by catt dahman
“Sitrep?” Len asked.
“We lost all nine survivors that we went in to rescue. They were out of Oklahoma City and crash-landed the Learjet on the highway. They were in bad shape. The Zs and some wild dogs got them. We lost one of ours, trying to escape. We lost one….”Matt choked up. “We lost one being the biggest hero I’ve ever had the honor to work with.”
Len stepped forward to pat Matt’s shoulder.
Matt took a deep breath but was emotionally over wrought. “No other injuries or bites. I have personally checked everyone, and we are ready to defend our home.”
“Okay, we’ll do a cursory check, Matt, okay? Bare with us; we have to,” Len said, rubbing his friend’s back in a show of kindness, but actually seeing if Matt were close to passing out from stress; the man was pale as snow and shaking violently.
Conner, Ivory Joe, and Bernie stepped forward to check him.
Matt gave Julia a small wave, his mouth quavering.
Len recognized the man’s hundred-yard stare; Matt’s eyes were haunted.
Pak got out next, eyes sad, head hanging down but already beginning to think of plans to kill more of the enemy. He needed to get his mind off of the sadness, or he would feel like a failure. He gave Len a half-wave.
“Where’s Alex?” Johnny called out, worried. No matter who was lost, it was painful. She felt knotted with worry as she looked for her friend.
He was next out and waved at his friends, but he also looked terribly sad. They could see he had been crying. Across the area, Kevin waved back at him, a guilty wave of relief covering him.
Kim reached to wrap an arm behind Beth, catching Julia’s eye. Beth had two family members on this team, and the odds weren’t good.
Teeg climbed out and spoke to Conner. They argued a little, not angry, but concerned; then, Matt, Pak, and Alex stepped back so Teeg could be checked by all of the gate-team men as fast as possible.
Conner nodded and whispered orders, and the rest nodded back at him. They ran hands and eyes over his legs carefully, looked at his hands and arms, scanned his head and face, and then went back over each area of his body again, quickly.
Matt patted Teeg’s back, understandingly. When he was clear, the other three men returned to being checked. “I gotta see my girl…. Open the damned gate.” Teeg had red, wet eyes. Who was his girl?
But he ran right to Beth and grabbed her to hug her tightly. People, watching, let their jaws drop as they realized something bad was happening. Len and George grabbed chairs as fast as they could and had one under Beth because Teeg’s actions spoke volumes. That was why Teeg needed to be close to Beth.
Beth sat down as she was ordered, her face a mask of worry, and Teeg went to the ground to hold her knees with his face against her jeans, soaking the denim with his tears.
Kim shrugged, looking at Julia and George.
They heard the sitrep. Two were dead.
Jet climbed out next as Matt was sent out through the gate with a clean bill of health; he quickly went to bury his face in Julia’s neck. Jet was crying the hardest as he approached the checkpoint. As Carl got out last, Beth saw the sun twinkle on Juan’s crucifix that he never removed, but that Jet now wore. Jet was seventeen, two years younger than Matt, treated like man, but he looked up and wailed, “Mama.”
Beth was out of her chair, gently slipping by Teeg and running to the gate in seconds. “Let me in. No? Fuck the rules; let me in, now.” Then at the second gate, she commanded Conner to open the lock. “I want my son. Now.”
“We are clear,” Alex told Conner and the men at the gate. It was a bad situation.
“Jet, Mama’s coming; open this lock,” she demanded, with Kim, Len, and George right behind her. Teeg sat in a chair now, next to Matt and Julia as they whispered to Julia, making her cry, too.
Ivory Joe and his team checked Jet as fast as they could, but he kept calling for Beth, his pleading heartbreaking to hear.
Conner opened the lock, and Beth ran inside, grabbing her oldest child into her arms, kissing his forehead, and brushing his hair back. “Are you okay, Baby? I’m here. Mama’s here.” Jet wept against her shirt, soaking her. She stood and rocked him, humming and making soothing noises. “Mama is here. I have you.”
“Mama, Juan….”
“Where is he, Honey? Tell Mama what happened.”
Jet cried harder. “He’s with God.”
Beth closed her eyes and tried to breathe so she didn’t faint. “Oh, nooooo, Oh, Jet, Honey….”
“He was bitten trying to save my life; then, he was in the big truck; he was a hero, Mama.” Beth cried with him, feeling everything pour out with her tears until she was empty. “He said to tell you he loves you, me, Hannah, Katie, and the babies, too. Why does it have to hurt so much?”
“I don’t know.”
“He saved me.”
“Come on; we can tell your sisters. You tell them the part about his being a hero, ok?” Beth led Jet to where others waited. She would fall apart later, but right now, she was being the strong mother Jet needed.
“Guess we’re all takin’ it pretty bad,” Carl said. “In a bit, I’ll be okay and ready to fight. Ain’t that right, Teeg? We’re gonna kill some more dead heads?”
“You got it, Brother.”
“Kim, Juan was feverish, and he didn’t have a lot of time left, so I hope you do understand. Juan said to give this to you and you’d understand. He said he wanted you to do whatever has to be done and he trusted you.” Carl handed over the emerald band.
“Thanks, Carl.”
Kim looked at the band that he slid onto the tip of a pinky.
“What did Juan want?” Len asked. George wiped his own eyes.
“He and I were kind of good naturedly arguing two weeks ago, and I said I hoped Beth would put back on the wedding rings Tink gave us.
Juan laughed at me and said ‘no’ because he had found Beth a perfect wedding band of emeralds, the color of her eyes. I popped off that she could wear mine on the left and wear his on the right hand as the almost-winner, and he said the same. It was good natured bantering,” Kim said as he shook his head sadly.
“It’s a damn shame to lose John and him. Good men,” George stated.
“Makes me sick,” Len added, “Beth almost passed out cold, but Jet needed her. She’s strong, but this is a difficult situation.”
“And now?” George asked Kim, “what did sending this to you mean?”
“I think he was giving me his blessings to be with Beth but asking if it might be okay if she wore this one on the right to remember he had loved her, too. He wanted to be a part of her memory. I think that’s what this meant, and he knew I would understand the message.”
“How do you feel about that?”
Kim had tears on his cheeks. “He would have done the same for me. His blessings, well, that’s why she loved him; she may never love me again; he was a good man. He saved my life; he saved Jet, amazing.”
“You better go get them ready; we have a battle although it’s turned a little: thanks to the bravery, unselfishness, and goodness of Juan. Go get your family moving, Kim.”
Kim went to speak to Beth, hugged the kids, and handed her the ring. She slipped it onto her right hand, as he held her close to him while she cried. “I know you need to mourn, but we need you and Jet; come on, Beth, join the fight.”
Hannah and Katie, as well as some of the kids over six, were trained in archery, so with the quivers ready and under total supervision of a teacher, the young ones were allowed to stand a foot from the fence, aim, and shoot arrows. What was funny was that over half of the arrows went into an open mouth or ear or eye socket, which put the zombies down. Even the small ones were able to help. It seemed cruel to allow children to do that, but they were the warriors of the future.
Beth mounted her favorite horse so she could ride and watch.
“They are stupid,” Rae said, watching the zombies funneling into a high school football stadium, a half-mile from t
he gate.
“Why are they going in there?” Carl asked.
“You can’t hear it, but we have battery-operated CD players; they’re all playing tapes of Norman Pope and his nutty ramblings about God being an alien prophet.” Rev grinned. “They think people are in there so they’re going in for food.”
“For being such stupid creatures, it’s hard to believe they took over the world.”
“Nah. Most people are more stupid than the average zombie,” Rae said. “Unless distracted, the moaning ones in the front will attract more, and they will pack into the stadium.”
“Then what?” Carl asked.
“You didn’t think you had the only C4, did you?” Rev grinned.
Closer to the gate, the children were gathered with the non-fighters and settled in the basement for safety as the rest fought it out. Any that came towards the gate were picked off, larger groups were hit with grenades, and many zombies fell into deep trenches.
In twenty years, they wouldn’t have the big equipment to dig trenches or batteries to trick zombies. They wouldn’t always have ammunition for guns unless it was manufactured. In the future, wars would be fought in new ways.
All night and the next day, the fight continued, but the traps were so successful that tens of thousands of zombies were put down for good. Funneling and control were the keys. The stream of incoming shamblers stopped, and the rest of the horde turned, hive-like, to go back where they came from.
It was late the next day when George held a prayer for those they lost and for the bodies whose souls could now rest. Thurman died of heart problems in the night, and it was a time that everyone felt a loss. There would be days of cleanup, and times to mourn, and there would now be time to grow and rebuild.
11
Beth
I think we saw enough horror and heart ache that first year to last a dozen lifetimes. I said my children kept me going, but the world was also our child, and we couldn’t abandon that child to the monsters to rule.
The fire and explosives did a good job, but the mess left behind was horrible: the dead, rubble, and trash had to be cleaned up and scraped into a landfill where the remains of the corpses could rot and return to the earth. The corpses and body parts took forever to remove, but they had to be taken away for fear of disease.
Without trucks and equipment, we never could have cleaned up the area, much less built barriers.
Huge containers, truck trailers, and more rubble cut off sections so that any advancing hordes would be funneled into an area where they could be taken out. The remains of some of the buildings, moved by dump trucks, formed barriers to protect the compound.
The fencing and the security to the new apartment building went well, so the additional housing was quickly added. It was always about cleaning and clearing out.
New collections of survivors began to secure new spaces so that they could trade as communities, and on some of the land, we built more homes as the community grew with survivors. One of the barns was perfect for two huge families, and it was there I felt more at peace. We housed two thousand in the compound during that time.
That second spring and summer, we dried meat and grew enormous crops, so we knew how to survive the winters like generations past. Farmers came in to join us, and we acquired two veterinarians, another doctor, and two registered nurses. Our teens could now hope to have other careers other than just warriors, as they trained with the experts.
The solar panels did give us much more than our forbearers had, and we weren’t ready to give up hot showers and the ease we had known before. Not yet.
The schools flourished with practical knowledge and skills, taught alongside history and math. For the first time, our children were maximizing their potentials, learning far above their former counterparts had. History took on a new meaning: before the Zs and after the Zs. Future generations wouldn’t remember a world without the zombies and destruction or couldn’t imagine that men once flew to faraway places and talked, using a computer.
But that was later.
We buried our loved ones and went on.
With most of the zombies gone, we used wagons and horses to haul more supplies back when the fuel began to go bad; we always had a desire to collect the items from time before and use what we could, stripping the city like ants would strip a carcass.
Always people held guns and protected those who gathered items, but it was rare to find a group of zombies of more than two or three at a time, and most of those were closed off in places.
The horde moved around but didn’t return for us. It always felt as if we were on borrowed time, though; the zombies still owned most of the world.
I spent time with my children when I wasn’t on duty or working with the horses. Georgie and Stevie were not only pretty baby girls, but also were smart and charming, enjoying nothing as much as their play time with Lexie.
As they grew, Georgie was the one who had the dark, reddish brown hair, was fearless, and showed a deep inner strength. Stevie, my blonde, was funny, loyal to a fault, and the one who always devised the most brilliant plots.
Katie was Mother Earth as she grew: she was calm, deeply thoughtful, and loving of every animal that came around her. Hannah continued to be the brave one, headless of rules and full of fun, my sweetest child. Jet grew into a handsome man with a perfect balance of sensitivity and strength, never forgetting his own ideals.
At the end of June of that second year, I saw Kim wore his wedding ring that Tink gave to him for us; in July, I slipped mine back on my left hand. In the first of August, he moved back in with us as his family, and at the end of the month, he moved back into my room and bed. We never intended to be apart again.
Those first three years were like landing on a hostile, alien planet for us, and we learned everyday about new threats or found new issues to confront.
I had my family and my children, and I had Kim.
Jet, after his crying fit at the gate, became strong and fearless, always learning and working to be a better fighter. My Hannah became more clever and ruthless as a warrior; she came into her own as a deadly pawn in the war against the infection.
But, we were all just pawns, and the next ten years would test us as we lost loved ones and friends and defined who we were in the new world. We had hopes, and we fought to survive. Had we known what we would be up against in the next decade, I don’t think we would have tried so hard.
We just didn’t know that there could be worse.
12
Beth
Z Y 3
We had many bad days, and we had some good ones, too. This day was one of the bad ones.
One time, Len flopped into the seat, stuffing himself while he told everyone his news. He was on loan, with a few others, to a fledging community just inside the Louisiana border where they taught combat and farming to a group. They were going to grow cotton and weave it, so the next year or the one after, they would be able to trade textiles with other communities.
“Will they have enough food?” Mark asked.
“I think so. They’ve gotten a lot cleared out, and guess what we saw?”
“Animal, vegetable, or mineral?” Mark asked.
“You’d never guess,” Len admitted, “some of the Zs are dying. I mean, again.”
“What?” I asked him.
“They are just stopping, dying off for good, and rotting away without brain damage. The doctor thinks maybe some have a, what did he call it? a shelf-life.
“They can’t evolve, and so they die out,” Mark said.
“But, they did have news that smaller Zs seemed to have been born somehow; they’re newer and faster, but still rare. Anyway, the folks are hopeful,” Len added.
I shivered. The thought of zombies breeding chilled me to the bone, and we talked about it and saw signs for a long time.
“How many communities are involved?” I asked.
“Five,” Mark answered.
“By the way, is Misty preggers, again?�
�� someone asked him.
Mark nodded, blushing. They had Zane, now eight, who never did any more mischief, magic, or tricks ever again and who was a precious young man; Lexie, who was three, like my girls. Misty was just twenty, so we figured she might have another few to add to their clan.
Misty ran out of the meeting, giving Mark a dirty look as soon as she got word Lexie was in trouble, again. She blamed him for the little girl’s smart mouth and propensity for finding mischief, but we all knew it was her own doing.
“She pulls all the books off of the shelf, and then when corrected, she fusses,” Mark whispered.
“Mexican obscenities?” I asked.
“I’m teaching her a few with Jules’ help,” Mark said as he chuckled.
Tory’s dad, Charles, died of cancer, and Tory married my brother, Steve, so we are all family.
Carl married Maria, the most beautiful woman in the compound, and she ran a tight ship around their home; he always seemed very happy with her, and she gave him an anchor.
And me?
The love of my life, Kimball and I were rarely apart. Kim may have refused a title, but like Len, he was everywhere and helped with everything, he was the person others went to with questions and ideas, and he made things happen.
The past three years, I couldn’t have asked for a better husband than this man who makes me laugh and feel safe. I still wear the emeralds on my right hand in memory of the man who did so much for my family and me. Juan is a treasured memory.
We have our children, the basics to survive, and our little creature comforts, and we have each other. That is what helped us survive the end of the world when so many perished; we always have had each other: our love and compassion.
Deaths are sorrowful, but we have seen the cycle of life with birth and death, and it is far, far better than the alternative of partial death and corpses ruling the land. Loss may be difficult, but it is cleaner than holding on to what is against nature.