Adriana kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Josh."
He watched as the woman limped off. How could she be such a witch most of the time and a sweetheart today? Maybe this was her real personality. Before long Xever and Mark joined him to string the wiring.
When they reached the backside of the property, Josh saw evidence of someone camping on the other side of the fence line. "Xever, I'm going to get the truck. Someone's camping out there." Josh pointed to the tree line. "See the blankets?"
"Take Mark with you. I can manage here. When Miguel and Candy finish, they'll come back and help me."
"Why don't we take four-wheelers?"
"The four-wheel drive truck's faster."
Josh drove to the backside of the compound and stopped where he'd seen the blankets. They climbed out and slung rifles over their shoulders before searching.
"How many do you think are living out here?" Mark asked.
"Hard to tell." Josh pointed to the blankets. "Maybe one or two."
They walked through the tree line and found evidence of a campfire and a carcass, perhaps a squirrel.
Movement to the left caught Josh's attention. He motioned for Mark to be quiet and crept toward the sound. As he stepped forward, a young man jumped up from his hiding spot and ran. Mark tackled him to the ground.
"Let me go!" The teen struggled under Mark's weight. "I haven't done anything wrong."
"Let him up." Josh trained his handgun on the boy. "Stop fighting, kid."
"I'm not a kid!" The teen crossed his arms. "I'll be fourteen soon."
"What's your name?" Mark asked as he rubbed his injured shoulder.
Josh shook his head. Why had he tackled the kid?
"William Brun."
"Where's the rest of your group?" Josh asked.
The boy's jaw tightened. "My parents were killed by those things. It's just me."
"How'd you get here?" Josh pointed the blankets. "Where'd the bedroll come from?"
"My house is five miles that way." He pointed toward the west. "When those creatures found us, my dad told me to run into the countryside. He didn't think the zombies would be here. I ran until I couldn't run any more. I found a house and spent one night there, but I was afraid of those things finding me again, so I grabbed food, water, and blankets and started walking. Once I reached this fence, I made camp here for the night."
Josh watched the boy for signs of deception "No one else is with you?"
"No, man. Everyone's dead." His face was drawn, and tears glistened in his eyes. "I didn't mean to trespass. I'll pack up and be out of here."
"No, you won't." Mark picked up the kid's blankets. "We'll take you with us. You can eat and have a warm place to sleep."
Josh put a restraining hand on William's arm. "Do you have any bites or scratches?"
"No."
"You'll understand if we check you over before we allow you to stay in our camp?"
"Yeah. Can't be too careful nowadays." William tugged at his collar. "It'll be nice to have a warm place to sleep for a night. I'll head out first thing in the morning."
"Where to?" Didn't this kid know he wouldn't survive alone?
William shrugged. "Hawaii or Alaska if I can figure out how to get there. You know, someplace where there ain't zombies. Maybe Canada."
"Dude, seriously?" Mark asked. "No place is safe."
Chapter Thirty-Four
Randi yawned and stretched as she climbed down the tower stairs. Each footfall jarred her aching bones and muscles. She'd worked all day on the electric fence and had taken her shift overnight. Now they needed to do a perimeter check. She walked to the storage shed.
"What are you doing?" Josh caught her arm. "You're dead on your feet. I'll do the check."
"Come with me." She opened the door. "I won't sleep even if I go to bed, so it won't hurt to do a check first. While we're in the perimeter, let's try to get a deer. I think we're low on meat."
Randi followed Josh as they zoomed around the perimeter. There was nothing out of place until they reached the far side where a dozen or so infecteds leaned against the fence.
Josh stopped and Randi pulled alongside him. "I wish we could do something other than kill them."
"Yep. Gets old. Not to mention, when we burn the bodies, we have to monitor the fire for so long to keep from starting a wildfire even with the pits."
"At least we can leave them for an hour or so at a time now." Randi rubbed her face. "We could try to lure them away from the fence." She needed to rest and didn't want to do this.
"That might work, but would they return?"
"I imagine so."
"Why don't we go back to camp? Someone else can help me."
She shook her head. "I'm fine. Let's do this."
"You're not fine." Josh touched her arm. "Randi, you're exhausted. There are plenty of people who can help me dispatch these creatures."
"I have to pull my weight."
"Good grief, woman! You do much more than your share. For once, will you rest?"
She glared at him. "Don't you get it? If I try to rest, I see the faces of every single person I've killed in my life. You of all people should understand that."
"Yes, but you've got to sleep even if it means having Miguel give you something." Josh brushed his hair out of his eyes. "If you don't take care of yourself, you'll be no good to the rest of us. Go. Now."
She hated taking anything to sleep. The other night when she did, she slept without nightmares, but that didn't dissipate her fear of potentially facing her past in her nightmares. "Fine." She planted her feet wide and swept her arm in a large arc. "Who do you want me to send? Everyone else is tired, too."
"Ethan. It's time for him to get his hands dirty."
Randi turned the ignition and took off. She was being petty. He only wanted her to take care of herself, but she despised being ordered around.
She flew across the field, heat flushing through her body. Who did Josh think he was telling her what to do? She was an adult and could do anything he could. The four-wheeler slammed to a stop when she reached the compound. She climbed off and found Ethan in the smokehouse anteroom grinding meat. Did the work never end in this place? "Here." She dropped the keys in his hand. "Josh wants you to help him at the back fence."
Ethan ran the back of his hand across her cheek. "You okay?"
"Fine. Help Josh while I go to the kitchen."
She stalked to the fire where her sister stirred a pot. "What can I do?"
Adriana looked at her and raised an eyebrow. Great. Time for the tirade to start. Would she ever be able to get past her sister's hatred?
"Find Miguel." She pointed toward the guard tower. "He's on duty. And get sleeping pills so you can rest."
"I'm good."
"No, you're not." Adriana sighed. "You can't keep going when your body is exhausted. Go see Miguel. Now."
"I'm not tired."
Adriana let out a short laugh. "Give it a rest, Ironman. Let me make this perfectly clear. You have two choices, get the medicine from Miguel and take it voluntarily or have it shoved down your throat."
Randi's eyebrows shot up. "You're not big enough to do that."
"True." She stood and motioned around the camp. "But I have a camp full of men who'll hold you down while I force feed it to you."
"Why is everyone telling me what to do today?" Randi yelled. "I'm an adult, you know."
"Then act like one," Adriana said in a very soft voice. "You've told me to grow up many times since we've been here. Now, it's my turn. Quit acting like a petulant child."
"Fine." Randi stomped off.
Miguel handed her the muscle relaxers, and she started toward the door.
"Wait a minute."
"What?" She spun around and dared Miguel to say anything more. "I have the medicine, and I'm going to my tent."
"Not until you take it." He handed her a bottle of water and watched while she took the pills.
"Happy now, drug pusher?"
Mig
uel laughed and nodded. "Go to bed, grumpy."
She stomped down the stairs to her tent. Her gun holster bit into her side, so she shifted it, but she refused to take it off even when she slept. She lay on her sleeping bag with her eyes closed, and images of the lives she'd taken traipsed across her mind. The girl with the bomb. Randi could see those eyes. The color of bayou moss. They penetrated through to Randi's soul. The next image that flicked across was the girl after Randi shot her. Her eyes were vacant and unseeing.
Her father insisted God was a good and loving Creator. So why did He allow war, zombie inducing viruses, famine, and death? She didn't buy it. If God was real and loved her, He wouldn't have turned her into an executioner of children.
*****
Josh had almost cleared the fence line when Ethan rode up on an ATV with a trailer. "We need to finish removing the infecteds pressing on the fence and take them to the pits and burn the bodies."
Ethan gulped. "I know we have no choice, but this isn't easy."
"Nope." Now another person would be haunted by the lives he'd taken.
"If they looked like the undead zombies from TV this wouldn't suck so bad." Ethan gripped his weapon and pointed it at a man's head. "Killing living people is messed up. I feel like a German soldier in an Auschwitz camp." He pulled the trigger and killed a man, then another.
Josh shot the last man at the fence and Ethan bent over and vomited several times.
"You okay?"
"No." Ethan's nostrils flared, and sweat ran down his cheeks in little rivers. "How can you be so blasé when killing people?"
"If they take that fence down, we'll be vulnerable. The infected will eat the children first." Josh leaned back on the ATV with the trailer attached. "Were you in the military?"
Ethan shook his head.
"I was a SEAL, and in order to keep everyone safe, I tell myself we're at war. It's us or them."
"Do you enjoy it?" Ethan had dropped his voice to just above a whisper. "The killing, I mean."
Josh stared at the man for several seconds. "I'm not a monster."
"I've heard some cops and soldiers get a kick out of taking a life." Ethan's hands trembled as he wiped sweat from his pale face.
"Don't believe everything you hear. I wish we could do anything other than kill these people. Their faces haunt my dreams and invade my thoughts during the day."
"We're messed up."
"We are." Josh climbed on the ATV. "Come on, time to burn those bodies."
They dragged the bodies into the pit. Ethan rolled the last one in and vomited again. "Does it get any easier?" He swiped at his mouth.
"I wish I could say it did." Josh poured gasoline over the bodies and dropped a match. "We need to come back in an hour or so to check the pit. We don't want to start a wildfire."
Ethan nodded and pulled his shirt over his nose. "
"You were a fireman?"
"Yeah. I've smelled the scent of burning bodies before. I've never been the one to set them on fire."
They returned to the compound, and Ethan broke off at the tower. The bridge or one of the towers was a great place to get alone for a while.
Josh sought out Xever who was tanning a deer hide. He looked up as Josh approached. "How are you, son?"
"Okay, but we need to talk."
"Sure. Do you mind talking while I work?"
"No." Josh took a seat on the ground and grabbed knife to help de-hair the skin. "We need to start having church services or a Bible study. Something."
Xever nodded and kept working for a few minutes. "You know anyone eloquent enough to preach to our little group?"
"You."
"Me?" Xever's eyebrows shot upward. "You've got to be kidding. I'm no preacher."
"You have a calm, kind demeanor." Josh took a deep breath. "We're killing people on a daily basis and none of us are dealing with the stress of it. We need this, Xever. We cannot survive without God's grace, and we have people here who don't know Him."
"And one who grew up in church and hates Him."
"No, she doesn't."
Xever continued working on the hide without making eye contact with Josh. "She does and part of it is my fault. If you want someone to help my daughter, it can't be me."
"What do you mean?"
"When Randi was young, I wasn't a good man. The good Lord knows, Faustina should've left me a million times over. I'm an alcoholic. For years, I drowned my own inadequacies in booze, but the thing is, when I drank, I got mean. Ugly mean. When I sobered up, guilt crushed me over the way I treated my family. Then I'd dive right back into the alcohol to quash those feelings.
"Faustina was a fine Christian woman. She took the kids to church and little Randi loved it, told me over and over how much she prayed for me. Our oldest, Raul was fifteen at the time and learning how to drive. One afternoon, I'd had way too much to drink but thought I could handle my liquor. I drove home from the bar, and a block from my house, I crossed into oncoming traffic and hit my wife's car. Raul was driving and Faustina was in the passenger seat."
Tears dripped off Xever's face, and his jaw clenched. "I killed my boy. Raul was ten years older than Randi and her hero. She adored him. After he died, Randi developed an animosity toward God. It was subtle at first. She whined about going to church when she'd begged to go before. As she grew older, she turned her grief and pain into rage against the One who could help her. It only got worse when she came home from overseas."
What could he say to the man? Josh had never had kids, and couldn't imagine losing one. Especially bearing the responsibility for it.
"Prison changed me. When I went in, I was angry and resentful, but one night when I was in solitary for fighting, a guard tossed a Bible on my bunk and said, 'Martinez, you're on a path to hell. It's time to get your life together, or that sweet little wife of yours'll walk away without looking back.' That started my journey to the Lord.
"When I got out of prison, Faustina allowed me to come home on the condition I went to church with the family and never touched another drop of alcohol. I'm happy to say, I've kept that promise, but I can't undo the damage I did to my family." His voice cracked. "I think about Raul every day. He was such a good boy. Randi's good at hiding her resentment toward me, but it's still there. Simmering."
Emotion clogged Josh's throat. He swallowed. "Even more reason you need to be the one to start a worship service."
"Randi won't come."
Josh continued scraping the hide. "She's not the only one who needs this. Besides, you don't know God's plans for your daughter."
"I'll do a study and give a lesson, but it's up to you to organize."
"Yes, sir. Plan on tomorrow. I want to start as soon as possible."
*****
The sun sat high in the sky as Randi stood on the bridge for a while after Adriana relieved her. Maybe the noon air would put some life back into her after the long night and morning. Most of the community had gathered around a fire pit below her and her dad was speaking to them.
"Before the Garden, life on earth was perfect. No sin, no pain, no sickness, but when Adam and Eve sinned, they brought evil into the world. We are born into this. No one has to teach children to lie, cheat, steal, or any of the other awful things we do to each other. If you think about it, without Christ, we're no different than the infecteds. We're dead men walking."
She tuned him out after that as anger and old resentments bubbled to the surface. How dare her father compare her to one of the infecteds? She started for the stairs when Mark began singing, "It Is Well With My Soul".
Randi fell in a crouch to the bridge gasping for breath. Her insides clenched. She stared at her hands plastered against the concrete floor. The last time she'd seen Raul, he sang that song for the congregation.
"Whatever my lot you have taught me to say, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul," Mark sang in his clear alto so reminiscent of Raul's youthful voice.
Her vision narrowed and she covered her ears with her
hands. Why that song? Of all the hymns in the universe, why did Mark choose that one? Randi stayed on the bridge hunched over. She rocked herself back and forth and gasped for air. Time moved in slow motion waiting for the song to finish. Mark started the next verse, and she jammed her fist in her mouth to silence her screams. Her father had no right. No right at all to preach to this group. Not when they hadn't a clue about his past.
She gulped in another breath and glared skyward. If there was a God in this messed up universe, why didn't her father kill her instead of her brother? Unlike her, Raul deserved to live.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Reginald sat on the edge of Mary Anne's bed. He stared at the honey-colored walls trying to find the words. He clenched and unclenched his fists. "I know you're hurting, but we need to leave here."
"Go away."
"I can't." He touched her arm. "Please sit up and talk to me. We have problems."
Mary Anne pulled herself to a sitting position with the effort of someone who wore a thousand-pound weight around her neck. "What, Reginald? What do you want from me?"
"I want you to trust me. We must leave." How did he tell his wife about the beating? "Vixen hurt Belle."
"What?" Mary Anne shot out of bed. "She's not touching my babies. I'll kill her first." Belle huddled on the other bed in Katie's arms. Both girls cried softly. "What did she do to you, sweetheart?" Mary Anne pushed Belle's hair up on her forehead and gasped as she saw her.
"Vixen took her into the office because Belle stood up for a teenager. That evil woman caught him sneaking out after curfew with one of the girls and made him cut the grass in the park. One blade at a time using children's scissors."
Belle sat up. "I told her it was a stupid punishment. Make him take extra KP or something, but why humiliate him? It's not like they were outside of the gate or even doing anything. They were caught swinging and talking. When I said that, she made me go to the office." Belle raised her shirt to show the whip marks on her back. "She told me my family was nothing but trouble."
Dark Days (Book 1): Contagion Page 27