by Brown, TW
“And who decides when something is, as you say, a stupid decision?” Catie challenged. “I have only been with you guys for a little while, but it seems to me that you are the one making all the choices. You say when we camp…where. Who we help, and who we don’t!”
“I simply make suggestions, but we are always free to discuss them if anybody has an issue or a better idea,” Kevin retorted. “I don’t see you offering much of anything so far. You hunt, that is what you do. You don’t ask anybody if they want to go, you don’t tell anybody where you are going or when you plan to come back. We are simply making camp, turn around, and you are gone.”
“Excuse me,” Aleah interrupted from behind, “but none of this is going after Heather.”
Kevin turned to find her already in her gear and ready to go. He glanced back at Catie with his lips pursed. Obviously there were some kinks that needed to be ironed out in their group dynamic. However, Aleah was right; nothing he was doing right now was helping to get Heather back.
Kevin grabbed his stuff and plopped down on the musty sofa that was on one side of the private jet’s cabin. He only grew more frustrated when both women had to wait for him as he finished getting ready. He hoped that he eventually got good enough at securing his prosthetic so that it didn’t become such a frustrating operation.
By the time the three of them climbed out of the aircraft, a light rain was beginning to fall. Between his growling stomach reminding him of how little he’d had to eat in the past two days, and the single rivulet of water that managed to snake down his collar and trace a frozen line all the way down to the small of his back, Kevin’s day was not starting off good at all.
The three moved as quickly as they could back along the highway and in the direction of the cemetery. The entire time, Kevin was puzzling over just what Heather thought she was going to be able to accomplish. As they drew close, he became cautious. He told himself that he would indulge in enjoying the irony of the situation later. Here he was, in a world overrun by the undead and he was creeping along worried about a pack of living children between the ages of about ten and fifteen.
When they reached their destination, Kevin saw no signs of Heather or anything that indicated trouble. He stopped and knelt beside an abandoned truck. Turning to face Aleah and Catie, he gave himself a quick reminder to try and not be confrontational. He and Catie obviously had some things to iron out, but now was not the time.
“I don’t think going over the fence in front is the way to go,” Kevin whispered. “Perhaps if we circle to the back and each side and come from all three directions—”
“I see what you are saying, but I don’t think that it’s a good idea,” Catie interrupted. Kevin held his tongue and nodded for her to continue. “If we split up, we have no real way to communicate if anything goes wrong. I also believe that you are a bigger threat in the eyes of the children. I think that it might be best if we stick together. I do think you have a point with coming in from the back or sides. I think that is where they will be focusing their attention.”
Kevin considered Catie’s plan and had to admit that it held merit. He nodded his agreement and the trio got up and moved down the far side opposite of the one that they had approached. It might be something small, but the hopes were that, if they were watching out, that their focus would be from the direction that they expected the threat to come from.
Kevin went first with Aleah behind him and Catie taking up the rear. Instead of simply walking across the grounds, they all got down and made their way on their bellies. With the rain starting to come down a little harder, it was a thoroughly miserable experience. The ground was a mix of black ash and an oily substance that turned the mud into a pasty sludge that soon had them coated from head to toe in its petroleum scented filthiness.
They reached the top of a rise and were now in the middle of the cemetery when Kevin heard what he was positive had to be—
“Singing?” Aleah whispered.
“That is what I hear, too,” Catie chimed in.
The strange thing was that it seemed to be coming from beneath them. Kevin looked around and his eyes fixed on that stone shed that he had noticed the first time. In the darkness it was easy to see just the smallest crease of light in the outline of some sort of door or access point.
He pointed it out and they retreated just a little ways in case there might be some sort of sentry. Once they felt comfortable with the distance, Kevin turned to Aleah and Catie. “Well? What do we do?” he asked.
“If we simply barge in, we might get killed…or get Heather killed. They did not seem too scared to use those weapons, and from what I saw, their numbers alone make any sort of attack, one that would fail. Not to mention, I am not all that keen on killing a bunch of children,” Catie offered.
“I have to agree,” Aleah added.
“Those children won’t think twice about killing us,” Kevin said. “And what the hell is with the singing? If Heather is down there, and we have no reason to think otherwise, are they performing some sort of ritual?”
Catie threw her hands over her mouth to stifle the laugh. “Did you not recognize the song?”
“I wasn’t really paying attention,” Kevin admitted. “I just recognized it as singing.”
“Puff the Magic Dragon,” Aleah said with just a hint of a laugh in her voice.
Kevin pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Okay, so they were singing some hippie song, big deal. The fact remained that he needed to put eyes on Heather before he would be able to relax or see levity in anything.
“I say we turn ourselves in and ask to be taken to their leader,” Catie spoke after several seconds of silence started to become uncomfortable.
“They were so receptive last time,” Kevin grumbled.
“Then maybe you just let me and Aleah go in. They don’t seem to have done anything terrible with Heather…if we can take anything away from the sounds of singing.”
Kevin considered the possibility that Heather was not in any danger, but he simply could not convince himself that that could be the case. There was something wrong here…he just knew it. However, he also knew that his best chance might be to stay back and let the women deal with this their way. If nothing else, he would be in reserve. If it came to it, he would come with a vengeance that would justify the fear and distrust the children seemed to hold for him.
“I am going to give you five minutes,” Kevin finally agreed. “I will count to three hundred alligator. When I hit it, I am coming in, so talk fast and make them understand that I don’t want to hurt anybody…but I will.”
“Three hundred alligator?” Catie sniffed.
“Best way to keep me from counting too quick,” Kevin said with a shrug. “You got a better idea?”
“Yeah…we need to find some watches. There are plenty out there to grab…don’t even need batteries.”
“And what would we use to set them to the correct time?”
“Who cares if it is right according to whatever it would have been in the days when we had that sort of luxury? We just decide when the sun is at what would be close to midday and then set all of our watches to noon straight up.”
Kevin had to admit, that was a pretty good idea. Sometimes he was frustrated at how his mind worked. He was always trying to look at something with such intense analytical ability that he often looked right past the easy and the obvious.
He agreed and gave Aleah a quick hug. After his third warning of how they needed to be careful and how he would not count one more alligator than the three hundred, the two women finally pulled away and slipped into the darkness. Kevin began to count.
***
“…you really need to get to know him better,” Aleah was whispering as she and Catie moved down the hill and towards the razor-thin outline of light in the stone shed or whatever it was. Catie only grunted noncommittally and continued walking. Her lack of any sort of response kind of annoyed Aleah, so she pressed on. “And you ar
e the one who joined us and asked to come along. I think it is pretty lousy for you to come in to our group and act like anybody needs to change. We have been surviving just fine so far…because of Kevin.”
“Don’t let your feelings for the man cloud your mind,” Catie whispered. She stopped and turned to face the woman at her side. “I am not saying he has not done some great things…that he hasn’t done what it takes to keep you and the others alive this long. However, he has made some very sketchy choices that have put you in needless danger more than once.” Catie paused for just a moment before adding, “This is a perfect example.”
“WHA—” Aleah almost yelled, then clamped her mouth shut and tried to speak in a whisper through the rage building inside her. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Heather knew what she was doing. She made this choice…and Kevin insisted that we go after her in the middle of the night into a situation that, if it turns bad, will cost us all our lives. He says we can’t help everybody and how we can’t do everything, but here we are…in a freaking cemetery, in the dark, about to walk in to the camp of who knows how many kids that just might kill us first and not bother with the questions.”
Aleah let all those words roll by. She heard what Catie was saying, and she could even admit that there was some merit to what the other woman was pointing out. However, she was missing what Aleah believed was the real key. Yes, they were risking their lives, but it was for one of their own. If you were not willing to put your life on the line for those you claimed to care about…what was the point? She knew without a doubt that she would give up her life to save Kevin if it ever came to it. She had seen, on more than one occasion, him do just exactly that for her.
They reached the stone building and Catie felt around for a moment. Aleah stood back and kept her eyes open for any sign that there might be sentries posted. She heard Catie make a slight grunting noise behind her, and then heard the distinct sound of stone grinding on stone. That was also the instant that the singing stopped. For a brief few seconds, there was almost perfect silence. Then the sounds of scuffling feet were heard.
“We are just here looking for our friend,” Aleah called out. She ignored the dirty look that Catie flashed her.
They were looking down a set of stone steps. The walls were also made of stone and there were torches mounted on them. It made Aleah think of old Dracula movies. That was when realization struck.
“This is a tomb!” she breathed just as several of the children came into view at the bottom of the steps. Most had weapons in hand, and none looked happy…or at all friendly.
“You should not have come here.” It was the boy from earlier who had held Kevin, for all intents and purposes, hostage.
“Our friend disappeared,” Catie said in a very even and measured tone. “We have reason to believe that she came this way. She is only a bit older than you…we are worried about her.”
“Being out in the dark is a quick way to die,” the boy said, not acknowledging her comment. “Snappers can get you if you aren’t careful.”
“Snappers?” Aleah asked.
“Just the heads,” another young boy spoke. “Lots of people were chopping off heads early on thinking that was enough. Those heads are like snapping turtles now. They clamp down and won’t let loose until it thunders.”
Several heads nodded vigorously. It made Aleah think of the park that she and Heather had crossed.
“The Bullies use snappers in a lot of their traps,” a girl said. That earned her quite a few dirty looks from the others; including the young boy who was the apparent leader.
“Bullies?” Catie asked.
“Group of older kids…mostly boys. They all wear the old Chicago basketball jerseys. Most of them paint their faces in reds and blacks. They steal, they kill, they…” one of the girls in back explained, but her voice broke and she stopped.
Several of the children around her moved in close to offer consolation. She was ushered away and vanished from view. A few seconds later, Heather’s head popped around the corner,
“Why are you guys here?” Heather asked as she waded through the group. “I told you that I would be back before noon.” She looked at Catie with a scowl.
“Kevin was worried about you,” Aleah said. “You had to know that he would come after you if he found you missing. Of all people, you should know that.”
“Is that man with you?” the leader called.
There was a visible change in all of the children. The silence of the night fell like a wet blanket over a fire. It seemed to wrap all of the young ones in gloom and shadow as they seemed to bunch in tighter.
“Can you tell me what you have against Kevin?” Aleah posed the question. “He did nothing to anybody here. Actually, he probably would have done anything he could to help if you’d simply asked.”
“There were some bad men through here a few months ago,” the leader finally spoke, after looking around the room and seeing a few nods from those that would even meet his gaze. “They…did things. They took some of us. At first we thought it was the Bullies. But we captured one of them and made him answer our questions. He did not know about our friends. But he had seen a group of men sneaking around. Some of us went looking. Fish was our leader back then…him and Ginny.”
At the mention of the name “Ginny”, several of the children had to stifle little cries and sobs. Aleah and Catie both noticed a few of the girls slip away and vanish back into the vault or tomb, or whatever it was that these children had converted into their home.
“He picked ten of us to go search. We found their camp just this side of Valparaiso. There were thirty or so of them…and the cages. The cages are where they kept…” The young boy’s voice became strangled. He had to take a few deep breaths and hid his face in his hands for a few moments. When he looked back up, tears had smeared the dirt on his face, but his eyes glittered with defiant anger that had wiped out the sadness…or at least replaced it for the time being.
“Fish told us to stay put. He was going to sneak in at night and try to rescue Ginny. They caught him and all that night we heard him screaming. Eventually it stopped. The next morning, he was hanging upside down from a street light. The men brought out girls from the cages and did terrible things to them right under where he hung. And then they brought out Ginny and…”
When the boy stopped this time, it was one of the girls who continued the story. “They killed her and just left Fish. By the time that they moved on and we could get down to him…Fish was almost dead. We brought him back, but he did not last the night. He told us that they made him talk and that he was sorry. He said that they knew where we were hiding…so we came here. Nobody likes the graveyards.”
“And how long ago was that?” Catie asked.
“About two weeks.”
“So why would you think Kevin—” Aleah began to ask, but was cut off by the leader who had once again composed himself.
“Three times we have been attacked while out trying to gather food. The last time…” the boy looked up and his face almost appeared as if it were carved from granite. “The last time, we caught one of the men. We made him talk just like they did to Fish.”
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence until Heather finally spoke. “If you all just go back in, I’ll be there in a minute. I just need to talk to my friends.”
“I think it is better for you to just go with them,” the leader spoke.
“Now, Sean, there is no reason for you to get worried. I just want to let them know I am okay and tell them when I will be returning,” Heather said as she placed her hands on the boy’s shoulders.
He was just about as tall as she was and looked her in the eyes. “It was nice of you to come back, and you will always be welcome here if you choose. You know where to look for us. Just be careful. We thought that the Bullies were bad…but there is worse.”
“What if I help you take care of your little problem with whoever these men are?” a voice aske
d from the dark, causing both Catie and Aleah to jump as Kevin seemed to materialize out of the darkness beside them.
The rustle of weapons stirring came, but Sean turned and put his hands in the air and patted down in a gesture for them to all relax. He turned back and climbed a few stairs to separate himself from the group.
“Why would you want to do that?” It was not spoken with malice or anger; it was simply a question.
“Because,” Kevin stepped into the doorway past Aleah and Catie, “some friends of mine have reminded me that sometimes we need to stop and help those in need. I think about how I would hope there is somebody out there who might have helped my mom and my sister. But how can I hope for what I am not willing to do?”
“But I cannot let any of my people go out there. For one, they are too afraid, and for another most of them believe that if Fish failed…they do not stand a chance,” Sean said.
“I would not ask for any of them to come…just you.”
A murmur went through the crowd that still stood gathered around. A few were trying to clutch at their leader, shaking their heads as they made their feelings known in regards to how they felt about that prospect.
“I think that Heather can stay here,” Kevin spoke when nobody else seemed inclined. “I will bring Aleah and Catie with me…and you.”
“Thanks for asking,” Catie grumbled. Kevin spun around but she was smiling. “This is why I hooked up with your group in the first place,” she said with a smile that shone in her eyes. “I was starting to think I had made the wrong decision. I came to be with you guys because I figured that you were out in this hell on earth trying to do something. Hell, the way that Willa talked about you…you practically walked on water. You were risking your life to bring medicine to a sick girl in the dead of winter. You were going to just walk into a city full of zombies without even giving it a second thought.”