Hell Happened

by Stenzelbarton, Terry

  No one wanted the woman on the property, but no one really knew what to do with her. It was out of sight, out of mind for a week for everyone but Randy. Some evenings, during the last meal of the day, they would discuss what they should do. Tony’s opinion stayed the same. Other ideas were floated, but nothing they felt they could do with the morals they had.

  The seventh day after Mike’s murder, and no one called it anything but a murder, Jerry and Randy were going to make a quick 15-mile trip Birmingham-ward down the interstate to see if they could find some batteries for Jerry’s power grid and few other necessities.

  Also, it was a time for father and son to talk away from everyone else.

  They had gone three miles on I-20 when they saw a convoy of three vehicles coming at them on the same side of the road. They hadn’t expected to see anyone and were actually within shooting distance when Jerry slammed on the brakes.

  Both men had their guns out while Jerry called back to the shelter. Eddie, Kellie and Monica could be there in 10 minutes or less with a lot more weaponry. He wouldn’t lead a convoy of three vehicles back to the shelter and he hoped the show of force would be enough to turn them back.

  The convoy in front of them stopped. The front truck had a camper on the back and the back two were a mini van and full-sized Chevy pulling what looked like a pop-up camper.

  People got out of the trucks. They were all armed, but did not look threatening.

  The man who appeared to be in charge reached back into his truck and pulled out the microphone for his CB and held it up. He then made a show of holding it to his mouth. Jerry reached in to his truck and turned the CB up louder. He started scanning the channels until he heard the man’s voice.

  “We have women and children and we’re sick. We’ve been running for days. We beg you for help. My name is Josh and my daughter is sick. Please I beg of you, help us,” he pleaded over the radio. Jerry wasn’t much of a poker player, but he could tell sincerity when he heard it. When the man finished talking Jerry asked him to put his weapon down. Josh put his weapon on the ground and reached back into his truck and pulled out a little girl who looked like she was dead.

  Jerry’s heart might have been hardened by the vigilantes who had killed his friend Mike, but it hadn’t become that hard. He told Randy to cover him and he put his Desert Eagle back in its holster. He reached under the driver’s seat for the first aid kit he always carried and approached the man who was carrying the girl toward him.

  Josh kneeled and laid his daughter gently down on the pavement, a few feet in front of Jerry and looked up with pleading eyes. “Please, she’s been sick for days. We don’t know what to do,” he cried.

  Honestly, Jerry didn’t either, but he checked to make sure she was alive and breathing. The four others from the three-truck convoy stood where they’d unloaded their vehicles. They showed no threat. There were two older people in the van and two men in the truck pulling the camper who showed themselves.

  Jerry heard Eddie’s SWAT truck in the distance and told Josh to not be afraid. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his walkie-talkie.

  “Come in, Eddie,” he said to the two-way.

  “Yeah, boss, this is us.”

  “Get Monica up here between the trucks and hurry,” he told them, while looking at Josh. “She’s the closest thing we have to a medic, and she’s really good,” he said to the man kneeling beside his daughter.

  The SWAT truck careened around Jerry’s truck and Jerry was glad to see Josh’s eyes get huge. The big black behemoth did look intimidating. Eddie slammed on the brakes 30 feet from the two in the middle of the highway and Monica came running with her “doctor’s bag” before the truck was fully stopped.

  Kellie followed her quickly with her shotgun and Eddie popped out a moment later with his high-powered rifle aimed at the convoy. By then Monica was kneeling beside the little girl. Josh related the symptoms his little girl, Marissa, had shown and Monica surmised some type of poisoning. She picked up the little girl and told Josh to come with her.

  Inside Eddie’s truck, Monica started an I.V. drip and told Eddie he’d better drive smoother than a baby’s ass back to the shelter, where she had some medicine she hoped would take care of the very sick little girl.

  Eddie looked to Jerry and Jerry felt himself nod.

  Jerry’s compassion for others had not been lost and Kellie’s hand on his arm told him he’d made the right decision. She stayed with Jerry as he walked up the highway to talk with the others in the convoy. He found out two others of the eight were showing signs of being sick. He asked if they were willing to follow them back to a safe haven.

  There was a great sigh of relief and agreement and everyone but Kellie put their guns away. Josh had trusted Jerry with his little girl, they would trust Jerry too.

  It was a five-vehicle convoy back to the shelter. Randy drove Josh’s truck and Kellie rode with Jerry.

  The week ended with tally of one loss, the beloved Mike, and 10 more people living on Jerry’s once peaceful farm and one living in the custody of their “jail.”

  “This is the Smith Compound calling anyone on this frequency, please come in,” the shortwave transmitter finally spoke after weeks of Tony’s tender mercies. “This is the Smith Compound calling anyone on this frequency, please come in, anyone. Someone tell us we’re not alone, over.”

  The broadcast had come during the evening meal. Tia had fired up the grill and had cooked steaks for everyone. One of the cows had been put down earlier that week and Josh, who used to be a butcher, was able to cut the animal up in short order. The garden had produced enough potatoes, sweet corn and tomatoes to make a good meal for everyone. The potatoes had done especially good this year which was fine with Jerry. He enjoyed a good baked potato on the grill.

  Everyone on the farm was eating together tonight, something Jerry proposed they did every few days.

  The lone exception at tonight’s meal was Cheryl, who hadn’t given anyone any problems and looked contrite and scared all the time. She was shackled with a pair of ankle cuffs, provided by the former corrections officer Juan deJesus and his wife had in their minivan, during the day and the collar which had a chain bolted to the wall at night.

  She was allowed to go wherever she wanted, as long as it was no where near any person other than Randy. She was also forbidden anywhere past the barn and garage, and no where near where the campers were parked, or in any building except her room in the barn. She ate what Randy brought to her and slept in the barn office on a cot he’d built for her. Jerry hadn’t told her what the penalty might be if she broke a rule, and honestly he didn’t know, but she hadn’t broke one yet. She did nothing but walk around and stumble once in a while when her ankle cuffs snagged on something.

  ~ ~ ~

  Hannah heard the radio first and yelled to Tony who was still on crutches. Tony and Monica raced to the living room and listened for the call again.

  “This is the Smith Compound calling anyone on this frequency, please come in, anyone. Someone please answer,” the call came again. It was almost covered by static as the radio had been set for automatic scanning, but Tony worked the dial to clear up the signal. He then looked up at Jerry.

  Jerry who’d followed Tony in to the shelter nodded to the young man. “Go ahead, this is your gear.”

  Tony picked up the powered microphone. He’d practiced this first conversation many times in his head and now he was going to do it. He lowered his voice an octave before answering, “This is God. What can I do you for?”

  There was silence on the radio and Jerry looked down at Tony. His grin was barely suppressed. “Really? After all your work, you’re going to pretend to be God?”

  Tony shrugged. “You spend all your time on this couch and see how crazy you become.”

  “Hello? Hello? Is someone there?” asked the person on the shortwave asked again tentatively.

  This time Tony answered the call with a little more decorum. “This is the Saunder
s Station calling the Smith Compound. Please come in. I repeat, this is the Saunders Station calling the Smith Compound. Please come in, over”

  “Oh my God! Are you for real? I mean are you really real?”

  “Yes, we are real. My name is Tony and I am part of the Saunders Station. Who am I talking to?”

  “This is Keith Bennett and we’re the Smith Compound in Kentucky! Oh my God. I can’t believe I finally got someone. Pendleton said I should quit wasting my time! I can’t wait to tell him there are more people out there. We thought everyone was gone except for the flesh-eaters. How many of there are you? Where are you at? Are you close to us? Are there a lot of you? Do you have food? We have some food, but not a lot. Oh my God, I can’t believe this worked!”

  Tony was finally able to get a word in and asked Keith to slow down and take it easy.

  Jerry and Tony had already spoken about what information they would and wouldn’t share on the short wave.

  “My name is Tony Marks and I’m a member of the Saunders clan of survivors. There are a couple dozen of us and we’re in Alabama. We have food and water, but little extra. Where is your compound located, over.”

  “Pendleton said I can’t tell you for fear of you guys coming to take our stuff,” the young man said. Tony figured him to be around his age. “We’ve had a lot of that around here. We were attacked by brigands who killed three of our guys, but we’re getting better at defending ourselves, over.”

  “We have the same issues you have. We call them zombies and vigilantes, over.”

  “Zombies? I’ll tell Smith that’s what you call them. He’ll like that. He hates them because they killed his friend. Pendleton Smith is in charge here and he keeps us alive. The brigands are worse though. They killed two of our scouting parties and attacked us here, but we held them off. I’m not supposed to tell you, but it probably won’t hurt, we’re on Fort Knox military base. We can defend ourselves good, over.”

  “We’ve had a similar problem but we’re pretty well hidden. Did you suffer a hurricane three weeks ago, over.”

  “We had a lot of rain a few weeks back, and probably tornadoes, but no hurricane. We didn’t get too much damage here on the base, but the towns around us are wasted. There’s fire in one of them, over.”

  “Before I forget, Keith. Write this down. Every night at 2100 hours I will monitor this frequency for you. Let’s keep in touch and maybe we can help each other, over.”

  “That’s a great idea Tony. Every night I will try to be here. It might not be every night because we have to be on guard duty too, over!”

  “Sounds like your signal is fading, Keith. It is great to hear you and now we know that more people are out there. Let’s keep in touch and see if we can reach others. I’ll let you know if I get anyone, over.”

  “Will do, Tony. It was great hearing from you. Keith out.”

  Tony turned the radio back to scanning and looked back at Jerry. He had a big smile on his face. “We’re not alone, Jerry. There are other places like here. Isn’t that great?”

  Jerry smiled at the young man. “We’ve never been alone,” he said. “But now we know there are more people who aren’t alone too.” Jerry left Monica and Tony to the radio and went back to finish his supper. He finally had an idea what he could do with Cheryl.

  ~ ~ ~

  Randy had taken Cheryl’s meal to her and Tia and Kellie were sitting talking with Juan and his wife. Juan had worked as a corrections officer for 30 years before retiring. His wife had been a teacher of Spanish in the local school district and later an administrator. There was something special about those two and both Kellie and Tia enjoyed talking with them.

  Josh was shutting down the grill and preserving the leftovers. His daughter, along with the others who had suffered from food poisoning, which had been complicated by their living conditions, were doing much better now that they were re-hydrating and getting some decent and safe food.

  The others in the group had set up tents or were sleeping in the campers. Tia and Jerry both had spoken to each other earlier when the new people arrived. They agreed that new people coming would have to provide their own shelter. Both agreed they couldn’t disrupt their homes every time someone new came along.

  Jerry was touched by the deJesus couple’s story, however. They had been sleeping in their minivan for the past two weeks, hadn’t showered and had just met up with the other two vehicles in the convoy in Mississippi the previous day. They were both underfed and, in an open moment of honesty, Juan told him they’d wanted to see to Gulf Coast one more time before they died, which was what they had planned on doing.

  Jerry pulled Mr. deJesus aside and suggested he and his wife sleep in the cellar of the shelter until a motor home could be found for them. He also offered them showers and safety. There was something warm about the gentle old man and his kindly wife. Maybe it was that the Mexican immigrant somehow reminded him of Mike.

  There were another four men, Danny, Sade, Rusty and Nick, and one woman, Katie, from the convoy, and three younger children without parents who had been rescued along the way; the oldest was a 16-year-old boy, Jamal, who was currently playing video games with Randy and Eddie, and twin girls, Tara and Sara who were John’s age.

  The twins were playing with a rubber ball someone had found along with John and Hannah. Tia, like Jerry, had taken in the twin girls who had been riding in Josh’s camper. The girls were no problem for Tia as there was more than enough room in her motor home. “But that’s it,” Tia said with a smile. “No more kids for me.”

  Kellie saw that Jerry was deep in thought. “Let’s go for a walk, Jerry,” she said to him and took him by the hand. Jerry wasn’t in a mood to walk, but he couldn’t say no to her. They walked past the campers, stopping to make sure those sitting around outside had gotten enough to eat. People were getting ready to call it a night. When they saw Jerry and Kellie, they were effuse in their gratefulness for allowing them a safe haven.

  Jerry and Kellie smiled and walked on. Kellie was doing every thing she could to get Jerry away from everyone. When they were far enough away, so no one else could hear she asked him what was on his mind.

  They walked for a little longer before Jerry was able to put his thoughts into words.

  “Cheryl is a drag on us. She brings everyone down just being here. We can’t continue to ignore the problem. We’re going to have to do something with her one way or another.”

  They walked further along the trail. The sun had set, but it was still light enough to see. “You have an idea how we can do this without killing her?”

  “I think I do. What if we moved her? What if we gave her enough food and water to last a few days, then drove her somewhere blindfolded. We could drive for a few hours then find a place and drop her off near another camp, tell her which direction to go, and let her fend for herself,” Jerry said even as he was putting together the plan in his head. “I can’t see killing her, even though she probably was part of the reason Mike was murdered. It’s just not in me to do it.”

  “Jerry,” Kellie said, leaning her head against his shoulder and holding his hand while they walked. “I don’t know what to do either, really. I see the way she is around Randy. She smiles at him and looks down and acts like she is subservient, bites her lip, and will do anything he tells her to do, but I think it is just that, an act.

  “I haven’t talked to her, but maybe we should, before we make any decision. I might be wrong about her, but I have had a lot of experience with abuse and she isn’t acting like an abused woman.” Jerry had never asked Kellie about her husband. Reminiscing about past lives was a very sensitive subject. No one could go back and change what happened before the fall, and most people had secrets they felt were better left forgotten. Kellie talking about being abused shed a little more light on why she acted the way she did with him.

  “Maybe you’re right,” he allowed. “Tomorrow, let’s you and me talk with her. If we are convinced she was just a victim, we’ll make
arrangements to let her go on her way. There’s no way I want her here, even if she was coerced by those men. No matter what, she was walking freely and she could have run from them, but she didn’t.

  “But if she was more than just a victim, then she was part of Mike’s murder and I’ll drive her ass to the middle of Texas and drop her off myself,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Sounds like you have a good plan,” Kellie said after thinking about it for a few paces. “You know, it’s funny, in a sad kind of way. Under the old judicial system, she might be able to convince a psychiatrist and a judge and a jury that she is innocent when everyone else knows she was guilty and she could walk away free to do it again.

  “Tomorrow, we’ll be the psychiatrists, judges and jury and decide her fate. What uses to take months and years, we’ll do in a day. I wonder if we’re improving on the old system or making it worse.”

  Jerry thought about it. “Right now, I don’t know if she is guilty or not, I guess. I’ve been told I’m not a deep thinker. All I know is, I need to do what is right and the only laws I really know are the ones that were written on a tablet of stone. Everything else people added afterward.”

  “You’re a religious man,” Kellie said as a statement, but with enough inflection to make it sound like a question.

  “No,” he said after some thought. “I believe in God and I believe we were all put here for some reason. I don’t know what that reason is and probably won’t be told.” There was a long pause while the two walked and watched the stars grow brighter. “I try to live my life so when I die and have to face The One who made all of this, I don’t have to apologize.”

  “I hope you’re right. I don’t know what to believe, but I do believe in you,” she admitted. “I was so afraid after the fall of the world...when everyone I knew died and I continued to live. I didn’t know why and no matter what questions I asked, no matter how much I prayed, I got no answer. When you found me and Molly, you found a walking dead woman.