by Brown, TW
Besides, he might be good with his words, and he seemed to know all of the right things to say, but Ronni had learned long ago to take a person at their actions; words were useless and cheap. Yet she had admitted to herself on more than one occasion that she really did want to get to know this man. He did seem to care about her in a very real way that made her feel good when she let it.
Her thoughts were interrupted by something coming through the nearby trees. It was probably just more zombies. She prepared herself in case it was a zombie version of her dad. Perhaps he had wandered off and then come back. People were always saying that these things did stuff from some sort of habit.
She made up her mind right then. If it was her dad as a zombie, then she was going to take him down. She was not sure how, and she very much doubted that she would be able to fight her way through the crowds to get him. Perhaps she could lure him close. Once he made his way to the front of the crowd, she would take the knife at her belt and stick it into his head.
Of course she would have to move to the edge of the rock, and a few of the zombies were actually able to reach their arms a little ways. She would probably get yanked down off the rock. But that would be okay. If she was going to die, she would put her dad to rest first. He deserved that much.
“Ronni?” a familiar voice called.
Three horses emerged from the trees. It was that man Mr. Miller, and Scott, and Brett. There was a figure on Scott’s horse. It was her dad!
“Help,” Ronni said weakly.
Collapsing to her knees in relief, she watched as the men rode in hard and began to cut down the zombies that turned to face them. It only took a few minutes to be done and then Mr. Miller came up alongside the rock.
“Let’s go, Ronni,” he said as he reached out a hand to help her. “We need to get your dad back home as quick as possible.”
“Is he bit?” she felt the sick fear rise up in her and twist her insides in the split second that it took for the answer.
“We can’t tell, he is hurt real bad.” Mr. Miller situated her in front of him. “What the hell did you do to your arms?”
Ronni explained as they wheeled the horses around and took off at an easy trot. When she asked why they were not going faster, Scott explained that if they did, it might be too much for her dad.
At last, the high fences and towers came into view. The five of them rode through the front gate where it seemed that most of the people who lived here were gathered.
“You have to make it, Dad,” she whispered as he was taken down from the horse and carried away.
***
“She will be fine,” Selina whispered to Jody as he watched the group of women gather that had been selected by random draw to be exchanged with the women from Pitts’ compound.
He knew many of the names and faces, but there was one in particular that made his gut twist just a little bit tighter. Kat looked up at him in the tower and smiled, blew him a kiss, and then waved.
“When I found her…she was…” he struggled to talk through the tightness growing in his throat, but his words eventually died on his tongue.
“I know,” Selina soothed. “But she falls in the age group and her name came up. You can’t pick and choose, Jody. The moment that you do, this all falls apart.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to like it…or any of this.”
“We got incoming!” Danny called up from the base of the watch tower.
Jody had spotted them a while ago. This would be the women from Pitts’ place. He looked down at his small group of ten and swallowed the anger. This was so wrong.
Climbing down the ladder, he sent Danny up to replace him and then moved over to the women that he was about to send away to become little more than breeding stock. Pitts could dress it up any way that he wanted, but this was still sexual slavery as far as Jody was concerned.
“Ladies, I have been given the word of the man who is in charge over there. Sergeant Pitts has given assurance that each of you will be treated with the utmost courtesy during your stay, and as soon as you have given birth, you may return if that is your wish. As I have told you, the stipulations are that any boy child will be sent back to us here, but any girl child will be remanded over to their compound.” The words tasted like ash on his tongue and Jody struggled to keep his voice calm as he spoke.
“What if we don’t get pregnant? Will they just keep at us? Do we get passed around like some whore at a frat party?” one of the women asked. Jody was actually surprised at the matter-of-fact way in which she spoke…almost clinical.
“I don’t think that we discussed the procedures to be taken if there is no pregnancy. As for the being passed around bit, I was told that you will actually be the one to choose from a pool of suitable, and by that I have to assume that he means fertile, men,” Jody replied. “I will make a trip over in a few days. Part of it will be to check on your conditions. That is also why I wanted to see you before you left. You might be prevented from speaking to me for whatever reason. If you are in distress of any sort, or know of anything amiss, all you need to do is rub your hands together when we make eye contact. Hopefully that gesture will not be picked up on as having been a signal. But rest assured, if you give me that signal, I will do everything possible to find out what is wrong and do something about it.”
Like what? the voice in his head mocked. If he had been able to do anything, he would have by now. He would have been able to repel Pitts and his small army and prevented this from happening in the first place. He honestly did not know if he was saying this for himself or for them.
Kat stepped forward and gestured with her hands. Relax, Jody. We will be fine. I will keep an eye on things.
I know you will, Jody signed in response.
Taking the girl in a hug, he had to bite down on the inside of his cheek to keep the tears at bay. If he held her much longer, he would be helpless, so he broke the embrace and stepped back.
With Kat taking the lead, the women all turned and headed up the long stretch of road. Jody could see a detachment of armed individuals waiting. He sent his own team out, but he had insisted that they not carry anything in the way of weapons. The ground was open, flat, and clear. They would see an approaching zombie well before it could present a problem.
Selina stood beside him and waited. It was hard for Jody to enjoy the warmth of the sun when he felt so cold inside. He had made a decision that repulsed him. Still, he had been more than surprised when the women had emerged from their private conference to announce that the vote had actually been unanimous. He had a feeling that some of the votes had been given grudgingly if not outright coerced. Still, it had been done, and he had been able to give Sergeant Pitts the message that he would be sending over a group of women immediately.
At last the group from Pitts’ compound were escorted to him. One woman stepped forward. The others all stood together, but none looked the slightest bit bothered by what was about to happen.
Jody examined this woman as she approached. Her hair was ebony and her skin was tan. There was no disputing her Hispanic heritage. Her figure was full, but she looked healthy, not heavy. She wore an unflattering set of coveralls, but had the zipper down just enough to show off some rather impressive cleavage. Her dark brown eyes were bright and she was actually smiling.
“You are Sergeant Jody Rafe?” she said with a hint of her Mexican accent turning his last name to “Ra-fee.”
“Just Jody is fine,” he replied, clasping his hands in front of himself and smiling in reply.
“And you are the person in charge here?” she asked, her eyes flicking to Selina and shooting a look that he did not quite understand.
“We don’t have one person who is solely in charge, but I am what you might consider one of this community’s leaders…yes.”
“Then I choose you.”
Jody looked at the woman with a blank expression for a few seconds before the meaning of her words actually sunk in. When they did, he sputtered…b
ut not loud enough to drown out Danny’s chuckle or Selina’s snort of displeasure.
“Actually, I am what you might call spoken for.” He pulled Selina close to his side.
The woman gave her an up and down appraisal and then returned her gaze to Jody. “She is pregnant. You have no need to lie with her at the moment.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Danny’s voice drifted down with obvious amusement.
“We don’t work like that,” Jody said.
However, Selina elbowed past and stepped up directly in front of the woman so that they were almost touching. “You may be okay with pumping out babies over in that kingdom of yours, but here…we actually encourage people to have real relationships, Miss…what was your name?”
“My name is Margarita Rivera.” The woman was about a foot or more shorter, but she showed no sign of backing down. “And who are you?”
“Selina…Selina Rafe.”
Jody noticed that she enunciated his last name very specifically and with an obvious effort to correct the woman’s poorer pronunciation. As an added emphasis, she planted her hand on her hips in some universal female symbol of challenge. This was not going well at all.
“You are married to this man since before the muerto viviente? The…zombie…the living dead? You were married before they come?” Selina did not answer immediately and the woman steamrolled onwards. “Then it is not counting. I choose him.”
Margarita stepped past Selina as if she were not there and placed herself directly in front of Jody, arms crossed and chin tilted up at him. She winked, causing him to jump back as if hit with a small jolt of electricity.
“This is awesome,” Danny snickered.
“When will you have the men coming forward so that the rest may choose?” Margarita asked.
“Don’t you want to get situated, maybe take a few days?” Jody replied, shooting a look over the woman’s head at Selina who only had eyes for Margarita at the moment.
“We are not here for marrying. The more faster you help give babies to us, then we can go home.” She looked around at the surroundings and gave a sniff like she could detect something foul. “This place is small. It is dirty.”
“Now just a minute!” Selina lunged forward as George walked up. He was just in time to grab her and pull her back. He shot Jody a questioning look, but Jody only shrugged.
“This is George Rosamilia,” Jody said by way of introductions. “George, this is Margarita Rivera.”
The woman turned and now it was her turn to take a step back. She whistled through her teeth and clasped her hands behind her back. Slowly, she walked a circle around the large man. When she was finished, she turned to Jody and shook her head. “I am sorry. Mr. Rafe (again it came out as Ra-fee, and there was perhaps even a bit of extra emphasis on the obvious mispronunciation). I have changed my mind.”
“What’s going on?” George asked, clearly confused by the sudden turn of events.
“I am wishing to have this one be the father of my next child,” Margarita said with a wicked laugh that was only emphasized as she clapped her hands together.
“Wait…what?” George looked over at Jody.
From up above in the watchtower, the sounds of Danny Sullivan exploding with laughter rained down on the scene.
“Oh, my God!” Danny exclaimed. “This is fuckin’-A priceless!”
***
Sean scooped Deanna up into his arms. There were zombies everywhere. How did she not realize that she couldn’t help anybody? He shoved a zombie away and jabbed his large knife into one milky eye, snatching his arm back so as not to lose his only remaining weapon.
“Deanna!” a voice screamed.
Sean turned and saw that little trouble maker Rose standing on the trunk of a car. She had a look on her face that told him she had seen it all. Well that was too bad. The stupid girl was probably going to die judging by what he saw. Besides, she didn’t understand.
Sean had not knocked Deanna out to hurt her; he had done it because he loved her. He loved her so much that he would do anything for her. If he had to punch a good one and knock her out in order to rescue her, then that was the way things had to be. She would understand when she came to. He would tell her absolutely everything and she would be thankful.
He dropped his free shoulder to knock aside another zombie. It had one of the other kids from the group held close and was ripping away a chunk from the boy’s shoulder. The kid actually reached for Sean, his scream loud and his eyes pleading. Didn’t he know he was probably pretty much already dead? Sean thought as he brought his booted foot up and planted it in the boy’s chest, sending him and the zombie to the ground in a heap. He had probably just done that boy a favor as five more zombies fell on the kid. He would die faster and suffer less.
Sean paused to look around. He saw some unfamiliar adults wading into the carnage. Of course he also saw a few adults hanging back by the entrance to that hospital that they had obviously secured. He could understand; if they had worked hard to clear a place, they sure didn’t want a bunch of juvenile delinquents coming in and messing things up.
“Put her down, Sean!” a voice called.
Sean searched and he passed over Catie twice before he realized it was her. She was covered in blood and her hair was even matted to her head by the gore.
He could tell that there was no way the woman could get to him. There had to be a thousand zombies between them, and she was acting like an idiot…trying to save the kids who were running around like they had never seen a zombie before. He watched as one little girl was literally pulled apart; arms ripped out of their sockets as several zombies engaged in a lethal tug-of-war. By the time that crazy Army bitch got to where he was, he would be long gone.
Something solid smashed into the side of his head and Sean tumbled to the ground. Deanna landed in a heap beside him. Looking up, Sean saw Rose brandishing a tire iron.
“I said put her down!” Rose snarled. “I saw what you did…big man hitting a girl. She was trying to help Cherry and you punched her in the face.”
“That girl was dead!” Sean shot back as he scooted a few inches away from Rose. “You can’t save everybody…and neither can Deanna. She said that she loves me. The only problem is that all you damn kids keep taking all her time with your stupid problems. ‘Henry doesn’t like me’ or ‘I miss my mommy,’” he said in a mockingly falsetto voice.
“You’re kind of an ass.”
“Yeah…but I will be alive an hour from now and you won’t.” Sean smiled wickedly.
Somehow the brat knew. Sean watched in amazement as she ducked under the swiping arm of the zombie that had come up from behind. Still, she was distracted now. Rolling over, he scooped up Deanna and looked around. There were several buildings that looked like low-rent apartments just up the street about a block away. He took off in that direction. It was harder than he had thought, and Deanna kept threatening to slip from his grip.
At last he reached the first five-story walk up. The entry doors had long since been ripped from their hinges and Sean ducked inside. The hallway was long and dark. To his right was a switchback staircase that would take him up to the upper floors. He just needed to get off the ground floor for now; he could worry about all the other stuff later.
He had intended to go up to the fourth or even the fifth, but his legs said otherwise. He set Deanna down as he put his shoulder into the door that opened onto the third floor. It had been barricaded from the other side…but apparently not very well.
When he was finally able to poke his head in and take a look, he found out why he’d been able to open the door. Somebody had tried to rip all the stuff piled against this door out of the way. The hall at this end was strewn with all sorts of furniture that had obviously been stacked against this door at some point.
Once he had pried it open enough to be able to shove Deanna in and then follow, he heaved the door shut and jammed the stuff that was piled up to help barricade it back in place. Deann
a started to moan and Sean flopped down across the hall from her.
Her eyes flitted a few times and then she opened them very slowly.
“W-w-what happened?” she moaned, her hands going to the left side of her jaw—right where his fist had connected with her face.
“Zombies came from everywhere,” Sean said. “I had to get you out of there fast…you would have died.” That last part was simply an assumption on his part. She had not actually been in any danger when he had knocked her out and then “rescued” her.
“The children…Rose…Catie…” Her voice became strangled and she started to sob.
“But I saved you, Sean insisted. “And we will be okay.”
“The others—” she started to insist, but a rage-filled scream came from Sean and caused her to shut her mouth with a click of teeth.
“WHO CARES ABOUT THE OTHERS!”
Deanna started to cry. Everybody was gone. If what Sean said was true, they had all gone down under that massive flood of zombies that had hit them just as they were approaching…
“The hospital,” she breathed. “Maybe they made it to the hospital. Maybe the people there helped them.”
“They’re all dead,” Sean sighed as he got to his feet. “And maybe I should have left you to die with them.”
4
No Geek, Just Girls
Rose held Aleah’s hand tightly as they walked in the midst of the silent armed guard. She should have trusted her gut, and that is why she was so angry at the moment. She could care less that they had been kicked out of that weird compound.
They came to a stop in front of a large building with a sturdy wrought iron fence that had obviously been reinforced. There was a sign that was heavily tagged with graffiti proclaiming “Where is your god now?” and “The end came and went…why are you still here?” You could barely make out the words “Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses”.