by Mark Clodi
"I did the right thing." Willy said with confidence.
Dora held him out at arms-length, "Willy you did the right thing, the thing that needed to be done. But you didn't do it the right way."
He looked confused for a moment before the confidence came back, "No, you were going to do it the old way, everything is different now. Jeff says, well said, that if we followed the old rules we would all be overrun by zeds, that is why he liked you so much. He said we have to rely on our instincts and risk making a bad decision rather than making no decision at all. No decision can kill you just as fast as a bad decision."
"You know I think I should have gotten to know Jeff better."
"He knew all sorts of stuff. Tim was an idiot, he was a, um, traitor? Yeah, a traitor to us. You promised not to kill him. Paige and Mary promised. I didn't promise. I knew I couldn't let you break a promise, that's all we have now, our word. So I did what you needed to do but couldn't; we worked together."
"Fuck." Dora said, flabbergasted at the boy's logic.
"He's dead." said Mary on her knees by Tim's side. She sat back on her behind and rotated to look at Willy and Dora. "What the heck do we do now?"
Concerned voices came from inside Dora's house, several men appeared at her back door asking what the shots were and if everything was alright. Nina's back door finally opened to and the slender woman weaved her way through the piles of construction materials towards the partially built building.
"I don't kno… Fuck! Mary look out!" yelled Dora.
Behind Mary, Tim's body had reanimated and was reaching for her. It latched on with one pale hand and grasped her ankle. Paige had two guns in her left hand, Willy's and the pistol she had pulled out when the first gun shots were fired, she tried to move one pistol over to her right hand to get a shot at the zombie, but ended up fumbling both of them to the ground.
For Dora, suddenly the entire world seemed to shift into slow motion, she looked around at the men coming out of her house yelling at them for help, she looked at Nina, who was moving sluggishly towards them and she looked at Willy who was smiling up at her. "You can do it too?" he asked. "Good." then Dora found herself bringing her shotgun up, taking the ten long steps over to Tim and putting the barrel into his mouth, the mouth that Mary's ankle was being slowly jerked towards. The barrel of the gun beat the slow speed of the zombie's hand and with hardly a thought Dora pulled the trigger. She expected an immediate forceful blast, but what actually happened was like watching a movie on half speed, the gun seemed to want to fire, but it took a moment for the shot to sound out, then Dora watched as Tim's head virtually exploded, behind him onto the boards of the great hall. As quickly as it began everything stopped. Dora found herself standing by Mary shotgun in hand, looking at the ruins of Tim's head.
Paige, still reaching for one of the pistols in the grass, turned her head sideways to stare at Dora, "What the fuck Dora! How did you…?"
Willy just beamed, but turned and walked his cold little body back into Dora's house, brushing past the men who were filing out of her back door.
Mary didn't seem to realize anything was wrong, she just got up and started to thank Dora hysterically. Nina, however had a good view of everything that had happened, she made the sign of the cross before her and stopped when she was close enough to comfort Mary. Mary turned into Nina's arms readily enough, freeing Dora to think about what had just happened. Dora cast a sidelong look towards where Willy had disappeared. This brought Steve, Alex and a couple of the other men into sharp focus. Alex rushed forward to gather up a still crying Mary and Steve looked at Dora and asked, "What happened?"
"Willy shot Tim, killed him, Tim came back. He must have been infected somehow, I just shot him again."
"Oh."
Dora laughed, still a little shaken by what had happened, "'Oh'? That's all you have to say?"
"Well," Steve began carefully, "It is good you didn't kill him, that would've been bad, why did Willy shoot him?"
"We had just finished a little discussion where Tim explained how he sold us out to the super zombies, told them everything he knew. He tried to spin it to us that he withheld critical information. Even Willy didn't buy that."
"Wait." Steve said, then approached Tim's corpse. He unzipped the sleeping bags and revealed the rather pale thin body inside. Tim was nude from the waist down and his sleeping bags were soiled. He also sported a small bite on his upper left thigh. It would not have killed him right away, probably not for several days, but it was enough to infect him and make him return.
"He was bitten, it's fresh too. Tell me what he told you." Steve said. Dora filled him in while Alex brought Mary into the house to get cleaned up. When Dora finished Steve nodded and said, "So she scares the piss out of him last night, makes the deal and seals it with a bite, promising him, what? To make him a super when he came back? I bet you were part of the deal too, maybe he would get to munch on you. I wouldn't put it past him anyway. Then he cleans up as well as he can and goes back to sleep. Of course what the hell else could he do?"
"He could've kept his cake hole shut and died like a good soldier."
"Would you?"
Dora saluted Steve with a mocking gesture of her hand and said, "Yes sir! For God and my country I will make the ultimate sacrifice!"
"So what do we do about Willy?" everyone knew Steve was talking about what to do about the boy if they made it to some sort of safety, would they turn him in or pretend he had not shot a living man in cold blood.
Dora looked only at Steve and said, "Let's wait a couple days and decide. A lot can happen in a week."
"Fair enough." Steve looked up at the men and Nina, who were still standing around listening, "Alright we know what happened now, go fill everyone in while you work. Give them the short version, Tim is dead, he turned into a zombie, no need to elaborate. Keep working to get us the hell out of here this morning. I will be out there in a few minutes." The men dispersed, Nina stayed until they were gone, prompting Tim to ask, "Yes Nina?"
"Dora…she didn't tell you everything, not all of it."
"I told the important parts." Dora said.
"What did she miss? I thought you were inside getting ready to go? I didn't think you saw anything."
"I didn't see Willy kill Tim. I saw Dora kill Tim when he came back. She saved Mary's life."
"Not to put too fine of a point on it, but this isn't anything unusual for Dora. Hell if we had medals I would pin a few on her myself, she has saved many of us over the last month."
Nina shook her head, "No, that's not what I am talking about." she looked at Dora intently, "What happened? I saw it, don't say you didn't do something."
"What?" Steve asked with some confusion, looking from one woman to the other.
"She moved too fast Steve. She moved like one of them. Dora has to be a super zombie, nothing moves that fast."
"What?" Steve took a step back from both of the women. "What's she talking about Dora?"
"Everything got slow, it was like the world was moving in slow motion and I was the only one moving at normal speed, only I wasn't the only one. Tim was going to bite Mary, I just had to move fast to get to her, to save her and I did. I don't know how."
"That….is strange. Are you sure it wasn't adrenaline?"
Nina shook her head violently, "No Steve. Remember how that super vaulted over the fence three weeks ago, took John Williams by the throat and almost took his head off?" Steve nodded, remembering the incident, "Remember how he was kind of fuzzy around the edges? He moved so fast we could hardly even see him?"
"Yeah, as I recall it was Dora who shot him in the head to finish him."
Dora nodded, barely remembering the incident, which was just one among hundreds that had played out in the six weeks since 'zombie day'.
"Well Dora moved like that, real fast." Nina shrugged, "Maybe faster."
"But Dora is human, the whole council had to test a few days ago, to prove we were all human, I looked at her blood myself,
it was living blood."
"I am not afraid of her, whatever she is, she's on our side, but I know what I saw. I can keep my mouth shut…for now. We have more important things going on."
"Fair enough, we'll look into this more once we all get to where we are going, okay? You have my promise on that Nina." Steve put out his hand and Nina shook it before she turned and went back into her house, leaving the two of them alone with Tim's body. Dora leaned over and pulled the sleeping bag back over the corpse, hiding it from view.
"Dora, you said you weren't the only one. I didn't forget that. I don't remember if Nina caught it or not. Who else was moving so fast?"
Dora looked up at Steve, a small smile came to her lips, "Willy. Of course it was Willy. How else could he survive out there on his own. It makes me wonder how many of our children are afflicted with this? It makes me wonder for the future and what our babies will be like." She patted her belly without thinking about it. Steve looked at the gesture she was making and Dora awkwardly patted her thigh before raising her hand to her brush the hair back from her face.
"Thank God we don't have to worry about that yet! I don't know what I would do if any of the women came down with a nine month parasite right now. As much as everyone seems to be fucking anything that moves it is a wonder we don't have a maternity ward set up yet."
Softy Dora agreed, "Yeah thank God for that, Steve."
"What?" Steve looked at her closely and asked, "What?" again. Slowly he seemed to realized what he had said, "Oh my fucking God! You're pregnant! It all makes sense now, you throwing up all the time, being extra bitchy and tired! Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"Fuck. Keep your voice down! I don't want anyone to know, okay? We got bigger things to worry about and this is one of them that can wait until we get to Iowa, or po-dunk-ville or where ever the hell Jake is leading us."
"Jake…you should never have come with us to get the buses. Never; it was too much of a risk, there are not a whole fucking lot of people left Dora and we have to protect anyone who is going to expand the human race."
"See? This is why I didn't tell anyone. I don't need special treatment and I need to do my job, you can't handle me with kid gloves on account of my condition."
"Why the fuck not? Forget what I said, I am thrilled that you are knocked up, I love it the idea that you will be having a baby it is an incredible boost to my morale and everyone else will love the idea too. I wish all the women were pregnant then we would have a reason to fight again. Fighter harder I mean."
"Steve, listen, this is important. If you so much as tell anyone I will kick you in the nutsack so hard you will never have kids of your own."
Steve stood up more straight and shifted around on his legs until they were slightly apart, then gestured with one hand at his crotch, "Take your best shot lady, I am telling them. This will help us through the next day or two."
Seeing the determination in his eyes Dora said, "Fuck. I really do not want people to know yet. I don't want them acting all weird trying to protect me when I am more than capable of taking care of myself. You would treat me differently, you said so yourself; you would not have brought me to get the buses yesterday."
Steve nodded and Dora continued. "Well then you have to ask yourself Steve, would people knowing this, and liking it, according to your belief, outweigh the changes they will make in our fight to leave here? Are people going to make better or worse decisions in combat because they know I am pregnant?"
"I don't…I don't really know Dora."
"Well you were in the military right? Do you change plans at the last minute?"
"You have to get as up to the date intelligence as you can before you go on any mission. This news could make people fight harder."
"Steve, Steve, Steve." said Dora shaking her head, "They are already going to be fighting for their lives, I don't think fighting for mine even enters the equation. I think they'll do fine. When we get to Iowa we can tell everyone and use it to soften the blow that comes from our losses."
"If we make it, Iowa it's going to change everything."
"So you'll wait then?"
With a bit of a frown Steve nodded his agreement, "But only until we get there, once we're safe again I'm telling everyone."
"Fair enough. Now let's get going, I still have to talk to Willy before we head out. Why don't you have him ride with me? And throw that tween Beth in my suburban too, would you?"
"You are on point, I was going to try and have another adult in your car…"
"Who? We 'adults' are spread pretty thin, Willy has a good track record of surviving and with his little girlfriend in the car he won't be tempted to head out on his own."
"Fine. Any other changes to my plans that you want me to make?"
"Now, Steve don't be that way! You know us civilian leaders have to mess with the military plans all the time for political reasons."
"No shit." Steve slid open the patio door to Dora's house and they headed into her kitchen. "Are you going to miss this place?"
"Depends on where I end up, ask me in a year, if we're still around."
"Oh you'll end up on your feet, I don't doubt that." said Steve as he helped himself to a huge plate of eggs and cup of coffee. Dora frowned at him and put another pot on to make more. Steve tried to duck out before Dora made a snide comment about coffee guzzling jar heads, but he didn't quite make it. After she had poured herself a fresh cup she approached Mary and Willy in her living room. Willy was much cleaner than he had been and was getting dressed while Mary packed away bits and pieces of her medical gear into bags on the examining table.
"You need help Mary?"
"Yeah, you busy?"
"I just want to talk with Willy for a minute, want me to get you a cup of coffee?"
"Sure, put it in one of those travel mugs will you? Oh and Alex said he had come back to tell you that he couldn't get in touch with Jake."
"Dammit. We should have left him a walkie-talkie."
"I am sure we'll contact him when we leave. Now go take your minute, it better be a fast one, we need to get moving here."
"C'mon Willy." said Dora dragging the boy with her as she went back over to the kitchen.
He finished dressing by the counter as Dora pushed another bowl of eggs over at him. "Coffee?"
"Is there any cream and sugar?"
"You know it." said Dora pouring him a cup then passing over a bottle of powdered cream and a bowl of sugar. Willy doctored his coffee up until it resembled a creamy white sludge then started in on his eggs.
"You're riding with me today. Up front on point, Beth will be in the car too. That okay with you?" he responded by nodding and grunting his assent. "So what did you mean when you said I could do it too? When we were out there with Tim?"
The young man shrugged and said, "Some of us are faster, like they are. Especially anyone who got real close up to them to kill them. Jeff was about as fast as I have seen, before I saw you this morning. You are way faster. Like car to bicycle faster."
"Why in the hell didn't anyone mention this before?"
"We thought you knew. I saw you fight before, I mean you were faster than normal, you were always where you needed to be, always killing the really bad people who needed killing. I was sure you already noticed or that someone else had talked to you about it."
"No one ever mentioned it. How fast are you?"
"I could outdraw Jeff." Willy reached up and touched the bandage above his ear, "But I'm not fast enough."
"Is there anything else that goes along with this?"
Willy rolled his eyes and sighed, then answered, "How would I know? You're faster, I'm faster, I don't get so tired anymore, I think we get better sooner or don't get hurt as much as we should." he paused, shoveled in another spoonful of eggs, then said, "Oh, wait, stronger too. Much stronger. You can jump farther. That's about it, just try things and see what you can do."
"Good advice, too bad I don't have time. Does it ever go away?"
Will
y shrugged, "Not yet, maybe when we stop killing them."
"Which will be never. I get it. Fine. Finish up then come help me with Mary and getting the hurt people into the bus." Dora poured the last of the fresh pot of coffee into a travel mug, then fixed it up the way she knew Mary liked to drink it before heading over to help the other woman finish packing.
Chapter 39
The vehicles were lined up and ready to move out, the group was waiting for the last of the pickets to withdraw from the fence line. Steve had designated a point at the inner fence for everyone to meet and the watchers had finally all trickled in to that gate. Once the last of them were gathered there Steve covered the young men and women as they made their way to the buses. The buses were lined up in front of Dora's house with a vehicle between each one, two pickups brought up the rear and out in front were the two motorcycles with Becka and Seth, followed by Dora's suburban and Bob's pickup truck. All of the pickups had several teenagers riding in the back, most armed with shotguns sporting looks of grim determination.
When Steve reached his truck, the second to last one, he radioed for everyone to move out and the vehicles all started forward slowly through the main gates at the end of Dora's street. The gated community funneled all of the streets to one common exit and it was in sight of this final gate that the motorcyclist pulled up to a halt, frantically Seth's voice came over the line, "Dora, do you see them? At the front gate?"
Dora was driving her suburban and she could indeed see what Seth was talking about, the two motorcycles had not roamed far ahead of her yet, they would not do so until the group was out of familiar territory. Ahead was the military truck so often driven to Doraville by Sam Waller or Jim Tiller, looking closer Dora could only see one person standing beside the truck. Grabbing her radio she called out, "Approach cautiously, that is Jake there beside the truck, not Tiller or one of the others."