“You can’t do this.” The boy who stood up for Vanessa said. “I’ll tell.”
“And I’ll toss you over the wall and let the zombies eat you.” Goldberg said. “Bet I won’t.”
They were hesitant to throw the first ball, thirty kids against two of the smallest in the class but when Goldberg whizzed the burn ball and it landed with a satisfying smack against the boys leg, his cry of pain sent the rest of the balls flying at the dodging figures. They bounced off the walls and were snatched back up to be thrown again. Vanessa dodged most of them and grabbed a big red one. She used it as a shield and smacked the balls out of the air with it. She laughed louder and pissed them off even more. They couldn’t land a solid hit, she moved too fast. The boy was already crying, big red welts covered his body and he’d curled up into fetal position.
Somebody dragged the basketball cart over and started throwing them. Then the footballs and softballs and finally the baseballs. They hurt when they hit and now they had so many, twenty balls at once were flying in at her. She moved to protect the boy, bouncing as many as she could off her dodge ball but they were aiming at her head, her legs and her body from both sides. Goldberg was getting angrier, he couldn’t make her stop smiling. He couldn’t make her cry out in pain. She’d taken a basketball to the face, blood poured from her nose but it only accented her shining white teeth. She was actually laughing at him, at his feeble attempts and it infuriated him. He ran to the storage closet and pulled the fast pitch machine out to the floor. It was loaded with baseballs and he aimed it right for her and flipped the switch. The first ball slammed against the concrete wall and exploded. The next one barely missed her head and the game was over. It would have killed her if it made contact but no once seemed to realize that but her. The others kept throwing, kept thinking it was a cruel game to teach the freak a lesson, whatever that lesson was supposed to be. She raised her voice, screamed her war cry and it rang through the school.
The tribe reacted instantly. Desks flew, papers were scattered, and door glass shattered as they bounced off the wall. Cody raced down the hall as doors flew open and the tribe joined him. Stunned students and teachers sat at their desks not knowing what happened, why the new students had dashed out of the room. Tobias and Cody slammed through the doors first and didn’t hesitate for an instant. They plowed into the crowd and started smashing heads with Donny half a step behind. They all carried weapons, things they’d grabbed on their dash to help their sister. Math books knocked people out of the way. A laptop computer sent keys and teeth flying across the gym floor. A soda can in each hand delivered devastating blows. Vanessa ducked under the ninety mile an hour baseball that would have shattered her ribcage and leaped for the desperate looking Goldberg. She drove both knees into his chest and pummeled him mercilessly with one punch after another. His nose exploded again as he tried to fend off the blows raining down. The machine twisted and sent bone breaking fastballs careening around the gym and off the screaming students. Swan snarled and jumped from one opponent to another, bashing them with a metal pencil sharpener she’d ripped off the wall on her way out of history class. Caleb, Landon and Clara all had metal toys in their hands and were laying knees and shins open to the bone. The tribe was brutal, they fought as a unit, side by side and back to back, until none of the others were left standing and all they heard was the shriek of the coach’s whistle.
They stopped swinging and all eyes darted for danger, for others coming to attack them. The backboard was shattered, windows and overhead lights were broken and teens were trying to get away from the savage kids. The whirr-thunk of the empty baseball machine wound down when Donny flipped it off.
“You okay?” Cody asked as Vanessa slid into the circle, all of them facing outward among the students laying on the ground.
“Yeah.” She said and pinched her nose to get it to stop bleeding. “You guys?”
“I broke a nail.” Swan complained. “I knew I shouldn’t have tried to grow them out.”
Teachers looked in at the carnage through the windows in the gym doors, wary of the flying baseballs. The new kids had laid out a whole class of students, most of them juniors or seniors. They were afraid to enter, afraid the out of control children would attack anything that moved. The coach finally stopped blowing his whistle and stood looking at them, the damage to the gym and the bloody mess of his class.
“Get out.” He said and pointed to the side door. “You don’t belong here.”
Vanessa made it a point to walk on top of Goldberg instead of around him as they picked their way through the groaning people. The ones that hadn’t been knocked unconscious hurried to move out of their way.
42
Fireside
Tobias was still angry. They were gathered in Runa’s backyard, watching the polar bears laze in the pool.
“They had it coming.” He said again. “They started it.”
“And we finished it.” Cody said with a little exasperation “I know, you’ve told us a million times. The question is, now what do we do?”
“I don’t think they’ll bother us anymore.” Analise said. “Not after that ass whooping they took.”
But they might bother the animals. Donny signed. They might poison them to get back at us.
“He’s right.” Harper said. “Look what Gordon did to Teddy.”
“I say we get out of here.” Tobias said. “We don’t need this place, they have electricity, big deal. Who needs it? We did just fine without it.”
“What about the triplets?” Swan asked. “You want to drag them back out there? They were doing good until we showed up.”
“Well, they can stay.” He shot back. “I meant us.”
“Me, too?” Vanessa asked. “You want me to leave my dad?”
“Nobody has to go anywhere.” Gunny said as he came through the gate in the fence with Lacy, Runa and others following him. “We’ve just come from the school, heard their side of the story. Now I’d like to hear yours.”
They told him and the adults nodded. It was pretty much as they expected. They had seen the damage and heard the defensive stories but the big picture was easy to piece together. Older kids started bullying the odd ball and she fought back. Her friends came to help and the bullies got their asses handed to them. It happened. The difference this time was the ferocity of the attack. The teens could have killed Vanessa or the boy she was shielding. What started out as meanness and cruelty had elevated quickly. The tribe answered with overwhelming force and had put a hurting on some of the older teens. It wasn’t just cuts and scrapes, a black eye or two. There were broken bones, missing teeth and slashes that required stitches. Vanessa was the only one of the group that had any injuries and that was only because she’d been outnumbered thirty to one.
“The parents are concerned.” Lacy said. “The school board doesn’t want to let you go back. They think you were too long in the wilds.”
“They started it.” Tobias said defiantly.
“They could have killed her with the pitching machine.” Kodiak said evenly. “They were trying, they were shooting at her. None of them were ever in any danger of dying, we weren’t trying to kill them or they’d be dead.”
Gunny looked at the ground to hide his grin. He liked this kid. Hell, he liked all of them.
“I know.” Lacy said. “And I know it’s not fair but if you go back, it won’t get any better. You’re the outsiders.”
“I don’t want to go back anyway.” Tobias mumbled. “It was a waste of time.”
“There are options.” Lacy continued. “There is home schooling or apprenticeship programs. You can start working and earning a living. We can get you into any career you want.”
“We just wanted to be normal kids again.” Harper said. “We thought we could go back to like it was, like they did.”
They talked for another half hour and told the grownups they’d figure it out. Donny was already working at Tommy’s shop, Harper wanted to be a nurse, Tobias and Analis
e wanted to be chefs, Kodiak a veterinarian, Vanessa wanted to finish school and Swan had just shrugged when they asked her. The grownups left and they told them they’d let them know tomorrow so arrangements could be made.
Darkness fell and Cody started a fire to chase the chill as they sat around and discussed options. Nobody was very excited about their prospects. They hardly ever saw each other anymore except on weekends and a little at school. If they started jobs, they’d be just like the grownups. Work all day, take care of house when you got home, watch something on a DVD and fall asleep just to wake up and do it all over again. Life inside the walls was pretty much what it had been before the fall.
“I’m going south.” Swan announced.
“What do you mean?” Tobias asked. “South Dakota? South America? South Park?”
She flicked an acorn at him.
“South of here.” She said. “I’m going to check out that safari park in Texas. If they’re still caged, I’m going to set them free.”
“That’s a long way.” Cody said. “It’ll take weeks.”
“Yep.” She replied and stared into the flames. “Maybe months.”
There was silence around the fire as they contemplated her words. They knew what they meant.
When are you leaving? Donny signed.
Swan looked up at the moon. It was almost full and the stars were twinkling brightly. No rain, no snow.
“There’s no time like the present.” She said and stood.
Donny nodded and looked at Analise. She smiled and he saw the answer in her eyes.
Meet you at the front gate he signed, touched foreheads with Vanessa then slipped off into the darkness.
The twins exchanged a look and an almost imperceptible nod. “Don’t leave without us.” Tobias said and they both hugged the dark girl then went inside to grab armor, weapons and saddlebags.
“Are you going?” Vanessa asked the two hunkered by the fire.
“Yes, I think so.” Cody said and turned to Harper. “This isn’t the place I dreamed it would be. I think I expected too much.”
“I think we all did.” She said. “It isn’t a bad town, most of the people are wonderful and I think it’s good for Landon and Caleb and Clara but not for us. They might be right, we were out there too long.”
“Let me say goodbye to them.” She said. “I’ll be there.”
She hugged Vanessa long and hard then she too disappeared.
“We’ll miss you.” Cody said when he and Vanessa were alone with the fire. “But I would never ask you to come.”
“I know.” She said.
He stood, placed a hand on her shoulder for a moment then went to grab his own fresh new armor and weapons.
43
Lakota Left
Kodiak stood tall and straight as Gunny approached him, Swan next to him. The rest of the tribe made final adjustments to their gear and checked straps on saddles as they waited for Harper, the last to arrive.
“How did you know we were leaving?” Cody asked. “We didn’t want to cause any trouble.”
“I’d gotten used to having Zero and the wolves underfoot.” Gunny said with a smile. “It’s easy to notice when they’re not there.”
Zero padded forward at his name, insisted on an ear scratch from the man that smelled of tobacco and gunpowder.
They wore their armor and had braided and adorned their hair again. Swan had painted her face and was eager to go. Kodiak slid his war hammer through a strap on Otis’ saddle. The big bear sniffed the ground where someone had left an intriguing scent. He chuffed and raked a paw over the spot.
“We can figure something out.” Gunny said. “You don’t have to leave.”
“I think we do.” Cody said. “Mrs. Meadows was right. We’ve been out in the wild too long. We like it out there. It seems right and natural. Being inside the walls has felt wrong ever since we got here.”
Gunny knew he wasn’t going to change their minds and it didn’t even occur to him to try to stop them by force. These kids weren’t kids anymore. They were fifteen and sixteen years old. Kids that age were getting married and starting families in the Hutterite community. They’d done more and seen more than most of the people in the compound.
Harper came out of the darkness leading Bert and the triplets followed. They were in their armor, had their weapons and the foxes trotted by their sides.
Gunny opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off before he could protest.
“They’re not coming.” She said. “They wanted to send us off properly. As warriors.”
The goodbyes took a few minutes and they waved as the band of children and their companion animals ambled out of the walled city. The foxes whined, they wanted to join the caravan.
“Come on, I’ll walk you home.” Gunny told the little ones and turned back towards the town.
They were almost run over by Vanessa as she slid gracefully off Ziggy and wrapped them in an embrace.
“Love you guys.” She yelled over her shoulder as she ran alongside her ostrich for a few steps then swung into the saddle.
“Wait up!” she yelled and zipped through the gate as it closed. “I’m coming!”
Epilogue
The Prophet
His body was covered in sores and bug bites. The stink coming off of him would turn a buzzard’s stomach. His filthy hair was long and wispy like his beard. His teeth were yellowed and his gums were infected. The undead didn’t know what to make of him in his rotting animal skins and the living shunned him as a lunatic.
He was only seeking to spread his gospel of the Feral Children when he’d stumbled into the guard on watch. He was shoved roughly to his knees at the edge of the fire.
“Caught this thing prowling around the perimeter. Thought it was one of the undead until I heard it humming a tune.” Rocky told his assembled crew. “Course, I don’t think even the zombies smell as bad as this one. Gimme another beer, David Lee.”
They let out a round of laughter as Meeker shoved the Prophet flat on his face. He groaned and ran his tongue over the tooth he’d felt loosen and spit a glob of bloody saliva. This band of outlaws definitely needed to hear the good news. He’d been following the glow of their campfire for miles, eager to share the tale of the Feral Children and have them join his crusade.
His preaching to the undead had not been well received. They would swarm towards him when he approached, like they were eager to hear his words but always stopped short. They stood there swaying listlessly or milling about but soon lost interest in what he had to tell them. He prayed for them anyway then continued his journey. He’d covered hundreds of miles since he’d taken up the cause. When he tired, he rested, often waking up with the undead within spitting distance. He no longer feared them; he only wished they were more receptive to his words.
He pushed himself to his knees and spoke. “Brothers, if I may, I have a wonderful tale to tell you of fearsome warriors with gentle souls. It will lighten your burden and free your…”
He doubled over from the kick in the guts delivered by the one called Meeker.
“Shut up, filth.”
The men laughed as he vomited from the blow.
The Prophet pushed back up from the ground and drug a filthy hand across his mouth to wipe the drool from his wispy mustache.
“As I was saying.”
Another kick to the midsection and he groaned and curled himself up into a ball.
“Let the whack job talk, he came from somewhere and it might lead us to easy pickings.” David Lee said. “It’s boring as hell out here, might as well have a few laughs before we kill the poor bastard.”
One of them grabbed his hair and drug him to his feet. “Speak your peace, freak.”
The Prophet swayed unsteadily. He looked around for something to use as a pulpit. He settled for the stump of a tree at the edge of the campfire.
He raised his hands towards the heavens. Someone flung a half empty beer can in his direction that barely missed his h
ead.
Distracted by the ranting of the Prophet the men hooted and hollered. They hurled insults at him as he tried to preach over their voices. The men never heard or saw the horde of undead as they swept through the camp, drawn by the shouting of the Prophet.
The dead swarmed through the camp and fell on the group of outlaws. They flowed around the Prophet like water and he wondered briefly if that’s how Noah felt when he parted the seven seas. No, wait that was that dude Jonah that did that, he corrected himself.
They fell on the drunken raiders before most of them could pull a gun or blade from its sheath. Jagged teeth tore into tender flesh as a few ineffective shots rang out and the Prophet continued his sermon.
He lowered his arms and said “Amen.”
He stared at the carnage before him. They had been bad men and mocked his story of redemption. God had smitten them for it.
Oh, well, I tried. He shrugged and began pilfering through their belongings.
He whistled a tune as he shouldered a weeks’ worth of supplies and left the carnage behind him. Maybe the next group he encountered would be more receptive he thought optimistically when he told them the incredible story of angels disguised as children and their fearsome beasts.
Author’s Note
Wesley Norris
Hi guys and girls! I hope you’ve enjoyed the tale of The Feral Children as much as we enjoyed telling it to you. This is the story I’ve been waiting to tell since Book 1. It’s been an incredible journey for the tribe, and I feel fortunate to have been a part of it. What comes next for the tribe? I like to think that they are out there free and happy. Maybe they find that other zoo and Bert gets a girlfriend. All I know is that our tribe of unlikely heroes accomplished amazing things with their will and fortitude. We can all take something away from that.
The Feral Children [A Zombie Road Tale] Box Set | Books 1-3 Page 75