Samantha's Song

by David Carroll

  It was near the end of my down time that I began to notice Jane, Amanda and Jack keeping watch on something through a pair of binoculars. This something seemed to live on the other side of State of Franklin. I was curious as to what it could be, seeing as how none of them had seen fit to mention anything to me. I asked Sass but they hadn’t spoken to him about it either. That meant three members of the council were actively hiding something from the other two members. This was enough to get my anger’s pilot light lit and I decided that the next morning, just after I was released from injured reserve, I would call a meeting and I planned to read a few military people the riot act. Sass seemed to be looking forward to it, but I was dreading what this meeting was going to lead to. I feared that I had been deemed too reckless and it had been decided that, for my own good, I was not to be taking part in any more adventures inside occupied territory. This thought irritated me as badly as having an itch that I couldn’t reach. The idea just sat in my mind, and I couldn’t make it go away. They think I’m too dangerous to be turned loose on the ground? Tough shit. I’m going. Deal with it. I wasn’t backing down and maybe, just maybe, for the first time I was going to piss Jack off. At least that would be interesting to watch.

  When the next morning arrived, and the rest of the council were standing in front of me with that “what is he wasting our time with this time?” look on their faces, I really felt no desire whatsoever to tone down the angry inner voice that was raging in my head. I took a deep breath and launched into my speech with no clue as to what exactly it was that I was going to say.

  “Jack. How many people are on the council?” I asked. Jack just looked at me.

  “You’re serious?” He asked followed by Amanda’s voice saying, “Charlie we don’t have time for this.”

  “Then we will make time!” I snapped. It came out more forceful than I wanted it to, but what can you do, it was already out there. Amanda gave me a look that said tread carefully little boy, I can break you in half. I did agree, she could break me in half, but I also knew she wouldn’t. Her threats were pointless. Jack, however, was looking at me like I had smacked him across the face. I don’t think he liked this version of Charlie.

  “Please Jack, if you can, answer my question.” I said in a tone of perfect calm. Jack gave me another; watch your step, look before answering.

  “There are five of us on the council Charlie, as you well know.” He said.

  I nodded my head acting as if I was in deep thought. “Yes, yes I think you’re right. There were supposed to be five of us on the council. Amanda, could you tell me who the members of the council are supposed to be?”

  Amanda gave me a fairly well crafted go to hell look.

  “I don’t know what’s gotten you all pissed Charlie, but there are better ways to handle this than belittling the people that are supposed to be your friends.” She said to me.

  “Really?” I asked and stared at her until she responded.

  “Yes, Charlie.”

  “It’s funny that you would say something like that.” I said. I paused again, but nobody would say anything to fill that silence. “I say it’s funny because from where I sit the council is now made up of three people. Do you know what three people the council now consists of, Miss Asare?”

  Amanda gave me another look before answering my question. “You are wrong Charlie. It is still all of us.”

  I stood up and got into her face. It wasn’t hard; she had been standing right beside me.

  “Then tell me something, Amanda. Tell me a story that the three of you haven’t saw fit to tell either me or Sass, the other two members of the council, for at least three days now. Tell me a story that involves You, Jack, Jane, a pair of binoculars and K-Mart’s parking lot.”

  Amanda looked at me, but said nothing. Her look was a mixture of anger and guilt and just a smidge of sadness. She didn’t blink. She didn’t look away. But she did not answer. Jane did.

  “Charlie, it’s not a big deal. We just figured that it wasn’t worth wasting your time with.”

  My attention turned to Jane.

  “And you’re in on it as well. What the hell? Everything that caused our interstate trip to fall apart were your ideas, your actions. How does it all suddenly transfer to me and everyone, even Shawn, can magically forget that you had any part in it? How does it all land on my neck?”

  “I guess because the final say in the situation was yours.” Jack said, and I thought to myself, “Got ya.”

  “And why is it that I have the final say in these things?” I asked Jack. I believe that once he heard the question he knew he had been painted into a corner.

  “Because you’re the leader.” Jack said softy and in a tone of surrender. His tone said to me; whatever you’re mad about it’s time to drop it. Whatever you think we’re hiding from you, we will come clean. Let’s get on passed this and to the next crisis please. But I wasn’t ready to drop it. These three people needed a lesson that this wasn’t the same world they used to maneuver in. Plausible Deniability wasn’t a term I wanted to ever see used in my rooftop community. If I was the leader, if I was in charge, nothing would be kept from me. They needed to know this. They needed a lesson to this fact; these were the words that my brain was screaming at me.

  “Really Jack? Am I the leader? Because I’ll be honest with you, for somebody who told me that he didn’t want, and would not take, that particular job, it sure looks like you have had a change of heart.”

  Jack looked at the ground for a minute. His body seemed to tense for a moment then his eyes rose to meet mine.

  “Okay. I get it Charlie. You can stop now.” Jack said.

  “No, I don’t think I can, Jack. What was the first thing we all agreed on when we sat down and decided how we were going to do business?” I asked.

  “Charlie…” Amanda said in her enough is enough tone and I wasn’t surprised at all to hear the voice of Sasquatch fill the air around me.

  “Amanda, don't. You three have been awful busy the last few days setting up your own recon post at the end of the building and keeping your secrets like I assume you used to do in the old world. This is no longer that world. Your behavior has been, and still is, unacceptable. Jack will answer the question.”

  Sass looked pissed. I mean like “break ye bones to make me bread” kind of pissed. I wasn’t going to challenge him while he had that look on his face, and as it turns out, I wasn’t the only one. Amanda opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Jack instead answered my question.

  “The first thing we decided was there would be no secrets.” Jack said.

  “That’s right. Now, I only have one more question and any of you can answer this one. Are Sass and I still members of this council? I’ll be honest with you; at this point I really don’t care either way. If you three want to take over and run things the way that you see fit, then have at it. I will vacate my seat and be happy about it. You can take this job, and your secrets, and shove it. However, if you answer that Sass and I are part of the council then you will spill it. Every secret, every thought. I am the leader and I will be involved in every aspect of the decision making for this community. If you don’t like that, you better tell me that the answer is no. You had better tell me that you don’t think I can be trusted to do the job. You are either going to tell me to get lost or tell me everything. The decision is yours.”

  Sass and I stood looking at the three of them as they stood looking at us. I had no regrets. I had spoken my mind and had meant every word. Now the ball was in their court, love me or hate me it was now their call.

  “It’s not that we think either of you can’t be trusted to do the job.” Jack said. Amanda still glowered at me and Jane looked more like he wanted a sandwich than anything else. I guess with his history in Viet Nam and then the twenty or more years in a biker gang, as disputes go, this was pretty lame. I imagine he figured if nobody had shoved a broken beer bottle in his face yet then he was safe, and it would be nice to ha
ve something to eat while he watched the show.

  “The reason nobody has said anything to you Charlie is because you have already been hurt. It’s more than your ankle. Where that brick hit you in the head is way more serious than the ankle. I am almost positive that you had a concussion and I know that if you knew what we knew then you would be adamant about going back down there.” Jack said.

  “And, Sass, you and Charlie are boys. I told Jack and Amanda, as soon as you knew then Charlie would know, and we would be right back at square one.” Jane said.

  “As soon as we knew what?” Sass said.

  “The dead are amassing in K-mart’s parking lot.” Amanda said. “We don’t know why, but we do have a few ideas. Jane and I are planning to go check it out and see if our suspicions are confirmed. If it's what we fear it is, we would have had brought you up to speed on the situation and figured it out from there. If it turned out to be nothing, then we could have kept an eye on it from a distance and…” She trailed off. I finished it for her, “And kept me in the dark.”

  Amanda shot me an apologetic look. “Yes.”

  “Are all of you like Veronica now? Does the council think that I should never leave this roof again? Seriously? Like I don’t get enough of that shit at home, now I have to come to work and hear it? How damn fragile do you people think I am?” I asked.

  “It’s not the fragile aspect that gives me pause about you Charlie. It’s the lack of focus. It’s the inability to take anything seriously. It’s your lack of discipline.” Amanda said to me.

  “Wow, that was painful.” I said to her, but she just smiled at me, “No secrets, right?”

  To my, and I think everyone else’s surprise, that made me laugh. I winked at Amanda. “Maybe a little smidge of secrets, but only when it’s being done to help build my ego.” Jane stood up and stretched saying, “Hell. Where’s the fun in that?”

  I didn’t like their point, but I did understand it. Jane and Amanda were both soldiers. They still had that spooky way of moving that encouraged the outside world to simply not see them. If there was anyone perfect to sneak over there and check this situation out, it was the two of them. I’ve never been so full of myself that I refuse to look at the strategy for a particular job and ignore the smart play. It’s just how my mind works. I understood that the others weren’t aware of this yet and they were worried about my safety and my health. They were also concerned that I would do something unexpected and draw that horde of zombies from the K-Mart parking lot all the way back here and say something as stupid as “Look mom, they followed me home, can we keep em?”

  “Okay, I concede your point, I suck at the spy stuff. Amanda, when were you and Jane planning to leave?”

  Amanda looked surprised and Jack raised his eyebrows at me but said nothing. Jane answered, “Within the hour. If we’re right then we have a busy day ahead of us.”

  “And what do you think is going on?” Sass asked.

  All three exchanged a look.

  “Guys, if you haven’t noticed yet, my name is not Martin Riggs and I swear I don’t have a death wish. You can tell me what’s up and we can figure this out together.” I said.

  “Who is Martin Riggs?” Amanda asked.

  “Mel Gibson’s character from Lethal Weapon.” Sass answered without even missing a beat. Amanda gave us both that “you have got to be kidding me” look she seems to keep on standby. Sass shrugged, “You get used to the movie references once you’ve hung out with Crackhead as long as I have.”

  “Hey!” I said and spun to look at Sass. That was the first time he had called me crackhead in over a week. “I had thought that we had gotten passed all this ‘Crackhead’ stuff.” Sass just smiled at me, “It appears you were wrong.”

  Jane was getting impatient. He wanted to get down on the ground and get this over with, so he gave up the last secret in an attempt to end what he called the “Chatty Kathy Club” and get to the problem at hand.

  “We think that there is a group of survivors hold up in one of the building at the back end of K-Mart’s parking lot. They did something a few days ago to draw some very unwanted attention and the horde has been amassing for days preparing to lay siege to the building.”

  “Why aren’t they already beating on the place and trying to get in?” I asked.

  “What we think is, the dead saw a person, or multiple persons, heading across the parking lot, but they lost them when they crossed the tree line at the edge of the parking lot. That barrier should easily obscure the road and shops beyond. They know the general direction, but they're not positive where their prey went to ground. They are gathering forces in that area waiting for the people to screw up and give them a tell tell sound, or sight, that will let them know where to attack.” Amanda said.

  “Sounds very plausible.” I said.

  “Wait. If they don’t know where the people are and there is no stimulus to draw more zombies into the area, why are there more and more coming into the parking lot?” Sass asked.

  “It’s like when Charlie and I did our experiments on the interstate. If any of the lurkers see the walkers moving forward, then they will begin to walk as well. I originally thought that this would only work if the walker moved directly in front of the lurker causing him to get curious and follow to see where the walker was going, but I now believe that this is something bigger. I think that it is line of sight, which is a much scarier notion to think about.”

  “Okay, remember Charlie and I were not in the military, what is line of sight?” Sass asked.

  “I know that one.” I said causing Sass to frown at me.

  “Really?” Sass asked.

  “Yup, I’m hip with it baby.”

  “Then, please, enlighten us.” Amanda said with a growing smile.

  “Line of sight is exactly what it sounds like. What Jane is saying is that if a lurker can see a walker moving then there is a percentage chance that the lurker will begin to move in that direction. Once that lurker begins to surge forward any other walkers or lurkers that has that zombie in their line of sight has a chance of moving forward as well. It doesn’t have to be close, just in the line of sight. The other zombies need to have a good view of the movement. There can be no obstruction by buildings, trees, cars, or whatever. But think about it, if there happens to be a lurker a mile down the road and he spies a walker down the open corridor created by let’s say State of Franklin. That zombie, a mile down the road, will begin to walk to where he saw the movement and any others that can see him will begin to move as well.”

  “How do you know this?” Sass asked.

  “Everquest. When they released that expansion where you could go explore the moon there was a zone where, for the first time ever, the mobs would aggro you by line of sight tracking. It was one of the nastiest zones I had ever fought in. You had to be aware of your surroundings at all times or something from halfway across the zone would see you and come after you, and by the time that one thing got to you it would be dragging about twenty friends along with it. Was mean, and painful. I died there a lot.”

  Sass just shook his head.

  “What you are saying is accurate and very bad. By your explanation, just because a zombie is able to see one of us walk across the parking lot up on this hill, we could end up having an entire horde of them descend upon us.” Jack said.

  “It isn’t as probable as all of that. Remember what Charlie said. Each time one of them is able to see another one moving, there is a percentage chance that it will decide to move. We don’t know the percentages yet. I believe that the walkers will have a higher percentage than the lurkers, but we simply don’t know.” Jane said.

  “Also, this entire line of thought could be wrong and there could be something else over there we can’t see drawing the zombies to the parking lot in such numbers.” Amanda added to which Jane nodded and said. “We won’t know until we get over there and check it out.”

  “Well, I’ve heard enough. Suit up and get ready to go. I do want
you to put the earpieces in and take the talkies with you, so we can communicate back and forth once you’re in the area though.” I said.

  It was still early, and the chill of the morning had sat into my bones. I had not wanted to get up this morning and play Doctor Douche Bag, M.D. to the others, but it was something that I felt had to be done. I hoped we would eventually reach a point where we wouldn’t need these reality check moments, but I doubted we ever would. Out of the five of us I was sure that at least one would do something every day to invoke the wrath of somebody else. I just hoped we would be able to talk it through like we had today.

  Jane and Amanda geared up for the trip. Thinking back to what we had as our approved gear back then compared to what we have now I shudder thinking of them going to that parking lot with literally hundreds of the dead milling about. To be fair though, back then it was what we thought to be an appropriate level of protection. So much could have gone wrong so easily, and we would have lost our two best fighters in one foul swoop. It strikes me funny that we never saw that point of the argument during the entire discussion. Here they were scared to death of me going when we should have been scared to death of letting both of them go together. Had even just one of them been infected that day I’m not sure we would have been able to handle the threat of the bikers that was still waiting for us a month or more down the road.

  Jack was watching their progress through binoculars and staying in contact through the head sets, so I wandered over towards the makeshift elevator we had built onto the side of the building. This was our way of getting up and down from our nice, safe perch on top of Wal-Mart. Sitting beside where the elevator would touch down was a box truck that Amanda and Jane had used to go get supplies on my first day ridding the injured reserve bench. I was looking at the truck, making mental notes in my head of its pros and cons. Looking for weaknesses, forming a plan. If there were people trapped in that building across the road then I felt this truck was our best option for extracting them. It would need some modification and that meant we would most likely need to power up the generator. The generator wasn’t used unless the circumstances were dire. Before the power had shut down we had pumped as much gas as we could into any containers that we could find. We were lucky to have a set of still functioning gas pumps at the edge of Wal-Mart’s parking lot. We had hooked up the generator and stashed our supply of fuel. I had hopes of us finding a tanker truck full of gas, but that dream didn’t come true for about another two months.