HANK: Not sure what good I’ll be…but of course. I’ll do what I can.
TODD: You know how to shoot obviously…being that you were a guard.
HANK: Yes, sir. Grew up shooting.
TODD: I know another thing about you…you got good instincts.
HANK: I’m not sure I follow.
TODD: Not long ago you had this feeling that someone or something was outside your walls. You bugged the hell out of your pal Gary.
HANK: Wait…was?
ME: That was us, yeah.
HANK: I knew someone or infected were out there! I just knew it!
ME: I’m just glad your buddy thought you were a paranoid bastard. That night could have gone horribly wrong.
HANK: In retrospect, yeah…I’m happy with the outcome.
REGGIE: Say, your crew good at tracking and that shit?
HANK: I donno…we just kind of drove around and stumbled on shit. Nothing sophisticated. Dumb luck.
ME: How far out have you traveled?
HANK: We go a little further out each time. Especially lately. For the most part we have what we need in town. We haven’t came close to using all the resources and goods. Town is loaded. People just fled in those early days.
ME: How far have they ventured in this direction?
HANK: I’d say within ten or twelve miles.
REGGIE: Fuck, man. Too close for comfort!
HANK: It’s only a matter of time before they get this far. They’ll be searching now! I mean, they ain’t got the bodies or cars…but the blood is there and Victor is going to want blood in return!
TODD: For now they’re fuckin’ clueless. Where do you think they’ll search?
HANK: All of Ravenna first, that’s a given. Then they’ll hit all other local areas…the basics, ya know? And all the back roads in between.
ME: We need to plant those vehicles. One at a time you think?
TODD: Yeah…give it a test run. Where do you think first?
ME: Boro for sure. We’ll use the Jeep…park it in the parking lot in that plaza where the Flea-Market used to be. Quite a few smaller stores. We’ll wait in a few of them. Three teams of two in different buildings. Each team will sleep in shifts. They’ll find it eventually. We’ll ambush the fuckers. Take some more out.
REGGIE: I’ll be glad when all this is done. I can’t take this shit much longer. We ain’t all gonna fuckin’ make it, guys.
ME: Yeah…probably not, but let’s not think about it and just hope for the best. Hank, how did you end up there?
HANK: My old man was out of town when shit got bad. Atlanta. Flights got grounded and he never came back. I hope he’s okay but I know what the odds are…especially in a damn city. Eventually I just took some water bottles, some cans of shit and my old man’s gun. Thought I’d set out for the country.
TODD: Where were you?
HANK: Solon. I headed toward Kent and saw so much fire. Fire and burning remains of buildings. Where the safe zones had been. Gosh, that smell. I can still smell that charred smell. It clung to the air. Scorched wood and bodies. Anyway, when I got toward Ravenna I saw the early construction of the far walls. I was scared but hopeful. A man approached with a gun. Ended up being Harry. I put my hands up and out of the window. He lowered it and came up to me. He told me to get out of the car and I thought I was gonna die. Instead he introduced himself. He gave me the third degree asking a shit ton of questions. He told me they were building walls to keep people safe. To bring in refugees. Asked if I wanted to be a part of that and help. Sounded wonderful so I agreed. It was him and Victor as well as Duke and Will. They still didn’t talk much even then. Duke and Will that is. There were some other people there too. About twelve or so. All of which are guards now. Or were. Victor was very personable. He greeted me warmly. He seemed nice, ya know? He was easy to talk to. Charismatic. I can’t tell you if he changed over the course of shit, or if he was acting from the start. I assume acting.
TODD: Do you know anything about him?
HANK: Nope. I couldn’t tell you where he’s from, how he knows the others he’s close to or what his profession was. All I can tell you is he’s fucking insane.
ME: What’s he look like?
HANK: Like I said before, he’s tall and tough. He ain’t like some bodybuilder kinda guy…but he’s tough. Average, I donno. As for his actual looks? He is clean shaven. Has a scar on the right side of his face. Goes from the corner of his mouth up to his ear. Dark hair. Not long but not super short. He combs it to the side. He loves his jacket. It’s like…a trench coat but a more casual one. Professional looking, ya know? He almost always has it on. You can’t miss the fucker when he shows himself.
REGGIE: Nice coat, eh? Fucker wear a suit and tie, too? [laughs]
HANK: No. Not a tie, anyway. Usually black slacks and black boots. Dress shirts that he doesn’t tuck in with no tie. Plain color dress shirts. White, black, red, blue, whatever. Like I just said, can’t miss the crazy fuck.
TODD: How old ya reckon?
HANK: Oh, I’d say late thirties to early forties.
TODD: What about Harry and his goons?
HANK: Harry about the same age. Duke and Will look to be early to mid thirties. It ain’t easy to estimate ages sometimes….I wish I had found this place first. This appears to be exactly what they claimed to be building.
ME: That’s exactly what it is. And you’re safe here.
HANK: For now. Make no illusions about it…war is coming.
TODD: We hope to keep the war on their territory.
HANK: I hope that’s how it works out.
ME: I think it’s time you meet Alan. He runs things here. Don’t worry…he ain’t gonna push you off a roof.
HANK: Good to know…
**
We parked the SUV at a mechanics garage down the road and parked the Jeep in a parking spot roughly 30 to 40 yards in front of the store fronts. Directly across Reggie and I sat in a craft store. We found some chairs behind the counter and hunkered down on watch.
In the next building down was what was once an Italian restaurant. Todd and Jim lucked out with their spot having found an old plush bench left behind.
Then further down Travis and Alexis were on watch at a dentist office. Just seeing a dentist office brought back memories of a year prior give or take…
Each team had a walkie and would alternate watches; provided another was tired. Wasn’t easy to sleep under such tense circumstances. Reggie was rather wired. When we were outside, before Haven, he slept for shit. He was starting to sleep soundly in the past year but that was shattered now.
REGGIE: Seems we’re back to the good ole’ days.
ME: Hmm?
REGGIE: We do watches inside Haven. On the walls. But that has always felt kinda safe. This…this feels like it did when we were on the outside. Hardly sleeping. Fearful regularly. We’d start to get comfortable and then almost die cause of it, fuck. It’s like those days all the fuck over again, ya know? That how it feels to you?
ME: Yeah it does, honestly. Minus the fact we’re sitting ten feet behind a giant window. Like food on display. Sure never did that!
REGGIE: Yeah…even worse then. I wasn’t even actually thinking that until you said it. Thanks, prick.
ME: [laughs] anytime, buddy.
REGGIE: [sigh]
ME: How many did he say were left altogether?
REGGIE: Twenty-one. Twenty-one too damn many!
ME: Maybe we can drop that down a notch.
REGGIE: Without dying. That’s the important part.
ME: They probably won’t come right now. Firstly, it’s night. You don’t think they’re that ballsy do you?
REGGIE: They sound pretty crazy and shit, so who knows.
ME: Second, they’re probably still searching their area. But this will be the next direction they come.
REGGIE: What’s that? [points]
ME: [I looked through night scope] Fuck! Let’s quietly move these chairs back…and hand me t
he radio.
REGGIE: What is it? I can’t tell from here. Give me that scope.
ME: Here…
[he looks]
REGGIE: Fuck a duck! Fuck!
ME: [over radio] Head’s up you guys…back up away from the windows. A pack of Bolters are walking on the far side of the parking lot, near the Flea-Market. Six of them.
JIM: Son of a bitch…thanks.
TRAVIS: Can they hear this radio?!
TODD: At this distance, no…if so we’d know it by now. They haven’t so much as glanced, but let’s shut up, shall we?
[radio silence]
REGGIE: Yeah…now it’s a party. Now it feels like old times!
ME: I hate the way they stop and smell the air. It’s always made my skin crawl. Especially when they end up looking in your direction.
REGGIE: Man, shut the hell up. You ain’t helping.
[crash sound]
REGGIE: The fuck?!
TRAVIS: [radio] I knocked some shit over moving seats back!
ME: Everyone back up and stay out of view! They’re looking this way…fuck, they’re walking this way. Stay down and keep quiet!
[radio silence]
REGGIE: We gonna die. We gonna die. If we don’t then Travis gonna die. By my hands!
ME: Move back, let’s go. We’ll kill Travis later.
From behind the counter I watched the creatures approach at a decent pace. They went directly to the dentist office. Fuckers could pinpoint a sound source at total ease. Total apex predators.
Slowly they made their way down the sidewalk and appeared in front of our spot. They peered through the windows with their cold dead stares. A shiver ran through me. I hadn’t been this close to one of these things in quite awhile.
I suddenly thought of before…how careful we would be. Parking, waiting, listening. Looking everywhere before we would get out of a vehicle and slowly and carefully clearing a house or building. We’ve gotten a little too damn complacent behind those walls. It’s like we forgot how dangerous it was. We’d been so focused on the danger we face with the Head Hunters that we were paying less attention to the infected. That could be a deadly mistake. Looking at the Bolters looking inside was a wake up call and a strong reminder.
One of them lifted it’s dead hand and placed it on the glass, then smelled the air around itself. Reggie quietly shuffled beside me.
After a few minutes they wandered down toward the restaurant. They weren’t there long before we witnessed them jogging across the parking lot toward the main road. They got wind of something and were headed straight for whatever unfortunate thing it was. After a few minutes they were out of sight.
[radio]
REGGIE: Imma kill yo ass, Travis!
TRAVIS: I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!
REGGIE: Oh, you gonna be.
JIM: They’re gone. We’re okay.
REGGIE: Easily could have gone a different way, Jimmy boy.
JIM: But it didn’t, so let’s focus.
ME: Yes, let’s focus…I was just thinking about that actually. We’re not focusing enough on the dead as we should be. Don’t forget they’re always the clear and most present danger. We’ve been absent minded.
JIM: True indeed.
The night passed without any sign of anyone. All we saw were some Roamers and Shamblers passing here and there. The day dragged on and on. We risked coming out on the sidewalk to converse toward sundown of that day.
TRAVIS: Know what I was telling Alexis last night while we were bored out of our minds?
REGGIE: Before or after you almost got us all killed?
TRAVIS: Before…and I said sorry! But I was thinking…it would have been easier to plant a bomb on that damn car and when they come looking…BOOM!
TODD:…
JIM:…
ME:…
REGGIE:…
ALEXIS: Right?! I know…I was like well, damn!
TODD: Do any of us know how to build a remote bomb?
[silence and head shaking]
TODD: Well, there ya go. Doesn’t matter. Good idea, granted…but a useless one for us.
JIM: Think anyone back home knows how?
TRAVIS: Pfft, hell no. You serious, bro?
JIM: Hey, you never know what some people may know or not.
TODD: We ain’t even got anyone with a military background. Which is unfortunate, we could use someone like that now. Strategy, traps, bombs, all that shit. I’m sure they’d have come up with more precise shit than us.
ME: I’d say we’re still doing pretty damn good, though.
REGGIE: Don’t fuckin’ jinx us.
ALEXIS: You should ask Hank if he knows of anyone where he was of having that kind of background.
JIM: yeah, we need all the information we can get. He needed a break from drilling but he’s getting more when we get back.
REGGIE: If we get back…
ME: Didn’t you just lecture me to not to jinx shit?
REGGIE: Cancels out yours.
TODD: Let’s say we get inside, huh? Sun’s down and we can’t see shit.
Reggie decided to sit with Jim and get caught up with him. Todd came over to the old craft store with me. For a man everyone said good luck talking to, he’s proven to be a good friend and loyal fighter to protect our community. Amazing what you might learn if you bother to get to know someone. Those that avoid him back home have no clue the kind of man he really is.
TODD: Were you married?
ME: No. Girlfriend but wasn’t serious.
TODD: She didn’t take it seriously or you didn’t?
ME: Wasn’t like that at all. We just hadn’t been together long ya know? Who knows if it would’ve ever gotten serious. Shit hit and that was that. She didn’t come looking for me and I didn’t go looking for her. In hindsight, maybe that was a dick move? I donno. Even before it got to the point of total collapse, early on, she never even called. Maybe she packed up and headed for a safe zone. Maybe she just got the fuck out of town.
TODD: Guess it’s hard to tell.
ME: How about you? Were you married?
TODD: Many years ago, yeah. Name was Sharon. She was a great gal, Sharon was.
ME: What happened? If I can ask?
TODD: Married young, ya know? Right out of high school. We kinda changed as we grew. No one’s fault. No hateful feelings or anything like that. We remained in touch for a long time. She remarried later. Some guy she met when she went on a vacation with some cousins to California. Long story short, they dated, married and she moved out there, to L.A.
ME: Talk much after she remarried?
TODD: An occasional message online. When it was all falling apart, I sent one last message. Just to tell her I hoped she was okay…to be safe and get out of there. Los Angeles fell pretty fast. Hopefully she was long gone before that happened. I’ll never know.
ME: I’m sorry.
TODD: Yeah…me too. My lovely Sharon…hope she made it. She was my wife but also my best friend. I hated that rift that appeared when she moved and married Calvin.
ME: Calvin, eh? Did you ever get to meet him?
TODD: Nope. Honestly, didn’t want to. She tried to arrange that a couple times, but I always found an excuse or reason I couldn’t. I just didn’t want to see her with someone else…we were divorced and fine…just still didn’t feel right, though. I donno.
ME: I wonder about a lot of people I once knew.
TODD: Me too…try not to. Siblings?
ME: Only child.
TODD: Same here.
ME: You know…until you asked the question earlier, not to change the subject, but I almost thought you would have known how to build a bomb.
TODD: [laughs] why the fuck would you assume that?
ME: Just the way I’ve watched you handle yourself. I was starting to think you had some military time under your belt. The way you took out Gary…not to bring up something so horrid.
TODD: Just…what we had to do. Ain’t gotta like it…I don’t. It m
akes it just a tad bit easier knowing it’s them or us. That they’re horrible people and threaten decent ones. But military, nope. Spent some time in the Boy Scouts as a kid. Few years…tried Karate for a few. My attention span was pretty short, so I never stuck with shit. Any few skills I have is from that.
The Dead Lands Diary Vol. II) Page 10