by Tim Yingling
And Owen didn’t falter in his steps.
“Jeff, seriously how fucking stupid can you be. If these people are with my brother then every last one of them is okay. Put the board across and let them come over.”
I turned my gaze from Owen to Jeff. He motioned his two men to get the “board.” It was actually several boards tied to a twenty-foot extension ladder. There was no purchase on either side if someone missed a step. They would fall the ten feet down to the barbed wire, most likely crushing the wire and then proceeding to fall onto the various broken bottles, knives, and spikes that have been placed underneath the barbed wire. Jeff wasn’t joking when he said nobody would be able to cross. It could be possible if someone had an abundance of patience, but right now I didn’t.
I let Phil go first, followed by each of the children. Sara went next with Tayvon behind her to keep her balanced. Before Kate could cross, I stopped her and whispered in her ear.
“Something’s not right here. My brother ain’t acting right. He’s afraid of someone. I can feel it.”
“Who do you think it is?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s possible it’s the person Hannah talked about on the message.”
Before Kate could say anything, an impatient Jeff said, “Let’s go, even though you two got ’till tomorrow morning.”
I motioned with my head for her to cross. She did so. When she was halfway across, I started out. I kept my eyes on Jeff and his two men the entire time. Jeff had the look of someone who was about to do some mischief. The only thing I could think that he would do would be to tip the ladder while I was on it. I pushed my rifle a bit further out from my body than normal to show Jeff that whatever he was thinking was a bad idea. Instantly, he took three steps back, away from not only the ladder but also my group of people and my brother. I passed without any more confrontation.
The second I stepped foot onto the inside of the ditch, Jeff had his two men move forward to retrieve the ladder. He came straight at me. He didn’t make it too far, though. I clocked him in the right eye with a left cross. It sent him sprawling to the ground in a heap.
“My boxing skills have done nothing but get better since I left here, Jeff. You come at me again I will show you some things that not even my dad taught me about the military.”
I didn’t know if he heard me or not because I was already walking away beside my brother. He was leading us in the direction of the Meadow View Apartments. Even when I lived in the area at a young age I never understood why they called the place Meadow View. There were no mountains around and it was nothing but farmland the apartments could see. But at that moment, I couldn’t think about that. I had to keep my mind on the mission at hand.
We were still a good quarter of a mile away when I finally spoke directly to my brother. It came out with a lot more force than I anticipated, but if you have learned anything about me from reading these accounts of the history of the first days of the zombie apocalypse, then you know I had only one thing on my mind.
“Where the fuck is my family?”
Again, Owen didn’t break stride. He continued on to the apartments talking low. He was almost talking under his breath.
“You know if I tell you to do this you should probably listen. I need you to not ask about your family right now. We are in a delicate situation.”
His words hit home. Without telling me so, he told me my family (not just my wife and kids, but him and Whitney as well) were in danger. Now that I came here, the danger more than likely has grown. I knew he wouldn’t be able to go into great detail as of yet, but this was something I would need to handle in a delicate manner.
“Owen, just –”
“Hey, ASSHOLE!”
I turned in time to see Jeff running at me with some sort of club in his hands. One thing I do have to say for Jeff is that he was one hell of a baseball player. He could hit the long ball better than most others in the state. And at that moment there was only one ball in his eye. My head.
He swung with all his force causing me to have no time to react. But in that non-existent amount of time, I was able to register quite a few things. Owen tried to move forward and stop Jeff from hitting me; Kate raised her weapon only be stopped by one of the other guys from Pilgrim; Debbie screamed in fear for what was about to happen to me; and Sara ducked out of the way so as not to get in the way of the bat coming for me. Sara was actually on my right side, but she would have been hit by the bat all the same.
And then came the crack. I don’t know if it was the bat or my head that cracked, but it was there. I’m sure if I would have been conscious after I was hit I would have found out, but I never did. I never cared to.
* * * *
Friday, 8 July 2016?
Unknown
Unknown Miles to Pilgrim, Indiana
“You didn’t need to hit him, Jeff.”
That voice; sounds familiar…
Can’t place it…
Complete distortion…
Head hurts, bad…
“I know I didn’t, but he left me no choice. What is going to happen to Owen now?”
Jeff, that motherfucker…
Wish I could get a complete thought…
Need to move, can’t…
Arms and legs, tied down somehow…
“You leave that situation to me and Kev. I have a plan for that son-of-a-bitch. That is if Byron decides he doesn’t want to play along.”
He knows me…
I have a voice and someone else’s name…
Need information…
Can’t open eyes…
Hurt’s too much…
“Fine. What do we do with his friends?”
Talking about me…
These people dangerous…
Need to get my family and my people…
Don’t know how…
“Quarantine them for now. In Pilgrim. When he wakes up, I’ll talk to all of them at once.”
Need to wake up…
* * * *
Sunday, 10 July 2016 (Day)
Pilgrim, Indiana
My eyes opened slowly for the first time in I don’t know how long. The last thing I remembered was arriving just outside Cambridge on the night of the eighth. It took me all of about one minute to find out I’ve been asleep for almost two days.
I still couldn’t sit up. Even though I was out for almost two days, they still feared for their lives from me. That was an advantage as far as I could see.
Speaking of seeing, I was having a bit of a problem there. My left eye was nothing but blackness, and there was a blur in my right eye. Add that to the pain on the left side of my head and it equals to the fact that when I see Jeff I’ll kill him.
Thankfully, my head wasn’t strapped down. I could turn it from side to side. Turning to the right was easy enough. There was nothing to see over there besides a wall with a door in it. The kind of door that belonged only in a hospital. You all know the kind. Thick and heavy with a chrome door handle. Immediately I knew I was in Pilgrim. At the county hospital to be more specific.
It hurt like a bastard, but I managed to turn my head to the left. My neck was okay. It was putting tremendous pressure on my skull that hurt. I had to turn my head (and my body) more than I wanted to because I couldn’t see out of my left eye. That’s where all the pain was coming from. Straining to see to that side of the room.
Sitting beside the window was a man with a familiar face. If I had been coherent the day before, I would have recognized him for who he was, but I was still disoriented, to say the least. He just sat there, smiling at me. Waiting for me to say something.
When I turned my head back to look at the ceiling, I said, “It would be in your best interest to let me go right now. At first, all I wanted to do was find my family and get out of here with them and anyone else who wanted to come. But now, I have someone to kill.”
“I kind of figured you would want to kill him, Byron,” the familiar man said. He was definitely th
e guy I heard talking to Jeff. “But I can’t let you do that. He is one of my soldiers. I know for a fact that you have a soft spot for good soldiers, Byron.”
He had a point. It didn’t matter much either way to me. I was no longer caring about the military if you have been paying attention.
“Now, we have to discuss some things before I let you and your group of friends stay in this town.”
“There is nothing to discuss. I came to get my wife and children and leave this town. We would live out in the Greene-Sullivan Forest in peace and solitude. But, like I said, I have something else to do first.”
“And like I said, Byron, I can’t let you take out one of my best soldiers.”
He knowing who I was and me not knowing who he was began to bother me. It came down to me knowing the voice and face but not being able to put a name to them. It was also the smile in his voice. He made it sound as if he had already defeated me.
“You know my name, but I am at a loss as to what your name is.”
“Byron, I’m disappointed. We use to be the best of friends.”
Adding things up, I do believe I know who this cocksucker is. His brother’s name is Kevin, he obviously has some major pull in this town, and we used to be good friends when I lived here.
“Kieran. Sorry, I didn’t recognize you, but a soon-to-be-dead-mother-fucker blinded me in one eye for the time being.”
I could faintly hear him moving around. His footsteps were so soft I didn’t even know he was walking to my right side. When he materialized out of nowhere, it startled me a bit, but I got myself under control as fast as I could. With the straps I couldn’t do much.
“You see, buddy, we have certain rules in this town now. They aren’t your typical rules and regulations that you grew up with in this country. It’s not a democratic town anymore, Byron.”
“So, what you’re saying is that you used your pull to take over the town like you kept yourself out of jail all these years?”
That started him for a second, but he got himself under control faster than I did. And he was smiling, the pompous ass.
“It seems that your brother had been feeding you lies about me. But just know that I have a strong following in this town, so if you try to overthrow me you won’t get too far.” He turned to the door and opened it. “Now, like I’ve been telling you, we have some things to talk about. I don’t want to have to take care of you like I’ve had to take care of some of our other friends not being on my side.”
I continued to stare at the ceiling as I talked. “Sounds like they had the right idea.”
“A nurse is going to come in and unstrap you. As of right now, I don’t think that you and I should be in the same place without protection for either one of us. We won’t be discussing matters here. We have to go to the football field to do that.”
With that, he was out the door before I could counter him. A few seconds later a new figure entered the room. A shorter person, but not by much. Although, she did have a better look than Kieran had. Much better. And again, another person that I recognized.
She didn’t say anything as she moved to the left side of the bed. I wish she didn’t, I wanted to see who was releasing me from this fucking bed that I had been in for so long.
The first strap to let go was the one across my legs. Next came the one that held my waist down. Right after she released the last strap, the one holding my upper torso down, I sat bolt upright allowing the sheet to fall from my naked chest.
I swung my legs out to the left so I could face the woman. I wish I hadn’t. The second I saw her I realized how much trouble this town was actually in.
Danielle Summers necessarily wasn’t someone that affected me that much when I was younger, but she was someone I knew. She was one grade behind Bobby and one grade ahead of Owen. On top of that, for as long as I could remember her father had been the mayor of this town. Granted, Mayor Summers wasn’t the most legit mayor out there, but he always had a strict standing order on who was allowed to do illegal things in the city. Owen had told me that two of those people were Kieran and Kevin. If Danielle was working for Kieran, then that meant Kieran did run the town. Her father was no longer in charge.
It also didn’t help that I was completely naked under the sheet. Like I said, she didn’t affect me all that much as a child. But she was one of the hottest girls when she was in high school (if not the hottest). And I was a freshman during her senior year. It just so happened that I got to see a lot of her during that football season as she was one of the school helpers on the team. Much like most of the guys in school (didn’t matter the age) I had some “happy” dreams about this girl. Once my eye locked on her face, all of those dreams came flooding back in one quick image. I threw my arm over my lap hoping she didn’t notice what just happened to me.
When she looked to the ground to speak I figured she had noticed my mistake.
“There are fresh clothes for you in the closest there. Kieran wanted me to remind you that he is waiting for you in the hallway.”
I waited for her to get behind me before I stood. Although, I did ask her before she left, “What kind of pain meds can you get?”
She stopped short of opening the door. “What are you looking for?”
As I got dressed I said, “Nothing that will put me to sleep, but something that I can take a minimal amount of to dull the pain. I’m thinking something along the lines of Naproxen. I can take four of the six hundred’s and be all right for about six hours before I need to take more.”
She considered what I said for a minute. “I’ll see what I can get. No promises though.”
I had one more question to ask before she left. “Do you know where he is taking me?”
“He’s taking your entire group. They’ve been here since you arrived.” Don’t know why she thought it necessary to inform me of that, but I was grateful for it all the same. “But, I have no idea. And it won’t be that hard for me to find you.”
I pulled my watch out. I’m actually kind of surprised they didn’t take it away like they took everything else. My watch told me it was a quarter after one. “Do you remember where my brothers and I used to live when we did live in this town?”
“Yeah. The people who moved in destroyed that house. Why?”
“I want you to meet me there in about two hours with as many meds as you can safely get. Don’t try to overdo it and get your ass caught or dead. If you can’t safely get the meds, that’s fine, I’ll find some way of taking care of it myself.”
Being fully dressed (and fully covered for her) I turned to her. The sad, sullen face she wore made me think of one thing. She didn’t like the situation she was in. She hated what was going on in the town as much as I did. Of course, I didn’t know that much. She knew much more than me. I was hoping I would be able to use that to my advantage.
I walked forward a bit then stopped. I could see the bathroom just barely to my left. I didn’t want to, but I needed to see what my face looked like. I had to assess the damage and make a plan off that.
The lights worked to no surprise. They must have been running the generators for the hospital at full blast since the power went out. The light didn’t offer any helping hand what-so-ever.
Along the upper portion of the left side of my head were twelve stitches. A little blood seeped from them, but that was most likely to happen since I hadn’t put my head to the left in two days. Then I looked down a little to my eye. There was no way my eye, or the cheekbone and the lower jaw on that side as well, would be as destroyed as they were. Not from the blow of the bat. More had happened to me than just getting whacked on the side of the head.
I turned to ask Danielle what happened to my head, but she answered before I could say anything.
“Apparently, your brother and your group were held at gunpoint as Jeff whaled on you.”
“Only one side of my face though? God, he is such a fucking idiot.”
She finally opened the door to walk out as she said, �
��Nobody will argue with you on that.”
I stayed where I was for a few seconds looking at the door. Something troubled her. I would just have to wait to find out what it was. In the meantime, I had to meet with Kieran.
Not ten minutes later I was riding in the passenger seat of an F150 being driven by Kieran. His brother, Kevin, rode in the backseat with my H&K across his lap and my Colt on his thigh. Not only did he take my weapons, but he also took the holster to my pistol, the ass.
Everyone else from my group rode in a passenger van behind us. I didn’t get to talk to them as we walked out of the hospital. It was evident that Kieran didn’t want any of us talking. That included my brother and Jeff who were watching over my group with Jeff’s two lackeys. Jeff was the one driving the van.
Inside the truck, there was no talking between the three of us. Mostly, I didn’t want to talk to either of them unless they were telling me what was going on. Kieran did say he had something to show me before he told me what was going on. Kevin did try to make witty banter with me at first, but when I told him to shut up Kieran let him know that he should let it go. Kevin did so, for the time being. If Kevin was the same way I remembered, he was going to be a major problem for me.
We traveled on the main highway through town. It was a road I had traveled many a time before. Nothing changed all that much in the town. Granted, there were some new restaurants that had popped up, and some things had moved, but for the most part, the town was the same.
The business district gave way to the residential part of town and yet again, there was not much difference. There were some FOR SALE signs that have been forgotten and lay on the overgrown lawns. People strolled around the houses, but when they saw Kieran’s truck they shied away from the road. I did recognize a few of the people. But I don’t know if they saw me sitting in the truck or not. Didn’t matter anyway. There was no way I would be socializing with anyone until I found my wife.