Big Lou yawned at me.
“Yeah, I don’t want to do it either.” I said as I began to walk back towards my home. Behind me I could still hear Fred Baker, Samantha’s father, screaming into the night.
“Samantha!”
THREE
“Well?”
I heard the question before I was even inside the tent.
“Samantha’s been kidnapped. We’re going after her.”
“We?” Her tone said everything that I had feared. I was not getting out of this tent without her taking a bite or two out of me.
“Yes, we. Amanda, Sass and I are going down to the parking lot. Jane wounded one of the kidnappers and we have to get down there and question him before the zombies discover their new tasty treat.”
“Amanda.” She said. Her voice was flat and filled with all the hate she could muster.
“We are not getting into this again. I am not with Amanda, I am with you. Why can’t you just let it go?” I started layering clothes onto my body wanting nothing more than to get dressed and out of this tent as quickly as I could.
“You spend more time with her than you do with me and I’m not supposed to think that something is going on?”
“We’re both on the council and she trains the scouts, of which I am a member. There is no way she can’t be a part of my daily life.”
“Nice excuses.” She said, I could feel the fire deep down inside me ignite. I was doing everything I could to keep my temper in check. I didn’t want to make this any worse than it already was.
“She is also one of my best friends and has saved my life more times than I can remember. She will always be a part of my life. Going down to the ground is also going to be a part of my life. I am sorry you hate these things about me, but they are who I am. If this is something that you can’t handle, then maybe it’s time for you to move back to your tent and we finally call this off.”
“Oh, you’d love that wouldn’t you?! Then you wouldn’t have to sneak around to be with her.”
I almost lost the stranglehold I had on my self-control. I wanted to jump headfirst into the deep end of the rage pool. The only thing that held me back was the thought of that little girl out there in the night. Every minute I spent in here arguing with Veronica carried Samantha further and further from us. I had to keep control. I had to get out of this tent. Pulling my gloves on and putting my baseball hat on, backwards as always, I picked up my backpack and looked at Veronica laying there in my sleeping bag, still naked and still as fine as the day I had met her. But everything else about her had changed.
“I’m sorry you’re mad at me for this. I’m sorry I don’t have the answers you want, or need, but you have to understand that this isn’t about us. This is about a ten year old girl who has been taken and is out there, right now, scared out of her mind, praying with everything she has for somebody to come save her.”
“But why does that somebody have to be you? You’re the leader, you could assign anybody to go after her and you could stay here where it’s safe. Why can’t you ever let things go and trust others to see it through?” She was crying now. I felt like a total bastard, but it didn’t change the fact that I was leaving.
“Why does it have to be you?” She had asked, and it was a fair question. Closing my eyes, I saw Jim hanging from that bus window. I wished to god that he would fall, but he never does. He just hangs there. My fault. I’m glad he can’t look back at me, because if he could, that’s what I would see in his eyes. “You’re fault Charlie. You caused this. You did this to me.”
“You really don’t know why it has to be me?”
She sat up, rolling her eyes at me, and even as mad as I was, I couldn’t miss that her naked body was responding the cold air coming through the tent flap. I wished I didn’t have to leave. I wished that she wasn’t mad at me all the time for things I couldn’t stop from happening. But, most of all, I wished I could go back to bed with her right then and there.
I wish for all kinds of things that I know aren’t meant to be. Most of all I just wished that she could understand me and my reasons for doing this. Once upon a time she did understand, but that changed. I had changed her, and it was something I couldn’t find a way to undo.
“He’s gone!” She yelled at me, snapping my attention back to the here and now. “Nothing you will ever do can change that, and it wasn’t even your fault”. She paused for a second trying to compose herself before she began again.
“He freaked. He ran. He fell into that window. His death is not on you.” The control she had found dissolved and her tears were coming faster now. I found that I had nothing more to say. I turned and left the tent. Maybe later things would have been better if I had said something. Maybe if I had stayed behind and sent the others to rescue Samantha things would be different, but who really knows. Who can say what decisions are truly mistakes and what is just meant to be?
FOUR
Big Lou gave me a look as I emerged from the tent. Amanda and Sass were already on our makeshift lift. I was surprised to see Bill North and “Marky” Mark Scapoli standing behind them, both looking scared out of their minds. I gave them both a tight smile and began to make my way towards the lift. I was almost there when Jericho stepped in front of me, barring my way.
“And where are you off to in the middle of the night?” He asked.
“I really do not have time for you right now.” I said as I attempted to push past him and enter the lift. Jericho side stepped to get in front of me again.
“I would suggest you make time.”
“Jericho if you don’t let me pass I will let Amanda shoot you in the head.”
“Always have a joke don’t you, my king?”
He knew that I hated being called that, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t know why. Had he known, I have no doubt that he would have said it more often.
“Samantha has been kidnapped. We are going after her kidnappers. Get out of my way.”
Jericho smiled at me. It was a very disturbing look and made me feel even more uneasy than I did upon hearing about Samantha.
“If she is worthy, God will protect her. You, however, are at risk of evoking his holy wrath.”
“Jericho cut the crap. I am so not in the mood for your creepy evil voice. We both know you are closer to calling down God’s wrath upon you than I am.”
“You are breaking the law. The law we set for our community. The law that God has approved and set into stone through you and your flawed council.”
“We have got to go now.” Amanda said from the lift.
Jericho didn’t even look around to her. He kept his eyes steady on me.
“So, the rules and laws apply to everyone but the council? Is that the message I am to take back to my congregation?”
“Here’s a message you can take to Saint Peter as you try to con your way through the pearly gates.” Amanda said as she pressed her gun barrel against the back of Jericho’s head. This time he did turn around and look at her.
“I rank none of your stupid holy bullshit over the life of a ten year old child. You say one more word and our rooftop ministry will be short one preacher.”
From the look in Amanda’s eyes I thought that even if I told her not to pull the trigger, this time, she would still do it. She seemed on the verge of being out of control, and I couldn’t help but think that, in her mind, she was seeing the people from the US embassy she had told us about on that first night. The locals had said, “They eat our children and you leave.” I knew this still weighed heavy on her and now she saw a chance to make some amends for past sins. She wasn’t able to save those other kids but maybe she could save this one. And god help anyone who dared to stand in her way. I thought that Jericho didn’t realize how serious this had become. I believe he was thinking that this was just Amanda being Amanda. In his defense, this wasn’t the first time that she had pulled a gun on him or threatened him with death.
“I told you she didn’t like you.” I said as I stepp
ed onto the lift and patted my thigh signaling Lou to join us. The lift began to take us down to the ground and Sass asked, “What’s his deal anyway?”
“He’s mad that we are breaking the rules by coming down here to try and save Samantha.” I said.
“That seals it. He’s insane.” Sass said.
“He will use this to stir up more trouble. We should have killed him a month ago.” Amanda said in a tone that said, “I told you so.”
“There’s no way he could do that. How could he make us trying to save a little girl come back to bite us?” Sass asked.
“If there’s a way to do it, he’ll figure it out. Let’s go find our soon to be rat before the dead find their breakfast.” I said.
Once the lift touched down and the gate swung open, Big Lou was out and patrolling the parking lot. He sniffed everything he could see then turned to look at the rest of us. We had filed out of the lift and were slowly making our way towards the front of the store.
Being on the ground at night is a very scary thing. Sensory input is amplified because of the adrenaline that is coursing through your body. You hear everything. You sense not only everything that is there, but a good deal of stuff that isn’t. I had only been out in the dark a handful of times since reaching the safety of Johnson City, and it was something that I had never found a taste for. Lou walked in front of us in a zig zag pattern sniffing for any undead presence. I knew if he caught a whiff of something, he would be quick to let us know about it.
The trick to surviving on the ground is to not fall for the fear of the unknown. You have to master that fear and trust in Big Lou. If you’re at risk, Lou will warn you. Be vigilant, but let Lou be that assurance that there is no need to freak out. If Louie isn’t growling, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.
The parking lot was blurring past us as we made our way to the far end, near the gas pumps. The man had crawled a good twenty feet from where he had been shot. He seemed to be trying to make it to the little building where the gas station attendant would sit. I imagine he was hoping it would keep him safe from any roaming zombies and maybe it would have. Except he wasn’t facing zombies. He was facing a group of pissed off survivors and one of them just happened to be scary good with guns and knives. Sass and I let Amanda take the lead. Her kicking the man across the face was her version of saying hello. The man rolled onto his back and Amanda took the opportunity to stomp on his leg where Jane had shot him. The man screamed, and Amanda leveled her gun at his face.
“Do I have your attention?”
The man had sat up and grabbed at Amanda’s foot where it sat on his leg. As she took her foot off, he fell back to the ground. He was breathing heavy and after a moment of getting his courage up he answered her.
“Yes. Yes, you have my attention.”
Amanda squatted down beside him and holstered her gun going instead for the long hunting knife that she kept at her side. She laid the blade of the knife against the man’s throat as she began to speak.
“We are going to have a nice chat. I am going to ask you some questions and you are going to give me answers. The answers are going to be the truth. If at any time I feel that you are being less than truthful with me, this knife is going to make a cut across your skin. These cuts won’t be deep, and none will be life threatening, at least not alone. If you lie to me enough times you will bleed out in this parking lot. You will die hoping and praying that you lose consciousness before the zombies find you, and they will find you. They will be drawn by the smell of your blood. When they arrive, we won’t stop them. We will toast your death from the roof of Wal-Mart and laugh as you are consumed. Afterwards, if you’re lucky, I will put a bullet in your head. Do we have an understanding?”
The man didn’t move. I think he was afraid of inadvertently cutting himself on her knife.
“I know you're going to kill me either way so don’t pretend you’re not. I would expect nothing less from a group of kidnappers.”
“What?!” I said.
“You heard me. I’m not sorry for a thing I have done. I’m only sorry it took us so long to find her.” The man said.
“The only kidnapper here is you.” Amanda hissed at the man and in response, he laughed at her.
“I am here on behalf of the child’s mother. A mother that has been about to die of worry for the past two months. When we finally find the child, she is here, with you. What conclusion am I to arrive at other than you are the people who took her from us?”
“We don’t even know who you are or where you came from.” Sass said.
“I won’t believe anything you say to me. Best you go ahead and kill me and be done with it.”
“Where are you from?” Amanda asked removing the knife from his throat.
“I came from the same place you stole the child from.” The man answered.
“We didn’t take the child. Her father arrived here with her a little over a month ago.” I said, but the man just laughed at me and said “Yeah, right.”
Amanda stood and walked away from the man signaling for the rest of us to join her.
“This is turning out to be much more complicated than it seemed on the surface. We need to take a minute and figure this out.” Amanda said.
“We aren’t going to get anything out of him.” Sass said.
“It sounds like somebody’s really done a good job brainwashing him.” Bill said. Amanda nodded in agreement.
“I think it’s more than that.” I said. “He’s been sent by the mother and we are out here on behalf of the father. We’re caught in the middle of a custody dispute and there isn’t going to be any lawyers or judges around for a good while to help us sort this out.”
“Yo, dis is like, not a good thing to be in the middle of. My sisters friend Anne got shot in the hip when her and her old man fought over who was going to take the kids.” Marky Mark said in his particularly charming accent.
His real name was Marty Mark Scapoli but as soon as he made it into camp he was nicknamed “Marky Mark” which he hated, but he also realized that he wasn’t going to be able to shake it. He took it as best he could, this meaning every now and then you’d get punched on the arm for calling him Marky Mark. He could hit pretty hard, but all in all I figured that it was worth it.
“While I really do want to hear that story, I think we need to get this guy back to the roof and get moving. Bill, you and Marky Mark help this guy back to the lift and send Jane back to us. Tell him to bring anyone he wants as a spotter, but I want him here on this.” Then as an afterthought I added, “Have him bring Fred Baker as well. Maybe we will be able to get some information out of him.”
Amanda doctored the wound on the man’s leg as best she could, and the two men began to help him limp his way back to the safety of Wal-Mart. Jack would be able to doctor the wound better once the man was up top.
“Are you sure you want Jane?” Amanda asked me quietly.
“Absolutely. I have a very good idea that once we get to wherever this is leading we are going to want somebody watching over us. There is nobody better to do that than Jane.”
“Do you really think we have any say in this matter Charlie? I mean, if he took off with the kid, doesn’t the mom have the right to take her back?” Sass asked.
“I see your point, I really do. But any way you want to look at it they came here and invaded our camp. They could have been civil and handled this diplomatically, but instead they decided to come into our city at night and steal away a little girl. I don’t care how right or wrong they are, that is not how you do things.” I said.
A quiet settled over us as we took up a defensive position. Jane had been watching us from the roof, but now he would be gearing up and coming down to meet us. That meant that we were on our own for the time being and it was still dark. We needed to be careful about how we proceeded until daylight broke across the horizon and we would be able to better see the world around us. My mind settled on Jane.
At first, I had found
it somewhat surprising that so many military people would be showing up in camp. That was until I took a few moments to think about it. Who would be better suited to survive the initial shock wave of death than people who were trained to handle dangerous volatile situations? Jane was just such a person.
You can probably guess that Jane is not the man’s real name. His real name is James Austin Bradshaw. He’s from Texas originally and when I asked him why people had called him Jane he simply replied, “I guess it’s because they knew it pissed me off.”
Jane had joined the armed forces as soon as he was legally able to do so. He excelled in his particular field, which was being a sniper. He pulled three tours in Viet Nam. During his first tour one of his friends had started calling him Jane Austin, after the writer, and it stuck almost instantly.
Jane had proved to be very adept in the art of killing, eventually becoming a Ranger before he pulled out of combat and headed for home. But Texas wasn’t what he remembered it to be.
The story Jane told me about coming home was that on his first day back in the great state of Texas, he spent the night in jail. He had flown into the states on a military plane, but had taken a passenger plane from New York to Texas. Upon landing in Texas, he had been trying to make his way through the airport to get his bags when a group of four men barred his way. They yelled at him and called him baby killer and all of the usual insults that the protesters loved.
Jane said that he kept his cool until one of them spit in his face. At that point Jane decided that ass kicking, not discretion, was the better part of valor and he proceeded to beat the four men senseless. By the time to police pulled him off the other four men, it was apparent that they would be taking their meals through a straw for the foreseeable future. Jane smiled as he told me this part of the story. He said that he honestly thought the cops let him beat on those four idiots for a few minutes before they stepped in and stopped him. He said that he thought the cops wanted him to teach the would be protestors a lesson, but they didn’t want him to go to jail for murder so they stepped in once it looked like he might actually kill one, or more, of them.
A Good Distance From Dying_Book 2_Samantha's Song Page 2