Frozen Flesh

by A J Donovan

“And what?” I say. “Leave the rest of us behind to hide?” I nod to Jade and Kayla. “Chivalry is lovely but there’s a time and a place, Cole.”

  “I won’t be staying behind,” Jade says. It was my idea.”

  I look at Cole. “You and Kayla could stay here and protect Click. We should keep one Unturned with each group in case we run into trouble and our guns aren’t enough firepower.” I look at Maria. “I think you should stay here and rest. You must still be exhausted.”

  Maria nods and takes a seat in one of the chairs.

  Cole sighs and looks at me. “So that means one of us should go and one of should stay. I’m guessing you want to go and you won’t change your mind, no matter how much I try to convince you.”

  I shrug. “You guessed correctly.”

  “Alright,” Cole says. “I’ll stay here with Kayla, Click and Maria while the three of you go.”

  Everyone else chimes in with their agreement and we head out.

  Jade takes the lead and we move quickly but carefully through the camp for a few minutes. Will grabs the first rifle he sees that isn’t covered in blood.

  “We’re almost there,” Jade says. We must have crossed almost half of the camp by now.

  Two soldiers walk out of a tent and they freeze when they see us.

  They raise their rifles and I throw one of them backwards before he can fire. Jade is faster than the second man, she fires once and he doesn’t get back up.

  Will searches them but he doesn’t find anything important, just extra ammunition for our weapons.

  The mess hall is big, far bigger than all the other buildings around it. It dominates the area. I wouldn’t have noticed the smaller building sitting behind it unless Jade pointed it out.

  The supplies store is almost overflowing with food, water and other necessities. There is so much here that I can’t imagine ever using all of it, but I remind myself that the population of Camp Turk is huge. This wouldn’t last all that long. Not that it matters now. Many of them are dead and the ones who survived don’t concern me. I won’t feel guilty about stealing from them.

  Jade has been standing guard at the door but she calls us over. “There’s a Humvee over there,” she says, pointing at a big vehicle about twenty feet away. “We need a way to move all the supplies and we need transport to get out of here too.”

  “Good idea,” I say. “I’ll get it, keep gathering supplies.” I take a step towards it but a noise catches my attention. “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  The noise is coming from the mess hall. I look closer at the entrance door and realise it is not just shut, someone locked the doors from the outside with a thick chain.

  “There are people in there,” I say.

  “Or undead,” Jade says.

  I just nod, not bothering to explain the extra intuition I have. There will be time for that later.

  “Either way, we need to be careful.”

  Will and Jade take up positions on each side of the doors. I step back. I don’t have cover but I don’t need it. A wave of my hand breaks the chain in half.

  Almost immediately, the doors burst open and several people spill out.

  A man at the front sees me and his eyes flash with recognition. “Be careful!” he says. “They’re targeting the immunes, you need to get out of here.”

  “I know,” I say. “It’s over. Why were you locked in there?”

  He looks over his shoulder and I do too, realising that there aren’t just a few people. There are probably over fifty people making their way towards us.

  “We didn’t want to take part in what they had planned,” he says. Others shout their agreement when they hear his words. Everyone is listening to us.

  “What happened out here?” the man asks. “It’s been hours.”

  “I heard they were killing anyone who refused to join them,” I say.

  He frowns. “They probably killed some of them. It would have taken too much time to get everyone inside the mess hall.” He looks around at the deserted camp. “What happened?” he asks again.

  “Some are dead, some ran.” The crowd murmurs quietly at the news.

  “From what?” the man asks.

  “From me.”

  He looks me up and down. “You?”

  “Me.”

  After a moment, he nods his head. “Okay. What do we now?”

  The others have gone quiet. Everyone is watching me, waiting for my answer.

  I take a breath. “For now, we leave. There are a lot of people still alive who want us dead. It won’t take them long to regroup and come back at us. Unless you want to get caught in the crossfire, you can come with me.”

  “Where will we go?” someone asks. “This camp is safe, protected. We had shelter and supplies here.”

  “We will take the supplies,” Jade says.

  “And we’ll find shelter,” I say. I look around the group, making eye contact with as many people as possible. I need to convince them to come with me. If they stay, they are going to be executed as traitors. “It will be hard, but there are other camps. There are other military groups that are more sane. We can go to one of them.”

  I hope I’m not wrong.

  “We’ll find a new home,” I say, casting my voice across the crowd so even the people at the back can hear me. “We will find somewhere new to rebuild what we had here.”

  “There’s a camp down by the big lake,” someone says. I can’t see who it is but several people start nodding.

  “It’s south of here, not that far away.”

  I look at Jade. She nods and shrugs. “It’s true. I’ve heard of the place.”

  “Then we’ll go there,” I tell them. “Take only what you can carry and meet me at the entrance gates in ten minutes.”

  Everyone hurries to gather their valuables and belongings and I turn to Jade and Will.

  “It looks like we’ll have more company than we thought.”

  ***

  Chapter 25 – New Information

  Jake

  I wait for the water in the glass to freeze solid and stop the spreading frost before it cracks the glass.

  “That is incredible,” Terry says. “You’d never have to drink a warm beer.”

  I shrug. “I guess not.”

  He chuckles. “Amazing.”

  “Dad?”

  I turn to find a younger man standing in the doorway with a rifle in his hands.

  “Jake, this is my son, Ted.”

  “His friends are still outside,” Ted says.

  “Any problems?” Terry asks.

  “Nope. Well, unless you count the pretty girl with the big gun who’s been glaring at me since they arrived.”

  I grin. “That’s Diana.”

  “Let’s go invite your friends inside for a few minutes,” Terry says. I follow him downstairs. The cat tries to trip me on the landing so I pick him up and he starts purring.

  “He really likes you.”

  “He has great taste,” I say.

  Diana and the others cautiously enter the house when I wave them over. Everyone exchanges tense introductions but after a few minutes the atmosphere relaxes slightly.

  We join the others upstairs and the introductions are repeated again. I walk over to the bed and wave Gavin over.

  “Do you think you can do anything for him?”

  Gavin joins me and studies Bill’s injuries.

  “I can try.”

  Gavin nods and places his hands over Bill’s chest. His face goes tight with concentration, and when the glowing starts, it spreads through all the wounds and broken bones.

  “What is he doing?” Terry demands, but as soon as he is finished speaking he realises that Bill’s body is healing.

  His legs realign themselves and the skin closes over. All the fingers on his left hand return to normal positions and the cuts on his face all heal. The glow is strongest in his torso, though. I suspect a few broken ribs and maybe some internal bleeding.
/>
  Gavin is pale and drawing in quick, shallow breaths but he keeps going until the light leaves Bill’s chest.

  Gavin steps back and gives us a weak smile. “He’ll be fine.”

  He sways and I jump forward right as he collapses, just in time to catch him.

  “Thanks, man,” Gavin says, but his voice is low, barely a whisper.

  I lower him gently to the ground and look up to ask Diana for a pillow. Lana catches my eye. Tears are flowing freely down her face and she looks like the happiest woman I’ve ever seen. She looks like Bill died and came back to life. Which, I suppose, he kind of did.

  ***

  A few days after we first met Terry and his group, I find a few people gathered around Bill in the living area. We’ve gathered a few more bedding essentials in the last day or two from nearby houses to accommodate the newcomers and there are now dozens of mattresses filling the room.

  Bill is leaning close to a radio, listening intently and slowly turning a dial. A group of nine or ten people has gathered around him.

  “There!” Bill exclaims.

  For a few seconds, I don’t hear anything, but then a small, quiet voice comes from the radio.

  “...and we’ll be broadcasting every day at nine and one. Stay safe.”

  A few people sigh but Bill waves them off. I guess they must have missed most of the broadcast and only heard the end of it.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Bill says. “The main thing is that we have their frequency now, so the next time they broadcast we’ll be able to listen.”

  “Should we try to track them down and join them?” someone asks aloud.

  “We have to, there’s safety in numbers!” another person replies.

  “How do we know we can trust them?”

  “What do you think we should do, Jake?”

  I look around at all the faces. Some are excited but most look anxious. “We aren’t going anywhere for a few days,” I say. “We need to gather more supplies and ammo if we’re making a trip like that. And we need time to organise ourselves. This group is huge and moving so many people will be difficult.”

  “So you think we should go?”

  I nod. “Yes, I think we should find them. We’ve been taking in people all along, why would this be any different? There’s strength in numbers. Thanks for doing this, Bill.”

  “No problem, thanks for saving my life,” he says, grinning.

  The group disperses, chatting excitedly about the possibility of finding a place that we can be safe. Not running and moving constantly. Somewhere we can stay permanently.

  ***

  I wake up with a jolt the next morning. Pieces of a dream are still clinging to me. Or pieces of a vision, maybe. It felt real, like a memory. I didn’t imagine this.

  Kim is alive and kicking. I saw flashes of men trying to murder her in her sleep, a tornado tearing up the ground around her, and a beast with glowing red eyes that has some kind of attachment to her. I don’t know what to make of any of it.

  I just hope she’s okay.

  I hear an exclamation from the small dining room where Bill has set up his radio. I hurry towards it to hear the rest of the broadcast. What it says will be vital to our decision on whether we should try to find them.

  Several people are ahead of me. I can’t push past them to get through, there’s not enough space and everyone wants to hear. I see Rafael talking to another one of Reggie’s lieutenants. They keep looking towards the radio room but neither of them is trying to join the crowd going inside.

  Before I can wave to Rafael to catch his attention, the crowd between us thickens and I lose sight of him. Fortunately, a gap appears ahead of me and I slip into the radio room.

  “… we will no longer be checking the previous rendezvous point. I repeat, we will not be checking the rendezvous point. Our group is moving forward, to a military base.”

  People start muttering excitedly and I can barely hear the voice explaining where the base is and what its coordinates are. It doesn’t matter, I can see Bill scribbling away on a piece of paper. I assume he is recording everything important.

  While I am looking at Bill, I realise that Molly is beside him. She catches my eye and nods to me. She has been taking an interest in the mechanics of the radio since she first saw Bill using it. I’m not surprised to find her sitting beside him.

  Bill will be overwhelmed with questions and demands from the crowd after the broadcast finishes. I know Molly well enough by now to know that she will find a way to slip out before anyone asks her anything. I can find her afterwards and get her to tell me where the camp is.

  Someone to my left hushes the crowd and everyone quietens down enough to hear the rest of the broadcast.

  “We recommend that anyone seeking shelter should follow us to the camp. They offer safety and security. We wish you luck.”

  White noise hisses from the radio’s speakers.

  “We should go!”

  “The military will keep us safe. They have to, it’s their job.”

  “We won’t have to scavenge for food anymore.”

  “They can keep our children safe.”

  “No more rations!”

  “When do we leave?”

  The eager conversation grows until everyone is smiling and laughing and bubbling with eager anticipation of our journey to the military camp.

  Something makes me tense up. After a moment, I realise it’s because I was wrong. Not everyone is excited. Not everyone is talking.

  Around the edges of the room are a dozen men with rifles. They are part of the guard, the group of men and women who protect everyone and keep us safe from walkers and bandits and any other danger that finds us. Now, their expressions are cold and their rifles are primed and ready.

  “We won’t be going to that camp,” Reggie announces.

  The guards raise their weapons when he speaks.

  “What are you talking about?” I ask him.

  “Jake, come here for a moment.” Reggie opens his arms and I take a tentative step towards him, but something in my gut is telling me not to go any closer.

  “Why don’t you want to go to the military camp?” I ask. I stop walking when I’m a few feet from him. I’ve trusted this man for years but something feels wrong.

  “Because I’m in charge,” Reggie says, still smiling calmly. “And I don’t want to give up everything I’ve built here, especially not to some power hungry soldiers who think they’re better than me.” His expression twists into something cold and bitter as he speaks.

  I take a step back but before I can do anything else, Reggie smiles again.

  “Fire.”

  Gunfire shatters the silence and chaos explodes throughout the room. I yell out and send ice at the nearest gun wielding maniacs but most of them are out of sight. The crowd is between me and them and I don’t have time to do anything but watch.

  There are almost twenty people in the room and they thrash and run and shove each other out of the way as they try to escape the slaughter.

  The violence and blood and death steal the breath in my lungs and I stumble towards the wall, desperately trying to get a clear shot at the monsters attacking these innocent people. I send shards of ice at two of them but there are more of them on the other side of the room, still firing at random. I can’t even see them, I can just hear the gunfire. There are a dozen dying people between us.

  “Molly?” I yell, running towards the table at the centre of the room and dodging between the people trying to run for their lives. None of the bullets hit me and I realise that they are deliberately not aiming at me.

  The gunfire stops before I get to the radio table.

  “Jake, calm yourself, this was necessary.”

  I turn to Reggie. Blood is soaking the floor and he walks across it without batting an eyelid. Someone tries to reach up to him from the floor and he recoils in disgust.

  “Kill that one.”

  A gunshot rings out and I shake my head, again and
again, trying to wake up from this nightmare.

  “You can’t do this,” I say weakly. “This isn’t who you are.”

  Reggie laughs. “Grow up, Jake. You must realise by now that you knew nothing about me, you were a child before the apocalypse. You and Leo and Diana played at being adults but you weren’t. You didn’t understand how the real world works.”

  I stare at him, too shocked to speak.

  “But you’ve grown up,” Reggie says. He joins me in the middle of the bodies. Some of them are still alive, and their moans and cries do nothing to change the look of satisfaction in Reggie’s eyes. “You’re a man now, Jake. I’m so proud of how much you’ve grown.”

  “You’re a monster,” I finally say. I look over at the table but I can’t see Molly. I don’t know if she is among the bodies littering the room. “You’re a monster,” I say again, with more force this time.

  Reggie shakes his head. “No, Jake, I’m successful. If you lack the vision to understand the difference, then I can’t help you.”

  He steps closer to me and smiles. “You’ll come around. Give it some time and you will understand why I had to do this. Someday, you will agree with me.”

  “No,” I say. “I won’t agree with you. You’re insane.”

  Reggie’s smile finally fades and anger replaces it on his face. “I think of you as a son, Jake. You and Leo are mine. I basically raised you since your mother died. Where has your father been all these years? I am the closest thing you have to a father and you will listen to me!” He takes a breath to calm himself and then forces another smile. “Now, come with me and we can discuss our next steps.”

  I take a step back. And then another, and another.

  “Jake, don’t be stupid.”

  “I don’t even know who you are anymore,” I say. “I won’t kill you. I refuse to lower myself to your level.”

  Reggie’s expression changes when he realises what’s about to happen. “Jake, no!”

  A burst of frost and ice explodes from my skin and sends Reggie and his men hurtling backwards. The ice stays above waist height, sparing the people on the ground even more pain in their final moments.