by P. S. Power
“Everybody but me?” He said softly, so gently she leaned in without meaning to, her face inches from his.
“What?” The word said that she hadn't heard, rather than just not understanding what he meant.
“Everyone gets to be comforted, but me? That seems rich, doesn't it? You don't even realize that you just said that, do you? I'm just so far beneath you that you can't see me as human at all or something. Jake doesn't count, nope, not him. Too ugly, or scary or whatever. Not at all. If there's no problem and nothing to kill, then just leave him hanging in the wind alone, not worth the effort. Oh, but if he leaves everything falls apart because people won't bother even trying. What kind of crap is this? I'm expected to take this from you? How about this, I can live on my own, I know that. Even now. How about you and your precious Randy and Tipper go and live without anything I helped with for a while? If I don't matter at all, then why don't you just do without? That sounds fair, doesn't it? I mean if you don't think I matter at all, then...”
He turned and walked off angrily, hardly noticing when the two leaping zombies came in behind the three military vehicles. The trucks kept going on down the road. The dead hoppers didn't. All moving fast. Angry, he just drew and hit the first one in the air instantly as it headed toward them, Heather ducking to the ground. It was a good move since the other one turned and ran at them for some reason, leaving the trucks to speed away. Normally zombies didn't react to gunfire at all. Just as the man in black military garb tried for Heather, he caught a bullet in the head too. She scrambled away before it could scratch her or anything. Each got another bullet before he started to walk off, leaving her huddled against the side of the barn, red-brown paint needing to be replaced on that side.
“See how much I don't matter?” He said, still very angry. Then left to get a machete.
To their credit the matte green and tan military trucks came back to look for their pursuers, also both military. Jake wondered angrily if they'd been attacking them at first, ready to kill them all if he could, figuring he'd die if it came to that, but the military men flooded out of the vehicles without pointing any weapons at him. That was a good sign.
The bodies on the ground, those had weapons trained on them, but not any of the living people. They had on at least four types of outfits, from black, like the two super-zombies on the ground, to a light tan and even a black and gray made of annoying and ugly pixels that looked like really bad computer graphics. They all stopped and waited for him to take off the heads without talking though, so they weren't stupid. Then he stood up and waited, machete in his left hand, as the cleaners surrounded the men from a distance. All the military men but two missed the movement. One of those wore black, and spoke to a thirty something guy in tan softly.
“Um, Major, smile, we have company.” The guy didn't sound nervous or anything, he just let the others know. Half of them jumped, but no one pointed a weapon yet. It probably saved lives. People got jumpy when weapons came into play for some reason.
The square jawed man in front had tidy hair, longer than about half the others, but shorter than Jake's. The man stared at Jake, then the bodies on the ground for a moment, then back to him.
“Nice shooting. They're ours. Sorry about leading them to you, they were doing some forward recon on the other side of town three days ago and something happened. They both had the vaccine, all the special forces types have, in all branches of the military. So they went type B on us when they turned. We were trying to lead them away from civilians, but they moved in here. Seems a mistake in judgment on their part.” He smiled.
“Major Howard Cole. U.S. Army.”
Jake shrugged, still angry from his fight with Heather. Not these people's fault of course so he took a deep breath and looked at the increasingly uneasy men around him.
“There's still an Army? We've all seen the shows... sure you aren't some rogue unit of bikers that cut your hair and found some uniforms? I can't help but notice none of you match. Come to try and loot us and rape our sheep or something? Not that we have sheep. Just some cows. You get the point.” Jake didn't smile, but hadn't sounded completely like a crazy hill person yelling at someone to “Git off his property” either. He hoped not at least.
The men actually relaxed though, a good sign in his mind, since violent people didn't do that. Nate walked over slowly, hands out and empty, but not raised. They weren't surrendering here, the military had twelve men with them, if they counted the two on the ground. They had good weapons, but Jake stood right in the middle of them, a semi-circle around the bodies. If they'd come for a fight, they were doing it all wrong. Shooting him likely meant hitting their own people too.
“Nothing like that, in fact the opposite.” He looked at Jake with confidence, head high and body straight. Military, not stiff.
“What? You've come to give us stuff, and brought us sheep to rape? Well, since none of the women around here will touch me, that's a nice gesture. I'm not sure that I'm really ready for bestiality yet, but well, maybe we should meet anyway... I could bring them some hay or something, see if we hit it off... Roses maybe. What do sheep like anyway?”
No one made a sound for a moment, then they laughed. The military got a bit loud except one of the men in black who drew a weapon and pointed it at a clutch of other men. Jake had done the same instantly, before the military guy in fact. Everyone went quiet. Both the weapons went back at the same time and the man in black looked at him with dead eyes and nodded. He was vaguely different looking, Latino, maybe. If so he didn't have the dark skin Julio did. Pale. Somehow he looked a little familiar. How they'd gotten out of that without a gun fight he didn't know, but the other men just nodded.
“Sorry,” Major Cole whispered.
“We just haven't met many people with a sense of humor in a while. At all, on this trip to tell the truth. The compound on the other side of town looks tight, but they were... A bit reticent to come out and talk. A lot of people are, but they seem to have a lot of police with them. Their uniforms and vehicles at least. We kind of figured that meant a peaceful group.”
Nate moved in then, hand out to shake smoothly, warmly, and spoke as if the men were expected. They made small talk for a while, the cleaners finally being called off by Nate and oddly, Heather, who walked into the group boldly, pregnant stomach sticking out obviously.
“These aren't the cannibals. They seem all right. They're what they say mainly, some will be around later. Not here to hurt anyone. More scared than they seem, in the end, but then, who isn't anymore?” Then she walked off, making angry and hurt eyes at Jake.
Nate smiled.
“And who could ask for a better endorsement than that? We're going to have lunch soon, would you like to join us?”
The Major smiled and looked like he might cry, tears actually coming to his eyes at the offer.
“We'd love to. If it's not a hardship? We have food with us, enough to share. Some staples. Flour, sugar and some chocolate. We haven't found anyone willing to talk to us in this area for some reason. We've seen people, but they've all run when we tried to call out to them. Zombies would have run toward us, so they must be people. Any idea why?”
Nate looked uneasy, but Jake shrugged. It wasn't their wrong doing that had caused it after all.
“The police. The Westwood force, all turned into a violent looting gang on day four. They didn't even try to help anyone. Took most of the town's supplies they could grab and hid in their compound. A lot of people won't differentiate between the cops and the military. Plus, you know, we've all really have seen the movies, Back Before. The military never comes to help you.”
Cole nodded.
“This time it's different. For maybe the first time in history we can say 'We're from the government, we're here to help you' and really mean it.”
Nate waved gently toward the house, Lois stood on the porch staring and so did Sammi. She looked... hard.
Wrong. If she knew something he didn't, if they needed to be ready..
. Jake slowly eased his right hand toward his sidearm, watching the girl closely. She caught the movement and shook her head gently, making eye contact. Jake relaxed a bit, but stayed ready.
As the group approached her nose twitched, the man in black that had a good sense of noise control smiled and walked forward relaxed and happy looking.
Giving him a smile back the girl took two steps forward.
“Uncle Robert?” Her voice sounded happy and questioning at the same time.
The man laughed lightly.
“Sammi? Samantha? Oh god, we all thought you were dead! Your parents, they're fine, with everyone at the lake, with... grandfather. When you didn't get there we worried...”
Everyone stared again.
At least this time it wasn't at Jake.
Chapter Nine
Jake sat back and watched, listened and stayed ready while the military men ate lunch and talked to everyone at the table openly. At least the ones that talked to them. The homebodies were split as to what they did, half seemed to want to hide or run away, the others were excited, as if the military had come to save them. That wasn't really the case at all.
“We fucked up, pardon the language ladies.” The Major said softly. Even the military insisted on that. One of the first things they'd mentioned was that each unit had a 'silencer', a guy that made sure that if someone went off the deep end they didn't do it for long. He waved at Robert when he said it, but his gaze took in Jake at the same time. The Major didn't ask any questions though. Not about that.
“Early on the government panicked and put out a vaccine for the plague, virus really, they thought. Made from zombie blood cultures. Only it's not a virus. It's not anything we know how to deal with and the vaccine doesn't inoculate the body, it just infects a person slowly. If you had the shot, you turn. Only going slow makes people stronger and faster. A second dose will do it too, faster, but the scientists think now that the apparent protection it gave initially only lasts about three months, then, eventually, you turn. Probably years though, or longer if you don't get infected again. No one really knows how long yet. It's why we all haven't just killed ourselves. There's some hope.”
Nate took a bite of stew and had some savory corn pudding with it, then politely asked if the entire military had been exposed that way.
Grimly the man nodded.
“Yes, what was left of us. The losses have been... steep doesn't cover it. Four months ago we all got the shot, there were about a quarter million people under arms then. Now we're down to maybe half that. The groups with the highest survival rates are the veterans and special forces operatives. There functionally isn't an Air Force anymore... we have Captain Steve and his crew.” The military guys all laughed for some reason, but the Major took a bite then and didn't explain until after he finished chewing.
“This is really good. Deer meat? Anyway, we have a bit more than that, but not a lot. There is no Marine Corps anymore and no Navy or Coast Guard. Now it's all just the U.S. military. We all tend to use our old ranks, or hell, half the time just make stuff up. It's not like we get paid anymore. The main base has a guy in charge that insists on being called 'The Clown Prince'. That's not even a joke, by the way. Honestly I don't even know if all these guys with me are military at all. Tough as nails though and disciplined, so I don't ask. If they learned to be like that in clown college, I just need to know for future recruiting purposes.”
That got a laugh, too.
Jake smiled, a lot of things were like that now. The guys had two thousand pounds of flour with them and gave them half of it, plus three hundred pounds of sugar. Old surplus, but still good. Vacuum sealed in drums. If they weren't from the government now, they would be soon, if they kept doing that.
It was certainly a hit at the house. They also had chocolate bars. A lot of them. Hershey's. Somehow, with the help of the government getting them supplies and protecting the town, they'd managed to stay in production. It made for great PR and was kind of a sign that people could manage anything if they tried. The wrappers were brown paper and the quality sucked according to the Major, but chocolate was good for morale.
“Westwood... You clearly got hit, not a lot of people left, but we didn't see a single zombie going through town, and we looked. Even checked out some houses. How did that happen? Did the police...” He looked at Nate who made a face and shook his head hard.
“No, we cleaned the town out. The police hid. Later after their own people started turning they rounded up undead and even their own personnel and steered them at us. We haven't lost anyone from those since the first attack. They got two of us then. Bitten. We had to, um, make sure they didn't come back. We didn't know if a bite would make more of those, you called them type Bs?”
That started a talk about tactics, led by Vickie, though the other cleaning team leaders chimed in. Jake didn't. They had it right and didn't need an extra voice to help them explain basic things. Besides, he wasn't happy right now.
Maybe it wasn't fair that he thought at least some woman should sleep with him, but they didn't need to all come and try to tear him down about not wanting him later, did they? Did they think he didn't have feelings or something? Probably. Was he being a sulky little pain in the ass? Also that one.
The conversation had taken a turn, so he listened a bit harder, the Major spoke excitedly.
“Can you teach other people to do that? We, well the tactics don't sound hard, but we basically don't do insertions into a house unless we have a solid crew of twelve with us. You use teams of four? And draw them out with screams? Freaking brilliant. We always go in silent. So many early groups just died or turned doing that we stopped and with the military compromised as we are, we can't risk it. Some places are still incredibly bad. This is the best I've seen and the only place that we've even heard of getting crops in for the winter like this. You must all be very proud of what you've accomplished here.”
From the far side of the room a soft voice spoke, a woman. Jake didn't look over.
“So, every place is like this?” Yvonne from the kitchen, Jake realized, his head swiveling then. She looked a bit less angry now than she had for a while. It threw him off. She looked... better, nearly happy somehow.
“No ma'am. This is much better than most situations. Really, this is a bit like rolling into the Garden of Eden by accident. One of the largest groups we've seen this close to a city and most of the really big ones that aren't military are old survivalist groups and militias that have been stockpiling things for years. Half of those... Well, the young lady there?” He pointed to Heather.
“She wasn't wrong about cannibalism. Most of the big cities are filled with them. Some of the small. It isn't good. Something happens to people, some of them, when they go full on psycho-cannibal. If they come here, kill them all. Don't try to talk them out of it, or bother trying to give them food. Waste of time.” The man ate as he spoke, clearly appreciating Lois's efforts, regardless of the subject matter.
“Most of the camps treat women as slaves, raping them publicly and torturing the ones that try to run away. Except the big one in Oregon, which is run by women and is just as bad, if in different ways.”
Jake had finished and didn't want to be rude, but didn't want to sit all day chatting when he could be doing something useful either. It wasn't like he was needed for the secret, or in this case, not so delicately hidden, meeting. Everyone else could do that without him, no problem.
He stood slowly and carried his bowl and little plate away along with the cup he had for water. A few people followed him and before he got all the way to the charcoal burn most of them came outside along with the military men. Sammi walked over and stood by Jake, making a casual but definite gesture with her head. Her uncle moving toward them at a slow amble, he looked older, about Jake's age even, maybe. In this light he suddenly looked slightly Asian, like Sammi. His face hadn't changed, he was just clearly of a different race. When he looked a little closer Jake got the family resemblance. Sammi had
paler skin, a little, but her eyes looked Asian too. Without speaking she took his hand. Jake's, to his surprise, and walked away, the other man followed without saying a word.
He got the need for conversation, and even privacy for it for these two, but not what he had to do with it. Jake didn't care really, except that these people could be creepy, all shining eyes and living so long. And that licking thing. Bleck.
When they were alone, back in the woods, Sammi smiled and gave the new man a hug.
“Robert! I didn't think you'd be by. What's the word?”
The man looked at Jake and shrugged, speaking freely enough.
“Everyone's fine, you know that we don't seem affected? No one knows where this came from, not our people or any of the other groups. This hit out of the blue. I um, hooked up with the Major in Nebraska. He doesn't know.” There were no significant looks, but it was so clearly a code or personal short hand that Jake nearly made a face. Robert didn't, he looked totally bland. Not blank, just relaxed and unconcerned.
The girl did the same.
“No one here knows much, except Jake. I haven't told him everything, but I've decided to, when he wants to know. So far he hasn't asked. Kind of refreshing really. So speak freely around him. Most here are unique in some way. Everyone is hiding it if they know though. Two Vals, so they know some of what's going on, but not about me or... Jake, I don't think. How they've missed it I don't know. I'll have to mock them both on that score later. The leader's a sub-p level Teep, at the very least, and the girl that came and spoke about cannibals is a needs based pre-cog. Decent at it too, full immersion I believe, so very high level detail. Almost all the talents here are stress triggered, but this prolonged situation has probably made them permanent. They may even breed true, if anyone lives that long.” She shook her head. “Some norms still, but the attrition rate there is pretty high. We had a coup attempt a few weeks back and all the conspirators died. Too stupid to realize how good they had it. Got mad because they had to actually work to survive, if you can believe it. Darian would have had most of them shot the first week. We had an Inc too, who caused all kinds of trouble and left a large chunk of the women pregnant. Addicted most of the females here possibly including one of the Vals, so tell me how messed up that is? I wouldn't have thought they could be addicted to anything. They're tough, but blending here, mainly because a lot of people are exceptional, so the others can't see how special they really are. They hide it too. It's leading to a very negative social situation here, all the hiding. I can't tell most of them about what happened with the Inc. They aren't ready to hear it yet.”