by Jay Morris
“Johnny, I was wondering, do you happen to know Mr. Tucker’s first name?”
I looked at her and said
“I don’t think he has one.”
She laughed at me, pinched my nose, and said “Of course he does.”
What I didn’t tell her was that OMT wasn’t like most people; Old Man Tucker killed people and monsters alike, without hesitation, without mercy. Not that I really minded anymore, he was the poster boy for the end of days.
They had moved the tables in the dining area into a circle more or less. There was food laid out and pitchers of tea and water. Elaine and Lucy came running to me and hugged me fiercely, Elaine kissing my head and Lucy kicking my shin. There were other greetings then we all sat at the tables, the only ones missing were Mr. Franks and Kyle. Mr. Franks was sleeping and Kyle was on the roof on guard duty.
Once we started to eat OMT spoke up;
“I’m not trying to run things here, I just want to start off the conversation.” Several of them nodded with that ‘sure, sure’ expression that meant that they didn’t believe a word of it.
“We need food supplies” he said, “and we need to make provisions for the future.”
I ate and watched them, I listened to the conversation, they talked about gardens and canning supplies, this led to a discussion about raiding nearby towns and a short list was drawn up. I put some jam on a piece of bread and they talked about clearing a field. OMT said that it had to be close enough that it would not pose a danger to anyone going to work in it but far enough away and well hidden enough that it did not draw attention to us at the lodge. He said we could ‘ring’ the trees, cut deeply into the bark all the way around so that the leaves would die and not grow back in the spring. We could use the tractor to plow around the existing trees and plant right among them. Maybe not the most efficient and it would not have the highest yield but we could even get some fall crops in, lettuces, cabbages, things like that.
It sounded like an awful lot of work but I didn’t mind, I was drinking tea by then. That was when he said that he intended to scout the three little towns on our short list and map out what he could but first he wanted to take the afternoon and go over our new weapons. Everyone needed to know how to load, clean, and fire them; everyone. Needless to say Lucy was quite excited, Mrs. Driscol was apprehensive and Elaine was bored with the prospect.
Once lunch was over we gathered in the armory and OMT began going over the weapons, everything he had now was more powerful, more deadly than what we had before. At least he hoped that was the case. Someone, Mrs. Franks perhaps, had made labels and very neatly organized our weapons. From now on, if a weapon used a magazine, then every magazine for that weapon would be fully loaded and set next to the firearm itself, ready for use. If a weapon did not, for example the shotguns and the revolvers then those weapons would be stored loaded, but if possible, open so that the users would see that they were indeed ready for action. This left only the pump and semi-automatic shotguns, they would be left loaded but with the actions open. He begged everyone to be careful and to respect them. He had made drawings for his ‘sight alignment-sight picture’ lecture. He talked about breath control and squeezing the trigger. Thus our gunfighter’s mini-lessons were finally complete and we spread out for our agreed to tasks. Funny how for a man who wasn’t in charge, things pretty much went the way he wanted them to. Asshole.
That night we played cards, well some of us did, Mrs. Franks watched her husband, OMT walked guard duty and I watched the others play cards while I looked at the yellow note pad with our agreed to ‘shopping list’. Everything was itemized; instead of tools he had written:
Gardening: 6 shovels, 2 pickaxes, 6 garden rakes, 3 hoes, 3 leaf rakes, 2 sledge hammers, 1 maul, 6 splitting wedges, 3 pry bars, 3 axes, gas powered chain saw and at least one bow saw.
Construction: 6 hammers, full set flat and Phillips head screw drivers, hand saws with various cuts, cold chisels, wood chisels, 2 levels, mason’s twine, rebar and wire, metric and SAE socket sets, 10d nails, treated 2x4s, 2x6s, and plywood. Tarps, deck screws of various lengths and a .22 caliber nail gun.
What on Earth was a .22 caliber nail gun? Anyway, he went into similar details about seeds and fertilizer, I noticed that the lists for clothing, shoes, coats, etc. and the list dealing with pharmaceuticals was done in a different handwriting. Elaine? I doubted it. Mrs. Franks? No way. It had to be Janey or Mrs. Driscol. Suddenly the thought of either one of them wanting to do anything to help him upset me and I slammed the notebook to the table getting shocked stares from every else. I still wasn’t ready for him to be, well, anything, so I stomped up the stairs to my room and went to bed. I pretended to be asleep when Elaine and Lucy came into the room.
Elaine asked if I was asleep but I kept my eyes shut and didn’t answer her. My sisters climbed into their bed and started to talk about who knows what but when I heard Lucy mentioned Mr. Tucker and my ears perked up.
“I miss mommy” Lucy said.
“I know honey, I do too, every day but you know what? I think mommy is up in heaven right now and she is watching over us.”
Lucy said “hmmm…”
She whispered to Mr. Ronald Bear and then proclaimed the verdict.
“Ronald Bear thinks you are right and that she has a TV that she watches us on.”
Elaine had that voice that said she was about ready to laugh but she was able to say
“Is that right? Is it color?”
“Yep, color AND black and white too. And it has 50 million inches and cable.” Lucy proclaimed. “And it has steromophic sound.”
“Ah, of course it does” Elaine added.
There was quiet for a while then Elaine asked
“Is there something wrong Lucy? You can tell me.”
There was a long silence then Lucy whispered
“Sometimes I want Mrs. Driscol to be our new mommy and Mr. Tucker to be our new daddy.”
I was furious, how dare her, she was only a little kid but this was betrayal I could not even begin to understand. My mother only gone less than a week and we don’t even know if Dad was even dead or not. I hated her, I felt tears on my cheeks but I didn’t move and I stifled my sobs. Elaine petted her, and ran her fingers through Lucy’s curls.
“I think you just need to feel safe and I think mom would understand. I bet that Mrs. Driscol wouldn’t mind either. What would you call her? Mom? Mother Driscol?”
I heard Lucy say
“Hmmmm...I think I will call her Mrs. Driscol and Mr. Tucker I will call Mr. Tucker.”
“I think they would like that.” Elaine said.
“Ronald Bear says he will call them Mr. and Mrs. Ducker so he only has to remember one name.”
“Maybe we should we should warn them just in case Ronald says something to them?” Elaine asked.
Lucy then said “Don’t be silly they don’t speak bear.”
Well, maybe I didn’t actually hate Lucy but it still didn’t make me very happy that Lucy was even thinking about things like this. My Mom was my mom and Dad is my dad until I learn otherwise. Elaine and Lucy talked for a long time about how Lucy thought that Mrs. Driscol actually liked Mr. Tucker that they made a cute couple after which Elaine laughed and said
“I guess so, but don’t you think he is a little old?”
Lucy said that both of them were old and she estimated their age at 19 at least. After that I didn’t really want to hear any more of those conversations.
Day 14
I woke just as the sun began to rise, I sat up and arched my back and rubbed my eyes. I looked over and saw Elaine and Lucy were still asleep. I slipped into my tennis shoes and saw my rifle in the corner nearest the door. I walked down the hallway to the stairs, I peeked into the kitchen but no one was there although I did see a couple of empty coffee cups on the counter. I walked into the foyer and saw Janey was up and sitting on the couch. I walked over and sat next to her, “Morning” I said. She pulled her hair back behind her ear an
d said the same thing to me.
“Whose on guard duty?” I asked.
She sipped her coffee and said
“Karen’s up on the roof for another hour.” “I’m surprised OMT isn’t walking his way through the ceiling like he normally does.” She said “Tell me about it, I think he spends more time up there than any two people combined. But he’s out back with Amy, they are getting the Humvee ready for their field trip.”
Crap, he was taking Mrs. Driscol with him, this was not acceptable. I got up and started towards the door,
“Where are you going?” Janey asked.
“Cutting off a bud of something” I said.
She looked at me strangely and asked
“You mean ‘cutting things off at the bud? Right?”
Whatever I thought, I shut the door behind me and walked out onto the front porch. I started down the stairs and I saw the lights from the Humvee coming around the side of the lodge. I heard the deep throaty engine as it nearly idled into view. I stepped in front of them and they stopped. OMT put it in park and got out.
“What’s up John? Did you get up to say goodbye?” he said.
“No.” I said “I’m going with you.”
He smiled but shook his head no, “You don’t have to do that. Mrs. Driscol is going.”
I heard her voice from inside “AMY!” she corrected.
“They need her here, I should go, we went to Morgantown, and I know what to do.”
The old man looked confused
“John it’s just a scouting mission, maybe some supplies if we get the chance.”
Mrs. Driscol got out of the Hummer and came around to join in the conversation
“What is going on Johnny?” she asked.
I looked at her then said “You are too important to...”
I hesitated trying to find a reason for her to stay and suddenly I had it.
“You are too important to Lucy, I heard her last night, and she asked Elaine if you could be her new mommy.”
Mrs. Driscol looked like I had just stabbed her and she covered her mouth with both hands.” Elaine’s explanation echoed
“I think she just needs to feel safe. Like someone is taking care of her.”
Mrs. Driscol looked like she was going to cry and she looked at OMT, he said
“Maybe you should stay here this time Mrs. Driscol, till Lucy gets her feet under her.”
I felt bad; it was clear that Mrs. Driscol was moved by Lucy’s wish, but I didn’t want OMT to be alone with her, she was a good person and he was a monster. I knew it, but nobody else had seen him do the things I had. He was a monster in an old man’s body and he had killed my mother and I would never let him ruin anyone else’s life.
I had the feeling I had to seal the deal as dad would have said so I said “You can talk to Elaine about it but don’t say anything to Lucy, at least not right away.” She nodded then said “well, I guess you are going with Mr. Tucker then, she stepped back and gave me a little wave, then the strangest thing happened, it was like the tiny and delicate Mrs. Driscol approached Mr. Tucker and went to kiss him on the cheek or something. Mr. Tucker quickly stepped back and turned away, he spoke over his shoulder,
“John and I should be back late tonight or early morning but if we get delayed don’t worry if we don’t get back till tomorrow night.”
His broad back was all I could see as he climbed into the Humvee.
“Right.”
Mrs. Driscol said in a tiny voice, I looked at her and she looked terribly embarrassed.
“Good luck Johnny, do what Mr. Tucker says and be careful okay?”
She turned away from me and half ran up the stairs. I didn’t really get what was going on here but it seemed that she was upset. Well good. She should be upset and embarrassed. Billy’s dad had only been gone for 2 weeks and here she was throwing herself at a…what? Ogre? Troll? Whatever he was he didn’t deserve to be happy and her husband didn’t deserve to be forgotten like an old shoe. I wondered if she had forgotten Billy too. I was angry as I climbed into the Humvee and I slammed the door shut but OMT didn’t seem to notice, he just started down the drive towards Elaine’s confusing road hiding maze
I kept waiting for OMT to say something about what had happened but he didn’t, at least he had a sense of shame and knew when to shut up. We drove about 30 minutes, taking an exit we had not used before. After a while there was a sign for Enterprise, West Virginia, population 1033. We drove through town or what was left of it anyway. There wasn’t a building left standing, some were just piles of rubble others looked like they had exploded. There wasn’t any fire that I could see but there were a few smoke trails. There were bodies everywhere; not a thousand but certainly a few hundred people were gathered in little clusters where they made their last stand, some were wearing military uniforms, but I didn’t see any heavy weapons or tanks, not many small arms either and those I could see were damaged beyond use. It was if the Z’s had destroyed them on purpose so others couldn’t use them. There were some Z corpses but not many, I saw only 10 or so. Neither of us spoke as we left the little village behind.
The next town was only about 10 minutes away but after five OMT stopped the Humvee and shut off the engine.
“Listen” he said.
We both sat there a moment then I got out. I could hear gunfire in the distance. For a bit there was quite a bit of machine gun fire and the rumble of some big guns. We were only about a mile from town.
“THERE!!” I called as I pointed in the air off in the distance.
“What is it?” OMT was squinting again.
“A helicopter Mr. Tucker, an army helicopter” I said. “Its tiny this far away but it is there for sure.”
“Okay, let’s get a bit closer” he said.
We got back into the Humvee and started to slowly head towards Shinnston West Virginia, front line in the war against the Zs. We followed the road right into town; we began to pass wrecks on the side of the road. Humvees, trucks, strange tank looking things with no turret or big gun, there was a huge tank that was on fire and the flames came out of it like a propane torch. OMT pulled over and said
“John, I want you to stay here and guard the Humvee. I want to take a closer look.”
I shook my head “we should stay together.”
He looked at me, “John, I need to count on you. If something happens to the Humvee we are screwed. I need to count on you to guard it. Can you do that?”
I was angry about being left behind but I shook my head yes.
“Good, I won’t be long.”
He got out, the Thompson in his hands, then half shuffled/half ran down a street off of ours to the right. According to a bent road sign it was called Pike Street. The old man jogged out of sight while I angrily charged a round in my M-16.
I waited; then I waited some more; then I waited some more. What seemed like hours to me was probably more like 20 minutes but I found that I was unable to just sit there any longer. I took the keys from ignition and slipped out of the Humvee. I crouched and moved along the rubble on the nearest side of Pike Street. I suddenly felt extremely vulnerable and out in the open. I skirted around a burned out tank and suddenly I felt something hit me in the side of the head. I turned and looked up at a yellow brick building that might have been a church. There was a huge metal bell hanging in a nook on the second floor and peeking at me over the edge was OMT. I sighed and he pointed to the door to my left. I crossed the side walk and dashed inside. There was a stairwell that led to the second floor so I followed it. I saw OMT he was kneeling behind the half wall with the binoculars to his eyes. I crouched and half crawled over next to him.
“What do you see?” I asked.
He handed me the binoculars and pointed a direction across the street from me and just to the right of the remains of some small building. Perhaps a hundred yards away there were three large two story buildings, the streets connecting them had been blocked off with military vehicles of all kinds, Humvees, hu
ge trucks and multi-wheeled things that I had never seen before. There were bodies everywhere, dozens of them, nearly all were human.
“What happened?”
I asked but before he could answer I heard a scream and a gunshot, a moment later a headless torso shattered a window on the second floor; it flew through the air for perhaps 20 feet before landing with a splat in the grass front yard. There was a second scream and then silence. We watched as the Zs moved from building to building, room to room, searching, hunting, and killing.
I started to give the binoculars back but saw that OMT was holding a scope to his eye and was watching intently so I kept them. We watched for almost an hour, the victims of the attack were found out and eliminated one by one by the Zs. They had changed so much it was hard to believe that they had once been human beings. OMT leaned over and whispered to me,
“I saw Zs coming from the other end of town, I think the last hold outs were trapped between two groups of Zs. When I got here there was only a few scattered shots, the military had been wiped out by then.”
I looked back at the buildings that had made the improvised fortress, brick and solid; many of the vehicles had large caliber guns on them. I suddenly felt sick as I saw a Z’s dragging the corpse of a small child by one leg. Once having pulled the corpse into the open it looked all around as if looking for observers and then it squatted and began to eat it. I felt my stomach revolt and I had to look away.
“I have seen enough OMT. Let’s get out of here” I said.
“Not yet.” he answered.
So we waited and we watched for over an hour of the same. I gave it up and faced away, resting my head in my hands. I had dozed off when OMT shook me awake,
“John” he whispered.
I took the binoculars and peeked over the edge. The Zs were gathering in the open area in front of one of the buildings. They were bunched up in concentric circles without regard for size, the newest arrivals just filling in space in the outermost circle. Their heads all pointed towards the center with scarcely any space between their shoulders.