The Reanimates (Book 1): The Complex

by J. Rudolph

  "There is no way to get across totally undetected. No way. Not unless the watchman was sleeping on the job." Joey interjected.

  "So, that begs the question, how did people or zombies or whatever it is end up between the trench and the wall with no one seeing it go down?" Tyreese demanded. I was feeling his frustration. Security was his baby like medical was mine and if people were coming into my space and just hanging out rearranging stuff I would be more than a little irritated.

  "Someone either was sleeping on their watch or let them over on purpose." Joey accused.

  I caught Trent's eyes. I quickly flicked my eyes in the direction of Daniel's unit then back and raised my eyebrow. Trent knew what I was asking him, a definite perk to being married for a long time. You can ask things like 'should we tell them everything we suspect about Alexus even with no proof' without saying a word. Trent answered with a barely perceptible nod.

  "Well guys, I have a story but I don't know if it has any bearing on what's being talked about here. Gonna tell it just in case it does." I swallowed hard. Part of me didn't want to go this route. What if I was totally wrong and I was about to start something I couldn’t take back. What if I destroyed her reputation because I was being paranoid? Bigger though was what if I was right? What if the missing stuff and suspicious behavior exactly played into what was going on?

  “So this is the story. You guys know that we've been having food and water come up missing. I think I have a theory on who is doing it, though there is no real reason for me to think this. I think, based on some other stuff, that it's likely Alexus.” Joey raised his eyebrows at me. I continued on. “She's been acting off. She disappears behind the shed, which as it turns out, is where Tyreese is seeing activity at. She stays back there for a little bit. Then she comes out and acts like she was doing random weeding. When I confronted her on the disappearing act she said that she was smoking cigarettes. I never smelled smoke. I didn't smell the left over just-had-a-smoke smell that all smokers have on them. I don't believe her. To add to this, Drew told me that when the kids are playing paper airplanes that she brings them down paper and takes one from the middle of the stack, folds it into a plane and then tosses it. Drew tells me that every time she does the plane thing it ends up over the wall.” Tyreese and Joey looked at me with incredulous looks.

  “I think that there is a good chance that she is tossing the planes over with messages or something like that to someone on the other side of the wall. I think that when she goes behind the shed it is to drop off the missing stuff. I think she is using the patched spot in the wall as a drop off zone for someone, and that scares the crap out of me. I'm scared that the people on the other side are the marauders that hassled us before she showed up. I'm scared that the “rue the day” guy is partnering with her on this. I'm scared that’s why Tesla was barking and is now dead. I've got a lot of theories about what could be happening and a lot of what I'm scared might be happening, but I don't know anything. I don't know that any of the things that I'm scared of actually is what's happening at all. It still could be the innocent thing that she is portraying. It could be, but the thing that is tripping me out the most right now? None of this people sneaking around was noticed before the wedding. I'm scared that they got to where they are and are being given stuff so easily because I gave Alexus watch duty. I wanted to believe that everyone is as trustworthy as the next and when she offered to do watch to give vacation time I just trusted her. I am scared that I let a monster take hold of the reigns.”

  I felt betrayed and angry at Alexus, but honestly, I was more angry with myself. I felt major anger that I was taken in by a pretty sob story and with the 'but I love my babies' bull.

  Joey started to speak then. “I knew the timing of her arrival was suspicious. It was just weird that we have a hit by the ass-hat squad and a poor victim who just happened to survive out in the wild all by her lonesome just happened to show up. It was suspicious and I let it go. Want to know the bitch of it all? When Tyreese came to get me just now? The very first thing that went into my head was the cards were finally on the table with her and Alexus finally showed her colors. I had no real reason to think that. Cali, you seem to be blaming yourself for trusting her with watch. Stop. If there is blame it sits on me for letting the bitch through the front gates.”

  Tyreese sighed. “Well. We need to get hard cold proof of this. We need to set up a detail that shows her doing this stuff so we can present it to the whole council to decide what to do. Also? The blaming ourselves for this? That has to stop now. If for no other reason, we need to think about this, if we think we are feeling like this, just imagine how Daniel is going to feel if it does turn out to be her. That’s his woman. He vouched for her. If we're putting out the vibe of we should have seen this coming then he is probably going to not only pick up on it but feel it as a blame. I for one don't blame him. Does anyone else?”

  We all shook our heads no. Murmurs of why would he know that she was a marauder in disguise were muttered. Then it hit us, if he didn't know that she was up to this how could we have? Every one of us took her in on faith because every one of us wanted her to be a survivor that was going to be a part of the new world. No one here saw immediate bad in people. It was how we were all running what we believed was a successful little complex.

  We were all betrayed. Now we had to collect the proof of the deed.

  When it Rains

  We needed to put together proof that all this was happening. I felt defeated in this task. How were we supposed to get proof? Tyreese grinned. Tyreese had collected spy gear in the pre-zombie world. He had a ton of wireless cameras and gadgets. We had power. It seemed to be perfect. We planned on putting Joey on watch the next night so Tyreese would be free and clear to put up the cameras.

  One thing I had really come to miss on short order was the weather reports. During the night there was a storm front that had rolled in. We decided that there was just too much risk of a poor picture or damage to the little cameras for it to be worth the effort of putting them all up right then.

  It is a little known fact that it does rain in southern California, and when it rains, it pours. The desert areas are prone to flash flooding, which is why there was a drainage ditch that ran behind the complex. Initially it was a disappointment over the disruption in our plans but when the first fat drops of rain fell that morning a quick attitude change came around. Water, hard to acquire water, was falling from the sky. It was a slice of heaven. The rain fell heavy all around us. We ran to open all our water containers and people grabbed buckets to put under the downspouts. We were going to gather all we could while we could.

  The rain continued to fall hard when the idea hit me, it had been so hot in the days before that it almost was like we had gotten a chance to go to the water park to cool off. I raced up the stairs changed into my bikini and grabbed bottles of body wash and shampoo and raced back down the stairs. When Jody saw me she squealed in delight and followed my lead in getting into a swim suit. Anna complained that she didn’t have a suit here then decided that the idea of a shower was worth more than being overly modest and so she stripped down to her underwear. The kids skimped down to their underwear as well and ran and played.

  Before long we all were in the common area, taking the first proper shower we had since the water pressure went out. We had fun for the first time since the wedding a month ago. We were a family, bonding over bars of Irish Spring and Ivory body wash. Everyone was there including Mercedes, though she never did disrobe into less than a t shirt and sleep shorts. Martha burned into our retinas the image of her in nothing but panties. “I will probably have nightmares over that image. All zombie memories are good ones now.” Trent whispered to me when he too saw her. I laughed at him. I turned when I heard Daniel making a rawr sound at his girls having become the bubble monster. The babies squealed. I looked for their mother thinking she had to be loving all of this as well. I stopped cold. Alexus was outside with everyone but she was standing under an
eave, arms folded over her chest and her teeth were set on edge. Something had her very angry. She scowled at all of us enjoying the moment, seeming to detest us all for our fun.

  She caught me looking at her. Her eyes narrowed to slits, almost daring me to say something, then she spun around and stomped up the stairs and into her unit. She slammed the door and we all stopped, having been startled by the sound. Daniel looked at me with his mouth open. Mercedes was standing near by him. He leaned to ask her something. She nodded her head and declared herself the bubble monster. Daniel walked over to me and asked in a low tone, “What the hell just happened here?”

  I didn't have an answer for him. “Dude, I have no idea. We were all goofing off in the rain and she was standing under the over hang, not a drop on her. She was looking pissed. Then she saw that I noticed her and then she stomped off. I really don't know.”

  “I'll go on up and see what I can figure out.” Daniel sighed heavily. “Drama, always gotta be drama. Can't even play with the kids in the rain.” Daniel turned away from me and went up the stairs. I could hear indistinct yelling coming from their place. I turned to where Trent, Joey, and Tyreese were standing. Trent looked at my face and he saw the feeling of hopelessness that was growing in me.

  I walked up to him, put my arms around him and said “Baby, there is something really bad in the works here. I don't have words for it but there is going to be a world of crazy really soon. That’s saying a lot isn't it?” The sky rolled in thunder almost as though it were a punctuation mark to my statement.

  DaWayne had been on the roof during the start of the rain and he was doing his own little rain celebration. His sister had taken up the soap and was up there with him, they were oblivious to our drama down here. When the roll of thunder struck their laughter came right behind. We stopped obsessing over the Alexus thing and looked up at them. We could see Trisha doubled over in laughter.

  Tyreese yelled up to his child, “Yo! T? What's got you and your brother about to fall of that roof like that?”

  More giggles sprung out of her. She managed to sputter out the word “Zombies” before the waves of giggles took over again.

  DaWayne was slightly more in control of his laughter. “Dad. It was totally hilarious. First off these zombies don't have a clue what's going down right now with the rain. They're all walking around even more stupid than usual. Then the thunder hit and that just floored them. They're all staring up at the sky with a what the fuck was that look, excuse my language. It's like someone put up a sonar net on a bunch of bats. They keep running into each other all dazed and confused.”

  “Oh I gotta see this.” Tyreese said. The rest of us were right behind. It was funny as hell to see them this lost. The rain washed away smells and sounds echoed differently with the fall of rain beating on stuff. The thunder added to their disorientation and they were walking into each other. It was such a welcome distraction to have these zombies being this befuddled. Another roll of thunder struck while we were all standing on the roof and so we all got to see all these zombies stop moving and look up at the sky as though manna was about to fall. The look of expectation of food on all of their faces broke us out into more peals of laughter.

  The rain turned out to be an awesome thing. It was OK that it had put a damper on our investigations because we for a while felt a bit more human. It may be petty but I was also very grateful that the rain incident also showed them the other side of Alexus.

  Recording on Hold

  The weather continued to be odd for the next couple weeks. We wanted the set up to be perfect to catch anything odd. We decided to go ahead and leave everything as it was. We knew things were still missing. Alexus had developed a bit more of an attitude as though she was untouchable.

  Jody was close to starting her second trimester and seemed to be doing very well. She had much more energy than she did and her emotions started to even out. It was decided that it was time to get the new school year going. The kids were not thrilled by that but it was definitely time to get that ball rolling. Getting the kids back on a schedule was a bit of a trick but after a couple weeks they were all used to it. Jody was good at teaching the kids on what level the kids were on and they all had individualized lesson plans. Drew had always been good at sciences so Jody really hit the nail on the head when his reading assignments were by authors like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. His math questions were also mixed with science. He learned a ton about ratios and decimals that way.

  The start of October brought the return of beautiful days. It was what we always called an Indian summer. We knew it wouldn't last forever and if we were gong to start collecting proof of what Alexus was doing we needed to start now. Tyreese found his box of toys and started to set up the components. He charged the little wireless senders. For the next couple days we plotted where we would place all these audio and video bits, then spent another couple days trying to be subtle about placing the little devices.

  I worried about the whole operation. I worried that she knew what we had done. I worried that the equipment wouldn't work right. I worried that the people that showed up on the other side had seen us through a crack or something. All these worries were greatly compounded when the people disappeared from their hiding spot one night when Alexus was on watch. I knew how silly that sounded. Being worried about the fact that the people had left was an odd worry, but it was mostly the timing of it all. We couldn't leave most of the devices up for a long period of time, some would be too sensitive to the elements.

  Speaking of elements, it turned out zombies were sensitive to them as well. It had been almost five months since this all started and it was really clear that those months hadn't been gentle on the bodies of the undead.

  In the movies when the zombies converted they stayed looking very much like they did when they died. This was Hollywood's creation. Zombies decompose, and it is nasty. They definitely decompose slower than an all the way dead body does but they still break down.

  Zombies bloat as well. It would seem that intestines moved slowly and it required the pressure of each next meal to push out the contents of the last. It was not uncommon to see the bellies of some of the zombies to appear as though they were in the last trimester of pregnancy. I was intrigued by these distended bellies. One afternoon while I was on watch I fired an arrow into the abdomen of a particularly bloated man. I kid you not, that belly popped like a balloon, spraying a foul soup of stomach contents under pressure all around the zombie. Of course this didn't kill the thing and all it truly accomplished was satisfying my curiosity about the phenomenon and getting the attention of the zombie on me. It came closer to the complex and fell in the trench.

  Older zombies burned really well. There were a few theories why but the most popular was that they were extremely dehydrated. Most zombies had significant wounds to major blood vessels and had lost a great deal of their blood volume though these wounds. Additionally they didn't drink anything and they wandered around in the hot sun. Their skin turned leathery and dry, which made for interesting combustibility. The trapped gases in them were also relatively flammable which kept the burn going.

  Water seemed to accelerate the decomposition process. After that extra rainy day about a month ago the wash behind us had water in it. We had random sprinkles of rain since then and the mountains behind us had random storm activity keeping the wash active. At some point there had been a few zombies that had stumbled into the wash and couldn't figure out how to navigate the steep dirt walls to escape. They saw that there was potential food in our complex so they didn't wander off to where they could have had a chance to get out. Zombies were not bright. Those zombies that had been staying wet got mushy. There really was no better word for it. They got stuck in the mud, and since they were stuck in one place flies were able to lay eggs on them. Maggots played in and out of their flesh. Everyone knew that maggots only chew on the dead meat bits. It was why they were making a comeback in the medical world, maggots ate the dead bits leaving healthy tissu
e intact. In zombies there was no healthy tissue as a check point. Sometimes the skin on a zombie bubbled and writhed with the bug activity underneath. Rocks that were thrown at them sunk into the waterlogged parts. Legs broke easily. Maybe the soaking zombies were why our mystery people took off. The smell was horrid.

  While they were gone we noticed that food didn't go missing. Neither did water. This definitely took away the theory that who ever was taking the stuff was doing it to stock up on their reserves.

  In the middle of November everyone in the complex decided that we couldn't take the smell of the wash zombies anymore. Joey, Tyreese, Trent, and I had been dragging our feet on the removal since we had the theory that they were keeping the back wall marauder free but since we didn't think it wise to tip our hand we decided to go ahead with their removal. The guys went on the other side of the back wall, taking the time to place a decoy rock camera that Tyreese designed, and with a rope pulled each zombie out of the wash and into the trench. After they were in the trench they were burned.

  A week later our wall guests were back. It was time to get started on the gathering video and setting up the sting. We had been setting up the equipment when Jody came to the door. Joey let her in and she sat down. I had to smile over the growing baby bump and couldn’t imagine that so much time had already passed. She had to be about 18 weeks along already.

  She began to speak, which broke my thoughts on her pregnancy. “So,” she began, “Christmas is about a month away and I was thinking we need to figure out a plan.”

  Wow. Had it really gotten to be almost Christmas already? What on earth were we going to be able to do for the kids that would make it a neat thing? Life had been so upended by the apocalypse that what to do for the kids to make Christmas feel like Christmas was hard to imagine.