“That’s a messed up story,” Brent said.
“You know what I wish we had?” Isaak said. “Some marijuana.”
“Hey, Bear,” Panas asked. “You still carry bud?”
Bear reached into one of the pouches on his web belt and withdrew a small baggie with marijuana in it.
“Oh shit!” Isaak’s face lit up.
“Bear.” Panas laughed approvingly.
“I knew you was alright, big man,” Chris said.
“That was a messed up story, Sonny,” repeated Brent.
“You want to hear a messed up story?” Tris had a few too many in her. “That story ain’t shit. I’ll tell you a messed up story.”
Mickey, Gwen and Julie looked intently at the woman.
“Tris—”
“No, Sonya, let me tell the new guys my story. I was stationed down in Bragg when all this started. My husband was at home, in Raleigh, with the kids. I jumped ship. I’m not ashamed to admit it. A.W.O.L. I wanted to get home to my babies.”
Bear had rolled a fat joint and Mickey reached over to an unresponsive Buddy, pulled the Zippo lighter from Buddy’s pocket, leaned forward, lit Bear’s jay.
“Well, I got home. My kids, my husband, they’d all been bit. They were all lying around together in one room, waiting, dying. And there I was, come all those miles, unharmed.”
Sonya had heard the story before and pulled her sleeping Nicole closer. As Tris talked, Sonny walked over and smoothed Torrie’s dress down over her purple flowered panties. The joint made the rounds. Only Julie and the sleeping children did not partake.
“One by one, they turned,” Tris spoke slowly and quietly. “And one by one, I did what needed to be done. I knew, from Bragg, from the road, from what we’d seen on the TV while the TV was still working… I knew what had to be done. And I did it.”
Panas stared at the glowing tip of the joint.
“Anyway,” Tris finished, “from what I hear, Bragg didn’t last much longer.”
Gwen got up to go get herself another drink.
“What about you, big man?” Chris said. “Where were you when it happened?”
“Yeah, big man, what’s your story?” The way Tris said it came off as a challenge.
Bear thought for a moment then spoke.
“I was working in a nursing home.”
Buddy mumbled something and Mickey leaned closer to him. “What’s that Buddy?”
“A nursing home?” Chris asked.
“…C.H.U.D., Mickey…”
“Yeah, Buddy, C.H.U.D..” Mickey was drunk and high and happy, remembering an old conversation with Buddy.
“Let the man tell his story, Chris,” Brent said.
“Yeah, I was working in a nursing home. I went home one afternoon and by the next morning…things had gone to hell. I’d watched the television, listened to the radio. I had a pretty good idea what was going on out there.”
“…who was in that Mickey…”
“Well, John Goodman, before Roseanne, before he became famous…”
Chris looked at Bear, all expectant, waiting to hear some story about Bear battling scores of zombies.
“So, I got up and went to work the next day. I stuck to the side streets and when I saw groups of people that looked, looked like they might not be people any more, I stayed away from them. Anyway, there was this old couple I used to visit every day up on the third floor, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan.
“The old man, he liked to read the Post. The woman liked the Daily News. I used to pick the papers up for them, in the morning. There was a newsstand across the street from the home. Well, that day I show up for work, the newsstand is shuttered. But the papers are lying outside, bundled up. So I grab a Post and a News, and I cross the street, and as I cross the street I see them, standing in the windows, all those old people…”
“Mickey,” Buddy whispered.
“What’s that?”
“Adlard. I saw him one night.”
“Okay.”
“At first, I think to myself they’re zombies. They’re bit and they’ve changed,” Bear unfolded his tale. “But they’re not. They were old people, and they were scared, and they were staring out the windows just to see what was going on. No one had evacuated them....
“So I cross the street, and I’m walking to the front door, and some of them must recognize me, because they’re waving to me, and I think to myself, what am I going to do? That place must have had, I don’t know, a hundred elderly? The whole city, the whole country, is falling apart around me. There was no one else on that street with me, no one living. Only one zombie, standing all alone, in front of the doors…like...like it was guarding the place. It looked up at me and screamed as I got closer.
“I’m crossing the street, and I’m thinking I could wait it out with them, in the facility. But, you know what I did?”
“What’d you do?” Chris asked.
Tris nailed Bear with her gaze.
“I turned and I walked away. I left that zombie standing there. I left those old folks in their home. That’s what I did.”
“Well, you didn’t have no other choice,” Chris tried to rationalize.
“No,” Bear answered quickly. “I had a choice. And I made my decision. And those people died in there because of me.”
“You don’t know that—”
“I know it. When I was walking away, I refused to turn around and look at them in the windows. You know why? Because I was scared. Because I was ashamed.”
“It’s okay.” Julie put a hand on her friend’s arm.
“No, it’s not okay. Those people are dead because of me. I live with that. I’ll always live with that. That zombie… I’ll never forget what that zombie looked like.”
“Then live with it, big man,” Tris said. “If that’s what keeps you going, fucking run with it. The man I saw outside, yesterday, killing Zeds? I didn’t know better I’d swear you were born to kill zombies. And I got news for the rest of you—” Tris addressed the circle.
“We’re going back, aren’t we?” Biden asked.
“Spread the word, ya’ll. We’re going back down to the city, back down to this place these people are from, place Biden and Panas told us about. We’re going to find this Eden and if there’s any people left there, we’re going to bring them back here with us.”
“Hell yeah!” Danny said.
“Let’s go and kick some motherfucking zombie ass!” Chris pumped a fist in the air, the tassels on his arm flying.
“You’re drunk, Tris,” Singh said.
“You are,” Sonya agreed.
“I’m drunk, yes. And I got my head up behind this weed, true, but I know what I’m saying and I mean what I say.”
“I’m in, Tris,” Biden said.
Isaak nodded. “Me too.”
“And me,” Brent added. He looked at Steve but Steve looked away.
“You guys are crazy,” Julie said. “Listen to me. I’m from there. There’s no way you’re going to get—even if you make it to Queens—”
“She’s right,” Sonya said. “What about your jobs? You’ll need council approval for this.”
“The council can kiss my ass,” Tris said.
“We are the council, Sonya,” Isaak said.
“The council will approve this,” Panas said. “We’ve got proof there are still people alive down there. They’ll approve.”
Gwen was sipping her last beer of the night by the cooler, listening to the conversation from across the room. Steve walked over to her and got himself a beer.
“They’re going to do it, aren’t they?” she asked him.
“Yup, back to Brooklyn.” He guzzled the beer and let out a huge burp.
“You’re disgusting. And it’s Queens. You’re bent, you know that?”
“No, I’m Steve. My roommate is Brent.
“So.” Steve extended the index finger of the hand gripping his beer and touched Gwen’s ring finger. “Is there a Mister Evers?”
&
nbsp; “No…not any more.”
“Oh, hey, I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay.”
“No, really, listen. I’m not the big asshole you probably think I am. I’m not the big asshole these guys will tell you I am. Don’t get me wrong. I am an asshole. I’m just not that big of one.”
A smile crossed her face.
“Are you going down to the city,” she asked, “with them?”
“Fuh-uck that.”
“That’s how I feel.”
“You’re not going, are you Daddy?” Torrie was awake and stood tugging on her father’s hand. “You’re going to stay here with me, right?”
“Nothing’s going to hurt your daddy, baby.” Sonny picked her up and held her in his arms, “You don’t worry.”
“But there’s got to be, what, millions of zombies out there?” Mickey said.
“No.” Panas shook his head. “Probably billions.”
“We can’t let that stop us,” Danny said.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Chris agreed.
“Sometimes you sound so much like Tris it’s scary,” Hayden told her twin brother.
Singh opened his mouth and started to say something about “council” but Tris cut him off, “Council will approve this.”
“Look,” Julie said, “I know we’re new around here, but how can you be sure about this?”
“In addition to the security teams stationed around Clavius City,” Sonny said, “we send out search and rescue groups.”
“Search and rescue?” Mickey asked.
“There’s other people—survivors—out there,” Sonny said. “In the towns and cities. We try and find them and bring them back if they want to come back. If they can come back.”
“What does that mean, if they can come back?”
“I’ve been out there guys,” Panas said. “It isn’t pretty. We had it relatively good in Eden.”
“We had it good in Eden, Panas?” Mickey said. “We were starving to death, man.”
“At least we weren’t eating each other.”
“Ohhhh.” A look of disgust crossed Mickey’s face.
“We find people out there...” Sonny gestured beyond the walls of the recreation center, beyond the sentries and trenches and security teams of Clavius City. “You’d barely recognize them as human.”
“Doesn’t take someone too long to go native again,” Danny said.
Hayden looked at her twin. “How would you know?”
“Look at Steve.”
“And they’re not all friendly, either,” Singh said, “like those people you met weren’t.”
“That’s why Tris was so ready to throw down with you the other day,” Sonya said. “Aside from her sweet and calm disposition I mean.”
Tris mouthed fuck you to the blind woman.
“Listen to all of you,” Bear said. “You sound like you’re getting ready to go down to the city with an army. This is a rescue mission, am I right? Or is it a war?”
“We’re going down there to see if there’s anyone left in Eden,” Tris said coolly. “We expect resistance.”
“Yeah, but better to go in with a small team, make as little noise as possible, and get out fast.”
Even though Tris was drunk she didn’t look upset that Bear had challenged her because she knew he was correct.
“Okay, then here’s how it’s gonna go,” she spoke up. “Here’s how I’m gonna’ suggest it go at council, and I hope you all agree with me. We go in—no more than seven of us. Any married men or women, anybody with children, you’re out. Sonny, you’re out—”
Sonny looked like he wanted to say something but looked at his daughter.
“Danny, you’re out.”
“No, Tris—”
“Danny!” Hayden grabbed his arm.
“No, Danny. There were millions of people living in Manhattan. We’ve gotta expect most of them are zombies now, and we have to expect casualties.”
“I’m in,” Biden said. “I lived there. I know the people and the place.”
“Fuck that. I lived there too,” Panas said. “I’m in.”
“No, not both of you,” Bear said. “I’m going so at least one of you is staying behind. Preferably both.”
“Bullshit, Bear,” Panas said. “Come on.”
“Flip a coin,” Singh said. As Biden and Panas were both drunk it sounded like a good way to solve their conundrum.
“Bear…” Julie tugged on the man’s arm and looked in his eye. They had just got here and they were lucky to be alive. What the hell was he thinking?
“Call it, Panas.”
“Heads.”
“Tails, sucker. I’m in!”
When the three roommates walked back to their place that night, they were worn-out and in varying states of drunkenness.
“Hey, Steve-O,” Chris said. “You ain’t going with us, to the city?”
“No, I’m not going.”
Brent didn’t say anything.
“But you don’t go you’re like breaking up the fellowship. The three amigos, man.”
“Look, you’re going, Brent’s going. Zeds gonna have his hands full. Plus think of this: you guys go, who’s gonna clean the apartment?”
Chris considered it but thought it was a little strange, as Steve rarely lifted a finger to clean the apartment.
“Besides, I got a chance at number five hundred and forty-five.” He stuck his tongue out and flicked it up and down.
“Oh, that Gwen-chick.” Chris nodded. “She’s real pretty.”
“Yeah, she is, isn’t she?”
Brent knew if the shoe were on the other foot, if he or Chris were staying behind, Steve would be the first to bitch about bros before hoes or some bullshit. But Brent also knew that this was about more than a woman with a broken arm. Brent would never call him on it, but he knew Steve. Steve was scared. He’d been scared since that day at the convoy when he’d been scampering around on his hands and one broken ankle like a retarded crab and Chris had saved his ass.
“Yeah, might be good you stay behind,” Brent said. “You go away for a week Gwen might be moved in with Singh by the time you get back.”
“Oh, hell no.”
Brent didn’t think badly of Steve for not wanting to leave the safety of their haven. He would miss his roommate on the road, but if Steve’s heart wasn’t in it, there was no need to drag him along.
“Mark my words. By the time you guys get back, I’m in like Flynn.”
“Walk, Michael.” Eva prodded the sick man forward, away from the Jeep, through the snow.
Michael cried openly. He was not ashamed.
Eva and Lauren had come to the hospital and woke him. They’d told him to get dressed quickly and come with them, assuring him his wife and child were okay. He had done what they had said and they had walked him right out of the hospital, past a security guard who had nodded at them, into the Jeep and through the gates, out of Clavius City. The crew manning the gates had waved to them and as it dawned on Michael what this was about he realized the two women were not alone in their sin.
Crusade (Eden Book 2) Page 26