by TJ Weeks
“No one asked you. You need to go help everyone out at the truck, I’m talking to Steven.” I responded with attitude.
She looked over at Steven while letting out a sigh and walked out.
I walked over and put the back of my hand to his head. “You’re fucking burning up. When’s the last time you ate?”
“Yesterday.” He answered.
“Well, get on your feet. We’re going to the chow hall.” I ordered. “I’m not hungry.” He responded.
“Either get your ass up and we’ re going to go eat or we can go out behind the shed and put your old ass out of your misery. Choice is yours.” I made clear.
He got up and followed me out of the room. His skin was pale from poor nutrition and from the loss of blood.
Everyone’s eyes were in shock when they met Steven as he tried to sit down.
“Hell no, you’re going to walk through the line like everyone else.” I told him.
He walked through the line
hunched over from being too weak to stand straight up.
“Squirrel dumplings, is what’s for dinner.” Chelley stated as she dipped some into our bowls.
I was nice enough to grab both of our drinks since he only had the one arm to hold things with. We caught one of the first seats we came up to so he didn’t have to walk so far. He started sipping on the broth instead of eating the dumplings.
“You know what I want?” He asked between sips.
“Your arm back.” I stated being an asshole.
He shot me a go to hell look. “I want some of your barbeque. If this ends up killing me, that’s my dying wish.”
“Well brother, it’s not like we can just go to the store and pick up some brisket or ribs. Hunting has been scarce lately.” I responded.
“I’m sure you’ll come up with something…You always do.” He reassured.
I looked at him and shook my head before going back to my squirrel dumplings.
Once we were both finished eating, I took both of our bowls back to Milissa and grabbed a pocket full of crackers and joined Steven back at the table before we walked back to the school.
I walked to my room.
“I’ll see you later.” Steven
suggested.
I walked in and grabbed my cot and walked back out into the empty hallway, where Steven had already disappeared into his room. I walked down and through his door. He turned quickly and looked at me with a confused look plastered over his face.
“What the hell are you doing, man?” He asked as I started setting my cot up.
“I’m going to stay in here until your health is back up or you
die…whichever comes first.” I stated without missing a beat.
He placed his arm on his hip. “Are you fucking serious?”
I plopped down on my cot with my arms folded up behind my head. “Yep.”
We laid there for a few hours before he conked out and fell asleep. I thumped him between the eyes as nightfall began to hit.
“What the fuck man?” He called out.
“Eat some crackers, stupid.” I responded.
He sat up on the edge of his bed. “You woke me up for crackers?”
“Nope, I woke you up for crackers and water. Guess you thought I was kidding about getting healthy or dying.” I stated while holding out the crackers.
There was a slight tap at the door. “Come in!” I called out.
Bo walked through the door. “Hey bro, your wife said I could probably find you in here. I would have come sooner, but I was helping unload and stopped by the cafeteria and ate.”
“It’s all good man. Did Karen give you a cot?” I responded.
“Yeah, it’s out here in the hallway. She wasn’t sure where I could sleep.” Bo answered while Steven remained quiet snacking on his crackers.
“Hell, there’s plenty of room in here. I mean, Steven doesn’t mind, he’s planning on dying sometime in the near future anyways.” I stated.
Bo’s eye’s widened. “I don’t want to intrude.”
“No intrusion at all. Throw your cot up right over there.” I stated while pointing to the biggest portion of the room.
Steven looked at me with crumbs from the crackers still wrapped around his lips.
“Looks like you need some water.” I stated while forcing it to his mouth. Bo walked back in with his cot. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, you can help babysit.” I stated.
Steven choked a bit from too much water at once.
I started patting his back. “Easy buddy, burp it out.”
He pulled back. “God damnit! I’m not a fucking baby!”
Bo’s eye’s widened again like he wasn’t sure if this was the best of ideas.
“Easy brother, I’m going to find you a playpen for your play time and some baby bumpers to keep you from doing stupid things in the middle of the night without adult supervision.” I told him.
“You really are a true asshole.” He told me.
Bo started laughing.
“How the fuck is any of this funny?” Steven asked him.
“TJ has always been an asshole. That’s not new news there.” Bo responded while still laughing.
“Everyone’s a comedian.” He stated.
I shoved more crackers at him.
“Just how many of these do yo u think I’m going to eat?” Steven now pissed off.
I pulled the whole handful from my pocket. “Oh, about this many.” He gave me a go to hell look and proceeded to eat the crackers.
Bo got all setup and laid down. “We got anything planned for
tomorrow?”
I handed Steven the last of the crackers. “Actually I have something planned, but I’m only taking a handful of us and I’m sure it’ll piss off some.”
Bo raised up. “Like what?”
“You’ll see.” I answered.
“Good, maybe I can get some sleep with you gone.” Steven chimed in.
I stated laughing. “You’re going too, so finish those crackers and I’d suggest getting some rest.”
CHAPTER TWO
I COULD hear footsteps in the
hallway when I opened my door. Steven was hovered over me with his mouth opening and closing. It
appeared that his body was frozen in time in some misshapen form. It startled me and I quickly punched him in the jaw.
His body shot upward and he grabbed his jaw. “What the fuck?”
“I change my mind about the baby bumpers, I’m going to start strapping your ass to that bed.” I stated.
Bo sat up and stretched. “What’s going on?”
“Zomboy wanted to eat my ass, but I’m not into that type of thing, so he got the knuckles.” I threw out
sarcasm.
Steven was still rubbing his jaw. “Fuck you.”
“Get dressed and me et me out at the storage.” I ordered before walking out.
I stopped by Gizmo’s room. “Hey brother, come with me to the storage shed.”
Tina stood up. “Are y’all really going back out?”
“Yep, but you can stop your
bitching because you’re coming too.” I stopped her from nagging further.
I walked out and stopped by my room as well. “Kris, you and Daltin come out to the storage shed.
Daltin stood up with excitement. “You want me to go?”
“Yeah, shithead, grab your shoes and come on.” I told him.
He quickly grabbed his shoes and followed me out with Kris not far behind him. We walked out to the storage building to see Karen standing out front with her spread sheets.
“Already back to work?” I asked. “Yeah, I don’t want my sheets getting off.” She replied.
“I hear ya. Well, I need all the ice chests we’ve got, along with all the bow and arrows that we have.” I stated.
She ran her finger down her list. “We have thirty-two bows and onehundred and sixtyeight arrows.”
“Well, let’s make that ten bows and a
ll of the arrows. Also, if we have any crossbows, I’ll need one of those as well.” I changed my order.
“A little archery practice?” She asked with confusion.
“Nope, we’re doing some hunting.” I answered. “I’m also going to need a couple of cans of gas, a generator and the deuce.”
She placed her hands on her hips. “Where are we going?”
“Not this time, I’ve already got my team picked. Just plan on eating good when we get back.” I stated with a bit of laughter.
The rest of the gang joined us as Karen started handing out the
weapons.
“So who all is going?..and I’m not sure it’s a great idea that Steven goes anywhere.” Karen questioned.
“It’s going to be myself, Daltin, Gizmo, Kris, Tina, Steven and Bo. As far as Steven, he’s going.” I made clear.
“Where are we going?” Gizmo asked.
“We are going to the deuce.” I stated as I handed him a bow and one of the gas cans.
The rest of us gathered the rest of the items and walked out. Kris jumped in front with me, as well as Daltin who sat in the middle.
Everyone else piled up in the back. I pulled up to the front and Donald opened up the gate and closed it behind us.
“So, you still not going to tell me where we’re going?” Kris questioned.
I kept my eyes on the road. “We’re making a little pit stop before we go to our destination.”
I got to the main road and hung my right. I followed it to Edgewood and pulled up onto the tracks. I started driving down the tracks until I got to the abandoned rail cart and stopped.
Everyone started piling out of the deuce.
“Why the fuck are we here?” Gizmo asked.
I started walking towards the train and down the side. “We’re getting our shit back.”
I pulled the door open that we once slept in and jumped in. Everyone walked up to the door and I started throwing down our backpacks. There was dried blood and skin grafts all along the side of the train door. I threw my pack over my shoulders, grabbed the last pack and jumped back down.
“We really just came all this way for some back packs?” Tina
questioned.
“We came for the food and supplies that we left behind.” I threw the other pack to Gizmo. “And we came for this.”
“What’s so important about that pack?” Tina asked.
Gizmo almost had a tear fall. “Because it was Justin’s.”
Tina shut up with a look of
amazement across her face.
“Now load back up so we can go.” I ordered.
We got back to the deuce and loaded back up.
“We’ve got some rotter’s coming up from our six.” Kris called out after glancing in her side view mirror.
I applied more gas and started running them over. I got back to the road crossing and started turning around. I could see Justin’s body stand up in the middle of the tracks; he was a rotter. I stopped, got out and walked to the back of the deuce.
“Give me a bow and an arrow.” I stated.
Bo handed them down. I placed the arrow onto my draw string and closed my eyes for a moment trying to find any happy place possible, but nothing came up. I slowly opened my eyes to see that he was about twenty-five feet from where I stood and I let the arrow fly. I was aiming right between his eyes, but it hit over his right eye and a slight angle to the left. He dropped instantly. I could hear Tina and Gizmo saying things in the
background, but I was so dazed in the moment that I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I dreaded having to go retrieve the arrow from him, but knew we could not afford to leave it. I walked over and pulled it out slowly “Rest in peace brother.” Walking away from a man that had become my family over the years was hard, but what I did had to be done; I was not going to leave him walking around as a rotter in this world. Justin deserved to be with his family that had been taken just as he had been. I walked back and just handed the bow back to Bo and walked back to the cab.
I finished making my turn and got back out onto the main road.
“You okay?” Kris asked.
I brushed my hand across my brow. “I’m okay. Next stop, Tyler.”
I drove until I hit my next highway and took my right, taking out any rotters that got in the way. A sign started coming up, “Caldwell Zoo, 2 miles”.
I followed the signs until we pulled up into the zoo parking lot, then stopped and got out to scan the area of where we might be able to go to get this shit done.
“Why are we at the zoo?” Steven asked.
“Yeah, we could have stayed behind if you just wanted to take a day trip.” Tina followed.
“Oh shit…we’re about to do some hunting.” Gizmo suggested.
I looked over to all of them. “Yes, we’re going to do some hunting.” “What the fuck are you going to hunt?” Tina asked.
“Whatever we find.” I answered as I started pulling stuff out of the back of the deuce.
Everyone started grabbing the stuff I was setting out.
“Why do we need the generator?” Bo asked.
“So we can hook up one of the ice machines and pack the meat in these ice chests.” I replied.
Gizmo picked up one of the bows. “That’s pretty damn smart. Actually, this whole idea is pretty damn smart. Who would have ever thought about hunting in a zoo?”
I ignored the compliment and filled my arms with what I could. “Let’s pick this shit up and get moving. I want two people up front in case of any rotters and everyone else with their hands full.”
Kris and Tina took the front as the rest of us followed with the items. Steven was just doing the best that he could to keep up and keeping an eye out for anything that would be coming up from behind.
We started moving with a purpose down the long steep stairs and
through the entrance of the zoo that had a tattered banner barely hanging from above with a male lion’s face plastered on the side and red lettering with yellow trim that read “Welcome to the Caldwell Zoo”.
We moved passed the flamingos and up a steep flat hill next to the cheetahs and rhinos before reaching the restaurant in the center of the zoo that was overlaid with shade made with branches and bark hanging down to block out the sun’s rays for the picnic tables. The restaurant had an overview of the giraffes that were slowly pacing around with mouthfuls of hay.
We walked into the restaurant and setup the generator in an old
maintenance closet to muffle the sound and ran a cord out to the ice machine. We stacked all the ice chests along the wall and placed the gas cans near the maintenance closet.
“Now what?” Bo asked while clearing his arms of what was left to unload.
“Now we rest for a bit and l et the ice machine do its job, then we hunt down some vehicles. They should have some Gator carts or golf carts around here somewhere.” I answered.
“Why do we need carts?” Bo questioned further.
“You don’t want to hump a
thousand-pound buffalo over your shoulder back with you, do you?”
He looked over at me with kind of a blank face. “Okay, so we need a cart with a lot of power.”
I started laughing. “We need something with a lot of balls to it.”
We finished setting up shop and started walking as soon as we heard the first ice drop from the machine.
We didn’t see anything out in the open. Not far from the alligator pond was a gate that was made to look like a safari adventure, with a sign that read “employees only” posted on each of them. I pulled up on the latch and swung the gates open. There was a big shop a few hundred steps ahead. I could see some movement out in front of the building.
I swung my arm back to tell my guys to line up and move over from the center of the path. Once we got in line I crouched down and slowly pulled up my rifle to see things more clearly through my scope. There was a tall bald headed man pulling items from a golf cart. I could tell he was
talking to someone, but couldn’t see who it was. I panned my crosshairs over to the right to see the door was open and a small hand had a grip on the side of the door. By the size of the hand, I would suggest female or young kid, but couldn’t tell for sure.
I kept my eye plastered into my scope. “Wait here.”
I stayed squatted down and started taking slow steps closer.
The man walked into the shop, so I started taking a faster pace until I was behind the very golf cart the man was just unloading.
The door knob started turning. “I’ll be right back. I need to check on the animals.”
The man walked out and sat on the golf cart. I secured myself to the back. He started backing out and went forward towards the gate. He slowed up when he saw Bo standing out in the middle of the path.
I stood up and put my barrel to the back of his head. “Pull on down and think about your actions before you do them.”
He gripped the steering wheel hard and I could hear him take a large gulp before easing his foot on the gas. Everyone formed a half circle around the cart as he came to a stop.
“Click the brake all the way down and get out slowly.” I ordered him.
He pushed the brake to the floor and stepped out. I was amazed to see his standing height.
“How fucking tall are you dude?” I questioned out of shock before pushing my foot into the back of his knee to bring him down on his knees.
“I -II’m six foot four inches, sir.” He replied while pushing up his black framed glasses.
I looked over at Bo. “Damn, brother…He’s got you beat.”
Bo cracked a smile and moved in and started patting him down. “He’s clean.”
I let my foot off the back of his knee. “What’s your name?”
He slowly turned his head towards me. “Robin Appelo.”
“You don’t sound like you’re from around here.” I stated.
“I’m Dutch. I came down to do my internship here at the zoo.” He
replied.
“Okay, Dutchy…I’ve got two questions. How many people do you have here and what kind of weapons do you have?” I questioned.
“There’s only one more person and we don’t have any weapons except a tranquilizing gun for the animals.” He answered.
“If you’re lying , you do know that I’m going to kill you…right?” I stated after bumping him in the back with my barrel.