“It wasn’t your kids he tried molesting, either!”
Gordy turned to Tam, who was standing in the open door of the main house. He could see Richard and Arianna still sitting on the floor in the back corner. His cheeks flared red and for the first time in a long time he was unable to hold his tongue and speak calmly.
“Bullshit, Tamara! Those kids are family to me, just like you and Jimmy and everyone else we’ve known for years. You think I don’t want to drag that twisted little shit out here and end him right here in the parking lot? You think I wouldn’t like to see his dead ass laying there, half his head gone from my bullet? I would like nothing more! But if I surrender to that wish then what do I become, what do we all become?”
Gordy stood there, looking Tamara in the eyes, his heart hammering hard in his chest. He wanted to reach out to her as tears began to flow from her eyes, but he could only stand there, as if anger had nailed his feet to the boards of the porch and weighted down his arms.
“You can’t do that!” Arianna cried from inside the building. “It’s not his fault! He’s sick, he needs help! You people are evil just thinking that!”
Gordy turned back to the crowd, ignoring the woman. “He can face us, his accusers, and account for himself, then we will agree on what we have to do right now, as we stand here.” He paused, considering his next words, and then said, “Whatever we decide as a group, here and now, I will stand behind that decision.”
Looking to Dean, then Rick, he said, “Bring him out here.”
The two men silently went into the building, and lifted the boy to his feet. He shuffled between the two men, fully aware that they would kill him at the first provocation.
“You can’t do this!” Arianna screamed. “You can’t blame him for any of this! Maybe something happened to him when he was a kid, to make him do something like that! It’s not his fault!”
Rick and Dean brought Richard down the steps, to stand in the gravel lot, in front of everyone there.
Gordy stepped in front of the boy, looking at the top of his bowed head. “How old are you?” Silence from Richard. Gordy had no patience for the boy’s silence. “You will look at me, and you will answer my questions, boy, do you understand that?”
Richard slowly lifted his head, looking not at Gordy’s eyes, but at his chin. “Yes.”
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
“Do you know why we are standing here at this moment?”
“Yes. I…I did something…”
“Have you ever done something like that before?”
“Yes, once.”
“Before or after the sickness?”
“Before.”
“Were you caught?”
“Yes.”
“How old were you then?”
“Fifteen.”
“What did they do when you were caught?”
“Went to a home, gave me pills, talked to a doctor a lot.”
“Did any of that help you? Did you stop wanting to do what you did?”
“No.”
“You always want to, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think you’re sick, Richard?”
“They say I am.”
“Not what I asked you.”
“No, I’m not sick.”
Gordy heard yelling from up the hill, at the sports building. Turning, he saw the door slam back and Mike and Jimmy come barging through the door. The men did not run, but Jan was failing to keep up with them.
“Gordy, do you want us to take him back inside?”
“No Rick, I shouldn’t have kept them away from this. They deserve as much as anyone to be a part of it.”
When Arianna, who had stepped out on to the porch, looked up to see the two men stalking down the hill like mad bulls she said loudly, “You keep them away from him! You keep those two psychos away from him, you hear me?”
Everyone was watching Jimmy and Mike and jumped at the loud slap that Tamara landed on Arianna’s face. They looked back to see blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. No one felt sorry for her. She began to cry quietly, and was once again ignored.
Gordy thought for a moment that he should stand in front of Richard, but knew instantly that would be the worst thing he could do.
Mike reached the crowd steps before Jimmy, and stopped several feet from Richard, just staring at the boy. “Is it true, did you do that? Do you do that shit, you little bastard?” Mike bellowed.
Richard didn’t look at Mike, he just nodded.
Mike smoothly drew his .45, aiming at Richard’s head.
“Mike, don’t,” Gordy said, “please don’t Mike. We have to handle this the right way.”
“What’s the right way, Gordy? We just gonna throw him out, let him do this shit again?”
Jimmy stopped next to Mike, also drawing his pistol. Instead of aiming it at Richard he released the magazine, dropping it into his left hand. He racked the slide, ejecting the cartridge in the chamber, letting it fall to the ground.
He handed the gun and the magazine to Gordy, who had stepped up the men.
“Ok Jimmy,” Gordy said, taking the items. “Keep calm, and we can do this the right way.”
Jimmy’s head swiveled, his eyes meeting Gordy’s. Gordy had known Jimmy for many years, and had known him to have a temper at times, but never directed at him. For the first time since the two men had met, Gordy was afraid of his friend.
He saw something that was no longer being pushed back, something dark and violent, in Jimmy’s eyes. He drew back a step, taken back by the insensate darkness in his friend’s eyes. It was something beyond anger or rage, a primal darkness that was swallowing this good man whole.
As Gordy stepped back, Jimmy stepped forward, making the few steps to stand in front of Richard before Arianna could finish saying, “Keep him away from Richard!”
Jimmy stood there, completely silent, just staring at Richard. He heard but ignored everyone talking to him, asking him to step back. His chest heaved as he sucked great gulps of air.
“Look at me.” The voice coming from Jimmy sounded nothing like the man any of them knew. It was dark and deep, laced with malice, and filled with fire.
Richard did not have to be told twice. He looked up, directly into the eyes of the man standing before him and instantly began to cry. Before him stood retribution for every perverted thought he had ever had.
“Do you like little girls?”
Richard knew that not answering was just as bad as answering. He chose to answer.
“Yes.” His voice was weak and soft through his tears.
“My friend’s daughters, mine?”
The voice sent chills through him, causing him to tremble. “Yes.” He sobbed.
Jimmy could still hear the voices around him, but could no longer make out their words. He stopped fighting against the blackness that had risen up in him the moment he had heard Jan’s words. He let it go, let it take him to a place where doing was all that mattered.
Smoothly, and far faster than anyone could have imagined, Jimmy drew the eight inch blade sheathed on his right leg. A scream of primal rage tore past his lips as the blade punched through the boy’s neck, severing the carotid artery. Blood fountained, washing over Jimmy’s hand as it sunk into the flesh of Richard’s throat, flowing freely down his arm and splashing over his upturned face.
He did not smile, nor did he laugh. There was no joy or pleasure in the act, though he did not shy away from the blood spilling down over him. The boy’s body rose several inches from the ground from the force of the thrust, dropping with a wet thud as Jimmy yanked the blade back out.
As soon as the body hit the ground Jimmy turned away, slowly walking down the hill towards the river. The blood pounding through his ears blotted out most sound, though he could hear someone screaming behind him.
Everyone stood in utter silence, not entirely sure what they had just witnessed. Everyone that is, except for Arianna, who
was screaming as loudly as she could.
“Jan, can you give her something?” Gordy asked his wife quietly.
Jan simply nodded and walked to the dispensary for a sedative.
Shock and fear were evident on the faces around him, and Gordy just stood there, as unable to process the event as everyone else.
Chapter 26
Once their initial shock wore off, everyone worked quickly to remove the body and build the funeral pyre at the bottom of the hill. An eerie quite hung over the entire camp, as if the shock everyone felt had stolen their voices.
Those building the pyre found Jimmy sitting at the river’s edge, soaking wet. He had washed off in the murky water, sluicing away the blood but not the feelings of darkness inside.
He sat there listening to the logs being thrown together in a pile. He took notice that no one was taking time to make the pyre as tight and neat as they had made for their friends that had died before.
Jimmy did not interact or even turn around to watch people work; he simply sat there quietly until he heard footsteps behind him, then a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey babe,” Tam said softly, “you ok?”
“No. Yes. Hell, I don’t know Tam. People up there calling for my head yet?”
“No, not at all. I think everyone pretty well understands, even those guys that came with him. I did hear Rebecca tell one of them “Fuck off; I would have done the same thing.” You scared people, I’ll tell you that, but no one is going to kick you out because of what happened.”
Jimmy looked out over the river as night slowly settled over the water. “Maybe they should.”
“Don’t do that. You’re just as important to this group as anyone and they all know it. You and I and the girls are family here, nothing is going to change that. Come back up to camp, your friends are worried about you.”
“Not right now Tam, I will soon though, I promise.”
Tam stood up, leaving her hand on Jimmy’s wet shoulder for a moment. She followed her husband’s line of sight, hoping to see something of what he was looking at. All she could see was water, riverbank and fading light. Tam wondered if Jimmy was seeing the same thing.
Minutes after she left him Jimmy heard another set of footsteps, heavier than Tam’s.
“Hey Mike,” he said, before he ever saw the person walking up behind him.
“Hey, brother, how you doing?”
“I don’t really know, feeling pretty messed up right now.”
“I get that, Jimmy, but you gotta promise you’re not gonna pull a Jack after this.”
Jimmy was touched by the concern in his friend’s voice, and told him, “Don’t worry man, I’m not going anywhere.”
Mike nodded, looking quietly out over the river. “I want you to know, that I would have shot him. I wanted to.”
Jimmy turned to look at Mike, not responding immediately. After a moment he nodded, asking, “Mike, how do we fight the monsters, man?”
“Headshots, mostly,” Mike said smiling.
“Not the gut-suckers. When you see a zombie you know everything about it. It’s dead, it wants to eat your face and suck out your pancreas. That’s it, you know it when you see it, and you act accordingly.”
Mike chuckled, taking a moment to consider Jimmy’s question. “I’m assuming you mean the other kind of monster then. People like Richard.”
“Yeah, the real monsters, the kind of people that hurt others for pleasure or take advantage and abuse others for their own gain. Zombies are just zombies, Mike. But people, man, people wear masks. They walk around looking like everyone else, but now that the social mores that kept them in check are gone they start preying on others. How do we fight something like that?”
Mike responded slowly, considering his words. “I’m not sure we can, Jimbo. I mean, yeah we can take care of it when it pulls off its mask, but until that happens we just keep going. We watch out for each other, and we keep building this place up, making as safe a home as we possibly can.”
“I get that, Mike, really. But we let something walk right into our safe home and live with us. That sick bastard would have eventually hurt one of our kids; I mean really hurt them if this hadn’t happened.”
Mike sat quiet, soaking up some of Jimmy’s dark thoughts. “Then we have to be a little more careful from now on, really watch new people closely.”
“Will that be enough?”
“It has to be, Jimmy.”
Both men sat silent for a while after that, the kind of quiet that only longtime friends can share, a silence that does not need to be filled with chatter just for the sake of sound.
****
Mike and Jimmy returned to the Camp a short while later. Mike went to find his wife, while Jimmy sought out Gordy.
They talked for a while, and Gordy reassured Jimmy that no one harbored ill will against him. People were shocked, and maybe saddened, by the incident, but no one blamed him for his loss of control.
“I didn’t lose control Gordy, I lost myself. It felt like I was along for the ride, kind of looking on from behind and beside the entire situation.”
“Jimmy,” Gordy said, looking directly into his friends eyes, “whatever you do, don’t let this eat you up. We have to move past it, put it behind us and get on with the business of living.”
Jimmy nodded, hearing Gordy’s words, but not entirely sure he would be able to follow them.
Excusing himself, Jimmy headed up the cabin where he knew his wife and daughters were waiting for him. As he neared the cabin he could hear voices from inside, talking.
“I’m glad Daddy killed him, he was nasty!”
“Ashley Gail Mitchell! That’s a horrible thing to say, don’t let me hear you say something like that again!”
“Daddy says we shouldn’t want somebody to die, no matter what.”
“So, he still killed him, Miranda. He was bad, and Dad was right, that’s all I’m saying.”
“Girls that’s enough! Ashley, I know this has been a horrible day for you; it has been for everyone, baby. But you can’t think things like that, sweetheart.”
“Why not, Mom? He was a bad man, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, he was, but that doesn’t mean you should be glad he’s dead. Human life means too much to be happy when someone dies, even someone who lost their way and does bad things to people.”
Jimmy leaned against the wall outside the door, and slowly slid to the ground. He sat there listening to his family talking, talking about what he had done, and it broke his heart to think that he had somehow hurt his daughters by doing what he did.
With the cool ground beneath him and the rough wood of the cabin at his back he sat there and cried quietly. Once his tears had dried up he stood, opened the thin door of the cabin and walked in.
He tried to take joy at the shouts of happiness from his family, but it felt as if it were all drained out of him, replaced with something dark and malignant.
Chapter 27
Shortly after three in the morning the Camp was brutally awakened by the blaring horn of the person on top-watch. People gathered together quickly, everyone arming themselves, and meeting in front of the main house.
Rick, who had been on top-watch met the group minutes later. “Someone just took the VW Beetle, couldn’t see who it was though.”
The group left the small car parked down beside the Cambrey house with the keys always in the ignition. Anyone could use the car as needed; they just had to check in with those staying in the house so that someone knew the car was in use and by whom.
“Who the hell would take the car, and why?” Gordy asked the group in general.
Garret spoke up from the group in response. “I think it was Arianna. I haven’t seen her since she woke up earlier this evening.”
“Dad, do you want me to take the De Soto and try to find her?”
“I’ll go with Dean,” Rebecca said.
Gordy thought for a second, “No, she’s gone, let her stay that way. We can’t c
hase her around at night like this anyway, even if it is a full moon.”
“Gordon Fletcher, we can’t just let that woman go! She’ll get herself killed out there, she can’t defend herself. If it wasn’t for Becca and the others she would have died a long time ago, or worse.”
“I know that Jan,” Gordy said, a sour look on his face, “but she made her choice. I don’t think she would stay here even if we did find her.”
Gordy turned his wrist so that the moonlight shone brightly on the face of his watch. “It’s nearly three-thirty in the morning. I’m not going to be able to go back to sleep, and there are things we need to discuss. If anyone wants to go back to bed, go ahead, I can fill you in later, if not, meet me down at the Cambrey house in a few minutes.”
Gordy and Jan went back in to the dispensary where they had set up two cots close to each other. Gordy changed from a pair of fleece sleep pants he had gotten from the items that had been cleared out from the Dollar Store, into a pair of jeans. As he changed he told Jan, “Meet me down there when you feel up to it. I’ll have coffee and oatmeal going for everyone that wants it.”
Jan nodded at her husband’s back as he closed the door behind him.
Rebecca and Dean were already there, along with Rick and Calvin. They worked together at the stove brewing coffee and starting water to boil for a pot of oatmeal. Though they said little, while working so closely, hands and shoulders would often brush together, and the two would flash a quick smile to each other.
Rick and Calvin smiled knowingly. It was obvious the two young people had developed feelings for one another.
The smell of brewing coffee put a smile on Gordy’s face, as it always did. It was one of those small things that took him back, even if only for a moment, to a better time, when he and his family were happy and safe.
“Good way-early morning, Gordy.”
“Ha, thanks Rick, you too.”
American Revenant (Book 2): Settlers and Sorrow Page 15