by TW Brown
Scanning the area, I was relieved to see that only one person was currently posted as a guard here. Sure, that was a bonus, but the guy was almost as big as Jackson, so once more, I had no clue as to what I thought I might possibly be able to accomplish in the way of pulling off a rescue.
Meanwhile, the camp was a buzz of activity. However, I had to pause for a moment to be sure that I was not imagining things. Sure enough, I could hear the sounds of children laughing! How could that be possible? Also, I moved just a bit and could see between a row of tents. People were walking! One couple in particular stood out as they strolled by holding hands like nothing in the world was wrong…like there was not a sea of the walking dead coming right for this place.
“So?” the voice came from right behind me. I would have screamed if a hand did not clamp over my mouth. “What do you think you are doing?”
Whether it was because my attention was focused in front of me and I’d just been careless, or the person crouched right behind me had been that quiet, I have no idea. In any case, I could feel the person’s body now that he had moved up right behind me—while the whisper made the voice unidentifiable, I had no doubts that it was a male.
“When I take my hand away, it would be a good idea not to scream. That would bring the guard and then you would probably end up in big trouble,” the voice warned.
I nodded and felt the hand move away from my mouth and then grip my shoulder, turning me around. I was only a little surprised.
“Hunter?” I mouthed.
He nodded and then pulled me back down the embankment. Once we reached the creek, he returned his attention to me. It was obvious that he was angry.
“Are you trying to get yourself and those friends of yours killed?” Hunter hissed. I opened my mouth, but he cut me off and kept talking. “Suzi is tolerant of a lot of things, but if you run, she will have you hunted down and killed. And trust me when I tell you, she would find you. She has some of the best people working for her in that department.”
“People like you?” I sneered.
“Yes.”
Wow, he didn’t even try to hide it. That actually caught me off guard enough so that I just remained hunkered down with my mouth open.
“She is not evil, but she is pragmatic to the point of being dangerous to any that she feels might be her enemy. She actually is still holding out hope that your people will come in and join the fold,” Hunter explained.
“Why do my people have to do anything? Why can’t they just stay where they are and be left alone? We never wanted any trouble to begin with. We were down here looking into why a large community like Island City got torched along with those college kids that, as far as I know, committed the crime of growing vegetables in their little commune.”
“It is hard to understand the big picture when you focus on something small. There is a lot more going on than you might be aware.” Hunter paused, but when I opened my mouth, he held up a finger to stop me so that he could continue. “And when I say you, I mean your entire little community up in the hills.”
It took me a second to register what he’d said, but when it sank in, I felt my stomach churn. He never broke eye contact with me, but instead nodded his head as my own understanding was obviously painted on my face.
“Yes, Thalia, we are very aware of where your people are set up. We know all about your leader. Billy Haynes? His name is actually spoken with great respect.” Hunter looked around and then returned his attention to me. “And you might be happy to know that you have passed a number of tests as well in these few days that you have been with us. But we can discuss this more later. We need to return you to your tent before Suzi finds out that you are gone.”
I was too numb to resist. I got up and followed Hunter. Nothing made any sense. How could he…they…how could these people know about us? We did not range far from the compound, and we had not brought in any new members in at least a couple of years. In fact, Island City was as far as any of us had been as far as I knew.
Of course that was the real key to unlocking this mystery in my opinion. I was not in on any of the details when it came to missions outside of the fence. Hell, I’d just been promoted to these things in the first place. My experiences up to that point were confined to within a mile or so of the walls.
If I got home—
No! When I got home, I was going to find out what the hell was going on. Did we have a spy? Did this Suzi person have people embedded in little communities all over? Is that how Island City fell?
Only, that didn’t make sense either. There were too many loose ends for that to tie up all nice and neat. Additionally, there had been a few things that she did not know about. The biggest that came to mind was this mysterious “Skins” person that had simply vanished.
Then something hit me. While it was true that there had not been any new citizens to join our little community, there had been that one man who’d been captured just before all of this started. I’d been part of the detail that had escorted him into the interrogation room. And that was the last I’d heard of him. In fact, right after his arrival, I’d been tasked to my first field run and simply forgotten he existed.
That was extraordinary in and of itself. A new person, whether it is a simple traveler or somebody from one of the surrounding areas stopping in to trade or just use our place as a layover on their way from one place to another, that is always big news.
How had I forgotten that guy? I tried to recall everything about his arrival as I followed Hunter back to my tent.
***
“We found this guy down by the stream. He won’t give his name or anything,” Jim Sagar said to Billy and Dr. Zahn.
I was still shaking from the excitement. What had been just another boring perimeter patrol had turned into something a lot more exciting in a hurry. I was simply thankful that Jim had come out today to find me with a list of some items he wanted me to keep an eye out for during my patrol.
I’d been so intent on Jim’s list that I’d forgotten one of the biggest rules when you are outside the walls. You always kept your eyes open for trouble. While zombies were rare, they still managed to find their way up here to our neck of the woods.
And then there were the living.
That was why Jim noticed the man first and had to grab me by the shoulders to stop me from walking out into a clearing where this guy was sitting on a fallen tree, sifting through (presumably) his back pack. From the looks of him, he had been out in the wild for a fair amount of time. He had a scraggly beard and his face was a mixture of dirt, grime, and over-exposure to long periods of sun that gave him a ruddy, brown-ish complexion.
We flanked the guy, and when Jim came out and told the man to raise his hands and step away from the pack, the man had done so with little more than a drooping of his head; sort of how my brother Stevie did when he got caught red-handed doing something he knew he shouldn’t.
We escorted the man back, and once we arrived at the gates, I was given the honor of escorting the “prisoner” to a holding room. Of course, he wasn’t technically a prisoner yet; he was simply going to be questioned. (Since we had not experienced any serious problems with raiders in such a long time, I guess we just got lazy.)
The problems started when this guy refused to say a single word. Not to me when I was just trying to be friendly and let him know he wasn’t in any serious danger, not Billy who had gone in shortly after, nor Dr. Zahn who joined Billy after over an hour where this guy had done nothing more than stare straight ahead, hardly even blinking.
I knew this because Dr. Zahn had asked me to bring in the cart with all of her tools. It was a scary collection of some of the sharper and nastier things she used as a doctor. They were just for show as far as I knew. They’d never failed to get a person to talk simply by being set out on display in front of the prisoner…at least until this new guy.
***
I sat in my tent for a long time as I mulled over the possibilities. None of them were ple
asant. Eventually, I reached a conclusion that I had to start eliminating all of the doubts swirling in my head. I also knew where I needed to start.
Getting up, I had to force my feet to move to the flap of my tent. I knew Hunter was still outside. I could hear his voice. I also knew why this place was not showing any serious distress when it came to that sea of undead that had been heading our direction.
About thirty minutes after Hunter had deposited me back inside my cloth jail cell, I heard the most annoying and continuous wail that I’d ever been witness to in my admittedly sheltered life. That was the current topic of discussion outside my tent as Hunter and a few others were sharing the most recent report.
“The riders have the herd redirected to the southeast. The majority of the body has turned and now we are trying to divert some of the stragglers,” one voice was saying.
As soon as I stuck my head out of my tent, Hunter gave the men a gesture asking for them to hold off. He came to me and ushered me back inside with a gentle shove.
“I think you have used up your outside privileges today,” he snorted.
“Actually, if you want to get technical, I haven’t,” I retorted, and then pushed ahead before he had a chance to object. “I want to see Jim.”
Hunter gave me absolutely no emotion. His face could have very well been carved from stone.
“I figured you would want to know about how we had diverted that giant herd of zombies.”
“Noisemakers, sure. I get it. I heard you talk about it.”
“Not just any noisemakers. These things seem to be able to draw even the largest herds and re-direct their course. And in case you didn’t hear, we have this particular herd moving southeast. That would be away from not only this valley, but also your settlement as well.” Hunter made one mistake as he rambled on about this most recent event.
“Our settlement is well off the original course of that herd. And if you knew exactly where we might be, then you would know that.” The only thing that I didn’t do after opening my big fat mouth is cover it with my hands. Sure, I was moderately certain that this group did have somebody feeding them information about us, but that did not mean I had to hand them anything on a silver platter.
“Thalia, I don’t expect you—” he began, but I cut him off.
“You are doing a great job at changing the subject.”
“What subject was that?” he asked, his expression reverting to one lacking any emotion.
“I said that I wanted to see Jim.”
“The prisoner?”
“Sure. If that is indeed what he really is.”
The slightest twitch of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. I was prepared for him to refuse my request. He would make an excuse and then, if this suspicion I had brewing was correct, they would dirty Jim up once again and then put him in his little pit.
“What else would he be?”
“Take me to him.” I folded my arms across myself in what I was hoping might be seen as defiant and not viewed as just being a petulant child.
“Let me go check with Suzi.”
“Nope. Now. And if he is like I last saw him, then you can take me to Suzi and I will answer any question she throws at me.”
“Just like that?” Hunter asked, the skepticism dripping from his words. It was clear that I had taken him by surprise.
“Mostly,” I said with a shrug.
“Okay.”
Now I was the one surprised. I had expected a denial and then an eventual trip to see Jim. Of course, that would not exactly prove my theory, but it would take me a step closer.
Hunter escorted me out of my tent. The entire time, I still could not get over how calm everybody seemed to be considering the fact that a wave of undead had been heading right for them less than an hour ago. This told me that these people were accustomed to such things and had become adept at whatever methods they employed.
I knew about how zombies could be distracted by sound; everybody did. It was Zombie 101 stuff. So, why hadn’t our group come up with something like this? Also, now that I thought about it, those noisemakers had to be pretty damn loud for me to hear them at the volumes that I was still getting from as far away as they had to be.
Eventually I recognized the area of camp that must be their detention section. My eyes scanned for signs of anything that might be important. I could not help but feel a lump grow in my throat as I spied the metal boxes. Inside one of them was Jackson; it was easy to identify by the fact that two men were stationed outside of it instead of just one. I also realized that this indicated there might be three more of those boxes with somebody inside. That was worth noting.
At last we came to a stop and Hunter kicked the top of the grate with his booted foot. “Hey, Jim, you have a visitor.
“And me without a thing to wear,” a voice that sounded sort of like Jim but not quite came from the pit.
I edged closer and peeked over the side. I was hit with a mixture of relief, confusion, and annoyance. Jim was right where I’d left him. If anything, he looked worse. One of his eyes was either very dirty or completely swollen shut; I was willing to bet on the latter. He showed no signs of having been allowed to clean up since the last time I’d been here with Suzi. And if Jim was this bad off…my mind shoved aside images of what Jackson must look like by now.
“Jim,” I finally managed to gasp.
“Hey there, cupcake,” Jim said around a mouth that was obscenely swollen. “You come here to tell me that I need to cooperate? If so, that is a dirty thing that these people are trying to make you do. I want you to forget all about me and focus on yourself and keeping your mouth shut.”
I felt sick. Not only had I been somewhat cooperative, not only was I prepared to give these people more information, but I had actually considered Jim to be the most likely person to be a possible mole.
In my defense, he was often going out unaccompanied despite that being a big no-no. He had a way about him that made it impossible to really know him as a person. Unless, of course, he was really this much of a nut.
“You okay, kiddo?” Jim’s voice cut through my growing wave of self-pity. “If they are doing anything to you, then I will make it my life’s work to level this place around them and litter the ground with their burning corpses.”
“Your friend has guts, I’ll give him that much,” Hunter muttered.
“And I will rip yours out first, you freak,” Jim said in the coldest, level tone that I’d ever heard come from his mouth. In that instant, I could not remember my Jim, the clown and joker who never lacked a dirty joke or funny story when things got a bit too serious.
“Take it easy, hero,” Hunter warned as he stepped up beside me and stared down at Jim. “You getting all emotional isn’t going to help Thalia here at all. She has not been harmed in any way since her arrival.”
“Arrival? You make it sound like we just strolled in here on our own for a little coffee and cookies,” Jim scoffed. “Your people attacked a pair of innocent kids and would have killed us if we hadn’t done what we needed to do to protect ourselves.”
“We did no such thing,” Hunter said, but his voice was a tight whisper like he did not want anybody to hear him except for me and Jim.
“So…what? You saying some other goon squad came in and roughed up that couple?”
“I’m saying that it wasn’t us,” Hunter insisted as if he were the one being held in the pit.
This struck me as odd. Why would Hunter just give Jim information like that?
“Jim…” I started, trying to work up the courage to tell him why I’d just insisted on seeing him. As I struggled for the next words, Hunter took me by the arm.
“You’ve seen him, now we have to go. I already put my ass on the line by bringing you here without permission.”
As the man led me away, I now turned over all of the stuff bouncing around in my brain. Nothing was making sense. Nothing added up to give me any answers. I was still trying to sort things when I rea
lized where Hunter had brought me.
“We need to see Suzi,” was all the man said as he pushed past the pair of sentries and through the tent flap to the relative gloom beyond.
“This better be very important, Hunter,” the woman said through clenched teeth when she looked up from her desk.
“I believe that the prisoner is ready to talk.”
“Is that right?” And just that fast, the dark-haired woman’s features smoothed, returning her to the exotic beauty that I bet she used almost as much as her apparent ability to be ruthless. “And what would bring on this sudden desire to be cooperative?”
“I think there is more going on around here than what you or my people might be aware,” I suggested.
“Is that right?” Suzi answered with a bemused smile.
“Figure out who those men were that Jim, Jackson, and I had to deal with yet? Or how about that young couple that we rescued?”
Suzi just stared at me. I could not tell if she was interested, bored, or annoyed. I wanted to hit her with a few more questions, but I decided that I would try something else. If I was wrong, then this would be a disaster all of my own doing.
“You supposedly know about my people up in the hills. You know about Billy Haynes.” I felt Hunter stiffen beside me; that confirmed my suspicions that he was not free to divulge that information. I could worry about that later. “You say that you are here on some mission of peace? Fine, then let Jim and Jackson free. Send a team with us and we will escort them back to our place. They can meet with Billy and give him whatever message that you want to have delivered.”
“And why would I send a small team of my people to your community? Then they end up captured and—” Suzi began to argue, but I was feeling bold and cut her off.
“You have us seriously outmanned. We wouldn’t stand a chance and you know it if your intel is correct. And do I need to mention the whole thing about you obviously not being afraid to use the infection as a weapon?”