by TW Brown
Suzi was silent for several seconds, and I was pretty sure that I was going back to my tent if I was lucky. It was entirely possible that I would be in a pit beside Jim before the day was done.
“Jim Sagar goes with you. The other gentleman stays as collateral,” Suzi finally said, leaning back in her chair with a smile. “And if I don’t hear from your people within…” she paused as if considering things. “Three weeks sound good?”
It took me a few seconds to realize that that was an actual question and not a rhetorical one. I nodded and eventually remembered how to use my words. “Yeah, that should be plenty of time.”
“I am pretty sure you are being straight with me, but I haven’t survived this long by being hasty or foolish.” Suzi stood up and walked over to me, sitting on the edge of her desk. “I saw how fond you are of those men. I bet it would absolutely kill you to imagine one of them being injected with our serum that induces contamination and then maybe led to your doorstep.”
I just stared at the woman. I had no doubt that she was being completely honest. If we did anything other than what was agreed, she would have Jackson injected and escorted to our gates. After that, she probably rolls in with her army and wipes us out like she did the folks of Island City.
“What if I offered to stay and you sent Jim and Jackson?” I asked.
“No, I think it best if we send you.” Suzi shot a look at Hunter before she added. “And I believe Hunter should come along as a…” she paused and her voice got sort of creepy, “escort? No, that’s not it. He will be coming with you, let’s leave it at that.”
She said that like it should upset me, but I was actually happy about it. At least there would be one face in the crowd that I felt I could trust a little bit—excluding Jim of course.
“When should we leave?’ Hunter asked with way more stiffness in his tone than I expected.
“Why wait?” Suzi turned her back and went to her desk. “I will have the team assigned and assembled by morning. That should also give your friend a chance to get cleaned up for the trip. Plus I have one thing to handle first.”
“Yeah,” I sniffed, “wouldn’t want folks to think we’d been mistreated.” Honestly, I thought I had kept that remark to myself, or at least quiet enough that she couldn’t hear me as we exited the tent.
“Oh, Thalia, you have no idea what real mistreatment is like, but if you fail to return with my people, I assure you that your friend Jackson will be able to act as a shining example.”
I shuddered at her words and followed Hunter back to my tent. I wasn’t surprised that he did not say a word to me on the way there. I was a little surprised when he deposited me and left in silence. I don’t know what I had expected him to say, but I was at least hoping that he would let me know things were going to be okay and that I’d made the right decision.
I sat in my tent the rest of that day with my mind turning over everything. I was no closer to figuring out anything when morning came. I was shaken awake by a woman with a crewcut and a nasty scar down the left side of her face. The woman did not offer her name and I didn’t ask. She told me to get dressed and be ready to move out in an hour. I could tell when she left that it was still dark.
I was a little surprised to discover most of the gear that I’d had with me when we got nabbed. The obvious and notable exception was the lack of a bow. However, an equal surprise came when I discovered my machete in a sheath of hard leather.
I put on my gear and headed outside. The detail was already forming up. When I saw Jim, I had to keep myself from running to him and wrapping him up in the biggest hug. Besides not wanting to put on such a public display of affection, I also had my doubts as to if he would be able to withstand such a thing. Now that he was out of that pit, I got a really good look at his condition.
It was clear that he’d taken more than a few beatings. With the dirt washed away, I had to assume all those dark splotches were bruises. He was limping enough that I wondered if he would actually be able to make the trip. When he saw me, he gave a wave and that huge grin just about split his face. He hobbled over to me, making no effort to skirt our escorts. That was fine except for the fact that his bumping into them was obviously having a worse effect on him that it was on those he careened off of as he waded through the assembled group of Suzi’s goon squad.
As I waited for Jim to reach me, I took in and appraised the people that would be accompanying us on this journey. My assessment of “goon squad” seemed pretty accurate. Besides the woman who woke me, there were two other females in the group. Neither looked very womanly. They all sported the same sort of high and tight hair style. They had hard expressions and faces that looked as if they might shatter if something as foreign as a genuine and happy smile dared to try and creep across their lips.
The men—there were ten of them—all had basically the same expressions as their female counterparts. I did notice that the genders stayed pretty separate and in their own little sub-group of goons. It was almost as if they were afraid of each other. The only thing missing now was Hunter. I did not see any sign of him.
“Hey, cupcake,” Jim greeted me. I let him instigate the hug, and then I sort of used his own response as my personal gauge for the degree in which I returned the gesture.
“Glad to be leaving this place?” I tried to make myself say that with a laugh, but I think it just sounded strained, tired, and fake.
“I take it they ain’t letting the big man go with us?” Jim asked as he studied the people gathered around.
“Nope, I even asked if they would let you two go and me be the one to stay behind, but Suzi shot it down.”
“So what did you have to do to broker this little deal? What are the conditions?”
I gave him the full rundown. I also told him about the zombie herd and the noisemakers. I tried to be as detailed as possible. The one thing I left out was my suspicion that he might be somehow involved and how that had been the reason for my visit yesterday. As I spoke, I continued to watch our escorts. They were obviously waiting for something.
To add to my apprehension, Hunter was still a no-show. That, from what I could guess, had to be the reason that we had not started off for home. Apparently Jim picked up on my emotions.
“What’s the problem, Thalia?” he whispered.
“Hunter.” I glanced up and realized that Jim had no idea who or what I was talking about. “The guy that brought me to you? His name is Hunter, and Suzi was adamant that he come with us.”
We stood around for another stretch of time that seemed to last an eternity. I did not have any idea what might be the reason for the delay, but the longer it went on, the worse my apprehension became. I heard a few gasps and that is what caused me to jerk my head up.
“Greetings, team,” Suzi crowed. “Sorry about the hold up, but some things can’t be rushed.”
She stepped fully into the light of the big fire. She had two men with her and they were each holding what looked like a length of chain. My eyes followed the length slowly, unable to make sense of things at first. Hunter was shackled and manacled!
A split second later, the whole picture came into focus. His head turned in a jerky fashion that told me what he was before I could see his eyes. When I was finally able to look at his face, I was not surprised by the white film and dark tracers.
“Why?” came out of my mouth before I had a chance to bite it back. “Why would you do that?” I lunged towards Suzi, but Jim must have expected my reaction, because he had a grip on my arms that seemed improbable considering his condition.
“I want to make my point very clear.” Suzi stepped around Hunter, or the thing that used to be Hunter. “We require each and every settlement in the area to send representatives down to us to negotiate how things are going to work. In addition, your group has a young man named Billy Haynes. I want him to meet with me personally to finalize this situation.”
“That still does not explain why,” I snarled. “Why would you do this to Hu
nter?”
“I had concerns regarding his loyalty. Why he would lie to protect you, I have no earthly idea, yet he did.”
“What!” I exploded. To say that I was incredulous would be seriously understating my feelings.
“You tried to escape, he did not report you. You were taken to see your friend here without my approval. There are several smaller infractions, but those would be the main ones and the reason that I had to make things very clear to the men and women who will be acting as your escort.” Suzi turned and faced the group that was no longer separated into their gender specific clusters. “If you fail me, if you allow this girl and her friend to escape, if you think of doing anything other than what I have instructed you to do in a very specific set of orders, I will ensure that each and every one of you joins Hunter in his fate. Is that clear?”
There were nods and mutters of “Yes, ma’am” given. I almost expected Suzi to pull some drill instructor crap and bellow about how she couldn’t hear them. Instead, she gave a curt nod and drew a sword from her side. With one swing, she lopped Hunter’s head off at the base of his neck. It was a clean blow that severed the head and sent it rolling towards me.
I wanted to scream when it came to a stop. As luck would have it, the head came to a halt on its side, but the eyes were looking directly at me. Jim yanked me back and put himself between me and Hunter’s head.
“Let me just tell you that I don’t care what happens, you and I are gonna deal with this one day in the future.” I was at a loss for words, and hearing Jim like this was even more disorienting. I simply stood there like an idiot.
Like a girl.
All my life, I prided myself on being tough. I wasn’t afraid of anything or anybody. I could handle myself in a fight. Unlike girls like Kayla Brockhouse, I was a force to be reckoned with.
In this moment, I was the farthest thing from fierce. The tears came before I had the chance to even try and shut them down. Considering the volume, I doubt I would have had any success.
Ten minutes later, we were marching out of the camp and heading home to Platypus Creek. It would take us a few days to get there. Hopefully, I would regain control of myself enough to get my mind back in the game. Right now, the only thing that I knew for certain was that I wanted to see Suzi die a terrible death, and I wanted to be directly involved in that fate.
4
Vignettes LXII
It took a few days, but eventually, Juan was able to be up and about with the help of a handmade set of crutches. His leg throbbed, but each night, Gerald (he refused to call this guy Grizzly Man no matter how much his daughters begged) would whip up this pungent concoction and have Juan drink it.
Juan did not have the desire to know what it was made from; the taste told him that he would probably be better off lacking that specific knowledge. But whatever it was made from, it knocked him out cold each night and allowed him to sleep.
As the days crept by, Juan did what he could to help inside the cabin. He was no fan of scrubbing pots and iron skillets, but he was not much good for anything else. Meanwhile, Gerald sort of just came and went. Sometimes Juan would wake up to find the man had already left for the day. But no matter what, the man was always back by evening.
“Not much longer before we won’t be getting any darkness at all,” Gerald said over dinner one evening in particular. “Soon as that happens, I have to make my trip into Anchorage. If you like, I can check on your friends and get them any message you might want to send.”
By the time Gerald was set to go, Juan had a letter written explaining that he and the girls would be there hopefully before the end of summer. However, if not, then certainly as soon as the next thaw. He also asked them to do something nice for Gerald as a token of gratitude.
At last it was time for the big man to climb up onto his cart; Juan was more than a little surprised when the girls both started to cry. They made Gerald promise to come back as soon as possible and to be extra safe.
The next few days felt strange. He’d been so focused on getting up and about as often as he could that he realized it had been days since he’d dwelled on the loss of Mackenzie. That realization put him in a funk that carried over to his daughters. Juan realized this when Della came to where he was sitting, her eyes welling with tears that were on the verge of spilling.
“I’m sorry, Papi,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around Juan as much as she could. A few seconds later, Denita joined.
“Sorry?” Juan leaned back so he could see the girls’ faces.
“Sorry for whatever we did that made you upset,” Denita mumbled, plunging her face back into Juan’s chest and now starting to bawl.
“Whoa!” Juan put his hands on his daughters’ heads and eased them up so that he could look them in the eyes. “You two haven’t done anything.”
“But you look unhappy,” Della insisted. “And nobody else is here to make you sad, so it has to be us.”
Juan frowned. He scolded himself for being so selfish and then cleared his throat to push down the lump that had grown.
“Tell ya what,” he said, making an effort to put some levity in his tone, “why don’t you two help me go down to the creek. I think it has been too long since we did any fishing.”
The girls both squealed in delight and began to scurry about the cabin. Apparently they knew exactly where Gerald kept everything because every time that he opened his mouth to say where they might find one thing or the other, either Della or Denita would dash over, grab whatever it was and then add it to the carry bag that they had placed on the table.
An hour later, all three of them were beside the bank of a fast moving creek. Juan warned the girls about the water at least a dozen times in the first twenty minutes before he opened his mouth to do it again and got his own words parroted back at him in sing-song unison.
By that evening, they had more fish than the three of them could eat in a week. The girls skipped and danced ahead of him as he made his way up the path on crutches. He was enjoying their laughter so much that he was caught off guard when they both froze and went instantly silent.
The soft moan of a deader carried to his ears. Juan did not have time to scold himself for being so careless. Before he could engage in any such thing, a single zombie stumbled out of the tall grass to the left of their path.
How had he been so thoughtless? How could he drop his guard even for a second? And now it would cost him one, if not both, of the most precious things he had left in the world.
Those thoughts all hit Juan in the blink of an eye. However, he never truly had the opportunity to wallow in a single one of them. As if they’d been practicing for just such an occasion, both girls rolled away from each other in a blur of arms and legs.
Della now stood on one side and Denita on the other. Each of them held her belt knife in her hand. Denita struck first, darting in and kicking the deader behind one knee. The pathetic thing crumpled and fell to the ground in an uncoordinated heap. Just that fast, Della swept in and drove her small blade into the temple of the downed zombie.
“Stupid deader,” Denita scoffed, giving the body another kick for good measure.
Juan was awestruck. While he had certainly done what he considered to be the parental duty of the times and teach his children how to fend off a zombie attack, he had never taught the girls anything like this. They had acted as a team in a very calculated and apparently practiced manner.
“Where did you learn that?” Juan asked, not making any attempt to hide how impressed he was with his girls.
“The Grizzly Man taught us,” Della said with a smile. “He said that if you got sick and went to live with mama, that we would need to know how to take care of ourselves if we were gonna stay here with him.”
***
Getting off of the island proved to be easier than Vix was comfortable with. In the first place, the simple fact that these people did it with so little effort was cause enough to be alarmed. She been living the life of blissful ignor
ance it would seem. She thought that this community was unified and that there was none of that funny business going on that always brought these sorts of groups to ruin.
As the sound of the oars dipping in and out of the water came in their steady rhythm, Vix had to wonder what else she might not be privy to when it came to the inner workings of their tiny community of New England. Couldn’t people see that this was likely part of the cause that the bloody zombies got the upper hold on society in the first place?
Well, that could not be helped now. At the moment, they had something very peculiar to look into that might very well mean bigger problems than apparently the entire population of London walking into the water and coming to the walls of her little village. Leave it to the living to flub up a zombie apocalypse.
Dawn was just starting to break as they ground into the shore. She had no idea where they might be. While she had made runs across the channel when her rotation came, the days were long gone when they paid that much attention to where they might land exactly. Who could tell the difference anymore between Hoo, Chattenden or Cliffe Woods?
After they pulled the boat entirely clear of the water and even took the time to cover it with some branches, they fell in as Marjorie led them inland. As they moved down a mostly overgrown road, Vix marveled as she always did at how Mother Nature was making short work at something that the British Empire had spent centuries creating.
The one thing that was very noticeable was the complete and utter lack of anything resembling a zombie. They were simply gone. Not one sole walker or halfie (her term for those missing their lower extremities) could be seen, heard, or smelled.
“We will be making for the top of that ridge,” Gordon said, pointing out the top of a long inclined slope. The ruins of a farm house sat there. It was two stories high and, if it somehow managed to be safe to enter, would provide an excellent view of the surrounding area.