Useless Bastard

by Hooke, A. J. A.

  "I can't hear anything," said Dave.

  "There's no pulse either," said Trevor.

  The priest stared up at them with blank, glassy eyes.

  "Fuck," said Holden.

  "What made him do this?" asked Josh.

  Dave placed a hand over his eyes. "He read something in the disc of light."

  "Are you serious?" asked Trevor. "Are you seriously saying that if you can read the text on the disc of light then you'll kill yourself?"

  Dave looked at Trevor and then everyone else in the group. "I don't have any other explanation. We need to find someone else who can read Latin."

  Trevor shook his head. "I'm terrified what will happen if we do try to read it again."

  * * *

  Four emotionally subdued men walked along the road. No one talked. No one emoted. Eventually they could hear the noise of a camp.

  "So much noise," said Dave.

  "There's about a hundred people here," said Trevor pointing to a football oval. "That number will always make a fair bit of noise."

  As they walked forward, Dave could see that the oval was a simple football field. It was surrounded by an alternating pattern of car-long hand rails and shoulder-wide gaps. The field had a messy collection of tents scattered randomly all over the place. A nasty smell of open latrines made Dave wrinkle his nose. There were small groups of noisy people talking amongst themselves.

  It was what was missing that alarmed Dave the most. There were no defensive structures at all - not even a token fence-line that formed a complete barrier. There was no one guarding or patrolling the perimeter. There was no sign or hint of any form of organisation at all.

  Josh slowly shook his head from side to side. "What a fucking mess!"

  Trevor looked annoyed. "I can't really deny that, but it's really hard to get people to help."

  "You mean that they have no interest in helping themselves to survive," suggested Dave.

  "There's no good way to put it," said Trevor. "I'd have more luck if you asked me to herd a few dozen cats."

  "Shouldn't we all have the same goal?" asked Dave.

  "You'd think that," said Trevor, "and to be truthful, one reason that I brought you here was to put a bit of fire into everyone."

  Dave frowned. "I'm not really a motivational speaker."

  "Sorry. That's not really what I meant. I'm hoping that if you describe what you've seen then maybe people here would agree on what the common enemy is. We really need to unite and fight together."

  "It sounds like you have issues with factions and infighting."

  Trevor sighed. "I hope that I'm wrong. But keep your expectations down."

  "Hey Trev," shouted an Army man who was walking between the tents. "When did you get back?"

  "Just now," said Trevor pointing at the camp site. "I was just showing our guests what our camp looks like."

  The new Army man casually walked up to the group and looked at them. "It ain't much but it's home."

  "Hi," said Dave holding out a hand, "I'm Dave and this is my friend Josh."

  The Army man reached out his hand, giving Dave's hand a firm shake before moving on and shaking Josh's hand. "I'm Jordan. Good to see friends. Need more of that."

  "Pardon," said Dave. "I'm not sure what you mean."

  "A lot of people got separated recently so it's good to see friends who survived through it."

  "Ah," said Dave. "Actually we became friends recently."

  "Oh," said Jordan becoming gloomy. Jordan was clearly a type who clearly showed their feelings on his face.

  Trevor quickly changed the topic. "Did you get my message yesterday?"

  "About staying out all night?" asked Jorden.

  "In particular I meant about getting a meeting together."

  "Yep. I talked to the main influencers. They are probably at the HQ. I'll take you there right now."

  Jordan turned and began walking into the camp. The others followed Jordan. The Army men knew where they were going, but Dave and Josh appreciated being guided.

  Dave leaned towards Trevor. "A HQ?"

  "It's just a name," said Trevor. "It's just a large tent that didn't have a floor. Can't have people sleeping on the bare dirt. So being a meeting place is all that it can hope to be. Plus, by fluke it was built somewhat in the centre of the field. The perfect place for a town hall or HQ or whatever you might want to call it."

  Dave stayed near to Trevor as if worried about being overheard from people in the camp. "I wasn't expecting the phrase 'influencers'. Isn't there anyone in charge?"

  Trevor sighed. "Like I said before, I'm not anyone important in the Army. I'm just a private. The only reason why the other lads follow me is that I'm a bit older than them. Us Army guys like a good command structure and without anyone of rank we went with age."

  Dave looked suspiciously about the camp. "So how is this place organised?"

  "By a committee."

  Dave looked at Josh who had been listening in. "That can't be good."

  "What do you mean?" asked Trevor.

  "I worked in an office that had committees for everything and they succeeded in achieving nothing. At a time like this we need a clarity of vision and a way of responding quickly to situations."

  Trevor gave a look as if he had been through this discussion before and Dave wondered what side of the debate Trevor had been on. "And who will be our great leader? You?"

  Dave winced. "I'm definitely not suited to that sort of task, but surely with this many people you must have someone who could step up. If there are no Army officers then what about a police officer or a fireman? Surely there's someone who was in one of the services and had a knack for organising people during a crisis."

  Trevor stopped walking. He face serious. "You're not getting it. There's no one left except us, and we're all bloody useless."

  Jordan had stopped for a moment to wonder why everyone had stopped walking. Trevor, clearly frustrated, started walking again and took the lead. Everyone except Dave continued walking again.

  Dave looked up at the sky noticing a dark cloud in the distance. "So, I'm not the only one then." He took a deep breath and followed after the others.

  * * *

  Dave approached a large, floor-less tent, at the entrance of which Dave saw Trevor talking to Holden and Jordan.

  "I think you're making too much of nothing," said Jordan.

  Trevor looked to Holden. "You were with me. What do you think?"

  "I think we've been lucky," said Holden. "I don't think we should keep relying on luck."

  "What's going on?" asked Dave as he caught up with the others.

  "I'm worried about the hills behind us," said Trevor. "After meeting with you I'm finding myself getting spooked."

  "Do you think I'm lying?" asked Dave. "I like to think that I'm a rational person, but do you think I'm caught up in some sort of conspiracy and trying to mislead everyone?"

  Trevor sighed. "Not in the least. The opposite, in fact. Over the last few days I've managed to independently see for myself everything that you've referred to. The only thing different is that you've tried to record what you see, organise those records and try to understand what is happening."

  "Thanks for the reassurances, so what is the issue?" asked Dave.

  "I guess that's it's an issue of habit," said Trevor. "We've never sent a patrol to the hills so there's some resistance."

  "I'll go," said Holden. "I doubt that I'm going to contribute anything to this meeting. So going for a walk might be perfect for me. Also, going for a walk amongst some trees might clear my mind a bit. For some reason I feel like avoiding the discussions that are coming. I'm not political so I want to avoid that shitstorm."

  "Can I ask something from you?" said Dave.

  "Sure." said Holden.

  "If you find no dead roaming the forest then see if you can find a reason. Is there another river? Is there a large fence? See if you can spot some sort of barrier that keeps the hills clear."

&
nbsp; Holden nodded. "Got it."

  Jordan sighed. "Okay. I get it. I'll just have to delay having my morning cup of tea. I'll join Holden. Two pairs of eyes are better than one."

  Trevor nodded to the two Army men. "Thanks. I know that I'm being paranoid, and I'm betting that there's a perfectly logical reason why we've been safe so far, so go and find it. The ridge-line isn't too far away. Climb it and use its height to spot out. Take some binocs and have a good look. You should easily get back for a late lunch."

  The two army men nodded at Trevor and Dave before turning away and walking off in the direction of the hills.

  "Now for this meeting," said Trevor.

  "You say with an odd tone," said Dave.

  Trevor just shook his head and the pair walked into the tent.

  Josh had gone into the tent before them and was idly standing to one side. As Josh saw Dave come in, Josh walked over to join Dave.

  "Are we all here?" asked Trevor to a small group of about six people.

  "I do not understand why we have to be here?" asked an intense woman. "But your man was so insistent. I hope that you know that I have a lot to do today."

  Trevor looked like he was about to say something before clearly changing his mind. Trevor took a deep breath and spoke: "I'll keep it quick then. Yesterday I went out on a reconnaissance and came across these two lads. This is Dave and this is Josh." Trevor gestured to Dave and Josh in turn, and the pair nodded back to the others.

  The woman made no effort to introduce herself. "We're having a meeting over some randoms?"

  Another man came forward. "This really is a waste of time. I'm leaving." And in contradiction to his words he just stood there.

  "What are you doing that's so important that you wouldn't want to even have a chat?" asked Dave simply.

  The woman looked personally offended. "I don't have to explain myself to you."

  Dave laughed which startled most people in the room. "I was just being conversational. I'm not here trying to pull off a hostile takeover. I just want to talk to some different people for a change. Think of my arrival as just a social visit. I'd like to get to know people. And this is a good chance to talk and exchange anything that we've learnt."

  The woman looked suspiciously at Dave. "So how long are you here for?"

  "I want to share some observations that I've made and I would hope that you'd be happy to share what you've experienced."

  "What's the point of that?"

  "Survival. The old cliche is true: knowledge really is power. The more that we know about our circumstances then the more likely we'll come up with ideas for how we can survive all this."

  "I'll have you know that we are surviving quite well here and it's all because of our leadership."

  "That's great. Maybe we can talk about the policies that you've implemented and how they were so useful."

  "We've not implemented any. We are doing well precisely because we are in charge."

  Dave looked confused and tried to stutter a response. Trevor caught Dave's eye and with a quick gesture convinced Dave that this wasn't a good line of discussion to go with.

  "I think," said Trevor, "we can get the ball rolling by hearing from Dave about the dead and how he describes them."

  Dave looked thankfully towards Trevor. The others in the room looked less impressed. And the woman that Dave had been talking to was clearly the least impressed of all.

  Dave kept it simple. He avoided talking about his journey from the city centre and just focused on his current opinion of the dead. He talked about how the dead were walkers during the day and became dashers at night. He described the various changes in appearance and locomotion abilities. Dave also noted how the dashers came across as more intelligent but were overall not very smart.

  So far the response he got was boredom. But the response changed to denial when he brought up the talkers. And that response resulted in murmurs of discontent when he described having an actual conversation with a talker. Dave diffused the murmurs by being honest. The conversation between Dave and the talker had only served to leave Dave confused. Dave admitted that he doubted the words of the talker at face value but that a sensible conversation could be had implied some interesting future experiments.

  And when it came around to the idea of experiments, Dave caused shock when he began to describe how he had tied up a walker and proceeded to cut pieces off it. Dave described the mechanisms of how the walkers healed. He related how the healing process varied. As he talked there was a growing sense of outrange from his audience. And then it broke.

  "You disgusting monster," said the woman from before.

  "What?" said Dave as his line of thought was interrupted.

  "How could you do that to those poor things?"

  "I'm sorry. You've completely lost me."

  "How could you violate their rights like that?"

  Dave froze. "'Rights'? The walkers are dead. How can the dead have rights?"

  "Well, you call them 'walkers' because they walk. And if they walk then they are obviously not dead."

  Dave had previously noticed little warning signs from Trevor but only now realised exactly what Trevor was referring to. Maybe Dave should have guessed it. Dave had encountered enough people to know that there were many people who had been deeply affected by recent events. Most came across as being shocked in the cliche way - unresponsive and apathetic. But this was different. This was a complete breakdown in a person's perception of reality.

  Trevor had done this deliberately, keeping his observations to himself, and yet Dave didn't hate Trevor. Had Trevor told him the truth up front then Dave would never have believed him. How could people view the same set of events and yet come away with the opposite interpretations. Dave turned his head to the tent entrance where he could hear noise of people living in the camp. Dave gritted his teeth at the thought that much of the camp were filled with people who's minds had broken under the strain.

  Dave took a deep breath to recover himself. "I'm sorry. You've raised a good point that I never thought of."

  The woman puffed up her chest and the others around her offered up supportive murmurs that stroked her ego. "Indeed."

  "However," said Dave trying to chose his words carefully, "this sort of experimenting is very valuable. We've discovered so many facts about the walkers that it changes how we can deal with them. Is there any way we could continue with the experiments that wouldn't be exploitative of the dead's rights?"

  Pleased at becoming the centre of attention the woman spoke confidently: "Clearly you have to get consent from these 'walkers'."

  Dave wanted to laugh out loud at the nonsense that he was hearing, but he swallowed it down and regained his composure. There is no reasoning with the unreasonable. "Should I go with verbal or written consent?" asked Dave unable to control a trollish whim.

  The woman looked surprised at the question, turned to the group of people that stood near her and began to confer with them. Dave and Trevor shared a bemused glance at each other, obviously amused that Dave's question had been taken so seriously. The woman and her followers had been talking for a few minutes when Holden and Jordan rushed into the tent and approached Trevor.

  "What's the rush?" asked Trevor. "I wasn't expected you back for a few hours yet."

  Through puffing breath Holden blurted out. "They're in the hills."

  "What?" said Dave trying to calm his own sense of alarm.

  "There are walkers in the hill. You can't see them from the field because they are in the trees right now, but they are fucking close."

  "How close?" asked Trevor.

  Holden and Jordan looked at each other and Jordan nodded to Holden to confirm who should speak.

  "The forrest is full of them," said Jordan. "It's impossible to count them but there's easily hundreds of them."

  "And they're all coming this way," finished Holden.

  Trevor went pale. He realised that experiencing a period of safety is not the same as being actually
safe.

  "This field isn't safe," said Dave. "We need to evacuate. The walkers can't climb, so are there any buildings that we can climb onto?"

  The self-important woman from before had stopped her discourse when the Army man had burst into the tent and had listened to the discussion. "There's no need to evacuate," she said. "Instead we need to go to them and greet them as brothers and sisters. We must greet them with open arms and show them that by accepting their identity that we can be one."

  The woman and the people around her walked from the tent. Dave stood staring at the ground. he couldn't think of a single way to reason with that way of thinking. Did she completely fail to understand reality to that extent? He knew that that way of thinking would lead to a massacre but there was nothing that he could think of to stop it.

  "Now," said Josh, "this got really fucked up."

  * * *

  Dave turned to Trevor and asked, "Is there any where we can go?"

  With a clear expression of worry, Trevor looked over the camp in the direction of the hills. Dave tapped Trevor on the shoulder but Trevor was obviously too lost in thought to be useful at that moment. Dave turned to the other military men who were glancing about the camp in an agitated manner.

  "Any ideas? Anything?"

  Jordan was pale. "Don't they get it, there's so many coming. There's just so many."

  Dave grabbed Trevor by the shoulder. "How about you guys set up a line at the edge of the field and shoot them as they come out of the forest? We know how to kill them now."

  Trevor seemed to snap partially back into focus. "We can't. We don't have the resources."

  "We don't need you to destroy them all, just hold them for a few minutes while we evacuate the camp."

  Seemingly shaking his head to free it of cobwebs, Trevor finally came fully into focus. "We don't have the ammunition."

  "You had a lot a few days ago," said Dave perplexed.

  Trevor gestured around him. "This place is just a small community area. There's this football oval, some shops, even a dance hall. We didn't choose to come here. No one planned this. People just spontaneously came here."