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

by Lara Frater

  “Where’s Jim,” I asked instead. I hadn’t seen him since the service.

  “I made him go back to bed. He insisted on coming to the funeral no matter what I said. Sam’s looking after him along with Tommy Haldish. Can’t believe we have a real movie star with us.”

  “I think he’s acting days are over.”

  “Still,” she said. “You can’t help being starstuck.”

  I’d seen some of Tommy Haldish’s movies. I was never gaga over him. I only got bits of his story from Sam. He had a house out in the Hamptons and watched his wife and child die of the flu. His house had a fully stock pantry and generator. He boarded up the house to keep the zombies out. He ran out of food and met Joel. He trained to use firearms for one of his movies, so Joel asked him to join him.

  Even though he knew about guns, he had been sheltered and handled for so long, he needed someone to look out for him. Aisha said he always slipped food and water to everyone. Joel knew about it but he liked the idea of having a famous actor around, Tommy wasn’t punished for being nice but other guards were, sometimes to the death, sometimes just a few days on the pole no matter what the temperature. If the weather was pleasant, Joel would tie them facing the zombies naked. Aisha said a couple of times people went on the pole died even though they weren’t sentenced to die. The women got it worse because when they were punished some of them were sent to Bill for a few hours and then got the pole. I heard horror stories I didn’t want to repeat.

  This had been going on since October of last year. Almost ten months these people had been enslaved and tortured. Bill raped everyone single one of the women at least once and impregnated three of them. I shivered and held Hannah close again. This time she didn’t ask why.

  The three pregnant women came with Dr. Philips. She had given any woman who wanted it the morning after pill. I guess some didn’t take it.

  I was against abortion but if Dena or Hannah wanted the morning after the pill, they could have it. God would have to understand. I figured Sam gave it to Grace.

  I thought about Joel and wondered how many people he killed. He must have killed dozens. I shivered again.

  “You cold?” Hannah asked but she knew I wasn’t. She held me tightly. I figured we were blessed. We still had each other, Dena and Brie. Everyone we knew had lost their entire families, but it still didn’t make me less sad about Simon.

  Chapter 25

  Now I faced an unpleasant task. The smoked had cleared, the farm returned to normal. We got new workers here and seven of our people went to the manor house. We left them enough guns to take care of the zombies, but we took most everything, including the generator which Tanya thought about returning to Dr. White – but in the spring. Among Joel’s supplies in the basement was a battery operated radiation counter. When I turned it on, it still worked. The farm needed supplies and we needed the guns I left in Floral Park and the counter would make sure we were safe from radiation.

  I have loved guns the first day my dad took me hunting. I was 10 and my mother thought I was too young. I loved it. The feel of the rifle in my hand and against my shoulder, aiming it, the kick as the bullet left the chamber. The first time I hit nothing, my dad laughed at me but in his sweet way. He kept taking me out, showing me how to shoot, how to respect the rifle and the animals we killed. When we hunted we didn’t get the animal as a trophy. We used the meat, sometimes the skin and other parts. I was not a crazy gun nut. I’m not illiterate; I have a college degree in business management. I believe in gun safety and responsibility. I don’t like being blamed and losing my gun when some other idiot was irresponsible.

  But I was obsessed with them: their mechanics, their history, how they work, how I could make one myself. I made a replica 1840 Colt Revolver when I was 19. It came out awful but I tried again when I was 28 and it came out better.

  I love everything about them but I hate that we needed them to protect ourselves. We got some good people at Harbor but we’re going to have to deal with people like Joel.

  A small party of seven people would be going: Eric, Frannie, Gwen, Felix, Annemarie, and Dena. I took Dena along for some father/daughter bonding. We stopped fighting because of Simon’s death but it was about time we hashed out everything. Two houses near the farm got restored and occupied. This left an empty room across from ours. I gave it to Dena to use. Aisha and her sister took a room not far from us.

  Henry fixed up a delivery truck in Greenport but refused to come with us. Tanya wanted to but I told her as leader she was needed here and I could handle it. After all, wasn’t I law enforcement?

  Eric came along because I asked him if he wanted to bury his mother if her body was still there. I was glad he said yes.

  Dena never told me what happened in the cantina, or to Simon. Brie was heartsick, crying all the time, losing Maddie was hard for her but Simon had been devastating. She had been clingy to Hannah lately, begging to stay in our room, and she won’t speak to Charlie or Andy.

  In the fall, the cantina will be torn down and either something new will be put up or left empty. A shame because it was part of the manor and almost 200 hundred years old. But I imagined all the art in City and how it was probably burned to cinders. I knew Jim was trying to save what antiquities he could but we couldn’t save it all. One more building won’t matter.

  Somehow with Joel gone things became little brighter. They were fewer zombies, but the roads were bad. Soon we wouldn’t be able to travel it or have gas, although there was a few gas stations on Harbor Those tanks would become empty. Soon it would just be biodiesel, bikes, electric cars, horses and our feet. We’re back in the middle ages in some ways, but at least we got some electricity and heat.

  It took us two days to get to the truck, on its side on Woodbury road. The counter still read normal. I don’t know where the nearest bomb fell but it’s possible I may never get back to my store. I left a lot behind.

  We couldn’t find Maddie’s body. It wasn’t there, not decayed, not in the road. Animals probably ran off with it. We found Robert’s body in the truck, decayed. Eric helped me wrap the body and we buried him in the cemetery. I felt even more guilt about my task.

  I swear at least a hundred decayed bodies littered the ground. Zombies apparently Grace had killed. I stood and stared at their decaying corpses as I imagined her taking them all out.

  I looked at Eric, who was leaning against the truck, sweating.

  “Can you help me look for my mother?” he asked.

  “No.” He looked surprised, but even more when I pulled my gun on him.

  “Mike, what are you doing.” he said, his voice trembling, but not out of fear. His voice sounded like Dena when she got caught in a lie.

  Annemarie came out of the truck with a gun on Frannie and made her walk to Eric. Gwen, Felix and Dena stood behind us, silent.

  “Mike, what the hell?” Frannie said.

  Eric said nothing.

  “Who drugged Grace?” I asked.

  Neither of them said anything.

  “Both of you worked KP that day. Both of you were conveniently in the back when it went down. Eric, you hated Grace because you thought she killed your mother. Frannie, you were in love with Joel.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Frannie’s eyes grew big. “You’re all insane.”

  “You were obsessed him. Did he ask you for a little favor, just a little vial in Grace’s food? No big deal. You probably didn’t even know that he planned to shoot up the cantina.”

  “No, he bamboozled me like everyone else.” She looked freaked out. “After it happened I felt like an idiot fawning over that monster.”

  I held the gun to her head.

  “Please don’t kill me. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “We suspected both you and Eric, but we suspected you more,” I pulled the hammer back.

  “Stop it,” Eric said, his voice still calm. “Please stop it. I did it. I drugged her. I didn’t want it to happen thi
s way.”

  I dropped the gun to my side. “Thanks, Frannie.” Holding a gun to an innocent woman’s head was not comfortable.

  She looked at me nervously. “Gun wasn’t loaded, right?”

  “Right,” I said, then pulled out my other sidearm and held it to Eric. “This one is.”

  Grace knew it was Eric. She told me he had been staring at her before being kidnapped when normally he would leave when she came for lunch. I had to know for sure and Frannie was willing to play along to get him to confess. She wasn’t lying before. After what happened in Harbor Heights, she told Ricky she felt like an idiot for her crush on Joel.

  “Are you going to shoot me?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Then you can put the gun down,” Eric said, his voice low and somber. “I’m not a threat.”

  Eric didn’t seem mad at being set up. “Why don’t all of you go back to the car? Eric and I need to have a talk.” No one protested. I thought he shouldn’t have to defend himself in front of the others. I didn’t watch them walk away but heard them. I knew Annemarie would stay behind to watch for zombies.

  “Why’d you do it, Eric?” I asked when they were gone. I put my gun away but left the holster open.

  “I was thinking with anger. I was thinking how she used to be a rich girl waited on hand and foot and just because she can shoot and became a little nicer, we bend over backwards to accommodate her. I thought she killed my mother. I fucked up. I’m sorry. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, let alone killed and when Joel told me that her father released the virus it made me insane.”

  “He didn’t. You know that? Joel made it up in his own diseased head.”

  “I’m an idiot. They weren’t supposed to hurt anyone— He told me to drug her food and they would come in with guns but wouldn’t shoot anyone--“

  “They killed nine people including my kid. They tortured Grace. They shot Jim, the man who looked after you after your mother died. What the fuck were you thinking, Eric?” I hated feeling so angry. I wanted to shake him because he went to Joel instead of us.

  “I was thinking about my mother.”

  “Your mother was bitten, Eric. Grace gave her a gift of dying without becoming one of them. Did you want your mother to become a zombie?”

  Eric didn’t respond for a long time.

  “Did Tanya send you out here to kill me? Like you did with Joel?” he finally said.

  I shook my head. We didn’t tell anyone who did the deed. Only said Joel was dead. “She wouldn’t do that to Jim but you can’t come back to Harbor—not ever.”

  Eric’s demeanor changed. Fear filled his face. “You can’t leave me out here. I have nothing.”

  “If the radiation is okay we can take you to Costking or anywhere you want to go. You got food. We’ll give you your shotgun.”

  “I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to go back to Harbor. Look I’m sorry. I won’t live on the farm. I’ll take one of the houses. I can’t be out here alone.”

  All of this hurt. I knew Eric didn’t mean for this to happen and he was part of the family, but I thought of Simon-- a poor kid who never had a chance. A kid I took as my own. His death made my wife even more heartbroken because that kid filled a hole in Hannah from when my son died. A hole that will now permanently be there. I thought about Grace being tortured and raped. I thought about our dead and wounded. “I’m sorry Eric. This is the only option. You can’t be part of the town anymore.”

  “Then I’ll just stay here.”

  He sat on a curb and watched us. I offered to let him have first picks but he didn’t do it. I planned to leave him stuff I thought he needed.

  Jim didn’t want to do this. He was upset over Eric, but he didn’t want to cast him out. He wanted to let him stay at the estate or put him in the house with Gil. He didn’t understand why Gil could stay but Eric had to go. Tanya told him that Eric had committed a crime against the community whereas Gil hadn’t yet. Tanya wanted to send him to Connecticut with the others, but we came to a compromise. If the radiation counter said it was low, we would leave him at Costking where he would have plenty of supplies.

  I had the shotgun he came to Costking with. I even had extra rounds for him. I would give it to him after we were done.

  Costking carried emergency food. These sealed containers had 120 meals and lasted for 20 years. Twenty-five had been in this truck. I took 23 and left two for Eric. He sat on the curb across from us and stared. Did he want to kill us or hoped I’d change my mind?

  Instead of worrying about Eric, I focused on the task at hand. I parked the back to the truck as close as I could to the other, but it lay at an odd angle. We did an assembly line from one truck to the other. Dena and I were in in the broken truck, passing supplies to Frannie, who gave it to Gwen or Felix, who put it in the truck. Annemarie kept watch for zombies but really she was keeping an eye on Eric. We had only seen two zombies on this trip. Their numbers were thinning. Soon, I hoped, there were none, but I would always had to be on guard.

  I got the solar panel first. Tanya had made sure supplies were evenly split and only one of the two panels got left behind. Grateful that Dave had packed it in a crate and it appeared not to be damaged from the crash.

  I noticed Dena had stopped and was looking over something.

  “Come on Dena, chop, chop,”

  “Dad,” Dena said, handing me a pack which I took. “It’s Maddie’s.”

  The bag was slightly open because Dena looked inside. The first thing to greet me was a picture of Maddie and her family. Eric looked younger and had a gigantic smile. I looked back at him staring at us, no happiness in his face. It looked nothing like the person in the photo. I closed the bag.

  “Finish up. I’ll be right with you.”

  “I’ll bring the bag to him,” Dena said. Even though Dena and I had finally come to an understanding, this was one of those moments where I wasn’t going to let my daughter out of my sight no matter how old she was.

  “We’ll both go.”

  Dena didn’t get angry which surprised me.

  We both left the truck and walked to Eric. I let her go in front of me, keeping one eye on her, one on Eric. I didn’t have my sidearm out. He had no expression on his face as we walked towards him but he stood up.

  She held the bag out to him. “It’s Maddie’s.”

  Eric reluctantly took the pack, grabbing it gently from Dena. He opened it and ruffled through. He took out a knitted hat. Maddie apparently liked to knit. Jim, Annemarie and Tanya all had something knitted by Maddie. She made a lot of blankets and sweaters for people at Costking.

  “Thank you,” he said. He looked like he wanted to cry but not in front of us.

  “Sounds like she was a great lady,” Dena said. “I’m sorry I never met her.”

  “I’m sorry too.”

  “Eric, we can take you anywhere but back to Harbor,” I said. “I don’t want to leave you here at the side of the road. I know Jim didn’t want that.”

  “No,” he said, his voice deadpan and beaten. “I’ll stay here-- stay in one of the houses. I want to search for her body and bury it.”

  I didn’t respond. I didn’t even know what his odds were. She could have been dragged a few feet or a few miles and in which direction? But this was a good a place as any to part ways.

  I went back to the truck, got his shotgun which was empty and handed it to him.

  “I left food and supplies in the truck for you and extra shotgun shells.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “Good luck.” Was the only thing I could think of saying.

  “I don’t think we should have left him,” Dena said as I started the truck. Gwen, Frannie, Felix and Annemarie sat in the back to give Dena and me some quality time in the front I looked at the radiation counter that sat in a caddy next to me. I prayed the needle wouldn’t move when we got to Floral Park. Right now it stood at normal. If need be, I would leave the others and go myself. We needed those weapons.r />
  “We had to do something. What he did was reprehensible. There had to be accountability. I didn’t like it, honey—and I think he knows he made a mistake, but it doesn’t matter, nine people are dead including Simon. That can’t be ignored.”

  “Dad, these people were all masked. What if one of them was Gil?”

  “Aisha didn’t think so. Gil was nasty but rarely left the estate and didn’t hunt like the rest of them.”

  “Eric's part of our family.”

  “I know but—“

  “You might have done the same thing if Grace shot me or mom,” she said, not letting me finish.

  “No—I understand why Eric hated her. She was always going to be the person who killed his mother. If, god forbid, one of you got bit, and Grace—took care of things. I may not be able to look her in the eye, I may be angry, but I’ll know she did the right thing.”

  “You don’t know, Dad,” she said. “Grief can make you crazy.”

  I paused. Dena wasn’t talking about Eric, but about me. My son Vincent had been twenty years old, a smart kid, a junior at Hofstra, but wasn’t as proficient as guns as me.

  He was bit by a zombie while getting supplies.

  Afterwards, I went to the upstairs apartment. I owned the apartments above the store and my family lived there before this happened. I went into Vincent’s room. Untouched except for the few things he took into the shelter. I stayed in his rooms for days. Until my dad came to me to remind me I still had Hannah and Dena.

  “Dad, we live in a zombie infested world. You have to stop sheltering me. You have to stop putting me on a leash.”

  “I have, hadn’t I?” I allowed her to come with us to save Grace and let her come on this trip.

  “It’s a start,” she said, “but I’m going to be 17 soon. I’m not a baby. If I need to survive, I have to do things on my own.”

  “You will—“

  “Dad, things are different. This isn’t like giving me a later curfew. You let Aisha be on her own.”