by catt dahman
As Juan and Beth rode to the fence, they saw a red car crashed into a ditch, a door hanging open, and the headlights burning. Moaning began at once as two zombies headed towards the fence, shambling drunkenly, hissing and groping.
As they used flashlights, they saw a little boy, his head burst open, smashed in the road behind where the car had come from; it was a grisly scene.
“Looks like they hit him and swerved off the road,” Juan said, “seems they should still be close to the gate if they went off by foot, unless….”
He shot the two zombies that were shambling along at the fence, drooling as they tried to get to human flesh. “Poor kid, maybe he was headed to us.”
“No,” said a woman as she came running from the other side of the road where she must have been hiding. The woman dropped to her knees, skinning them, as she leaned over one of the dead bodies.
A man followed her, grabbing for her as she ran to the fence. The man clutched her before she could embrace one of the dead bodies, but she batted at his hands, pushing him back, and brushed the hair back off one of the corpse’s forehead tenderly.
Beth dismounted and walked closer. “Hello. Are you okay?”
“He’s my son,” the woman wailed.
Juan blanched. “I thought he was moaning and coming at the fence….”
“We thought he was a Z,” Beth added. She put her light back on the young man, making the woman cry harder, but she could see the body had chunks bitten from his arms and neck. Beth turned the light off. “He was…he was infected.”
“No,” the woman said.
“He was…he really was infected. I promise.”
“I know,” the man said as he rocked the woman in his arms. “I accidentally hit that little kid in the road; we thought it was a…a person; well, it is a person.We got out and saw it was one of them. Infected. We checked him; we thought the car’s stuck…so….”
“That’s my boy you shot. My only son, my child,” the woman screamed at Juan, “murderer.”
“Mama, shhh now.” The man showed misery in his face and eyes.
“I…I just….” Juan stammered, “he was….”
“Killer.”
Beth put her hand on Juan’s arm. “I can see something more happened here, and I want to know what it was.I am truly sorry for your loss. My heart breaks for your pain; however, Juan did what he was supposed to do. When they turn, they bite and infect others, and he prevented that.”
“One came out of nowhere and bit Tommy, our son. He was just...I couldn’t get him off of Tommy; we tried. I finished him off finally, but Tommy was really hurt.”
“I’m sorry,” Beth said. There were other moans. “We need to get you both to safety.”
“Base. Come in base. Over,” Juan said.
“This is base. Over,” Benny said.
“Base, this is Charlie and Charlie actual. We have survivors in trouble about half of a mile west of the gate. Over.”
“Reading: a half mile west of the gate, are survivors needing assistance? Copy that. Issuing an evac team by Jeep. Delta One will be assisting you. Stand by, Charlie Actual. Over.”
“Charlie Actual standing by, base. Over,” Juan said. To the man and woman, he said, “We have help coming.”
“How’re you gonna help Tommy, now that you killed him?”
“Mama, he was already gone; that was just his body and the infection,” the man said.
She wailed louder.
The moaning drew closer.
“I am asking you to remain calm and quiet. We have zombies around us.”
“Who is the other one?” Juan asked. His throat was tight.
“A woman traveling with us…she, oh, my God…both were bitten. Get up, Joan. Get up, Mama.”
“I’m not leaving Tommy,” the woman sounded tired and just sat there, looking at her son.
“Move east toward where help is coming,” Beth ordered them, “you can make it, and we will cover you.”
“Charlie Actual, this is base. Delta one is in route, ETA two minutes. Over,” Benny said.
“Copy that. Out.”
The man pulled at his wife as a dozen zeds poured from the woods close by. He ran to the fence, “Let us in.”
“We have no gate here,” Beth said, “go; they are two minutes away at the most; we will cover you.”
“Go, we have a team on the way to evacuate you,” Juan said, dropping the closest zombie that shambled forward, its stomach open and trailing insides on the road.
The man grabbed his wife and pulled her to the fence. “Let us in, hurry. Don’t let us die out here.”
Beth put her flash light back on them and shuddered as she saw the raw, bleeding bite on the woman’s forearm. The bite, discolored badly, was to the bone and already filled with infection. Her face was a sheen of sweat from the fever, her eyes becoming unfocused. “Please calm down,” she said as Juan took out two more.
“You killed my son,” the woman said listlessly as the zombies advanced.
Beth stopped and began sighting in on the zombies’ heads, firing slowly and carefully.
A Jeep slid to a stop, and Julia jumped out, along with Thurman, Walt, and Lance. At once, they helped put down the rest that shambled and moaned at the team.
“Sir, your wife is infected,” Beth said.
“What? You wanna kill me, too?” she began to slur her words.
“Julia?”
“Gotcha,” Julia said, “Sir, can you step back, please? Please move away from your wife and the fence.”
“Just let us the fuck in,” he yelled. No one moved for a second, and the woman sagged in his arms.
Before he could demand more, his wife turned and bit into his neck with grace, and it was almost a loving embrace except for the blood that sprayed all over. Juan, Julia, and Walt all fired at once into the woman’s head.
The man slid to the ground, perplexed. “What happened?” he asked. His eyes going glassy as he bled out.
Thurman called to the man, and as the wounded man turned his head, Julia shot him twice in the brain, ending his pain.
“Base. This is Delta actual. Over.”
“Reading you fine, Delta actual. Sitrep? Over.”
“Delta will be returning to base. No injuries. The survivors didn’t make it. Over.”
“Copy that. No survivors. Base out.”
Beth quickly gave Julia an overview of what happened. “She was just talking to us, yelling actually, and then she was…oh…tired…out of energy…and like that she turned.” Beth snapped her fingers. “That fast. We didn’t even know at first….”
“That is very fast,” Julia said.
Thurman shook his head, “What a bad thing for them; they were this close to the gate and being safe.”
“Damned shame,” Walt said as they went back to the Jeep, did a three point turn, and left Beth and Juan with the dead for removal in the morning. Julia waved as they left.
Beth took their reins and suggested they walk a little. “You okay?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I couldn’t make heads or tails of that mess at first.”
Beth sat next to Juan on a rock, and they listened to the water flowing below them. The bridge was to the left, and the falls were to the right, but this was where Beth liked to sit and watch tiny fish jumping when it was daylight.
“I like it here; it’s peaceful,” Juan said. He was hanging his head down.
“You did the right thing. That guy, Tommy, he was a zed; we knew that.”
“Were we positive? Did I act too fast?”
“No.”
Juan sighed, “I killed him right in front of his mama. You heard her; she called me a murderer.”
“She was sick. She was also grieving. I am a hundred percent sure of what you did,” Beth said. She patted his back.
“I worked just outside town at my Dad’s store; he had the Vasquez farm supply….”
“I know that store. I didn’t know that’s who owne
d it; my Dad always bought from there.”
“My parents both caught Red early on. I had to…you know, and I kept telling myself that it was the best because if it were me who caught Red and turned, my mother would fallen apart; that would have killed her. It was bad enough for me,” Juan said.
“I’m sorry. Were you born here or did you immigrate?”
“I was born here. My grandfather immigrated. I’m half Mexican on my dad’s side; my mother was white, whiter than Dad, I mean.” He laughed.
“I like it when you laugh; you always seem to mean it, ” Beth stopped talking and looked down at Juan’s hand holding hers.
“Oh,” he said, seeing her looking. “Ummm…do you mind a lot?”
“I don’t mind at all.”
Juan laughed again, and she looked at him, puzzled. “I was thinking about asking you if you would mind if I kissed you, but then I felt really stupid, but I still told you; so I feel like a dumb ass now.”
Beth laughed. “You were going to ask first? That’s pretty sweet.”
“I thought, well, it might be too soon or you didn’t want me to or maybe you don’t like me that way or maybe….”
“Maybe you think way too much.”
Juan kissed her hand and sat there a second.
Then he kissed her.
19
Andie
I want to write it down so that I have a record of how it was.
When everything went to hell, I kept thinking: now this has to be the very worst day of my life, yet it seemed that the bad days kept coming, and they did get worse.
At one time, I thought what could be worse than Red? Nothing. But something was worse. Then, what could be worse than the walking dead? Nothing. But there was worse than that.
I found, within myself, a strength I never knew I had. When I saw myself in mirrors, I thought I looked like an African American warrior princess, but no matter how I looked or acted, I was a scared little girl half of the time, relying on false bravado. Oh, and I had some smart, dependable people with me. That helped.
For a while, I pretended I took care of Hannah, but she probably took care of me.
After Tink left and I went with the rest to meet the survivors, they took us in as if we were family; that felt good and was one of the best days.
To me, Len, Kim, and Mark were nothing short of heroes, and when Bryan and Hagan sacrificed themselves for everyone else, I knew what heroes were made of: guts, freedom, and love. Julia, Beth, Johnny, Misty, and Rae were fearless women, funny, smart, and pretty, but excellent fighters.
I wanted to be like them. I dreamed of that kind of confidence, having it and not just projecting it. Imagine how strange I felt when in a late-night girl’s chat, they said they admired me for my fierceness.
We never know.
When the hospital was over-run with zombies, I did my duty and followed Len’s orders, thankful he was issuing the orders that were keeping us alive. We got the civilians out and most everyone else, but then there I was, left behind with Mark, Carl, and Earl, whom I trusted and depended on. The joke was they depended on me.
That’s funny.
I watched the parking lot fill with drooling, bloody, torn-up zombies who moaned and hissed as they searched for warm victims, and I could have easily pissed my pants with fear. It was like a nightmare, wanting to, needing to, and just being frozen in place with horror.
The little cat, running by, distracted the zeds; then, the explosion of gasoline burned and shredded a lot of them, and the four of us were able to run for our lives. The bad thing was that we ran right into Mike, Lee, and Cole, members of the RA, who took us captive.
For a few days, I was angry, and we tried to plan an escape, despite being cuffed and chained. Kim said we would wait and get a good chance and then be off like lightning. But the chance didn’t come, and they starved us until we were so weak.
On the night they raped me over and over, I stopped being so angry and became really depressed and ashamed; it was the worst day of my life. I fought back and cried, but if I had kept on, they would have beaten me worse, and I feared that one of my friends might try to help and end up being killed.
When they called me a “nigger bitch” and beat me unconscious, that was the worst day of my life, too. It isn’t true that name-calling doesn’t hurt or that it shouldn’t matter if the offender isn’t any one I respect.Being degraded did hurt. The only thing good was that the three used condoms so that my skin color didn’t rub off on them.
It was also the worst day ever when they beat Kim with a whip, and it was bad the next day when his wounds got infected. It was also the worst when the men beat Earl; I don’t know if he died because some RA members threw Earl out, along with his drunken captors right after that; he was in bad shape. I want to say Earl was a brave, fine person who deserved better and was better than the trash who kept us captive.
Another worst day was when we broke down and ate like starving animals, when they tossed us scraps of fatty, half-cooked meat: it was human meat, it made me so sick to my stomach, but I was so hungry that I just gulped it down.
Hunger hurts.
Mark and I stayed quiet even when they raped me and even when they beat us, called us names, and made us work. Kim fought back as long as he was able, but he got sick. And then Kim changed.
I didn’t see the smiling, quiet, kind cowboy anymore, not the man who could find the strength for anything and who only wanted to get home to his family. His eyes went dark and cold. He thought too much about our situation.
I think hatred and a need for vengeance consumed Kim.
After the zombies over-ran the RA campground, I crawled and stumbled around until I got to a road. Then, I knew where I was.
I slipped back into the dark trees to follow the road until I was where we were to meet: a spot, a house with a little grocery that we had passed once while the RA members were hunting for more slaves.It was our place to meet if we ever got away and were separated.
Mark was waiting for me. I grabbed him, held on to him, and cried a long time.
I froze when we heard someone rack a shotgun close to us, hidden by the dark. “Who the hell are you?” a man asked us.
“Andie or Andromeda, and this is Mark,” I tried to explain but ended up blubbering most of the story, so Mark helped tell it. A flashlight stayed on us a long time; then, I guess our bruises and chafed wrists and ankles, our cut feet, and thin bodies convinced the man we were telling the truth.
Just as I was falling, I felt a man wrap his strong arms around me and promise me that our horror was all over.We were safe.
I don’t remember most parts of that, but when I awoke, Ivory Joe and his wife, Velma and their son and daughter-in-law, Bernie and Ann were there. Mark was in a chair close to me, and we were given tea and sips of broth.
Ivory Joe was a black man, but his wife was white; the son, Bernie, was a pretty mocha color, and his wife was the same shade. I thought of how the RA would brutalize them for having a mixed marriage.
Who were any of us to judge? I was taught that was God’s job, but I wasn’t positive I even believed in Him anymore.
“Kim…we have to find Kimball….” I tried to sit up, but Velma clucked over me and said ‘no’.She needed to clean, medicate, then bandage, and dress me in pajamas. This idea confused me until Ann said that they had hidden here all this time and never had been found by the RA. We were their guests.
“He made it. Kim made it here,” Mark said.
“Dad would’ve shot him if Mark here hadn’t said something…the way he came up and how he looked, good Lord,” Bernie said.
“You’ve been unconscious over an hour, Andie,” Mark said, “Kim just got here….”
“Thank God,” I said, “is he alive? I mean, he must be if he got here, right?”
“He’s alive,” Mark said, trading looks with the rest.
“Where is he?”
“Kim is on the porch with Ricky, our son,” Ann said. She rubbe
d my neck with a warm washcloth, which smelled of peppermint and lavender; that made me feel better; I saw my hands and arms were now clean, and my face felt clean, too.
“I want to see him.”
“Andie, no,” Mark said.
I batted their hands away, struggled back to my feet, and went to the door where I could look out the little window; I could see two men.
One man was filling a big tub with water from the well; he was Ricky, I guessed.
The other figure, which at first I stared at and then almost screamed at because I thought it was a zombie, was on the porch with Ricky. I knew it was Kim only because of the stupid cowboy hat he still wore.
Was he a zombie?
He was entirely covered in blood, but not his. Bits of flesh and skin littered his beard and parts of his hair.Without the cowboy hat, I would say the man on the porch was a stranger to me. Yet he didn’t moan or attack Ricky.
“Kim…isn’t himself…his mind….”Mark shook his head sadly.
I saw no one I recognized.
That was two weeks ago.
20
Hopetown
Beth checked in with base and reported everything was clear; base reported it was clear there, too. Ed was on duty and said that everyone was asleep except those on patrol and gate duty, that the second show had also been a success, and that Len broke rules and got drunk but was sleeping it off.
“Remind me to give him hell tomorrow,” Beth said.
“I’ll try, but my mind might be on you,” Juan told her. They made love twice, but lying under the tree on a blanket and holding her, he thought he wanted a third time. “You are beautiful,” he said.
“I’m pregnant.”
“That was fast; I should have used protection, huh?” he laughed.
Beth couldn’t believe she blurted it out, but now she laughed hysterically. No one else knew, and she hated to tell him this way, but damned if that wasn’t funny. Somehow, she felt better than she had in weeks. “I mean…I am…three months or so along. No one knows.”
“A baby? Wow, Beth, a baby? That’s incredible.”
“It is? I mean…I’ve been stressed about it; I have responsibilities; how good of a mother can I be?I don’t know a thing about babies…and…well, a bunch of zombies are all over the place.” She took a deep breath. “And that probably justturned you off big time.”