by Hunt, Jack
I tossed the crumpled paper towel into the trash and came out. I ducked my head into the small office that was just off to my right. I had hoped to find someone inside. There was no one there either. Nothing had been looted. No drawers overturned. It was if someone had just got up and left. I went in and walked over to the coffee maker. I sniffed it. It was fresh and hot?
Baja was behind the counter scooping boxes of cigarettes into a shopping bag that had on it the words Thank You For Visiting Wells.
“Dude, you’ve got to see this.”
He reached under the counter and pulled out two handguns. Both had two barrels and two triggers on each of them.
“It fires two bullets at the same time. Have you ever seen anything like this?”
He flipped over one of the handguns. It had two magazines.
“That’s some hefty firepower,” I replied.
“I can’t wait to use this on some Z’s.” He stashed them inside his flak jacket. I looked around the store while he continued filling up. Specs came to the door.
“How we doing, guys?”
“Specs, get your ass in here. There is tons of food.”
“I think Dax wants to get going.”
“Tell him to hold onto his panties. There’s no rush.”
By now Dax was beginning to look nervous. Jess and Izzy were loading up several bottles of water they had found out the front of the store. It almost seemed like a dream. What didn’t make sense was that no one else had taken it. The only one that hadn’t got out of the truck was Ralphie. I could see him peering out of the window as Dax approached the shop.
He spun his finger in the air. “Wrap it up. We need to shift gears.”
“Dax, are you sure? I mean we could hang out here for the night. There seems to be more than enough. What’s the hurry?” Izzy asked.
“There’s something wrong. I don’t like this.”
Just as he said that the truck roared to life.
“Hey!” Dax yelled.
Ralphie shot us a wide-eyed look before slamming into gear and burning rubber out of there. Specs lifted his assault rifle and started firing at the truck. Dax followed suit. The back window exploded but he kept going. All of us raced after him. Now I don’t know what made us think we were going to catch up but regardless, we kept running.
The truck pulled a hard right and disappeared behind a dark, Gothic-looking building.
“Through here,” Dax shouted, spotting a path that cut through the buildings. My chest was burning from running so hard. It didn’t help that I kept seeing figures. Were my eyes playing tricks on me again? I would see movement then nothing. As we burst onto the road that the truck had shot down, we were surprised to see the vehicle had stopped in the middle of the road, a few feet from us. It was idling. Ahead, spread across the road, were eight fully armed men. They had formed a human barrier. I mean, it was nothing that the truck couldn’t have plowed through, but certainly it was disconcerting. All of them held assault rifles towards the truck, except for one. Panting and out of breath we slowed to a jog and stared at them. They saw us but were focused on Ralphie.
Ralphie slammed the truck into reverse and spun it around. Dax and I didn’t wait for him to peel away; we ran at the truck and leapt into the back. Dax had his gun jammed through the back window before Ralphie had a chance to gain speed. Seconds later Dax was holding the keys. Ralphie put his hands in the air.
“You don’t understand. We need to get out of here. Those people are going to kill us.”
“What the hell are you on about?” I asked.
He looked as if he was about to say something when his eyes widened.
I turned back towards the men who were slowly walking towards the vehicle. They weren’t dressed in camo gear or anything that might have made you think that they were militants. They wore ordinary clothes. The only difference was they were carrying firearms. Yet we expected to encounter that everywhere we went. People needed to protect themselves. We would have done the same as them. They formed an arc around the backside of the truck.
“Hey there,” the tallest one of the group greeted us. He had dark hair, wore a red plaid shirt, jeans, and dark shoes. There was not a speck of dirt on him, or the others for that matter. His eyes darted between us and Ralphie who was now even more panicked.
I had my weapon on the ready. Specs and Baja were the same. Jess and Izzy must have stayed with Caitlin back at the gas station as I couldn’t see them.
He raised a hand. “We don’t mean any harm.” The man lowered his gun. “I see you’ve helped yourself to supplies.”
“Who are you?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Just townsfolk.”
“Where are the Z’s?”
“The what?”
“The infected?”
“There are none left.”
I frowned, trying to make sense of what they were saying
“Don’t believe them,” Ralphie shouted out.
The man looked past me with a grin. “Good to see you again, brother. We wondered where you had gone.”
Brother?
I looked at both of them trying to see a resemblance. I couldn’t see it.
Dax cast a glance at the other men who still had their guns fixed on us. We could feel the tension and expected the worst.
“I’m Isaac,” he said, stepping forward and extending his hand. We just looked at it. We were in no mood for shaking hands. “I understand. I know how this must look.” He told the others to relax. They lowered their weapons but kept a firm grip on them.
“Where are the other people in the town?”
“In city hall.” He turned and pointed to an old-fashioned church with a large steeple. The double wooden doors were open and several others looked on. “We have a meeting at noon each day.”
“And you leave this place wide open? No guards?”
He let out a short laugh. “Oh we don’t have anything to fear.”
“Don’t listen to him.”
“Come on, Ralphie, is that anyway to treat a brother?”
“You are no brother of mine.”
“Listen, we just wanted to get a few things and be on our way,” Dax said.
“By all means. We aren’t going to stop you. However, we would like it if you would join us this evening for a meal.”
“No,” Ralphie yelled.
Dax cleared his throat. “Um. Thanks but we need to get going.”
“Ah, that’s a shame,” Isaac replied.
Baja tapped me on the arm. “Maybe we should. I mean, we have basically robbed them of all their supplies.”
He overheard Baja. “You haven’t robbed us. It’s yours to take.”
I looked at Dax to see what he wanted to do. Meanwhile others were coming out of the church. They were older. They didn’t appear to pose a threat. Some were in their late forties, others their sixties. By all accounts they looked like regular townspeople. There was nothing that made me think they were anything more than a town that may have managed to get things under control. It was possible. Just because Castle Rock went to shit so fast, it didn’t mean every other town had. Maybe they quarantined those who were bit?
“What do you think?” Baja asked.
I turned to Dax and whispered, “If they wanted to kill us, I think they would have attacked now, right?”
He nodded.
“What about Ralphie?” he asked.
We cast a glance over at him. He was hunched behind the wheel looking as if he was about to bolt.
“Maybe. Maybe we can stay, just for a meal,” Dax replied to Isaac.
“Just for a meal. Superb,” Isaac said. “Come, I’ll introduce you to some of the others.”
I could hear Ralphie muttering to himself. “No. No.”
We didn’t know what to make of Ralphie. There was something he wasn’t telling us. Besides the odd behavior, the place seemed normal enough. Though I was still guarded, something didn’t feel right. I asked Specs to go get Jess and
the others.
“Oh, don’t worry. We will have someone pick up your other friends.”
Specs looked back at me. I shrugged.
THE DAMNED
It was an unusual gathering. They had requested that our weapons remain at the door, which gave us even more reason to feel uneasy. When asked why, Isaac told us that they had a zero policy about weapons inside the house of the Lord. They promised the weapons would still be there when we left. We were reluctant at first. After talking among ourselves and getting a whiff of the hot food, our stomachs made the final decision. I wasn’t sure what Ralphie’s issue was with these people. Sure, eating a meal in a church was a little odd, but they appeared to act pretty darn normal.
“So you were saying that you were from Castle Rock? The mining town?” one of them said in between drinks of orange juice.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
He nodded. They had set out a large mahogany table in the church. It extended from the door all the way down to the other end. At the far end was a stained-glass window with a depiction of the cross.
“Not many people there, I imagine?” he asked.
“About the same as here. Which by the way, where are the others?”
As we waited for our food, we learned that when the virus hit their town many of the community had died, but a small number of them had managed to get it under control. They had salvaged what they could. Burned the dead and were in the process of rebuilding the town.
Across the table one of the men sneered at me.
There was something about meeting strangers. The way they look at you as if they are judging you. I didn’t like it one bit. The interaction with them reminded me of when I was a kid and our parents took us to visit our aunties and uncles out in West Virginia. It was awkward. We had to bunk with our cousins who we had never seen before. They were all hicks. Living out in the backwoods, eating off the land, and spending most of the time up to their knees in cow shit.
“Are you all that remains?” Isaac asked.
“As far as we know. I don’t think many people had a chance to escape. It happened too quickly.”
He nodded and glanced at one of the other men who was standing by the door.
“Why haven’t you blocked off the roads?” I asked. “You know, to prevent Z’s from showing up on your doorstep?”
“The Lord watches over us.”
It was then I noticed that each of them wore a gold ring. Like the kind given out to those who had made it through police academy or a group that was part of a secret society.
“You always lived here?” I asked.
“No. Some of us came in from out of town looking for supplies. I was from the city but when things got bad, we decided to find somewhere we could start again.”
“And you settled on Wells?”
He took another sip of his drink as two women wheeled a trolley out that had cooked meat, potatoes, and vegetables on it.
“Wells is small. Simple. Exactly what we need.”
I looked over at Ralphie. His eyes were down, occasionally he would glance up.
“How do you know Ralphie?” Dax asked.
“We are brothers.”
“Brothers? But he said his brother died.”
“Oh, not by blood. Brothers in the Lord. Which by the way, I must thank you for bringing him back to us. We were very concerned for him. We had no idea where he’d gone.”
I nodded slowly. “Not a problem, but I don’t think he plans on staying.”
“He’ll stay,” Isaac said it with full confidence.
They began dishing up food. My stomach was grumbling. There were about thirty of us in the hall. A few men stood by the doors, occasionally glancing out as if they were expecting trouble. Isaac sat directly to my right. Another man to the side of me leaned in and asked, “Tell me. Are the three females virgins?”
I nearly spat my orange juice out. “What?” I stammered.
“Pure.”
I frowned. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
The volume of discussion around the table was loud enough that only Isaac and I heard.
“Joseph,” Isaac gave him a look of death. “Excuse our brother for being so forthright. In this age it’s rare to find those who are pure. He’s just curious.”
I wasn’t sure how to reply to that. His comment wasn’t just unusual, it was downright creepy. I looked over at Jess, relieved she hadn’t heard, otherwise the guy might have found himself chewing on a bullet.
Two young children came by and handed us each a plate of food. I stared down at it as steam spiraled up. The smell made my stomach rumble.
“Looks good.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a hot meal,” Dax said.
I was about to tuck into it when Isaac coughed. I glanced at him with my fork just about to enter my mouth. The others around the table glared. I placed my fork down.
“Sister Rachael, perhaps you would like to give thanks.”
She gave a nod before closing her eyes and bowing. It was your typical prayer. Now I can’t begin to say how uncomfortable this made me feel. I had grown up in a household where no one ever prayed over their food. We had a stretch or starve mentality. About the only thing my father was thankful for was the fridge stocked with beer.
When the woman was done we began to eat. The cutlery clattered as discussion continued.
“Tell me, Johnny, are you a believer?” Isaac asked.
I took a bite of a potato.
“I never really had a need.”
“Everyone has a need.”
I began to feel a little warm around the collar. I knew wars had been started over what people believed. We were guests, our weapons were in a box by the door. I certainly didn’t want to offend the man. They had been kind enough to invite us for a meal. Even though they were a little strange, it made a change to meet someone who wasn’t out to slit our throats. I thought back to the small group we had met at the motel.
“Not eating, brother?” Isaac asked.
Specs chuckled to himself. I had a rough feeling what he was snickering about. He’d always found the mention of brotherhood, funny. He had once thrown a bunch of firecrackers into the local parish church just so he could see the pastor swear. For weeks he had been telling us that the guy swore but none of us bought it. The guy was as clean as a whistle. Every interaction with him was like greeting an angel. Specs was determined to prove it. That’s when the firecrackers were brought in. He hadn’t told us what he had planned that night and by the time we figured it out, it was too late.
The pastor came out of his house, dropping f-bombs as if he thought it was World War Three.
“This tastes a little funky but it’s not bad,” Baja said, shoveling another load of meat into his mouth.
Baja, ah, he tended to not give a rat’s ass what anyone believed. He tossed around curse words like they were going out of fashion.
I looked over at Ralphie. He looked down at his meal with disgust, his eyes flicked around the room. He shook his head.
“Come now. It will give you sustenance, brother.”
“I’m not your brother.”
Isaac’s lip curled up. I hadn’t tasted the meat yet. I brought a piece up to my mouth. “You have livestock left?” I asked.
“It’s frozen, leftovers since the outbreak.”
“Lucky.” I was always one for a good steak. As I placed it in my mouth Ralphie was shaking his head slowly. I frowned as I began to chew.
His eyes widened and then he came out with it. “Don’t swallow. It’s human.”
I was in mid-chew when he said that. Our eyes fixed on each other. A chunk of chewed-up meat rolled out of Baja’s lips onto his plate. Isaac appeared to pay no attention. He continued eating his with little regard for what Ralphie had just blurted out. I placed my knife and fork down.
“Problem?” Isaac asked.
“What is this meat?” Dax asked.
“Poultry.”
“Don’t believe him. He keeps them below the barn.”
“Keeps what?” Specs asked.
“Ralphie, you do have a wild imagination. Perhaps that’s why you ran.”
“I ran because you killed my brother.”
“But didn’t you say your father did that?”
I didn’t know what to believe anymore. Ralphie got up and tried to leave but one of the men got in front of him.
“Get out of the way, Peter.”
“Ralphie, please, come sit down,” Isaac said. “You are being rude.”
Dax wasn’t liking this. Neither were we, especially since our weapons were out of reach. One by one we dropped cutlery onto the plates. Isaac wiped his mouth and tossed his rag down.
“Now I try to be nice. Give you a meal and —”
“I think it’s time we leave,” Dax said cutting him off.
Isaac gave a nod to two of his men and they pulled their assault rifles up. We might as well have been caught with our pants around our ankles. I pressed my back against the table and took a hold of a knife without anyone seeing. I slipped it up my sleeve just as several more of his men moved in and grabbed each of us. We tried to resist but there were too many. We were thrown to the ground and zip-tied. With our hands behind our backs they marched us out of the hall and led us down the street. It was getting dark outside. Snow was coming down heavy. This had all been a bad idea, but how were we to know? Yes, everyone was a potential threat but they hadn’t kicked up a fuss until Ralphie spoke out. And what, were we meant to believe someone who had tried to steal our truck? What was his deal anyway? Who were these people? I had questions that needed answers but right now I just wanted to know where we were going.
“Put them in the store for now. We’ll deal with them later.”
They led us up to a store that had blacked-out windows. No lights were on outside so I couldn’t see the name of the store, however, I knew the second they tossed us inside what it was. The light from outside reflected off a few tall objects.
It was a sex shop. Baja burst out laughing. “Anyone fancy a fuck before we die?” he said.