"We've got that too. Maybe once that wears off then people will get hard to manage, but for now our group isn't too bad."
"It sounds good for you but I suspect that things could still be better."
Trevor's grin appeared grim. "I'd take that as a given. But I'm curious, why you are here?"
"I needed a place to set up a lab."
"What do you mean?"
"Come over here and I'll show you."
Dave walked to the northern edge of the roof and pointed down at Charlie. Everyone else followed. The two Army men looked down at Charlie, and Josh watched the Army men's reaction.
"Fucking hell," blurted out Holden.
Trevor gave Holden an annoyed look, before looking back at Dave. "This is your lab?"
"This is Charlie, our test subject."
"You've completely lost the plot then," said Trevor simply.
Josh laughed. "You're not the only one that thinks that."
Dave looked straight at Trevor. "So what do you know about Charlie's kind?"
Trevor looked straight at Dave, a mix of frustrated emotions flickered over his face. "Not much."
"I'd say that no one knows anything and my goal is to change that."
Trevor understood the significance of Dave's words. "We need to talk."
* * *
"I hope you don't mind me being curious," said Dave to Trevor, "but I seemed to remember you saying something about this being new. What did you mean about that?"
Trevor pointed the four walls that formed a square in the intersection. "We made these walls. As you can see we parked some vehicles across the roads and filled up the gaps as best as possible. However, I can see that you've extended this defence by using more vehicles. Also I can see that you've added walkway linking some of the walls and ladders for getting over them. At least I'm guessing that you were the ones who did all the additions."
Dave nodded. "My intention was to set up a rough open air laboratory so that I could capture a few dead and then try to study them. Obviously I lack medical equipment in order to study at a cellular or chemical level, but I was hoping to build up some general data. I've luckily avoided having to fight the dead directly, but I wanted to see if I could spot some obvious weaknesses."
"And did you find any?" ask Trevor.
"None. In fact the opposite. Every injury we inflicted was healed. They seem completely immortal - as far as something dead could be."
"If what you're saying is true then that's a worse case scenario."
"The reason why I came here was that a few days ago I was camping just east of here. I ended up hearing a lot of gunfire. I was curious and waited until the next day before coming here."
"You waited?"
"I wanted to wait for the dead to leave. They like noise and your gunfire was certainly noisy. I needed some time to pass for the gunfire to be forgotten about and the dead move on. So, what actually happened here?"
Trevor sighed. "We had this idea that it was time to clear out the dead. To put it in a dramatic way, we decided that it was time to take back what is ours. So we set up the base right here. This place is convenient being just across the river from our main camp. We brought in some people, some fire power and tried to dig in. At first the noise of building this base attracted only a few dead. They didn't really attack. They just stood outside the walls and stared at us. They just waited while we got ready. It was rather unsettling. It came as a relief when we started shooting."
"What happened then?" asked Dave.
Trevor looked to Holden. "You've got that twenty-two pistol?"
Holden pulled out his sidearm. "Right here."
"Loaded with sub-sonics?"
"Yep. Even though they are damn useless."
Trevor turned to Dave. "Mind if we borrow your dead friend for a moment?"
"Go ahead," said Dave.
"The sub-sonics will be enough for this demonstration," said Trevor to Holden. "Take some shots at the 'Charlie' chap down there."
Holden gave Trevor a questioning look before switching the pistol safety off. Holden racked the pistol and using two hands aimed down at Charlie. Holden pulled the trigger and fired at Charlie's chest. Holden then manually racked the pistol again and fired at Charlie. Holden then repeated this procedure for about half a dozen times.
Charlie just stood there showing little interest as ragged bullet holes appeared in his chest. No blood or other fluid poured from the wounds. Charlie gave no impression that his wounds were affecting him at all. While Holden turned the pistol safety back on and holstered it, the wounds on Charlie healed up leaving Charlie's chest smooth and unharmed.
"Damn," said Dave. "Is that why you abandoned this place?"
"As we continued shooting, more of the dead would turn up. We had quite a large crowd and yet our shots did nothing. We were using full powered rifle rounds instead of these sub-sonics so the damage was greater. But just like you saw with Charlie, the damage would heal and it was as if we had done nothing.
"A sense of panic appeared amongst us and really started to get out of hand. Before we started this operation everyone had a swagger to their step. We all sort of thought that we'll murder the lot and return to base as heroes. But the numbers of the dead grew and it sort of seemed that we weren't able to do a thing, then everyone got really afraid."
Dave frowned. "What you just said sounded weird."
"Yes. Most of our shots did nothing. We poured a lot of gunfire onto the growing crowds and to no effect. Except that every now and then one of the dead would stagger, fall down and turn into dust."
"What?"
"I don't really understand myself. In fact it was so rare that I'm not actually sure that I saw what I saw. And afterwards, when talking to the others, no one else had seen what I saw."
"Did their healing powers run out?"
"I don't know. And I hope that isn't the case. We fired off a lot of firepower and if all we achieved was to destroy one or two then that's not a sustainable approach."
"I heard vehicles driving off south, so what happened?"
"The panic almost got out of hand, but we vaguely acted as a cohesive unit. The more we fired our weapons, the more dead turned up. We ended up getting a large crowd mostly from the east and north although there were a number from the west. I guess the river provided a screen because I don't think any came from that direction. And that was lucky for us as our trucks were parked to the south.
"We nearly ran out of ammunition when we made our attempt to break out of here. I'd like to claim that we left in a controlled manner but at some point someone yelled 'Retreat!' and we just fled. There was no controlling it, and I'm still surprised that everyone got out unharmed. Well, physically unharmed. We might have started with confidence, but now there's a dark mood back at our base. You can see real fear in people''s eyes now."
"How bad is it?" asked Dave.
"I just don't know. To be honest, one reason why I'm here is half to reassess these defences, the other is to just get away from the base and get some fresh air. There's a sense of hopelessness that I don't know what to do about. People were previously upset about what had happened. Now they were losing their hopes for the future. What's left after you've lost all that?"
"I was worried about that," said Dave. "When I first saw crowds of people dying and how so many people were converted so quickly, I sort of lost hope myself. In my wanderings I've found a few living people, but only a few. Then I realised that my lack of hope was because I lacked knowledge. I slowly came to the idea that ignorance was our greatest enemy. I think that knowledge will give us confidence."
"So how do we take on this 'enemy'?" asked Trevor.
Dave held up a notepad and randomly opened it up. He then showed the open pages to the two Army men. Trevor was clearly interested.
"We need to study the dead," said Dave pointing to his notes. "Observe the dead. Record patterns. Apply analysis. There has to be a weakness and only if we take a scientific approach will we
discover what that weakness is."
"I've never seen anything like this," said Trevor looking at some of Dave's sketches and comments.
"Don't you have some people working on this as well?" asked Dave. "Some sort of scientific team?"
"It hurts me to say this but the base that I've come from has a painful lack of qualified people. Take myself and Holden. With us there's a total of five people with a military background, and none of us are officers. If we want any sort of military help then we have to borrow from the civilians. I'm not trying to be mean, but there's a difference between a trained soldier and someone who's watched a war movie or two."
"With you two here that means that your base is being defended by three people...or more?"
"Yeah. But to be more precise, it's not really a base. It's more of a camp."
"A camp? As in people camping in an open field?"
"There's a lot of them. A little over a hundred. It was just easier to have them all camp out on a football field."
"You have to be fucking bullshitting me," exclaimed Josh.
"What's wrong?" asked Trevor.
"Maybe we're jumping ahead of ourselves," said Dave. "How are you defending your camp? What sort of walls have you built around it?"
"We haven't built a thing," said Trevor.
Dave and Josh stared wide eyed at each other.
"How," asked Dave, "do you stop attacks?"
"There have never been any attacks," said Trevor.
"I... . How?" stammered Dave.
Trevor pointed to the south. "I've never seen the dead cross the river."
Dave stood rooted to the spot. "Are you saying that they are afraid of the water?"
"I don't really know. They've just never been a problem at our camp."
"That just makes no sense."
"Until this moment I never really thought about it."
"If they are afraid of the water why not just cross over a bridge? And that river is mostly a straight line. What about the other side of your camp? Are you somehow surrounded by rivers?"
"Not that I'm aware of. The only thing behind us is a small hilly ridge covered in trees."
"So now the dead can't managed inclined surfaces."
Dave rubbed his face with a hand. But not matter how much he tried he couldn't erase his confusion.
* * *
The conversation between Dave, Josh and the two Army guys went on into the late twilight.
"It's almost night," commented Dave. "Are you okay with getting back to your camp, or would you want to stay the night here? But if you do stay the night here it will be a bit rough. We've got some stretcher beds that you can use, but we've not got any spare sleeping bags."
Josh pointed in the direction of the clothing store that doubled as a camping store. "It's a bit too late for ducking over to the camping store and grabbing something extra. I wouldn't like to be on the streets right now."
Trevor nodded. "I appreciate the offer but it's really not far to the bridge. Once we cross that then we'll be safe."
"I still don't trust using the river as a barrier," said Dave. "Will there be any problems if you don't go back tonight?"
Trevor nodded towards Holden. "He's got a radio on him. The range isn't fantastic, but I wouldn't be surprised if we could get a signal to our camp. It's not that far away."
"I don't mean to insist, but I'd feel much better if you stayed up here with us for the night. Even at a time like this the dashers will appear. I wouldn't want to be on the ground with them."
"Dashers?" asked Trevor.
"Dashers are the night version of the dead. They seem to be pretty fast and I suspect that they are also much stronger."
"That sounds like pain. I guess we'll take you up on that offer." Trevor looked to Holden. "Better contact the camp and tell them that we'll be back tomorrow. Tell them that we might have guests."
Holden gave Trevor a concise nod and turned away from the group. Holden then started speaking into a hand-held radio.
"Guests?" ask Dave.
"I've really enjoyed listening to you today. Although 'enjoy' isn't really the right choice of words. What I mean is that you've gathered a lot of useful data and I'd like to share that with others at the camp if you don't mind."
"I feel that my research is incomplete and that I've only just started. I'm not sure if I've got anything to really share."
"There's no point waiting for perfection. Trust me. You've got a lot of good stuff, it should be rather beneficial to share it. I'm hoping that you'll jolt people out of the funk that they are in."
Dave looked thoughtful for a moment. "Okay. Is there anything that I should bring along?"
Trevor looked around the roof area briefly. "I'd like it if you continued your studies so I supposed this will be where you'll be working in the future. Don't take anything away from here. Just bring yourself and your knowledge."
"What about me?" asked Josh. "Should I stay here and work on improvements?"
"That's tempting," said Dave, "but you should come with us. I suspect that if our camps are really close then there will be a lot of communication in the future. We might even recruit a bit of help. Getting familiar with going between here and the camp across the river will be very helpful."
Josh nodded and Holden turned to join the group.
"I told Barry that we'd be out all night and that we'd be returning tomorrow. I suggested that he organise a few people for a quick meeting. Maybe around lunchtime."
Trevor nodded. "It pains me that we're kind of stuck here, but I guess safety comes first."
"The walkers should all be dashers by now," said Dave.
"What do you mean?" asked Trevor.
Dave pointed to Charlie. "Look at his skin. His skin is now all grey. There's no trace of yellow on him. If he wasn't tied up then he'd be sprinting about."
Trevor looked down at Charlie with his face set in a grim expression.
Suddenly there was a loud metallic crunch. Dave immediately lowered himself so that he couldn't be seen from the road below. The others promptly ducked down as well. Holden unshouldered his rifle, and Trevor waved at the rifle. Holden was clearly tense - he mightn't have said much during the day's conversations but those conversations had clearly had an impact on him.
Trevor gave Dave a questioning look.
"Probably a talker," whispered Dave.
There was more metallic sounds. It sounded like someone climbing over the bonnet of a car, which is most likely what was happening.
"Hello," came a raspy voice. "Hello. How is everyone tonight?"
Trevor's eyes opened wide and Holden looked rather terrified. Regardless, everyone maintained their calm.
Dave looked deeply thoughtful for a moment. "Stay down," he finally whispered.
Not waiting for any response from the others, Dave stood up and looked down at the street near where Charlie was tied up. A dark figure stood nearby. At the sound of Dave standing, the dark figure looked in Dave's direction. Blood red eyes gleaming in the growing dark of night.
"Why, hello and hello," said the dark figure.
"And hello to you," said Dave.
"He talks, he talks. Finally he talks."
"What are you? You don't seem dead."
"Dead? Ah, you mean the eternal life after death?"
Dave grimaced at the phrase. "I've seen how your type are made. The living are killed and then rise up as if alive."
"They look alive to you?"
"Well, not really. They move, so I guess that's why I said they seem alive."
"To move is to live and when you stop moving then you're dead?"
"That's a simple way to put it but I can't think of any other way to describe it."
The talker tilted his head as if in thought. "Ah, you think."
Dave jolted at the short phrase. "Is that significant?"
The talker reached out and placed a palm onto Charlie's face. "These children don't think."
"But I've heard you talk to
them. They are clearly listening."
"They listen, but they don't comprehend."
"I've seen you give orders and they seem to obey."
"You've seen me giving orders? Ah, you've seen other's like me. You are the explorer."
Internally Dave swore. "So your kind give orders and the other dead are followers. That implies intelligence."
"It only implies intelligence in the ones giving orders. Following orders doesn't required intelligence. In fact, it's preferred that anyone who is required to obey must not think for themselves."
"Are you saying that the dead can't think? So how do you think? If you are dead then how come you can think?"
"That would be the source of your mistake. Only the children are dead. The fathers that lead them are not dead."
"Wait. Are you saying that you live just like me?"
"Life and death are not the right labels. It's about choice."
"I don't understand."
"You are not a believer. These children were killed and through death discovered the truth. Because they were unbelievers at the time of their death they lack the ability to think. The fathers understood the truth while they lived and used that belief to reach the life that comes after death. Belief leads to truth."
"You committed suicide?"
"No. If I had done that then I would have become a mindless child. I believe and that was enough."
"What do you believe?"
"I believe in life after death."
Dave froze. Had he completely misunderstood everything that had happened? Could it be that even his basic assumptions were way off? And what were those assumptions? Dave had assumed that what he saw was a disease that was transmitted through biting. But if one could undergo a transformation without being bitten then what was left? Was this not a disease after all? The talker had hinted at a possibility that Dave hadn't yet comprehended. Dave was fearful that there might come a time when he did understand.
"I'm not sure what I believe," said Dave.
"And that is why you are still trapped with the living."
Holden had been tense before and this finally broke him. He jumped up and immediately fired his rifle at the talker. The bullets hit the talker and great disks of light appeared around the talker - one disc for each wound. Trevor and Josh had stood up to watch the effect of Holden's actions - they were in no mental state of deciding if they approved of Holden's actions or not. But the disc of light surprised everyone and caused everyone to freeze in place. The only person not to freeze was the talker who sprinted off. There were sounds of climbing over car bonnets and then silence. The four stood on the roof stunned. There had been too much in the way of revelations and the group was almost completely exhausted. How could any sane man understand what had just happened?
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