bridger said.
“I see.”
“Let me ask you something.” Bridger said.
“Go ahead.” Ramey said.
“So you don’t know what you are? Or what is happening to you?” Bridger asked.
“That’s true.”
“So if you suddenly quit talking and lunged for my throat…”
“Blow my head off.” Ramey said with no emotion.
“Just like that.”
“Yes. I hope it doesn’t happen but who knows?” Ramey said.
“I saw the horse. I saw the marks on its neck. Why?” Bridger asked.
“Not my proudest moment. But I know it kept me alive. Just a little blood. Just a chew of flesh.”
“Horse flesh.”
“Only because I couldn’t get off the poor thing.”
“And now?”
“It would be best if I didn’t say but it isn’t anything you need to worry about.” Ramey said.
“Should I trust you?” Bridger asked.
“No. But you can.” Ramey said.
“Have a good night. Will you be here tomorrow?”
“Maybe.” Ramey said as he closed the door.
Bridger turned and covered the half mile to the little office door. He slipped through the door and slid the cabinet back in place. He ducked behind the church and wound his way through the graveyard to the back of his house.
The door opened and closed quietly as he slipped inside. He stepped into the kitchen and sat down in the chair by the window. The sun was still trying to find its way through the darkness and he could see the fog still gathering in the low spots across the yards. He felt her hand touch his shoulder.
“What did you do?” She asked.
“You know what I did.” He lowered his head.
“Did you have too?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Is that part of it? Part of keeping us all safe?”
“Yeah, if it has to be.” He said.
“Are you okay?”
“I will be.”
“Come back to bed.” She turned and walked away.
He looked up and could see the first rays of light slicing through the darkness above the trees. It was going to be a perfect day. The sky was clear and the birds were already starting to sing outside the window. He followed her down the hallway.
Bridger climbed the ladder hanging on the back of the bus. He shielded his eyes as he glanced at the woman standing beside him. The binoculars covered her face and she lowered them when his shadow fell across her. She looked up at him.
“I think we’re ready.” Kate said as he stood beside her.
“We’re not. But we don’t have to be.” Bridger said.
“You still think they aren’t coming back?” She asked.
“They’re not coming back.” He said.
“How can you be so sure about that?”
“Because I killed them. All of them.” He said as he gazed down the road.
“You did what?”
“I killed them. They won’t be bothering us or anyone else again.” Bridger said.
“Is that who we are now? Killing people just because they bother us?”
“It depends on how bad they bother us.” He said.
“I don’t know if I’m okay with that.” Kate said.
“You don’t have to be okay with it. That’s why I did it. So no one else would have too. I know what it takes from you. JW carried it with him all the time. I think Tilly carries it too now. I did it so everyone else can keep on being who they are.” Bridger said.
“And who are we?” Kate asked.
“The ones that live. We keep our people alive. We keep our people safe. Our people. We can talk about what that means some other time but as long as the sun rises on our people in the morning, we win.” Bridger said.
“Is that our goal now? Win?” Kate asked.
“Staying alive is winning Kate.” Bridger said. “And we’re still here.”
Afterword
It would be remiss of me to not acknowledge the current crisis enveloping the world. The Covid19 Pandemic has changed our lives and taken away friends, family and normalcy. One of the first things I researched when the idea for this series first came to me was an infectious disease. I wanted to get an understanding of what the possible responses during the early days of any outbreak might be. It helped me structure the first book and the radio broadcasts our friends listened to. Watching the world react and attempt to get ahold of this crisis has been surreal.
I am writing this afterword in May 2020.
The world just surpassed 5.5 million infected.
Stay safe. Stay vigilant.
We’re still here.
Coming Soon
From the Darkness
Marionette Zombie Series
Book 10