by Brown, TW
“Two,” Kevin blurted, and instantly regretted it. If somebody were probing them for weakness, he’d just given away crucial information. She could be part of a large group and sent to act as a distraction for a possible attack. “What about you?” he asked hurriedly. “How many you got lurking out in the woods?”
“None.”
The word hung in the air and seemed as if the woman’s facial expression changed to one that dared him to challenge her response. Shifting his weight from one foot to the other in discomfort at the growing silence, he did his best to try and maintain eye contact without looking like he was gawking.
“You gonna invite me in or,” she paused, and for the first time, Kevin noticed a hint of vulnerability, “are you gonna turn me away?”
“Excuse me?” Kevin asked, unaware that there had actually been a choice. “I’m sorry,” he bumbled, stepping aside and ushering her forward with his arm.
“My name is Aleah, like the Donnie Iris song,” she said, stepping forward and extending a hand to Kevin.
“Kevin Dreon…and I have no idea who Donnie Iris is.”
“You’re cute in an awkward sort of way.” Aleah patted his check as she walked past.
Kevin fell in beside Aleah, fighting the desire to look at her. My God, he thought, is she a model or something? Seriously, nobody is that beautiful. He couldn’t help but keep stealing glances. Even with her hair plastered down and dirty, no make-up, a heavy, unflattering jumpsuit, jacket, and boots, she was gorgeous.
“Y’all got any food?” Aleah asked, snapping his attention back from the precipice of fantasy.
“We do,” Kevin replied. “Some in a truck up the road a ways, and some in the house that we carried with us.”
“You were the ones in the military truck?”
“Yep.”
“That’s actually a big relief,” Aleah said with a sigh. “I was worried that those psychos over at the giant picnic basket building had branched out in this direction.”
“You know about Shaw and his men?” Kevin stopped and turned to face Aleah.
“Well, I saw you guys when you arrived at the house—”
“Then why did you ask how many of us there were?” Kevin interrupted.
“To see if you lied.”
“And if I’d lied?”
“At the least, I would’ve left.” She didn’t have to say what her ‘at the most’ choice was. It was clear in her eyes and the tone of her voice. “I waited to see if I heard any screams,” she said after a slight pause. “When I didn’t, I moved around a bit to see if somebody came to investigate. You guys aren’t very observant by the way.”
“It’s been a long day.”
“Yeah, well all it takes is one screw up and you’re toast.”
“Where are you from?” Kevin asked, changing the subject. He could hear something in her inflection that he couldn’t quite place.
“Maine.”
“You walked from Maine?” Kevin gasped.
“Uhh…no,” Aleah said with a laugh. “My plane crashed somewhere in Tennessee.”
“Wow!” Kevin was truly impressed.
“It’s not all that exciting, really. We went down in some dark, swampy area. Five of us made it out.”
“Where did they all go? Or do I ask?”
“One of them was bitten,” Aleah whispered. “She was attacked the first day. I didn’t even really get to know her. The others, well, we all had our own destinations. It was early on and the whole denial thing was still prominent.”
“And you’ve been on your own for the whole time?” Kevin’s tone bordered on reverent.
“Most of it.” A dark look flashed across Aleah’s face. “I met this lady named Millie Peters. We were scavenging for food in a town not far from here when this convoy rolled in—”
“Shaw,” Kevin spat.
“Militant, goonish, mocha skin, shaved head with an obscenely straight and thin beard along the contour of his square jaw?” Aleah ticked off the description on her fingers.
“I never got that close,” Kevin admitted.
He really wanted to avoid the part about how he hid on top of an RV park bathroom while Shaw shot one of his best friends at point-blank range and kidnapped four females that had been in his company.
“Yeah, well, Millie never had a chance…” Aleah’s voice grew distant and faded with a choked sob. After a moment, she continued. “I’ve been kinda hopin’ to get a shot at those bastards. Saw ‘em a while back. They were rolling into that town we’d been passing through when they snatched Millie. I was in the cellar of this house when someone else got ‘em. Blew ‘em straight to hell.”
“That was me…errr…us,” Kevin said in a bumbling rush. “We rigged—”
“You’re the one that blew up that convoy and burned that town to the ground?” Aleah said with more than a little skepticism.
“Yes,” Kevin said slowly, unsure about the tone in Aleah’s voice. Then there was that whole ‘burned that town to the ground’ comment.
Without warning, Aleah threw her arms around Kevin’s neck and kissed him. After several seconds, she let go and stepped back with a smile. Kevin stood frozen, dumbfounded.
“I swore I’d plant one on the person that did that,” Aleah explained patting Kevin on the shoulder. “Now take me up there to your group and introduce me before they think I’m crazy.”
Kevin shook his head to clear it and led the way. Although, if you asked him later, he couldn’t actually remember doing so. As they reached the house, Heather stepped off the porch. She’d already holstered her weapon and had her arms folded across her body.
“I didn’t think you two were ever going to come back to the house,” Heather scolded. Kevin mumbled something unintelligible and stepped from between the two females.
“Hi, I’m Aleah,” the new arrival said, extending a hand to Heather. “Aleah Brock.”
“Heather Godwin.” The younger girl accepted the handshake and glanced at Kevin. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “You’ve met Kevin, come in and meet the others.” She stepped aside and ushered Aleah through the door. Kevin remained on the porch with a dreamy-but-dazed look on his face. “Never mind him.” Heather gave a dismissive wave at the man that continued to stand on the porch, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
The sounds of approaching footsteps signaled Peter’s arrival. Heather made the introductions while Kevin continued to stand silent and useless.
“Kevin said there were two others?” Aleah asked looking around.
“Asleep,” Peter explained. “One of them is very pregnant and due any day now.
“Ouch,” Aleah winced.
“Yeah,” Peter agreed. “And we’ve only got about half the supplies we need to deal with it.”
Aleah smiled as Kevin entered the room. Heather caught the look and glanced back at her obviously smitten traveling companion who just happened to be the person that she’d had the most tremendous crush on.
“Everybody met?” Kevin said, his face a glowing, crimson mask of embarrassment.
“She hasn’t met Shari or Erin,” Heather struggled to keep the disdain from her voice, “they’re asleep.”
“I think I can help on that whole supply issue,” Aleah offered. “I mean, with the one who is pregnant and due any day.” All eyes turned her way. “I know where a pharmacy is. I’m no doctor, but it looked like one of those twenty-four hour emergency clinics. There was a drug store right next door. Chances are, we should be able to find something useful since it didn’t look like it had been hit by anybody yet.”
“That’s a great offer.” Peter nodded at the idea, but something clouded his expression. “I just have one little question.”
“Why would I want to help?” Aleah turned to face the man. “Peter is it? You see, I’ve been on my own for the most part since this began. This isn’t going to get any better, and staying out there on my own is a daily lottery where my number will eventually c
ome up. You folks aren’t out there taking advantage of the situation like so many others I’ve seen. I’d like to think that you are trying to survive while doing things right. I got a really good feeling when I met Mister Fumble Tongue over there. I trusted him almost instantly; that’s something I didn’t do before all this madness, much less after. I’ve seen enough to know that there’s safety in numbers. So, if you don’t want me around…that’s fine. I’ll hit the road, but you might regret it later. I think you’re gonna need every weapon carrying hand that you can get.”
“Okay,” Peter agreed after glancing at Kevin and Heather. “But what I was going to ask is how far away this place you were talking about is…on foot, and who’d you want to take with you.”
“Oh,” Aleah said with just a hint of embarrassment.
“Kevin and I will go,” Heather spoke up. “You need to be here with Erin and Shari just in case.”
“But I know what I need,” Peter argued shaking his head.
“And you can write it down,” Heather glanced at Kevin for support. He gave a slight nod. “You are the only doctor we’ve got.” She turned to Aleah, obviously finished with that conversation. “If we leave in the morning?”
“Three days. One out, one there, one back.”
“Then we should see about unloading the food from the truck,” Kevin finally spoke up. “Also, there are the supplies from the medical center that you guys raided.”
“Unload the truck?” Peter asked. “Why do you want to unload the truck?”
“We’re agreed that the golf club that Heather told us about was a good idea?” Kevin looked from one face to the other waiting for nods. “Well, this place we’re in now is actually pretty decent. It’s biggest downfall is that is isn’t very defensible against attacks from the living. Too flat, sits in a bit of a bowl which makes us very vulnerable to a sniper. However, if we stock this place, we’ll have a way station to utilize when we make runs in this direction from that golf club facility.”
“What’s to stop somebody from taking all our stuff?” Heather asked.
“Nothing,” Kevin replied with a shrug. “But anybody looking for a place to stay is more than likely to see the same flaws in this place that we do. Couple that with how far off the road it is. We only knew it existed because of the Google Maps we found in the binder. Travel on foot is becoming the norm. This is fairly remote as far as locations go. Cars will become a thing of the past real quick. My guess is that not many will run after the first winter. Plus, people who are alive now realize that noise brings trouble…nobody wants to bring zombies down on them on purpose.”
“You really have given this stuff a lot of thought,” Peter said with a bemused chuckle.
“Well, lotta good it did,” Kevin’s voice grew instantly somber. “This has definitely been one of those ‘be careful what you ask for’ situations.”
“Did I miss something?” Aleah asked.
“Our man Kevin,” Peter announced, “was a bit of a zombie fan back in the day. It seems like he has done a considerable amount of planning when it comes to this whole ‘dead rising and eating the living’ scenario.”
“You are just getting sexier every second.” Aleah turned to the now-blushing Kevin and batted her eyelashes.
Heather had to bite down on the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Was I that obvious with my crush on Kevin, she wondered. And Kevin was absolutely gaga over this new girl as well. Her statement had turned him an almost unnatural shade of red. In fact, it reminded her of this pale-skinned girl in her sixth-grade class who had gotten a terrible sunburn one year during a Fourth of July party where they had all gone out and spent the day on inner tubes at a nearby lake.
Over the next few hours, the four of them made several trips back and forth from the truck to the house. Of course, Kevin rigged a pushcart to make things just a little easier. As they were hauling the last round of boxes inside, Shari came down the stairs rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“What’s for dinner?” she asked sleepily.
“Whatever you decide to make us,” Heather replied with a fake smile on her face. She and Aleah sat down the boxes they were carrying and walked back out to take a bird bath in the metal basin that Kevin had hauled across the yard.
“Was that Shari, the singer?” Aleah whispered once the back door shut behind them.
“Uh-huh,” Heather snorted, stripping off her weapons and the first layer of protective clothing.
“Ick,” Aleah made an exaggerated shudder, “I always hated her.”
Heather smiled. Yes, she thought, she liked this new girl a whole lot.
5
Death Knocks
“Set down your weapons,” I repeated, a little louder this time.
The three individuals huddled together for a moment, then one stepped away, hands in the air. It wasn’t the one carrying the flamethrower. He began peeling off an impressive assortment of weapons: blades, bludgeons, and firearms.
“What’s he got?” Dr. Zahn whispered, “An entire armory strapped to his body?”
Finally finished, the man began walking up the entrance road between the earthen berms on either side. He kept his hands open and held above his head. Keeping my pistol, I went down to meet him. Twice I saw him turn and say something over his shoulder. I couldn’t hear the words, but I knew the tone: keep quiet and behave.
Ten yards or so apart, we both stopped. I looked the man over. Black, almost as dark as Barry, a tight mat of dark, kinky hair, average height, slender like a runner, missing his left eye and not wearing a patch—at least not at the moment.
“I see you folks got this place set up pretty good,” the man broke the silence. “We ain’t lookin’ for any trouble. Actually found this place on a map at a rest area not too far up the road. Figured it might be worth checking out. If you folks don’t want us here we’ll be on our way. But would you mind if we filled our water bags in the stream first?”
“Looking for a place to settle?” I asked, unable to keep myself from glancing past this man to the one up the road holding the flamethrower.
“Such as it is,” the man nodded. “The name’s Jonathan Saunders. Formerly Sergeant Saunders, United States Marine Corps.”
“Long ways from any major bases, aren’t ya, Sergeant?” I asked.
“I was working as a recruiter in Boise,” the man smiled.
“The others?” I nodded my head to the couple standing in the middle of the entry road looking just a little edgy.
“Pair of soldiers I ran into at a FEMA center that only managed to hold out for ten days,” the man explained. “A couple folks inside were bit. Probably on the first day before the CDC finally copped to what was happening. Protocol hadn’t been put in place yet to isolate potentially infected persons. One night everything went bad…fast. The three of us made it out.
“They keep flamethrowers like those at FEMA stations?”
“No,” the sergeant chuckled. “We hit an armory. Thing’s been empty for a week, but Sanchez thinks it looks scary and will keep bush-leaguers at bay.”
“Sanchez is a smart guy, my people are in a tizzy.”
“I’ll pass that along…?” his voice left an open question and I realized that he’d introduced himself but I hadn’t reciprocated.
“My name is Steve Hobart,” I said, and decided to close the remaining distance. I offered my hand.
“Nice to meetcha.” The sergeant nodded and took my hand; solid grip without trying to pull some sort of pressure test.
“I guess I don’t have to ask what you have to offer if you stay.” I glanced over my shoulder. We’d gained an audience. It looked like everybody had come to see what was up. Would we ever reach the point where newcomers don’t cause a big stir?
“I’d be happy to tell my men to disarm,” the sergeant offered.
“That would help, but I’d also need you to let our doctor give everybody an exam. I hope you can appreciate that we couldn’t just take somebody’s wor
d that nobody is bitten,” I explained, trying not to sound apologetic. For some reason, I felt it was important to play the role of leader here.
“And if somebody is bit?”
“We quarantine them until we can be certain.”
“Certain?” The sergeant’s expression and tone told me that he didn’t know about the possibility that a person might be immune. I explained briefly about Curtis Sheppard.
“Well, I’ll be,” the sergeant breathed.
“So, I’m sure there are other details that we can deal with, but would you and your men like to stay?”
“I have little doubt, but if you give me a moment,” Sergeant Saunders said, then nodded and turned to his men.
I decided that it would be good to go back up to my people and fill them in. I didn’t anticipate any problems. Still, it felt like the proper thing to do. After all, we’re a group and I wasn’t really like the boss or anything. Right?
“So?” Dr. Zahn led the frontal assault of the inquisition. “What’s the deal?”
“Is that a flamethrower?” Jason piped up.
“I’ve invited them to stay, and yes it’s real, but the tanks are empty,” I answered. “I told their leader, Sergeant Saunders, that they would have to submit to a full screening by Dr. Zahn.”
“Are they really soldiers?” Emily pushed to the front. I saw a look of hope and expectancy on her face. Her dad, a CDC upper management type, had whisked her to a military outpost: Serenity Base. That’s where we’d eventually found safety; even if only for a brief while. When things looked bad, Emily’s dad, Randall Smith, asked me to bring her with my group—along with one of his doctors, Dr. Francis Zahn—when we evacuated. When we saw soldiers, I imagine she thought that maybe her dad might by with them.
“They’re from Boise.” I knelt in front of a nine-year-old girl and stared into eyes that betrayed her mother’s Asian heritage. Well, that and her straight, black hair. “One is a Marine, and the other two are soldiers. I don’t think that they knew your daddy, sweetie.”