by TW Brown
“So, I guess the question is, do we join your group or not?” Hank spoke after patting Ed one last time and stepping away to give the man some space to compose himself.
“Well, that is up to you,” I said. “However, I would suggest that you decide now. My group is not going to be okay with your people hanging up in the woods following us all the way down into La Grande.”
“Why would you want to go down there?” Katrina asked. “That place has been a war zone for weeks…months. There was a pause for a while when the weather took a nasty turn, but you can see and hear stuff going on down there all the time. I realize that you folks have formidable numbers, but why walk away from where you were and walk into a war?”
That was almost the same question that I had. I didn’t have an answer for her because I didn’t know myself.
“There is a belief that the entire town can be reclaimed if the right people come in and make it happen,” I said. That was the best I had; oddly enough, it seemed to be working. All three of them were nodding.
“I think we can agree to meet with your group and see if this is a good match,” a new voice spoke from behind me.
I spun to discover five more people standing less than a dozen feet away. I had no idea how long they had been there, but I felt stupid…and scared. Stupid because I had totally dropped my guard with these folks—a mistake like that can get a person killed in a hurry—and scared because each of them had bows or blades in their hands.
“Jesus, Simon!” Katrina snapped. “You just about scared the crap out of this kid!”
Now I could add annoyed to my list of swirling emotions. Once again I was being referred to as “a kid” by people. Sure, this was the case that I had made for being the best choice for the mission…
“This kid moved past three of our scouts without being seen.” Simon closed the distance between us, making sure to slide his weapon—a wicked looking curved sword that reminded me of the Sinbad movies—into a loop on his belt. “And considering the fact that he is packing serious firepower along with the fact that the group trusts him enough to send him up alone…I wouldn’t underestimate him if I were you.”
I actually had to bite back a smile now. This guy was seeing things in me that I had always hoped to have seen in me by those in my own group. Not only that, but somehow, I had managed to “slip past” some of his scouts. I wasn’t about to tell him that it had been sheer luck and through no effort made by me.
“Name’s Simon Paul,” the man introduced himself and offered his hand. I shook it as he continued. “My parent’s had a sense of humor.” When I just stared at him, he shook his head. “Too young to remember…probably listened to that damn rap music.”
I took a good look at this guy. He was just a regular looking sort. Brown hair that was pulled back in a ponytail that hung a few inches past his collar. He was a couple inches shorter than me, but had wide shoulders and his grip was strong. It wasn’t like he was trying to crush my hand or anything, but I could tell that he was pretty powerful.
“Not really into that sort of music,” I said with a shake of my head. “Actually, I was really into some cool indie stuff. Most of what I had on my phone or iPod came from groups that were local and self-produced their own demos.”
“Eclectic music tastes, I can dig that.” Simon nodded as he let go of my hand. “So you’ve met these three. I’d introduce you to these other knuckleheads, but why waste the time. Your people are probably waiting for you to come back. So, I guess you and I should head down the hill and meet with whoever is in charge of that little army and see what’s what.”
“Uh, Simon…you think that is a wise choice?” one of the people who had come up behind me with him asked.
“This kid came up here alone to meet us and see what our intentions are.” Simon shrugged and shot me a smile and a wink for some reason. “I figure the least I can do is return the show of confidence. If they thought we were actually bad guys, they would never have sent this guy up here on his own…unless they were hoping he would get himself killed.”
Hmm…that was not an angle that I had even remotely considered. Either Simon was joking around, or he was on to something.
“Let’s go meet your people,” Simon announced and headed into the trees like it was no big deal.
***
“You folks got into a pretty nasty fight a while back.”
Simon was walking a few steps ahead of me. We had hiked down the hill in silence for the first few minutes. I was still trying to figure out what the heck was going on when he broke the silence. I was still trying to figure out what to say when he continued.
“You play it close to the vest,” Simon spoke with a hint of something in his voice. I was pretty sure that there would be a big smile if I could actually see his face. “Smart. I mean, you don’t know me from Adam. You got no reason to trust me with a dang thing.”
“We got hit by raiders and a small herd,” I said. I didn’t figure I was giving away anything vital.
“Herd?” the man asked as he ducked under a low branch and came to a stop at a small creek.
“Yeah…herd. You know…a large group of zombies?”
“Oh. We call them clusters.” Simon shrugged as he knelt down and filled his canteen.
“I imagine folks probably all got their own words for stuff.” I nodded as I joined him. “Anyways, we had a bunch of walkers everywhere and these folks tried to use them as a diversion or something. We fought them off, but it was pretty costly. Lost a lot of people that day.”
“And you got that many left?” he exclaimed as he stepped across the stream and resumed our hike down the hill.
“Yeah.” I didn’t think he was looking for any information, but I didn’t see any reason to let him know that we had been knocked down to less that fifteen people or so and that all these others were newcomers to the group.
“Must have been a hell of an invasion force. It sounded bad, but damn…” his voice trailed off.
I was torn about what to say to this guy. He seemed like a really nice person…on the surface. However, after seeing what I had with Jake, I wasn’t willing to just believe anybody was what they portrayed themselves to be. We walked in silence again until I decided that maybe I could get some information myself.
“So, Ed told a pretty sad story,” I said to Simon’s back. I was surprised when he stopped suddenly. I had my hand on the hilt of my blade when he turned, and immediately felt like an idiot.
“That was his baby sister…Holly. She and my son were in second grade together.”
The way he said it was almost spoken as a warning. There was definitely something in his voice, but it wasn’t like Ed’s. I didn’t think Simon was going to cry, but I also was getting the message that this was not an okay topic.
“Sorry.”
“Yeah…one of the reasons why we were getting ready to try and hook up with your group before that day was the fact that our scouts had seen children in your camp. We figured you folks couldn’t be that bad if you had kids running around loose.”
Simon shrugged and turned to continue down to meet my group. I followed after mentally slapping myself. I’d had my hand on my weapon the entire time he’d been talking to me. The thing was, he hadn’t even bothered to give me a funny look or anything. It was as if he had completely ignored the fact.
It took a while, but eventually we came down the trail that dumped into the rest area where all of my people were waiting. I guess we’d posted sentries of our own because Jon, Jake, and Dr. Zahn were all waiting expectantly when we arrived like they knew we were coming.
“Everybody, this is Simon Paul. He is here to talk to you and see if his group joining our group is a good fit.” That was pretty much it in a nutshell. My work here was done.
I headed over to the cart where the few things that I owned were stored and dug through my bag. I knew what I was looking for and since I didn’t have that much—unlike some of these people who seemed intent on trying
to re-gather a house-worth of belongings that they would just have to eventually leave behind if we ever had to make a run for it—it was easy to find.
The small box was the only thing that I had from my old life in a world where the dead stayed that way. I still remember when my mom gave it to me. I thought it was kind of stupid, but now, it was my most prized possession.
I pulled the cube out and rolled it over in my hand, pausing on each side to take a moment. I guess all those pictures on my phone were gone forever. Now, these were the only ones remaining. This plastic cube had a single picture on each side. My mom was one of those people that held on to the old ways. She bought actual books, listened to CDs on her CD player, and took pictures with a camera that used film.
I used to make fun of her and tell her to get with the times. She would always smile and say that I would be sorry if the world ever suffered a major catastrophe. Back then, I couldn’t think of anything that could happen on a scale that would have an effect on the entire world…that was just crazy.
One picture was just my mom. She had taken it using a timer. She was sitting in her favorite spot under the tree in our back yard. The others were of me, Jamie, Aaron, and Joe. There was a shot from after our first pee wee football game. We all had big, stupid grins on our faces and Aaron was missing a tooth. The rest were from different ages and times in my life that I had to think really hard on to remember. It was as if all of my previous life was fading. Pretty soon, it would be nothing but these six photographs. And each time that I looked at them, the people in the pictures became harder to recognize…especially me.
I stuffed the cube back into my bag and headed over to where I saw folks in line for the afternoon meal. I don’t really remember standing in line, or finding a spot to sit in the tall grass. Yet, that is where I ended up.
As I spooned mouthful after mouthful of whatever had been dumped into my bowl, I did everything in my power not to cry.
***
That night, we were joined by twenty or so new members. It was almost odd to see people wandering from campfire to campfire. Everybody was treating this like some sort of party. I took my sentry post shortly after sunset, volunteering when the watch list was made.
I was about thirty yards or so out, keeping my eyes peeled for anything or anybody that might be drawn by all the noise. I almost wanted to walk back to camp a few times and tell folks to quiet down. They were acting like we were safely behind walls or something and not camped out in an old rest area in the open where anyone or anything could just come stomping up and put an end to our little party.
“Kind of crazy, ain’t it?” a voice made me spin with my machete drawn and ready to strike.
“You really shouldn’t do that, Katrina,” I managed through a throat that felt like it had been constricted to a pinhole.
“Sorry,” she said with raised hands. “I thought you saw me coming. You looked right at me.”
Damn, I needed to get my head back into what I was doing. I guess that cube had screwed with me worse than I thought. Here I was all bent out of shape with the noise and the partying going on and I am literally letting people walk right up to me without noticing.
“I guess I was drifting…so good thing you came out to…umm…why are you out here?”
“I just came to thank you for helping our groups come together.”
“I didn’t really do anything,” I admitted. “I went up the hill and then came down. Simon, Jon and all the others worked out the details.”
Katrina laughed. It was a nice sound. But she was close enough that I could see her face pretty clear in the light from the moon. There was something in her eyes.
“What?” I asked, suddenly wondering if I had a dangler in one of my nostrils.
“That is twice that I have come up on you without you knowing. You sure you are the best choice for a sentry?”
“Probably not,” I said with a shrug. “But if something bad happens, I guess I will scream loud enough. I’ve been told that my voice carries.”
“You’re funny.” Katrina laughed again and I felt my hormones starting to make inappropriate shifts in my biology.
She was absolutely older by a decade or so. Still, she was cute in that girl-next-door way. I could still see the dusting of freckles across her nose even in the moonlight. I guess I had been so focused on my so-called mission that I hadn’t really taken the time to look at her. Of course she was all bundled up in leathers with a head wrap, so there wasn’t all that much to see when we’d first met.
She had wavy blonde hair that was cut pretty short. She was maybe a couple of inches over five feet, and, like everybody else these days, looked just a bit on the undernourished side. Her cheeks were a little sucked in and now that she was not in full gear, I could tell that she was actually very petite.
“Yeah? How am I funny?” I asked, feeling as awkward as I ever did when I talked to girls.
“You just walk around so full of purpose all the time, but you still seem…I don’t know…”
“Confused?” I offered.
She laughed again and climbed up on the hood of a car that didn’t look like it would have made it much longer in a world before the dead started walking. It groaned a little bit, which was a further indictment against the car since the girl couldn’t weigh much more than a hundred pounds.
“So what is the deal with your group?” she asked as she pulled out her blade and a stone and began to sharpen it.
“What do you mean?” Instantly I heard the warning bells go off in my head. This was like the women that were part of Winters’ group who thought they would be able to distract me with flirting right before they killed me or whatever their plan had been.
“It’s just that there are like five or six groups here. They all seem friendly enough, don’t get me wrong, but they seem to be sort of segregated. I thought you guys were one big group, but if I had to guess, I would say that is not entirely true.”
I bit my tongue. The first comment that came to my head was pretty nasty. There was a chance, however slight, that she was simply making an observation. I could not take that chance, but I didn’t have to be rude either.
“You know how folks are,” I said, hoping that she might say something else that would allow me to see if she was actually probing for information.
“I guess,” she sighed.
That was it. We sat quietly for the next several minutes and I alternated between glancing at her to see if she was going to say anything else and actually trying to keep my eyes open for any trouble that might shamble up to our little party.
“Are you guys going to really try to settle the entire city of La Grande?” she finally broke what was becoming a very uncomfortable silence.
“I guess,” I said with a shrug. I was pretty confident that I wasn’t giving away top secret information with that answer.
“Then what?” she asked.
I cocked my head and looked at her. At first I wanted to say something witty and clever, but I could see in her face that she was actually asking me a serious question.
“I guess we try and reclaim some sort of normal life,” I answered. That was as good as I could come up with when it came down to being honest.
“But what does that mean?” Katrina asked. “How can life ever be considered normal to anybody after all of…this?” She threw her arms out to her side to include everything around us.
“We will have some power online, there is a good water source.” I debated on what to say next and decided that she wasn’t fishing. “The faction that ran the section we are moving in to had a bad reputation. In fact, they were trying to take us out and we just beat them to the punch. From what we have been hearing from others, they were like big bullies. Now, with our group setting up shop in their old section, we will be able to try and unify everybody. That would help a great deal. Plus, there is a very minimal zombie presence there. A lot of our work is already done for us.”
We sat in silence for a few mi
nutes. I was beginning to wonder if she had fallen asleep.
“Do you really believe that we can do it?” she asked in a whisper.
“Sure.”
That was the truth. I did believe that we could go in and take that entire city for our own and create a good place. What I was confused about was why the heck she was asking me. After all, there were far better authorities on this subject…on most subjects when it came down to it.
“Well…I hope so,” Katrina said as she scooted down off of the hood of the beat up old car. “I’m tired of living like this.”
She walked away. I watched until she folded into the shadows and vanished. I turned my attention back to the surrounding area. I didn’t know who was coming to relieve me, but I didn’t want whoever it was to be able to sneak up on me like she did.
My mind kept trying to go back and revisit that conversation, but I wouldn’t allow it. Any thoughts of her were too distracting.
“Man, I hope we run into some girls closer to my age soon,” I mumbled. From the shadows, the low moan of a zombie answered.
I waited for it to wander into the open road before moving in to take it down. It was alone. I almost had to laugh. She was probably my age or a little older.
“Funny.” I glanced at the sky just in case God might be paying attention. I wanted him to know that I was not amused with his little joke. This was not the answer to my prayers.
I finished her off with a quick thrust to the eye. Her body landed with almost no sound. I pushed her with my foot until I got her off of the road. No reason, I just didn’t think that this would be the sight everybody wanted to start the day with in the morning when we moved out.
***
Ten of us moved down the hill making it a point to stay in the brush. We could see the dark outline of the giant wall that enclosed the area as well the distinct conical tops of the guard towers. We found a small mound of dirt and rocks and moved in behind it so we could take a better look. The stream that I had used during my escape was even deeper and had a much swifter current than before.