Travellers

by Tim Yingling

  My first instinct was to turn on Danielle. I pulled one of the arrows from the quiver and had it set before I even realized what I was doing. It wasn’t until I was pulling the bow and arrow to my cheek that I looked into Danielle’s face. She was as surprised about the smell as I was. The look in her eyes told me another story. It’s weird how that happens, but you don’t live as much as I have and not be able to read people.

  Danielle had no idea about what was in the house any more than I did. And what I saw in the house was something even more sickening than the smell coming out.

  Kevin and Kieran had only one parent. Their father died on the job one night as he was conducting a drug bust. He was one of the best police officers Pilgrim had ever seen. That’s why when it turned out his sons had taken to the drug business everyone was surprised. It was almost guaranteed they would follow in their father’s footsteps. But they didn’t.

  In the years I had been friends with Kieran, his mom had become like a second mother to me. Anytime I needed something whenever my parents weren’t around she was there to help. And their little sister, don’t even get me started on that. I don’t know how many guys I had to kick the shit out of because they wouldn’t leave that little girl alone. But from what I could see now, I wouldn’t be getting any more help from their mom and I wouldn’t be protecting their sister from anyone. Both of them shambled down the hall from the kitchen to the front door. They must have heard the noise of the door opening and decided to investigate. What’s worse are the matching bullet holes in their heads. One each. Execution style.

  If I would have to guess, I would say it was Kevin who pulled the trigger. The reason why on this part? I couldn’t even begin to imagine what his, or Kieran if it was him, inspiration was for killing his sister and mother. That is beyond sick even for me, and I have done some pretty twisted things since I joined the military.

  Danielle turned to her right and let her stomach go. The sound was more disgusting than the smell of what was coming out of her stomach. You have to remember, this is someone who is a nurse in the town of Pilgrim. She should be used to sights like this. Well, not this directly, but the sight of death.

  More than a few years ago, there were some murders in the town. They popped up every few years or so, and they were gruesome to put a title on them. From what I understand, the deaths came back within the last year. Danielle was obviously a nurse working at the hospital in the ER. She had to of seen some of the murders. But I can also understand what is making her let go of her stomach at this site. It’s not necessarily the sight of what she is seeing, but the fact that they killed their own family. Who does that?

  Sick, demented, severely disturbed people. That’s who.

  I quickly stepped around Danielle to pull the door shut. The younger of the two females was no more than five steps from the door. If she would have lunged, she would have been able to stop me from closing the door. Luckily for us, the zombies have lost all of their brain function.

  Danielle finally got her bowels under control long enough for her to speak.

  “Can you think of any reason why they would do that to their own family?”

  I gave her my two cents on the matter.

  “It doesn’t matter, Danielle.” She turned on me with a look of disgust. It looked as if she was about to upchuck whatever she had left in there. “What matter’s right now is that we have to take care of this mess before we can leave here.”

  Understanding dawned on her face. “What do you want to do?”

  I pointed through the side window back to the kitchen. There wasn’t much room for her to see through; their mother and sister took up most of the window.

  “That’s a gas stove. I need you to distract them for me to get into the house. I will set a candle in the hall and then pull the plug on the gas. I’ll be in and out in a matter of a minute and they will be taken care of in a matter of five minutes. It’s the only way to kill them for sure.”

  “Won’t that give away our position?”

  It would, but it didn’t matter. We would be out of the area in the next three minutes.

  “Just do as I tell you to.”

  She nodded and we got to work. First, we had to get whatever she wanted from her “house.” It was mostly clothes (she even put on some fresh ones). We put everything in the trunk of the Solstice and went to work on the mother and sister.

  It did take me only a minute. Danielle banged on the door, keeping an eye on them while I went to the back and got in. The stove was light enough for me to pull out with little noise. Neither of the zombies heard me. I placed one of Danielle’s candles in the middle of the hall, blew the ladies a kiss goodbye, walked back into the kitchen and cut the gas line to the stove. I was in and out in less than thirty seconds.

  * * * *

  Sunday, 10 July 2016 (Night)

  Pilgrim, Indiana

  Danielle waited for me in the car and the second I had the door shut we were on our way to the showdown. The explosion from the exposed gas came as we turned by the park to head north. It wasn’t as booming as one would expect, but it did let off a massive noise we could hear even over the radio. If it wasn’t for the fact that we knew what the explosion was we probably would have said it wasn’t an explosion. All the same, Danielle was never going back to that house.

  Five minutes later we were walking through the woods, still heading north, to the spot I planned in my head. It was a spot I used many times before whenever I played paintball with my friends. While I lived in Pilgrim we would go out and play once or twice a month. It was how Owen and I knew so much about the woods, to begin with. There is a cabin in the Boy Scout woods that has been standing there for as long as anyone could remember. The cabin has its own urban legends as well that I will not go into. There is no need. The cabin is close to a hundred yards south of what is called the Boy Scout Pond. The spot I love to be at is right on the edge of that pond. Yes, I would have to walk by everyone I sent to the woods in the first place, but none of them were going to know I was even there yet. And they didn’t.

  Danielle and I came up to the clearing with the cabin in it at five till eight. We stayed at the edge of the high grass long enough for me to get a good look at what was happening. Owen sat in the van awaiting the showdown. He was asleep. Kate was in front of the van cleaning her weapon. I didn’t see Ernie or Linny anywhere; Owen probably put them in the cabin with Debbie. Phil and the other two guys (I wished I could remember their names, but they aren’t that important to me) weren’t in sight either. They must have already been set up.

  And then someone walked out of the cabin carrying something. I could tell by the height and the way she walked that it was Kristy. Once she turned, I saw she had Claire in her hands. The baby was asleep. Almost a year old, so about her bedtime.

  I wanted to run to my daughter right then. I wanted to hold her and Debby in my arms for the rest of their lives. But I had to hold my stance. Danielle and I had been in the position we were in for five minutes. That was five minutes closer to the K’s showing up.

  I motioned for Danielle to start walking. She did and we came to the spot I imagined would still be there. My imagination did not do me wrong. The spot was still there and it looked even better than I originally wanted.

  Many years ago, there was just high grass not too far from the edge of the pond. Halfway up the grass, the grass started to die back then. It would wither and break off to the touch. Now, there were three medium sized trees that grew on the spot. They offered me so much more cover and concealment than the grass would ever be able to offer. I could now use the trees as a means of stabilizing my arms for what I wanted to do. And the growth coming off the trees was more than I could ask for. The growth would only camouflage me more than anything. I wasn’t too worried about Danielle, she was going to be behind one of the trees anyway.

  I didn’t even waste time trying to cover the line of sight I had. I left everything as is and waited for the K’s to show. I guess I do
sed a little bit because Danielle shook me awake a little later. She held out a bottle of water and the pill bottle with the Naproxen in it. I took two of them and dry swallowed. Danielle didn’t know it, but she would be needing that water later in the night.

  My watch told me the K’s were twenty minutes late. I sat up and looked into the clearing just as an old Chevy truck approached Owen. Kate had taken off somewhere. Owen probably put her in one of the few advancement spots. I would have to say the three other men were also in those spots. It didn’t take but a few seconds to realize I was correct in that assessment. Three gunshots rang out from three different spots in the woods. Then over the radio, I heard Phil talk.

  “One taken from my position.”

  Then the other two men confirmed they were the other ones to fire. Kate came back with something completely different.

  “Yeah, I just knifed my fucker.”

  Owen didn’t bother raising a radio to his mouth. He did as I told him to do earlier in the day. I could hear him talking on the open radio to our closed radio. Which also meant he had one more closed radio with him.

  “You shouldn’t have tried to ambush us, Kieran,” Owen said with a sign of distaste in his voice. When he wanted to lay it on thick, he could. “Byron is probably the smartest man in this town now when it comes to shit like this.”

  Faintly, I heard Kevin talking. “Byron is nothing but a little bitch who is going to get what his wife and son got. They deserved it just like he does.”

  And I was done listening to Kevin talk. I pulled the arrow back in the bow taking careful aim at Kevin. Sure, there was a chance something or someone would get in the way of the arrow flying through the air, but that was a chance I was going to take. I knew Owen wouldn’t be the one getting in the way, so if it was anyone else I wouldn’t care.

  The arrow flew from the bow with a little bit of a twang. I could hear it for maybe half a second, but then there was silence. The string from the bow hit my forearm pulling up a little bit of skin. It didn’t bother me at the time. The arrow sailed the two hundred feet effortlessly, connecting with its target in a matter of seconds.

  Kevin spun on one foot, his head whipping around to his left. The arrow stuck out of his check and the point came out the back of his head. Shock surfaced on Kieran’s face from what just happened to his brother.

  “That’s how fast I can act, Kieran,” I said into the radio Danielle held to my mouth. “I was planning on shooting Kevin a bit later after you got more of your devilish plan out, but after he started talking about my wife and son I had to act. Now, are you listening closely?”

  Kieran raised the pistol in his hand. I don’t think he was listening.

  “Bad idea, Kieran. Not only do you have me out here somewhere, but you also have one other person who has one of your men held captive. Then you have the three right there ready to fight if need be.”

  “Where’s the black fella?” Kieran asked.

  “I have no idea.” I didn’t. This was part of the plan I laid out for Owen before we parted ways. I didn’t want to know where Tayvon was going to go. Owen was the one who was going to give Tayvon his orders. I had my reasons for doing this until I saw who got out of the truck. “Why is my ex here?”

  Kieran turned to look at her as he talked. “She wants her daughter. And while she’s at it, she’ll take your other daughter as well.”

  Before I could say anything, Debbie ran out of the cabin to stand next to her uncle. “The fuck I’m going with you psychos.” She pointed at her mother. “Especially that crazy ass bitch.”

  I spoke before Sara could get word one in. I had to act quick by her look of fury. Sara didn’t like that I was rubbing off on Debbie. She especially hated it now that Debbie wanted to be with me instead of her.

  “Just remember something, Sara,” I said abruptly. She looked at Owen’s waistline as I continued. “I just hit that son-of-a-dead-bitch easily from two hundred yards out” – it was a lie, but she didn’t know that – “and that was with two people standing in the way and one bad eye. What do you think the odds are that I could hit you as well?”

  She only spoke to Debbie. “Is that the type of man you want to be around?”

  “It’s better than being with you. The type of person who thinks she can control everything in this world. At least daddy has a grasp of what is going on. He will be able to protect everyone in this city. Better than any of you could even imagine. He doesn’t want to kill anyone else, so don’t give him a reason to.”

  A silence fell across the field. The light tension I held on the string strained my fingers. Kieran lowered his weapon. Sara half turned away from Debbie. Danielle put a soothing hand on my shoulder. Phil and the two other guys relaxed their grips on their weapons. Kate walked out of the woods with a man. The man’s hands were tied behind his back. Kevin continued to twitch in the high grass.

  Debbie was the one who started the silence. It only made sense that she was the one who ended it.

  “Daddy, say what you need to say.”

  I nodded to Danielle. She put the radio back to my mouth. Her hand shook. She was as nervous as I was.

  “You have three options, Kieran.”

  “Those being?”

  “One: you take my offer of life and decide to live peacefully in this town. But not as the leader. The town belongs to the people.

  “Two: same as above, but instead you leave town. You take your followers who will not adhere to my terms of a peaceful town. I give two shits where you go, but you just leave. And you take that heartless bitch next to you with you. You also never come back unless you want option three to happen to you.”

  “And what is option three? I just allow you to kill me right now?”

  He snickered a little, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from keeping my stern voice.

  “Not right now. I’m going to give you until noon tomorrow to make your decision. If you decide to stay in town for either option one or three then you meet me at the football field alone. I’ll wait there an hour. If you don’t show up by one, then I’ll know you took option two. And if you don’t come alone, I’ll know you took option three. But you’ll still lose.”

  Kieran turned to confer with his three followers. They stood that way for a good two minutes before he turned back to Owen to talk to me.

  “I’ll let you know at noon tomorrow what I decide. For now, I can see you have me outgunned, so we’ll just take Debbie and Danielle and be on our way.”

  I let loose another arrow. This time I didn’t aim at anyone. I aimed at something they would need to get out of the woods.

  The first arrow punctured the driver’s side front tire. I put a second arrow into the string and pulled back. Before I let loose I had to ask one question.

  “What do you think the chances are that I get the back tire?”

  Kieran put up his hands. “All right. I get it. We’re leaving.”

  “NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER, YOU ASSHOLE.”

  Even if I wanted to, there was no way I would have been able to stop Kate from doing what she was going to do. For one, I was too far away from the situation to act. Two, there was a small part of me that wanted her to kill Sara. Just in the last couple of days, Sara had been a major thorn in everyone’s side. It was time to pull the thorn out and move on with our lives.

  Kate pulled her pistol while marching up behind Sara. Her arm moved as if in molasses. Debbie and Owen ducked out of the way. Kieran just moved his two men with outstretched arms.

  The report of the pistol wasn’t that loud in the open area. The part that was the loudest was the destruction of Sara’s skull. I could hear the right side concaving into her head. The bullet traveled through, crashing into the left side. It was impossible, but even if you put me up to a lie detector I would still say this, I could see the bullet exit her head in slow motion. The hair pushed out from her skull, tearing the skin in a circular motion. Her hair singed from the velocity of the bullet. The bullet pulled brain
, skull, skin, and the little bit of hair that didn’t get singed with it.

  Thankfully, Kate was a bit shorter than Sara. She had to aim in an upwards motion that caused the bullet to sail into the air. Nobody else was hurt in the shot.

  Kate looked in my direction then at my daughter. I could still hear her over the radio.

  “I’m sorry about your mother.”

  Then Kate turned and walked back to the man she had brought out of the woods.

  I nodded to Danielle again. It was time for us to make our presence known in person. We walked from behind the tree, she behind me and me with the arrow still taut. Kieran looked in our direction as we approached. Owen turned off his radio so there wouldn’t be any white noise as we got closer.

  “One last thing, Kieran.”

  He shook his head. He was getting tired of me, I could tell. Just the fact that he knew he had lost was tearing him down.

  “And that would be?”

  I motioned at the pistol in his hand and the rifle slung on his arm.

  “Leave your weapons. You don’t get to take them with you. I know you have other caches, but at least you won’t have these.”

  Kieran raised his pistol a bit to look at it. He gazed up at me then back down to the pistol. He did this three more times before he finally dropped the pistol and rifle. He motioned to his two men to drop their weapons. When he put his hand behind his back, everyone from my group raised their weapons quickly. Kieran put his free hand up in defense.

  “I just need to know if you want my knife as well.”

  He pulled a ten inch Buck knife from a scabbard. It was a nice knife from what I could see, but there was no way I was going to take it while he was still alive. I always thought it was bad luck to steal someone’s knife.

  “Keep it on you.”

  He nodded.

  As he walked away with two of his dwindling men, he put the knife back in the scabbard. A scabbard I recognized. I couldn’t believe I didn’t recognize the knife. It was the knife my dad had given him for his first gut on a deer. That knife had some history in Kieran’s family. If I do kill him, I wouldn’t be able to take the knife from him even then. It was too sacred.