A Regressive World: Book One
Page 17
She was alone, but around her were lots of people enjoying themselves. She stared off into a corner; trying to get her thoughts about her sorted out, when she noticed a little girl around ten years old hiding just within the darkness’ grasp. Jessica thought it to be odd that a child so young to be here at the base. Over the past few months she hadn’t noticed her before, or any other children.
Jessica stood up, curious; she walked over towards the little girl. As she approached, the girl seemed to back into the shadows as she cautious of Jessica’s approaching figure. Jess could tell how the girl was feeling, and slowed her approach. Finally she reached the girl, and knelt down to her level. Jessica looked the little one over. She had two pigtails in her brown hair, soft skin, and her blue dress made the blue in her eyes really pop.
“Hey there little one,” Jessica calmly called out. The girl bashfully looked to the floor as she twisted her right foot back and forth nervously. Jess saw that in her left hand, she was holding a chocolate brown teddy bear. “I like your bear,” Jessica said, trying to find some common ground.
The little girl looked up to her and said, “Her name is Kansas.”
“Kansas huh? Is that where you came from?”
The little girl shook her head, “No, I’m from right here.”
“Here at this base?”
Again the girl shook her head, “No, here at the lodge.”
“Jess,” a voice called out from behind her.
It caught her attention, and she turned around. To her surprise it was Andrew, he had seen her in the shadows, and wanted came to see if she was okay. Jessica turned her attention back to the little girl, but just like that she was gone. Jess hadn’t seen or heard her escape, but sure enough, the pretty little girl with the brown hair was gone. Jessica stood up to talk to Andrew.
“Did you see where she went,” Jessica asked very confused.
Andrew looked into the shadows beyond he, and saw nothing; “I didn’t see anyone when I came over. I thought you were alone in the dark.”
“I was talking to a little girl, she was right here.”
“Jess, you know that there are no children here at the base. Have you eaten?”
“Not since yesterday.”
“Come on, lets get you something to eat, you will feel better.”
Jess took one last look back into the shadows, and then turned to follow Andrew to get some food in her empty stomach.
The Lush
Unlike the rest of the country, The Lush wasn’t full of dying trees, polluted waterways, or scorched earth. Most of all, it was free of wandering flesh-eaters. The streets were still paved, and for the most part, buildings were still intact. You wouldn’t call The Lush a suburban area, it was once a thriving city before the air-raids. The people who lived in The Lush were powerful, rich, and influential. When you looked at life outside The Lush, you could easily make a case for “what good was money anyways”.
Just like The Clusters it was ruled by a government, and protected by The United Front, except it was a government ran by the people of The Lush, for the people of The Lush. Just like in any good society, they appointed a leader that acted like a president would, but the position was now called The Higher Mark. His responsibility was to please the civilians of The Lush, and continue suppressing the rest of the nation. This responsibility went to one person, and his name, Jarvis Daniels. Daniels was a black man, who dressed in nice suits and ties, while keeping himself neatly groomed with a tight black beard.
Daniels didn’t have any real power, except to deal with the day-to-day items, and execution of The Lush’s governmental board’s plans. Daniel’s had gotten his from serving in the military. He was a General in The United Front. He was very decorated, and was one of the people who headed the air-raids that destroyed most of the zombie population, and devastated all of the country. Daniels was dedicated to the people of The Lush. His number one priority was to keep things thriving, and the people happy. Happy people; meant he kept his job.
Daniels walked down the hallway towards his office. On his way in, he walked by his secretary, and she informed him that he had a guest in his office waiting for him. He nodded to her, said thank you, and walked in. Inside the office there was a large brown cherry wood desk, two chairs, where one was empty, and one sat McHale. He and Daniels were good friends from Daniels’ stint in The United Front. McHale was under Daniels, and in his troop.
Daniels sat down at his desk, placed his cup atop it, and greeted McHale, “You better have good news for me.”
McHale cleared his throat, “Jarvis—“
Daniels sipped from his mug, “Don’t Jarvis me. We’ve got issues that are escalating. The zombie population, what’s it looking like?”
“They’re multiplying faster than we predicted. Also they seem to be getting smarter.”
“How?”
“Well, we know they’re not breeding…”
“I meant how are they getting smarter?”
“They seem to be gathering towards one location.”
“And where’s that,” Daniels asked.
There was a pause, and then McHale said it, “The Lush.”
“How long do we have?”
“It’s unclear. There is no pattern to their organization, right now it’s sporadic.”
“That’s why we need the girl. If these things make it to city gates, the population in here wants that cure.”
McHale rubbed his face like a nervous tick, and then he replied, “As of now, we’re further away from finding her location than ever. It’s like she just fell off the edge of the planet.”
“Are you sending out search teams?”
“Around the clock Jarvis.”
Daniels stood up, and walked to the window that was over looking the green gardens with colorful flowers. He sipped again from his mug, and then instructed McHale, “Take down a few more Clusters. Try and flush her out.”
“Of course Sir, right away,” McHale said, and then he stood up and walked out of Daniels’ office.
Jarvis sat down at his desk, and fumbled through his daily papers. As his sifted through, just briefly looking things over, he stopped at a small golden envelope. On it, it bared the mark, TL in red letters. The mark stood for The Lush, and the envelope meant there was something that they wanted from him. Daniel’s stared at the flickering gold envelope as he rubbed his chin. Though he had gotten these types of envelopes many times throughout the years, he still didn’t like to receive them.
He pulled out his top middle drawer and removed a silver metal letter opener. He placed the tip under the edge of the fold of the envelope, and then slid it slowly all the way down to the other edge opening the envelope. He reached in and pulled out a card which was white, and folded in half. He carefully unfolded the card, and there were just three words written on the inside, GET THE GIRL!