by Mark Clodi
"Well I think we are fucked now. All it will take is for the zombies to catch one of us who knows and beat it out of us, or kill us and bring us back and beat it out of us."
"Or maybe not even that." Steve said.
"What do you mean?" asked Mary.
"Well when I spoke with Peter…"
"Peter is awake?" asked Dora.
"Yes he woke up around noon, hungry, I am pretty sure he has a concussion, a small skull fracture, but his eyes are normal and his vital signs are good. Steve wanted to talk to him, so when Peter said he felt up to it, they chatted for a few minutes."
"I debriefed Peter and he told me that when the scouts went out yesterday Jeff told them to not kill any zombies, to try and sneak by them. He told me there were, well, what I can only describe as pickets, guards, out in the wasteland where everything was bombed out. There were pairs of them, one slow zombie with one slinker. They were not moving, just watching, with the slow zombie up and visible and the slinker under cover. What does that sound like to you?"
"Guards." admitted Dora.
"Slow, mindless zombies as guards. And remember the tape, they brought that poor man in from the dumpster and when they pushed him out, the told him he was going the wrong way. Like they expected the slow zombie to do what they said. And the zombie started to do it too."
"Until it noticed Jeff." said Paige.
"So they have control over them somehow. What if that control is some sort of mental control? What if they can read the minds of those that they kill?"
No one in the council said anything, Dora broke the silence by laughing, "Sorry, but that is pretty far-fetched. We can't prove it. But what you are saying is they wouldn't torture us, but would just kill us and read our minds if they caught us?"
Steve's face had flushed a little, in anger or embarrassment, "That's my theory, yes. Look I know it sounds strange, but just keep it in the realm of possibility okay?"
"My mind is open. What you're saying is they don't need a spy in Doraville, they just grab one of us whenever they want to know what is going on. If what you say is true, and I am not buying into it, but you handle security, right? So if what you say is true, how do we go about getting stage two ready without letting them know?"
"Here is what I thought of, first we call all the adults together, just the over twenty year olds, tell them what is going on and of the need for secrecy."
"Wait, wait, when we lose people the over twenties are the first to go!" protested Dora, "Telling them is like telling the zombies, if what you say it true."
"Just let me continue. If what I suspect is true, the zombies will find out anyway. So we tell the adults, we wait a day or two, see if the attacks lessen like we all think they are going to. In two days, we get the buses, day three we gather the fuel and four days from now we get the fuck out of Doraville. Four days to evacuate. Two buses should be enough if we only pack fuel and food."
"And dogs. Do we have enough bus drivers? Can we get fuel?"
"No certified bus drivers, but how hard can it be to get one moving forward and drive? They take diesel, we don't have a lot of diesel, but that is good, because we have not been scavenging it from the nearby areas, so it should be easy to top off the tanks and get another fifty or so gallons for each bus."
"What else do we need to do if we leave in four days?"
"We'll get the buses, take out a few seats in back, load up the supplies and that's it. If we can meet that goal and keep anyone from being taken for four days, we can get out of here before even Sargent Tiller comes back."
"Okay I like this. I agree with it. I think we will need a few extra vehicles too, we can take my Suburban and another larger vehicle to go ahead and behind the buses as guards and maybe a motorcycle or a couple smaller cars to roam ahead and scout the roads. What about a wrecker to move vehicles out of the road if we need to?"
"Good idea. That would be good. So let's say, three motorcycles, two Suburbans, a wrecker and two buses. That should give us even more room in the buses, if we have four to each suburban and three in the wrecker."
"Jesus, do we have that many drivers?"
"Some of the older kids can fire rifles or shotguns from the Suburbans, and we can take one in the wrecker, the third man in the wrecker will just be there as a lookout for the other two when they are hooking up the truck."
"Do we have anyone who knows how to use a tow truck?"
Steve looked at Dora, "Yeah, me."
"I have been on a few hook ups too." said Alex, "Maybe if Peter is up to it, he can be the scout with us?"
Mary did not look pleased with this, but merely said, "We'll see." She knew Peter would have to be somewhere and if not with her then with his dad was the next safest place.
"Any of the kids ride motorcycles?"
"What?" asked Mary, "Dora you can't think about putting them on a motorcycle, they would be alone!"
"I can think it and I am. Just check around. A guy on a motorcycle is going to be vulnerable, he can't steer with one hand and shoot with the other, so we want people riding them that will run away if they hit trouble. The kids are ideal for it."
"I just can't…that is too much risk." said Mary.
"Just ask, let's see what we get. Try the fourteen and over crowd first, okay?"
"Okay. I will, if Mary will not. I can see your logic." said Alex.
"Is everyone agreed that we follow Steve's plan?" The council nodded, "Then it is unanimous, let's get the word out that there is a town meeting tonight, and we need to speak to the adults first at a pre-town meeting, say it is about drinking alcohol or vaccinations or something that no one would want to attend. Make it boring. Can you handle that Paige?"
"Sure, no problem. Sterilizing wounds."
"Good! I knew I kept you around for a reason. Other than the good loving, of course."
The other council members scoffed at this, but said nothing.
"So, Steve you get with everyone about what we need to gather up. I think putting it in my garage until we leave would be best, out of sight, out of mind and if the 'National Guard' finds out we just tell them we are making a supply storage area for the winter."
The meeting was not adjourned right away, they all stayed and worked out what they thought they would need for the journey and there was a brief debate on whether to send another group out scouting to the north east where the Iowan's hopefully were still fighting.
Chapter 33
The town pre-meeting with the adults went about as well as could have been expected. The town meeting afterwards was a little bit hostile because of the rumors floating around about the Iowan's not being where they were supposed to be. Dora addressed it with the bare truth; no one knew where they were. She mentioned that the council was trying to make plans about what to do and if anyone had suggestions they should contact her or another council member.
Tim, who had been at the earlier meeting, then got up and told the whole town that the council was concealing things from them, that they knew the national guardsmen who came to town were zombies and that they were all planning on leaving as soon as they could. Dora looked on with amusement, while he spoke, she thought Steve was going to shoot the man. When Tim was finished with his little speech, which ended on a high note of him calling for new leadership and implied he should be the man in charge, Dora took the floor back and gave her own speech.
"Well thank you Tim for repaying the trust we had in you. You see ladies and gentlemen and kids of all ages, what he said is essentially true, he left out the little important details, like we think the zombies will torture to death anyone they capture to find out our plans. Which is why the people who did know everything, include Tim, agreed to keep their mouths shut. What you younger people and kids didn't know could not be beaten out of you before you died." She let her words sink in for a moment and continued, "Now many of us know Tim has been angling for a council seat for the past couple of weeks, he seems to have it in his head that this is some sort of a Democra
cy or something, really folks you are living in a dictatorship, I have never made any bones about it, the council, in theory keeps me in check as a balance of power, that is it. The only difference here is that you are all free to come and go as you please and we can kick people out too." She stared at Tim as she went on, "In fact that very thing has come up a few time recently when discussing, well, hell, let's just get it out there; You Tim. And how you don't work worth shit." The meeting turned frosty, but several of the people looked on with amused attention, this would be another meeting to remember.
Dora went on. "Yes, I'm calling you out, you don't do your share around here and we are sick of it. Like how you excuse yourself from patrolling the perimeter and how you make more progress on report writing, which we don't need, instead of on getting a building finish, which we do need. Do the people around you look like they need a god damned report to keep them warm in the winter? No? It's no surprise you are not the most popular guy, getting to the top of the food chain is not going to endear you to anyone and bringing up privileged information had to be about the number one way to make every other adult in town hate you. You just put the rest of us at risk. I am half tempted to shoot you myself."
Three of the nearby adults offered Dora their pistols, handle first, while a couple of the older kids near Tim and some of his few supporters, backed away from him.
Tim looked around nervously, obviously he had not anticipated this turn of events. Dora thought that he probably was expecting a common uprising from the people to toss out the council and make him the new dictator for life. "You had no right to keep that information from everyone! It was not fair, everybody should know what is going on so we can decide what to do!"
"Really? Why didn't you say anything at the meeting before this one? Why didn't you speak up then?" Dora waited, but Tim said nothing, "Oh? So it was politics. Well Tim you got your wish now, everyone knows. Can anyone think of anything to do about our situation now that you have this added information? Here is our plan in a nutshell…unless you other council members think I should keep it under wraps?" Looking around none of the council members tried to stop her, so Dora continued, "Okay then our plan is this; We find a couple of school or city buses, we load them up with supplies and we head towards Iowa. There may still be someone left up there. The plan is to get the buses and fuel tomorrow, then load up and leave within four days. I think it would be better if we left sooner now. The sooner the better. Any suggestions?"
From the crowd a younger voice yell, "Kick Tim out!" Several other people agreed loudly and Tim looked around wildly, whatever support he came with had disappeared.
Dora smiled and responded, "Oh I want to, you know I do. He doesn't work for shit, he causes problems and I really I just don't like him. But we can't."
A chorus of "Why not?" came back at her. Dora held her hand up, "Think about it, we kick him out who finds him? Our enemies, he spills his guts to them, one way or the other and then we are all screwed."
"Why?" called out one of the older kids.
"Because, if you haven't figured it out yet, the zombies want to keep us here." Other calls of 'why' answered that and Dora held up her hands trying to calm everyone down, "For the love of Christ people quiet down! We think, we suspect, the zombies are keeping us here, to, well, eat." The uproar of this was loud enough that they crowd of a hundred or so could not be calmed down. The rest of the people guarding the perimeter looked towards the meeting and wondered at the noise and what was going on.
Dora eventually gave as much detail as she could about Jeff's patrol and what they had found, pictures of the National Guardsmen at the gas station, not dressed in their uniforms and ordering zombies around. She went on to say how Jeff, Nadine, Jack and Willy were lost the night of the big fight and was about to continue when a little girl, perhaps twelve years old raised her hands up to get Dora's attention.
"What? What sweetie, Dora is talking here."
"Willy isn't dead." the girl said in a quiet voice.
"No dear he didn't make it."
She shook her head violently from side to side. "No. He did make it. I talked to him two days ago."
Dora stopped smiling and stared at the girl. "Are you sure? Where were you at when you saw him?"
"I was on the west side near the fence. Mr. Parson had to use the bathroom so he set me up to lookout and call him while he, well, you know."
"And Willy came over to you? Alive?"
"Seemed like it, yeah. He was outside and asked me to throw him some water. So I did. I asked what he was doing and he said he was looking for Jack."
"What? Why?"
"They made a pact. If one of them turned the other would find them and kill them. He said he wasn't coming back until he found Jack. He said Jack got bit apart that night when they got back, out in the trench. He said he pulled Jack away but they got stuck in a house. Kind of a bad house, you know, blown up. He said that they heard us fighting, but Jack was hurt really bad. They got tired from being up all night and Willy fell asleep, when he woke up Jack was gone. So he thought he turned and has been looking for him."
"And you just thought to tell us this now?" Dora said, a little bit of anger in her voice. The girl shrank back and the rest of the crowd was busy relaying the conversation in a low murmur.
"Has anyone else seen Willy?" Dora called out.
No one raised their hands or said anything. "Well we are going to have to figure out what that is about later, but from now on if your friend gets bitten come back to town, don't stop in a blown up house. Now, back to our original discussion, if anyone thinks of anything that might help us, look up a council member and tell them okay?"
The meeting ended and the guards were changed, they got the news from other people in town and the council members all retreated to Dora's house, with Steve pulling Tim along by one arm.
As they approached Dora's house Tim screamed out, "No!" Then started kicking and fussing like a two year old denied his favorite toy.
"Goddamn it Tim, stop!" said Steve, who had already taken Tim's pistol away from him.
"No! If I go in there you will kill me!"
"Tim, we could kill you out here and no one would say anything about it." Dora said, stepping up to him.
Realization seemed to dawn on Tim as he looked around at the leaving townspeople. None of them spared him a second glance as they walked away. Tim looked back at Dora's leering face and started sobbing as she took another step closer to him.
"Tim, you made this situation. Not me, that is politics baby, it is a deadly game." by the time she finished her sentence her face was inches from his.
A sharp smell of urine reached her nose and she backed off in disgust as the man wet himself. Steve cried out and pushed Tim to arm's length.
"Oh for Pete's fucking sake, Tim! No one is going to kill you, you wet motherfucker!" Dora was waving her hand in front of her face. "I guess we will deal with you out here as you wanted, I was trying to spare you from any more humiliation, but I suppose you are about as low as you can get now."
"What are we going to do with him?" Mary asked.
"Shoot him, just get it over with." said Steve.
"No, he is a scared pain in the ass, but we can't shoot him. He hasn't killed anybody." said Alex.
"An eye for an eye, huh Alex?" said Dora, "Still I am not in favor of killing him either. Despite what you might think Tim. Why don't we just confine him, keep him out of the way and decide later. It has been a long day and I am tired."
"Where should I put him?" asked Steve.
"Good question." Dora thought for a minute then said, "Oh perfect! We still have handcuffs you got off those cops we found right?" Steve nodded, he had four sets of handcuffs. "Then rig something up next door at Nina's place, Tim can sleep there. Bring him a plate of food, some water and a sleeping bag or blankets. He'll be fine." Turning towards Tim she said, "I…we, the town, can't afford any more distractions, so you will stay there chained to your failed building to think
about things. Got it? Until then just think, for once, think about what you can do to get back in our good graces. Here is a hint; it involves pulling your own weight."
Steve took Tim away mumbling about getting him a change clothes and finding a chain somewhere.
The next morning Dora woke up refreshed, she had slept twelve hours and everything was quiet. Getting to her feet she went to Paige's room, but the woman was not there. Going down the stairs Dora saw her sitting at the kitchen table reading a book with a cup of coffee in front of her.
"Good morning!" Dora mumbled as Paige looked up from her reading.
"'Morning Dora. Guess what?"
"Good god, do I have to guess before I have had some coffee?" Dora said as she grabbed a mug by the sink.
"No it's good news!" Dora didn't venture any guesses, so Paige continued, "There were no attacks last night."
Dora stopped, her cup halfway filled. "So. Steve was right then?"
"It looks like he might have been. Oh, that ziplock bag by the sink…" Paige pointed at the counter and Dora picked up a small sized plastic bag full of pills, "Yeah that one, Mary says to take them all with breakfast, maybe only a little toast. They are prenatal vitamins."
"Brilliant. Breakfast. Ugh!"
"It is almost nine! You slept a long time, you feeling sick?"
"Not yet." Dora busied herself making up a couple of pieces of toast, she held up the sliced bread and said, "Who cut the bread?"
"Alex was over, he cut it nice and even. I think Mary made that loaf. It is funny how you miss the simple things isn't it? Like bread, evenly sliced, full of preservatives, bread that was soft even after a week of sitting in your cupboard."
"I think I miss butter more than evenly sliced bread." Dora dropped the slices into the toaster, which turned on when she pressed the lever down. "The power is on! Hurray! Why?"
"Why not? We are leaving in a few days, we can afford to run the power for a while. Leon checked our supplies of diesel and that is one thing we shouldn't have to worry too much about bringing with us, so he fired up the generators and plans to leave them running."