by Brown, TW
The sound of an owl came from the darkness. Thank goodness James Sagar could do a passable impression. That was the signal and I nudged the guy at my side. I heard him take a deep breath, exhale slowly, and then there was the swishing “thwang” as his string was released and the bolt zipped through the night. The shadow just over fifteen yards away made a soft grunt and collapsed to the ground. I scurried out with my machete drawn and rushed to the downed figure. Not bothering to look, I paused just long enough to plunge the tip of my blade into the side of the person’s head. However, I did see enough to be impressed with my cohort’s shot. The bolt had gone through the soft depression at the bottom of the dead man’s throat.
Looking around, I saw five rows of long, olive-green military-style tents. There were three tents in every row, and these looked like they would each house fifteen or twenty people easily. My eyes scanned for any signs of movement.
I did not hear anything. However, I heard some low moans and a few baby cries coming from just to the left of the camp. Pointing and motioning for everybody to follow, I headed that way and discovered a huge pen that could have been a horse corral. It wasn’t. There had to be at least a few hundred zombies packed in so tight that they could hardly move. The ones at the edge had their arms sticking out through the metal rails that made up this fence.
The zombies were in all shapes and sizes. A young boy of eight or nine had his face smashed against two of the middle rails. He was snapping and gnashing his teeth at me, but our arrival had caused a bit of a surge in the corral’s occupants and I watched his head slowly elongate and eventually become crushed in the press.
“So it’s true,” I heard James Sagar whisper as he stepped up on one side of me to get a glimpse at what I imagined the pits of Hell to look like.
“Seems to be,” I whispered, turning back to the long tents.
I reached the first one and waited as the rest of my team joined me. I held a finger to my lips needlessly and ducked into the first tent. We moved down the center aisle past cot after cot. Each one was obviously empty except for one on the left and two from the end. I pointed and one of my group slipped over and quickly dispatched the person. We moved to the next tent and repeated the process until we had made the run through each one and killed fifteen more people.
The last thing left to do was to enter the tent where they kept the hostages. From Gable’s report, there would only be two sentries on watch inside the tent. So far, things had gone exactly according to plan. As I gave the countdown on my fingers to signal our entry, I realized that I could not actually recall any time that a plan had worked without at least one hiccup.
I threw the flap open and the five people with crossbows went in crouched down low. The sounds of the strings thrumming came before I even made it inside and I walked into the tent to see a man and woman with rifles still at their side where they sat pinned to the chairs they had been sitting in at a small wooden table. They’d been playing cards!
A few heads rose from cots, and I saw that instant look of fear. I imagine opening your eyes to discover a group of strangers armed to the teeth standing in your bedroom is one of the more unpleasant ways to wake up.
“My name is Billy Haynes,” I announced. “I am not here to harm any of you. I am here on behalf of Gable Matczak. Is his mother, Sylvia Matczak…is she here?”
“I’m Sylvia, but I don’t go by Matczak any longer. I took my maiden name. It is Sylvia Peretti now.” A woman raised her hand from a cot towards the rear of the tent. In the soft glow of the lanterns hung down the center of the tent, there was enough light to see pretty well. In my opinion, she looked just like a mom should look. Her short dark hair was mussed and streaked with a bit of gray, she had the beginnings of crow’s feet on the edges of her eyes, and her stern face held just a hint of worry.
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” I said with a polite nod. “As I said, I am here with your son. We are from the compound that they raided last night.” I saw looks of hopeful expectation and felt an acidic sting in my gut as I related the next bit of news and information. “I regret to say that Gable is the only survivor that I am aware of, but each of you is free to join us or go your own way. I have no idea what you were told about us, but we are not the bad guys.”
I gave that last sentence a moment’s thought. We weren’t, were we? I mean, we’d just conducted a quick strike assassination raid on total strangers. Sure, we gave ourselves a good reason for it, but I am certain those raiders were justifying their reason to hit us in the first place. The lines had become so blurry; it was getting more and more difficult to discern between good and bad, right and wrong.
“Gable is here?” Sylvia said with a tremor in her voice.
“Not right here, but he is close by,” I clarified.
“We got incoming!” somebody from outside the tent called. “Zombies.”
I actually felt a shiver of relief. As long as the numbers were not anything crazy, zombies were far easier to deal with than humans of the living variety. I turned for the flap that led outside and called over my shoulder as I went out to help deal with the incoming low-level threat, “Gather what you can carry and be ready to leave in ten.”
Outside, I saw James and Darla moving to intercept a pack of a few dozen zombies that were emerging from the darkness of the surrounding trees. Their assigned partners were dutifully by their side, joining in the fray.
I assessed the situation and decided that they had it under control. I grabbed my guy and went to the five wagons that were parked in the very center of camp. Rocks had been wedged under the wheels as makeshift brakes, but I doubted these babies were going anywhere. They sat on flat ground and looked to be heavily loaded with an assortment of supplies that included some nasty looking weaponry.
“Freaking boxed Claymore sets,” my companion breathed in awe.
“Wonder why they did not bother to set them around the perimeter of this place,” I speculated out loud.
“There are maybe thirty complete rigs that include the mine, blasting cap assembly, and firing device,” came the answer, as he sifted through the cart he’d been inspecting. “The days of infinite reloads and ready-to-use supplies is long gone. They were probably waiting until they were settled. That’s what I would do.”
Sounded reasonable to me. I climbed up on my cart and untied the leather thongs keeping the tarp lashed into place. Throwing back the blue plastic, I could not help but whistle appreciatively. They had cases of ammo in metal boxes that were clearly stamped.
The other three wagons revealed similar treasures that included huge quantities of first aid gear and MREs. It was obvious that they had made a run on a military outpost; all of this stuff was Government Issue.
“We don’t have enough manpower to roll these back to La Grande,” I determined. With the people from the hostage tent herded outside, I told James and Jerome to remain here with their teammates to keep an eye on the place until we could send enough people back to roll these big wagons to La Grande.
“I also want you to torch that pen of zombies,” I said, pulling James aside before I left. He gave a grim nod.
“Will do, Boss,” he said, glancing over in the direction that we knew the pen to be located.
There was a tearful reunion for Gable and his mother. Unfortunately, there were only tears for the others in the group. Graham did let it be known that a few prisoners had been taken, and that he would allow the new arrivals to get a look. I had serious doubts that lightning would strike twice, much less fifteen more times.
The trip back home was sort of anticlimactic, and it wasn’t until I was peeling away from Graham and Carol that I realized this mission had been pulled off without a hitch. I made promises to meet with the dynamic duo in the morning, but, at the moment, and with the sun just beginning to rise, I made it clear that I meant tomorrow morning.
We reached the house and I told Gable and his mom to take the people we’d just brought back and head over to the house across t
he street. It looked empty, and if anybody had a problem with it, they could take it up with me just as soon as I had a free moment in my schedule. Sure, I knew that I was completely ignoring the protocols of this place, but I did not care.
Darla decided to go with them just in case there was any trouble. She paused and glanced at me like I might have an issue with it; my shrug was answer enough. I actually felt better having one of my own group over there to keep an eye on things. The reality was that we did not know a thing about these folks other than what we had been told. Sure, Darla was on the outer fringe of my group, but I had at least some degree of trust in her.
I was exhausted. After stripping out of my foul smelling clothing, I gave my body a wash-down with a bucket of warm water that I took from the huge kettle over the fire. It was heavenly. I marveled at how we had taken such simple things like showers and washing machines for granted.
When I was done, I felt clean and tired. I considered the door where I knew that I would find Katrina, but I decided that I simply did not have the energy for what lay behind door number one. Unfortunately, as I checked behind the other doors, I discovered that Grady’s people had not been given their own spaces yet and so the floors were lined with people in sleeping bags.
I was just about to go downstairs and see if I couldn’t find a walk-in closet or something when a tiny voice whispered to me. “You can have my bed, Billy.”
I turned to find Thalia in the hallway standing in front of a partially open door. I tiptoed over and knelt in front of the little girl, mussing her hair playfully. “Where will you sleep?” I asked.
“I am going outside. There have been rabbits in the morning and I am going to get one.” She said this like she was telling me she was off to watch the morning cartoons. She opened her zippered hoody and showed me what looked like a well-made snare and a belt knife. “Fiona showed me how back at the cabin.”
“Thanks a lot, Thalia,” I said. I had a bunch of stuff drifting through my head, but the reality was that I was just too damned worn-out to snag any one particular thought and form it into a more cohesive reply.
I stood, feeling aches and pains that were just starting to settle in now that any final traces of adrenaline were gone from my body. As I stretched out on the bed and pulled the Disney Princess adorned comforter up to my neck, I had just enough time to wonder if the human body had a finite supply of certain chemicals like adrenaline. If so, I was most definitely running on empty.
***
We were in the auditorium of what had once been Island City Elementary School. Somewhere in this building, Melissa was teaching a class and Thalia was trying to pretend that she cared about the “Three Rs” when her mind was more likely on when she could go out and set up her rabbit snares again.
I’d made my way downstairs after at least twenty hours of sleep to find my clothes washed, dried, and neatly folded beside my bed. That is where I had discovered a plate on the counter. I saw a pretty good-sized haunch that I initially mistook for an entire chicken thigh and drumstick. There were some sliced carrots and even a glass of water. In addition to that plate, there was a note scrawled in crayon that read:
For Billy.
Nobody else eat this or I will put sand in your bed.
Love, Thalia
I instantly recalled that she’d mentioned something about going out to snare rabbits. It looked like she had some success. As I sat on the barstool at the little island counter, I’d been touched that she thought enough of me to leave me such a big portion of her kill. I felt that way until I got up to put the dirty plate in the basin of water and went out onto the back porch to get a breath of fresh air only to discover at least a dozen more field-stripped and skinned rabbits hanging from a clothesline.
It had turned out to be just an hour before sunrise. I’d walked over to the other house to discover it empty and hurried back to mine in a bit of a panic.
The first person I ran into was one of Grady’s crew. I had no idea of his name, but I strode over to where he was preparing some hot water for either coffee or tea.
“Where did all those people we brought in go?” I made no attempt to whisper, so in the early morning quiet, my voice was pretty loud by comparison. The guy jumped and dropped the kettle he had been filling. It landed on the floor with a metallic clang and skittered across the kitchen floor to stop at my feet.
“Sorry,” I said as I picked up the kettle and handed it to the guy who was leaning against the island counter and clutching his chest as if he were having a heart attack.
“Holy crap!” the guy breathed.
I stood there trying to look apologetic while not seeming like I was hurrying the man for an answer. He made a few more dramatic sighs and fanned himself for emphasis. I hated overdramatic people.
“Carol and Graham came by yesterday afternoon and took them all for processing. And I think something was said about identifying prisoners.”
If they were blood testing them or whatever this place did, I imagine that could take a few days. I decided to head to the Walmart where the hospital was set up. That seemed like the most likely place to start.
The walk actually felt good. The morning was chilly, but the clear sky was an indication that it would be a nice day. I was halfway to my destination when it dawned on me that I had not just been out walking in a long time. Even back at the cabin, there was a bit of a standing rule that you never returned empty handed. Even if it was something as simple as bringing up water or gathering some fire wood, you never just went out for a casual stroll. Sure, I had a destination in mind, but it was my choice, and I could meander and take my time if that is what I chose to do…which it most certainly was.
I reached the parking lot and was not surprised to see that crews had already started work on replacing and repairing the huge entry way that had been left in a shambles during the raid. There were scaffolds and stacks of lumber along with sawhorses and the typical stuff you would expect to see at a job site like this one.
Walking in, I caught a whiff of bleach in the air. I imagine this place had needed to be scrubbed down pretty good. There had been a number of corpses on the floor.
I was met by a woman in sweats and a man who was carrying an arsenal on his person. I’d found out later on the day we came in to kill the invaders that, up until now apparently, nobody carried weapons in the medical center. Nobody had felt that it was necessary. I’d noticed the carelessness the people of this little compound had displayed when I first arrived. There was a disturbing lack of personal weaponry carried by the general population.
“You can’t be in here. Visiting hours are after breakfast,” the stern-faced woman said. The man beside her shifted the rifle in his arms and tried to give me the hard stare.
“Just checking the status of the folks we brought in the other night,” I said, trying to be dismissive of the sentry with just a roll of my eyes.
“They are under quarantine until their tests return,” the lady snapped with a shake of her head. “They are not allowed visitors until they are cleared.”
I was not in the mood to make a scene, so I gave the woman a polite nod and did an about face. I stepped back outside and realized that I had no idea where to go or what to do with myself. I decided to just take a walk around and get a better feel for this place that I was currently calling home.
As I walked, I noticed that there was actually a lot to like about this compound. Some of the houses I passed were sporting well-kept yards. There were even a few flowers blooming in some gardens.
By the time I had made it back to our home. I was feeling better than I’d felt in a long time. It had almost seemed like the zombie apocalypse was gone; swept away by a few mowed lawns and pretty flowers.
I walked into the house and felt all the goodness and happiness that I’d just been enjoying dry up and vanish. Carol was there with Graham, Tish, and a dozen other men packing serious weaponry. I had been under the assumption that we would not be making this foray out into
La Grande for a few days. Two men that I desperately wanted at my side were busy playing guard for all of the supplies that would now be ours as soon as we could get enough people out there to harness up and haul those heavily laden carts back here.
“Get on all of your gear, Billy,” Carol urged.
Dr. Zahn, Katrina, Thalia, and Melissa were present. None of them looked very happy. I felt my shoulders slump. It had started off to be such a great morning.
“I thought we had a couple of days,” I said, doing my best not to whine.
“We just got some intel that the three other main factions are banding together and intend to hit us within the next two days,” Graham spat. “There will be no negotiations.”
I gave a shrug. From what I’d heard, we had no serious intentions of going out there and simply asking people to stand down and join us. All indications that I gathered from listening to what little conversation that I’d been present for was all about going out in a show of force.
I turned and trudged upstairs. Walking into my room, I pulled out all of my field gear and began suiting up. There was one upside to this; if we were victorious, maybe I could actually take a morning stroll and come home to abso-freaking-lutely nothing. I seriously doubted it, but it was nice to have a dream.
“We need to talk,” a soft voice said as the door opened and shut hurriedly.
This was not what I wanted to do just as I was about to go into what might be my last battle…if I am lucky…and if I survive it. I shoved that out of my head and turned to face Katrina. Her eyes showed the redness associated with recent crying. Super, this was getting better by the second. Oh well, maybe if she dumped me now, she would not take it so bad if I didn’t make it back. I steeled myself for the expected words.
“I’m sorry.”
I think I sprained my jaw. I know it didn’t literally happen, but it felt like my chin had just bounced off the floor and then snapped shut with a hard clack as I realized I was standing there with my mouth wide open like an idiot.