“I was glad you found me and maybe that was the answer I was looking for. I don’t know. But I don’t feel like dying anymore. I thank God for you being there, being here, for me.”
Jerry had never thought of himself as a theologian. He went to church regularly and believed in God. When the minister spoke of the bible, Jerry was never really sure how much of it was true and how much made up by man. He was grateful God had spared both him and his son, and still prayed for the wellbeing of his daughter.
The final sermon given by his minister, on the weekend before the all churches were closed, when the end looked like it was coming for everyone and the church’s pews were nearly empty, he spoke of the end of times being upon the land. Jerry hadn’t understood most of what the minister was trying to say, but the death of nearly everyone on earth was surely the end of normal times. If Armageddon had happened, it didn’t happen the way the bible said it would.
“Tomorrow, we’ll talk with Cheryl and we’ll decide,” he said as they turned and headed back to the shelter. They heard a violin being played by someone. “I didn’t know anyone had a violin let alone played one.”
“But it sure is nice,” she agreed.
Kellie agreed. There was peace about and it felt good. That night she slept in the same bed with Jerry and did not cry, just allowed herself to be held close and comforted.
~ ~ ~
Morning broke in silence. Jerry awoke and rolled out of bed. Kellie’d laid out clean clothes for him as she had begun to do every morning now. Usually she’d sleep in for another hour, but usually she slept in her own bed. This morning, however, she was in his bed. She sat up and swung her feet off the other side of the bed and started putting on her clean clothes.
“You’re up early,” he said, surprised she was getting up. “Planning on milking cows with me and Randy this morning?”
“I thought that might be something I’d like to learn someday, but this morning, I thought it might be a good idea to have a talk with Cheryl early. I think if we do it this morning, before everyone else gets up, we’ll probably not be interrupted.”
Pulling on a clean flannel shirt, Jerry considered what she suggested and agreed. Once everyone on the compound was awake, there’d be very little time for a private talk. Jerry recalled the time before the fall of the world that he and Randy might go most of the morning without speaking, not because they were mad at each other, it was just their way. Now it seemed everyone wanted to talk with Jerry and the time he used to have for himself could be measured in minutes rather than hours.
Jerry and Kellie met Randy outside the shelter. Jerry’s son looked tired. He’d probably been up late with Eddie and Jamal.
“Morning, dad, Kellie,” Randy said as they all began walking down the path to the barn. The weeds were taller than Jerry’d ever let them grow and once they crossed the crest of the hill between the entrance to the shelter and the outbuildings that included the barn and garage, it was like looking at two different properties. The “front” of the farm was overgrown, debris was scattered about and was looking mostly abandoned, to the casual observer, while the back side, where everyone spent their off time was kept cleared and clean.
“Morning, Randy,” Kellie said to him, putting her hand on his shoulder as they walked to the barn. Randy had come to like Kellie a lot. She never forced herself on him, but he knew she was fond of his dad. Randy knew his dad had been alone for a long time and when Kellie moved into his dad’s room in the shelter he and Eddie made many sexual remarks behind their closed door.
But in all honesty to himself, Randy didn’t give his dad’s relationship with Kellie much thought. Kellie never tried to mother Randy, but would listen to him and give him sound advice without judging his opinions, something a lot of older adults were unable to do. She seemed to be a nice lady who his dad liked and that was good enough for Randy.
“We need to have a talk with Cheryl this morning,” his dad told him. “We want you to be there. You and her have been talking a lot.”
“Yeah, she’s an okay lady,” Randy told him. “I think she just got mixed up in a bad crowd and they took advantage of her.”
Jerry nodded as they entered the barn and began the morning milking. Randy cleaned the barn floor and took care of the calves. Kellie watched Jerry work and learned some of the simpler tasks. She’d never worked on a farm before and found it fascinating. She’d taught children about farms, but the one field trip she’d been on with them, was more of a tourist trap than a working farm.
When the jobs were finished, Jerry took a drink from the same hose he used to wash his hands and boots. Kellie washed as well, but didn’t drink.
“Let’s get it done,” Jerry told them.
~ ~ ~
Randy had knocked on Cheryl’s door and opened it when he heard her respond, barely above a whisper. He always tried to be respectful to the woman.
Cheryl was sitting on her bed where Randy usually found her in the morning when he brought her breakfast. She was dressed in a simple tee shirt which showed her midriff at the top of the pair of shorts which seemed a size too small for her.
The collar with which she’d been fitted was creating a callous around her neck and chained to the wall by her bed. She wore a pair of worn tennis shoes Randy had found that fit her better than the combat boots that she’d been wearing when she had been captured.
She was still wearing the bandages on the wounds received when Kellie shot through the door of the shelter, critically wounding the two men who were with her. One bandage covered half her upper neck where door splinters had hit her, another on her upper right arm and the worst injury was bandaged on the inside of her inner right thigh and went under the pant leg of the very short pair of shorts.
Cheryl was a waif of a woman. She had dark brown eyes which matched her hair. Her complexion was that of her classic Spanish ancestry. She had smooth, blemish-free skin with pouting lips and long, dark eyelashes. Sitting on her bed like she was, she looked harmless and beaten. She had her hands folded on her lap as if she were waiting to have someone tell her what to do. She acted like she’d given up living.
She smiled when Randy walked in, perfect white teeth and the appearance of joy at seeing him. When Jerry and Kellie followed him through the door, her smile looked less genuine. “What…what’s this about Ran?” she asked the young man, using her nickname for her jailer. “What’s going to happen to me?”
“My dad wants to ask you a few questions, that’s all. So he can decide what to do with you.”
“I…I’m scared,” she almost whispered. “I don’t want to be killed. I…I don’t want to be afraid anymore.” Tears welled up in her eyes and Randy started for her to give her comfort, but Jerry put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“Just tell me why you came here, from the beginning,” Jerry said. “And then tell me why those men killed my friend Mike in cold blood.”
Cheryl looked down at her hands. Jerry pulled one of the two chairs in the room away from beside the bed and offered it to Kellie. He took the other one and they both faced Cheryl, waiting for her story.
Randy, not wanting to get too close to Cheryl right now and provoke his dad’s ire, sat on the floor near the door.
After a moment of sniffling, Cheryl began her story.
~ ~ ~
“Before everyone started dying, I was the athletic trainer at North Florida Community College. My biggest concern every day was if I had enough tape for the kids who needed their ankles taped up. It was an easy job I took so I could be close to my boyfriend, Dale, who owned a body shop. We were planning on getting married and having kids. Dale was a good man, a hard working guy who had six brothers, all younger than him, who he helped support with his mom. Their dad had died and Dale started the business to keep the family together. That was important to him and he made it important to me.”
Randy cringed a little as Cheryl talked about Dale, but didn’t let his dad see it. Randy wasn’t so naïve that he beli
eved he’d ever have a chance with a woman like Cheryl before the fall of the world, but now that the situation had changed, there was hope in his heart.
“Dale was all about family. We talked about starting our own and he’d even talked to my dad before asking to marry me. He was so traditional. When he died, part of me died with him. He died the same day as four of his brothers and both his mom and dad. His other two brothers had died the day before,” Cheryl continued. “They were the entire world I had left down here. My parents, two older brothers and two younger sisters all live…lived, in Indiana. They died too. My mother called me the day dad died to tell me not to come home because there was no one going to be left in my family.
“I wanted to die too,” Cheryl said, sparking the memory in Jerry that this was the same thing Kellie had told him weeks ago. “I was driving back to Indiana so I could die at home when I was caught by those men you killed. I tried to get away but they wrecked my car and took me as their prisoner. They said they needed to repopulate the world and needed all the women they could find because they didn’t have any.
“They were cruel and sometimes wouldn’t feed me. They beat me and raped me. They were terrible and killed any man they came across. For weeks they kept me tied up. When I refused to eat, they would hit me. One of the guys you killed use to put a gun to my head and tell me what he’d do to my dead body. He’d pull the trigger on an empty chamber just to scare me. Sometimes I was so scared I peed myself.
“He said if I didn’t get pregnant soon, he would use me as bait for the zombies and I couldn’t think of anything worse than being eaten alive by them. I gave up and did what they wanted. I was dead anyhow. I ate when they told me, got naked when they told me, did the work they told me and never said anything. I didn’t care anymore.
“We were attacked one time and I just stood out in the open hoping someone would shoot me, but I watched those men shoot and kill three people. The man in charge hit me for not hiding from the attackers.
“Then I was taken with them to get food and they made me go inside the buildings first, in case the zombies were there. I did but was so afraid but more afraid to stay alive. I was lucky to survive when we were in a food store and it appeared to be empty. The men came in and were getting canned food when the zombies attacked from the back. Two men were killed and I wasn’t touched.
Kellie tired of hearing about the trials Cheryl had gone through. She wanted the woman to get to the point. Everyone had gone through hell and it sounded to her like Cheryl was attempting to garner pity.
“How did you find out about us?” Kellie asked.
“You had a gunfight with another group of vigilantes. They’d captured two people and were using them as bait for a store that was still in good shape. The men were tied outside and when night fell, the zombies would come out and eat their flesh. That’s when the vigilantes would kill all the zombies with a grenade.
“They weren’t expecting a rescue party to come after those two men. You killed four of their group and the old black man who killed your friend and the woman were the only two left of them when you were done. They figured out where you were hiding and told the men who captured me. They wanted revenge on you.”
“But why would they bring you?” Kellie asked. “That doesn’t seem like something a vigilante group would do.
“I don’t know why they brought me,” Cheryl said. “I guess they thought they would take over here and they’d want me here so they could make babies for them. Maybe they thought you had a good place that they could live in. I just don’t know and just did what they told me to do.
“The day we came here, they saw two vehicles leave so they waited for a long time. When they saw that there were just a few people left, they parked down the road and walked up to where the man was in the garage. I didn’t hear what was being said, but I saw the man shoot your friend in the head.
“They then waited for the other guys to come up. When no one else came out of the barn, the two you killed told me to follow them around back to see if there was anyone else. That’s when they saw the door and were going to blow it open when they were shot. I was lucky I was off to the side and was lucky…or maybe unlucky…not to be killed.
“Monica found me and tied me up. Everything else you know,” she finished, her head down and sniffles coming from the woman.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Jerry said noncommittally. “We’ll talk about what you’ve told us and let you know. Until then….”
Jerry was interrupted by Jamal from outside the barn
Chapter 8
“J erry! Jerry! Come quick! Tony’s reached someone else on the radio and you’re going to wanna hear this! Jerry! Come quick!” Jerry and Kellie left quickly, leaving Randy with Cheryl. They’d talk about the story she gave later. Right now, it sounded like something significant had happened.
Jamal was a tall teenager. His accent was all southern Cajun and his dark skin gave a brilliant contrast to his big smile. He was a very active youth who wanted nothing more than to play in the NBA when he was older, but those dreams had died with the rest of the world.
Jerry was about to go back to bring Randy along when the teenager grabbed all of his attention. “Come quick. Tony reached someone named Commander something. He sounded Russian. Come quick.”
The three ran most of the way back to the shelter. Tony was on the couch listening with his headset on. When Jerry and Kellie arrived he took them off and told them the news.
“The International Space Station is still inhabited!” Tony told him excitedly, putting the microphone back on the shelf. “They just went out of range, but there are four astronauts up there and they want to come home.”
Eddie and Monica were in the living room as well. The deJesus’ were just now coming out of the cellar. There was an air of excitement in the room and Jerry waited a moment for everyone to get in the room and was ready to hear what Tony had to say.
“I heard you guys go to the barn this morning and I couldn’t get back to sleep. Monica snores pretty loudly.” That comment earned him a soft swat in the head from the young woman. “I was scanning the bands and I heard a voice, but didn’t recognize the language. I answered him and he responded in English.
“He’s the commander of the International Space Station. He and three others are still up there but will be running out of food and air in a few months. They don’t want to die in space. They want to come home, but not to a dead world. They’ve been calling for weeks trying to find someone alive.”
Jerry considered this for a moment and asked what the ISS crew wanted from them.
Tony filled him in. “The commander, I can’t remember his name, who is Russian, said they have a re-entry module but it will only fit three.
It usually lands in the desert, but can land anywhere if it needs to. Shallow water is better than hard ground if there is a boat available to pick them up.
“He said two men and one woman would be sent back and then he’d push the ISS into its highest possible orbit, open the hatches to the emptiness of space, preserving the station for as long as it stays in orbit and ‘give himself to the universe.’”
“But the three coming back will die from the virus, won’t they?” Kellie asked.
“I asked him that and he said the scientists on board thinks the virus is dead by now, but either way, they would rather die here on earth than in the vacuum of space. “I think we have to help them if we can,” Tony said, looking directly at Jerry. “Two of them are Americans, the other is Canadian.”
“We’ll do what we can, but I don’t know anything we can do that can help them,” Jerry told him. “I’m just a farmer and no one here is a rocket scientist.”
“I don’t know either,” said Tony. “But they’ll be back in range in about an hour and a half. I’ll ask them then. If we can help them, I say we should.”
Jerry nodded. Everyone in the room was somber after hearing what was being asked. Three people would rather r
isk coming to earth to die than spend another six or eight months living in space. One man would stay in orbit for as long as it took, then die alone on one of man’s greatest achievements.
The hell everyone lived in wasn’t being fair at all.
Jerry looked around the room at all the faces. He thought about asking everyone here to keep this a secret, but he didn’t want to. Everyone should know what was going over their heads.
In another 90 minutes they’d know more, but until then, there were two other important issues which needed attention.
One issue concerned everyone, the space station, the other concerned just Jerry, Kellie, Randy, Monica and Tony alone and that was what to do with Cheryl.
While everyone moved singly and in pairs to the kitchen to get breakfast, Jerry waited for everyone to get something to eat before laying out plans.
Tia knocked on the open door and let herself and four kids, two of her own and the twin girls, in. “I hear there’s some excitement going on.” She was followed in by the others who lived outside the shelter.
Randy followed a minute later, coming to get breakfast for him and Cheryl, who did not come in. Jerry assumed she was still in the barn.
When everyone was settled, Jerry stopped Randy from taking Cheryl her breakfast for a few minutes and cleared his throat. “We’re going through our store of food pretty quick. The garden food isn’t going to get us through the winter. I think we have enough people now to start raiding some of the stores in town for canned food and anything else that we can find.
“I think we need to arm everyone who can shoot a gun and go into Odenville or Trussville and get whatever we can. Any volunteers?” he asked, knowing the closest city to them, Moody, had been effectively wiped off the face of the earth.
Everyone in the room except Monica and Kellie volunteered. The clan they’d formed was ready to do something more than exist and if it was going to, everyone was going to have to pitch in.
Hell Happened Page 18