Robson leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “I know you’re hungry, friend. But can you slow down long enough to tell us your name?”
Their guest stopped eating, his cheeks still stuffed with food. His eyes darted back and forth between the various people seated at the table.
Robson sighed. “If we were going to hurt you, do you think we’d feed you first?”
“You might if you were fattening me up for them.” Their guest focused his gaze on the vampires.
Dravko rolled his eyes. Tibor sneered, showing fangs.
When no one responded, their guest put down his knife and fork and swallowed. “I’m Tom Caslow. From Salt Lake City.”
“How did you make it all the way to the East Coast?” asked Simmons.
“My family and I were vacationing in New England when the outbreak hit. You know, the Freedom Trail and stuff like that. We were in Salem when we first heard about the virus. In the Witch Museum, of all places. We spent the next two days in the hotel room watching the news, hoping it would all blow over. It didn’t. So we headed to Logan to catch a flight out. By then the city had been quarantined. We had no idea what to do. Thank God we ran into Nick, a retired cop, who took us with him to Nahant. That’s where he lived. Have you ever been there? It’s an island off the coast of Massachusetts connected to the mainland by a causeway. Nick said he and some of his friends had closed the causeway and isolated the island, and would ride out the outbreak from there. He seemed trustworthy, so we followed him. It’s a good thing we did, or who knows what would have happened?”
“Slow down,” said Robson, holding up his hand to cut off Caslow. Had they missed someone? “Who’s ‘we’?”
“Me, my wife, Debra, and my daughter, Cindy. The three of us had come to New England because we wanted something different and exciting.” Tom forced a chuckle. “I guess we got our wish.”
“If you were holed up in an isolated community, how did you wind up here?” asked Robson.
“Nahant saved our lives. Nick and the other retired cops maintained order and controlled who would be allowed in to the community. Because the only access was the causeway, they kept out anyone who they thought might be trouble. Too bad it didn’t stop the dead.”
“They overwhelmed the causeway?” asked Simmons.
Caslow shook his head. “We would have been prepared for that. None of us ever thought that those things could walk underwater, though I guess it makes sense since they don’t breathe. One night, about six weeks ago, several thousand came ashore near the southern tip of the island. No one expected it, and the living dead overran Nahant in a few hours. Practically no one made it out. We wouldn’t have either if Nick and some of his friends hadn’t helped us. They shoved us into a pair of Dodge Rams, crashed their own barricades, and got us off the island. We headed inland, trying to avoid the heavily populated coasts.”
“What happened to Nick?” asked Simmons.
“Our group got ambushed a few miles north of Concord. We had stopped to refuel when a swarm of the dead came out of nowhere and overran our vehicles before we could get to them. I grabbed the only car we could find. A Toyota Corolla. Nick and the others tried to fight them off and were swarmed. We barely got away with our lives.”
“Where’s your family?” asked Jennifer.
For the first time, Caslow didn’t ramble. His body trembled. He closed his eyes tight, fighting back tears. Finally, he took a deep breath and continued. “I remembered what Nick had said about being safer where there were fewer people, so we headed west. Everything was fine until we reached this area. We had nothing other than the rifle and the revolver Nick gave me. All the surrounding towns had been stripped clean. We were driving around when we passed this storage facility that looked occupied. I wanted to stop and ask for help until I saw all these people tied to the ground out front.”
“The rape gang,” said Robson. The others around the table nodded.
“You know them?’
“We’ve had dealings with them before.”
“Then I’m surprised you’re still here.” Caslow sighed. “I got out of there as fast as I could. Drove for about an hour and pulled off near one of those convenience store-gas station combos. I was inside checking for food when two military Humvees pulled into the parking lot. They dragged Debra and Cindy out of the car and took them away. When I realized what happened, I followed them back to the storage facility. That happened about a month ago.”
“And you just friggin’ left them there?” Wayans said with such anger that it startled Robson.
“Of course not!” Caslow’s eyes darted to the others, begging for approval. “I’ve spent almost every day for the last month watching that compound and trying to come up with a way to get them out. Have you seen that place?”
“Yes,” answered Robson.
“Then you know it’s impossible to get in, especially for one guy.” Caslow glared at Wayans. “Why would you think I just left my wife and daughter there?”
“Because you did nothing to save them.” This time Jennifer spoke, and her words dripped with contempt.
“W-what could I d-do?” Caslow stammered. “I have no clue what I’m doing in a situation like this. I’m not a survivalist. I never even served in the military. I don’t even own a gun. I’m an elementary school teacher.”
“You’re a man,” said Jennifer. “You should have defended your family.”
“I-If I had tried, the gang would have killed me. Then where would my family be?”
“The same place they are now. But at least they would know their husband and father cared enough to fight for them and not just leave them with a rape gang.”
Caslow stared at Jennifer, stunned. At first, Robson thought he was shocked by the harshness of her tone and the accusation against him, until he spoke.
“D-did you say ‘rape gang’?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, God.” Caslow dropped his head and sobbed.
Robson glanced around the room and noticed that no one showed sympathy toward him. Jennifer stood up and stormed into the kitchen. Wayans glared, shaking his head in disgust. Robson was the only one who had even a shred of empathy toward Caslow. Maybe because he couldn’t get Susan out of his mind, how they had been attacked by a horde of swarmers in traffic outside of Newington, and how he had left her when the living dead overtook them because she couldn’t run fast enough.
“What do we do with him?” Simmons asked.
“I say we send him on his way first thing in the morning,” suggested Frakes.
“Why wait that long?” asked Wayans.
DeWitt cleared his throat. “We should at least wait until sunrise to give him a fighting chance.”
“Fuck him,” snapped Roberta. “He doesn’t deserve one after what he did to his wife and kid.”
Caslow raised his head. “I’m right here, you know.”
The glare that both Wayans and Roberta shot his way cowed Caslow.
Robson wondered how the others would react if they knew he had once displayed a similar lack of courage. “I vote to keep him around a while longer.”
“Are you friggin’ nuts?” Wayans blurted out.
Simmons agreed, though he was more reserved. “I agree. This guy’s a coward, has no useful skills, and would be nothing but a drain on resources. He’s of no use to us.”
“Actually, he has something very valuable. Information. If what he says is true, he’s been spying on their compound for almost a month—”
“It’s true,” Caslow said animatedly, trying to curry favor.
Robson flashed him an expression that warned him not to press his luck. “He probably knows things about that compound and how the gang operates that could be of use to us. As long as he cooperates, I think we should keep him around.”
“Makes sense,” agreed Simmons.
Wayans begrudgingly nodded his approval.
Tibor stood up and stormed out of the dining room, startling everyone at
the table. Dravko watched his fellow vampire leave, and then shrugged his shoulders in confusion. He finally said, “We’re in.”
Everyone else concurred, except for Jennifer, who had returned from the kitchen. She stared out the window into the dark, her back to the others and her arms folded across her chest. After a few seconds of silence, Robson prodded, “Is it unanimous?”
“I won’t object as long as I have to have nothing to do with him,” Jennifer said, her eyes filled with contempt for Caslow. “To be honest, though, I don’t trust the bastard. If I have one bullet left and it’s between him and a rotter, I’ll shoot him in the leg and leave him behind.”
“Deal.”
“Thank you all.” Caslow sniffed. “I won’t let you down.”
“You better not.” Robson stood, picked up his mug, and headed for the kitchen. He paused by Caslow’s chair. “I’m going to get some more coffee. When I come back, you’re going tell me everything you know about that compound.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Dravko found Tibor at the construction company. The vampire had pulled an acetylene torch and some discarded sheets of metal over to one of the Humvees. As Dravko approached, Tibor was welding something to the windshield.
“What are you doing?” he yelled to be heard over the noise.
When he saw his friend, Tibor shut off the torch. “I’m adding metal panels that can be closed during the daytime and block out the sunlight.”
“Why? We already have the Ryder for that.”
“We needed the Ryder when we had five of us. Now you and I are all that’s left, so the Hummer is more than enough.”
Dravko sat inside the cab and studied the additions. Tibor had removed the windshield and replaced it with a one-inch plate of metal welded to the frame along all four edges. Two slits were burned out of the surface in front of the driver’s and passenger’s seats, each two feet wide and one foot tall. Sliding metal hatches had been attached to runners on the interior surface of the plate, large enough to cover the openings, and with the ability to be bolted into place from inside. Once in the Humvee, he and Tibor would be the only ones who could control the sliding hatches.
“This is impressive.”
“Thanks.” Tibor nodded. “I plan to do the same thing to the side windows, and to add deadbolts to the turret hatch and rear panel.”
“What made you think of this?”
“When we ditched the school bus back in Portland, I realized we didn’t need the truck anymore. It keeps us confined to the main roads and limits where we can go.”
Dravko climbed out of the Humvee. “By us do you mean the group, or you and me?”
“That’s up to you.” Tibor turned away and picked up the acetylene torch. “You know how I feel about the humans.”
“Is that why you stormed out of dinner?”
Tibor spun around to confront his friend, failing to control his anger. “I stormed out because I am fed up with the way Robson disrespects us.”
“Robson has always treated us with respect.”
“He accepts us. He doesn’t respect us!”
“What’s the difference?”
“You really don’t see the difference.” Tibor’s tone softened. “As much as I disagreed in the beginning with this alliance with the humans, it worked because Paul and Elena believed in it and did everything in their power to make it work. Each of them risked alienating their own kind to show the other side that they believed in it. That’s what I mean by respect.”
Dravko was taken aback. “Robson stood up for us at Site R when Compton wanted to eliminate us.”
“Don’t get me wrong. Robson is a decent human, and I like him for that. There were many times on the way to Site R that he could have left us for dead. However, this alliance is not going to work unless he starts showing us the same respect that Paul did.”
“How can he do that?”
Tibor stared at Dravko, frustration in his eyes, like a professor trying to get one of his students to comprehend a simple thought. “When Robson decided to risk all of our lives to save Windows from the rape gang, did he consult with you or ask if you’re willing to go along?”
“No.”
“Do you know what his plan is for getting Windows out?”
“No.”
“Who did he take with him today to check out the compound? His new friends, Simmons and Wayans. Hell, he’s even embraced that asshole Caslow. Maybe he doesn’t realize it himself, but Robson is rebuilding the ranks of the humans with our group, replacing those we lost with people we know nothing about. And because he doesn’t have the same dedication to our alliance that Paul did, he’s more prone to listen to these new humans.”
“You’re misjudging him.”
“Am I?” Tibor wore that infuriatingly smug expression he always did when about to make a point. “For the past two nights, Paul and the others have been over at the rectory dining on fresh meat and vegetables like it’s a big party. When was the last time we ate?”
That last question struck Dravko. He had been so preoccupied with everything that had happened since arriving back at Fort McClary he had not realized they had run out of their prepared blood supply two days ago. Sure, he felt hungry, but it had not yet developed into a lust to feed.
“You know I’m right,” Tibor continued. “Robson hasn’t even thought to ask for volunteers to supply us with blood. What do you think is going to happen when he asks his new friends to ante up a pint? Sure, Caslow would let us feed off of him because he’s too much of a coward to refuse. Do you think Simmons and Wayans will roll up a sleeve? And how long do you think it’ll be before they start telling Robson that this is his chance to get rid of vampires once and for all?”
“He’d never go for that.”
“Did you expect him to marginalize us like he has these past few days?”
Dravko could not respond. Actually, he could, but he did not like the answer.
The lack of a response told Tibor he was correct. “With the death of Elena, you are now the master of the coven. As such, I am sworn to obey and protect you, which I will to the very end. Deep down you know I’m right, and I hope you realize we need to act before the humans turn against us.”
“You’re not suggesting we turn them?”
“You wouldn’t let me even if I did suggest it.” Tibor smiled, although Dravko could not be sure if out of humor or irony. “No, we need to set out on our own as soon as possible. The Hummer will give us the chance to break away.”
“And then what?”
“Then we find a small band of humans somewhere and rebuild the coven.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Windows sat beside the haggard old man, her legs crossed, feeding him his dinner. Even though the stench still overpowered the room, she had grown used to it. Other than a few pleasantries when she entered, he had not spoken throughout the meal, although every time she spoon fed him he did acknowledge her kindness with a nod. When they had finished, the old man struck up a conversation.
“I heard a lot of commotion outside today. What happened?”
“Some swarmers stormed the outer perimeter.”
“Swarmers?”
“That’s what I call them.” A strand of long gray hair with remnants of baked beans hung across the old man’s face. Windows pulled off the food and pushed the hair back behind his ear. “I think your people call them runners.”
“We’ve been seeing a lot more of them and the deaders the past few weeks. Soon we’ll all be trapped in here.” The old man paused. “Did anyone get hurt?”
“One of the gang members was killed, along with two or three on the Line.”
“I wish more of the gang had been killed.” The slightest trace of a smile graced his lips, then disappeared. “I feel bad that those people on the Line had to die so horribly. At least they’re better off. They live worse than animals out there.”
“You’re not living in the best of conditions yourself.” Windows said it
lightly, trying to change the depressing tone.
“Kid, this is a Best Western compared to what those poor bastards on the Line have to go through. In here I’m protected from the weather and I’m safe. It’s because of my privileged status.” The old man spoke the last two words with heavy sarcasm.
Windows saw the opportunity and took it. “Privileged status? Who are you to warrant that?”
The old man lowered his head. “I’m nobody important.”
“Don’t say that. We’re all important.”
“Not in this place. The only ones who matter are Price and his gang. And even they live or die on his whim. The rest of us are just toys to be used for their amusement. You know that better than I do.”
The humiliating memories came back to her and Widows winced.
The old man noticed the grimace. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“That’s okay. It’s true.” She reached out and gave his wrist a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “Will you tell me your name?”
The old man shook his head.
“Don’t worry about it.” Windows released his wrist and stood to leave. When she approached the sliding door, the old man called to her.
“Kid, will you take some friendly advice from a nobody?”
“Of course.”
“You’re strong-willed with a good heart. That’s a deadly combination around here. Trust me, I know. I’ve been here from the beginning and seen a lot of people like you wind up on the Line. Or worse.”
“You’re telling me to change my attitude?”
“Hell, no. I’d hate to see them break you. I’m warning you to be careful who you trust. Most people around here would gladly feed you to the deaders for an extra ration of food or one night of not being raped.”
That’s for damn sure, Windows thought as she recalled how Debra had arranged for her to be Meat’s new play toy so she could get a break. “Does that include you?”
Rotter World (Book 2): Rotter Nation Page 12