The Broken and the Dead (Book 1)

by Jay Morris

  “How are you feeling Johnny?”

  I felt like crap, I was dizzy and had a head ache but I said

  “I’m fine.”

  I climbed out of my hiding place and looked over at her brother who apparently had found something really interesting to look at about 3 miles away. Karen said

  “Mrs. Driscol wants to know if you will talk to her.”

  I looked at Karen with fury in my eyes and snapped

  “NO.”

  She winced at my anger but didn’t give up,

  “Johnny, she isn’t mad, she cares for you and your sisters. You should talk to her.”

  I paced about in a small circle on the raised deck for a moment then reiterated

  “NO WAY.” then I added in a quieter voice “I am never going to talk to her again.”

  Karen sighed, “Johnny.”

  I paused and waited for her to continue but she remained silent so I prompted “What?”

  Karen looked away and crossed her arms over her chest before she spoke,

  “My parents are dead.”

  This was crazy,

  “SO? So are mine!” I said angrily.

  She shook her head,

  “You don’t understand Johnny, we are all alone. All of us. And if I had someone to call mommy, well, I would.”

  I heard the grief in her voice. I started to speak but she wasn’t done;

  “Mrs. Driscol feels empty, like an old jar with nothing in it. I think she wants you to think of her as your mother, she wants to think of you as her son.”

  I wanted to slap Karen and I trembled with rage,

  “SHE IS NOT MY MOTHER, MY MOTHER IS DEAD.”

  This time Karen rose to my challenge and she stood nose to nose with me,

  “You Johnny are an idiot. You have a chance for someone to care for you and you are going to walk away from her. You don’t deserve her.”

  Karen spun on her heels and stomped away.

  I sat down, my breathing was ragged and I wished things were different. That was when I heard Kyle walking over towards me. I thought he was going to yell but he didn’t, instead he said

  “Karen was really close to Mom.”

  I sat there and looked at him as if he were from another planet, so he went on.

  “Johnny, look around, all we have is each other. Just quit being such a jerk.”

  He turned and walked back to his post. Jerk.

  I went back inside the building and went to our room. I was surprised to find Mrs. Driscol and Lucy playing cards, SNAP I think. I took a deep breath and walked over next to them, they stopped playing and they both looked up at me. I sighed and took a deep breath and then made my impressive speech;

  “Can I play?”

  Lucy and Mrs. Driscol both grabbed me and hugged me and to my surprise Mrs. Driscol kissed me over and over and Lucy laughed at that.

  “ACK!” I said.

  She didn’t let go, finally she sat me in her lap and looking me in the eye said

  “Johnny, you have been part of my family for a long time, and I don’t think your Mom would mind if we acted like it.”

  I whispered that I was sure that Billy felt the same way and she nodded and for a moment I was afraid she was going to cry again.

  “I want you both to know…”

  She grabbed Lucy and pulled her next to me on Mrs. Driscol’s lap.

  “I want you all to know that from now on, if you call me Mom or Ma or Mommy, that will be okay, it will be our little secret that when you say that, you and I are thinking of my best friend, your mother.”

  Lucy stretched and kissed her on the cheek, I know it wasn’t manly or whatever, but I just leaned into her, I decided that I liked being hugged by her and Mrs. Driscol deserved being hugged right back. We actually played four more hands of snap before we left the room and went down stairs. No one said anything to us but they all seemed relieved that we had worked things out. Karen walked up to me and asked if things were cool, I nodded and then said

  “Karen, about earlier, on the roof I mean, well, I just mean...”

  I paused looking for the right word and then found it;

  “Thanks.”

  Karen smiled and said

  “No problem Johnny.”

  It wasn’t long after that when Elaine came into the room and said

  “Alrighty, if you all are finished being all huggy, there is ANOTHER meeting that is just about to get started downstairs.” S

  He sounded irritated and had emphasized the word ‘another’ so as to leave no doubt of her opinion on the subject. Never-the-less we all went dutifully downstairs with Elaine yelling into Mrs. Frank’s room to Janey that she would fill her in if anything interesting came up.

  To my surprise it was Lt. Klein that was running the show this time.

  “Hello everyone, thank you for putting up with yet another ‘family’ meeting.” she said.

  Then she gazed casually around the room but I noticed that she grinned a bit at Elaine.

  “Folks, we have been talking...”

  She began but I knew she meant ‘OMT has been lecturing me....’ instead.

  “…and we are concerned about the Zs. They are continuing to evolve, becoming more and more dangerous.”

  That was when the good Lt. Klein surprised us all,

  “We are suggesting that perhaps it is time that we were a bit more aggressive towards them.”

  I sat up, now this had potential.

  “They are systematic in their searches, only forming large groups when a significant human force is encountered. We feel we might be able to take advantage of this.”

  Everyone started talking at once and she had to bang one of those spikey meat hammers to get everyone to listen.

  “Everyone will be given a chance to talk, ok?”

  After a moment more she began

  “Staff Sergeant Barnes and Mr. Tucker have volunteered to go on an extended scouting mission. We need to know if and when the Zs are going to be coming back through here. They also are going to try and make contact with any military, police or civil defense units that are still functioning.”

  I had not noticed Lucy leaving Mrs. Driscol’s side but suddenly she was behind where Old Man Tucker was sitting and reaching up she poured an entire bottle of water on his head. Several people broke into laughter but OMT just sat there, humiliated but unresponsive. Lt. Klein then spoke

  “It seems we have one ‘no’ vote on the proposed mission, any other opinions?”

  Lucy had left the room immediately after her aquatic-assault and Elaine following her saying that she would go find her and talk to her. Things got more specific after that, what vehicle would they take?

  “Not one of the MRAPs.” Darnell insisted.

  So the Humvee it was. How much food? How much water? How long would they be gone? Would they try to maintain radio silence like they did before? All of this was boring to me so my mind began to wander as I looked around the room. Everyone seemed open to the suggestion more or less as long as they didn’t take too much of the gear. I saw Mrs. Livingston, her dark black skin in contrast to her silver and white hair. She seemed unsettled and nervous like she was running something over in her mind trying to make sense of it. I think her husband too knew something was wrong but when he snaked his arm across her shoulders she grabbed it by the wrist and tossed it aside as if it were stinky cheese or fish bait or something. Grown-ups are strange.

  In the late afternoon, just before dinner time I went out on the porch and watched as OMT, Deputy Weir and SSGT. Barnes strung lengths of barbed fence wire in and out of clusters of trees, they put strands down low then about knee high, and finally chest high. Each line crisscrossed many times with the others it was a huge spider web of barbed wire. Anyone or anything coming through there would pay for it in skin. I saw that the hunting blind was opposite the wire trap and it was a good observation spot for it. I tried to imagine what it would be like running through the woods right into that web of bar
bed wire then having someone shoot at you while you were trying to get yourself unstuck. Kyle showed up and shook me from my day dream, he was pushing a wheel barrow full of dog eared pickets and each had hundreds of 10 penny nails driven through them. Oh right, Kyle Morena, King of the Poop Sticks. They placed the boards with the nails pointing up in places where someone might step or hide. They covered them with leaves and small twigs pretty soon it was impossible to tell where they were and where they were not. As I watched the four of them finish up and start back to the lodge I realized how clever this set up was, they were not trying to kill the enemy with that stuff or even cause serious injury. What they wanted was a warning and they wanted time; time to shoot and kill the enemy; that idea made me smile.

  They spoke to Rico, he had the hood up on the Humvee and was working on it, getting it ready for the mission and they all laughed at whatever Rico said in response. I followed them inside, I thought that maybe I would take a watch on the roof, I had not done it yet although I had spent quite a bit of time away from the lodge and didn’t have many opportunities.

  Later, after dinner that evening everyone broke up into small groups; some played cards, others had kitchen duty, and others chatted. I sat near the fireplace and watched the Morena’s, Lucy, and Janey play cards while I eavesdropped on OMT and Mrs. Driscol. Their conversation went something like this:

  M. Driscol: “Darnell is really nice isn’t he?”

  OMT: “Yeah.”

  M. Driscol: “He is very intelligent I think.”

  OMT: “Seems so”

  M. Driscol: “He’s good with the kids too, hard to find someone his age with the patience he has.”

  OMT: “Yeah.”

  M. Driscol: “Lucy and Johnny have really taken to him.”

  OMT:

  There was a long uncomfortable silence and I could tell Mrs. Driscol was getting angry but I couldn’t figure out why.

  M. Driscol: “He wants to meet me later tonight after the kids have gone to sleep.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears and I waited for OMT to explode, only he didn’t, he turned and walked away.

  M. Driscol: “YOU ARE AN ASS.” she said between gritted teeth.

  Suddenly OMT stopped and turned back to her,

  “And you are a lovely, intelligent young woman who doesn’t deserve to be alone.”

  Once again he started to walk away.

  M. Driscol: “Bob and I were getting a divorce.” she said quietly. “Billy didn’t know, we were going to tell him when…”

  OMT stopped but he didn’t look back at her, so she continued

  M. Driscol: “We haven’t been close for a long time, almost eight years.”

  OMT said something but I couldn’t hear what it was, but I do know that he made Mrs. Driscol cry. She said that

  “If that is what you want then so be it” or something along those lines.

  She turned and stormed upstairs. Now I knew it for sure, grown-ups were crazy.

  That night I lay in bed and I could hear Old Man Tucker on the roof, he would remain still for a bit then slowly he would walk to the other corner of the lodge, his footsteps growing quieter until they disappeared altogether. A few minutes later the faint sound of those heavy, slow footsteps would grow until it felt like he was standing right above me. Who knows maybe he was.

  I tried to make my head stop spinning; Billy’s mom had been going to get a divorce. That would have devastated Billy. Maybe that is why she didn’t seem so upset when he never showed up again? If Darnell got together with Mrs. Driscol and I call her Mom, do I have to call Darnell dad? Didn’t seem to make much sense Mrs. Driscol was at least a dozen years older than Darnell. Then again, Mr. and Mrs. Livingston would be my grandparents. This made me laugh a bit, I had never known my real grandparents but I never imagined being the only white kid in the family either. Well, that wasn’t true exactly; Lucy and Elaine would be as well.

  Suddenly I heard other footsteps, these were in the hall, and I saw Darnell’s lanky, athletic frame walk past my door wearing only boxers and a T-shirt with no sleeves. I heard him tap lightly on the door that Mrs. Driscol had taken that night after Lucy had gone to sleep and she thought I had. I waited and I heard Darnell knock again; I was beginning to wonder if she were going to answer it at all but at that very moment I heard the lock turn and the door made a soft swoosh as she opened it. I heard the lock click back in place as she shut the door a moment later.

  Mrs. Driscol liked Old Man Tucker even though he was old and fat and grumpy. He wouldn’t even tell her his full name and wouldn’t call her Amy like she repeatedly asked him to. I thought about him, why he always wanted to do dangerous stuff. Why did he keep putting himself at risk for us? I thought about the Franks’ dog and Lucy, of the day we tried to leave, and the swarm at the camp ground. I remembered when we rescued Janey and things went to hell and Billy died and when he killed my mother. With that memory any good thoughts I had disappeared and suddenly I hoped that tomorrow Mrs. Driscol made Old Man Tucker hurt as much as I was hurting right then.

  Day 18, Franks Family Lodge

  I crawled out of bed and started to get dressed and I saw Lucy sitting on her bed holding Ronald Bear.

  “What’s up Luce?” I asked.

  She had what mom used to call her ‘angry eyes’ but she grudgingly answered my question,

  “Mr. Tucker is going away again and he won’t be here to protect Ronald.”

  I said “but Lucy, you said you hated him and didn’t want him to stay around anymore.”

  She rolled her eyes like she was so frustrated that she had to explain everything to me because I was so stupid.

  “I hated him THEN, I didn’t want him to stay THEN, but NOW I don’t want him to go.”

  I sat on the bed next to her and tried to get her to see the truth.

  “Lucy you were right about OMT, he is mean and a liar and it isn’t good for him to stay with us anymore.”

  She looked at me like I had just told her that we were having Easter Bunny for dinner tonight. She stood up and backed towards the door, reaching behind her without taking her eyes off of me she opened it and finally spoke in a quiet little voice

  “We need him.”

  I finished getting dressed and followed her downstairs, people were all around getting ready for the day, Darnell and some of the others were going to clear some trees right next to the house so if we had to we could climb out a 2nd story window and get right into the MRAPS. They were going to park one at either end of the lodge with the stairwell being the divider for who goes to which MRAP in an emergency. I noticed that Mrs. Driscol was standing next to him and that he was holding her hand while they discussed the new plan. I thought she looked young and shy; I shook my head in disgust. I heard Elaine in the kitchen talking to Mrs. Franks, she and Mr. and Mrs. Livingston was trying to find a piece of sanity in our big bucket-o-crazy. Good luck with that.

  I grabbed a box of granola from the shelf and poured myself a bowl of dry cereal, Mrs. Livingston looked up at me and said there was some fresh powdered milk in the ice box. It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about but I got it. I adjusted the rifle slung over my shoulder and took my breakfast out onto the porch. I sat in the big wooden swing and watched the goings on. OMT, the Staff Sergeant and Rico were going over some stuff in the back of the Humvee. I had just taken a big bite of ‘crunchy sticks and rocks’ as my dad used to call granola when I nearly choked. From the far side of the Humvee Janey appeared and she was carrying her rifle and a back pack. She stepped by the men who didn’t even seem to think anything was wrong and she placed her backpack into the rear of the Humvee.

  “No, she can’t go with them.” I whispered.

  I sat my bowl down I got up and in a single leap skipped the 5 stairs that led to the front porch and I whirled around to the back of the Humvee, cleverly avoiding the men and I grabbed Janey by the arm.

  “What are you doing?”

 
She looked at me like she couldn’t understand me, then I realized what I had actually said was “waf nar oo ning?” so I forced down the cereal and repeated myself.

  She laughed and said simply that she was going with the Sergeant and OMT, that they could use a third set of eyes and a third rifle if necessary. I pulled her further behind the Humvee,

  “Don’t go with them.” I begged.

  “Why not?” she said with her hands on her hips “don’t think I can do it?”

  I shook my head

  “No, no, no, that’s not it at all!”

  I lowered my voice and looked around to make sure no one else was listening.

  “OMT isn’t right; he kills people, not just monsters.”

  She looked at me like she was waiting for the punch line.

  “Janey I am not kidding here, he is a killer.”

  She looked at me through the corner of her eyes and said

  “Johnny, I know he killed people but he doesn’t do it unless he has to.”

  I shook my head how she could be so blind was beyond me.

  “Janey, he threatened your friend remember? And he killed all those people who were here before us and ...”

  I had trouble choking this out but it had to be said

  “…and he killed my mother.”

  Her eyes softened but she shook her head

  “Johnny, I heard about your mother from Amy. She was in pain and was dying, she begged him to do it.”

  “Liar!” I snapped, even though I knew it was true.

  I stepped away

  “Fine, you want to travel with a monster you go right ahead, see if I care.”

  I growled through gritted teeth.

  “Johnny?” she said as she started to reach out to me but I didn’t want any part of this or her, I turned and ran.

  I watched them from our window, Lucy at my side, Ronald Bear at hers. Janey was a fool to trust the killer, I had tried to warn her but she wouldn’t listen. I looked at Lucy, she seemed oddly satisfied, but then again she was little and easily confused. The Humvee turned over and slowly pulled around the circle drive and then down the driveway towards the highway.