by Brown, TW
“But I thought that you were pissed because he was supposedly so reckless,” Aleah snapped, turning to face the other woman. “What about how he was putting us in danger with some of his questionable decisions…such as this one?”
“Absolutely.” Catie gave a curt nod. “But up until this point, all I had seen was him someplace safe while those he travelled with went out into the field. This is what I was waiting for…for him to do something on his own.”
“Can we debate this later?” Kevin said as he wormed past the two women and down to where Sean stood. “So,” he thrust his hand out to the young man who looked at it tentatively before clasping it, “do we have a deal?”
Sean seemed reluctant at first, but eventually clasped Kevin’s hand and gave a small nod. All of a sudden, he seemed like a little boy again. Kevin immediately had doubts about including this youngster in the plan, but the die was already cast.
“So the first thing we need to do is figure out where these animals moved their camp. I need to put eyes on them and see what we are dealing with. Also, I need you to tell me everything that you know or found out when you…questioned your prisoner. I am assuming that he is no longer here…or alive?”
Sean shook his head.
Kevin looked around at the dozen or so children that had remained when he appeared—all boys—and saw the same haunted look on their faces. That look was at war with the face they wanted to show; one of bravado and fearlessness. As he looked at them all, he made a vow that he would return these children to their childhood…or the best facsimile he could create.
“So,” he patted Sean on the shoulder and nodded towards the opening a few feet away that would no doubt lead to a crypt of some sort, “can I come in?”
Sean looked around, but none of the other children seemed willing to hold his gaze. At last, he looked up at Kevin and nodded. Catie shut the door and was the last in line as the entire group made their way to the place these children called home.
“Tell me, how did so many kids end up together?” Kevin asked, once he found an open spot on the crowded floor amidst all of the bodies clustered together.
He did his best to keep from making a face at the smell. The odor reminded him of the worst locker room seeped in Dumpster squeezings. His eyes flitted over the group of children and he was disturbed by what he saw. From the haunted look in their eyes, to the dirt and open sores, these kids would not make it another year in their current situation.
There was an instant hush that fell over the room. Kevin looked around to discover that not one single child was making eye contact with him. A few had moved away as if that extra few inches of distance could provide some form of separation. Even Sean was looking at his hands and seemed flustered.
“Anybody?” Kevin prodded.
“We were in juvie,” Sean admitted.
“You mean…like jail?” Kevin asked as he scanned the room once more. But these were only children. A few were no more than ten years old!
“No…not like jail…we were all in detention.” Sean looked up and some of that defiance was creeping back.
“Whoa!” Kevin put up his hands. “You don’t have anything to worry about with us. What’s done is done.”
“When the first stories started coming in, nobody believed it,” Sean explained. “We all thought that the guards were just having a go. They like to screw with your head in there.” That statement received a few nods of agreement from the others.
“One day they told us all to go to our dorm rooms. It was the middle of school time…and they never interrupt school. They will run a drill during a meal, or while we are in bed, but school is sort of off limits. That was the first time we thought it might be something serious.”
“Tell ‘em about the television,” a voice called, inspiring more feverish nods,
“One of the guards came in and cut the wire to the cable,” Sean said. “He told everybody that we were to stay in our pods and that not even the orderlies would be allowed out. Our meals would be brought and handed to us. Just before he left, he said that if any of us had belief in God, now would be the time to start praying.
“That night, a different guard came in with a new cable and turned on the television. He set our sack lunches on the main table and just left. When the television came on, we saw all the people being attacked, the fires burning…and then they showed some stuff from a helicopter over the city of Chicago. The streets were full like it was a parade…but when they zoomed in, it was horrible.
“That was when Fish started telling everybody to save up anything they could from the sack lunch we were given at dinner. When morning came, nobody showed up. We waited until noon and still nothing. Somebody went to bang on the door to demand our meal and the door opened!”
Kevin noticed that a few of the children inched closer together and seemed to clutch at each other. He had a feeling that this is really where their story began.
“Fish and a few of us ventured out. The hallway was lit just like normal, but there was not a sound. Anytime you leave the pod to go someplace like medical or to school, you hear the sounds of guards’ heels on the floor, or those stupid radios going off. That was when I realized that I hadn’t heard one single announcement in the past day or so. You get so that you just tune them out, but all of a sudden, it hit me that we had not heard anything.
“When we reached the tower—that is what we call the big area that sits at the hub of the pods—where the guards hang out and watch us on their monitors. That is also where you are processed through if you have to go out on transport…like if you need to see a dentist or if you get stitches. We saw nobody up there at all. Even in the middle of the night there are at least five or six guards in there.
“When we reached the end of the hall, Fish boosted me up so I could look inside. At first I thought I was seeing some horror movie on a few of the monitors. There were kids all torn up, stuff hanging out, and dark smears all over. The monitors were black and white, so it took me a minute to realize that it was blood. One other pod was like ours…in other words, everybody was fine. The bad ones were the two girls’ pods.
“I told Fish what I saw, but he didn’t believe me and had a couple of us help boost him up so he could see. It only took him a few seconds before he told us to put him back down. He stood there for a second, and then told us to all go back to our pod. He said he would be there in a few minutes.
“When he came back, he had some nasty stuff splattered all over him, but he also had the emergency keys. All our doors are electronic, but they each have a regular key mechanism that works in case the power goes out.
“Fish had us all sit down. He told us that those rumors we were hearing about zombies were true and that it looked like this place had been abandoned. For whatever reason, somebody had left our door unlocked. He was going to go to the other pod and let out those kids and then he would be back. He told us that he would want a dozen volunteers ready when he got back. He had taken a better look at the monitors and said that there were some girls still barricaded inside the bathroom in one of the pods and that he saw two girls up on top of the vending machines in the other pod.
“He slipped out alone, and things got weird. Some of the others decided that they didn’t want to wait for Fish and help anybody. If they could get past the Tower, then they were home free. About half the others in my pod left. I never saw any of them again.” He paused and seemed to consider that statement. “Well…that is not entirely true. I did see a couple of them later on when we made a run for it. Only, by then, they had become zombies.
“It was strange…because this one kid, Elliot, he never hung out with nobody. Supposedly he was in because he had strangled his little sister in her crib, but that was just the rumor. He never spoke to anybody, and one time, a few of the others tried to jump him. They snuck into his cell during a line movement. A few minutes later, they all came hauling ass out of it. None of them ever said what they saw, but Elliot just came to his doorway, look
ed around, then went back inside. Anyways, he was one of the ones that left with that group.
“I don’t know if they all tried to scatter as soon as they got away, but the next time that I saw him, he had a big bite on his cheek and a bunch of meat on his arm was just torn apart like he had tried to get a tattoo using a chainsaw. He was just standing there in the parking lot all by himself. There were other zombies around just doing stuff, but it looked like Elliot was studying everything. When all the zombies came at us as we were finally making our escape, Elliot, or what used to be Elliot…he just stood there watching.”
Sean shuddered at the memory. He still had nightmares about that moment when he locked eyes with that zombie and it cocked its head and seemed to be staring at him…waiting. There had always been something just a little bit creepy about Elliot; but Elliot as a zombie was almost too much. It was like he was thinking.
“So once we got everybody rounded up that we could from the pods, Fish told us that there was a huge church up the road. He said that if we were going to find any help, that was the best place to look.
“Only, there was a cemetery right across from the church. There was a huge, black cloud of smoke coming from that direction. To the left was one of those really nice neighborhoods, but there were fires burning that way, too…and a lot of screaming and shooting. So we headed into the woods…”
Kevin sat quietly as the young man told their story. He had heard pretty much all that he needed and allowed his own thoughts to drift. He would need to formulate a plan to deal with that group of men who had hurt these children. And perhaps he would deal with the Bullies as well.
He tried to come up with what he thought might be a reasonable timeline, but quickly tossed it out. There would simply be too many variables to be able to come up with anything that could be considered accurate.
It looked like South Dakota would, once more, have to wait.
7
Purging and Packing Baggage
“I don’t know about what is in the other two cars,” Jon explained, “but it seems a logical conclusion that they are all carrying weapons.”
“And you say that they were visibly damaged?” I asked.
“Wouldn’t they have blown up and wiped out everything?” Jerri asked right on top of me.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Jake said with a shake of his head. “A warhead won’t just blow up if it is broken. It takes a very specific event to detonate a nuclear device. However, if there is a nuclear component…”
“So you are saying that those cars have busted nuclear weapons?” I finally asked after everybody else seemed to go very silent.
“I can only say what I saw in the one car, but—” Jon started.
“But what is the deal with the zombies?” Jerri blurted,
“I wish I knew,” Jon finally answered with a shrug of his shoulders.
“So…” Jerri seemed to blush as she paused on her next question. “Are the zombies going to turn into giant monsters or something?”
“That is only in the movies,” Jon answered.
“So what is the deal with them being all melted?” I asked. I may not have thought that they were going to turn into some sort of giant beasts, or some other weird video game-type mutation, but that whole melted thing had me wondering.
“Who knows,” Jake said. “It may be something in how the radiation affects their dead flesh…but without a real scientist and a lab, your guess is as good mine.”
“So why would the zombies all be drawn to the cars like that?” Jamal asked.
“Once again, without a real scientist and a lab, we can’t possibly know for sure,” Jake repeated.
“Should we bring a sample back for Dr. Zahn?” I asked. I mean, she wasn’t a scientist, but she was a real doctor. Maybe she could let us know something.
“We can’t bring a radiated chunk of zombie meat back to camp,” Jon said, but his voice grew quieter with each word. Obviously something was coming to mind.
“What is it?” I finally asked when he just kept standing there with a strange look on his face. “Bad” strange…definitely “bad” strange.
“We gotta get back to camp…now!” Jon snapped. He didn’t even wait for us to ask anything, he was heading back to the truck at a sprint.
***
If I had to describe it in a word: careless. That is how Jon drove as we returned to the campground. When we turned off the main road—which was showing some serious signs of disrepair with huge cracks and potholes—and headed down the little entry road, I saw more than just a few zombies that we would have to deal with by the end of the day.
As we shot past the sentry stand at the entrance, I wasn’t surprised to see nobody there. If somebody does not take things seriously around here, we are all going to die. Moving down Death Alley, I noticed a few zombies that had been taken down littering the area.
By the time we reached the gravel parking lot, it seemed like everybody was out to greet us. Dr. Zahn was standing in the back of the crowd with arms folded across her chest with a look on her face like she had been interrupted from something important.
“Get all the supplies we just brought!” Jon barked as he jumped out of the truck.
Everybody just stood there staring at him. I can’t say that I blame them. I mean, it was a pretty vague demand that probably didn’t seem to make any sense to those who did not know what we knew.
“What are you talking about?” Dr. Zahn waded through the group. I noticed that her expression had changed. Obviously she had clued in on Jon’s tone and saw it as something to be concerned about.
“How much have you all eaten?” Jon asked instead of providing the answer to Dr. Zahn’s question.
“We made some of the stew this afternoon. What is going on, Sergeant Saunders?” Now I knew the doctor was concerned; she was calling him out by his rank.
“The train that we hit for the supplies…it contains some busted weapons with nuclear ordinance. Probably supposed to be delivered to the airfield. The car we looked in had at least two…what looked like missiles that were damaged, which is why I suspect they were headed for an Air Det up at Fort Lewis. One of them was practically busted in two and there was all kinds of stuff in the compartment.”
“And I assume you saw the symbol which is why you are certain that it was a nuclear weapon.” The doctor seemed to be talking more to herself at the moment.
“Stamped all over the place,” Jon confirmed.
“Do you know for certain that there has been a compromise?” Dr. Zahn waded through the crowd and was now face-to-face with Jon and Jake.
“I know there are busted weapons, I know there was debris all over the inside of the car, and I know that the zombies are looking like toy soldiers left under a magnifying glass on a hot Texas day,” Jake spoke up. I noticed that he was “back in character” for whatever reason. I also noticed Carol observing him like a bug under a microscope.
“But without a Geiger counter,” Jon raised his hands as everybody started to murmur and ask questions all at once, “there is no way of knowing what the actual situation is as far as the extent of the radiation. What I do know is that I can’t take a chance that the food we brought might be contaminated.”
I am pretty sure Jon would have liked those words back as soon as they left his mouth. Everybody started talking and yelling at once. Thank goodness for Dr. Zahn.
“Everybody just be quiet!” she snapped. I don’t care how new you are to the group, one of the first things you learn is that, when Dr. Zahn says something, you damn well better listen. “Now, we only had the one meal and I doubt very seriously that there is any cause to be alarmed. We will dispose of the rest of the food that was brought in.”
“But what about Melissa?” somebody asked. “I know smoking and drinking are harmful during pregnancy…eating radiated food cannot be considered good.”
Credit Dr. Zahn with some restraint because she simply scowled and then went back to work on the group. �
�We need to start preparing for this move down to La Grande. I want everybody back to work on the stuff that you were assigned. We leave in two days and there is still a lot to be done.”
Meeting over. I watched as the crowd dispersed leaving the doctor, Jon, Jake, and…me. For just a moment, I considered heading around back where the carts were being assembled. However, if I was going to be a part of things, it was time that I start making sure my two-cents-worth is heard.
“So,” Jon finally spoke after the last of the stragglers had departed, “how serious is the danger from the food.”
“Well, I was not a weapons expert,” Dr. Zahn said with a sigh, “but I imagine that we are only dealing with particle radiation. Alpha and beta type, while dangerous, is not like gamma which is basically what you get with an x-ray. I agree that we should dispose of the food only because we can’t really be sure. I hate to waste it, but nobody would eat it now anyways.”
“What about the weapons and ammunition?” Jake asked.
“I say we just don’t draw any attention to it,” the doctor whispered. “Clean them real good and let it be.”
“So you don’t think that there is a danger?” I asked.
“The most dangerous thing about anything nuclear is the lack of knowledge most people have in regards to it…me included,” Dr. Zahn said in a tone that indicated that we were done with this line of the conversation. “Now, as for this move…if we are going to be on the road in two days, there is still a lot that needs doing. I will leave it to you two,” she waved a hand at Jon and Jake, “to get things in order and do whatever you see fit when it comes to how we should travel.”
“And what about me?” I asked.
“I want you to organize the marching order,” Jon said. “You keep acting like you want to be involved…well that is something you can do. When you have it drawn up, come let me know and we will go over it.”
In other words, do it so I can show you where you got everything wrong, I thought. Well, I’d show him.