by Poe, S. B.
“Here we come.” He called to the SUV.
“Come on, I won’t bite.” JW said with a laugh, a laugh that quickly devolved into coughing.
Bridger looked into the SUV and then backed off to the side so the others could gather around the door. Kate sat down on the door kick plate and reached for JW’s hand. He took it and looked down at her, smiling. Josh and Scott stood awkwardly silent.
“Hey guys, it’s still me. I haven’t gone anywhere yet. I want y’all to know how much I love you.” JW said.
“We love you too, Dad.” Scott said.
“We love you.” Josh added.
Kate couldn't speak. She couldn’t. She was choking back tears watching the man she loves say goodbye to their children. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. His cheeks were sunken but not as deeply as his eyes. She could tell he was in pain. She could always tell.
“Boys, I want you to know, no matter what you do, I have always been and always will be proud to call you my sons. I don’t know what comes next. This world is something I wasn’t prepared for. I wanted to give you each a talk like this when you went off to college. I wanted to tell you to figure out what you want to be and go be it. I wanted to fill you with courage and confidence and send you out into the world to make your way. I don’t know if I have prepared you for this world. I hope I have but you’ll have to figure it out on your own. I love you both. I love you so much.” He reached out to each of them and pulled them close. He breathed deeply the smell of their hair. He pulled back and took each ones hand. He looked at their hands, remembering when they were so tiny, so little. He brought their hands up to his face and kissed them, smelling their skin. He looked up at each of them.
“Goodbye, boys. I love you.”
“I love you Dad.” Josh said.
“I love you Dad.” Scott said. They both turned and walked back towards the corral. Kate was still sitting on the kick plate looking up at him. She had let the tears flow while he was talking. She had gathered herself together just slightly. He looked down at her.
“Well, I guess we managed to get a little alone time.” He smiled.
“So that was the plan?” she said, smiling through her tears.
“Sort of.” JW said. “I am so sorry. I screwed up.”
“John, just stop. You didn't screw up. You saved people. A lot of people.”
“I love you. I have always loved you.”
“I know, I love you too.” Kate said.
“You remember when you pulled me together after the deputy thing with Josh?” He said. She nodded that she did.
“You said you needed me to be the man I needed to be for you. I tried.” He said.
“You did.” She said.
“Well I need you to be the woman who wouldn’t take any shit off me or anyone else. I need you to be strong. I need to know you are going to make it.” He said.
“John.” She started to interrupt.
“No, tell me. Tell me you will make it. Tell me I didn’t bring us all out here to die.”
“You brought us here to live, and that is what we will do.” Kate said. “I promise.”
He looked at her face. He believed her. He leaned his head back and drew a breath. His chest felt heavy and it felt like he was breathing through a straw. He looked back at her.
“It’s time.” He said.
“I love you. I will always love you.” He said.
“I love you too, John. I love you.” She stood and leaned against him. He held her head against his chest and stroked her hair. She had always loved it when he stroked her hair. She used to make him stroke her hair to help her sleep, so much so that it had been a running joke between them. A smile crossed his lips as he looked down at the top of her head. He kissed her head. She looked up at him. She could see his eyes were starting to get swimmy and his skin had begun to turn ashen. She leaned up and pressed her lips to his. Cold. He kissed her back. They held each other for a few more minutes.
“You have to go.” JW said.
“I know.” Kate said. She stood.
“Goodbye. God gave me the greatest gift in the world when he brought you into my life. I love you. I love you.” JW said.
“I love you. I will always love you.” Kate said. She kissed him one more time. She turned and walked away. He watched her walk around the bus.
“Let’s go, I don’t think I have much time.” JW said, knowing Bridger was listening even though he was trying hard not too.
“Alright.” Bridger said. He climbed into the SUV and cranked it up.
They pulled away from the bus. JW looked out the back window and saw Kate, Josh and Scott reemerge from the other side. They were standing there watching the SUV pull away and he thought about that day, not so long ago, when he was pulling away from the house and saw them in the bay window. He held that image in his mind now.
“How you doing back there?” Bridger asked.
“Dying.” JW said.
“Well, whatcha waiting on.” Bridger said attempting a joke.
“I’m scared.”
“I know brother.”
“Bridge?” JW said. “After, you know?..”
“Don’t talk about it.”
“Listen, after I am gone, make sure you burn me. Don’t bury me. And then move on.”
“But why man, why is that so important to you? I know they all bought that crap about keeping the virus from spreading but you and I know that’s mostly bullshit. It doesn’t spread that way. So why is it a big deal?” Bridger said.
“Because if there is a grave, she won’t leave. And I think you are going to have to leave.”
JW said, his voice almost a whisper now.
They drove down the road past the creek. They stopped. Bridger got out and opened the door for JW. JW slid his feet out and touched them on the ground. He couldn’t put any weight on the bit foot without it sending shockwaves of pain through him. Bridger stood beside him and reached around his waist to support him. JW wrapped his arm around Bridger’s shoulders.
“Over there, by that big tree.”
“The pine tree?” Bridger asked.
“Hell no, I hate pine trees. Damn tick factories. Over there, by that oak.” JW pointed.
They made their three-legged walk over to the tree. Bridger gently helped him down. JW straightened himself against the tree and looked up and Bridger. Bridger knelt down beside him.
“Brother, we have been through a lot of shit together, but this. Man I wasn’t ready for this.” JW said.
“Yes you were. You did everything right. You have to know that. I came here because I trusted you. I was not wrong. You saved us. You did.”
They sat there for a few minutes without saying another word. Bridger listened to JW breath. It was course and shallow. He looked at his eyes. The whites were turning yellow and the corners were starting to fill up with blood. His fingernails had turned blue. JW broke the silence.
“I’m scared. I never had to do this before.”
“What’s that?” Bridger asked.
“Die. I never did it before. I don’t want to go.” JW said.
“Brother, I am here. I am going to let you live every last second.” Bridger said.
“You should just let me do it.” JW said.
“Too bad you don’t get to decide.” Bridger said.
“You’re my brother, you know that.” JW said.
“I know. I love you man.” Bridger said.
“I love you to brother.” JW reached up and took Bridger’s hand.
“After this, you have to move on. You have to make Kate move on. You have too. Promise me.”
“I promise.”
JW leaned back against the tree. He could hear the cicadas buzzing and a robin singing. He could see the bright morning sun..shit. He opened his mouth. He tried to tell him to go to the post office and to find Cameron Day. He has a radio. He can help. But Bridger heard
“Go post, day radio with the help.”
Bridger leaned
in and nodded at JW just to keep him at peace. He looked into his eyes. They were fixed on the horizon. His breathing was very shallow. A few moments later, underneath an oak tree with the sun beaming down on his face and the birds singing in his ear, the image of Kate, Josh and Scott firmly locked in his mind, JW died.
Bridger looked at him hard. He stepped around the tree and knelt down behind JW. He pulled JW’s knife out and held it in his hands. He watched for any movement. JW just sat there. After another minute or so Bridger saw his chest rise and fall one time. Another. A third.
“JW?” Bridger whispered in his ear.
Its arm jerked forward and a raspy exhale came from the dead lungs. Bridger reached up and grabbed the things collar and pulled it back against the tree. The thing tried to pull away but Bridger pulled it back. Now both arms were grabbing the air trying to get a hold of something. Bridger brought the knife up the back of its neck and drove it in. Upward. Pop. JW went limp. Bridger sat there with his friend for another half hour, crying. He finally stood and gathered some wood for a pyre. He took the gas can from the front seat floorboard and poured it on the wood. He laid his friend on top of it and poured more gasoline over him.
“Godspeed, brother. You deserved better. ” He tossed the match.
He walked back to the SUV and pulled away. He looked back through the rearview mirror and saw the black smoke rising. Kate could see it too, over the trees. She knew what it meant. She started crying and went to the ground. Evelyn walked over and knelt down next to her, gently rubbing her hand across her back.
“I know this doesn’t help but this, this right now, this moment. This is the hardest moment. It will get better. I am so sorry.” Evelyn said.
8
Run to You
Walk with Me
Charlie and Raj walked around the other side of the bus and grabbed the ankles of one of the dead. They had decided to drag them away from the camp and begin burning them all. What JW had said about the infection spreading made sense. Kind of. Raj knew that the spread of the Marionette virus had already happened and was pretty sure everyone was infected. He had seen the old man come back and he didn’t have any bites. But having rotting corpses around presents it’s own set of problems. Burning them made sense. He glanced towards the bus and saw Kate on the ground with Evelyn next to her.
“What now?” Raj asked.
“What?” Charlie said.
“What now? With JW gone. I mean he was the one who kind of got us all out here. What is the plan now?” Raj asked.
“Not sure. Maybe we should all start talking about it. I been talking to…” Charlie paused. He wasn’t sure if Raj had formed an opinion on Ed but he was pretty sure Tilly had.
“The asshole’s friend?” Raj interjected.
“Listen, I …” Charlie stopped. They heard the SUV coming back down the road.
“We can talk about it later.” Raj said.
They dropped the thing they were carrying on the pile and walked back to the corral. Josh and Scott had joined their mother and they were all huddled together away from the others. Evelyn stood watch over the family, offering a comforting hug or gentle hand when needed. Some of the group wandered by and Dottie and Amanda stayed. The rest gathered in the freshly cleaned out corral. Bridger got out of the SUV and walked over to Kate.
“He’s gone?” Kate asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yes.”
“Thank you. Really. Thank you.” Kate said. She hugged Bridger. He stood and walked over to the corral.
“OK folks. We have to get organized. We need to…” Bridger was interrupted.
“Can’t we just stop?” Evelyn said, walking over.
“What?” Bridger said, shocked.
“Just stop. For one minute. We need that. We need to mourn. We need to breathe.”
“Ok. I get that but that means we have a minute. Right now, I don’t know if we have a minute. Last night we had warning. JW died making sure we knew what was out there. And this still happened. We need to get organized.” Bridger said, ending the dissention.
“Organized how?” Charlie asked.
“We need to figure out what we lost in the fire. We need to gather our resources together.”
“We need to figure out where to go.” Josh said. Everyone turned to his voice.
“Where to go? Did you say where to go? Who is going anywhere?” Raj said.
“We can’t stay here. At least I can’t. I am not going to just sit around and wait for death to walk out of the trees.” He said.
“He’s right.” Lori said. “We can’t just sit in the woods. We need walls and roofs.”
“The kid’s on to something.” Dottie said. “We can’t stay here.”
“Maybe go back to South Springs.” Josh said, glancing at Lori.
“You want to go back into that?” Raj said.
“We don’t know what happened. We left. We don’t know.” Lori said.
“We can take a damn good guess.” Tilly said.
“Yeah, but we don’t know.” Josh said.
Bridger watched the conversation circle around the group. No one knew where to go but one thing was clear, no one wanted to stay here. He wasn’t sure how long it was going to take to decide but he knew some things had to be taken care of now.
“Ok. Stop. It is pretty clear we have a decision to make. Everyone let’s spend a little time thinking about it as we get this place organized. We need to know what we have before we can decide anyway. Ok?” He looked around the group.
“One thing, before we start to think about it, I think we need consider something.” Charlie said. “Ed?” He pointed to the stranger standing next to him. Everyone turned.
“Uh, ok. Listen, that guy I was with…”
“Your asshole friend?” Tilly asked.
“Yeah, but he really wasn’t my friend.”
“Right.” Tilly.
“Listen. He wasn’t my friend. I knew him. He shopped where I worked. When the shit hit the fan, he seemed to have a plan. It seemed to me that any kind of plan was better than mine because I didn’t fucking have one. Ok?”
“Kinda like us. I guess you too?” Charlie said, looking at Tilly.
“Fine.” Tilly said.
“I am sorry. I really didn’t know.”
“Do you want a trophy?” Tilly said.
“Ok. Listen, the guy I was with, I hooked up with him when the world went to shit. He said he needed help and that he had a secure place.”
“Just hooked up with him. You didn’t know him but you just decided to, go?” Raj asked.
“Well I had just watched all them damn videos in the break room and well, I had just smoked a fat one too, and everyone else was starting to just say fuck it and leave. He came in and bought a bunch of ammo and few rifles and hell, I went with him. He had bought stuff from me before but never this much at once.”
“So where did you go?” Raj asked again.
“We ended up down here at his place. But it was more like a dang ghost town than anything. He had been hauling in old shacks and buildings over the years and set it up like a little town. It looks like shit but there are at least ten buildings and he put a big old game fence around everything. He built one building out of cinder block that he lived in. I never went in there but I am pretty sure it’s full of guns and food. He bought a lot of that shit from me over the years at Wal-Mart.”
“And it was just you and him?” Josh asked.
“Yep. We had been pretty much locked inside the fence until yesterday. He decided that it was time to do a little scouting since the radio quit broadcasting.”
“Yesterday?” Josh said.
“Yep. Been in there almost two weeks. Went out yesterday, that’s how we found you.” Ed said, looking at Tilly. She wasn’t smiling.
“And he didn’t talk about anyone else coming or anything.” Bridger said.
“Nope. To be honest, I think he was starting to wish he hadn’t included me either.” Ed said.
>
“And where is this place?” Bridger said.
“Just a few miles…” Ed started.
“You’re not serious?” Josh said. “I mean, you can’t be seriously thinking about that?”
“Why not?” Raj asked.
“We don’t know this guy. This may be some drug-induced fantasy. You heard him.” Josh said.
“A two-week fantasy?” Jennifer said.
“I don’t know. Shit. But we ain’t trusting him, are we?” Josh said, turning to Bridger.
“We’ll see. Right now let’s just get this place together. Raj, you and Tilly rest up. I want y’all to plan on being on watch tonight.” Bridger said.
Josh walked over and sat down next to Kate.
“What do you think Mom?” Josh asked.
“I don’t know son. I’m not sure I could make a good decision right now.”
Evelyn walked over with a granola bar she had been saving.
“Here, you need to eat something.” She said, handing it to Kate.
“Not hungry.”
“Yes you are, you just can’t feel it. Take a bite. You need it.” Evelyn insisted.
She took the bar and gave Evelyn a half smile. When Evelyn’s husband had died, Kate had been one of the many who brought food to Evelyn’s house that week. It was tradition but it is also a well-known fact that food does help ease the pain. At least it does in the south. She smiled a little more and took a bite. She was hungry. Josh stood and walked around to the bus. Scott was sitting on the ground. Josh sat down next to him.
“How you doing?” Josh asked.
“I don’t know. It’s weird, you know. Him being gone.”
“I know. I keep waiting to hear him deep breathe when someone says something he doesn’t approve of. Or roll his eyes.”
“Yeah, he would roll his eyes and rub his chin. Like he had a beard.” Scott said, smiling.
“Yeah.” Josh smiled.
“I’m gonna miss him.” Scott said.
“Me too.”
They sat there for a minute looking at the sun climbing in the sky. They were both trying to figure out what came next.
“Can I talk to you?” Lori stepped in front of Josh, blocking the sun. Scott squinted and shielded his eyes to see who it was.