Marionette Zombie Series | Book 11 | The Time Between

by Poe, S. B.

  “Really?” the girl said.

  “That’s what they said.” Cyrus said.

  “Why does it matter?” Scott asked.

  “No reason.” The girl smiled and turned to Ham.

  “My name’s Hannah.” She said.

  “I thought he called you Holes?” Ham asked.

  “Some call me Holes, most call me Hannah. I answer to both now.”

  “Why?” Scott asked.

  “Long story.” Hannah said.

  “Ham, and Scott.” Scott said.

  “Ham? Weird name.” She looked at her.

  “Says the one called Holes?” Ham said.

  “Oh, I’m gonna like her.” Hannah said. “Come on, let’s find Noah and get this over with.”

  “Where’s my horse?” Ham asked.

  “Horse?” Hannah turned. “Is that your horse?”

  “You have her?” Ham asked.

  “No, but it’s around here somewhere. It came to the fence a few times but ran off before anyone could get to it.” Hannah said.

  “Where are we going?” Scott asked.

  “To see Noah. Gotta let him know we have newcomers.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Noah is in charge. And in order to be in charge…” Hannah started.

  “He has to know everything that is going on.” Cyrus finished her sentence. They both laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Ham asked.

  “Nothing. It’s just…well, you’ll see.” Hannah said.

  The four of them slipped between one trailer and then the next. Scott tried to keep track of the twists and turns but couldn’t. Some trailers were tight against each other; some had spaces between them to walk. The corridors were blocked in places, forcing them in specific directions. Scott had wondered how secure this place could be, but as he walked through the maze which was the best way to describe it, he realized that anything trying to get wherever they were going would have a tough time to say the least. When Scott first saw the trailers behind the fence, he thought it was maybe a couple dozen but he was wrong. What he saw from outside the fence was just a drop of what was behind it. They walked past dozens of them, deeper and deeper into the compound. As they twisted and turned, he finally saw a glow between the trailers ahead. He looked into the back of one trailer as they approached the light. It was set up with cots and sleeping bags.

  He began paying closer attention to the other trailers and saw a few more set up to be lived in, or at least slept in. The light grew and they finally stepped between the last two trailers into the glow of the fire. It was an open area the size of half a football field with a fire pit in the middle. It reminded Scott of the corral in the wide spot of the road they went to when the dead first started walking. It was the last place he had seen his father alive. He felt a tear well up in his eyes. He turned his head to wipe it away. He looked back towards the campfire. A dozen people stood in the glow. He watched as a man in a wheelchair turned towards them. He spun the wheelchair around and the group gathered behind him.

  “CYRUS.” The man smiled as Cyrus stepped into the light of the fire.

  As soon as his eyes met Scott and Ham’s the smile went away and a scowl flashed across his face. He reached over his shoulder and withdrew the shotgun strapped to the back of the chair. They stopped. Scott felt Ham’s hand wrapped around his.

  “Noah, they’re with me. It’s fine.” Cyrus said.

  “Where’s my horse?” Ham asked. The man in the wheelchair tilted his head slightly and smiled.

  “They’re from Collier.” Hannah stepped from behind them and said.

  Scott watched as the group, almost in unison, raised their eyes to them. The man in the wheelchair tilted his head slightly and shotgun lowered just a tiny bit. His eyebrows rose as he spoke.

  “Collier?” He said. “Really.” He dragged out the last word slowly as his eyes landed back on Ham. “Is that true?”

  “Yes.” Ham said.

  “Why does that matter?” Scott finally spoke.

  “First her, now you. Stop asking questions. I would think even children would understand the man with the shotgun is in charge of the questions. Are you brother and sister?” Noah asked.

  “No, but we are in this together. To the end.” Ham raised her and Scotts clenched hands to the light.

  “The end may be closer than you think.” Noah said. He lowered the shotgun and rolled closer to the two of them.

  “Are you really from Collier?” Noah asked.

  “We just got there. Maybe a month ago or a little more.” Scott said.

  “So you’re not from Collier?” Noah asked.

  “We are now. That’s our home. They took us in.” Ham said.

  “Took you in? Or surrendered to you?” Noah smiled.

  “You think we’re lying?” Ham asked.

  “Yes.” Noah said.

  “We’re not.” Ham said.

  “Everyone lies if they’re trying to get something.” Noah replied

  “The only thing we’re trying to get is home.” Scott said.

  Noah abruptly spun the wheelchair around and addressed the crowd.

  “What an interesting night this has turned out to be.” Noah smiled. The group chuckled. He looked over his shoulder towards Ham and Scott. “We have guests. Since Cyrus decided, on his own, to bring them here, he will take care of them until I decide what to do.” He glared at Cyrus before turning back to the group. “For now, get some rest. Tomorrow will be an important day. Goodnight.”

  The crowd replied, “Goodnight Noah” almost in unison.

  Noah turned the chair back towards Ham and Scott again as the crowd dispersed into the darkness. Cyrus stood behind them. Scott looked to his right, but the girl was gone. He looked back at the man in the wheelchair. He was smiling.

  “You will stay here. Sleep. Or not. There are only a few hours of night remaining.” Noah said. He turned the wheelchair and rolled it up against table set up beside the fire. He reached down under the table a produced a wooden staff. The man stood and leaned on the walking stick. Scott glimpsed the narrow shaft of a prosthetic lower leg under his pants leg as he walked away.

  “We want to go home.” Ham yelled across the open space.

  “You are home.” Noah said as he disappeared into the darkness.

  Dead Rising

  Evelyn sat on the edge of the bed, looking through the window. The darkness still enveloped the world outside, but she could see the faintest hint of gray sliding in from the eastern sky. She wished she had gone with him, but she had said nothing. She slid her feet out from under the blanket and got dressed. A few minutes later she stood outside the house. A brief thought crossed her mind. Their house. Hers and Bridger’s. It made her smile briefly. The sound of footsteps falling in the predawn darkness brought her back. She looked down the sidewalk.

  “Kate?” She asked.

  “Hi.” Kate said curtly as she walked by. Evelyn fell in beside her.

  “You okay?” Evelyn asked and then caught herself. “Sorry. That’s a stupid question.”

  “It’s fine.” Kate said. “But no, I’m not okay. I’m not as bad as I was a little while ago but…”

  “A little while ago? What’s changed? Any news?” Evelyn said.

  “I don’t know what news there would be.”

  “It’s just that, well, since Bridger left…”

  “Bridger left?” Kate stopped.

  “He did. He couldn’t wait. He’s been gone a few hours. He knew you needed him to be out there. Trying.” Evelyn said.

  “I think Josh left too.” Kate said. “Oh, Evelyn, I don’t know what’s happening. It’s all too much.” The tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “Come over here.” Evelyn led her towards the little park bench that sat next to the VFW building.

  “Sit, please.” Evelyn nodded.

  Kate sat down. Evelyn sat down beside her and reached up to brush the hair out of Kate’s eyes.

  “They’re out there
, Kate. They are looking for them. They’ll find them.” Evelyn said.

  “I can’t go on like this.” Kate struggled to speak. “None of us can.”

  “We will get through this.” Evelyn tried to be comforting.

  “You don’t understand. I don’t want to get through this. I want it to end. All of it. It’s taken everything I ever loved.”

  “Your boys are still out there.”

  “Maybe, but for how long? Even if Scott comes back and Josh comes back, how long until the next fucking corpse walks around the corner. I’m sick of it. I can’t do it anymore.” Kate was sobbing.

  “Yes, you can. You have too.” Evelyn said.

  “Why?” Kate looked at her. “Why Evelyn?”

  “Because you just have too.” Evelyn sat up straighter. “How long have we known each other, Kate?”

  “Ten years, maybe.” Kate wiped her eyes as she spoke, but the tears still came. “But we were never close.”

  “Do you know why that is?” Evelyn asked. “It’s because I gave up once too. When you first moved into our little cul-de-sac I had envisioned barbeques and late night patio drinks with the new couple next door. Max and I never had kids and when your two boys ran around that moving truck, my heart leapt. I had dreams of them calling me Aunt Evelyn or something. It was dumb. And it never happened. Because I gave up.”

  “When Max died?” Kate asked.

  “Before that. I can’t have kids, Kate. I don’t know if I ever told you that. Like you said, we were never really close.” Evelyn said. “Seeing you and JW and your boys was just reminding me of that, over and over again. I couldn’t do it. Max tried to understand, but I don’t think he ever did. And when he died, it just ended. I had felt so sorry for myself for so long.”

  “I don’t understand what this has to do with…” Kate started.

  “I know. But it does.” Evelyn said. “That day, when you and JW came over to ask if I wanted to take shelter with y’all, you remember?”

  “I do.”

  “I thought it was crazy. I thought you might be crazy. I definitely thought JW was crazy. I had built up this image in my head of the crazy guy next door, in my mind it gave me an excuse.”

  “An excuse for what?”

  “For not trying.” Evelyn said. “But after y’all left that day, I realized that I needed help. Actual help. I knew something bad was happening. I had seen the stuff on tv. I knew things were getting worse. But I wasn’t sure about you, or JW, or anything. And then it happened.”

  “What?” Kate glanced over at her.

  “Max’s voice. As clear as day. I heard him.” Evelyn said. “I know it’s crazy, but I used to talk to him. After he died. And for the longest time, I wanted to hear his voice. Just once. But I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Then that day, it did.”

  “What did he say?”

  “To go with you.” Evelyn said. “I stood there in the hallway looking at his picture and I heard his voice say, ‘You need to go’, so I did. And that helped me.”

  “That’s great for you, Evelyn.” Kate said.

  “That’s not what I mean. That moment made me go, but that wasn’t what saved me, or any of the others. It was you. You saved me. You, your boys and your husband. Not just because of what you did but because of who you are.” Evelyn said.

  “Who we are?”

  “You didn’t give up. You don’t give up. When JW died…” She saw the look on Kate’s face but continued. “When JW died, I remember watching you. I thought to myself, how? How can she be so strong?”

  “I wasn’t strong. It destroyed me.”

  “I know. But I also know it didn’t stop you. Everything was falling apart. Tilly had killed that man who attacked her. The dead had just killed half of the people in our group, and then your husband died. All of that happened almost all at once. And you just kept going. Tilly told me how much you helped her come to grips with what happened. She was falling apart. The moment I saw her pull that trigger, I saw her change. And it was you that helped her find her way back.” Evelyn said.

  “She just needed a shoulder, I happened to be there.” Kate said.

  “You’re always there. From the first day you’ve been strong. Even if you doubt it sometimes.” Evelyn said. “You have to be strong now.”

  Kate wiped her face with the back of her hand. She looked at Evelyn and stood.

  “Evelyn, you’re right.” Kate said. Evelyn smiled briefly. “You’re right when you said we don’t know each other very well.” Evelyn’s smiled faded. Kate continued. “If we did, you’d know why I was able to keep going when my husband died and the dead came and all the other shit that has happened. I kept going because of my boys. I have kept going all this time for my boys. They lost their father. They lost their friends. They lost their future. Every dream they ever had was wiped away. And they were thrust into this hell scape of a world surrounded by death. I had to keep going. For them. They’re the only reason I was strong. Not you, not Tilly, not anyone else. Them. And now they’re gone.” She turned and walked away. Evelyn didn’t follow.

  Broken

  The trailer was painted with a scene out of the Wild West. There was a man, obviously the bad guy, sitting on a black horse pointing a pistol at a stagecoach. One of those flat top hills, a butte, that was the word, Scott thought to himself, loomed behind the robber. Scott’s eyes fell on the stagecoach driver, hands held high.

  “They look scared.” Ham said.

  He looked to his left. She was curled up on the ground next to him with a blanket Cyrus had given her pulled up to her shoulders.

  “Yeah.”

  “What do you think he meant?” Ham asked. “We are home.”

  “It means he’s not gonna let us go.” Scott said.

  “That’s what I thought.” Ham said. “So now what?”

  “We have to go.” Scott said.

  “Yeah, I know. How?” Ham said.

  “I don’t know. But I know we have to try. We can’t stay here.” Scott said.

  “You think they are going to hurt us?” Ham asked.

  “Do you?” Scott asked.

  “I don’t know. Do they seem like bad people to you?” Ham said.

  “Maybe, maybe not. We don’t really know.”

  “That’s true. So?”

  “So we figure a way out.”

  “Together.” Ham said.

  “Maybe, hopefully.” Scott said.

  “What does that mean?” Ham asked.

  “It’s just if you get a chance or I get a chance, even if the other one gets left behind, we should take it. Get home. Bring help back.”

  “But…”

  “All I’m saying is if one of us can get out, we should go and get help. It might be the only chance we have.” Scott said.

  “Okay. But only if there’s no other way.” Ham said.

  “Deal.” Scott said. “Shh.”

  “What is it?” Ham asked.

  “Someone’s coming.” Scott could hear footsteps on the other side of the trailer. He looked at Ham. She pulled the blanket a little tighter and closed her eyes. Scott turned his head towards the sound of the footsteps just as Noah rounded the end of the trailer.

  “Is she asleep?” He asked.

  “For now.” Scott said.

  “Walk with me.” He said as he nodded back the way he came from. “Come on.”

  Scott stood and followed him between the trailers. The sky was slowly turning gray and he could see the first glimpses of orange peaking towards the horizon. He followed the man back to where he left the wheelchair.

  “Hate that thing.” Noah said as they walked by. “But sometimes the thing you hate is what helps the most.”

  “What happened?” Scott asked as he gave a nod towards the prosthetic he had seen earlier.

  “Hmm. That I’ve had for a long time. Earned that one the old-fashioned way. Fallujah. Probably when you were a toddler. Pretty used to it.” Noah stopped. “I use the chair to give the other on
e a break since it's the reason I’m still here.”

  “You’re good leg?”

  “Not so good.” Noah lifted the leg of his pants. Scott could see the scarred depression below the calf as it disappeared into the top of his boot.

  “What happened?” Scott asked.

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” Noah said.

  “I don’t understand.” Scott said.

  “I know. But we’re going to have to trust one another. Over here.” Noah led him to the back of another trailer. A ramp led inside to a table and a few chairs. “Sit.”

  Scott sat down.

  “Your friend.” Noah started.

  “Ham.” Scott said.

  “Yes, Ham. She mentioned a horse.” Noah said.

  “It’s hers. Or at least she thinks it is. The horse hasn’t made its mind up yet, if it has one.” Scott said.

  “I take it you don’t like it.” Noah smiled.

  “Not really. Look, is there something I can help you with, I shouldn’t leave Ham alone.” Scott stood.

  “Sorry. You’re right. Sit. She’ll be fine. I promise.” Noah motioned. Scott sat back down.

  “So?” Scott asked.

  “Do you know where you are?” Noah asked.

  “Not at home.” Scott said.

  “You’re right. That didn’t come out right. Or maybe it did at the time, but I’ve had some time to think.” Noah said.

  “Think about what?” Scott asked.

  “Let’s come back to that. For now, let’s talk about where you are.” Noah said.

  “Okay. Where are we?” Scott asked.

  “You are in the staging area for an entire sector’s worth of FEMA supplies designed to support a population of several thousand for months. It is one of a two dozen sites pre-positioned around the southeast to support level four evacuation events, hurricanes and such. This site was supposed to support the Stockburn withdrawal zone. It was never accessed. Things fell apart too fast. The isolation helped preserve its integrity.”

  “Slow down. How do you know all this?” Scott asked.

  “Doesn’t matter, I do. But your arrival has reminded me that our seclusion is not unlimited.” Noah said.

  “I still don’t know where we’re at.” Scott said.