by Josh Hilden
Lisa and Sam stopped. Then there was the sound of winches straining as the gates, that appeared to be cobbled together from sheet steel and telephone poles, drew to the sides like pocket doors. Six people five men and an elderly looking woman who was clearly in charge, walked out from inside the town and toward the two Wolverine commanders. When only 20 feet separated them they halted. After 30 seconds of sizing each other up the woman started talking.
“Do you mind telling us exactly what your intentions are here in Hession?” She asked with no preamble.
“My name is Lisa Sutton and this is Sam Sims. I guess you could say that we are in charge of these people.” She gestured at the Caravan, and as soon as she did there was a collective shout from her people that made her wince.
“WOLVERINES!” They cried out in one proud voice.
The old woman in front of Lisa stared at the roaring collection of former refugees, that had just declared to the world that they were survivors and warriors of a sort, and broke out in a loud and infectious laugh that quickly spread to the men next to her. “Isn’t this the wrong movie for that one?” she asked Lisa as she attempted to contain her laughter and motioned for her men to do the same.
Lisa allowed her head to fall a little in embarrassment. She was never going to be comfortable with, let alone accept, the name her group had chosen. “I suppose so,” she said looking back up, “But in all fairness we have fought our way all the way from Ann Arbor, and we are still a going concern.” She was surprised by the pride in her own voice.
The laughter stopped and the older woman gave Lisa a hard look, “You people were in Ann Arbor when the shit hit the fan?” she asked. Her voice was now all business. Any previous good humor vanished.
“Yeah we were there,” Lisa said. She carefully avoided thinking about the trek out of the city into the less urban areas. They’d all seen things that would never leave them. “We’re heading north, and when we saw the barricades around the town we thought we might be able to trade for some shelter, so we can make some repairs and get some rest.”
“I don’t know,” the older woman said, “what have you got to trade that we might be interested in?” There was no promise in the question, but Lisa was thankful that at least the door had been opened.
The caravan of Wolverines had one commodity that she was sure nobody would be able to turn down. “How about three doctors, seven nurses, and a ton of medical supplies?” She asked as directly as she could. It reminded her a little of dealing with the locals in Afghanistan.
The older woman said nothing and her expression remained steady, but the men around her gaped at Lisa and Sam and she knew that she had them hooked. “If you are lying to me,” the older woman started quietly and Lisa cut her off.
“What you are looking at ma’am is what is left of the survivors of the University of Michigan Medical Center, and I promise I am not lying to you.” She stood up a little straighter deciding that if she was in for a penny she might as well be in for a pound, “The Wolverines are not liars.” She said it loud enough for her people to hear and they cheered again.
The older woman looked up to a man at the top of the gate behind a sheet steel barrier and nodded. With a groan the gates opened all of the way up and she turned to Lisa. “My name is Estelle Landry, and you are all welcome to the Hession Compound.”
The Wolverines cheered again, and the vehicles began to move forward. Tonight they would all sleep in relative safety. Then they would be able to plan for the next leg of the journey.
5
The Hession Compound
9:15pm EST
The initial uncertainty of the residents of The Compound regarding the Wolverines disappeared as the groups began to mingle and exchange stories of death and survival. Being in the middle of Michigan’s agricultural belt, there was plenty of food available, everyone was treated to a large feast. It seemed survivors from the big cities to the south were rare. The Compound leadership, meaning Estelle Landry, decided that the arrival of such a large group of survivors was reason for celebration.
Following the meeting with her cadre of advisors in which they had decided upon a route to the bridge and a plan if they were really being followed. Lisa allowed her people to wander the town freely as long as the work of the caravan was finished.
They’d acquired a full diesel tanker on their trek north, but only half the vehicles used diesel. The two gasoline tankers they’d found that had not been burned hulks were overturned. They’d been forced to leave vast amounts of gas behind.
Lisa and the other doctors saw to the sick and injured in Hession helping t relieve the compounds overwhelmed medical assets. They also dispensed some of their stores of antibiotics when they absolutely had to. It seemed to Lisa, and later Sam commented on it, that every other adult in Hession was armed with a heavy bladed over-sized machete clipped to their belts, backs, or strapped to their legs. Following dinner, Lisa asked Estelle about them.
“Those?” Estelle laughed, “Jim Lee has been making them for years for the farmers and hunters in the area. He’s a self-taught blacksmith and shade tree engineer. He runs them up in his garage.” She fingered the one strapped to her own belt and continued, “The damn things are excellent for taking out the dead without making any noise.” She drew the deadly looking piece of steel from its scabbard and offered the handle to Lisa.
Lisa took the weapon and swung it through a few arcs. Long ago she’d studied the martial arts and had some limited training with a blade. This one was a bit point heavy, and was thicker and more robust than a standard machete.
”Nice,” she said as she handed the weapon back to Estelle, “Do you think that this Mr. Lee would be interested in selling us some?” she asked.
Estelle laughed, “Jim Lee would sell you his underwear if you offered him a good enough price.” She turned toward one of her assistants who’d been trailing them. Lisa thought that everyone there was afraid that someone was going to kill Estelle. Therefore they all felt they had to guard her.
“Billy will you fetch Jim for me?” She asked the kid who had to be 16 or 17 years old at the most.
“Sure thing Mrs. Landry!” He said and sprinted off to the west.
He came back less than 15 minutes later with an elderly Chinese man in coveralls and a greasy John Deer cap. Lisa and Estelle had been exchanging gossip that they’d collected from refugees and off the airwaves. None of them had heard anything official from the government in days, and state radio broadcasts had been absent almost as long. The one thing that interested Lisa was the story of the Army of the Dead under the control of a living person. She made Estelle promise to introduce her to the former police officer who’d told her the story.
“Good evening Estelle,” Jim Lee said and Lisa’s jaw almost dropped at the crisp British accented voice that came from his mouth. She’d expected him to have a Chinese accent, or to sound like a Michigander at least, this was a surprise.
“Jim,” she said and hugged him tight, “we missed you at the party.” Lisa thought there was a decidedly sexual playfulness in that voice.
Then it suddenly dawned on Lisa, the two of them had been or currently were lovers. She had no proof except what her gut was telling her. To Lisa Sutton that was more than enough.
“There are lots of things to do, Estelle.” He said cryptically and Lisa knew that no more would be said about that in her presence.
Lisa extended her hand to him, “Mr. Lee my name is Lisa Sutton. I was wondering if I could talk to you about your blades?”
Jim Lee looked at her as if she were some new third gender of human being for a moment, and then smiled a mercenary smile. “Of course you can.”
Hard negotiations followed. But in the end the Wolverines found their fangs.
6
Leaving the Compound
October 26, 2012 AD (Day Nine)
10:00am EST
The Wolverines spent two wonderful days inside the compound trading for supplies, information, an
d entertainment. They acquired 25 of the oversized machetes they’d begun referring to as their “Fangs”, along with lessons and tools to make more. Pat Rowland especially had thought that the trade of a significant portion of pain pills worth it, for the knowledge and tools more so than the weapons themselves.
All of the First String Scouts, as the main fighters were calling themselves, had a Fang or would have one in the next few days. The vehicles were reinforced and restocked with food and water that was received in exchange for 150 gallons of diesel fuel.
They allowed a large number of the transient refugee population to join them, on the condition that they obeyed the quickly developing rules of the Wolverine Caravan. The people of the Compound had willingly taken these people in, but it was obvious that they were not sorry to see some of the excess population move on with the Wolverines. A series of interviews were conducted by Lisa and Sam Sims with as many of the Refugees that they could convince to talk with them, in order to develop a more comprehensive idea of what had been going on.
The most disturbing part of the interviews was meeting with Officer Nathan Walker formerly of the City of Detroit Police Department. After her dickering with Jim Lee following the festivities of the first night, she’d been taken to him at the local Catholic Church, where he had been in constant attendance since arriving in Hession.
He’d been a hollowed eyed young man who never looked her in the eye. She saw that expression more than once in Afghanistan, and more than once it’d ended with the poor young man or woman eating a bullet. She thought that Nathan Walker might not be long for the mortal coil.
In a disjointed and rambling tale that lasted the better part of two intense hours, he told her the story of the dark priest that had offered them their lives in return for their immortal souls. He told her of his Sergeant taking the Crimson Mark, and of the others being given the Lesser Mark. He told her that the priest said that no dead would attack them if they bore the marks. Then he told her about how he escaped from the church with a dozen others. He would not tell her why he was the only one who’d made it to Hession or what he’d seen on the road.
As Lisa was leaving the church she was so consumed with what the man told her that she’d not seen the little boy running across the street until he collided with her. She staggered backwards but managed to remain standing. The boy fell flat on his ass. He did not appear to be hurt, but looked up at her with a dazed expression before speaking.
“You should watch where I am going!” He declared in a high voice. Lisa almost laughed out loud at his consternation. But she kept a stern look on her face as she spoke.
“Since you were the one who ran into me, it is your responsibility to watch where you are going.” She said.
He stopped and blinked, apparently Lisa surmised, the boy thought she would just ignore him or apologize and allow him to proceed on his way. Lisa grew up in a very strict, if she’d been pressed she would have admitted abusive, home. While she’d shed a lot of the dark lessons her mother and step father imparted upon her, the Army had reinforced the more practical ones.
“What if I’d been holding a weapon in my hands instead of having them slung?” she asked him indicating the pistol on her thigh and the machete strapped to the opposite hip. Now he looked worried and she continued in an effort to gently press the point home. “If my blade had been out, I would have skewered you, and if the pistol had been in my hand, it might have gone off and hurt someone.” She intentionally sounded harsh, but she realized too late that she was overdoing it.
He was just a very little boy after all.
“I’m sorry,” he said between sobs that suddenly began to come out of his throat. Tears were running down his cheeks and he attempted to wipe them away with the heels of his hands.
She knelt down to his eye level and looked at him as she spoke. “It’s OK, nobody was hurt and I am sure that you will be more careful from now on right?” she asked.
He nodded vigorously and tried to stop the tears. It broke her heart a little, he should have been able to cry and not fight it, but with everything that had been happening, the surviving children had been forced to grow up so fast. It just wasn’t right damnit, it wasn’t fair. She held those emotions back as to not scare him and instead asked a question.
“What’s your name kiddo?” and she smiled at him throwing every watt of personal charisma into it. Children always liked her and she always liked them. That was one of the great regrets in her life, that she’d never had a child of her own. She did not want to be a single mother, and her lifestyle made it difficult to find a partner and have a child.
“Charlie,” he said, and a shy little grin answered her smile.
“Charlie, where are your parents?” She asked him and prayed that at least one of them was alive.
“Daddy went away at Christmas. He lives in New York with Jill.” He sounded sad and she knew a little of that sadness, she and Sandy were left with their mother when their father moved to Houston. “Mommy is sleeping.” He said that one in a whisper. She let the laugh out that she’d held in when they had first met.
“Does your Mommy know that you are out here?” she asked between laughs. She was sure that she knew what the answer was.
“No,” he said slowly, “I was supposed to take a nap, but I wanted to play.” He looked at her, and she knew he was wondering if he should run. She took his small soft hand in her larger and stronger one.
“Take me to your Mommy, Charlie.” She said, and after a hesitation he began to lead her back from where he had come.
He led her to the Hession Community and Recreation Center. It was obvious from the trailers, RV’s, and motor homes parked around it, that the facility had been turned into temporary housing for the refugees allowed to stay. Despite the number of people, there was a feeling of order and cleanliness to the building. Estelle Landry ran a tight ship it seemed. Once inside they were almost overwhelmed with the smells of disinfectant and bleach, every effort was made to stave off infections in the makeshift dormitory.
“She’s over here,” Charlie said, leading Lisa to a cot in the back of the Center’s Gymnasium. When they got within the vicinity of the bed, Lisa saw a slim and beautiful dark haired woman talking to a security guard in a uniform that badly needed dry cleaning.
“You are not supposed to allow any children out of the building unless they have an adult with them!” She yelled at the man who shrank in stature as her volume rose. “Now get your fat ass out there and find my son!” She jabbed her forefinger into his chest with each word.
“MOMMY!” Charlie shouted as he ran to her with his arms outstretched.
“CHARLIE!” She yelled back and bent down to scoop him up as he collided with her. In the joy of the reunion, the security guard slinked away.
Lisa followed at a more respectable pace and was somewhat overcome by the other woman’s beauty. Under the loose fitting men’s clothes, and despite absolutely no makeup, Lisa thought that she was quite possibly the most gorgeous woman that she had ever seen. Sleek black hair, generous breasts and hips with just enough curve to look good and perfect skin, she wondered what the woman smelled like.
Down girl, she thought to herself as she plastered a congenial smile on her face, it’s just been a long time since you’ve gotten laid, and it doesn’t matter anyway, because it is doubtful that she swings that way. She approached Charlie and his mother and stuck out her hand.
“Hi, I’m Lisa. I found this little rascal outside and thought that I should bring him back to you.” God, if that sounded stupid to her own ears, just how stupid did it sound to the woman?
The woman put Charlie down and without saying a word embraced Lisa in a tight hug. “Thank you so much,” she said and Lisa could feel the silent tears running down the woman’s face onto her neck, “I was so scared that one of those things had gotten him.” Lisa hugged her back awkwardly and caught a whiff of her scent.
She smelled sort of sweet, almost like ripe watermelon.
They went over to the cafeteria, got sandwiches and instant coffee, and sat to chat for a bit. After Nancy Harrison introduced herself to Lisa, and thanked her until Lisa thought that the blush on her face would become permanent, she explained a bit of what happened to her and Charlie on the road and how they’d gotten to Hession. When she finished Lisa inquired what their plans were.