by P. S. Power
“There, so two hour shifts now, two people at a time watching it, that means tonight too. I'll take the morning alone, so people can get enough sleep. Tomorrow I'm going into town. If you don't want to come with, get your excuses around, and that means solid work here that needs to be done, not complaints about sore muscles from shoveling. Of course you'll be sore.” He smiled and did a good enough job of it that a couple people even chuckled softly and two smiled. Better than he expected.
“Get with me after dinner on that.”
The first two to watch the fire were a man and woman he didn't know. She had that same shocky homebody look that most of them did, but the man looked... slow. And new. They both looked new. Heather didn't give him time to think about it overly, grabbing his arm then and leading him away. A bit more firmly than Jake expected actually. Her eyes looked at him seriously for a minute after she spun him to face her, having taken him past the barn.
Her hands went to her sides then, but she seemed upset. As in angry, not weepy or contrite over her previous screw ups. She didn't have a weapon at least. Jake really had to wonder what the deal was, since as far as he could tell he hadn't done anything to her. Helped her out, saved her life, at least possibly, but nothing bad. The whole thing was kind of the other way around really. She glared at him anyway.
“What the fuck is your problem?” She said, looking a lot cuter than she had a right to while starting a fight. Her hair shorter and more brown now than it had been, blue eyes sparkling a little under the cloudy sky. She had a jacket on, a blue thing that had gray stains on the cuffs and was too big for her, made of nylon stuffed with something equally fake. Jake didn't say anything. Really he couldn't figure out what she meant. His problem? Other than the whole end of the world thing? Wasn't that enough?
Finally he shook his head, “You're going to have to be a little more exacting than that. My problem? Which one do you mean, I'm sure I have several. My main one right now is figuring out how to keep the morons here from killing each other this winter. Did you mean something else?”
She put her hands on hips which accentuated her stomach a bit, even under the thick coat. It was one he'd brought back with him he realized. He'd taken to cleaning out people's closets for things and just took anything that looked useful, figuring someone might need it. That had been after he'd been kicked out too. Not exactly brilliant thinking on his part, he realized. It had worked out in the end, so good enough. The girl rolled her eyes and made a noise that was both frustrated and loud enough his hand moved toward his nine in its holster. She frowned at him.
“Sorry, didn't mean to confuse... Anyway Jake, the problem is that one day we're friends and the next you're acting like I tried to kill you or something. I need you as a friend, why are you acting like this?” Her face went still and looked ready to cry.
“Why? I already told you.” The bafflement on his face had to be clear, Jake certainly felt it strongly enough. “Seriously? You can't get that running off and sleeping with some other guy after very specifically not sleeping with me because you've been raped might just seem a little off-putting to me? I'm not that ugly am I?”
She turned half away and shook her head.
“It's not that, Jake, I... Well, when I got here I didn't know anybody and you were really nice to me. It was so hard being alone, it's just... I'm not really attracted to you like that. I met Randy after Nathanial said we had to get help or leave, and it just clicked. I'm sorry, I didn't lie... I just didn't...”
Jake smiled, which couldn't have been all that happy, because the girl took a step back. Maybe it looked crazy? He felt a bit angry, but what could he do about it? He just shook his head.
“Well, I'm glad for you then. Still, I don't see why women keep thinking that “explaining” that they just don't think of me “that way” or “aren't attracted” to me should make things any better. Is there a bigger insult they could use instead? I'm not attractive to you? Then why share my bed like that? Why lie and say that you weren't ready for sex when obviously you were? Just so you know, in the future, don't talk to me. We aren't friends, and you not “liking” me isn't an apology, it's just coming to rub salt in the wounds. Again by the way. This needs to be done now and you need to leave me alone. You don't want me? Fine, but don't pretend that it's my problem.”
Instead of backing off or leaving, like any sane person would, she just stood, hands back on hips.
“Why shouldn't we be friends? There are only fifty-two of us left and that many only because four new people came in last week. It's not like there are a lot of good people to choose from. This is just because I don't want to sleep with you? God that's messed up. I haven't slept with anyone here but Randy and they don't mind being my friend. Well, mainly, I mean...” She looked a little sheepish then but went quiet.
Fuck, she'd slept with someone other than Randy? He didn't want to ask, but a morbid curiosity took him. He fought it and tried to walk away but the word whispered out anyway.
“Who?”
She shook her head as if to clear it, “Oh, it was nothing, uh, Tipper, Randy and I... when everything was going on, a couple of times. It was...”
Seriously? He came back for this? He should have never come back at all, these people deserved to die. Jake turned and walked off. Or tried to, a small hand caught his arm and didn't let go. He spun back to her and smiled again, but the girl didn't release him.
“Jake... it's not a big deal, people seek out comfort when things get stressful, it's normal and healthy. We need to be there for each other now and if some of the combinations get a little strange,” She waved her left hand a little in the air, trying to express what her words didn't. “Well, we deal, right? We have to comfort people or they'll snap... no one can take stress like this alone.”
Jake looked at the hand and raised an eyebrow at it. His left arm, but still... She didn't let go and he didn't shoot her. They were at an impasse then. He shook a little in rage, which she had to feel through his arm, but didn't react at all to it.
“Everybody but me?” He said softly, so gently she leaned in without meaning to, her face inches from his.
“What?” The word said that she hadn't heard, rather than just not understanding what he meant.
“Everyone gets to be comforted, but me? That seems rich, doesn't it? You don't even realize that you just said that, do you? I'm just so far beneath you that you can't see me as human at all or something. Jake doesn't count, nope, not him. Too ugly, or scary or whatever. Not at all. If there's no problem and nothing to kill, then just leave him hanging in the wind alone, not worth the effort. Oh, but if he leaves everything falls apart because people won't bother even trying. What kind of crap is this? I'm expected to take this from you? How about this, I can live on my own, I know that. Even now. How about you and your precious Randy and Tipper go and live without anything I helped with for a while? If I don't matter at all, then why don't you just do without? That sounds fair, doesn't it? I mean if you don't think I matter at all, then...”
He turned and walked off angrily, hardly noticing when the two leaping zombies came in behind the three military vehicles. The trucks kept going on down the road, the dead hoppers didn't. All moving fast. Angry he just drew and hit the first one in the air instantly as it headed toward them, Heather ducking to the ground. It was a good move since the other one turned and ran at them for some reason, leaving the trucks to speed away. Normally zombies didn't react to gunfire at all. Just as the man in black military garb tried for Heather, he caught a bullet in the head too. She scrambled away before it could scratch her or anything. Each got another bullet before he started to walk off, leaving her huddled against the side of the barn, red-brown paint needing to be replaced on that side.
“See how much I don't matter?” He said, still very angry. Then left to get a machete.
To their credit the matte green and tan military trucks came back to look for their pursuers, also both military. Jake wondered angrily if they'd been atta
cking them at first, ready to kill them all if he could, figuring he'd die if it came to that, but the military men flooded out of the vehicles without pointing any weapons at him. That was a good sign.
The bodies on the ground, those had weapons trained on them, but not any of the living people. They had on at least four types of outfits, from black, like the two super-zombies on the ground, to a light tan and even a black and gray made of annoying and ugly pixels that looked like really bad computer graphics. They all stopped and waited for him to take off the heads without talking though, so they weren't stupid. Then he stood up and waited, machete in his left hand, as the cleaners surrounded the men from a distance. All the military men but two missed the movement. One of those wore black, and spoke to a thirty something guy in tan softly.
“Um, Major, smile, we have company.” The guy didn't sound nervous or anything, he just let the others know. Half of them jumped but no one pointed a weapon yet. It probably saved lives. People got jumpy when weapons came into play for some reason.
The square jawed man in front had tidy hair, longer than about half the others, but shorter than Jake's. The man stared at Jake, then the bodies on the ground for a moment, then back to him.
“Nice shooting. They're ours. Sorry about leading them to you, they were doing some forward recon on the other side of town three days ago and something happened. They both had the vaccine, all the special forces types have, in all branches of the military. So they went type B on us when they turned. We were trying to lead them away from civilians, but they moved in here. Seems a mistake in judgment on their part.” He smiled.
“Major Howard Cole. U.S. Army.”
Jake shrugged, still angry from his fight with Heather. Not these people's fault of course so he took a deep breath and looked at the increasingly uneasy men around him.
“There's still an Army? We've all seen the shows, sure you aren't some rogue unit of bikers that cut your hair and found some uniforms? I can't help but notice none of you match. Come to try and loot us and rape our sheep or something? Not that we have sheep. Just some cows. You get the point.” Jake didn't smile, but hadn't sounded completely like a crazy hill person yelling at someone to “Git off his property” either. He hoped not at least.
The men actually relaxed though, a good sign in his mind, violent people didn't do that. Nate walked over slowly, hands out and empty, but not raised. They weren't surrendering here, the military had twelve men with them, if they counted the two on the ground. They had good weapons, but Jake stood right in the middle of them, a semi-circle around the bodies. If they'd come for a fight, they were doing it all wrong. Shooting him likely meant hitting their own people too.
“Nothing like that, in fact the opposite.” He looked at Jake with confidence, head high and body straight. Military, not stiff.
“What? You've come to give us stuff and brought us sheep to rape? Well, since none of the women around here will touch me that's a nice gesture. I'm not sure that I'm really ready for bestiality yet, but well, maybe we should meet anyway... I could bring them some hay or something, see if we hit it off... Roses maybe. What do sheep like anyway?”
No one made a sound for a moment, then they laughed. The military a bit loud except one of the men in black who drew a weapon and pointed it at a clutch of other men. Jake had done the same instantly, before the military guy in fact. Everyone went quiet. Both the weapons went back at the same time and the man in black looked at him with dead eyes and nodded. He was vaguely different looking, Latino, maybe. If so he didn't have the dark skin Julio did. Pale. Somehow he looked a little familiar. How they'd gotten out of that without a gun fight he didn't know, but the other men just nodded.
“Sorry,” Major Cole whispered.
“We just haven't met many people with a sense of humor in a while. At all, on this trip to tell the truth. The compound on the other side of town looks tight, but they were... A bit reticent to come out and talk. A lot of people are, but they seem to have a lot of police with them. Their uniforms and vehicles at least. We kind of figured that meant a peaceful group.”
Nate moved in then, hand out to shake smoothly, warmly, and spoke as if the men were expected. They made small talk for a while, the cleaners finally being called off by Nate and oddly, Heather, who walked into the group boldly, pregnant stomach sticking out obviously.
“These aren't the cannibals. They seem alright, they're what they say mainly, some will be around later. Not here to hurt anyone. More scared than they seem, in the end, but then, who isn't anymore?” Then she walked off, making angry and hurt eyes at Jake.
Nate smiled.
“And who could ask for a better endorsement than that? We're going to have lunch soon, would you like to join us?”
The Major smiled and looked like he might cry, tears actually coming to his eyes at the offer.
“We'd love to. If it's not a hardship? We have food with us, enough to share, some staples, flour, sugar and some chocolate. We haven't found anyone willing to talk to us in this area for some reason, we've seen people, but they've all run when we tried to call out to them. Zombies would have run toward us, so they must be people. Any idea why?”
Nate looked uneasy, but Jake shrugged. It wasn't their wrong doing that had caused it after all.
“The police. The Westwood force, all turned into a violent looting gang on day four. They didn't even try to help anyone, took most of the town's supplies they could grab and hid in their compound. A lot of people won't differentiate between the cops and the military. Plus, you know, we've all have seen the movies Back Before. The military never comes to help you.”
Cole nodded.
“This time it's different. For maybe the first time in history we can say “We're from the government, we're here to help you” and really mean it.”
Nate waved gently toward the house, Lois stood on the porch staring and so did Sammi. She looked... hard.
Wrong. If she knew something he didn't, if they needed to be ready... Jake slowly eased his right hand toward his sidearm, watching the girl closely. She caught the movement and shook her head gently, making eye contact. Jake relaxed a bit, but stayed ready.
As the group approached her nose twitched, the man in black that had a good sense of noise control smiled and walked forward relaxed and happy looking.
Giving him a smile back the girl took two steps forward.
“Uncle Robert?” Her voice sounded happy and questioning at the same time.
The man laughed lightly.
“Sammi? Samantha? Oh god, we all thought you were dead! Your parents, they're fine, with everyone at the lake, with... grandfather. When you didn't get there we worried...”
Everyone stared again.
At least this time it wasn't at Jake.
Chapter Nine
Jake sat back and watched, listened and stayed ready while the military men ate lunch and talked to everyone at the table openly. At least the ones that talked to them. The homebodies were split as to what they did, half seemed to want to hide or run away, the others were excited, as if the military had come to save them. That wasn't really the case at all.
“We fucked up, pardon the language ladies.” The Major said softly. Even the military insisted on that. One of the first things they'd mentioned was that each unit had a “silencer”, a guy that made sure that if someone went off the deep end they didn't do it for long. He waved at Robert when he said it, but his gaze took in Jake at the same time. The Major didn't ask any questions though. Not about that.
“Early on the government panicked and put out a vaccine for the plague, virus really, they thought. Made from zombie blood cultures. Only it's not a virus. It's not anything we know how to deal with and the vaccine doesn't inoculate the body, it just infects a person slowly. If you had the shot, you turn, only going slow makes people stronger and faster. A second dose will do it too, faster, but the scientists think now that the apparent protection it gave initially only lasts about three months, then,
eventually, you turn. Probably years though, or longer if you don't get infected again. No one really knows how long yet. It's why we all haven't just killed ourselves. There's some hope.”
Nate took a bite of stew and had some savory corn pudding with it, then politely asked if the entire military had been exposed that way.
Grimly the man nodded.
“Yes, what was left of us. The losses have been... steep doesn't cover it. Four months ago we all got the shot, there were about a quarter million people under arms then. Now we're down to maybe half that. The groups with the highest survival rates are the veterans and special forces operatives. There functionally isn't an Air Force anymore... we have Captain Steve and his crew.” The military guys all laughed for some reason but the Major took a bite then and didn't explain until after he finished chewing.
“This is really good. Deer meat? Anyway, we have a bit more than that, but not a lot, there is no Marine Corps anymore and no Navy or Coast Guard. Now it's all just the U.S. military. We all tend to use our old ranks or hell, half the time just make stuff up. It's not like we get paid anymore. The main base has a guy in charge that insists on being called “The Clown Prince”. That's not even a joke by the way. Honestly I don't even know if all these guys with me are military at all. Tough as nails though and disciplined, so I don't ask. If they learned to be like that in clown college, I just need to know for future recruiting purposes.”