by Brown, TW
I glanced at Dr. Zahn, but she was still staring down at Graham. Deciding that I was tired of all the energy that I was expending with the secrecy crap, I told him where we were going. I heard the doc hiss as I mentioned Grady and his people, and I could feel her eyes boring holes into my head as I explained that we were about to slip out to meet Big Paisano.
“How about if we escort you?” Graham asked. Hastily, he added, “Not necessarily all the way, but at least to a point. Then we can set up and wait for your return. There is obviously something going on out there. I would hate it if something happened to any of you.”
I actually believed him. For some reason, I felt like our mistrust in Graham had been a mistake. Maybe he wasn’t one of the bad guys.
“If you are so damn concerned about us and care so much, then why were we put under surveillance? And why was Sunshine taken off the watch?” Dr. Zahn asked. Obviously she had recovered enough from being pissed at me to shift back into her normal mode of being her usual sunny self.
“I left a few guys to see if anybody tried to make a move on your house,” Graham explained. “Obviously somebody either does not like you, or they want to use your people as scapegoats. As for Sunshine being taken off the watch…” His voice trailed off and I was pretty sure that I saw something click in his mind as his expression changed and hardened a little. “I had no knowledge of that and gave no such order.”
“Are you thinking what I am?” one of the people still standing on our front porch asked.
“Yes,” Graham said with a scowl. He looked up at me. “May I stand? I believe we may be about to fall under a full scale attack.”
It could not have been timed any better. An explosion rumbled and there was a sudden flash from somewhere outside. I heard a stifled scream from deep inside the house that I was pretty sure had to be Melissa.
I grabbed Graham and yanked him to his feet, shoving him into his people in one swift move. Without waiting for anybody else, I barreled through the small cluster and made my way down to the sidewalk. Sure enough, to my right—which I was pretty sure had to be north—a dull orange glow could be seen. Seconds later, a second and then a third blast came. On the heels of that third blast, a siren sounded like the old air raid types.
“You all know your places,” Graham said to his people. He turned to me, a look of something in his eyes that I sure hoped was not desperation or fear. If he was the leader, this place needed him to be wired tight. For the first time, I really missed Jon.
“We could use every hand if you and your people are willing.” And with that, Graham turned to jog off into the shadows.
“Well?” I turned back to Dr. Zahn and the others.
“Our plans don’t change,” Dr. Zahn said with a shrug.
“And this attack? Do you plan to just walk through the battle and hope we don’t get sniped by one side or the other?” I asked as distant gunfire came in irregular bursts.
“We have the perfect diversion,” Dr. Zahn explained. “And if this BP person is still waiting, we need to see him now. The people that tried to kill you are in Grady’s custody. We may be able to help the people of La Grande a great deal.”
“If they can hold out against whatever the hell is going on,” I retorted.
“It would be nice if we were able to step in and save the day, but these people have set themselves up for just this sort of event. They have plans in place to deal with this and are now getting the chance to implement them. If this did not happen today, you can be assured that it would have sooner or later.”
Not knowing what else to say or do, I sighed, shrugged, and led the way to Tower Ten where Sunshine was to have had her watch. Something was itching in the back of my mind, and as the tall structure loomed in the distance, I put a hand up to bring everybody to a halt.
“Billy?” I heard Katrina hiss as I ducked low and moved to the base of the tower. I turned just enough to make eye contact with her and hold my hand up to insist that she and the others stay put.
As I reached the ladder, I could already smell it. Death is a messy business. People lose control of their bodies and do some pretty nasty stuff. I remember back before all of this when I used to watch South Park, Cartman used to laugh his head off every time that somebody died and crapped themselves in a loud and nasty fashion. I never gave it much thought back then, however, people do lose bladder and bowel control. It really is not all that funny.
Climbing the ladder, my hand reached for the top rung and I felt something sticky with my gloves. Pulling myself up and swinging the first leg over, I found a man sitting in his chair, a dark circle in the center of his forehead confirming what I had expected; he was dead. The surprise came in the fact that he was not alone.
“Took you long enough,” BP whispered.
“Jeez, man!” I squeaked in probably the most unmasculine way possible.
The giant had taken a seat on the floor against the wall right beside where I was coming over. His hand caught the cuff of my jeans or else I might have very well tumbled backwards and broken my neck. Maybe later I could allow myself to be impressed at his clever positioning, but at the moment I was a mixture of angry and struggling with just having the crap scared out of me.
“Looks like trouble brewing,” BP rumbled as he climbed to his feet and pulled me the rest of the way in.
“You wouldn’t know anything about this attack, would you?” I asked, sounding much more confrontational than was probably safe considering my position.
“I knew that those two who tried to kill you had something planned, but I sure wasn’t expecting this. And you might be interested to know that this is at least one of the locations where the invaders were allowed access to this place. ” He waved an arm toward the compound where the noises of battle were starting to intensify.
“Dr. Zahn is down below,” I said. “She wants to talk to you.” Without waiting, I turned and gave a short whistle. I saw four shadows scurry to the tower and begin the climb. It was going to be crowded, but we would all fit. I imagine nobody was too anxious to be left behind at the moment.
Darla was the last person over, and we actually had more room than I had expected. I moved aside so that the doc could get to work. BP might be a big man, but I didn’t think he would stand a chance with Dr. Zahn.
“So you are with Grady and his people?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And he has the two people in custody that tried to kill William?”
I tuned out the pair as they spoke. My attention was back on the compound. I could see no less than a dozen fires. The sounds of gunfire were coming from all over. Whatever was happening, this was big, nasty, and obviously well planned.
“Take me to them,” Dr. Zahn was saying. That snapped me back to the conversation between the doc and BP.
“I can do that,” BP said with a nod. “But just you.” He pointed at Dr. Zahn.
“Hold on!” I snapped.
“We don’t have time for this,” BP cut me off. “I won’t bring all of these strangers to Grady, and you should probably stay here with these folks and look after them until we get back. If I brought you with us, these friends of yours would be in the dark.”
He had a point. I didn’t necessarily like the idea, but Dr. Zahn seemed okay with it. I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her what to do.
“We will be back as soon as I can, William,” Dr. Zahn said as she followed BP over the lip of the tower. I watched until the two of them vanished into the darkness.
“So what do we do?” Katrina asked.
I turned and faced the three women. Even in the shadows, I could see anxious looks on their faces. They obviously expected me to have some sort of answer. I mulled the choices for a few seconds and made my decision.
“We are heading in to the action,” I announced.
I saw mouths open, and I knew that the protests would be coming. Raising a hand, I silenced them before they got started.
“Here is the deal,” I s
aid after all three of them crossed their arms across their chests and gave me arched eyebrows. Jeez, what is it with women? “I am sick of running. I am sick of scrambling to survive. I want to find a place and call it home. This seems like the best chance we are going to get. Sure, it looks like a few people are dealing dirty, but we have run into that before. If we help these people make a stand, we will prove not only our worth, but our commitment to this place.”
The women seemed to be looking at me like I had something stuck between my teeth. Then, one by one, they nodded. I did my best to hide my sigh of relief.
We all climbed back down the ladder and hugged the wall of the closest building. It had been some small insurance dealer’s office, but now it was all boarded up.
When we reached the first intersection, I raised a hand to signal everybody that I wanted them to stop. I knew a little of the field signals from my time with Jon and hoped that all the stuff I was doing with my hands was enough to let them know that I wanted them to stay put while I crept across and got a look around the corner of the street that I wanted us to take.
Three heads nodded, so I figured I was doing pretty well. Slipping away from the building, I ran in a crouch. Reaching the husk of a Plaid Pantry, I pressed myself into the shadows and peeked around the corner. I knew that we were going to have to join in this fight; I just had not expected it to be so soon. Crouched down behind a big Dumpster, I saw five people pointing at places on something spread on the ground that I had to assume was some sort of map.
I pulled back and took a deep breath. My mind raced with the choices I had before me. The brief thought that these people might be on the side that I was taking flashed in my mind. Just as quickly, I tried to dismiss it as my conscience trying to interfere with the terrible things that I knew were ahead of me. Why would they be needing a map? I asked myself. And what would they be doing here, away from the center of the compound where all of the fighting was taking place? Still, I had to be certain before I just unloaded my M4 into these people.
Pressing myself as tight against the wall as I could, I peeked around again and strained to see if I could hear any of their conversation. All I got was a low buzz of indistinguishable talk. I crept closer, one agonizing step at a time. Each shift of gravel under my boot sounded like a thunder clap to my hyper-sensitive hearing. Thankfully I only had to take three steps before I could make out the first person’s words.
“…a park just up this street. That is where we were told that they have a storage shed with stacks of seed for their crops.”
“And the beginnings of their power station is on the other side of that park,” another voice added.
For the briefest of seconds, my mind skimmed my memory for all of the post-apocalyptic stuff that I had seen in movies. Gas, women, weapons. Not once had I watched a movie where the evil raiders were coming for seed to plant in their garden. This zombie apocalypse is not acting at all like it was supposed to, I thought.
Bringing my rifle up, I pressed the stock against my shoulder and brought it to bear on the person at the far left of this cluster as I was facing them. I took in a breath and sent a prayer to whatever entity might be listening.
Please forgive me.
I squeezed the trigger and sent short bursts of death slamming into the five unsuspecting figures. Either the report of the M4 was too loud, or my brain just muted the screams. In either case, I didn’t hear them so much as utter a squeak. Maybe they died without knowing or feeling a thing. That was what I would tell myself.
I lowered the weapon and approached the sprawled figures. Crap, one of them was still moving. My hand went to the pistol that I wore on my hip, but for some reason, I couldn’t release the flap. I was sending the message to my hand, but it was refusing a direct order.
BLAM!
The shot from right beside me made me jump and spin with my rifle up and ready for action. Katrina pushed the barrel of my weapon down and stepped past me to inspect the bodies all lying face down on the ground. She rummaged through pockets and gave them all a good frisking. I had to admire her for it. I would have no trouble searching a zombie, but those had been living people just a moment ago. No matter how bad things became, I vowed to never get comfortable with taking human life.
“Pretty detailed map of the place,” Katrina announced as she stood and moved away from the dead bodies. “It has the storage sites marked, weapons lockers, and even the residences of what I have to assume are the upper echelon of this place. Graham’s house is circled along with five others.”
“One of those is Carol’s,” Darla spoke up, having moved close and peered over Katrina’s shoulder.
“Figures,” I breathed. Granny Rambo was definitely somebody that I would want to neutralize if I were taking this place down.
“Let’s get moving!” Sunshine urged. I glanced at her and saw that she was just as uneasy around the dead bodies as me.
We slipped down an alley that took us between the fenced yards of several houses. I passed an old basketball hoop that had been knocked over. If Joseph were here, he would be making a note of that and dragging it back to our house when this was all done; provided we survived the night that is.
A staccato burst of gunfire came from just ahead and I saw two men turn into our alley at a dead run. They were firing over their shoulders and didn’t know we were there. With no time to make any sort of identification, I did the only thing that I could think of; I clotheslined the first and dropped my shoulder into the second, sending him sprawling on his side. Both men lost their weapons and were momentarily stunned. Before they could recover, they were staring down the barrels of our assorted firearms.
Seconds later, several figures rounded the same corner. They were skidding to a halt, but we were now in a similar state as our supposed captives.
“Lower your weapons!” Graham’s familiar voice called. He stepped out of the cluster and approached.
“I take it these are the bad guys?” I asked, nodding my head to the pair still on the ground with hands up in surrender.
“Yep, and now they are officially prisoners,” Graham replied, motioning for a few of his people to come forward and secure the two men. He scanned us and his face clouded. “Did something happen to Dr. Zahn?” The concern in his voice was very real.
“She is fine,” Sunshine said as she stepped forward and took a spot beside me. “How bad is this attack?”
“We’ have been hit before, but nothing like this,” Graham admitted. “They seem to know where everything is. If I would have been in my home instead of yours, I would not be standing here. They blew it and a few others to bits.”
“Was Carol’s one of them?” I asked. Now it was my turn to show my genuine concern.
“Yes,” Graham said slowly, caution oozing back into his voice. “How did you know?”
“This.” Sunshine thrust the hand-drawn map at the man. “They have some pretty detailed targets marked.”
“Where did you find this?” For some reason, Graham was suddenly sounding like he was interrogating us, like he suspected our involvement.
“We lifted it from a group that I gunned down.” It might have come off sounding flippant, but that certainly did not match how I felt about the whole situation.
“Where?” Graham obviously was not one hundred percent convinced; at least that was how it came across when he sent two of his little patrol back to where we told them that the bodies would be found.
Seconds later, we heard a gunshot from that very same direction. The sounds of weapons coming up and being brought to bear came in a flash. I tilted my head and glared at Graham.
“Seriously?” I snapped. “Are we going to keep playing this game until we actually end up shooting each other?”
The man never got a chance to respond as his two people came jogging back. “One of them must have been an immune. Just as we found them, the son of a bitch was starting to sit up.”
I mentally slapped my forehead. These days, it was stan
dard practice to put a bullet in the head of somebody who died. You could not be sure if they were exposed to whatever it was that turned folks into zombies.
“Listen,” Graham sighed, signaling for his people to lower their weapons once again, “we have been on shaky ground. I think it is time that we start trusting each other. You are absolutely right about the whole drawing down on each other thing. It is starting to get a little bit old.” He thrust a hand out and it actually took me a few seconds to recognize the gesture for what it was. “Welcome to La Grande.”
“We should probably save this for later when this attack is repelled,” a voice said from behind me that made everybody jump. I swear, if I survive the night without a damn heart attack, it will be a freakin’ miracle.
“Dr. Zahn!” Sunshine yelped.
It was the good doctor, but she was not alone. She had a small army in her wake. I recognized BP and Grady. There were a few faces that might have been in the room where I woke up, but I could not be sure. However, there were at least twenty more people in that crowd that I was certain I had never seen before.
For some reason that I can’t explain, I suddenly felt like the night was ours. I remembered a lot of lectures from Jon about being overconfident. He would have loved my old high school football coach who preached that the game was not over until the final second ticked off the clock. Still, something felt really good about the situation I now found myself in. At least it did until BP opened his big mouth.
“So what’s the plan, Billy?” he asked. All eyes shifted my direction. They did know that I was easily the youngest person in the group, didn’t they?
My gaze swept over the entire group, and I felt all that confidence that I’d just been so full of try to leak down my leg. I tensed my body as if suddenly constricting my muscles would matter.
“Give me that map,” I finally said in the loudest whisper that I dared. I felt it thrust into my hand and I turned and spread it out on the wall of the building that we were beside. I felt the group crowd in and somebody brought up a glow-stick without even being asked.