“I wish everyone else on the roof shared your opinion of that man. He’s quickly becoming Oprah to those people.” I said, but I got his point. Nobody wanted to be the leader, I didn’t even want it, truth be told. Why would those nurses risk their lives in order to get a job they didn’t even want?
“Plus, she has done things. She has made the nurses scared of her.” Fred said.
“Done what things?” Amanda asked.
“She made the nurses brief her on all of the patients on the floor and those that were too old or were going to eat up too much of our supplies were dealt with.”
“Dealt with how?” Sass asked.
Fred looked miserable at this part. He didn’t look like he wanted to answer that question. There was a long drawn out moment of silence before Jane coughed and when Fred looked at him he patted his gun. Fred’s eyes went wide.
“I didn’t do it! I swear to god I didn’t have any part in it! I stood up to her on this one! I stood my ground and as a result she had her newest toy, Brentley, the maintenance man, beat me up. They left me laying in the hall with Sam crying over my unconscious body.” Fred’s eyes were wide in panic.
“Nobody is saying you did anything Fred. Tell us what happened.” I said slowly, but with a certain amount of force.
“She loaded all of them onto two of the elevators and lowered them down to the ground floor. In the Med Center that floor is called the lower level. It’s where the docks are. It’s where the zombies would be. She put them all in those two elevators and lowered them to their deaths. Then Brentley locked the elevators down again. They never really had a chance. The screams came up the shaft. You could hear everything. I wish I had stayed unconscious till it was over. I still wake up at night with those screams in my ears. She said if anyone made an attempt to overthrow her that they would be dealt with as well. “Remember, there are six more elevators.” She had said. That was end of anyone making plans to stop her.
“I would imagine so.” I said.
“Wait. How are they getting supplies? I know they didn’t have enough food and water on the seventh floor to sustain her people for this long. Where are they getting their stock from?” Amanda asked. This made me smile. Leave it to Amanda to overlook the horrible part of the story and focus on the necessities in the background. Soldiers think like that. It’s not that you have to kill a hundred people fifty miles into the jungle, it’s how are you getting there? How are you provisioning your forces? And of course, how are you getting back out? Amanda saw the glaring hole in this story which was how were they still alive? They had to be raiding local businesses. It came back around to that most important question. They are stuck on the seventh floor of a hospital. How are they getting back out?
“There was a motorized lift on the roof. It was what they used to clean the outer windows. I wouldn’t call it a full fledged window washer cart, but it served the same purpose. They lower it to the ground on the outside of the building and use it to re-enter by the roof.”
“That’s going to make getting in there even harder Charlie.” Jane said. “One entrance, controlled by them. This is getting to be a larger problem than we can solve.”
Fred shook his head. “No. I can get us in. I have a friend that runs the machine, he’ll get us inside. That’s how Sam and I got away in the first place.”
“And you don’t think that this friend has been found out by now?” Amanda asked.
“No. He’s been close to her from the beginning. He saw her smack around Sam one night and he didn’t agree with it. He helped us escape and he will help us get her back out.”
“How sure are you of this?” I asked.
“Positive.” Fred said without any hesitation at all.
“I really don’t like this.” Jane said, and Amanda nodded in agreement.
“Charlie, I know there are things that I should have told you when I arrived here. I know that you have no reason to believe me now. I didn’t think she would ever be able to find us, I really didn’t.”
“Fred, you ran away from your wife and took your daughter with you. You ran straight up State of Franklin road to Wal-Mart. You’re telling me that you never thought she would send people looking for you and that those people wouldn’t follow a straight line?” I said.
“You don’t know the lay of the land Charlie. You can’t come straight up State of Franklin. That would put you passing through the Head Hunters land and nobody travels through the Head Hunters land.”
“Head Hunters?” Amanda asked.
Fred looked at her and shrugged. “It’s a tribe of killers. Zombie or human it’s all the same to them. They will kill you and put your head on a pike and place at the edge of what they have claimed to be their land. Not even Tabitha, as crazy as she is, messes with the Head Hunters.”
“You’re serious?” Sass asked.
“Trust me guys. Up here where you all live is paradise compared to the other end of State of Franklin. Beyond the Med Center are the bad lands of ETSU. I don’t even want to imagine how many zombies are still crawling around that campus. We rescued a couple of people from that area and the stories they told us would seriously keep you up at night. Then there is my old group and the Head Hunters as well as the group that had barricaded themselves inside Food City. Don’t ask me how they did that with the entire front of the building being made of glass. All I know is that somebody killed every single one of them and took their supplies before burning the building to the ground. We watched the fire rage from the windows of the Med Center.”
“Who killed them?” Amanda asked.
“Not sure, but most people think it was the Head Hunters. We don’t think it was personal, they just needed the supplies. That’s not the important thing though. What I’m trying to tell you is, up here, where you all live is nice and safe. Life up here is nothing like life down the road. Where I come from life is hard, dangerous and violent. So yes, I didn’t think anybody would make it this far down State of Franklin without getting themselves killed.”
I looked at the others and motioned for them to come over to where I stood. As they formed what had to look like a football huddle around me I asked my question.
“What do we do?” I said.
“We walk away.” Jane said. “This is not our problem and it is nothing that we are prepared to handle.”
“But she’s jus a lil kid.” Marky Mark said.
“Marky Mark has a point. She didn’t ask for this. She’s being drug back to a mom that is going to beat her and think nothing about it. We have to help her.” Sass said.
“Yeah. We gotta go drop the smackdown on dis chick and show her the error of her ways.” Marky Mark added.
“It would definitely be a challenge.” Amanda said.
“Does that mean you want to do it or not?” I asked. Amanda smiled at me.
“It means that I think there is a certain woman living a few miles down the road who thinks she’s safe. Let’s show her just how unsafe she really is.” Amanda said.
“What’s your vote Charlie?” Sass asked.
Now that was the question, wasn’t it? Where did I stand on this? Part of me wanted to march down to the Med Center and rain retribution upon Mrs. Tabitha’s group with an extra dose saved back for their leader herself. But the other half of me wanted to march my people back to the top of Wal-Mart and forget any of this had ever happened. I wanted to tell Fred good luck and watch him walk back towards Johnson City Medical Center all by his lonesome. My mind told me that would be the smart thing to do. It told me that it’s what any intelligent person would do. It told me that it was what I should do.
But, damn it, they broke into our place. They came in where they weren’t invited, and they took something that wasn’t theirs. They could have approached us openly and dealt with this politely, diplomatically. However, that wasn’t what happened. They snuck in during the night. That ran all over me.
I should be smart. I should hear nothing else on this subject. I should order my
guys back and tell Fred sorry, but no thanks. Everything I should do made sense, but I just could let this go unanswered. They came here and invaded our home. I looked down the hill to where State of Franklin lay in the darkness and knew what I needed to do.
“I say we go show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown.”
SIX
Jane did not look happy, but surprisingly he was the only one. Amanda looked almost giddy in anticipation of having to plan a siege on an impregnable instillation. Sass and Marky Mark looked like they wanted nothing more than to get seven stories up in the air and commence beating on people and Fred just looked nervous. Jane, however, looked defeated. He walked over to me and spoke in a lower voice.
“Charlie, before we do this I need to tell you something.”
“Okay.” I said.
“I spoke to Veronica before I came down here and she wanted me to tell you something.”
I could only imagine what it was that she wanted me to know before heading off to kill the latest dragon. “This isn’t going to be good is it?”
Jane frowned. “No. She said if you go through with this, if you lead this group off on another wild goose chase and take another unnecessary risk then it was over. You two were over. She said if you’re leaving again then she was leaving you.”
“Wow.” I said.
“I’m sorry man. I can’t help but feel that this is all my fault.”
“Jane, how could this be your fault?”
“All of this started after our trip to the interstate. That trip was made because of the zombies that followed me here. It was because of me that she got scared like that and started acting this way.”
“No, she had this in her long before you showed up. I saw it, but I just chose to ignore it because I didn’t want to be alone…and… she is super fine.”
Jane smiled. “She is super fine. You sure you want to walk away from that?”
I thought about it for a moment and realized that, yes, I really did want to walk away. I was perfectly okay with not being with her anymore and that made me feel like even more of a jerk.
“Yeah, I think it's time for this good thing to come to an end, at least for a while.”
Jane nodded and gave me a smile. “I understand man, and again, I’m sorry for whatever part I played in this.”
When I told Jane that none of this was his fault, I meant it. It was true that Veronica had started the full court press about me not endangering myself after the field trip that Jane, Shawn, and I had made, but I didn’t think that trip was actually the cause of all of this. I think it just helped speed things along. After that adventure into terror Veronica could no longer lie to herself about how dangerous this world is. Also, I couldn’t lie to her that I would always come back okay and in one piece.
THEN –
DAY 4 OF THE INFECTION
ONE
The day after Jane’s arrival we woke up to find that the zombies that had followed him to our door step were still there and a few more had joined the party at some point during the night. We needed to figure out what to do about them. What would be the best way to either kill our new dead friends or convince them to walk away? Amanda didn’t want to use guns for fear of the noise bringing even more down on top of us. I was the one that had the idea to use noise to draw the zombies away from the building just as Jack had done on that first night.
Jane said that the idea had merit and Jack had even nodded and said that he thought doing that would most likely be the best of our bad choices. Jane said that he would do it; he felt that the whole mess was his fault to start with. I told him that I would go with him and Shawn said that he would round out the group along with Big Lou. We gathered what few supplies we thought we would need and Veronica kissed me then said, “for luck”.
Yes, I got the parallel, after all I am a Star Wars fan. Me hero, she Princess, we go bang bang and make little Jedi’s.
You have to remember this was the morning of our forth day on the roof. Veronica hadn’t been scared yet. I had yet to make her feel powerless and vulnerable. But that would all change in a matter of hours. Fate had a nasty surprise or two up its sleeve and really, how often are we able to guess fate’s hand before she lays those cards down and takes all the chips?
Once on the ground we made our way to the back of the building where the dead presence would be fairly small in comparison. The plan was to swing around and travel the same path we had taken to Wal-Mart on that first night. Once through the fence we would stay at the edge of the woods that sit between us and the interstate and find a car with an alarm. It wasn’t a very complicated plan. However, you would be amazed at just how well you can screw up something as simple as breaking out the window of a Honda Civic. As we topped the hill and were able to look down on the interstate, Jane held up a hand stopping both Shawn and I.
“Look over there on the other side of the interstate.” Jane said.
“What?” Asked Shawn but I saw what Jane was talking about. There were zombies hidden away in the dark of the woods. I noticed Jane looking at the woods to our left and I whispered to him, “Don’t worry, if they were near us Lou would be letting us know. He’s our zombie detection device.”
“How reliable is he?” Jane asked.
“He was the reason we knew you and your friends were at the wall last night.”
Jane looked from me to the Lou. Lou wagged his tail and sat down.
“Works for me.” Jane said.
“Could you all please tell me what’s going on?” Shawn asked with a tone that seemed half scared and half irritated.
“Look in the trees over there Shawn. What do you see?” I said. Shawn’s only answer was “Oh crap.”
“Interesting.” Jane said. “Why are they acting like that? Why are some walking and some are just standing there?”
“I’ve seen something like that before. When we were making our way through Gray we stopped at a farm house where a fire had been built out in the field. The zombies were acting different in response to the flames. Some would just stand there and watch; they seemed to be hypnotized by the flames. Some would walk right into the fire and burn themselves up and others walked right by as if they didn’t even notice the fire at all. It made me speculate on how the intelligence of the zombies could vary. We believe that there is something in the turning process which allows for variances.
In my opinion, it also means that somewhere out there in the world there would have to be a zombie that can think as rationally as you or I.”
Jane looked at me for a moment before quietly laughing and shaking his head.
“First of all, that’s the scariest idea I have heard in a very long time. Secondly, I can see why you’re the leader now.” Jane said.
“You think that’s scary you should have him tell you about the zombie that loved rap music.” Shawn said.
Jane looked at Shawn like he was waiting for a punch line. Shawn just stared back so Jane looked to me.
“He’s not serious, is he?” Jane asked.
“As a heart attack.” I said.
“You all actually ran into a zombie that liked…that actually liked…” Jane was trying to finish the sentence, but he seemed to have trouble putting all the words together, so I decided it might be a good time to help him.
“He liked big butts.” I said with Shawn ringing in right behind me, “And I cannot lie.”
Jane shook his head at us again. “Now I know you’re lying to me.”
“If you don’t believe us ask Amanda or Jack when we get back. They’ll tell you all about it.” I said.
“So, everything about their behavior is what? Relative to who they were when they were alive?” Jane asked.
“I think some of it is the individual’s DNA but I think most of it lays in the infection time. It seems that however long the infection takes to kill and turn a person has a major effect on how you behave once you’re on the other side.” I said.
Jane seemed to think about t
his for a moment. “I say we are in the perfect position to try an experiment or two while we’re out here. You boys game?”
I said I was up for anything, but Shawn had other ideas.
“Guys, Charlie man, I really think we should just do as we had planned. Let’s set off an alarm and get back to the roof.”
“It won’t take but a few minutes.” Jane said.
“I just really don’t think this is the time. There’s just the three of us and we don’t have much on us in the way of weapons or supplies. We could get in over our heads real quick out here.” I knew Shawn was right. I knew we should do what we had set out to do and get back to camp. I knew that, I really did, but here was an opportunity to get a little better insight on how the zombies think and behave. I thought the reward far outweighed the risk, so I stepped up to the plate and made my decision.
“I think a few minutes here or there isn’t really going to hurt us one way or another. I understand your position Shawn, but I think if we have a chance to try and understand these things better then we should take that chance.”
Shawn looked not one bit happy about my decision, but he nodded and said. “Just don’t go crazy.”
“We won’t go crazy.” I said then looking at Jane I added, “Right?”
“Right.” Jane said, but he had a smile on his face that was a little too big to instill complete trust from either of us. We followed Jane as he made his way down to the edge of the break down lane. We were shielded by a few cars as Jane slung off his pack and, after a little digging, brought out a sling shot. He sat his pack on the ground and began gathering some good sized rocks from the shoulder of the road.
“What are you going to do?” Shawn asked.
“I’m going to take one of these rocks and hit a tree beside one of those lurkers and see if that gets him to move or not.” Jane said as he pulled the rock back, adjusted his aim and let go. The rock dug into the tree to the left of the zombie.
“Good lord!” I whispered.
A Good Distance From Dying_Book 2_Samantha's Song Page 4