The man stiffened. He’d been hoping for something less blindly loyal. He saluted and turned to leave.
“For now,” Page added.
The Lieutenant paused, looked over his shoulder at Page.
“Keep your concerns to yourself – for now.”
◆◆◆
John lay curled in a ball on the ground. The zombies gazed at him with benign disinterest. For now. Who knew if that would change?
Like every day prior, the red rocks consumed his thoughts.
“Where are my rocks?” he asked in a quiet, gravelly voice. “With Sara, right. She has them. Why’d I do that? I need them. I need them…”
He remembered. That had been the point. His thoughts went through this cycle dozens of times a day.
“She’s the target, John. Your only relief,” he growled to himself.
He uncurled from the ground and forced himself to his feet.
“Let us go.”
It was time.
◆◆◆
“I hate this fence.”
“Yeah, it’s garbage.”
Two Academy men were attempting to repair a broken barrier section where a few zombies had come through. One of the men sloppily pulled out the broken branches, causing further damage to the surrounding enclosure.
“Careful!”
“Who cares? This thing’s gonna get replaced with a wall, anyway.”
The other man acknowledged this and also began carelessly hacking at the branches with his axe.
“I think the only way we’re gonna get a real wall is if this fence really sucks. If the fence works, Page won’t make it happen.”
“So, you’re saying the worse the fence is, the more likely we’ll get a wall?”
The other man shrugged his shoulders.
“Do you want to build a wall?”
“No. Maybe we could get some prisoners to do it.”
The other man snorted before turning to kick at a section of the fence in retaliation for all the work it caused him.
“There you go! Ha!”
The two chuckled as they sat down to take a rest. It was early and the sun was just over the horizon. They joked about instituting “siestas” in the Academy Army. It was the only thing they truly liked about Mexican culture.
Their conversation was interrupted by a small movement on the hillside.
“What’s that?” one said to the other.
“What?”
“Under that tree.” He stood up and looked into the trees on the other side of the fence, fifty meters off. His comrade did the same.
A breeze came through, causing the trees to sway, but a single object swayed differently, out of sync with the moving branches.
“Walker.”
“Yeah, you want to go get it?”
“It’ll come here.”
“Man, you are lazy!”
“Said the gelding to the zombie.”
Both laughed at the popular idiom going through camp. It had a similar meaning to “the pot calling the kettle black.”
The figure stepped out from the shadows and moved toward them.
“There you go, it’s all you. If it takes two hits you owe me a pound of bacon.”
“It’s not going to take two hits.” The man slowly stood up, complaining as he did so.
“Wait…”
He froze, staring at the bearded figure.
“Isn’t that…that’s a guy.”
“You’re right,” the other said. “Deserters would be wise to not come back.”
“Said the gelding to the zombie.”
“Mmmm, not sure that saying works there.”
“It works where I want.”
The figure slowly approached.
“Hey! Which unit you from!” one yelled at the man. There was no response.
The men looked at each other a little nervously.
“Better go get someone to question this guy. This isn’t my job.”
The man approached and opened his dry, cracked mouth to speak.
“Where is she?” the hoarse voice demanded.
◆◆◆
It began with a few scattered gunshots near the fence.
Sara heard them as she lay resting in her quarters. All the curtains were drawn to block out the sun. Her head was exceptionally bad this morning and any sliver of light felt excruciating. A few minutes later the firing grew in frequency and started coming from multiple locations, forcing her to rise.
Before she made it to the door, Dalbec was in the room and at her side with five armed men. He carried a large bag already prepped with her personal items.
“To the dock!!!” he shouted, grabbing her arm.
She snatched her arm away and snapped, “I’m not going to the dock. Take me to the overlook.”
The overlook was a former hotel that provided a commanding view of the surrounding area. To get to the top of it they climbed a ladder up the side to the third floor, and then stairs to the tenth floor. By the time Sara, Dalbec, and the armed men reached the top, the shooting had reached a new level. Gunfire was constant and men were running to reinforce areas of the barrier that had fallen to the walkers.
“No…” Sara said as she looked out over the scene below. The barrier was maybe a mile from her position at the overlook, and was clearly penetrated at numerous points. Thousands of zombies shuffled into the compound at a steady rate. Seven thousand men scrambled about to shore up the stream of oncoming biters. It was futile. Before Sara’s eyes, she watched her men shift from defending their new home, to panic. It had only taken minutes.
They frantically took refuge in buildings and set up futile barricades that should have been erected in the preceding weeks. Page was nowhere in sight. It was anarchy. She had a flashback to Peterson, when she’d unleashed the zombies on the prisoners. A dizzy spell hit her. If Dalbec hadn’t been at her side to catch her she would have fallen over.
Her men were completely surrounded on all sides, with the ocean preventing an escape. She watched a scene below in the street as a bitten man begged to be let into a building that had yet to be breached. He kicked at the door and screamed. The door opened for a second as a pistol went off in the bitten man’s face. The door shut again.
“Yes, the docks, Dalbec,” Sara said.
They climbed down the stairs and then the ladder to the ground. The shooting was still constant. Despite the pandemonium, random soldiers rallied around her to fend off the herd. The nearest walkers were within arm’s reach as Dalbec and the five men rushed her toward the docks.
They hurried Sara through the streets, increasing the distance between them and the herd. The docks weren’t far, but the herd was unstoppable. Explosions went off back where they’d come from, where her army was trying to hold the line.
“Dalbec, are those your…” she stopped, not wanting to betray her hope.
“Yes, but it won’t be enough. Not like before.”
The docks were in sight. Twenty loyal men guarded her boat. They looked stiff, eyes squinted. Chosen for their loyalty, they knew the cost. She looked at them and it pierced through her. They were going to die.
Her entourage quickly helped her onto the old boat. Still no Page. It was a medium sized sailboat, with enough space for Sara, Dalbec, the five guards, and three crew. As the crew rapidly prepared to shove off, the dock guards fired into a mass of their own men charging the dock. They wanted the boat. The numerous vessels that had been available the day prior were suddenly and inexplicably gone. The twenty men on guard were no match for the hundred or so trying to get through. Sara and the five men aboard let off rounds into the frantic men as the boat shoved off and the sails caught wind, moving them away from land. The men on shore, in their crazed anger, began unloading their weapons into the boat, hitting spars, ropes... The boat crept away, continuing to take punishment. Everyone aboard took cover as best they could as they returned fire. Men jumped from the dock to try to swim to the boat, but a gust picked up and swept the boat be
yond their reach.
The ship cleared the marina and headed north. From there, Sara was able to see the carnage. Smoke rose from numerous structures. Zombies everywhere. Her abandoned men ran into the surf to escape the zombies. Some tried swimming north, away from the herd. They needed to get anywhere the zombies weren’t. The zombies eyed the men swimming and followed them along the beach.
Shooting continued from land. The herd kept coming through the trashed “wall.” Sara bent over and vomited. She coughed and wiped her mouth before standing to try and steady herself. She lifted her eyes to the overlook she’d been on only minutes prior.
There he was. That bastard.
The bearded Martyr, she’d forgotten his name. He stood on the overlook facing her. His hand was outstretched, pointing at her. He didn’t get his red rocks.
Sara’s vision went foggy. She felt a shudder run through her. It was an odd sensation, one she hadn’t felt in a while. A feeling was nagging her, something she never let penetrate her hard exterior. It had, though, and it caused her most hated reaction.
Tears.
Chapter 16
Sal cleared his throat. “So, I told Dav that we don’t breed. I told her. Yeah. Maybe a bad idea, but you know how it is… No? Well, I needed her to think I was on her side. Lying would help me control her.” Sal spat. Ellie sat frozen, appalled by his galling honesty. They were sitting in the office of the Western Government leader in Clovis, California. This is not very professional! she thought. She tried to make eye contact with Sal to communicate her concerns, but he wasn’t paying attention, though.
“I told her to send the cruise missiles, to frighten you all into joining me. I sent her imagery of all your towns. She can hit you whenever she wants.”
Ellie coughed, trying harder to get Sal’s attention, but he was oblivious. He was also drunk.
“Once you all joined me – or at least back when I imagined you might – my plan was that we would betray her. She’s just too crazy to work with. You guys are Westerners, sure, all inbred and ignorant and stuff, but not crazy.”
Ellie looked for Chambers. He was nowhere. Tyler and another guard were here, but they had no clue the implications of Sal’s reckless blabbing. Was he trying to screw this up?! Ellie was never really on board with the original plan, but if this was plan B, it was worse.
“I probably would have tried bribing you, to get you to join. I gave the last guy a bunch of guns, but I’ll never see him again. I got ripped off, basically. That’s okay. I just don’t really care anymore.” He took another sip of the prune juice mixed with alcohol. It wasn’t really that terrible after all, he thought. “And it’s free, too!” he said aloud, to the confusion of his audience.
Sal began again. “I think my sister really had the right idea all along. I had it wrong, she had it right. You see, she didn’t pretend to be anything, and that’s what made her so successful. She was a cruel, heartless…”
“S-S-Sal, I think you should tell them about the herd headed this way,” Ellie interjected.
“Yeah, I helped cause that, too. Not sure what it’s going to do for me, now. ‘I unleashed a lot of zombies, whoopee!’ Here’s the clincher, though, Ellie here was right! Those walkers aren’t even going to reach all the way up here. Not for a long time, at least. And not many of ‘em. It was a bad idea from the beginning. What did you tell me, El? I was an incompetent boob?”
“Ha ha ha! I-I-I never said that,” Ellie tried laughing it off.
“Well, maybe I thought it. It’s true, though.”
The Clovis leader, Chris Moth, listened on. It was both entertaining and enlightening. He was learning how low the Rocky Mountain Government had fallen, and the breakdown of its leader before his very eyes was icing on the cake. It was also reassuring in light of his own position. The Westerners were in a bad spot, their army crippled and in disarray after the series of devastating defeats at the hands of the Southerners. He let Sal’s casual insults about Westerners roll right off his back. You don’t get angry at a sick, dying dog for snipping at you.
“So, Sal, what happened to all the other Rocky Mountain Government cities?” Chris asked. Ellie perked up and stopped trying to silence her boss.
“Well, rumors abound. Some say they were kidnapped and taken underground by the silo people. Others say they discovered an immunity medicine and moved East. The truth is, I don’t know.”
Chris nodded. One of his subordinates came in and stood dutifully at attention. Chris mulled over the information for a moment in silence, then turned to the soldier who informed him some other business required his attention. He stood and excused himself, smiling wryly at Sal before exiting.
Now that they were alone, Ellie lit up. “W-w-what are you doing, Sal! You’re drunk!” She punched his arm. Tyler and the other man, unaware that anything was amiss, were startled.
“Am not. And I know what I’m doing.”
“They aren’t going to join us!”
“They never were, El, they never were. None of them ever were.”
This sent a jolt through Ellie. Sal had something different planned all along. Why had she thought any different?
“No, I can read your mind, El. I’m not working some other angle. I’m just done. I’m broken. My whole lying and scheming mechanism is broken. Completely trashed. It’s not some moral thing, just exhaustion.”
“O-o-okay, that’s fine and all, but you’re going to get us killed! Mr. Honest Sal is saying too much! Th-th-these people can talk to Dav over the radio! They’ll tell her!”
“Meh, who cares? And no, I’m not being completely honest. I still have some pride left. That’s why I was too embarrassed to tell the truth – the truth about where all the Rocky Mountain people went.”
Ellie felt her heart thump. This was it, the answer to her burning question. The reason she’d spent hours and hours scanning imagery…
“You want the truth? You’ll be disappointed. It’s boring, El. Not to me, though... Basically, in essence, I guess…I taxed the cities to death. We took their walkers, weapons, soldiers, everything they had. They finally got fed up. Had enough. Migrated east. They plain left. I drove them off. Our own people...”
Sal was right, Ellie was disappointed. “W-w-why lie about that?”
“Shame. I’m ashamed that’s what we did. I lost, my sister won. She was right. I am a pathetic, lonely, despised loser...”
Ellie wasn’t satisfied. “T-t-then why have me look at new imagery of Colorado Springs?”
“Because, El! Because there’s something there, I just can’t find it!” Sal stood up, surveying the landscape and shifting topics. “Man, this place sucks. Flat, dry, nothing. Let’s get out of here. Not even sure why I came.”
“W-w-what’s there?! What’s in the Springs?!”
“Who knows? I just know something is. I looked and looked at the imagery. I took trips out there to see if I could find ‘it.’ Nothing. I thought maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes could see what ‘it’ was.”
“B-b-but you don’t even know what you’re looking for, how can you know it’s important?”
“I just know, okay. I hear a lot, see a lot. There’s something there that’s different. My parents knew about it, but didn’t tell us for some reason.”
Chris Moth came back, ready to watch Sal descend further down a spiral of self-destruction.
“Time for us to go,” Sal said.
“Tomorrow,” was the reply.
Tomorrow turned into three days. It was clear they were being held. Sal demanded a meeting with Chris, declaring that Clovis was a miserable wasteland and he needed to get out as soon as possible. A meeting was granted.
“I can’t let you go, Sal. We need to know where your stores are, your weapons. That is valuable knowledge. We can’t just let that walk away.”
“Letting me walk away is your best option,” Sal replied flatly. He abruptly choked on his prune juice and it dribbled down his front. Chris’s nostrils curled slightly with dis
gust.
“Chris, you radioed Dav and told her I was here, right? What, last night?”
Chris blinked a couple times, then nodded his head.
“And you told her I betrayed her? That I’m a unapproved breeder?”
Chris nodded again, smiling now.
“Cool. So what do you want to know?”
That evening Sal described the location of every weapons cache, food store, and supply depot he knew of in the former Rocky Mountain Government territory. Ellie listened in disbelief. She didn’t know much about these locations, but from what she knew of the Government’s former infrastructure, it sounded accurate. She thought about her brother, where he was, what he was doing. She felt guilty that she wasn’t sadder that she hadn’t seen him for years. She wondered what that was about. Sure, they’d never been close, but he was the only family she had. Time and distance made him feel like an old acquaintance. As ghastly as it was to admit it, Sal felt more like family.
Right now, like a disturbed uncle.
“I have one request,” Sal said.
“You want to make a request?”
“Yes, for me and my people. All of them.”
“I supposed I’ll hear this out, for entertainment purposes,” Chris tilted his head back and mused privately over something that entertained him. With Sal’s capture, and the anticipation at acquiring massive stocks of Rocky Mountain weapons and supplies, he was getting a little cocky. Ellie could see a glow in Chris’ eye, as if he had already used all those guns and supplies to accomplish some personal dream he had for his town and the Western Government. He was fantasizing, and it fed his vanity.
“I hate your sucky town. No offense, it just sucks. Like, totally. Let us sleep out there in that less sucky patch of dirt out there, totally away from the stench of your sewage. It reeks, man! Assign a bunch of soldiers, or whatever you want. Put us up in tents, shoot, anything. I don’t care, I just don’t want to be anywhere near your town.”
“Why should I do that?”
“Do you want the motherlode? The central cache?” Sal offered.
100 A.Z. (Book 3): The Mountain Page 12