by Brown, TW
“And that is the truth,” Lisa shot back. “Gideon was with us, but I sent him back to check on Don’s people who had followed the military vehicles. I wanted to be certain that he didn’t double back.”
“You didn’t think that was important to tell us?” I asked, turning all my attention to Lisa.
The woman opened her mouth, but then had the decency to look contrite as she snapped it shut. “I wasn’t certain we would be staying. I wasn’t going to give anything away that didn’t have to do with us being here.”
“Lame excuse,” Alex muttered, and I had to agree with her.
“Well, you might want to hear what Gideon has to say before you dismiss this…” She paused and turned her crystal blue eyes on me. “Or kick us out.”
“Where is this person?” I asked.
“Detained in holding cell one,” somebody called back.
I shot a look at both women. “You two gonna stand down?”
They both nodded with about as much reluctance as they could get away and still make me think that maybe they would back off from each other for a while. At least for as long as it took for me to see what this new arrival had to say for himself.
The best thing was that I would be able to talk to him before Lisa could perhaps drop him any clues on how to answer the questions. If the stories matched, then at least we were on more stable footing when it came to trusting her and her people.
I reached the line of sheds that we’d turned into holding cells, I veered over to the first one. It was also currently the only one that was occupied. The guard nodded at me as I approached the doors and pulled out the pin jammed into the latch.
The person inside was sitting with his back against the wall. He was in a patchwork of protection that would fit in in any post-apocalyptic scene. He had thick leathers on, and the only exposed flesh were his hands, but I imagined he likely arrived with gloves, but those were most probably taken when he’s been placed here. He had a pair of goggles hanging around his neck and a few flaps dangling from his belt where I was certain his assorted blades had once hung.
“You the boss here?” the man I assumed to be Gideon asked calmly.
I continued to observe the man for a moment. He had skin that was a light brown and eyes that were so dark, they almost appeared black. His hair was definitely black and cut close enough to be considered a crewcut. He had a scar on his face that looked nasty. It was like he’d been laid open and instead of being stitched, the wound had healed on its own accord.
“My name is Evan. I wouldn’t say I’m the boss…but I have a say in things.” I stepped all the way inside and crouched down on my haunches to put us more at eye level.
“Lisa came here.” It wasn’t a question. “Is she still here?”
“She and her people are still here. So how did you find us?”
“I stayed in touch with her until she ditched the radio. We had a series of codes in place, so I knew which direction to go.” He cleared his throat and made a face. “Look, I have been out in this crap for a while and my canteen got lost last night. I need some water if you don’t mind.”
Without me having to say anything, an arm jutted through the door with a canteen. That told me that backup was close at hand if I should need it. I grabbed it and handed it to the man who gave me a nod of thanks before unashamedly guzzling the entire contents. He slid the empty canteen back with a mumbled thanks.
“So, you want to tell me why you decided to show up here?” I asked after the man seemed content to simply sit in the silence.
When his head jerked, that was when I realized that he’d apparently dozed off. The shadows in this shed made his eyes basically impossible to see clearly.
“Sorry…it’s pretty rough out there when you are on your own.” The man, Gideon, sat up straighter and even patted his cheeks brusquely as he made an effort to ensure he stayed awake.
I knew all about being out there on my own. I’d done a couple times and had to agree that it absolutely sucked.
“Look, here’s the short version…I followed Don and his crew as they chased those military trucks. I really thought that he might’ve finally bitten off more than he could chew. After all, they are the military…right? Fully trained and the strongest armed force in the world? The problem is that I think these are mostly reservists, and they weren’t very dedicated to defending something with the undead running wild.
“He rolled up on that reserve depot with absolutely no fear. Of course, he had some of his drones charge into the mouth of the lion first. Once the first volley was done, the soldiers dug in and Don set up a siege. From what I could tell, the soldiers were just about out of water and food when I left. I imagine they will fall within two weeks at the most.”
“So Don is taking down the National Guard? He has that much firepower?” I challenged.
“Actually, it isn’t so much his firepower, it’s more what those poor bastards are lacking. The rumor is that a few of the grunts turned on their own and defected to Don way back when all this started. He was able to snag quite a cache from them with almost no opposition.” Gideon sighed and shook his head. “The detachment that was supposed to come down from Fort Lewis never made it and a lot of the troops that were called in never answered. The only ones that did show were a handful of locals, and most of the enlisted types bailed in that first week when the martial law declaration. The ones that did stay…well, they sort of got out of control and went all Stanford Experiment.”
It took me a moment to catch his meaning. But all this information left me with a question. “How do you know all this? You have a source?”
“I was assigned here,” Gideon said flatly. “And before you get too excited…I was a clerk. Sure, I had to train on weapons like any other guy, but your average hunter probably has more skill and knowledge and is most likely a better shot.”
I stared at the man for a moment before I couldn’t help but laugh. “So I have a soldier sitting in front of me. Next to medical type…probably the most sought-after type of person that you would want to add to your population…and you’re a paper pusher.”
“Sorry…but that is the way of it.” Gideon gave a shrug. “I mean…I am not entirely useless.”
I managed to bite back my chuckles and put a straight face back on. “Of course not. I didn’t mean it to sound that way. Just…I’m not gonna lie and pretend that having a Ranger or some other Special Forces bad ass wouldn’t be amazing.”
“Yeah…I get that.”
We sat in silence for a moment and I just got a really good feeling about this guy. I would definitely say that I preferred him to Lisa, but I think it was more that the woman made me nervous. There was a cloud of danger that surrounded her and always put me on edge.
“So, I guess we need to go talk to the others and see what we are going to do, if anything, about this situation. I mean, I can’t say I am that motivated to go head-to-head with Don and his buses of the apocalypse. We simply don’t have anything to combat those .50 cals,” I admitted.
“There is a shitload of gear on that facility…if you know where to look,” Gideon said with a sniff.
“I take it you know where to look?”
“I do, and I can promise you that, unless Don has somebody from admin that was part of the inventory team, they won’t get anything but some very basic firepower.” Gideon smiled and winked at me
“Well,“ I got to my feet and dusted myself off, “I will consider what you’ve told me and let the rest of the folk weigh in on what they think we should do.”
I stepped out of the shed, but as the door shut, I heard Gideon call out, “Don’t wait too long. Those people won’t last long. And if we get there quick enough, we can put Don Evans down and get the goods.”
I headed back to the main camp. It took longer to get the people I felt needed to weigh in on the situation than it did to come to a decision.
We would choose what we felt was a reasonable group consisting of myself, Marshawn, And
rew Greene, Lisa Hargrave, Alex (there was no way she would stay behind with Lisa being included), Miranda Swells—who had been strangely happy to fade into the woodwork since we got established here—and a handful of men that Marshawn and Andrew recommended. And, of course, we would have Gideon as our guide. That gave us a total of an even dozen.
As I slipped out of the meeting to return to my tiny home and get some much-needed sleep, I felt somebody before she actually stepped out of the shadows.
“I want to go.”
I sighed. With a shake of my head I ran my hand down my face to try and wipe away the fatigue. Funny how that did nothing to help.
“You can’t go, Selina,” I said to the girl as calmly as I could.
“Why not?” she challenged. “I bet I can outshoot any of the people going with you.”
“Targets and zombies are one thing.” I flashed back to the first time I’d killed a living person. I remembered the terrible feelings that haunted me than and still eat at me today. “Killing a living person is different.”
“They’re the bad guys…right?” Selina pressed.
“It isn’t that simple.”
“You think I’m just a kid.” Selina threw her arms out and planted her fists on her hips as she continued to argue with the anger building in her voice.
“You are a kid,” I said calmly.
“You don’t know what I have seen…what I had to do,” she refuted.
“Whatever you did while out there…with Don’s people…you did it because you had to. You don’t have to do this.”
“Maybe I want to. If you knew all the things he made me do…all the kids…you…” Her voice was consumed by sobs. In a shriek of frustration, she turned and fled into the darkness.
I desperately wished I knew what to say or do to make her feel better. And there was not much I wouldn’t do. All with the exception of letting a twelve-year-old girl come with us on what was going to be a quick and nasty assault on a group of people being led by one of the most despicable people I’d ever had the displeasure to meet.
I got to the place I shared with Alex and started going over my weapons as well as a few basic first aid items. I also made sure I grabbed a few odds and ends in case improvising became necessary—which it always seemed to out there.
Each of us would each be responsible for the loadout of his or her own pack along with weaponry. That night, I went to bed thinking that just maybe this would be the chance I longed for. Tomorrow, I would set out to put an end to the human filth that was Don Evans.
I slipped under the covers beside Alex, barely registering the fact that she turned away from me. When sleep came, it brought with it a host of nightmares…just like any other night.
16
Fight
We rolled out the next morning. As we headed along the two-lane highway, I almost laughed out loud. Then, when Marshawn came up beside me…I did. Mostly because he was doing it as well.
Twelve adults dressed like Mad Max extras…on mountain bikes. Nothing special or tricked out about the bikes. In fact, Alex was on a pink one, Miranda’s was a horrid yellow and mine was a glitter purple.
We all had probably more weaponry that we should be carrying, and after about an hour, my pack was beginning to dig into my shoulders and arm pits. Looking around, I wasn’t the only one adjusting the straps and shifting around to try and find relief.
“We look so ridiculous,” Marshawn chortled.
“Yeah, I can’t argue with that.” I gave a nod as I swerved just enough to avoid a corpse rotting on the pavement.
“How convinced are you that this woman ain’t setting us up?” Marshawn said barely loud enough for me to hear his words.
“Eighty? Ninety?” I gave a shrug of my shoulders. “I mean, really…can we be totally certain about anything these days?”
“Good point, but you should be aware that Alex and Miranda have been talking. Not sure what about, but I did hear Lisa’s name come up a few times.”
“I will keep my eyes open…as if I don’t have enough to worry about.”
We rode in silence for a while and saw very few of the walking dead. What we did see were signs of fires left to burn themselves out, bullet-riddled homes and shops, as well as plenty of bodies left to rot.
The days of rain we’d been having followed by these sunny days were exacerbating the decaying process. At least, that was what it looked like to me. Some of the bodies almost appeared to be melting. The smell was this sickly-sweet stench of rotten meat swirling with all the gasses that the bloated bodies were emitting.
Some of the yards we passed were now growing out of control. Lumps could be made out in the verdant green of all the lawns that would not see a mower…perhaps ever again.
The other thing I was seeing—and I imagine everybody else—was how the wildlife of the area was creeping out now that the noise of humanity had faded away. I saw deer, coyotes, skinks, raccoons and all sorts of other animals as we rode. Most of them ignored us, a few watched with interest, their muscles vibrating as they prepared to bolt at the slightest sign of danger.
When we reached the highway intersection and turned left, the entire group slowed. I’d been here, so what we encountered wasn’t new to me. But most of our group had not seen all the bodies hanging from the power lines.
Despite having seen it before, it still gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I hoped that one day we would have the luxury of returning here and cutting all these bodies down as we had some of the others we’d encountered.
It simply did not feel right leaving them hanging, but at the moment, we had things that took priority. We continued along the highway, passing the burned out remains of a mobile home park and a huge open field with what looked like at least a dozen homes that had been taken from their foundations and brought here. I would keep that place in mind in case a need ever arose.
We sped past a gas station that had obviously suffered a huge explosion. I was pretty certain the building next to it had once been a McDonald’s. There was also a metal structure that I had no idea as to what purpose it once served.
As we continued to pedal along, the sounds of occasional gunfire became more and more pronounced. It was obvious that we were heading directly toward it and eventually I gave the signal for us to stop.
Our group pulled off into a parking lot of some sort of manufacturing complex. There was an open roll-up door that revealed a huge open and empty loading bay. We stashed the bikes there and everybody did their own pat down and check of his or her weapon of choice.
We quickly divided up into small groups and then Gideon called us over to a large, gray concrete wall. Other than a few stress cracks, it was completely bare. He began to draw out the National Guard complex and point out where he’d last seen Don Evans. He also gave us some insight as to some of the best areas with heavy foliage that would serve to cover our approach.
“So, if everybody will get into position and then stay put until I fire the signal flare, we might be able to pull this off,” Gideon said with a nod to me.
“Marshawn and I will be accompanying him to the location where this herd is rumored to just be milling about,” I said as I stepped forward.
Most of the ride had been spent going over the general plan, but we’d all agreed that it was possible that this herd might’ve moved on. They could be closer or farther away. And if we could not locate them, then we would be forced to fall back on to a secondary plan that offered a considerably small chance of success.
“If all goes well, we will be attacking a few hours before sunset. Be sure that each of you has your flashlight secured onto the weapon you will be using if this fight lasts into dark.” I tapped the rifle currently slung over my shoulder for emphasis.
“Also be sure to watch for the red armbands,” Marshawn added. He displayed the one he had tied to his left arm just above the elbow. “It is something small, but this is our best chance to try and minimize if not eliminate the chance for fri
endly fire casualties.”
As he spoke, I shot a sideways glance at Alex. She was with a young man sporting a mohawk-style haircut and Lisa. It wasn’t lost on me that they put the poor guy in between them, and I hated that I had not managed to keep them from grouping up together. All I could hope was that they kept focused on the task at hand.
“And right after the flare goes up, that is when we lob our grenades?” Andrew asked for perhaps the hundredth time since we’d left McIver.
He, Miranda, and another woman that would have passed for your average soccer mom a few months ago, were carrying the only five explosive grenades we possessed. It had surprised most of us that she was insanely accurate in lobbing grenade-sized items to a specified target location.
“Yes, so once you get settled into your location, have them handy. Don’t wait and dig them up after the flare is fired. We need to hit Don right away before he realizes what is happening,” I reminded…for at least the same number of times as he’d asked that question.
With the questions all done, Marshawn, Gideon and I took off on our bikes down a side road across the highway from the building where everybody else was wishing each other luck before heading to their assigned location. It didn’t take long for the stench of the undead to carry on the breeze.
The low moans and occasional baby cries did the work of leading us to where this herd had finally come to its unexplained stop. It also did not take us long to figure out what had drawn them.
Hanging from one of the long, tan buildings was a sheet with the word ‘HELP’ spray-painted in huge black letters. Somebody had been inside. It was possible that they still were, but we would not be taking the time to check.
“Jesus, there has to be a few hundred,” Marshawn breathed.
“And there was a lot of noise here when I first arrived.” Gideon gave a deep sigh. “Then, one night, I heard a series of single gunshots. Very slow and methodical. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how that played out.”