TRAVIS: Motherfucker…
ALEXIS: I’d love to pierce that bastard with one of my arrows. I’d love it a lot.
ME: Well, we can’t do that right now.
ALEXIS: Why the hell not??
ME: You know why! We’re here for recon and recon only. Alan told me you had a level head…did I make a mistake putting you on the crew?
ALEXIS: No…no, of course not. I’m sorry, it’s just-
ME: Believe me, I know. I’m angered myself. Where’s that dish at? Let’s see if we can hear anything from here.
Travis pulled his pack off and removed a dish. I clicked it on and placed the headphones on my head. I pointed it toward their camp and listened.
After the asshole was further away one of the other women went to her aide and helped her back to where she was tending the garden.
WOMAN: What did you say to him, Beth?
BETH: I just asked if I could have a bottle of water…I’m feeling hot.
WOMAN: We need to act invisible the best we can! And of all people, why would you ask Harry for something? You know he’s one of the biggest pricks here.
BETH: I just thought…I don’t know, I was just thirsty, Helen.
HELEN: Listen to me…I’m older and wiser. You’re what? Twenty something?
BETH: twenty-two.
HELEN: Exactly. Pay attention to things. Haven’t you noticed some people go missing? How many other women and men have disappeared over the months since we were captured? Dozens. Why? They were complaining or being slow.
BETH: Well, we can only do so much!
HELEN: Work while you talk! Don’t just sit there, dammit!
BETH: Sorry! Sorry!
HELEN: We have to pull our weight. Obviously those who voice complaints, ask questions or work slow vanish. You want Harry going and telling Victor you asked for something? Who the hell knows what Victor has done to the others that are gone. I’m assuming he killed them or maybe has them on some worse kinda work.
BETH: We need to get out of here!
HELEN: Yeah…how? We have shit! Twenty-four hour guards. Look at these walls…how far up you gonna get before you’re shot dead? Even if you managed to take a man by surprise and get a gun, then what? You might kill a few and then be gunned down. You’re just gonna have to face it, sweetheart. We ain’t ever getting out of here. We have to just keep on trucking.
BETH: Yeah…trucking. This how we’re supposed to spend the rest of our lives? As slaves for some crazy asshole?? This isn’t living. Maybe you’re okay with it, but I’m not!
HELEN: There’s no way out. Deal with it. Don’t go and do something stupid. This has to be better than whatever happened to the ones Victor removed.
I lowered the dish and pulled the headphones off in disgust. I looked around the rest of their camp. The walls were built from just about everything, from trucks, stacked cars, makeshift cement walls and other things. The walls also went around several building that were used as shelters and other things. To the left, a ways down from the gardens, stood a two story brick building. There were two armed guards at the front door and some walking around the back of the building. There were also guards on the roof. I assumed that was where this Victor asshole lived.
TODD: What is it?
ME: Fuck, guys.
REGGIE: What, man?
ME: The women are slaves. Some of the men you see down there are as well. They mentioned being captured…so one of our assumptions were correct. They find people, take their shit and then make them work.
JIM: You fucking kidding me?
ME: No…I also got the name of the man that’s in charge here. Someone named Victor.
TRAVIS: Did you I.D. him by sight?
ME: No. He’s not wandering around down there. I think he’s inside that brick building. It’s well guarded. The man that hit the woman, his named is Harry. From what I heard he’s close to the head honcho.
ALEXIS: What did the women say?
ME: The one that got slapped is named Beth. She’s young. Helen is the older one. Helen told her she needs to stop asking questions and try and keep up. Those that haven’t kept up or have become an annoyance have disappeared. Victor orders them removed and they don’t know what’s happened to them.
ALEXIS: Son of a bitch…what did the girl even ask for?
ME: Water.
REGGIE: She got slapped for asking for a drink of water??
ME: Looks to be the case.
TODD: This ain’t sitting right with me.
ME: Nor with me. All of us for that matter.
TODD: This might end up leading to something…
JIM: Something as in?
TODD: You telling me you’re okay with turning a blind eye to this? What, we just keep tabs to make sure they’re not venturing our way but fuck the people that they have fuckin’ captive?
JIM: I didn’t say that, but what are we supposed to do?
REGGIE: Well, we can’t just leave them there…I didn’t wanna do this at all, but now that we have we can’t just go back to how shit was! Dammit, these pricks. We’re dead.
ME: We’re not gonna die. I hope we’re not.
TODD: If they didn’t have captives then recon and keeping an eye on them would have been just fine for now…but we can’t just leave people to be enslaved and die when they can’t keep up…
ME: I know. I know. Alan is going to love this.
TRAVIS: He’s dead set against any kind of confrontation. He made that pretty clear.
ALEXIS: He’s just gonna have to rethink some shit, then! He can’t ignore pressure from everyone!
JIM: Okay, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s take this back a notch and think logically.
ME: Jim’s right…we need to control our emotions. We keep this to ourselves for now…just until we finish our recons. We need as much information as possible.
TODD: Agreed.
ME: We’ll bring everything to Alan once we know everything we can. Let’s just keep watching and listening.
I placed the headphones back on and clicked the dish back on. With my free hand I lifted the binoculars to my eyes. Todd raised a pair as well. Next to the building was a parking lot that housed what was once a sandwich joint. It seemed to act now as a guard house. Across the street was a small plaza where small stores once were. Four store fronts I could make out. Guards were near by but I could make out what looked like possible slaves making their way in and out of the places. We all came to the assumption that was where they were all housed.
Further down the street was a larger plaza that we could tell was part of their camp, but it was too far and there were a few trees and houses in the way. I could make out some people on the porch of a house and around a building adjacent. We’d need to get other angles if we wanted to paint a clear image of the rest of their little fucked up community. Well, shouldn’t say little…it was roughly close to being the same size as Haven. Most of the people we could see appeared to be slaves…but we counted, thus far, eleven hostiles. Twelve if we count Victor, whom we’ve yet to see. More men were surely inside his building and in the plaza we couldn’t see.
Either way, they had more fighters than we currently had. We were outnumbered and it was a sobering and scary thought. What if they were to find us and attack? We’d be screwed. We weren’t feeling as safe as we were just the day before. Mark wouldn’t be surprised by this; nor concerned, sadly. He’d be one more able bodied fighter but no, he’d rather sit in his house and let everything fall to shit.
We were going to be here awhile. Travis and Alexis pulled some water bottles and snacks from their packs and passed them around. Can’t say any of us were much hungry, but we needed to eat…we were staying until after nightfall to watch their routine. Alexis was staring at her water bottle. Obviously thinking about the girl in the garden.
**
The day drew on slowly. The guards kept their routine until about 6:00 pm. At that time they were replaced by other guards, most came from the
now confirmed guardhouse and others came from a building adjacent to the slave residency. Every guard we counted was relieved by a new one, doubling the amount of armed men. This was getting better by the minute. Reggie put his forehead against the warm rooftop and let out a long sigh.
TODD: I have an idea. Might sound a little crazy, though.
REGGIE: Hell, why stop now? Let’s fuckin’ hear it.
TODD: The sun is about to set. We should make our way closer while they’re partially blinded by the light. We can get around easier and then wait for the cover of night. Get an even better look.
REGGIE: You’re right, that’s crazy. You go on ahead. I’ll watch y’all lunatics from here.
ME: You can stay here…I want three here and three down there. Todd, Jim and I will go.
TRAVIS: Man, I wanna get off this damn roof…let me go.
ME: Next time. We don’t know what to expect. No offense, but you and Alexis are young. Regardless of your experience, we could become caught of guard by something and fire a shot on reflex and then we’re all fucked.
TRAVIS: We will not, we can handle our-
ME: I said next time! You need to follow my lead if this team is going to continue to work.
ALEXIS: He’s right, Travis. Ease the hell up. Don’t be in such a rush to be in harms way.
REGGIE: Smart girl…I like her.
The three of us made our way down the old steel fire escape and creeped across the street and around another building. I peered around the corner and toward their walls to make sure we didn’t catch anyone’s attention. We hadn’t.
We went to the back of the building to the next block then down the side street toward the Head Hunters base. It was a slow trek and dusk when we got close. We crept low down an alley toward their side walls. We waited until it became darker before moving forward. We were careful to stay in the shadows and clear from view. I could hear murmurs and distant discussions. It was uneasy being this close and felt rather naive at that moment. I inched my way out of the alley and motioned for Todd and Jim to stay back. This section of wall was sheet metal and stacked tires. I was completely taken by surprise when a Shambler emerged from the left side of the tire stacks.
I went for my crowbar when the creature stopped. Jerked back and set off balance. It had a chain around its waste. I braced for the Dead Call but it never came. It opened its jaws and it was soundless. Just chomping at the air toward me. I realized its throat was cut deep. Clever. I glanced further down the wall and now noticed others chained and standing dormant.
The Shambler became more agitated and pulled on its chain. It was becoming noisy. I backed into the alley and told the others to back up to the back of the building.
Moments later a flashlight beam hit the edge of the alley. The infected definitely got some attention. Two men were approaching the inner wall. They climbed atop a pickup truck parked for reinforcement and peered over. We ducked around as the light flickered its way down the alley.
FLASHLIGHT MAN: I heard something…I mean I heard this dead bastard…
MAN: There’s nothing out there, Hank…you’re jumpy as fuck. It saw an animal.
HANK: How do you know that? What if it saw a runner? You don’t know, man.
MAN: When’s the last time we even saw a damn runner?
HANK: Before winter.
MAN: There ya go. Been awhile.
HANK: Maybe they’re just less active then…it’s getting warmer. What if it was a person?
MAN: I swear…stop being so skittish…how have you lasted this long? No one is out there! Who the fuck would be dumb enough to come here? You think they take a look out front and say “Damn…this place looks nice! Let’s knock on the door!” I don’t think so. Stop being a bitch.
HANK: But still!
ME: Still nothing.
HANK: I don’t know about you, Gary…but I like…value my life!
GARY: Dammit, boy…if it was a runner it would have been attracted to your fucking flashlight and be scaling the damn wall…and not by itself. Use your head.
HANK: I am! I’m doing my job. We’re guards. What if it was people??
GARY: AH! Have you listened to a word I just said? No one is out there. Who the hell would screw with us, kid?
HANK: I just think we should be sure. We should just go have a look see.
GARY: You’re being stupid. I ain’t going out there in the dark to make myself an easy snack for some dead prick that might pop out of a bush.
HANK: IF there’s something or someone out there and then something happens because we didn’t check it out, Victor will fuckin’ kill us!
GARY: Even if something did occur…which it ain’t…you’d just say we never heard a damn thing.
HANK: Then he’d kill us for being useless.
GARY: He wouldn’t do shit for not hearing something! Calm the hell down.
HANK: I don’t know about you…but I don’t want to end up out there chained to wall or with my head on a pike!
GARY: We’re his guards…his muscle. One of us would have to really fuck up…or betray him, for him to kill any of us. He kills pain in the ass servants and lazy bitches.
HANK: Man, I donno…maybe-
GARY: Maybe you shut the fuck up and we get back to the front. Or maybe you just want to potentially let someone walk right in the entrance?
HANK: Oh, fuck! You’re right. FUCK…what if this was a distraction so the front is left unattended??
GARY: Fuckin’ shit, boy. I was joking! Let’s go, before I slap the dog shit out of you.
As they walked away we proceeded to do the same. We cautiously took our time back to the building and onto the roof with the others.
**
TRAVIS: So? What’s the verdict?
JIM: Don’t ask.
ALEXIS: That bad?
TODD: Oh, they have a nice little external security system.
Reggie: Say what now?
ME: Every few yards along the wall there is a Shambler chained to the wall…around the waist. They see something and they start struggling to reach you, of course. Gets the guards’ attention.
REGGIE: The fuck??!
TRAVIS: Shit! Is that why those two dudes went over with a light and got on that truck?
TODD: Sure is. We alerted one of the chained freaks. We ducked down an alley.
ALEXIS: Wait, I’m a little confused…why didn’t it scream?
ME: Their throats are deeply lacerated. They can’t give out a call.
REGGIE: The fuck??!
JIM: These people are scary.
ALEXIS: So they just corral infected, cut their throats and chain them?
ME: No, it’s far worse than that.
TRAVIS: Worse?
TODD: The infected…along with those heads on pikes, were slaves that couldn’t “pull their weight” so to speak.
REGGIE: THE FUCK??! Jack, come on. Let’s get the fuck out of here! This is enough.
ME: Honestly, I don’t think we need more days on this…the routine seems strict.
JIM: You sure that’s smart?
ME: We just need to do one more thing and then yeah. We’ve scouted the entire front area and we know their defenses and have a decent estimate of their numbers.
TODD: I think you’re right…but the other side.
ME: Exactly. We need to stay a few more hours.
REGGIE: I’m gonna throw myself off this roof. Fuck it.
JIM: Would you relax! You’ve been up here safe the whole time. Even if you weren’t you know how to handle yourself. Seen you in action enough times so zip it.
REGGIE: Yeah, but it’s been awhile…I’m rusty and shit.
ME: Then let’s go, you can come with on this one.
REGGIE: Nah, man. You got this. I’ll watch your back from up here. That’s very important [grins].
ME: Fine, same as before. This will take longer. Maintain radio silence. If we need help we’ll radio in.
REGGIE: Obviously. We ain’t stupid…not gonna radio
you and make noise to get you killed. Get the fuck off my roof and do something.
TRAVIS: Your roof?
REGGIE: I stutter? I’m the oldest on this roof when they leave. I’ve got most experience. More than both y’all put together…so yes…my fuckin’ roof.
The Dead Lands Diary Vol. II) Page 6