by Chesla, Gary
She didn’t like it, but knew it was what happened in the world.
She didn’t know why the walking dead existed, but they were there and that was what they did.
She could understand what was happening.
But what she saw in front of here made no sense.
She had lived through hell the last six months and had never seen anything like this.
It made no sense.
She raised her head and forced herself to look. If she was going to save herself she had to understand.
But seeing the people hanging on the other side of the room didn’t fit any of the horrifying realities of what the world had become.
At least six people were hanging from the ceiling on the other side of the room. Most of them were missing their legs. Some were missing at least one side of their chest.
Others had different sections of their bodies removed.
She recognized most of these people.
They had been at the fort when she had come here.
She had seen them working at the fort. One or two of them had a wife or girlfriend if she remembered correctly. She had only seen them briefly when she had come to the fort, before they were relocated.
She gasped when she recognized the light haired guy that hung in the middle of the bodies. She recognized him. She was sure he was the girl’s boyfriend. The girl that hung next to her.
This made no sense. Who had done this to these people and why in the world would anyone even do this.
It couldn’t have been done by the dead. They would have torn these people apart. There would be bite marks all over the bodies.
As horrible as the sight was, all of the missing body parts appeared to have been neatly removed.
Lilly froze and began to think. “Is this what is going to happen to me? Why?”
She didn’t remember any of these people being trouble makers. Even if they had been troublemakers, what could they have done to justify this?
It was all so horrible and unbelievable. It made no sense to her.
Were they tortured?
Only a mad man would do something like this.
Had they been alive when this was done to them?
“Would she be alive when someone came in here and started cutting her apart? Lilly almost blacked out at the thought of being dismembered.
Lilly studied the bodies. They all seemed to be men or boys. Except for the last one down at the far end. This appeared to be the body of an older woman. She wasn’t missing any body parts.
Lilly tried to clear the tears from her eyes to get a better look. Something made her think she had seen this woman before. The long light brown hair that hung down over and hid the woman’s face looked familiar. She focused on the scar on the woman’s right lower abdomen.
The scar looked familiar, but why would it?
Lilly’s thoughts were interrupted by a jingling noise on the other side of the door.
“Someone is unlocking the door and they were going to come into the room.” Lilly looked frantic. “Were they coming for me? Is it my turn? But my turn for what? What do they want from me? What did they want from these people?”
Lilly desperately tried to decide what to do. What could she do? She was helpless, tied up and hanging from a rope.
She quickly began dancing on her toes, trying to turn herself so she would not be facing the door. She hoped if she wasn’t facing the person coming into the room and just pretended to be unconscious they would leave her alone.
She finally managed to turn so she wasn’t facing the door. She hung her head to make it look like she was out and so her hair would hide that she was no longer blindfolded and gaged.
Lilly began to worry when her eyes drifted down at ground. The blindfold was lying on the ground in plain sight.
The door swung open and made a loud noise as it hit the wall. Lilly heard the footsteps come inside. She tried to control her sobbing so they wouldn’t hear and look at her.
She listened as she heard a second set of footsteps echo in the room and move towards where the first sounds had stopped.
She had to fight back the terror that traveled through her body. She imagined two pairs of eyes looking at her hanging body.
She tried not to breathe.
“Ed said he needs about thirty pounds today.” A man’s voice said.
“One piece or can it be a lot of smaller pieces?” The other man asked.
“One piece.” The first man replied.
“OK. I see just what we need.” The second man said.
Lilly’s eyes got wide as she heard the two men move around.
She listened to the sickening sound of something being cut with a saw. She almost jumped when the sound of the saw stopped and was followed by a loud snap.
Lilly’s heart sunk when she heard footsteps getting closer to her.
“Ed says he has something special planned for this one tomorrow. We need to get her cleaned up and drained so she will be ready to process.” The first man’s voice said as he came closer to Lilly.
It was all she could do to control herself as bile rose in her throat. She knew she was going to start heaving again.
The two set of footsteps were almost at her side, when the sound of a whistle blowing could be heard coming from outside.
The sound of the footsteps stopped.
“Here, get this to Ed. I better get out front and see what’s going on. There could be trouble.”
“You want me to come back here and finish up after I take this to Ed?” The second man said.
“No, come down to the gate after you drop this off. We might be needed. We can finish up later.”
The sound of the footsteps faded as the men moved back out of the room. The door was closed and was followed by the click of the lock being snapped shut on the door latch.
Lilly finally sobbed loudly as she let out all the tension she had been trying to hold back as the men talked.
She pushed up on her toes and slowly turned herself so she was facing back towards the door.
She slowly raised her head and looked up from floor.
A sickening feeling shot through her body as she noticed the woman that was hanging across the room now only had one leg.
As she raised her eyes higher, she could see the woman’s head was now hanging backwards and her hair now was spread out down over her back.
She moved her eyes from the woman’s hair to her face.
Her body began to shake violently as tears flowed down her face and the dry heaves made her legs go limp.
“No! Mom! No!”
Chapter 17
Megan greeted Shaun at the door when he arrived back at the cottage. She had watched Shaun work the catapult all morning and into the afternoon. The sight of the dead coming off of Route 30 trying to get at the living in the fort had been nerve racking. The sight, sound and the smell brought back all the close encounters they had managed to survive before coming to the fort. The nightmares they had lived through and that had kept them awake at nights, especially during the first few months after the world had changed.
Watching Shaun and the others at the fort made her feel secure. The sight of the dead reminded her how much she really didn’t miss her old life, their old life, the struggle to survive on their own. It all made her appreciate the secure feeling of living at the fort the past few days, of being with other people again.
The attack by so many of the dead had been terrifying, but she hadn’t felt the feeling of desperation that she had so often felt during her past encounters with the dead.
The dead were still to be feared, but at least now she felt hope. Even in the face of so many of the dead, she felt that they would manage to survive as opposed to wondering if they would survive. Hope and optimism had replaced the constant feeling of fear and desperation.
“Come in and sit down.” Megan said as Shaun came into the cabin and dropped down on a chair. “I’ll get you some water so you can clean up.”
&n
bsp; Shaun smiled. “That would be nice. And I thought I was going to have a quiet and peaceful day.”
Megan brought over the pan of water, dipped a piece of material in the water and began to wipe off his face. “The hard part is over, now you can rest.”
“How did Lisa hold up today?” Shaun asked.
“She lived.” Megan laughed.
“She did that well?” Shaun laughed.
Megan tossed Shaun a towel to dry himself off. “Do you want to go out and sit by the fire? Do you feel like eating?”
“Not really.” Shaun answered.
“Well, we can snack on some crackers, we still have a few left. Then I’ll tell you about my day.” Megan smiled.
Shaun laughed. Knowing Lisa, when Meg said Lisa had lived, he knew it would be interesting. He knew he would enjoy listening to her story as he relaxed.
They sat out in front of their cottage and watched as the boys spent the final daylight hours carrying more rocks into the fort. George stood look out as a few other men removed the dead that had made it up to the gate and had been finally stopped by an arrow to the head. They carried them down to the highway and away from the fort.
The light grew dim as the sun passed down over the horizon. Everyone turned in after the exhausting day. The men standing watch were doubled tonight. Not because the fort expected any further attacks, but so the guards would have someone to help keep them awake.
The night went without any further disturbances. The next morning would not be so peaceful.
Shaun and Megan were awakened out of a deep sleep by the sound of a whistle blowing out at the front gate.
Shaun’s eyes shot open when the sound finally registered.
“Shit. Not again?”
Shaun jumped out of bed and quickly dressed. “Meg, stay here until I see what the problem is.”
Megan sat wide eyed on the bed. Yesterday had taken them by surprise, but they had been well rested and ready to defend themselves. Today also took them by surprise, but they had not recovered from the toll that yesterday’s ordeal had taken on them both physically and mentally.
Her heart sank as she listened to the repeated shrill sound of the whistle being blown over and over.
“I’m not ready for this again.” Megan said quietly.
“Neither am I, but I don’t think we have much choice. At least we are in a fort.” Shaun smiled trying to get her to relax, but he didn’t feel as enthusiastic as he tried to sound.
“I’m going to go over and get Doug. We’ll drop Lisa off for you to keep an eye on. Try not to be too hard on her today.” Shaun smiled as he turned and ran out the door.
Megan crawled out of bed and began to get dressed. She heard all the commotion outside, but had no desire to look out the window. Not until she had to.
Shaun left the cabin and ran toward Doug’s cottage. Doug and Lisa met him half way to their cabin.
“Not again!” Lisa cried.
“Lisa!” Shaun shouted. “Go to the cabin with Meg and stay there until we come back. OK?”
Lisa looked frazzled, but nodded her head and started walking to his cabin.
“I wonder how many of those things we have to deal with today.” Doug asked.
“I just hope they try and come at us the same way as the ones yesterday.” Shaun said as they ran towards the front gate. “If they come in the back….”
Shaun stopped. “Something’s different today?”
He stopped and listened. The quiet was eerie. He looked around. Bill and George were standing on the wall looking down at Route 30 with all the archers.
There wasn’t the usual groaning. Whatever had everyone’s attention wasn’t groaning or making the unearthly sound the dead always made.
Maybe the dead were still further down the highway, but why was everyone on the wall intently staring down at the highway?
He glanced up at the main fort. Water was running down the wall posts. Maybe Bill was just dampening the wall when this started and he just forgot to tell the boys that they could stop pumping.
Shaun ran to the base of the wall, he and Doug scrambled up the platform.
Bill and George were deep in conversation when Shaun and Doug arrived on the wall.
They stopped and stared.
Down on Route 30 were thirty motorcycles. The riders were standing in front of their bikes, staring up at the fort.
There were almost as many bikers on the highway as there were people at the fort.
“You know who they are?” Shaun asked.
“Yea, we’ve had a few run ins with these bastards before.” Bill replied. “But we’ve never seen this many of them show up before.”
“What do they want?” Shaun asked.
“They’ve showed up a few times a month or so ago asking for food. We gave them some supplies just to get rid of them and avoid any problems.” Bill replied. “But they have never looked this menacing before. George, how about you go down and see what they want?”
“Do you think would be a good idea?” Shaun asked as he studied the gang. “Maybe we should wait until one of them comes up to the fort.”
George looked nervous. “What should I say?”
Bill looked at him. “Just see what the hell they want. If they want supplies, I suppose we could spare a little.”
Bill looked at George. “Just see what they are doing here. You know what to tell them.”
George nodded.
George crawled down off the wall. He helped two men pull up the support posts and remove the beam from the slats. He slipped out between the doors and started walking down the street towards the bikers.
Shaun watched the bikers as George walked down the hill towards them. They just leaned back against their bikes and waited. They watched George, but didn’t seem to make any threatening moves.
Shaun studied the bikers. Something bothered him about these guys. He started looking at the bikes. He looked at the saddle bags that hung over the back of the bikes. It was when he saw the chains wrapped around the bottom of the seats that his heart began to beat faster.
“Bill?” Shaun said. “These are the bastards that burnt my house down in Latrobe. I recognize the bikes. It looks like they picked up a few buddies since they were at my place.”
Bill just stared down at the bikers.
“They’re a bunch of crazy bastards!” Shaun swore.
They watched as George got closer to the bikers.
George walked up to the man and bike in the center of the group. He reached out and shook the biker’s hand.
Shaun stared. George was talking to the one that had called all the shots when they had robbed him and Doug.
“Hey Bear! What the hell you doing here? You weren’t supposed to be here until tomorrow night.”
Bear looked around at the charred bodies of the dead that were lying around the intersection where the bikers were parked. “Looks like you boys had some visitors recently.”
“Yea, a shit load of them came staggering down the highway yesterday. Nothing we couldn’t handle.” George said as he stared back at Bear.
“You have my women?” Bear growled.
“Bear, you’re not supposed to show up here where everyone can see you. It could ruin everything. You were supposed to meet us tomorrow night down at the bend.” George said again.
“Do you have my women?” Bear asked again growing more impatient.
“If we did, you know I couldn’t give them to you out here in front of everyone. Some of our group doesn’t know about our arrangements. You need to leave.” George said.
“What do you mean if? You telling me you don’t have my women?” Bear demanded.
“We were going to talk to you about that.” George said. “There haven’t been any people coming to the fort the last month. It’s like there isn’t anyone left. We just don’t have any women. Not yet anyhow.”
“You know our agreement.” Bear started.
“I know! I know! Four women the same time every m
onth and you wouldn’t cause any trouble for us. We’ve stuck to the agreement. We’ve managed to get you women the last four months. There just hasn’t been any around the last month. I told you, no one has come to the fort for over a month. Maybe it’s because of all the dead that have been coming through lately. I’m sure by this time next month we’ll have something for you.” George said.
Bear stared at George.
“I’m sure we can make the wait worth your time.” George added.
“To tell you the truth, I’m not worried about the bitches.” Bear scowled. “We’re here to make a new agreement.”
“What kind of new agreement?” George asked looking at Bear suspiciously.
“We decided we want to move into the fort. That way we can play your game and get our own bitches.” Bear smiled.
“Why the hell you want to live in the fort. You guys are out here and can move around anywhere you want. Why would you want to be stuck in this damn fort? It almost drives me stir crazy. You guys would go nuts.” George asked hoping Bear was just making a threat to get what he wanted.
“Maybe we decided it’s time we settled down.” Bear grinned. What teeth he had left were yellow and black from decay. The smile made George cringe.
“I never thought of you as the domesticated type.” George smiled.
“I’m not, but I don’t seem to have much choice. The dead are swarming around everywhere. I’ve never seen so damn many of them. They’re everywhere. We can barely
settle anywhere for more than a day or so before we get over run. There are too damn many of them to kill. They just keep coming.” Bear spit out the words. George could feel the hate radiating from Bear.
“You can go anywhere you want. I’m sure you can find a place a hell of a lot better than Ligonier.” George said. He was worried hearing Bear’s rant. He had dealt with Bear numerous times and had never seen him like this.
“We’re not in a position to be going anywhere. There isn’t any more gas left in all these damn cars. All we have left is in our tanks. We had to drop two bikes on our way over here today that ran out of gas. Half our guys are doubled up on the bikes now.” Bear complained. “So you see, we aren’t going anywhere! Even if we had enough gas to explore, why waste it when we have a perfectly good fort right here.”