by Brown, TW
They pulled off for the night one rainy afternoon just outside of Altoona, Iowa. Camp was made in some fairly thick woods just off the interstate that clustered around a small stream that wound past lazily. The next day would bring them to Des Moines. Kevin wanted to spend some time with the maps and figure out the best way to skirt the heart of the city as well as some places they might skim for supplies. Des Moines marked the largest population center that they would pass up to this point.
So far, cities had been few and far between in the heartland of America. The smaller towns had been no problem, but he had not forgotten Chicago. He had no desire to deal with those sorts of issues again.
He was looking at his atlas by the fire when he heard the sounds of a heated disagreement. Stuffing the weathered travel guide into his pack, Kevin got up and followed his ears to the disturbance. Obviously whoever it was had forgotten the fact that zombies were attracted to sound. Up to this point, they’d only been forced to break camp and make a run for it once when the leading edge of a herd numbering around four or five hundred had stumbled on their location one night. David still liked to remind everybody how he’d been on watch that night and sounded the warning. Personally, Kevin did not see the big deal in being patted on the back for doing your job.
“…great big fairy!” Cherish shrieked as she burst from a tent that Kevin was pretty sure belonged to Bill.
Kevin watched the woman storm off into the darkness and then gave the flap to the tent a little shake. “Anybody home?” he called, making sure that his voice was only a little louder than a whisper.
“Come in,” Bill’s voice rumbled.
Kevin entered the tent and had to let his eyes adjust to the gloom. Bill’s tent was the farthest from the fire and, just like during the meals, Bill seemed content to set himself apart from the group.
“So…” Kevin let that word hang in the air in the hopes that the big man might start talking. After a moment of silence, he decided on a more direct approach.
“You and Cherish have a little problem?”
The hulking form of the muscular man moved and got close enough to Kevin that he took a step back. He had not experienced any trouble with the man, but he did not want that to suddenly change tonight.
“She wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Bill’s voice rumbled.
Kevin could not think of what to say and continued to remain silent.
“I tried to be nice, but that woman is a straight up bitch,” Bill finally continued. “It wasn’t anything personal. I even tried to explain that I thought she was plenty pretty…just not…my…type.”
Kevin was nodding along when a thought crept in. He had not ever considered the possibility. Truthfully, it just was not something that was important enough to even give thought to.
“You’re gay.”
Kevin bit his tongue he shut his mouth so quick. But it was too late, the words were out. He closed his eyes and waited for the big man to punch him in the face. What had he been thinking? He’d just called the largest human being he had ever met a homosexual. The beating was sure to be epic.
“Is that a problem?”
The question caught Kevin by surprise. He had expected fists…not words. He felt the man shift and was almost certain that he would be picking himself up from the other side of camp.
Nothing.
“I can pack my stuff and be gone in the morning,” Bill said with a sigh.
“Wait!” Kevin blurted. This guy had it all wrong. “Why would you go?”
“Because I’m not straight.”
“That’s stupid.” Kevin considered his words and hurried to clarify. “The part about you leaving…not the part about you being gay. I could care less. I hate to break it to you, but there are way bigger problems these days. There is that whole zombie thing…” He took a step towards the behemoth and reached out, hoping to God that he found an arm. “And besides…you got no idea where that gal has been. I doubt her legs even know what it is like to touch at the top.”
That earned a chuckle. “Although I sure wouldn’t mind if Barney came out of the closet.”
Kevin joined in on the laugh. “Who still has hair gel? I swear that guy has a secret stash someplace. My hair never looked that good before the apocalypse.”
The two men shared in the laugh. After a few hours of talking, Kevin had to excuse himself to take his watch. He knew that morning was going to come way too early. Selma relieved him, but not more than twenty minutes later she woke him again.
“Cherish is gone,” the woman said as Kevin tried to rub the sleep from his eyes.
“Gone where?”
“Just gone…she took all her stuff as well as one of the packs of food and she hitched her bike to one of the carts with about half the ammo.”
Kevin shoved his sleeping bag away and got up. Aleah was with him having heard everything. “Rouse the troops,” he growled. “I doubt she could be far.”
Ten minutes later, he had everybody gathered around and gave them the news. Bill dropped his head and Kevin was about to ask for volunteers to find Cherish. Since she was hauling a cart, it was a logical assumption that she would be easy to overtake if they could find her. He would send the search team out and then pull Bill aside. He did not want the man blaming himself.
“I have something to say,” Bill’s voice was low but determined. Kevin looked to discover the man’s head had come up and he had a firm set to his face.
Kevin moved aside and the man took his place in the center of their small group. Bill had told Kevin what obviously had been a secret up to this point…and now he let everybody else know.
“You poor man,” Dr. Miriam Reno said, stepping forward and taking Bill’s hand. Kevin was about to scold the doctor when she continued speaking. “You must have been one of the most requested sires back at the compound. What was it…fifty…a hundred times you had sex with women trying to get pregnant?” Bill nodded, his face flushing just a bit. “That must have been horrible,” the doctor commiserated.
“A damn nightmare,” Bill agreed.
“Wish my nightmares were like that,” David quipped, receiving a sharp elbow from Heather for his trouble.
A short time later, Adam, David, Shauna, Aleah, and Barney went in search of Cherish Brandini. Kevin made it clear that they were to be back before dark the next day. He would endure one more day at this location, but he was more interested in moving on than getting back the stuff that had been taken. Most of it was replaceable; the biggest loss coming from the ammunition stores that Cherish had managed to abscond with.
He had made a conscious decision to not go, and instead send Aleah. He felt that should show her that he was not trying to shelter her or give preferential treatment; although, to be perfectly honest, he simply did not see the big deal. He planned to relish in the fact that he would be able to just sit around camp. They’d been on the move for several days now and he was prepared to do a whole lot of nothing.
The first few hours that the search party was gone were okay. Kevin went down by the stream and took a very cold but satisfying bath just after sunrise. After that, he washed his clothes and hung them from branches to dry as the sun began to burn through the last of the lingering clouds. He drifted off for a nap in some tall grass and awoke with a start to the sounds of shouts.
He arrived to find Bill and Selma in a tangle on a large patch of grass. He was about to rush in and break it up when Dr. Miriam Reno clapped her hands and called, “It is amazing that you can make that look so real without actually hurting her.”
Bill had been giving a demonstration of some of the easier maneuvers he used in his professional wrestling career. Everybody was apparently enjoying it, but Jose and Manuel were absolutely captivated. They each insisted through Jane that they get their turns.
“Glad to see you up and about,” the doctor said as she sidled over beside Kevin. “I imagine that is the best way to keep your mind off of that gal while she is out there.”
“Wait…” Kevin faced the woman who was still watching the demonstration Bill was putting on as he hoisted Jose up onto his shoulders and spun him like he was nothing. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Few hours.”
Kevin moved out from the shade of the trees and looked skyward. He was not foolish enough to think he could actually tell time by the sun, but he knew well enough that the blazing orb had travelled a considerable distance since he’d laid down for that nap.
All of his fears scurried forth from the darker shadows of his mind. Each one offering up horrible possibilities of what fate had befallen Aleah. He began to pace nervously. More than once, somebody would try to talk to him, but they would soon give up when it was obvious that his mind had checked out.
Time seemed to come to a standstill and Kevin began to get a feeling deep in his gut. Was this the ability of premonition? he wondered. Was he becoming more in tune with his sixth sense now that the Old World had been stripped away? He had read enough stories where that sort of thing happened. Just as quickly as it arose, Kevin banished the thought. In his logical mind he knew better.
“You are making people nervous,” a voice said.
Kevin looked down to discover Rose standing there. The look on her face indicated that she was one of the people he was making nervous.
“Aleah will be fine,” Heather said from beside him. He had no recollection of her having strolled up.
His mind was simply too consumed with worry. What had he been thinking, sending her off like that? He was supposed to protect her, but he had allowed himself to be governed by emotion instead of logic. Why was it a crime to keep her safe? It was a logical step to send out people who were not susceptible to the zombie contagion and keep back those who were.
“Kevin!” Bill’s voice cut through Kevin’s morose thought process. “We got incoming…I count five. Looks like our people.”
Kevin scrambled up the slope to the highway where Bill, Jose and Jane were standing with hands shielding eyes from the sun which had now slipped down to the western horizon and would be dipping from sight within a few hours.
It took everything in his power to not go running across the open expanse between him and Aleah. He wanted to sprint, arms open wide, scoop her up and kiss her. It seemed to take forever, but at last the group reached the interstate. Kevin had to suppress a smile when they looked both ways before crossing. Were they expecting traffic?
“She’s gone,” Adam announced. “But we found a pretty nice housing development. From the looks, the entire community evacuated to some sort of horse racing track on the other side of town. There is some serious military hardware over there…but no signs of anybody living. The fence looks to have been breached in at least three places.”
“There is still a concentrated zombie presence,” Aleah said as she pulled off her riot helmet. “But if we can actually draw them out, I think it is worth looking.”
“The only real concern is the absolute massiveness of the whole place,” Adam blurted. “Seriously, I have not seen anything on this scale. It looks like they tried to just secure too much area. And if they did it early on, who knows how many people came in infected. It looks like they turned the campground across from the track facility into some sort of medical center. There are a lot of zombies in uniform, man.”
Kevin pulled out his atlas and took a look at the area. Sure enough, there was a massive resort complex called Adventureland. He hadn’t really noticed it before, or if he had, he obviously dismissed it. He had to admit, as far as a location for a FEMA center, it was probably not a bad one. It certainly held a number of advantages over a local high school. The infield of the horse racing track would be able to house thousands; add the camp ground and the expanse of parking lot…it was a fairly solid idea.
That night they sat around the Dakota Hole fire and discussed how they might be able to get inside the overrun rescue center and scavenge. The more Kevin heard, the more he felt there might be a veritable treasure within that busted fence line.
“I have a question,” David finally spoke up after several instances of whispering back and forth with Heather. He seemed a little embarrassed when all eyes turned his direction.
“Go ahead,” Kevin encouraged.
“If this place is such a great possibility for weapons and supplies, how is it that nobody else has made a run on it?”
“Maybe they have,” Kevin conceded.
“But Adam says he saw stacks of crates that looked unopened.” David was gaining more confidence as it was clear that his concerns were not being dismissed.
“It could be a number of things.” Kevin let his gaze pass over everybody. He wanted them to be sure they knew what this mission could mean. “If this place was setting up for a long holdout, then it is likely that they brought in massive supplies. If they were hit by a herd, or even if the attack came from within, anybody who could make a run for it may have done so without having time to grab things. In the past year, how many times have you had to leave everything behind and just run for your life?”
With the exception of Heather and Aleah, they all looked back at him blankly. He had forgotten that these folks had been safe inside their compound almost from the beginning. And when they’d left, it had not been a hurried exodus, they had been able to grab what they wanted and depart in relative peace. They had not been through what he and his people had been through. And Rose…well…she was a different story altogether.
“Consider yourselves lucky,” Kevin sighed. “Anyway, even if people have come through, they couldn’t take everything. And I would bet that a lot of them would pass this place by just because of all the zombies you say are wandering around inside that fence.”
A sound from beyond the trees made everybody jump. Weapons were being drawn in a flurry and sixteen people were ready to confront whatever came through the trees and brush. A thud and cry sounded, and then more scuffling. At last, a figure staggered through and stopped. The Dakota fire hole did not produce much ambient light, and so nobody moved until a familiar voice whimpered.
“People…bad people…” Cherish Brandini staggered a few more steps and fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.
14
Soul Scarring
Forcing down the bile that was rising in my throat, I lobbed the second grenade. I tried to ignore the fact that I saw a body go airborne in the maelstrom of dirt, grass, smoke, and fire. The hardest part was pretending that the body was not in at least three separate pieces.
Giving the signal, I unslung my M4 and charged forward. The stench of fresh death was so thick that it turned my stomach. The haze cut visibility down to just a few feet of actual clarity. That is probably why I did not see the mangled torso that I tripped over.
Sprawling on my face, my rifle clattered away and came to rest against the body of a woman. I got to my hands and knees and crawled to retrieve my weapon. A low moan froze me and I had my knife in my hand on instinct alone. The woman’s head lolled to face me and I saw crystal blue eyes staring back at me. The left one was marred by the rupture of several small capillaries and had an ugly red smear marring the white. Red…not black, my mind pointed out.
It made little difference. I did what I had to do and finished her off. As my brain slowly allowed me to see the rest of the picture, I convinced myself that I had done the right thing. Her left arm was gone and blood was still pumping in rhythmic jets from the ugly stump that remained. That stopped seconds after I plunged my blade into her temple.
I heard the sounds of battle erupt around me. Tracers whizzed past in both directions. I had no idea how many we’d killed, much less how many remained. I did know that the camp was not incredibly large. I had a feeling that we took out a lion’s share in the initial blasts.
I inched forward to the mouth of a tent that was mostly collapsed. Something stirred and I brought the stock of my rifle up to my shoulder. A man staggered out, flinging the tent flap aside and kicking his feet loose from something t
hat had him tangled. He probably never saw me. I doubt he even realized he was dead despite the two steps that he took before collapsing to the ground.
I scurried forward and glanced inside. When I saw movement, I did not even bother to look any closer. I sprayed a few five-round bursts into the tent. Satisfied, I moved deeper into the camp. I passed something to my left and, try as I might, I could not help but stop and stare.
It was the upper half of a girl no older than Thalia. Brown eyes stared dully to the sky through a mask of dirt, burnt flesh, and blood. What had I done?
Somebody grabbed my arm and I spun to face Darla. She glanced down at my feet, but her hard features gave no indication of shame, pity, or even condemnation. She shoved me forward.
“This is so wrong,” I muttered. I was not sure that she could hear me over the sounds of gunfire, moans, crying, and screaming.
“Worry about it later, Billy!” Darla snapped. She had turned me to face her again and was practically standing nose-to-nose with me.
“That little girl couldn’t be any older than Thalia.” I felt my voice break as I drew closer to tears.
“And if we fail in this mission, that little girl will be Thalia!” she snarled. “Yes, this sucks, but if we don’t do this, then it will be our people on the receiving end. Is that what you want?”
It wasn’t. However, that did not mean that anything changed about the way I felt inside. It was almost like I could feel my soul being torn apart and run through a wood chipper, dipped in salt, and then set on fire.
I took a deep breath and looked around. I was not alone in my feelings. I saw one member of my team on her knees beside a lump of flesh that was not large enough to be an adult. She was crying all the way up until a burst of gunfire made dark splotches across her chest.
“No mercy,” I said, more to myself than to anybody who might have been able to hear me.