by Brown, TW
“That is just the sort of Old World thinking that will keep us from ever surviving,” Catie snapped. “What would they possibly have to gain from doing anything? And we are not far enough along for any of the children of two immunes to be tested or anything to see if the infection remains, or just the ability to resist it. We have so much we don’t know, but we won’t live long enough to find out if we keep taking each other down.”
Jess considered Catie’s words for a moment and then leaned back in her chair. “Every movement has to start somewhere, right?” Catie nodded slightly. “And if you and I can make peace and then get the other remaining community to step in line, we can present a united front that might make that army turn around. They have us in numbers, but most of us living in this area have been doing so for a long time. If we have to mount a campaign of guerrilla warfare against these people, I bet they break. They might be open to listening to us and perhaps joining in to help settle the area, or, they may just decide to go pick a fight with somebody weaker and less able to defend themselves. From my experience, that is usually the way of the bully. If you punch them in the nose, they usually go from snarling beast to the Cowardly Lion in a flash.”
“Kevin would have loved meeting you,” Catie said wistfully. “He was always making movie and pop culture references. He was afraid the next generations would forget and hated when he would make some reference only to receive blank stares from the younger folks who didn’t get it.”
“Yeah, I have said things every so often and gotten nothing back but blank stares. I told a kid to use the Force when he was trying to move some crates and he told me he couldn’t push any harder without hurting his back.”
The two women stared at each other for a few seconds and then burst out laughing. Catie had a real head of steam going when the baby kicked a bit harder than usual.
“Oh!” she squeaked, her laughter stopping suddenly, her hands immediately going to her belly.
“What!” Jess jumped up and rushed to Catie. “Are you okay?”
“The baby either wanted to join in on the happiness or I woke him or her up and it wasn’t appreciated,” Catie replied with a blush. A few seconds later, another thought came and she added a frown to her red face. “Or maybe the baby just didn’t know what laughter is. I can’t recall the last time I had a really good laugh. Cries? Had plenty of those. Tirades and tantrums, a few. Laughing? Not so much.”
“It has become a rarity,” Jess agreed.
The two remained quiet for a few minutes. Catie continued to clutch her belly, but nothing else happened, and Jess seemed afraid to let the moment end. At last, Catie sighed. “So, what do we do now?”
“I guess we address the masses.”
“When?”
“Since we have no idea how long before that army arrives at our walls—” Jess began.
“If it arrives,” Catie piped up hopefully.
“Yeah, I think we both know the odds on whether or not we will get lucky. I don’t know about you, but luck is something I haven’t seen much of in the past several years.”
“You’re still alive.”
“And the jury is still out on whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.”
“I was thinking something along those lines just a little while ago. I came to the quick conclusion that living is preferable to the alternative.”
“Yes,” Jess gave a wave of her hand that motioned Catie for the ladder, “well, we can discuss all of that after we get through this. Let’s go tell my people right now. Afterwards, I will send a team to escort you and your man back through so you can pull the zombies away.”
The women emerged to find both of Jess’s men engaged in a game of darts with Braden. As soon as he saw Catie, he hurled all three of the darts he was holding at the board and rushed over.
“So?” he finally said expectantly.
Catie smiled.
***
“Nobody will be forced to stay here once this is over. In fact, if you want to run now, then feel free to pack your stuff and go for it as soon as the zombies are gone. I can’t promise things will go well if we have to fight these people.” Jess was standing on the roof of a small concrete building that used to be the public restrooms for the park where everybody had been called to gather. “And none of you will be thought of poorly.”
The gathering had been going on for about twenty minutes. The first thing that Jess did was explain the situation as it stood. She wove bits of her own backstory as a reminder at times after she would offer up a bit about Catie’s overall plan as well as her proposal to always have a spot should anybody discover he or she was one of the immune. Once she had given her spiel, she put it to a vote. It was far from unanimous, but it was obvious enough that the majority of the citizens under her leadership were perhaps ready to usher in a new era. Considering the fact that five of their own had shown the immunity due to the events over the past several hours as they fought to repel the hordes at their gates, it probably made the choice much easier for those who might have been on the fence as recently as a few days ago.
“My people will be instructed not to harm you as you pass through,” Catie added.
It had been agreed that using the downtown area of Chattanooga for any sort of retreat option was the best choice if a fight was forced and they fared poorly. It stood to reason that it would also be the best place for any who decided not to stay. Surprisingly, nobody took the offer to go when that question was asked a moment later.
With that settled, Catie was ready to return to her people. Jess had a detachment summoned and they waited at the edge of the park. The day had raced past and was well beyond the noon hour according to how the sun was now slipping into the western horizon.
“While you’re gone, we will see if we can get any more information from the prisoners,” Jess eventually broke the silence.
Catie nodded, but she heard something else in the woman’s voice that made her turn and face Jess with a raised eyebrow. When the woman remained quiet, Catie motioned with her hand that the woman needed to speak what was on her mind.
“I just can’t recall the last time I trusted somebody,” Jess admitted. “If you turn on us and take off, I will feel really stupid.”
“I tell ya what,” Catie perked up, an evil gleam in her eye. “I will leave my boy Braden here with you as collateral.”
“What!” the young man barked.
Fifteen minutes later, Catie was emerging right where she told her people to watch for her. The other three Beasties were gathered around, each of them craning their necks to look for their friend.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Catie said as she bid farewell to her escorts as they quickly pulled the manhole cover shut with a clang, “one way or another, this all ends here within the next few days.”
12
Hard Lessons
After I watched the fire burn for a few minutes and made my peace with what I had done, I continued up the hill. There was only one big lazy bend that I needed to round before the bus would be in view. It was quiet, so I moved to the side of the road where I could walk along the edge near the drop-off just in case I needed to disappear in a hurry.
Quiet can be as much a friend as it can be an enemy. Not knowing how things went had me at a serious disadvantage. The closer I got to the apex of the corner, the more nervous I became. I started thinking that if my guys had won, then I should be hearing something. They would have made their way up to let the second line know it was okay. That would mean people would be celebrating.
Once I was right at the corner where the next few steps would reveal the bus, I ducked into the tall grass and scrub brush that was encroaching ever closer to the old highway that would probably be entirely broken up and washed away by the time I was Billy’s age. Getting down on my stomach to minimize the chance of being seen, I crawled the last bit and had to move some low hanging branches out of the way in order to see.
There was the old bus, right where it always was f
or as long as I could remember. What I didn’t see was Timmy. I thought maybe he might be hiding behind the sand bags, but if the fight was over, then that would not be necessary. He certainly would not have just run home or retreated with the front line people without telling them about me and where I’d gone…would he?
I still tried to stay close to cover as I approached the bus. At last, I reached a point where I would have to go out into the open. I moved in a crouch and did not cross in a straight line just in case there was a sniper hiding someplace. I reached the bus and my heart was now pounding in my temples so hard that a full blown headache was unavoidable.
About ten feet away, I stopped. There were dark splatters on the ground. I knew what they were, but I knelt anyways and touched one to confirm that it was blood.
“Crap,” I breathed as I wiped my fingers off on my pants.
I took a look around and climbed up onto the bus. All the gear was gone except for one half burnt torch that had been extinguished. I stood and did a full circle as I tried to find anything that would help me figure out what had happened.
Nothing.
Climbing down, I did the only thing that I could think of…I headed for Platypus Creek. Winding through the woods, I was staying alert; that is probably why I discovered a few more spots where blood had dripped or smeared on some of the foliage along the trail. That told me that I was at least heading in the right direction.
I was probably still a few hundred yards out when I could hear the sounds of yelling and shouting. It sounded angry. Now I was confused as well as a bit more nervous. When I got to where I could see the walls, I ducked behind a tree and used my binoculars to scan the wall and the towers.
I went from confused to perplexed with just a shade of annoyed. The guards that I could see were all people that I recognized and they were facing in to the compound, not out here where the trouble would be coming from. Emerging from the tree that I used for cover, I shouldered my crossbow, but I kept my machete in hand just in case.
I reached the gate and pounded on it with my gloved fist. The slat about four feet above my head opened and a face peered out. Recognition sparked in the woman’s eyes and the slat shut with a clack, and the sound of the bar being raised quickly followed.
“What the hell is going on?” I snapped as I pushed past the handful of people supposedly standing guard at the gate.
“We won!” a voice chirped.
I shot the person a look that I imagine was pretty nasty. Heading to the main community square, I arrived to see what looked like pretty much everybody gathered around; they were all yelling, cheering, and shouting a variety of threats. I craned my neck to see that a man and two women had been brought up to the same stage that Billy had used just a day ago to address the community. They were shackled and looked like they’d taken a nasty beating. A rock hurled from the crowd and caught the man on the side of the head causing him to stagger and fall to his knees. This elicited a cheer from the mob.
Billy was with several others on stage that I knew had been part of the front line. He raised his hands and started shouting. It took a few minutes for the crowd to quiet down enough so that I could hear him. As he spoke, I started elbowing and weaving my way up to the stage.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Billy said with his ever-present calm voice of authority, “I am pleased to announce to you that our forces have not only met the enemy, but with the help of the ever-impressive Mr. James Sagar, we have eliminated them entirely.” He paused and glanced over at the trio huddled together. “Well, except for these three who will be questioned shortly.”
This brought an eruption of ecstatic cheering from the crowd. I managed to make it almost to the stage when I spied somebody and changed course. In one quick move I reached up and grabbed a handful of shaggy brown hair. The person at the other end of my grip made a loud yelp that went largely unnoticed by the frenzied crowd who were far too interested in what was happening on stage to worry about two kids supposedly horse-playing.
“Oww, lemme go!” Timmy howled as I jerked his head down and brought him around to face me. The moment his eyes met mine, realization hit him and he flushed a bright red. “Thalia, I-I-I just—”
“Forgot!” I barked, cutting him off with a nasty sneer. “You left me out there knowing that I was dealing with a herd of fucking zombie children!” I gave another yank and twist, bringing the tall, skinny boy to his knees. “I could be dead now, and nobody would even have a clue.”
“But you made it back,” he whined.
“No thanks to you.”
With that I gave him a shove away from me and stomped off as best I could in a crowd, pushing people out of the way now that my anger had finally bubbled over. I eventually reached the stage and waved at Jim who was standing off to the side with Dr. Zahn. As soon as he spotted me, he hurried over and pulled me up onto the stage and ushered me off to the side where the doctor was standing with three of what I assumed to be her students by the way she was pointing to a clipboard and obviously giving instructions. By the time I got there, the students were rushing off, heads down as they studied whatever was on the clipboard.
“Thalia,” the doctor actually gasped. Of course she just as quickly composed herself. “There was a report that your post was empty. We were about to send a team to search the area. Billy will be very relieved.”
“Yeah,” I said, considering how much trouble I would get Timmy in if I let slip what had happened. Instead, I had a question of my own. “Where is Paula?” It had just dawned on me that she was the only member of the Billy-Jim-Paula triumvirate that I had yet to see.
“Yeah, she took a knife to the back as well as two arrows.” Jim glanced at Dr. Zahn before he continued. “I don’t think she is gonna make it, cupcake.”
“That is nonsense, Mr. Sagar,” Dr. Zahn scolded. “Sunshine has things well under control.”
“Can I see her?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” Dr. Zahn said. “Come with me and we will be there as soon as she comes out into recovery.
“But what about all this?” I gestured over my shoulder to where Billy was giving a recount of how things had gone down during the battle.
The post-battle report was something he had insisted on after the third or fourth time we went heads-up with a group of raiders. He said that it was better if he gave an actual account instead of letting the rumor mill generate some overblown bunch of half-truths and outright lies.
“Do you really want to stay here and listen to Billy blow up Mr. Sagar’s head bigger than it already is?” The doc shot a pointed look over her shoulder at Jim who grinned big and mouthed the word “boom” as he threw his hands out in his gesture for an explosion.
“I guess not,” I said, winking at Jim when he put on his over-exaggerated hurt face.
The doctor and I headed down the stairs and across an empty compound for the building that was the hospital. I saw a few people exiting with an assortment of wraps, slings, and bandages.
“How many people did we lose?” I asked when it was clear that Dr. Zahn wasn’t going to offer up anything in the way of a conversation.
“The current numbers are five missing, twenty-three injured and four dead.”
“Four?” I gasped. “That’s great!”
As soon as that came out of my mouth I wished I could take it back. It wasn’t exactly what I meant, and I am sure the doc knew it, but that didn’t change her reaction.
“Then perhaps you can be the one to tell the families. I will be most interested how the children take the news that their mother is dead.”
“But—” I gulped, only to have the doc shut me down.
“If I ever hear anything like that out of your mouth again Miss Hobart, I will slap it shut. Are we clear?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now, please contain your inappropriate elation about how great things are once we go in the hospital. There are people in there that are fighting for their lives and I don’t believe their fami
lies will share your point-of-view as their loved one is in surgery doing his or her best to survive horrific injuries to their person.”
We walked inside and the world erupted in the sounds of sobbing from waiting family members, moans of pain from the wounded, and curt orders from the medical personnel as they rushed about in the maelstrom of chaos. I had to flatten myself against the wall twice as a gurney was pushed by in a hurry to one of the curtained bays.
“Where are Sunshine and Dr. Byrd?” Dr. Zahn asked as she snagged the arm of one of her student doctors that was rushing by, her scrubs dark with blood.
The woman threw a thumb over her shoulder and then was off once more on whatever life-and-death mission she’d been on before being pulled up by perhaps the only person in the entire community that could do such a thing anytime and anyplace without fear of a snotty reply or brush off. Dr. Zahn thanked the woman’s back as she rushed away and then led me to the curtained area that had been indicated.
Pulling the curtain aside I took one step forward and then stopped. Paula Yin was perhaps one of the toughest women I’d ever met. She was certainly the most dangerous. The woman on that gurney was not the Paula Yin that I knew. She was so tiny and frail looking. Her skin was washed out and whiter than even Dr. Zahn who avoided the sunlight like a vampire.
Hunched over Paula were Sunshine and Cynthia Byrd. They were a flurry of activity. Cynthia even had an IV in her own arm as blood was being drawn by an attendant that was doing an amazing job of staying out of the way. I did not dare step closer for fear of being an unnecessary obstacle.
“I think we got the worst of it,” Cynthia gasped as she looked up to see me and the doctor standing there.
“How are we doing on blood?” Dr. Zahn asked like it was no big deal.
“I think we are okay, she took two full liters of blood and part of a third, but I think we are out of the woods. That patch up job in the field probably saved her life. I think she is going to lose her leg below the knee, but I won’t know for sure for a while and I wouldn’t amputate it now anyways.” Cynthia extended her arm so the attendant could remove the needle and cap off the bag of blood she’d just given. “I would like everybody able to do so to be by today to donate blood. We still have a few people that are not out of the woods yet, and I would rather have too much rather than not enough.”