by Tim Yingling
I turned to look at the goons. The one on the right spoke first. “We go where the money or the protection is.”
I had to ask the obvious. “So, who do you think is going to win this war?”
The same goon asked in the most blatant answer (even though it was in the form of a question), “Why do you think we haven’t fought back yet?”
I turned to the even more helpless face that belonged to Jeff.
“There you have it, douche. They’re just looking for a paycheck. So they don’t even work for you.” I turned to the goons for this next part. “They seem to work for the ones that are going to guarantee their safety.”
The nod indicated they were on my side now. Owen and Tayvon lowered the pistols, then handed them back to the goons. I probably should have learned their names by now.
Jeff, on the other hand, had resulted to pissing his pants.
“I… I do… I don’t want to di… di… die,” he sobbed out.
“Jeff, I don’t really give two shits about what he wants or don’t want right now,” I said to him. My voice had taken on the militarily monotonous voice I had before this outbreak began. “What you need to concentrate on is what I want. And what I want is for you to walk over to the gate and open it. And then after that, I want you to walk in and close it behind you before any of the zombies get out. Can you do that?”
“What if I don’t?”
I shook my head as I spoke. “Do you honestly think that you will not be dying in the next few minutes? Albeit by a shotgun blast to the junk or by being eaten by one of the zombies in the stadium. My personal hope is that it will be by either Sammy or Hannah who gets to you first.”
Tears formed at the base of Jeff’s eyes. “I’m sorry for this. I really am. I was just doing what I was told.”
“The path to damnation is paved with good intentions. You believed that you were doing the right thing, but now you can see the truth in the matter.”
“Yes, yes I can.”
All that was missing was him being on his knees with his hands folded. The begging was all the same though.
“And none of that changes the fact that you took a baseball bat up the side of my head. So, do you want to die quickly by moving out to the football field or do you want to die in agonizing pain by getting shot in the balls and then go through the gate?”
To my surprise, Jeff walked to the gate. He entered the number and walked in. For a second there, he stood in the door with it open. It seemed that he was having a thought. One that looked to be going in the direction of turning around and leaving the door open for the zombies to get out. Then realization must have come over him just as quickly. He reached out to take hold of the door and shut it behind him.
Jeff had one last thing to say before he moved further in.
“Just know that if I get out of here as one of them, I’m coming after you.”
I didn’t offer Jeff the satisfaction of an answer. I turned to move to the van, being followed by everyone else. We got in, Owen behind the wheel, ready to move. Owen put it in gear and drove to the opposite side of the entrance. I don’t know when the school decided to do it, but they made one side of the parking lot for the phases of the school system to have an entrance on the west side and the exit being on the east side going out to Fourth Street. It was at the exit that I told Owen to stop.
“Do you have a plan already?” he asked, putting the gear shifter back into park.
“Somewhat,” I said opening the door. I left the shotgun next to the passenger seat. They would need it more than I would. All I wanted, for the time being, was a pistol anyway. “What I want you all to do is go to the Boy Scout cabin and wait for me there. I probably won’t be there until much later tonight.” I turned to the two goons. “I need one of the radios if you don’t mind.”
One of the guys handed his over saying, “If they figure out that you’re listening in they will channel up one station every ten minutes until they think it is safe to talk again.”
“Thanks.” I turned back to Owen. “You’ll know when I am on my way out. I have some things that I need to set up first, but I will be out there. Just make sure that you keep your head on a swivel.”
Before I could shut the door, Owen said, “We need weapons. Myself, Marty, and Lee know where there is a cache. It’s not that far from the pond.”
I looked at Kate. “Yeah, I can handle things while he’s gone with those two.”
“I won’t need to take both of them. I can leave one with the group at the pond and take two others with me. It won’t take us more than thirty minutes.”
“That’s fine with me.”
I nodded. “Okay then. That settles it. But when they show up later tonight, don’t pull any extra weapons on them.”
Owen looked confused. “Why?”
“Because I want them surprised tomorrow when we show up with more weapons than they have.”
Marty said from the back seat, “Kieran has an army.”
Debbie smiled at him. “My dad is an army in himself when he gets pissed.”
I reached in to squeeze her hand. “I’ll be back in a few hours. This plan I have in mind will work.”
“Why don’t you let us in on it,” Tayvon said. I had to feel for that guy because of what Sara did. Out of all the crap that I have seen her do over the years, this had to be the worst. Deciding to abandon everyone she knows and some she claims to love just to save her own neck. Tayvon was hurting; it was in his voice. “Or is it one of those situations where it’s best that we don’t know the full details.”
I scanned the faces of the ever-growing group. They all said the same thing. Ernie’s had the extra feature of tiredness. I needed to end this quickly.
“No, it’s something that I can let you all in on.” So, I laid out the plan I came up with in the last hour. The main thing I needed was to get Kevin and Kieran out to the pond somehow. I honestly thought that if it was me out there they would definitely come. They had no choice. Both of them knew how dangerous I was.
As I spoke, everyone stayed locked on me. Sometime throughout my speech, Owen shut off the van and got a little more comfortable. A couple of cars passed by us in the ten minutes it took to lay out my plan. The three locals informed me that we were safe. As long as the people in the cars could see one of them then everything would be okay.
After I was finished, they stayed quiet, only nodding their heads. It was Debbie that spoke first.
“What about Claire, Dad? How are you going to get her?”
“I can have Kristy bring her out. We have a radio station dedicated solely to ourselves.”
I nodded. “Okay, now get the fuck out of here. I don’t want any major sympathizer to come by and then report what they are seeing here.”
Nobody said anything else. Owen drove north on Fourth Street that would soon turn into a state road name. My plan had to work. I needed to see my family again, even my brother. Then again, I did consider most of the people in my group part of my family. I just wished Tom was there to help out. Maybe he was doing bigger and better things in Washington.
I couldn’t even concentrate on that. I had to get to my old house. Luckily for me, it was only five blocks south of the elementary school.
Why is it that I continuously had to deal with schools? I just realized that. It seems that a lot of the major aspects of things that happened to me had happened in or near a school. Was something trying to guide me to the schools?
That definitely had to get out of my head. I am not one to believe in cosmic crap. It was more than likely a coincidence than anything. Schools just offered a lot of protection and easy hiding spots. There was nothing in the schools other than that.
But still, I crossed through the elementary school. The door that gave way to the playground was unlocked. And once I entered the building I understood why.
There were people living in the school. Some of them I knew. They all looked to be more than a little malnourished. They couldn’t
tell who I was though. Once anyone saw me, they shrunk back against the wall in hopes of protecting themselves. I didn’t know what to say to them.
One of the people looked like another friend of Kieran’s and mine. When I left the town, my friend was upwards of two hundred and fifty pounds at fifteen years old. This guy looked to be around a hundred and twenty. Nothing but skin and bone in my eyes.
Looking at him, I could finally tell what they were using the schools for. They were harvesting areas. Not only were they keeping zombies on the football field, but they were also feeding the fuckers. And they were using people who got in the way as food.
The smell in the building was the worst part. I had to watch my step walking from the north side of the building to the south side. The people in here were using the floor as their bathroom. It was easy to walk over the shit, but the piss was everywhere. I wanted to help these people so bad, but there was no way of doing so. Not to mention, the fucking doors were unlocked.
How was Kieran keeping these people in here? That was a question I would have to ask him in person. That one and about a million more that continued to pop up in my head.
Upon exiting the school I did not see any danger in my immediate future. Still, though, I stayed close to the houses as I moved down Third Street. I only saw a few people moving around. Everyone mostly stayed in their houses. A few people saw me, but looked away quickly. They didn’t want anything to do with whatever I was doing. That was a good thing.
My main obstacle came when I was just one block north of my old house. My old neighbor, at least it looked as if my old neighbor still lived there, seemed to have bought out most of that block except my old house. There were only two houses still standing. Thankfully one of the houses was my old house. The problem came with the fact that the rest of the fucking block was empty and there seemed to be a car sitting on Third Street next to my old house.
From where I was I couldn’t see who was in the car, but that wouldn’t stop me from finding out who the hell the person was. All I had to do was go one block to the east and I could move south two blocks before coming back up by my old house. Just a common case of deciding on another, less dangerous route. And it turned out that I didn’t even need to do that.
I spent an extra ten minutes going the extra route to only find out that Danielle had managed to get away from the hospital a lot sooner than expected. I didn’t notice it was her until I was already inching my way up the side of her car with the lone 9mm I had aiming at the open passenger door window of her Pontiac Solstice.
As she saw me emerge in the window with the pistol on her, she let out a shriek of fear. It was ear piercing in itself. Once I recognized her, I put the pistol away.
“Shit,” I began. “I’m sorry about that. How did you get here so fast?”
Her breathing had taken on a quick pace from the moment I startled her. She was beginning to finally come down once I asked my question.
“I just told them that I had some personal things to take care of.” She handed the pills out the window to me. “Do you want to stay here? Because once they realize that you are not where you’re supposed to be, this is one of the first places they will look.”
“Where do you suggest I go then? I need to lay low until they do a radio check with Jeff.”
“Get in,” was all she said.
I didn’t argue. I opened the door and sat low in the seat (as low as a five-nine man can sit in a small-ass Solstice), raising the window so as not to be seen as she drives. It didn’t even take that long to get to our destination. In Pilgrim, it never takes that long to get to your destination even if it’s all the way on the other side of town like her house was.
Thankfully her house was on the opposite side of the town than the Town Hall was, even though her house was in the direction of the hospital. I had no need to think that Kevin or Kieran would be stationed out of anything other than the Town Hall and the police department. I was feeling safer with her by each passing light pole. As we traveled back through the same way I traveled not an hour and a half ago to see my wife and son I could see that most of the people had gone back into their houses and looked out their windows with faces that I have seen on scared local nationals before. It was at that moment I considered my hometown as a war zone. Kieran and Kevin were the insurgents and my little band of people were the rebels. Soon, it would be time to see who the better outfit was.
We didn’t talk on the way to her house. It’s not that I didn’t want to, I actually did. I wanted to get her take on what was happening in the town. It was more along the lines of I didn’t want to give it away she had a passenger in the car. The real problem was that any of the few cars we did see on the road would be able to look down and see that Danielle had a passenger. But there was no problem anyway. The drivers, and passengers, of the other vehicles, didn’t look in our direction. From what I could tell, the people in the vehicles were shying away from Danielle. It could be that they just wanted to put a wide berth between the vehicles, but that didn’t make sense to me. Once we got into the business district of Pilgrim, the road turned into three lanes. The driving lanes on either side and a turn lane in the center. There was plenty of room for more than three cars on the road going across. No, I believe there was more to it than I was seeing.
When I looked at Danielle, her face told me a story. One that looked painful. She noticed the drivers were shying away from her as well. But she didn’t want them to. Danielle was always one of the nicest people I knew. It didn’t matter if someone was around her age or many years older or younger, she was friendly to you no matter what. The way these people were acting towards her now bothered her on some level.
If you would have asked me if she was with Kevin and Kieran I would have said probably. She is working with them, anyway. But now, after traveling through the town and seeing the reaction of the townsfolk, I think I may have been wrong.
We pulled into Green Acres with my mind still running about the way she was acting. It didn’t dawn on me that the house we pulled up to on the last block was right next to the house the K’s parents use to live in. Once I noticed, it was too late because Danielle had pulled into her garage and closed the door.
I hopped out and asked before she could say anything, “Why the fuck are we next to their house?”
She didn’t break her stride going into the house. “Come inside and I will explain everything.” As an afterthought, before I walked in, she said, “You don’t need to worry. They’re not here right now. They have some business over on the west side of town.”
Again, no argument from me. I followed her into the house, through the kitchen, to the stairs in the entrance area, and finally into the master bedroom; her bedroom. The place of many of my dreams when I was but a young teenager. Here I was, finally in the room and all I could think about was death. The death of my wife and son and the death I was to deal to their killer.
And low-and-behold, Danielle produced something from her closet that would help me in that venture. She pulled from her closet a classic recurve bow. She stepped up to me with it offered out.
I took the Grizzly Recurve reluctantly. In my previous life, there was no way I could ever afford such a bow. Even if I did own one, I wouldn’t take it out and shoot it because of how expensive they were. It would strictly be a show bow, and nothing more.
I was so transfixed on the bow that I didn’t notice Danielle had started to get out of her nurses uniform. My initial instinct was to leave the room, being that I was still married in my mind, and most likely would always be. I didn’t make it too far out the door before she started to talk. So, I made her talk to my back.
“Kevin offered that gift to me as a way to win me over. It wasn’t the only gift either.” She paused here. I could hear the swish of a shirt being pulled down. Once it was done she continued. “He gave me that car and a place to live. By the way, you can turn around now, I am dressed.”
“I would rather this conversation to happ
en someplace in a little less intimate venue if you don’t mind.”
“Did they take you to the football field?”
I nodded to my side so she could see it.
“And I’m guessing you saw who was in there.”
Another nod and a hand crept onto my shoulder.
“I’m very sorry for what happened to your family.” There was sympathy in her voice. “I truly am. Nothing like that should ever happen to anyone. The reason Kevin did it was because of who they were. He was ordered to by Kieran.”
I walked off. She talked as we headed for the kitchen. The kitchen itself was on the other side of the house from the K’s house. If they came back they wouldn’t be able to see me.
“You see, Kieran took over the second he noticed there was a major problem in the world. He set out to build a wall around, well pretty much the entire county to make sure that we wouldn’t be invaded by those things. The ones that were inside the wall, once he figured out he couldn’t stop them, he shuttled them out of town. I know that doesn’t explain the ones on the football field. Those ones came from inside the town. Everyone on the field use to be members of the community. They were the ones that tried to stand up to Kieran and Kevin. They had no problem putting members of their own family in there. I don’t know where they got the following from, but somehow the followers just popped up.”
I sat at the counter fiddling with the radio. It was a good thing I did because I found something out about it. I held the radio up to her and asked, “Do you have one of these?”
“Sure. I’ll be right back.” She walked out to the garage again and came back with the radio. I tried to turn it on, but the battery was dead. “Sorry, I never wanted to use it. But there is a charger back there.” I turned around to look where she was pointing. As I walked over to it, she asked, “Don’t you have anything to say?”
“About the followers?” I didn’t need her to answer, I could hear the creak in her neck from nodding. “Most of them are probably former drug users or dealers they had. All the others were just strong-armed into being followers. The cops the K’s didn’t have on their payroll were outnumbered and outgunned.” Thankfully the charger was a plug-in. As for that, I was still wondering where the damn electricity was coming from. That could wait. I turned back to Danielle. She stared at me with her mouth open. “That’s not all.”