“God damn ungrateful sons of bitches. I could of left you to the rotters in Atlanta and this is how you pay me back?” Gideon roared.
Ria stepped up to Gideon and put a hand on his shoulder. “Gideon, you're not able to help now, let's get you back to your trailer and we'll let Mildred handle this.”
Gideon stumbled back a step. “You turning against me to?”
Ria spoke calmly and quietly. “You know that is not true. You know you are in no shape, right now, get some sleep and clear your head.”
Somehow Ria's words, or demeanor, cut through the alcohol fueled anger and he allowed her to lead him off. Ria helped him down onto his cot, slipped his boots off and covered him with a blanket. “Gideon you're drunk. You're no good to us like this, you've got to get off this bender you're on. Otherwise, this place will tear itself apart.”
“My beautiful, beautiful Ria. I'll be sober in a few hours, give me one more chance.” Gideon promised, as he fell asleep.
When Ria came out, she saw Benjamin and the small group with him, packing up supplies. “That's twenty percent there Benjamin, your not getting a crumb more. I'd clear out quick, before I change my mind.” Mildred exclaimed.
Gideon stayed in his trailer, all that day. Andy took the crew out on another supply run, once again, with slim success. Ria went to check on Gideon, bringing him a plate from the dinner ration and some water. Getting no answer, after the knock on his door, she entered to find Gideon, sitting at a table, drawing on a pad of paper. “Gideon, you should eat.”
Gideon looked up at Ria and his gaze was clear and his voice strong, as he took the plate. “Very considerate of you, I'm not sure I deserve this. I don't remember a lot about this morning, but I do apologize.”
“Gideon, I feel responsible. I knew you had started drinking again and should have found a way to help you.” Ria replied.
Gideon picked up a small token on his table. “This is my ten year chip. I got it just a few months before the world fell apart. I credit Rex, a great deal, for my sobriety, but I own my alcoholism. I promise you, I intend to earn this ten year chip back.”
Ria glanced at the pad, Gideon had been writing on. “What has you working so hard, you ignore my knock.”
Gideon smiled. “It is my first step, well my second step, to redeem myself. My first step, was to pour out every bottle I had been stashing. This is my plan, to finish what Rex started. I'm close to done, I'll show this to you and some of the others, in the morning.”
Ria swallowed hard, but pasted a smile on her face. “I'm looking forward to seeing it.”
Gideon was out early, the next morning and joined Mildred and the others preparing breakfast. When the community lined up, Gideon took a spot in the serving line. As each person came through, Gideon greeted them warmly and personally, looking them each in the eye. After their meager breakfast, most of the people moved off to work, on the final preparations in the fields. Gideon asked a few to join him, in his trailer.
Gideon invited them to take a seat, in one of the chairs he had set out, but remained standing himself. “Mildred, very creative breakfast this morning. How long do you figure we have, before we'll need to cut our rations again?”
“It changes day to day, some days we catch more fish than others. The snares, are starting to bring in more rabbits. We just planted some greens and radishes, those will be coming in soon, if we don't get a frost, or too much rain.” Mildred replied.
“I understand the vagaries in our food situation, but roughly speaking.” Gideon prompted.
“Two weeks.” Mildred answered pragmatically.
“Frankly, that is better than I was thinking. I … we need to come up with a plan to keep us fed, through the spring. I had some ideas rattling around, since I was brought the news of Rex's death. I was afraid of losing more people and turned to the bottle, to drown them out. My head is clear now, but with Benjamin leading so many away, just proves to me, if we don't act we are going to lose people. I respect the opinions of all of you. All I ask, is you to hear me out and I promise, I will respect your counsel.”
They all listened respectfully to Gideon, as he laid out his plan. When he finished, they all sat quietly, considering what had been presented. Andy was the first to react, after giving out a low whistle. “It's a bold plan, I give you that, but damn I think it could work.”
“I'd like to see this place, before I make up my mind.” Harve stated.
Les nodded. “Yeah, I'm with Harve, I need to see this place.
Gideon smiled. “Ria, help Les assemble a team and we'll head out in an hour.”
As the group broke up, to prepare to visit the warehouse, Gideon stopped Andy. “Stay a moment, I want to review a couple of things.”
Andy waved to his sister. “I'll catch up in a bit.”
Gideon waited for the others to get out of earshot. “Andy, I need you and your sister to pull this off, but when it's done promise me to take your sister away from here.”
Andy squinted in puzzlement. “What?”
“I've been through this before and I know I'll stumble a lot. Ria, she'll want to nursemaid me through it, that's just the way she is. I can be a self-serving son of a bitch, but I will not put her through that. I care about her, way more than a man my age should and I will not have her blaming herself, for my failings.“ Gideon answered.
“But to send us out in this world, that's not doing us any favors.” Andy responded angrily.
Gideon put a hand on Andy's shoulder. “I guarantee, I have not hit bottom yet. To ask you to stay and try to stand by me, as I go through what I need to, would be no kindness.”
“What about everyone else here?” Andy protested.
Gideon kept his hand on Andy's shoulder. “Son, if there are two people, who can survive out in this world, it's you and Ria. I'm not booting the two of you out, if we can't stock our pantry and tide us over until our crops come in, then this all falls apart. No sense in you two sticking around, beating a dead horse. If we succeed, all I’m asking is you go and scout things out, we need to know if there are others out there. Either people we can work with, or ones we need to defend against. Come back in a couple of months and hopefully, I'm back on the road to sobriety and we'll have a better idea of what is out there.”
“That still doesn’t answer, what happens here?” Andy pressed.
“Harve, Mildred and Les, they can take care of this place.” Gideon replied.
“No promises, but I'll think about it.” Andy answered.
An hour later, they piled into a Suburban, Andy at the wheel and Les riding shotgun. Ria was seated between Harve and Gideon and two of Les's watchmen, were seated in the rear. Ria was quiet and kept her eyes down cast. Gideon reached over and patted her hand. “Penny for your thoughts?”
Ria squeezed his hand. “Just a lot of bad memories.”
Gideon slipped his hand free and absent mindedly, rubbed his hand where moments ago, Ria's hand had rested. “We'll do it right this time, we won't let Rex's sacrifice be for nothing.”
Ria looked at Gideon and smiled, even though her eyes were filling with tears. “He was a brave man.”
A short while later, they were parked a short distance away, glassing the warehouse, specifically, the dead trapped within the fence. Les let out a loud exhale. “There must be thousands of dead shits in there.”
“Well close to a thousand, maybe a little less.” Gideon responded.
Harve cleared his throat. “Okay, I got what I need, Les you good?”
“I understand what we're up against. We'll be jawin a while, on how we handle it.” Les answered.
They climbed back into the Suburban and drove off, unaware of the black SUV, hid in the brush. One of the SUV's occupants, was single mindedly focused on the pretty redhead. While the other, made careful note of the direction, the Suburban headed and where it turned off, before proceeding slowly after them.
“Mister Harve, tell it again please.” Bess pleaded.
Har
ve wiped out his third bowl of stew with a biscuit, then covered his mouth with his hand. Which did absolutely nothing to quiet the belch, but the burp did make room for him to finish the biscuit. Harve wipe the back of his hand across his mouth and launched into the story. “Ten days ago, Gideon came to us with this half baked idea.”
Gideon feigned indignation. “Half baked? I'll have you know, I spent the better part of a day and a night on those plans.”
Harve ignored Gideon's complaint. “Lucky for Gideon, he put together a crack team. My guys built braces for those fences, lickety split. We brought them up, draped with tarps, so the dead on the other side of the fence, couldn't see us. Quiet as church mice, we attached those braces, so as not to stir up the dead.”
The children, had already made Harve tell this story twice, but still listened intently, hanging on every word. “Once the braces were up and the walls wouldn't fall, with a thousand, or so of the dead pushing on them, we started to dig a huge pit to trap them in. Les, had the brilliant idea to bring up a couple of tractors and leave them running on the sides, so the dead spread out.”
“Didn't all that noise draw out the dead from the woods?” Bess asked, even though she knew the answer.
Harve winked over at Ria. “You betcha, but Miss Ria was up in her perch. droppin em as soon as they poked their head out.”
Bess turned to Ria, her eyes full of admiration. “Would you teach me how to shoot like you, Miss Ria?”
Ria smiled at the teen, her heart heavy, knowing she would be leaving this group, before the morning came. “I would enjoy that very much.”
Gideon came to Ria's rescue. “Hold on now, the best part of the story is coming up.”
Harve picked up his tale. “As soon as we had that trap dug, Gideon comes walking up strapped into a harness. We hooked him up to the crane and hoisted him over the trap. He opened the gates and hung there like a big swinging pinata, taunting the dead to come out.”
Gideon broke into a pantomime of him dangling above the pit and drawing the dead out. The children broke into peals of laughter, at Gideon's hammed up performance. When Gideon was done, Harve completed his story. “When we had them all out, we dropped the bridge over the pit. Andy brought in his team to get us the all clear. We found the warehouse fully stocked, can after can of vegetables, chicken, tuna and this stew. Bags of flour, sugar, rice and corn meal. Oil, lard, salt, pepper and spices. We got it all.”
Ria raised her glass. “Gideon..thank you.”
Gideon lifted his own glass, filled with a powdered drink mix. “To Rex.”
Les made his way up to the main gate. “Roy, why don't you head back and get something to eat, while it’s still hot.”
“You sure Boss, I'm on duty for a few hours yet.” Roy protested.
“Yeah, go ahead. I'm to wired to sleep, I might as well do something.” Les responded.
When Roy was well on his way back to camp, Andy joined Les. “Thanks for this buddy, it'll be easier if Ria and I just slip out.”
Les waved off Andy's thanks. “Andy boy, you can thank me by keeping safe out there and bringing us back some good news. When you're ready to go, I'll slip you out and no one will be the wiser. I'll clue in folks, as to your whereabouts, in the morning.”
Andy shook his hand and headed back down the drive. Les adjusted the strap of the rifle on his shoulder and began pacing back and forth, in front of their gate. Les took his time on guard very seriously, still he smiled. Not only because of what they accomplished today, but what they had overcome, these past few months.
Les reached the far side of the gate, but a faint sound made him pause a moment, before turning. After peering into the dimly lit expanse, outside their fence, Les shrugged satisfying, it was nothing. He turned and paced to the opposite side of the gate. Before he reached the halfway mark, a hand slipped over his mouth and a knife was plunged into his back, piercing his heart. When the knife was pulled out and the hand removed, Les fell to the ground. He was dead, before he hit the dirt.
Willie took a moment to pull of the black ski mask, covering his face, before opening the gate for Jess. “Can't hardly breath through this thing.”
“Well catch your breath. As soon as this feller turns, you need to lead him down to the camp and announce the surprise, we have for them.” Jess stated.
The men took up a position on either side of Les' body and waited for it to re-animate. As soon as the tell-tale twitching began, Jess pulled out his radio. “It's time boys, bring em on in.”
Willie played cat and mouse with Les, leading him back to the community. For the first time in months they stayed up late, enjoying each others company. Down the road, the semi-trailers were opened and the dead, they contained, spilled out. Using flashlights focused in a tight beam, casting pools of light on the pavement, they led the corpses like kittens, chasing a laser light.
Mildred was the first to spy Les approaching and something in his movements, caused her to be concerned. “Les you okay?”
Mildred moved up to him, when her hand touched his arm, she recoiled at the coldness of his skin. It was too late for her to get away and Les was on her, tearing huge bites out of her neck and shoulder. Gideon was the first to come to Mildred's rescue, pulling Les off her and throwing him to the ground. Pinning Les to the ground with his foot, Gideon ended Les with a bullet to the head.
Harve caught his wife as she collapsed. “Aww Millie.”
Mildred put a hand to the wound, on her neck. “Don't let me.”
Ria helped Harve lift up his wife, pulled her knife and pressed it up, through the base of her skull. Bess, looking up the drive, raised a hand and screamed. Gideon called out. “Andy, hand out the guns now.”
A group of men ran with Andy to the armory, grabbed a weapon and began firing, at the advancing herd. The dead outnumbered them, twenty to one and the gunfire did more to draw the dead in, then to cut their numbers. Gideon pushed Bess behind him and with his pistol empty, defended her for as long as he could with his knife.
As the herd swarmed Gideon, he saw Ria continuing to fight the dead. “Ria, God damn it, get the hell out of here.”
Ria looked to see her friend torn apart, as he continued to fight on. Bringing up her pistol, she put an end to Gideon's torment.
Chapter 3 - US
It felt like forever, since she had shot Gideon Morrow. In reality, only seconds had passed. Ria stood ramrod straight, her gun still lifted up, a faint plume of smoke coming from the barrel. It was still registering in her head that she had shot a human being, although giving him mercy was more like it. Ria had never killed a human before, the dead were one thing, but a human was a total other. Her mind was racing, trying to rationalize what had just happened, but the world did not stop and Ria was in danger and time was running out.
“Ria, come on, we gotta get out of here.” Andy yelled, over to his sister. He had seen what happened and knew Ria was in shock, but there was no time for that, they had to get away and the sooner the better. “Ria...let's go!” Andy started towards his sister, hoping he made it to her, before the dead did.
Andy was on the run, shooting and connecting with most of his targets. Ria had finally come out of her daze, but not before two of the dead got to her. While trying to push them back, she dropped her gun and had to retreat, although that wasn’t going to be easy. since the camp was now jammed with the dead, feasting on the recently living and turning the rest. “Andy!” Ria screamed, as she tried to unsheath her knife. Moving back at a fast pace, Ria tripped over a root in the ground. landing on her back. “Oh shit!” she whispered to herself, turning over quickly and trying to get back on her feet. Andy saw this and shot the closest one to his sister, in the back of the head, but more were surging in and he knew they were in big trouble.
“Ria get up!” Andy was terrified, he had never felt this scared before and Ria could hear it in his voice. Ria made it to her feet, shoving her knife up under the chin of the closest corpse and twisting it, until it fell to t
he ground, like a sack of potatoes. Andy had finally made it to his sister, shooting two more of the dead, before grabbing Ria’s arm and pulling her toward him. Andy started to run, dragging Ria with him. Suddenly. he was yanked back, almost losing his balance.
“What the….” Andy lost his grip on Ria. One of the dead had a hold of her hair, yanking her away from Andy’s grasp. Andy reacted quickly, grabbing his sister and pulling back. Ria screamed, feeling her hair being ripped out. Andy pushed thru the dead surrounding him, making his way back to Ria and with a quick slash, cut off her ponytail.
“Hurry Andy!” Ria was in full panic mode, pulling her head forward as hard as she could. Andy had freed his sister, but could not avoid the teeth that sunk into his right shoulder. In his mind, time stopped, he could hear the gurgling and moaning of the dead all around him, but his brain refused to work. Memories of Claudine, their times together and the love they shared. Pictures, like the clicking of a camera, floating around in his head. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, like the time all those years ago, when he got hit by a car riding his bike. People were trying to help, but all he could hear was garbled voices.
Dead Reckoning_HZA, Vol. 3 Page 6