Nowen had nothing to say.
Zoe crossed her arms over her chest as she continued. “I’ve been thinking. And in my thinking I’ve realized that you also killed an entire family. Is that what you wanted? When you made it obvious you didn’t care about anybody here?”
Nowen lowered her eyes to the scuffed linoleum floor. Droplets of blood tracked toward the door. “I’m sorrier than you could know about Lennon. And the Roberts. And I take my part of the blame for their deaths. But Tuck is insane, and he would have killed someone, anyone, yesterday. His authority was threatened, and he won’t allow that. What we need to do now is try to find a way to escape.”
“Oh, shut up!” Zoe’s thin, olive-skinned face flushed red. “You don’t care. You can’t even fake it - listen to you! You sound like you’re reading from, like, a book or something. And escape? Yeah, thanks but no thanks. I’ve seen what happens to people when you try to escape!”
Nowen shut her eyes for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “Zoe, please. You need to calm done and listen to me for-”
The young woman stood up abruptly, fighting for her balance against the swaying motion of the camper. “Don’t fucking tell me what to do! You’re a murderer, and a liar, and I wish I’d never seen you!”
Nowen struggled to her feet, hampered by the chain around her neck. Her hands were still cuffed behind her, and had lost feeling hours ago. They hung on the ends of her wrists, dead lumps. She’d barely made it to her feet when the teen-ager screamed like a banshee and charged.
In her wild flurry of fists Zoe managed to land a couple of blows before Nowen threw her weight against the lighter woman and knocked her down. She stood over Zoe, ready to knock her down again, but what little fight there was in the young woman was gone. She curled on her side, drawing her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. The long strands of her purple-and-green hair spread across the floor like a strange rainbow. She began to cry, great gasping sobs that seemed to come from the deepest part of her soul.
Nowen sighed and carefully sank down beside Zoe. She couldn’t lay a comforting hand on the other woman even if she wanted to, so she talked, calm and soft.
“Zoe, I know you don’t like or trust me. That’s ok. I don’t think I’m an easy person to know. But for both of our sakes I need you to just listen to me, ok? As never before you and I have to try and do what Lennon was always telling us to do - work together. Stay pissed at me if you want, but put it aside for right now.” She waited until Zoe gave a small nod of her head. Her crying had trailed off to an occasional hitching gasp. “I am sorry about Lennon. He was...nice. And I’m sorry about those two children. But Lennon and Mr. Roberts didn’t stand a chance.”
“What do you mean? If you hadn’t run away, he’d still be alive. They all would.” Zoe’s words were as soft as snowfall.
“I thought a lot, last night, about what happened. Listen to my theory, and tell me if you agree. I’m the one who ran away. So why didn’t Tuck kill me? And no-” Nowen said quickly, before Zoe could interrupt, “I’m not working with or for Tuck. If you believe nothing else about me, believe that one thing. To get back to what I was saying, I think Lennon and Mr. Roberts were doomed from the start. Tuck is not a person who likes being challenged. He expects and demands unquestioning obedience. You’ve seen that yourself, right?” She didn’t wait for an answer before continuing.
“Look at who’s left, now. The three new women, that new man, and us. Do you see it?” Zoe was looking up at her now, her hazel eyes shimmering behind a veil of tears. “Let me ask you this: the people who were killed in Tie Siding; were any of them women?”
“No...” Zoe said thoughtfully.
“They were all men, right? And why hasn’t Tuck killed me? I’ve been nothing but trouble to him since I was forced to join this little expedition of his. And yet, when he had the absolute perfect excuse to kill me, he killed Lennon instead. Probably fabricated that whole story about Mr. Roberts, too, so he could get rid of him.”
“So...you’re saying that he’s just keeping the women alive?”
Nowen nodded.
“But then, what about that new guy?”
A sudden jolt shook the camper, and they both unconsciously swayed with the motion. “This morning, when Matt brought us breakfast-”
Zoe interrupted. “Brought me breakfast. You didn’t get any, right?”
“Yeah. I’d say Tuck’s going to try and starve me into compliance. Anyway, while Matt guarded us I could see the RV, and it was Oliver and the new guy who were guarding those women. I’d say that he was agreeable to following Tuck’s orders, so now he’s one of them. Lennon would never be able to do that, and Mr. Roberts, for all his faults, would not turn on his family.”
Zoe was sitting up now, wiping the tears from her face as she pondered all that Nowen had said. “But, why? What’s he want?”
At this Nowen had to laugh, a sharp bitter sound that rang harshly through the camper. “You weren’t wrong, Zoe, when you said that Tuck wanted to start a little empire of his own. He’s heading to Colorado Springs and the military bases there, and we’ll be one of the enticements he’ll use to get others on his side.”
“Well, that still doesn’t make much sense, right? I mean, if he runs across, like, someone with more guns...”
The loud squeal of brakes interrupted whatever else Zoe was going to say. The camper juddered to a halt, followed shortly by the sound of the truck door slamming. Nowen and Zoe stood up and moved to a window close to the bed. Oliver and the new person came stomping by the camper, heading toward the front truck. Zoe cracked the window a little so they could hear the conversation.
“What the hell is this mess?!” Oliver’s belligerent words rang out.
“Damn military blockade. Across all four lanes. Matt!” Tuck yelled.
“What?” Matt replied, from further away.
“Can you move those tanks?”
“No way, man. Sorry.”
Oliver mumbled something Nowen couldn’t hear. Tuck’s clipped reply was colored with anger. “That won’t work, idiot. Look at it - it’s basically a bridge, and those hills are too steep to drive down. I’m not going to take a chance and end up rolling the vehicles. We need to backtrack.”
“Alan! Bring those maps from my truck!” Oliver shouted.
Zoe looked at Nowen and mouthed ‘new guy?’ Nowen shrugged.
The men had moved further away and now only disjointed bits of their conversation could be heard, enough to understand that the whole caravan would be turning around and taking a detour through suburb streets. Nowen and Zoe stood by the window as the camper made a slow, careful turn. They could see the blockade as they turned. Two massive tanks were parked sideways, one on each side of the two-lane highway, surrounded by large concrete beams. A green highway sign pointed to a hospital somewhere behind the blockade.
“Why would the army block a hospital?” Zoe whispered.
Nowen only half-heard this. As the camper swung away from the tanks she caught a glimpse of another highway sign that pointed to Exeter, almost seventy miles behind them. Damn it! She turned away from the window and Zoe, circling around the small interior space as her angry thoughts rampaged. Do you see? These people’s problems were not your own. You should have escaped when you had the chance! You are moving further away from your goal. You chose to stay with the sheep. If she could have felt her hands she would have clenched them so tightly the bones would ache.
She growled. Zoe looked at her, startled. “Are you...ok?” she tentatively asked.
“I’m fine. I’m thinking.” Nowen snapped. Zoe started to say something and then seemed to think better of it. The camper picked up speed, rocking, and she sat back down in the small forward seat.
Nowen looked out the window nearest the bed, watching the highway dividers and lamp posts tick by. I need to get away and she turned plan after plan over in her head, but as long as she was restrained with the cuffs she was helpless.
&nb
sp; And caged.
Outside the window the scenery changed as the convoy left the highway, threading their way down an on-ramp. Shortly thereafter they were moving down the streets of whatever suburb this was. Revs began to appear, drawn by the sound of the engines, but the streets were mostly clear and their progress continued unimpeded. She could only get glimpses of their passage through the window, but during one turn she saw a large white-domed structure rising above the smaller buildings. They seemed to be making their way toward it, and she motioned Zoe over.
“What is that?” she asked, when the other woman stood next to her.
“Hmmm....I don’t know. Kinda looks like a stadium? Why is Tuck taking us there?”
“Who knows. He’s insane.”
As they got closer to the structure more details came into view. It was large, roughly the size of a city block. The white dome sat atop a light-brown edifice, and even from a distance of half-a-mile black streaks that marred the white top could be seen. Zoe crossed to the window on the other side of the camper to try and get a different view.
“Look!” she said, excitedly. “I saw something!”
“Easier for you to tell me than for me to get over there.” Nowen responded.
“A big sign! It’s like, real official-looking, not like cardboard or something. It’s pointing to that building, and it says-”
“West Moreton Refugee Center. I just saw another one.”
Zoe crossed back over to where Nowen stood. “A refugee center! Probably the government, right? Or the military! We could find help, get away from Tuck and the others! Oh, please, please, please be something safe...”
Zoe’s voice dropped to a soft murmur and Nowen tuned her out as she kept her watch by the window. She didn’t feel as positive about the refugee center but kept her opinions to herself for the time being. The camper was getting closer to their evident destination. She saw more of the directional signs, some in worse shape than others. If anyone was running this refugee center they weren’t doing maintenance on the signs.
Strip malls and used car lots gave way to upscale shops and small businesses, all showing the by now familiar signs of dissolution and decay. Revs were scattered here and there, most still dressed in the remnants of expensive clothes. They staggered between a few abandoned cars and along the trash-littered streets, turning their blank-yet-hungry eyes on the small convoy.
They rolled into the massive parking lot around the center, the truck pulling the camper taking a long, curving path around the perimeter. Zoe’s excited babbling died off as she and Nowen took in the sight before them.
The white-domed building was the West Moreton Convention and Events Center, according to the large gold lettering that wrapped around the building, repeating this information over and over. Large signs affixed to random light poles pointed to different areas of the parking lot, directing refugees to Intake, Medical, Administration, Family Resources, and other services. Military and medical vehicles were parked at various locations through-out the lot. Metal dividers were set up as routes to move the refugees through the center. Far off from where they had entered the parking lot, serried rows of dark green tents could be seen, and the whole set-up was surrounded by two rows of tall metal fencing topped with coils of razor wire. It looked very official and very protected.
And it obviously hadn’t lasted long.
The black streaks on the dome looked to be smoke damage. The protective fencing was torn down in multiple places, as far as Nowen could see. Dividers were tipped over. The only sign of life was from the massed flocks of crows and ravens that lifted from the bodies that lay everywhere as their vehicles passed. The snows of winter had preserved the corpses, and now as they thawed the scavengers had a ready-made feast.
A stubborn crow refused to leave its perch on the head of a dead woman, jabbing determinedly at one jaundiced eye. The crow maneuvered for a better grip and the corpse’s mouth snapped shut on the bird’s black legs. The woman turned her head to watch the convoy pass, her grey jawbone showing through ripped flesh as she stolidly dragged the struggling crow into her mouth.
Nowen could see no living people anywhere. Off by the tents she could see figures, indeterminate shapes against the background, moving with the familiar shuffling/staggering motions of the undead.
“Damn it.” Zoe whispered. Nowen looked at her. The other woman’s hazel eyes were wide and lost. “Damn it! It’s ruined! Is everything like this? I mean, everything in the world? It can’t be, right?
A flash of memory came to Nowen: Mrs. Roberts, asking similar questions, and her own, evidently inefficient, answers. She took no chances this time, and only shrugged.
They were slowing, and Nowen turned back to the window. After a moment Zoe rejoined her. The convoy had come to a halt surrounded by vehicles, both military and civilian. After a few moments they heard the slam of the truck door, and then Matt came walking by, holding a length of plastic hose in one hand and a couple of large gas cans in the other. He began to work his way through the field of cars, checking the gas caps.
Zoe turned away from the window. She slid down the wall to the floor, where she crossed her arms over her knees and dropped her head. “Oh, God, we’re never getting away from these people,” the young woman said, and started to cry.
Damn. What do I say? What- a sound caught Nowen’s attention, something that registered at the very edge of her hearing. What was that? “Shhh!” she said.
Zoe raised her tear-wet face. “Huh?”
“Shut up!” Nowen hissed. She ignored the angry look Zoe shot her and pressed her ear up to the window. It was still open a crack, and she held her breath and strained to listen. She heard it again, and her heart began to hammer in her chest.
The sound of Revs, roaring and shrieking, fingernails on chalkboards.
“Oh, holy hell.” Nowen whispered.
“What? What’s wrong?” Zoe said.
“Zoe, open this window further for me, then start banging on the door!”
“What’s going on?”
“Just do it!” Nowen snapped at the other woman.
“All right! Christ, just because you’ve finally snapped...” Zoe shot the window back and moved to the door, mumbling to herself. While she knocked out a staccato rhythm on the door Nowen shoved her head through the window and searched for the location of the roaring. In the few seconds she had spent directing Zoe the noise had grown louder. As best as she could determine it was coming from the far side of the center from their location.
Matt was wrestling with the gas cap of a small compact car, about twenty feet away. He threw an irritated look at the camper as Zoe’s knocking came to him.
“Get back in the truck and get us out of here!” Nowen screamed.
“What the hell are you babbling about?” Matt said, at the same time that Zoe gasped.
“Zoe, what is it?” Nowen pulled her head back in the window to see the door of the camper swinging open. Zoe grinned at her. “Those idiots forgot to chain it up!”
Nowen lunged for the door, shoving Zoe aside as she did. Matt had noticed the door opening, and as Nowen reached the breach he had already started over to the camper.
“You’ve got to get us out of here! Now!” she shouted at him.
“Nowen, what’s going on?” Zoe said, and grabbed her shoulder.
“What the hell are you talking about? Don’t you hear it?”
In the momentary silence that followed the roaring of the approaching horde spilled through the air like a gathering storm. Matt and Zoe both looked at Nowen with the same befuddled look.
“You don’t know what that is? Fast Revs, and it sounds like a lot of them!”
“What?” Matt said, standing below the opened door.
“Fast Revs! Or dead-heads, or whatever you want to call them!” The confused look didn’t leave their faces. “Wait-you’ve never seen them?”
“Yeah, of course! On the news stories back when things were going to hell. But never in Tie
Siding.” Zoe asked, and now fear was coloring her voice.
“I last saw them in Exeter, months ago, and I was hoping that they had died off over the winter-”
“Oh, fuck me!” Matt screamed.
Nowen and Zoe looked out the door. Coming around the front of the center was a mass of undead. Slower Revs made up the majority, a couple of hundred of them at least, and they were following a mercury-quick group of twenty or so shrieking, roaring creatures. The fast Revs flowed around the metal barriers and the rest of the throng plowed through them, sending the barriers flying. The noise of the undead, growls and moans mixing with shrieks and roars, rose ever upward in an ear-splitting cacophony.
Nowen thought she heard someone, Tuck maybe, shouting something, but the words were swallowed by the cries of the Revs. Matt jumped into the camper, sprawling across the floor. Zoe drew the door closed behind him. “Zoe! The window!” Nowen screamed above the dim. The young woman shoved past her and slammed the open window shut, just before the first wave hit them.
The Revs slammed into the camper. The small vehicle rocked on its wheels before the right side began to rise off the ground. The sound of more bodies impacting against the camper echoed and re-echoed through the interior until Nowen thought she would go insane from the aural overload.
The camper continued its ascent into the air until, inevitably, the force of the rushing Revs tipped it over on its side. Zoe’s screams rang out as she slid along the floor to end up wedged beneath the small fold-out table. Matt followed her path. Nowen struggled to keep her balance against the pull of gravity, but with her hands bound behind her she was at a disadvantage. The camper fell further onto its side and she tumbled along the floor, slamming hard into Matt.
With a jagged screech of metal on metal the camper jolted to a stop, a few feet from flat on its side. Nowen looked up from her awkward position to see Revs crawling past the window. One Rev in stained camouflage saw her and started to gnaw at the glass separating them. His grey-black tongue protruded from his mouth, smearing saliva across the window.
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