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

by Lara Frater

  “Here it is,” Tanya found a statue of a bird, a heron, I think, near a book case. It looked relatively clean compared to the rest of the room. What makes its open?”

  “See if something moves, like the beak.”

  Tanya touched the beak and turned it. A panel next to one of the bookcases opened with a low creak. I stood up wavered a bit when Mike took my arm.

  “Grace, you can barely stand.”

  I steadied myself and took my arm from Mike. “Don’t need to stand to shoot.”

  “Where you going to shoot from? The sofa?”

  I giggled and Mike looked at me oddly.

  The cellar steps were circular. I had trouble walking down, my head was swimming, but the cool air helped.

  At the bottom were dozens of rows of wine bottles. I thought about Daddy and his love of wines. His cellar was smaller than this one. Wine was his favorite subject. I never told him I didn’t have a taste for it, but he knew. I would use his words, tell them how it smelled and tasted but he knew I faked it.

  He still loved me anyway.

  It was pitch black except for the light from upstairs. I knew this house had electricity. I searched the walls for a switch. When I turned it on, all but one light was out. It gave the room an eerie shiny glow. We passed rows of wine on shelves like a books at a library. It made me think of Jim who would love the upstairs study.

  At the end of the room was a locked door. Tanya tried it was locked.

  I heard the sound of the rifle being cocked.

  “Back!” Mike yelled. I pulled into a corner and I hoped Tanya did too. There was a horrific blast through the door.

  I ducked down when I heard it ricochet. I heard the pop of glass breaking. Mike held something in his hand. Tanya put her helmet down, pulled her crowbar out. She probably couldn’t see a damn thing.

  She kept to the side and used the crowbar to break open the door. It was probably was stronger on the other side to keep the servants out of the wine cellar.

  Mike tossed what was in his hand into the room. The room only had a dim light but I saw what he threw in.

  Another flash grenade. There were three men inside, all wearing fatigues, none of them Joel. When they saw the grenade they scrambled. It gave me enough time to get two and wound one causing him to drop the shotgun he was holding. The man was Mike’s age, brown and white hair, long face and plain looking.

  The grenade never went off.

  Tanya knocked away the gun of the wounded one. The light was dim but I saw we were in a large pantry stocked with a lot of food and some guns. Not the explosives broken nose led us to believe were there.

  I looked at Mike oddly since the grenade never went off.

  “It’s a dummy. I couldn’t use a flash grenade in case there were explosives.”

  “Where’s Joel?” Tanya asked, holding the gun to the guy’s head.

  “You’ll never get him, you bitches,” he said, loudly with agony in his voice.

  “I will shoot other things,” I said. “Kneecaps, groin, feet.”

  “Better yet,” Tanya added. “Let’s toss him to the zombs.”

  “Let’s tie him to the pole and let them have him.” That visibly scared the guy. I thought of Joel tied to the pole surrounded by zombies and that made me smile. The man’s brown eyes widened.

  “He’s not here,” he finally admitted. “He said he had something to stop this.”

  “What?”

  I looked at Mike and thought about Joel setting his previous house on fire.

  “Oh lord,” Mike said, looking horrified. “The bunkhouse.”

  He rushed back and up the stairs without seeing if we were following. I had trouble keeping up.

  I wasn’t sure what I would find when I got to the bunkhouse. Instead we were greeted with no one. The lands around it were empty of living humans and a few zombies in the front probably trying to get inside. No Joel or any of his guards. I realized we had been sent on a while goose chase. Joel and Raping Bill used their men to escape. I shot the three zombies milling around the door. Pop, pop, pop and they were all gone.

  When Dena saw it was us, she unlocked the door.

  “Come on out!” Mike ordered. Dena came out first, followed by Annemarie.

  “Joel is gone, at least we think he is,” Mike said. “But he might have left explosives in the bunkhouse, so everyone walk in an orderly fashion to the house.”

  The bunkhouse had stairs. I sat on the bottom, put the safety on the rifle and pointed it down. I felt dejected. I wanted to kill Joel and Bill but they tricked me.

  People slowly left the bunkhouse. Despite that there could be a bomb inside, they did move in an orderly fashion.

  I saw a zombie, a young one, used to be a woman, dark skinned, and looked Indian. She moved towards us in that disjointed zombie walk. She wasn’t close enough to start moaning.

  “Miss,” a woman said, as she passed me by. “Can you put her out of her misery? Her name was Hattie. All she did was ask to leave.”

  I didn’t reply. I stood up, although I felt a wave of nausea. I took off the safety and looked down the sight. The bullet hit Hattie in the forehead. She flew back and crashed to the ground.

  “Thank you, miss,” she said, she smiled, and touched my shoulder. “For sending her to heaven.”

  If there was a heaven, I think Hattie went long before I shot her body. I realized there must be hundreds of zombies in the trenches and lurking about. I needed to do a clean sweep before I passed out.

  Tanya stood by the door, her gun down while making sure everyone left.

  “We need to hunt down the zombies,” I said. “And Joel.”

  Tanya looked at me. Her face read that she thought Joel was already gone but I had to make sure. “You look like you can barely stand.”

  “I can stand long enough. Annemarie, come with me.” Annemarie looked at me dumbfounded. I have never asked to be paired with someone.

  “We should all go together.”

  “Faster if we split it. Mike, Dena and you can do the other side. We can meet in the center.”

  Tanya looked like she planned to say something, but I stared her down. She saw my determination. It wasn’t only the zombies I needed to kill, but to put a bullet in the head of an even bigger monster.

  Mike handed me a bottle of water.

  “Be careful,” he said. He looked at Annemarie and me like mischievous daughters. “Both of you.”

  I gave him my best smile. “Aren’t I always?”

  I started off at the burning gate house. No one bothered to put the fire out. The house stood burning pouring black smoke into the sky. I didn’t think it would spread, thanks to the trenches built around it. Some zombies still milled about in them not sure how to get out. I killed them all but still missed some headshots.

  Annemarie didn’t say anything but I knew she was flabbergasted that I missed. When I concentrated, sometimes my eyes blurred.

  My adrenaline was wearing down and I knew it. I needed to find Joel.

  “You don’t have to do this,” Annemarie said. She touched my shoulder. I was never nice to her and I didn’t know why she was being kind to me. “Tanya, Mike and I may not be the best shooters but we can handle it.”

  There were more zombies on the other side.

  “Line up your sight,” I said, ignoring her.

  I pulled in behind her, kept my body pressed against hers. I lined her up perfectly.

  “Shoot, Annemarie,” I said. She fired and neat little hole appeared above the nose. It was enough for it to die.

  “Wonderful!” Annemarie looked again like I punched her in the face because I have never said a kind word to her. I used the rifle to take the remaining zombies. Mowed them down one by one. They were a mixture of old and young. I knew the young ones were people who defied Joel.

  I felt dizzy. I had to sit. There was a gazebo near us, so I headed towards it but didn’t make it. My knees buckled and Annemarie grabbed me to keep me from falling. She wa
lked me over to the gazebo and sat me down. She lifted some water to my lips, I sipped slowly and vomited nearly hitting Annemarie. Not very lady like. Since I hadn’t eaten, only water and bile came out.

  “Let me know when you can walk, and we’ll head to the house,” she said.

  “Have to get Joel--” I said, my voice slurring.

  “You’re in no condition to do anything.”

  “Well, well, well, hello ladies.”

  I looked up and there was Bill. He also had an assault rifle, probably the same one used to mow down our people. Now it was pointed at us. Annemarie raised hers immediately. I couldn’t even lift my arm.

  “Not doing so well, are you Princess?” And he touched my face with his revolting hands.

  I became as fast as fucking lightening when I brought up the rifle and shot him in the leg. Bill crashed to the ground, dropping his rifle. Annemarie quickly grabbed it before Bill could. He was too busy holding his injured leg.

  “You bitch!” he yelled not noticing we had the upper hand.

  I had adrenaline again, at least briefly. I held the gun to Bill’s head. He stopped shouting and realized how fucked he was. He began dragging his body away. Not that he could get that far.

  I didn’t shoot him, although I really wanted to. Annemarie didn’t either.

  We watched him crawl on his belly away from us.

  Annemarie looked peeved. She raised her rifle.

  And shot Bill in the ass.

  I looked at her. “You missed the head.”

  “I wasn’t aiming for it.”

  I giggled. I walked besides him as he crawled.

  “How many women did you rape, Bill?”

  He didn’t answer. I should have killed him but I wanted to torment him, wanted him to feel what I felt when he was on top of me. I thought of all the other women he visited in the night. Was Aisha one of them? Her sister?

  Bill continued to crawl. Did he realize he had nowhere to go?

  As he got closer to the trench, he suddenly backtracked. I saw seven zombies still inside. They saw Bill and got excited. Their hunger moan filled the air. I had an idea.

  I looked at Annemarie, looked at Bill and the zombie trench. She smiled.

  I took one of Bill’s arm and she took the other.

  “What the fuck!” Bill yelled and he kept yelling as we dragged him across the grass. “What the fuck are you bitches doing?”

  “You’ll never rape anyone again,” I said as we pushed him into the trench.

  I heard the zombies moan louder and I heard Bill screaming. Music to my ears. I watched them surround him and tear flesh and while normally I find the sight of blood and torn flesh disgusting, the only queasiness I felt came was from the being in the hot sun. I had no sympathy at all to Bill’s cries for help. I had no intention of giving him any mercy.

  Then I fainted, still holding the gun. I don’t know if it discharged when it hit the ground. I just knew daddy would have been disappointed I was so irresponsible.

  “Grace,” an arm touched me. I opened my eyes to see my father. “You will be okay now.” Then he vanished and was replaced by Dr. Philips.

  I was naked again, but no one was on top of me except a cool white sheet. I had a cool wet cloth on my head, parts of my body were covered by some kind of lotion, and an IV was stuck in my right arm. My hair was wet. I wasn’t in the meeting room downstairs but a large bedroom with two beds. I was still at the estate house. Tommy was in the other bed. His eyes were open but a little glazed. Next to my bed was my rifle and I felt joy. I was so worried I had lost her. I stared at her enjoying the company. The room was air conditioned. The low sound of blowing was music to me.

  “How are you?” Dr. Philips asked.

  Everything that happened hit me, the heat, the thirst, being raped, tortured and killing Bill.

  All I could say was: “Sleepy.”

  “You slept for quite a while. I hope you don’t mind. Tanya and I stripped you and put you in a cold bath.”

  “Am I okay?”

  “No heat stroke but getting there. You were very dehydrated. Luckily Joel took saline bags whenever he found them. He put a lot of people on those poles--” she paused. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you before. Joel had this place locked up tight. No one has ever escaped.” I knew she was right but I was still disappointed. I didn’t say so.

  “What about Tommy?”

  Philips looked at him. He was in a bed not far, also with an IV. He wasn’t naked though, he wore what looked like pajamas.

  “He’s lucky to be alive.”

  I looked at him and waved. He managed to give me a weak one back.

  “I love all your movies,” I said and suppressed a giggle.

  “Thanks—“ he said. His voice was so hoarse, he didn’t sound anything like he did in his films.

  “What about you? I asked, turning my attention back to Dr. Phillips. “Were you Joel’s prisoner?” my throat was dry, but the doctor knew, she gave me a cup of water in the same plastic cups that Joel used.

  “Yes, but Joel treated me okay because he needed my skills.”

  “You get a visit from Bill ever?”

  “All the women have, but for me only once. After it happened, I told him if it happened again there would be no doctoring to his men. He would have to kill me. He got angry, said it didn’t matter that I was a doctor, I was still be expendable but no visits came afterwards.” She walked away for a minute and went to the closet. Inside it was packed with medical supplies. She searched through and brought back a packet of pills. Then handled it to me.

  “Bill got to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Emergency contraception. It’s effective up to five days.”

  I was only 19 when the virus hit. I had never thought about having a child. I knew one day I would get married and have children. Now I didn’t even know what would happen. Daddy was a Republican, gave money to pro-life charities but I don’t think he would have a problem if his only daughter took a pill to make sure she didn’t get pregnant from a rapist.

  “Did you find Joel?” I asked, holding the packet. I would decide later what to do.

  She didn’t respond right away.

  “What?”

  “Tanya found him, hiding, he surrendered. He’s tied up with his men in the library.”

  I didn’t get a chance to say anything because the door opened and Tanya came in with Aisha and Ariel. Tanya smiled and walked over to the bed. She was holding something white in her hand and had yellow file folders underneath her arm.

  “Not giving Sam any trouble?” she asked.

  I shook my head. I decided I could forgive her for before. Tanya handed me the white thing. It turned out to be a long frilly sleeveless nightgown. I got up with the blanket covering me, turned my back to Tommy and slipped it on. It was silk and felt nice against my burnt skin. I nearly giggled as it would have been a fantasy for Tommy Haldish to see me naked.

  “She’ll be okay with a few days of rest. She can stay here. We’ll look after her.”

  “I think maybe all of you should come back to Harbor. I got two people who need a real doctor. We got a pretty good community—well did until Joel shot it up, but we’ll get there again.”

  “I would like that but we got vegetables and fruit growing. Whoever wants to stay should harvest everything. One thing I got to say about Joel. He was a tyrant but he knew how to run things.”

  “Hi,” Aisha said to me and smiled. “Grace.”

  “Aisha,” I said. She looked a little shocked that I acknowledged her presence and that I was friendly. “Ariel,” The girl came closer to me, shier now than before. I took her hand and pulled her into an embraced. She didn’t hug tightly knowing I was burned.

  “You saved me,” I said when we finished. “Thank you.” I looked to Aisha. “It was probably hard to send her out but she saved my life.”

  Aisha still looked shocked and Tanya looked at me like I was on drugs, but Daddy told me to always sa
y thank you and do it right.

  “We couldn’t let those people die—I mean some did but we tried to get them water at night.” “She saved me and Tommy.”

  Aisha smiled. “I like you better this way. Not mean.”

  I think I liked myself better this way.

  “Here,” Tanya said. She put the two files on the bed. “It’s the files Joel was talking about. I read them. Didn’t understand, and gave them to Mike. He says they were a plan from five years ago-- If an outbreak happened. Nothing to indicate it was man made.”

  “I didn’t believe it. Not for a moment. Tanya—my father loved money, he loved making it. And I’m sure he made some screwing people over. I’m sure he owned parts of factories where people were treated poorly. He wouldn’t deliberately do something that would kill people. He did have a line. My father wasn’t a monster.”

  “I figured.”

  I didn’t say anything. Only one thing still bothered me.

  “How did Joel know about the carriers?”

  “Funny you should ask,” she opened the file and handed me a sheet of paper, a fax from Health and Human Services about possible people who didn’t get the H311 virus and when bitten showed no signs of the advanced disease C254, the zombie virus.

  “The files from your father’s lab were from five years ago. The fax was from right around the worse of the outbreak. They weren’t together. Joel did that in his twisted mind. He wanted someone to blame. Felicia because she was from the government and you because of your father.”

  And because I said no to him. “Why did he kill Felicia and not me?”

  Tanya laughed, but I didn’t think it was funny.

  “What?”

  “I think he hated you more.”

  I let that sink in. “What about Joel?”

  “We got him locked up good.”

  “What are we going to do with him?”

  Tanya looked at Aisha, then at me but didn’t say anything. I got the message she didn’t want Aisha to know.

  “Tanya?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Someone drugged my food. Someone at Harbor.”

  PART 5

  Chapter 24

  Mike.

  Gwen was the one who figured out Joel had to be near Greenport because of the lights Jim saw and the woman she recognized. We filled a black SUV with half of my firepower and went to the Harbor Heights police station to get protective gear. No one questioned me about bringing my rocket launcher. I wanted to blow up those motherfuckers for killing my son, almost killing my daughter and throwing our home into chaos. Dena insisted on coming, said she owed it to Simon. She surprised me by being sensible not emotional in her argument. Dena knew weapons almost as well as I did. She promised to listen to me without question.