by Poe, S. B.
“But you will. If I let Cyrus take you back to Collier.” Noah said.
“You could blindfold us or something.” Scott said. “Just let us go.”
“I don’t think you can walk that far blindfolded.”
“How far is it?” Scott glanced out of the back of the trailer.
“Fifteen, twenty miles, maybe a little more. Long walk.”
“I walked most of it last night. Remember?” Scott said.
“Of course.” Noah said.
“So you’re not going to let us go?” Scott asked.
“I didn’t say that.” Noah said.
“You didn’t say you would either.”
“No, I didn’t.” Noah said. “How long have you been out there? How did you end up in Collier?”
“Why are you so interested in our town?”
“It is curiosity. We’ve been close. We’ve been in the edges. We know where the barricades run. But we know nothing about who lives inside.” Noah said.
“Just people.” Scott said.
“That’s not as comforting to me as you might think.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the living are a much bigger threat to us than the dead.”
“Trust me, mister, they’re not.”
“Did I tell you about my leg yet? No? Here let me take this boot off. It’s easier if I show you.” Noah reached down and slid the boot off. The scar traveled below the calf and ended just above his ankle.
“Just missed my Achilles, lucky that. It would have made that chair out there permanent. I’m pretty good on my peg but not that good.” Noah said.
“What happened?” Scott grimaced.
“The dead.” Noah said.
“You were bit?”
“I was. Tore it open as they tried to pull me away from it.”
“And you survived?” Scott asked.
“I’m sitting here ain’t I? Does that surprise you?”
“A little. I mean, I’ve seen it before. We’ve got a guy, he was my neighbor before all this, and there was a girl in Collier when we got there. Both of them were bit. Both of them are still alive. We got another guy too. He’s not really part of our group though.” Scott’s eyebrows twisted as he thought. “He was injected or something. He’s half deadun.”
“Wait, back up.” Noah leaned forward. “You’ve got two immunes and a half what?”
“Deadun. Immunes?” Scott asked.
“That’s what we call it. Immunes.”
“We?”
“All of us. We’re all immune.”
“You’ve all been bitten and survived?” Scott asked.
“Yeah, but back to…”
“How? How did you get together? Were you all together before? Were you all together when you got bit?” Scott blurted out.
“Okay, stop. I get my questions answered first. You have two immunes inside the walls at Collier, yes?”
“Yes.” Scott said.
“And you have another half dead, what was it? Deadun? Outside your walls?” Noah asked.
“Yeah, I guess he’s still there. He showed up right after we got there. He was with the soldiers I think.”
“Soldiers?”
“They’re gone. Bridger killed them.” Scott said.
“Every time you answer me, you make me have to ask more questions. It’s funny. Let’s come back to that. The half deadun, you said someone injected him? Who, and with what?”
“I don’t know. Don’t know for sure he was. He said he was. Turned him part of the way into a deadun. Or either it’s turning him into one real slowly. I don’t know.” Scott said.
“You said a name, Bridger? You said he killed the soldiers?”
“Bridger is with our group. Bridger was a soldier, too. He protects us. He does what he has to do.”
“How do you know him? Was he part of a unit?”
“No, he was a friend of my dad’s. They had been in the army together.”
“Where’s your dad now?”
“He got us out of South Springs and then got bit. He wasn’t like you. He didn’t survive.” Scott said.
“How many people are in your group?” Noah asked.
“I don’t know. Twenty, maybe?” Scott said.
“Why don’t you take a second and count them up for me.” Noah said.
“Why? What does it matter?”
“Look, son…” Noah started.
“Scott.”
“Look Scott, I know you’re just a kid, but you survived this past year. To do that, you had to have seen a lot of bad things and maybe done some too, so I assume that you grew up a good bit over that time. So I will not treat you like a kid.”
“Okay.” Scott nodded.
“I am going to ask questions. Questions about where you came from, the people there and anything else I want to know about that place. And you’re going to answer me completely.”
“Why?”
“Because your level of cooperation will determine whether you and Ham ever see that place again.”
“They’ll come find us.”
“They’ll be wasting their time.”
“You don’t know these people.” Scott said. “Bridger will find you.”
“Maybe, but he won’t find you. Or Ham. You’ll be walking with the dead.”
“You’d kill us?”
“Told you I would treat you like an adult, didn’t I?” Noah said. “Look, Scott,” Noah softened just a bit. “I need you to understand something. My people mean considerably more to me than you do. And you’re in my home. So we have to figure out what comes next.”
“And answering your questions will help that? And help us get home?” Scott asked.
“It will. But I want to tell you something. And I am going to tell you this so you’ll know I’m being honest with you.” Noah said.
“What’s that?”
“Everything I am going to ask you will make getting rid of everyone in Collier pretty simple. But that’s not what I want to do.” Noah said.
“What do you want to do?” Scott asked.
“Explore other options.” Noah said.
Ham rolled over and watched under the trailer as Scott and the man with the fake leg walked away. She waited another ten minutes while the sun came up. She slipped between the trailers and began weaving her way, trying to remember the twists from last night. She heard voices and ducked down. She could see three sets of legs under the trailer to her left as she crept along. She turned away from the voices the first chance she got and ducked around the side of the next trailer.
“Oooph.” Hannah said as Ham barreled into her. “Where are you going?”
“Uh, I need to pee.” Ham said.
“You sure you’re not trying to escape?”
“Just need to pee.”
“Well, come on with me.” Hannah said.
“You can just point it out.” Ham said.
“No, I think you’ll need an escort. Wouldn’t want you to accidently make a wrong turn.” Hannah said.
Hannah turned and began walking between the trailers. Ham followed as they made several more turns. Ham could see the chain link beyond the last trailer. Standing against the fence were a half dozen green portable toilets.
“Right there.” Hannah pointed. Use the one on the far end. The two on this end are full.
Ham walked over to the far portable and paused. She looked back to see Hannah smiling at her. As Ham turned towards the portable again, a deadun slammed against the fence, rattling the chain-link and causing Ham to jump back. She heard Hannah laughing behind her.
“Sorry. Should have warned ya. They sometimes come to the slits.” Hannah said.
“Slits?”
“The toilets. It’s really the only place they hang around the fence. Some smell still oozing out of the ground that draws them. I guess it’s from the ones that were here when they set this place up.”
“It’s probably from you, or does your poop not smell?” Ham asked, flust
ered at her timidity.
“Oh, they can’t smell me.” Hannah said as she walked towards the fence. She leaned the lawn mower spear against the door of the portable and turned. She winked at Ham.
The deadun was standing with its fingers laced in the chain-link, unconsciously chomping as its pale eyes fell on Ham. The skin fell away from the side of its head in gashes, like something had clawed at it. As it chomped up and down, Ham could see the rotted flesh of its last meal in its teeth as a thick string of yellow-black liquid slid from the corner of its mouth. Ham covered her nose. The thing growled at her movement. It never registered Hannah as she approached the fence. She reached out and stroked one of its fingers wrapped on the chain-link. It merely twitched under her touch, eyes never leaving Ham. Finally, she reached her finger through the fence and stroked the thing’s cheek. It didn’t notice. She turned and caught a flash of movement as Ham brought the lawnmower spear through the fence and into the eye of the deadun. Pop. Ham quickly backed away. Hannah turned her back against the fence. Ham stood a few feet away, pointing the spear at her. Ham glanced at the other side of the fence and relaxed. She handed the spear back to Hannah.
“How did you do that?” Ham asked.
She took the spear from Ham and took a deep breath. She looked at the deadun on the other side of the fence. She was pretty sure she didn’t know him. Pretty sure. She turned back to Ham.
“You wanted to know why they call me Holes?” Hannah asked.
Before Ham could answer, she pulled up the left side of her shirt, revealing her rib cage. There were several angry but healed wounds highlighted by three punctures that looked like dark holes going into her side.
“What happened?” Ham asked.
“Bit. Noah saved me. Before he got bit himself. Then he saved me again.” She smiled.
“I don’t understand.”
“Ha, ha. No shit, kid.” Hannah lowered her shirt. “I’ll give you a little privacy to do your business.” Hannah nodded at the portable.
“Thanks.” Ham watched her walk around the edge of the trailer. Hannah glanced back as Ham opened the door of the portable.
She looked inside at the plastic toilet lid and the dark hole beneath. She looked back to her right again. Hannah was out of sight. She turned left and saw the trailer with the half ladder to its roof she had spotted while Hannah was playing with the deadun. She bolted. She was up the ladder in a flash and crouched down on the roof of the tanker. The fence was just a few feet away. After briefly calculating in her head how bad it would hurt if she didn’t clear the top of the fence, she leapt. Her feet hit the ground on the other side and she rolled over twice before she stopped. She raised herself up on her elbows and looked back towards the fence. No one came. No one saw. The trees on the other side of the little road shimmered in the morning sun. She took off running.
Damn, it was taking a while, Hannah thought to herself.
“I guess I scared all the shit out of her.” She muttered under her breath and smiled. She walked back around the corner of the trailer and over to the portable the girl had gone inside.
“Hey kid, you okay?” She asked.
No answer.
“Come on, don’t take all day.”
No answer
She raised her hand and knocked on the door. She knocked again and the door opened just a bit. She swung it open. It was empty. She stepped in front of the others and swung their doors open. Empty.
“Aw shit.” She said.
“So there were only three left in the entire town?” Noah asked.
“No, there were five. Violet and Peter. The ones the soldiers got.”
“How do you know they did it?”
“I guess I don’t. Bridger said they did. Or he said they probably did. I guess.” Scott said.
“Sounds like Bridger makes a lot of the decisions that matter.” Noah said.
“Yeah, I guess. My mom kept everything inside the compound pretty straight. Made sure everyone was okay. Made sure everyone got fed. We all kinda worked together over the last year. Everyone just kind of did what needed doing. Everything has gotten out of whack now though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, out in the middle of the woods, at the compound, everything got kind of settled. We got used to it. It sucked, but we had it pretty good. When the food started getting low, we found a new place. Collier. But finding it was just an accident.” Scott said. “We got lucky, or at least I thought we did. But when we got there, things went bad fast. We lost people. Martin and Dottie. Then Violet and Peter. The soldiers came. The half deadun showed up. And now this. It just seems like ever since we got to Collier, we been cursed or something.”
“Are you trying to…” Noah started. The sound of running footsteps made him pause. Both he and Scott turned to the open end of the trailer they were sitting in as Hannah skidded to a stop in front of them.
“We got a problem.” Hannah said. “The girl’s gone.”
Loyal and True
Josh pulled the truck into the parking lot. He let the headlights cast across the empty field beyond the asphalt. Jahda stood in the bed with the binoculars.
“Anything?” Josh called.
“Nope.” Jahda strained her eyes to see anything.
“Dammit.” Josh said. He turned to Vernon. “Where else? Where would they have gone?”
“I don’t know. This is where Cody said they were talking about.” Vernon said.
“Where does that road there go?” Josh pointed to the narrow two-lane track between the fields.
“Nowhere, really. It can get to the road that gets you somewhere, but it's a long stretch of nothing between here and there.” Vernon said.
“You blocked up all the roads before this, right?” Jahda asked.
“Well, I helped.” Vernon said.
“What other roads lead out of town. We came down this one to get here. We know it goes to the interstate. I don’t think they would have gone further down this road if they got here. This was where she wanted to go right?” Jahda asked.
“That’s what Cody said.” Vernon agreed.
“What are you getting at?” Devin asked.
“Maybe she never made it here. Maybe they got lost trying to get here. Maybe they were on the wrong road all along.” Jahda said.
“That’s a lot of maybe’s.” Devin said.
“But still. Is there another road into Collier?” Jahda asked.
“Sure there is.” Vernon said. “This road here was the main way folks came and went because of the interstate. We only blocked the crossroads out there at Rhone’s crossing to stop folks from coming down here when everyone started panicking.”
“Well?” Josh asked.
“Well, what?” Vernon asked.
“Where are the other roads? The one’s that weren’t the main way in.” Josh asked.
“Oh. County road seventeen. It runs out past Black Neck creek.” Vernon said. “It runs through the forest and then back towards Stockburn.”
“Forest?”
“Yeah, the Oyahusa Management Area. It’s not much. Up where the Oyahusa and Black Neck creeks come together. My uncle said it was a training base during world war two for pilots. Roads running through it every which a way. Some big old concrete slabs that my uncle said was a runway for the airplanes. He said the government turned it into a national forest so they wouldn’t have to dig up the fuel dump. But just so you know, my uncle was usually full of shit. And beer. But some folks did hunt up there sometime.” Vernon said.
“So you’ve been there?” Josh asked.
“Years ago. When I was a kid.”
“Any other roads leaving town?” Jahda asked.
“Not really. Miller’s Lane runs back out to forty-four, but we blocked it with a couple of cars. But hey, if they were on a horse, they could have gone cross-country. Hell, if they were walking they could have gone cross-country. The goners didn’t follow the roads. That’s why we quit trying to block em all once we
got the town barricaded in.” Vernon said.
“Well, we know they ain’t here.” Devin said as he gazed back over the field. “I say we head that way.”
“How far is it to Stockburn? That’s where you said the road comes out at right?” Jahda asked.
“About thirty miles, I guess. Haven’t ever been there that way.” Vernon said.
“Well, today’s you’re lucky day.” Jahda said. “I say we go that way. If we haven’t found them by Stockburn, we’ll turn around and try something else.”
“That’ll take most of the day.” Josh leaned forward and looked at the growing glow of orange behind the trees in the distance.
“You wanna try something else?” Jahda asked.
“No, just saying we need to get going. I trust your instincts.” Josh said.
“Yeah, me too.” Added Lori.
“You know I’m with you.” Devin added.
“Well, let’s go then.” Jahda said.
“Which way Vernon?” Josh asked.
“Head back towards town, I’ll tell you where to turn.” Vernon said.
Josh put the truck in reverse and backed away from the field. He looked in the rearview mirror as they drove out of the parking lot.
Ham looked back over her shoulder as the trees thickened between her and the road. She still saw no one following, so she slowed down just a little. The trees were evenly spaced and she could see down the rows between the pines. She remembered a place like this she had been in with Opa back before they lost most of the first group they were with. Opa had said they planted the pines for timber. They space them out like stalks of corn. These trees looked like someone had planted them a long time ago. Some were dead shells of trunks, jutting towards the sky. She could see some holes, probably made by birds, at the top where the bark had stripped away. She stepped between each row, carefully looking both ways. Twice she saw deaduns, but they were both dozens of yards away and she quickly stepped through before they saw her. She hoped. The trees finally gave way to a small opening and a wider field beyond. She stood in the little alcove of trees watching the open field. She heard footsteps and turned to see several deadun emerging from the trees behind her. She started across the field and a steady run. There were several dead scattered across the field, standing like statues in the warm morning sun, and as she passed they too followed. Some were moving more rapidly than others, and she began to tire. She stopped and looked back as more of the dead closed towards her. She frantically scanned the woods around the field and saw what looked like a road leading away from one end. Several dead stood between her and there, but she began running again. Out of the corner of her eye she saw another deadun come from the trees. It was almost running too. And worse, instead of coming straight at her and falling behind like the others, it was running at an angle to cut her off. She ran faster as she looked away from the thing coming towards her. The house emerged from a tangle of thick wisteria from the other side of a gigantic oak tree as she topped the little rise. The road she had seen ran back towards the little house stuffed among the brambles that appeared on the other side of the rise. She turned towards it. She glanced back over her shoulder. The dead were still coming and one was coming fast.