by RM Hamrick
“You’ll graft it, it’ll make a good scar for his story. The men like that, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so. I’ll knock mine back a grade.”
“Thanks, Clyde. I owe you one.”
“You bring in the best bodies, Audra. You’re great out there.”
“I hope I don’t have to be out there much longer.”
“Speaking of, do you want your payment, minus rent, in Belinda’s deposit? It’s a nice one.”
“No, I’ll take half with me.”
“Well, progress is progress, I guess, Audra,” he half scolded her.
Audra did not reply, but her face fell and she lost her twinkle.
They finished the transaction and Audra tucked the several credits in a pouch near her breast. Clyde was already outside prepping Randy for his inspection by the Awakening Committee. Audra turned before she walked out the door.
“Oh, if a guy comes in here looking for me in say… two hours?”
“I’ll let him know where to find you,” said Rosie with a pained face.
“Thanks,” she said, refusing to acknowledge Rosie’s concern.
* * *
Still in the tree she’d scrambled up to escape the herd, Audra concluded that days would pass before there would be a passerby. And chances were a passerby would avoid her group of twenty-one zombies at all costs. The surrounding trees were not large enough or close enough for her to reach. So there she sat, perched on the first weight-bearing branch, midway up the tree. She would have to get out of this herself. And the only way was down, now, before she became dehydrated and exhausted.
Audra tied up her hair and with a deep breath, she pulled out her dagger. When her family had abandoned the car and walked into the forest, her mother had given her a dagger for safety. Now, Audra always had at least two, one to use and one to lose. Belinda used hers to whittle small figurines.
Audra positioned herself upside down, her legs wrapped around the rough bark of the tree. Looking straight down she did not see people, at least not salvageable people, just death in multitude, enthusiastic about her approach.
The clearance between the crown of her head and her zombie friends was minimal once she got close enough to leverage her weapon. The sun had not been kind to those in the field. The first corpse, weathered and shredded, reached its lanky upper limbs toward her. Audra held fast to the dagger and stabbed squarely in the crown of the head and yanked back. It became inanimate but did not fall down. Other bodies braced against it and began to climb. Audra repositioned and looked to the zombie closest to her weapon. Possibly a woman. Her dry teeth made a clicking noise which Audra ended. She crossed the dagger across her body and moved it into a third.
With those dead, Audra retreated up the tree to gain a little space and rest. The inverted warrior looked upon the battlefield. The trio had now fallen. Others stood on them, gaining a few inches of height. Audra shuffled back down. She was determined to get five more before she climbed back up to a branch to let the blood rush back to her legs and away from her head.
She pierced another and received a face full of blood. Her supporting hand reached in a panic. She slipped inches downward before her legs caught her fall. Squinting her eyes and pursing her lips, she willed it not to go up her nose. Her stomach turned and her mouth gaped as she gagged. But it did not matter in the next moments as another lunged. She swung shallowly toward the nasal cavity, slowing it down and getting her dagger stuck.
She yanked back hard and popped herself in the face with the handle when it released. The blood from her nose mingled with the blood from her kill and tickled all her senses and those of her friends. She took a moment to wipe the blood off her face and into her hair. The bugs were already collecting around her, attracted to the smell. Dreaded gnats flying into the fluids and into her eyes. Despite the hole in his face, her pursuer still needed a final blow.
The stupidity and heaviness of what she was undertaking sank in. Tears washed her eyes clean. Audra took a deep, gasping breath and reached for her injured target, splattered with bloodstained tears.
* * *
The burly man on the other side of the bar nodded to the door. Audra did not have to move from her draped position over the bar’s surface to know Dwyn had arrived. He approached her peripheral, cautious in this new environment. The barkeep pointed to the vat of foul smelling moonshine behind him.
“Looks like she has had enough for both of us,” Dwyn declined.
Audra rolled her eyes in his full view.
“Did you turn in Randy?” he asked.
“Mm-hm."
“Did you get the money?”
“Mh-hm.”
“Did you give it all to this guy?”
Audra peeled her face off the wood to glare and curse. Her intensity smelled of anger and moonshine.
Dwyn tipped his chin at the bartender and walked out.
CHAPTER FOUR
Audra tried to find the sun through the trees and clouds. She judged she had about an hour of daylight left to pull Debbie Lancer. She ignored the temptation to set up camp early. While most of Audra’s life was already well-practiced in camping, staying out of sight, and finding food and water, escorting a zombie to Lysent was still new to her skill set. She tugged on her leashed zom. A sack on Debbie’s head gave a small amount of protection to Audra's backside, but it blocked Debbie’s sight, and that led to many falls, sometimes atop Audra. Audra settled for a longer lead and constantly checked the distance between her and the unsecured face of Debbie.
With a few tags to her name, Audra noticed the underlying theme. The families were rich and the zoms were gorgeous. Even in death and weathered exposure, Debbie had kept her figure, face symmetry, and thick hair. The rich and pretty ruled this new world, too.
Audra managed to not get eaten for one more hour as they trudged closer to the corporation for her payout. With a sigh, Audra settled in front of her perfectly crafted fire. At least she could do that well. She planned to move only if the smoke drifted her way for too long. She let darkness engulf her. With a few moments of peace and no immediate problems, the thoughts flooded in.
It was her fault.
No, she never should have been put in that situation.
Still, it was her fault.
The thoughts churned and Audra’s eyes welled. She stared deep into the fire but it did not register. All she saw was red. A wall of red and it warmed her head until she felt she was on fire. And then the air escaped her. An inhale did not follow. How could she sit here while her sister rotted within herself? She would give anything to make the pain leave, to have her sister here and well. Heaviness and impossibility sank in.
A large, triumphant growl filled her ear. She snapped around to find Debbie inches from her face. Audra pushed her away and assessed the bodily damage. Debbie had been bound at the edge of the campsite. She had pulled her wrists loose of her ropes and the majority of her flesh in the process. Skin and muscle flapped around as she pulled herself to Audra. No one would be able to sew her up and Lysent would not wake a double hand amputee. Someone had loved Debbie and Audra had destroyed her. It was her fault. Audra yelled out and in an instant had pulled out her knife from her boot and launched herself at the crawling remains.
The two wrestled on the ground for a few moments. With each glancing blow from the floppy hands or attack from the jaws, Audra got a renewed sense of strength, a strength drained by this world. Then she stabbed her.
Again. And again.
Until Debbie was no longer Debbie.
Audra saw a different shade of red, but her thoughts were quieted in the blood and stench. She passed out next to the corpse before the cyclic thoughts roared again.
* * *
Audra emerged a few days later from the hole. She took inventory of her pack. She had no money. She rummaged to find her cooking pot, hickory nuts, and a couple of worn photographs of her family from when the world was normal. It could have been worse. Sometimes it was worse. Audra would
need to take a job to get a few more supplies before she returned to the wilderness to tag. She stepped out of the town, past the fences to keep out the dead, and found a familiar creek. She rinsed her face, switched out to a clean shirt, and headed back into the market. There she would find the jobs she needed.
As she searched for the unofficial post, a voice called out behind her.
“Do you always fall out like that?” Dwyn asked casually.
“Not always,” she said shortly, trying to hide her shame behind impatience.
She did not have to prove anything to Dwyn. The world had gone to shit. She could too, occasionally. It didn’t seem to stop him from following her.
Once she remembered which town she was in, she found the unofficial post. The fastest way to mail a letter from town to town was the train. But the train only ran once a week and all mail was subject to review. Lysent didn't allow correspondence that disrespected the company or promoted outside governments or groups. They explained that this was their right because they had invested so much in rebuilding. If you wanted to create another system of government, go somewhere else and create your own infrastructure.
If you wanted to send a letter during the week or under the nose of the governing body, you needed to send it with a traveler. A tagger's ability and constant need for a quick buck made them excellent unofficial mail-keeps. Audra had earned a reputation for being one of the fastest mail servicers when she was available. Without a body in tow, Audra promised same-day delivery.
They entered the house to find a gruff looking man. His wide grin competed with his large frizzy beard in magnitude.
“I heard you were in town,” he said motioning to Audra. His smile wavered as he looked to Dwyn with suspicion.
“He’s with me,” she answered his unasked question. “You got any mail for me?”
“Of course, I started gathering it this morning. Told them it’d be a few hours before you’d be ready,” he said hunting for the hidden folder of mail. He found it and she tucked it into her bag.
“Money on receipt,” he said as he disappeared into the back room.
Audra rolled her eyes and headed out.
“I just need to grab my pack,” said Dwyn as he ran around the corner.
Audra considered running off without him but decided against it. She needed to eat. Under the shade of oak trees outside the fences, she opened hickory nuts while she examined the destinations on the envelopes. There were three different townships, seven envelopes in total. She could get this done in a day, no problem. She’d buy supplies, sleep near the last town, then head out to tag another zombie in the morning. Audra tucked the envelopes back into her bag and focused on pulling the last of the nut meat from its shells as Dwyn approached with his pack in tow.
“I thought you left without me again,” he said, out of breath.
“Thought about it.”
Audra and Dwyn started with a steady pace toward the first township, using the train tracks as their easy guide. It was not two miles later when Audra keeled over and vomited her hickory nuts into a bush.
“I brought you extra water,” Dwyn offered.
Audra took it in silence. She drank the whole bottle and sat there for ten minutes. Ten minutes was another mile they could have covered. Dwyn offered to help steady her as she stood, but she refused. She ran another half mile and vomited off to the side. She did not stop this time but kept running.
For once, Dwyn could keep up.
The sun had set well before Audra and Dwyn made it to the last township. Audra held out her left hand and ran it along the chain link fence to keep the correct trajectory. Dwyn ran staggered to her right, keeping an ear out for zombies. They heard them in the distance, mildly interested in the light “chink, chink” the fence made against Audra’s hand. When they neared the township, a large floodlight flashed and blinded them. A bow and arrow hid behind the light. She waved to signal their vitality. As they approached the gate, a stern eye greeted them.
“Why are you coming in so late?”
“We got held up. We’re sorry. Can we stay for the night?”
He said nothing but motioned to someone below and the gate opened.
“Thanks. Do you need any water?” Audra offered.
She wanted to stay on the good side of the guards. You never knew when your ass would be in trouble and you’d need a speedy gate opening. He smiled his thanks but waved them on.
Audra and Dwyn walked into the dark center of town. It was the smallest township and everyone had already retreated to their homes. Audra found the location that served as the underground post office and gave it a small knock. Inside, she heard rustling. Dwyn looked reluctant.
“Maybe we could leave it to morning?” Dwyn mumbled.
A woman opened the door. She wore a night robe and a face twisted in confusion and annoyance.
“Mail,” Audra stated.
The lady opened the door wider and removed herself from the doorway to let them pass. Inside with the door closed, Audra let one of her arms out of the pack straps and let the pack fall to her side. She pulled out the mail and handed it over. The lady received it and shuffled to a hutch to retrieve their money.
Their eyes met as she gave Audra the credits.
“I’ve been told to ask you to stay at your camp in the morning. There is someone who would like to speak with you.”
Audra nodded but was not impressed. Lots of people wanted to use her skill set. They often couldn’t pay more than what Lysent offered.
The runners left as quickly as they had arrived.
Rather than annoy the gatekeeper once more, Audra and Dwyn climbed over the fence that protected the township. They landed with a thump on the other side, tired and ready for sleep. All the running, and in Audra’s case - vomiting, had taken its toll. Despite her exhaustion, she couldn’t miss Dwyn’s anxious fidgeting.
“What’s going on?” she asked, daring him to delay her bedtime.
“I don’t know if we should stick around and meet that person.”
“It’s probably no one. I’m not staying for them - I’m staying for sleep and for the market tomorrow.”
She kicked away sticks and rocks from what would be her tent’s foundation. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Dwyn hadn’t even begun his camp setup. He shuffled from foot to foot. He was still not telling her something. Audra stopped and looked him in the eye.
“Do you know this person, Dwyn?”
He returned her look and exhaled loudly. Then the words rushed out before he changed his mind.
“Yes. I was sent by them to recruit someone for the next step in the plan.”
Audra’s eyebrows rose. She took one step forward and punched him in the left eye. Dwyn staggered back from the force, grabbing his eye as he doubled over.
“See,” he said. “We need someone tough. We don’t have anyone tough.”
And then he blurted out his worry.
“But I don’t know if you should meet her because you’re um… not that reliable. I don’t know if you’re the best person.”
Tiredness and sickness overwhelmed what remained of Audra’s anger. Dwyn’s secrets were about to unravel and she found she didn’t even care. She wanted to sleep.
“I’ll punch you again in the morning,” she said as she threw herself into her tent.
* * *
A shadow across her tent woke Audra to the bright morning. She didn’t usually sleep in, but she didn’t usually sleep in vomit-soaked clothes, either. Audra pulled her spare shirt out of her pack. She would scrub the other in the creek after breakfast. Outside, Dwyn’s shadow stopped moving as she lifted her arms over her head. Audra could not stifle her sly smile. He was watching her silhouette undress. Dwyn was not unattractive, and he had gotten even fitter in the weeks they trained together. She put on her shirt, but then stretched her arms up again and leaned back to show off her figure behind the safety of the canvas tent.
She took a deep breath and asked her
self what she was doing. This guy was recruiting her for a harebrained scheme. She rolled her eyes. She yanked her arms down and wrestled with her pack. Dwyn suddenly began moving as well, making too much noise to be convincing.
Like she did every morning, she rolled up her things and placed them in her pack, except her t-shirt. It was nasty, possibly worth replacing in the market. It was soft and worn though, perfect for running. Maybe she could salvage it after she scraped off the hickory nut meat. She threw the shirt out of her tent with her pack. Her quads ached from dehydration as she climbed out of the tent. Drinking all of Dwyn’s treated water did little to mitigate her head’s throbbing, incited by the day's brightness.
She had not even finished breaking down her tent when a woman approached their camp. A shawl protected her salt and pepper hair from the sun. Her age was difficult to determine. Even at a distance, her skin and eyes were clear and young. She carried herself upright, not yet fighting the gravity of age. She gathered elderberries as she walked, her excuse for being outside the township today. Audra continued to break down her tent. Instinct demanded she be ready to retreat, to run away, even from an innocent-looking lady with a bucket of berries.
Audra finished packing and stood to confront the newcomer. Audra was a head shorter, and she wondered once again if malnutrition or genetics had stunted her own height. The lady tipped half of her berry stock into Dwyn’s empty bowl.
“I will need to come back with some,” she said explaining her half-generosity.
“Thanks!” said Dwyn, thrusting his hand into the formerly empty tin bowl.
Audra ignored his trusting actions. She did not have time for him. She turned her eyes back to the woman.
“Hi, Audra. It is truly a pleasure to meet you. I’m Vesna. Dwyn sent word about you.” She smiled but eyed Dwyn.
“So Dwyn’s his real name, huh?”
Audra perched on a log and grabbed a handful of berries from Dwyn. She popped a couple in her mouth and dared Vesna to continue.
“Audra,” Vesna repeated her name to garner rapport, “I heard you are an indentured tagger. You have a loved one infected?”