“I see eight more, you see any I don’t?” Rick asked once they were in position.
“I count eight as well. I thought there were more back this way.”
“I did too, keep an eye out. I say we take these a little faster. Call your shot then take it, we can be done with these pretty quick, do a sweep around each building, and begin clearing them out.”
Within minutes they had taken down the last of the zombies wandering the parking lot. Climbing down from the trailer, they stood in the parking lot looking all around them, making certain they had not missed a lurking gut-sucker.
“C’mon, let’s get these sweeps done and empty these buildings of gut-suckers. We still have a long day ahead of us.”
Mike and Rick moved fast through the long lot towards the Ruba’s building. As they moved near the front of the building they could see inside through the large windows.
“Six, no, eight dead inside. Shouldn’t be too hard. Move right around the building.”
Going around the first corner with his rifle up, moving slowly, Mike said, “That wasn’t too bad. Although I really did think there were more of those things shuffling around that lot earlier.”
Rick kept moving forward, towards the back corner of the building. Forgetting where he was for a moment he turned to Mike and said, “Yeah, I know, we probably should have counted before we…”
His words were cut off by a low moaning from around the corner. Before he could stop himself he was around the corner and looking into a torn and rotting face.
The awful smell of the thing hit him full-on, burning into his sinuses, causing his gag reflex to activate. He did not vomit, though he wanted to. Trying to step back, Rick came up against Mike just as he rounded the corner.
Rick brought his rifle up as hands were reaching for him. He couldn’t turn the gun fast enough to get a shot into the zombie’s head. Grasping hands grabbed his arm and pulled it into a bloody, lipless mouth.
Behind Rick, Mike saw the creature bury its face into Rick’s arm, teeth slamming shut on the thick, double-wrapped rawhide gauntlet tied around the man’s wrist and forearm. He came around Rick, rifle up and sighted on the creatures head. He could see the grimace of pain twisting the features of Rick’s face.
Mike’s focus was on the creature trying to bite through his friends’ arm, so he did not see the other five zombies until they were nearly on top of him.
“Fuck, Rick, there’s the rest of them!” Mike yelled as he began stepping back from the advancing knot of zombies. Rick would have to handle his attacker.
Mike re-sighted his rifle on the nearest face, ignoring the hole where an eye once sat, in a face that was now torn almost completely away. Forgetting his many hours of range training, Mike began jerking the trigger. His first two shots went right of the creature, one hitting it in the shoulder, the other shot was a miss.
His third shot hit just above the remaining eye, a single neat hole appearing. The gut-sucker fell causing the ones behind it to stumble. Continuing to back away he took a moment to glance at Rick, who was just now shoving off the zombie that had latched on to his arm.
The zombie toppled backward, its feet flying out from under it. Rick snapped the rifle to his shoulder, popping off a single shot into the creature’s head. Gore exploded from the back of its head, but Rick was already switching aim to the next target.
Mike took another shot, on target this time; he felled one as Rick dropped two more.
Both men took a steadying breath, squeezed their triggers, ending the last two zombies behind the Ruba’s building.
“Son of a bitch! Why the hell did they come back here?”
Rick looked at Mike, shaking his head. “There’s a bunch of trash back here, maybe something fell over or blew against the building. That’s only thing I can think of. Either way, it’s done.”
Mike nodded, “How’s your arm?”
Rick held it up, showing Mike how the zombie had bitten through the first layer of rawhide. “Bastards bite hard, man. I’m gonna have a pretty bruise there this evening.”
“I’m just glad I didn’t have to hack your arm off.”
Rick laughed, “You and me both, buddy.”
Chapter 24
Alex took several minutes backing the truck into the loading dock at the supermarket. Garret was laughing the entire time, asking if Alex wanted him to get out and push it into the dock.
The buildings had all been cleared without incident, and the process of emptying them out was beginning with the supermarket.
Everyone took a walk through the stock room and sales floor, working out the best way to load up everything as quickly as possible.
There were pallets of goods stocked in the back, and these went first, using the pallet jack to load them on to the truck.
The store reeked, both from the walking corpses that had occupied the place for so long, as well as the rotted foods from the meat, frozen, and fresh produce sections. Though they would have liked to leave the doors open to let air flow through and blow out the smell they knew it was unsafe to do so.
Nothing useful was left in the store when they finished. After cleaning out the small supermarket they moved on to the Subway Restaurant building.
Once inside they had no choice but to leave the door open. No one could breathe inside because of the horrid smells of rotted food.
There was little in the way of shelf stable foodstuffs to be had, though they cleared out all the soft-drinks and bagged chips.
As a group was going through the sandwich shop, Gordy and Jimmy along with Garret and Lynn were going through the Health Department building.
“What are we going to do with all this?” Jimmy asked.
“What do you mean, “do with” all of it?”
“Seriously, Gordy, this is a lot of stuff we’re taking back. Where are we going to store it all? The meds left in here will help fill out Jan’s stock, but where are we going to put all of the food, not to mention all the non-food stuff we’ve got?”
“I didn’t even think about it,” Gordy told him.
“Put it in one or two of the houses in Saverton, maybe?”
“What about the sports building?” Lynn asked as she walked by carrying a box full of various medical supplies.
Gordy and Jimmy looked at each other for a moment, thinking. “Not a bad idea Gordo. It’s a huge building, it could probably hold everything if we pack it in there right.”
Gordy thought about the sports building, with its open space and basketball hoops. The building was big; with large wire mesh covered glassless windows to let in air and light.
“We could find some lumber to cover up those windows, really close the place up. I think it’s do-able.”
“We’ll have to do it quick though,” Jimmy told him, “I would hate for everything to get ruined by a hard rain.”
Jimmy carried a box of supplies out to Louis and Rebecca who were waiting in the trailer with Dean to organize everything as it was brought to them.
After passing his load up to Louis he walked toward the front of the truck, where Mike was standing guard.
“Hey man, how’s it going?”
“I’ll be glad to get this done, and get home. I hate standing in the open like this,” Mike told him.
Jimmy handed a small package to Mike. “Maybe this will make you feel better.”
Mike looked at the plastic bag with red and black writing on it, a big smile filling his face. “Holy crap, black licorice! I thought I’d never see this stuff again! Where’d you find it?”
“Candy isle in the store. I knew you’d be happy. There’s about fifteen or twenty more packages of it. You’ll have to find them later when everything is unloaded.”
Mike tore the bag open with his teeth, pulling out several of the black candy twists. He held one out to Jimmy, who shook his head.
“That bag is all yours, brother,” he said walking back to help finish emptying the Health Department building, “enjoy it.”
His smile lasted through the day, affecting everyone. Laughter and jokes were shared among friends and newcomers alike. For a little while they were able to enjoy their shopping trip. No one could have known that the darkness Jimmy had been fighting would slam into them all with the force of a shotgun blast later that day.
The groups’ worked hard and cleared the last few items from the Dollar Store late in the afternoon. The rig with the trailer sat to the side, packed as tightly as they were able to get it.
As the last box was placed in the second horse trailer everyone gave a cheer. They quieted quickly, looking around to make sure they hadn’t called anything hungry from an unseen hiding place.
With all of the trailers loaded down the drive home would be slow. Although everyone was anxious to get back to Oko Tipi no one complained about the long ride. Complaints were replaced with excited chatter and shared joy.
That joy was about to turn into something far darker, to be shared amongst them all.
Chapter 25
Jan and Anna met the honking vehicles at the gate, which Gordy, who rode with Dean, Lynn and Rebecca in the De Soto, thought was strange. He had expected nearly everyone at the Camp to be standing there, waiting anxiously to see what they had brought back.
Anna opened the gate, and Dean rolled through, slowing as Jan waved them to a stop.
Gordy was concerned by the look on his wife’s face, and asked immediately, “What’s wrong?”
“Get out and walk up with me. Dean, park the car at the main lot and you three wait with it until we get up there.”
Dean looked at his Mom, wanting to ask what was going on. Instead he stayed silent, and drove up to the main house parking lot and parked the car.
“What the hell is going on Jan? Is someone hurt, what?”
Jan watched for a moment as the big truck came through, pulling a trailer packed full of food and supplies.
“Something happened, Gordon, and I really don’t know how to say it.”
Jan just looked at her husband for a moment, thinking about the best way to begin what she had to say.
“We need to get up there in a hurry, so let’s walk fast, I’ll tell you the short version on the way.”
They stepped up their pace and Jan said, “Evie caught Richard exposing himself to a couple of the girls.”
Gordy’s mouth dropped open, and his footsteps faltered, his eyes going wide and quickly filling with anger.
“We need to get Mike and Jimmy away from the group until we can talk to them about this. I don’t know about Rick, and I think Dean will stay calm, although I did have to keep Anna from getting to Richard. I think she would have beaten him half to death.”
“If not completely,” Gordy said. He knew that Anna, just like everyone in the group, saw these kids as family. “I may do it myself.”
“Gordon, this is really bad, very messed up, but we have to handle it the right way.”
“I know that, but what’s the right way?”
Jan and Gordy made it up to the parking area just as the two loaded horse trailers pulled up.
As everyone began to exit the vehicles Gordy called out, “Jimmy, Mike, over here.”
Jan looked at her husband, confusion evident on her face, “Don’t tell them yet Gordon, just wait a few minutes.”
Mike and Jimmy walked up to the couple, asking “What’s up?”
“You think you two could walk up to the sports building and see what you think we need to board up those big-ass windows? While you’re at it, think about the best floor plan to lay out and store everything we got today, while still making it accessible.”
“Damn, Gordo, we just got back, can’t it wait a few minutes?”
“We have to start work on this today, Jimmy. We can’t let that stuff sit for long in those trucks,” Gordy told his friend, hating that he was misdirecting him from the real situation.
Mike grunted, telling Gordy, “Yeah, fine, but someone should dig through all of this and make a huge meal tonight.”
“I think we can make that happen,” Jan told him.
“Good, c’mon Jimmy, let’s get this done in a hurry.”
Jimmy followed Mike up the hill, while Jan and Gordy watched them go. They stood there until the men had reached the building, then Jan took Gordy’s hand and led him into the main house.
Anna met and gathered the remaining crew from the shopping trip and took them for walk toward the concrete pool. She withheld the information she had to share until they were standing beside it.
Inside the main house Tam looked at Gordy as he walked in. It was obvious that she had been crying. She sat on a chair, shotgun across her knees, in front of Richard, who sat on the floor in a back corner of the building. Arianna sat beside him, her arms around his shoulders. She had been crying as well.
Gordy stared at Richard for a moment, though the boy would not meet his eyes. His face was red and swollen, especially along his right jaw. His right eye was nearly swollen closed and Gordy could see that bloody tears had left tracks down the boy’s face.
Gordy just stood there inside the door, looking around at the faces of everyone in the room. He stayed that way for a full minute before he said, “Are the kids ok?”
“Yes, Evie took them to her cabin while we sorted this out,” Jan told him.
Gordy nodded, and said, “Tam, I’m going up to Evie’s to talk to her. I want to hear from her, since she’s the one that caught him doing…,” Gordy paused for a moment, “what he was doing.” Jan, I want you to go up to the sports building and delay Mike and Jimmy a little longer. Either of those two get ahold of that kid before we can sort this out, it’s going to be bad.”
Tam stayed behind to watch over Richard and Arianna while the others left with Gordy. He had left instructions that no one was to go or come in until he returned.
****
“…and that’s when I walked around the corner and found him with his, uh, business out. He was holding it, kind of, well…”
“I understand Evie.” Gordy could see how uncomfortable she was, talking about what had happened. He could also see the rage building up in her again.
“I just kind of saw red at that moment, I ran up to him and…,” She paused, swallowing several times before continuing, “I don’t know why I did it, but I grabbed what he was holding and squeezed, hard, I mean really hard. I’d be surprised if he ever used that thing again. When he started to squeal in pain it…, well, I… I just started hitting him, slapping him first, and then punching him with my fist.”
Gordy didn’t interrupt her, letting her tell it as she needed to.
“I didn’t stop until your wife pulled me off of him. I really don’t think I would have stopped, if she hadn’t. She told me that she heard the girls yelling, and that’s when she came running.”
“It was just Elizabeth Phillips and Ashley Mitchell, right? None of the other kids saw what happened?”
“Yes, just those two girls.”
“Did they say anything afterwards?”
“Before I caught him, I guess that one of the girls told him he was ‘gross and we’re going to tell our Dads’.”
Gordy nodded, absorbing her story as she told it. “Did the girls tell you if he said anything to them during all of this?”
“He was telling them they could touch ‘it’ among other things. When they said they were going to tell on them, I guess he said that he would,” Evie swallowed again, “put a knife in you, really slow, if you tell”.
They talked for a few more minutes before Gordy asked to speak to the girls. Evie went back inside with the other children, sending out Ashley and Elizabeth.
Gordy spent several minutes speaking with them, asking questions, corroborating ev
erything Evie had told him. He was impressed by the strength of these two children. If nothing else, that alone gave him hope for the future.
“Girls, this kind of thing is awful, and your parents will talk you about it. Someone that tries to take advantage of children, such as you two, is not a good person. You were right when you said he was gross and that you would tell.
“You don’t ever have to be afraid to tell your parents or anyone else in this big family of ours, if someone does something horrible like that.”
“Mr. Fletcher, what’s going to happen to him, the creepy guy?”
“I don’t know yet, Ashley, but you can bet he won’t be able to do something like that to any child in this camp ever again.”
Gordy let the girls rejoin the other children and went back down the hill to the main house. Everyone was gathered around the front porch of the main house and angry questions were thrown in his direction as he walked up to the group. He was relieved to see that Mike and Jimmy were not in the crowd.
Stepping up on the porch, Gordy turned to address the angry crowd gathered there. It didn’t escape him that in their anger they were very much like a pack of zombies, intent on getting what they desired; in this case they wanted justice. “Listen everyone; we have to handle this the right way. We can’t have anyone going off half-cocked.”
“We can’t have sick-ass perverts messing with our kids either!”
People responded to Lisa’s explosive remark with nodded heads and muttered agreements.
Gordy drew in a breath, taking a moment to think before he spoke. “And how would you all have me handle this? You want me to execute him? March him out here to the wall and put a bullet in his head?”
Gordy heard someone say “I would.” He turned to look his son in the eyes, silently pleading with him not to make the situation more difficult.
Gordy felt the same rage and disgust these people were feeling, but as the leader of this group he had to think rationally, even when his heart called for blood.
“I know what you’re all feeling, and I understand it, but I want all of you to think about this. We used to live by laws, and everything we’re doing is to rebuild some semblance of that society we lived in. If we sidestep what we all believe in for the sake of something that is not justice, but vengeance, then can we truly say that we are working to rebuild?”
American Revenant (Book 2): Settlers and Sorrow Page 14