by Bible, Jake
I’m actually thinking about doing this when I see the first rays of dawn start to pierce the early morning fog. Sleep didn’t come at all in the night, but my situation has my adrenaline up and I just lie on the carpeted floor in the bare room, watching the sky go from deep purple to slightly pink to bright orange. My eyes actually begin to close when there’s a knock on the door.
I twist around and see Stella and Melissa standing over me, the guard in the background.
“We’re leaving,” Stella says. “The Board met last night, called an emergency HOA meeting and it was overwhelmingly in favor of abandoning Whispering Pines.”
“What?” I say, getting to my feet. “Why the fuck would everyone go along? We can fight this out!”
“We can,” Melissa says. “Most of my team and a few others, sure. We have guts. But the rest? They’ve only survived because of the strong in the community. They’d be slaughtered sheep if left on their own. And sheep only know how to follow.”
“Brenda was very convincing,” Stella says.
“So that’s it? We abandon Whispering Pines? And go where?”
“I said we’re leaving,” Stella frowns. “Not abandoning Whispering Pines. We’ll be back.”
I look from Stella to Melissa.
“I’m not following,” I say. “What’s going on?”
“While everyone is packing up and figuring out the next move,” Melissa says. “I am taking your family, my team, that cannibal girl, and a few others on a trip. We’re going to get reinforcements.”
“The Farm,” Stella says.
“Seriously?” I laugh. They don’t. “Oh. What makes you think they’ll take us in? Or help us in anyway? Brenda has rejected them time and time again when they’ve come to trade. She pissed them off last time pretty bad. They haven’t been back for a year or so. Why would they give a shit?”
“Tell him,” Stella says to Melissa, “you’ve kept it secret long enough.”
“The Farm is my home,” she says, “it’s where I grew up. My daddy and brothers run the place with those they took in.”
“Your home?” I ask. “What the fuck? Why are you here?”
“Because of Jon,” she says. “He wanted to live close in to town. That’s why we bought a house in Whispering Pines. We always knew the Farm was a back up if things went to hell here.”
“They’ve now gone to hell,” Stella says. “We’re leaving and coming back with our own army.”
“It’s thirty miles away,” I say. “It’ll take longer than 48 hours to get there and back.”
“We know,” Melissa says. “Those fucks will have moved in and taken over by the time we show up. And be busy figuring it all out. They won’t see us coming.”
I shake my head, rubbing my tired face. “This isn’t going to work. First, do you honestly think you can convince your family to help us?”
“We have tech they need,” Melissa says. “Landon is coming. So is Carl. They’ll share what they know with Daddy and he’ll see what we have to offer. We should have done this a long time ago, but that Brenda cunt was always in the way.”
I look past the women at the guard standing there, his eyes wide and mouth open. “Are you going to be a problem?”
The women turn around. He looks from them to me and back. “We’re really being forced to leave?” he asks.
“Yes,” Melissa says.
“Can I go with?”
“Yes,” Melisa nods. “Kirby, right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he nods, leaning his rifle against the doorjamb. He takes a bandana from his back pocket and wipes the fear sweat from his face. “When do we leave?”
“Good question,” I say.
“We leave now,” Stella says. “We have provisions packed. Everyone is meeting at the gate.”
“Brenda isn’t going to like this,” I say. “She hates it when people disagree.” I wave my hands at the room. “Case in point.”
“We’ll be taking problems off her hands,” Melissa says. “The less people to deal with, the less variables she’ll have to calculate. And Brenda may be devious, but she isn’t smart enough to calculate variables.”
“That’s why she’s always needed you,” Stella says to me. “So let’s get you out of here and get gone.”
“Here,” Melissa says as she hands me a handled, carbon steel pole. “I keep these on hand when we are out scavenging. Good weapon plus helps you move when you got a bum leg. These things have saved more than a few of my team out there. They’ll keep your gimp ass moving.”
“You sound like Jon,” I say.
“Thank you,” she smiles.
We step out of the house and Charlie and Greta rush towards me. Hugs all around and we are off.
I’m surprised, since we were right next door, that Brenda didn’t see us and try to figure out what we were up to. When we get to the gate, I see why.
“I will not allow this,” Brenda says, standing in front of Mindy and a dozen of the security team. “You are valuable members of this community and wherever we end up, you will be needed.”
“You can’t stop us,” Carl says, at the front of the group that is facing off against Brenda and her lackeys. “You voted that we are leaving. This shit is over, Brenda. You aren’t the Board Chair of us any longer.”
“I am as long as you’re inside these gates,” Brenda says. “And even when we leave these gates. That was the resolution passed last night. We maintain our HOA structure and covenants even when we leave. It is for the good of the group as a whole.”
“We’re leaving,” I say as we get closer. “Just move out of the way, Brenda. Like Carl said, you can’t stop us.”
”I can and will,” Brenda says, puzzled. “And you are supposed to be locked up. Whoever let you go will be tried for sedition.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, it’s over, you overbearing twat,” Stella snaps. “Just move your fat ass out of the way.”
Brenda raises her hand. Mindy raises hers and the security officers raise rifles to their shoulders. Then Elsbeth is in the mix. She has The Bitch shoved up against Brenda’s windpipe. Brenda is trying to protest, but all that’s coming out of her mouth is a strangled wheeze. Drops of blood start to trickle down her throat.
“These people want to go,” Elsbeth says. “I want to go. We’re gonna go now.”
“Goddamn she’s fast,” someone says.
Elsbeth looks over her shoulder and finds me. She cocks her head and I shake mine.
“Take the rifles,” I say to the others. They look at me and back at the security team. “Go ahead. They won’t shoot. Right, Brenda? Right, Mindy?”
Mindy looks to her boss. “Should we shoot?”
Brenda starts to answer and Elsbeth presses harder. Brenda shakes her head, careful of the spikes puncturing her skin.
“Take ‘em, team,” Melissa says as her scavengers rush forward and snatch the rifles. The security team is shoved out of the way and Melissa gets the gate open. “Ready?”
“Elsbeth,” Stella says, “let the ugly troll go.”
Elsbeth jumps back, startled. “She’s a troll? Like in the story books?” She rubs her hands on her pants. “Yuck.”
And this is the girl that can kill a horde of Zs without batting an eyelash. It’s a fucked up world.
Clutching her bloody throat, Brenda rasps, “You’ll be dead out there. You’ll never make it with such a small group. How will you survive? Where will you go?”
“Home,” Melissa says.
“The Farm,” Stella adds.
Brenda’s eyes go wide and I can see she didn’t even think of this possibility.
“Wait!” a voice yells. “Wait!” Tran and his wife and three kids are hurrying towards us. “You take us with!” Stubben is right behind them.
“Not a problem,” Melissa says, smiling at Tran and Stubben then over at Brenda. “You’ll fit right in on the Farm.”
We all slip through the gate and turn to the left. A few miles up the road is a bridge th
at will take us over the French Broad and towards Leicester, where the Farm is. Just as we are about to go around the bend and up the short hill, I look back and see Brenda and Mindy looking at us from the watchtower. I can see on her face that Brenda knows she fucked up. She never even thought of the Farm as a refuge. Her suburban, bigoted mind just couldn’t even go there.
Tough shit for her.
“Keep it tight and quiet, people,” Melissa whispers once we are well away from Whispering Pines. “Team? You know what to do. Eyes up, ears open, nothing for granted.”
There is a murmur of agreement and then all are quiet.
I look around and take stock of who is with us:
Stella, the kids, and Elsbeth. Melissa, of course.
Carl Leitch and his partner Brian. Brian is a quiet fellow. I haven’t spoken with him much over the years, but when I have, he’s always been warm and funny.
Tran and his family.
Landon Chase, the punk ass.
Stubben with a large walking stick and a pack the size of Greta. The guy is used to manual labor, so I guess he knows what he can carry and what he can’t.
That Kirby guard. I don’t even remember seeing him around before. It’s strange who you mix with and who you don’t.
The rest of our crew is made up of Melissa’s scavengers: Alison Woods, Tony White, Lanny Smithfield, Tara Johnson, Steven Grimes, West Bullock, and her right hand, Andrew Crespo. None of them have families, which is why Melissa picked them for the scavenger crew. She was the only one with a spouse, but no longer.
I don’t see any of Stuart’s defensive team with us, which sucks, but I guess they stayed back with their boss. I am glad for that since I know Stuart is in no shape to travel. Forcing him to move in 48 hours is going to be rough enough.
We’re a motley crew, but nothing unusual in this day and age. The zombie apocalypse makes for strange bedfellows.
A true fact of human nature: you can only keep a group quiet for so long. Doesn’t matter if their lives are on the line or not, get more than four or five people together and someone is going to feel the strange pull to start chattering. Of course, Landon is the one that starts it off.
“What if they reject us?” he asks. “They just turn us out. Leave us to the Zs.”
“They won’t,” Melissa says. “Now hush.” She points to the dump truck I abandoned. “There are going to be extra Zs around here. Shut it.”
“I was just asking,” Landon says. “I have a right to speak.”
“No, you don’t,” someone says.
“Shut the fuck up, Landon,” another whispers.
“We aren’t in Whispering Pines anymore,” Landon says. “I don’t have to answer to you.”
“Should I kill him?” Elsbeth asks. A few heads turn to look at her. Some seem to be eager to see what I have to say while others look appalled at the question. “Should I? He’s stupid.”
“That may be true,” I say.
“Hey,” Landon protests.
“But the first rule of survivor club is you only kill Zs,” I say. “Unless you have to kill humans. Then you kill humans. But stick with Zs.”
“That really cleared things up,” Stella says. She looks at Elsbeth. “Do not kill anyone living unless I say so, got it?”
Elsbeth nods, but her eyes bore holes in Landon’s head. Stella smiles at Landon and he cringes and shuts up. Good man. Not the day to piss off my wife.
We’re maybe ten yards past the dump truck when the first few Zs come at us. There’re ten of them, all fairly new looking, with all limbs attached. They come from the riverside of the road, stumbling and crawling up from the old railroad tracks. Melissa holds up her hand and we stop. The scavengers circle around us.
“Lanny. Tara. West. Keep everyone moving,” Melissa says. “We can’t lose daylight. The rest of you with me. We’ll take these down and catch up.”
But it isn’t needed. Elsbeth walks right up to the Zs, The Bitch gripped firmly in her hand. The closest one hisses and reaches for her and get’s a spike through the brain for his effort. The next two lose their heads as Elsbeth goes all batter up on them. By now, the other seven have gotten up to the road and are converging on her fast. She doesn’t even seem to care.
She takes out the legs of one, slams another back a few feet with a hard kick, decapitates two more with well placed swings, shatters the face of one, spins about and jams the butt of the handle through the gut of the sixth, snapping its spine in half, then reaches out and literally rips the head off the seventh.
We all just stare.
The couple she hasn’t killed die quickly under some well placed and efficient bashes. She stands over the last one, the one with shattered legs, and looks down on it. Honest to God pity is on her face. We all watch her mutter something then she lifts her foot. The thing gnashes its teeth and groans at her just before she squishes the undead life from its skull.
“Sorry,” she says as he walks back to us, interpreting our stunned faces as disappointment. “I’ll be faster next time. I’m tired.”
“Yeah, not a problem,” Melissa says. “You can have point if you want.”
Elsbeth just stares at her.
“It means you can go first,” Stella explains.
“Oh, no,” Elsbeth says, shaking her head. “I have to stay close to them.”
Everyone looks at us: The Stanfords.
“Lucky you guys,” Carl says and Brian nods.
“Let’s keep moving,” Melissa says. “More will be on the way.”
We do keep moving, making a steady pace (lucky for my leg Tran’s little ones can only walk so fast), everyone’s eyes peeled. You can smell the fear off the folks that haven’t been outside the gate. Carl and Brian are sweating profusely, as is Landon. Tran and his wife seem to be right at ease, but Stubben is looking back and forth like a beaten dog waiting for the next kick to deliver the familiar pain. The scavengers are keeping a good perimeter around us, rifles in the crooks of their elbows, ready.
Elsbeth is kinda smiling to herself, like she’s have some internal dialogue, and she giggles quietly every few minutes. At first Stella looks at me like there’s a crazy person next to her, but soon her and the kids are smiling and trying not laugh when the giggles come. I gotta say that despite our rather rough introduction, the cannibal savant is growing on me.
It’s nearly noon by the time we reach the bridge.
“We’ll lunch in the middle,” Melissa says. “Easier to defend. Anyone that wants to catch a few minutes of shuteye, now is the time. Forty-five minutes, people, then we’re back on the road.”
“Where are we going?” Elsbeth asks as she sits down next to Charlie and Greta, looking at her sandwich like it’s the one that’s going to do the biting. She sniffs it and looks around. “The food farted.”
“It’s egg salad,” Greta says. “Eggs have sulfur in them which is why it smells like a fart.”
Elsbeth just shakes her head and takes a bite. Her eyes go wide and then she crams the whole sandwich into her mouth. She chomps, chomps, chomps, and then swallows.
“Farts taste good,” she says. She looks around. “Is there more?”
“That’s all the egg salad ones,” Stella says. “But I have a blackberry jam sandwich, if you want it.”
Elsbeth nods her head and takes the sandwich Stella holds out. She crams that one in her mouth and her whole face lights up. I’m guessing sweets like jam and stuff weren’t on the menu in her basement.
“That beats long pork any day,” she says when her mouth is clear and she can finally speak.
“Lots of things beat long pork,” I say.
“Pretty much every other food on the planet,” Charlie says.
“Except for zucchini,” Greta says. “Fuck that shit.”
“Yeah,” Elsbeth nods. “Fuck that shit. Fuck it. Just fuck it in the shit. Shitty fuck it.”
“Great,” Stella says. “She’s learning from our kids. She’s doomed.”
“Ah, come
on,” I smile. “We’ve taught them well. By the time we get to the Farm, she’ll know way more words than just shit and fuck. Right, kids?”
“Vocabulary is important,” Greta says.
“Fucking A right it is,” Charlie nods.
“The Farm?” Elsbeth asks. “Are we gonna fuck that shit?”
“I sure hope not,” Melissa says as she sits down next to us. “Daddy isn’t fond of cursing. He’s a righteous man and follows the Lord’s path.”
“We’re screwed then,” Charlie says.
“We are not,” Stella says. “I’ve taught you to respect God and all beliefs. You will be respectful when we get there and mind your mouths and your manners.”
“Manners,” Elsbeth says, her brow furrowed. “Wait your turn to chew on the bone. Don’t pee in the corner, go outside. Those are manners.”
“Jesus,” Stella says as the kids giggle.
“The Farm is wonderful,” Melissa says. “My kin has every acre locked down. Daddy keeps an organized house. Waste is not allowed.”
“Are there chickens like back home?” Greta asks.
“Oh, there’s chickens, and pigs, and cows. Probably ducks and rabbits too,” Melissa says. “Not to mention dogs and cats.”
“Dogs?” Greta beams. “I miss our dogs.”
“We all do,” Stella says. Charlie nods.
We try not to think of the early days of the apocalypse. The hard days. The scary days. The days before the gate and the fences. We lost two great dogs in those days; they fought to death keeping us safe. I’m not a praying man, but every once in a while I say a couple words of thanks to them, hoping they found peace.
A low whistle gets all of our attention. Zs.
“Riverside,” Tony White says. He carries a six foot pike with a nasty barbed blade on the end. He swings it off to the Hwy 251 side of the bridge. “About twenty coming from UNCA.”
“Those would be part of the herd that Elsbeth saved me from,” I say. “I’m sure there are more than just those on their way.”
The scavengers are already up and watching as the Zs approach the end of the bridge. Melissa quietly goes from group to group, getting everyone moving. It doesn’t take much since the first of the Zs have already turned onto the bridge, their shuffling feet scraping against the weathered concrete. Stella and I have the kids between us with Elsbeth in front, as we make our way to the far side of the bridge.