The Living and the Dead

by R. J. Spears

  Jones slowly moved his head out of the entryway, like a turtle poking its head out of its shell. He saw mostly the backs of Manor people as they had their attention directed at the other side of the dining hall. He couldn’t see through them, but he guessed they were looking at the hallway where Russell and Maggie were. As some of the Manor people shuffled around nervously, he caught glimpses of what looked like three soldiers surrounded in the circle of hostages. He was certain that one of them was Lodwick. He thought one of the others was Mays. Mays had always been Lodwick’s little lap dog.

  He pulled his head back out of view and looked over at Del. Del looked back and slowly nodded his head up and down once as if asking an unspoken question. Jones knew the question and answered back with a single nod. It was time to get the party started.

  Jones took a brief moment to compose his thoughts. He knew what he did next could make the difference between life and death for so many people. He turned his attention in Lodwick’s direction and spoke in a loud voice that projected well, “Corporal Lodwick, this is Sergeant Jones. I need to talk and you need to listen.”

  Something fundamental happened in the room as everyone’s attention shifted from where the soldiers had just gunned down the zombie to the hallway where Jones and Del were positioned. The soldiers on the other side of the room moved to get a shooting angle on where Jones’ voice was coming from. An unease settled over the room with a few of the Manor people talking in hushed voices among themselves. This went on for several seconds.

  “Shut up!” Lodwick yelled at the Manor people and they went silent. “Jones, I don’t need to talk or listen to you. The Colonel placed you under arrest and put me in charge. You need to listen to me.” Each word came out of his mouth explosively.

  He continued, “Your little rebellion is over. You are to come out in the open and surrender. If not, I cannot guarantee your safety and the safety of any of these people.”

  “You don’t want to hurt these people,” Jones replied. “They are innocent and you know it.”

  “Innocent!” Lodwick yelled back. “If they are innocent, then why are a lot of my men dead? They aren’t innocent at all.”

  Jones knew fundamentally what Lodwick had said was true, but that wasn’t the point at that moment. “We didn’t give them much of a choice, did we? Colonel Kilgore had become unstable. You knew it and we all knew it. These people didn’t know if they would live to see their next day.”

  “Well, that doesn’t matter, because they still might not. I’m in charge and I have control of the situation.”

  “Do you?” Jones replied. “We have you and your men surrounded.”

  That was Jo’s cue.

  “We have you covered from this angle,” she shouted as she pushed the door from the kitchen open. She stuck her rifle barrel out the small opening to put an exclamation point on her words.

  Again, a wave of unease rushed through the crowd of Manor people and the soldiers. The soldiers wavered, shifting their aim from Jones’ direction and then to the new voice from the kitchen, looking nervous and unsettled.

  Jones waited for the next part of their plan, but seconds ticked away with no one responding. He was just about to speak again when Russell’s voice echoed out of the dark hallway. “And we still have a shit ton of zombies under our control and they are ready to attack!”

  A rush of pandemonium broke out as some of the Manor people pushed in towards Lodwick and his men while others bowed out from the circle and looked ready to run. Soldiers with guns were bad, but a horde of zombies was worth the risk of being shot in the back. The soldier’s bullets would be merciful compared to the zombie’s teeth and hands.

  Jo looked to Henry and wondered why Russell had spoken and not Maggie, but there was no time to consider what had gone on. There was only time to pay attention and time to react.

  The soldiers themselves were ready to start shooting, but couldn’t decide on who to shoot. Most of the soldiers on Russell’s side of the room redirected their aim down the corridor, waiting for a throng of zombies to appear. The other soldiers exchanged their aim from where Jones’ voice had come from to the kitchen door, where Jo had spoken, sweeping their rifle barrels back and forth nervously.

  The soldiers outside the circle of hostages knew now just how vulnerable they were. Lodwick’s plan had him safe, but they were out in the open and exposed. This fact made them start to question the whole logic of his plan and seeds of doubt started to grow along with just plain fear.

  This went on for several seconds before Lodwick broke the confusion by yelling, “This is all bullshit! You don’t have shit. In case you didn’t know it, we hold all the cards. You can’t shoot at us because you could hit these dear people. That’s what you think they are, right? You’re all into them, right Jonsey? You’re so into them that you would turn your back on everyone you know. Everything that really matters, but you threw all that in the shitter.”

  Jones let out an uncomfortable cough, then said, “Are you done? Listen, no matter how I feel about these people, we still have you surrounded.”

  “Just how many people do you really have?” Lodwick asked, stepping up on his tiptoes, trying to peer over the heads of the crowd.

  “More than enough,” Jones responded. He wasn’t liking this exchange. It was like Lodwick was buying time. Worried thoughts ate at him. Did Lodwick hold some men in reserve at a different location and were those men on their way now for an attack on their flank? Jones didn’t think so, but neither was he certain.

  “Lodwick, it’s time to just walk away,” Jones said. “No one has to get hurt. Not you. Not your men. Not these people.”

  “Maybe it’s time for you to walk away?” Lodwick asked. “I can’t guarantee your safety because we will chase your ass down, but that’s the only way you’re getting out of this.”

  Talk, talk, talk, Jones thought. It wasn’t like Lodwick to talk like this. Lodwick had always proven to be impulsive. Lodwick always envisioned himself as a man of action. Talk was weak, action was the best recipe. Kick ass, take names, and ask questions later.

  Jones’ plan had been to bluff Lodwick into surrendering. That or get his men to throw in the towel, but both Lodwick and his men were holding fast. Albeit, in a tense and very nervous stand-off, but they were getting nowhere. It was if Lodwick were stalling for time. But for what?

  That’s when it hit Jones. Lodwick’s reinforcements weren’t in the complex. They were coming from Wright-Patterson. He must have called them and help was on the way. That was the only thing Jones could figure, or else Lodwick would be ordering his men to attack.

  That changed the whole complexion of this stand-off. Jones knew that he couldn’t wait. He had to make something happen and do it quickly.

  The only way to make things happen fast was to start shooting. That would be so bad in so many ways. First being, that they only had six people against twenty soldiers. Second being that the Manor people would be caught in the crossfire. Starting a shooting war right then was a no-win scenario. Maybe Lodwick’s suggestion was the best? The smart play would be to make a run for it. Of course, that would mean abandoning the Manor people to their fates. He couldn’t imagine Lodwick being very forgiving. He might spare the children but all the others would be shot or worse.

  Jones couldn’t see Jo or the other Manor people on their little attack team going for a retreat. They had skin in the game in the form of their families and friends. Leaving those people behind to their fate was unacceptable. There was no choice in Jo’s mind. It was act and get their people free or die trying. Jones had stuck his neck out already for these people. He wasn’t sure he was ready to die for them. In fact, he knew he wasn’t. But he wasn’t ready to abandon them. At least, not yet.

  The big question was what could he do?

  Not being able to have direct communication between their three teams made things all the more challenging. Henry had the only walkie-talkie. Jones cursed himself for not taking the time to find m
ore, but as was evident, time was not on their side.

  Jones had to have some way to communicate the new landscape to the other three teams. He decided to be direct.

  “Lodwick, when are they getting here?” Jones asked.

  “Who are you talking about?” Lodwick responded.

  “We both know you called Wright-Patt for reinforcements. When do they get here?”

  The Manor people once again exchanged nervous glances. He knew they must have felt like pawns in this face-off. Disposable pawns for Lodwick. Invaluable pawns for Jo, Henry, Del, and the others on the attack teams. Still, they were pawns.

  “Hey now, aren’t you the smart one Jonsey?” Lodwick answered with a sense of haughty arrogance in his tone. “Oh yeah, I made the call and they are on their way. So, as soon as they get here, your ass is toast. And that whole thing I said about letting you walk away? Well, I sort of lied. I will hunt you down for the traitor you are. You can bet your ass on it.”

  Jones had no idea when Lodwick had made the call or if he had made the call at all. He could have called their bluff with a bluff of his own. Jones doubted it.

  The question was when would these new forces arrive? He ran through the calculations and factoring in the travel time and the preparation it took to get an away team together. Jones best guess was that they had anywhere from thirty minutes to a couple hours. Thirty minutes seemed like forever and two hours felt like infinity plus more infinity, but Lodwick had the upper hand. He could string this out for a long time.

  From the nervous way Lodwick’s soldiers were acting, there was no way they could sustain this tension for more than a few minutes. He knew what must be going through Jo’s head. If she thought their time window was closing, she would take matters into her own hands. This situation was getting ready to start spiraling down the drain and he saw no way to stop it.

  He looked over to Del and saw the desperation in his expression. It kept repeating, Do something. Jones was at a total loss as to what that was. Their bluff had been called, and it was time to lay down their cards. The big problem with that was that is they only had a pair of deuces.

  What he needed was a game changer, but that seemed like an impossible thing, as far away as the stars were away from the earth. As far away as forever.

  Chapter 45

  Game Changer

  Madison was a sharp girl. That’s what her mom always told her. She was also a brave one. That’s what her dad always said. Mr. Schultz had known both of those things. He also knew she was much more mature than her years. Losing the people you cared most about could do that to you. All of them haunted her as she stood there, her fingers wrapped around the gun in her coat pocket.

  She had followed the exchanges between the man called Jones and this soldier named Lodwick. She thought Lodwick was a major dick, but she knew he was dangerous. Very dangerous. But she could be dangerous, too.

  Her hand tightened on the 9mm pistol. Mr. Schultz had taught her how to shoot this gun at the farm, inside the barn. He had taught her how to fire a rifle, too. She didn’t need a rifle though. Lodwick and his two goons stood just ten feet in front of her, their backs turned. All three of them had their attention divided between the triple threats outside the circle of the hostages, not paying any attention to the threat behind them. Not even knowing it was there.

  Memories of her dad, mom, brother, and Mr. Schultz floated in her mind, their ghosts continuing to haunt her. She was just a little girl, and she wanted to be a big girl, but she also had learned that life was cheap. She was expendable, and she knew it. Mr. Schultz had told her the line from an old book. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.

  But she was confused. Did Henry and the others have a serious plan of attack? If they had any chance, should she just wait?

  But she had seen Henry. She knew that only a few of them had made it outside and only a few of those had come back. She didn’t know about the teams inside, but she guessed that there were only a handful of people. Maybe less.

  Lodwick had played his cards masterfully. He had himself safely ensconced in a human wall of the people Henry, Jo, and the others cared about.

  Would Jones, Henry, and Russell be willing to fire on Lodwick’s soldiers, knowing that those same soldiers could turn and fire on the hostages? Did they actually have and control a zombie army? She had seen them coming in, but none of them looked like they had control modules.

  If she fired on Lodwick and his men, would she take them out in time? Could she even do it? She had helped Mr. Schultz. She had been trained on how to kill zombies, but these were living breathing men.

  All these questions and thoughts swirled in her mind, threatening to overwhelm her for a few seconds. She felt her vision fill with pinpricks of light and the air supply seemed to be cut off to her brain. She tried to blink away the light splotches growing bigger, filling her vision. Her body felt light and airy as if she might float away.

  Lodwick shouted, “Your time is running out. You’re bluffing and I’m calling it.”

  That brought her back to reality. If he had waited a few seconds longer, she might have been on the floor, unconscious, but he had to open his big, fat mouth.

  She watched him and he seemed to get bigger as he spoke, puffing out like the cock of the walk. Her experiences with Lodwick were limited, but she knew him to be cruel to the Manor people and he liked inflicting pain on them. He liked humiliating them. He got off on it.

  Lodwick wouldn’t let bygones be bygones. People would suffer. People would die.

  If what Lodwick said was true and reinforcements were on their way, then time was running out on them. Lodwick would win and they all would lose in a terrible way.

  She was a smart girl. Her mind grasped the situation better than anyone in the room because she had a ringside seat to Lodwick. He thought he was safe, but if he were neutralized, then maybe her new family, the people of the Manor might live.

  Madison once again reached into the coat she had found, getting a grip on the gun. She started to bring it out, but she felt a hand grip her bicep, holding it in place. She turned around, looked up, and saw Ellen’s face peering down at her. Ellen shook her head slowly, her face tight with tension.

  Madison nodded back, slowly, keeping her movements controlled.

  Ellen shook her head again, but Madison ignored her. She yanked her arm away from Ellen, took a step forward while tugging the gun free from her coat pocket.

  The world seemed to slow down into highlights of specific clarity for her. She saw Lodwick’s back. She saw one of the soldiers looking back at Lodwick, anticipating what Lodwick would say next. She saw the other soldier, sweat rolling down his face and his eyes blinking nervously. Her arm moved up in this new slow-motion world. She knew she didn’t have to really aim. Lodwick was right there in front of her. She pointed the gun and pulled the trigger twice. The bullets exploded out of the gun faster than she could ever perceive and slammed into Lodwick’s back, throwing him forward and down toward the floor. She swiveled her aim to Mays as he started to spin back towards her, and shot him twice. One bullet struck him in the side, blowing his liver out his back. The next one pierced through his neck, cutting every major artery and severing his spine. Mays was effectively dead before his body hit the floor.

  Ellen shot out her hand in a delayed reaction. It bounced off Madison’s shoulder, knocking her slightly off balance and pulling her aim off as she tried to target the third soldier, Ferguson. He turned painfully slow, his eyes wide.

  Madison righted herself and started to target Ferguson when he shocked her by tossing his rifle down. It clattered on the floor and he threw his hands in the air and yelled, “Don’t shoot me! Don’t shoot. I surrender!” He practically danced in place, his hands held high toward the ceiling.

  Ferguson’s surrender stunned Madison and the others, but the sound of the shooting set the guards outside the ring of hostages on edge. They didn’t know what to do and really didn’t know what had just ha
ppened. Their view inside the group was obscured by the circle of Manor people.

  Kepler thought that Lodwick had started shooting the hostages to make a point to their attackers. A few of the other soldier thought the same thing, but most of the other soldiers were just confused, off-kilter, and nervous.

  Madison cut through the confusion when she yelled, “Henry, I just shot Lodwick and one of his soldiers! The other one has surrendered.”

  The soldiers outside the ring of hostages went from being confused and anxious to outright scared. The strength of Lodwick’s whole strategy was that he was alive and inside the ring. The rebels couldn’t attack if he was there, ready to start shooting the hostages. Now, that he was dead, the soldiers were on the outside and felt very exposed.

  Jones saw his spot and shouted into the dining room, “Kepler, you need to stand down. This is about to spin out of control. You have the chance to keep you and your men alive.” Jones let that sink in as the soldiers weighed their options. “Just calm down and think.”

  From a kneeling stance, Kepler tried to cover all three of the entrances at once, whipping his rifle back and forth. The attackers had the high ground now and they had lost the advantage. They were out in the open while the attackers had concealment. Sure, he and his soldiers could probably hold off the attackers, but for how long? They could threaten to shoot the hostages, but how could that be counted on?

  Since Jones suspected that Lodwick had called in reinforcements, Jones knew he was on a countdown. Jones would have to take the initiative soon.

  Kepler knew he had the ace card with the hostages, but there was a chance that they might take their fates into their own hands and make a run for it. Then his only recourse would be to start shooting them. As soon as his men would start shooting hostages, he was dead certain that the rebels would start firing on them and then they’d have a shooting war. And for what?

  Kepler never really liked Lodwick, but he knew how to keep the men tight. In this shit hole of a detail in this shit hole of a world, you needed your men tight or else you got dead. Fast. He liked the old Kilgore, but the new Kilgore was off the rails. His single-minded obsession with capturing this Jason Carter was totally wacko. And it was dangerous for all the men, but the old Kilgore had brought all them through the worst of the first days. His force of will brought the men together, and kept their heads on straight. But the new Kilgore was less and less stable, walking around looking like death warmed over most days and ranting the rest of them.