“We can’t leave Sass. I would like to, but you know we can’t.”
Sass frowned at me and looked down at the roof. “You ever change your mind just look at me and say, ‘there’s no place like home’ and we’ll disappear from this mad house.”
“No place like home?” I asked smiling.
Sass nodded but he wasn’t smiling. “Don’t think I haven’t clicked my heals together three times in the past few weeks. So far though, I always wake up here in dead world.”
“Would be nice to have a wizard on our side.” I said.
“Forget the wizard. I’d be happy with a few hundred flying monkeys.” Sass said, and he began to walk towards his tent. “Remember Charlie. I’m ready any time you are, and there’s no place like home. No place at all.”
NOW
DAY 123 OF THE INFECTION
ONE
As tempting as it had been to simply disappear into the night, I had never called that marker in. Now looking around at the trap we had wandered into, I found myself wishing that I had listened to my weaker impulses.
“This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.” I said. “Just because it looks like a trap doesn’t mean that it is a trap. Maybe they just have some serious trust issues.”
Jane and Amanda looked around at me.
“I told you this would happen.” Fred said. “All you had to do was listen to me. I could have gotten us there safe.”
What was there to say to that? All I had to do was trust Fred and do exactly what he told me to do and we would all be safe and sound. All I had needed to do was go against every instinct I had. Fred was bad news, I was never surer of that than I was while listening to him sputter about how stupid we were. I wanted to punch him in the face, so he would shut up. I prayed for something, anything, to happen so my focus could leave Fred Baker. For once, my prayer was answered; the crackle of a PA system filled the building.
“Hello. It seems that fate has brought into our midst some very special guests!” A voice said over the speakers. “Let’s greet our visitors!” A loud roar filled the building. I was sure some of it was the people who lived above us and were looking down at their newest batch of victims. I stepped out in front of the others.
“My name is Charlie Collins. We are from a camp that is set up on Wal-Mart further down State of Franklin. We are…” My words were cut off by Mister PA.
“Yes, yes. We have heard. You are on a mission of mercy to save the poor kidnapped girl. What an amazing story! A fable for the ages!” There was a pause before the speaker’s voice returned. It had dropped an octave and was speaking in the tone of a man sharing a secret with everybody. “I say fable because it is not one bit believable.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked the building.
“Nobody would put themselves at risk to save a girl that is most likely dead already.” The PA spoke.
“Just because you wouldn’t doesn’t mean wouldn’t. Hide behind your walls and never put yourself at risk if you want. That’s not how we do things. What you have been told about us is the truth.”
Laughter rolled across the PA at my answer. “How you do things? We would call that stupidity! I imagine that the father of the child in question is part of your group.”
I looked around to Fred and saw that he was trying to quietly disappear under the floor. He looked like he didn’t want the speaker’s attention anywhere near him.
“Yes. He is with us.” I said. Before I could say anything else the PA boomed, “Have him step forward.” I motioned for Fred to step in front of the group and stand beside me. Fred shook his head and refused to move. I gave another motion for him to join me and he, instead, took a step back.
“It seems that he is a bit shy, just now.” I said.
“The one in the back?” The PA voice said. There was a pause which I didn’t fill by answering the question. The PA flared back to life. “Yes, I believe it is you. Don’t I know you?”
I turned to look at Fred again. He looked like a rabbit right before it dies of a fear induced heart attack. He looked at me pleadingly. I looked from him to Jane and Amanda. I was still thinking that maybe I could talk us out of this, but I could tell by their postures that they were gearing up for a fight.
The PA spoke again. “Yes, I think I know what is going on here. You are not who you say you are. You are not from Wal-Mart as you claim. Your master should have known better than to try and gain entrance this way. I would give you a message to take back to her, but I am afraid there will not be anyone left to play the part of messenger.”
“What are you saying?” I asked.
“You have entered our arena of your own accord. You are our sworn enemy and we should kill you where you stand with no mercy. But, you will be given a chance at life. You will survive, if God so chooses.”
“Wait!” I screamed at the building. “You are making a mistake. We are not who you think we are. You do this, and you will be killing a group of innocent people.”
There was a pause. No sound came from the PA and none of us moved until a soft, vulnerable, voice spoke.
“When this all started, we were not the people you see here now. We trusted our neighbors. We helped fortify the compounds near us. We made deals with local groups for supplies. We were a beacon of hope, a light shining out in a dark world. Then the other communities, one by one, fell. It wasn’t the dead who were sacking these cities. It was people, just like us. We began pulling our laborers and hunters back from the other cities. We only sent out scouts who could blend in and disappear if things got dangerous. We cut ties with everyone except the group at Food City. We had to keep that relationship because we needed the supplies they gave us in return for our help fortifying their building.
We shifted all of our attention into creating weapons and defensive measures. We started to become the people you see before you today. The last nail was when Food City fell. We saw the black smoke and sent our scouts to check immediately. The news they brought back chilled me and changed us a community. Food City, our friends and allies, were gone. The building was burned. Whoever was sacking the local cities had become bold enough to attack the third largest of the strongholds. Only the group in the Medical Center and we remained.”
Another pause came. When the voice returned the tone was dark, hostile, and accusatory. “Don’t think I don’t know what we are called outside these walls. We are monsters. Murderers. We are the evil that lurks in the shadows of night. If that’s who we are it’s your master who created us. Your master, the true monster. You are not who you claim to be.”
“You are wrong. We didn’t even know…” My words were cut off as the voice on the PA returned louder than ever saying, “ENOUGH!” The speaker then quoted a line I was very familiar with. I had watched the movie more times than I could remember, and this line was one of my favorites.
I felt the dark cloud descend upon us as the PA voice said, “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dying time’s here.”
TWO
“It is a simple thing.” The PA voice said. “As you look around this arena you will notice that there are twelve doors. One you came through to enter the building. One directly across from that door which leads into the main building. On each side of the arena there are five other doors. Behind each of these doors are a minimum of ten zombies. We like to police our lands and round up the undesirables. We have found a way to make good use of the unsavory element of our population.”
“And what would that be?” I asked.
“It’s a trial by fire. All you have to do is survive four rounds and you are free to go. Round one, we will open one door. You will have one minute to kill all of the zombies that enter the arena before round two starts. Round two opens two doors and gives you two minutes to kill them before round three begins.”
“We will have to kill at least a hundred zombies in the next ten minutes to make it out of here alive.” Jane said.
“Not a lot of room to maneuver in here. We will be back
ed against the wall rather quickly.” Amanda said.
“Yes, I suggest we rush the front as soon as this starts. That should put the greatest amount of distance between us and the doors as they open.” Jane said.
“Any questions? No? Good. Let’s begin, shall we?” The PA was saying.
I turned looking at the others. “Follow Jane and Amanda. Use your range weapons first. We need to be quick. Save hand to hand until we are in danger of being over ran.” Sass and Marky Mark nodded but Fred looked like he was about to cry so I added, “Fred, stay behind me.”
“Round one…GO!” Roared the PA. We ran for the front of the arena and I could hear one of the doors being raised. It sounded like they went up and down on a track by a pulley system which fed up into the second level. I took out my bow and all the arrows I had. I only had ten. I knew our other range weapons wouldn’t be much better. We had been low going on empty, in regards to our ammo, since the big biker invasion. “Do we have enough bullets to handle this?” I asked Jane.
“No. Doesn’t matter though. When they open those two doors we will have to start hand to hand fighting.”
I turned and saw Amanda looking at the wall behind us. She laid her hand on it and then made a fist and rapped on it. A smile was slowly starting to spread across her face.
“Fire!” Jane said and everyone, but Fred and Amanda, opened fire on the first zombies to enter the arena. It hadn’t been ten that came out, it had been thirteen. As soon as we had put them down Amanda spun Sass and I around said, “I need you to throw me.”
“What?” I asked.
Amanda bent over and cupped her hands together demonstrating what she was talking about. I looked up and saw that the wall extended up about fifteen feet, but there was nothing at the top lip of it to keep the combatants inside the arena. If Amanda could get to the top of the wall she could take the fight to our captors. I nodded to her and Sass and I took our place at the wall just as I heard the voice on the PA say, “Round two…GO!”
Amanda ran about ten feet away from the wall and had a knife in each hand. She turned, nodded to us and began running towards the wall as fast as she could. When she was almost to us she threw herself up into the air. Sass and I caught a foot in each of our locked hands and flung her upwards as hard as we could. She slammed the knives into the wall around the ten or eleven foot mark. I was hearing loud moaning coming from behind me now. Jane was cursing.
“Quit playing spider-man back there and help me shoot these bastards.” He growled as he methodically worked his way through the mob of hungry zombies that were almost on top of us. Sass pulled out his baseball bat and I could see Marky Mark putting his brass knuckles on. I looked back up to Amanda she had pulled herself up and was now standing on the knives she had slammed into the wall and was preparing to launch herself over the side. I tossed my longbow aside and pulled the baseball bat out of my back pack and gave Fred one last look. “Stay put and stay calm. We’ve got this.” Fred didn’t look like he believed me at all, but at least he nodded.
Sass, Marky Mark and Jane were already in the fight. I joined in making a wall of blunt objects lashing out at the dead as they came close to us.
“Round three…GO!” A voice said. I thought there was no way two minutes had passed since this last batch had been unleashed. I could hear the chains starting to pull the door up and I had a sinking feeling in my gut. There were only six more to take care of in the arena, but we were about to get at least thirty more dumped on top of us. Then I heard the PA voice again. “Hold the door.” The chains quit rattling and the door quit moving.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” The PA voice asked. Then as clear as a bell I heard Amanda’s voice.
“I am going to kill this man then any other people I find until you decide to let me, and my companions leave this building.”
“Your bluffing.” The PA said.
Jane winced as he heard the words and I shook my head. “Boy is dat guy about to get a surprise, huh?” Marky Mark said.
I heard a loud scream and watched as man appeared over the edge of the wall. He was airborne and flailing as he lost the fight with gravity. He landed just in front of Jane with an impact that sounded like it did some serious damage. The man yelled out and I thought he was going to start screaming. I was wrong though. As soon as Jane put his boot on the man’s throat and his pistol to the man’s forehead the screams stopped.
“I’m sorry.” I heard Amanda saying. “Is this not the way you saw it going down?”
“Who are you people?” The PA asked.
“I thought you knew who we are. I thought we were assassins sent by some mistress who is your sworn enemy. Isn’t that what you eluded to when you sentenced us to death?”
The PA was silent.
“Last chance. Open the outer door and let me and my people leave this place. Or I will make it my mission in life to find you and beat you to death with my bare hands.” Amanda was firing on all cylinders now and I had to admit if I had been the PA man I think I would have given her anything she asked for.
“Tough talk.” The PA said. “What am I supposed to do with a group of armed killers that want to be unleashed into my lands?”
It got quiet and I took the opportunity to add my voice to the conflict. “Since you said that you thought we were working for a woman am I correct in thinking that your mortal enemy is the person running things from atop the med center?”
The PA answered slowly, picking his words carefully. I imagined he was most likely trying to decide how I knew about this woman if I didn’t work for her.
“Yes…you would be correct in that assumption.” The PA said.
“That is the woman who kidnapped the girl from our camp. That is who we are going to confront. You ask what you do with us, I say point us at your mortal enemy and let us go.”
Again, there was a moment of quiet before the voice spoke.
“It is an elegant solution. However, understand my words; if you ever come to my lands again I will not let you leave.”
“Understood. We will find an alternate route back to our home.” I said.
“See that you do. We are safe behind our walls and above our dead army. You would never reach us even if you were to seek retaliation.”
I smiled at the speaker. “You can’t think that way. Any defense can be overcome. It’s like a friend of mine says, ‘The only way to be safe is to never feel secure’.”
The PA voice gave a whisper of a laugh, “And what would this friend’s name be?”
“His name is Jack. He lives with us on top of Wal-Mart.” I said as I heard the chains lifting the door out of the building.
“Jack, huh?” The voice said. “Somehow I knew that would be your answer.”
I raised an eyebrow at this, but I knew the conversation was over. The PA made a hiss and a click as it was turned off. Amanda landed beside me and spoke in a low tone.
“Get your bow and follow me. We need to get out of here now.”
I grabbed my gear and followed the others out of the building. I was the last one to leave, but before doing so, I took a look back into the arena. I saw a man standing at the edge of the wall looking down at me. I took stock of his features and I noted one item in particular that raised a question or two. I filed it away for future reference. Ducking under the door I escaped the arena of the Head Hunters.
THREE
Making our way through the land of the Head Hunters reminded me a good bit of when Sass and I were trying to escape Carta Mundi on the first day of the zombie outbreak. I kept expecting a group of bad guys to bar our way at the last minute stopping us from reaching the safety of the open road. The fear was unfounded, especially if what I had saw right before I ducked under the door meant what I thought it meant, but it was there all the same.
As we crossed the parking lot and made it onto the main road, I could feel the apprehension start to fade. When we crossed the line of pikes buried into the ground with heads mounted on them,
the feeling intensified just a hair. But by the time we had reached the bottom of the hill, which sloped away from the Head Hunter fortress, I began to allow myself hope that we would be okay.
This section of road was pretty much empty. No businesses and no real wrecks clogging up the lanes. I wondered if the Head Hunters had cleared the road, but decided probably not. I couldn’t see any black skid marks or spots where car juices had spilled. No oil or transmission stains. No gasoline or diesel fuel. I couldn’t even see any rust stains from burst radiators. For some reason this area of State of Franklin had been accident free.
These little quirks of our new world always intrigued me. What on earth could have caused wrecks on every inch of this road except here? What made this area so special as everyone fled for the hills in hopes of outdistancing the dead? You could find areas like this everywhere you went, and it never failed to amaze me.
“Whoa. We got time ta check dat out?” Marky Mark asked pointing to the right side of the road where a gas station sat dark and as dead as our world. A sign hung by the road telling of all the great things that this particular station had inside. One of these things, the one that had caught the eye of our Jersey refugee, was something called a “beer cave”. First off, I really wanted to know what a beer cave was. I imaged a large den buried in the frozen tundra up north. The walls would be made of Budweiser bottles and living inside would be the polar bear equivalent to Yogi the Bear. There would be local tales of the men who dared to enter the beer cave and steal its ice cold, golden nectar. The stories would always tell, at great gory length, about how nobody had ever made it back alive. Drunky the Bear was very protective of his golden treasure.
“No.” Jane said.
“Awe, man, come on. It’s a beer cave.” Marky Mark said.
“No. Keep moving.” Amanda said without turning around. Marky Mark gave one last look towards the fabled beer cave. I laid my hand on his shoulder and smiled at him.
“You had my vote for checking it out.” I said.
Samantha's Song Page 22