End of the Line (Book 2): Stuck in the Middle

by Lara Frater

  “No, I’m a research scientist.”

  “You mean at the Harbor Center?” Steven asked.

  “Yes.”

  “What’s a Harbor Center?”

  White looked at me like I was an idiot but what the fuck do I know about centers on rich white ass islands?

  “It’s a lab that studies sea life,” he explained. White wasn’t Mr. Talkative. His answers were short and I heard disrespect in his voice.

  “You the only one there?”

  White rolled his eyes, like talking to me was painful. “Yes. Everyone else left or died.”

  “Why’d you set up this human token thing here?”

  “To keep the zombies away while I did my work. Are we done with twenty questions? I have to find a new place to lock up the machine.”

  “How could you get inside?” Steven asked.

  White looked flustered. “The library and firehouse’s basements are connected. The library has a back door. The zombies go in front, I go in back. Now are we done?”

  “Not yet,” Joel said. He looked at White intently. White looked even more annoyed at answering Joel’s questions. “You have electricity?”

  “A little bit,” he said. I thought he was lying but that I understood ‘cause he just met us. “A generator.”

  “Then you don’t mind sparing the one you have here and the human token machine.”

  Dr. White went from annoyed to pissed. “Sorry, that’s mine. I need it to keep the zombies away.”

  “We killed all the zombies here. You don’t need it. I’m a hunter, I do. We can use it to help clear out the Island.”

  “It’s mine,” he said, empathizing mine.

  Joel pulled his handgun and pointed it at White.

  “Put that down,” Steven yelled.

  We were interrupted by a moan than a scream.

  I turned to shoot, saw one of them had grabbed Rose and had taken a chunk out of her arm. Her pink long sleeve shirt turned red. She screamed both in pain and terror.

  Grace shot the two zombies who surrounded us. The one holding Rose flew back and dropped her. She crashed to the dirty street, holding her wounded arm.

  I rushed over. I was pissed. Who was keeping watch?

  “Rose—“ I said, leaning down. “I’m so sorry.

  Blood gushed from her arm where the zombie bit. Her arm looked like a chunk of bloody meat.

  “Tanya,” she said, her voice weak. She took my hand with her good arm. “Don’t worry, I can be with my husband and kids.”

  “I can do it right now or wait till it’s over.”

  “Right now,” she said, “Please, tell Paul I’ll miss him, and tell Felicia, it’s not her fault. None of it is—“ In the minute from when she got bit she had turned nearly white. Not a carrier for sure.

  “Tanya?”

  “Yes.”

  “Come a little closer.”

  I was hesitant since she had the virus, but she wasn’t a zombie and wouldn’t become one until after she died. I knew Rose was fading fast. She could reanimate in minutes.

  “Don’t trust Joel—“ she said. “He’s no good.”

  She was right. I should have seen it earlier.

  “Do it, please—“

  I didn’t want to. I could easily ask Grace to do it. I was leader. I had to do this for Rose. I pulled my hand gun. Put it to Rose’s temple. “I’m sorry,” I said, and fired.

  It was the loudest shot in the world. I stayed down near the ground, looking over Rose’s half blown off face. The gore never bothered me, and death didn’t either until the day I saw my daughter’s ripped apart. I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw it was Steven. He gave me his hand and helped me up.

  I didn’t see Joel, or Bill. White stood outside the door of the fire station looking pissed. Chris was next to him, his handgun out but at his side.

  “What?” I asked Steven. He looked to the firehouse but didn’t say anything.

  A moment later Joel came out with Bill carrying the generator and the laptop.

  “This is stealing,” White said.

  “Call the cops. You said you had other generators around, right? There are millions of laptops to take. I’m sure you have a copy of your program. Think of this as a donation of the greater good. Think of how many zombies I can kill with this thing.”

  White didn’t respond but he looked angry.

  “Joel,” I said. I hadn’t forgotten that Chris and Bill were supposed to be look outs, but they weren’t. “This is stealing, plain and simple. Even if it works better for you.”

  “Tanya, you’ve picked up too much idealism from Jim. We need this to fight the zombies. I promise when all the zombies are dead, Sam can have his junk back.”

  “Don’t call me Sam.”

  Joel smiled with his charming grin that I now thought disgusting.

  “So sorry, Dr. White.” He had this look in his eye that he would have shot White if we weren’t there.

  I wanted to tell Joel right then and there that our relationship was over. The only thing keeping me from saying those words was Aisha. I was disturbed that while we were dealing with the zombies and Rose, Joel used that time to steal the generator.

  Instead I said. “I think my group is done for the day.”

  “Oh that’s a shame,” he said. “I’m sorry about Rose, but we lose people all the time.”

  Steven hadn’t said anything on the trip back. Neither did Frannie. Once Joel threatened and stole the stuff from Dr. White, she stopped talking or trying to cozy up to him. She stayed in the back and didn’t say anything. She looked deep in thought so I left her alone. We buried Rose in a park near town. Joel didn’t help.

  I escorted Steven to his house and left the rest waiting in the car. I didn’t see any zombs and I hope we got most of them in Harbor Heights. Joel, Bill and Chris had remained behind to finish hunting. Joel asked Grace to join him, promising to drop her off later, but she refused, saying she was hot and wanted to get back. I was proud of her for being smart enough to not go off with Joel. She might be a great hunter, but she recognized bad news when she saw it.

  Steve said nothing as he walked to the door. He mopped his face with a handkerchief.

  White told us to stay away from the lab and him. He grouped us together. I didn’t blame him.

  Steven got to his door and turned around with a look on his face that I knew I was gonna get bad news.

  “Tanya—“ he said and paused. I figured he didn’t want to see us again. Finally he spoke. “You’re all in danger.”

  “Joel’s acted like a jackass, but he’s not dangerous.”

  “I’m not too sure of that.”

  “He wasn’t gonna kill Dr. White, he wanted to scare him.”

  “Tanya, you don’t seem like someone who is naïve.”

  I paused before saying anything. “I ain’t. I’d tell him to hit the road, but it’s complicated. He’s got two girls, one them used to be with us at Costking. I left her with her mom who died. I feel responsible for her being with Joel. He’s been holding them over my head. He ain’t bought a letter or nothing from Aisha. I can’t cut off contact with him until I find out she’s okay. Joel knows this. I don’t think she even knows about us.”

  “He’s a manipulator that’s for sure. How do you know Aisha’s still with him? Maybe he hasn’t bought her because she’s gone.”

  I didn’t want to think where she could have gone too.

  “Steven, it’s bad, I know—but I can’t give up on Aisha, not yet. Besides I rather have Joel on friendly terms. If I tell him to hit the road, who knows what will happen.”

  He didn’t respond.

  “Are we still friends?”

  “Yes, because I think you’re going to need it. Even if you find out about Aisha, Joel’s not going to stop coming around, because he wants something.”

  I thought about Keith. Was Joel nosing around because he thought we had a carrier?

  Chapter 19

  Today w
as hot, so with Jim’s permission, I blew off my admin day. Jim said after all that happened last week, dealing with Joel, Harbor Heights and killing Rose, I deserved a day off.

  I wanna hit the beach. Wished Ricky could come but he didn’t like leaving the farm. He never took a day off.

  Didn’t have no bathing suit, so I ended up wearing shorts and a black tee I tied under my boobs. The water in the bay was calm. Dena didn’t come this time. She was fighting with Mike again opted to stay home with Simon.

  Mike, Gwen and I came, along with Brie, Charlie who was 7 and adorable and Andy who was 13. The adults would take turns looking out for floaters. Mike said, so far they had seen only one floaters but it was far and never came to shore.

  I always worried about the kids going into the water. I knew the zombie population was pretty low now, but I worried about being in the open. I took a deep breath, reminded myself that Mike had come out here almost the whole summer and without much problems. We needed to be on alert in the open but we can’t be scared of it.

  I looked at our boat sitting in the far off slip and remembered Joel’s promise to look at the broken mast. Joel promised a lot of things, he didn’t really do them.

  Rachel rarely spoke about her previous house, neither did Dan. The impression I got and what Jim told me was that Joel was the leader and what he said goes. Neither seemed to have a problem with that. Rachel left because she got bit and Dan because he came back and found the house in flames.

  I didn’t ask why Joel didn’t wait for Dan to come back.

  Soon as I got to the beach, I ran into the freezing water, not caring how cold it was or if zombies were at the bottom. I knew I had an hour before I did my watch. I wonder if we could put in a net or something. Something to keep the zombies out.

  The water felt great on my hot skin. I remembered when I was a kid. My mom would pack us on the bus and we would go to Jones Beach. I had two older brothers, one was dead shot in the street by a rival gang, the other joined the army. I wondered if he was alive, dead of the flu or of the zombies. He stopped talking to us when he joined up. That was six years ago.

  We was still friends as kids. Morris the one that died was the oldest and at 13 was already running drugs. Jason was 11 and did good in school like me. I was 7 the baby. We all had the same daddy, but he was always on the run around, either with his other women or looking for work. Momma was religious so she refused to run around calling Daddy just a man who couldn’t help it. I was shocked Morris and Jason never got a girl pregnant or maybe they did but didn’t say so.

  Mom would shove us on a hot bus three or four times in the summer usually early in the morning. She’d pack a bag filled with chips and soda, towels, and an old sheet. The waves could sometimes be cool but scary. My mom, sat on the blanket, rented an umbrella but never went in. My brothers would torment me in the water. At the ocean, our lives were different. We weren’t surrounded by thugs and dealers. Our mom seemed to care about us. Even one time our dad came and we were a real family for a change. He bought us hot dog, fries and big sodas at the concession stand. He even stayed for a few days. I remembered how nice and cold the water felt but I knew I would go home with sand in everything. On the day my dad came I didn’t care. Every time he came, he said, once he had some money we were gonna move to North Carolina where I was born. Momma moved to the New York when I was four. That never happened. I wonder if he was still alive. I hadn’t seen him for a few years. Once Morris was dead and Jason was gone, he never came around. Didn’t even know he had a grandkid.

  We usually only went on days momma was off work. She cleaned houses. She was a little nutty about religion, but one thing that ain’t her fault was that she was tired a lot. She’d come to the beach, sit on the sheet and five minutes later she was snoring away. Cleaning houses don’t pay that much. Momma would work some 12 hours a day, sometimes longer and still needed food stamps. I knew pretty early I didn’t want to clean houses, work at McDonalds or join the army, no matter how cool their assemblies were at school, and I didn’t wanna be on welfare cause every time Momma got some kind some kind of assistance, white people come to our house and thought she was useless.

  I got out of the water and went to the blanket. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around myself.

  “Nice,” I told Mike who was on watch. If someone told me two years ago that I would be at some ritzy beach with a gun nut cracker, I would have thought they were insane.

  I pulled a book out of my bag.

  “I would have never pegged you as a reader,” Mike said. Glad things between Mike and I weren’t weird after what happened during that storm.

  “Cause I’m black?” I knew he was messing with me.

  “No, cause you were a thug. Do thugs read?”

  “Some of us do. I carried a knife and a Kindle in my backpack.”

  Mike snickered.

  “I’m gonna put my head down,” I said. “Wake me when it’s my turn to take watch.”

  “I will.”

  I put on some sunscreen and put the towel over me so I wouldn’t get burned. I would be on watch for an hour then switched with Mike. Then, I’ll go swimming again. It was hot enough that I was drying fast.

  “Actually Mike, wake me up five minutes before. I wanna get wet again before watch.”

  “Sure.”

  I put my head down, trying to empty my mind of thoughts. Jim said I gotta meditate more but it’s hard when you gotta worry about 40 or so people. I worried about our future, about running out of food or having a disease outbreak. We only got two medical professionals, neither of them doctors. The camp people weren’t all used to doing things at a schedule and making sure everything gets done from plumbing, to cleaning, to field work.

  I wanna get animals. Maybe a few cows and chickens. We gotta find some first. Ricky said the chickens on this farm all died. He and Frannie tried to save some but they got some disease and with no vets they died. I worried about that too. Hannah’s only an EMT. Could she handle animals too? Could Lucy take care of them since she took care of the horses or was--

  My thoughts got interrupted by children screaming. I opened my eyes, knocked the towel off and jumped up. I looked to the water but didn’t see a floater.

  They was on land. A zombie moved fast towards our area. She was young one, newly made, naked, and other than the three bite marks, the pasty skin, the cloudy eyes, and the weird shambling fuck-walk, she looked almost normal. Her body was also bruised but it looked like it happened before she died. Never seen a young one here or even in Harbor Heights. This one looked freshly made.

  I’d never seen this woman before. She wasn’t from our group, or even the woman that came here for a day and vanished. This was a stranger.

  She must come in from the bay, but she didn’t look bloated or even wet. Her tangled brown hair was dry as a bone.

  All three kids were screaming. Charlie had a good pair of lungs as his terrified cries filled the air, and gave me a chill but he and Andy were smart enough to scream while running towards us. Mike drilled all the kids on what to do in dangerous situations, that they should run from zombies and only fight if they were cornered. Good advice even for the adults.

  The zombie wasn’t close enough to moan, but she must have smelled us ‘cause she was coming to us as fast as her undead legs could go.

  Gwen was close to Brie in the very swallow section and scooped her up. Brie, even at five knew when to grab an adult. She put her arms around Gwen’s neck. Mike told Brie to never go into the water passed her waist. Gwen ran, not looking back, towards Mike who had the rifle out. Both were dripping wet. He waited for everyone to get behind him before he fired.

  He didn’t get a chance. Another zombie came out from the bushes. Also brand new, female, and naked. Untouched, ‘cept for two bites and bruises. What the fuck? Floaters don’t travel in pairs. Could they been swimming and got bit? They were on land they didn’t come out of the water. Both of them weren’t wet. I didn’t get or like this. I got
the extra rifle from the back of the van.

  Mike shot the first zombie in the chest. It went down then began to stand up again. It began the moan but that sound no longer unnerved me. The other zombie joined in the moan almost in harmony.

  Instead of using the rifle, I pulled Mike’s bat out of the car, slung the rifle over my shoulder and moved forward to it.

  She saw me, opened her mouth to moan. A shit load of black goo dripped from her mouth, but that didn’t stop her from moving closer. I heard lots of shots. But not at the one I was going after. I assume Mike was taking care of the other one.

  I worried because I got nothing to protect my arms, Instead of hitting her with the bat; I used it to shove her hard in the ribs pushing her about a foot back. I heard the sound of her ribs crack, but that didn’t bother her or me. Now that she was further, I swung the rifle over, aimed and got her in the knee, deliberately. She fell to the sand and I put the edge of the rifle right by her head. A loud discharge and her body jerked then completed her journey into the sand.

  I looked at the other one which was about three feet from me also lying in the sand. It was riddled with bullets, including a head shot.

  “Good shooting,” I said. He rolled his eyes. If Grace were here, we wouldn’t have only used more than two bullets.

  I went over to investigate to make sure both zombs were dead. They was, the head on one woman as almost gone, the other was missing half her skull. I hated seeing death but I had become desensitized to the gore, just so many dead bodies you see before it becomes old hat. Mike first made sure the kids were safely by the van and then walked around with the rifle out making sure there were no more zombs.

  Gwen came over and looked over the one I got.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I’ve seen her before.” I looked over the corpse, hard to recognize anything with the top of her head missing.

  “Remember in March, when Jim told you about the woman we saw in Greenport? The one that saved us and ran off? She was a good shooter. I don’t know how she got attacked by a zombie or--” she paused. “Ended up naked.”